A Sad Farewell!

We said good-bye to my grandmother on Sunday, November 18, 2018 at her home her in Bowling Green.  She was 89, and we all loved her very much!  The last few years have been tough, watching her go through Alzheimer's.  She'd have her good moments and bad moments.  Sometimes I was Becky and Matt was Dennis and other times she'd know exactly who I was.  The Thursday (prior to the 18th), Mom asked us to come over and see her.  They'd taken her off all her medicines (that last week) and she was alert and seemed to recognize all of us.  It was a special moment being there with her.  I was able to see her one last time on Sunday and left around 4 PM - she passed at 5 PM with my mom holding her hand.

I worked on a collage to display at the funeral home and gathered lots of pictures which churned up lots of memories! Shannon and I were her only grandaughters.  During our childhood, teen and young adult years, we spent lots of time in Louisville visiting our extended family there.  It was such a drastic difference going over to Poppy and Memaw's when we were young.  The Pogue's, my dad's family, was a FULL house - Dad is the oldest of six.  Everyone of his siblings married and had a couple of kids.  We had cousins everywhere - it was loud, it was fun, we were constantly entertained by games, toys, new gadgets, stories, everything.  Poppy and Memaw's was quiet - my uncle never married and Shannon and I were the only kids.  As we grew older, we appreciated time away from the wild and crazy, but when we were young, we entertained ourselves.  Memaw would always siphon out toys from cereal boxes and lay them in our bedroom when we came over to stay.  They had bathroom/shower that connected through a secret passage to our bedroom so that was a fun, new world.  They had a full bar downstairs in their basement which had lots of interesting paraphernalia and a typewriter Shannon and I would peck on.  There was usually some sort of box of chocolate - Russell Stovers or Whitmans.  Memaw never minded that I would push my finger through each one of them, to inspect the insides and select the one's I liked. The basement had a bumper pool table, puzzles, a piano, lots of Mason jars and collectibles, and our favorite - old old gumball machine.  When Memaw and Poppy would take bus trip/vacations, they liked to travel around, they would always bring us back a souvenir of some sort - usually a shirt.  During the holidays, Memaw liked to treat us to Christmas shopping at the Oxmoor Mall.  She'd race down the Watterson Expressway like Cameron Diaz in My Best Friends Wedding and yell at all the "old women drivers" out on the road.  We'd get our shopping done and eat at The Blue Boar which was her favorite.
   Christmas was her favorite.  She always sing off-key and miss her queue when we'd sing our yearly carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas."  I always liked that she'd let me have a glass of wine - Manischewitz was their favorite.  When we were older and she'd give us Christmas cash, she always made us give her the card back for reuse each year. She loved playing cards and yelling at her partner and always LOVED cleaning.  It was her mission to always have clean everything - house, dishes, laundry.  Shannon and I learned quickly to hide our my precious clothes when she'd come to town because CLEANING was high on the priority list.  She shrink a sweater or pair jeans quick.  I lost a couple of my favorite pieces to my miniature Barbies when she'd come to our house and do laundry.  She lost her mom during childbirth, and I know life must've been hard but she was spoiled and continued to spoil us, her grand-girls.

  We did the Mannequin challenge back in 2016 - wanted to post it because it was a funny memory with her.  She was a character, and although we'll miss her, we're glad she's reunited with her mom and not suffering anymore.  Love you Memaw!  Thanks for being a wonderful grandma!  And thanks to everyone who has poured out love, cards, flowers, food and totally made this "new normal" tolerable.  We're blessed!

 For posterity:
Bonnie Hartwein, 89 of Bowling Green died November 18, 2018 at her home. The Louisville, Ky native was the daughter of the late Edward Kiray and Elsa Dollenbach Kiray. Mrs. Hartwein was a member of St James United Church of Christ.

She is survived by her husband, William H. Hartwein; her son, Michael W. Hartwein and her daughter, Diane H. Pogue (Lindle). Also surviving are her granddaughters: Shannon P. Maglinger (Paul) and Tiffany P. Deaton (Matthew); great grandchildren: Karson Ann Deaton, Evan Michael Maglinger, Elizabeth Drew Maglinger, Isaac Matthew Deaton and Miles Collin Deaton as well as her brother, John Kiray and several nieces and nephews.

Visitation for Bonnie Hartwein will be Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018 from 2 pm - 5 pm in the chapel of Cone Funeral Home (1510 Campbell Lane) with funeral services to be held at 5 pm.
Cone Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.

SNOWvember What?!?!

