And ...

In keeping with the apparent theme that is surfacing in my life - here we go again. What I Did Over the Labor Day Holiday.

Things were peaceful around the ol' homestead last weekend. Saturday was a Saturday - nothing special. We sat around watching the swimming pool fill - again. You see, we had a chemical imbalance our ex-pool man couldn't/wouldn't fix, and I was beginning to believe all pools were actually were the place that creatures lived in to attack unaware people. Seriously is was like pea soup this time. Well that happened last year, and we had to refill the pool - all 28,000 gallons. Would you believe we actually fired that guy. He couldn't.

But enough about the pool. Sunday was church and then dinner out to celebrate DIL's 30th birthday. We came home and everything was fine - until ... G and Simone went out so she could take care of business. When she came back in, she was doing the pre-vomit routine. She was heavily salivating which causes excessive licking. I was "girding my loins" to clean up vomit.

Then I had a great thought. This worked before, and by golly Dr Grandma K is going to do it again. I went to get her the car-sick pill, and 1/4 tablet tranquillizer. She came to me - we downed the pills and then wanted to put her heavy head with the drippy mouth on my bare knee. Yuckkk.

G called her and like the good dog she is (and still expecting her three cookies for doing her business) went to him. She laid down at his feet. All is still normal with the exception of her nausea - I thought.

She was going to get up, and acted like she was too weak or had no control of her hind end. I went to her and she wouldn't lift her head. Her eyes were mostly covered by that third membrane. I really thought she was dying - right there in front of me. We both thought - stoke.

G said for me to get dressed, and he moved the car to the street. Simone heard all this, and by the time I got back in the den - she was headed to the door. That amazed me.

We loaded her into the back seat of the truck, and G told me to drive. I really didn't want to. When we lost Taz about 8 years ago, this was the same with the exception of being late at night while Taz was on a Sunday afternoon. Visions of that summer day were with me.

I don't see well at night so I was fighting the tears that kept coming. I just didn't want to lose another boxer - on the way to the clinic.

Lets cut to the chase so to speak - when we saw the vet. Apparently the tranquillizer - which is usually ok hit her really hard. No kidding. The time lapse between dose and her checking out was about 10 minutes maximum. Because she was apparently very relaxed when she got it - it knocked her out.

I guess she associates being loopy on a tranquillizer with going to the SSB. She was ready and willing to go!

So you can tell - we paid $100 to bring a healthy, but drunk boxer home. If that is ever what it takes to keep my Simone going, I would pay it monthly if it came to it. I know we dodged a bullet. It is going to be real one of these days. She has to be 8 years old - at least. She has been with me through some really rough days. We have her still and I am so glad!

Peace be with you.

Funeral

I guess I am really ashamed that we as a family weren't terribly upset at G's mother's passing. She is in a better place, and for that I really am glad.

To say we will miss her, not so much. You see during her life, she wasn't too concerned about being around us. We were not close - at all.

She would have all four grandchildren come to her house for a week. What she really wanted was the two from Austin. I finally got tired of hearing how my kids were treated - either poorly or ignored unless their grandfather were there.

This woman was one who would turn on the favored grandson. He was a picky eater. That was well known. If they went out someplace and happened to eat out, all had better eat everything on their plate. M didn't. She would take the food home, and that was what was placed in front of him until he finally ate it (or slipped it to one of the dogs like my two with the "Copper Pennies" that she loved to serve and the kids hated).

Every holiday of note, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, were all spent in Austin. We could count on our fingers the number of times they were here - and for something else that wouldn't conflict with the other crew's celebration.

I will give her credit for one thing. My mother passed the year before Daughter was born. When both of my children were born - she was here to help. I did appreciate that.

So when we are asked if we are OK now, the answer is yes. Their grandchildren in Austin saw her weekly. My grandchildren saw her on her 90th birthday in December and I don't remember the time after that.

I could go into G's memories of his mother, but I won't. Let's just say that her actions to HER grandchildren was not too far from her treatment of her son, but without the beatings with belts, straps and the like.

Yes, I am glad she is no longer in pain. I thank God for that. I know it was really bad in the last few years, but it is hard to morn someone you really don't know for long. May she rest in peace.

Peace be with you.

What I did on "summer vacation" part 2

I was asked if my long lost girl friend managed to make it to the old SSB. Yes she did. The planning of how to get there took several of our days prior to the visit day.

