Tara's blah blah gran-babies blogger!

JAPAN'S EARTHQUAKE

2012-02-09T20:20:00.000-06:00

March 11th, 2011
The Japan earthquake....how awful is that? They are saying it is more devastating than when they had the nuclear bomb dropped on them. I sleep with a little pillow speaker under my pillow. (Other wise I lay there my brain cannot seem to turn off, I have also learned to tune it out, fall asleep pretty quickly) I woke up at 530am, heard there was this EQ in Japan. I did not catch where exactly. I jumped up out of bed and ran to my computer. Google earth had already marked where the EQ had happened. Which was good since my son-in-laws brother lives in Tokyo. He said his brother should be fine since they lived further south than where the EQ happened. About an hour later his brother posted on Facebook that they were all OK. But even being as far away as Tokyo some of their drawers opened up, some dishes got broken. Now I heard even in Tokyo the people are hording food and water, the store shelves are empty. I am sure they are in fear of more EQs. Just so very sad. But talk about "Grace under fire".....they showed the Japanese people lining up for water and food..they all stood in line...nicely, patiently. No stealing, no pushing, no yelling where is mine....sound familiar? Embarrassing isn't it?? Even after the tsunami hit...still patience...what a nice way to live. God bless them, and keep them in your prayers...they have long days coming yet.

YUMMY FOOD BLOGS

2012-02-05T11:08:00.000-06:00

For lack of a better way to do this, I am adding a page to add links to other blogs I have found and like, and want to share with the public...(if I have any public that is!)
This Blog is called "The Girl Who Ate Everything!" (not sure how she does it, her photo looks like she is pretty thin... of course its call the girl who ate everything.probably does not mean EVERYTHING ON HER PLATE so without further ado...

"The Girl Who Ate Everything!"

Great recipes...and I have not had time to research, but I saw something that made me think she writes humorous books as well...hmmmm must check that out, with all the time I have on my hands these days..
Ah I believe maybe she is a Food network blogger, what ever that means..I really should check these things out more...but hey since no one hardly reads this...what the heck!

The Girl Who Ate Everything Facebook

THE COUNTRY COOK OH THIS ONE LOOKS GOOD TOO!

Enjoy!

WITH LOVE TO BRIDGET

2012-01-25T20:31:00.000-06:00

Originally written August 2008

Dear Granddaughter (Bridget)

You are my first Granddaughter/Grandchild period. So even though I hope to to get more Grandchildren, I believe, you, being the first one, will always have a special place in my heart. Your mommy wanted me to come to the hospital as soon as she went. So Grandpa and I went up thinking it might be a long day before we were going to meet you. These things usually take a long time. But mommy had a few complications and so off to the operating room they went. About 30 minutes later, while I was pacing in your mommy's hospital room, your mommy still in bed of course and your daddy following close behind, came down the hall, and your mommy said, I got a girl, I got a girl. I just could not wait for her to unwrap you so I could meet you. I get tears in my eyes thinking about that day. What an exciting day...there you were. And then daddy held you for the first time, he looked so happy and proud. I think he wanted a Bridget for a long time...but he was waiting to meet just the right mommy.

When it was finally my turn to hold you, oh...I could not wait and I loved you even more than I did before you were born. You had dark hair and the largest dark eyes, almost navy blue, before they turned brown a few days later. I didn't think you looked anything like your mommy when she was born, so I guess you looked like your daddy. And later when Grandma Yoder brought down pictures of your daddy as baby, it was confirmed, you looked like daddy.

I always dreamed of having a grand baby, but when I actually got one, I felt like the luckiest Grammy in the world. And you were the most precious thing I ever saw. Well I did think the same thing when I saw your mommy and uncle Brad the first time I saw them.

Speaking of Uncle Brad...he called Grammy before you were born and wanted to know what was going on.. So as soon as you were born I had to call him and he made me tell him just what you looked like and what you were doing. He could not wait to meet you either. Uncle Brad was happy you were born early in the day (1pm) so you did not have to miss the afternoon cartoons like he did..he was born at 4:30. He asked his Grandma once when was he born and she said well about this time of day and he said Oh, I had to miss my afternoon cartoons.

So a few days later you came home and the count-down began for Grammy as to when she would be quitting her job so she could take care of you when mommy went back to work. And then the fun began!

CRUISING & Bob

2012-01-23T14:04:00.000-06:00

The Cruise

We cruised with Princess Cruise Lines on the Crown Princess.....For way over a year ago, my BFF asked us to go on a cruise with her. She was turning 50, (Jan. 16th, 2012) she wanted to mark the occasion in a large way! We were late signing up for the party, but by Fall we did. It was exciting all the planning, waiting, always part of the fun. Plane rides, fancy hotels, and a large large boat! This being our 2nd cruise, we sort of knew what to expect, but this was a large boat, lots larger than the last one. All cruise boats are lavish, and this one was no exception. Beautiful everywhere! The rooms were so nice. My BFF Marie, used a travel agent Mary Ann Rizzo. Fabulous travel agent. I will give her a plug here.

Mary Ann F. Rizzo, MCC

SEA 4 SAIL

Phone: +1-480-990-3300

Fax: +1-480-990-2907

Cell: +1-480-225-1837

Email: mfrizzo2@cox.net or sea4sail.mar@cox.net

Web Site: www.sea4sail.com Crystal Cruises Expert Travel Agent Charter Crystal Society Member

Four Star Holland America Mariner Captain’s Circle Platinum Member Hawaii Destination Specialist

Members of CLIA, Ensemble Travel Group, IATAN

The Group

Sail away photo

The Sail Away

By the time we were to leave Marie had 17 in our group. Fun people, people I knew as well, well some, and the others were so friendly. Nice group of people. What more could a person ask for. As we boarded the ship we were greeted with Champagne in our rooms, provided by the Travel Agent. Free passes to an Italian restaurant on the upper floor of the ship. Will talk about that later...Marie treated us to a Balcony Breakfast one morning on her balcony.

They served many courses, fruits, juices + Champagne, coffee, eggs, rolls, quiches, all on tablecloths in the balcony. What a treat! How many times in life does one get a chance for a breakfast like that? The first day and half, I ate about 4 cookies, I said I need to stop this. Well the seas took care of that.

The First Day...

Waiting for the plane out of St. Louis

Waving goodbye to Ft. Lauderdale

The very first afternoon we were getting ready for lunch when I ducked into the closest bathroom. Marie and I was waiting for the stalls to empty. The one I was standing in front of opened up and this lady and I just stared at each other. Marie said, "What is wrong?" We both started laughing, it was a gal we had lived next door to or years while raising our children. We hardly spent a day apart. Our children were friends. It was so funny. She took me outside and said, "Look who I found" to her husband. And along with her was her brother and his wife, who I had gone to school with my whole life. What fun! We spent 2 afternoons with them sitting around the lounge catching up. Showing each other pictures of our grandchildren. Just awesome.

The Beaches

The Cabanas on Princess Cays Island

The Birthday girl, a life-long friend, Marie, her daughter & husband

Back row, Marie & her DD Ashley, from is me, Joyce, Sandal

Ken and I all ready to for the Formal Evening

The Cabana house on Princess Cays

Princess Cays Island

We spent a day on a tiny island called Princess Cays. I believe the cruise line owns most of the island. They have the beach front set up with chairs, cabanas, in all colors, so cute. They BBQd on the island that day. And they have no dock built there so they take you there in the life boats. So that was interesting to ride in a life boat. For a good reason that is. But nice to know they feel pretty safe, but of course we could see land... The next day was a sea day and birthday day for Marie. I brought a tiara along for her to wear. She bought a beautiful dress, and looked so happy. Marie's birthday (Jan 16th) was formal night. (Still not sure how she wrangled that one! LOL) We all dressed up to the nines. So much fun. The dining room was elegant. The courses were served elegantly. The travel agent sent Marie a large birthday cake.

It was so pretty, and so yummy. About 5 layers of cake and strawberries. Creamy frosting over all....but we had been on rough seas for a day or so, and people were retreating to their rooms like flies. I never had to go to my room, but I could not eat much of any thing. Very good for my dieting. But darn I missed that cake!! LOL I had about 2 bites, so you know my tummy did not feel well.

Curoso

We stopped the next day at Curoso. Small island. We took a cab to a public beach. The water was cold, hard to get in, I recommend cruising in the fall. The ships pools were pretty cold too, never got to get in them. But a nice place. The next day was Aruba. What an island. Lots of "punch" packed into one small island. Marie had arranged for a tour guide to pick us up, and show us the island. He was very good at his job. If you ever go, contact me for his name and number. He had an air conditioned van, he drove great and was very knowledgeable.

Aruba

This was the rough side of the Aruba. I can not find a pix of the beaches there,

I guess we were having too much fun to take pictures....

beaches were so beautiful, I could not describe them enough. Bar and food served to you right there on the beach. The water was still cool but we were able to get in for a while. I had to "time" getting in to avoid being knocked down by the waves. I could not afford that to happen to me. But I made it fine, and got out far enough I could tread water, no pressure on my back, and I rode the waves. Worked out great. But the day came to an end and back to the ship.

The shows,

(No photos allowed) almost Las Vegas style, lots of glitz and glam. Good singers, dancers. We saw 2 comedians, they were very good. I am not a bingo player but the others were, and they played every afternoon. Pretty large Casino on board too. I am not a gambler, but Ken had fun there a few times. As did the others. It's a vacation of a life time. The rough seas were not all bad. In bed it felt like a giant cradle rocking you, I slept so great. You can order room service, just about anytime, breakfast in your room if you like. Of course the rooms are small, but very efficient, and plenty of room for everything. Our room Stewart was great, turned down the bed at night and leave you chocolates on the pillow! Again the sea sick saved me...no chocolate for several days.

Sea sick?

(You don't wanna see these.....) Marie handed out sea sick pills like Tic Tacs at night!! LOL She had non-drowsy ones and for once they did what they said, they did not make me tired. So I could take them. They really help...never ever cruise without them. Even Marie got a little sick one evening. Her daughter Ashley was sick for several days. The cabin Stewart was feeding her green apples and crackers. Speaking of Ashley. Marie wanted her daughter along on this cruise. She is in her mid 20's. So she was about the youngest person not only in our group but on the ship. She took it well, and she is cute as a button, and can be quite funny too! Ken got a kick out of her several times. So hard to believe she is grown up!

Ashley

More pictures of the boat

The Help

All of the help on these ships are trained very well in making it all about the guest on board. But our dining room waiter and his helper were so very good. They made each evening so much fun. His helper was just cute as a button. We had so many of us, we all had 3 tables full. One evening most of us decided the men at one table, the gals at the other. The waiter said he really enjoyed that. But we found out that night the waiter and his helper were getting ready to meat each others parents so they could get engaged. They are going to make a great couple and we wished them well, and added in extra tips...we told them we wanted to help with the ring! Here is their photo:

He was from Poland and she was from Mexico

Was there anything bad on the trip? Not the food.... not the ship...not even when we found out another Princess ship tipped over by Italy...but yes....as often life still gets in the way....

Chris Jim and Jana in the back row....Bob Tara and Ken in the front.

Our 2nd night on the ship, we got an email saying one of our very best friend was killed in a car wreck. We often traveled over the last 15 years with 2 other couples. Bob was one of those people. Bob was a great friend. The three couples met when I joined a real estate office back in 1998 as a secretary. Us woman, Chris Jana and I, clicked. So we had the men meet. Later we would all confess to each other, the men crabbed all the way to the Wyrick's house that night. . They wouldn't know each other, what would they talk about...well after about 5 minutes, we were a group. Dinners out, drives down River Road...Aries Winery, then we started visiting any winery we heard about, holiday celebrations, burgers and beer...then we started traveling. The Ozarks, Branson, Cancun, rented homes on Orange Beach, Alabama. Fun on Hillsboro lake at the Wyrick's home. Bob was a wonderful "teddy bear" kind of a person who was larger than life, never met a stranger. As we traveled with him, no matter where we were or how far away from home, he had us talking and interacting with everyone around us immediately. Lots and lots of fun...."Damn Bob".....he was always doing something to make us worry about him..Life will be OK, but it will never be the same again.... RIP Bob, you are and will always be missed.....we love you!

2012-01-11T21:41:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year!!
I have not blogged for a long time. Too darn busy. We got past the holidays, I was looking forward to normalcy. But now it is time to prepare for a cruise. I sort of quit tracking around Dec. 17th. I didn't plan on that but it happened. The more days that went by the more I got away from tracking. Not that I indulged in everything, but I had a few cookies......oh yea. I hope I enjoyed them, they cost me 3lbs. It took me a few days to get started tracking again. My goal was Jan 2nd, I made it by Jan 3rd. One foot in front of the
other, I kept telling myself. But I did it. I lost 2.4bs too. So I was glad I did, and one more day I leave on a 7 day cruise. Oh dear....

BUT today I want to talk about breakfast. I am not a really good breakfast eater. Just don't feel it when I get up. Even now that I am not working, and have plenty of time. Oh sure give me some coffee cake or a cookie, I'm there! So my answer is to make some healthy muffins. I do make a chocolate-chip muffin that is pretty good, it was a recipe I found, and I have tweaked it and tweaked it..today I found a recipe for a Breakfast cookie/muffin thingy. It had oats, I like eating oats, just not plain oats in a bowl. After reading the recipe and the reviews, I tweaked it too. Besides, I had gotten a muffin top pan for Christmas and I wanted to use it. So I would like to share it with you. It is not nearly as filling as my chocolate muffins are, but still quite good. And if you are on the run, driving to work, this would be handy.

1 cup of Old Fashioned Oats (not instant)

1 Tablespoons of Baking powder

1/4 Tsp. of Baking Soda

1/4 Tsp. Salt

1/2 Tsp of cinnamon. I might use a little more next time

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

3 Tablespoons of Splenda

1/2 Cup Applesauce

2 Egg Whites

2/3 Cups of Whole Wheat Flour

2 Tablespoons of Coconut Flour

2 Tablespoons of Cornmeal

1 small Apple, peeled, grated

2 Tablespoons of Walnuts (Opt)

2 Tablespoons if Raisins (opt)

I mixed all the dry ingredients, and slowly mix into the wet ingredients. Spray your pans and add mixture.

For muffin tops they baked about 10 min. Regular muffins more like 15 I would say maybe even 20. You can hold out a little oats and sprinkle them on the top of the muffin to make it look better. I got 10 muffin tops, so running it through the E-tools they came out to 4PP. If I would have gotten 12 it would have came out to 3. If you do not like nuts or raisins, you might get some less.

About the Coconut flour. It is a little bulky and it is gluten free. You must use it in conjunction with other flours. If you are replacing 1/2 Cup of flour, you use 1/4 Cup of Coconut flour. Why use it? For one... It cuts down the calories a lot & Coconut flour smells heavenly!

2011-12-30T21:52:00.001-06:00

Glitter, I love glitter, I love pink, so pink glitter...what could be better? I love glitter shoes, but oh so expensive and I might not wear them often. So... make it myself! I found two ways while looking on the internet. So I will attempt to share how I did it. But first here is the photo of the shoes I did.

The gold shoes were literally on their way to the garbage. The gold was coming off. The black shoes were old pat-n-leather... this is how I did them.
You will need
1. Mod-Podge; (or Elmer's glue they say) but I like Mod-Podge. It can be bought at any Wal-Mart or craft store. Around the glues.)
2. Glitter; fine glitter probably works best, but any glitter is OK
3. plastic cups or plastic bowl; paper or anything you can throw away for easy clean up.
4. Paint brushes; if doing the whole shoe or a purse, those foam brushes work well, but if doing small places, then a small flat brush. You can clean the brush with water, and use agian.
5. Foil or wax paper; (anything strong enough to catch the excess glitter and you can fold in half to pour the glitter back in the tube,. They also make small funnels for this too)
6. Tape; if you want to create a stripe or some design.

If you search Youtube.com you will see some tutorials, but its really pretty easy.
I mixed 1 part glitter and 2 parts Mod-Podge (approximately) in a Dixie Cup. I painted it onto the shoe just where I wanted the glitter. Working on small parts at a time, I painted the mixture on, then sprinkled more glitter on the shoe. When the shoe dries if you feel it needs more repeat. After it is done let it sit 24 hours then spray with a lacquer spray or cover your project with a clear coat of Mod-Podge as well.
This is the method I followed, and have not worn the shoes yet, so not sure how well the glitter will hold. According to the directions it should be OK.

The 2nd instructions I found, the lady mixed 2 parts glitter, 1 part Mod-Podge (approximately) She painted it on the shoes and a purse. This coats. She let dry and then applied another coat. She had 4 coats on a purse. She stated there was no glitter falling off and she carried the purse daily.

Let me know how your project turned out! I also saw a shirt glittered, a lamp shade. Visit this site below, she also explains the different Mod-Podges they make.

My Daddy!

2011-09-23T21:57:00.000-05:00

Lemar "Ging" Dudley AKA Daddy

January 12th, 1926 - November 21, 2010

My dad died suddenly. On a Sunday evening. It was one of those moments that you realize, there is no more. He lived out his dash to dash. 1926-2010.....I guess Sunday evening was when the weekend was always done. Dad lived life to its fullest, you might say. He did what he wanted, when he wanted. One of his brightest days was when he was able to purchase 20 acres in Bond County, IL He paid cash, boy was he proud & excited. He stopped by our home and had a large grin on his face. Said he was going to close the deal! It meant a lot to dad. Mom worked what butt she had, off to make it everything he wanted. He bought an old trailer, she made it a home away from home. It barely had enough running water to flush the toilet, and they hauled water and boiled it to wash dishes. Mom did it all, packed the coolers and had everything ready to pack the minute Dad got home on Friday night. When the son-in-laws came out, he was so happy. When the grandsons came out he was even happier. Later mom sort of quit going, and Dad's friends, the son-in-laws, the grandsons were going, so Mom stayed home. She was ready. Deer seasons got to be a sort of holiday really. The weekend before Thanksgiving, and the weekend after is Deer season. Do not let anything else get in the way. EVER....so on Thursday my husband picked up Dad to head out to Deer camp, he said he worried Dad did not look good, but he said he felt fine. They stopped at the local Grocery store where my brother is the butcher. My brother said, Dad did not look good, but he said he was fine. He hunted deer on Thursday. He went back out Friday morning, and looked worse when he came in. My husband suggested that he might want to go home, no, he would be OK. By Friday evening when one of the hunters was not going to stay, he said he would ride home with him. He came home and went to bed. The next morning my mom called the Doctor's office and took him in. They sent him straight to the hospital. When Mother called, I said I would be right up. She said, "Oh no, keep your nail appointment, and you can come up later. He is doing fine, he is just sitting here." So I went to my nail appointment and my sister and I agreed she would meet me there and we would go to the hospital. About 6 mom went home, she was tired, and my sister and I stayed, but dad was tired, so we went downstairs to sit awhile and let him rest. My Daughter showed up with her oldest Baby, and I was so excited to see her. I took her up to see Grandpa, she showed Grandpa how high she could jump! He tried to feed her his angel food cake, I tried to get dad to eat some soup, he said he just was not hungry. Said we all should go home, he was tired. So against my better judgement I did. The next morning, I called, mom said he is fine. Mom called again at 1 and said are you coming up? I said, "Yes, we are almost ready to leave, is everything alright? Oh yes, Mom said, just wondering. Your sister and husband are here, so are their girls and their husband and fiance. We arrived at 2pm, thinking we would all visit. Hubby and I walked in, Dad was all sunk down in the bed, black stuff running out of his mouth, I was startled, appalled, I quickly looked up at hubby, his face said to me, yes, I see it, he is dieing. The nurse came in, I asked to see her outside. I asked her, is my dad dieing? "Well" she said, " only God knows that for sure...." Well alrighty then, could ya call up dear old God and ask him If I should call the rest of the family up? What kind of an answer is that? She said, "Let me get the head nurse" good idea I thought. Anyway, it all went pretty fast after that. My son and his girlfriend happen to stop by, I called my daughter, I called my brother, my mom is like what is going on? Well dad is dieing I think. They came to us and asked us if we wanted to know if he had a DNR or did we want them to try everything to keep him alive? We agreed no, Dad would never want that. Two of my BFF came up to hold my hand, my daughter who is an Nurse Practitioner, came tome and said mom he is going soon, come and sit down by him. Soon she said he is going, and she took off the oxygen mask. And we all cried. But he died peacefully, quietly, he just went to sleep. He was not in pain, he was not struggling he just. went. to. sleep. For that we can be grateful. And so it began, a whole new level of life, one without a parent. One with one parent left. A day of planning and picking out caskets, and vaults. So many people came to see us and pay last respect to dad. So many.. Dad would have been 85 in a couple more months. It's just life, we are born, we live, and we die. You have to accept it, you have to learn to live with it. Somewhere along the line, I decided that we should give dad a toast. He was not a wine drinker, he was a beer drinker. One of Dad's good friends said, Tara, if you are serious, I will buy the beer. And so it was....at the cemetery, after the Guns were shot and the flag folded and given to mom, the coolers came out and the beers were passed around. It was cold and raining, but we all drank a beer to dad. We left one for dad too. The undertaker said, Leave a full one, otherwise your just littering!!" LOL And I feel this was the proper ending to a good guy. Now mom wants something done at hers. I have to think about this..but she drinks Makers Mark whiskey, so guess shots will be passed out!! LOL Oh...mom.

This is one of Dad's favorite pictures. Him & Brad, his first Grandson, sharing their first beer!

