Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas 08

Christmas 2008 from our home to yours

I was so blessed by all the cards and letters I got from y'all this year. Thank you very much for thinking of us. Here's the Tomlinson Christmas card from our Thanksgiving pictures. Yes, that should've been enough time to get it out, but no, it did not get mailed. :)



And now, the Christmas recap...

My, oh my, y'all, but there was some cooking done at the Tomlinson home. Tuesday, while Phil and Patrick hunted, (bless their hearts, someone had to), and Carey and Phillip made some other family rounds, my sweet daughter and I wore ourselves to a wonderful frazzle. Here's a pic of the two story gingerbread dollhouse Jessica and I made for Miss Emerson. We had plans to make her a mailbox with her name on it, but we started running out of time. Jessica and I were quite impressed with ourselves.



We felt like our masterpiece rivaled last year's cajun gingerbread display with the accompanying gator.Yes, I know. Some of you have forgotten last year's marvel and some of you missed it. Here, I dug up that pic for you!



Phil and I were up late Christmas Eve playing Santa for four adults and one precious four week old bundle of grandchild named Emerson Ann. One too young to know, the others too old to pretend, but then, traditions are us. Hence the familiar game Phil and I played: "Do you think Patrick got enough?" "I think so, but what about Carey?" and "Does Jessica's pile look too small?" "Whoa! Phillip must've been good this year."

The next morning the big unveil came with surprises for all. Carey and Phillip made Jessica and I both cry with their gifts. Jessica's tearjerker gift was a print by local photographer Amy Terral. It's a gorgeous pic of our lake with the Oliver Wendell Holmes quote: "Where we love is home- home where our feet may leave but not our heart." Jessica will hang that print in her Houston home and think of us every time she passes it!

My tearjearker gift came in the form of a photo frame and quote, "For these children I have prayed." Carey said she put Emerson is in it until Grant Thomas can arrive in April for a duo photo. Yes, I have prayed for these babies and will consider it an honor to continue to pray that they will know the joy of serving Jesus, my King, My Savior, My Lord.

And now, to lighten up a moment. Here's my sweet son-in-law, Patrick, with one of his fav gifts. It reads, "Ain't nothing like a Saturday night in Tiger Stadium."




I loved giving Jessica outfits for the much anticipated arrival of Grant Thomas and she loved getting them!



Phil and I, (now known as Pops and Keggie) pose with Princess Emerson herself.



Emerson Ann shows off her finery and her folks!





And then she makes her wishes well known. "That's enough Keggie. No more pics."


And just like that, another Christmas has come and gone and the tree is bare. Blessings on you all. Let's seek Him in '09 with more fervor than ever before. He is worthy.



Hugs,
Shellie



Thursday, December 18, 2008

Random Thoughts

Hey y'all,

Who gets to sell the Guvnor's job? Seriously...

I read about a lady all mad at her school board 'cause her kid sang, "Rudolph". She says the lyrics say Santa and Christmas so the song is religious. I wonder if that made God laugh.

I tire. I dropped the "d" on purpose. It's something my best friend Red and I say. "I tire" for us covers more than physical fatigue.

Merry Christmas Hugs,
Shellie

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Paul Michael looms with Houston on the horizon

Hey y'all. I just finished taping next week's video segment for KNOETV 8 and now I'm trying to tie up a ton of ends in prep for the weekend. Of course, I had to stop and go hold, look, kiss, stare at Emerson Ann. Imagine-- the only thing she does in our relationship is accept my adoration and yet it works for me, bigtime. Only with a grandchild. Soon as her parents (HELLO Parents) send me some more of the nine million pics they've taken, I'll get a couple up for you.

I'm off to do a book signing at the Paul Michael store in Monroe, LA. It's five to nine this evening. If you're around, come see me. If not-- send money. Haha. Just joking. Kind of. You have heard about the economy, haven't you. Well, hello. There are baby clothes to buy for Emerson and Baby Maher who is coming fast on her heels. Bless her heart, Emerson has more clothes than Ivana Trump right now, but who's counting? By the way, I trust you've bought a copy of "Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On" book for every single person on your list but if not, there is still time.

Dear hubby has agreed to play chauffeur for me today (I just spelled that chauffeer and spell check gave me a huge red mark and detention) so I can continue to knock out content deadlines there and back because-- drum roll-- tomorrow morning after the LIVE radio show, we're heading to see Jessica and Patrick (daughter and son-in-law) in Houston. Jess and I will shop 'til I cry uncle while Phil and Patrick golf. Something is wrong here. Have I mentioned that I am totally missing the female shopping gene? Yep. It skipped from my mother to my daughter.

Umm...that is about all of the earth shattering, news you can lose from All Things Southern today. Later gators and gatorettes.