G and I checked out two plans. One was that they would go to the community club, and we would eat there, listen to a program, and they would follow us home. The second was that we would go to the Little, teeny-tensy, bitty town that they were familiar with. They go to the Labor Day Fish Fry there. We don't go near the place that day! Oh the crowds.

Anyway, back to the meat of the story. They were going to call when they got to Fredericksburg, and they did! Way earlier than I thought, but that was fine. We had just been waiting. I had the last minute idea of sending the to the club, but we went as planned.

When we got there ready to indulge in a grease soaked fast food meal (but it tastes sooooo gooooood!). We know the owners, and knew ahead that there was going to be someone else taking care of the store because they were going to be miles away in East Texas. The couple was one we met at the last meeting of the community club. The ones that G has a strange feeling about!

Anyway, D and I were still trying to catch up on what had happened in the last 40 years, and the woman kept yammering on and on. I wanted to tell her to go back and watch her husband cook! But we ate, and enjoyed the food and each other's company.

When we left to tackle the roads, G went with A. I took D in the truck. We were greatly worried about their car, but it made it without leaving the oil pan, muffler, and other little (?) parts of the car behind.

THEN the drama started. G had called once to check on his mother. She was about the same - perhaps breathing a little more labored. D called her sister to check on things there. Found out her mother was going to the hospital. Apparently someone somehow fell onto D's mother causing pain in her shoulder and her blood pressure spiked.

They were seriously thinking about leaving, and I was just sinking into the chair because I really wanted her to be able to stay. Then G's brother called with the news about their mom. The brother suggested G to go to their sister's house to tell her in person.

To get this portion of the evening to a good point: G's sister was fine with the news and D's mother was released to go home.

What was heartbreaking to me was D telling me about her family. She had the one son who married a witch (you change the letter at the beginning). She wanted nothing to do with D. If D came over or was around this DIL left. She avoided any contact with D.

Then they had twins - by IVF I think. The DIL lets D baby sit (on her terms) and things like that but persists in her campaign against D. Her actions are so unbelievable that I can't even list them all. They are so bad I erased them from my memory - the little things, but kept the whole image. She is just flat mean and nasty. It all started when she married D's son. She planned the wedding for D's birthday to take away from that celebration.

D is one of the sweetest persons that walks the face of the earth. She is kind hearted. She loves those babies ( well they are four). Even with the Wicked Witch of San Antonio, I never acted like that to her.

I hated to tell her how my family works. Even with our warts and so on, we are close. We try to have Sunday Dinner whenever possible. It gets loud and we love it. We pack 10 people into our houses. It is good. Sometimes there might be some tension - something was taken the wrong way or something else causes a little tension, but it heals. Like all families, we have great times along with some not so great, but we are there for one another.

So this part of the story comes to an end. There will be more!

Peace be with you.

So many things

That's how I feel right now. I've been away for a fairly long time, and I am just full of topics I want to bore you with. Before Brandy's death, I had invited my long lost friend to the SSB. Before the time we met in Mason - we had not seen each other in 40+ years. That was so much fun.

Of course that time at the SSB was wrought with anxiety on both of our parts because there were health related issues all around. Hers settled in about 3 hours with her mother returning home. G's was the death of his mother.

I'm going to talk about his mother. We saw her on Tuesday (er -rather he saw her = I hid behind the idea that I had to stay with the dog and cat in a hot truck). He called his brother on Friday about 6 pm. A little later his brother called with the "news."

So we packed up in a rush on Sunday to come home to get clothes for the funeral. We put the dog and cat with the vet clinic for bording, and took off on Monday. Daughter was driving her vehicle with the 3 kidlets. She wanted me with her. That was fine. It was working all around until there was the miscommunication.

At the same time we entered the city limits, SIL called. He was having to fly from Chicago for the funeral. His company had a booth at the National Restaurant Association convention. I called G to tell him SIL had arrived. Apparently there was a lack of communication. Daughter thought he was going to split off to the airport. He, well I don't know what he thought. When I called him and told him - his smart-**sed answer was "So? What am I supposed to do?"

Daughter was already irritable. She was worrying about her job at home knowing she had a lot of stores to visit before the end of the month, and then how her husband was going to get from the airport. G was grousing that he had to be at the funeral home before 5 ( it was after 4 when all this came down). She was saying that we shouldn't have stopped for a leisurely lunch, and he was saying "if she had been ready when we got to her house." You see, when those events were happening - no one was upset about anything! So I caught the brunt of both issues!