So....I was thinking, there was a day, when I took dad for test, he was applying for black lung. The Dr said to me that day, your dads lungs are very bad, his heart is enlarged. I was very frightened by his words, but I decided to not say anything to mom or dad, after all Dad was not on oxygen, so I decided it couldn't be that bad yet...denial is a beautiful thing isn't it? So with that in mind, the evening I got back from taking Dad for this exam, I wrote this in a group I belonged to online. It is not often a girl has her Daddy to herself at this age, for almost the whole day...I am so grateful I had this day......Bye Daddy, thanks for everything!

Well today was interesting. Dad, who has the nickname of Ging, left me with several stories. Some about coal mining, for instance, when a train comes in to be filled with coal, it never stops. It runs at a snail pace, and it fills automatically, & it keeps going. And when they mine coal, they have a continuous miner that is run with a remote control, well I guess you have to be interested in coal mining.

We stopped at the candy store, that I had the gift certificate, (Russel Stover) and dad told the check out guy, that pennies were worth more per pound, cashing them in for the copper than they are spending them. There I told the guy that is your tip for the day. The guy, about 35 years old, who was making fudge, said, "Well the Federal Government wouldn’t like that..." "Well really smart-ass"

So we had to drive 85 miles to get a simple x-ray of my Dad’s lungs. Why? It’s all political we decided. How stupid to make old men drive so far away from home for a simple x-ray. Dad is applying for Black Lung benefits. Then we had to drive back to Springfield IL to see this 3 person team of Doctors, who came from Chicago to check him out. He did a breathing test, and he had to answer a lot of questions about work. We were there for 3 hours. Which is for his benefit, I am not whining about that. I am just trying to figure out why an x-ray had to be done so far away but hey it’s the Government.

So onto more “Gingisms” if you will. He told me several jokes, and crap I was hoping I could remember them. LOL

But I remember one, "A guy was speeding and a cop turned on his lights to stop him, so the guy went faster, the cop went faster, so the guy went even faster and the cop went faster, the cop finally gets the guy to stop and starts yelling at him, saying look buddy what were you doing, going faster and faster. Well the guy starts crying, said three years ago my wife ran away with a cop, I was afraid you were bringing her back."

I always thought my dad was in the Marines for 4 years, but I was wrong, he was on the Marines for 2 1/2 years, and then spent 4 years in the Air Force. I learned there was about 4 years between his 2 services career. I also learned he lived in Japan for a year, recovering bombs and cleaning up war debris. I knew he was there but I never knew it was a year.

He told me that the last coal mine he worked for, which was the one my husband worked for too, had a meeting every morning. Each Supervisor had to report what they did each day before and what their plan was for that day. So the Mine manager asked one of the Supers if the train came in last night. He said he was pretty sure it did, he saw the tracks. LOL So he was asked to stay after the meeting, where I guess he got an ass chewing. So my dad waited for him to come out and walked with him toward where this guy worked and my dad said, "How’s it going buddy?" Trying to cheer the guy up a little, and they guy said well FU the train you rode in on. My dad said just laughed.

My dad is a fan of Rush Limbaugh, so we had to listen to him on the way up to Springfield. I do not like that guy, talk about a spin Dr. So of course my dad believes Obama is leading us down the path of no return and that he is trying to spread the wealth. So we all will be equal. Then he told me about one of my uncles who was a card carrying communist. "WHAT??? OMG!" I had no idea. All of his brothers served in the war. My dad had 9 brothers, and 2 sisters.

Dad wanted spaghetti for supper, he always wants spaghetti, so we went to Olive Garden. They were handing out samplings of wine, and it worked I bought a glass of wine. It was Sparkling Mascato made in Italy. It was really good. I told my dad a few little stories about BabyB (Our granddaughter) and he smiled so big, and he kept smiling. I never noticed that before. I mean I know he loves them, and when the nurse asked him if he had grandchildren, he said, "Yes! I even have 2 little great granddaughters.” Unfortunately the Dr. told me my dad had bad lungs, had anyone ever told us that before. Well no. Not exactly. He only has 65% of lung capacity and his heart is enlarged, but they said he should have known that already. He does have a pace maker. I knew my dad has trouble breathing, and they said he had chronic bronchitis, whatever that is...I am going to investigate that further. So mostly it was a nice day, just me and dad. I am thinking I will always look back to this day for having him to myself, and I also will have to remember this is the day his eminent death became real to me. He is not on oxygen, so I guess he is not that bad yet. But they also decided he does have black lung.

RIP Daddy.....we loved you big time!

Kids really do say the darnedest things!

2011-09-23T20:36:00.002-05:00

Years ago my mother had a book called Kids say the Darnedest things by Art Linkletter...OK, a few younger people are saying who?? Well he had a show, well in fact I am am not even young enough to remember what he did exactly, but he was on everyday I think. One of his segments was to bring up small children and ask them questions. And of course they would say such funniest things...so with that in mind, indulge this old Grammy, I plan to keep a log of the funny things my Granddaughters say. Well one is only 18 months old, so she doesn't say a whole lot yet, but when she does, I hope I come back to post it!!

My mother-in-law is a beautiful person. She is turning 91 this Friday. Her mind is sharp. She does Suduko puzzles, I kid you not. She broke her hip last Dec. 2010. By February she was walking like her old self. After a few months in the Nursing home, we were able to move her and my Father-in-law into an assisted living facility. Which beats the heck out of a Nursing home. Not that a nursing home is a bad place to be, it was nice there, but it seems it is like being in the hospital. Assisted living is more like being at home. Anyway, my Mother-in-law is incredible in even more ways than that. She is a giving person, rarely thinking of herself. Her children almost fall over each other trying to help their parents on a daily bases. That is the kind of mother she is, she raised such caring loving children.
One of the things my MIL did was write down what her Grandchildren said or did. She kept journals on journals having a new notebook for each grandchild that was born. We knew she had them, but when packing up their house we found them. Way too cute. So in the spirit I have wanted to write down some of the things my own Grandchildren have said, and of course the modern way is on a blog. I should really print some of these pages out. I will try to get on that, but in the meantime, here we go.......

February 8, 2012

I had my oldest Grand-daughter (3 1/2) yesterday, and we making pink cupcakes. Baby-B was sitting on the counter putting cupcake papers in the pans, she started telling me she needed to go to the store and buy a Spiderman DDD (DVD) cause her Netflix is not working at home. Daddy told her its not working right now but it would be fixed in a few days. Too cute...then she was going potty, and I was telling Po-Po what she said. She started yelling out of the bathroom, my Netflix is broken!!! LOL

November 2012
One morning (after being potty trained) my Daughter was taking the girls to Daycare. They were 3 and 18 months. The 3 yr. told her mommy, Mommy, you know when you get cold your butt gets cold too! Her Popo said now with no diaper I guess her little butt was cold now.

LittleBit (the 1 1/2 yr old) answers every question with a soft little yea....its so sweet....

October 2011
One Saturday I went with my Daughter and my Granddaughters to a craft fair. The girls being 3 and 18 months were in the stroller. BabyB, the 3 yrs old, was looking at the beaded bracelets. I asked her if she liked the bracelets, she said yes. so I told her we would go and pick out some beads and I would make her a bracelet. She replied, "And a necklace too!" We don't raise any dummies in this family!! We went to Wal-Mart later and she changed her mind 3 times on the colors, but she finally settled on purple. I said OK, Grandma will make you a bracelet. (She calls me Grammy and calls my mom Grandma) She said, "Grandma?????" They don't miss much.

September 2011

I have some very bad back problems, so I don't often pick up the babies until I am sitting down. Of course the girls do not always like it that Grammy is not picking them up when they are use to it. BabyB was whining one day and Popo kept saying do not pick her up, do not pick her up, he was carrying BabyE. He went to put BabyE down for a nap, and I went and laid on the bed with BabyB. Out of the blue she said, "Grammy, your back hurt?" I couldn't believe she connected that, but I before I could finish the sentence, yes, Grammy need to have an operation, she blurted out, well my arm hurts!!

Driving home one day, BabyB rode with me while we followed her mommy and sister. She wanted to play what color am I thinking of, which I did not know she knew how to play, so she said, "What color is it Grammy?" I guessed every simple color and no, no that was not the color. I said, "Is it Mauve?, is it Jade?" Nope, so I said, "Oh...I know its Taupe, YES, she said...LOL Just like she knew what taupe even was.

BabyB was about 22 months old and one Saturday night I got out a Elmo (Sesame Street) DVD called Elmo in Grouchland. It started out so cute and Baby B was really enjoying it. It was about Elmo, who is a baby monster on Sesame Street, he lost his blanky. And his little friend Zoe found it and wanted to hold it for a while since it was so soft, and Elmo did not want to share, and they were tugging bag and forth and it ripped, and Elmo was mad at Zoe and they were struggling with it, and the wind took it and it landed in Oscar’s (I do have a point here trust me, LOL) can. Well Oscar was not home so he could not get it so Elmo jumped into Oscars trash can and when he got to the bottom the blanky was floating in this vortex and Elmo got sucked in. He landed in Grouch Land, where the streets were muddy, and crowded and everyone was grouchy, and Elmo was searching for his blanky. Then a ship landed or flew in, not sure, I was feeding BabyE and BabyB came over to me and wanted me to hold her, well she often does so never thought anything of it, then this old fashioned pilot got out of this air craft and they panned the camera on him, from his feet up and suddenly Baby B covered her eyes, and hid her face in my chest, and I thought maybe she was playing a game, and she looked back at the TV and did it again, and they were playing somewhat scary music, but how would she know scary music, and then she peeked again and started crying and she was so scared. I turned it off of course, and calmed her down. Well she started playing with her toys, so I picked up the remote and I was going to look for some other cartoons and she was afraid and ran over to my lap again and hid her face so I did not turn it on. Sunday after I made her supper, she asked about Elmo and I had a different DVD and she watched Elmo, this one was just an actual regular Sesame Street episode, so she seemed OK with it. Who would of ever thought Elmo would be scary.

Thursday, September 29, 2011
2 little stories about my DGD. We went to pick up the girls from Daycare yesterday. They called BabyE (18 months) said look who is here to get you, she peeked around the gate, looked confused, you know when you are not expecting to see someone you don't recognize them right away? She suddenly realized & got the biggest grin & came running to me. THAT is worth all the money there is...but she can be a little stinker. We got them all ready to bed last night, the 18 mo old needed some meds for her allergies, it was a powder, I had to send a text to my DD to see how to give it, by the time she called back BabyE was drifting off to sleep in my lap. So Popo pulls her binky out, tried to wake her up and get her to drink it, she just looks like she is sound asleep, so he gave up. He forgot to give her her binky back. As soon as he walked away, she opened her eyes, did not even have to look, she reached right over for her binky, popped it in and snuggled back in. She was faking!! LOL

BabyB (the 3 yr old) saw some cows on the way home, and after we drove past them, she wanted to know where the rest of the cows are, I said, "Oh, they are taking their nap nap." She said, "Oh Grammy, they are too big for nap naps." So you got it here first, in case you ever need to know if cows take naps, NOPE, they are too big!! You learn new stuff every day!

The girls have a little play house. It has a mommy, daddy, sister and baby. Then someone added a Grammy. The girls brought it to me and said Grammy. I said, "Oh this is me I guess..." They looked really pleased. Popo who was sitting there as well, saw the "daddy" doll in LittleBits hands. He said, "Is this Popo?" Nooooo she said shaking her head, it's Daddy, and she turned and pointed to his photo on the wall, in case we forgot who Daddy is..

August 2011
One Saturday my Daughter was dressing the girls. They were taking BabyB to 6-Flags and BabyE was staying with us. Both girls love their flip flops, well they just love shoes in general. (The UPS man delivered a box with new shoes right before nap time one day and my Daughter quickly tried them on the girls and then put them to bed. BabyE cried for a long time that day, threw everything out of her crib and kept yelling choos, choos (shoes) She was mad, she wanted to wear her new shoes. But back to the Saturday, they put tennis shoes on BabyB, she couldn't walk down the hallway from her bedroom, she scooted on her butt, said her shoes were too heavy!

August 2010: This is a little story I had written about my oldest Granddaughter, BabyB, flipped off the bed: On Monday B was jumping on her parents bed, I was sitting on the bed with her holding the baby. She stood up and jumped once and I do not know what happened, but she did a full flip in the air and missed the bed and hit the floor. There is hardly any room between the bed and the chest of drawers, (this house is so small) anyway, my heart was in my throat, and I had visions of ambulances and ICU, I practically threw the baby down on the bed and I jumped over to the side of the bed and thank God she started crying and she popped right up, so I let her get up on her own. It must have scared her a LOT, she jumped into my lap and hung onto my neck for about 4 minutes and cried and cried, and I was afraid she was hold her breath and pass out like her mother use to do to me, but thank goodness she did not, and suddenly she quit crying jumped off my lap and got off the bed and ran into the living room and I went running after her and I said are you OK, and she sort of looked at me like well yea why? Man are kids resilient or what??

May 2010: BabyE did not want to nap much today. I tried telling her that at 3 months, she really still needed to sleep a lot more, and I swear she gave me that “little shit eatin” grin her sister gives me! LOL I told her she was also too little to give me attitude! She babbled and talked to me for way over an hour. And when I tried to talk to hubby for a few minutes she got all mad and cried real tears….geesh, a diva at 3 months!

Baby B watched Barney as she gets to once a day, and when Barney sings the I love you song with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you, Baby B, gives everyone a big hug. Even her little sister, so darn cute.

RECIPES FOR THE WEIGHT WATCHER

2011-09-21T13:32:00.000-05:00

CLICK HERE FOR SOME WEIGHT WATCHING IDEAS

Muffins:
1 1/4 cup of self rising flour
1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 cup of coconut flour (can be bought at mist Wal-Marts, it keeps the PP down)
3 large egg whites(beaten)
8 oz. of Fat Free Cream Cheese or Ricotta Cheese(I prefer Cream Cheese)
2 Tablespoons of light butter or margarine
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Splenda + 2 Tablespoons
5 Tablespoons of cocoa
1/4 cup of no-sugar applesauce (I buy the little lunch packs)
2 Tablespoons of water
6 Tablespoons of mini chocolate chips

Stir together the dry ingredients, set aside
Cream margarine, sugars until fluffy, add the egg whites mix, cream cheese, applesauce, water and vanilla. Incorporate the dry ingredients a little at a time. Fold in chocolate chips. Spray the muffin pan or line with papers. Bake at 375 for 15 to 18 min. Do not over bake. Dust with a little powdered sugar if desired. Makes 12 Muffins When I ran these through the recipe builder I got 4 PP each.

Tara's One Point Plus Soup:

5 cups of water or Chicken Stock
3 Chicken Bouillon Cubes
1 Pkg. Turkey or Chicken dry gravy mix
1 Med. Chopped Onion
5 slices of Fat Free or Low Calorie American Cheese
1 Can of 86% Fat Free Mushroom Soup, (Campbell makes this)
6 OZ of Chicken Breast (optional, its good without the chicken also)

Vegetables of choice, I used:
2-3 stalks of Celery
1-2 Cups of Cauliflower
1 -2 cups of Broccoli
1-2 Cups of Chopped Cabbage
2-3 Cups of Carrots
Potatoes are an option, (might raise the points)

Bring water, Bouillon Cubes, gravy mix, onion and chicken breast to a boil. Lower the heat add can of soup/cheese/vegetables. Let simmer until chicken and veggies are done. This made me about 12 Cups of Soup, came out to be 1 PP per cup. But soup is sort of a throw it in the pot kind of cooking, so if you cook like that, just measure the soup when its all done and run it through the Recipe builder. I did not add the vegetables in the recipe builder, it might say zero when you add it, but watch the total, it does count.
1 -3oz pkg Sugar Free Jell-O
6 oz of free Cool Whip
1 Cup of Strawberries
There are two ways of making this,
Stir dry Jell-O into Cool Whip, add Strawberries
Refrigerate until it sets.

Or:
I think this makes a little more. Make Jell-O according to package directions, refrigerate until it starts to gel, add strawberries and Cool Whip. Refrigerate again until it sets completely up.
I ran this through the recipe builder as 6 servings and it counts as 1PP.

SALSA CHICKEN

12 OZ OF Chicken Breast
1 1/2 Cups of Salsa (The heat is your Choice)
1/2TablespoonPrepared Mustard
2 Tablespoons of brown sugar

Layer in baking dish and bake for 1 hour at 350.
Half of this is 9 points.
I have also cooked this in the crock pot, it was just fine! I also have added a small amount of canned corn or frozen, but it does add a point.

Coke Cola Chicken

16 oz of Chicken Breast
1 cup of ketchup
1 -120z can of diet coke
1 small chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic chopped
place in crock pot and cook for 6 hours, if starting with frozen breast, of course it will take longer.
I serve this over Polenta.
This makes 4 servings at 4PP each.

2011-09-16T08:39:00.002-05:00

Another week, another pound.....not so quick! Last week I was so worried I might have a gain, since attending a party everyday for the 4 day weekend. But nope, I managed to lose .4lbs. SCORE! This week I worked harder at using good foods to stay within my points. I thought for sure a loss...nope..I gained .4lbs. WTH? Grrr. Keep on trying, this is all we can do. I do not have time for messing around anymore. I need that 20-25lbs off by January, so I am running out of time! I need to lose this weight!
It has gotten a lot cooler in IL. It has even rained a few times, we needed it, sorry Texans...I know you REALLY need it. Cooler weather is good, contrary to popular belief, you expend more calories shivering than sweating...so guess what, you REALLY can "freeze your a$$ off"!!!
I was wondering, how much weight did anyone have to lose before you lost some clothing sizes? I know clothing varies so much from manufacture to manufacture. But 26lbs now, 11lbs 3 yrs ago, and I still sort of wear the same size on top, I have not lost any inches since early Spring even though I lost weight. I do buy a size smaller slacks, but geesh it almost seems it would be 2 sizes by now.
I am eating a lot of protein things this weekend, I really hope I can show a loss this next week. It was pretty hard in July and August, parties, running, hubby's
work being slow, so he was home a lot, he loves food, and rarely gains weight. 2 vacations...took its toll, so I am trying to eat better food. I rarely go over my points,(only once that I can remember) and rarely eat all of my WP's, but I am thinking I need to eat better things with my points. So going for more protein. I am going to make some deviled eggs for snacking too. The biggest trick is to have good foods ready ahead of time. Then you won't grab the bad things for your points. Right? LOL That is my goal this week....smile....it burns calories!

WITH LOVE TO ELISE HANAKO

2011-08-05T09:35:00.000-05:00

When my first grand-baby was born I wrote a letter to her. I had forgotten that until a friend (Marie) found my blog and read it all....she reminded me, I needed to write a letter to my other grand-daughter...so here goes.......

Dear Elise,
You are my 2nd grandchild/granddaughter. That makes you 2 of the greatest grandchildren ever born, just ask me!! I loved you before I met you....I knew for 9 months I would love your sister and you, but what I did not know was that you would reach in, place your little hands on my heart and squeeze so tightly, that often I feel as though I might lose my breath!!! As you got old enough, you always greet me with that great little smile of yours, with your little nose all curled up!

When your sister was born, I was at the hospital, so I was there for your birth too. Your daddy called you a "Brister" while your Mommy carried you in her tummy. Brister meant a brother or a sister...since Daddy did not want to know if you were a boy or girl before you were born, just like he did when B was born. So it was another surprise when we got another beautiful little girl. Then suddenly you were no longer a Brister, you were Elise Hanako. (Hanako means pretty flower in Japanese, your Mommy wanted to honor your blood lines with a Japanese name. Your sisters middle name was after your great grandmother, so now your middle name is special too)

Your big sister Bridget, was at home with Popo, waiting to hear when it would be OK for you to come to the hospital and meet your new little sister. Popo brought Bridget up and I could not wait for her to meet her little sister. Popo put Bridget's special T-shirt on that said she was the Big sister. I don't think she quite knew what to think of you when she first saw you....we put Bridget in a chair and let you hold her. She sat there holding her little treasure like a big girl, she did not move, even as little as she was she somehow knew it was important to hang into this little person.

Soon they brought you home and Mommy and Daddy began to settle in with their 2 little girls. Mommy & Daddy was pretty darn busy those first days...2 little people to take care of. Like all new parents they wanted to make sure they did it all right. Grammy could not wait to come over and see her two most favorite little girls in the whole world.

The days slipped by and Mommy had to return to work. It was hard for mommy to leave her little girls behind each day, but being you had your Grammy, it made it so much easier for her.
So the days began for Grammy to come everyday and take care of her little girls. During the winter Popo would come with Grammy once a week. Everything went smoothly until you learned to crawl....then learned to take your toys back when B took them away...then the FUN really began. But no matter what, no matter how busy Grammy was, I loved being with my "little girls", B and LittleBit....I got to calling you LittleBit since you were just a "little bit" more of a baby then B was....you were only 18 months apart, so I felt Bridget was still quite a baby when you came along.

You always looked so serious, we often wonder what you are thinking. I believe you are studying things..trying to figure it all out, way before you should be old enough. I also believe you and your sister will be making very good grades in school. I expect that out of both of you.

Your sister does not like to share her toys, or her Popo, and sometimes her Grammy, but that is where it ends, when she asked for something to eat or to do something, she asked for extra for Wesi. One night while spending the night with Grammy, Popo was on the road, we were preparing for bed. Bridget wanted to know where "Wesi" was....I told her in the cribby and she was OK now that she knew where you were.

