Nine Days?

Holy Rip! I started out this month in an attempt to do a post a day with respect to the topic of "Thankfulness" and for a few days, I was right on target, got my posts written, looked like I was finally getting somewhat organized and might actually be able to accomplish this ideal. Sadly enough, things fell apart on me and it's now been nine days -yes 9 whole days -since my last post. I did put some posts up as a status thing on Facebook that I probably should have just posted them here on my blog -they certainly were long enough to suffice for that. But I didn't remember to do things that way. How or why did I fall off the grid, get off track anyway? My last post was on November 11th and it was the next day that things started to really go awry with the thankful posts. It's not that I wasn't actually thankful for anything that I could write about because in all honesty, over the long run, all that threw me off kilter were things for which I am and I was quite thankful that they happened! Last Tuesday, I got a call from my doctor's office in Pittsburgh telling me that the insurance company had first denied my doctor's request for approval of a PET scan for me however, the doctor had appealed that denial and thus, last Tuesday, they had backed down and approved the request! I'm thankful for that! However, this set into motion a quest to get an appointment set up for me then at West Penn Hospital which took the better part of my time the rest of Tuesday -making phone calls, trying to find an open slot, talking to my daughter then about the time they could fit me in for the PET scan and could she still manage taking me down to Pittsburgh to get there at the ungodly hour of 7:15 a.m.? Believe me, getting something like this arranged when you live 138 miles and about a 3-hour-drive away from where you have the appointment, is no easy task. But, eventually we got things worked out. All that put me behind then in delivering my current Avon orders so I had to sort of "double-up" and get cracking to get them all distributed. Took me until today to do that but I still have about 4 or 5 orders that were delivered but haven't yet been paid for. Hopefully, I will be able to collect that money today now! The PET scan though, according to my doctor, showed no additional growth or activity than was previously showing on the last scan done in August so, based on that, my doctor has declared that it is nothing to worry about! And boy Howdie! Am I ever thankful for that! You betcha I am! This weekend it is time for our Fall Bazaar at church and tonight, I made three different kinds of candies for the "Candy Shoppe" section at the Bazaar. This along with working Monday (yesterday) afternoon with several others from church to make five different kinds of bark candies to be sold. We will also have a plethora of other candies from peanut brittle, to pretzel sticks coated with chocolate and sprinkles and on up to several really great kinds of fudge too! This "booth" at our Bazaar is always one that brings in a whole lot of sales and that, combined with our former hallmark item -home-baked Swedish kaka breads of different varieties -are the things that generally take our Bazaar up and over the top in popularity with those who are regular attendees at this event! So now I have candy made, still have to bake some cookies as well as at least two different kinds of bread too. Then, Thursday afternoon, I have an appointment in Dubois with a therapist and Friday, I have to drive about 65 miles to Milroy to meet up with my younger daughter so I can pick up the grandkids and bring them up here for the weekend. When I get home from picking the kids up, I have to head out to the church to help with the setup for the Bazaar and then, have to be back out at church around 9 a.m. Saturday to finish helping to get everything in place. After the Bazaar is over, the kids and I are then heading a couple miles down the highway from here to attend a Spaghetti Dinner Fund Raiser for the granddaughter of my ex-sister-in-law's brother. (How's that for a bit of a convoluted sentence, huh?) Anyway, "Uncle Jimmy" -which is what my kids call the grandpa of this little girl for whom the fund raiser is being held -grew up next door to me as did his Mom and her siblings. So it's an old, old friend connection and since he is my nephew and niece's uncle, he's also always been kind of an uncle to my kids over the years as well. The little girl -Lucy or "Lu" as she is called has Rett's Syndrome -which is a very complicated illness that causes all kinds of issues in the muscle tone of children and it is also on the Autism Spectrum. Lu has been doing fairly well, from the physical aspect (doing great from the intellectual and academic aspect though) but recently she has had some setbacks. She needs a whole lot of specialized equipment in order to allow her to get around at least somewhat on her own and all this special equipment costs money -lots and lots of money -which her parents and grandparents and great-grandparents too simply can not afford to purchase the things Lu needs, hence the fund raiser to get some money donated to help them and Lu! It's all for a very good cause, to be sure. I certainly am not thankful that Lu has this issue to have to contend with in her life but I am thankful -very much so -that this event is being planned and hope that people will turn out in droves to be part of the dinner and games set up to try to bring in a few extra bucks along the way! Then, after the dinner is over and the kids and I return home, I will have a third thing to get done on my agenda for Saturday, that being my next Avon order will be delivered so I'll then have to spend Saturday night bagging up the orders and getting my brochures all set up to reflect my name, phone number, e-mail address as well as my web url to direct folks who would rather shop online the capability of orgereing that way! Sunday, I have to have the kids to church because Maya will be singing that morning with the Fry twins -Noah and Sam -and the three of them pretty much constitute the members of our children's choir at church! Once done with that, it will be time to pack the kids stuff into the car and head back down over Seven Mountains to meet their mother as I do a "return to sender" with them! I'm not looking forward to that trip mainly because the early weather reports are predicting the potential for "snow showers" on Sunday and a forecast like that at this time of year and involving a drive across those mountains in what could be just a few snow flakes flying around or it could also turn out to be heavy snowfall in intermittent stages and it's the latter there that I really worry about! I'm not exactly afraid of driving in snow but I sure don't like it! Definitely won't be doing any driving with the hammer down, you can be sure of that! So that's what's been going on, what will be going on and I'm going to be exhausted, for sure, by Sunday night. But it still won't stop me from being very thankful to have been able to deal with all these various things, and especially for the opportunity each thing last week, all these this week, will be afforded to me and the ability to also have Maya and Kurtis here for the weekend -along with their Aunt Carrie, who will be spoiling the living daylights out of the kids then while she watches over them on Saturday! Now -here's a way you can do something to make me even more thankful and that would be if you live anywhere there to Lanse, PA -come out Saturday to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church there and visit our Bazaar! Guaranteed you will find it worth your while and that then would make you -as well as me -very thankful then, wouldn't it?