To every thing there is a season!

And the long season of writing this blog has come to an end!  I'm not giving up the writing;  I'm just changing sites!

Keep your eye on the ball!

I was never an athlete but I was a wife of a coach.  I would hear that coach tell his team that very direction.  Now that I am 76 I remind myself to keep my eye on the ball also-- meaning to not let any thing else divert me from living each day with joy and meaning!

So each day,  I put away the aches and pain and the problems and drama which come with living and I get dressed up and get out in this world and I always find love and hugs and kindness and a personal sense of joy!

I got an overdose yesterday!  I went to Zonta Club Women of Achievement banquet and in that crowd of 450 I saw old friends I had not seen in years and many reminded me of stories and adventures I had forgotten!  It was a needed blessing from God!  Big time!

A thanksgiving with new eyes

Last night International Student Office and Baptist Center combined forces to host an authentic Xmas Dinner for our international students at our center!  Over 100 students ate and it was fun!

Suzanne Orman, the director, welcomed the students and the place was hopping..in the spirit!  See for yourself!

Lazy days - where have they gone!

I started the day running!  Already sent a resume reference for John Hensel and running to get dressed for the day:  Debbie is coming early to do my hair, coffee with Jeff Long about going on board at Chateau.  Then lunch downtown with retired faculty women and dinner tonight with all of Semo international students, which BSC is sponsoring.

It makes me long for, a little, those porch-swinging days!

The past and the future!

Yesterday I went to Chateau Girardot, at the invitation of John Shelton, and he said he wanted to talk about Chateau!  I have known John since early Semo Days when he was on the music faculty and our kids were in Campus School together!  And we chatted about those past days with animation!

And then I asked him the purpose of the meeting!  (It's fun to relive the past but I'm not planning to take up residence there!). And he asked me to come onto the Foundation Board!  Then I really got interested in learning more!  The future is still relevant and challenging to me!

I'm lucky at 76!

Me and my sister

Funny , the things you remember!  Other people live with you in the growing up years and they remember what is important from their perspective!  

My sister, Rose Marie, is 17 months older than I and she and I and my brother, Jim, played together and performed!  Of course, he took all the solos in the Cooper Ballet Company and he was the impresario!   Rose Marie played the piano so I was the only member of the dance troupe!   I loved her memories because they reminded me of who we were and are!

Coincidence!

Last night we were at the Baptist Student Center and I was knocked over by a coincident!  Sandy Moore and I help with the cooking for international students on Sunday nights and last night she baked eggnog cookies!

I introduced her to Cheryl Reinagel who had come to help us stuff boxes for Operation Christchild!  Sandy yelled:  "Cheryl, the eggnog cookie recipe is yours!  You won a prize for it a few years ago""

Festival of Trees

Wonderful festive evening last night at Cancer Center!  Went with Joan Gohn and Judy Brown and saw so many friends like John Thompson (pictured) and Dave Crader!   The trees were outstanding but I did not buy one!

It did put me in a festive spirit!  So did the two glasses of wine!

We must say goodbye!

It is wonderful for my children to come home to visit!  It is enchanting to watch so many lessons bud out in visual ways!  And you want the time to never end!  But life goes on and work schedules have to be met and cats have to be fed!

We went to Bella Italia last night to celebrate an early Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time with drinks and dinner and we brough the chocolate cake home for a later night snack!

And they left with me yelling, "don't forget to get your flu shot!  I wanted to remind him that some things never change!

Having a Christmas/thanksgiving Day

We are running around doing Christmas shopping and eating at Crackerbarrell!  My son, Jim, and his wife, Laurie, are here from Madison, Wisconsin  and this is a treat!

Anticipation!

I can hardly wait for my son, Jim, to drive in today with his wife, Laurie!  I have not seen him in so long that I am counting the hours!  I will have to keep myself busy and occupied!  Need to go to store and get a roast and potatoes since he can lap that up!  

It is a kind of a sweet rest when any of my children come in.  Floods of happy memories take my heart by storm!  I keep a picture of Jim and Sparkle on the wall where the first thing I see when I awaken is that picture!  I hope all three of my children realize that they are the core of my heart!

What you give lives on!

Yesterday I went to Malden with one expressed purpose:  I intended to find a picture and write up of Claude Layne who left a bequest for the Baptist Student Center which is still crucial to us today!  Unfortunately, it has become only a name to most everyone but me up here!

But I knew Mr Layne personally and remember when he sat in our front yard and Daddy asked him about making the gift!  So I was hellbent on finding a picture of Mr. Layne to put in our BSC exhibit for our world to remember by both name and face!

So I hired a driver and spent the day with his wonderful niece, Lucille Pinckley, going through her pictures. She was so thrilled that he would be remembered in such a special way!  What a little thing we do when you think of what this 6'7" giant of a man did for us and continues to do!

