Crazy Day(s)

I've been intending to write this post for the past 2-3 days now and finally am getting around to actually doing it. I've had it in my mind what I wanted to write but then, something else would come up, or someone else was using the computer, or the phone would ring, or I had to leave to attend a meeting at church or something else, again and again and again.

But now, here it is almost 2 a.m. and finally, no one else around, no risk of an interruption of the telephone either and with yet another day almost totally down the tubes for me, I think I can gather my thoughts together in a semi-coherent style to put them down in writing.

Maybe. Cross your fingers on that!

So what's been happening anyway?

Well, for openers there was Easter and of course, church, the Easter Breakfast at church, kids and their baskets and all that stuff. Plus there was also Easter dinner here with Mandy, the kids, my son and his girlfriend, Elizabeth too. And much of that also means a whole lot of time in the kitchen for you-know-who, don't 'cha?

Saturday, I baked 4 loaves of Swedish Limpa Rye bread plus a round almond filled coffee cake and two pans of sweet rolls too. One batch of the sweet rolls had a Lemon Curd filling and the other batch, blackberry-lemon curd. All three of the sweet breads turned out good for me, as did the rye bread and they went to church then for the Easter Breakfast.

Here's some photos of my baked items -just to offer up proof positive that I did this!

First up - the Swedish Limpa Rye Bread -which I do love, especially fresh from the oven, still warm, slathered with real butter. (And, I wonder why I have a weight problem, huh?)

This upper photo is the almond-filled coffee cake -the lower photo is the coffee cake alongside the pan of Lemon Curd Sweet rolls. (I just found this recipe -finally -for the lemon curd filled rolls -early last week and tried it with great results. Mandy and I had polished off the entire pan of rolls within 24 hours time and they were sooooo darned good too! Sunday afternoon, before dinner, my son sampled one of the lemon curd sweet rolls and they definitely passed muster with him then too! So, I guess this is going to become a common item for me to bake here now along with the Limpa Rye bread.

Saturday night, although I was achy tired, I had been having difficulty the latter part of all of last week falling asleep and there was no exception then Saturday night either. Finally, I fell off to sleep around 2 a.m. but woke up shortly before 4 a.m. to go make a visit to the bathroom. When I returned to bed, Miss Maya was awake and wanted to know what time it was. I told her it was way to early to get up as it wasn't yet 4 a.m. and she then confessed to me that she had been out of bed while I was in the bathroom and of course, had been doing a quick search downstairs then too for any trace of the Easter Bunny having been here. She was quite disappointed to tell me that he hadn't been here then so I had to explain to her reasons why he might have been delayed in getting around to our house.

I told her that he might have had more baskets than he had initially figured on to drop off and that might have slowed him down or perhaps he ran out of gas or even had his vehicle break down and had to lose time to get it fixed. All kinds of problems ya know that could have set him back on his schedule. Then I also told her that she needed to think about the fact that she and Kurtis hadn't always been really good little kids and who knows, but maybe the Easter Bunny wasn't even planning a stop at our house after all. Plus, I informed her too that if he was on his way to our house that he definitely would not stop here if he knew there was a child awake cause he won't come and leave any goodies where the kids are still awake, ya know.

Boy, I wish you could have seen how quickly she grabbed up the covers and flipped over on her side, eyes tightly closed to invite the sleep to return to her! Just too doggone funny!

By the time I left for church -as I was going to help get things on the table for the Breakfast that was going to be served between the 7 a.m. and the 10 a.m. services -the kids were both enjoying having discovered their Easter baskets after all!

The Breakfast -at first -looked like not many from the early service were staying to eat and that perhaps we wouldn't get a good turnout for it, but then gradually those planning to attend the 10 a.m. service plus partake of breakfast started to show up so I think we probably ended up serving 60-70 folks a really good breakfast!

After church, I came home and headed straight to the kitchen to get my ham in the oven, potatoes ready (easy-peasy cheaters -boxed scalloped potatoes with cheese), asparagus, corn and a jello vegetable slaw too that the kids made fun of when I put it on the table. All three of my kids absolutely love the old movie, "Better Off Dead" and especially the one scene where the young man's mother had made some green, goopy concoction that appeared to walk off the plate and across the table and so, my son and Mandy both had a field day comparing my jello slaw salad to that mixture in the movie. It wasn't quite that gross and tasted fine -even both kids actually agreed with that aspect to my jello salad at any rate. Of course, no small children would go near it but I never expected any positive response from those two over that dish anyway!

After dinner, Mandy and the kids went up to my son's house for an Easter Egg Hunt that Elizabeth had planned for them and her ltitle guy, Ryan. Boy, talk about some excited children when they returned home from that. Each of them had a big plastic trash bag filled almost to the brim with oodles and oodles of little plastic eggs that they would open and find either a toy or a little piece of candy then inside the egg. Nice fun for them, yes but a nice mess to behold after they popped open all those eggs!

Oh well. Only little kids once during your lifetime. Right?

Monday, with no school that day and Mandy had work, all three of the kids therapists were here Monday afternoon to work with the kids -and also, to have some crazy and fun conversations then with me and with Mandy when she got home from work. There was a small catastrophe though pertaining to those eggs from Sunday from the egg hunt when, on Monday, Mandy discovered that one of Kurt's eggs contained a page of little stickers but she didn't get anything like that in any of her eggs and wow, you'd have darned near thought the lack of one silly page of stickers was an "end of the world as we know it" type of event! It definitely made for good fodder from the kids one therapist -Miss Randi- to work on the aspect of we all don't get the same type things information with Maya!

Later in the afternoon, Maya even got a phone call from a little girl who used to live up the street from us but who had moved last fall to York, PA. Seems she was here, visiting at her Grandma's house and wanted to know if she and Maya could get together and play. So, as a result, Tori came down here for a while and when she left, Maya went to her Gram's house with her then and spent the night there!

It was really neat to see how happy and excited Maya was at the prospect of doing a "sleepover" with Tori and to realize just how far Maya has come now -thanks to all the efforts of all the many therapists who have worked with her long and hard over the past six years since we had the initial intervention and began services with the local agency! Actually, seeing how far BOTH these kids have come thanks to the therapists, is such a blessing. Truly a Godsend, for sure!

What was really neat about Tori coming down here for a while to play with Maya on Monday afternoon was the fact that two of Maya's therapists were here then and they could each then observe for themselves how well Maya did interacting then with Tori! Good to see the fruits of their labors, for sure!

Tuesday afternoon, I had an appointment in Philipsburg to get my taxes done -not exactly my idea of a fun thing, ya know. I took all my little income forms and such and headed off to find out if I was going to need a small business loan to pay the IRS but I lucked out in that I only owe them $83 and another $7 on top of that for our local income tax then too!

But even so, it kind of irks me the way the tax process is run. I know, first-hand, that if your employment is of a very low paying variety and especially if you have dependents, when you file, you can almost guarantee then because of the way the tax laws operate, that you will get a full refund of what you paid in and in most cases then, also get back MORE than you paid in too! I know, that may come as a shocker to some folks but trust me, as one who qualified for that aspect of a windfall via the IRA, you have to already be living on below poverty level wages so it really isn't that big of a windfall after all.

However, I got to figuring before I went in for my appointment though that my income -which I receive for some services rendered and which comes to me with no deductions from it -is not very much -actually it only amounted to a mere $680 for all of last year -but once you earn over $600, you have to file a tax form on that figure. Well, having glanced at a tax workbook and seeing that the standard deduction was like $7,800 I was kind of hoping that by filing that my little earnings would be "equalized" so to speak because of the standard deduction and I wouldn't have to pay anything. Well, turns out that it wishful thinking though because part of the fee I had to pay for taxes was either $48 or $52 (I don't recall now which figure it was) for a "Self-employed business tax" right off the top anyway!

Sheesh! The IRS gets you coming or going, don't they?

But in another little wild hair kind of dream I had about the IRS, I was thinking wouldn't it be nice if they paid me! Sure, why not? If I was entitled to this $7,800 plus change deduction as a standard and only earned this small amount, then why couldn't or shouldn't I then get the balance then between the deduction and my income -just like other poor people do when they file and get all they paid in back plus extra? Hey, the idea made sense to me!

Just wasn't something that would wash with the IRS though. Drat it anyway!

I'm not really grumping that much about what I do have to pay as it isn't as much as I owed last year, so that's a good thing, isn't it?

Tuesday though was really the craziest day out of the last few days here though as the weather here was really wild and strange.

About 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, I happened to glance out the window and to my shock, there was a mess of stuff falling from the sky! Rain, snow, sleet -maybe even some hail mixed in there too -but it was really pelting it down too, very hard and fast! This storm stuff lasted not all that long -perhaps 10-15 minutes or so, I think and then, suddenly it was gone and the sun was shining really bright and nice. Hmmm. Gonna be a decent day after all, I thought! Boy, turns out I was wrong about that too!

Several times during the day all of a sudden, we'd have another blast of winter strike and in a short amount of time, it would pass and then sunshine would return and then, a little while later, back to the wintry mix all over again! As it was, I did finally manage during one sunny period around 3 p.m. to take Sammy out for a short walk but boy, I was bundled up like you'd have thought there was a true blizzard or below zero temps here! The sunshine, when it did appear, still didn't do much to raise the temperatures in the process so the temps were a lot lower feeling than they really were due to the wind chill factoring in there plus it was a raw cold -the kind that goes straight through you, clean to the bone, ya know! (And that plus the fact that I tend to freeze it seems at the drop of the hat, you better believe I was all bundled up when Sam and I ventured out!)

We splurged for supper as Mandy called the kitchen up at the local Moose and ordered food from there. Our neighbor's daughter is the cook and boy, she puts together a really great cheese steak hoagie -which I ordered -plus, you should have seen the size of the steak salad Mandy got! Holy rip! If that was a small salad, I don't think I'd be able to handle trying to eat a large steak salad there! Mandy couldn't even finish all of her small salad, that's how big it was so trust me when I tell you then that it definitely was an order in which we got our money's worth!

