New Projects

So, the walking project made it two days!

No, I haven't disbanded that idea but things just didn't work out for us to take a walk tonight, that's all.

We did go out Saturday evening though. Walked down the street this time instead of up the road. Just for a tiny bit of variety in our little tour.

We walked about a half-mile probably down the road from the house -to a short distance after the paved road ends. We would have walked a little bit further but Mandy spied something in the bushes alongside of the road and it spooked her.

Here''s what she saw!
At first glance, this just looks like a big ball of brush but Mandy was sure she saw it move and that frightened her. I walked a little closer and identified what it was to which she began to berate herself for not having brought her cellphone And then, I reached in my pocket and whipped out MY camera so all was fine and dandy then and we got this picture and the one below.
I hope these pictures of this fat old porcupine didn't scare anyone. The second photo -of it moving away from the brush alongside of the road shows his behind to be pretty bald. Anyone have any clues as to why that might be?

Saturday afternoon though, I'd just managed to get Kurtis down for a nap when this really loud -and trust me, I do mean REALLY LOUD -noise was out on the road in front of our house. The bane of our summers here.

FOUR-WHEELERS!

These people really do tick me off -a lot! From Friday evening thru Sunday evening, just about every weekend now since the end of April, we have been blessed (NOT) with people riding their damned four-wheelers up and down this road in front of our house.

Our street is paved down about a half-mile (if that) beyond our house and then, it is a dirt road which goes on down to Peale -the local ghost town -and from there, it winds up the mountain, called Tunnelside, and over to the old railroad station, Gorton, and from there, if you can follow the right dirt road and not get lost in all the stripping roads back in there, it will take you across Black Moshannon Creek and on into the little village of Moshannon in Centre County.

The four-wheelers love to ride around down there, following all the various roads and trails and there is a "Rails-to-Trails" segment too which is what once upon a time, many years ago, was the trackage of the Beech Creek Railroad system.

I probably wouldn't mind these people as much as I do if they wouldn't race past here going really, really fast and with the throttles running full-out and making such a horrid racket as most of them tend to do. Not only is the noise really disruptive -often wakes Kurtis up, but they are so noisy that you can't hear the sound on the TV set even if you have it kicked up about as high as it will go plus, if you happen to be trying to have a conversation on the phone, it is next to impossible to hear a thing then.

Those things, plus the fact that it is ILLEGAL to ride those damned things on a highway and after a good six weeks of hearing this every freaking weekend, when this happened -again- yesterday afternoon, I figured "Here we go again -our music for the weekend is starting up!" Only this time, I called the State Police and logged in a complaint about this.

If the kids would happen to be out in the yard, even though they are never outside unless one of the adults here -or Katie -is out there with them -it would be so easy for one, or even both of them, to slip away and be up on the road, where THEY don't belong either and at the speeds these idiots travel, they could very easily be hit and badly injured or worse! Or, that could also cause the driver to lose control and crash along the street -injuring only him/herself but still, who needs that kind of irritation and worry.

Another thing that really tightens my jaws about these people is that frequently they run up and down this road (up to the bar, stay there a little while, then back down to the woods) all day long as well as even running out here until as late as 2 and 3 a.m.!

Since last Labor Day weekend, there have been five fatalities in our little township -all people riding on four-wheelers! Maybe I shouldn't complain to the police and just let them keep racing and chasing and drinking as they run, and eventually more of them will be in fatal accidents and eliminate my problem with them all by themselves. Do ya think I should let 'em do that?

Well, frankly, as much as they do tick me off, I really don't want to see any of them wreck, injure themselves or someone else much less watch and wait to see how long it takes for an ambulance or two -a life flight unit to be called in too -to take who ever is injured off to the hospital.

I just want them to try to exercise a little bit of common sense and have some respect for those of us who live here, who have to hear all the noise of their engines running full tilt, who have to live in fear on the weekends that one or several of them will collide with a car, a child, land in my front yard or my neighbors, or worse!

The trooper on the desk when I called said they would set up a 30-day surveillance in this area to try to curb this activity. Okay, fine with me -just do SOMETHING, please!

And then, the strangest thing happened. After I made that phone call, it was almost like they had my phone line tapped or something because after that, we only had about 8 four-wheelers go by here the rest of the day and into the night and a string of motorcycles -about 12 -that whizzed by, one time! And today, we had only a handful of bikers and four-wheelers out riding down this way.

But you better believe, I am going to be watching -and counting -and listing whether they were racing or riding at a reasonable speed considering there are people of all ages who live along this street and I know I am not the only resident here who has been very upset by their antics. And if they start being obnoxious, I'm calling the gendarmes again -and again -and again -until they either round 'em all up or they get the message somehow and leave our street alone!

Today Katie left to go to Cincinnati, Ohio for the week to work there with our Youth Ministry group, helping people there with simple repairs and such to their homes. This is the fourth year (if I have my numbers right) that our Youth Minsitry group has participated in this program. One year they went to North Carolina, another year, I remember they went to someplace up in Maine. If there was another trip, I don't recall now where that one was right now -so maybe this is only our third year of doing this.

But anyway, it's a darned good program -for the kids as well as for the benefit of those they try to help out too! Makes for a great way for the kids to garner some of the points they need for community service work towards their graduation requirements too -along with giving them a chance to see a few other parts of the country at the same tiime.

This year, our group joined forces with the Lutheran church from Karthaus (Shepherd of the Hills) in participating in this trip so I think they had somewhere between 20-25 people going on this community service event. (That number includes adults too.)

Our next-door neighbor, Deb, is one of the leaders of the Youth Ministry so she and her younger daughter were going, along with our minister, Pastor Carrie and a couple from the Karthaus church as supervisors of the kids.

Today, I started -and finished too -a project I volunteered to help out with for the Pennsylvania Geneological group. A gentleman who is a member of that group sent me a cd and instructions on how to transcribe death records from the files at our county courthouse and then, when I had the files he sent me finished, I just e-mailed the completed transcripts back to him and he will then post them on the PAGEN website for people interested in family tree research -or other historical data -can then access them and search for members of their family tree there. It was fun but also really challenging to try to read the pennmanship of those who recorded these records a hundred years ago -plus the copy was often really blurry, difficult to read at times. But still, I enjoyed doing it, and got the files under the letter "I" for our county from about 1895 through 1904 transcribed.

One other thing too -totally unrelated to anything above though -is that Maya and Kurtis both love when I'm reading posts from my reader and someone has posted a video there on their blog. Music -they enjoy and they really love and go bonkers laughing when someone posts a new LOLCATS video too.

Well, yesterday -one of my favorite bloggers -Shelby Dupree down in Alabama happened to post a video of Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, singing "Ring of Fire." When the music started to play, Kurtis stopped whatever he was doing and came running over to me, crawled up in my lap and watched that video like he was mezmerized by it! He was even tapping his fingers on his little leg in time to the beat too.

And when they sang the very last line -"Burn, burn, burn" and repeated it and the sound cut off, Kurtis looked up at me and said "Burn, burn, burn" and it almost sounded like he even had a tiny bit of the melody too!

Maybe we've got two budding musicians here, huh?

Whatever though, I'm glad they like the same music that Grammy and Mommy like at any rate though!

Can't go wrong with good old Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson, can ya?

The Feediing Frenzy

In my last post, I mentioned about how, on our walk with the kids, we went up to visit one of their favorite places. That would be my son's good friend, Kevin's house. And in particular, the fish pond he built!

Yep! Both kids absolutely love going up the hill to see the fishies!

And I thought maybe you all might enjoy seeing these two little videos I took of them and the fish! So, with that in mind, here's both of 'em -just for your own viewing pleasure.

Take a Hike!

Tonight, I'm operating a little off from my normal routine. Usually, I try to have read -or at least scanned through -all the posts on my reader before I start my post but tonight, I'm going to do my post first, then try to get as many posts up on my reader read before I go to bed.

I had a really nice day today -didn't get much done on my tablecloth, but I did get out, visited a couple folks I hadn't seen in a while, got some groceries, stopped to see one of my classmates from high school and got a fairly light supper fixed for us -just grilled burgers and had baked beans to go with it. Just enough but not too much.

I intended to go up to Kylertown to check out a yard sale I'd seen advertised in our local paper but that idea got foxed when I saw the sale isn't until tomorrow. Rats! That means if I want to go up there tomorrow I'll have to either go up early-early in the a.m. or wait till Mandy gets home from working tomorrow (she's helping a good friend of ours clean her house.) If I want to go up any time in between, I'll have to take both kids with me and I really can't see dragging both of them to a yard sale as being a fun thing for me!