Bridget being a "Popo's girl" you have become a Grammy's girl. After Grammy's back got bad again, mommy and daddy decided you both needed to go to Daycare. While I was struggling to take care of both of you, I would not admit it, but your Mommy saw I was having a hard time. So now I only babysit when you or B is sick and cannot go to Daycare. One of the days when Popo and I were babysitting, you and Bridget, both had a fever and were taking naps. B woke up first and I went and got her, I was holding her in the recliner. When you woke up, Popo got you and was holding you in the recliner across from mine. Popo got my attention and told me to watch you without you knowing it. You would lean forward so you could see around Popo and you were giving me the "stink eye" or maybe you were giving it to B...for she had your Grammy. Another time you became sick at Daycare, Mommy called and asked me to go and pick you up. When I arrived I stood at the little half door they have there, and said, "Hello, I am Hollie's mom and before I could say I am here to pick up Elise, you were having your diaper changed, you popped your head up. The Daycare worker laughed and said, "Oh, you know your Grammy's voice." You were just about 1, but you gave me the biggest smile and jumped into my arms.

You are just about 18 months old now, and I am writing this while Popo is at your house picking you and Bridget up to spend the day with us. It is Bridget's 3rd birthday today, mommy needed some time to clean the house and prepare for B's birthday party tomorrow. At this age, you both keep us pretty busy, but we love having you with us. Today we have planned to take you both out in the swimming pool we have in the back yard. I also baked some cupcakes, and will let you and B smear (LOL) frosting all over the cupcakes and use sprinkles on them too. Later we may take you out to see your Great-Grandmother and Great-Grandfather and take them some cupcakes. This evening when your daddy gets off work we will meet Mommy & Daddy at a restaurant to have a birthday dinner with Bridget.

Another special person in your life is your Uncle Brad. I will post a picture of the first time he held you and your sister. He has a large smile on his face, he loves you girls a lot also. On your birthdays, he buys you Disney stocks. They may help you go to college one day, or buy your first car...

The end of an era: The Benld, IL Coliseum Ballroom (Tarros)

2011-08-04T22:27:00.001-05:00

                               In her hayday.....

A historic building in the area burned down Saturday night. Located in a town of about 400 people. It was inducted in the Route 66 Hall of Fame in 2001. It was built as a dance hall/roller rink during the 20's. Known to be the largest dance floor between Chicago, IL and St. Louis, Mo.

It was even rumored Al Capone stayed in the back rooms during the 20's.   The owner at that time was caught selling liquor making supplies during prohibition, his car was found riddled with bullets and his body was found later in the Sangamon River in Springfield IL.

His wife ran it then, hosting big bands, Duke Ellington, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong and Lawrence Welk in the 1940s; Guy Lombardo, Fats Domino, Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry. Ike and Tina Turner, Ray Charles, Bo Diddley and Johnny Rivers in the 1960s; Bob Seger, Styx, Foghat and Head East in the 1970s; and, Heart, Ozark Mountain Daredevils and Mama's Pride in the 1980s to name a few.    Here is a video (click here)

Later when the wife passed away, her daughter ran it, Joyce Tarro. Her life ended in a tragic situation also. She was killed coming home from the dance hall one night. She walked into her house and there were burglars, she carried a hand gun, and fired at them but they got her instead.

As a teen I had friends who went there, but I had never been there until one night while dating my husband, he took me there when I was 16. My sister being 4 yrs older went about every Sat. night. I witnesses a girl break a beer bottle and slit her wrist. We went back the next night for a New Year's Eve dance...and there she was dancing, with her wrist wrapped up. People threw fire crackers that night, one landed on my dress. When we left my leg was bleeding. LOL Quite the place. We never went back after that. Hubby never did like to dance anyway. At that time, 1973, I thought it looked like a firetrap to me....

Later it was used as an antique mall and recently started hosting a few small dances. They were having a small dance Saturday night when it caught fire. A good friend of my sisters, her son rescued an elderly lady who fell down while trying to get out. He got a few burns, they won't scar, but you know nothing is painful like a burn. The papers said he was a hero, he said he did not do anything anyone wouldn't have done....older adults know better. He was a hero. It took 15 towns to assist in the fire. Just about every town around us is volunteer firemen. Which could be a whole story in itself.

Oh if only her walls could talk, if only the grand old dame had a voice...How many bands got their start there, I wonder how many people met there for the first time. How many of those people got married. How many got pregnant in the parking lot??? How many people had their first beer there...LOL

OH yes, they say it was haunted, by the owner who was shot in her home. Maybe she was
there....maybe she was telling people to get out. She did not want her grand old building to take any lives.

She was a grand old lady the Coliseum Ballroom often called Tarros, and will be remembered
fondly by many.

June 30th, really?

2011-06-30T08:03:00.000-05:00

June 30th! Where does the time go? They always say, the older you are the faster time goes....so true.
2011, who would have "thunk" it. I am 55 years old, married for 37 years to my High School Sweeti, (well I was in High School, he was already out of school.) I dated an older man...OMW!! We had 2 kids, who grew up to be decent contributing human beans. And I have 2 cutie pie granddaughters!   When you first marry, you worry, will we make it, will we have kids, will they make it? Or will I kill them off doing something wrong the first 2 days I bring them home! LOL Will we be poor, will we ever have enough to live on, will we ever be able to save enough to buy our first home?   If you work hard, save your money, treat each other with respect, kindness, and love. The answer is yes!!   Everything else is frosting!    You start out with great expectations, some you accomplish, some you do not. It's life! But the frosting is the best part.

What all is the frosting in life?
Well, for one, if you stay married, that is frosting for your children, and the best gift you can give them is to remain stable and loving to each other. Of course this is not possible for everyone, no matter how hard you try. If one of the partners wants out, there is nothing you can do.
More frosting, is your children grow up, healthy, happy, you watch them graduate, graduate again, sometimes again.... You watch them buy homes of their own, get married, have their own families.
Even more frosting are the children are on their own, you and your spouse can again pay more attention to each other. Do some traveling maybe if you are lucky.

What do you like best chocolate or vanilla frosting? Maybe strawberry or cherry chip, or double chocolate, well whatever your favorite flavor is, it's nothing compared to the best frosting in life....Grand-babies. We love our grand-babies. They are so special to us. And when I am over-tired by children, they go home! We get to do mostly the fun stuff....yea me!!   AND then there is sprinkles, did I mention sprinkles? The sprinkles are on top of the frosting....oh yea....the sprinkles...my sprinkle was when I heard my daughter say to her husband, I do not want to buy a home that expensive, we want to be able to afford to take our kids on trips and to Disney World someday right?    Ah....they were listening!

This is Little Bit...we call her that since she is only 18 months younger than her big sister, she is just a "Little Bit" more of a baby then her sister!

Add caption

This is B, I call her BabyB...she is riding her Uncle Brads tractor he got when he was about 1. The insert is a picture of BabyB's mommy and Uncle Brad riding the same tractor.

This is a fun day, when their mommy had a day off, she made them a picnic lunch to eat outside!

I am now an official member of Weight Watchers.

2011-06-09T17:08:00.011-05:00

It is great too, I have learned so much about losing weight. Still does not make it easier, or faster, but it's livable. Knowledge is Power so they say....
If you are here, you probably got here through my WW blog. I just thought this would be easier than trying to publish all of those sites each week. I hope you find something in the posting below to help you through your weight loss journey. If you find any links are broken, please feel free to email me at
taralynn7@gmail.com

So many people ask, should I be eating my weekly points? Here are some things to think about....
Someone on the message boards once said that a point is about 38 calories,
So if you calculate:

29x38=1102 calories a day more/less

1102 x 7 (days) = 7714 for a week

49x38 = 1862 Calories

7714+1862=9576 calories in a week

9576/7(days) = 1368 a day,
not counting fruits/veggies, so in theory if you eat all of your daily points, all of your weekly points it still does not go over say 1500 cal a day. If you need say 2000 Calories to maintain your weight, then you should lose on 1500 a day. If you want to know for sure how many calories you are burning, they make devices you can buy to wear on your arm.

Some more things to think about.....

1. Too much fruit? (Some woman find giving each fruit 1PP helps

2. Do you eat all of your daily points and at least some of your weekly points?

3. Some of the woman say processed food slows them down, like even WW frozen dinners, those points on those boxes are not PP unless they are in blue. So run the NI numbers through the calculator, make sure you are counting them right.

4. Try eating less carbs, more protein for your points.

5. Change up your exercise.. (and your food) did you exercise that much before, if not your body may be retaining water to repair your joints, I did not know our bodies do that.

6. Do you weight, measure & track everything...guessing is usually wrong track track track!

7. Do you eat out a lot? It's OK to do so, but restaurant food contains a lot of sodium

8. Do you have a lot of weight to loose or just a little, like under 20 pounds? If so is your goal realistic?

9. Do you run a lot? If so, you may need to eat your exercise points

10. One lady suggested (if all else fails) try a one day pig out day) shake up your metabolism.

11. Did you realize that a banana is 2 servings of fruit?

12. Google or click here ---> Wendiesplan and read it,…..some things to try.

13. Google or click here ----> Why the scale lies, lots of good info there.

14. A lot of the ladies swear by the water...drink drink, drink, especially if you are at a restaurant the day before.

15. Do you have a lot to lose or just a little? Sometimes young girls are unrealistic about what they should weigh & the body will fight you on that.

16. The old plan worked? Then go back to it, no law saying you cannot do what works for you.

17. Always drink a full glass of water with your meals. If you do not like water, squeeze a lemon in it, or make weak tea.

18. Watch the salt intake, Morton makes a new no salt, in a little blue shaker, I bought one at Wal-Mart

19. Get enough sleep, minimum of 7 hours, max of 9. They, whomever "they" are...say if you do not sleep well or enough, you will keep eating trying to gain back some of that energy.

20. If you feel hungry but you shouldn't be, take a large drink of water, sometimes people mistake thirst for hunger, & take a good cleansing breath, it cleans out the lungs, releases some tension, and supposedly helps with hunger pangs...

21. WW says to mimic a week where you had a good loss, after all it worked that week, try it again. So I did, and I lost 2 lbs after not losing for 3 weeks.

22. Do not eat the same amount of calories everyday. Eat some of your weekly points, to take it up and down, well thus looking over the Wendie Plan

23. Your age, how much you have to lose, how many times you have tried to lose weight all factor in trying to lose weight.

24. WW here online, I read that the eating more to lose weight is a diet myth? HUH? So why does it seem to work for so many?

25. One lady offered this: For ME, eating fruit means NOT eating starch

26. Why does my weight go up when I exercise <-----click here for answers

27. About Points Plus Program <-----Click here, might only work if you are a WW member.

28. No carbs after 3pm, ad protein to every meal

29. Eating your bonus points is a good thing, but use them up until the last 2 days before you weigh in (WI) day. ....then quit using them

30. I have an ap on my Android Phone called Calories Plus, it is a good source for chain restaurants.

31. I heard on Biggest Losers, you should get some protein in your system within the first hour you are awake, it will wake up your metabolism which sounds like a great idea!

If you have something to add to this list, please send me a note Email me at taralynn7@madisontelco.com

Are you weighing yourself correctly? Most people do not! <----good for the soul

Restaurant Points

Fast Food Calories

Why the scale lies <----a good read

The Wendie Plan <--------very helpful if you are stuck on a plateau

http://www.prevention.com/cda/toolfinder.do?tf_type=calorie_calculator&channel=weight.loss
The above URL will show you how many calories it takes to stay the weight you are, and how many you need to stop eating to lose weight. Very helpful.

The correct way to weigh yourself

2011-03-29T15:13:00.000-05:00

Good day, the purpose of this blog is to teach you all how to weight yourself correctly. I have joined Weight Watchers and thus have studied many things, one being how to weigh yourself correctly. I am a visual person so I thought the quickest way to show you would be a photo. Enjoy.

I am so happy to have found out about this, it makes life so much easier. I cannot wait to get to my Dr. to tell her about it. She will be amazed at how little I really weigh.

March 13th

2011-03-13T21:52:00.001-05:00

I am so totally exhausted today. Shopping Friday afternoon, taking the gran-girls to see their great grandmother yesterday, then I kept them while their mommy & daddy went out to eat and do some shopping. They needed a break from the babies so they could focus on each other. Every parent needs that once in a while.

They actually are pretty good kids, but still they are only 2 1/2 and 1 it's a handful for me. I hurt all over like I am have been beaten. I was going to see if my mom wanted to go out to eat today, not now. Effing back! I hate it. I have become such a weeny.

The girls were so cute last night. We went to the assisted living where Ken's parents are living. Down the hall from their apartment is a game room. They have a skeet ball machine. Baby B loved it, which I knew she would, but so did Baby E.
B couldn't throw the ball hard enough so I tried to get her to throw from the side. Well she did a couple of times, but she liked throwing the ball from the end. But Baby E was watching and trying to throw the ball, and she can only walk around furniture yet. We weren't paying a lot of attention to her, and suddenly Hollie said look at Elise. She had carried a ball all the way up the game, holding onto the game and the ball, then she got to the to the top where she could drop it in the hole. I could not believe she figured that out just watching her sister. She was so proud when that ball went in, she she clapped and say yeaaa...so stinkin` cute.

I have ran into a little glitch with my dieting. I am starting my 9th week, and for the last 3 weeks I have lost nothing. I could not help it but to cry after being on the scale. My clothes are looser, as they should be. I am actually 25 lbs down from my heaviest. I lost some weight 2 yrs ago. I have still not lost a clothing size, how could that be? Some of the ladies on the WW site say they lost 15 lbs and 2 dress sizes? Really? Are they telling the truth? Here is the real kicker, I usually buy my clothes a little big, I cannot stand anything tight on my neck or my waist due to my back issues. Anyway, that is not where I was going...LOL The no loss. According to WW I am not in a plateau, you are suppose to divide your weight loss against how many weeks you have been on the journey of your new food plan, (it's not a diet, its a food plan)
if it is over half pound you are not in a plateau. According to that I am not, also WW says the plateau thing does not happen until about 6 months. Lucky me, I always was an overachiever. Last week I tried upping the protein, meat & vegetables. My friend is an avid Atkins dieter, she thinks I am eating too many carbs,and maybe not enough calories. We do points of course in Weight Watchers but a point is about 38 calories, so I have been averaging about 1300 calories. How can you not lose on that? Sometimes I get sort of shaky from not eating enough I guess, she also thought I should make 6 meals instead of 3. I have been reading everything WW has online, and they said take a week where you had a good loss, and mimic it. (not the first week though) So I looked that over. Guess what, it was a week where I went out for Pizza and had 3 vodka drinks, albeit with diet soda. That was on a Friday night, then on Sunday I had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy. Now I tracked it all & never went over my points, but still it was not exactly diet food. I also try to save 3 or 4 points by evening so I can have a Skinny cow ice cream or a WW recipe brownie, and I asked people on the message boards if that was OK, they all said yes, that is what the extra points are for. They give you 29 points a day, which equals about 1102 calories, then they give you 49 extra points and according to them, it does not matter if you eat all 49 in one day or use a few each day. Well I usually do not eat all of them due to my lack of ability to exercise a lot. Although I could ride my exer-cycle more than I do, but when your back hurts, or it wears you out just to go through a day, its hard to make yourself do that. I guess I need to try harder to ride it, but I swear sometimes it takes all I have to do the everyday things. Effing back..I really try to remind myself a lot of people have it a lot worse off than me. Some days are harder than others.

2010 and working into 2011

2011-03-04T21:25:00.001-06:00

In April, we lost our brother-in-law to Alzheimer. He was only 65, he suffered a few years. He was the greatest guy you ever would have wanted to meet. He would give you the shirt off of his back if he thought you needed it. He was a wonderful brother, son, husband, father, son-in-law, & brother-in-law. This terrible disease made him angry and mean. It was very very sad...many people told us this kind of thing should not happen to such a good person, but it did...none of us are exempt and life goes on.......

In July, I got to travel with hubby on his job, to Florida. He drives a travel bus, and the he was driving a group to Florida. He had to stay in Florida for 4 days while they were there, so the they invited the wives (there were two buses going)to go along. We had a nice condo right on the beach. Very nice of them, they could have rented us a hotel way away from the beach but they were kind enough to rent one on the beach. The other bus driver and his wife were very nice. We each took a turn cooking dinner and the other 2 nights we ate out. Our first evening there I ran and jumped into the ocean. I love the ocean, except this was Panama City Beach. I have been there 2 times and it is always has seaweed so thick...why? But I had to get in..the waves were sort of strong, and I got knocked down a few times, no big deal until the next morning. I had terrible pain in my back. The worst I have ever had...I had scoliosis, that went undetected for years...when I was 44 I had my middle to upper spine fused. Sometimes it hurts, well almost daily but not like this. I literally had to crawl to the bathroom. I sort of got better and I managed to walk to a few places with the other couple. The next morning it was worse. I called my daughter back home, she is a Nurse Practitioner, she called the Walgreen's there and got me some prednisone & some pain pills. I did not need the pain pills, the prednisone is magic. Too bad you cannot take it long term. I was able to get back to my vacation. I had not had a week where nothing hurt, nothing at all, for years. I was able to ride the bus back home just fine...and life goes on....

When I got back home, I went to my new Dr, where I told her about my legs had been also going numb for well over a year. (I told my past doc who said it was sciatica...I also told her there was a very tender spot right in my spine, where she noticed it had a dimple too, but she said, "I suppose it was from my surgery"...really? hell yes I am rolling my eyes) So I ended up again with another MRI, I hate those but it showed my lower spine is slipping forward and to the side..more. surgery. to. come. my. way. More. fusion...oh boy! So off the specialist. Where we decided on January 24th for the surgery. My daughter wanted me to get a 2nd opinion, so I did. Where I met a surgeon who is world renown, so they say, with the worst bedside manner I ever saw. He said how about loosing some weight first, OK I say...that sounded reasonable. I had lost 22 lbs 2 yrs ago, put half back on..so yea. Then he said 50 lbs....I thought oh no...that would take a year to loose that kind of weight, more pain, no working, I was going to be giving up babysitting for my granddaughters, my back was having a hard time taking it. He went on to say some pretty smart alecky things, as did his nurse...so we decided to go back to the first surgeon. The 2nd doc did say he would do the same kind of surgery and so life moves on.....

So October came, my mom called me to say my sister was on her way to the ER, she was having chest pains, jaw hurting, oh yea...she is late 50's. Next she was on her way to the city to a larger hospital that specializes in heart attacks. She did not need any stints, but was placed on a very restrictive diet, and I am happy to report she is doing well and life goes on.....

November, I decided to get this dieting thing going, I only had 3 months,but I could try to take off some weight before my surgery....2 weeks in my mom calls to day your dad is in the hospital. WHAT?? He left the day before to go to his cabin to deer hunt. He did not feel good Friday night so he came home. Mom took him to the Dr. on Saturday and they immediately put him in the hospital. I stayed pretty long on Sat. evening, my sister came, my mom went home, my daughter came with one of my granddaughters, she entertained Grandpa Dudley. We all went home about 8. Dad wanted to sleep. The next day, my hubby came home from Deer camp, we got up Sunday morning and got ready to go visit dad. Mom called, said he was doing OK, seems a little mixed up, but talking and resting. We arrived about 2. When we got there, my sister, her spouse, her two girls, & spouses. My mom, sitting around the room, my dad looked terrible. I said, "Daddy, he tried to say something, I couldn't make it out. I looked up at my husband, and dreadfully got the "yes I see it too" look. I said to the nurse, I want to talk to you outside, I asked, "Is my dad dying?" She said well only God determines, that...OK, really???? I then got the head nurse, I said is his blood pressure dropping, she said yes...I said shall I call my brother and his family and my kids? She said she would... (When were they going to tell us?) So by 5:45 daddy was gone..with all of us standing around the bed...he was almost 86. We were in shock, although he did not have the best heart, and last Spring a Dr. told me his lung capacity was bad, but of course denial is a beautiful thing.. I never told my parents the doc said this to me, and I figured until he was put on oxygen, I was not going to stress over it. I guess I never factored in him getting pneumonia. Of course the next few days were busy planning, making picture boards for the funeral, but I got this thing in my craw that I wanted to do a beer toast. I also wrote an eulogy, and had my siblings read it and add to it. My daughter decided she could read it and get through it. So, my daughter read the eulogy and did a good job. She is a good reader, speaker, and she can wrote some awesome things.
At the cemetery we had that beer toast. I told one of my dad friends of my idea, and he said he wanted to buy the beer, and so he did. After the reverend gave his last blessing he left and we handed out a beer to everyone. It was rainy and cold, but we did it. I was so happy I did it, and everyone seemed to like it, but if you knew dad you would know it was awesome. We left a full beer at the cemetery too. Not sure whatever happened to it, but it was there when we left. We went home and tried to return to normal....or the new normal.....what is the new normal...a life without dad. THAT is the new normal. But it was time for Thanksgiving, Christmas....and life....well life......

I had left a job in the corporate world (just a secretary, nothing glorious) to babysit my granddaughter. I love it, I loved being part of her everyday little world. I tried to teach her things, and sing to her. Last Feb. she got a sister, then I had two little babies to care for. When the little one got mobile, it was a little harder, and my back started hurting more. But I did not tell it, but of course having surgery coming in January, my daughter signed the girls up for Daycare. I miss my little girls so badly, but I was busy, helping my mom with paper work, getting things finalized etc. Christmas was coming, I had shopping to do. It was OK for the most part, and the babies were around a lot during the holidays and life well life keeps happening.....

Two weeks after dad passed, we took our granddaughters to Our Lady of the Snows...I wanted Bridget to see the lights. We were al going to eat dinner too...B even rode a horse. We had a good dinner there, they have an awesome pasta bar...but we got a telephone call, hubby's mom fell and more than likely the hip was broken. It was, she is 90. So we rushed home, and hubby left to go with his siblings, to the hospital in the city. So started the next chapter...running to the hospital, an hour away. MomS had to have a rod and some pins put in her hip. She had to walk, and needed re-hab. Hubby's parents are both 90, and we had to put them both in the nursing home. It was terrible going to their house the first time. It was so, so cold & damp; empty. We were pretty sure they could never go back home. Their minds are good, most people in the nursing home, well their minds are not...but luckily after MomS healed and did very well....we were able to place them in assisted living. It is such a wonderful concept, assisted living...I am a big fan. not to mention its cheaper than both of them in the nursing home. So many laws to know, things to handle...but life goes on....

