Busy Day!

Boy, it's been one heck of a day! A darned busy one!

In my last post, it was in the wee hours of the morning and although I had gone to bed around 10 p.m., I was back up and awake by 11:15 and the pain pills didn't take effect enough to make me sleepy till about 6 this morning. So as Bill was getting ready for work and Kate was leaving for school, I was finally able to drift off to sleep and even slept till about 10 a.m.! Man, that was heaven to get that much sleep - 4 straight hours worth!

From my post last night, I even got a suggestion from Melloncutter for a pain medication he had used when he had the shingles a year ago now. Sure is nice to know I'm not alone in coping with these things nor is my attitude any different from others who have had to suffer from these things. I'll have to give my family doctor a call and see if maybe I can get a prescription for the patch he told me he had been given. I'd try just about anything right now!

Last night, I pulled the turkey out of the freezer to start thawing it -figuring I ould cook it tomorrow to serve for supper when my cousin Eric and his family came to visit. However around 1:30 this afternoon, those plans changed quite quickly when I received a phone call from Eric telling me they had finished up in the Poconos and had been down to Hershey, PA for that part of their trip and were now out on Rte 322, heading towards our neck of the PA woods!

They figured they would be here at the house shortly after dark.

And I was about to panic because that turkey was the only thing I had in the freezer that I knew would feed that many people and geez, it was still thawing.

I checked on the status of the turkey thawing and decided it was almost completely thawed so hurried up and stuck it in the oven. The I set about to fix a pan of apple crisp, corn pudding, peeled a bunch of red potatos and made coleslaw for our supper.

The nice thing about their timing changes was that Carrie was scheduled to work tomorrow night but had tonight off, plus she had Alex tonight too so she was going to try to come up then, bringing Alex with her so he could meet one of her favorites cousins from the Eld side of the family, along with his wife and their four younger children.

They got here shortly before 6 p.m. so that gave his family a little time to adjust to me, Kate, Maya and Kurtis anyway. Eric and his wife have four children of their own - Anna, age 13, John age 11, Alexis, age 7 and Alyssa, Age 5. They also were raising his sister's son, Stefan, but Stefan, at age 17, decided he was homesick for his friends and classmates back in the Houston area so he went back to Texas and is living with his grandmother, Eric's Mom, there! Sure would have been great to see him again too but, just wasn't in the cards today.

After supper, I hauled out some old albums with a mixture of really, really old photos plus some from when Eric, my Carrie and Eric's sister, Caroline, were little taken at our family reunion and he really reveled in showing his children snapshots of himself, his sister, parents and grandparents as well as his mother's sisters, who lived down the street from us when my kids were growing up.

Seeing him again took me back in my mind to days when I was growing up and Eric's dad usually came up here most every summer from Pittsburgh to spend as much time as he could with his aunts here. Carrie commented to Eric tonight about how they used to play in the old barn at his great-grandfather's old house and how much fun they had there. Eric agreed with her saying it was the ideal place for kids to play and really have a fun time.

The thing that really resonated with me was when Carrie pointed out how much "The Aunts" really spoiled her, Eric and Caroline rotten! Oh yes! So very true!

"The Aunts" - Edith, Helen and Hedvig - were sisters of Eric and Caroline's grandmother - Esther Eld Sabolsice. And yes indeed, they certainly doted on their great-niece and great-nephew as well as all three of my kids!

Kathy, Eric's wife, while looking at very old reunion pictures, was able to immediately pick Eric out in one shot which was of him, taken from behind him. "How the heck did you know that was me," he asked her. The answer: "From your butt!"

Eric and Kathy have four of the best-looking kids - really, really pretty children they are and also, very well-behaved too! When they first arrived, Kate was seated at the dining room table coloring with Miss Maya and she went to the cellarway to get out more crayons and coloring books so in no time all the girls were seated there, coloring away and maybe even talking ever so slightly.

Eric was determined to refresh his memory about things he remembered from summers spent here in the 70's and early 80's and was really proud of himself I do believe when he realized how much he actually does still recall of those days. A totally different era from what things are like here today.

All in all, it turned out to be a very nice visit and one I'm really happy we were able to have.

Eric's grandparents sure would be proud and pleased as punch to see what beautiful great-grandchildren they have and also, to know how well their grandson remembers so many of the Swedish food traditions his grandparents always observed too.

Safe travel back to Florida guys and as soon as Carrie sends me some photos of the ones she took tonight, I'll be posting them so any of my Eld family cousins can also see just what a bunch of good-looking folks the Eld clan has turned out to be!

Nite all!