I had Maya with me on all my little adventures today -which was nice but at times a tad nerve-wraking too. For openers, remember the video I posted the other day of her singing with the children's choir at church this past Sunday? Well, she has been showing us over and over again that she knows the words and usually remembers most of the melody too as she has been singing that song Every. Single. Day! ALL. DAY. LONG. too!!! Much as I do love the song, etc., it's starting to wear on me right about now.

But anyway, while we were out early this afternoon, I stopped out in the area known here as Sylvan Grove to visit my good friend, Helen Ann,and two of her daughters -Ann Marie and Jeanne. The three of them all live together in a beautiful home Annie got oh probably about 10-15 years ago now. Helen's parents were my next-door neighbors when I was growing up -the big Little family here in town. (They had 13 children -11 girls and 2 boys!) When I was in high school, I started out hanging out over at Helen Ann and her husband, Joe Benny's house with Helen's sister, Rose, who is the same age as me. (Rose is one of my classmates who tries to meet with me and three others for our monthly lunch-bunch get-together.)

Because way back in the days (when I was in high school) I started to babysit for Helen and Joe, I'm close to her and her kids as well as her entire family I guess you could say. And, back then, for some reason, Rose started to refer to Helen and Joe as Aunt Helen Ann and Uncle Joe Benny and that stuck. I've called her Aunt Helen Ann for oh, probably at least 50 years now and though her husband died five years ago in January, I still refer to him as Uncle Joe Benny. And, when my kids came along, to keep it straight who we were referring to when talking about this or that person around the little village here, if it was someone from the Little family, we just tacked the "Aunt" or "Uncle" on to each member's name and that way, my kids knew who I was referring to. Made life relatively simpler for us that way. (And truthfully, the majority of the Little family are very much like aunts or uncles to my kids, so it's rather appropriate, don't you think?)

So anyway, Maya and I had a nice visit with Aunt Helen Ann -who we hadn't seen since before winter set in last year! Yeah, ridiculous, I know to live that close -only about five miles apart -and yet, not get out and down there to at least say hello. (Mandy also worked for Aunt Helen's second daughter and her husband -Charmaine and Jim -at the little restaurant/bar they used to have here and which we frequented a good bit too, so Mandy is also very close to this branch of the Little family because of that too.)

After supper this evening, Mandy suggested we go for a walk -take the kids and maybe completely wear them out so they wouldn't have enough energy left to throw any hissy fits then when it came time to go to bed tonight. And, since it was actually nice tonight -not too hot, just nice and comfortable -that's exactly what we did.

As we went up the road, at the curve a couple houses up from our place, I noticed the lady who lives there seated in her wheel chair, looking out at us. So, we stopped and went down and talked to her for a good while. I've known Steveanna for well over 50 years since she and her late husband bought this house and raised their four children there. She lost a leg a couple of years back due to diabetes, spent a long, long recuperative period in a nursing home but about 2 1/2 years ago now, she was considered well enough to manage on her own at home. She has the wheel chair but she also uses a walker to get around in her house.
You might want to "bigify" this picture in order to see the white peonies blooming here. This is a bush in the front of Stevanna's yard and I noticed that in the back, behind her house, she has a big long row of peonies -some light pink, some rose colored and more of these white ones too -all in full bloom and absolutely beautiful! I commented to her about the peonies and how lovely they are and she told me the ones in behind her house, she transplanted there shortly after she and her husband moved in there -probably about 56-57 years ago. And they had been planted by the lady who had originally owned this house - Miss Emma Blade -who was better known around our street when I was a kid and to my Mom as well, when she was growing up here, as "The Dressmaker." Very few people ever called that lady by anything but that -"The Dressmaker."

After we left Steveanna's and headed up the road, we stopped to talk with the young woman who used to have a daycare setup in her home and who watched Maya for probably a year or so when I wasn't up to taking care of her some days back then. She too hadn't seen either of the kids for a long time so was quite surprised at how big they both are now -naturally -but we were also surprised that Maya remembered her name (Theresa) and also remembered her son, Jacob, who was one of Maya's few playmates when she was very small.

Coming back too our house, I took a couple pictures of things blooming alongside of our road. All these blossoming things just really made me feel so good about our little walk too as some of these I know are blackberry bushes and maybe, if they produce berries and the branches are close enough to the road that they hang over with their produce, we can take a container along on a walk later this summer and come home with some fresh blackberries and get a really good pie out of the deal.


Here's Maya, picking some little flowers too -some daisies, buttercups, a few clover and even managed to find a blossom from a Phlox plant some place as well. Her posies made for a pretty little bouquet in a vase sitting on the middle of our dining room table now too.

But this sight in the photo below here was probably the one that was the most exciting for the kids!
This is the fish pond behind the house belonging to one of my son's best friends -Kevin. Both the kids KNOW that there is a pond behind this house -and yes, it is just a small one that Kev constructed and filled after he moved in here a couple years back, but both of them will pull us to go up the drive to see the fish -even Kurtis! And both of them love to visit there too. Thankfully, Kev was nice enough on one of Mandy's visits with the kids to have shown her where he keeps some food for the fish so now, when we drop by, whether he's home or at work, Mandy can get a little feed out and let the kids enjoy tossing it into the water and then watch the feeding frenzy too as all these fish start to zoom around, biting at the bits floating atop the water.

Now, I know to that when Mandy suggested we go for a walk tonight, she had an ulterior motive too. It wasn't just to make sure the kids were tired out and would crash quickly when we got home, but it was also a ploy to try to get Grammy here to get out of the recliner and get even a little bit of exercise!

I know she's right too in suggesting I do this -and not just one time either -but every day that we can, we should go for a walk as yes, it would be good for her and even better probably for me.

And yes, I know as much as I'd like to lose weight -and should really try -getting even this little bit of exercise (we walked probably a little over a mile in all tonight) would most likely be more beneficial for me than searching all over the internet for information on weight loss and getting stuff like a slimming pills review too ya know.

But I have to say this about our walk tonight, in terms of the exercise and the value of that, the roughest part of the walk was going to see the fish pond.

Why? Well, because where Kevin lives is on the side of the hill and his driveway means a long walk, straight uphill! Now what I'd really need for the exercise program to be fully effective would be to walk up and down his driveway several times a day!

Then of course, when I'd get to the top, I could sit on a chair and toss fish food into the pond and watch the fish do something with the abandon I know I should eliminate too in my own eating habits!

Scary Time!

I woke up bright and early this past Tuesday morning -well, Okay, it wasn't exactly bright yet and neither was I because I woke up at 4 a.m. which means it was still dark out. Yeah, I know all too frequently that's maybe about the time I would be going to bed but I've been trying to develop a tiny bit better sleeping habits you see. That night, I had actually crashed around 1 a.m.

But, because regardless of the time I go to bed, I almost always wake up after having slept about 3 1/2 to 4 hours cause my bladder doesn't seem to hold that much, that long any more -either that or I might be a medical anomaly and need to get checked for prostate cancer. (Frequent urination is a symptom of that, isn't it?) So anyway, I was up at 4 a.m.

Now, I probably could have gone back to bed then but instead, since the computer has been hogged a lot lately between Katie and her "My Space" and Mandy with her Facebook, My Space and CafeMom stuff. Add to that the fact that Bill has been doing a lot of surfing the past week or so -for hours on end -looking for volkswagon parts. All of this cuts deeply into the amount of time left for me to play on the computer too, ya know!

Well, Monday night when Bill was surfing, he was grumping a lot too -complaining about how damned slow this computer was running and such. So when I found myself up that early in the morning, I decided it was time to do a bit of clean-up then on the computer that might result in this baby running a tad better and faster. So I did the Disc Clean thing and then the defrag.

In the meantime, before I did those things, I wanted first to respond to an e-mail I had received and imagine my surprise when I tried to type my message and the keys depressed but evidently they were using invisible type on my screen because nothing was showing up there! WTF!

I did the cleaning and defrag stuff -which I might add seemed to take forever! Yeah, things were really running VERY slow here!

Then along about 7 a.m. or so, I noticed this strange beep-beep-beeping noise -not really loud but loud enough that I noticed it at any rate. It kind of sounded like this really obnoxious alarm clock that Bill has that does this really horrid, very, VERY LOUD beep-beep-beeping and which he doesn't seem to hear and relies on Mandy or Kate to turn the damned thing off every morning instead of him getting up himself to hit the snooze button. (Ah ha -now there is yet another of those little irritating things I wrote about in an earlier post today and I had forgotten about how much this stupid alarm clock annoys me if it goes on and on and on, almost forever, so mornings!)

But again, my rambling style kicked in there and I was digressing. My apologies. Let's get back to the computer problems.

