Knock Three Times - Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler

2011-04-16T15:28:00.011-05:00

Here it is nearly mid-April and I have drifted in. I do wish I was like these bloggers who are disciplined enough to talk to you once a day. I know I love to read their blogs. My days are mostly all alike so I guess I think my words would just be boring.

Since I was last here, I have had a birthday and am now older than dirt - 66 years old. At least I am healthy.

I do have some new pictures of my great granddaughters that I can share.

Sweet little Laila playing - taken with a phone

Dressed up and sitting in her other great-grandmother's chair

Found daddy's ear protectors in his duffel bag and decided to use themI need my mom's stuff to beautify myself
Doing my push-ups the easy wayThis is some yummy stuff

Well, no promises when I will be back. I will probably cook for two of my grandchildren because their parents will be out of town for Easter. Can't have them with no holiday meal. The Easter bunny might leave them something here too. :-)

Hope ya'll have a lot of crawfish where you live and wish the season lasted a lot longer than it does. Have a great h0liday and I will see you when I see you.

February 20, 2011

2011-02-20T21:47:00.004-06:00

It has been forever since I last posted. I had forgotten how to even get to the posting page and so it has taken me over an hour trying to find the "gate". However, I hope I can remember to at least post once a week from now on.

Right at the beginning of December I got sick with a flu-like virus that put me to bed for nearly eight weeks. Yes, I had my flu shot, but this was something else. I had eaten out with a friend and on the way home I started getting dizzy, but thought the vertigo was just coming back so I took it easy on the interstate. Got in bed and immediately had to get back up and lost my cookies. That went on along with what throwing up usually goes along with. Finally, I just brought the bathroom trashcan and put it beside the bed for the rest of the night.

This part lasted a good eight days and I began to feel better. I never did want anything to eat, but I did sip on gingerale so I wouldn't get dehydrated. I got up and got dressed and the next day I was down again for another week. Same thing a week later. That happened three times. Then it took a good month to get any kind of stamina back. The one good thing to come from this is now I don't have an appetite and I have lost weight. I am taking vitamins since I am not really eating much at all. I haven't had chocolate or any kind of sweets and don't want any since all of this has taken place. Now I am determined to just eat this little bit, not pick up the sweets habit, and no seconds anymore. Since last April I have lost 60 pounds. My doctor is thrilled. I don't feel any different though.

Let's see - Melyssa and Emily Anna went to Germany for Christmas to spend their time off with Lee, Telesia, and Zoey. When they got there their luggage didn't make it. They ended up having to buy one outfit and a few other items and just wash and wear the whole time they were there. Em's luggage arrived at Lee's when Tee was driving them to their hotel 1.5 hours away for their flight home the next morning. She ended up having to get up early and make that trip again and just got Em's luggage to her. Melyssa's luggage didn't get to Lee's for another week. She told Tee just what she needed to send back to the states and on her next trip over she will pick up her luggage and whatever is in it.

We really didn't do anything for the holidays since I was ill. I did feel good on Christmas day and we went to some friends's house and then came on back home. We had to cancel out on going to see my folks when I had to go back to bed. We did go the next week and took them out to eat. I had one of the shaking chills and ended up just drinking a Sprite. I will get my Eggplant Parmesan one of these days. I was really looking forward to that.

We have had a run of really nasty weather. Ice and a teaspoonful of snow. Thank goodness the power stayed on which usually isn't the case when we have ice. This week it has been in the 70s and has been so nice. I have a feeling we will get one more blast of winter weather before spring is really here.

I am sure I have left a lot of things out and I do have some pictures to share, but will do that another time. Later

August 19, 2010

2010-08-19T02:09:00.004-05:00

Here is a chance to get a class from KC Willis. Her works is just so cool. She had this workshop in a box that you could buy since most of us couldn't get out to Colorado for one of her in person workshops. Now she is trimming the workshop in a box to a workshop in a bag.

She has live workshops (a step up from the box for those interested in stepping up) that you can read about right here http://kcwillis.blogspot.com/2010/08/bye-bye-boxhello-giveaway.html. Check out this site as well www.studioretreats.ning.com in the same blog. She offers Collage Camp...her on-line workshop and link to (www.collagecamp.ning.com) that you may be interested in too.

August 8, 2010

2010-08-08T17:15:00.013-05:00

Since I last talked to ya'll, I have a new great granddaughter. She made her debut on 7-27-2010, 1:31 PM, 7lb and 5oz, 20 inches long. She has long feet and fingers and I told her dad that they will have to start saving for a piano with those hands. She is a strawberry blond and just gorgeous. I will include a picture. She is Miss Laila Ann.

Laila Ann

Benjamin and his princess, Laila Ann

We have had probably one of the hottest summers on record around here. With the heat index it is soared up to 118 some days and there have been heat advisories almost every day. Most days it will roar with thunder and lightning and then we will get a teaspoonful of rain. However, day before yesterday we actually got 2 1/4 inches and again yesterday we got enough to fill up the potholes in the street. At least we have had some okra and tomatoes from what little rain there has been. I am not a fall or winter person at all, but some kind of break in this weather would certainly be welcome.

My oldest grandson, his wife, and Miss Zoey Elizabeth leave this week for a three year tour compliments of the US Air Force over in Germany. If you gathered all of our tears, they would probably raise the level of the Red River a foot or two. I can't even think about it without my eyes brimming over. My parents came up several weekends ago to have lunch with them and say goodbye. Mama, who recently turned 85, even brought her bathing suit and got in the pool with them. She didn't want to get out and would have stayed over if my dad wouldn't have gotten antsy to leave. I will try and find a picture or two of their visit and include them.

Zoey Elizabeth, Telesia, Lee, My mom, Jane, 85 years old in the pool

Jeff, My dad, 90 years old

Bill is whittling away on his bathroom project, but I have finally convinced him to get out there earlier than noon, work before the temperatures soar, and then come inside and rest during the hottest part of the day. He loves the outside, but this is killer weather.

I found and reconnected with two college friends and last night we met up in Shreveport and closed down the restaurant where we met. We had so much fun reminding each other of things we had done, people we knew and wondered where they were and what they were doing, laughing our heads off, and just having a fun time. It is so nice when no one has changed and you just pick up where you left off before everyone went their merry ways. We will try to get together again around Christmas time.

Stay cool, drink plenty of liquids, and laugh like there was no tomorrow. Until the next time.....

July 17, 2010

2010-07-17T21:01:00.006-05:00

I don't know about where you live, but here in Louisiana, it is way hot. Everything is just laying low trying not to breathe too much of that hot air into its lungs. I had to go to two different cities this week and just getting out of the truck and into the building was an effort. Then to get out of the building, back across the melty tarmac parking lot and into the oven-like vehicle was just about too much.

For about two weeks now we have had some violent lightning and thunder storms that produce probably a tablespoonful of rain, but you can't get into the pool for fear you will be struck dead. Just a typical Louisiana summer. However, I think this one is really hotter than most we have had in a long time. I can assure you, if I don't have to go outside, I don't.

Last time I wrote it was my dad's 90th birthday. Two weeks after that, we pulled off a surprise party for my mother's 85th birthday, which was also their 67th anniversary. We had a nice group of folks show up for her party. Only one brother didn't make it, but he and his wife took my parents out for breakfast on the actual day of my mom's birthday, so I guess that counted for them. We missed having him there to tell stories with one of my other brothers though. They are always our entertainment committee for family gatherings. They can have you rolling in the floor laughing at what all they did when we were growing up. My younger brother and I are probably their biggest fans.

I had my 2nd in line grandson, in age, with back surgery, which must not have taken because for three weeks he has been in unbelievable pain. He ended up having to be taken by ambulance this past Sunday back to the city to the hospital for another back surgery. He is doing much better this time with pain, but nothing like what he was experiencing before. His little wife is due just about any day with their first child, but I hope she can wait maybe one week until he is more mobile and can get around better.

My first born grandson is being transferred to Germany for a 3 year tour and he, his wife and Zoey will leave on August 11th. I think there will be some wailing going on around these parts. I just hope they will be able to come home on leave at least once or twice during that time. Zoey will be 4 years old by the time they do come home and she will have forgotten who her Mi Mi is by then. Thank goodness for Skype and I hope I can figure out how to use it and that our times work out to be able to talk and see each other.

Bill has helped me build, out of an old bedside table, a little "kitchen" for Zoey. I haven't taken pictures of it yet, but when I do, I will post them. It is kind of primitive, but it is cute. I had them mix what was supposed to be just a breath of pink paint, but it had quite a bit of pink in it once I brushed it on. Oh well, it is something for her to play with when she is at my daughter's house. It will do in a rush and she will never know the difference. It grates on my nerves though because that old perfectionist in me is growling since it isn't like the ones you buy. I just have to remember that it is homemade and that she is 15 months old. Now, if I just had a pink pot holder, I might be more satisfied with it.

My son's 13 year old son is in Knoxville playing in the world series and I am waiting on a phone call any minute to see if they are going to be 1st or 2nd place. This makes the 4th game they have played today with 15 minutes in between each game. I don't know how in the world they can even stay in the competition after that much ball gaming in one day. It has been like that all week long. Had they lost yesterday, then there was a possibility they would have had to play 6 games in a row. Good thing he is a kid with energy. Makes me want to crawl in the bed just thinking about it.

Bill has finally finished all of the cabinet work in my new kitchen addition. Now he has spent this week working on his bathroom addition. Actually, it is a brand new bathroom for him. His old bathroom will become a passageway/linen closet when he busts through the wall into the new section. I don't know how in the world he has survived out in this heat, but he is an outdoor person and at least has two fans blowing on him. If he can hurry and finish the overhead stuff and get off the ladder, then the rest should be smooth sailing. When that room is finished, then we will be able to put down new flooring. I want the same flooring in the new bath, linen closet/passageway, new/old kitchen, small dining room, hallway, and my bathroom. Right now, the new part just has sub-flooring and there are two different types of flooring in two of the areas. I want it consistent throughout.

When that is done, then the living room needs a face lift. That is the problem with living in a house that is around 100 years old. It is a money pit, but there is no way we could ever afford to replicate the space at today's prices. We couldn't even buy a broom closet at today's prices for what we paid for this house and four town lots back in 1974. I kid you not.

Stay cool and maybe I will not wait so long to post next time. Don't hold your breath though.

2010-06-02T20:44:00.005-05:00

I have been missing in action. Where have I been? Doing as little as possible. Just too lazy I guess to find my way to this blog to write. I kid you not! I have a hard time remembering how to get here!

In the next little village up from mine I have found a gold mine. My village is small, but this one is even smaller, but it has a new and fully stocked, state-of-the-art library. The librarian is the best!!! I have been spending hours and hours reading now that I am a member of that library. We have one here in our village, but I don't care when I drive by it, there aren't any cars there. Who knows when they are open. When they were on Front Street, they kept pretty regular hours, but when they moved onto the school grounds, I believe they got slack.

Now when I hear of or see a book that I want to read, I just write it down and when I go to the library I turn in my list and usually within a week they have what I have requested. I don't think I will ever have to purchase another book again. It is like being turned a loose in a candy store. We aren't talking about old musty smelling books, but new ones with clean dust jackets on them. They have computers for folks who want to look up things. There are DVDs to check out, newspapers from the surrounding area, magazines, you name it, they either have it or will get it for you.

Since around my birthday we have had yard wreckers here as well. Since 1974 we have had various and sundry above ground pools getting larger and larger ones each time. Several years ago when these old shoulders and knees decided they didn't want to work any longer, I had one heck of a time getting myself out of our pool. I honestly thought I would end my life like a bar of soap that is left in the tub too long. Yep, just melt away, never to be seen again. I honestly don't remember how in the heck I ever got myself out of there the last time I went in, but I never went back. That was three years ago.

The knees have been replaced, but after the last replacement and the MRSA staff infection, I refuse to have the shoulders replaced even though my ortho surgeon says they must. Too bad. I will live with the pain, but unless it is a real life and death situation, this old woman won't be going to a hospital to have anything done to her again. I was never afraid of a hospital or surgery before, but you get that infection and you get scared very quickly and for life. Gives me shivers just thinking about what all was done to me in what is supposed to be a clean place, but is apparently a filthy place.

My doctor suggested water therapy and of course I had to tell him I could get into our pool, but couldn't get out any longer. He suggested an inground pool and I asked him if he was paying. :-) We talked about it and decided, why not? We don't travel, our children aren't hurting for money, we can't take it with us, so why not? Thus, the yard wreckers.

If you have never dealt with people who come into your yard to dig and install an inground pool, call me first. If that won't do, I will give you my son's number and he will give you an earful. After losing my religion, saying words that my mother at 85 years old would still try and shove a bar of Ivory soap down my mouth for saying or even thinking, six weeks of cussing out loud and inside my head, it is a reality. There are still a few kinks to work out, like they broke the sand filter and had better get themselves out here very quickly to either bring a new one or fix this one or else...but, we are certainly enjoying the new addition to the yard.

Bill has St. Augustine grass growing around the pool where there was red sand and it looks like it is spreading like it should. Three more weeks and he will be able to mow it. Not all of the plants made it when they replanted them, but those that did are flowering and look nice. We have been cooking lots of veggies and eating outside and that has to be good for you. Lots of exercise.

Another thing that took up some time was helping my mother pull together a surprise 90th birthday party for my dad a week and a half ago. We almost made it until he caught her taking a lot of cokes out to the storeroom and wanted to know why so many drinks. She said she told him that his sons were coming over to fry some fish for him and that is what the cokes were for. Even though it wasn't a complete surprise, he was still very surprised at all of the friends and family who showed up. The gig was up though when my brothers came up with their big outdoor fish fryers and skillets. By then, people started arriving. My mother had the neatest cake made that had a picture of him playing golf airbrushed on it. She had hidden it under the bed. He still plays golf three days a week.

Now, this Saturday we are trying to have a surprise 85th birthday dinner for my mother, but since my brothers said that daddy's birthday gathering made them decide they wanted to go out of the big party fish frying business (it was hot as blue blazes that day), we are all meeting at a fish restaurant and afterwards we will go to my parent's home for cake and ice cream. We were kind of afraid to chance waiting on having a surprise 90th for her. I don't really know why though because on both sides of their families, their parents and grandparents lived to be almost 100 and Mama had one uncle who made it to 105. I think they will be around for quite a while longer. They are two amazing people. Oh, tomorrow is my mother's birthday, but it is also their 66th wedding anniversary. You just don't see that much anymore.

Have a super summer and like I say everytime I write, I will try to do better, but don't hold my feet to the fire. You know how I am and how hard it is for me to find my way to this page. :-)

2010-04-11T18:07:00.010-05:00

Zoey and the Crawdad

Mid-April so I must be doing something right to be here blogging before the end of the month. Had my 65th birthday on Wednesday and really don't feel any older. My daughter cooked supper for us and made a guiltless cake to boot. Had a card with lots of cash in it. There was a present from my son and his crew waiting there for me too. It was a personalized travel mug with black and has white circles and then a hot pink "J" in a border. Neat-O. Inside the mug was some cash and pictures of the grands that thrilled me, of course. Never can get enough pictures of those precious faces.

Oldest granddaughter has been in Arkansas visiting her older brother and his wife and Zoey. She actually brought Zoey back with her. What a trip. You can guess where I am headed in a little while. Here is a picture of that doll with her bunny ears on and one holding a crayfish (I can't make this one get under the bunny ear girl picture). And her mama wants a girly-girl. I think she is going to have to settle for 1/2 girly-girl.

1st Easter and the bunny ears

Yesterday while we went to Alexandria for more birthday goodness with my parents and my youngest brother. We met them at a little place out in Ball, Louisiana, named Fant's. The older gentleman whose son owns the place used to be our neighbors when we first moved to Alexandria. They had the best seafood. After we ate, we went to my brother's house for cake and more presents. John had taken pictures of the "Medussa" tree in my front yard and the old swing with the rusted out eye hook and blew them up to 8 x 10s for me. He is really getting great at photography. Notices things that us non-photographers don't see.

My parents treated us to lunch, had a card with more cash in it, Mama knitted me a shawl/scarf and hat, and a sweet birch looking doll with flowers in front of her face like she is shy. I have seen them at Hallmark and they probably have a name.

We had a leisure drive home up old Hwy. 71 and stayed off I-49. When we got home, the yard had a long-bed trailer in it and parked in the side yard was a backhoe. They must have dropped it off so they can start the excavation on Monday.

Today, Sunday, Bill went to Shreveport and while he was gone, two young men from the pool company came to tear down the above-ground pool. They have been at it for 4 1/2 hours. When they started, wasps came out of the things that hold up the sides of the pool. Good thing Bill had left them some wasp spray. Last time I looked, they were nearing the end. I am taking pictures about once an hour of the demolition. I hear their truck cranking up so they must be finished. Off to take the last pictures before the hole starts to be dug in the morning. This is getting exciting.

March 31, 2010

2010-03-31T09:30:00.001-05:00

In like a lamb, roared through like a lion, out like a lamb. That was our March.

Observations:

Don’t think you can remember the color of your last post. That is true if you don’t post regularly. That is especially true if your memory is going away. That might of bothered me a while back and could bother me tomorrow being kind of obsessive-compulsive, but today, it doesn’t bother me. I might go back and fix it, but I might not.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Well, that is something I have always heard anyway. When I started my blog my intention was to write daily, kind of like a diary. Got really ill when I had surgery and then it was once in a while. Looking at my posts it seems now I am doing well if I post once a month. I will try to do better, but being kind of ADD, things get in my way and I wander off and forget the way back.

Birthdays for one year olds. Give them a fake cake made of just icing. Make sure there is a plastic tablecloth underneath. Preferably they need to be buck naked when you turn them a loose on their private cake, but I think there is a law against that and if there isn’t, then give Congress a few minutes and they will pass a law as such. I digress. Turn the child a loose and since this is their first encounter with a cake, they will test the waters and stick their finger into the icing and bring the finger to the mouth – like they do the dog food, scraps of paper on the floor, and everything they find – hand to mouth syndrome. Next, put the entire hand into the icing and bring that to the mouth since that first taste was so good. Enough sugar now to keep said child fueled for all day long. Let’s see what can be done with two hands. Pat, pat, pat. Slide hands back and forth on the table cloth. If the cake happens to be a Strawberry Shortcake cake, then the colors are pink and green which equal brown when mixed.

Before the party can continue, the child has to be whisked away to be ~~hosed down~~ washed up and redressed and the table has to be cleaned up. Now it is time to open presents. I am guilty!!! Yes, I am. I brought multiple presents to the party along with the multiple presents that everyone else brought. What in the world were we thinking. Apparently we forgot that a one year old child has the attention span of a gnat. With that being said, just two, hear me, TWO presents total would have been more than enough.

After opening two presents, it was just a blur of paper and ribbons so carefully tied being jammed into a garbage sack to go off to the landfill. I will say that whatever season the child was born in surely makes it nice for the parents. They won’t have to buy any clothes at all until the next season rolls around. Just think of the money they can save to go to the movies and to eat out. My, oh, my. Well, that is what I would have done with the money. Just saying.

Would you believe it if I told you that this adorable child opened one of my gifts and that was the end of the gift opening. God bless her. Took that mop and broom and you would have thought her mama had made her Susie Homemaker since birth. Went straight to the kitchen and started using them both at the same time. She needs a few lessons and then I think her mother can just point her in the direction of the kitchen and never have to clean a floor again. (I did hear that she had stepped on the broom – one of those straight kinds like janitors use – and it came up and bopped her in the head which caused a torrent of tears – just has to learn how to use the thing properly) Never did go hack to opening the presents.

We all had a good time visiting with the other grand parents, great-grandparents, and even great-great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who we don’t get to see but on rare occasions. The real cake and ice cream were good too.

Getting elderly – When does that time come? I thought it might be with age, but decided that wasn’t it. My dad is 90 and plays golf three days a week. My mom is 85 and knits up a storm and you are lucky of you call and she is at home. I guess if it were age, then they would qualify as elderly.

Health – This past year has proven that health can certainly age you, but if you erase the year and pretend it never happened, then maybe it didn’t.

Gait – Bad knees give you a bad gait like you have glass between the cushions in your knees. Get new knees and your gait changes. Now you totter along scared to death you will fall down and tear loose something that will damage those new knees. I think sometime I look elderly by the way I walk, but I hope not.

Hair color – I choose not to color my hair. Could be that I am following in my mother’s footsteps and “aging gracefully” as she likes to say. I think it is because I am lazy and don’t want to spend my money at the beauty shop but would rather spend it on crafting things. I had my hair streaked when I was younger and you had to go when the root line started growing out. Yep, I think it is more lazy than anything else.

Teeth or the lack or – This, right now, is definitely my current definition of elderly. Recently I broke a tooth and went to see my least favorite, but sweetest doctor, my dentist. I complained of the tooth next to it hurting up in the gumline. He x-rayed and came back in with worry written on his face. I have seen his face a lot since he began his practice probably 30 years ago and can read it like a book. I have teeth that my mother blessed me with and they are made of chalk. Not worth a damn. You can floss, see the hygienist twice yearly, brush 50 times a day, but you are eventually going to have root canals, crowns, bridges, and assorted other hurtful things going on in your mouth.