We got to the viewing on time. All was pretty much calm then - at least no one said anything to me. Thank goodness. My friend came to the viewing. Bless her heart, I was so surprised. She got to meet the rest of the family. She called today on their way to Alabama to visit his family to tell me how much she enjoyed meeting my family. She said she would take my Lady Bug anytime we get tired of her. That caused me to burst with pride. She is a terrific girl, and that came through again.

The funeral went off without too much a hitch. G only got a little sad because of all the mentions of his dad. We both found some humor (if you call it that) in that apparently his mother wasn't as loved by her community as she wanted us to think. There were four flower arrangements - two from the family, one from BIL's best friends, and one from my niece's company. One plant from my friend. Everything that was said about her for the most part really centered about G's dad. Hmmmm.

We got home fairly well. We had a couple of blow ups after we returned to the hotel and home. I think we just had a bit too much togetherness. And again the one at home was complete miscommunication.

But here we are now. Things seem pretty good. "And that's what I did on my vacation!"

Peace be with you.

Hi and Bye

We are home again, only to leave tomorrow. The arrival home was quick - we were still supposed to be at the SSB, but the awaited death happened. G stopped and saw his mother on Tuesday on our way. She was complaining of a tooth ache, and had been medicated. She seemed rather lucid although quiet. His brother called us that evening to tell us that she was non-responsive.

Things went along for a while. My friend from junior high and sophomore year of senior high was coming to see us, and we met them at the Country Store. I think they were afraid of venturing off into the wilderness! Anyway we met them and had dinner (good, but in the fast food genre). Then we got them to the house where they spent the night and part of the next day.

Friday night, G called brother about 7 - things with his mom were unchanged. My friend decided to call her sister to see how her mother was, and how things were in general only to find her mother had been taken to a hospital. Some woman had fallen on her mother (??!!) which caused her shoulder to hurt and sent her blood pressure through the roof. I really thought they were going to leave that night - even though they were afraid they couldn't find their way home. After about an hour, G's brother called to tell him their mother had passed. I almost want to become satirical here and say and "a great time was had by all."

To bring this saga to an end - it is now " tomorrow" and we will be heading to San Antonio for the viewing tonight and funeral tomorrow. My friend's mother went home Friday night doing just fine. Simone and Shadow are at the vet's office for boarding. And we are waiting to leave to almost caravan to San Antonio. SIL is flying in from Chicago where his company has a booth at the National Restaurant show. So he will land in SA, I will ride with Daughter and kidlets, and Son and DIL will b leaving about the same time. They may or may not catch up with us!

When I get back I have some tales to tell about my visit with my friend.

Peace be with you.

Whirlwind!

I can't believe (blogger won't let me complete a sentence unless it's in italics) that we have been out of the house for two days now!

Yesterday began at the ungodly time of 7AM. I. Do. Not. Function. At. Said. Hour. Don't like it at all. But the truck needed it's bodily fluids changed. The car was acting like it was going to need major surgery soon. Both came out just fine - it is our wallets that are suffering now. The bill was $400+! But the truck must transport us almost three hundred miles Tuesday.

Then we went to lunch with out new pastor, his sister, and the worship leader. It was a great time made even greater by RAIN! It rained! The wind blew, there was lightening and thunder. It was a storm. I was afraid that young children were going to be brought up not knowing what this thing rain is.

I have been nominated to do a "hymn sing" for the church. I mentioned it would be nice to have a hymn sing of the old favorite hymns. Guess who will do that - right me - I opened my mouth.

Then we got into talking about embroidering the baptismal blankets. G had said I did that at the other church. Guess what. I will be trundling up stairs to give samples of crosses I could do.

Today was my all time favorite thing to do - grocery store. Got that done. So now I will leave you to enter my well organized craft room (whose am I talking about - certainly not mine) to make some more dresses and embroidery crosses.

But you know what - I am honored to be asked to do these things for the church. We are going to this little church that isn't a church (until this meeting of the synod). This is the exact reason. We love a small church. Hopefully it won't become like the last one that despite large dollar amounts of additional "gifts" of money is still in dutch with the IRS.

That's a tale I may bring up later, if not it's my memory that has failed again. Have a beautiful weekend.

This is a quick, quick one

This is the pillowcase dress made for the baby. I personalized the little diaper cover with her name

This is the one I had been talking about. I posted them to facebook. Tomorrow they will be posted on the business blog

I will write again soon.

A little wish

My wish for all women, not just mothers, is a Happy Mother's Day. It is nice to be appreciated for one day.