This beeping kept on and on -but still fairly faint and that noise, plus the fact I couldn't type in anything anywhere on the computer compelled me about 8:30 a.m. to call a friend on the other end of town to see if he was busy. He just happens to know a lot about computers and problems and how to fix things, etc. and used to work on my old computer for me all the time.

well, Bobby said he would come over in a little while and take a look at things and that he might have to take the computer over to his house and work on it the next day.

SAY WHAT? You can't work on it till tomorrow? I almost yelled that in a really high-pitched squeaky voice I get when I am really, really upset!

Ok, I calmed down and said that would be fine. It would have to be ok because I knew I sure as heck couldn't afford to take this thing into the computer shop and leave it there for how knows how long it would take them to even look at it.

Well, Bobby showed up about two hours later, listened, heard the beep-beeping, saw that the typing wasn't registering and promptly removed the case to begin by doing a little cleaning out around the fan area.

Before he got the case off, he scared the living bejesus out of me when he remarked that he hoped I hadn't fried my poor lovely little computer if the fan was all plugged up and such. And then, when he took the case off to clean with his neat little can of "Duster" I think he was sure that was going to be the case because the accumulation of dust was well, it really was almost unimaginable that this machine could accumulate that much in the way of dust balls and not catch itself on fire or some such!

My next-door neighbor had told me a couple weeks ago -when I asked him about cleaning the dust out -that all I needed to do was to remove the cover and just "brush it away." When I mentioned having been told that, I could see poor Bobby cringe then as he asked me if I'd done that and I told him no, cause I couldn't figure out how to get the case to come off!

Well, he "dusted" and he "dusted" and he "dusted some more and more and more till finally, the insides looked like new -shiny, clean and such.

We turned it back on in hopes that all would now be okay only to hear the damned beep-beeping yet again and still, no typing that could be seen either.
After snooping around some more, pulling this connection and that one, finally when Bobby disconnected the keyboard, the beeping stopped. So he asked if I still might have a keyboard around from the old computer -one that worked that is. I thought I did but neither Mandy nor I could find it, so Bobby went back home and found one he had laying around at his house, brought it over, hooked it up and Presto-Magic, it worked!

Seems the keyboard I had here was pretty much -well fried!

And in between answering Bobby's questions, trying to find things, and all, in my mind I was thinking about what I might have to do if in fact this computer had been dead in the water.

Heaven knows, I sure can't afford to buy another new desktop but maybe, just maybe, if it turned out to be the worst case scenario, I could at least find a laptop to replace this puppy. But then again, new laptops don't come cheap either so maybe a used one would work. Whatever. But I was worried and yes indeedy, let me tell you, I was scared too -darned scared -because I knew going without my computer/internet/blogging fix daily would send my system into a withdrawal of a mega magnitude and a whole lot of other little things that irritate would be doing a royal number on my head then, for sure!

But thankfully, all is well that ends well and Wednesday night, Mandy picked up a new keyboard for me and we can return the one Bobby loaned us now too!

But you know, all this did get me to thinking a bit anyway that having some kind of laptop would really be nice here cause then I could surf to my heart's content and not worry about having to share all the time with the rest of the computer hogs in the house!

It's the Little Things

The first three days of this week brought about some things that, for us, for this family, were really exciting!

You know by now that things here are often measured by standards that differ from the supposed "norm" with respect to the kids and what they do or what they are learning.

Some of the things that happen here and make our socks go up and down are far from what probably excites others -unless that is, you maybe happen to have an autistic child in your home, somewhere in your family or acquaintances and then, you have a better grasp on how important some events are to us.

This week, Kurtis has done some things that really shocked us -a lot!

I know I've mentioned on various occasions that both Maya and Kurtis tend to be very picky eaters. This is often not an unusual thing for autistic children -or so it seems from other parents Mandy and I have come to know via the Autism information groups she belongs to and other bloggers who write about autism and whose blogs I read.

Both kids tend to like macaroni and cheese -for openers and after than, chicken nuggets (occasionally chicken fingers can be subbed), french fries and or burgers from Mickey D's and the like. But meats, in general, are not on these kids list of foods they will eat. Forget about serving them roast beef or pork, mashed potatoes with gravy -often a big favorite with other kids holds no warm and fuzzy spot with Maya and Kurt. Although, they will both occasionally eat plain mashed potatoes but don't even think of putting a drop of gravy on 'em or all hell will break loose at the dining room table!

Pasta, in general, is usually acceptable to Maya and certain kinds of pasta will be eaten by Kurtis but for him, it's a matter of texture and often color plays into his food likes and dislikes too. He used to like spaghetti but now, if we have spaghetti with tomato/meat sauce, it is no longer high on his list of favorites -and it appears to be the sauce he dislikes although I can make the same type of sauce and serve it on bowknot pasta or ravioli and he will usually eat it then. Yeah, a lot of "go figures" surface at most every meal here.

Well anyway, back to my actual story here -just went off the beaten path a bit to explain some of their likes/dislikes, in particular, Kurt's.

On Monday, my son stopped by and while here, he raided the refrigerator and fixed himself a big, big plate full of leftovers from our supper on Sunday -the little cookout we had, ya know. He had a burger, a hot dog, mac salad, broccoli and cauliflower salad and some pasta salad on this plate and was chowing down when Kurtis happened to see him sitting with that big plate of food and decided it was time for him to stand in front of Uncle Clate and assume a kind of "begging" position. Now my son is aware of Kurt's finicky eating habits but he asked the little guy anyway, "Kurt -you wanna bit of this?" and with that, he speared a piece of green rotini pasta from the pasta salad and waved it under Kurt's nose.

Now sometimes, Kurt likes to play little games with us too and make us think he might actually be interested in some certain foods we are having but then, once you give it to him, if he even puts it in his mouth at all, inevitably, he will just sort of roll it around a bit and then spit it out into his hand and then, put it on someone else's plate -or worse, try to put it back into the serving dish.

So I watched in amazement though as Clate offered Kurt this piece of pasta and the little guy opened his mouth, and after a second or two, actually began to chew it and then, amazingly, he swallowed it! The reason this shocked us was because the pasta salad didn't have a creamy cheesey sauce or a tomato-type sauce and it was cold with a vinegary topping on it which is a totally new taste for him to even think about trying.

So we were quite pleased with this little bit of advancement, if you will.

Then, Tuesday night, we had fried chicken for supper and no way would this child ever consider eating chicken of that type. But, later in the evening, Mandy was snacking on a drumstick and here comes Kurt, the little beggar asking for a bite, no less. So she pulled off some meat and gave it to him, fully expecting him to spit it back out but nope, he chewed it, swallowed it and the big shocker there was that he also came back not just for seconds but for fourths! Go figure!

Wednesday found me getting ready to make myself some lunch and I had a yen for a scrambled egg sandwich with a bit of cheese melted on the eggs. I got the eggs out of the fridge, had them laying on the counter as I got the little frying pan out, some margarine to grease the pan, etc., and here comes Kurt, to see what I was doing.

He spied the eggs on the counter and immediately started jabbering with the only word in a string of vocabulary I could understand being "Egg, egg, egg!" So I asked him if he'd like some scrambled egg with cheese and again, I got this long string of unintelligible words but with an occasional egg thrown in for good measure.

I made my sandwich and pulled a little of the egg mixture aside, placed it in a little bowl and sat him up to the table to see what he would do.

Keep in mind this is a child who has never accepted eating an egg before -not scrambled, not fried, not soft-boiled, not hard-boiled, not deviled! This is the "no eggs, please" child except for the one time or two that he did actually ingest a tiny bit of egg salad. Here again, enter in the "go figure" thinking.

I watched in a bit of a state of shock as he began to taste the scrambled eggs and then, he devoured what I'd given him!

Yay, Yay! Mandy wasn't at home when this happened and when she came back to the house and I told her what he'd eaten, she too was in a state of shock as well then!

Also, one other lttle thing here too is that the past two days have all been really relatively quiet, very peaceful, enjoyable to the max with Kurtis.

Why and how is that, you ask?

Because since Tuesday afternoon, Maya has been up at Mandy's girlfriend, Jen-Jen's place, vacationing I guess you could say. And Kurtis has had no big sister tormenting him on an almost constant basis because of Maya's absence.

Granted, I do miss not having Maya around -really and truly I do miss the little troublemaker that she often can be with Kurtis -but at the same time, it's been a nice break for us -with the elmination of the petty squabbles and it's also been nice and probably equally as big a relief for him not to have to endure Maya grabbing any toy he thinks he wants to play with or Maya trying to hog the limelight too. Whatever, ya know! But he has really been shining and a lot too, the past 2-3 days now!

Just wanted to share this recent change in our house and let you know we're all still thinking about how with either or both of these kids, more often than not, it's the little things others take forgranted that really do mean a lot -a whole lot -to all of us here, ya know!