Did I say I still, sometime, cry in the dentist chair? Well, I do. Comes from pure terror as a child and a terrible dentist whose breath would have slayed a dragon. I love my dentist because he has learned over the years to gas me up and that it takes a long time and lots of juice to deaden my mouth, unlike the dragon slayer dentist.

Well, he comes back in and says that the root on the eye tooth, which is next to the chipped tooth, has to come out as it has a split root and the chipped tooth is so badly chipped, like in half, that it can’t be saved either. He says there are two ways to go and it is my choice. Pull them all and get upper dentures – I completely came unglued and wept. The other choice was to make a bridge that you have to put in and take out daily and that would buy me a few years. I chose the latter one.

I will be 65 next week and in my mind that is too young to have to have real false teeth. LOL Vanity is what it is, pure and simple. Here is where elderly comes to play. At this time in my life, elderly is when you have a plastic box on your bathroom sink that you wash each day, fill with water at night, pour in some Scope, and deposit brushed teeth into at night. That is elderly. What do you do if you go and visit someone. Where do you put these things? In your suitcase? On their sink? Under the bed, which makes me think of something funny I will share in a moment. What do you do with these awful things? I do know you have a bad time trying to eat a Snicker bar with them in your mouth. Seems the caramel wants to pull them right out of your mouth. I have to remember not to hear sticky anything out in public, ever!!!

That funny story and I will leave the elderly scene. My daughter’s youngest son is a hoot. When he was about two years old, his great-grandmother came to spend the night with them. She lives in East Texas so her visits always included at least one night at their house. When they got up the next morning, she went to put her false teeth in and they weren’t in the box on the bathroom sink. They looked high and low. The children were asked if they had seen them and this grandchild sheepishly hung his head and said, “Yes, I know where they are.” “Well, where are they?” “They are under my pillow. I looked in the box and they scared me so I put them under my pillow.” Thus, the case of the missing teeth was solved.

Until the next time…..

February 25, 2010

2010-02-21T21:01:00.000-06:00

I must have been held captive by foreign beings since I have been missing for so long. Arkansas was on the agenda and then buckets of rain and several days of snow.

Several weekends ago I went to a workshop near Monroe, Louisiana which was taught by Michelle Zindorf. Talk about a dynamic and organized teacher. Unbelievable workshop. I learned so much and will try and insert the cards I made. Remember that this was my first use of a brayer and it was an incredible experience. WOW

This one was my least favorite card. I am not sure why, but it just didn’t appeal to me. When I saw the example card what I saw was three tombstones. I made sure to space mine out a bit so it would look more like the aqueduct that it is. The flowers were heat embossed.

I call this one Asian Sunset over Water. We learned how to do a reflection with this card without using a reflection stamp. The hinges are a punched piece that was bent in double and attached with brads.

This one is Deer in the Snow. So original!!! I missed getting into the upper left-hand corner with this one which threw off my sunrays.

I added the small red bird after our class. I needed just this little speck of color.

This card reminded me of Toledo Bend near where I live. It is a spit of land out of into the lake.

The orange doesn’t show up like I would wish in this scan. Love the playful tire swing on the tree.

These are no place near what Michelle does, but for my first try at her techniques, I am proud of my work.

Just found out that we will have another great-granddaughter in late July. No name has been picked yet, but just so long it is healthy, that is all that matters. They didn’t take to the name I suggested, Seawillow. That was the name of a friend’s grandmother and I like unusual names. Reminds me of when I gave my daughter some names before the births of her children and she told me if I wanted names like that I needed to have some more children. LOL Oh, the wit of that girl.

We haven’t done much lately but try to stay warm and dry. I had my fill of snow when we lived in Denver. It can go back on up North as far as I am concerned.

It is hard to believe, but our first great-granddaughter, Zoey Elizabeth, will be one year old in less than a month. Where does time go? Terrell Thomas just turned 18 last month and Emily Anna will be 20 the last day of this month. They surely getting old since I know it isn’t me that is ageing.

This year I will try to do better about posting. It took a long time for me to find the program to write in that allows me to put the pictures into the post.

Spring, hurry and get here!!!

January 7, 2010

2010-01-08T00:10:00.002-06:00

I am trying out Windows Live so I can put pictures where I want them I hope this works as I don’t like all of my pictures all on the right side.

This has been a sad time for me as my uncle in South Carolina died on Sunday night and we live too far to go to the funeral. I really wanted to be there for my cousin and aunt and to see cousins and the only surviving aunt and uncle. He was such a character. When he was with his brothers and even alone, he was so funny that I would have to beg him to let me catch my breath before he proceeded with is stories. My mom, his sister, says her brothers loved to “embroider” their stories as time went on. I have such fond memories of our visits each summer and when they would come to my hometown for a visit.

A friend died this week also and I went to her funeral yesterday. She had gotten down and was so feisty she wouldn’t have wanted to live like that. I know her children and grandchildren will miss her.

It is bitter cold here and is supposed to get even colder overnight and through the weekend. I just hope we don’t lose power as we have central heat. We do have two space heaters, but they will struggle to keep up with the cold. We also have a gas stove next to the electric one and that has always been a bonus in weather without power. At least we can cook. Last year, we purchased a generator so we wouldn't lose what is in the freezers.

This past Saturday night I got to see a friend who I hadn’t seen in over 20 years. She still looks the same. We met in Natchitoches for supper and had a good time catching up. We promised we wouldn’t wait to long to connect again. If we wait that long, I will be in my late 80s and won’t be able to drive over to our old stomping grounds.

We found out we will be great-grandparents again in either late July or early August. Another baby to love and cuddle. I am praying for a healthy baby. It will be over a month before they will be able to tell if it is a boy or girl. It really doesn’t matter to me which it is, but I do hope it will have red hair like my grandson. None of the grandchildren or the other great-granddaughter have red hair and that is a weakness I have – I love red hair.

Here is it midnight and Bill just walked in with a coconut cake he baked. I bet he is in there dishing up a piece with vanilla ice cream on it. Just what my hips and stomach need.

Later

December 31, 2009

2009-12-31T17:28:00.000-06:00

December 31, 2009, Blog entry

I have been missing in action for a spell. Had to open up Santa’s workshop, card making shop, and bakery. All are closed now and maybe I will have some time to do things on the computer again.

Never again do I want to even contemplate the number 8. Seems nearly everything I had to do ended up in making 8 of the critters, which I found boring after the first two. My daughter bought material for me to make her grandmother, my mom, some new placemats and napkins. I got the fabric and made them reversible. Made 8 of those and they were in solid colors. Then, the napkins were in a print to match each side and made 8 of them for each side. Still time left so I made 8 coasters that had an absorbent material inside each one. That was two sets of 8. On Christmas Eve I made myself go back to the machine and with the material that was left over, I made two hot pads for the table, one to match each napkin and coaster.

Another bright idea I had was to make the great-granddaughter a fleece blanket out of LSU material and a hat to match. Looked like an easy thing to make, but I had to cut out two of them, cut 7” from each corner, and then cut into the material every inch up 7”. The pattern said it was a “no sew” thing, but I believe it would have been easier to just sew around the thing. Once all of these “fingers” were cut, I had to take matching pieces from each of the two sides and tie them in a knot. Boring!!! I pulled a cap pattern off the net that was adorable and made the hat. Well, when it was finished, it would only have fit a tennis ball or maybe even a golf ball. Back to the city for more fleece and this time I just cut what I imagined was a hat that would fit her head. I sewed a deep cuff to they could pull it down over her ears in the cold weather. I won’t be guilty of another “no sew” anything.

I always give a check to the kids, my parents, and the grandchildren so they can either get what they want or put my money with some other they may get to purchase something they wanted and didn’t get. Instead of that impersonal check, I decided to make scrapbook paper covered cardboard wallets. I cut a notch in each side, folded the bills, and tied them into the center of the wallet. I used Velcro to secure the part that folds over onto the top and then put a sparkly sticker on the front. I had to make 11 of those. Everyone seemed to like them although the Velcro did tear loose from the paper since I didn’t tell them to carefully open the wallets. For the two younger grands I made money trees. I accordion folded 80 one dollar bills and stuck them into a Styrofoam cone with florist’s pins and stuck a glittered pick in the top. It looked so sparse that I started to go to the bank and get more money, but then I would have had to increase everyone’s money so it would come out fair. I told Bill that I couldn’t cut the top out of the cone because it would look stupid. He suggested cutting some of the bottom of the cone. Duh!!! Why didn’t I think of that? They ended up being way too cute. I bought some picks with red glittered berries and silk leaves on them and tore them all apart and stuck each berry all around the tree. Their mother said, “Oh, you can’t take the money out of the tree. We need to save them to put out as decorations next year.” Again, Bill suggested she give them what money was on the tree and that way she can keep them and they will still get their money.

Another 8 that I made, and won’t do ever again, is take a Mason jar and make it into a button jar/mending kit for each family. I found little mending kits with threads, needles, tiny scissors, a few buttons and thimble at the dollar store and put that inside each jar. Then I had to cut some large circles out of fabric and some smaller ones. Hand gathering material takes way too long, but there wasn’t any other way I could think to do that. Each jar lid had to be stuffed with fiberfill and sewn tightly to the lid. Next, I used fabric glue and attached fabric to cardboard circles, then stuck those to the round, puffy, pincushion top. They turned out very cute, but 8 were just a bit too many to make. Oh, I stuck pins in the top of the pincushion as well.

For Zoey I wanted these little bell bracelets children in Thailand wear on their ankles and you can find them when they walk out of a room, when they are toddling. The best price I could find on the net was $45 and shipping and I just wouldn’t pay that. I decided I could make her some out of jingle bells and cording. Easy to do, but then to make them adjustable I needed to tie square knots. I have tied probably 5 million of them in my lifetime back when macramé was the thing. I had a hard time doing it. I could sit on the back porch and visualize how to do it and then come inside and would mess up. I made three of them and if her mom likes them, then I have the stuff to make her some more colors of them. She has taken 11 steps alone now and it won’t be long before she will be everywhere and I am sure into everything.

Next, I thought it would be nice to make candy and cookies to share with the neighbors. It started out with me deciding to make my son some white chocolate covered pretzels, which is something he loves. From there I went to fudge, Martha Washington’s, cow patties, a carrot cake, and White Christmas meringues. No, I didn’t make just one batch of each. I made two of each. I have shared with the neighbors and took a lot to my parents, but there is still some left and for some reason or other, when I walk past the table, this magnetic force makes my hand shoot into a container and come out with chocolate calories. I ran out of time and energy before I made the cookies I wanted, but had I made them first, nothing else would have gotten made. I will make my Cosi Ducci cookies when all of this other stuff is gone.

We opened gifts with my daughter’s family on Christmas Eve this year since all of us went on Christmas down to Alexandria to my parent’s home for Christmas day. My dad is almost 90 and mama is 84 and who knows how many more Christmases we will have with them. Two of my brothers with their children and grandchildren were there, one brother dropped in later after spending Christmas with his wife’s people, a SIL’s mother was there, my daughter and her husband, my parents, and Bill and I. It was a very enjoyable day, but I was happy to get home to my quiet house.

On Monday we drove to Conway, Arkansas, to have Christmas with my son and his family. His oldest son and his wife stopped by early on Christmas Eve to exchange gifts as he was called back to work. We had a really nice time with our son’s family and of course enjoyed the grandchildren, who we don’t get to see regularly now that they have moved. Instead of going on the 6 lane through Little Rock, we took a longer scenic route through the mountains which added probably a bit over an hour to the trip, but I would have had a panic or anxiety attack had I had to drive on that crazy freeway. Nice sunny trip up there, but misted on us on the way home. Just thankful it was pouring down rain.

Our friends we usually spend New Year’s Eve have gone to Mississippi to see grandchildren, Melyssa is tied up tonight, and our other friends have gone to the casino for the night. Guess we will ring in the New Year just us two.

I am sure health wise this next year will be better for me as unless it is an emergency, I won’t have to have any surgeries. My doctor wants to do my shoulders, but I told him after this last knee surgery with the infection afterwards, wild horses couldn’t drag me into a hospital unless it was life or death. No way. Nada. No!!!

They say what you are doing on New Year’s Eve you will be doing all year long. Well, I just sat here and paid all of my bills that have come in and I hope the new year brings something a bit more interesting than that. J Wishing all of you the best in 2010. Please pray for those in need, who are ill, and for our soldiers who are keeping this country free.

Happy New Year, 2010!!!!

Later

December 4, 2009

2009-12-05T00:22:00.004-06:00

It has been a few days since I last posted. Lots going on, like staying on the computer reading other people's blogs and reading emails. I think maybe I am addicted to blog hopping and visuals of neat things. I am definitely a visual person.

We had a tiny bit of snow this afternoon here in NW Louisiana. What a surprise. Nothing stuck. It is cold out there and is supposed to get down to 29 degrees tonight. Snow is nice if people are used to it like when we lived in Denver. They have the equipment and people know how to drive in it. Down here, the road crews don't have a clue and people definitely don't know how to drive in it. I don't think we will be building any snow people this year.

The other thing about the cold is when it ices over. We lose power and it is dark, very dark. I have a flashlight next to my desk, one by the bed, one by where I sit at the eating bar, and there are others all over the house. If we didn't have them, we would be knocking ourselves out running into furniture and walls. Definitely not my idea of fun. However, we bought a generator for those times and at least we won't lose the food in our freezers like we have done in the past.

Our son drove down from his home in Conway to Grand Cane to wrap his pipes. They are already wrapped, but it has been a few years since they were done and he was worried that the wrapping might be deteriorating. Plus, it is a way to get to hunt that illusive giant deer roaming his woods. Two jumped out in front of us on the way home tonight - Bambi and his dad. At least they didn't want a piece of our truck like they did my cousin's car the other night. Those things can ruin a ride.

My daughter stopped by this afternoon and brought me part of my Christmas present. She wanted me to have it to wear to any parties I have this time of year. She also bought me a beautiful white scarf to dress up the cranberry jacket she bought for me. She is one thoughtful child. I checked my planner to see when our retired teachers luncheon is so I could wear it and it was yesterday. Day late and a dollar short. I do have one other thing on tap and of course Christmas day. Now, in the South, we usually are wearing shorts on that day, but I am ready if it is cold. Lovely gift and I love it.

My time seems to be spent running back and forth to Shreveport to the chiropractor with my back and shoulders. I am finally getting some relief from the pain. I still find myself going to pick up something heavy and then I remember why I mustn't do that. I told my doctor that he could come home with me if he would bring that table I told you about in an earlier post - the one that seems to have the 18 wheeler rim in it that runs up and down your spine. I need one of those planted here at my house. Surely would save a lot of gasoline.

I found another Christmas gift for Bill and Zoey. I think the tea set will have to wait a bit, but she will have it when she is old enough to drink from a cup. I believe in being prepared. :-)

Ellie Mae, Emily Anna's dog, came back to Louisiana with my son. She will use the potty outside, but still loves to wet the floor. My grandson had enough of that and sent her back to his sister. She and Pepper were a sight before another grandson picked her up. She is a tea cup Yorkie and he is a Lab mix. They chased each other all over the house while she was waiting on her taxi cab - Terrell Thomas's truck to drive her back to my daughter's house. She is cute, but I don't want to get attached to another dog after losing my dear Bisquit two weeks ago. Still too fresh a memory of him around here.

I am trying to find a way to get Bill to do something to at least finish my kitchen addition. First, I was going to buy a hutch, but then I wouldn't have a work area. Nex, I thought about putting my old school desk out there and building bookcases above it. Then I wouldn't have the cupboard space I need. Today I thought about putting the desk out there again, but in the corner and purchasing cupboards that you put together like I did in the little dining room. I can't remember where I bought them, but I think it was either from the Sears or J C Penney's catalog and I don't even think they have catalogs now. I will have to check that out. It would be as cheap as purchasing the lumber to build a set of cabinets. For now, they can be open ones, but eventually I want glass doors on it whatever I get. Decisions, decisions.

We have made plans to spend Christmas day with my parents at their home and I hope my brothers and their families will be there. I just hate it when families get scattered and it is neigh onto impossible to get everyone together in one place at the same time. Life was much simpler before the grandchildren grew up.

Today I began sewing the 8 placemats for my mother's Christmas gift from my daughter. I had cut them out the other day, but hadn't the time to start sewing. All of them have been sewn and need to be turned and top stitched - they are reversible. Then I will have two sets of napkins to make for each side. I bought some felt kind of material for stuffing because I think I have enough fabric left to make coasters to match. If there is still some left, then I am going to make some napkin rings. My mother uses cloth napkins and placemats for every meal. She loves it. I like paper plates and paper napkins. I think I do that because I have always been rebellious.

Bill got up the outside lights and it really looks nice. Last year after Christmas I bought a deer and two doe that are lighted. They are supposed to raise and lower their heads, but maybe they were on sale because they just stand there. Better than not having them. Once I can find the hanger, I can get the wreath up and the house will look nice. I have a fake pot of poinsettias on the table and that is the extent of the inside decorations. I don't mind doing it, but taking it down is what I hate. One year I still had the tree up at Valentine's Day and my dad asked me if I was going to leave it up until Easter. He should have never said that because to show him I could, I did leave it up until Easter. I guess you could say I am hard headed and stubborn.

Yesterday while I was in the city I got some LSU fleece and am going to make Zoey a blanket and hat. They gave me a free pattern that shows you how to make the blanket without sewing it. You just clip so far into the fabric and tie knots from both sides. I will also sew some knot things throughout the blanket to keep the two sides together. There was the cutest "bat" hat I found on the net and I will make it out of the same fleece and on the "bat" ears you tie ribbons - purple and gold, of course.

I ordered crisp money from the bank to make "money trees" for the two youngest grandchildren. I plan to say in their cards that I had PaPa look all over the yard and he could only find two of them and cut them down just for them. I also ordered crisp money and will make paper wallets and put the money in them for the older grandchildren and children. Plan to do that for my parent too.

For Bill I found a soft sided toolbox several months ago and yesterday I got him a new set of screw drivers. He ruined one of his putting my new sewing table together. Boy is that a wonderful table. It has a grid printed on top that has measurements on it. Nice when you want to cut things out. The machine has its own spot and this little door opens and a leg drops out and my serger has a little shelf all of its own to sit on. Now I won't have to take the machine down or the serger. Just cover them and they will be ready for the next project.

My sweet uncle is still in the hospital in South Carolina and is waiting on a room at a neighboring hospital that has in-house rehab. I understand he is making the nurses laugh. He is such a funny man and can make you roll in the floor laughing. Their only child is with them and is taking his mom back and forth to the hospital. They have made a decision to go into an assisted living arrangement as soon as my uncle regains his strength. Both of them are almost 90 and my cousin lives in Florida and can't get to them fast enough if they need him. If only they weren't 1000 miles away I could do something to help. The only thing I have ever hated about living n Louisiana is it is so far from all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I have missed so much by not living close to them. Out of 8 children, there are only 4 of them left. Best relatives anyone could ask for. My brothers and I really missed the closeness of the family by only getting two weeks each summer with our only cousins.

I see that is is late and I have a lot of sewing to do tomorrow. Guess I will have to wind this down and will see ya'll later.

November 23, 2009

2009-11-23T03:40:00.004-06:00

Be Choosy About Your Friends

I always thought I needed to have girlfriends. Some I needed to have a steady diet of because I guess they validated my being. I have found that I am happy being my own guide and not having to depend on what someone that I care about really thinks about me. Never in a hundred years would I believe I had it in my power to be happy with myself without someone else’s approval.

I needed someone to raise my children with who faced some of the same situations as I faced trying to be the best of mothers. Someone to share a coke with. Someone to shop with. Someone to travel with to events we both enjoyed. I needed someone to laugh with, cry with, share secrets with.

There have been friends who I have lost whom I might have tried harder to keep. I have had friends who used me and I am sure I used them. I don’t think either of is consciously used each other, but maybe we did since the friendships have gone by the wayside. Some of the friends I made when I was younger weren’t good for me. I am easily influenced and made mistakes in judgment by having them as friends.

There have been friends who I know now I must have forced the friendship by being the one to suggest we do things together and maybe that isn’t want they wanted to do. I had friends who I pursued with much more fervor than they did for our friendship to remain intact. Some friends must have been bored and were a friend to me to ease that boredom and have something to do.

I have had friends who did more for me than I did for them both emotionally and financially. Maybe when you can’t keep up with the gifting that goes along with friendships, the friendship dies a natural death. Maybe one of us grows emotionally and leaves the other one behind. I haven’t completely figured that one out yet.

I have had friends who depended on me more than I could give. I am sure I have depended on friends more than they could take. There have been friends who probably think that I have let them down, but it wasn’t intentionally done. I have had friends who I have hurt and been hurt by. I have intentionally hurt some friends because I was hurt and struck back in an unkind way. I regret that I acted so immaturely, but I was immature at the time.

There have been friends in the different ages of my life that I have drifted away from because one or the other of us moved. There were friends from work, but when jobs changed and you weren’t in close proximity to them anymore, the friendship withered and died. I don’t believe they weren’t friendships and dear ones at the time, but circumstances changed things. Sometime our children drifted apart and we no longer had so much in common.