We went to late service at church. Daughter and brood go to early since that is when the children have their service. It just dawned on me - late service is so calm. Well then logic tells me: no children + late service + quiet service. Hmmm.

But back, when we got there, the brood was standing outside looking glum. They were waiting for us - well me. They made little corsages for us from crepe paper. Doodle Bug didn't have one for me, but that's ok. I imagine it took all to get her to complete one.

During late service, I stood proudly with my two little corsages pinned to me. I was the only one. I'll bet the others in church were just green with envy!

Peace be with you.

Remembering other waiting room disasters

I guess I have mellowed. Yesterday's waiting room fiasco wasn't really that irritating. If I got tired of observing people, I had a good book. My choice of book was, however, off. It is a book that takes more thought.

The people. Well, you have to remember it is a pain clinic. Dispensing highly controlled substances, and here in Swampland that is biiiig business on the black market. We do have many fake clinics about that are there to prey on these folks, make the "doctors" who are "in charge" wealthy, and some of that money filters on down to the local pusher. This clinic has several measures in place to try to stop this activity, but all I have to do is look at some of those souls who share the waiting room with me, and it is apparent they are trying to get the drugs for another reason - money.

Ok, that said, I was reminded of a couple of other instances. One was that I had taken a "sick day" from teaching (if you needed to be off - it was a sick day regardless). I scheduled two appointments for the same day trying to make the best use of the day. The morning was a check with the PCP to follow up on blood pressure meds and the second was an eye exam for the afternoon.

I sat in the PCP's office for an hour. Then in flits Miss Drug Saleswomen. They take her back immediately to see the doctor. WTF! She stays with the doctor at least 30 minutes, and on her way out spends time with the staff. It was then I found out his one of the office staff was his WIFE. They were planning a get away sponsored by the drug company.

There were at least 4 other patients in front of me, and I was getting close to the time I had to be in the other doctor's office. I needed to stop at home for paperwork also. As soon as Miss Prissy left, and the finally called the next patient, I told them I had to go and walked out. I never went back.

The second was when Daughter was three months old. I took her to the doctor because she had a rash. I was a new mother. I had no idea what was wrong with my baby. She had a rash, a fever, and was irritable.

The snake oil salesman, err, doctor was out of the office, but his Physician's Assistant was there. They put my off in a back room. The only thing farther away from the front door was the back door! I waited, and waited. Daughter was surprisingly good. And we waited. I think we were back there for 45 minutes. I got tired of waiting, and I irritated daughter so she would cry.

That brought results! We were seen in about three minutes. But this isn't the end of this story. Oh, no - not at all. The PA examines Daughter. She. Does. Not. Know. What. Is. Wrong. So she sends me down the way to a dermatologist. Really??

We are seen almost immediately. He looks in her mouth - which the PA didn't bother to do. He was dumbstruck. There were the little white bumps on the insides of her cheeks. He, almost laughing, said she had measles. Simple measles.

The good thing that came from that fiasco was we found a great dermatologist who then followed my kids through the teen years and their acne. He was really great.

I guess I would like to say there are good things about spending part of your life in a waiting room; waiting for a medical professional that the office staff double booked so that when you finally get to the secret shrine of all things medical you only see the doctor for 5, maybe 10 minutes. No, it doesn't always end as we would like, but we really have little choice!

Ya gotta remember it's a PAIN clinic

So I survived. It was tough, and I persevered. I had my monthly appointment at the Pain Clinic. I really believe it is a plan to keep us coming back to THE PAIN CLINIC.

My appointment was for 11:30. I dreaded that time. When they are running behind (I said "when?") I know I will be there for some time.

When I opened the door and saw the teaming mankind in the waiting room, I really should have just left. Forget the pain meds. I have enough for years! But I didn't.

I carefully surveyed the room, noting quickly, there was one chair and a place on the couch that will swallow you up in a millisecond never to be heard from again. I made my way to sign in, and Rosie welcomed me. I should have known the smile on her face was to mask her giggling at my situation - all of our situations!

I signed in and went back to the door and the open chair. In this time a rather large (and I have no room talking)lady had spread out on two seats on the couch. I wasn't going to fight her for that space, plus with my knees I would have to remain on that thing until the block and tackle was located to remove me.

So this office was abuzz with conversations. Most of them were: "and when was your scheduled appointment? OMG."

The nicely dresses lady beside me leaned over. She asked if her name were called while she was outside talking to her boss, would I call her. I, of course, agreed. She worked in Uptown. (You see we have Downtown, Midtown, and Uptown as well as other small cities - to we have to clarify.) I'm sure she didn't want to let us hear the yelling from her boss.