After supper, I crashed in the recliner in about 10 minutes after I sat down there. But about 8 p.m., Kurtis woke me up to show me his big news event of the night! Seems he has had a "wiggler" tooth -front and center, upper -and tonight, it popped out so he was really excited to come and put his face right up in mine, mouth wide open, to show Grammy this gaping hole there now!

After that, Mandy ended up having to answer a kazillion questions from both the kids about the impending visit tonight -probably anyway -from the tooth fairy! At least, I don't think  Kurtis is afraid to put his tooth under his pillow like Maya was! Way back when she began to lose her teeth, she told Mandy to put her tooth under Gram's pillow because she didn't want some fairy flying around her head while she slept!

And those things -the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy -all things that before we know it will be things of the past as the time of their belief in these things will soon be just distant memories, won't they?

Sad on one hand to realize this and yet, so nice to see how quickly they are growing up, maturing and turning into the person they will ultimately be some day.

But for right now, most of the days in this house with these two younguns are still more than a bit on the crazy side and you know what?

I wouldn't want it any other way!

Little Renovations

Last Saturday was the big removal day for everything that's been residing in our attic for the past 20 plus years! It all had to come out -and either be pitched as garbage, burned or temporarily stored elsewhere in the house because we're scheduled to get additional insulation put in the attic sometime in the next 2-3 weeks or so.

What a job -and what a mess too -that was!

A lot of stuff did make its way to Goodwill -mainly all kinds of odds and ends dishes and stuff like that along with some clothes and toys that the kids no longer can use. So not everything found its way to the trash or burn pile.

Two things that are still here with us though are of the chair variety. One is an old, old wooden kitchen-type chair that the seat in it was half broken out but the chair itself is nice and also pretty sturdy. Mandy's ex-husband happened to be here that day visiting the kids and he ended up helping Mandy with the attic cleaning and it was his opinion that we could still make good use of that chair simply by removing the old seat and having a new seat put in there. Now, I'm wondering if he is going to volunteer his time and knowledge and fix that chair for us too? There's a possibility, huh?

The other chair though was a surprise find to me and I had no idea that this was hiding in the attic! But it seems somehow a swivel chair -of the office variety -had made its way to the attic but the back on it was damaged although the seat part was still in very good shape. The "son-in-law" checked it against the office chair I've been using at my computer desk and ascertained that the back from the current chair would fit easily on the frame of the chair in the attic and so, he switched them out and now, I have a slightly new (to me), semi-used, desk chair! (The seat in my old chair was very worn and the padding was falling apart so now, this one has a nice, attractive seat to it and who cares that the back of the chair is a dark grey tweed and the seat is a solid black color! The chair works and that's all that matters to me!)

Just a darned good thing that neither of these chairs were leather though because I don't think leather restoration is something that the former son-in-law has any knowledge about doing!

The only problem I have with this new-to-me desk chair though is that it's just a trifle tricky if you lean back a bit in it and tends to tilt or give you the feeling it's going to upend itself with you sitting in it!

Wonder what needs to be done to correct that?

Watch the Wardrobe....

Today -April 6th -is a big day within my family.

It's time to celebrate yet another birthday -this time, my older daughter's. We won't go into details here as to how hold (or young) she is but suffice it to say that yes, she is sure getting old and fast! She'll just love me for saying that!

I've mentioned earlier this week here about how darned forgetful -senile, many would say -I am these days but did I also mention that last Sunday when she was here for dinner and I had baked a cake (angel food) and had fresh sliced strawberries to put on the cake (as well as some yummy vanilla bean ice cream to go with it) that I had also forgotten though to give her the little birthday present I had here for her? Yeah, forgot all about that aspect, I did!

We've got another birthday coming up next Friday too as Kurtis will celebrate his 6th birthday then on the 13th -so I'd better get as much of this forgetfulness and these stinky little senility factors sorted out and do it soon too!

Kurt's been doing a whole lot of planning for his big day for quite sometime now though as every commercial he sees on TV for something he likes (which is most everything in the toy department, of course) and every visit to any store that has any toys, and he's been telling anyone who will listen what items he is going to get for his birthday. Apparently he hasn't received the news flash yet that Mom and Grammy didn't win the Mega Millions Lottery last week!

Speaking of gifts though, I saw something that I wish I'd seen earlier and could then have ordered older daughter's present from Discount Scrubs as I see they have a scrub top available in the Autism puzzle print! Now, that would have made for a really nice gift for my daughter since she works at a local hospital and this month is also Autism Awareness month.

Guess I'll just have to pay more attention to all this stuff going on around me, won't I?

Still Freezing!

Boy, what a conundrum!

Here it is, beautiful weather -sunny, bright, nice temperatures too again after a bit of a cold snap last week -and wouldn't you just know it but I am still having issues where I feel as if I am freezing!

Although over the winter months, which were compared to many winters here, very mild, because Mandy was trying to keep our fuel usage at the dullest roar possible, I was constantly freezing and kept myself wrapped almost all the time with a warm blanket draped over my legs and shoulders too. Frequently I would have days when I just couldn't get warm and stay warm no matter what I did.

But, Mandy was thinking with the nice weather seeming to have arrived that those issues of mine would now be a thing of the past season except that unfortunately, I'm still having those same problems -still!

Yesterday was one of those days when my toes, fingers and even my nose felt like ice cubes! And that, when the sun was shining so nice and the outdoor temps were in the 60s, should not have been the case, but it was.

I was beginning to think I'd have to be getting some Big Agnes sleeping bags to get thawed out and stay unfrozen!

I don't know how our fuel usage for the past winter measures up to previous years of fuel consumption but near as I can calculate, we've used less than 500 gallons from September through the end of March. Going to have to contact our fuel supplier to get some usage figures and make comparisons though and then, since we will be having more insulation put in the attic this month, maybe next year we'll see a change -hopefully a drop -in that consumption.

Or at least a way to keep the heat in the house so I won't constantly be feeling like a big old popsicle!

Putting Meat On!

One thing I DON'T have -unfortunately -is a problem gaining weight! Far from it as it is the reverse and for the past several months, has been creeping up on me, little by little. Part of it stems from the fact that until recently I wasn't walking Sammy regularly and I do believe those walks did help me trim a few pounds about 2 years ago and also, to then keep that little bit of a loss off then too.

But another part of my problem is also that yes, I do like to eat! Not just eat because it is a necessity but because I enjoy it too! I blame some of the weight too on the fact that I can't prepare a lot of things that would be lower calories because of the grandkids and the fact they are more than a bit snooty at times about foods. However, I have to confess there too that while they love pastas and it's is one of the food types they generally will eat -and with gusto too -I also am a big lover of pasta anything as well and carbs equal calories and calories (especially without enough exercise) equals fat! Pure and simple as that, huh?

One thing though that does bother me a good bit pertaining to weight and such is my son and how poorly I know he eats since he is on the road and barely has enough time to manage a pit stop for a quick bite. He says he eats enough and is fine but I'd be willing to bet a dollar to donuts that what he eats are generally of the junk foods categories -chips and such, occasionally a piece of pizza.

Granted, he is tall and naturally thin -doesn't have an inclination towards putting weight on (like his Dad, that way) but still I worry that he isn't getting the proper nutrition he should have. Although he is slim, that doesn't mean he doesn't have muscles though so at least I'm not going to be worried about him trying to either lose weight (fat chance) or getting into taking stuff in order to build-up muscles. So it is doubtful I'll ever have to get him to understand the side effects of myoripped.

I know not all products that fall in that category are necessarily bad or harmful however, they can be, especially if they are not used correctly.

And who needs any more problems than life already gives us!
 




 

Down The Road...

The past week has been full of all kinds of things -from problems that got resolved to new problems to funny things the kids have done and said and also, to watching my little spec of the world come to life once again.

This past Sunday -of course -was Palm Sunday and we celebrated it at our church with a beautiful service that even included the congregation entering the sanctuary carrying palms and singing the processional hymn as we walked towards the altar and then turned to head back and take our seats in or near the pews we normally sit in. The funny thing about this processional is that before the start of the service, the minister for that day was inquiring of a good friend and neighbor as to the way we normally handle the procession, the distribution of the palms, etc. My friend couldn't remember how we usually did that so she called over to me and asked if I remembered what or how we handled this.

Now, she really should have known better than to ask me something like this because all too frequently these days, she knows, my memory has often become toast! And that's exactly what it was Sunday morning on that topic.

The Pastor giggled a bit and asked if there was anyone else nearby who might recollect our procedures and my friend noticed another lady -who is super involved in anything and everything at our church -and she said she figured if anyone would know, it would be her.

I laughed then and joking with the Pastor said "Yeah.  Ask the one who is 80-years-old to get information on past services!" And yes, that woman knew the answers to the Pastor's questions alright which got us all to laughing a bit more then about the situation because my friend is a mere 75 and here I am, the youngest of the group, at 67 and neither of us could remember how we'd done that in the past!

What made it a bit funnier -to me -though was that the day before Palm Sunday had been my friend's birthday and Sunday, April 1st, was her husband's birthday. Two occasions which I have always remembered and always get some cards for each of them. Well, almost always that is. Because later that morning after the service was ended, my daughter asked me if I'd forgotten someone's birthday. I looked at her questioningly and asked what she was talking about. All she had to do then was say "Uh, Mom. March 31st and April 1st?" And it hit me! I had forgotten both of their birthdays! Boy, the memory is really going down the tubes and at a really fast rate of speed too!

Since I had to go to the store for the Sunday paper, I lucked out and found two cards -one for each of them -and got them but didn't get them delivered to them until Monday when I had Mandy drop them off when she left to run into town for some stuff. Better late than never, for sure, huh?

Normally, I have the cards for these two purchased either in January or at least by the end of February and I stash them in the china closet here so that when the time comes around then I can't find where exactly I hid them in that place! But this year --the fact that their birthdays were nearing never once crossed my mind and even over the weekend, it sure as heck never surfaced for me then either.

Oh well. Guess more absentmindedness is the upcoming thing on my personal agenda, isn't it?

Last week though, I had meant to write about something I'd noticed a week ago Sunday as I was on my way out to church that morning. Along the one road in particular between my home and our church, there were trees that had begun to show their colors and leaves, even buds and were so pretty. I thought then about after church, going home and grabbing my camera and coming back out to get some photos of them but of course, don't you just know it, I forgot about doing that too!