I have learned now that many of those, who at the time I thought were going to be friends until death, were really acquaintances who had a lot of commonalities with me at the time, but not enough to sustain the friendship over time. Our ships set different courses and they have sailed off in a different direction. It would be nice to reconnect someday with some of them. The wonderful thing about the Internet is that a lot of friends have reconnected if only briefly. It was easy with some to catch up with forty years between us in a matter of a few emails. Our tastes seem to have a way of changing.

Now the friends I have seem to be the ones I went to grammar and high school with. I think those friendships were forged in steel and our paths keep crossing at different stages of our lives. I have lost friends to death and that is heart breaking. At my age, that will happen more and more and all you can do is remember the fun times you had when you were friends.

I have few close friends now, but don’t look at that as something terrible. The friends I have now bring me joy, have faith in me, encourage me to do and be my best, to be creative. We laugh at the same things and cry as only women can do. My friendships are deeper now and less shallow as the ones I had when I was younger.

At my age, time is against having friends who aren’t what I consider real. There just isn’t time to waste on breadth and not depth. I like to think I am a genuine person and expect the same from the people I associate with. I don’t have time to play around the edges of the sandbox. Time is ticking.

My heart has been broken to the place that it isn’t mended completely by the loss of friends. I wonder where things went astray. I think deep down inside of me I know, but I will never really know what went wrong with some of them. You think you know someone to the core and you find out that you really didn’t know them like you thought you did. There have been friendships that have been extended that should have been ended so both parties could get on with life without regrets.

Via the internet, I have made some wonderful friends. People who share some of the same ideals I do. Women who like doing the things I do. That we haven’t physically met doesn’t make a difference. I have been fortunate though in making international friends who have put themselves out to come to visit me and friends who live in the states who have done the same. It is like we have known each other forever. Maybe we get along so well because we aren’t around each other all the time. My grandmother used to say to me, “Familiarity breeds contempt,” and I think she was really on to something. If we aren’t physically around someone very much, then we see mostly the good and not the warts. Possibly that is a Pollyanna attitude, but it seems to explain why these friendships come about and endure.

It really matters now who I surround myself with. I need those who I can encourage and those who can encourage me. I need truthfulness by me at all times. I don’t need to hear something just because it is the nice thing to say to me. I need honesty. That is something I have preached to my children and all of the kids I taught – be honest, truthful, and never steal from another person. I don’t mean to say if someone’s dress or hair looks terrible I need to tell them, but I don’t need to tell them they look lovely either when they don’t.

I want someone who will cheer me up when I am down. Someone who will be there if I need them day or night and they can expect the same in return. I want to be there to support my friends when they are down and need lifting up. I want to matter to someone. I want someone near me who is happy when I do well and who can help me out when I don’t do so well. I want to be that kind of friend too.

Most women don’t realize the power they have to lift or to crush. Women need to be mindful of just how much power they have over the ones that you love – your children, husband’s view of you from your friend’s perspective, you parents. Women, myself included, need to wield that power carefully because they don’t know what effect they have on the people you care about. As women, we need to be kind and caring and if we can’t get the same in return from those who we believe are some kind of friend, then we need to shuck them and find someone where caring and kindness are utmost to them too. If no one around fits the bill, then enjoy your own company and devote yourself to what makes you happy and certainly do for your family first. If we can make ourselves happy, then we can go about making others happy. If there is a flaw we have that we aren’t happy within ourselves, then we will never be able to be that true friend to anyone else.

What kind of friend are you?

November 20, 2009

2009-11-20T10:50:00.003-06:00

(In reply to an email from my SIL about Brian Dettmer's art)

Would you believe I have been looking at his work lately? I found him by following links from blogs, which is now my "job." Bill asks me what I am doing and I tell him going to work each day. He just laughs. I don't know why he laughs as since retirement I get up each day and go straight to my work desk and begin my daylong job of internetting. I just don't get paid for my work these days. Maybe that is why he laughs. Blink. Blink. No pay, no real job.

This guy never cuts the pages out of his books. He finds the pictures he wants and then using glue, puts the pages together so that he can use the scalpel to cut away what he doesn't want. For about a nano second I wanted to go to Goodwill and buy one encyclopedia or dictionary and give it a try, but my brain said it just didn't have the go power to even go buy the book. I guess I will just have to wonder now if it would have been possible for me to do a piece like this. :-)

Moving things around to put up a new sewing table in the spare room that will allow me to keep my machine and serger up all the time, I guess I picked up something too heavy. I couldn't sleep but fitfully Sunday and Monday nights, but knew I had to do something. My ortho surgeon had already told me that my problem is inoperable since it would involve plates and screws which he said would give me more problems than any pain I have. Of course, it wasn't him trying to sit up to get out of bed and by the hardest, doing so. Plus, he didn't have wet panties by the time he got to the potty from not being able to hold his bladder and use the muscles necessary to achieve a sitting up position. Why I was getting this room ready is another entire posting that I hope I don't forget to share with you one of these days.

My friend, Karen, goes to a chiro in Shreveport that she swears by. I used to go to one a lot in Alexandria in my 20s, but when I moved from there to Denver I never went again. I called Karen's doctor and he could see me by the time I could get to the city. This is one cool doctor. He wears plaid flannel shirts to the office with his docker-type pants. I am sure he has to since his office is set about 2 degrees below Alaska in the winter. I will wear a jacket today.

He said with the bone plugs in my neck and the two new knees he was limited in what he could do, but did have a few tricks up his sleeve. There is this machine he has that you lay on that probably has the part that a tire fits onto an 18 wheeler made of steel and concrete combined. It runs up and down your spine and the tech said they raise the angle each time you come in. It makes you nauseous until you can find the maps on the inside of your eyelids to stare at as it does its magic. This is definitely not a table for whiners, which I am prone to be. This is a table for girls with "big girl" panties on and maybe even two pair at the same time. When the bell dings, the assistant, about the size of Barbie's baby sister, tells you to sit up, which you cannot do. Barbie's baby sister with every ounce of strength she possesses, she probably weighs all of 28 pounds, gives you a hand and you get up thankful that you didn't pull her down on top of you.

You wait. When it is your turn to see good-looking in his flannel shirt with his docker-like pants, he has you sit in this playlike chair where you are sitting up, but laying face first into the contraption. You have already hears this loud Geiger counter blasting away when you were on the table getting your "massage" done with 18 wheeler metal tire rim and concrete and wondered if he was tazing someone. Now you get to see what the tazing was all about.

He puts some kind of small bar-like thing in his hand, or at least you presume it his his hand since you are sitting face down into this chair thingy. He proceeds to Geiger you in each vertebrae and also does your shoulders, which you have already told him your surgeon wants to replace, but that you refuse to have done as long as the MRSA virus is alive in this world. Now, this machine is like ten strong men working each joint and it hurts so good that you don't want him to stop and feel like telling him things like, "move it over just a tad to the left/right, down a little, could you turn me over and do my ribs and the tiny riblets across the top of my chest...." you get the picture.

After your time is up there, you get to face a wall that has a large canvas on it that is made of gray felt. Well, that is what it looks like, but I don't know what its purpose is. Could be that once in a while with this next treatment he could accidentally drop you and you would fall against this wall and with the felt it wouldn't leave too many bruises/lawsuits on you/him. He has you put your right hand on your left shoulder and visa versa, but you remind him that your shoulders need to be replaced and your right hand cannot reach your left shoulder. He then has you put your left hand on your right shoulder and the other hand somewhere in the vicinity of the left shoulder. He gets up behind you, if you were younger you could really get into this since his body parts are touching yours, but at 64 all you can do is wish. He then tells you to relax, right, and all but lifts you off the floor twice in succession without any warning.

You are finished for the day and go and pay only a $5 co-pay. Now, if gasoline weren't what it is, you would ask if you could come to see him multiple times a day, but he suggests he will see you again in two days. Yeah!!!! I get to go back today. Wonder if they will raise that back roller and if they do will I have to concentrate harder on the roadmaps on the backsides of my eyelids to keep from puking all over his floor and probably on myself as well.

I must say, the back is still hurting, but not quite as badly. I am still finding it hard to get up into a sitting position from being prone, the washing machine is on double time keeping my unmentionables all nice and clean, but I am looking forward to more torture. I will keep you posted on my progress and let you know if I get straight again or if I will have to live out the rest of my life at a 90 degree angle with a case of Depends near me at all times.

Have a nice day and run get a scalpel, some glue, an old encyclopedia or dictionary and the next time I see you, I want to see a piece of work like Brain's. You might even inspire me to find a scalpel, glue, and old picture book. However, I will be looking for a book with one picture on each page. That way, I can glue a lot of them together and cut down to the bottom picture. Do you think I will need an Esty shop?

November 16, 2009

2009-11-16T13:38:00.003-06:00

Yesterday Bill and I went to Shreveport. I had seen a sewing table in the Jo
Ann's circular that I wanted. There is a place to put your sewing machine and also a place to put your serger. We bought some baskets, lots of baskets, to put on his new bathroom's shelves. I think it will look better if there aren't any doors where the shelving will be. Now all of these baskets match. Some are larger than others. Two of the large ones will fit on a shelf and three of the small ones will fit on a shelf. I am hoping this will keep his bathroom looking neat instead of like a dump.

Today he had to go to the skin doctor and woke me up at 7:30 to see if I knew where his wallet was. I don't even know what his wallet looks like. Blink. He finally found it under the cupboard where he sits at the bar. I guess I will have to start looking into a nursing home for him if it gets any worse. :-) He still cannot find one of the wallets and it has money and a $50 gift card to a fancy place in Bossier that you can't afford to go to unless you have a gift card. Who knows where he has put it.

I am cleaning out the spare bedroom to put my new desk in. That is one heck of a job. I work for 15 minutes and then my back won't take it anymore and I come back here to the computer and sit for a bit. At this rate, I might have it done by next Christmas. It is fun to go into a room that has been abandoned for several years because there are all kinds of treasures you find. I even found part of our friend's Christmas present from last year. As soon as I see them I will have to give it to them as we aren't exchanging gifts this year. They are keeping their money and flying to NYC to see Phantom of the Opera and NYC at Christmastime.

There are two bookshelves in boxes to be put together and a DVD bookcase too. I used to be the one who did all of the construction on things like that, but it is so hard with even new knees to get up off the floor that the fairies will have to come and construct these. I believe I am going to bring them into my bedroom and unload what is in my hutch onto the shelves.

By doing that I can get shelving out in the newest part of my kitchen because at the rate those two new rooms are coming along, I will be dead and gone before the ones that I wanted built ever get done. Should I get lucky and get the shelving and counter tops built before I die, then I can move the hutch into the spare room and take down some shelves I built about ten years ago that are pitiful looking. Just raw wood is what I used and of course they never did get shored up and painted by you know who. I don't know why it is so hard for me to remember that if I want something, then I sure as Sam better do it myself if I don't want to wait until Death's Door swings open for me.

My back is rested again and it is time for another 15 minute session in the room from you know where and it starts with an H.

Later

November 13, 2009

2009-11-13T21:45:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was my Friday 13th. So far today has been uneventful.

Our sweet and faithful pet dog, Bisquit, had to be put down. He had a tumor that had been removed last year and it came back. He could no longer get up on his own, but most of the time once we picked him up, he could walk down the stairs and go outside to the bathroom.

We did have to pick him up to get back into the house. He has been back and forth to the vet's for several months and since he was still eating and drinking and able to walk, the vet didn't think he needed to be put down yet. He didn't appear to be in any pain either.

Yesterday, he wanted me to hold him it seemed like for hours and that was so unlike him. He was a very independent dog. He couldn't seem to get comfortable and with that tumor growing like lightning, he had a hard time drinking and wasn't interested in eating.

Bill called our vet and we decided it was time to say goodbye. Just the shot that calms them down before "the shot" took him out. He must have been hanging on by a thread. Needless to say, two grown adults cried like babies. I think since he is the only dog who we ever let into the house made it harder than losing all of our yard dogs over the years. We missed them, but there was something special about Bisquit.

Twice today I thought I heard him "yip" like he did when he wanted you to pick him up to go outside. We are going to miss that little old rat terrier. Once he got down in the back though, he was never the same. He hasn't even been able to wag his tail for a few days.

I just know since God created everything, he must have a special place for dogs in Heaven and one of these days we will see our beloved pets again. They will be whole like everyone else will be.

By sweet little boy dog.

Later

November 8, 2009

2009-11-08T19:50:00.003-06:00

I guess I won't be journaling everyday like I planned to do. Seems life gets in the way of keeping up my journal. Maybe it is because I am trying to get a book ready to make a "real" art journal. I have been cutting pictures out of magazines to put into the journal since I can't draw a straight line. There are tons of wonderful examples of these art journals out there and that is where I have been spending a lot of my time.

Since I had to go to the doctor on Monday and wouldn't be here for a HSN shopping experience I didn't want to miss, I checked the site and was able to order what I wanted a day before the show aired. I have a Cuttlebug and there are several folders that are new and two of them could only be gotten on HSN. I am a happy camper to get these folders.

My cholesterol was high, but I don't remember which it was. My doctor wants me to take some meds and see her in two months to see if the number has gone down. Just when I got my meds down to four from twenty-one a day, I have to add one. Something is going to kill you eventually and I hate that I have to take meds. No one is going to leave Earth alive, so I would rather live each day to the fullest without all of the stupid chemicals in my system. I did discontinue one without permission, but it is for muscle cramps and unless I get some cramps, I am not going to take the meds. Just call me Doctor Jane.

Wednesday I went to Young at Heart at my friend's church in Natchitoches. It is the first Wednesday of each month at noon. They had a great program. Two student actors put on a short play that was darling. The lunch was the traditional turkey dinner. I got to sit across from Doris who used to be the preacher here until she retired. Saw several of my old professors and got a lead on a favorite professor in Arkansas. I wrote him a note, epistle, and hope to hear back from him. It has been years since I have seen him or his wife.

Saw the foot doctor which is necessary if you are diabetic. Ate at the Chinese buffet where they have shrimp done in a gazillion ways. Always a good place to eat.

Melyssa and I went to Alexandria yesterday to see my parents and her daughter-in-law and granddaughter, my great-granddaughter. She is such a delightful little girl. Happy and smiles all the time. She has three teeth now and is pulling up. Won't be long before she is walking. I had found her several cute little outfits. I will get to see them this next week too as they are staying until Lee gets off duty on Tuesday evening. Supper with all of them this Wednesday.

Tomorrow I have to go to the USDA office and judge their essay contest. Then I hope I don't forget to get my oil changed.

There is a baby shower for my friend's daughter on Saturday. I need to make a card and wrap her present. She is going to have a baby girl. The baby should come in November.

Ate supper with Heath on Friday evening and then followed him to his house for a nice visit. He came in by himself to fill the deer feeders and hunt. I don't know when he will be back as he plans to have Thanksgiving and Christmas up in Conway this year.

Guess that is all for the time being. Hope I don't wait so long to come back here.

Later

2009-10-26T01:17:00.003-05:00

Boy, when you don't have time to blog, you almost forget to when you do have time. It feels like it has been a month of Sundays since the last blog post. My company left on the same day I left for a weekend down in South Louisiana with some good friends.

We ate out at a neat Cajun place and it was delicious. I learned of Cajun mayonnaise which is mustard, mayonnaise, some red pepper and probably anything else you want to put in it. Tastes great to dip your friend shrimp and fish into.

We got up the next morning and went to the 7 mile long yard sale from Grand Couteau to Arnaudville. It was fun, but as expected, my back gave out on me early on. We went back to my friend's house and ate a delicious chef salad and hit the trail again.

This time, we just went into Grand Couteau and did their main street. I did find some ephemera and my friend also had some that she gave me. Now to get busy on some altered something. :-) We went to the Kitchen Shop and I got Bill some goodies from there which he was tickled with. I love that store. They have added on a dress shop next door. Boy if I were rich, I could drop a bundle there.

That night we had some yummy meatballs in a dark gravy on mashed potatoes and some zucchini croquettes, or it was a fried something with zucchini. Delicious!!!! We also had some zucchini chocolate cake that was scrumptious. I found a recipe and am going to make some of that. Well, I am going to get Bill to make it more than likely.

I left for home early because when I woke up I thought my watch said five after one. I needed my glasses!!! I quickly got up and got the truck packed and when I came back inside, I realized it was only five after eight.

When I went through Alexandria, my parents were at church so I just wrote my mother a note and left her the linens I found at the yard sale that I knew she would be tickled to have.

I have done absolutely nothing but stay on the computer this week wading through all of the mail that was stacked up while my company was here. Of course, that is what I usually do anyway - stay on the computer following links and reading and looking at interesting things.

Today I found site that was cake wrecks that was hilarious. This lady has even written a book about cakes and how horrendous some of them are. The funniest to me are the ones where you call in an order and they write just what you say on top of the cake. One of them said, "Happy Birthday in Lavender." Makes you scratch your head in wonderment. LOL

My daughter and I went to a baby shower today and boy did our friend make a haul. Gorgeous things and she is such a grateful person. They are adopting and are thrilled out of their minds. She is going to make a wonderful mother. I had to laugh when she got things for a baby crib because I bet that baby never sees a crib. I do believe it will be one of those babies that are held all of the time. :-)

Nothing much on the agenda for this week. Kids, grandkids, and great granddaughter are all fine. Have talked to them and wished them all a great week.

Later

October 18, 2009

2009-10-18T17:51:00.005-05:00

I have been missing in action lately. Some friends from Virginia came down for an extended visit and just left on Friday. Polly and I have been outside in my studio almost the entire time. I am all crafted out. She showed me a lot of techniques that I hadn't done before and except for the messy ones, I really enjoyed them. There is something about glitter, grit from embossing powder, and paint stained hands that I don't like at all. Of course, I couldn't find my box of rubber gloves, but for the most part, my hands came clean after a few washings.

Polly and I went to Shreveport and Alexandria to the craft shops and also got to eat and visit with my parents when we were in Alexandria. Jan, her husband, and Bill made two trips to Many and to Shreveport. They enjoyed going to several museums in Shreveport and Bossier City.

On Friday, I left before my company left for their journey back to Virginia. I went to Carencro to visit a friend. On Saturday we picked up a friend of hers and went to the 7-mile-long yard sale between Arnaudville and Grand Couteau. I was a bit disappointed in the yard sale, but did find a few things to use in my projects. I also found some neat gadgets for the kitchen for Bill at a little kitchen shop.

I am home now and hope to quickly get back into a routine that I am used to. Hope ya'll have a great week.

Later

September 27, 2009

2009-09-27T22:27:00.003-05:00

I had loads of fun scrapbooking this weekend with some friends. I almost finished an album for my son and his family. I still have to put down some journaling blocks and decorations on the page though. They will have to either journal the pages or tell me what to write as I don't know what I am looking at in the pictures. I ended up with 60 pages and only about 5 of them are blank.

Guess I will talk about my dad's mother tonight. Her given name was Mary Ophelia Coulon and she was born in Hamburg, Louisiana, in 1898. She had a sister and several brothers. Her parents were Pierre Albert Coulon and Laura Stepp. Her father was French and her mother was part Cherokee Indian. We all called her Mamo.

She married my grandfather, Charles Howard Jeffress, Sr. and they had one son, my dad. I don't know when or where they met, but my grandfather was in the Army during WWI. They ended up in California. My dad was born in San Francisco, California in 1920. I don't know their ages when they had him.

Primarily, my grandmother was a beautician and my grandfather, after his service years, was a shoe salesman. He was from Waxahatchie, Texas. I know that they divorced when my dad was young and she married George Fluke. After George died and years later, she remarried my dad's dad and they lived in Louisiana until his death.

At some point in time, she started doing ceramics and taught others how to do that craft. She was very proficient in China painting and also in making these ceramic dolls with lace skirts, one of which I have.

When our family moved from California, she followed shortly and opened a ceramic business. I used to go with her to Shreveport and buy molds. It was always a special day and we would eat out at the Bamboo each time. We ate there for years until the place closed sometime after Bill and I married and moved to Louisiana. She taught ceramics in the City Park and I was her helper. I loved cleaning the ceramics, but hated doing anything else to them. I loved mixing the slip as I loved the earthy smell of it. I loved to load the kiln too.

I guess she most influenced me. She always preached to never pass up an opportunity to learn something new and to never quit learning. Those are two of the things that have stuck with me all of my life and I have passed the ideas along to both my children and my students. She was a lifelong learner before the term was ever invented.

She did a lot of crafts. She was also an accomplished seamstress and made most of my clothes from birth until after my children were born. I remember that she would spend ridiculous amounts of money on buttons that had to match the outfit she was making perfectly. It didn't matter to her what they cost as long as they were the perfect fit for the outfit. She is the one who taught me to sew. She even bought me a kid's sewing machine to make doll's clothes with.

I would sit next to her and watch what she did and then we would swap seats and she would guide me as to what to do. That is how I learned to sew. I never took a lesson in school. She really made me some gorgeous clothes. She made my brothers shirts as well. I can remember some she made them that we still laugh about. The material was a synthetic nylon type and it was waffled. Hot as Hell in the summer time. Those were the boy's Sunday shirts. They would sweat up a storm on those shirts. I can still see beads of sweat on their faces when they wore those shirts.