It's beginning to look a lot like SNOWvember!  What?!?  I can hardly believe how cold it is this week.  It's the kind of cold that's paralyzing.  Last night I totally slept in a sweatshirt (don't think that's ever happened) over my normal pajamas.  We've been using our gas fireplace quite a bit the last couple of days.  Makes the house feel nice and cozy.

     Basketball season is upon us.  Karson is playing for South, and Miles is playing for the Nets.  Karson had her first scrimmage last night against Edmonson County.  Click here for her varsity highlights.  Miles has had two weeks of practice, but he hasn't started ballgames yet.  They better start soon especially if we're already getting hit with winter weather.

    I know I say this every month,but it's true - feels like November was faster than ever!  Not sure how I managed to miss Halloween, but October was crazy, busy.  Halloween fell on a Wednesday night this year.  The weather was supposed to be awful but turned out to be a very pleasant evening.  Isaac is always particular about his costume.  This year he wanted to be Hans Solo.  We looked at the orange tent and actually bought a costume, but it turned out to be too small.  There is the kid on Youtube called the Costume Kid (I think).  He gave me some great tips for making my own, which primarily consisted of buying a pair of dark denim/black jeans, cutting the sleeves off a jean jacket and spray painting it black.  It's was pretty easy and didn't cost more than $10 ( thanks Goodwill).  Miles is easy peasy!  He never wants to go costume shopping.  He will resurrect whatever we have and make it work.  This year's costume was a size 8 Skeleton Ninja that barely fit, but he made it work.

Our house was full of boys and candy.  Matt made lil' smokies, and I fixed a crockpot of chili so we'd have a meal - cooking at our house doesn't happen much with our schedules.  I wanted to make sure if people came over, there was food there.  Matt told me the boys gobbled all the smokies immediately.  I was a little perturbed by one of our neighbors - not sure who or where in our 'hood' that it happened, but someone gave our older (8th grade) boys a guilt trip for being out trick or treating.  Isaac has never even thought about not trick or treating.  He can't wait to do it!  When he got back home this year, he said, "Mom this might be the last year I go."  He proceeded to tell me that one of the neighbors grilled them about being older trick or treaters.  I wish I knew who that was so I could buy them a couple of bags of candy for the teens that come through.  Who cares!?!  Isn't Halloween supposed to be a fun for kids of all ages?  Karson stopped trick-or-treating in middle school, but Isaac LOVES it.  We'll see how next year goes???  Matt and I aren't too old for dressing up.  This year's adult Halloween party featured us as the POPE and a NUN.



If I haven't mentioned it before, I have a pretty cool job.  I get to work with some of the most talented people on a daily basis.  One of my favorite programs that I take to schools is called Blues in Schools.  I work with the Kentucky Blues Society composed of Kenny Lee, Chris Carmichael and Lee Hammer.  We've done lots of workshops together. I was super excited when our principal at Plano approved us to come do the program with the 6th graders - which my son is a part of!

Two matinees this fall and another one tomorrow!  It's a hard knock life as an Education Coordinator!

We started the month of November off with a big 16th birthday bash for Karson and her friend Sydney. I'm not a party planner, but for those who are wondering about time frames....IF, you are thinking about having a sweet 16 with a DJ, trying to secure one during the summer for a fall party is way too late.  I started calling around late summer to try and find one for the fall and kept hitting dead ends.  Apparently, this time of the year is super popular for weddings.  We struck gold with Jeff Pearson though - he was recommended to us by another DJ and happened to be available.  I would highly recommend DJ Slim to anyone.  We got a great deal at IHCC with our membership.  The girls got together and crafted their guest list and song list, and had a successful event.  It's also a little easier on the pocketbook to share a party - love that it worked out for K and S to have birthdays so close together, be such close friends, and basically have the same peer group to hang out with.

Karson's been logging lots of drive time.  She even did I-65 for the first time over the weekend!

Lots of November birthdays - this month we celebrate Meme, Nana and Matt!  We went to Mellow Mushroom last Sunday for Mom's birthday.  Isaac wasn't with us - he went to Nashville to see the Tennessee Titans.  He LOVES going to the games and has been fortunate to attend quite a few of them this season.  No matter if it's frigid or raining, he'll go and love every second of it!  He's becoming quite the collector of memorabilia too.  We have a large flag, socks, hats, shirts, calendar, wallet and gear! Speaking of football (had to throw in the pic of K and her buds below), the SWHS Spartans continue play-off games this Friday against Owensboro Catholic!  Good luck fellas!