But it's something that I've been watching a lot lately -the way so many of the trees are developing again -a sure sign that spring is here and before we know it, they'll all be in full arrays of leaves or blossoms galore, I'm sure! Hopefully sometime this week I'll remember when I take Sammy for our walk of the day, to get the camera and take a few pictures of those scenes.

Now, this week, the kids are all excited because they won't have school on Thursday or Friday and that also, come Sunday, they're positive that there will be Easter baskets filled with candy and other little things for them too. That is, after church and after we attend the Easter Breakfast too at church! Which should be an interesting meal I think considering we serve egg casseroles, fruit salad and sweet rolls so I can see it now that all these kids will eat at that breakfast is gonna be a little bit of a sweet roll!

Kurtis refuses completely to eat eggs and Maya will turn her nose up at the casseroles too because they have potatoes in 'em! Sheesh! I hope these two hurry up and outgrow this picky business with the foods cause at times, it really gets very frustrating!

This past Sunday, my older daughter came up Sunday afternoon to pick up Alex -her son (the older grandson) and I had cooked a nice roast beef dinner with oven-roasted new potatoes in the broth from the meat along with carrots and a special treat for dessert -angel food cake with strawberries and ice cream! The cake was for my daughter's birthday which will be this Friday but she will have to work that day and all weekend too and won't be able to get up here for her "birthday meal" so we had it a bit early. Then, when she left, don't you know but I forgot to give her the birthday present I have for her too!

Anyone have any suggestions of anything a person can do or take, perhaps, that helps keep the memory from evaporating?

If I don't figure out something that will help me remember things better it's going to be a long, hard journey then down that road ahead, isn't it?

Risky Behaviors!

One thing that is usually a good thing around here is the attitude the kids -both Maya and Kurt -generally have about going to church as well as attending Sunday School too. We had some really bumpy roads with each one of them at times when they were much younger but thankfully, those issues have been pretty well ironed out.

Well, most of the time that's true. However, this past Sunday -Palm Sunday -I was more than a bit upset and irritated with some of the things Maya persisted in doing off and on throughout the service!

We had to be out at church before 10 a.m. in order for the kids to be able to go to Sunday School and this Sunday, I had to be there then too because guess who had volunteered a few months ago to teach Sunday School on Palm Sunday? Yep, that would be me! And the class I had volunteered to teach? None other than Miss Maya's group!

Okay -so this past Sunday there were only three kids from her class there -Maya, a girl she's friends with in school as well as at church and a boy who is about a year older than Kurtis. That boy is also a twin but because sometimes when the two boys are in the same class (taught by their Dad) the two together can be a bit overwhelming mainly because they are both very advanced learners too!

Boy, are they ever!

The class began with Maya obsessing with a World Globe sitting on the class table and she was intent then on discussing geography. Okay -I decided I could use that curiosity to my advantage and tell the kids that the story from the Bible we would be working on was to be about Esther from the book of Esther and that her story took place in the land we know today as Iran. Well, that idea lasted maybe not quite a minute!

Sam -the twin -did get interested in geographic stuff but unfortunately, he was more into telling us various factoids he knew about places like Russia and even China too. Seems he was amazed at the information he'd learned somewhere that China has over 30 billion people. (I think he told us 30 billion. Does that sound right? I didn't check on his figures to make sure of the population there -30 billion or only a mere 30 million -a whole lot of citizens in one big old country anyway.)

Well, he was rattling off those facts and when he took a breath for a second or two after his announcement about the population, I made mention of another fact along those lines -that China has the largest population in the world!

Boy, wish you could have seen his eyes as they got as big a saucers and he said "Really?" I assured him I was right about that bit of information and he then told me -in a very astonished tone of voice -"Thank you for telling me that as I didn't know that!" Wow! You'd have sworn I'd just made his day!

But anyway, we made our way through the class and I was able to use the Biblical text to bring the discussion around to what was actually supposed to be the current day topic of Bullying. And all three of the kids made mention of some things that have happened to them at school that they felt fit the criteria to be considered bullying. (And, yes -each one of them understood how three different things would be considered bullying! That made me feel that I had at least achieved a little of the goal for the day anyway!)

After Sunday School came -of course -the Sunday Service -complete with a big processional of all those attending as we marched into the sanctuary, each carrying our own palm branches and then, made our way to our respective seats for the service to start.

As soon as we were seated, I began to hear this little bit of a tap, tap, tapping sound and to my chagrin, it was coming from Maya who was lightly tapping her toes on the floor! It wasn't a terribly loud sound, but just enough that those of us seated in and around her would hear it and it was very annoying!

So, I asked her, then told her, then demanded of her that she please cease and desist in doing that as it was bothering me and probably other congregants too but all that was to no avail as you could see by the look on her face that she was going to push this envelope just as far with me as she possibly could. She would even tap her toes when we were standing up, singing and/or saying parts of the liturgy! And I was doing a very slow burn at first once I realized she was going to push me just as far as she could!

Finally -after I had even gone so far as to step on her toes at one point -I got a hold of her arm and removed a book from her hands that she was thinking she would look at during the sermon and I whispered to her that since she hadn't listened and stopped that infernal toe tapping routine, I was taking her out to the narthex where we would then sit out the rest of the service!

Finally, that did seem to get her attention or at least redirected her actions for a while anyway!

Then, came time for the part in the service where we "share the peace" -meaning you turn to those seated around you and shake hands, murmuring "Peace be with you." Now this is something which we never know how either Maya or Kurtis is going to handle that activity from one Sunday to the next! One time they'll both be friendly, shake hands and say, "Peace" and the next week maybe neither will do that or one will but the other won't. And the one who refuses to participate -if the members of our church were not already familiar with the way either or both of these kids operate, they might be offended and consider one or both of the grandkids to be very rude. Thankfully, there are certain folks who almost always sit in our general vicinity though and are accustomed to the kids and their ways. So this Sunday, when Maya was being her somewhat normal kind of snooty self and refusing to share the peace here and there -that is, until her friend from school responded to her by extending her hand and then, after that, Maya finally shook hands then with Alex -my older grandson! Kurtis on the other hand, was being very sociable, to the extent of crawling down the pew behind me just to tap Maya's shoulder and extend his hand to her and for her to turn away from him! Typical for her to do something like that!

After that and then, the offertory, came the next step in the service -communion!

Now this, Maya is usually fine and dandy with the whole procedure but not this Sunday! Nope! When the usher pointed to our row, indicating we could approach the altar, all of a sudden Maya refused to begin walking out of our pew! Why? Well, because the young lady seated on the other side of Maya -a member of the church who is in college so not always home and when she is, she and her parents generally sit on the other side of the church from where my family always sits -and Maya -in a loud stage whisper type voice, announces to me "No! No! I don't want to kneel by some stranger!"

Oh for Pete's sake girl! Give me a break will ya?

So we then had to wait until Maya could squeeze past me and get in line behind me, between me and Alex -her cousin!

My slow fuse burning was beginning to speed up by then!

Perhaps Miss Maya best be happy that Gram hasn't yet purchased any more new life insurance policies and especially none in her name or I might have some really bad thoughts entering my mind otherwise, ya know!

No, I really wouldn't go quite to that extreme to stop her obnoxious behaviors but as probably any other parent out there would agree, I think from time to time when trying to discipline a child who is being really unruly, those thoughts or some a bit along those lines, maybe do come into our minds from time to time don't they?

Boy, she is so lucky that I do dearly love her -and her brother -and would be completely lost without either of them in my life. But she best learn to curb some of her risky behavior a good bit in the future or else!  I'm not sure what the "or else" would be but she better look out!

No Rest For The Wicked or Weary!

As if this place were not a zoo enough, this past weekend really made certain of that status being appropriate for the old house and my family!

Why?

Well, because we had applied for help through the state Weathrization program for some things that need fixed up, done, around the house that were out of our financial range and last week, they sent two guys here who surveyed the situation "up close and personal" and then told us what all they will be doing here.

But, before they could begin, they had an announcement for us that struck fear in to both Mandy and me!

They said in order for them to put insulation in the attic -which they said the place really needed a serious upgrade in that department -we would have to remove everything from the attic!

EVERYTHING? Seriously?

Yes, everything and very seriously!

So, Saturday we had a major house cleaning party going on here!

The grandson (who is 14 years old and a good big, strong, young man) came up here Friday night to spend the weekend with us and was available for Mandy to enlist him to help. Then, because of a fluke in the visitation that had been previously planned for the kids' Dad to see them at his sister's house (her kids and their Dad had all been dealing with a major go-round of the flu, so that visit was out) Mandy allowed him to come here and spend the time with Maya and Kurt. Besides, she figured she could put him to work going through old photos of his that are here and which could be used for the Memorial Service they are now planning in two weeks I think is the date, for his Dad -who passed away back in January.  Later in the day, my son and his girlfriend also showed up and gave a hand with the end of the line stuff that had to be brought down from the attic. (Plus, the almost ex-son-in-law -besides spending a lot of good quality time with the kids -also kicked in and helped a whole lot with this massive task.

And trust me when I tell you it was a massive task too! Clothes we've all outgrown, toys the kids no longer play with, dishes, pots and pans (many that are totally useless), a few old odd lamps here and there, the old kitchen table (in pieces -the top on one end of the attic, legs someplace else up there), old bedding and other linens, virtually darned near everything but the kitchen sink!

And books -books -and some more books! The book issue really bothered me greatly because so many of them where my college text books for which I have no use and can't sell them back or to anyone else at this point in time since they are between 18-22 years old -along with several boxes of paperback books along with a fairly large assortment of hardbound books, even many that were best sellers too! Plus one whole box of extremely old books as well, some of which had been text books for my uncle when he was in high school which was back in the late teens/early twenties of the last century no less!

What to do with all this stuff?

Once they got started pulling things down from the attic, it was almost like there was some kind of gusher pump somewhere that just kept being found and stuff moving around like crazy!

The sad thing about all this uproar (besides my quandry about the books) is that we don't have an exact date when the crews will be arriving to install this lovely insulation so all the boxes of stuff that we kept are stacked hither, thither and yon throughout the house.