When I started driving, she let me be the one who drove her everywhere. She loved to go to Hot Wells outside Alexandria on Sunday afternoons. They had mineral baths and the hottest water on Earth. Once she talked me into going for a bath and it only took a foot in the water to change my mind. How in the world anyone could get into a tub of water that had to come from the core of the Earth is beyond me. Then she would have a massage. We would usually get a hamburger afterwards and head back to town.

I spent the night at her house a lot and for breakfast we would go to Moses Cafe on Bolton Avenue and have a hamburger and coke. I guess that is where I learned to like "real" food for breakfast and not breakfast types of food. Those were the best hamburgers I have ever tasted. After breakfast, she would drop me off at school. Sometime I would stay there a whole week.

When I was young, I was asthmatic and missed some school when I was sick. She believed, and so do I, that Vicks salve would cure anything. If I was ill, she would smear it all over my chest and then put a piece of flannel on my chest. Why the flannel, I don't have a clue.

Mamo was an excellent cook. She would cook Sunday lunch and shortly after we came in from church, she would show up with our lunch. I have only eaten lamb once and that was when she cooked it. I learned to like liver the way she cooked it too. Not many kids will eat liver, but hers was really good. She could fry chicken that would melt in your mouth.

She was generous to a fault, especially where I was concerned. I guess it was because I was the only girl that she did so much for me. It makes me feel bad to this day that my brothers didn't get as much as I did from Mamo. When I was in the 5th grade, she took me to Schnack's for my birthday and bought me a 1/4 carat diamond ring. I still have the stone.

When I turned 15, she offered to buy me a car. I didn't want her to spend her money and told her that I didn't really need one. I honestly thought she would insist, but she must have given a sigh of relief because she never brought up a car again. Drat it!!! LOL

If I were sick, I would sit on her bed and she would give me her button tin and I would try and sort the buttons for hours. I would sort by how many holes they had, shank or no shank, color, texture, and on and on. I never did find a way to successfully sort buttons. When she died, that is all that I wanted of hers. Unfortunately, my dad wouldn't let us go to her house until he cleaned it out. In the process of his cleaning, he either gave away or threw away that button tin. If only he had known how much that would have meant to me, I like to think he would have saved it for me.

Once when she was going to Chicago for a ceramic convention, we went to take her to the train. That day, I had every book from school with me. I started crying because I wanted to go and she held up the train so she could buy a ticket for me. I got to go and miss school. My mother had to mail me some clothes as I didn't have anything but the clothes on my back.

When we arrived in Chicago, I learned what cold was. It was March and wasn't even cold enough here to have on a sweater in Louisiana. Up there waiting on a cab, I thought I would break some bones from shivering so violently. That wind swept off the lake and chilled me to the bone. We went out that afternoon and she bought me a new jacket. We never left the hotel where the convention was, but I had a new warm coat for the return trip. I can still see that beautiful turquoise car coat.

In Chicago I also learned that people aren't like Southerners everywhere in the states. On the elevator ride up to our room, there was a man in a trench coat and of course I said hello. He just shrank into his coat and stared at me. I can remember being afraid of him and afraid that he would come to our room and hurt us. People in the south speak to everyone. Just two different cultures.

When I ran off and married, I thought someone should know and I called my grandmother, Mamo, and told her, but swore her to secrecy. I bet I hadn't hung up my end of the line before she called my parents. My dad was beside himself because he had spent that weekend getting my room ready for me to come home from college and go to school in Alexandria. The next day, my husband and I were on the street in Natchitoches coming out of the bank and there was my mother. She was crying as she knew that my husband and I had broken up and then I upped and married him. I can remember her asking him if he really loved me and he said he did.

After Kenny was killed in a car accident, I moved into an apartment and stored my stove and icebox in my grandmother's storage shed. One day during a monsoon storm, she called me and said she wanted my things out that day. It was a Sunday to start with and a monsoon storm raging outside. I told her that it wouldn't come out that day, but would the next. I called the Salvation Army and told them to go to her house and pick up those two things on Monday morning. After that, we were most estranged until her death.

I was civil, but the closeness we once shared was gone as she was so ugly and demanding on the phone that Sunday. I don't know what got into her, but she fought the wrong battle with me. That, I guess, is one of my big regrets in life. I could have overlooked what she said and chalked it up to her age, but I didn't.

One afternoon my niece and I went someplace and were near the nursing home she lived in. I asked Ashley Claire if she would go with me to see Mamo. We had a nice visit and the next morning my dad called to say she had passed away in the night. I am so thankful that I was led to make the time to see her that day. Otherwise, I know my heart would have been heavier when she left. We were the last of the family to see her alive.

I miss Mamo to this day and wish she could see and know her great-grandchildren. She saw them when they were small, but never really got to know them when they got older. She would have enjoyed their company.

I miss you, Mamo.

Later

September 25, 2009

2009-09-25T16:42:00.003-05:00

I have been sitting here trying to decide which brother to start with, but we were a unit and I believe I will just have to tell about all three of them at the same time.

First of all, we were close in age, three of us, and then there was John. I am the oldest, then two years later is Chuck, 18 months later is Wayne, and 7 years from Wayne, came John.

I was born in South Carolina during WWII. After the war, my parents moved to California and that is where Chuck and Wayne were born. There were only three of us for almost 10 years of my life. We played together I guess from the beginning. I remember a few things from California, but only remember my brothers from our Louisiana days. I do, however, recall Chuck throwing a fit for his own ice cream cone at Punch and Judy's on Vine Street in Hollywood. We were all supposed to share one, but he pitched such a fit that he got his own. Maybe that is when the seed was planted that life isn't always fair. That is what Bill tells me all of the time - that we weren't promised fairness in this lifetime. I am a stickler for fairness.

When we moved to Alexandria around 1951, we lived in a duplex. You walked into the front room and there was a hall to the left. Down the hall there were two doors on the right - kitchen and bathroom, and a door at the end of the hall - bedroom. Now, I slept on a Hollywood couch which doubled as a bed at night up in the living room. My brothers had a bed in my parents bedroom.

I had to wait out school a year when we moved to Louisiana because they didn't have a kindergarten class in Alexandria as they had in California. I enrolled in Rosenthal Elementary School on Monroe street and went to school there for the first and second grade. My first grade teacher was named Mrs. Tower, but I don't know who my second grade teacher was. She must not have impressed me.

In the first grade room we had tables pushed together and four of us sat facing each other by twos. I am sure this is where I learned to read, but I do not remember doing anything at that school. I remember reading about Dick, Jane, and Spot. I remember in the 2nd grade we had desks where the top flipped up and underneath was a place to story your things. In the top was a hole cut out for your ink bottle. As much as I loved school, it feels weird to say I don't remember anything at that school, but I do remember friends from there who I have kept through the years.

My brothers got to play all day long when I was at school. I have no idea at all what they did. We would play in the yard when I was at home. There was a deep ditch behind our house that had reeds in it, frogs, and I bet there were snakes there too. Behind our house and down the street was a small park where we were allowed to go to swing and play. Back then, parents didn't have the worries parents face nowadays. I do though remember being grossed out by this older boy in that park. He called my brothers and me over to where and he caught a frog and cut its legs off and then laughed and stuffed the cut up frog down a hole. We ran for our lives and I don't remember going back there.

Once at that house, my brother crawled underneath the house and set it on fire. Boys and matches. The fire trucks had to come put out the fire. Another time we took mail out of mailboxes and tore the mail up and threw it in the ditch. Not too long after that, some man came to the house and he was like the FBI and wanted to know if we knew about this ladies mail going missing, since she hadn't gotten her social security check. We told the man what we had done and I don't remember being punished for our transgression. Lordy, but we could have grown up criminals if we had tried a bit harder.

My parents bought a home about eight blocks away from the duplex. It was a real house. You walked into the living room and behind it was the kitchen. To the left of the living room was a bedroom and next to the kitchen was another bedroom with a bathroom in between the two rooms. It was kind of like a box. You could run around that house because all of the rooms were connected unlike the house I finished growing up in.

When we moved to Nelson Street, Chuck got to start school which left Wayne to his own devices. I don't know what he did all day when Chuck and I were at school. We were allowed to walk to school as it was only six blocks away and you could see the playground from our front corner. That first year at David F. Huddle Elementary School Chuck and I were on the same hall. We were just doors away from each other. After that year, we were on different halls with an auditorium between the two wings. He was a bunny rabbit in a school play with a real bunny suit and muched a carrot too. He made a cute bunny.

He wasn't a good eater and I can remember his teacher telling him they had a 3 bite club at school. You had to take three bites of each thing on your plate in the lunchroom. I don't know if he bought that or not. I never had a problem with school food. In fact, I love, to this day, school/institutional cooking. Could those school cooks ever make some rolls. They must all use the same recipe because as many schools as I have been in, the rolls are all the best thing on the plate. Well, the greens come in second.

When we got home, we would take off our school clothes and go outside to play until our dad came home and then it was suppertime, bathtime, and bed. Notice I didn't mention TV. At that time, we had the TV we had in California, but in Louisiana there weren't any TV stations. It just sat there until Louisiana caught up with the rest of the world. One thing we loved doing was raking leaves into the shape of floor plans. We would then play house in the rooms we constructed. I don't know what we did when the pecan trees still had their leaves on.

Down at the end of our street there was a lot of construction going on and after the men would leave, we would go and get scraps of wood from their burn piles. I don't remember making anything with them except a pair of stilts. We would also love to run around in 1/2 finished houses and see what the inside was going to look like. I am surprised all of us aren't architects the way we loved making our own leaf houses and going through those houses.

At Christmastime, we would wait until people started putting their dead trees out for garbage pickup and the three of us would drag home a LOT of trees. Sometime we were lucky and they still had the stand on them. They became trees outside the forts we built with the dead trees. We loved the ones that still had tensile on them. It took very little to make us happy kids.

Somewhere along 5th grade time for me, my mother said she was going to have a baby. Oh, did I pray for a sister! I got another brother, but at my age, I was thrilled with him. When my parent's friends saw how good I was with a newborn, my babysitting careet took off. From 5th grade until I married, I had steady babysitting jobs. They would even call the dorm room to see if I was going to be home a certain weekend.

A new school was built across the street from our elementary school. It was named Alexandria Junior High or AJH. I was in the first 7th grade class there and the last 8th grade class as it was moved back to the high school after my class left. We walked to that school for a while too.

In junior high school my parents bought a newer brick house about 1.5 miles from our school on Simmons. My brothers went to E S Aiken grammer school and then on to AJH and then to Bolton. From out new house it was about a mile or so to the high school and we all walked unless some nice soul would stop and offer us a ride.

That house on Simmons street had connecting rooms, but two of the bedrooms were a trap. If our mother had a belt in her hands, we were drawn to those rooms like June bugs to light. Why I don't know because we were trapped and suffered the consequences. Had we just stayed out of those two rooms, we could have run her ragged just making circles in the house. She would have given out way before us. My parents still live in that house.

There was a borrow pit through the back yard and the neighbors yard, across the street and through those people's yard. My brothers would live at that pond fishing. They even took my dad's boat over there and said that they would rev the motor, go about a few feet, and shut the motor down as they had gone across the pond. They would get out of the boat, turn it around and do it again, and again, and again.

My brother Wayne took one of my mother's sterling silver wedding forks and taped it to the end of a cane pole and spread the tynes on it to make a frog gig. I remember coming home from somewhere and they were cooking frog legs on my dad's Coleman stove. They offered me a bite and it got bigger and bigger in my mouth. Probably why I don't care for frog legs to this day and too because of that boy in the park I told you about.

Mama said that once when we had torrential rain, she looked out the front window and saw two boys in a boat moving with the current in the ditch along the highway. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was Chuck and Wayne just floating with the water. Another time she looked out side and a state trooper pulled up in her driveway with the boys in tow. They had taken my dad's shotgun to the south traffic circle (a wetlands now) and went hunting in there. They never even thought about the cars zooming around that thing. It is pretty large an area and to two young boys, it probably looked like Yellowstone National Park. Hey, it was a place to hunt.

We never had air conditioning when I grew up, but in that house, we did have an attic fan and it was so nice at night in the summer time when we would partially close a window, click on the attic fan, and shut some doors to create this suction that would pull the window curtains far out over our beds bringing us a cooling breeze. We didn't hae air conditioned cars at first either. Our grandmother bought the first one in our family and everyone wanted to ride with Mamo. Since that time, the floor heater has been replaced and so has the attic fan with central air and heat. We didn't have a dryer either and all of the clothes were either dried on the line of on this rack over the floor heater in the hall if it was the monsoon season. That house only had and still only has one bathroom. How everyone managed to bathe everyday and use the bathroom is beyond my comprehension and I don't remember it being a problem.

All three of my brothers make me laugh hysterically. They are just like my mother's brothers when they get together and they "embroider" stories of when we were growing up. I can't begin to tell you how funny they are. You would have to be around them to appreciate their humor.

While we lived on Nelson Street, one year my brothers got red bikes for Christmas. Ungrateful child that I was, I got a child's sewing machine, a table and chairs to share, a doll with a real baby tub, but I didn't get a bike. I tried to act happy and I was, but they were outside riding around and I was inside bathing my doll. I was miserable, but just tried my best not to show it. After all, I probably got more than they did with all of the girly things. Well, after lunch, my grandmother said for us to come outside and look under the house. She had hidden my beautiful blue bike under there and I guess it was her way of surprising me. That was one of my happiest memories as a child.

We all gained immense freedom with those bikes. As I said earlier, parents didn't worry about bad things happening to their children back then. Our street wasn't paved and neither was a main road a block away. We rode those bikes all the way to the city park which was at least a mile away from home. There was a gully in the park and water had eroded the land which made some hills and valleys. We were scared to death because it looked like to us we were at the top of the mountain and then we would zoom down to the bottom and up another hill all to do all over again. We spent hours riding those hills. As an adult I went back to see those hills and had to laugh out loud. They looked so steep to us when we were children on our bikes, but they were just little indentions in the ground.

Around the fifth grade, the city came to pave our street. Gosh, but I bet we worried those poor workers to death. Our mother made gallons and gallons of Kook Aid that we would sell to the workers for pennies a glass. We were in business for ourselves at 10, 8, and 6. John would have still been too small to hang out with us. There came a time that the drains were laid along with the concrete pipes throughout our end of town. The workers would cover the manholes when they left for the day. That is when the Jeffress kids swang into action. Off we would pop those covers, and would roam the labyrinth of culverts. I am so thankful there wasn't a heavy rainfall when we were down there. We would have probably been washed down to the Red River never to be seen again. It was so much fun down there and our voices carried for miles and miles.

On Nelson street dressed up in my clothes so when our dad came home we could trick him into believing the boys had left and he now had only daughters. He knew better, but would carry on anyway. My mother says that when I would come in from school, I would make my brothers gather around this little kids table we had and teach them what I had learned that day at school. That is probably one of the reasons none of them particularly cared for school when they got there. I think they also got the line, "Oh, you are Jane's brother!"

My oldest brother and I ended up being pretty close once we got to high school. His friends were my friends and we did pretty much everything together. I guess Wayne was a bit young for us at that time. I know John was just a small boy.

After graduation, Chuck joined the Army for four years. During that time I was in college and then married. He got married shortly after doing his duty. He didn't have any children by that marriage. He married again and had two sons, but that marriage didn't last either. He is still married to his current wife and raised her daughter as his own.

He started as a driver for UPS and worked his way up to management and was what I call a sharp shooter for the company. If they had a center that wasn't performing up to snuff, he was sent in to fix the situation. Now he fishes and has a dog named Rudy.

Wayne quit school and joined the Marines. He earned his GED while in the service and I remember my mother saying that the principal at Bolton High School, Mr. Pate, called her one day to come and pick up his diploma. She said she was so happy that she cried. When Wayne got out of the service, he too married, but as I understand it, Chuck's wife told Wayne's wife that she didn't have to put up with his hunting and fishing and that marriage ended in divorce. We still love that wife. They didn't have any children. He married again and had his first son, but that marriage ended as well. He ended up raising his son along with his third wife and her son. They have a boy and girl who are now graduated. Three of their children are in or have been in the military. Two are/were Marines like my brother and the other is in the Navy.

Wayne is the brother who always got hurt. We were out shooting arrows and when it was Chuck's turn, he told Wayne to get out of the way and Wayne ran into a barbed wire fence and sliced his head open. Off to the emergency room and I don't remember target practicing ever again. He and Chuck were fishing on the Red River and his foot slipped off a culvert and he sliced open his foot. Off to the emergency room. Got his foot stitched up and walking back to the car barefooted stepped on a broken bottle and had to return to the emergency room to have that one stitched up too. At my mother's choir practice someone told him there was caramel candy in these bottle tops and he dug it out and ate it. Off to the emergency room to have his stomach pumped out since it was poison. When he was a toddler, he somehow or other crawled out of his crib, up to the countertop in the kitchen and my mother found him eating some pills she had from her pregnancy with him. Off to the emergency room to have his stomach pumped out. I guess you could say he had a spell of bad luck.

John went from high school into selling vehicles. He has won many national awards for his salesmanship. He is divorced from his third wife and didn't have any children with any of his wives, but did adopt his second wife's daughter, who he loves dearly. He is still in sales, but is now the leader of salesmen. I haven't seen it, but my parents say he has a lovely home that he has fixed up beautifully.

All threee of my brothers inherited my dad's gift of being able to draw and paint. None, but Johh, pursue that gift. He does some really lovely pen and ink drawings with watercolors added. I have a few of his pieces. I can't draw a straight line with a ruler and although my mother tried to teach me to knit, I can't do that either. I do love to sew which I learned from my grandmother and do scrapbooking and card making. I like crafts.

I have given you but a glimpse of my brothers. We fought like cats and dogs, but would kill for each other if we had to. I am glad now that I was the only girl with three brothers. I didn't have any competition when I was growing up. :-)

Later

September 24, 2009

2009-09-24T21:19:00.003-05:00

I just love snapdragons. There are some growing outside my back door. Did you know you can pinch the flower off, put your fingers on either side where the flower separates, mash, and voile', you have a puppet? We used to play with them when we were children and could find them. They aren't something everyone grows. My husband knows that I love them and keeps me some to play with. Yes, I still have to play with snapdragons.

Today I will share some things about my dad. He is called Jeff and I think I forgot to say my mom is another Jane. My dad is a junior, my brother the III, and his son the IV. Would you believe we all have the same middle name? My mother was going to name me Laura Jane after my paternal great-grandmother and herself. However, I was a WWII baby and when I was born my dad was shipping out. He wanted to have someone carry a family name and since I was the first child, I got the honor of having a boy's name. My middle name is Howard. There was only one teacher who was allowed to call me by my whole name, Jane Howard, and I kept it a secret until I grew up. If someone found out, I would almost go into hiding. Now it doesn't bother me in the least, but back then I might as well have had a red A printed on my forehead. I had a wise teacher in college who told us to choose a child's name wisely as they would have to bear it thoughout their lives and to watch what their initials spelled too. For instance, my husband's initials spell WET. Guess it was meant for us to hook up with names like we had.

My dad was born in California and spent his young years there and in Oregon. His dad was a veteran and they moved from post to post. He ended up in a military school at a young age and I guess it was with his best interest in mind with having to move schools, but I always thought it was very cruel of his parents to leave him so young. He is an only and how he ever survived four of us is beyond me. He likes his peace and quiet and I know for a fact that for years and years he never had any peace with a daughter and three younger sons.

He learned to fly an airplane before he was old enough to get his driver's license. He graduated from Hollywood High School and was friends with a lot of people who later became movie stars. He was left to his own devices with both parents working and has told about one of his fond memories of removing a manhole cover, snaking his way with a sack of leechy nuts, and going onto the flats in the San Francisco Bay area. It is a wonder he didn't drown when the tide came in. He would eat his nuts and feed the birds with them as well.

My dad was an artist from the start and was even offered a job working for Walt Disney. After high school, he moved to Louisiana with his mother and started going to LSU in Baton Rouge. WWII interrupted his schooling, but in his later years he would come back and finish three degrees and teach at Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana. He became a pilot and then a pilot instructor in what I believe was called the Army-Air Force back then. He was stationed at Shaw AFB in Sumter, South Carolina, where he met my mother.

Her best friend liked his best friend and they were young and could only double date. Betty Ann begged my mother to date my dad so she could see his friend, Casey. My mother said she didn't like my dad because he was so full of himself like a lot of pilots are/were. She dated him so her friend could see his friend. In the wind up, they had a double wedding and each recently celebrated their 65th wedding anniversaries.

My dad was stationed in Burma and flew the HUMP. He said that after the war ended, he would return to base and there were bullet holes in his plane. Word hadn't reached the fighters in the mountains that the war was over.

After the war, my parents moved to Hollywood where my father was in business with his mother. He was a florist and did doctor's offices, restaurants, and movie stars flowers. I can remember getting up at the crack of dawn and going with him to the flower market. It seems there were alleyways filled with cans that had fresh flowers stuck inside and he would buy what he needed for that day. I am wondering if my mom had fresh flowers that were leftovers at the end of the day. I just don't know. We would go on deliveries into the mountains and people had their homes built out on ledges and that might be where I got my fear of heights. I remember seeing the twinkling lights of LA down in the valley area.