January came and I went to see my surgeon to finalize the surgery. I told him what the 2nd opinion Dr said about loosing weight, he said, "That is a god idea...I am worried about you getting an infection...what? I thought being over-weight might mean the surgery would be hard on my heart, or harder for me to recover...but anyway we made the decision to wait 6 months on the surgery and see how much weight I could lose. I joined Weight Watchers online and really like it. It seems to be pretty simple, and I have had losses for 7 weeks now, and only one gain. They say gaining is all part of it, but it was a very hard pill to swallow. Today is March 4th, and this has been the hardest day so far of my weight loss journey. I am not sure why except that I had a bite of cake yesterday...one bite, but sometimes that is all it takes...so I have stayed on my plan I am going to make it through the day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

2011

2011-03-03T11:55:00.001-06:00

2011...OK so I missed a few months..OK a year and a few months...I've been busy.
Doing.....well you know, life. I am happy to announce I have a new granddaughter, now I have 2 of the cutest babies in the world, just ask me. HA!
My baby girls are now 2 1/2 and 1.
What a year 2010 was....
We got our 2nd granddaughter on Feb. 19th, 2010. She is a cutie!

In April, we lost our brother-in-law to Alzheimer. He was only 65, he suffered a few years. He was the greatest guy you ever would have wanted to meet. He would give you the shirt off of his back if he thought you needed it. He was a wonderful brother, son, husband, father, son-in-law, & brother-in-law. This terrible disease made him angry and mean. It was very very sad...many people told us this kind of thing should not happen to such a good person, but it did...none of us are exempt.

In July, I got to travel with hubby on his job, to Florida. He drives a travel bus, and the he was driving a group to Florida. He had to stay in Florida for 4 days while they were there, so the they invited the wives (there were two buses going)to go along. We had a nice condo right on the beach. Very nice of them, they could have rented us a hotel way away from the beach but they were kind enough to rent one on the beach. The other bus driver and his wife were very nice. We each took a turn cooking dinner and the other 2 nights we ate out. Our first evening there I ran and jumped into the ocean. I love the ocean, except this was Panama City Beach. I have been there 2 times and it is always has seaweed so thick...why? But I had to get in..the waves were sort of strong, and I got knocked down a few times, no big deal until the next morning. I had terrible pain in my back. The worst I have ever had...I had scoliosis, that went undetected for years...when I was 44 I had my middle to upper spine fused. Sometimes it hurts, well almost daily but not like this. I literally had to crawl to the bathroom. I sort of got better and I managed to walk to a few places with the other couple. The next morning it was worse. I called my daughter back home, she is a Nurse Practitioner, she called the Walgreens there and got me some predisone & some pain pills. I did not need the pain pills, the predisone is magic. Too bad youcannot takeit long term.

Kids

2009-05-18T11:02:00.002-05:00

Well here is it May. So that means only one thing. I am not very good at this blog thing! haha It is hard to write most often cuz I only like to write where I think someone will read it...no one reads this blog.
But anyway, my baby girl is going to be 34 this coming Sunday. I remember her first few years of life, I worried and worried I would not get her raised, that something might happen to her, a dreadful disease, a horrible accident. All moms, well parents go through this, but here she is. 34. She has become a Nurse, then a Nurse Practitioner, and 9 months ago a Mommy to a beautiful little Baby girl, Baby B's time seems to be flying too. I just cannot believe she is 9 months old already. I quit my office job, and I really liked that job, but I knew I wanted to be more than a weekend Grammy. I believe for the most part, I have won the heart of this amazing little girl too. Yesterday she was whispering. She sort of whispered something, she does not say much, da-da or baba. So I whispered back n she whispered some more..and suddenly I realized, she is whispering. How cute, 9 months and realizes she can say it out loud or whisper it. and everyone laughed at me when I told her to use her inside voice! haha.
Well speaking of little Baby B, I hear her moving around and waking up. I usually let her play a little until she has had time to wake up. But today we are on a tight schedule, they are taping a virtual tour on the house to try to market it better. It had been for sale about 3 month now and the kids are getting anxious to get it sold, so the can get moved to something bigger and closer to where I live. Well my husband and my son and the rest of the family live in the area too. But I will be excited when they get moved, no more long drives for me in the morning or in the evening. woohoo.

So Big,

2009-04-09T19:46:00.002-05:00

Today is April 8th, 2009. I taught Bridget how to do so big! You remember, you say So Big and they hold up their little arms. So I have been working on this and today she finally did it on her own. I barely got it recorded on video because little Bridget just grabs my camera. I blame myself. I let her look at my camera when she was littler, thinking she would not be afraid of it. Well, she is not afraid of it alright. Since she has become mobile, I have hardly been able to take a picture of her. Little stinker!!!! I got this one in her yellow dress

Her mother gets really good pictures of her. I guess I need to ask her how she does it. Her camera is silver and mine is pink, but I thought 8 month old babies did not really distinguish color yet...hmmm

Babies

2009-02-28T11:19:00.004-06:00

I now have a Granddaughter. It is even sweeter than I ever imagined. I babysit her Monday-Thursday and it's so much better than the Corp. World. Even the poopie diapers!

Christmas 06 and general BS

2007-01-09T20:55:00.000-06:00

Well the Holidays are over. Christmas was pretty successful this year. At least there was no family fights or hair pulling, I mean no big snows to keep us all apart. I, a 50 year old woman with grown children, was given a Zune. (Microsoft's answer to the I-pod. Only better, I think, The screen is larger and I intend on watching videos on it sooo, it is fun. I like neat little pkg. and to have all your music and the videos I take, all in one little gadget, I love gadgets anyway.

I, however (getting bact to the Holiday itself) think it went by in a flash as I barely remember it. Why is that? You work so hard, shop shop shop, wrap wrap wrap, clean clean clean and its over. My parents had some wise old friends once and Mary, the Mrs. always said, " I want to be a man on Sundays and Holidays". AMEN. She was an old fashioned mama and had all the kids over on Sunday for dinner. She had 2 daughters and son-in-laws and 6 grandkids. That's a lot of chicken to fry and pies to make. She made them home-made every Sunday for the kids, right after church. But I digress...I just thought it was a wise statement she made about being a man on the Holidays. The plans sort of take care of themselves. Now the younger generation, well the hubbies do help a lot more. Or maybe the woman are just a lot smarter about trainng them (insert evil eye look) Whatever the reason it's a good thing.

But thinking about men, my Grandmother was adopted. The reason being her mom died giving birth to her. This was in 1902 or there abouts. Well since her mom died her Father would NOT be expected to raise her GEESH, men did not know how to raise kids. I just cannot imagine my hubby not raising our children if I would have died young.

Men know how and can be taught to use the dishwasher, the wash machine and the vacuum cleaner. AND they change diapers too!! My grandmother would be shocked!!

So now it's a new year, 2007 to be exact. Who'd thunk it! 2007, aren't we suppose to be pushing buttons by now and flying to our destinations? Who cares, what I do care about is health care. Now it's came a long way baby!!! I heard the other day they are thinking of vaccinating young girls against the papolonian (sp?) virus? So they will never have to worry about uterine cancer or overian or something, I should have reserched that better, but it just came to me or entered my brain or however crap happens....

New Year Eve's was fun too this year. It just about gave DH's wallet a heart attack but it made it through. We went to a little spot in the University Loop as it is called in St. Louis, MO called the Melting Pot. It was $65 per person not counting the drinks, well it did have a champagne toast with the dessert. First they brought us a shrimp cocktail. That was followed by a cheese fondu with bread cubes and veggies to dip. Followed by a really good salad and soon after that the main dish fondu. The tables have little burners right in the middle and you cook your own food, well sort of. The bring out a pot with some wine concoction and a plate of meats and veggies. You throw in the veggies and retrive them later with your retrieving spoon, and the plate of meat, (lobstor, chicken, fillet mignon, tuna and white fish) is cooked in the pot via a long fondu fork. A whole lot of dipping sauces soo yummy. THEN, the dessert, oh ya, dark chocolate or light if you prefer, and we had Baileys Cream Liquor in it. A plate of cheesecake, marshmallows, bananas, pineapple wedges, OH YA... They had party hats and took our photos placed them in a frame for us. It took all evening but it was fun and a nice way to bring in the New Year with some good friends. I wish you all a great 2007!!!

Illinois Storms

2006-12-20T22:11:00.000-06:00

Now that's cold baby!!

Now this is some real ice! This tree was hanging over our deck the morning after the ice storm

My son's home, the tree did no real damage.
Ok it storms in IL and it rains, and it snows, and it ICES UP! YIKES. No power for 3 days, it was cold brrrrrr... It was the only time in my life when Hubby shopped for hours, no use to go home, no power, it was cold there! I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Kids do really say the best things...

2006-11-30T17:27:00.000-06:00

Well my baby boy turned 29 yesterday on the 29th of November, so I am told it's called his "Golden Birthday." It has got to be something Hallmark made up!! Man I wish my name was Hallmark. Oh well.....

Anyway, when I woke up yesterday I was, as always, sort of melancholy about my children getting older. Getting older is a good thing, I mean the alternative is not healthy, and I don't even care that by them getting older it means I am too, I really don't care. My children are 29 & 31 now and I am 50. An angelic 50, (that is for my Canadian friend, haha). It's just that I love little children, and if my children would have some children it sure would help my melancholy feelings, I tell ya!! But my son is not married yet, and my daughter has only been married a little over a year, and she went back to school, no she never quit, she is a Nurse studying to be a Nurse Practitioner and will be in May.

I digress..As I am getting ready for work on the 29th and thinking about my son I started thinking about the day he was born as most mommys do. He was born by caesarian Section about 4:17 PM cause that is when the Dr. could get away from his office.

Fast forward 5 yrs, He was staying at his Grandmother's house and he wanted to know what time of day was he born. She told him about 4:17. He wanted to know, like when is that in his day, she told him, "Well it's about this time of the afternoon" His reply??? Oh, I missed my afternoon cartoons!!!
Well he makes us laugh a lot, he was a happy baby and always had a smile on is face, and he is a nice young man. Who would make a nice husband for some nice girl, who could give me some nice grand-babies...haha it always ends up back to grand-babies!

Now I feel obligated to tell one on his sister....

It was 1977 and a few days before Thanksgiving. I was almost 9 months + 10 years (smile) pregnant with my son. I was straightening up the house and struggling with the idea that I was about to give birth and I had no solid clue as to what we would name the baby. I wanted a boy and there would be nothing but a boy born, I already had a daughter..after all......

So, of course I had a girls name picked out and no boys name..Sort of thinking out loud I say to my 2 1/2 year old daughter, I guess we will just name the baby Turkey. I thought she would giggle and I really don't remember what she said or did, it was not a big moment and I had lots to do and went on my way.

So, 5 days after Thanksgiving I gave birth to a healthy baby boy, who I named Brad, loved the name Shawn but it totally clashed with our last name, so Brad it was and I decided at the last moment. So we shared the name with no one before his birth as we just were not sure.

Our daughter who was staying with her grandmother's (my mother-in-law) got the phone call that the baby was born and it was a boy, (even though the technology was there, we waited to learn the sex of the baby in "them" days.) She told our daughter, well Hollie, you have a baby brother, I wonder what they are going to name the baby. Oh ya! She seriously told her Grandma.... Turkey. She was OK with that name I guess. And as they grew older she decided many times we should have stuck with that name!

It's funny the things that can happen to you on your way to work..

2006-11-30T17:22:00.000-06:00

I am driving to work on Monday, on I-55 (our main highway, it was the old Route 66, in case you have heard of it) anyway, I come up on this car and it looks like the guy is on his cell phone, now I just cannot understand why PEOPLE talk and drive anyway, but I really cannot understand who in the heck are they talking to at 8am? If you are going to work at 8 am and I am not...don't call me!!

So anyway.... I get closer to the car and need to pass it and as I am starting to get in the left lane I see that the guy is holding a coffee cup and driving and I am thinking who is this smuck driving, drinking coffee, driving and talking on the phone, so as I pass him I make a point to look over and see just what the smuck looks like and and and...................................................................

I had given birth to it about 29 years ago...Yes, oh yes it was my own kid. I wanted to call him and yell at him but then I thought he WOULD be on the phone, and drinking his coffee while driving, so I could not. I did not recognize his car cause he has a brand new car he drives all weekend, so I sort of forgot about his old car he runs back & forth to St. Louis. So when I got to work I IM'd him and he said he was NOT on the phone. However he did want to know why he was going 68 miles an hour, (speed limit is 65) and I passed him, he loves to tell that part..... I always drive 70, they don't mess with you for 70! (update...I no longer drive 70..no I did not get a ticket, I just figured, better to go the speed limit.

Kids do grow up...

2006-11-30T17:15:00.000-06:00

Now remember this story the next time your small children are fighting, they do grow up. Even if, (this was told to me by a friend) when you are tucking them in bed at the age of 5, they tell you something like when I was 4 I didn't like you : ( OK this is proof they do grow up to love each other.....

Twas the night before Thanksgiving,

My son came over for supper last night and he was a little late due to the fact of traffic being so heavy on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River. So we were eating & he asked about how his sister was doing with having T-day at her house and I said, "Well poor thing had to work at Barnes Hospital today and it is about an hour and 20 minute commute from her home. (she only works there a few times a month, she just loves it there & hates to give it up, so she works for others when they are taking a day off) He says she worked in St. Louis today? Yes. So a few minutes later he gets up goes to the phone and calls his sister and starts bull-shiting her about how he didn't have time to make the mashed potatoes he promised her and then after he convinces her he is telling the truth he says no I was just kidding and I got to go back to eating dinner, (now Hubby & I are looking at each other and thinking... what in the hell..) She won't let him off the phone and keeps quizzing him on what he really wanted and finally he admits that on his way home he heard about a fatal accident on the Popular St. Bridge, (she crosses the bridge on her way home, it goes over the Mississippi River, which separates Illinois from MO) and he wanted to make sure she was home OK.
So when your little son & daughter are battling it out just think, someday he may interrupt his dinner just to make sure his sister is OK too. I am so proud of my children, as you can tell.

Kids

2006-11-30T16:56:00.000-06:00

As I get older my children get older. And as all children they are very computer savvy, they are also all college educated as my nieces are also. The "kids" in the family decided to set up a family web site so that we could all sign up for what we are bringing to Christmas dinners, our Christmas wishes etc. Well even though they are all older and most are married I found this today on the Family web site.
Now to set the stage Beowulf, a large dog, belongs to my niece who just got married last May and her Husband in stationed in California.
Thor is also a large dog who belongs to my married niece who lives in MO. Maddy is a little Shitz Shu that belongs to my daughter and her husband & they live in IL. The whole family is looking forward to the one from CA coming home for the Holidays as we have all never been that far apart for that long before. So cruising the Fam web site they had a thread called Beowulf Christmas wishes, so I had to read it, the following exchange is what I found, I hope you find it as comical as I did. Of course, when we were that young we had babies, the new generation is too busy.........

Beowulf ......starts his xmas list (Niece in CA)
I want anything that squeaks... or makes any kind of noise... or that I can chew for a long time. No bones/edibles because I like to swallow anything I can get small enough to force down my little throat.OH- AKC brand toys are my FAVORITE! I already have the bunny, the beaver, and the gray squirrel! The duck and goose kind of scare me, but I want the the hare and the fox REALLY BAD! I hope santa reads message boards...

From Thor..... (Niece in MO)

Dear Beowulf,
My mom and dad will not let me have any more of those AKC animals. Mom ALMOST bought me the Canadian Goose one to make fun of dad, but then she remembered that I always tear up stuffed things and leave the fluffy stuffing all over the house. Mom and dad yell a lot when they have to clean up all that white fluffy stuffing from my toys...Also I have to say to you that I am angry that you are staying in California for Christmas! Copper won't play with me so I have to just lay on the couch and do NOTHING all day! And mom and dad won't even let me chase the FROG!!! It is so boring here! I was looking forward to seeing my "literary cousin" at Christmas, but mom and dad said you were not going to visit! And THEN they said I wasn't coming to visit YOU in California with them either! You should have been here yesterday! I ate MORE PEOPLE FOOD than I EVER have! I ate people food for TWO DAYS IN A ROW!!! And last night I felt so bad I even had to TURN DOWN BOOZ when dad tried to get me to drink with him! Wish you were here, Thor. PS. I've had the squirrel too AND the bunny! Their stuffing tasted great! Have you tried a 'Kong'?

From Beowulf.... Niece's in CA)
Dear long lost cousin Thor,I'm sorry to hear of the blockade on AKC toys. I believe its a mom&dad conspiracy. I thought they might be unhappy with me for my leaking problem, so I tried to cheer them up by decorating the carpet with ink from the pen I had been chewing on from the trash, and they yelled at me! Then I tried to help out with the trash by eating all the old food out of the garbage when mom and dad left, but they didn't like that either. This is why I was wishing we could meet up over the holidays. In fact, I thought we could make up a list of the crazy things mom and dad do over drinks and a movie some night. Keeping us apart must be part of their conspiracy too...I heard you have this 'snow' stuff there. I don't know how you do it. I refuse to even take ONE STEP onto a blade of grass that is still wet from the sprinklers. I can only imagine the horrors of it being wet AND cold everywhere! Anyway, I will be sneaking a Christmas gift into mom and dads luggage. You'll be able to sniff it out when they get there.Wishing you were here (because it's too cold there),Beowulf.....PS- I love the white fluffy stuff too! We must REALLY be cousins! My favorite comes out of my Madagascar toy, but every time JUST when I get to the good part, mom takes it away:( PSS- are the rabbits outside filled with that white stuff too? Every time I try to catch one dad drags me back inside on my leash...

From Maddy, the little dog, who recently had 5 puppies.... (daughter's dog in IL)

you boy dogs are crabbing way too much. I just wish I had the time to play with toys anymore. All I have time to do is eat, feed puppies and sleep. then I do it all again, eat, feed puppies, sleep, maybe go outside and get to do my business. I did get some people food on Thanksgiving though! That was a highlight. Then they got all my puppies out in the living room and I had to feed them right there in front of everyone! The rudeness. Apparently one of the puppies is going to stay with me permanently. mom and Dad named her Mei Lin. Something about a little Chinese dog. But I'm telling you, who knew these puppies would be so much work! And pretty soon, they're going to be walking around. Won't that be fun, chasing them all around and they'll probably still want to nurse! Excuse me, I have to go eat, feed puppies and sleep. Perhaps by Christmas, I'll have the energy to just play with my old toys again! (Although i do always like new treats!)

From Beowulf......

Dear Maddie, Then stop shacking up with the neighbor dogs. PS. If at any time you find playing 'mommy' to be just too much, let me know. I will eat any or all or the puppies that you don't want to feed, chase, or otherwise monitor. This is a free service also! Just call my mom and dad and I'll be over in a flash!

From Maddy.......(my daughters dog in IL)

Thor - You will NOT be allowed anywhere NEAR my puppies!!!!! They're my puppies, all mine!!!

From Thor.....& his "Mommy" (my niece in Mo)

Dear Maddie, You don't actually have to worry about Thor. His bark...er..."woo-ooo" is worse than his bite...actually it replaces his bite altogether. He is the wussiest 70lbs dog you will ever meet. Why just this Thursday he let a a noisy, humpy little chihuahua, who didn't even come up to his chest, chase him all around his OWN yard! THEN he even shared his Thanksgiving leftovers with the rude little dog and didn't complain one bit. So I think your puppies are safe. PS. I tried to talk JJ into buying one of them even before you had them, but apparently he believes that 2 dogs and 2 cats are enough for one house..... But watch out for Mei Lin if I come over some time because I may have to hold her the ENTIRE time I am there!

From Beowulf, (niece in CA)

Dear Thor,You are SUCH a wuss. You were even scared of the DUCKLINGS weren't you? and to Maddie: I am sorry to confess that I will not be able to attend the Christmas showing of the newest members of our four legged family. However, I will be sending along my Filet Mignon treats that mom and dad wont give to me because I swallow everything whole:( But they are my favorite and I'm sure you'll enjoy them too.much love,cousin Beowulf

IT'S ABOUT GIRLFRIENDS AND FUN

2006-10-22T15:37:00.000-05:00

It’s all about having fun!

I turned 50 this year, so that means all my classmates did to! I went to a very, very small high school, so small, you knew everyone’s name and more than likely their middle name. You knew what their moms & dads looked like too. My 8th grade class had 35 students in it and by the time we all graduated out of high school we had 25, so there were on the average 100 kids in the whole high school. It was hard to even have a basketball team, and that was about all we had. Other than cheer-leading there were no sports for girls to participate in back in 1974!