Hugs,
Shellie

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Rooting for the Home Team

Hello folks,
When I started this blog I wondered what I'd blog about on top of all my other ramblings as host of All Things Southern. I've since found a few good reasons to blog, (Hello Emerson), and yet another one has just occurred to me.

A week or so ago I ran across a certain article while indulging myself in one of my Internet newspaper binges. The theme of the column made my blood boil. So much so that I dashed off a letter to the editor and asked him to print it as a fair rebuttal. He didn't. Fine. I choose to. Here is the article. My response follows.


By DONALD KAUL, Minuteman Media
©Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. 2008

You've probably seen that tragic, hilarious football story out of Alabama. It tells us a lot about the recent presidential election we all miss so much. Let me refresh your memory on the details:

After the University of Alabama beat Louisiana State University at football a week or so ago, an LSU fan named Smith in southern Alabama called his pal Williams, an Alabama fan, to vent his rage. An argument ensued. Heated words were exchanged. An agitated Smith decided to go to Williams' house and settle the argument in person. He took his wife with him. Also a gun. Williams was waiting for him. With a shotgun. (I have no idea whether these yokels were members of the NRA but I wouldn't be surprised.)

One thing led to another and before you knew it Williams had shot Smith dead. Also Smith's wife. The lesson being that southerners take their football very seriously.


But football isn't the only thing southerners take seriously. There's also Nutball Republican politics, the intellectual home of Republicans known as "the base."

John McCain didn't carry many states but, with the exception of the relatively unpopulated mountain-west states and Alaska, they were all in the South. Basically, he was elected president of the Confederate States of America. (Congratulations, John!)

Not coincidentally, at this writing, the five top college football teams all come from the former Confederacy, as do 15 of the top 25.

Here is my point:

You don't have to be dumb to think of football as a life-and-death matter, but it helps. So too with reactionary conservatism.

The Republican Party has become the party of dumb. Oh, you can deny it, you Republicans out there but for years now, your candidates have played the dumb card. No matter what the question - George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, global warming, Freedom Fries, stem cell research, Dan Quayle, evolution, Star Wars - you've always come down on the dumb side of the answer.

With the result that there's been a gradual dumbing down of the party until the only places that really bought what John McCain was selling were places where people kill people over football games.

You've heard of liberal bias? (If you watch Fox News, you've heard of little else.) Conservatives argue that the public was bamboozled into voting for Obama by a biased liberal media.

Not so. (Do you really think America is sitting on the edge of its chair, waiting to get its marching orders from Tom Brokaw?)

Journalists may have a barely discernible liberal outlook - no more that a slight tilt - but their real bias is toward smart. They almost always favor the candidate whom they perceive to be smarter than the other guy. And it's seldom the Republican.

On the other hand, there are media outlets whose bias is toward dumb. Fox News leaps to mind of course, but there is also the New York Post, The Washington Times, the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, the Pittsburg Tribune-Review, William Kristol of The New York Times of all places and AM radio. Republican supporters all.

Any of these entities, given the choice, will take dumb over smart every time. Indeed, Rush Limbaugh (a famous football fan, by the way) defended his title as the Prince of Dumb the other day by claiming that Barack Obama had caused the current economic mess.

"The Obama recession is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen," he said on his radio show. That's dumber than even William Kristol would go.

I suppose the GOP could start lurching back to smart in an effort to win back voters but it seems to be going the other way. They're already talking up Sarah for president in 2012. Many smart conservatives - George Will, Colin Powell, Christopher Buckley, Chuck Hagel - are jumping ship.

I think, maybe, Republicans will have to be content to win football games rather than elections from now on. And not shoot each other. They can't afford to lose any more true believers.


My Response:

Mr. Kaul, it was very thoughtful of you to pause midway through your recent analysis of the election returns to spell out your point for those of us you consider intellectually inferior, but really, we got it: Democrat smart, Republican dumb. Blame it on my south of the Mason Dixon line location or my “reactionary conservatism”, but I feel compelled to respond to your assumptions. But, where do I begin? The pickings here are as abundant as our Thanksgiving tables will be next Thursday.

I might suggest you take a second look at the final electoral map and state count totals before you repeat your ridiculous conclusion that McCain didn’t win very many states. I realize recount is a cuss word where you come from, but that number in McCain’s column was twenty-two. The number might represent inconsequential states in your opinion, but we consider ourselves fortunate to live here in flyover country. And as for your anointing Mr. McCain president of the Confederate States of America, I hope you’ll understand if that remark isn’t met with confetti and streamers. The last time we tried to create such an entity, well, it didn’t turn out so well. Were you speaking for yourself or have y’all reconsidered?

It stretches my imagination to understand how anyone could have come out of this election cycle still believing that there is only the slightest tilt in the mainstream media, but I’m going to save my breath on that one. You can’t tell someone what they don’t want to know. Did the bias determine the outcome? I would argue that yes, it played a part, but by far the larger reason can be laid at the feet of the Republican party itself. Those Republican folks you painted dumb with one big brush were smart enough to know that the people they voted into office didn’t uphold the promises they made that got them there.