My mother was a continent away from her family and being from a tight knit family, she was miserable. She had her sister come for a visit, but I don't know if her parents were ever able to make that trip. The did have two of my brothers out there in Burbank. I don't know if she said she would leave or what, but it was decided that they would move to Louisiana where my dad had relatives and she would only be 1000 miles from home. The had also decided that they didn't want to raise children in that rat race either.

We looked like the Grapes of Wrath moving across country. My dad had an old green Packard car and pulled a thing behind the car with all of our earthly possessions in it. One lady promised my mother she would mail my doll high chair, but that was history. I never saw it again. I left behind my kindergarten class too. Once in Louisiana, my dad set up shop as a florist again, but I don't guess he could make enough to support five of us. He went to work for a timber company as their purchasing agent, pilot, printer, safety man, and Lord only knows what else. He was with them for 20 years and then my mother went to work to support him while he finished his education. She was a school health nurse while he was in school.

When I was 10 years old, my brother, John, came along. It was like he was my baby doll. I can remember getting him out of his crib if he whimpered, as we shared a room, and my mom yelling that I had better not have him out of the crib. He never had a chance to cry if I was around.

Before too long, I was in college and gone from the nest. My dad was back in school and studying art, his life. He has always loved the southwest and all of his art was of mountains and aspens. All of the work was from the perspective of a pilot. When he still worked for the timber company, he also did commercial art work for a printer and I have seen him at the drafting table well into the night. By this time there were six mouths to feed and one paycheck didn't make it.

He graduated from Louisiana College and went on to Stephen F. Austin college in Texas where he got his master's and terminal degree in art. He came back and taught art at Louisiana College until he opened his own gallery. He was a very successful artist and when he turned about 80, we convinced him it was time to put it down and enjoy his later years. He has since taken up golf and it is a passion with him like everything else he has done.

I get my drive from my dad. His mother always said you are never too old to learn and to never pass up an opportunity to learn something new. I guess he got his drive from her and passed it down to my brothers and me. He encouraged me to go to college and earn a degree. My mother didn't understand why I would give up a good job at a department store to go to college. I am thankful for his encouragement as it has served me well. He is someone to look up to. Both of my parents have been good parents in many ways and have erred too. None of us is perfect. Except for a few regrets, I am glad that I listened to their advice.

Later

2009-09-23T20:12:00.002-05:00

I wasn't able to write last night as I think I have the flu. I had chills yesterday and couldn't get warm until Bill made some chicken noodle soup and then I was peeling out of socks, my flannel shirt, and out from under the cover. That warmed me up considerably. I have felt like a mac truck ran over me and then made another pass to make sure the job was done. Today, I have felt a bit better and have caught up on my email.

Today I think I will write about my mother. I guess she is on my mind because she called today to say they had snow at Red River, but had gone on to see some of the trees and a deep gorge. Glad it is them seeing the gorge because heights and I don't get along at all. It would be torture for me to even be near something deep.

My mom is a knitter. At 84, those needles are clacking all the time. She loves making baby things and I believe everyone in the immediate and extended family has something she has knitted for their baby. She also knits the most wonderful wash clothes. They are soft and I am kind of ashamed to say I don't use mine. I am saving them for a rainy day. I just don't want to mess them up. I might never get another one.

Mama was a stay-at-home mother. She did play bridge once a month, but you could always find her when school was out. She didn't like cooking then, but makes the most wonderful potato salad, tuna fish, congealed salads, and we learned to love hot dogs and hamburgers. We were laughing the other day when I was there for a visit saying that we ate good on Sundays. My dad's mother would cook a full meal and bring it to our house. My brothers would meet her at the car and try and get to the food before she got it into the house. Her specialty was fried chicken and these roll-ups with chili peppers in them. You take some crescent rolls, flatten them out, put a piece of pepper from the can of Old El Paso, and a stick of cheese, roll them up and bake them. I think I could eat one million of them. She was a good cook. Mama's cooking has improved over the years and she can set out a delicious meal.

Our mom had us doing chores although she was always at home. I don't know what chores my brothers had, but I had to keep the bathroom spotless, eat off the floor spotless and clean. I also had to wash and dry the dishes. She would help if she and I wanted to go after supper to play tennis. She was quite the tennis player and could beat the socks off me. She grew up with clay courts across from where she grew up. If either of us could get around again, we would be out at the city park lobbing that ball around. She knew if she could get me to laughing, I was worthless on the court. She would go into a low stance and start swinging from side to side and that would do it for me. It is hard to serve if you are laughing hard.

Mama loved to visit with her friends and still does. We went a lot of places with her and could she ever make a dollar stretch. Once in a while she would take us to the A & W Root Beer place where we could get a hamburger and root beer. Fond memories.

Not much fazes my mother and she keeps up with the times. She is much more flexible than I am and never sees the bad in anyone. She is almost naive if you ask me. She sings in her choir and the doors to the church never open unless both parents are there. Once in a while they will miss, but it is because we are having a family function someplace out of their town. Otherwise, they will be in that church.

Mama and I haven't always seen eye-to-eye on much, but we still get along and if she gets on my nerves, I just leave and come home.

My mother is one of eight (now there are only four left) children and she knows how to share. She would give you the shirt off her back if you wanted it. Honestly!!! Her family was a tight one and it has been hard on her to lose siblings and not be able to run to South Carolina for their funerals. Her family always encourages her to stay put and not make the trip home when someone dies. It is hard if you are young to get around in the Atlanta terminal and I think they would worry themselves to death if she tired to do that at her age.

I wish I had 1/10 the memory cells that my mom has. She can remember back to when she was in the crib and her grandmother coming in to tell her she had a brand new brother. She can describe her dresses when she was a toddler, her dolls (she still loves dolls to this day), what went on in the household, and at school, and I sit in wonder at her memory. I have tried many times to get her to journal these things, but to no avail.

My mother still has her South Carolina drawl after living in Louisiana for probably 60+ years. It take her forever to tell you something, she still uses words that are foreign to our ears like "al-U-min-e-um" for aluminum. She is one classy Southern lady.

September 21, 2009

2009-09-21T23:56:00.003-05:00

I was just reading a blog where the woman told about a person a day and it got me thinking - I wonder if I can think of 365 people who I can talk about. I think I can.

#1 Bill
Bill and I met back in 1970. Back then, he was a Roman Catholic priest stationed in my hometown. I went to midnight mass one Christmas and there was like an aura around him while he was preaching. No lie! Whatever he said that night gave me the courage I needed to want to take instructions in the Catholic faith.

I was strongly influenced my my paternal great-grandfather. I never saw Poppee put one bite of food into his mouth that he didn't recite his Rosary. I really didn't know what he was doing at the time because I was raised a Methodist, but it impressed itself on my young brain. My next door neighbor and another friend two doors down were both Catholic girls. I guess there were a lot of Catholics in our neighborhood. Even before them, my across-the-street neighbor was Catholic and I can remember them not having the same holidays as we did in school. When we were out and they had to go to school, I would go with them.

The nuns were fascinating to me and boy did they demand respect. When they walked into the classroom, everyone stood until told to be seated. I went to public school and we didn't have anything remotely like that. I looked forward to our holidays so I could go with them to school. My first piano teacher was Sister Francilla and was she ever a stickler for playing the piano with form. If your hands weren't curved just right over the keys, she would take the thinnest baton and whap you across the knuckles. You paid attention to what she said.

Getting back to Bill. After the new year came, I called the rectory and told the secretary I wanted to take instructions and didn't want the black headed priest or the old one, but I wanted the one with the red hair. I understand that they really got a kick out of that request. I took my instructions and after Kenny, my husband, came home from his stint in the Army, he watched the children, bought me a new dress, and I was baptised by Bill. He heard my first confession and gave me my first communion. My landlord and teacher at the high school I graduated from was my sponsor.

When Kenny was killed in an auto accident, it was time for confirmation and Mary Ann, our secretary, asked me if I was going to invite Father Bill. I said I didn't know I was supposed to do that and she said I was. I called the rectory and was told he had been transferred to Shreveport and was given the phone number. I called him and invited him. He said if possible he would be there.

The night of the confirmation we were all dressed in robes and marched into the church and were seated together. In came all of the priests, probably 20+ of them. When I saw him, I thought it would be so neat to have a husband like him as he was so kind and understanding. Of course, I feared I would be struck by lightening having a thought like that in the church. As my saints name, I picked Jude. When the Bishop got to me and I gave him my name, he was kind of taken aback. I guess most women take on lady saints names.

Afterwards, Bill introduced me to the Bishop, Bishop Greco, and told me to stay on the steps of the church. He ran off into the night with his cassock flapping in the breeze. Here he came with a wrapped gift that I still have, a paperweight with a cross inside of it. He then said goodnight and went off with the rest of the priests for supper.

At work the next day, I wrote a thank you note and asked Mary Ann, a Catholic, to read it and see if it was appropriate. I told her that one day I wished I could find someone like him to marry. She asked me if I were serious and I said I was. She said let me help you write the note. Between the two of us, we wrote one that could be read between the lines. :-) He read between the lines.

At that time, I didn't know he was doubting whether or not he had made the right decision on becoming a priest. He said that as soon as you got settled in a place and made friends of parishioners, the Church would transfer you out to somewhere else and there was never a feeling of belonging. We talked on the phone and when he was in Alex we would see each other. Ours was a courtship of letters and phone calls. In late June of 1972, we spent the day riding the backroads and talking. He made the decision to talk to the Bishop and tell him he was unsure he wanted to remain a priest.

The Bishop said for him to take a sabbatical and go off far away and think about it. He asked me if I liked the mountains and I said I loved the mountains. Now, a mountain to me was a place called Red Dirt which is a state preserve south of Natchitoches. If you are at the lookout place there, you can see for miles around. I thought it was a mountain, really.

He said he would go to Denver to think and he did. We talked on the phone every night and wrote volumes of letters which are in a box out in our barn. It was apparent that we would end up together and we decided to wait until mid-term so Melyssa could finish part of her school year. In November when I got my phone bill, it was about $2000 which was an unbelievable sum in those days. Instead of waiting and getting another bank breaker phone bill, I went to my parents and told them I was moving to Denver to be with him.

Keep in mind that my parents had never laid eyes on Bill and I was taking their only grandchildren at that time halfway across the country. My mind was made up and I resigned from my job and hired the movers to fetch my things. He lived downtown in an apartment and found the children and me a house in a suburb not too far away. After about two weeks with those living arrangements, we got a marriage license and saw a judge who married us between court cases. We had to run back and pick up Heath from kindergarten and the three of us went on our honeymoon to IHOP. He let his apartment go and moved to the house.

Also, I learned that I didn't like the mountains and wanted back on flat land. Once there, he took me up to Lookout Mountain with kids in tow and with a picnic lunch. He went up the backside which was switchbacks and steep. I thought in the mountains there would be a rail or something to keep you from falling off the road, but there wasn't. If you looked down, you would see pieces of metal. Probably where cars had crashed down the mountain. Right then and there, I realized what I thought was a mountain wasn't even a bump in the road. Mountains are nice to look at, but not something I wanted to live in. I was terrified of them. Heights and I don't do well together.

While we lived in Denver, Bill was a manager of a McDonald's working for Copus Corporation. We got to come home our second Christmas out there and my dad and youngest brother came out for a visit the next summer. My brother lost a finger while I was gone from home and there wasn't money for me to come home. When Bill's dad called to see if we wanted to come home and take over the farm, we jumped at the chance to get back home. Our farming lasted about three or four days and it was apparent that you couldn't have two farmers on one farm.

I got a job teaching since I had earned my certification in Denver and Bill went back to school for a year and a half to get his teacher's license. We are both retired educators. He raised the children as his own and although Melyssa remembers her dad, Heath doesn't. They were so young when he got killed so that is why they don't have a good memory of him.

Bill is one of the kindest and nicest persons anyone would ever want to meet. He is an only child, but isn't a selfish one. He has always given freely not only with is money, but also with his time. He is the one who taught the kids how to cook and even had Heath breaking eggs with one hand when he was only five. I remember the two of them cooked veal pinwheels as Heath's first cooking of a meal.

I think I made a wise decision and my family loves Bill. He is such a fair person, he is wise, and has been a fantastic grandfather and now a great-grandfather. Funny how I would probably have killed my children if they had up and done something like I did, but I have no regrets. I hope he doesn't either.

Later

September 17, 2009

2009-09-17T20:53:00.005-05:00

Of all things, I have caught a cold. Drat!!! I wonder if it is because I got my flu shot or if it is just one of those things. I bet I sneezed 20 time in a row last night without stopping.

We went for check-ups and our doctor said we needed exercise. I could have saved her some time on that one. How well do I know how badly I need to exercise. She suggested a stationary bike and I told her we have one in the shed that is probably 20 years old. Her next suggestion was to join a gym. Well, since I had therapy after her, I purchased a couples plan at the gym where I go for therapy. The way I look at it is, if I have spent that much money, surely to goodness I will make the time to drive those 22 miles one way and go.

Forty-four years ago today Melyssa was born. We are going out tomorrow night for supper with them to celebrate. We saw Terrell in the big W today and he said he called her office to tell her secretary to wish her a happy birthday since she hoped to fly under the radar all day long. They went out and bought a cake and did a party. That was very thoughtful and nice of them.

Bill went for his first gym session today when I was doing therapy. He said he was surprised that he wasn't sore. Hahaha. Just wait until tomorrow. I increased my numbers on this machine where your ankles go behind a bar and you swing your legs out and up and I think maybe I needed to leave it alone. Talk about stiff and sore. It isn't even tomorrow and I can hardly walk.

I hear my new clock playing music in the other room. I have had my eye on it for about a year and the other day when I was in the jewelry store picking up a ring, I told the girl that I wanted it. She said I could put it on layaway, but I told her I might be dead as a doornail by the time it got paid for. I had a bit of money tucked aside and went on and got it. It has the sweetest music on the hour. I might have to move it into the bedroom so I can hear it better. If I am busy, I miss hearing it. At Christmas, it has some songs for that time of the year. I love that clock and am so glad I treated myself to it.

Most everything that needed doing from the fallout of the non-wedding has been done. I thought of one more person who needed to be called, but Melyssa said that Emily Anna had already taken care of it. Looks like it will still be raining this weekend and that would have spoiled the outdoor wedding anyway. Things do have a way of working out for the best. We will look back on this time a few years down the line and hopefully can find something to laugh about. I know one thing, I don't have to look at the groom's cake and I won't even tell you what it was going to be. So there is some sunshine in all of this rain. :-)

Tonight I believe I will work on a journal that I am still painting pages in for my granddaughter-in-law to put the cute things that you think you will remember about your baby that you forget. I will do a sample page or two for her, but it is just a speckeldy notebook where I glued pages together, painted the pages with art paint, and then if you can't draw, you just clip pictures and words from magazines and glue them to the page. You can write in all kinds of handwriting like caps, print, cursive, ghost letters and color in the space, etc. I put ribbon around the cover so it would tie shut and then put wallpaper over that to dress up the front and back. She is always so appreciative and I believe she will like this. Makes journaling fun when it has art in it.

My parents leave for out west and will follow my middle brother and his wife there. They plan to do some fly fishing and just lazing around. Then my folks will leave them and go see some friends in New Mexico. My dad used to be an artist before he retired and all of his work is of the mountains out west and the aspens. He wants to see the leaves change color one more time. He will be 90 next year and this will probably be their last trip west.

Melyssa and I are going to see them this Saturday and take her dress for the wedding back, take things back to Michael's, and also to Hobby Lobby. I know she has no use for the flowers for the two silk arrangements that were going to be at the reception along with the roses. There are tons of candles that she will never use either. Just lots of this and that and hopefully she has all of her receipts and can recover some of her hard earned money.

Vallie came today and my house is sparkling. If I were wealthy, I would have her every day. I love a clean and straightened home, but don't like doing it myself. Not something that finds its way onto my daily agenda. She will come back next week and fix it up again before my friend Polly and her husband arrive for a two week visit.

I don't know where she and Jan will sleep in their camper thing because she is bringing all of her art things, I do believe. I have to laugh because I will get an email asking if she needs to bring such and such. Nice that I have most all of what she wants to bring and at least they will have a place to lay down at night. They have the largest camper that you drag behind a dooley truck and I can just see it stuffed to the brim with artsy-craftsy stuff. Wonder why we have to have a stash so large to put out a card or two or a scrapbook or two. LOL

I believe my chef is about to call me to the table. We had a sandwich late and so supper is late tonight. Maybe I won't have a dream like the other night when I woke myself up calling to Heath. I was hollering his name so loud that I actually woke up. He was about a football's length from me and I needed for him to look my way to tell him something. Dreams are really strange and I wonder what makes us have some of them. Mine are all in color which makes it interesting too.

Later

2009-09-16T00:40:00.005-05:00

Whew!!! I thought my blog had gone into cyberspace never to be found again this evening. I went to post and only got one posting. I panicked!!! Using Google, I put in my name and found the blog, but couldn't get to the place to post. Next, I copied all of my posts to a Word document so I could recreate the blog. When I finished that, it hit me like a ton of bricks. My mind was what was in cyberspace!!! I had used my regular email to sign in with and not my gmail address. Put in the gmail addy and BINGO!!! Here I am and can try and catch up.

Nothing other than going to therapy has been going on and I guess that is why I haven't posted in a while. One sentence isn't very interesting.

Yesterday morning, my granddaughter whose wedding was this coming Saturday evening, went to her mother, my daughter, and said she wanted to call it off. Of course, it was a shock and disappointment coming at the 99th hour, but we are so thankful she didn't go through with it if that isn't what she really wanted. Yes, tons and tons of money went down the tube with her announcement, but had she gone through with the wedding, then we would have had the agony of a divorce and there might have been children involved then. For a 19 year old, it took a lot of courage on her part to call it off.

My daughter went to work and had to leave and come back home. She woke me from a dead sleep to see if I could help her call everyone on our list of invitees and tell them not to come. She had to spend the day dealing with vendors to little avail. It was nearly 9 PM when I finished the task and every person I spoke with agreed that her decision, though a tough one, was the right one and that it took a lot of character to say it wasn't what she wanted to do after all. I just wonder how many other girls go on with the wedding knowing in their heart-of-hearts that it isn't what they want and then have to go through a divorce. That might be why there are so many divorces these days.

Now that that is behind us, we just have to be supportive of Em's decision and be there for her when she is sad or upset and she will be in days to come. I am so glad that she is in college and has her classes to focus on. She is an A-B student and that will help her keep her mind off what has transpired. She is a hard worker and studies to keep good grades and now she won't have any distractions.

Today both Bill and I went for regular check ups and our doctor said we had to get some exercise. She suggested a stationary bike, but I told her we have one out in the shed that is probably 20 years old and I bet it wasn't ridden over twice. Just too boring. She then suggested going to a gym.

Well, the place I go for therapy on my knees is also a gym, so I purchased a couples package for six months and maybe because of the money spent, we will drive the 22 miles to the gym and try to get a bit of exercise. Right now, I am getting some doing my therapy, but that runs out soon. Keeping my fingers crossed that I haven't thrown our money down a rat hole.

My friend from Virginia leaves for here this Friday. She and her husband are going to an RV rally first and within two weeks, we should be crafting into the wee hours of the morning. She is a night owl too. We met about 10-12 years ago on a crafting group and have never met in person. They plan to stay in their camper in our driveway for two weeks. I am sure I will wish they could stay longer, but when the finally get back home, they will have been gone for a month.

I have an early dentist appointment tomorrow/today and have to hit the sack if I expect to be on time. It is at the time I usually crawl out of my bed and I am hard to get up.

Later

2009-09-11T00:51:00.005-05:00

This has been a fast paced week. We didn't do one thing on Labor Day, but had fun none-the-less. Slept late and then stayed on the computer all the rest of the day.

Therapy this week. I refused to do the stuff for my shoulders. Having several days off made me realize that my shoulder was hurting after therapy, but not as badly when I let it settle down for several days. One of the therapists really gets out of joint when I refuse to do something and always says she is going to have to talk to the head guy about it. Hey, it is my body and I can do with it as I please. He must have told her I didn't have to do it, but she said that now we will be aggressive with the knees.

She put me on this contraption where you are sitting at an angle, there are different amounts of weights that are on it, you put your ankles behind this bar, and then you swing your legs up. Geez, but that wasn't any fun at all. In fact, when I got home I got a cramp in my quads that I thought would never leave.

I have gotten my leg to 3.5 degrees with zero as a goal. I don't think I can reach zero in the time I have left at therapy. I will do the best that I can and my doctor will have to be happy with that. We also went to the stairs and I was supposed to put my right foot on the step and then step up without holding on to anything. Couldn't do it. She let me put my hand on the rail, but I wasn't supposed to use it to hoist myself up. What she doesn't know won't hurt her. Probably won't help me, but I did try and not use my hand for leverage - it just happened that it did help to get me up on that step. I did tell her that my quads definitely need developing more.