It's stacked so much in the bathroom that you don't want to take a chance if you think you need to use that room don't waste time getting there cause it's like a labyrinth to get through that room and over to the facility you need to use! A disaster perhaps could be in the making there too, ya know!

But at least, our part is done for now anyway and we just have to put up with the extra mess here until they come and do their end of the work now.

Hopefully, this will help keep the house warmer in the winter (maybe even a bit cooler in the summer too) and then, an added bonus to that would be if it helps even a little bit to keep the fuel costs in check!

That last part is probably just going to be wishful thinking cause I don't think there's all that much anyone can do to keep fuel costs down, is there?

What Brought This Up?

Boy, sometimes the things that these kids mention or ask about really do make a person wonder why they are asking this stuff or what ever gave them the idea to ask the questions they come up with!

This evening -which I might add was going relatively smoothly too -for some reason or other Maya was asking all kinds of questions. Things that were coming at us totally out of the blue too, ya know.

She was questioning Mandy about things that happened to Mandy before Maya was born -back when Mandy was pregnant with her. So Mandy was telling her about how she came to know that she was going to have a baby girl -which she originally had specified to her doctor that she didn't want to know that information but rather wanted to be surprised. However, the week before Maya was born, Mandy had taken a tumble down the stairs and the doctor recommended she come in to the emergency room and allow the staff then to do a sonogram and some other tests, etc., just to make sure everything was okay.

Mandy had to explain a bit to her about a sonogram and that stuff but as interested as Maya was in this topic and learning bits and pieces about medical tests and equipment, it would not have surprised me in the least if she'd asked Mandy if they had used a fetal doppler on her! 

Sometimes, our conversations here are the kind where you say something, hold your breath and kind of wait for the other shoe to fall because heaven only knows what they are going to ask about next.

Saturday though, while having supper here with son, Clate and his girlfriend, Elizabeth present too, out of the blue, Maya asks me this: "Gram, when you were borned, how many states were there?"

Yeah, the laughter around the table over that question went on for a good long time too, it did! Mandy posted it on her Facebook which brought a few lovely wise cracks, among them, a comment from my cousin, Larry, who wanted to know if I told her the answer was "Zero!"

Sheesh! How darned old do I want this kid to think I am anyway?

Adventures of Pearl and Mike

Just for fun -here's some videos Mandy took of our lovely little cat -Pearl -in her never-ending quest to find a way to make a meal of Mike, the Fish!



That's Kurtis in the background, talking to Mandy about Pearl's fishing attempts!



And then there are the games that Pearl likes to play with Sammy, the dog!









And, that's it for my little video show tonight!

Future Athlete or Dancer?

Maya's been really on a roll, big time, lately -watching all kinds of videos on YouTube and studying the movements the singer or dancers on those videos make. She really does a pretty good job, on her own, too then in imitating the moves, as well as memorizing a whole lot of the songs she listens to then as well.

One of these days, when she's really whizzing around the living room, trying to do all the bends and kicks and who knows what else, I'll have to remember to get out my camera and do some short videos of her. (Just so I can prove to anyone reading this that I'm not fibbing about my granddaughter!)

Watching her tonight -as I was treated to almost 2 solid hours of her videos, music and dancing, overflowing and creating hearing problems for me as I was trying to watch some television programs I was interested in, I got to thinking about a few other things too pertaining to her and her dancing as well as her interests too in other things -sports related, like soccer right now and who knows what she might develop a penchant for in the future too.

One of her therapists remarked the other day about how good she is, with no mentor, no actual training, that perhaps she would enjoy, maybe even do well with some type of gymnastics type program. She said she thinks the YMCA in town offers a gymnastics program and maybe even has a special one during the summer that we might want to look into signing her up for something like that.

Britt's suggestions, watching Maya tonight too, got me to thinking of other things that might be something that would possibly help her too. I was thinking perhaps something like yoga mats would be a good thing for her to have something like that to use when doing various warm-up type exercises or heck, maybe even for the workouts she gives herself while trying to emulate the dancers on these videos.

Who knows? Maybe we have a budding little gymnast or perhaps a future dance talent on our hands?

Time will tell I guess, won't it?

Good Luck!

Good Luck! Now there's a phrase that we're really in need of here!

Tomorrow will certainly be an interesting day here -if nothing else.

One thing for sure, there will be no celebrating because we now know we're still poor as church mice since we didn't win the big Mega Millions lottery tonight. Rats! I really could have used $640 million bucks though. How about you?

Nope, we're gonna need lots and lots of luck -along with lots and lots of help too because Mandy says we're gonna have a cleaning party to start getting everything moved out of the attic!

Hmmm. Considering how much is stashed in that attic, I'm thinking what we really need is everyone from house cleaning services Cary NC -and then some beyond that too, perhaps!

So far, all we have enlisted to help here consists of Mandy, me and my fourteen-year-old grandson, Alex! My Favorite Son supposedly is going to show up and help too but I'm not holding my breath on that one. He's seen what a hoarder's nest the attic in this house is and is probably already sick with a terrible case of the flu.

I'm just trying to figure out where on earth all those boxes and totes and whatever else will be found up there can be stored until the guys from the Weatherization Program arrive to put in lots and lots of insulation into the attic.

That, plus it would really be ultra helpful too if we even just had a firm date when they will be here and begin work!

I know that attic isn't going to get cleaned out in one day, for sure. Heck, it's taken over 20 years to load it up this time and some of the stuff up there dates back darned near to the earliest days of this old house too.

Can you tell I'm really happy, very impressed, with the task ahead of us?

Small Doses of Karma?

The past week has been filled with ups and downs galore -and recently, mostly it seemed like things were all on the down side, darned near non-stop.

Between the issues I had briefly described earlier this week, plus for some reason or other, my back and legs have not been treating me kindly nor has my intestines for that matter and well, I've just had a whole lot of high anxiety levels and very low energy levels of late.

However, the anxiety at least has lifted somewhat in that I was told yesterday that we are going to revert back to our original plans and the extra special stuff some had wanted to mess with was being cancelled. That, for me, was a big relief for sure. But there's still a couple other things coming up before that -like Easter and a special breakfast at church between the 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. services to worry about getting that all coordinated and served, on the table and all foods HOT!

Yeah -a nice little prayer would be great in that respect!

Today, I got a phone call from the Weatherization program people and two of the evaluators/mechanics or whatever each one's specialty is -stopped by the house to survey the situation, take some readings on the areas of the house where heat is escaping and cold air is flowing in, plus the one guy did do a little early work on the furnace but said overall, it really wasn't in bad shape. So that was encouraging.

Now comes the really hard part though to this weatherization program!

The plan is that they are going to put in more insulation into the walls, ceilings, etc. And that is a good thing, is it not?

Well it is until they tell you that they will be putting lots of extra insulation up in the attic and that means that EVERYTHING in the attic has to be removed from there!

EGADS! Are they crazy? The attic in this old house is even rattier, more jam-packed than old Fiber McGee's closet ever came near being! Yes, I kid you not! It really is that bad!

Mandy put out a notice on Facebook asking if anyone of her friends (and maybe even some enemies, who knows) are interested in giving us a hand for a really big job at our house this Saturday, there will be food -and beverages too for those over 21 -once the job is completed!

Where in blazes she plans to stash some of the oodles and oodles of boxes and crates and who knows what other containers are up there, filled with who knows what items too -and who is going to sort through all that crapola (a lot of which it is crapola that is probably useless but some of the crapola -well, could maybe be useful somewhere) and determine which pile to put what in -total trash, partial trash, useful, sort of or useful -very!

And what really sucks about this deal is we don't know exactly when the weatherization people will be showing up to do the insulation job. It could be as early as in a week or two but, it could also not happen for 4-6 weeks too!

I'm can envision a long period of time during which we'll be living with lots and lots of boxes stashed hither, thither and yon, for sure!

Actually, in order to get all this mess cleared out, things trashed or saved, stored elsewhere, etc., I'm thinking maybe a contact should or could be made to oh how about triangle direct media to get some really good help in coverage of the job needing done and things that would be available to cart away too. Yeah, spread that word, will ya?

If there's some special item you're maybe interested in, something you've been looking for, or if you have small children who need more toys, maybe even clothes, come down to the house this Saturday and check out what's being hauled away from the attic!

Be my guest! Please?

Ailing Equipment?

Boy, if things keep up around here the way they have been, my blogger friends are gonna think pretty soon that all I do here is sit and gripe, whine or complain!

Well, unfortunately, right now, it sure does seem that about everything and anything is falling apart on me of late.

First off, there's my lovely little printer -the one I just purchased last summer and which I really do (did) like because it had the capacity to print, copy and or scan, all in one nice little container! I don't remember right now if this is the 3rd printer I've purchased or if it was the 4th one I've had since I bought my first computer but I'm kind of thinking it was probably the 4th one. Anyway, it was working fine and dandy and was a whole lot easier to use than was the one I had before this one -which was also a print/copy/scan thing but it also had the ability to do faxes on it too although I never got around to hooking up that aspect. I hated that one though after I got it home and hooked up because you had to feed the item you wanted to scan down into the feeder and from there, it went in through some rollers so some types of old photos -like the ones on sort of a cardboard-type backing -would never go through that roller contraption and then, you'd be SOL in trying to make scans of some really old, old photos!

This current printer though worked fine and dandy until about mid-January of this year. One day I used it and it gave no little sounds or signals that anything was wrong, about to break down or anything and the next day when I tried to print something, it would try to pull the blank paper in but would end up just making a crease in the paper and a dent (sort of) at the edge of the paper which then wouldn't grasp and enter the print rollers.

About a month after this first started to happen -and after I'd given up on trying to figure anything out that would fix the darned thing -I tried again to get it to work and lo and behold, it apparently took pity on me and began suddenly to work again! What the heck?

Well that lasted a day or two I guess and anyway, the next time I went to print something, it was back to square one of not working at all.