Inquiring Minds

You know how they (meaning "experts") like to say that often, in a marriage, it is the little irritants that cause a breakdown and often, ultimate failure of the relationship? Like one person squeezes the toothpaste in the middle, the other at the end, rolling the tube as he/she goes and this causes all kinds of friction which then causes the communications to cease and the relationship to come to an end, stuff like that. Petty things, for sure, but irritating nonetheless.

Well today, I guess I am having a "petty things that irritate me" kind of day right now.

For instance, I use a sitemeter on my blog. I think probably most every one who blogs has some kind of thing or other and it tells us little things about people who visit our blogs. However, I tend to get a bit irritated at times when I check my stats on my sitemeter and I see virtually nothing there in the way of actual information then about the person visiting my blog. I hate it when it says "Unknown ISP" for instance, or if the person is using AOL, the it doesn't give me a geographic location for the other blogger. Inquiring minds want to know these things ya know, which is why I signed up for the darned sitemeter to begin with, because you see, I have one of those "inquiring minds."

Well, sometimes I do anyway.

I hate it too when I get this stupid spam on my e-mail from these people who are writing to tell me how they have a kazillion dollars and they will share it with me if I help them secret it out of this bank in some place in Nigeria or Kenya or Switzerland or wherever and I know this is all a farce, spam, using up valuable bandwidth or something like that.

Things like this just irritate me and right now, I wish there were something I could get -like a barcode scanner that I could use on my computer to identify the person who is, in effect, spamming me today on my AIM instant messenger.

This person "hit" me first and I didn't recognize the screenname but thought maybe it was someone I do know but who has changed their screenname or some such so I answered and then this fool starts asking me why I am talking to him or her, whatever the case may be and who I am, etc. I responded saying that he/she had hit me first so who are you and so on, so forth.

Wonder if they do make things though that you can use to identify all these unknowns in the internet or blogosphere or Instant Messenger Land?

Again -inquiring minds want to know, ya know.

Losing Factors

I have a reputation with my high school classmates who think I have a fantastic memory.

As a matter of fact, usually whenever the "girls" from our class and I get together for our once-a-month-lunch, it is a rare occasion that something from the distant past doesn't come up in conversation and I remember events or even sometimes all kinds of details too about stuff that they, my friends, have pretty much forgotten about.

And they ask me "How do you remember all this stuff?"

To be honest, I have no clue about this remembering thing because my kids will tell you just the opposite about me, that I can'r remember beyond five minutes some times, or at most, maybe 24 hours!

It is a bit of a strange phenomenon for sure that I can remember stuff from forty to almost sixty years ago, and often clear as a bell too, but more recent stuff, not so much.

It's sure not as if I have notebook memory or anything like that, ya know.

But this past Sunday after church, even my long-term memory screwed up on me.

There was a name listed on the prayer chain in our church bulletin and I recognized it immediately but then, had a question in my mind as to whether the person named was the one I knew or if maybe it was a son of his or something like that. Now, our neighbor up the street, who I knew was a close relative of his was there, so after church I waltzed up to her, figuring to ask and make sure that I knew who this party on the prayer chain really is.

And so I asked her, "Is that person your uncle or your nephew?" She gave me this really confused, quizzical look as she answered, "No, it's my brother."

And then it dawned on me, yes, her brother -who I have known since his birth, since his parents brought him home from the hospital about 55 years ago now!

What happened there wasn't really that I forgot but rather that I had the question floating in my mind and when I posed it to her, my tongue just got a bit discombobulated.

Well, that's my story, my logic, and it's the excuse I'm sticking to at any rate!

Looking Back...

We had company for supper here on Sunday - Bill's Dad (Pappy), a good friend of ours, Joe (aka "Precious) and Pastor Carrie.

Bill got a tank of gas (propane) for the grill, fired it up and cooked burgers, hot dogs and also, some polish sausages for a slightly different taste treat. Meanwhile, Mandy made a very nice pasta salad, with pepperoni, black olives and cheese chunks using the tricolor rotini pasta along with a container of broccoli-cauliflower-bacon salad. I fixed a big bowl of macaroni salad, baked beans and made a chocolate cake iced with brown sugar frosting.

After Pap and Joe had gone home, Mandy, Pastor Carrie and I were seated around the dining room table and we got to talking about how things have changed in just the short period of time Pastor Carrie has been here.

It will be a year in mid-July since she arrived on the scene to take over the duties as the minister to our congregation and I'm seeing as well as feeling she has a good "take charge" attitude but not overly forceful -just enough to actually motivate folks.

But most of our conversation centered on Kurtis and the changes she -and we -have seen come about in him since she first encountered him -and Maya.

One of her earliest encounters with Kurtis came about at a time when he was definitely not having a good day. It was the Monday last September when he had his tonsils and adenoids removed over at Dubois Hospital and when, much to Mandy's surprise, Pastor Carrie arrived there early in the morning, sat with Mandy while the surgery was taking place and then, helped Mandy and the nurses to cope with him after the fact -holding him down while the nurses tried to re-insert his iv's, tried to help get him somewhat restrained then too so he couldn't continue to try to pull the ivs out either. And in general, since she spent the bulk of that day with Mandy and Kurtis, she just provided the moral support, a bit of comfort and peace for Mandy as they all struggled with a very upset, frostrated and frightened little two-year-old boy!

Since that episode (and the subsequent hospitalization that week when he refused to drink anything) Pastor Carrie has spent a lot of time around and with Kurtis -at the hospital that week and with several visits here at our house, joining us for supper and entertaining both the kids very much after the meal.

As a result, Kurtis has become very friendly with her -making up to her early on. He knows her -recognizes her and yesterday morning, when Mandy was having a bit of difficulty at first to get him to wake up so she could get him ready to go to church, she asked him if he wanted to go see Pastor Carrie and that did the trick. He jumped right up and eagerly alloeed Mandy to get him dressed and ready to go.

When Pastor Carrie first met Kurtis he had no vocabulary -nothing at all! No way to communicate with any of us as to his wants or needs. It wasn't until around January/February that he finally started to pick up using a word here and there, using sign language to let us know he wanted "MORE Milk" and sometimes, by leading us to things he wanted.

The vocabulary was slow to arrive with him and no, he hasn't made progress with it as quckly as Maya had as he is still often very hard to understand. You really have to be around him pretty much all the time in order to know what it is he is trying to say in some cases -like "helicopter" -which he recognizes, loves and his pronunciation is sort of like "a-dopter" -which since we now know that is his word for that kind of aircraft is easy for us to recognize now.

But, considering a mere 9-10 months ago, he couldn't say anything, had no means of making his wants and needs known to us, to see him now and his responses is most certainly a miracle.

Since he can say a goodly number of words, identify various people, things, etc., he has become much easier to live with now. Much calmer. Okay, that doesn't mean he doesn't still get really angry and upset at times, pitch a royal hissy fit or a mega meltdown, but those things are fading somewhat -getting a little toned down if/when they do occur now.

He can identify his Dad's pickup truck by the sound it makes when he is coming down the road as well as his Uncle Clate's truck too. And in each case, he will run to the loveseat in front of the bay window, climb up there and watch which ever person it is as they park their vehicle out front and all the while, he is calling either "Daddy! Daddy!" or "Un Quate" which is how he pronounces Uncle Clate's name.

It's amazing to watch how he and Maya often interact these days too. Yes, she is still "Miss Bossy-pants" with him and sometimes, she isn't overly friendly -likes to push him, trip him and even hit him at times but still and all, he is always watching her and picks up a lot from doing that too. (Yeah, some of what he picks up from her we have to try to undo her teachings at times but then again, that's pretty much the norm for siblings in a fairly close age range, isn't it?

Last night, as we women sat and chatted, the kids were romping around, playing relatively nicely as a matter of fact, together. Maya even sat with him and "read" him a book -pointing out various things to him and in some instances, he pointed out stuff to her and called them by their proper names too.

When it came time for Pastor Carrie to leave, Maya was asked if she was going to give Pastor Carrie a "goodbye hug" and she initially refused. Okay, it's not the end of the world for her to get contrary like that so we ignored it. But, when Mandy asked Kurtis if he wanted to give Pastor Carrie a hug bye-bye, he stood and thought for about 5-10 seconds and then, ran right over to her and gave her a great big, really bonafide squeeze of a hug!

And, as he did that and Maya watched, saw us applauding Kurt's actions, she then came forward and said she wanted to give Pastor Carrie a hug too! Yep! Monkey see, monkey do, ya know -except around here sometimes the monkeys trade places too!