Went to the dentist for my 6 month cleaning and NO CAVITIES!!!!! That temporary crown was hanging on a thread and the dentist re-cemented it. My new crown should be in this next Wednesday, just in time for the wedding. Yeah!!! I certainly don't want to be a snuggled toothed granny at the wedding.

From there, I came back through town and went in the opposite direction to Many to get my oil changed. Looked at the ticket they put in the window and I had let it get 2000 miles beyond where it should have been changed. Who ever looks at that little sticker they put on the car? Glad I didn't harm the truck and will try to be more attentive. I want this vehicle to last a long time as I love driving a truck. Who'd ever have thought so?

Bought Halle's diamond earrings for her birthday, a card ( I should be shot since I make greeting cards, but just don't have time right now to do so), a bag to put them in, and some money and a card to put in the bag. She is going to be sparkling for the wedding. I know she is going to make an adorable flower girl. Can't wait to see that. Ran by Sonic for my daily treat when I go where there is one - an ice cream cone. I see how long I can make them last and this one lasted for about 12 miles.

Melyssa said that Zoey will be with her this weekend since T is coming in for the bachelorette party. They are supposed to be going to Lafayette. Why so far away from home beats me. Just hope they are careful down there. I know where I will be this weekend and that is at Melyssa's house playing with that doll.

There was this soft-sided toolbox at a store I went in today and I started to leave it and go back later and get it, but was afraid it would be gone. One present bought and paid for as a gift for Bill's Christmas. Bought Zoey a Gloworm that has music, a Fisher Price baby's first doll, and one of those things that has brightly colored donuts that stack. Two people now have Christmas presents. I treated myself to this wall clock that has like grandfather clock chimes in it, but it plays the most beautiful music. The lady at the jewelry store said that I could put it on layaway and I almost did, but hey, I could be dead by Christmas, so I bought it and Bill will hang it tomorrow for me.

Later

Saturday and Sunday

2009-09-07T01:02:00.005-05:00

Yesterday M'lys and I went to Natchitoches and Alexandria still trying to find something she would be happy wearing to the wedding in two weeks. No luck on Front Street, so we ran out to one of the shops on the other side of the river. She found two dresses and shoes, but said she was afraid one of the dresses was a bit too short. We decided to go on to Alexandria and get my mother's opinion.

Both dresses were tried on and modeled and the suit she loved was too short and made her look short. Kind of boxy looking in fact. She tried the other dress and it fit, but still wasn't what she was looking for. She is going to keep it though for church and work.

Peep (Mama), M'lys, and I loaded up and went to the mall to one of the larger department stores. As soon as we got to the department she was looking for, there were three outfits for her to try. The first one she tried on was fancy, but you could see the shoulder pads through the chiffon and that looked tacky. Plus, it was too large on her. She tried on the one that I liked, but she looked like she was one of the bride's maids instead of the bride's mother. We got a good laugh on that one. Lastly, she tried on the three piece outfit and it was a keeper.

Off to the shoe department and I found the perfect pair of shoes and they had them in her size. I liked them so much that I had the guy bring me a pair in a different color. Well, I have a huge foot, but my heel is narrow and I took two steps and those buddies had to come off and quickly. Of course, they want you to buy them and said I could put some kind of non-slip strip inside, but I put them back in the box and thanked them for trying. Guess I will infuriate my folks and wear my clogs like I usually do. I do have some that might work for a wedding. Who cares anyway. If someone wants to comment about my shoes, let them. Like I really care.

We took back one of the dresses she had picked out in Natchitoches and then went to an upscale boutique to try and find the right pair of earrings for the bride. They didn't have what we wanted, so we decided it was time for lunch. We went to one of our favorite places and Peep and I got fried shrimp and M'lys got the steak. I treated and they did the tip and there was enough left over that my dad had his supper in a take out box.

We went back to my folk's house and they drank coffee and I drank my water. It thundered and I waited for the rain to start, but it didn't come. It was nearly 4 PM and I wanted to get on the road and didn't want to miss the half-price time at my favorite drive-thru. We hustled to the car, said our good-bys, and made it with a few minutes to spare and got our Route 44 diet cherry limeades. Best drink around.

M'lys was relieved that she finally had just what she was looking for to wear to the wedding. She ran in when we got back to my house and gathered the things I sent with her and went to her house.

Today, Sunday, we got up early and went to Heath's place in Grand Cane. He called and said they had plowed through the donuts and if we wanted any, we had better stop and pick up some more, which we did. We ate two each on the way to his house.

They have gotten the pipeline for some of the Haynesville Shale field across the road and there was a new drilling well next to the road on the way. When we got there, Heath said he was one step closer to them drilling in his section. What a blessing that will be if they do. If it happens and it comes in like they expect it to, he will be able to pay off their new house in Conway withint 18 months. He said that after taxes and his tithe, there would only be 1/2 of what he would get left. Glad that he gives to the church, but hate that he has to pay so much in taxes.

For their 15th anniversary, he bought Chriss a 2010 yellow with black Camero. I hope she doesn't get any speeding tickets in it because it is certainly a sporty looking car, just the kind cops like to pull over. LOL Glad she didn't get red because that would have almost guaranteed her a ticket.

We had a great visit and Benjamin and Bridgette were there. He and Gunnar spent a lot of time outside playing basketball. Everyone except me, I think, shot skeet. Even Bill shot. I just couldn't take a chance on the kick of the shotgun banging my shoulder. Halle Clair even shot. (I can't get this tiny spot to turn green for the life of me. Weird!)

It was a nice day and I got Heath to get out the Rhino and take me back on his property. Everytime I have been up there it has been too hot for me to go and see the deer stands and the pond. He has cut little tracks all through the timber and brush. It has taken him three years and there is still so much work to be done. His rye grass and turnip greens are starting to sprout. He said that once it gets cooler, both will take off. After the leaves fall off the trees, the deer won't have any foliage to eat and will start on what was planted.

We went down to the pond and his neighbor and he are having a new dam built and then a run off dam with pipes built. He isn't sure how far up it will come, but knows his boat rack will have to be moved. He showed me the size of the bream in the pond and I didn't even know they grew to that size. They are my very favorite fish to eat. The pond will be stocked with them.

When we got back to his house, it was time to pack it up and head for the "Hill". We had left Bisquit just about as long as we could. Bisquit is one of our dogs who is old and the arthritis had gotten so bad that he can no longer get up on his own. He has to be lifted up and then he can walk. After he uses the bathroom, he has to be carried back inside. We know he won't be around much longer, but the vet says he isn't really in pain, he still eats well, and has a strong heart beat and we just cannot put him down. We can't go off for long periods of time, but he has been a loyal dog and being here for him is the least we can do. We still have Pepper and he is a funny dog.

Later

September 2, 2009

2009-09-02T22:28:00.004-05:00

I have played around with my blog this evening trying to learn more about how to add things on here. I am going to try and add some more pictures. I hope I don't mess up anything.

My weekend was straightened out by my sweet son tonight. I have been torn between both children for the weekend. I didn't get to see Heath last weekend when he and his family were at home. They are coming back in this weekend as it is the opening of dove season and he and Gunnar want to hunt those tasty little birds. I can still taste a friend's mom's way of cooking them - wrap in bacon, soak in something, and then smoke them. All you get is a tiny bite, but man are they delectable. Yummy stuff!!!

Getting back to this weekend. Melyssa isn't happy with the dress she has picked out for the wedding and wants to see what they have in Natchitoches and Alexandria. I mentioned if nothing there, maybe Leesville might have something. Large circuitous trip, but if she can find something comfortable and that she likes, then she will enjoy her daughter's wedding much more.

Here is the dilemma - go with Melyssa shopping or stay and see Heath and his crew. He came up with a win-win for me and both of them. I will go with her shopping on Saturday and then go and see him and his family Sunday morning before they leave to go back to Arkansas. Now I can quit worrying about it.

The UPS man brought me a box today and I had to wait until I got home from therapy to get into it. I tried to slice into it with my keys, but that is some hard tape. I had to end up using scissors on it. Lots and lots of things for my Cuttlebug and also my Cricut machines. I have lots of new toys to play with.

The pens for the wedding keep calling me and I keep ignoring them. It won't be a hard thing to do, but time consuming and I won't get to farm or collect my Hatchlings if I am not in front of my computer. Oh, this retired life is so hard sometime. LOL Yes, it is an art doing nothing and an even greater art choosing which thing not to do first.

Now, I am going to try and add some pictures to my blog. Let's see how this shapes up.

Later

2009-09-01T23:55:00.002-05:00

When I got up this morning, it occurred to me that my dentist appointment to have a fitting for my crown wouldn't give me time to get it in before the wedding. I almost panicked. Instead of leaving with just enough time to get to therapy, I left 30 minutes earlier so I could stop by the dentist to see what could be done to calm my nerves.

When I arrived, I showed the receptionist where there wouldn't be time enough for a tooth to get back by the 18th if my appointment wasn't until the 10th. She pulled the appointment up on the computer and said there wasn't one for the impression to be made. The one on the 10th was for a cleaning.

Now what? Some children didn't show up for their appointments and once in the chair, my dentist said I must be right with God because I had gotten in the same day I checked. I had to miss therapy, but hey, that is fine with me. Now I will go on the 16th to pick up the crown and will be able to open my mouth on the 19th. I don't know how I could have kept it shut when this is my first granddaughter getting married. Keeping my mouth shut isn't something I do very well. LOL This is the second day in a row that I have had a "fat, numb" lip. So glad this is the first and only time that has ever happened and hope it is the last.

A friend sent me a link to a Louisiana blog and I have spent the last two hours reading and blog hopping. I do wish people would say where they are from someplace on their blog. I have noticed many of them don't. Who knows, they may live in the next parish and could become a real friend instead of a cyber friend.

Must get back to the blogs, but just wanted to check in so I didn't forget the tooth (toothless) story.

Later

2009-08-31T22:22:00.003-05:00

I thought today would be a miserable day with a root canal to have to go through. Nada! Dr. Wood is so good. The only thing that hurt was the first shot. They shoot you and then leave for a bit. Come back and shoot you again, leave, and do that until you are good and numb. He got the crooked root out, put in the titanium post, and then the core for the crown to ride on.

Afterwards, I tried to find the appetizer bakeware that Melyssa wants for her birthday, but couldn't find them. Guess it is going to take hours to track some down on the net. If I just knew what to call them, I would be 1/2 way there.

Off to Michael's for some solvent and stumps for moving color around. Found several other things that I wanted too. Then to Hobby Lobby and I found a stamp that I wanted, as if I need another one. Found some Cuttlebug and Nestabilities on sale and had to have a few of them. That is about the only way you can afford them. They don't have the newest Nestabilities though. they have also moved that stuff to a different aisle.

Found some cheap ribbon to try the gathering technique with and will use it in Emily Anna's album. Got several other things and two sheets of 12 x 12 paper and all of it was either on sale or I was able to use my coupon.

Went clear across Shreveport to Sonny's to get catfish dinners to bring to the house for supper. Yummy, but the microwave has a tendency to toughen the fish when you warm it up. Wish I had gone on and eaten when I got in instead of waiting on Bill to finish up his work.

Have been here blog hopping looking at things to inspire me. I am inspired. Now, I just need to get up off of it and do something. Therapy tomorrow.

I am torn right now on what to do about Saturday. Heath will only be able to visit for about an hour. I missed seeing him last weekend since I went to the city with Emily Anna and Melyssa. Now, Melyssa wants me to go with her to Natchitoches and Alexandria to find something suitable for the wedding. She isn't happy with what she has right now. Too bad she couldn't have looked out of town when she was at a conference. Hindsight is 20/20.

Later

August 29, 2009

2009-08-29T23:40:00.002-05:00

It has been a while since I last blogged. I have had problems with connectivity that have driven me to the edge. Of course, when the repairman came out, it worked just fine. After he was gone, it began to drag. Next week if it doesn't want to cooperate, then I will call them again.

Friday night a week ago, I went to a scrapping. I got a lot accomplished on Emily's surprise scrapbook. That was the first time I have scrapped in probably a year or nearly a year. Hopefully, Rose will start having crops more now that summer is over with.

My tooth broke off and I saw the dentist this past Tuesday. It took forever to numb my mouth and before that happened, I cried. I haven't done that in years, but each time he said I was numb and he would drill, I could feel it. He would stop and numb me some more. He got about 1/2 way through and said the nerve, he was doing a root canal, turned a corner and he couldn't finish it. I have to see a specialist in Shreveport on Monday to finish the root canal and put in a post for a crown. All I know is that I better have something in that space in time for the wedding. He said we would be pushing it, but he thought it could be done. Of course, it is right in the front next to your big teeth and that would be horrible to go to the wedding like that.

Heath and his family came in late Friday night and we couldn't connect this visit. He had to plow and plant and I went with Melyssa and Emily to Shreveport today to the cake tasting and for Emily to see the doctor. Last week when she saw him, the antibiotic he gave her must be something she is allergic to. She had itchy bumps on her arms and legs. We stopped there first, but they were so full that we had to leave for the cake tasting and then come back. After that, we ate, then they went into Walmart to get her prescriptions filled and we ran to the hobby shop for two or three things.

Emily had to get home since she didn't feel well and also had studying to do. She slept all the way home. We couldn't even stop to see Heath she felt so bad. He and Gunnar will be coming in next Saturday for the opening of dove season and we will see them at noon. After hunting, they will go back to Arkansas since it is a long weekend and they can rest. That little family goes at breakneck speed 24/7, it seems. I just won't get to see Halle Clair and Chriss until the wedding as they aren't coming in for the hunt.

My mother's sister died on Monday of this past week. That only leaves four of eight children left in her family. She lost a brother at Christmas of last year, a sister-in-law two weeks ago, and now one of her sisters. She has one sister and two brothers left. I hate to see them get older because before you know it, there won't be any of them left.

My cousin and I have laughed over some funny things that happened when they and my brothers were boys concerning electric fences. I have laughed until I cried and even last night when it was so quiet in the house with Bill and the dogs asleep, I was in here howling just answering my brother about this man getting shocked with an electric fence. It is too long a story, but maybe you will get in in your email one of these days.

Another cousin and I have been debating where we will go after we die. I guess it is because of losing our aunt this week that the subject came up. He believes in God, but isn't convinced there is an afterlife. I just don't get it. I believe in God and His son, Jesus Christ. I believe that the only way you will go to Heaven is by believing in Christ. It is just something we have to have faith in. We have whipped the horse to death. I don't see us coming to any agreement anytime soon. I know I won't quit believing and I think it would take some kind of miracle, like he would have to die and come back, for him to believe there is an afterlife that will be so different than what we have to live through here on Earth. I don't understand how you can believe there is a God, but that you can't be convinced there is something good to look forward to after you die.

I am almost finished with all of my things to do for the wedding. The only thing left is for me is to cover some pens with ribbon and tie bows on them. I have printed cards that will be spread out on a table that say, "Words of Wisdom for Emily and Jakob." People will put something "wise" on the card and then put them in a basket that I bought today. It has two little handles on it and the girl doing the flowers will tie bows on each handle. When everyone has left, I am going to collect the cards and put them in the album for them to read in their leisure. I have seen that at several wedding lately.

The cake is ordered, Emily has to get jewelry for her attendants, gifts for the groomsmen since Jakob has no time off, Melyssa wants a different dress and has to look for it, and that is about all that is left to do. It is going to be an understated, elegant wedding. Understated certainly doesn't mean her parents are saving any money. LOL In fact, I think it must cost more to go simple and elegant. Now all Emily wants is for it to be over with. I told her today she should have taken the money and cruise and gotten married by a jp. She will have nice memories and pictures though. She picks up her picture on Monday for the easel at the reception. Oh, that has to be matted and framed too. Do you ever get through with getting a wedding ready to go? I don't believe so.

Later

2009-08-19T10:51:00.003-05:00

We ate out with our friends on Friday night - catfish and they even had whole ones. I wanted to go to the store afterwards, but was too bushed to do so. We just came home.

Let's see. My youngest child turned 42 on Saturday. He is getting older and I don't think I am. :-) He and his family were out school shopping as his children start school today. Where did the summer go? This was a lazy day where I never got out of my gown. Just lollygogged around all day long. Had a hard time falling asleep last night which is probably why I never completely woke up.

Daughter called on Sunday to see if I could help her with getting the wedding invitations ready for the mail. I hurried over to her house and did a lot. Once her daughter got there, they had to work on the inside envelopes as I don't know who all the people are who are invited to the wedding.

The food is ordered and paid for. There will be two serving lines at the buffet with two choices of meats, vegetables, and salads. For a simple meal, it surely does cost a lot of money.

The lady who bakes the marvelous cakes won't be able to as her husband has had a heart attack. Now they will have to get someone out of Shreveport. There will be a tasting of cake on the 29th. I wouldn't mind going to that.

Therapy on Monday. Regular routine.

Tuesday when Bill go home he had found out at 3:15 that he was a victim of a reduction in force. That was his last day. No warning at all. The announcement was supposed to be made on Friday and that way he could have made a week's pay, but they didn't do that. Being the nice guy he is, he worked yesterday for free showing them what all he did and parceled out his work to others that the dean had already approved. They are going to be surprised at what all he did. Had I been him, I wouldn't have gone back, but would have let them figure out what needed to be done on their own. I say that in anger, but would probably have done the same thing if push came to shove.

Today is his first day at home and he has already been in here to talk several times. I don't know how this is going to work out because I am used to being alone all day doing my thing. I don't like to be interrupted. I just keep on typing and he eventually leaves. I have therapy in a few hours and need to get ready for that. There is laundry to finish up and dishes to wash.

Later

2009-08-13T14:36:00.005-05:00

Monday was a therapy day. Did some knee strengthening and also worked on my shoulders.

Tuesday was a stay at home day with little to do, but did finish the fans for the wedding and will take them to Melyssa on Wednesday.

Wednesday was therapy day. More knee stuff and shoulder stuff. Got some Popeye's chicken for supper. Bill made that delicious blueberry stuff that must have one million calories per bite. Yum, good. Took a wedding present to Emily and she was thrilled. She has a new Yorkie puppy who had just had its shots. Took the fans to and left them at Melyssa's. Visited for a little while and came home.

Today is a catch up day with no therapy. Put some beans on and Bill can either make some rice when he comes home or we can have leftover cornbread. Went to the post office and bought some stamps. Thank goodness for email because they want an arm and a leg to mail something. Before long it will be two arms and a leg. Privatization? Yeah, right! Same thing that will happen if the president gets his health care package through Congress. Read that he shot himself in the foot yesterday with a town meeting and his health care reform. I will wait to see what happens.

Weekend coming up and no plans as of yet.

Your fairy is called Tangle Goblinglitter

She is a bringer of riches and wealth.

She lives at the bottom of tangled gardens and in hedgerows.

She is only seen in the light of a shooting star.

She wears tangled dresses of multicoloured petals. She has gentle green wings like a butterfly.

Get your free fairy name here!

Later

2009-08-09T14:06:00.007-05:00

Friday night we went to Natchitoches to MaMa's with Melyssa and Terrell for supper. There was a live band on the side we ate on and a man was celebrating his 80th birthday and danced with all of the women at his table and the table next to his. If he died in his sleep last night, he had a good time before that happened. Our kids ended up treating us to supper which was so nice. Our treat next time.

At lunch time on Saturday we went to Heath's place at Grand Cane and had a sandwich with them. They were here just for a few hours. Heath had to fix something on his septic tank and talk about his pond he shares with a neighbor. Their trips are always so hurried, but better than not getting to see them at all.

We went to Walmart after that to pick up a few things. By the time we got home, I was exhausted and went straight to bed without supper. My fibro decided it wanted to flare up. Best thing to do in that situation is give it up and go to bed.

Slept in this morning and then worked on the fans for Emily's wedding. Came up 50 charms short and have printed them and started cutting them out. I will be one thrilled person when this task is off my hands. I am so bored with doing this over and over. Still wish they would have run away and gotten married. LOL Not really if that is what they want is a wedding. Had to stop cutting out the charms and take a break so decided to work on my blog.

I hear Bill outside hammering on his bathroom. Will that project ever get finished. In the meantime there are other projects stacking up. Wish I could win a lottery and just walk off and leave this money pit. There are some days I hate this house. It would take a huge bundle of money though to have the space this house has. I just need to chill out and when it gets done, it gets done.

Later

2009-08-08T00:19:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I played catch up blogging and it never did appear. Guess I will go backwards tonight and see if it will show up on my blog.

Last night I bit into a pretzel and if a tooth didn't break off at the gumline, I am not sitting here. Saved the tooth and called the dentist this AM, but he was taking a day in class today and I can't see him until Monday. I have to be careful not to smile too big because it is the tooth next to the big middle tooth. Just call me snaggle tooth.

Went for therapy on my shoulders and the doctor wrote on the Rx that he wants the flat extension closer on my right knee closer to zero. Geez!!! Six is close enough for me, but I will do what they say. Took back the dress Melyssa didn't choose for the wedding, stopped and got Chinese in case we didn't go out to eat.

We did go out to eat and Melyssa and Terrell treated us at Mama's in Natchitoches. They have a band on Friday nights and people were dancing. One man turned 80 today and he was "cutting a rug" with all the women at his table and then some at the next table. He might die tonight, but he had a wonderful time this evening.