But I am off today’s subject, turning 50. I turned 50 back in April and my family happily surprised me with a birthday party. My son, daughter and son-in-law and 3 other close couples took us out to eat at a very nice Country Club for a very nice dinner. Then my daughter suggested we go to this quaint little bar in the basement of this old hotel. It was located in Hillsboro and Hillsboro is a very old town. My friend said, “No lets go to my house and my daughter said, "No lets go here" and my they all said, OK but if the drinks are too high we are going to Jana’s” Well good cover gals!! So when I walked into the little bar there was my whole family, nieces, nephews, in-laws, sister, brother etc. They had food and a large very pretty cake and lots of nice things for me! It was fun. And very nice of my family to do so for me.
Last week, I helped 2 friends celebrate their birthdays. One did NOT turn 50, cause if I let you think she did, she would be mad. After, all.. she has a couple of years before she turns 50. Her hubby and mine and our other friends hubby all had plans on her actual birthday so us girls said we can handle it. We got together on a Saturday morning and gave her some cute gifts, packed a picnic lunch, that is what one does when they are going to the wineries, pack a picnic basket.
We headed to Grafton, IL where the Mississippi and the Illinois River meets. It is a very small town as most towns within 50 miles radius of us are. In 1993 they had the great flood, not sure there was anything too great about it, it almost wiped out the whole town. Not the people but the buildings, I remember turning on the TV one afternoon and seeing a whole 2 story farm house swirling like it was going down a drain. Today in some of the businesses they have the wall marked where the water was, and it’s 9ft or more in one of the bars.

I digress again, First we wrote birthday girl on board on the back of the car, we didn’t want anyone to miss her! Then us gals went to the Aries Winery (the view is great there, as you can see in the photos I have posted) Check it out here..Aries Winery and it is located on top of a large hill, so no water for them. They don’t actually make the wine there, but who cares. They have a large open air deck that overlooks the rivers and they hire a guitar player who can sing half way decent, they allow you to bring your picnic baskets on their deck, but they do sale some cheeses and crackers. The tables are so close together you end up partying with everyone. Sometimes too much, as my friends will tell you if they were here, someone might have had a little too much wine while there and starting giving the wine bottle massages up there and then before you know it everyone is asking you for a wine bottle massage. (wine bottle massage, take an empty wine bottle and roll it up and down peoples backs, they love it)
We had a good time (without the men), and the birthday girl wore a crown and a button and she also had on some great high heals, which a whole table of Gay men were admiring. So she said, “Oh you like my BCCFMS?” “Your what?” they asked. My BCCFMS, my shoes are BCCFMS, you know Betty Crawford come fuck me shoes...They all laughed and later when we were leaving, they were coming back, and said, they went to the other winery in town, but thought we were so much more funnier, so they were sad to see that we were leaving. She might have had a little too much wine too as she told them they were the biggest waste of penises she had ever seen...OK it was time to take her home, and so we did! We did stop at the other winery in town The Piasa Winery we left so we could pick up a bottle of their wine to take home.

The following weekend, my hubby and I went to a bar and restaurant in downtown, Alton, IL called Tony’s. It was sort of a sports bar but they have fancy dining room in the back and very good steaks and pasta. We were going to surprise a high school chum of mine who was the last one on our class to turn the big 5-0!! Some of the friends she works with and her hubby planned it all and I think she was truly surprised. She got some nice gifts, some funny gifts. Her older brother gave her a Red Hat and a Red Boa, now that she is old enough to join the Red Hat Ladies! Haha.
It’s always fun to party with your girlfriends and we all know they play a very important part in our life. If you are not lucky enough to have some great girlfriends in your life like I do, you need to work on that!! There I nothing like it!

The First Anniversary!

2006-10-07T01:16:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is a savoring day for me. It is October 7th, 2006. This will represent my oldest child and only daughter's very first Wedding Anniversary.

She is 31 and in May, she will graduate with her Masters in Nursing and become a Nurse Practioner. Not sure if you have them in your area yet, but you will. If you have a Walgreens with an emergency clinic in them, they are usually staffed with a Nurse Practioner. She will more than likely work for a doctor's office and do well checks, children's everyday normal illness. She likes rural medicine, she has worked for larger hospitals in the nursing field but prefers rural care better, but I digress.

This very bright daughter of ours has kissed her share of frogs and I worried often about her finding someone to share her life with. If she was happy being alone then I would have been happy for her, but she was not. She dated a few men we were not wild about and even at one point became engaged but saw the light. Then she met Randy.

Randy is 7 years older than Hollie, he spent 8 years in the Navy, 4 years working on his education and a few years looking for the right girl. He is a very kind, gentle and patient person, which is good since he will be sharing a life time with my little girl. He-he. She has her own mind at times and has been known to be a little cranky when worried about the next paper she has to write for school etc.

When they told us they were getting married we could not have been more happy. We adore this young man. We met his mother and 2 of his 3 bothers, one being deceased. One lives in Japan and we have not had the pleasure of meeting him yet. Their mother was born in Japan and was a war bride, so one of his brothers went there for business and stayed, married and has 2 adorable children. His mother was a very charming lady who is actually as old as my mother, Randy being the youngest. She is a hard worker, she & her husband raised 5 boys all while she worked full time in a factory and Randy's dad farmed the family farm.

We started planning the wedding and oh what fun it was for the family. We shopped like it was Christmas! I met her after work one day at David's Bridal store. She thought she was buying her own gown but we surprised her and I paid for half of it. We paid for the reception but I wanted to contribute to her dress. She shopped wisely and we watch as she tried on one after another and I bit my tongue and held back my tears, what a lovely sight. She just glowed!! She has always loved the color red and even tried one on with a rad sash. She then put one one sort of full, sleavless and it had a long lacey sparkling coat that buttoned up to her neck! We said no,no and she didn't like the high neck and she started taking it off, well when she unbuttoned the top button it looked great and that was it. The dress was bought and the lady said you know that is our last one for that style let me check and it was on sale with a great discount and she was happy. If she is happy I am!

She and her made of honor shopped for silk flowers and made lovely bouquets. I spent one day with her to scout out places for a rehearsal dinners, the reception and the wedding. She has always wanted to get married outside. So we checked out the Holiday Inn (now its a Best Western) that is located about 35 minutes from our home. It had a great outdoor deck located along a pond with a large boat on the pond. Randy's parents rented the boat for the rehearsal which was perfect, since Randy loves boating and they both love the water. In fact they bought a home on a small lake. We rented the hall there, the deck, hotel rooms for the family to stay.

Two days before the wedding we took the kids shopping to pick up some after reception diner snacks and bought some red foiled covered chocolate cherry kisses for the tables, picked up the guys tuxedos and took the kids to Red lobster for a nice large lunch! It was out last time to spend some quiet times with the kids all to ourselves. We had the best time, a few drinks. We told the waitress they were being married in 2 days she brought them out a large sundae with a candle in it to congratulate them.

The day before the wedding we loaded up the car with clothes, tuxedos, wine boxes and moved into the Holiday Inn. We all met for a drink and then got ready for the rehearsal. The rehearsal went well and the dinner was yummy and fun. It was on the boat near the deck where the kids would be married. The boat looked like an old paddle boat and the paddle even moved while we had dinner. The next morning we all met again an after some breakfast we decorated the hall and the deck where the wedding would be held. By the time my daughter and the bridesmaid were done decorating the deck it looked so beautiful with fall flowers, Chinese lanterns hanging in the tree. Then it was time to head back to the rooms and ready ourselves for the wedding. Other guest starting arriving and checking into the hotel, my parents arrived. The cake arrived in all its glory. My daughter, as a special treat arranged for the hairdresser to come to the hotel and do our hair, it was fun watching each curl go into place on her head. It was perfect. We placed the veil in place, she slid the dress over her head and again she glowed! So pretty and I cried! The photographer came in and we were off.

The deck where the marriage took place was right off the bar so guess where everyone congregated. LOL It was hard getting people to move outside but thanks to the wedding nautsy
as we so lovingly called one of my best friends who my daughter has asked her to help coordinate things. She got them and everything else a rolling and soon my little girl was the Mrs in a Mr. & Mrs. Team. Such a pretty wedding, the bridesmaid all in red, the fall leaves decor. The reception room had large round tables covered in long white table cloths and fall bouquets, red candles.
Our daughter has asked her father and I to say a prayer or a poem or a speech during the wedding, but I can be quite the sentimental crier so I opted to wait for the reception. I had my niece in sitting nearby in case I choked but I did well. You can read the poem here.

The reception went well, I think everyone had a great time and well like Christmas Day when you were a child it was all over too soon. Oh but what a fun, emotional happy day!

So now its been a year and I am ready for grandchildren, haha, but I know if or when is not my choice, but I can dream.... It appears on the outside the kids have had a good first year and today they are leaving on a weekend celebration to Hot Springs AK.
congratulation Randy & Hollie! We wish you many, many more years!

Photos are here

All about families!

2006-10-03T00:35:00.000-05:00

Saturday September 30th, 2006. My nephew turned 15. He has grown into a handsome young man who shows a good deal of sense and makes very good grades. He excels in music; he plays a trumpet and is very good at chess. The first year of my nephew's, Brandon, life I didn't have any great job going so I stayed home and babysat him. He was a good baby and I really feel lucky to have been able to do so. So I feel a little closer to him and his sister, who is 2.5 yrs younger than him. When they were only 3 & 1 their parents divorced. Their father, my brother spent much time at my home and their mother unable to cope with being a single mom would let us have the children for more than just the weekend. About that time I started selling Real Estate so I could often make my schedule around them. Their father worked midnights so they spent a lot of time with us at our home. To this day the children spend what time we can give them since we both work full time now, but my husband takes Brandon down to the family cabin/20 acres to hunt, fish etc.

My niece Lauren spends time with me and we go shopping. She usually gets gift cards for her birthday and Christmas so I take her to the mall, since her dad doesn't really like spending time at the Limited-2 with a bunch of little girls, ha-ha.
My daughter usually goes along too and we go to lunch and have a great time.

This weekend we celebrated Brandon's birthday with the annual hay ride and hot-dog roast. He was 15 this year but what the heck, the family likes the hay ride and so we did it! He got a new cell phone from his dad and mostly money at that age, some targets from my sis and her family as he is starting to be interested in target shooting. We gave him money but we also gave him 2 pints of roasted home-made canned banana peppers my husband makes and they are one if his favorites. It almost seems like he liked that the most, he is very appreciative of anything you give him, but he showed them to his Grandpa first. You never know what will make a kid happy.

I have another niece, Emily, who recently married a Sailor and moved to CA. She is only 20 and is very home-sick. She recently emailed the family and asked if we could hold it on all the family parties until she got home. She thought maybe we could have a hay bale in the corner of the room, a turkey in another and a Christmas tree too. She will be coming home for Christmas this year and hopefully be moving closer to home next spring. So we called her from the hay ride and sang a song for her, we usually sing something, but her hubby was yelling at us in the background cause he figured it would make her even more sad not to be there. Later they said he was kidding, but I am not so sure...I was trying do a good thing, but she talked to her sister, and brother-in-law, her mom, my daughter and her husband and me. So, it was good to hear her voice whether her hubby liked it or not. So there!

Later at the hot-dog roast my 3rd niece the sister to the one in CA is a teacher. She is married and lives about an hour from her mom. They have been married for over 3 years with no children yet. They are busy, she is teaching and working on her Masters and he is working full time and is also in the Reserves and is called out a lot. But they have Thor! Thor is a huge beautiful dog, did I say huge, with pure blue eyes, not sure what he is, but is a purebred of something, Thor was tied to the tree and a cat ran by! BOOM! Thor was gone. (Sidebar: My daughter has a little Shitz Shu, so she just sort of looked scared when Thor took off! Too funny! She is more than likely in a delicate condition too, on purpose.) any-whoo back to Thor, the dog chased the cat, the niece chased the dog and the nephew-in-law chased the niece! But I called him back to give him a flashlight and ahotdogsg to get the dog. About 15 minutes later he came back and said, "OK it's official, I've lost a cat, a dog and a wife!" They got in the car drove around looking for them and nothing. So I whipped out my handy dandy cell phone and called her little butt since I saw her with it earlier, we were all playing around with the cell phones since my nephew got one for his Birthday, and I got her on the phone. They tried earlier and it didn't work for some reason, well you know cell phones, but she was down at my parents home and she had just caught the dog. Which were several blocks in the opposite direction of which the dog took off. She was exhausted and asked me to send someone to pick her up! She decided those couple hours at the gym really do pay off! Thor didn't care! He just wanted another hot-dog. Maddy the Shitz Shu, just looked all smug with her little leopard coat on and acted like she would never run off like that, unless her invisible fence collar batteries were dead and she could run off into the woods by her house and go play on the sand bar down by the lake, at 6 am when her mommy & daddy were suppose to be leaving for work instead of taking a boat ride scouting out little pregnant Shitz Shu instead!

So the annual hayride was fun and we drew names for the holiday which our tribes are getting larger and its getting harder to get together but I guess we shall keep trying for that is what family is all about.

Last week I had Monday off and so I called my Sis and Mom for a long over-due luncheon out. They opened a new Deirberg's in the town where I work and Mom wanted to investigate. My Mother has Spru disease which mimics
Crohn's disease, in a lot of ways. So she has had to learn how to cook without flour, wheat products, barley, and oats, anything considered to have gluten in it. Do you know what they make beer out of? Do you know what my mom really likes to drink? uh-huh Mother has learned over the years to bake with rice flours, cornstarch, something called xylem gum. She is really good at making her own bread, buns, pie crust, cookies and cakes. Deirbergs is a very large grocery store and she wanted to know what they stocked.
They had almost 3 long isles of organic food and some gluten free foods. She was able to buy some gluten free cookies,
some rice flour and she could have bought some gluten free cake mixes but they were over $3.50 each and she aid she can make her own better anyway. So on to the beer isle, they had a huge long isle and section of liquor but no gluten free beer. My brother had actually found her some at a store in St. Louis. A stock gal came along and ask us what we were looking for and she said well she could order that for us and have it next week. OK! I go right by it everyday so I can pick it up for mom. She won't be buying a lot of it as it sales for over $30.00 a case. Evidently taking the Gluten out of an item is very costly!
Check out time, Mom enters a lane and proceeds to put her items on the conveyer belt. The checker says, paper or plastic mam? Mother said, "I'm paying with a check!" The checker, "OK, paper or plastic." Mother, I'm paying with a check, you take checks don't ya?" "Yes mam we do but do you want paper or plastic?" So about then it dawned on me what mom was thinking and I told her. Mom said, "Well they call credit cards plastic?? She had several checkers and the bag boy all laughing. You just never know with Mom! But we had a nice day and I finally got to have lunch with Mom and Sis.

2006-09-23T17:00:00.000-05:00

This is the view from the Airies Winery in Grafton, IL
This is where the Illinois River meets the Mississippi River.

I hope you all are having a great fall day. I am sitting outside thanks to the modern miracle of Wi-Fi and my sons gift of a lap top. I have been in the house since Thursday night when I came home from work and decided I needed to be outside, so what huh! Well I can see the trees and the cars that drive down my dead end street, and anticiapte the real fall. I mean it's October now and all but it's warm today, rained earlier and now its cloudy. The real fall will be when it's sunny and 70 and the trees are changing colors and we take a drive down The Great River Road. Many areas have roads they call River Road apparently but my River Road is heading out of Alton IL and winds down towards Grafton IL. In 1993 Grafton was under water due to the river the city was built on. But they came back and now have a Ferry that takes you into St. Charles MO. They have built a new boat slip that is huge! A very interesting resturant we use to love taking the children to when they were young. The rows of tables are separated by huge aquariums built into the wall. Large fresh water fish swim by while you eat their brothers! haha But it is a fun place to go and the food is very good too. They have two wineries there, well not the grape yard variety, but the kind of winery where they sell it and have live music on the weekends. One is located high over the town and you can see very far from their outdoor decking. They allow you to take your own picnic baskets as long as you are buying their wine and they sell beer too. You can look this place up here http://www.greatriverroad.com While visiting this winery you must drive on down the road and seek a "Big Ass Pumpkin" it's a must, you can grab some apples too while you are there. That is just one of the places we like to visit for wineries. We have also been to Carbondale IL wineries which you can look up here... http://www.shawneewinetrail.com/lodging.htm Agusta, MO Wineries are fun... http://www.augusta-missouri.com/wineries_brewery.htm We have been to Herman MO. but they have many new ones since we have been there, I think it is time to go back!http://www.hermannmissouri.com/wineries.htm St. Genieve, MO is another great place. One of the wineries is located in a cave and they take you down there by golf cart, after you buy a bottle of wine, its your ticket, not a bad system. http://www.mainstreetinnbb.com/Pages/wineries.html I hope you enjoy cruising these sites and maybe even take a nice fall ride!

Next week our group is chekcing out a Winery located in Aviston, IL. I will let you know! I heard it even host weddings it is so large.

B-I Witchy

2006-09-18T22:51:00.000-05:00

I have not blah blah blogged again for a few days, I have been very busy with family things and happenings. But I think I have managed to find a few things to bitch about.

1. I have finally managed to stay off the computer long enough over the weekend to clean the cob webs out of the corners of my home. and even some of the cold air vents in the wall. I also hate cleaning on Saturday, it isn't enough that a person has to work 40 hours a week, and spend 6 hours a week driving to & fro to work but then clean on the weekends. Then there is the whole visit the parents enough thing, which I am very guilty of. I visited them a great deal when I didn't work and had small children at home but it is really hard when you work all week. Do I sound like I don't like working? Well who does really. But actually I don't mind working its just that I want it all. I think it would be a great balance if I could work 3 or 4 days a week. The whole concept of working four 10 hours days is awesome. It just doesn't work for the real world all the time. But I would go for it in a heart beat. If my husbands finds a good job again, I would even be thrilled with four 8 hour days...not going to happen thought.

2. I was very pissed off last Saturday. (9-16-06) I called a few days ahead of time and got an appointment at the near-by nail salon. I go ever 2.5 to 3 weeks and they charge $18 for a fill and I usually give them anywhere $20 to $21 dollars. It is not a lot but I am a working girl and after all a tip is a tip. I also maybe 4 or 5 times during the summer get a Pedi also. they run $25, So 18 + 25= $43 + I usually give them $50.
I got up early Saturday morning and did the cleaning, a little deeper than sometimes (*wink*) and thought ah this afternoon I will get pampered at my appointment. I arrive at the appointed time and right ahead of me walks in 2 young girls, maybe 12 or 13 asking if they could get their nails done. There is a male and female tech, Vietnamese. I have never seen the young lady do nails, just Pedi's So the nail tech (male) sits me down starts on my nails & the girl starts on one of the young ladies. So my nails were done I was lead to the nail drying station and I said, "What about my Pedi?" Oh what? I not know you wanted Pedi, uh I told you on the phone, like twice? No I know nothing, you come back later..I have this other (snot nose) young lady to do. NO I cannot come back later, I do you next week, umm I work all week and I I am busy after work ever night this week and I have a company picnic to attend on Wednesday, not that I told him any of that, I just said in my sweetest voice, I cannot come back next week. (Besides you idiot now you painted my fingers red and my toes are pink, bright pink. So as I left paying my $18 (NO TIP, gee I didn't hear you say you wanted a tip?) the other little snot nose I mean young lady of 12 or 13 cannot decide if she has enough money. I can only hope she did not. This man drives over an hour from the other side of the Mississippi River to get to the little ole' town I live in to run this nail salon and then turns down business. AND, turn me down for a young girl who will not tip and more than likely will not come back.
So I went home and said, ....darn it...My husband laughed at me. Well gee that helped. "Well" he said, " I guess we won't be able to go anywhere now!" Well I know in the big picture of life its not the end of the world, but I have seen him get pretty steamed when I don't run right down the basement to cut his hair when he wants it cut. and he don't make an appointment with me! Then there is the whole thing of not having the matching color at home, and the whole thing about not being able to bend over as well since some surgeon put a metal rod down my back, so reaching the feet well is not easy, not to mention it's hell to get old and not be able to see clearly even with glasses, so I get the damn polish all over my skin too. I really hate that! and trying to take the polish off your toes with that blasted polish remover all the while not ruining the polish the nail tech managed to get on your nails.

AND (boy I can bitch huh) this is the 2nd time this has happened to me. Only at a whole other nail salon in the town where I work. There are many nail salons the town where I work, and I made an appointment at one down the road from my office for after work one even. Sat there and waited and waited, all the while the nail techs speak foreign and look at ya, so you KNOW they are talking about ya. Then he comes over to tell ask me if I had an appointment. Did I just tell ya that 20 minutes ago when I walked in? Oh no one wrote it down, I sorry..(insert accent, you know the one) Am I suppose to care? Oh well since you are not busy I guess it won't be a big problem, after all the window signs says "WALK IN WELCOME!" No, no we busy you come back later. I cannot come back later, I live 45 minutes away. (idiot)
Well we not write down, not my problem bubba) I have been coming here for 4 months and I always make an appointment. Not wrote down, cannot do you, come back another day, at that point I said, "You know what I will just leave and not come back" and I never did. I might run out of nail salons.
Another nail salon I went to, the nail tech who begged me to make sure I asked for him would not do me cause I was 5 minutes late, I could not get out of work, got a last minute phone call from a client, it happens. And it really was only 5 minutes. I started to leave there and there were 3 other techs doing no one, so they said they would do me. So I got my nails done that time and never went back there either. I didn't like how they did Pedi's anyway.
I do have one favorite salon, except it is located in a town where I use to work at and it is about 20 minutes from my home and an over an hour from my job now, so no going after work. But even they one time decided they were too busy to do my Pedi, come back later...uh I have a wedding I am headed to. Do you think you could at least paint my toes to match my fingers and then I will get the whole Pedi next time. Alright they said then proceeded to tell me how bad I needed a Pedi, I had lots of cuticle that needed cut away. NO SHIT! I must be doing something wrong but the tipping might sound small from your area, but I watch woman pay to see what they tip and most of them are tipping smaller amounts.

