The Dackel Princess

The Mersey Beatles

Way back when I was a really little girl, Ed Sullivan introduced us to four Lads from Liverpool, England. John, Paul, George and Ringo. I remember my silly sister kissing the TV screen when they showed Paul, and I recall dancing around like a mini maniac! The Beatles were here, and we American’s loved them.

Right from the start I loved their music. My older brother and sister got their records and played them, and the radio seemed to be filled with the latest Beatles tunes.

My cousin, Janet and I would not play Barbie and Ken, with our dolls, no they were usually John and Paul and their girlfriends.

As the years passed the band broke up. Somehow, we all learned to live without new Beatles music. In fact we enjoyed what the guys produced individually. And there was always the hope. The hope that they would get back together, one more time.

Then we lost two of the Liverpool Lads to great tragedy. One was murdered the other died of cancer. At that moment, the Beatles were no more and we knew we would never have a chance to see them perform again.

Then my cousin sent me a text a few weeks ago and asked me if I was interested in going to see “The Mersey Beatles”? This group of guys are Liverpool born and raised, and their love of The Fab Four are about as deep as my own. I thought about it for about 30 seconds and said yes!

We opted to get tickets to sit at a table so we could have dinner, and watch the show. This proved to be an excellent idea, as the food was terrific and the service was friendly and fast!

Our seats were close to the sound man, and he was quite nice. A teacher in our local schools, who picks up extra work doing the sound for shows at The Flying Monkey.

Before the show started I met Julia Baird. She is John Lennon’s younger sister and she was quite charming. We spoke for a while and she talked about Liverpool and the events planned throughout the year to celebrate The Beatles. She encouraged me to come on over.

We ate our dinner, and then the show started. First Julia came out and introduced the group, and how they came to be.

Then the lights came up and the boys ran out, and the night began.

Janet and I sang every song, we clapped our hands and stomped our feet and even got up and danced. This group performed for us for nearly three hours, with only two breaks for costume changes.

They also seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as we were enjoying this walk down memory lane. “Twist and Shout” was one of their bigger hits last night, with every single concert goer on their feet, singing and dancing along with the group!

I sang every song, and when I closed my eyes I almost felt I’d fallen back in time and was listening to The Fab Four once again.

I babbled all the way home with phrases like, “Best concert ever”, to “Can you believe how great that was?” and I am sure there was even more. Not sure Janet got much in edgewise. I was just filled with happiness and excitement!

If you ever hear of the Mersey Beatles playing in your area, get tickets and go! HERE is their Web page and here you will find their schedule. Come on, look up their schedule and go! You will not be sorry.

The Office…It’s Clean!

For those who know me, I have been talking about cleaning out my office for years. I will claim 9 years, but really, we’ve been in this house 17 years and the office was sort of the catch-all throughout this time.

Finally I finished up most of it around tax time, when Hubby needed the seclusion of the office to cry over our taxes, but today (Saturday) I finished with the vacuuming, the dusting, and making up the twin bed in there. Just in time for my cousin, Janet to come for a visit. She will be the first guest ever to sleep in there!

I will post pictures on Monday of the room, but suffice to say, it’s looking pretty dang good!

Friday Five

And here we are again. Another week has come and gone and Friday is upon us. It’s mid-May, and in two weeks my little love, Savannah will turn four years old! Here are 5 recollections of the last four years.

The day Savannah arrived I held her, tears in my eyes and felt the deepest surge of love imaginable.

She was the most beautiful baby girl and my heart swelled with love.
As she grew I started to see her very distinctive personality. She was bright, alert, and imaginative. She also knew from an early age what she liked.

In fact we took her shopping for a bouncy seat and she tried several before settling down in one and picking it out as her own.
By her first birthday she was walking, and starting to talk. As she grew older her talking increased.

Happy from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

She began to express her wants and desires, but in words.
She has always been so cuddly and loving.

And to this day, she will see me, run into my arms crying “Oma” in her happy little voice!
I love sitting and talking with her now.

She will tell me all her little stories, her feelings, and I am enthralled.

What a true blessing it is to be an Oma to this amazing little girl!!!

TBT: Baby Fritzie

We were traveling in our motor-coach with Shubi and Fritz to a dog show, where baby Fritz debuted. He did pretty well, getting first place in his puppy category, as well as Best Puppy in Show! He loved riding in the motor-coach and one time we came in and found him sitting in the drivers seat, looking as though he belonged there!