Yesterday I took the dress for Zoey to wear at the wedding and had her name embroidered on it. I will try and put a picture of it in this post. I haven't done that yet and don't know if I can do it or not. I had the bib that doesn't match done too and she can wear it around the house when she cuts teeth and drools. Found a pair of ivory colored eyelet panties that will be great for a diaper cover. She will be styling big time all matched up.

Wednesday I went to Natchitoches to have lunch with my friend at her church. They have first Wednesday lunch for the older people and she invites me and many times I am able to go. I saw Doris, our preacher from here that just retired. We sat together. The presentation was Dr. Julie Cane reading some of her poetry, which is delightful. I have heard her read before and she is so talented.

Emily had her formal portraits done on Tuesday and she and Jakob had their engagement pictures done too. They are already up on the net, but I will wait until after the wedding to give the URL. Lovely pictures.

Let's see if I can insert a picture here of the dress. Don't know why they came out at the top of the page.

Later

August 5, 2009

2009-08-05T21:08:00.000-05:00

It is always about catching up it seems. My brothers cannot imagine why in the world I prefer to live in a town with one blinking light. Surely you get bored!!! I rarely get bored around here. There aren't enough hours in the day for me to do all that I want to do. They all live in the city where there is traffic. I would rather stick a pin in my eye than sit in traffic. Whomever said that like is a genius. I just love it, "stick a pin in my eye." LOL

Take Monday for instance. It was a day from Hell. Went to the city for a 9 AM appointment with my surgeon knowing he would be thrilled with my range of motion. He was happy with the bent knee, but said I could do better with the flattening of the knee. I asked him to look up what it was prior to surgery. He said zero degrees after they had put in the new knee. Sure!!! I was in never, never land and wouldn't have felt a tank running across me. He has given me something to try and get it straighter in two months when I will see him again.

He looked at my x-rays to see why this right shoulder is giving me so much pain and said it could be a tear in the rotor cuff, but it would take an MRI to find out. He suggested I put down the crutch and see if it doesn't feel better. Of course, I wanted to know how I would get from point A to point B without the crutch, since I mostly use it for my back problem that he said was inoperable.

He pulled up my x-rays (high tech stuff in that office - get the x-ray and almost immediately he can pull it up on a computer in the examining room) and said that he does see why my back hurts with so much arthritis in it. Maybe I would like to go for pain management. I wanted to know what that entailed and he said, "Shots." I don't think so. That sounds like pain to me and not pain management. I said I would try to not use the crutch.

As long as I don't have to walk too far and can get to a buggy to hold onto, I might just be able to get by without it. We will see how this does, but I know I won't be going for any "pain management." Some kind of comedian must have come up with that term for that procedure.

Off I go to do my errands and when I left Sam's, my truck went "tic-tic-tic" when I tried to start it. Tried several times and it is starting to get hot, like really hot as only it can do in a Louisiana August. I decide to call roadside assistance and the numbers looked so weird. It occurs to me that the brilliant person who put the clear sticker on the dash did it upside down and backwards. I doubt you could even read it with a mirror.

The third try I finally got the correct number and then have to play the punch the number game. I hate automated answering services. At last a real live person came on line. I need the last 8 digits of your VIN number. My response was that I didn't have a clue as to where to find that. Look in the glove compartment on your registration. There must be 20 some odd numbers on there. I have to dig my glasses out of my purse and twice count from the right to the left to make sure I get the last 8 digits.

Next, she asks what the problem is and I tell her about the tic-tic-tic noise. She tells me to try to roll up and down the windows. They worked and finally I got the slightest warm bit of a breeze blowing through the sweltering cab. She tells me it can't be the battery since I wouldn't be able to work the windows. I think she is wrong, but she is the roadside assistant lady and I am just a driver. She gets my cell number and says she will call a tow truck.

The phone rings a bit later and when I punch the button there is nothing, nada. Hang up the phone. It rings again and again nothing. By this time I have been in the cab for probably 30+ minutes and this cell phone business is starting to make my blood boil. I decide to call my husband at school, something I don't like doing. He eventually comes to the phone and says he thinks I am pressing the wrong button to answer the phone. I have always pushed the green button. He says he will call me back and try the one above the green one. It worked for that and two more calls from him. Never did work again for any of the other rings.

He calls the dealership and says for someone to please see what the holdup is on the tow truck. You would think in a city the size of Shreveport/Bossier City they would have more than one tow truck in town. Maybe he was off on another call. After another 30 minutes, Bill calls me back to see if the dealership has called me. NO they haven't. He tells me to call them. He promises the number is easy to remember and that I don't need glasses, pen, or pencil to call them. I call and they will send a courtesy car for me.

Thirty minutes later Bill calls back to see if they have come for me. No and this phone keeps ringing and when I try and answer it, I can't get anything. How is it when he calls it works, but not for any other calls. I tell him, using most of my most awful words, I am going to put the d*** cell phone under the tire and when the truck rolls backwards, I will have lots of little pieces of stuff that I can put in my artwork, like a tiny circuit board, maybe a diode or two, buttons, etc. He just laughs at me.

Once you get home and out of this funk, I will show you again how to work the phone. I swear, I know how to answer and dial it. I don't know anything else about it, but those two things. It is a hunk of junk from my least favorite store, Walmart. How is it my grandchildren and children all have I-Phones and I have to have a track phone from Walmart that you have to pre-purchase minutes - heaven forbid you run out of minutes when you desperately need the thing.

When I got home, I presented him the phone and said I would never touch it again. I really, really do mean that. If I break down, I will pray that a nice person will help me out. If it is a slasher, then I have always believed when it is my time to go, I will go. I have to travel through some really unpopulated land to go anyplace, but I will just take my chances, but I will NEVER EVER pick that stupid phone up again.

Yesterday I took my new prescription by the therapy place, but they are filled up until Friday and I will go for some therapy on my shoulders starting Friday. Ran out to this dress shop and found two dresses that would be appropriate for my daughter to wear to her daughter's wedding. She emailed me today and said one of them fit perfectly and all she needs now is shoes. She will have to do that chore because feet have to feel good. Now I have to return the other dress, but that is one less thing she has to worry about. She is so busy with her job that she doesn't have time to turn around.

Today I went to a luncheon for older folks in Natchitoches at the Methodist church. My friend attends there and asks me to a lot of their functions. I got to sit by the lady preacher who just left here and retired. That was really nice. I know so many people in Natchitoches since I have spent so much time there working and in school. Doris said, "How do you know so many people here and you don't go to church here. I go here now and don't know many people yet." I told her that since 1963, Natchitoches has been like a second home to me.

After that, my friend took me to her nephew's law office and I left a check and that ticket I told you about. He said he would get the ticket dropped to a seatbelt violation. God is good. That saved me $113.50 and I am so thankful. I have been driving with the cruise control and making a conscious effort not to go beyond the speed limit, unless it is outside the city and then just 4-5 miles over the limit. I am so used to zooming that I feel like I could walk and get there faster than drive whatever it is the limit is. I understand that you cannot speed around a city, but even having to go 25 mph is like feeling like I am crawling to my destination.

Guess I have to go as I have an appointment tomorrow to get Zoey's name embroidered on her "wedding" dress at noon and it is 45 minutes away. I have a terrible time getting up early and have to drive slower now. Ya'll have a great one!!!!

Later

2009-08-03T18:38:00.000-05:00

Had company for the weekend and we really had a nice time. Went out to eat supper on Friday night at the seafood buffet on the lake. Stuffed ourselves as usual.

Saturday I slept way late and then we ran over to Center, Texas, to go poking around. Did one antique shop, but they like their stuff too much for me. Judy did find a table runner that she liked and bought. The lady there said there was a thrift store several blocks away and off we went to find bargains.

Judy found some flower pots for her classroom, a funny bear for her nephews, and some odds and ends. I found a huge Rolodex for $1.99 that I believe I can do some artwork on - alter it somehow or other. I also got some red, white, and blue heart shaped buttons for making Zoey a dress, probably for next summer.

From there, we got on the loop and found a place to eat. Huge buffet, but we just did the salad buffet. When it came time for supper, neither of us could eat we were still so full from lunch. We were going on to Hemphill, Texas, to the quilt store, but I still don't have all of my stamina back and we came on home. Oh, we did have to stop at the Dairy Queen and get a chocolate dipped cone.

Judy left earlier than usual on Sunday as she had a lot of things to do before work today. I drove to Carthage, Texas, for a meeting dealing with my Southern Living at Home business. Got lost twice. Everytime I go there and get on their loop, I end up back where I started and know that I have goofed. Found my road and after 6 miles of tarmac, then gravel, and then red clay dirt that had puddles, I realized I must have missed a turn. Called the hostess and sure enough I had. Finally made it to her house. Surely glad that I started out early as it didn't make me too late.

Today I saw my surgeon and I don't have to go back for 2 months. He wants my range of motion to get to zero and told me what to do at home to try and achieve that. Sounds like pain to me. I asked about therapy for my shoulder that has been giving me fits and he said that I needed to rid myself of the crutch and it should help the shoulder.

I asked him how I was supposed to get from point A to point B without it since the reason I use it is because of my back, not the knees that have been replaced. He pulled up my x-rays and said he could see why I have the pain in the back due to the amount of arthritis. Not operable which is great since I won't go back for any kind of elective surgery. He said he could send me for pain management and when I asked what that was, he said, shots. Nope, no shots either. That sounds like pain to me and not pain management. I will try to get by without the crutch so my shoulder won't kill me, but it remains to be seen how that is going to work out.

Zipped through the dollar store and then on to Michael's to get one bottle of glue. When I started the truck, it sounded kind of weird, but it started so I drove on next parking lot to Sam's. Ran in there and got the handful of things I needed. Got back into the truck and when I turned on the key, it went, tic-tic-tic-tic. Definitely sounded like the battery was dead, but the truck isn't a year old yet.

I called roadside service and jumped through their hoops, like finding the last 8 digits of the VIN number. Sure, lady, where will I find that. OK, it was on the registration. Had to count back twice to make sure I had the 8 she wanted. I rarely even remember to take my cell phone, piece of Walmart garbage, but had it and gave her the call back number she asked for.

After a bit, the phone rang, but when I pushed the button, no one was there. It happened again and same thing. By this time I have been out in my truck for probably almost 30 minutes in gosh awful heat. I was trying not to cry, wanted to go back into Sam's where at least it would be cool, but was afraid I would miss the tow truck.

Eventually I called my husband and he called the dealership and they were to call me. Never did. He told me when we were on the phone that I must be pushing the wrong button to answer and told me to use the one above the green key. Fine. He called me back and it worked, twice, and only with him. He said he would give me the number and I could call the dealership.

No glasses, nothing to write with or on. He assured me it was an easy number to remember. I got them and they said they would sent out someone to pick me up. Another 30 minutes and lots of tears later, the man finally comes for me.

Back at the dealership the little guy helping me said that he would send a tech back with me to the truck and jump it off. I told him that I was spent and wasn't gone anywhere and they would have to take care of it, which they did. He was back in about 30 minutes and said some kind of box they took over to my truck ran out of juice trying to start my truck. They would take jumper cables and another box and would be back.

Dumb roadside assistant lady was wrong. It was the battery and they replaced it and sent me on my way. Still don't have a clue as to why the battery went dead and wasn't even a year old. I just got in the truck and came straight home. Was out of the mood to do any shopping.

When Bill came in from school, I gave him my cell phone and told him that I had started to put it under the wheel of my truck and run over it and I wasn't kidding. He just doesn't understand that I cannot use that stupid phone probably because I never use it and forget what to do each time I do take it with me. I don't care what he does with it and how many times I break down, I will NEVER, do you hear me? NEVER take that phone with me again. If I can't have an I-Phone that I believe I could use, then I don't want anything at all. It can rot on the charger and you will never see me pick it up again under any circumstances. Probably cutting my nose off to spite my face, but I am as serious as a heart attack. I will just take my chances on someone nice stopping to help me out if it ever dies again.

Now, I hope you had a great day and that the rest of mine goes well. If not, then I guess I will just get into the bed and hope it doesn't fall down.

Later

2009-07-31T01:32:00.000-05:00

I "graduated" today from physical therapy on my knee. They gave me a T-shirt with the name of the place I went for therapy. I don't wear T-shirts, but will give it to my granddaughter.

Had to pick Bill up and dash off to the foot doctor 60 miles away from here. Afterwards, we checked out this place that has all kinds of wonderful things in it. Bill found a mug that he wanted, but said it was too expensive. I told him to get it and count it as a gift for the anniversary, 37th, that we both forgot last week. I didn't have any money so he bought it himself. He is always so generous to others, that he deserved to be generous to himself.

Off then to Catfish Junction. Fantastic tea, had onion rings, and I got the seafood platter. Yummy, yummy!!! He got catfish. We may just have to take our friend down there for supper tomorrow night if we have already taken her to the lake for seafood. I could eat seafood of one kind or other at least one meal a day. As much as I eat fish, I am beginning to believe someone lied when they said that fish was brain food. If I am 64 and have been eating fish my whole life, how much longer do I have to wait to become a real brainy person? Yep, someone lied about that, I believe!!!

Got home and ended up catching up with a friend I haven't seen in about 4 years on the phone. She wants to come to the wedding and said she would try very hard to make it. I must remember to tell my daughter to add her to the list. We are cooking up some time to visit this next month. She lives 2 hours away if you speed (I must remember that speeding earns you big money-spending tickets), so I guess it will take me about 2.5 hours to get there if I do the speed limit. I laughed so hard at what one of her baby granddaughters said and did when a new baby arrived at her house that I lost my breath. Kids are the best.

My friend will be here after lunch tomorrow and if I don't get off here and into the bed, I won't get the bed stripped and the floors done and there won't be anyplace for her to sit at the table. Why do I always leave things to the 99th hour? Must be a Jane thing.

Later

2009-07-29T20:29:00.000-05:00

Read email and bloghopped a bit before going off to therapy. Nothing unusual happening there today except one of the therapist is leaving in the AM to get married in Alabama on the beach. We had to remind him that he had to buy the bride a gift and pay for her bouquet. He is clueless and apparently his mother is too. He is a really nice guy and is so excited.

Made a trip the big W for some elastic. Thought I would make the headband for Zoey to wear to the wedding. I saw some flowers in brown I had bought to make a surprise wedding scrapbook for my granddaughter and they inspired me to do the headband. I thought it would be so cute to sew some of the flowers in a cluster on the band. Made my first and last headband. It took forever to turn that tiny little thing and of course I had to rip out and redo since I didn't notice I had turned one end over. It looked like a Mobius strip with the seam on one and then the other side. Had to get that corrected.

When that was made, I came into my room to get the flowers to sew on and had decided to do some beads in the middle of them in yellow. Well, the flowers weren't silk like I thought. They are paper and that idea had to be shelved. I refuse to go back to the big W tomorrow after therapy to find some silk flowers like I want. That is the first and probably last headband I want to make. I will leave that sewing job to someone who has more patience than I have. That baby is going to be one cute little thing at the wedding.

I am so excited!!!!! I already know what I want for Christmas this year - money. Why that? There is this artist who does incredible work who will be about two hours away this next February. Her classes are small, like 10-12 people small, and I am going. I have already contacted her and have my name on the list. Just told my daughter on the phone that I wanted money since the kids always ask what I want, which is usually a gift card to one of the two hobby shops in the city. I am going to learn this lady's method and knock socks off with the cards I make after learning her secrets. Hurry up February and get here. I haven't been this enthused since my first surgery in September of last year. Just love learning new things.

My grandmother always said to never pass up an opportunity to learn something new. I have lived by her words. When I taught, I went to learning conferences as much as I could. Now I can do the same, but with my artwork. WOW!!!! How exciting.

Have to go to bed early tonight - translated means before 6 AM like this morning - since I have to be at my last therapy session at 11 AM tomorrow rather than 2:30 like usual.

Later

July 29, 2009

2009-07-29T01:32:00.001-05:00

Where has time gone? I thought it has been just a couple of days since I had been here and find out it is nearly a week that has gone by.

For one thing, I am back to my old habits of staying up until almost dawn and then sleeping half the day away. There is the physical therapy that has to be tended to which is 22 miles away and is three times a week and this is the last week. Can you hear me shouting songs of joy from this hill I live on?

Monday I will see my surgeon who should release me. My range of motion is great and I am ready to have my time back to myself. I do have to ask him about some kind of therapy for the shoulder pain though. He will just have to understand that as much as I trust him, I cannot go back to the hospital to replace the shoulders like he says needs to be done. I don't even think a herd of wild horses could drag me back into a hospital. Too many bad memories that haven't faded. Will they ever fade? I just don't know when I look down at my knee and see that hole there. I just don't know. Hopefully, he will say there is some kind of therapy that will relieve the pain and also give me back some flexibility. Before you know it, I will either have to have someone dress me or run around naked all day long. That would scare even the devil off. Probably scare me to death too. My dogs would run away too, I think.

What have I been doing with my time? For one thing, I did turn on the TV on Sunday after not turning it on since the last day of March when I went back to have my other knee replaced. Just couldn't bear to watch or do anything at all after that went south. I was at my daughter's house Sunday evening and they were watching the Hallmark channel. There were a series of programs on that followed one another - a serial of love sagas. I stayed up after I got home to finish watching them and also thought I would see the one I missed. All of them were wonderful, but I still didn't get to see when Willie the sheriff got killed. All night long these pieces of the story went on and on and just when I thought the one that I missed was coming on, Murder She Wrote came on. I was a bit miffed spelled like pi**ed and haven't turned it on since then.

Zoey's dress is finished for the wedding. I had to tell my granddaughter, the bride, that she wouldn't be the standout that night. It will be Zoey. The wedding colors are chocolate and ivory and since the bride's brother and his wife are in the wedding, he said that Zoey will be on his arm. Keep in mind that she will just have turned six months when the wedding takes place. Is he smitten or what?

My daughter is inviting his MIL to the wedding so she can tend to Zoey, but he said absolutely not. She was going to the alter with him. That is why I had to run to the city on Monday of last week and purchase material and ribbon to match what the wedding girls are wearing. Can't have my great-granddaughter up on the alter not matching. The dress is a pillowcase dress and turned out darling. All I have to do is have her name monogrammed on the hem and she is set.

This is an outdoor wedding and horror or horrors, the ladies are going barefooted in dresses that are above the knee. The bride has a dress with a train so her feet won't show. All of them are having pedicures and have them painted in that French style. After Zoey goes to sleep, they are going to do her toes in the same fashion. Lordy, lordy!!!!! Since Zoey will probably be teething then, I have bought a lacy, girly bib and plan to dye it ivory and if that won't work, then chocolate brown and have her name done on it too. I tea dyed it thinking it would be just the right color and it looks like some ancient tea dyed dolls I have. Awful, awful, did I say awful? I bleached the color out and have had to buy two dyes. Can you find chocolate or ivory dye if you live in the sticks? Nope you can't. I have tan and dark chocolate and will have to try to mix them to the color I need. If it is as ugly as the tea dyed was, then I will bleach it out again and if it doesn't fall apart in the process, I guess we will just have to keep it in a pocket until after the ceremony and she will have to be tacky and wear a white bib.

Last Friday night I cooked and took it out to my DILs sister's house for my youngest grandson's birthday. We had eaten with my son twice the weekend before and I felt it was my turn to give them kitchen duties off. It was supposed to be a surprise birthday party, but the other granny accidentally asked where the cake was and of course he heard and it wasn't a surprise. Talk about a cute cake for a baseball player. It was a round cake and on the side of the cake were vertical blue pin stripes on white that looked like his baseball pants. Green grass on the top with three bats made of fondant that said Happy Birthday Gunnar with one word on each bat. Then, right in the center was a round cake that was decorated like a baseball. He will begin playing football this year so I wonder if he will have a football cake next year. Since he excels in all sports, just one of those kids who is an athlete to the max, and he is an especially good golfer for a 12 year old. I told my son to forget the baseball, football, and basketball and let him concentrate on golf. Lifelong sport that you can earn a living playing. I believe I need to keep my mouth shut since that went over like a lead balloon. If he is good at all sports and loves playing all of the games, then that is what he will do.

Saturday night we met some friends at our other friend's house and had a feast. I made my potato salad that everyone loves and I cannot begin to remember what all they had BBQed. They could have easily fed Cox's army. We told the hostess that next time, please don't cook anything. She always has the best things to eat while you are waiting to eat. By the time supper arrives, there is no space left. She comes up with the best dips I have ever put into my mouth. She had made buffalo wing dip which was made with canned chicken. She had also made a Ruben dip with sauerkraut and beef out of a jar. Those two things alone would have been more than enough. I have got to get those recipes. Bet the wings one will make my artichoke dip, that my children and grands think has to be at every function, take a back seat to this new dip. 5 stars to Karen and Curt for their cooking and friendship.

Sunday was a day of doing nothing. Read the paper, which I have decided not to take any more. Why? It has gone up another $3 for nothing. They don't even put the Michael's ad in there anymore. I can read it online for free. I might miss out on something, but not much. I will save a tree or two in the process and I like that. Since that just took a few minutes to read, I cut out Zoey's dress and this little holder for my daughter's cell phone.