This morning, Kurt's speech therapist was here -worked with him for about an hour or so and he responded very well to her. She even had some games which she had Maya playing them with Kurtis in an effort to help both of them absorb the concept of sharing and playing fair, etc. For a good portion of the session, the kids did play nicely, followed direction and such but then, as so often happens, the good things come to an end. Today that came about when Miss Maya decided to allow her bossy side to take over and she first hit Kurtis with his book, then she hit Sam -Kurt's TSS aide -with a book and when Roxanne, the speech therapist picked her up to put her in time out, she kicked at her. From then on and through out much of the day, her behavior has been in the bucket -not very nice at all and then, all of a sudden, she will get really sweet and nice -allowing the worm to turn, ya know -and be very loving and helpful to Kurtis.

The thing is here all kids act like that at the ages these two are right now and especially when the other child involved is a sibling. So how do you separate what behavior is the "normal" for a three-year-old or a five-year-old and what behavior is the autism surfacing?

Sometimes, it is really difficult to determine the difference there.

We know the autism certainly is still present -and yes, accounted for but more and more we also see more of the skill sets showing up in both the kids that are also present in NT children as well. Some -maybe even many -of the autism traits will most likely stay with these kids but perhaps will only be evident in a kind of "toned down" fashion or something like that. But as long as we're seeing that both of these children are learning, absorbing things that will ultimately help them to function better as they grow up, then I think they will both do quite well down the road from now.

Peace.

We Went to the Children's Fair....

This past Saturday, Mandy, the children and I all went down to Bellefonte for the Children's Fair held every year there to raise monies for the Bellefonte Parks. It's a nice little event with lots of fun, age-relevant games for children.

We went there last year too and Kurtis spent the day in his stroller although Maya had a fairly good time with some of the amusement features -like a Moonwalk and something else along those lines.

This year, we didn't even go near the Moonwalk as there was always a very large line awaiting their turn and Kurtis is not near patient enough to do waiting in lines of even a small variety, plus he was too frightened of the Moonwalk to begin with.

Mandy had him on a leash-yeah, the little guy had a "monkey on his back" with is a nifty little gadget, like a backpack, which gives a child a bit of freedom to walk, run about a little but keeps them in check too with the leash that someone in charge controls to keep them from separating from you, from getting lost, from getting into things where they could easily get injured too.

We tried this leash once on Maya when we went to a local Labor Day picnic about two years ago but it didn't work to well with her as she kept getting tangled up and tripping in it and she also had a couple meltdowns with it too which really upset her and Mandy.

Kurtis, on the other hand, once he realized he could only reach so far reacted very well to it so with him, it was a nifty tool.
Here's Mandy with Maya and Kurtis as we set off towards the streets blocked off for the fair.
This is a mountain laurel bush in a front yard along our route to the fair. See how beautiful the blossoms on it are and how many have fallen off already too. Bellefonte is only about 32 miles from our home but it is just that much further ahead of us with respect to the growing season there. The Mountain Laurel bush at the front corner of my house hasn't even begun to bud or just barely, at the very least.
Here's some of the other flowers blooming at the same house where the Mountain Laurel was in full blossom. Isn't this just ever so pretty though?
This is my older daughter, Carrie, seated at the candy table that she and her fiance, Robert, were in charge of managing at the fair. Carrie has been volunteering to help at this event for several years now at least since her son, my grandson, Alex, was in kindergarten and possibly before that when he was in preschool.
Here's Mandy with Kurt and Maya, in line for Maya to go "fishing" at the little booth being run by her cousin, Alexander -my grandson! Alex, like his Mom, has often helped out at the fair too and this year, his volunteer work would count for him towards the community service hours he will eventually need for graduation! He will be 12 in August and WOW, how incredible is it that he is able to start collecting community service hours now for his graduation requirements?
Here's Maya, still at Alexander's fishing booth, with Mandy and Kurtis loking on. Here you can see the "monkey" on Kurt's back.
Here's Maya with the cute little "hand painted" banner she made. The kids had a choice of colors for their banner -Maya chose the Navy/Black, and then they selected a color of paint to stick their one hand in and get it all soaked up with the paint. Maya chose lavender and really slapped her hand down hard and firm with the paint so it turned out quite nice. Unfortunately, it got placed in Aunt Carrie's bag at her table and went home with her instead of us but that's okay, Maya can get it the next time she goes to spend the night with Aunt Carrie.
This is the booth run by the National Philatelic Association (located between State College and Bellefonte, by the way) and the children were each given a little packet along with a slotted envelope in which they could place any of the hundreds of stamps they had to choose from. A really neat and fun way to try to introduce kids to the fun of stamp collecting. Plus, this booth was also a freebie -an extra nice gesture on the part of the Association, don't you agree?
Here's Maya doing the "marble" painting -where the kids were given a special paper which was placed in a plastic pan and then, they could choose three paint colors which were squirted in the center of the paper. A sort of marble-type item was then dropped into the paint and the kid received a little stick -kind of like the kind for eating ice cream out of the little cups -and they pushed the marble around and through the paint til they got a design they liked. The paintings then were laid out under a tree to dry and the child could then come by later to retrieve their painting (each had the child's name on the bottom corner). However, don't you know, when we left, we forgot to go pick up Maya's art work but I did get a picture of it.
The one in the center-front is Maya's artwork. Figures that the colors she chose would be the purple, red and blue -so she got even more purple that way, huh?


Here's a video too of the Irish Step Dancers who performed again this year at the fair. I really enjoy seeing these kids and watching how well they do this intricate dance. We joke that maybe Maya should take up that dancing because often, when she runs, she's on her tip-toes and also, she does it in a sort of skipping, sideways gait. Although when I showed this video earlier today to our neighbor and Maya tried to imitate these kids, I decided maybe she is lacking a good bit too much in the rhythm department to make it as a dancer.



And here we were back to the first table we encountered when we arrived -with my daughter and fiance -Carrie and Robert -and it was time to head over the mountain and go home!

But it sure was a nice, fun day and the kids enjoyed themselves a lot!

"I Was There"

I've told you for the past couple of weeks now about Maya having to learn a song for the Children's Choir at our church. The name of the song is actually "The Borning Song" although I've been referring to it by the first line -"I Was There To Hear Your Borning Cry."

Well, today was the big day as the Children's Choir joined forces with the Senior Choir at our church and performed this number. And I even managed to take a video of them too -just so I could share it here and also, so we can send it to Maya's Grandpa ("Poppy) -out in Laughlin, Nevada -so he can see -and hear -how well his little granddaughter is doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIWVLDhnIjo

I tried to load this video on the post but it wouldn't finish processing so that's why I have the url for it here!

The reason for the combined musical efforts today was because the service was in honor of the graduates from our parish. We had several high school as well as college graduates honored today -including one man who got his Master's in Business from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Because when I took the video, I was seated behind a few other members of the church -didn't want to get up and move to the other side of the church and right up front as I was afraid that might be too much distraction for Maya and she wouldn't be able to concentrate on the words and the music.

But, if you look on the video, on the left side you will see there is someone seated there with long, brown hair and that is our neighbor's daughter, Katie, who graduated from high school this week. This "Katie" is also the granddaughter of one of my best friends from childhood, Kate, and the man singing a solo part in the song is Katie's grandfather, Kate's husband, Jim.

Oh and another thing too -about the video -the lady playing the flute (seen off to the far right) is our minister, Pastor Carrie Anderson. Gotta give credit where credit is due, ya know.

Seems that Wednesday night when the kids met to practice with the Senior Choir, when it came time for Jim to sing his solo part, Maya looked up at Deb, our other neighbor and the director of the Children's Choir to ask her, "Why is he singing that now?" That created a little amusement for Jim at the time, as well as for Deb!

Also, on the video, seated two pews in front of me and on the right, you will see a lady and perhaps you can make out the man seated next to her. That's a couple -both in their 90s now - Helen and Chet Amick -who are celebrating their 70th wedding anniverary this week. I think this is so incredible to see a couple who have been together that many years! Chet also celebrated is 92nd birthday earlier this week as well so it's been a lot of celebrating for that family!

After church, I greeted Helen and Chet -hugs all around ya know -and commended both of them on the wedding anniversary. Chet's response to my comment about 70 years being a long time andhe laughed, saying "Yes! And all with the same woman too!" Although they do have some health issues, they both manage to attend church frequently and are both very, very positive and upbeat people too!

Another nice thing about today's service was that my son< Clate and his girlfriend, Betty, along with Betty's daughter, Rachel - were also at church today. Kurtis was very well-behaved during church -well, "well-behaved" for him anyway. No, he wasn't sitting still -far from it! He ran back and forth in our pew between Mandy to my left and down to "chat" with Uncle Clate who was seated off to my right -with Maya, Rachel and Betty in between us. I said after church that for all the running back and forth that Kurtis did this morning, he should be all tuckered out and come home now to take a nice big fat nap. So far though, the nap deal hasn't cropped up!