Veteran's Day

People are remembering today!  During World War II three of Uncle Ollie and Aunt Minnie Lawrence sons were drafted:  James, Bill, Don.  We ran out in the yard every time a plane went over so we could wave at the troops!  Hitler was hated!

Then my brother, Jim, served in Vietnam and I thought we would bury Mama and his sisters before he got home safely.  This morning I had Harriett Small go out and be sure there was a flag on his grave!  She called back to say there was not a flag in the cemetery!

Terry Kay Florist, get ready for a call!

Bobby Thomason

I am going to Charleston today to say goodbye to my first love, Bobby Thomason who ran a service station in front of my house when I was a child!  Every day my sister, Rosie, and I would walk to the station, split a Pepsi with him and talk about all our worries and spats!  He made the day brighter and calm for us!   These two little girls cannot grieve today;  we can only rejoice that we 

had him in our lives in such a special way!  My brother, Jim, would say the same thing if he were here!

Bob,  we remember what you did for the little Cooper girls !

A Carol from Carole Jane

I have a niece who is my namesake.  She never really lived in Charleston and when she came, she was shy and hid behind her grandparents, Mr and Mrs C. D. Wright from New Madrid!  But the fact that we did not see her often made little difference.  She was a Cooper and she had the wit to  prove it!

She called yesterday!  I had written a letter to all my family about Thanksgivingand she called!  She is going thru some medical problems and she needs family in a new way!  She said to me, "I've always been proud that I'm a Cooper".  That made me proud and lately, that is a feeling that's hard to come by! 

So I'm sending a mass of love and prayers to her today!  She carries the Cooper name and gives it a dose of integrity that strengthens the family ties.

The Sound of a Voice

I live alone!  Sometimes when I need io make a decision I argue out loud with myself taking all positions!  But hearing another's voice is heartening.  

Last night my sister, Rose Marie, called me and we talked and talked about concerns I had written in a letter!  It was obvious that she had read it carefully and cared about my concerns!  She told me that I needed to share some our family stories with the next generation!

I told her that our sister, Betty, reminded me of the winter when Mrs Roy Williams gave us a case of spinach and a case of pork and beans when the BSC could not pay Daddy during the depression!  So I got up this morning and wrote the story of these horrific days and Daddys depression at the idea of a broken dream and no money coming in and no job and how it broke our heart to see him and not know how to help him!

In seconds, after I sent the email, the phone rang and it was Andrea, my granddaughter.  She said simply, "oh Mamaw, I read your story and it was so sad!"   And we talked and she took off part of my load with her kind voice!  It was a call I will not soon forget!

What a wonderful night!

We had a service, a meal and the opening of the exhibit of directors!  I felt like I had died and had gone to heaven!   My sister,  Betty, came up with Dede Reed and we sang Daddys favorite hymns, He Leadeth Me and On Jordan Stormy Banks I stand and then we opened the exhibit!  Both of us were thrilled with the thought!

We sat at what we called the charleston table with us, Gerald and Betty Collier and Tom and Melissa Graham!  It was a wonderful and deserved tribute to a man who took an idea, risked all he had, and picked up the pieces without bitterness!

The irony is that Claude Layne, a man Daddy asked to give left legacies to the Bsc which allows it to have financial security!

Cross off one on my bucket list!

Tonight we are having our 75th anniversary dinner for Baptist Student Center!  This was Daddys dream and he was willing to give up his church for it!  But the money ran out and he went back home to build his life with what was left!  The dream went on later but his work was ignored!   Tonight Betty and I will stand as a new photography exhibit is opened with our Daddys picture leading the line!  As it should be and never was!

Daddy, it was a long time in coming...but it is here!

Don't sweat the small stuff!

I have heard this all my working career from people who were inept or lazy!  In my career you better take care of the small stuff or you would be devoured by it down the line!  The people who worked for me learned those lessons and still come back to thank me again and again!

I'm up against it today and must make a decision about a situation!  Do I just pull out entirely and let things happen that I will be embarrassed about or do I insist that people put all the other crap aside and make this thing happen without my being totally embarrassed by the end result!   

I have worked my butt off and paid dearly to have it done right in my mind!  The small stuff is not small stuff to me!

Election Day

I am swamped with work today! Mark will be here to work and Gloria is here cleaning house!  I need to go to polls to vote no on amendment 3, get my nails done, go to get thanksgiving name tags for Thursday night banquet, go to Walgrens and then going to Pie Safe at Pocahontas to see if they can do stollen for our German banquet on Sunday night at Bsc!  Oh yeah,  I need to go by Bsc and check Rowdys wall of leaders!

So, that should keep us busy!  Did I say that then we have to type the name tags?

