I Found a Flower!

Oh Joy!! Oh Happy!! I found a beautiful flower! As I was trudging up the hill from the mailbox, I saw it: just sitting there in the yard where The Dad doesn't usually mow. It is a pieplate (I think Sister Betty said) HYBISCUS!! That is my favorite-in-the-whole-world flower. I like the smaller ones best but never had seen a huge one until I saw one a couple of years ago in the yard of a neighbor about a mile away. We don't know how it got there. No one planted it but God I guess. I have to walk to see it but that is good for me! I have a hybiscus tree but it hasn't bloomed for the 3 years I have had it and now here is one all mine! Oh! I am soooooooo excited (yeah, it doesn't take much to make me happy). And I mowed the last 2 days: am all well from my kidney stone ordeal--at least for this time--and am drinking lemonade and water so I don't add to my collection.

And The Dad was disappointed that I hadn't posted a picture of his raccoons so If it works, here's one too. They really are cute but when I mentioned having one as a pet Someone in this family huffed and snorted (see last blog!).

Anyway, Happy Independence Day and God Bless you all!

June's Over!!!

Normally I don't whine over certain months, but June was a really terrible month for us--well, me, anyway!!

Started out bad enough when I had to go one day late to our vacation because of a "stomach virus." We left Sunday instead of Sat. and I had that evening feeling fine and enjoying the wonderful time with family. That was the last day I had that I was OK! Monday morning, I got up with a horrific kidney stone, which sent me to the hospital, and on to a urologist and on to another hospital before we decided I needed surgery at my own hospital and had to come home on Wed.

We missed the vacation with the family that I had looked forward to for a whole year--since last year!! Rats!! Came home to find that the raccoons had broken into the chicken house and eaten every one of the chickens. Larry's heart was broken and he has worked every day since, except when we had to go to the funeral--yes, that was in June too--catching raccoons and carrying them off. The 2 today made 12 that he has gotten.

I needed surgery to get rid of the stone and did well but they had to leave the stent in and it made me hurt and sick and feverish until I got it out this Wed. now I am fine--well after the vacation!! Surgery over and back home, then mother passed away. She was so ready but it is painful anyway. She will be greatly missed by everyone but it was great that she had such a long and PRODUCTIVE life!! I will miss asking her about home remedies and recipes, most of all!

If anyone asks, NO it is NOT a good idea to ride 500 miles with a stent in the ureter. Nor is it OK to ride 400+ miles with a kidney stone just so you can go to your own hospital!!!

Finally, I think, The Dad was fixing the swimming pool so it would be ready for visitors, and it caved in on him! Could have been so much worse and I know he downplayed it by saying he wasn't in danger. The rushing water knocked him down, and scraped his legs but he didn't know until the next day when he was looking for his shoes that they had been trapped under the pool. As I think about it, I could just imagine horrible things that didn't happen to him (thank God!!).

Oh yeah, and the last thing was I fell up the basement stairs and bruised my shins, face and elbows but DIDN'T BREAK ANYTHING. Oh yeah, but that was July 1st I think. Guess that didn't count!!

Now for the good cause you can't just gripe the whole blog (but I just did!). The hospitals around Lakeside, Ohio are wonderful!! Well, the people in them are anyway. No one could have been nicer and the urologist I saw worked me in and was so informative and helpful! It was the most pleasant experience I could have had. Our hospital people were great too, of course, except for the crummy anesthesiologist who did my pre-op work up. He didn't believe me when I gave him my history and it was so frustrating. But the whole team that came in the day of surgery were angels!!!

The Dad did great at Lakeside: he jumped right in and played and went places with the family because I couldn't. They loved having him and he really enjoyed the children too!! Was good for him too

My precious little grandsons showed their true personalities in their concern for me and in their generosity! Little Jonathan made me a painted rock when they all went to paint--then gave me the one he painted for himself too--made me cry! Sweet little Andy kept coming over and hugging me or patting me while I was lying down. He would come into the bedroom and just grin at me. So sweet!! When they all got back home and called me, the Daughter said both Mark and Adam had told people about my "kidney stones" and were still asking me about them when we went up there for the funeral. Adam: "Kidney stones all gone, Grandma?" several times.