He wasn't altogether quiet either but compared to other times when we've been brave, adventuresome and taken him with us to church, at least today Mandy didn't have to take him out to the narthex because he was being way to noisy and disruptive and that, for Kurtis, is a first.

Baby steps, I know, for him to learn the proper behavior and procedure but at least, one visit at a time, he's slowly learning how he is supposed to act. Maybe one of these days he'll have the "sit still and be quiet" skills all learned and able to put them into action!

One more thing here too -I'd really appreciate it if those of you reading this who believe in the power of prayer would keep three people dealing with cancer and who have a connection to members of our church in prayer. First, there is my former next-door neighbor, Micheal Little, down in northern Virginia. "Uncle Mike" as he is referred to by my kids and me, is not just our friend but his niece, Nanette, is a member of our church. Nanette's brother, Jerry Cartright too is now on our prayer chain as he was recently diagnosed with a nodule on his larnyx which was cancerous. (He is a nephew of "Uncle Mike's" and they are about the same age as well. And last -but sure as heck not least -is Renee Folmar Long -daughter of Betty Larson Folmar and her late husband, Bill. Renee goes back in my life almost as long as do Uncle Mike and Jerry as I've known here since her parents first got her as a foster child back in the late 50s. She was the cutest little girl, so outgoing and friendly and was one of my favorite children back then as I used to babysit for her and her siblings. Yeah, that was a long, looonnngg time ago, I know. But anyway, Renee was recently diagnosed with a very severe form of lung cancer and is now receiving treatment -radiation and chemo both, apparently. So anyway, any extra prayers coming their way I'm sure would be much appreciated by all three of them, as well as their families as they ALL must learn to cope with this disease, the treatments and hopefully, a positive outcome for all three of them.

Sure would be wonderful if someday cancer will be eradicated completely, wouldn't it? I know that if caught early enough many people can be cured and thankfully, I am -so far -in that number. But of course, that also still depends too on the type of cancer involved as well. But it is something that eventually tends to hit all of us -either directly or in our families or with good friends -and it does take a big toll too on all surrounding the individuals involved, for sure.

Now, it's time for me to get started getting the rest of the food ready for our supper this evening. Pastor Carrie will be joining us this evening for a little "cookout" -burgers and hot dogs, of course -along with macaroni salad, baked beans, broccoli and cauliflower salad too that Mandy made and who knows what else we can pull together for our evening meal. Hopefully, Clate and his girlfriend, Betty, will be able to join us too and make it a really good, fun gathering in the back yard.

Kind of a summer kickoff for us then that way too!

Hope you're all enjoying some beautiful weather today, have a great Sunday and a wonderful week ahead as well!

Kittens, Anyone?

I've been telling you for the past six weeks now about the four cute little kittens we have here. I know I put a picture or two of them on my blog when they were first born and I might have posted a picture somewhere in between too but today, I'm gonna show you them as they are today -rambunctious and still cute as all get out too!

Although we have names (sort of) for them, I have to be honest here and tell you that I can't tell them apart to say exactly which is which by name! There are two orange kittens -one is Milo, the other is Sherbet (as in Orange Sherbet) and the two peach/beige colored kittens are Dora and Peaches. Although I'm not sure if Dora is a female and that name is appropriate or if Dora should perhaps become "Dorian" or maybe Diego (since the Dora is for "Dora the Explorer" and that kitten has always been the "explorer" of the pack!
Here's all four of them, romping around on the sofa. I think the one in the middle, front is Milo -simply because it looks to be the furriest/fluffiest of the group and supposedly that's why it got the name Milo -although I don't know what the connotation is there. Go figure, I guess.
This is Dora (or Diego) the Explorer, doing what she/he does best -exploring!

And, here's the little explorer again -at the top of the climb.

Here's Sherbet -a climber too, but usually not quite as adventurous as sibling, Dora/Diego.
This is Dora and Milo engaged in some active playtime.
All four of them nipping at each other -mostly playing with the other's tails. I think -if I have it right here, the first one on the left is Milo, then there's Sherbet playing with Dora and that leaves Peaches as the one with only the tail showing behind Milo.

I wish each one of them had some really distinguishing characteristic so I could then be able to identify each one and tell them apart!

Here's all of the cats and kittens -the large orange is Nina, the mother cat and the grey cat to the back is Chino -one of the kittens from the litter that Mama cat, Jorge, had a year ago. Jorge disappeared back around October or November one night -snuck out of the house and never returned. We hunted all over the area here but never found her. And right now, Chino apparently has decided to go off wandering too -must have escaped yesterday afternoon when Mandy, the kids and I were away for most of the day - but this worries me too now because she hasn't yet returned.

Ah, exciting life here in the household, ya know.

If anyone would like a lovely little, playful kitten, feel free to leave a note and send me your name and full mailing address.

Have kittens, will ship, ya know!

When Sad Things Are Good Things

It's time once again for that Friday phenomena begun by Shelley Tucker of This Eclectic Life" where we take events or thoughts that might possible be not to great and try to put a good spin to them. If you think you'd like to play along in this venture, here's Shelley's link and the instructions for doing this on Fridays.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in many ways. The weather was lovely -quite cooperative for a change this week and Mandy and I left home around 9 a.m. for our drive down to Pittsburgh and my appointment to see the surgeon who did the colostomy on me 2 1/2 years ago in October of 2007. We've been making this trip twice a year now, spring and fall, for my checkups and truth be told, Mandy and I both enjoy these a lot too for various reasons.

As long as my appointments were always in the fall or spring-time, the drive to see my doctor there is not really that bad. We can make it -point-to-point -in about 3 hours and that even allows us a little extra time in case of construction and/or a stop for a snack, beverage or potty as well as finding a spot in one of the parking garages at UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center).

The garage thing sometimes is the most daunting part of the whole trip. Finding a parking spot often is the least problematic item there though. Back in October on our visit, we got lost trying to find the garage and level on which my little jeep was parked! It took us close to 45 minutes of wandering around in the bowels of UPMC and wandering up to guards, strangers too, asking for directions to a point where we could again get our bearings.

Yesterday, Mandy took a picture with her cell phone of the level in the garage where the jeep was parked in case we got lost again! Forearming us apparently worked though as we had no difficulty find the spot at all!

Another thing we like about this trip to the big "burgh" is that after my visit is over with the doctor we either head up Route 79 north to Grove City Outlet Mall and then usually manage to squeeze in a visit of some sort after that with my niece (Angie) and her family -or we go south to a newer outlet mall just outside of Washington, PA and there, we can hook up with a bit of a visit with my youngest cousin, Becky, and Mandy can even wrangle a get-together at the mall with her friend, Rychelle, who she met through some online autism support groups.

But probably the nicest thing about these visits to see Dr. Hughes is just plain seeing him again, talking to him, discussing any and whatever problems I may have had in the past six months or issues he thinks I should be aware that could occur, joking with him about children too as he has three children and he's always willing to chat and compare notes there too. The absolute best thing though about him -ranking right up there with his knowledge and skill as a top surgeon in the intestinal region of one's body has got to be his overall appearance and most particularly, his eyes! Oh my yes, those eyes!

After the very first time I met with him and had both my daughters with me on that trip, all three of us I think spent the bulk of the ride from Pittsburgh down to Washington, PA to visit my cousin Becky and have our last opportunity to see her mother then too (sadly, that Aunt passed about a week or so after our visit) discussing and comparing notes with each other on just how much of a hunk Dr. Hughes is and how gorgeous are those beautiful blue eyes.

Well, my visit yesterday was good in that after checking out a few things -the normal routine check-in stuff and a few things beyond that for colostomy patients, Dr. Hughes then decided that he feels the bulk of the problems that could occur with a colostomy are behind me now and unless there is some major emergency or other, I don't have to return to see him for these routine checkups.

Yes, that is good news, sure it is. And yet, why do I feel a let down from hearing that? Thing is, so did Mandy! I'm pretty sure he is already more than aware that many of his female patients all drool over him but I wonder how many of them told him upon being basically released that they will be telling another family member that these checkups are still necessary and using his name in vain to have an excuse then so Mandy and I can still squeeze in our twice a year, shopping expeditions along with a potential to visit some family and/or friends too in the process.

Needless to say, he chuckled over that aspect that Mandy and I already have in our plans.

But apparently we must have impacted on him somewhat too as he told us when we were ready to leave that he will miss not seeing us on this regular basis as he's come to know both Mandy and me quite well over these past two plus years.