Japanese Night at BSC

Tonight the Japanese Student Association cooked sushi for us and 75 plus students filled the dining room!  Sandy, Kay and I sat in the hallway because there was no room left in the inn!

I think of Daddy every week!  He deserves and is getting the recognition he never had in his lifetime!  Better late than never, to the best father in the world who smiled and chuckled every time we sat in the post office together eating cream horns and orangeades!

Deal with being fired!

But don't make it sound easy!  On Friday I went to lunch with Cindi!  I worked with her when I was at the University and she was summarily fired this week on one day notice!  She texted me to see if I would be a reference and I asked her to go to lunch!  Which we did!

I wanted to be some help to her but wanted to do it on her time line!  I did not want to come on as all-knowing or not acknowledging her pain or her right to have that pain.  I know what pain is and I know you walk alone thru it!  I just wanted her to know that I was there in bob Evans watching her try to eat and make a sentence!   Empathy--it's a cruel way to learn the symptoms!

Japanese ties

It is a small world!  Mark Stacy is in Japan--even sent me pic of the view outside his hotel room!  He lectures from 4-5:30 and then they have a banquet!  He leaves in the morning!

And tomorrow night I help host the Japanese Student Assiciation at the Bsc on campus!  They are cooking a Japanese meal for all of us!  Like I said, small world!

Reconciliation

Thought for the day:  Martha Beck says:  "When you really don't want to say you're sorry, it's almost certainly time to do so!"

Besides, it allows you to sleep at night!

A former student worker

It is wonderful to live in the same town for so many years because you run into memories every day and people who have shared these memories tell you that the memories Are good😃

Like yesterday when I ran into Rene Pingel at My Daddy's and she talked about being a student worker for me and how much she had learned there and Iwe laughed and laughed at the memories

And the beat goes on..and on!

Last night in the middle of night I heard a beat and continued till I was crazy!  Needless to say, it was not filled with hours of sleep! I know nothing about dealing with anything like this!  I called Mark Hoff to come!  He said as he walked in and heard the beat that I needed a new battery in my smoke alarm!

And then he went out and got four more smoke alarms and two carbon monoxide alarms and he put them up!   Hope I have a better night tonight!

Jeniese Moyers Fox

Today I went to lunch with Jeniese Fox and I find her amazing!  She is one of my scholarship recipients and she told me she was thinking about moving to Springfield (which she has decided not to do).   She talked to me about raising three children, working at Rhodes full-time and going to school!!  I remember those kind of full days!

She is a joy and I want to be there for her if she needs me!  

Tammy Baldwin birthday!

I went out to lunch today with Tammy and Henry Sessoms and we went to Port Cape!  They are like family to me--we are neighbors and long time friends and we laugh well together!

Tammy is a girl from White Oak. And that is four miles from Canalou!  Now you know how to get there!!!!  She is as sweet and kind as any person you could ever know!  I'm proud to call them both friend!   And they laughed about the stories the frat told about Jennie and her passion for bourbon and a smidgen of water!

Jennie's Tribute

Last night Annie and I went to the casino with the men of Sigma Nu!  Jennie Cooper, my sister, was their advisor and she died in June.  It was a wonderful tribute, glasses in hand!

We send our heartfelt thanks to everyone especially Keven Cundiff, who had us rolling in the aisles with his speech!

Another hospital visit

Annie Frye Finnegan and I went back to st Francis Hospital to visit my sister Julia Warren yesterday!  She gets to go home today.  We had a good time  talking! Nothing wrong with her memory!

Her worker was there with her and she was talking about Julia pulling up my Facebook! I said hey let's do it and we did!  55 people have liked it so far!  Hope you do!

Getting my groove back!

For two weeks I have vegetated on the couch barely stepping out the door!  However I have watched the news nonstop which does not enliven the soul! Or the positive spirit!

But yesterday I hit the ground running going with Annie to see Julia in hospital and staying busy all day!  Plus went out to dinner last night at Beef o Brady's with Matt Porter and Lu Yan!  They worked on my computer then!  

Julia in hospital

Just got the word that my sister Julia is up here with bladder infection!  She is really messed up when she gets one of those!  Jamee says she is sleeping this morning so I will wait and go out this afternoon!

Pam is here today to stay with her!

My granddaughter has a recital

Leah Edmondson Dyer has a recital this weekend in Texas!  She is a soprano and it is billed " take a journey into the underworld with Orpheus and Euridice"!  I lived with musicians but I didn't absorb it!

But Leah does!  I must try to learn from her.  She is jubilant and full of life! And did I say beautiful!

Putting on new garments

I am in that group of people who are no longer regular church-goers!  Though I used to be there every time the doors opened!  My spiritual path led me down a different path and I am content to continue there!   This is what I think Bonhoefer was talking about as the "garment" which is taken off as something new emerges!

