Thanks to my cousin, Molly, for finding The Snowmobile Story.  This recording was made nearly 15 years ago at a Talley family reunion.

5:30 p.m.  - Suzie gets out of a cab at her hotel on a busy street in downtown Detroit.

7:30 p.m. -  Suzie realizes her Tiffany’s engagement ring must have fallen off her finger during the cab exit and onto the streets of Detroit.

4:00 a.m.  - After fretting all night and repeatedly calling the “lost and found” at the hotel front desk, Suzie feels the need to call her fiance’ and tell him she lost the ring. 

Only, she also feels the need to lie. 

This is the first time in their several-year relationship she’s done this, but nonetheless, she is too embarrassed about the cab incident and thinks another story would be better.  She tells her man the ring went down the shower drain.

4:06 a.m.  - The lie backfires.  The fiance’ requests hotel management break into the drain and recover the ring.

4:07 a.m. - Suzie thinks, “D’Oh!”  Especially when she sees the drain cover has smaller openings than an ‘09-’10 budget. 

6:30 a.m. - Suzie, realizing the value of the truth, especially now that she’s been busted, calls her fiance’ and comes clean about the shower.  Fiance is Mr. Nice Guy and forgives her.  Suzie is reminded that this is another reason she’s marrying him. 

8:30 a.m. - Suzie calls sister (that would be me) and frets some more.  Sister’s comforting advice:  “Wow, someone’s having a big day at the pawn shop.  You just made someone’s day in these tough economic times!  Go ahead and feel good about that.” 

10:30 a.m. - Suzie decides to look around outside the hotel and actually sees the ring in the street!  It was scratched up and some prongs were bent from the traffic, but there it was! 

6:00 p.m. - Suzie phones sister again and says, “I’m gonna keep it all dirty and bent up because it reminds me of how much honesty means in a relationship.”

20 years ago at this exact time of day, I was wheeled in to Schumpert.  I was scared, excited, uncertain.  Who couldn’t have used a sign that everything was going to be okay? 

And there it was.

Standing in the hallway, apparently there to help someone else, were Shreveport Fire Chief Dallas Greene and Sister Margaret.  I asked for only one sign.  I got two!  All of the sudden, I felt right with the world.  They have no idea how much they helped me. 

And later, when I saw that beautiful baby, crying with his shining eyes, and an entire life in front of him, the world was an even better place. 

I’ll never forget that moment, or the joy my son has brought me in the past 20 years, and those two signs of hope and faith on the day he was born. 

That joy is upstaged only by the sound of Casey’s voice now when I talk with him on the phone or see him when he comes home from college.  He has such an energy and love of life that you can’t help but catch when you’re around him. 

I am a blessed mom.  Happy Birthday, Case! 

Love. 

HRB, one of our commenters (and my brother), will be a father in about an hour. 

I don’t see HRB pulling something like this on his wife, especially after what she’s been through in the past nine months.  Still, we’re waiting on the official birth certificate name.   

ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (AP) — A new father has secretly named his baby girl Sarah McCain Palin after the Republican ticket for president and vice president.

Mark Ciptak of Elizabethton put that name on the documents for the girl’s birth certificate, ignoring the name Ava Grace, which he and his wife had picked earlier.

“I don’t think she believes me yet,” he told the Kingsport Times-News. “It’s going to take some more convincing.”

Ciptak, a blood bank employee for the American Red Cross, said he named his third child after John McCain and Sarah Palin to “to get the word out” about the campaign.

“I took one for the cause,” he said. “I can’t give a lot of financial support for the (McCain/Palin) campaign. I do have a sign up in my yard, but I can do very little.”

In about a week, the latest member of the Talley family will be born.  Much to Kim’s relief, my, Suzie and CT’s nephew and HRB’s son, Daniel Grey will be here.  This is one of our gifts to Daniel Grey.  

While we’re on a roll with what you did when you were a kid… 

When we were kids, Mom went to the store once a week.  That was it.  Nothing in between…no matter what.  So, as soon as Mom got back from the store, the four of us attacked the sacks of groceries like wild animals.  The good stuff was usually gone in a day.  That left us to get creative on the other days. 

Enter:  Crisco and sugar.  What?  I know it’s gross, but hey, the combo is a main part of many cookies and junk.  You don’t make a face at the finished product, why the ingredients?  Yep, we did it (Suzie and me).  Here’s how it’s done. 

1-Make sure Mom is napping or busy outside.

2-Get teaspoon and chair to climb into cabinets.  Be very quiet.

3-Scoop spoon in Crisco, then double dip into bag of sugar.

4-Eat it fast.  Look around to make sure no one saw you.  Get down from cabinet carefully during sugar rush.

HRB said I could post this.  My sister and I used to dress him up like a doll.  Here I am styling his wig.  We didn’t see anything wrong with it.  We were Barbie deprived and saw it as an opportunity for play.

Little known fact:  Chuck Norris’ sisters did this to him, too. 

Ever look at old pics and the memories start flooding back?  You know, the ones that remind you just where your weirdness began.  This is our little brother (CT on this site).  We (Suzie, HRB and I) used to put him on that flattened cardboard box, put the (decorative?) sofa pillow under his little head and drag him around the house like that.   

From HRB in Houston, TX:

“We went to the grocery store and it was total mayhem.  All canned goods and bread were gone.  People were freaking out.  We got some microwave popcorn and peanut M&Ms and got the hell out of there.    There is an eerie feeling, like Christmas morning except windy and hot.” 

Want the news from work?  Need information on Ike, but don’t want to wait until the 5pm news?  We’re live again this afternoon at 3:00 with the webcam/chat from my desk in the KTBS 3 newsroom.  Today begins Thursdays at Three for this format.  It’s one of the fastest, most personal ways of getting news there is.  It’s very casual.  I gather the latest information and interview others reporters, photographers and authorities to get you what you need on a topic (today, it’s Ike).  Meteorologist Marcy Novak has been working on info. about evacuations and will have the latest on Ike’s path an the effect it’s forecasted to have on the ArkLaTex. 

Just look for this icon today at 3:00 on www.ktbs.com.  Click and join us in the live chat.  We’ll probably stay live today for about an hour.   Hope to talk with you!