So now I'm in the process of searching onlne, looking for a model like this one that just went cockeyed on me and for a very reasonable price too. I thought I had found a unit on sale at Walmart that was "bundled" and offered an "all in one" printer (which is what I had) PLUS a 4GB flash thingy too -all for a mere $29.00.  I checked about whether the same thing was available at the Walmart store near me and it said online that yes, it was -so Friday, I headed out and over to Walmart with the plan of getting one of these units then to solve my printer problems. Well they had a unit there alright but it was just a printer -not a print/copy/scan instrument -and they don't offer the "bundles" on in store purchases either!

Rats! Back to the drawing board I go! (What ticks me off about this little fiasco is that why do they call them an "All-in-One" unit if all it does is one thing -Print? When I see "all-in-one" I think that means that it will do several functions but guess that just goes to show how much I don't know, doesn't it?)

Then there's the junk about my blood sugar testings and how they have -for the past 2-3 weeks -been registering almost all over the board! Well, not quite that bad but higher than I know my doctor would like to see at any rate. Last week, it seemed that things had come back under control but then on Sunday and Monday, it was right back to skipping along in the higher number brackets.

Add to that, some issues I seemed to be experiencing too with my bathroom scale now. Anything to do with weight gain is NOT a good thing in my book or in my Doctor's view either but boy, if she'd seen some of the numbers and the speed with which they were climbing on me a week ago, she'd have been maybe even more shocked that I was!

According to my lovely scale (which by the way is less than 2 years old and is a digital thing too), my weight has over the past two weeks jumped up 12 pounds more than it had been running which was also 6 pounds more than what I weighed at my last doctor visit in December! Sheesh, at that rate it meant I had gained 18 pound in 3 months and 12 of those pounds, according to the scale, came home to roost over a 24-hour period! Go figure that one, will ya? And what's even more confusing is the fact that none of my clothes has suddenly become too tight for me to fit into them either! Now that I find really confounding because in the past, as soon as my weight would start to go up, up, up my clothes would seem to be going down, down, down and I wouldn't be able to get into most of 'em and sure as heck couldn't zip any of 'em up either! But I have had no problems whatsoever along that line and trust me, I am NOT complaining about that! Hope it stays that way cause I don't feel like replacing my wardrobe yet again!

Since Christmas Day, I have not done any needlecraft projects at all! Nope! I've been wiling my hours away with my nose in books -trying to get caught up on reading the many books I have bought or had given to me over the past 2-3 years and which I put aside saying I'll read it as soon as I finish this or that project (craft stuff, ya know) and then, I'd never get around to reading anything! But that has seen a big change as I have read somewhere between 15 and 20 books now and have the one I'm working on now and two others that I recently got and then, I will be all caught up on my books stacked around the house! Yippy skippy!

Next up as far as projects go is going to have to be a shared thing as over the next six months, some of my high school friends and I are going to be running pretty busy as we will be working on the final preparations for our class reunion to be held come September. This one's a biggy, folks as it will be our 50th class reunion and I am very much looking forward to seeing a whole lot of faces I haven't seen in oh -50 years now!

In addition to the class reunion plans, I'm also figuring to return to doing some needle work stuff now and again too as I do find doing that kind of crafting to be very relaxing for me and if there's anything I need right now, it's plenty of ways to relax my mind and "let go and let God" take charge!

So there you have it -the problems of the problem child blogger!

I keep telling myself that "This too shall pass" and yes, I know it will but then I remember my other favorite old adage "Patience is a virtue" which I always end by saying "But I'm not a very virtuous person."

Gonna have to practice working on that virtue stuff a good bit I guess, aren't I?

A Big Pile!

Okay -I think I've about had it up to my eyeballs now!

Between the junk in my personal life that I mentioned in a previous post -like yesterday -and the spam stuff coming through in what seems to be a comment per hour to my blog by spammers -I feel like I am totally floating in a sea of crap!

The spammers really annoy the living daylights out of me though. All these anonymous comments that, for openers, make no sense whatsoever -some are even in foreign languages or hieroglyphics -so what on earth good does it do to slap junk like that on someone's blog then?

If the pile of spam comments keeps collecting at the rate it has been, it won't be long before I'm gonna need some help -big help -like perhaps a skid steer just in order to roll these things up and out and away from my blog, from my computer!

Thankfully, I do have a comment moderation thing set up so they aren't actually landing on my blog and I can separate and segregate them then, but even so, it has to be one of the absolute most annoying things pertaining to computers, online stuff and e-mail, etc.

Send Me AWAY -Far, Far Away, Please!

The past week has not been high on my list of "good weeks!"

Seems everything I'm involved in, planning to do, need to arrange, has had more than its fair share of glitches.

And right now, I'm just sick of it all. Or maybe, I'm just sick. Or, is it sick and tired? Disgruntled? Disgusted? Depressed?

Yeah, all of the above and then some.

Things happened last week that began with a quick visit from a friend who had some ideas and plans for an upcoming event here. I listened to her ideas -which were totally different from what the group planning this event had decided we were going to do. Truthfully, I didn't care much for the changes she was proposing but agreed to allow this to be discussed at a meeting we had planned to have Sunday after church.

And so it was the the "changer" brought in copies of her outline for what was needed for us to do -start to finish -to plan out this event! And from there on out, it was that things were pushed and shoved, so to speak, that whether folks agreed with her agenda or not, this was the way it was to be primarily I do believe, because she deemed to to be that way!

And so now I am alternately ticked off, upset, hurt, as well as downright depressed too over the way this whole situation evolved and took on a life of its own now too!

There were numerous occasions during out "discussions" when I darned near bit a hole -several holes, as a matter of fact -in my tongue. If nothing else, I did prove to myself that I could control my mouth from overloading my brain if I tried hard enough!

But baby, it was a tough thing for me to do and I may have already developed ulcers from all the stress of not speaking what was REALLY on my mind.

When one member of the group who, obviously, is in favor of our asking people to make and donate pies as well as CHEESECAKES for desserts for this event announced that cheesecakes are so easy to make that she and her daughter could easily whip all that would be needed in the way of cheesecakes in a very short period of time, I was sorely tempted to respond to that with the comment of "Knock yourself out!" (Say that and use your most sarcastic tone of voice and maybe I'll feel a bit of relief from the tenseness that seems to be blanketing me today!

I'm normally quite willing to make (i.e. cook/bake) most anything needed for any of these kind of events but because I will not volunteer myself to bake and donate pies, for openers, I hesitate to ask others to do that. Why? Because much as I love pie -virtually any flavor too -I will not offer to make this because I have so many problems with rolling out pie crust and getting it into the pan -in one piece so the pie doesn't look like a patchwork quilt and thus, ugly and therefore, I won't ask others to make them either then -unless they offer to do that of their own accord!

My ex-mother-in-law, my grandmother, a couple of my great-aunts and other aunts/cousins too were all really adept at pie making/baking. I marveled while watching my mother-in-law roll out a perfect sized pie crust in about 6-8 swoops with the rolling pin. Presto Magic! It was ready to go in the pie pan and it went in with not even a single tiny speck of the dough falling off, no cracking of the dough as she laid it out in the pan and then after adding her filling, performed the same type of miracle with the upper crust too!

It would take me a hell of a lot longer with a lot more effort and tons of cuss words tossed around the air for good measure too in order to just get the dough in the pan -usually really to fall apart or often, with pieces of the dough having fallen away and then I'd be there, patting and pushing trying to get the dough to come back together and form the crust for me! There have been a lot of times when it would fall apart so much that I'd try again to form it into another ball of dough and try to roll out the crust once again and if I failed at that too many time, I've even -on occasion -gotten so upset, angry, disgusted with the way the whole project was going that I would gather up the dough into a ball yet one more time but then, instead of trying to roll out the crust layers again, I'd just simply toss that ball of much worn-out dough by that time, into the old garbage pail!

Cheesecake and me -another food item I dearly love to eat but baking it -now that's a horse of a different color for sure! In my entire life -not counting package mixes where you mix up a nice little graham cracker crust and blend the contents of a little package into some milk, etc., and poof -you've got a cheesecake of the easiest variety! I have in my entire lifetime, baked one -exactly one -cheesecake and fortunately -or lucky for me and those who ate it -it turned out okay. Not fantastic, fabulous or anything like that but okay. The family liked it anyway.

But cheesecakes and the baking thereof,  can be at times, tricky little buggers even to the best, most experienced cook -of which I am not one! That, plus when thinking of the ingredients needed to pull off a good cheesecake -lots and lots of cream cheese, for openers, it can also be a bit of a pricey item to ask people to make too. I know what my food budget will withstand but I don't have a clue about what others can, in good conscience, afford to bake and give away then too. Well, while thinking about the economic factors in that respect, pie baking -just making a simple pie -isn't the lowest cost item these days either on the grocery lists of many.

But, we are going to forge ahead regardless of who was in favor of what -as no vote was taken. It was just assumed that the logic presented yesterday by the list writer/holder was gospel and accepted by all and thus, SO BE IT!

Meanwhile, I'm thinking to myself, I didn't ask for this job, I sure as hell didn't campaign for it so why am I feeling this worked up and upset about it anyway?  All the while though, being placated with murmurs of "This will be wonderful, you'll see."

Maybe I will see and will say yes, this was wonderful. I truly do hope it works out that way. But there are too many aspects that just don't hit me in a nice way or an inclusive way too for a lot of other people -whose ideas and feelings should also be given thought to.

I'm trying every trick in my little bag of tricks (mental tricks that is) to get my mind and also, my stomach, to calm down, be accepting, be nice, etc.

So far, nothing has kicked in for me to ease some of my thoughts and stomach spasms but I'm not giving up on that. Eventually, it will pass -if not in time for the event, well the the event itself will pass and as grandson Kurtis said when he got stung by the bee "Is not the end of the world, is it?"

And no, this too will not be the end of the world -not as we know it - for sure, but it could be something that would/could be worked through without all the melodrama now involved!

Unwinding the Mind!

Yesterday -okay, make that Sunday since technically as I write this now it is Tuesday morning -was a rather stressful day for me. Some issues to get addressed about some things pertaining to our women's group at church which I won't delve into here as it really would be a TMI (too much information -way too much!) thing to do.

Just suffice it to say I was upset, concerned, and yes, majorly stressed out!

Monday morning, although I had taken care of some of those stress-filled issues on Sunday, the root causes were still in the back of my mind, flitting around, and annoying me.