Talking about that, I delivered it to her tonight. I believe I told you that someone stole her I-phone off her secretary's desk and I told her I could make something that she could wear around her neck to hold it and unless they choked her down, it wouldn't be stolen again. She loved it. She loved it so much she asked me to make some more for her. Then she started naming and including her friends that would want one as well. I see a business opportunity on the horizon. LOL If she will purchase the material, cording, trim, and thread, I will make her as many as she wants. Retirement money doesn't stretch far enough to make everyone at the school board office one of the carriers. It really did turn out cute. Why do I think about wanting a picture of something like that after it has left my house? Fading memory.

That makes me think of making my grandson and his wife change of address cards. I freehandedly cut out little houses out of fabric, each one different. Cut out a door and two windows and a chimney all in one fell swoop. I had envisioned making them about 20 of them. By the time I cut out 8 of them, glued them onto the blank card, colored in the yellow light in the windows, made window panes, colored in the door and put a gold door knob on each door, I decided they would only get 8 of them. I have a tendency to bite off a lot more than either I can chew or more than my short attention span can tolerate.

I want to finish reading The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells tonight and guess I need to quit trying to make up for a week of silence all in one night. Ya'll have a great day.

Later

July 23, 2009

2009-07-23T23:07:00.000-05:00

There is always a first time for everything, right? I am 64 and got my first speeding ticket today in Natchitoches. I was taking a back street in a hurry, had XM radio on Broadway and was singing along. The fuzz buster went off and I spotted him. I put on my brake, but he pulled out behind me and turned on his lights. I pulled into a bank's lot and told him this was my first one ever. He said I was doing 40 in a 25, but he wrote it as if I was doing 13 over the limit. He also said it was fine with him if I got it fixed. I have to call tomorrow to see how much it is and if it is a lot, I guess I will go to see our DA in Many and see if he can do something with it. LOL He said at least I didn't run from him like someone else had done earlier. I have had this one coming since I was 15 years old. Just took a long time to have one get me.

I figured when I got one it would be from really driving fast, but this was so slow compared to what I was doing on my way to therapy. No traffic, no rain, and good music equal a lead foot. I have always told Bill to expect one giant ticket if I ever got stopped. I am careful if there is any traffic, won't pass unless there is nothing coming, drive slow if it is raining, but if those things aren't present, it is the pedal to the metal. I am just so fortunate that this was a really nice cop and I wasn't going that fast. He would have stroked had he been on the road to Mansfield today when I looked down and was doing 80 in a 55. I must learn to use my cruise control and leave early. I push it up to the second to get someplace.

Your chuckle for the day. Have you ever gotten one and was it a bad one?

I attended something called Ladies Night Out which is a quarterly thing at one of the churches in Natchitoches. It is always uplifting and today's church always has the best program. They send out darling invitations asking you to pay ahead, which I do, so they will know how much food to prepare. When I got there, that was after the ticket and I was driving slowly, everything was gone except for a bit of potato salad and a piece of garlic toast. They prepared for 400 and 500 showed up. No problem. I ate a sandwich when I got home. They put on a darling skit and the music was grand. I didn't win a door prize, but that was fine too. Lovely evening out except for the speeding ticket.

Slow down Jane, slow down!!! Learn to leave in plenty of time to get someplace, Jane. The list could go on and on. Just let me finish one more thing before I leave. Have to change my way of doing things around here. I don't want that ticket that will equal the national debt and horror of horrors, have my license taken away from me. I don't know if they do that, but that would be terrible.

Slow down friends if you have a lead foot too.

Later

2009-07-22T22:44:00.000-05:00

What it is with people who have no power over you telling you that you "have" to do this or that? Today at therapy for the umteenth time, my therapist said to walk the track. As usual, I told her that I wasn't going to walk the track. "You have to," she said. I told her that yesterday the other therapist didn't make me and that I would not be walking the track today, tomorrow, or any other day. I explained to her once again, I am getting tired of telling her the same story day after day, that it makes my hip hurt. I said that after a lot of therapy several years ago we finally found a therapist who was able to diagnose the problem and more or less solve it. There is no way I will jeopardize that hip.

"Well, I will have to tell ***** that you are refusing again." I reminded her that yesterday I refused to walk it for him and he didn't harass me about it. I began my exercises and she went into the office with him and shut the door. Like, duh, why the door shut? When she came out, we didn't mention the track again and I did all of the other assigned exercises. At the end of the session she told me that when she writes the report to send to my doctor, she would have to say that I didn't complete my therapy since I refused to walk. Keep in mind that my doctor never did write down anything about walking. I told her that was find and that when I see him, which will be before her report gets to him and it doesn't really matter if it gets there first, I will tell him I refused and why. My doctor is a reasonable man and with the arthritis I have, he won't have anything to say about it. It made me think of someone saying that they would tell my mother I had been a bad girl or something. Shucks, I am 64 years old and believe I know my body and what it will take better than a therapist, who by the way, isn't one of those who had to go to school forever to become one. Just one of those kinds who is a tech.

After that, off to the dentist and woooooooo, I have four new back teeth. I can chew again. What a blessing. Had to get one filled in a different place, but it was okay. I love my dentist and he lets the dental hygenist give the shot and she is so easy with it you rarely know she has even given it. Love that girl!!! Love that dentist!!!!! Coming from someone who would cry before a dentist would even touch me up until several years ago, that is a "high compliment."

My son and his family will be in town again Friday night and will leave for home Saturday after his son's birthday party. I have decided to cook for them along with his married son and wife, his sister and mother-in-law. Good old pork ribs, potato salad, green beans, and garlic bread. Nothing like southern food.

Later

2009-07-20T22:38:00.000-05:00

Today I ran to the city. I want my great-granddaughter to match her parents in my granddaughter's wedding in September. I bought the chocolate fabric with ivory satin ribbon for the ties. A pillowcase dress will be the easiest to make so that is what my plan is. Just have to find the time now.

Also bought black fabric and cream lining to make my daughter a cell phone holder to wear around her neck. I figure black will go with anything. There was the prettiest braid that was basically black with different colored intricately woven tiny squares with gold around them that I got to stitch across the bottom. They had the neatest twisted, thin cording in black that will be what she can wear around her neck. Her job provides her with one of those phones that connects to the Internet. The other day she laid it, a coke, and some crackers on her secretary's desk, ran back into her office to get something and when she came back, only the coke and crackers were there. This young lady who was in the office at the time had "mysteriously" disappeared. Go figure where the phone went. Her phone was replaced, but now it won't leave her body when she is at work.

I was hoping my granddaughter would go with me today for another day of memory making, but after calling everywhere, I found her in Arkansas at her older brother's house. She just had to go see that darling niece of hers. Once school starts again, she won't have time to come up for air. She is a nursing student at a university in the city and commutes. Her "to be" works most days about 18 hours and won't miss her not being there right now. He is good about letting her do what she wants - the only kind of man to have.

Bill and I drove up at the same time. That was good because that way he could bring in the groceries. heehee It is hard to walk on a crutch and carry a sack of groceries and since I shopped at Sam's, there wasn't even a sack with a handle to drape across my arm.

We ate leftovers that were delicious. Around here you eat leftovers until they are gone or grow mold on them if they get accidentally pushed to the back of the icebox. Boy did I want 2nds, but I have to be extra careful that I don't put back on the weight that I lost when I was so ill. That was the hard way to lose weight.

I have bloghopped for hours. There are so many creative people out there who so graciously share how they make things. One of these days I want to share like that. Of course, that would mean staying off the computer to get something made. Maybe when I get Zoey Elizabeth's "wedding" dress done and her name embroidered on it, I will take a picture of it and share. I will try to remember to do the same with my daughter's cell phone necklace.

Later

July 19, 2009

2009-07-19T14:31:00.000-05:00

I have been either away from home or too busy to blog. I will try and fill you in on my activities.

On Wednesday I went to Natchitoches for a doctor's appointment and then on to Alexandria for a doctor's appointment on Thursday. I stayed with my parents and had a great time. I have this little book of questions written my Melody Ross, the author I couldn't remember the other day. I got some time alone with my dad and made it through 10 questions with him. He reminded me of a book he wrote and self-published just for the family about his life. I learned a lot more about him and he seemed to enjoy the interview.

Later on, I intervied my mother and got 10 questions done with her as well, plus a lot of information that weren't related to the questions. She has the most brilliant memory of things like what a little dress of hers looked like when she couldn't have been more than three years old. We stayed up very late talking. I had a wonderful time with them.

I took them out to eat at a fantastic and quiet Italian restaurant. We all ordered the same thing, but I had mine served on angelhair pasta. There were fried in bread crumbs eggplant medallions topped with a Newburg type sauce with some cut green onions and huge shrimp. We were so stuffed that we couldn't even order any dessert. We saw two of my dad's doctors there and a dear family friend and her husband. We visited with them for 30 minutes before we ever ordered. We just never get to see and visit with them. They are the ones that suggested the meal. If you are even in Alexandria, Louisiana, try Bellino's Italian Restaurant on Jackson Street extension. It is on the left next door to Mac's Market. You won't be sorry. Oh, they had the most delicious bread and butter before the meal that must be baked by them daily. Nice dining experience.

On Friday my granddaughter's wedding gown had come in up in Minden, Louisiana and I took her for her first fitting. I bought her the most elegant veil. She wasn't going to wear one, but I got the lady to bring out a few and she picked the first one she tried on. She is going to be one gorgeous bride!!! We went out to eat and made the obligatory visit to Walmart as I needed one roll of ribbon to finish the fans I am making for the wedding. There was a bride and her mother there also getting fitted and we had the best time with them. Lots of laughter and the bride ended up getting a different gown after hers had already been altered. These people that run the shop are incrediblely nice. If you need a gown and live in the area, give Hers a try. I think you will be more than pleased. Save plenty time for your fitting because you will need it. Also, if you need to buy a veil and haven't done that in 43 years, then be ready for a price tag that matches the national debt. LOL

Friday night our son and his family were in town from Conway, Arkansas, and they invited us out to his sister-in-laws for supper. DELICIOUS and we enjoyed their company so much. Then they invited us to their place in Grand Cane for supper on Saturday night. Another fantastic meal like we all love: purplehull and zipper cream peas mixed, hot water cornbread, and succotash. Boy can you hurt yourself eating that kind of food. He has to go to Houston for the week and his wife has some things the children have to do in Conway, but we are all going to meet up again next weekend when both of them return to their place in Grand Cane. It has been miserable for me since they moved 4.5 - 5 hours away one year ago in August. I was used to them being two blocks away for so long.

My daughter works from sun up to sun down and I can't see how she does it, but she manages it so well. She had to fly to Boston on Saturday morning until this next Thursday for a conference with her job. She also had to work last Friday and that is why I got a memory making day with her daughter. I am sorry she couldn't be there, but on the other hand am so happy I was free. Well, I did have to cancel my therapy on my knee, but who cares. I had a much better time with my granddaughter.

My son and his family stopped by after church this AM and he is off south to Houston and his wife is off to the north to Arkansas. I thought it woud be a good idea to use this afternoon to catch up on my blogging and reading email that I have neglected.

Oh, my "Puppy Boy" is really going downhill fast. I am beginning to believe we are being selfish in wanting him to stay around. He has to be picked up now as his back legs won't get him up. Once he is up he can get to his food bowl and water bowl. On most days he can get down the steps to go outside to potty, but has to be carried back up the steps. He has arthritis in his back end and nerve damage, but he sees the vet every three weeks and Jeffrey says he still eats well and had a strong heartbeat. We are relying on him, the vet, to tell us when it is time to put him down. I tune up like right now everytime I even let that thought enter my mind. He is such a loving dog, loves his treats, and what really breaks my heart is how embarrassed he looks if he has an accident. I am going to really have to pray about the reasons we are keeping him with us.

Later

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

2009-07-14T21:13:00.000-05:00

Today I just couldn't get up and make myself to go therapy. I was sore and didn't get but two hours sleep. I have got to find a way to fall asleep without having to toss and turn for hours.

Bill made Blueberry muffins with the fresh blueberries one of the grandsons picked just for that. He wanted "real" ones and not the ones made out of the "blue package." I should never have eaten the first one because they were like potato chips. I couldn't just eat one. Now I have indigestion and is serves me right.

Mostly today I have blog hopped just looking at other people's artwork. So much inspiration out there. Now, I just need to get up off it and do some creating.

I found the book I had misplaced and wanted to take to my parent's house with me tomorrow. It is a very thoughtfully written that is filled with interview questions. It is already packed or I could give you the title and author. I will have to do that later this week. I want to try once again to get some family history before I regret not taking the time and also insisting it needs to be done.

In the morning is a doctor's appointment with the family doctor who will probably want to look at the healing hole in my knee. Then the next day it is time to see the ENT doctor in the city to try and find out why the vertigo comes and goes. I still believe it is tired to the two knee surgeries since I never had it before then. What a hard way to lose weight, but the nausea from the "spinning" just makes you want to never smell, see, or hear about food for the rest of your life. At least it has gone and I hope it never comes back.

Thursday is when I return and I will see ya'll then. Have a happy rest of the week.

Monday, July 13, 2009

2009-07-13T20:12:00.000-05:00

Since it was nearly 4 AM when I last looked at the clock this morning, I had a hard time getting with the program when I woke up. I had to be at therapy at 1 PM which put me in rush mode.

I liked therapy last time much better. This time I have to walk the track first to warm up which always leaves my lower back and hip hurting. I wonder if the saying, "No pain, no gain" is true. I had weights put on my ankles for the first time today and have this sneaky feeling that it will be hard to get my legs in motion tomorrow morning. I stretched and pulled things I didn't even know were there. A new exercise is for the ham strings because I have been trying to have cramps in that area lately. I had better keep my whining to myself or they will find something else for me to do.

Stopped and picked up Chinese food for supper so Bill could have the evening off. Have I told you that I have a gourmet cook for a husband? Well, I do and he has taken over the kitchen. Suits me just fine. He cooks, I do the dishes which means at times I load the dishwasher, or other times when the dishwasher hasn't been unloaded, I wash them by hand. Bill puts up the washed things. He forgets that there are things in the dishwasher. Since I don't have my new kitchen cabinets yet, that is a good cabinet to store clean items inside of. Am I fortunate or what?

Not much happening on the email scene today and since I will be away from the computer Wednesday night, I thought I would journal tonight instead. I am going down south to visit and spend the night with my parents since I have a doctor's appointment in their city on Thursday. I need to do that more often since they are the ripe old ages of 89 and 84. I do have to say they can run circles around me though. They are two Energizer bunnies!!!

I am going to give it up early tonight and read a new book I bought the other day. One of my favorite writers has just come out with a new book and it is one of the few hard back books I have ever bought other than craft and text books. She is Rebecca Wells and hails from my hometown. She may write fiction, but I know some of the characters in her books which makes them even more special. If you have never read her YaYa Sisterhood books or Little Alters Everywhere, you are missing some good reading.

Later

2009-07-12T18:54:00.001-05:00

Today was a lazy day to start with. I just lay in the bed thinking of what all I needed to do.

First on the list was to wrap a gift for a wedding shower that was from 2-4 PM this afternoon. I had the gift for days and of course put off wrapping it until the last minute. Got that done, ribbon attached and card taped on. Put it in my chair so I wouldn't go off and leave it. My memory isn't what it used to be.

Read the Sunday newspaper, but there wasn't that much and now for months there hasn't even been a Michael's ad with a coupon in it. Hobby Lobby didn't have a coupon either. Didn't know anyone in the obit section, thank goodness,. Didn't know any of the babies born either. Didn't know any of the brides in that section. Maybe all of the people my age have their children married off by now.

Showered and forgot to brush my wet hair until I got inside the truck. Good that I had a brush in there. If my kids find out all of this forgetfulness, they might say it is time to find a new home for me, one with 24 hour care.

I had used MapQuest to find where the shower was as it was "out in the country," as if where we live isn't rural enough. Thank goodness I remembered the house number because I passed up the driveway on the dirt road and spotted 926 and knew I had arrived. Backed up and went up the driveway. Only two cars were there which made me think maybe the shower was next Sunday afternoon, but recognized them as my friend and also her mom's car. Whew!

The shower was at the new home of a former student of mine and it is gorgeous on the inside and outside as well. The bride-to-be had her own chair and you could tell because there was a veil on the back of it. Cute touch! Lots of ladies, most of them I didn't know. The bride is marrying my friend's son and he is also a former student of mine. They received so many lovely gifts. The food, cake, and drink was so tasty. Nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

When I got home, I got out of my newest dress and put my pearls back into their box and changed into a "house dress". I only wear dresses now that I am retired that have a yoke and hang down from the shoulders. Makes me think of a funny story about one of those dresses, but I will tell you about that one another time.

My daughter wanted me to run over to her house, 12 miles away, to see the things she had purchased for her daughter's wedding which is in September. She has been one busy bee along with working full time, being a mother to the last chick in the nest, keeping a spotless home, and spending time with her husband. He is definitely a wonderful man.

The last chick asked if Papa, my husband, could make "real" blueberry muffins. He is the resident cook around here because he will try just about anything and I cook things like roast with rice and gravy. His sister's "to be" has some blueberry bushes at his house and it is between our town and my daughter's town. He said if so, he would go and pick some and send them home with me. We made a B-line over there and he picked a ton of fresh berries. Bill said he would make some muffins for him if he could wait until Tuesday. Blueberry muffins will be ready on Wednesday if anyone is in this neck of the woods.

Now I have returned home and to my computer and decided to give you a run down on my day thus far. I still have to look for one more roll of ribbon that I know is somewhere amidst my stash and finish preparing the charms that I have to attach to the sandalwood fans for the wedding. You see, it is an outdoor wedding in September and in Louisiana, you can melt during that month if you stay outside for very long. My idea to get fans for everyone and have them on the seats when people arrive. The ceremony isn't going to last long, but 2.5 seconds is long in our humidity.

Later!

About

2009-07-11T12:37:00.000-05:00

I am a retired school teacher with 32.5 year’s service. My husband is a teacher who is still teaching. We live in a “one horse town” that sports a flashing light at the crossroads of two highways. Our town is dying on the vine. We have one mom and pop grocery store, several churches, two branch banks, a private phone company, a doctor’s lab, one filling station, two small places to grab a burger, fire station manned by volunteers, and heaven forbid we ever lose it, a K-12 school. We are extremely rural and have to drive somewhere to do anything. The major industry in our parish (that is a whole ‘nother story) is logging.

We have two children who each have three children. Our daughter and son-in-law are both educators. They have a married son who is in the Air Force and whose wife works at a bank. They have given me my first great-grandchild, a beautiful little girl. Their only daughter is getting married in the fall of this year, 2009, and who is studying to become a nurse practioner. They have one son left in the nest that is a senior in high school and thinks he never wants to leave home. All three children are avid fishermen/woman and hunters.

Our son is a directional driller supervisor and his wife is a stay-at-home mom, who is really a taxi cab driver to the children. They have one married son who works in directional drilling and his wife is a stay-at-home wife. They haven't started a family yet. His next son is the athlete and plays traveling baseball year round, basketball for his school's team, and this will be his first time to play football and be on the school’s golf team. His daughter is the youngest and is a dancer, all girl, and has the most expressive face and way of talking, usually with her hand on her hip. You can tell we all have Cajun blood because if you were to tie any of our hands behind our back, we would become mute. They have a place near here, but have recently moved to Arkansas so our son could accept a promotion with his company.

We have two dogs. Bisquit is elderly and won't be around too much longer and I cannot even imagine that. He is a rat terrier. Pepper is a lab mix and came from the shelter. He is a great watch dog, if not sound asleep. He needs to be a hunting dog because he is the most patient stalker of squirrels and birds in our yard.

2009-07-11T12:36:00.000-05:00

I am a retired school teacher with 32.5 years service. Married to a teacher who is still teaching.

We have have two children who each have three children. Our daughter and son-in-law are both educators. They have a married son who is in the Air Force and whose wife works at a bank. They have given me my first great-grandchild, a beautiful little girl. Their only daughter is getting married in the fall of this year, 2009, and who is studying to become a nurse practioner. They have one son left in the nest who is a senior in high school and thinks he never wants to leave home. All three children are avid fishermen/woman and hunters.

Our son is a directional driller and his wife is a stay-at-home mom who is really a taxi cab driver to the children. They have one married son who works in directional drilling and his wife is a stay-at-home wife. They haven't started a family yet. His next son is the athlete and plays traveling baseball year round, basketball for his school's team, and this will be his first time to play football. He is also a golfer. His daughter is the youngest and is a dancer, all girl, and has the most expressive face and way of talking. You can tell we all have Cajun blood because if you were to tie any of our hands behind our back, we would become mute. They have a place near here, but have recently moved to Arkansas so our son could accept a promotion with his company.

We have two dogs. Bisquit is elderly and won't be around too much longer and I cannot even imagine that. He is a rat terrier. Pepper is a lab mix and came from the shelter. He is a great watch dog if not sound asleep. He needs to be a hunting dog because he is the most patient stalker of squirrles and birds.