3. My job is a little boring cause its so slow. the people here are nice enough but I feel so un-important. Maybe I was made to feel too important at my other job so I think this way, not sure. I am the jack of all trades here, receptionist, answering the phone, I do a few reports, I like those, I figure some of the commissions on the dispersements I like doing those, I have to file I hate that but its OK. I also assist the commercial Realtors there are only 4. One we never see, and one uses me like a personal secretary at times, I might not even notice except I use to sell Real Estate and I know what all I had to do for myself. But that I don;t even mind as long as I know how to do what they want. At times they will ask me all about something THEY themselves have listed and I have never seen, but I often still know more since I do the research via the internet. I guess mostly I just want to have more time to be there for my parents and more time for my Mother-in-law, she is such a sweetie and she might not be well. Still waiting to hear from the doctors on that. I am hoping for a grandchild soon and I know my daughter would like to keep working and she would love for me to take care of the baby but I don't think I will be privileged enough to do that either. Ah its hell to be born poor. Saturday's child works for a living and well guess what day I was born on. But I know we all work one way or another, well most of us, I have met a few...LOL

4. So I guess that is all my bitching I have to do for today. I could bitch about my husband having to look for a new job but what good would it do. NONE, just as all the other bitching I have done today will not change a thing, but you know sometimes its just fun.

Thank you

2006-09-16T10:57:00.000-05:00

Thank you
Originally uploaded by Tara56.

My daughter and her husband got this idea from a co-worker of hers. They had this picture taken and used it in their Thank You notes they wrote. Yes she actually wrote thank you notes after her wedding because I raised my children to write thank you notes. Maybe not always after a birthday, althought it would have been a good idea, but always after their graduations and now my daughter's wedding. If my son marries someone who does not write thank you notes , then I will write them, or hound him until he does. I do not like spending a fortune for a present I take to a wedding and not recieve a thank you note, mostly because I want to make sure they received the gift since at weddings you do not see them open it. And that's all I have to say on that subject. (I know it's hard to believe I am done but I am)

Have a good day!

Engagement, Randy, Hollie & Maddy

2006-09-16T10:55:00.000-05:00

Engagement, Randy, Hollie & Maddy
Originally uploaded by Tara56.

School Daze

2006-09-08T12:47:00.000-05:00

collage
Originally uploaded by Tara56.

Engagement, Randy, Hollie & Maddy
Originally uploaded by Tara56.

Again, I have not Blogged for a few days, but hey, no one really reads this anyway right?

It occured to me that I had posted photos for all my children but not mynewest child, my son-in-law. While not a child, he is still a very large part of my heart, so I wanted to include him in this photo gallery of "my children" and the dog, she is not just any dog you know, she is my GRAN-DOG and she is very much part of the family.

Everyone is busy talking about sending their children back to school, so this if course always makes me reminisce back to the days of sending my own grown children to school. For them it is a lifetime ago, but for me it seems to be yesterday.
I have been making family DVD's from photos only since last Christmas when my children bought me a "thingy" that converts VHS to DVD's. A really cool little gizmo. It seems I do not take the time to do this during the summer, but last winter I scanned some photos thinking about making a DVD of the children throughout the years. I hope I get to this but my new adventure of working in Paint Shop Pro has side lined me, but is fun. And there is so much to learn in it, and I still have so much to learn in the little DVD making too. Wouldn't it be nice to not work and stay home and play with these two things all day, but I digress! Where was I, oh yes, back to school.
For all you parents that send your children off to school each day and wonder what will they grow up to be, will they grow up, will I "LET" then grow up, as each of us have felt at times in our children's life. teehee.
I am hear to let you in on a little secret, yes they do grow up and if you pay attention to them and nurture them and guide them they grow into contributing members of society of which you can be proud of.
My #1 child, was a girl. Beautiful little baby that grew up to be a real lady! She loves to read, there for making her a person who studies well or makes it easier for her, it seems to me. She may disagree, but the child has been studying since before she went to school and she is now 31 and still studying. She first received a degree in Nursing at Jewish/Barnes School of Nursing, then she went on her own accord and money and worked full time and received her BA in Nursing. She is now just 9 months away from earning her Masters in Nursing then she will be a Nurse Practitioner. (Side-bar... and become a MOM finally, at least that is what I am wishing for..)

My #2 child is a son, and he, well he is a very smart kid. He likes to party, not that my daughter does not, but it was grades first for her, not my son. But he was always very interested in computers. In fact he begged us back in 1985 when he was just 8 to buy him a Commodore 64. We knew nothing about hem, but we did buy it. It had 64 Megs of Ram, yes I said 64, and wow that was really something. Windows? Yes we had a window sitting right by the desk thank you very much! Then he said he needed a floppy disk (he is 8 yrs. old remember) thing to save his work on, WHAT? Then he needed a printer, well THAT I understood anyway. By that time we had about $500 invested I think. I re-learned to type on that thing, and print out letters, but sometimes I would "loose" them. Save them?? Yes, If I was able to printed them out I saved them, thank you vey nuch again.
Any-hoo back to son, when he was in high school he came home and told me he was surfing. We live in Illinois for crying out loud, you cannot surf here, you better not be laying on top of cars going down the road buddy boy! No, mom, surfing the internet. "The what, who, WTF?" He even had his photo on the front page of the local newspaper showing the board members how to surf the internet. Man! That was only about 11 years ago. Just think....
After HS he attended SIU-E for one year since we only live 25 miles away, he lived at home. He hated that. He so badly wanted to go away to college, and I kept saying, show me something worth me paying all that money...
The 2nd year and the rest of his college career he attended SIU-C as in Carbondale, IL. (The party school) Located about 3 hours from home. I didn't like that one bit but he did very well there and today he is working (his butt off) for a company near St. Louis, MO and just bought his own home and a new car. He is doing very well. He also is thinking of going back to school for his Masters, and he will accomplish this.

So I am very proud, needless to say of my children and I would like to post some photos of then and now. I hope you enjoy!

What?!?! It's September now?

2006-09-03T01:28:00.000-05:00

Now its September, by the end of the month my DH will be out of a job. What will he do then, what do you tell someone who has given 32 years to one company and now its over. I am only hoping he finds something he will like to do for he will be starting all over with vacation times. We do however have a pension and insurance from the Coal Mine and that means a lot.

Most of my silly shoes...

2006-08-31T23:13:00.000-05:00

The story is here....

Wedding Poems...

2006-08-31T22:58:00.000-05:00

My daughter got married last fall. In October they will be married for 1 year. When she told us she was getting married we were so excited. Her husband is really a nice person. So we were excited for her to have found such a nice person. We soon started planning a wedding. She wanted to be married outside so she soon discovered the Holiday Inn has a deck and yard, by a small pond and they could accommodate the 200 or so guest we had planned to invite. She then asked if her dad and I could say a prayer or a poem at the wedding.. I soon declined saying I might get too emotional and cry but she persisted and so I agreed to do it at the reception. Then oh what to write..soon, I was spilling over with ideas and this is what I settled on. I hope you enjoy reading it as many at the wedding told me they did....oh well my son was not sure he was too happy being called a flower, but you know it's a metaphor son!!

God sent us a pink & blue flower
We would have voluntarily picked
We named the pink one Hollie
And the blue one Brad

The flowers taught us many things...

The pink flower being first taught us
what diapers, doctors tricycles, bicycles,
prom dresses, cars, boyfriends college
tuition, and feeling proud was really all about.

She taught us that at the end
Of a poem you can add froggies
And that eating too many green beans
Will turn you green

She taught us about worry, laughter,
and love, things we only thought we
already knew

We took her to kindergarten and she never looked back
We took her to high school, she never looked back
We took her to nursing school and a dorm room and she never looked back
Which was a good, because I didn’t want her to see me crying
So while I may cry again today, it has all been tears of joy
When her high school sweetheart left her, I told her, your prince is out there… you’ll see. Well, Hollie, here he is…and quite handsome too. OK, so he came in on a kayak and not a white horse…..
And by the way Randy, I have wanted to ask you….. What took you so long?

Randy, You have demonstrated such thoughtfulness, kindness, and love to our daughter, we could not be happier to be giving you one of our precious
flowers, to have and to hold to cherish, to love and to respect forever… If both of you only hear one thing we say today, remember this… while love may conquer all, it helps to say I’m sorry, practice it!

So to make a long story short
And I know it’s already too late
We would like to welcome Randy into this crazy bunch or people we call our family and we hope that you will never look back…

We love you both so very much,
may you live a long happy, healthy married life and may God bless you with some pink and blue flowers of your own.

Love Mom & Dad

Blah blah blue dot guy

2006-08-22T23:27:00.000-05:00

I would like to title this story strange things at the Mall. If you read my previous blog you know I do not like the Mall very much. Too noisy, to much walking, too expensive, you cannot find Wal-Mart in there anywhere, although I did find Payless shoes, haha.

This story takes place several years ago when my other niece, Miss V, was still in High School. She has been teaching for a few years now so you know how old this story is but...it was a Saturday and my daughter Miss H thought we should go to the Mall. We live in a small town so the Mall consist of driving over 40 minutes whether we head North, South or even West. My niece attended a Parochial School so she went to school closer to this particular Mall. I am trying to set the scene.

Miss H and I had entered the mall and was riding up the escalator and in front of us was a couple of high school age boys. They had very short hair and while one had sort of bright red hair the really tall one had white hair with aqua, "aqua" blue dots all over his hair. The dots were about the size of a dime. I sort of gave the "look" to my daughter and she was all waving her hand motioning for me not to say anything so I didn’t. Really I didn’t.

Miss H wanted to go into some funky fly by night hippy looking store, (they sell jelly beans there now) totally forgot the name of it, to look at the thumb rings. I was sort of standing around in there when who should come walking in, yep Mr. Blue Dot guy. Being an X-hairdresser I was pretty sure we never had aqua blue dye in the supply closet, so I was pretty interested into finding out how he did that. So when he walked by & started talking to the girl who was working there, well Ok, she was standing there with the keys to the little cabinet of thumb rings Miss H was looking at, {they must have been made out of really good silver for $10 since they were all locked up} and she was sort of doing this thing with her hands, like waving them through the air making her fingers flutter, whatever...so I said to her how did that young man make his hair so blue? Well she said with her perky voice, lets ask him, nooo oh geezzz here we go. "Heh" she said, "did you use Kool-Aid on your hair?" Yes I did and you know what I was coming up the escalator while ago and this lady behind me had the nerve to be talking about my hair. I mean can you believe she just was talking about me like that, right where I could hear her and all? Umm excuse me, I said before DD could cover my mouth up, but isn’t that why you made your hair that color? You wanted people to look at you? Well I guess so but I I…. So anyway Mr. Blue dot guy how did you get those circles so perfectly round I quizzed? I used the lid to the 2 liter bottle of 7-Up mom had on the counter. Oh uh huh, so you dipped it in kool-aid and stuck in on your head just like that? (I think he was going to grow up to be a Rocket Scientist) So how did you get the back like that, oh my buddy here did that part. (Me)
Oh and soooo does that wash out or … (the Rocket Scientist says) It will eventually wash out it just takes several weeks. (Me) So if like Grandpa dies or something like that, your mom has to stand there over the casket and tell people, oh yes my kids have really grown, see that one over there, ya that’s my son, the one with the blue dots all over his head. (Rocket Scientist) Oh I never thought of that. He was a very polite young man I should say, and dressed well too. Yes, well we will take that locked up $10 thumb ring and move on cause my DD thougth I had said enough.

Later that night my sister came over and I was telling her and my 2 nieces of the strange hair color I had seen at the mall and my #1 niece says, oh no... I know that boy, he was with someone with red hair right? Yes. He sort of does bizarre things at times. Well I said, do you think his mom approved of that. Oh nooo they are pretty religious, after all he attended a Parochial High School.

Fast forward a few days later, and RING RING, I go to answer the phone, heh Aunt Tara? Yes Miss V. Hey remember that kid with the blue dots, ya well his Grandpa had a stroke and he is probably going to die, just thought you want to know. Next day, RING RING, heh Aunt Tara, yes Miss V...that boys Grandpa died and he has to go to the funeral with those blue dots in his hair and his mom is really mad at him. He tried shaving off as much as he could but they are still there. Just thought you would like to know. Uh thanks hon, I think.

Several days later, RING RING RING..(took me longer that day to get to the phone) heh Aunt Tara, I think you can quit hexing with my friends, no she didn’t say that, she is too polite, heh Aunt Tara? Yes..you know the blue dot guy whose Grandpa died and he had too Ya, Ya I know.. "Well 2 of his best friends were in a car wreck this week and were killed so he went to another funeral with those blue dots." Just thought you should know....
As God is my witness, I will never ask anyone about their hair color, style or anything again in my life! I don’t want to know.

Blah blah blogger 8-22-06

2006-08-22T23:07:00.000-05:00

Well the weekend was a little different for me. I took my 12 year old niece school clothes shopping. She had saved up all summer and had quite a little bundle to spend. She had earned the money babysitting for her mother with her 2 younger brothers, who are not my nephews, and she also helped her mom with some children she was caring for. So she asked me to take her shopping. At Christmas she had gotten quite a few gift cards and since she was staying with dad through the Christmas holiday my daughter and I took her shopping. It had been years since I had shopped with a pre-teen and I didn’t much like to go when my daughter was a teen, there was all that whining, yelling and I have to go the bathroom and I’m hungry, can we just go, My daughter hates it when I act like that in public. In fact a few times my daughter went shopping with her aunt so I guess it was my turn. Besides her mom is well …..lets just say it is hard for Miss LTD to go shopping with her and her daddy would rather not shop for little girls clothes, thanks bro!! Just kidding, we did have a good time and I thoroughly enjoy spending time with my niece and daughter that is for sure. And we always have lunch out I always buy them a little something.

We started the day out going to the Mall, now I am know as a woman and an avid shopper, (well I use to be more than I am now) I should love the mall. But to tell you the truth I usually find it just too crowded, too loud, to expensive and too tiring to walk all over the dang place. But that is where Miss LTD wanted to go so we did. She likes the mall and so does my daughter, well they have more money to spend than I do. My daughter is a professional and just recently got married at the age of 31 so she is use to spending good money on herself. I married at 18, had a baby at 19 and 22 so I am not use to that. But again as usual I am blabbing too much and I digress yet again.

So the first place she wants to shop is Abercrombie and Fitch. Can you say music is too loud, the posters are too sensual and the prices are outrages? Bet you cannot say it loud enough to be heard over the music in those stores, and oh we were in the "children’s " store not the adult store. Did you know they had 2? Me either. When you walk into the front door of the children’s store there is a life size, no bigger than life size poster of a 12 year old boy sitting on the ground in front of his bicycle, in a white button up shirt, collar open, sleeves rolled up, some kind of beaded necklace on, his hair slicked and one knee bent, looking like he was ready for a roll in the hay. And it’s not cause I’m old, my daughter thought it sucked royally too. The photos are in black and white and they show nothing, nothing at all but somehow they look way too sensual. She tried on a few pair of jeans, shoes, then tried on some t-shirts. I let her choose, it’s her money what the hell do I know? WELL, my daughter didn’t like the white t-shirt on Miss LTD. She said it showed too much. She was good about it and went back and got a dark blue one.

You know you ever know when life is going to show you the future and yet there it was, I had tried to picture my daughter as a mom of a baby, and I could, but when I tried to picture her as a mom of an older child, it was well a mental picture I could not sum up. And suddenly there is was...BAM!! I saw her as a MOM. And oh, I just cannot wait for grandchildren and she keeps going back and forth on the issue, as to when or if, but I think she is messing with my mind, cause she knows how bad I want one. And I know her DH wants one too. In fact he ask for 4 before they married, he came from a family of 5 boys, but they settled on 2, maybe 1 maybe 2. I am hoping for 2. I hate to see kids be only 1 but I am not sure why! LOL

So continuing on our way shopping we next went to American Eagle. They also have their music too loud but they do have some sales so in we went. Miss LTD picked out a mini jean skirt and held it up to my daughter and said, if you like this on me can I buy it? So I guess she did not mind the white t-shirt incident like I thought she might have. So she tried it on and we didn’t think it was too short so she got it. We also like American Eagle cause they have large leather chairs to sit in while we wait for Miss L to try on her clothes. She use to like to shop at the Limited Too and we like that store because they have large comfortable pink chairs for mommies or in this case aunts and older cousin to sit in. But she did not want to hit that store or she ran out of money I guess by then.

I let the girls vote on where to eat and they wanted to eat at the St. Louis Bread Company. Not my favorite but it's ok. I ordered a sandwich that was all bread it seems to me. Maybe its just my age but I hate to go to lunch where #1 I have to go to the counter to order my lunch, then #2. go to the counter to pick up my lunch, #3 clean off my table all while I paid a high price for a sandwich with chips. My daughter had a house latte cost almost $4, and they couldn't even serve it to us? But the girls seem to enjoy it.

We proceeded to the large jewelry outlet store, not good jewelry just costume jewelry. I told my niece I would buy her something there also. They have rows and rows of costume jewelry, categorized by sports, religion, careers, holidays. Purses, look alike Brighton purses for $25 but again I have never paid that for a purse for myself, I am use to the Wally World price of $12.88. I picked out a bracelet for myself that I thought I could take apart and make a matching necklace and earrings. And if I ever get off the computer long enough I might even make it. Tee-hee. Miss L picked out a pair of CZ earring studs for $2.98 complete in an acrylic box. Then she could not decide between the purple ankle bracelet or the silver one, each being $.198. "I think we will just get both for you and you can decide later, I said with a wink.

We went to Garden Ridge where I soon became board since I have every freakin` decoration in my house I could possibly need and since DH is being forced into retirement and don’t know when he will be finding his next job I thought I better not show up at home with "stuff" as he calls it. I call it really cute things, but heh its not as easy to sneak into the house either as the costume jewelry!! Haha.

Then of course did the obligatory Wal-Mart run for a few items and groceries, where I bought some chocolate candy to eat on the way home. Miss L had brought home half her sandwich and decided to eat that and Miss H ate the apple that came with her salad, so I was not eating chocolate when they were not. What is this world coming to?? Apples instead of chocolate!!! I really am proud of the way Miss H has been trying to overcome her weight issue, I hate for her to be like her mother. (insert embarrass look here)

Then Miss H decided we should go to Hobby Lobby and Miss L still wanted a new Flat Iron and apparently had an issue with Wal-Mart brands, something about them not working after a while, well duh!! LOL Miss H remembered there was a Sally’s beauty supply located next to Hobby Lobby and since I am a card carrying member of a Sally’s Beauty Supply professional discount card maybe I could get her a good deal. I sure did, she paid $10 and I paid $10, well I didn't want her to spend all her money! We then headed into Hobby Lobby where I purchased a piece of Styrofoam because I had a project in mind. I bought the foam, and some broadcloth I think it is called.

We finally headed home and I dropped Miss L off at home where she gathered up all her fancy sacks from shopping, (they only use plastic bags at the stores I shop at, haha) I took her photo with all her shopping and if I ever figure out what the hell is blocking me from adding photos to this blog I would place it on here, but thanks to the NEW(?) and improved McAfee Suite it does not "allow" me put on photos. A whole other story. So I dropped off Little Miss L and she gave me big hug and said thank you for taking me shopping today. She is such a sweeti`. Later that evening she IM’d me and said she had so much fun today and thanks again for taking me shopping. My brother has raised 2 great kids, his son is almost 15 and is the nicest young man also. So by the end of the day, the girls had worn this old woman out!

OH yes, the project, I covered the rectangle shaped styrofoam with the beige colored cloth, then I ran a piece of lace all around the edge, gluing and using straight pins. After it dried I hung it on the wall and stuck all my earrings in it. The hoops hang on with straight pins as well, and I can easily see, at a glance, what earring options I have in the mornings. (insert applause here cause I know you are all gasping in awe at my creation)

SHOES

2006-08-10T21:00:00.000-05:00

I have not blah blah blogged for a few days...but
I want to talk about shoes! I love shoes. I have some awesome shoes in my closet. Not necessarily expensive shoes, but cool shoes. Oh, I am writing this at work so when I get home I might take a photo of some of my cool shoes, if I can figure out how to make them look good. Today I have on a lovely pair of 1 1/2 inch heeled sandals with a cute little ankle strap, that I can hardly buckle due to my “fused spine” but I digress. They have 2 straps across the top of my foot with rhinestones across them and then the bottom of my shoe, the little part that peeks out under your foot, it HAS rhinestones too. I so hope I get a photo of them. They are silver by the way. I also so hope my hubby doesn’t think I am crazy taking photos of my shoes, I have not told him I have this here Blogger thingy yet and not sure I want him to know yet.

I took the photos, now blogger will not allow me to add them. (sigh) maybe tomorrow...
I cannot believe I worked all evening takng photos of my friggin` shoes and blogger is having a "bad day" can't seem to let me put on my pics. UGH. I think I have figured out what the problem was, dang new McAfee, I have to disable it to post photos...anyway here they are {my summer shoes} and I hope you find this fun, that was my intention anyway..
http://taras-random-thoughts.blogspot.com/2006/08/most-of-my-silly-shoes.html

I finally figured out why the photos are not showing now, at first it was the settings in McAfee

but now its because I write my blogger in Microsoft Publisher so I have it saved, then I copy & paste it to the blog, WELL...it don't like that. LOL So now I know..

Did you know Blogger is not a real word? My spell check told me so. It has those little red squiggly lines underneath it that tell you something is wrong with your typing or spelling, it might as well have a pop up window that says, hey dip-shit, you spelled something wrong again. And if your right, and you click on the word Blogger, the choices Microsoft Publisher offers is Flogger, boggier, and logger. I wish I knew how to write little programs, then there would be some humor in those little suggestions of spelling. For instance if you misspell a small 3 or 4 letter word, the thing would just laugh at you before it gives you the answer. If you misspell or make a typo it just says WTF? Take a spelling or typing class already!! Hahahaha! Might not do much for your self esteem. I am pretty sure hahaha is not a real word either but spell check capitalizes it at the beginning of the sentence. Also I was thinking if you use a word that is wrong for the sentence but is a real word, the balloon could pop up and say hey shithead, did you really mean to use that word out of context?