Yesterday, after leaving his office and finding the jeep with no problem, we headed out and away from Pittsburgh. Found Route 79 with no problems whatsoever this time and arrived at Grove City Outlet Mall around 2 p.m. My niece and her two little girls, Lizzie and Gracie, met us there and were able to wander around the mall for a little over an hour with Mandy as she was trying to find some good deals for the kiddos. I took off on my own for about two hours -got some new pajamas (much needed) for Kurtis as well as pj's, a pair of shorts, two tops and two pair of knee-knocker type pants for Maya too. Even managed to snag a couple bargains for myself as well in the "unmentionables" department. Also items very much needed and aren't they always the last things on our shopping lists too? Why is that anyway?

We stopped in Brookville on the way home and had a huge supper at this buffet-style restaurant there at the interestate exit -Pyler's. Normally I love this place but last night's fare while decent, wasn't as good as what we've often enjoyed there in the past. Guess the items on the dinner buffet just weren't hitting our taste buds the way they normally do is all but we still managed to eat more than enough anyway.

From there, we stopped at Dubois so I could pick up embroidery floss at Joann Fabric's store there -to replace the floss Mandy had bought for me on Saturday over in State College but which mysteriously had managed to disappear over the weekend -without a trace!

After that, we had to stop at Mandy's best friend's place to gather Miss Maya up and bring her home as Jen-Jen had come down to the house after Maya got home from school yesterday and took her to her place to kind of give Bill and Katie a bit of a break from the child-care stuff ongoing here.

Once home, relaxing a little bit, the aches began to fire up in my legs from all that walking around the mall! I know if I would indulge in doing a bit more walking around town here -like maybe daily -that kind of exercise wouldn't bother me nearly as much as it does. Note to self: Remember to take some walks as often as possible. Might even help take off a few very unwanted poundage too as a result of that little bit of exercise!

Then, before getting ready for bed last night, I decided I needed a nice cool drink so I got out the iced tea from the fridge and poured myself a glass of it. That's when I saw a cereal bowl filled with macaroni and cheese -the kind made from a box, ya know (not that there's anything wrong exactly with box mixes as we always try to keep several of those on hand for emergency purposes at meals when we know Maya and Kurt will turn their noses up at whatever it is I have fixed for the family) but the thing of this discovery yesterday was that I had mentioned Wednesday night to Katie and Bill that they wouldn't need to worry at all about cooking anything yesterday because there were leftovers enough from three separate meals we'd had this week that they could nuke and which both Maya and Kurtis would eat too! One of those was a fairly large container of leftover homemade mac and cheese from supper on Tuesday night and that alone would have easily fed all four of them here and sure no need then to cook up another big batch of the stuff. And then, to stick it in the fridge, uncovered -well, that was just adding insult to injury in my book and ruining a good leftover too! Why put it into a cereal bowl, uncovered, when we have a whole cupboard full of various sizes of Tupperware and/or Rubbermaid storage containers and all but three of them have lids that go with them too?

Sometimes, I swear, I'll never understand the logic of a certain male who resides here too!

But then, I have to think about this a bit and that he was good enough to take a day off from work to stay home with the kids even though the bulk of the care for Maya and Kurtis did fall on Kate's shoulders -well, mainly Kurt's since Maya had school yesterday and I know there's not really an overabundance of men who would concede to doing that so their wife can transport their mother-in-law for a medical appointment 130 miles away -one way!

So looking at it from that perspective, yes indeed, I do see the good things there and can overlook the cooking of more food that was definitely not necessary!

And so today, I've been trying all morning and afternoon to finally get caught up on my blog reading and now that I did that, wrote this post, I'm gonna try to get Mandy to give up the recliner chair to me so I can get busy and begin working some more on this lovely tablecloth -now that I have enough of all the colors that I needed!

Maybe doing that embroidery stuff will relax me and free my mind up to think of something good to plan to serve for supper Sunday when our minister is coming here to share dinner with us. I love how Mandy springs these things on me!

Seriously, I don't really mind doing the cooking as long as I have a bit of an idea what others would like to eat from time to time too. Ok, a little help in the preparation would be nice too but just some meal ideas is my main issue right now.

And Sunday a.m. -at church -in honor of the high school and college graduates from our parish, the Children's Choir -which of course now includes Miss Maya -will sing with the Senior Choir the song "I Was There To Hear Your Borning Cry" and most of the congregation will dissolve in some tears over the music and the words as well as the under-lying reason for the choice of that song.

Yeah, sad but good, isn't it when so many folks become what a lot of others might consider to be sentimental fools.

That's ok with me as I'd much rather be with people like that than those who have no sentiment whatsoever, wouldn't you?

Have a great weekend now to all.

Chain Reactions

Holy Buckets! I've really fallen behind, lost track of time here. I just realized it has been four days -can you believe it, four whole days -since my last post!

So what's been happening in that time?

Nothing, really. Well, nothing much all that exciting anyway.

I'll start with Saturday afternoon when Mandy got home from her little shopping fling over at the monster sale in State College. I had given her a list of floss colors and quantities I figured I needed to use on the current tablecloth project and asked her to pick them up for me at Joanne Fabrics and she handed me this little bag with my "treasure" therein -about 10-12 skeins of floss, mostly in the green shades I needed. I promptly laid that little bag on the end table by the recliner and on top of the chart for the current project. Then, each time I would put my work down, I would lay it on top of that little bag of floss too -since I didn't have the time to stop and wind it all on cards and put it all in my storage boxes I bought and set up about 3 months or so back to keep my floss somewhat organized.

Yeah, it was one of those rare occasions back then when I actually took a couple baby steps along the path towards organization, ya know. In case you're wondering, it hasn't worked miracles in the organizational department, but it has helped somewhat so that makes it a good thing and progress in my book.

Sunday, I was a bit on the groggy side -for whatever reason I'm not really sure -but had gone out to lay down and take a little nap when I got a phone call from my grandson, Alexander. He wanted to know if my offer was still on that I would pick him up and bring him up here so he could meet Jonaton, the sonof the lady from Sweden who is visiting this area. Would I still do that? You betcha! Suddenly I was awake and moving a bit, stirred and turned the bbq ribs I had cooking in the crockpot, gave Mandy instructions about peeling and cubing some potatoes so we could have oven-browned potatoes with the ribs for dinner and away I went! Oh, and to make Mandy's time a little easier on her, I took Maya with me.

Away we went down the mountain to Milesburg where we met up with my ex-son-in-law, "Big Daddy" and got Alex into the jeep and zipped back on up home. I called my friend Janet -the lady Anneli and Company are staying with during this visit to make sure they were home, not planning anything drastic and made arrangements then to take Alex up to introduce him to Jonaton and vice versa. Again, I took Maya with us.

Now, I have to tell you this -Janet's home is a very large, very, very beautiful ranch home and there is very little, if anything, that would be lacking in her house. THere is an in-ground swimming pool, complete with a great sliding board going into it all of which is surrounded by a lovely patio, which is encircled then too with lots of very well-trimmed and beautiful shrubbery. In the basement of this home there is I guess what would be referred to by many as a rec room and in that area there is a pool table. So after the boys met, Janet suggested that maybe they might enjoy going down and playing pool -figuring (correctly) that having the boys get acquainted over a game of pool might just make the ice-breaking process proceed a lot easier. Which it did!

Meanwhile, upstairs -Janet, Anneli and I chatted about a lot of things and Anneli showed me a presentation she had done up on her computer consisting of quotes from various immigrants and/or first-generational people too about life here in the states or comparisons to their former lives in Sweden way back when. She also had several photographs in this presentation too and three of them were of people I had known over my life and had thought very highly of them too. One man had been the janitor at the high school I had attended so I knew him from there as well as through his children and from church too. Seeing his photo actually brought tears to my eyes as he was one of the sweetest, nicest men you'd ever hope to know.

To try to keep Maya fairly well-contained and entertained, Janet found some plain paper and a box of crayons as well as a couple little puzzle type games and Maya was kept quite busy entertaining herself. Janet also was quite surprised when she found out Maya knows the alphabet, can print it, counts very well and can write her numbers too. Then I informed her that Maya also has begun to read and she was quite astounded by the amount of progress and knowleedge this little girl has already and she's only attended pre-school programs set up primarily for autistic children! She will start kindergarten, as you know, this fall. I was still a bit on edge from time to time with Maya though as she can turn on a dime if the mood hits her and become a demon child at times but thankfully, she stayed on her very best behavior during our entire visit.

Yes I was quite proud of her for being so angelic. Well -angelic as far as Maya is able to manage at any rate.

We left and returned home, had a bite to eat and then, called Big Daddy to tell him we were ready to leave and determine if I would take Alex to Milesburg and meet his Dad there or just take him straight to their home. Big Daddy said if I didn't mind taking him to their home, that would be fine and that was a-okay with me too so, off we went.