Good old Dad drove all the way home and all the home and back when we went Up North for the funeral--and everywhere in between and since.

I've lost 15 pounds and am not gaining it back yet. Oh yes, and now The Dad is going to get a new pool. It is small but will do until we find a better one. So company can use it anytime. And now it is July and things have to get better, right? Of course right!!

have a great MONTH and God bless everyone who has taken the time to wade through all this!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa and DANG!!!

Blast it anyway!! First my Suzy Homemaker award has been revoked and now my Computer Guru Certificate has been dashed at my feet!! I'm a failure!!

Suzy went a few days ago: I decided to replace my Winnie the Pooh bedroom decorations that I'd had since before we moved here even with, what else?, John Deere. Off I went to the store and found J.D. border to put up--not even looking to see that it WASN'T already sticky but had to be put in water to make the glue work. I've never done that and didn't want to, but for the grandboys, anything, right? Right.

The first section I put up, I must have left in the water too long or out of the water too long. Anyway, it just refused to stick. I had to go and find the trusty old wallpaper paste that I use for NOT that(!) and make that mess. Finally, after an hour or more, got that one up and started on the next one. Well, it went up a bit easier but not a lot. The third one went better--some, but when it was all finished, one row was 2" lower than the first one. I tried (well, it had started out at 4 inches difference!!) again and then had to use the wallpaper paste on the next one. Finally, the whole room was a mess but I got it on--still 2 inches differences but you have to really want to find that and if you do--I'll kill you! Then the Dad came in and found that the tops of all the border was coming off and we spent another hour or so gluing that on. I've learned--and the Grandsons will NEVER get other borders on that room!!! Well, until they can do it themselves. Then Someone Cute had the audacity to mention, "You know, they will come in here and if there's one tiny space, they will rip it off." Wash his mouth with soap!!!

So today, I decided to sign up with Global Mission Outreach to be a volunteer online missionary. Sounds good, right? Right. the application, so it said, would take about 1/2 hrs. to complete so I embark on that journey. If you try this, it is a good thing to do, but just know that unless you are a LOT faster than I am, it DOESN'T take 1/2 hrs. but more like 1 1/2 hrs. Now the pain: I got to the very last page where you do the derned user name and password. Finally get it to be right and---------it refused to do anything to let me finish. Just says "Page 5 of 6 completed" and every time I pushed Finish it did nothing. Now I am very frustrated but did a dreadful thing. I pushed the Go Back Button which said the web page had expired and wouldn't let me back on. I want to chop up my computer into little pieces!!

I ended up calling the lady on the web page phone # but I had to sign off to get to her and, of course, lost all that work. She was very nice and sympathetic and tried to help but I could have hit her when she ended with "have a nice day." I think I won't be an online missionary!!! Maybe that is their way of weeding out the impatient or something!!!!

Bye now. Have a nice day. And my next posting will have, I hope, pictures of my un-failure!!!!

The Nicest Thing!

Good Old Dad! Yesterday on the way home from church, I mentioned that I was thinking about biscuits and sausage gravy and sure enough, when I got up this morning, he was fixing such. Biscuits from scratch even!!!! Of course, he had to go and mention that the gravy was "creamier" than mine because he used tapioca flour (for the record, it wasn't!), but it was so good!!!

And Spring has really come to the Hills!! The magnolia bush is beautiful as are many of the redbuds and other things. I had to hurry out and photo them because the wind and rain might take the blossoms away!! Oops, I didn't get the Magnolia tree in. Those trees are the lilac bushes. Oh well. The Dad hurried up and mowed so all is well there. The temp is supposed to drop more than 40 degrees this afternoon and we are supposed to have rain and snow tomorrow (and everyone is scrambling to get in supplies in case of ice storms)--but snow isn't supposed to stick!. Well, guess that is part of Spring in the Hills too!

And now it is off to wrap Easter gifts for the little guys. I am soooooo excited to be seeing them all soon--and all of the Big Ones too!!! God's blessings to everyone--have a blessed Easter and Happy Passover also!