I am grateful that I have been able to find better fitting clothes as I have coped with divorce, deaths, dis associations and depression!  My old adages of praying things away left an emptiness which I needed to fill!  

I read. And I think and I find ways to reac out!  Thank you, Diana Butler Bass!

Sandy the baker

Last night Sandy picked me up to go to Baptist Student Center for A B Cooper meal!  I bought a cake from Schnucks and she had baked three desserts--one a chocolate pie!  We had a good crowd for Fall break!  

Sandy loves to bake and we enjoyed the visiting!  And Kay Story came in her Halloween shirt!

Sunday Morning coming down

Heather is here this morning and she is telling me about the Kindle Fire she has while I am showing her a Nook that I bought but never used.   Why do I do stuff like that?   I need to get into a reading program or something that I can do that will keep my mind active.  I am really wanting to do some research into what works today in a church setting and what does not.   What is the purpose of the church?   We say Christ ordained it.  Really!   How do I know that?

I have been in a dark night of the soul and I am coming out of it.   I need to do what I have always done when this happens and focus on what is important to me---not to dwell on the past but to look to the present for fulfillment and peace.   What is done is done!   I have a good life full of friends and family who care for me.   I need to relax and laugh and find something to do that is worth the doing.   And I intend to do just that!

You can't keep a good horse down!

Chaffee and parade

I went to Chaffee last night with Matt and rowdy to the visitation of Carol Robinson's mother!  Carol had told us that the Homecoming Parade was going on and we needed to avoid that traffic!  We laughed about a traffic jam in Chaffee but we took her advice .  Learn from those who know!  Always good advice!

Carol is a wonderful friend who means a great deal to me, the students and to Bsc!  I shall continue praying for her as she deals with this issue and event!

Tornadoes for watching!

I remember as a kid going to the basement when bad weather came upon you and hearing the stories of how Daddy went to storm cellar when he was a kid and when they came out, his house was gone!  I learned to fear tornados and to take cover!

But now I sit here and watch television and listen to them tell you where it is going and what precise minute it will be there!   Would have kept us out of basement many nights!   Wow!

Bsc makes editorial today

Check it out in southeast  Missourian!

Heather is coming today!

Heather is coming today to work!   She has worked for me since she was a student and she knows how I like things! I like her and we blend!  If I want to talk okay;  if not. Okay.

The rain is stifling and it has been three days of it!    Surely it will end soon!

No blogging today!

Pulled muscle in back. Nuff said!

Rain, rain go away!

It is pouring outside again and takes the resolute spirit out of one for getting with the program!  So I need to create my own sunshine for today..... And I will do that!   

But first, I am getting another cup of coffee and covering up and watching tv!  Surely there is a war somewhere or an election scam!

Tom Harte and me

Tom Harte and I have been friends forever and we take nothing off each other!  He and I start each visit where we left off the last time!  He has a passion for living:  does radio, does cooking demonstrations at Schnucks and does a newspaper column on foodie!   So where did we go to lunch?  

Huddle House, right out of the 60s!   They serve breakfast all day and we talked about everything but the Cardinals since neither of us know anything about why we are playing all these games!  We talked about Gone Girl which he saw and which was made here! (I have seen t

he scenes here for a lot of years).

But we had a blast!

Death is a part of life

Death and life are part of the same circle of life and I realize this as I spend more of my life in funeral parlors!   Yesterday the university group and I went to Ste Genevieve for Larry Marlers funeral!  Donna, his wife, and I were in Albert Hall together as students at Semo!

The Catholics with us said it was the shortest funeral mass in history!  Since the sound system left a lot to be desired, it didn't register with me.  I just looked at the beautiful church!

Happy birthday, Adrienne

Hope you have a wonderful day!  You have made a happy addition to our family!

What a weekend!

First, I met all my scholarship recipients and greeted many, many friends!  Then I listened at the Merit Award Dinner to the wonderful things Chris Wright and Cynthia Fleck said about Jennie and me.

Then I heard the President talk about going over our forty million goal and learned in the paper the next morning was that the largest gift came from one I had worked on and I had to call Susan Burton to tell them!

And then the paper on Sunday carried the story about Daddys work with Baptist student Union 75 years ago!  I am a happy camper!

Big article about Daddy in Southeast missouian

Go to religion section of Southeast Missourian!  They messed up a paragraph on the article on line!

Homecoming night

What an afternoon and night --500 at both scholarship reception and AMA dinner!   All my recipients were there and one Of the Ama recipients , chris Wright, talked about Jennie and what she meant to him and another one, Cynthia Fleck, talked about my influence on her!

I visited with everyone until my tongue was hanging out!