Not that I didn’t find some things in your letter to agree with—far from it. I’ll be happy to reach across the aisle and thank you for noticing that we rule college football. Having said that, I hope by now you’ve had enough time to regret using a tragic shooting death to make your point. You really should be ashamed of yourself for calling the Alabama/LSU incident hilarious. I hope and pray those that mourn their deaths won’t wander across your mean-spirited analogy. You may lose that moral high ground you’re perched on.

For the record, sir, I didn’t vote for President Elect Obama, but I’ll be rooting for him, as strongly as I root for my home football team. That’s what we do here, Mr. Kaul. Would you have done the same?

Shellie Rushing Tomlinson



Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving Day 2008

What a day...what a long, wonderful satisfying day. I was up cooking by 6:30 A.M. Jessica appeared shortly thereafter and it was on! Phil and Patrick headed to the woods to meet Phillip and put up some deer stands while we girls set out to create our traditional feasts. Jessica and I are open to trying new dishes, (Jessica made a great new pumpkin bread with creme cheese icing), but they are never, but never, allowed to replace the old!

Once the men tended to their important duties, they returned to the spread we girls had laid out! Soon, Phillip and Carey showed up with The Emerson Ann, who was exceedingly gracious for the paparazzi.




Here are the new parents looking especially grateful for their Thanksgiving blessing.


In these pics, Miss Emerson is wearing her "Baby's First Thanksgiving" outfit, complete with brown ruffles on her bottom, but in true belle style, she had a couple costume changes for us today!


Emerson Ann meets Jessica Ann. Love at first sight!




Holding hands with Aunt Jessica...




Uncle Patrick and Emerson do some bonding. Patrick and Jessica, remember, will be parents themselves in about five months.




My husband, Phil, affectionately known as "Pops" marvels at his first grandchild.



I, of course, am getting neck sugar! You may notice our little bundle's coloring. Emerson has a little jaundice but her levels are coming down all the time.





Emerson Ann meets her Uncle Jake!




And this, folks, is what a celebrity looks like when she has had enough of the paparazzi! In the words of southerners everywhere, "Bless her heart..."


Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The Thanksgiving Journal

Hello friends,

I just finished posting to another of my favorite social networking sites and I so enjoyed recounting my blessings that I decided to edit that post appropriately and place it here for you.

Today, my grateful list will start with my first grandchild. If you haven't met Emerson Ann, go back about two posts and let her bless your socks off.

I am grateful that although Jessica Ann, my first born, went through a painful miscarriage this year, she is now 18 weeks pregnant again and all is well.

I am grateful for being born and raised in America, the greatest land on earth. To watch the non-violent transition of power should be gratifying to us all, regardless of whether or not you voted for the incoming President.

I am grateful that despite the late Spring freeze that threatened our young crops and despite the heavy fall rains that threatened the harvest, we were able to salvage the year. Banner year? No way! But we will live to farm another day.

I am grateful for my health and I am grateful for the spirit and grace of some dear friends and family who are facing challenging health issues with inspiring faith.

I am grateful for the blood of Jesus Christ that satisfied a debt of sin I could never pay and made a way into the Father's heart for me and you.

Today I will lay out the Thanksgiving Journal in the kitchen. All who come and go will pick up a pen and add another blessing from the past year. I have learned from experience that sometimes, when you can't say anything else, you can say, "Thank you for all the days of my life than haven't been as painful as this one." There is always room to praise. We just have to look harder some times than others.

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you. May it be filled to the brim and overflowing with friends, family, and gratitude for all!

Hugs,
Shellie

Monday, November 24, 2008

Choosing the Best Part

Mondays can be tough around here. Radio show to tape, website to update, orders to get in the mail, house to clean...not to mention wanting to be the best wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, mother-in-law, NEW GRANDMOTHER, aunt, sister, and friend I can be... and on and on it goes. Oh, but Mondays can also be terrifically tremendous! (I do love alliteration. Thank you Mrs. Doris Sullivan, my favorite English teacher ever.)

I'm choosing terrifically tremendous. In two days my sweet pregnant daughter and her dear husband will be joining this wild and woolly group to give thanks. How could I not be grateful? This is the day the Lord has made and this woman is rejoicing in it-- stress and all, y'all!

Hugs,
Shellie

Friday, November 21, 2008

Introducing Miss Emerson Ann Tomlinson


The stats:

November 20th, 2008
7 lbs. 3 ounces
20.5 inches





The miracle...




The joy...


















What? You thought I'd close without one of me and Emerson? Oh, friends...I haven't even gotten started. Stay tuned. This is just the briefest of updates for those family and friends that can't be here. (Emerson Ann loves you Aunt Jessica and Uncle Patrick! See you at Thanksgiving!) ~Hugs, Shellie