And I found myself wishing I had someone to sit and talk to about the questions, the problems -someone who would be able to understand my position, share my logic and also, wherever/whenever possible, would also understand how when faced with things like this, I deal much better when I can talk about things openly and also, sarcastically, and poke fun wherever/whenever possible then too.

I thought about this much of Monday and wondered how the heck did I manage to cope with lots of issues in the past -who did I lean on then that was a good trusted friend with a sense of humor much like mine who would have been there for me then?

And I kept coming up blank!

Then in mid-afternoon, I was checking my e-mail and there was a message for me from an old friend who moved away from here 32 years ago this coming June -moved to Florida, she did -and it hit me then. That's who I used to sit and talk with and joke with and sometimes we did out conversations over lots and lots of coffee but often, we would break out a bottle of rum, some pineapple juice, vanilla ice cream, dry pina colada mix and a blender and we would make our own really yummy home made pina coladas and get more than a little "juiced up" too then, often in the middle of the afternoon.

And always, when we would be solving our (usually my) problems, we also would solve the problems of the world too  - at least then in our minds!

Anyway, she had sent me a picture along with the following message:

National Girlfriend and Sister's Week
I am only as strong as the coffee I drink, the hairspray I use, and the friends I have.
To the cool women who have touched my life. Here's to you! 

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR GIRLFRIENDS AND RETURN IT TO THE FRIEND WHO SENT IT TO YOU

It is good to be a woman:

1.. We got off the Titanic first.


2. We can scare male bosses with mysterious gynecological disorder excuses.


3. Taxis stop for us.


4. We don 't look like a frog in a blender when dancing.


5. No fashion faux pas we make could ever rival the Speedo.


6.. We don 't have to pass gas to amuse ourselves.


7. If we forget to shave, no one has to know.

8. We can congratulate our teammate without ever touching her rear end.


9. We never have to reach down every so often to make sure our privates are still there.


10. We have the ability to dress ourselves.


11. We can talk to the opposite sex without having to picture them naked.


12. If we marry someone 20 years younger, we are aware that we will look like an idiot.

13. We will never regret piercing our ears.


14. There are times when chocolate really can solve all your problems.

15. We can make comments about how silly men are in their presence because they aren't listening anyway.

And, along with that message was this picture too! Above the photo, my friend had written "I don't want to brag or make anyone jealous or anything, but I can still fit into the earrings I wore in high school." I saw that and immediately broke up laughing -long, hard and completely! How like her to find something like this and send it to me -and just exactly what I needed then too! I picked up the phone later Monday afternoon and called her, still laughing over that silly e-mail, but I also told her how I had been trying to think of how I used to get things that really had me worked up, totally stressed out, removed or at least, put under control in my system and as soon as I had seen this from her, I remembered exactly how we used to talk and carry on -and yes, drink too -and come away much relieved! And I reminded her in this conversation that I still haven't completely forgiven her and her husband for leaving the north with the snow, sleet, freezing rains and such, to go to Florida just because it was warmer there! (No, that wasn't the only reason they moved -her husband's job did have a lot to do with that, but anyway, that's beside the point, isn't it?) We talked for close to 2 hours and I told her what had been on my mind, stressing me out, and we made one joke after the other about the entire situation after which we then got into discussing lots of other things too that we could make fun of as well so by the time we ended that phone call, my mind was free of the thoughts of the problems anyway! No, the problems haven't gone away -they just became much more manageable for me though simply because I picked up the phone, called my friend and transported myself back in time to those days long ago when we would handle almost any problem or obstacle in our way by finding the stupid sides to the issues and then, making fun of them! Trust me when I tell you this -handling problems in this manner really does work like a charm, and is so much fun too.  Well except for the occasional hangover anyway!

Out on a Limb?

Once in a while, I venture forth here with some opinions, some thoughts that run through my mind from time to time, that may deal a tad with things that are currently in the news. Not often that I do that, but tonight -well, brace yourself, because I am going to take a short stab at an issue that really annoys me!

Unless you have your head in the sand -like the old ostrich -I'm sure we're all more than well aware that this is an election year and there are all kinds of debates ongoing -over and over, ad nauseum to be honest -about the government, health insurance, women's rights with respect to insurance and such.

And those people campaigning for our votes are really -in my opinion -very biased against women and their health rights with respect to insurance, what it should or should not pay for, that is.

My question to any of these politicians, regardless of what party they represent is why do they believe it is fair that women can not get birth control items (pills, etc) or other things that cover this type of things covered by insurance on the guise that it is not really a health issue and yet, insurance will cover things like male enhancement products -like enlarge maxx -which to my understanding is not exactly something that is really health related, is it?

Think about that now and think carefully too -would a man's health be endangered if he didn't or couldn't have access to a product like that?

Now, and again, think very carefully here now too -the aspect of getting pregnant, to my knowledge, my way of thinking (having been there 3 times in my lifetime though fortunately with no complications) does bring with it the potential for serious health issues for a lot of women. And also, birth control products also are used to treat various other health conditions besides preventing pregnancy too so doesn't make that type of product one that is just as important to be affordable, covered by insurance, just like getting a prescription for an antibiotic is handled via insurance?

And if men have the right to get these products for enhancement covered by insurance -which is not exactly a medical problem is it -then why don't women have the right to have access to needed health related things being covered by insurance too?

Just some thoughts there, folks. Nothing more except that after all, fair for one is fair for all, isn't it?

And that's that!

Musical Density!

Boy. the things that crop up and show me all kinds of stuff that I am dense and or naive about -totally incredible!

It really amazes me how many specialized things there are for things that I would have thought would actually be fairly simple to deal with.

The fact that there are all these name brands that have special meanings to various artists and/or amateurs I fear is going to really come home to haunt me in years to come if these kids keep getting interested in so many things along the way. Suppose Maya decides that the acoustic guitar that a friend of Mandy's gave her for Christmas 2 years ago and which, of course, Maya knew nothing whatsoever about how to play any musical instrument at that time (still doesn't for that matter) but all this friend knew was that Maya had fallen in love with a toy guitar so the lady, thinking she was doing Maya a good deed, got her this for-real guitar that year for Christmas! Well, before you knew it, it was a totally stringless guitar because, of course, a 5-year-old has no clue whatsoever about those things and that one has to handle these things with at least a modicum of care!

Right?

Sure, you know I'm right, so just agree with me, will ya? Anyway, did you know that there is something like John Pearse guitar strings? Well, I didn't but there are and I have no clue what kind of guitar strings this guitar would have to have and if they have to be a specific kind, type or name brand or whatever! So how does one learn about simple things like that anyway if, as Maya gets a bit older and does have a real interest (and maybe ability) in learning to play an instrument like that?

Just one more thing along life's merry way to confuse me!

Tough Nut to Crack!

Holy Rip!

That's one of my (many) favorite expressions and also, one of not too many of those things that is also safe to use in mixed company too. Yeah, I do tend -frequently -to have a bit of a potty mouth I guess it's safe to say. I won't go into details here and now about what some of my really favorite expressions are but Holy Rip is one I do use a good bit.

But, recently when I purchased some books online and the package arrived here at the house, I was saying this above expression a lot more than I usually would do -mainly because the strapping tape used on the package was so strong it seemed like it was of the most heavy-duty stuff imaginable and I had one heck of a hard time getting it off the package to open the darned thing!

You'd have sworn they were sending me a gold bar from Fort Knox and had it wrapped in something that would almost need a stick of dynamite to break it loose! Kind of like when you get prescriptions filled and the pharmacists put them in those darned child-proof containers that only a child can open because adults sure as Hell can't get 'em to budge some times!

Next time I order books online from that company I'm going to make sure to have a crowbar on hand to use as leverage in trying to open my package!

Wardrobe Changes....

Back at the beginning of the new year, our school system here introduced a new program for the elementary school students of indoor soccer for the winter season. Mandy thought since it was available to kids in Maya's age range (second grade) as well as for kids as young as kindergarten level, that this might be a good thing to sign the kids up for this. Give them a little bit of exercise over the winter months plus perhaps enable them to learn better how to follow directives and focus on a game better.

So, of course, there were the mandatory clothing items they needed to have -shin guards -two pair, one set for each child -but at least for this particular class, that was all they needed in the way of extra equipment.

Now, however, this program is ending and the spring soccer aspect is just around the corner. That one requires a bit more gear for the child to have so Mandy is debating whether or not to let Maya enroll in the program because of the additional expenses that would be incurred. She's already decided there is no point this year of even thinking about continuing the soccer for Kurtis as he's still just a bit to much of a space cadet right now and doesn't grasp the game concept nor the idea of paying strict attention to doing what the coaches tell the kids to do. In other words -he stays in his own little world and just sort of floats around, kind of free range, ya know.

Considering all the extra expenses for these programs, at the rate those costs run, if either of these kids ever acquires an interest in extreme winter sports and needs clothing like say an Alpinestars-Jackets, Mandy and I had both better find some really good paying jobs as well as hitting the lottery too in order for just one of the kids to be able to participate in that kind of activity!

Sheesh! The schools will have to be offering clothing scholarships the way this stuff costs!

Shared Pains

Mandy has always had issues with headaches -especially migraines -and I've been the lucky one here who has managed to escape them. Now that's something that makes me feel truly blessed especially when I see how miserable and sick she is when she gets one of those kind of headaches.

She's had several different types of prescriptions to take for these headaches -some which help a little bit for a while, others which seem to have no redeeming qualities at all and do nothing to stem the pain. This spring though she's developed a bit of a problem though that I can relate to in that we're both dealing with sinus issues but hers seem to affect her throat as well as her sinus (runny nose mainly) and mine are giving me headaches that I wake up with in the morning, behind my upper cheek and eye area as I'm just plain all stuffed up then!

She read something about taking some kind of Migraine Botox to alleviate the problems but I'm not sure I understand how the heck this would work in this context. Anyone ever tried anything like this?

I keep telling her that once the pollen issues begin to settle back to normal again, this stuff will be history for us. A nice hot, steam-filled shower sometimes works better than anything to loosen up the old sinus cavities a bit and the added benefit there is the hot water also soothes the shoulder and neck muscles and helps to loosen them up a tad too.