Reminds me....there use to be a little program you could download and it came with a parrot. You could “train” your parrot to say whatever you wanted when you logged onto your computer every morning. My parrot would say something like, “Good Morning Tara, what are we going to do today?” Except after the day I called in sick. My boss found the parrot and when I came in the next morning my little sweet parrot said, Heh shithead, how's it going? Cute huh? At least she had a sense a humor right up until the time they let me walk out the door.

Oh oh oh Shithead is not a word either,
Microsoft Publisher offers: Spithead, hothead or cathead (WHAT?) Let's try fuck Ohhh nooooo it’s a real word!! I only thought fornication was the real word and fuck was the nickname. Shows how much I know about fucking…(please insert a mental photo of my hubby, (a man you do not know) shaking his head back and forth) He would be so proud. *blink blink blink*

Did you also know that you can be at work and be typing your Blogger reports and the bosses come around and says boy you are working so hard, typing so fast... Oh no, no it's really nothing. Now the office manager she knows.....
Well the office manager took the rest of the day and tomorrow off to visit with her Mother-in-law who is visiting. So the Vice President of the company just came in here to tell us not to worry, that she is still here, and is still alert (always a good thing in management) and she will not forget to remind us when 5:00 comes around so we can carry our merry asses out to the car and take them home.

Well it is 4:50 here and soon the Vice President of a multi-million $$$$$ corporation is going to come out here and tell me its time to turn off my computer as I have worked hard enough today (*more blinking of my large green eyes*) and I should go home. Yesterday she brought me a large, very large chocolate bar cause last week I said, there is no chocolate in this office and that’s just wrong! So she brought me a large, large candy bar, with almonds, she said it would help me forget my husband is loosing his job. Crap, I had not thought of that for the last 3 minutes and now I have..
Time to wrap this up and email it home, it will beat me home and when I get there it will be waiting on me to flog it to my Blog. Wow, that rhymes. I just wish I could email myself home, think of the gas savings...Crap I gots to buy gas tonight too! Now I am depressed again!

Hey, I got that gas for $2.97 a gallon and had to fight to get to a pump. WTF??????? They have us thinking WOW I got gas today for $2.97, it was on sale and we all lined up to get it while it was sooooo cheap. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? OH Ya, I forgot Blogger doesn't like pictures today.

It's August, already?

2006-08-01T14:09:00.000-05:00

8-3-06

So...just like that. the place where your husband worked for 32 years sells and you are faced with a couple of choices.

1. CHOICES: Life is all about choices huh...ya well: Retire or stay with new company.

2. RETIRE: Well he is eligible, he has his 30 years in. He would retain his insurance (great insurance) when he turns 55 which is this December. Not sure what we do in the 3 months between. Pay it at the cost of who knows what! Be out of a job and he would not be able to ever work in the trade again, the trade being a Coal Miner. Coal Miners are a strange breed. Not sure if it's the coal dust, or lack of oxygen. But once a coal miner, they usually like to stay a coal miner. So no coal mining or loose your retirement insurance. Well one does not want to be a coal miner forever...

3. OK, STAY with new company. New being the operative word. They the buyers, the new company, are brand new, as in NEW NEW company. Do they know how to run a coal mine? Who knows. They, the new owners, say they will honor the contract, they (they being the UMWA = United Mine Workers of America) have now. Come December there is a new National Contract, so it's a gamble. Life is a gamble huh...

4. The GOOD NEWS: Or 17 year old home is very very close to being paid off, as is our car. Children are grown, done with braces, out of college and I have a job. I hate being the ONE with a job, first time that ever happened to me, so how lucky am I. But scary to be the ONE with a job. I know my husband will find a new job to compensate his pension and you know it, but I don't think he knows it yet. But he will. And life will change for us a little, but how lucky are we to have the same job for 32 years and it ends with a pension and insurance.

I come from a long line of coal miners. Daddy mined coal for most of his life. My Paternal grandpa came to the US from England, when he was 13 to work in the mines. and as far as I know that is all he ever did. I grew up in a group of small communites that formed around coal mining. Can you say coal dust? I also had a Beauty Shop once named ...YEP, the Coal Miners Daughter. My dad was so proud, he even bought my sign! I left hairdressing to sell Real Estate and from there became a Licensed Real Estate secretary. I found something new and so will he......

8-2-06

My daughter is in graduate school. She is 31 and I swear she has never quit going to school. I remember taking her to Pre-Sunday school, and she marched in and never looked back. Now, I am still watching her go to school and not looking back. When she graduated high school, she wanted to be a Nurse. So in her JR, year of school we started applying to nursing schools. She settled on Barnes-Jewish School of Nursing. But the first semester, they did not have room for her, then the 2nd semester they only offered the 2nd part of a mandatory class, so she had to wait until the following fall. To get started she attended a small JR. college and worked part time. All things turned out for the better, for she met 2 really nice girls who started the same year she did and she is still good friends with them today. They all were in each others weddings and still get together. All of their husbands seem to like each other too.

Anyway, back to my daughter, she graduated from Barnes-Jewish School of Nursing and became an RN and started working. She immediately also started working on her Bachelors in nursing at SIU-E. She graduated from there and immediately started in on graduate school. She wants to be a Nurse Practitioner and specialize in rural medicine, which is good, because she lives in a rural area. Although she could drive to the city, which she does now. She worked full time and maintained her own home all the while she attended school after Barnes Jewish that is. She recently got married and is working part time here, part time there, because she is also starting to do clinicals for her newest degree. Can you say proud mama, I sure am. Her daddy and I both are very proud of her and our son. If we ever win the lotter, the kids get the first check to pay off student loans. I just hate that my children have student loans. We helped all we could through their main schooling but out daughter has obtained student loans ever since. Our son wants his Master's so bad he can taste it, and if he ever gets settled he will start taking classes, which will be soon. But he is a topc for another day.

I am digressing again, so anywhooo she does a lot of writing for her classes and she is very good at writing. In fact she must be very good. (If she ever reads this she will die at all of my gramatical errors) While at Barnes Jewish she wrote a paper on aging. Her instructor asked her is she could submit it to a nursing publication, and we were all so proud & excited. Then the publication came out an guess what, the teacher took all the credit for the article. The teacher, and I use that term loosely, had to send my daughter an apology, but so what? The harm was done and no credit was given in the article to my bright hard working daughter.

The other day my daughter was out looking for a new computer desk to do all this work on. She wanted something large sturdy, drawer space for all her paper work. She found 2, a large and a small, old metal office desks. She looked them both over and was seriously thinking of the larger one. The man (could not call him a gentleman) selling the desk, at some antique or used store, said, "Well I am not delivering it or moving it, cause the last time I moved it I pissed blood for 3 days. WTF?? And OH how I wished I had a camera to show you all the look on my son's face when I told him what this man said to his sister. It was priceless. Actually I thought his eyeballs were going to fall out of his head. None of us are timid, bible thumping people, but we even have out limits!!

My daughter decided to wait until her husband came home to look at the desk and help her make a decision. Her thought was they could go over and lift up the bigger one and see if either one of them pissed blood and let that be the deciding factor...I'll let you know.

7-31-06
We did something this weekend we have never did before, we went on a float trip with my daughter and son-in-law. And YES, we tipped the canoe over, but only once. Hubby ran me into a bunch of willow branches and I leaned over to avoid having my face ripped to shreds and over we went!! I was also sitting in a lawn chair, cause my daughter thought my back would not get tired that way, so it might have aided on our spilling over but hey, you have to be initiated right? After that smooth sailing. One other crucial thing happened, they, being my hubby and son-in-law, did not pack my drinks! I don't do beer, we had no soda. I carefully filled 5 water bottles with cranberry juice and citrine vodka,(Absolut)and froze them. I had one on Friday night and they were yummy if I say so myself. BUT THE MEN FORGOT TO TAKE THEM OUT OF THAT COOLER AND PUT THEM IN THE COOLER FOR THE CANOE! There I was out on the river, no drinks. Now what would have happened if there had been no beer. YIKES.. BUT THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN....I told our son-in-law, that someday I would be in charge of his children and they would have cookies in every hand! but then that might happen anyway, teehee.

Our son-in-law kept pretty close tabs on us. LOL He and my daughter were in their Kayaks and he would come splashing back when he thought we might have trouble somewhere. I felt sorry for him. I felt like he was worrying more about us rather than having a good time. We only did 6 miles, was planning on 14, but everyone pooped out, but I would do it again. I think I would really enjoy doing inner tubes too. I love being IN the water. The river water was so cold and clear as a bell. You could see the bottom. We floated the Merrimac in MO. For years we have bought decorator rock called Merrimac rock, and now I know why. The river was lined with the all different colors of brown rocks, just covered. My daughter said she liked floating the Current River better, not sure why.

Our son said he floats the Huzzah river. His float trips sound a lot more wild. Naturally, he travels in a lot younger group! They also camp out and throw a huge party. They even built a large floating box that houses a stereo and large speakers. It has painted on the side â€œslut teaser." The 2nd year the campground remembered them and told them they had to cover up the word slut. His group also got fined one year for throwing a Jell-O shots at each other. One dropped into the water and although they were in the water getting it out they still got a fine for it dropping in the water. Park rangers are hiding in the trees watching for litter bugs, flashers and dope smokers. The Missouri â€œriver policeâ€? or park rangers or whatever you call them are trying to outlaw beer bongs and Jell-O shots. LOL Poor harmless Jell-O...hmmmm.

We had a really nice little hotel and my daughter's friend (from nursing school) and her hubby came along too. We went to this little antique store in the afternoon downtown, small town with about 1000 people and it had restaurants and a few stores and only 1 bar that we could see. So we hit the little bar. The waitress spilled my Limone` and 7-up all over and I jumped like a race-horse coming out of the gate. It only got the corner of my blouse and sprayed across my legs and I jumped so fast when it ended in up in my chair I was no longer sitting in it. But hey, we got a free round of drinks. My son-in-law, said, "Thanks mom, it was my turn to pay!" One of the guys said, You jumped so fast,which lead to a whole conversation about being a mom and having good reflects, because god knows we are so use to dodging children tossing their cookies! That also lead to a whole bunch of children's puke stories since the one couple have a 3 & 4 year old at home. So after we had a few more drinks, left to go eat.

We were turned away from 2 restaurants, one being the rib place I will talk about it later. They said they were over booked, so we returned to the bar where they ordered food for us from the restaurant upstairs. Great burgers!! LOL But then again beggars must not be choosey. But the food was really good. It's called Winfield's Old Fashioned Soda Fountain if you ever get to Eminence, MO. It really is an old fashioned soda fountain, with original back bar. Old fashioned booths, the black and white tile and original hardwood on the floor, the original scale with your fortune, an antique store and a full bar with card and pool tables in the basement. Food was pretty cheap too.

So The Rib Place. Some guy, my husband works with, had been there before and said, "Oh don't miss The Rib Place.â€? We also visited with a former boss of my husbands, that retired and moved there to run a Bed & Breakfast Inn said, "Oh don't miss the Rib Place."

The Rib Place well...............
It was, can you say shanty, not even good enough to be called a shack, I am serious. It was air conditioned, believe it or not. The Rib Place looked so dilapidated we did not go in the first evening. When we tried the 2nd evening, they said we just cannot serve anyone else for a few hours. The big lazy blonde sitting on her fat ass behind some make-shift counter started hollering, I just can't, I just can't. fuckin' excuse us!! I don't remember begging, just walking in the door! Ha!!!! But we did get to look inside. It had a rock floor, I mean like drive way rock. Big, white, chunky dusty rocks. Not even Merrimac rock, just big white rocks. A few picnic tables and a few stumps to sit on. Well we were in the Ozarks. LOL So we did not get to eat at The Rib Place with the corrugated roof and sides, and a make shift , and I use that term loosely, Beer Garden with a couple more picnic tables to eat on. I think I might have even seen an old umbrella over one of the picnic tables. Yes, I think I did as I whizzed pass on our way back to the cars.

On the way home we drove through Union MO, where they have 2 water towers. Painted on them is, hot on one and cold on the other. I always wanted to get a photo of those 2 towers, so damn funny. We stopped at Cuba Mo and looked around an antique shop, like my daughter could fit anything else in her house!! Well maybe a baby crib, the sooner the better for me, but she keeps putting it off further down the road. DANG IT!!

SCOLIOSIS AND MY BACK SURGERY (FEB. 2000)

2006-07-22T13:42:00.000-05:00

The Symptoms
I was first diagnosed with Scoliosis in Nov. 1999 at the age of 43. After suffering for years of daily back pain and hip pain that was practically leaving me unable to walk any distance, much less across the Mall. (We know how important that is! )

The photo to the left looks a lot like my spine did, only I believe my C-shape was lower and even more of a C than this example.

I had been told for years I had arthritis, sciatica [A Chiropractor (ok not a very good one) didn't recognize the strong C that showed up in an x-ray as Scoliosis] and the exhaustion, I didn't even mention to the doctor because It had came on so slowly. I didn't know what was wrong, my husband thought I was just becoming lazy (geez he is a great husband but they all have their times, ha-ha) I also had digestive problems, lots of heartburn, I was starting to have small accidents in my underwear. Fatigue was a constant battle. I also battle depression which had been getting better but then I wondered if it was just more of that. The last year before the surgery I was going to work, coming home, going to bed, and that was about it. I love to shop, swim in my pool, but I was starting to try to figure out how to get it all done, bargaining time with myself still wondering why I had became so lazy, (maybe the weight gain? ) So I hid it for a very long time, as I did my depression in the beginning. OK I do not deal very good with myself. It is always about the weight is it not? So why complain to anyone until you are ready take care if it.

After an ever excruciating painful pelvic exam my family doctor said that should not hurt so bad he starting some extensive testing which led me to an Orthopedic surgeon. Imagine my surprise when he said I cannot help you. You need a spinal specialist! Well I live in Staunton, IL and where was I going to find one of those. He quickly sent me to Memorial hospital in Springfield, IL where I met Dr. D`Adrian. She asked me if I wanted the magic wand treatment and I said, " YES." She said sorry it was broke but she could help me. Finally someone was going to help me!!
I had been suffering daily pain for 5 years and painful times for over 10. My surgery was set for Feb. 2000 and luckily I had the holidays to keep my mind busy. I also had the internet to search and while it was very, very helpful, you do run into the horror stories and my husband kept pleading with me to stop looking. But I did learn a lot of things that offered me help, which I will discuss later.

The Surgery
The surgery lasted 14 hours. I have a titanium rod and screws in my spine. They are titatium so that I can still have an MRI if I ever needed to. I am not planning needing to ha-ha. I donated 2 pints of my own blood ahead of time and DH (Dear husband) did too, (we are the same blood types.) My two grown children could not donate, my daughter is an RN and she worries about donating blood because of all the contact with people she has. My son turned out to be O+ and DH & I are B+ as our daughter is. I never knew that was possible but trust me he belongs to my husband. My father is O as is DH parents and siblings are as well. My sister-in-law, (bless her) (husbands brother wife) gave me a pint. She was B+ and had been married to my brother-in-law for over 25 years. So I felt safe about my blood supply. I think I got back 3 pints. Mine first, then I don't know if it was my hubbies or in-laws. I don't quite remember the 1st 3 days, and not much from the 4th. I really remember starting the 5th.

My scar starts in my upper middle back, and whips down my side to the middle of my belly. It measures 23 in. long. I have an 8 in. scar on my hip where they scraped bone to graft onto my spine. I was up and out of bed to a wheel chair on the 5th day, taken to a shower and then on the 6th day taken out of intensive care and to rehab. I walked with a walker, preferred the wheel chair, of course. I was not prepared for the things I saw in re-hab. Lots of sad things there but it did make me realize, I was going to heal all the way and most of these people would not, so I should be greatful, It still did depress me for a while even after I came home.

Rehab:
The first day I was taken to re-hab I still was not feeling very good but WOW was I impressed. There were people all over the place helping people get well. They were doing exercises, teaching someone how to bake brownies again, how to walk again. I had heard about this unit but until you see it, you cannot imagine what it is like. I was amazed at how much they had me doing on the first day. They even had a part of a car to teach me how to get in & out of the car before I went home. A set of steps I could practice on so when I got home I KNEW I would be able to get inside the house! And it didn`t matter who was working with you personally, if another technician saw you standing wrong they told you , they all wanted to help. The dedication was amazing!

But all was not good, I saw so much sadness in people. I remember a young handsome man, mid 30`s who must have had a stroke and he was very angry. He was even down right mean to the therapist but they never let him get them down. They still tried to help him all they could. I met a teen who had a terrible car accident and they were all familiar with him and they all worked very hard with him. I do not know what happened to him later of course, but he left an imprint in my mind I still think of almost 6 years later. Even though I was in a great deal of pain, and I have had a lot of surgeries before, this one, I always felt was almost life altering.

You hear people talking about car accidents and the how it changed your life, well this was about the same thing for me. But the therapist in the re-hab unit work very hard at being so upbeat for everyone. I can only imagine how hard it must be seeing people with such challenges on a daily basis. If they had their doubts about being able to help someone they never let it show. They are a dedicated wonderful group who probably are not paid nearly what they are worth.

Coming Home:
I came home on the 8th day, a Thursday. I insisted that my daughter give me a shower, my sister helped me get dressed. I got back in bed and cried, I suppose mostly from exhaustion but I cried for all those people I saw in rehab.
My DH ended up taking even more days off from work to stay with me. On Monday my mother moved in, pots & pans too and tried cooking me everything liked. It took me 3 weeks before I started eating again, (lost 15 lbs. yaaa!!) I really needed to, and need to loose 30 more or even more, (lets not talk about that) My daughter being a nurse was very hard on me, making me take walks and move around but I needed that. We have a tri-level home so mostly I stayed on the upper floor where we placed a rocker/recliner and our full size TV in the bedroom.
I watched the Golden Girls every night at 10, so I could laugh about something.

The Recovery:
I suffered severe back spasm and after trying to sleep in our bed for the first week, I slept in the recliner for the next 3 weeks. It was the only place I did not have back spasms. My DH pulled it right up to the bed so he could hold my hand until I fell asleep. For the following 6 months I suffered back spasms, not as frequently, but if I move the wrong way. Even 6 years later if I get touched in the right, or should I say wrong, place it might set one off, but they are not as severe as they were in the beginning and only last a few seconds.

I also wore a "turtle shell" every day for 3 months, even after I went back to work. I feared the turtle shell when they measured me for it pre surgery, I thought, how in the world would I put up with that. It was heavy and looked awful. Well it was very comforting in the days following the surgery and when it was time to quit wearing it, I was a little afraid to part with my safety jacket. Even after the doctor told me I could quit wearing it my husband wanted me to wear it while driving to work. He was afraid of what would happen if I were in a car accident.

My Final Thoughts:
Dr. D'Andrea was a wonderful surgeon who explained the surgery very well but in my state of being frightened I think I blocked a lot of it out, for I did not know what all I was about to go through the short days following the surgery or the long days. I had lots of attention the first 3 days although I did not remember most of it. My husband slept in a straight back chair for 2 nights in a row because in my drugged induced state, I kept pleading with him to stay with me.

(If I ever come into a bunch of money the first thing I am buying is recliners for hospital rooms. )

I always wanted to offer to write a brochure for the spinal surgeons to hand out that would be from a patients point of view. If I had not had the internet I would not have known things like buy all silky gowns to wear at the hospital, for they help you slide in & out of bed, slip on house slippers, because there would be no bending over. The brochure would explain the procedure of what to expect the days following the surgery while in the hospital and the days at home. I did not realize I would need someone to stay with me 24 hours a day at first. My mom ended up staying for a full 3 weeks. Someone slightly mentioned most people had someone stay with them, but they did not explain why or for how long. I thought well my husband will take the first few days off, after that I will be fine. After all my daughter is an RN and she will be there when she was not working. But your family does need to go back to work and YOU will NEED someone. I did not realize I would be using a walker for the first several weeks either.
But today I can walk, which I would not be doing without the surgery, I work full time and maintain my home.

I still have my achy back at times, I have a hard time swimming regularly, and I have lost some movement, such as looking behind me, bending over sideways and the scar spasms if I wear tight clothing, or lift something wrong, but life is a whole lot better with the surgery. I have had 2 cesareans, surgery when I broke my leg in 3 places, hysterectomy, carpal tunnel surgery and you forget the pain and the days following, but this surgery is something I will never forget. I was told by my spinal specialist that I will probably have to have my neck fused at some point, but I am trying to ignore that.

But what a wonderful world we live in that they can repair your skeleton, your back bone and make you stand up straight again. I feel privileged to have insurance so that I could afford such good health care. It does make you take time to pause and think and be thankful...

The Adventures of the Absolut Travelers

2006-07-21T23:36:00.000-05:00

Definition of the Absolut Travelers:
3 couples who like to drink Absolut and like to travel...by plane, train, car, motor home, we don't care as long as we get there...

One innocent Sunday morning the Absolut Travelers showed up with a motor home. Absolut Traveler couple #1, buys and sells trucks, not your average pick-up truck but 18 wheelers. So they also dabble in large motor homes too. Since he had a potential client he was given one to demo for a few weeks.