Suddenly they called my name. MY NAME? Above all these others. They will kill me on the way in because they have been waiting. It was just to add a picture to my file, and I was thrust back into the waiting sea of humanity. To wait.

After about an hour has passed, there was movement from our mass. Someone was really called back. There is hope.

In the mean time, two of the patients who look like what I perceived as pain clinic patients found each other and began talking - and going out for a smoke - and talking - and going out for a smoke - and ...

Then a poor guy in a wheel chair and his aide from the nursing home came back in. I though he was sprung, but, oh my gosh, he is back. Then I find out why. He needs public transportation for the disabled to get him. The van was there, but they left because he couldn't get his phone to work.

So they have their phones on SPEAKER, trying to get Metro Lift back.

It was a sad situation for them, but they were calling Metro Lift over and over and over and over at 100,000,000,000,000,000 decibels. Oh please let me get out of here.

The first round of waiting crow had dwindled. Slowly but surely we were getting called to the back. You know that never, never land that all patients wait for. For us, it will be on our gravestones. "She was a patient in the waiting room." But now the second wave of folks were drifting in.

After an hour and a half, I became the anointed. I was called to "the back." My blood pressure was higher than norm. I wonder why? Then I went to a room. The doctor came in right away (surprise of all surprises). I saw him for 10 minutes. Part of that time was discussing the book I am reading.

And so, here I am scheduled for next month, but with a new twist. I will go on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. I will be there for a nerve conduction test. Just as well next time - I don't think any nerves were conducting this afternoon!

Peace be with you.

Finally.

I'll get to the title in a bit. I just wanted to share my Sunday. I don't know why; I'm sure you had one just as busy.

I began running when I finally woke up at 8:30. I made the decision we would just have toast or something because for the last Sundays there has been things like breakfast tacos, and the like. So I know you know what happened. Yep - I stayed away from the donuts. My blood sugar doesn't need that. I did have a small bagel with cream cheese. It was far from the breakfast taco I dreamed of. If we hadn't been so late, I would have run down to the little Mexican restaurant in the same shopping center.

From there we went to lunch. That was no biggie. Nothing unusual happened there. After that we went to one of the local theater groups. They were doing a murder mystery. It was really quite good. I don't really care for the Agatha Cristie ones, but being a live performance made it good.

From there it was home to feed Simone, pick up a bottle of wine and some Bohemia ales, and we were off to Son's house. Now I am getting to the title of today's wonderful post! DIL ordered some dresses for the little girls. They are the new loud style of prints you wouldn't normally put together. I was a bit hurt that she had bought dresses. Um - I have three sewing machines, two embroidery machines and one serger. I am available.

So I came home after dinner and licked my wounds. I had a piece of "Dora the Explorer" material that I was going to use with something else. I found it in the remnant section of the store. I took the girl's measurements last night for them. I was going to get other fabric tomorrow.

The phone rang, and it was DIL. She found a source for the fabric, and asked me if I would make the dresses. Well, of course! So hence the finally. She has never asked me to do anything. She has acted like what I put out is terrible. So I was pleased when she asked if I would do it. I am pleased.

Peace be with you.

Heeeee's back!

The little church we are going to is still in mission state. We have not formally organized and have a charter yet, but we have some of the greatest things happening.

Our out reach is quite impressive, and I am thankful for that. I think we are reaching the community. But there is a more awesome thing we are doing.

When you walk in to church, you have to remember we take up the end of a strip mall, and our "annex" for the growing number of children is about four store fronts down. But back to the "church." in one corner is the area where the musicians are set up. There is a small alter in front of them. The chairs for the congregation are semi circled about that area. Next to the window is the computer that produces the Power Point part of the service.

The most important part to me, are the chairs and a sofa in the back around the prayer table. There have been where the mentally deficient sit when they come in. When they arrive, it isn't something that takes all the attention. Just the opposite. Most of the time, we don't know they are there.

But on most Sundays, we have a very moved man. During the modern hymn, you will hear "ahhhhheeee." Living so close to Louisiana, this is almost like being someplace there that is playing music.

Last Sunday we had the privilege of sitting close to the lady with Down's. Today, we had the service pepped up with the "aaaahhhhheeeee" springing from the back of the church.

We have really missed him, and I am so glad God has graced us with the attendance of all these folks. I pray the Spirit has entered them and resides in their heart.

Peace be with you.