Plus -no prescriptions, no doctor fees -and a nice refreshing feeling overall -my kind of healing qualities for sure!

Cabin Fever Escape?

The weather this winter has been really mild and for that I am very grateful. That we haven't had a lot of days with temps below zero and wind gusts making the wind chill factor even way lower -a major blessing especially with respect to the fuel bills! The fact that with the warmer temps and all we haven't had any major ice storms is also something for which I am extremely grateful too.

However, all that nice weather (for wintertime, ya know) still doesn't make getting through to spring time without having a bit of a go-round though with the sort of typical winter kind of depression that the doctors often refer to as SAD -Seasonal affective disorder -which really stems from lack of enough vitamin D (I think it's D) due to the lowered amounts of sunshine we get.

Anyway, normally, when I get into that rut, and just feel really out of sorts, wanting to hibernate, I have for the past couple of years now, as you know, turned to doing lots and lots of embroidery work. This year though, I did something different and went on a reading binge!

The drawback though to the reading binge is basically a lot the same as with the embroidery in that I then lose interest in most anything else and just concentrate solely on whatever it is that is my agenda at that time.

Housework becomes something completely at the bottom of the "To do" list, for sure!

What's bad about this is that Mandy and I both tend to operate much the same way so neither of us wants to be bothered with a lot of cleaning and such. But after well over a week now of really nice weather, warm days, sunny days and such, the dislike of housework begins to lift a bit.

Mandy was on a cleaning tear this past weekend -organizing kids clothes, shoes, boots, neatening, scrubbing, mopping, vacuuming -you name it and she was on fire doing all kinds of stuff like that. And, the bug finally bit me a little today too as I decided to tackle the kitchen!

I gave the floor a good once-over, mop job -so now it's nice and bright, a bit on the slippery side initially so you could call it kind of a quick step flooring now if you venture out there in your stocking feet and are moving a bit fast -you could go into a slip/slide in nothing flat! (No extra dirt to snag the socks and slow the movements down a bit I guess!)

That aspect won't stick around very long though what with the kids now able to go outside and play and I'll wager by tomorrow evening when they are ready for bed, that darned floor will be showing lots of wear and tear and mud having been dragged back in either by them or by the dog who now, seems compelled to find the biggest leaf accumulations along our walking route with bits of other stuff mixed in with the leaves as he finds it very necessary to lay down and roll all around, nuzzling the dirt down under and lifting that and the leaves to gather on his fur!

Dogs or kids -makes no difference I guess when it comes to finding and accumulating dirt. If it's there and readily available, they'll find it and bring it in to the cleanest floor area of the house!

Never fails!

Would Any Job Do?

Seeing the unemployment rates and reading about the difficulties many folks are having just making ends meet while working at decent jobs, although often it requires working two jobs or if it is a couple, both are usually employed and knowing what I went through trying to find a decent paying job, I have a great deal of empathy for anyone either in a bind financially because of the economy or heaven forbid, someone who is unemployed and not having any success in finding gainful employment.

Been there, did that and no, it's not easy to cope with.

Not. At. All!

However, I do see some people I know who are currently unemployed who also are not taking steps that might actually be necessary to get out of the employment bind -or lack thereof -they are currently in simply because they won't apply for certain types of jobs.

If a job isn't in some way similar to their previous employment and doesn't offer a starting pay rate of at least $12 an hour one friend of ours here won't even consider applying to anything less than that.

Frankly, I think that's some very foolish thinking as this person's unemployment expired a while back but then the government put in a 13 week extension so now, the party has unemployment benefits restored for about 8 or 9 more weeks.

I realize many jobs in this area only offer a starting rate of minimum wage and the bulk of those positions tend to be in the food service industry. While this person has no prior food service experience nor does this party really WANT to acquire food service experience, when faced with the current situation of having NO income at all once the unemployment benefits totally dry up, if that were me, I'd be getting that application and filling it out, double-time!

There's nothing that says you can't keep looking for a job in your particular field but sheesh, it's nice to know you've got a little bit of income coming in to be able to at least pay some of your bills in the meantime too!

It reminds me of a saying and I have no clue were this originated "Pride goeth before the fall" so is it better to be that proud where you won't even consider flipping burgers or running the carry-out window or whatever or shouldn't it be just a tad wiser to take a job, regardless, so you can then at least hold your head up and know you're trying to get your life in line?

Just my opinion there!

Investments?

A very good and old, old friend of mine called me the other day. She and I worked together when I was employed down in D.C. many moons ago and we have stayed friends even though I moved back to Pennsylvania from there in 1972 -40 years ago this coming August.

She's now retired too and moved back to her hometown in West Virginia because her family still lives there. She and I share fairly similar backgrounds, overall but the best part is the fact of our friendship that has lasted all this time. Even though we don't call each other and talk frequently, when we do, it's almost like we've never been apart as our minds run in very much the same channels.

However, the big difference between us today is that she not only collects social security (as I do) but she also rose high enough in the ranks of our former mutual employer that she had a very good salary (also a very responsible position too) and she also was able to get a darned good pension then too when she retired.

So, she has a few more bucks floating around to play with, I suppose you could say, than I do.

As a result of that extra income occasionally she will tell me about things that she "plays with" pertaining to her money.

Her latest bit is that she is into coins and as such, she likes to buy gold coins!  I, on the other hand, would be much more inclined into trying to figure out a way to sell those things and collect the cash value I suppose! She's not a big purchaser of this stuff but just enough to dip her toes into the water, ya know. She's always been a pretty cautious individual where her money was concerned -not frugal -just not a spendthrift -so I don't worry about her getting burned from her little investments here and there and as long as she has the extra money to do that and enjoys it too, what harm is there in that anyway?

Like Mother....

Did I ever mention a job I had that was the longest lasting job I've ever had? From 1973 until 1991 -18 years -I was an Avonlady!

When I first started selling those products, my first order, I had only 3 customers but by the time I gave it up, I had about 150 people in my customer tracking book although I never had an order where that many people ordered something in one single campaign. Boy, wish I would have had customers like that!

I was the old-fashioned kind of representative too -the ones who went door-to-door unlike a lot of reps I knew then (and still today) who had people willing to take their sales books into factories and/or offices and gather up orders there for them. Those reps often were the ones who were the top-sellers in the district but I still managed to make the Top Ten list for over 15 or 16 years of my tenure as a rep.

Today, my daughter is now an Avon rep too but she doesn't go door-to-door. Instead, she just sells to family and a few friends of hers. It's enough for her to then be able to purchase the products she likes at the wholesale price and that is basically all she's interested in.

I still like and use a lot of their merchandise and I do especially like several of their fragrances. But I have to confess that my very favorite perfume of all I've ever had is one by Lancome called Poeme. (I think that's how you spell it.) Anyway, it's a designer perfume that was given to me as a birthday gift back in 1998! And it was given to me by the gentleman I was seeing at that time who, two weeks later, ended our relationship!

Maybe that purchase of that perfume was a bit too pricey for him to carry on the relationship?

I don't know what his reason for his decision to stop seeing me really was as he never fully explained it to me but that was the last time I ever got involved in any type of emotional relationship.

It taught me a darned good lesson and that was that I am independent and don't really need to have a man to make me whole.

Don't get me wrong now as I am not anti-relationships and definitely not against men or anything that dire but I just don't need one to make me "complete."

Of course, I'll never be able to afford another bottle of that lovely perfume but that's okay too!

It's just a material object and there are lots of things worth much, much more!

Peeves of Note!

Ever have one of those days when virtually everything you touch turns to a substance or some such that just doesn't work for you?

Today must have been one of those days for me.

I got up around 9 a.m. -give or take an hour or so I think. (Not fully sure what time it was when I got up but was pretty near to 10 a.m. I figure by the time I was relatively awake anyway. So allowances there are necessary.)

Decided I needed something "filling" for my breakfast rather than just a couple slices of toast so a scrambled egg sandwich (on toast of course) was my meal ticket for the morning, after which I could then take my daily meds. Can't take 'em on an empty stomach or else I will lose the benefit of the meds completely by depositing them almost immediately in the bathroom, ya know.) So before eating, I had to do my morning blood sugar test which today was the second time I think in over a week that it has registered under 120. Not good, by a long shot but not really horrible either, in my opinion. Hopefully, it is coming down, getting under control a bit again.

After breakfast though, the stomach decided it was time to wreak a bit of havoc by giving me lots of cramps and such. After that began to calm down, then my system decided it was time to ignore the nice temps outside and make me feel as if I were about to freeze inside the house so with that, I decided to curl up on the couch with a nice quilt and get warm that way. On my way to getting warm again, I took a nice little cat nap then too!

So, finally up and at 'em around 12:30, I decided time to take a shower. While getting things ready to get in the shower though is when the darned clumsy syndrome decided to take charge of things starting with how I managed to knock over some lipstick containers on the shelf in the medicine cabinet and one of 'em took a header into the sink and of course, right down into the drain. Yes, the cap to said lipstick also came off in the process and you just know it also happened to be my favorite shade too, don't 'cha? Couldn't have been a tube that I was tired of, that was 3/4 used up or anything, could it?  Well, certainly not as that would have been at least slightly beneficial in some way, wouldn't it?

After a quick but refreshing (also good awakener) shower, I realized I hadn't brought any clean clothes into the bathroom to put on -no robe there either -so I gathered up some other stuff laying on the chest in the bathroom to put in front of me to make my escape from the bathroom to my bedroom to get dressed. Praying all along too that there was no one waiting out front for me to surface and answer the door or anything like that because of course, within about 10 seconds after I had got into the shower and got my head all soaped up, the dog had begun barking like the little lunatic he is at times -loud, very frenzied -which usually means someone has dared to come down the sidewalk and knock on the front door! Usually, but not always as sometimes we have decided he goes into these barking frenzies too after having just seen a leaf blow across his line of vision too. Thank goodness apparently today it was a leaf as there was no one out front, no packages dropped off on the door stoop either so no risk then of my scaring the living daylights out of some unsuspecting soul who may have thought they needed or wanted to speak with me.