Because his Dad wasn't there yet, I offered to Alex to take him to the home of his other grandparents and he said that would be excellent. They live just around the corner from where Alex and his Dad live so it sure was not problem in doing that.

As Alex went to get out of the jeep, he turned to me, threw his arms around me giving me a big, big hug and a kiss goodbye and told me "Thank you so much Gram for coming to get me and taking me up to meet Jonaton and spend this time with you. I really enjoyed it and I really appreciated it!"

Well, needless to say I was very happy to have him say that to me and it was more than obvious too by his expression and tone of voice that he meant what he said and wasn't just giving old Gram a bit of lip service. I had also promised him I will set him up with a g-mail e-mail account so he will be able then to communicate via e-mail with Jonaton in the future and also, as I told him, with a g-mail account, he can also read Grammy's blog and will be able to comment easily then on it too! To that idea his reaction was simply "Cool!"

Monday and Tuesday were both yucky days here -not just with the temps dropping a good bit and the dreariness with rain now and again, but with the havoc that stuff brings onto my joints as it seems to fire up my ankles, knees, hip joints and my lower back too into fits of achiness! That, plus I was just plain cold both days and could not seem to get warm no matter how many pieces of clothing I put on or how many blankets I wrapped around myself either! Today wasn't much different in that respect either as I have been freezing for most of the day again.

Now, if things had worked out the way I wanted them to, I would have, could have spent a lot of time Monday, Tuesday and today too working on the tablecloth but even that didn't come to pass. Mostly because Monday and Tuesday it seemed everyone and their brother was hell-bent on camping out in the recliner and that prevented me from working on my tablecloth then. You see, the table by the recliner is set up so as to hold whatever I need for whatever project I might be working on. It has just the right light available there plus, the electrical outlet there is just the right distance so I can easily hook up a heating pad to have behind my backside while I work on my projects too! And between the son-in-law camping there in the morning while he sips his morning cup of tea for well over an hour, then Kurt's TSS arrives and commandeers said chair for about 4-5 hours solid while Mandy proceeds to hog up the computer and the chair here, I can't get to my stuff to get a bloody thing done! Enter here a little more of the ARRRGH stuff I wrote about in my last post, ya know!

Tuesday afternoon, I had to do some stuff on the computer while Mandy was out doing some stuff and ended up having problems with the damned printer! Can't get it to release the paper it has just printed without it giving me an error that the paper has jammed, which it hasn't -it just sort of hangs there and the print cartridges clang and clink back and forth sounding for all the world like they are going to make the printer just blow apart! I ended up uninstalling the printer and re-installing it and still the same problem.

Then my mouse froze on me and I had a devil of a time getting that to correct itself. But eventually I was able to print out two attachments a cousin had sent me on our family tree on my Mom's Mother's side of my family. This side -also from Sweden -is the one which I've done very little research on Grandma's ancestors but have decided now I am going to purchase a three-month subscription to Genline -a really terrific ancestrial research medium for those of us with ancestors from that great country!

Then, finally last evening I was able to get to the recliner, hook up the heating pad and begin work -again -on the tablecloth. However, that is going to come to an abrupt end in the near future until I am able to get to a Joanne Fabric store -again -because somehow or other that little bag containing those 10-12 skeins of floss Mandy bought for me on Saturday have completely disappeared!

I darned near ripped the living room apart, as well as checking in the rat hole known as my bedroom too in case somehow, someone had magically transported that floss to my room or to some corner of the living room! However, all my searching was to prove to be in vain as the little bag has yet to re-appear! What gets me is that I had laid it upon the chart for my tablecloth and then, had the tablecloth itself, all kind of balled up ya know, laying on top of the floss so where the hell it went, is anyone's guess! It's not that it was directly out in the open and appealing or shall we say "calling" to a certain five year old who occasionally gets kind of sticky fingers!

But the floss is not the only thing of mine that has gone missing of late either. Last week I discovered that a brand-new bottle of Avon's cologne -Mesmerize -was no longer in the cabinet in the bathroom where I had put it, nor was a jar of some shimmering fragrance stuff called "Rare Gold" (also by Avon) in there where I had placed it either! Hmmm. Seeing as no one here has a clue as to what has happened to those items -or the floss -I'm beginning to wonder if maybe there maybe a ghostie or two loose. Considering how many of my things have just up and walked away from here over the years, it's probably a darned good thing I am not a firm believer in ghosts or apparitions and stuff or I would have turned tail and run from this place about 29 years ago!

This morning, I'd gone to bed around 3:30 a.m. but was awakened about 4:30 a.m. by Kate telling me she was going back to bed but that Maya and Kurtis were both up, both on the couch in the living room too. Wonderful! NOT!

I told her to put the boy back in his playpen bed and to tell Maya to come back out here and go to back to bed with me. Kurtis fussed very briefly then quieted down and Maya did do as she'd been told and came back and crawled into bed with me. Where she promptly decided it would be a good idea to scratch Gram's back then. And I am never averse to having my back scratched regardless of the time of day or anything else so that was fine by me. The back-scratching lasted maybe for 15-20 minutes at most until Maya began to get out of bed again. I told her to stay put but she insisted she had to "go pee" so ok, go -but do not stop and visit, much less disturb and wake up Kurtis and be sure to come straight back to bed. About 10 minutes later, when she hadn't returned, I got up to check on her and she was on the sofa, covered up with a big old brown furry type blanket and Kurtis was still sound asleep. She didn't want to come back to bed, preferring to watch cartoons on the tv from her spot on the couch so I foolishly agreed to this provided she did not go near Kurtis and wake him up. (Yeah, she lied and said she would be good, of course!)

About 6:15 I had to get up for a bathroom call and when I entered the dining room there was Mandy up making coffee, Maya in the living room playing with stuff and Kurtis -running back and forth, jabbering for all he was worth! Hmmm. Wonder how all that came about was my first silly thought and my second was towards Mandy and consisted of "Sucks to be you, Kiddo!" I went about my business and back to bed. When I got up around 9 a.m., Kurtis was out like a light and slept then until a little past noon!

Maya brought home a little project from school today that she had done. It pertained to going on a picnic and the kids had to cut and paste items that they were going to take on a picnic. Maya's choices consisted of Bush's Baked Beans, Macaroni Salad, two 12-packs of bottled spring water, a liter bottle of Canada Dry ginger ale along with a big bottle of Sunkist orange soda, a can of Crisco shortening, some Dum-Dum lollipops and some dog food. Mandy and I found her choices quite odd since she will not touch macaroni salad with a ten foot pole, we have no clue either as to what she would want or need the shortening for on a picnic and the dog food -well that's the real puzzler since we have two grown cats and four kittens here but no dogs! Go figure, huh?

Oh, and one last thing too -this morning, I was online briefly -just long enough to check my e-mail, answer any messages I had to attend to and read the Centre Daily Times online version of that newspaper. I didn't have a chance to get back to the computer until late this afternoon when I intended to try to do some blog reading but that took a back seat initially because some how or other, someone or something had been by the computer and had managed to delete all my bookmarks! Yeah, imagine that, huh?

I monkeyed around a while, couldn't find anything to indicate what might have happened and then, I came upon the bright idea to just shut down and do a restart.

I did that and like magic, they were back again and boy, you can just imagine how happy I was to see them too! If I'd really lost them for good, I don't know how in blazes I would find some of the ones that are really, really important to me to use! I still have no clue what may have caused them to disappear but it also took my Firefox as well as my Google tool bars out for a while too!

Ah yes, I do believe that it is all just a bunch of chain reactions -one domino falling after another, all trying to give me just a tiny bit more havoc in my life than I really want or need.

Let's hope though that it all stops here -now -tonight and that tomorrow there are no bad chain reactions as bright and early in the morning, Mandy and I will be leaving the peacefulness known as this house and home and travelling to Pittsburgh for my checkup with my surgeon down there. After that is over and done with, our plans are to head north up Route 79 to Grove City Mall for a little visit there, stop and say hello to my former sister-in-law and then on to see my "favorite" (as she likes to refer to herself) niece, Angie and her three children too!

Kate will be in charge of baby-sitting the two little ones since she has no school tomorrow and Bill is taking the day off work to do a few things around the house and kind of supervise Kate as she supervises Maya and Kurt. The monkey wrench to this whole deal though is that Bill had told his other two kids that it would be fine and dandy for them to come here for the day too. A move that Miss Kate was not too happy about as she figures by noon she may be ready to commit hari-kari from watching all four of her siblings.

I think I can pretty well understand her sentiments since there are days when, on occasion, that thought may just cross my mind too!

We told her not to go through with anything drastic though because she has to remember that Maya is also fascinated now with blood.

Don't ask why as I have no clue what brought that on but it is true! Maybe it's just another type of a chain reaction too.