His glory days didn’t last too long, as his beautiful, perfect, black nose grew into what is referred to as “snow-nose”, which basically means it turned a pinkish color.

Fritz was the very best and sweetest White German Shepherd that we ever had. We still miss him a great deal. I think his memory with be with us for the rest of our days.

The Spring & The Plums

Tuesday was just beautiful. The skies were clear, bright blue, the sun was shining, and there was not a single cloud. As I walked through our yard, I passed the plum tree and the bees were busy working the blossoms. We may not have any peaches this year, but apparently there will be plums, and hopefully apples.

The Bee and the Plum Blossom.

I went with Hubby to the tractor shop to get a new battery for our tractor/mower. He was upset that the battery had died, but the clerk assured him that he had actually gotten his money’s worth on that one.

We drove the back roads home and I enjoyed the beauty all around us. It seems that Spring has finally arrived!

Grandchildren & Love

Last week I drove down and spent the day with my daughter and grandson. It was a nice day, and I enjoyed the ride down and back.

Mandy and I hit the Outlet shops, and in the early afternoon we stopped to have lunch. We both felt like something different, and decided to go to a Thai Restaurant and try them. Oh my goodness, it was fabulous!

Sweet Quinn was really good while we shopped. If we were outside walking, he fell right to sleep. But as soon as we would go into a store, he would wake up! He didn’t cry, but he was wide awake and taking it all in. At the end of lunch, Mandy and I went to get Savannah at school and that was such a wonderful surprise. She came home and we got to play and joke and fool around, before I had to leave to drive home.

I’ll be going back this week to spend some more time with them. You know, the time you spend with your children or grandchildren, is the best!

Mother’s Day

When I think about Mother’s Day, I do think of my own Mom. Ours was a very complicated relationship, but in the end, there is love and for that, I am grateful.

But Mother’s Day also reminds me to thank God for the blessings in my life that made me a Mom and an Oma (grandmother).

I have been blessed, I tell you! I gave birth to two beautiful, intelligent, fun, and adventurous daughters. Amanda came first on December 20th, and the feeling of profound joy that I felt with her birth is something I can never fully explain. Looking into her tiny face, knowing that she was made from our love, was amazing!

Next came our Katie, on November 8th. What a surprise she was with her red hair and green eyes! She was a sweet, loving, child, and her loss is something we will never get over.

Time passed, Mandy grew up, and then on the 31st of May in 2012, my first granddaughter, Savannah Rose came into our world! A beautiful, loving, talented, imaginative, girlie girl! I look into her eyes and I see pure love and my heart swells with love. Every day, I thank God for this blessing.

And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, on the 7th of March, this year grandson, Quinn Wallace arrived! What a handsome little dude he is! Since I had never had a son, this whole boy thing is new to me, and I am just loving it.

Thank you Lord for all the blessings in this life. For my Children and for my Grandchildren. Life is, so very good!

TBT: Baby MB

Not exactly sure how old I was, perhaps 4 or 5 months. Mel, what do you think? Anyway, I saw this and thought I would make this my TBT.

Happy Birthday Jack!

Another year has come and gone, and here it is Hubby’s 78th Birthday! Jack, I hope you know, that every year that goes by, finds me more and more in love with you. In so many ways, you gave me back the love and happiness I had lost and together we have made a beautiful life together with our family.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Happy Birthday Hubby from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

Hubby’s Birthday

Happy Birthday Dickie

Today would have been my brother’s 65th birthday. Richard “Dickie” was seven years older than me, which when you are a child seemed like a million, billion, years.

Melodie was just two years younger, and she and Dickie were really close. When I was small, they took pretty good care of their little sister.

Melodie, Dickie and me.

My brother was born prematurely and was very small. His birth was a tough one, and he had life long after effects from it.

My brother, was well loved by many. The one thing I can say is that he tried hard, always and he loved deeply.

He married a woman with four kids, and I know he loved each and every one of them. Together they had two sons. They will unfortunately never really know how proud and happy he was the days they were born. You see, when he was in his early twenties he became ill with cancer.

He loved to cook and he loved his music. Although he never could learn to read music, all he had to do was hear something once and he could play it either on the guitar or the piano.

He learned he had cancer at the age of 26. On April 1st, April Fools Day. And he fought long and hard to win his battle against that dreaded disease. Unfortunately, back in 1977, cancer treatment was brutally hard, and seldom worked on Lymphoma and Leukemia.

Dickie passed from this life to the next on April 2nd 1978. We miss you, Dickie and hope you are happy and celebrating with all of the family up there in Heaven.