Finally dressed, Sam and I walked up the road to pick up the mail and he managed to water about every blade of grass along the route to and from the mail boxes. I marvel at the capacity of his bladder every time we go for a walk as that sucker must hold 10 gallon at least, judging by the number of watering stops he makes during a walk that is approximately 1 1/2 miles, round trip! Sure makes me envious of being able to hold that much fluid back from accidentally escaping, that's for sure!

Home again, and time for the kids to return from school with Kurtis getting home about 3:30 today and Maya, at the after-school play program she attends every Wednesday until 4:30 when Mandy has to pick her up then. So once they are both home, then it is wondering how long their peace truce for the day will hold up, ya know. Usually, it only lasts a short period of time once they are together but I'm thinking today, being the second day this year now that they have been able to go outside and play -release a good bit of their pent-up energy along with the sibling rivalry type of hostility that is there, under the surface, and thanks be to the higher powers they both seem to appreciate each other a bit. Miracles do happen, don't they?

As often happens on Wednesday afternoons, Kurt's TSS, Miss Dawn, is here for a little added time to work with him and she is outside playing with/supervising both kids a bit to keep the law and order atmosphere going. All is well until she discovers Maya has found some earthworms and was carrying them into the house where she was depositing them in the little six-pack cooler sitting out in the front porch!

Oh wonnerful, wonnerful, ya know! She tried that last night when she carted a worm tucked into the palm of her hand into the house and plunked her butt down on the sofa to admire her catch!

I am NOT a big fan of earth worms. Did I ever mention that before? Well, if not, I'm telling that truth now cause I don't particularly care for any type of thing that strikes me as resembling even if only very slightly of a snake! (I also do not like spiders or other creepy-crawly creature either!) Fact of the matter is I don't just dislike them I am also more than a bit afraid of 'em too but that's a fear I don't want the kids to know about too! I remember all too well what my kids and their dad used to love to torment me with once he and they discovered I was more than a bit afraid of toads too, many, many years ago. I really don't want, really don't need, kids chasing me around the place carrying worms, spider or heaven forbid, toads or who knows, maybe even non-poisonous snakes at some future juncture!

Fortunately though, Mandy has pretty much the same attitude as mine when it comes to these creatures and she let fly with the riot act on Maya about bringing worms into the house which she said, in no uncertain terms, was ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN!

Thank goodness for that small favor!

Well, judging by the sounds coming in via the front door, the truce must have come to an end because I hear one little boy whining and crying and his mother telling him "You better go SIT DOWN!"

All good things do seem to come to an end, don't they?

But at least we had over an hour's worth of peaceful playtime today and that's really a positive sign for a change!

Here's hoping things go worm free and I don't knock any more stuff that I really don't want to lose over and down the drain too!

Too Much, Too Soon...

Darn it anyway! Looks like I opened my big mouth and uttered a bunch of stuff a bit too early on for those words to be valid anymore.

This morning, while going through my reader and making occasional comments too, I responded to a post by Kat at Seeking Sanity in which she was talking about the weather over the past couple of months and how it was not the norm for those of us who live in states that frequently become snowbound or have lengthy bouts of really, really low temps and other nasty winter things, like sleet, freezing rain and such. Just as where she lives (Michigan), we here in Pennsylvania have had a winter quite unlike any in my memory at all -which by the way covers a whole lot of winters too, ya know. We've had a few snowfalls, yes, but nothing in the really, really big depths range, no blizzards either and only a few times have we had some snow of the blowing type that creates so much havoc with the visibility for people on the highways. We've had no instances whatsoever in which the temps dropped below zero and then, due to wind chill factors, seemed 10-15 degrees even lower than an already bitter cold of say, -6 degrees.

So I told her this about the winter of 2012 as experienced here in central Pennsylvania. Then, I went on to read a few more blogs, get myself cup of coffee, fixed myself a huge tossed salad for breakfast (reasons for salad for breakfast to be discussed later) and when I came back into the living room to finish my blog reading and happened to look out the window, to my chagrin what did I see but snow flakes flying about quite furiously too! The Nerve! Unmitigated nerve at that of Mother Nature to invade my turf on what earlier forecasts (or so I had been led to believe) were calling for warm (50-60 possible) temps today! Apparently that was not to be though.

Although now, an hour later, the sun is making occasional peeks through and the amount of flurries has greatly diminished so who knows what the noon weather forecast will hold now!

This rather mixed up weather stuff though fits very nicely with m mood today which, by the way, isn't all that good but for other reasons -all of which lead to my logic in having a tossed salad for breakfast!

My thoughts on that choice were that perhaps since lettuce and a couple other greens seem to be the only things I should be eating because everything else I seem to like much less even just look at makes my blood sugar go a bit wild now!

I confess to not being an ideal patient for a doctor to work with when it comes to issues like weight, blood sugar, blood pressure and low fat/carb crapola. You probably know the drill too with these items, especially as you get a bit up in years.

My blood sugar levels went more than a bit wonky last year when I was getting chemo after having had a hysterectomy at which time it was discovered that I had uterine cancer and as a result, between my oncologist and my primary care physician, they decided to put me on a high dosage of metformin twice a day to keep my blood sugar in check -along with being good and pushing myself away from the table more often, not ingesting the carbs that pollute our diet here mainly because mac'n'cheese or chicken nuggets seem to be the main things we can get these two kids to eat! And I still swear by my words I used all the time to my kids when they would get picky about food and I would preach to them to "Sit up, shut up and eat cause I'm not running a blankety-blank-blank restaurant here with me trying to fix a couple different meals for one sitting!" Well, guess what? There are a lot of days that I do end up fixing two sort of separate menus simply because there are times Mandy and I do get a bit tired of the mac'n'cheese that the kids would prefer to see on the table day after day after day!

So anyway, I confess too that I have been misbehaving a good bit of late with respect to the diet stuff and the blood sugar and all that junk. I had been testing my blood sugar normally, once a day, in the morning before having anything to eat at all. And prior to the latter part of November, those tests were always running the gamut of anywhere from a low of 82 to a high of 119 -and a gamut in those number is now a really bad thing, ya know. So I decided I was tired of poking a hole in my fingertips every damned day and not being able to make heads or tails either out of the readings based on what I'd had to eat the day before! Go figure why one day it could be a low of 83 after having had a bigger amount of food that was heavy-duty on the carb end of the spectrum and a day or so later, after having a diet the day before of say, rice and fish (broiled) giving a reading of maybe 115-119 or so. Just confusing the hell out of me was all that was doing because I couldn't get a good bead then on foods I could concentrate more on and that I really liked -which the kids would eat too. (Also an important factor in these configurations too for peace, quiet and overall sanity to prevail at the dinner table!)

So I began just testing randomly maybe 2-3 times a month and in doing that, during November I ran an average blood sugar level then of 117, in January it was 110 and in March thus far, it exploded and has not been under 120 yet! Actually, this past Monday morning it was up to 138 but I figured that was because the day before we had a pot luck dinner at church with oodles and oodles of casseroles (all extremely tasty) plus just about as wide an array too of lovely desserts -all irresistible -and I had more than pigged out the day before. So I decided then to check my sugar levels a bit more frequently and on Tuesday morning, it was still up there but a teeny bit lower -down to 135. Yesterday it dropped a bit more by morning to 129 but this morning, it was really high -up to 143 and I was really frustrated again as my diet yesterday was not out of bounds! Oatmeal plus a bit of homemade rye toast for breakfast, and for supper, a nice tossed salad, a very meager amount of buttered noodles (very meager for me!) along with some broiled chicken with Italian dressing seasoning and later in the evening a banana and a very small scoop of ice cream. (Note here, during the time span when my blood sugars were constantly testing low and very acceptable, I was also enjoying (very much) almost every night, a nice serving of ice cream as I had to have food in my stomach when taking my meds, ya know!)

This morning I also decided to take the plunge and dared to get on the scale! A mistake for my ego there, that's for sure and the scale of course, doesn't lie and it told me that I am now paying the piper for all the indulging I did between Thanksgiving and the end of January what with all the chocolates and other candies and cookies out the yazoo that existed in the old house then! To the tune of an increase of almost 8 pounds as a matter of fact! ARRGH and double ARRGH to that bit of news!

So, even though I have been behaving better thus far this week with Sam and walking him the rest of my life seems to be crumbling about me from my bad choices I've been making! The salad though this a.m. did taste pretty good and actually made me feel full too! I'm hoping it will hold me till supper time when I'm figuring on fixing some kind of fish and who knows what else (that the kids will eat) for supper.

But since I'm sharing some information here today that isn't all on the nice and bright side, I've got something else to add to that too! Seems Kurtis made a bunch of bad choices yesterday in school and almost got not one but three infractions! His TSS sent Mandy a text message yesterday late in the morning to tell her it wasn't a good day going on in the kindergarten area at least not where Kurt was concerned as while Miss Dawn was helping another client, Kurtis decided to drop his drawers, put his little naked butt smack in the face of a fellow student and then, adding insult to injury, he proceeded to wiggle said naked behind profusely in that other child's face too!

OMG! Kurt did that? Whatever was he thinking? And, what happened to the little boy who frequently will tell me not to look at him while he's attempting to take off his pajamas and get dressed? It's not unusual at all for me to go near the bathroom door and upon his hearing me there, he will call out and tell me "No look at me Gram! No look! I no got clothes on!"

Modesty frequently prevails on the home front where people have often seen him in various stages of undress over the almost 6 years of his life and yet, at school, around people who are virtually strangers to him in a manner of speaking, he strips and shakes his booty at them in their faces too boot!

Needless to say, he wasn't the happiest camper on the block last night as Mandy had some lengthy discussions with him about his bad behavior and poor choices made yesterday.

Let's hope that today he remembers telling me as he got on the van to go to school this a.m. that he would make good choices today and who knows, maybe it will happen that way just like the sun keeps popping in and out for a bit of a longer visit too each time now.

Maybe spring really, really is on the way and everything will brighten up more and more with each passing day. Including the prospects then too of getting back to doing longer walks too with Sammy that maybe will be helpful in the weight loss, blood sugar control column.

It could happen, ya know! It better happen is more what I'm saying right about now though!