So being adventurous, we packed it up, with ABT couple #2 and headed for a nice country drive to Hannibal, MO. We came to Harden, IL where they still have a draw bridge over the river, only one side was blocked off for re-paving. The light turned green and we started on our way. The area for us to travel was getting narrow and then more narrow as we headed on. ABT Mr. Couple #1 was driving and driving very sloooooooooowly, as the tires were rubbing the sides.
Now this was a $125,000 motor home and it did not actually belong to any of us. So sloooowly we went, well it took us a long time, we were all very nervous and finally it looked like we were going to reach the other side, but what lay waiting for us??? Can you say irate crowd?Ah yes, the light had changed to green on the other side and this guy pulls onto the bridge and wants to have a "Billy the Kid" stand off ~~redneck~~ with us. There we sat, there he sat, WTF? The cars behind him were inching up closer behind Mr. Nice Guy We were trapped in the motor home because the door swings out and there was no room for the door to even open. We waved at the guy to move back, he shook his fist at us, so there we were. Staring at each other, doing the Mexican standoff...(can you still say that??) soooo anywhoo the motor home was equipped with a house looking phone, I guess for people who actually live in them and park them at times, I don't know, who cares.... so we picked it up trying to make them think we were calling a cop, we were not, thinking they could not see a cell phone in our hands. Finally someone waiting behind Mr. Nice-Guy (?) came forward and talked to Mr. Nice-Guy (?) and got him to move out of the way. All though Mr. Nice-Guy's (?) wife tried to get him to move, we could see her arguing with him. (teehee) We opened the window and to explain to Mr. Helper Guy(?) thank you and that the light was green when we started over the bridge and did not know it was so narrow. WELL! (said in my best Lucy Ball voice) Mr Helper Guy(?) snorts, not my problem buddy! How many ways can you say RUDE ...we turned right and there were about 10 cars waiting to cross the bridge and some of those people were shaking their fist at us.

WHEW, we drove about 10 miles and saw a little park so we pulled over to have some water, ya water and to cool down..

Scary tails of the public bathroom...

2006-07-19T20:58:00.000-05:00

Ok we are talking about bathroom incidents, well I have two

One day I went out to lunch with a very good friend. We grew up next door to each other and really did not become real close until after we both had married. So saying whatever we say to each other is usually fair game. We are a lot like sisters. People often ask us if we are, but since she is 5 years younger and 4 inches shorter and recently because of Atkins, she is, well lets just say, thinner than me. But I digress.

We went Christmas shopping a few years ago and decided to stop for lunch at Olga's Kitchens. If you do not have Olga's in your area, well they are a restaurant usually located in the mall and they serve sandwiches, but not just plain sandwiches, they make their own bread and while it is not like a pita bread, it is somehow fried, a fried bread sandwich. You can order with thin slices of grilled lamb, or beef, or hamburger or all three. It is served with peppers, or onions and some kind of secret sauce called Olga-sauce, that taste like, well I cannot think of anything it taste like and I wished I knew cause I would like to make some. All they will tell you is it has milk in it. It resembles sour cream, or yogurt, who in the hell knowsâ€¦ anyway, we ordered one. Ohhh they also serve, curly fries, and they have a good salad, but it has feta cheese in it, and I like feta cheese in my salads. But they have their own secret dressing too, they have a lot of secrets there don't they? Well they must have more than one secret so I do not go there very much, well not anymore. It seems each time I go there I have a mis-hap.

Like I said, it involves the bathroom. We took our seats and ordered our lunch, at which time I got up to attend the necessities of going to the ladies room. I went into the little stall, (by the way, what is up with those little stalls?? I was in one the other day and had to hold my purse up in the air just to close the freaking door, between the small stall, the large toilet paper holder that is always empty, geezzzz) anyway, I set my small purse, (for shopping you know) on the back of the toilet seat, well this was many years ago when public toilets still looked like toilets you have at home, and proceeded with my you know business. When I was all done I stood up to pull up my jeans and plunk!! Yep that's right the whole purse in the toilet, Not sure how but it was all done flushing before it fell in, thanks the godsâ€¦ Well I grabbed my belongings, after all my credit card was in there.. and tried drying them off. I sort of made my way back to the table in the fog I was in by this time and sat down. My friend said, "What in the hell took you so long?â€? So I laid my purse off to the side sort of, (not wanting it to be near anywhere we were going to have our lunch.) She took one look and busted out laughing, ahhh how could she do that when I felt like crying, I told her to â€œSTOP ITâ€? it was not funny, just then the guy at the next table said, â€œOh yes it is lady!!â€?

So that, and counting the time I decided I could act like a big girl and have lunch all by myself while I was Christmas shopping for my children, I went into Olgaâ€™s (same Olga's) where I promptly slid across the tile and fell in a spread eagle position right in the middle of the restaurant. I told my friend about it when I got home and said they were really nice to me, she said, oh ya to your face, but trust me they were laughing their asses off in the kitchen. I am sure, Ms. Olga would have been appalled ... I have not had an Olgaâ€™s sandwich for a long time nowâ€¦

The other bathroom story I have is this...We went out to dinner with this couple, (so happens to be the same gal I with in the above story) [itâ€™s no wonder she is nicknamed Lucy and I am Ethel] we had a nice dinner at a new place in town and decided that while we were out we would also visit the new â€œupscaleâ€? bar in town. Whatever that is...so ok, We pull onto main street park the car, make our way up the whole frigginâ€™ flight of steps, I mean, donâ€™t get drunk while you are up there set of steps! But it opens up into a really â€œupscale â€œ bar. Named Oâ€™Brians Top of the Town. Oâ€™Brians cause when the owner told his wife he wanted to renovate one of the old buildings downtown into an upscale kind of a tavern, she said, â€œOh Brianâ€? and top of the town, cause well again the whole flight of steps. So we got settled on the little table up on the platform by the large windows overlooking the town. Small town, 5000 people. Ordered a glass of wine and I got up to go to the ladies room. So I did, all went well, well there was someone who came into the bathroom stood around and left, I donâ€™t know why, who cares. I came out of the stall and went to wash my hands, and made my way back to our table, and my friend says, where were you? Uh, In the bathroom. HER: No I WAS in the bathroom looking for you and you werenâ€™t. there ME: Yes, I was,... HER: you turned left didn't you, well ya, into the ladies room. HER: No the ladies room is to the right, ME; Its to the left, I was here once before.. and (ok in slo-mo here FUCKKKKKKKK)

So the person who came in here saw my feet under the stall, and KNEW cause, did I have on tennis shoes...nooooo, I had on little strappy sandals with bright red painted toes!!!
So slinking into my chair scanning the room for a male who would be laughing his ass off, however he must have been a gentleman cause no one was acting strange or laughing, but besides us, there were only 3 men at the bar in the whole place and a male bartender.
It took me a while before I would go back there too. OK check back cause I have a few stories on here for you to be watching for, like when she was going to teach me how to sell Real estate...

Today's thoughts...7-17-06

2006-07-18T00:20:00.000-05:00

blah blah blog..

My Stage name.... hahahahahaha

So how was your weekend? Mine was so-so. Very hot here in IL and we stayed in the pool as much as we could, Of course after working 40 hours during the week I had to first clean house on Saturday morning, which is always a bummer. One I do not like having to use my free time cleaning house. I do not mind cleaning house and one only has to know me a short time to know I like having a clean house. But gosh, can't they clean themselves sometimes? I mean when I was you did they not sort of promise us that via the Jetsons. Push a button here, push one there and shazmmmm Rosie the maid came out and cleaned the mansion. All while Margaret shopped. And George flew to work? Did he pay $3.00 a gallon for gas? I guess we never thought about that.

But flying back to the Real World, I often thought, what if my grandmother who died in 1958 came back to see my Kitchen, would she not be amazed? First she would push the button to open the garage door to drive her air conditioned car into the garage that was ATTACHED to the house? No stepping out into the rain! The she would go to unpack her groceries and push the button on that thingy hanging off of her keys, to unlock her trunk. After carrying in her groceries, she would grab a glass out of the cupboard, no cabinets that all matched and hung on the wall, and she would walk over to the fridge where she would push a button to fill her glass with ice, crushed or whole, and ice water please. Then she would place tonights dinner in the (what?) Microwave where it would warm itself up in zero to 60 seconds. That would leave her plenty of time to push some buttons on the remote thingy to check all 104 channels, some with stuff she never thought she would see with her own eyes, and she could even turn on her little robot vacuum to clean the floor while she sat on her ass all day. YA well except mothers all over the world would have to go out and work an extra job to pay for all this, they forgot that in the Jetsons Margaret (was that her name?) Jetson got to stay home, not work and stayed thin??????? WTF?

I am not complaining about working, I love to go to work, mostly because I would be board now that my children are grown. Maybe more than likely cause I like having my own paycheck.
I did stay home when my children were growing up, well most of the growing up time, and I loved it. I loved hearing their stories when they came home from school, I loved that fact I was there when they got sick, and I was the one taking them to the doctors, not my mother, or his mother or the babysitter as I had witnessed, I was lucky to have that privilege. I didn't have a lot of extras back then but we saved harder for what we got and probably appreciated it more. We saved for a whole year once to take the children to Disney World. Best trip we ever took the children on. Once in a while they still laugh about some of the adventures we had on that trip.

Recently I joined an MSN online group. There must be thousands of them out there. I joined 2 in fact, one is sort of well serious, hmmm, I was looking for some of the fun I had back in 1995 when I belonged to a mostly woman chat room. I even met one of the woman from the chat room once, nice gal. I met another woman from a jewelry making online group that conversed over emails only, never figured that out completely, but she was a great woman who lives in New Orleans and helped us park a motor home we drove there once with 2 other couples. (And she was fine after Katrina, she was one of the luckier ones) but there is one online MSN group I have the most fun in. The women are a hoot and they have online games to play, they asked questions each day you can answer. They post pictures, make something called Ã‚ siggys, some very talented woman there. I will not divulge the name because I do not have permission to do so, but just go to MSN groups and search, there are many in many different subjects. Give it a try!

7-18-06

So I turned 50 this year.. Not that I mind. After all so did a lot of my friends that I went to school with! Haha And my husband is turning 55 this year so you know I do not want him having to be married to a much younger woman, why they might accuse him of being married to a trophy bride. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Well Ok, now that I had my laugh for the day.

Getting back to turning 50, the 3 couples that we are close to, my daughter and her husband, and my son all took me out for dinner. The dinner ran a little long. I didn't care...After dinner my daughter suggested that we go to this little bar that was located in the basement of this old hotel, I did not even know it was there. (We were in the town my daughter moved to after getting married and it happened to be the same town where one of our friends live as well. Well we went in and it looked a little dank going in and my friends ran in ahead of me, what the hell was the hurry ? I walked in and surprise there was my whole family, even my nieces, who live a couple of hours away. The place was decorated, food was served and a pretty cake. My two high school friends & their husbands where there, they both traveled a few hours too. A few nice gifts which were not necessary just their presence would have been enough and wow I was 50!! Surprised and 50. I do not care that I am 50, I am always honest about my age. It is a number, its all in how you live. I felt like I must live well for all my friends and family to make such an effort to come out and drive to help me celebrate. So 50 is the new 40 right? I am 50, there, now do not ever ask me what I weigh..

7-19-06

So here I sit at work board. This should be a busy time in Real Estate and it is according to the numbers. We are always beating the numbers from this time last year. I do not sell Real Estate anymore, even though I have a Real Estate license, but I just did not like the uncertaFeastof it all...feast or famine in the sales game.

I work in the office now, well in the Administration office to be more exact. Our office owns 5 branches and this is central headquarters. I have worked here for 2 years now, before this I worked about 3 weeks answering phones in a car dealership, can you say boring 30 times real fast. (they did however encourage me to bring in my hobbies and work at them in between phone calls.) Before that I was off work for about 10 months looking for a job because I walked (?) ran(?) was fired(?) away from a job I really liked. I did, I really liked that job. I worked in another Real Estate office for about 5 years. I loved the job, they were consistently giving me raises, and the Realtors all lavished me in gifts, for my birthday, secretaries day, Christmas I was appreciated ..I had a lot of responsibilities, but I loved it. I worked at home one morning a week, I worked at home all day the first Monday of the month, it was a great breather. I had a 401K with employer contributions. The Realtors praised me for organizing the office and always being there to help them, which I liked doing. They also sold insurance in the same building well in fact the same room on the other side. I love the Insurance gals. They were great..

But...and in life there is always a but, but this was more like a butt. There is always one...one devious mean spirited lady who sold a lot, I mean a lot of Real Estate who thought the world revolved around her. Well it sort of did, after all she was pretty busy. And I could have helped her a lot, butt but, It did not matter what how or when you did something for her, it was never good enough, or right. Not just me, but all who worked around her. She went through 3 personal assistants in a small amount of time, the bankers called and complained about how she talked to their secretaries, the title company called and complained about her, the termite guys started to refuse to work with her, loan officers avoided her, they didn't trust her.

If I talked to her when she came in I said the wrong thing, if I ignored her when she came in, then she ran to the Broker and said she will not talk to me. (Like some freakin kid) When I submitted an ad to the newspaper, she ran into he newspaper and changed it. The Broker would have never allowed anyone else to treat me like that, but he did her. Well you do not piss off the top salesperson. Top salespeople are hard to find, where as us secretaries, licensed or not, are a dime a dozen. And he was there to make money. He once told me she was a money "bringer inner" and I was a money "taker outer"..(HUH) So after 5 years of abuse, I tried looking the other way, leaving it at the office, ignoring the trouble, cried at home, puked a few times, I knew it was coming to an end.

So one day at lunch the other gals were telling me a story about this particular Real Estate gal and she hunched herself at the door and eaves dropped. She then called me into her office and ask me to shut the door. I said, Well I will come into your office but no need to shut the door. So she had to do it. She then started in brow beating me about an ad that had condo written across the bottom of the photo and she asked me last week to move it to the top. (which I had did on paper, but the newspaper offices are notorious for not looking to close at an ad they think they have had before.) So...
Me: I will call the newspaper office today.
Her: Not good enough.
Me: Well what would you like for me to do?
Her: I want this resolved NOW
Me, Well I said I would call.
Her: I said I want this resolved NOW!
Me: THIS conversation is over and I walked back to my desk.

The Broker was at the hospital holding his wife's hand while her mother lay slipping from this world. She followed me to my desk, out in the middle of the large main room, and said, "look I have tried to work with you, before she could say anymore I said, "Yes well I tried to work with you too, now get away from my desk. (SCORE!!!!) She left the building, I held my own for a few minutes until she was gone, then I left too, got half way home pulled over and cried and cried.

Rumor has it she went out to the hospital and told the boss aTheabout how bad I was to her..the insurance gals went to her and told her they were guilty of talking about her, it was not me. I emailed the boss that evening, apologized profusely that is all had to happen at such a bad time for him and his wife. I went to work the next day and at the end of the day the boss called me into his office & said, "We all 3 needed to have a talk, I said, "no way!" My head was banging like someone had hit it with a ball peen hammer. (Besides, I do not think too fast on my feet and she would have eaten me alive) So the boss said, Well tomorrow morning we are going to have a meeting or else, Or else what?? Or else don't come back! So I went home, cried, puked, talked to my husband, who thought I should go for the meeting, but at 3 am I got up and emailed my boss and said if that was the conditions, then send me my last check and I thought I also had a weeks vacation money coming too.

I received no phone calls from him and my check came in the mail a few days later. All day long the gals from the office called me crying, the other Realtors called, emailed, begging me to come back. I just could not. I thought this is like living with a wife beater, it will never get better. A few weeks later I got an invitation to a going away dinner. All the Realtors were there, well all but one, where I was given roses, cards, and a diamond ring. I had always teased the realtors about buying me a diamond ring, when they would thank me for helping them and they would say one day I will do something for you. What a bittersweet moment. So here I am 3 years later still remembering every little detail At least I'm not bitter but I have this job now, good pay, 401K, hardly any responsibilities, only 3 Commercial Realtors to deal with, only one ad a week instead of 5, another set of great gals to work with, its just a little boring at times and a little further drive, well mileage is 10 more miles each way, but the traffic is a lot more and with gas at $3.00 a gallon. I guess it still gives me time to pause once in a while, but on a whole, I am a lot more relaxed.

7-21-06

I was answering the "10" questions in my group forums and one of the question was...

"Have you ever reached into your purse and discovered you have no checks," well this was not something frightening to me, after all I had once reached into my purse and well....let me explain

Your children ever do anything to you that was not funny at the time, but you are able to laugh about it later? Well sure they have, but how about a 2 year old.

I went to the doctors when my daughter was 2, to confirm what I had been suspicious of that I was pregnant. I had a list of questions with me about activates and such since this was going to more of a summer pregnancy than my last one which was mostly a winter pregnancy.

So OK it all goes OK. I ask my questions and put my note back away in my purse and leave the doctors. Set down in the car and reach into my purse for my car keys, and you know you never find them right away of course. So I am fishing around and what???, what the hell?? It felt all gooky and ..and I pulled my hand out...ewwwwwwwwww, my hand was covered with raw egg. I looked down into my purse and there it was, a broken egg. It was Easter, I guess she was trying to give mommy an egg.. (thanks kiddy-poo) Imagine if that would have happened to me in the doctors office, I would have well, just melted into the carpet and then been looking for a new doctor. I had to clean everything off in my purse and wash my purse in the washer and the darn thing never was the same again. But still I guess it was not as bad as my purse in the public bathroom incident, see (Tails of the public bathroom) *SHUDDER*

Well the good news is she grew up to be a successful RN and was recently married, just wait, me thinks maybe she will have a little one someday, who well may or may not put a raw egg in their mommie's purse, well unless he/she has a little coaxing...tehe tehe tehe

7-26-06

There are days when you wonder why your work, there are days you wonder why did they hire you, and then there are daysâ€¦.You think is it 5:00 yet? Well today is why did they hire me, I am soo board. Donâ€™t get me wrong, I am glad they hired me, I needed/wanted a job. But is it soo slow around here and we are as busy as we were last year at this time, but I think we got everything organized. That is how I like to do things, organize it so it will not be as much work later.

It usually works, but I donâ€™t always get it organized. But I think this job I did. I even organized some of the others jobs by applying excel programs, that I hardly even know much about, but if you play around enough you will eventually figure out something. Repetition is the key element here, if you donâ€™t do it, you lose it! Makes you think of a whole lot of things that applies to. Hmmmmâ€¦.

So what to do at work to â€œlookâ€? busy all day is something you have to practice at. Well if you type your blog and keep typing it, everyone thinks you are so busy, except your immediate manager, she knowsâ€¦.but heh, she is board today herself.

My children, being my daughter and son-in-law are â€œdraggingâ€? my husband and I on a float trip, We have never been on one. We were invited a lot when we were young and I was always afraid of sleeping in a tent, well the younger generation rents cabins and hotels. OK now there is something I can handle. But being old haha (50) and having a fused back I am kind of a softy on physical labor other than cleaning my house. But my daughter assures me that we can bail out at 7 miles cause that is half way and that is where our cabins are located. Alright! Might be just what we do. I am not sure about sitting in a boat on a hard surface all day and I love water, but if we tip, I always forget to grab my nose and then water and spit, cough and no matter what I do it wonâ€™t quit until I just toss my cookies, It is so embarrassing, so I am very worried about this aspect of the trip.

Other than that I think it will be fun to spend the time with the children. More than likely or hopefully there will be children soon from this lovely newly married couple and we will be asked to baby-sit next year instead of coming along! They will be celebrating their first anniversary in October but they are in their 30â€™s so waiting a long time to start a family is probably not wise. But one never knows for sure what they will do. My daughter wants one more degree and that is her Masters in nursing, She will be a Nurse Practioner come next May. I told her I would hold the baby while she graduates!! ORâ€¦...you know, they make graduation gowns in maternity sizes. I am not sure she found this too funny. I think she is more worried about who will baby-sit the baby on a daily basis while she works. She asked me to quit my job and be the baby-sitter, which I would love to do, but I donâ€™t think hubby would appreciate my giving up my paycheck. He constantly worries about his job and well who does have a great job security. Anyone out there??? I thought not. Instead of being thankful about what we do have, all he does is worry about what donâ€™t have.

What else can I think of today, hubby took me to Red Lobster last weekend, I guess to make up for the big fight we had the weekend before. It was a nice gesture. I donâ€™t think it solved our problems but I guess all in all, our problems are not that big compared to some couples. I am not really sure what our problems are to be exact, if I had to name it, but I really think that a lot of it has to do with living too fast. I mean he works 5-6 days a week at a grueling job, rotating shifts. I work daily in an office so there are times when we just sort of pass in the hallway.

I digress...living too fast. I try to warn my children against it, but as I mentioned before, one is working full time, going to school and being a new wife. Our son is trying to work his way up the corporate ladder and going a little too fast. He seems to give them 150% working long, long hours. I always felt my parents did not push us kids enough through school, but they had their plates full, (a whole other story) so I always taught my children the importance of education. Well I guess I hammered it in good and clear because they just donâ€™t stop going. My son is chomping at the bit to start working on his Masters. This leads me to ask are they ever going to stop going to school?? They keep enduring debt to continue and while I do not think it is ever wasted on education, as a mom, I guess I just worry about them getting it paid off.
Again, I digress...I just wanted to ask, why do we live so fast? This year 4th of July was on a Tuesday, this meant going to work, staying home going to work. Would it have been the end of the world If we as an office traded off and worked with a skeleton crew, just as the day after Thanksgiving, the job we do depends on other offices being open and most of them are not.
Why do Americans live so fast? Do we really need it all???? We keep ourselves on the other end of a cell phone. We are always accessible to everyone for everythingâ€¦ We work longer hours than any other nation but I bet our Credit Card debt is bigger than any other nation.. We bombard our children with Credit Cards the minute they turn 18 and might be off to college or off to the service. Where this all will end?? I donâ€™t know, and maybe I never will know, because someday Iâ€™ll just fade away â€¦..