Suzy Homemaker

Sadly enough, my Suzy Homemaker of the Year award has been revoked--and immediately I thought of my Hospice friends (who will NOT be surprised!).

You see, I was making this lovely beef stew I found in a recipe book -even! You know, one of those wonderful magazines that come monthly, or seasonally or whatever. And I was almost even following the recipe and it called for bacon. Easy enough, right? Wrong! The Dad often cooks bacon for breakfast and, after he puts it in the skillet to cook, he goes and does dozens of things: even goes down the drive to get the paper--and the bacon turns out so beautifully crisp and "right", so I tried it. I put those little bacon chunks right into the pan and went off to do stuff. Well, I was also editing some photos to print and lost track of time. I also didn't think about the fact that he turns the heat down to almost off while he does all his stuff. Sure enough, after a while I smelled a funny smell. Scampering in, I found the kitchen all smoky and nasty. The Bacon? Oh yes, it was little charred piles of nothingness lying pitifully in that burned up skillet which I carried outside and forgot for a day or so.

I do remember now that when we lived in Lake Geneva, one of the kids was commissioned to wave the basement door back and forth to keep the smoke alarm from going off when I cooked much. The smoke alarm didn't go off, says The Dad because it is far enough from the kitchen that the smoke didn't get down the hall yet. Finally the smoke has gone from the house but for a while I wasn't sure it was ever going.

The stew? Well, it was fine without the bacon. After that gross error, I put some extra stuff in and forgot about the nice recipe and it tastes almost as good as it would have with bacon. Even found some leftover rice and kasha to put in--now I know something(!) to do with kasha!

Now, Teresa, what was it you wanted me to bring to that hospice carry-in?

Our New Addition

Well, here he is: our new addition! It is a 5-Speed, 4 Wheel Drive 99 Geo Tracker with a bunch of miles but not nearly as many as either of our vehicles. It may become my car as I don't have the problem shifting that The Dad does. OK, so I also love red cars and it almost looks like a JEEP which I have always wanted. It looks new and The Dad DID have our mechanic check it out. He says it is great. And I can take the top down even. I am happy!!! Oh, it also has a trailer hitch so The Dad can pull his trailer around with it when he gets big things (like a generator, maybe?) instead of using our cars. He will try and sell his Alero.

Highlight of our Trip-Smokies

We did it!! I have wanted to go to the Smokies and hike for many years--probably has been 20 since we did. So here we went and guess what we saw. Yep, a real Duff's!! We went back to Pigeon Forge 3 times at least to find it open--but finally it was open and we had dinner there. OK, so it wasn't quite what we had remembered, and we won't do it again...Well, we were disappointed and it doesn't have the revolving buffet table either. The lady said it hadn't for about 30 years. Nonetheless, we did it!

I had a wonderful time in the Smokies anyway. I wanted to spend money in the tourist-y places just once in my life; so I did! I was happy with what I got and probably won't do it ever again but I had the $$ and wanted to try. I do think I got some good things for the little guys and was proud of them. I shopped in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and in some National Park rest area. What fun.

The scenery was beautiful and the weather was fabulous! What better time to go??!! The Dad bought a generator on e bay in Johnson City and used that as an excuse to go--he knew I would be thrilled and I was. I think I wore a huge smile the whole time. We stayed at JBC and walked around there and was amazed at the changes! Yes, the girls can wear jeans and the couples can hold hands on campus--at least they were. I visited with my friend, Kathy Wheeler, for a bit and had a great time. Campus is beautiful and so big!!! The mountains are, of course, indescribably. We will go back--maybe at Dogwood Festival time.

Oh yes, we got the generator home in The Dad's usual fashion: tied and strapped securely in, no, ON the back of the trunk. It was embarrassing if I had thought about it but we ARE from KY and it didn't look nearly as- ummm, how can I say this?-gauche as the trip I made down from Wisconsin to KY with a rocking chair tied to the TOP of my car....

I will try and post a photo or 2 of the mountains but I just can't wait to post a photo of our newest acquisition in my next blog...Until Later then....