Sharing some things that made my day better

Thursday, October 1, 2009

After our walk today we spent our time with Annabelle. Her mommy had an appointment so we offered to relieve her of little Missy.

We picked her up and then made our way over to Piccadilly near her house to eat our lunch. This would give mommy a little needed "me" time that all mommies need after running after a toddler/pre-schooler or whatever you call an almost three year old with a bundle of energy.

Months ago I had bought a really pretty lunch box in pink. Perfect for using for Annabelle when we go out to eat together. I had found it one day at Goodwill while I was browsing. It has two tiers. The bottom one we use for small hidden snacks and her extra "plastic ware" and anything else we can slip into it. The top has a deeper section which we keep her silicon cup cake holders. These cup cake holders are pink and yellow and look like sunshines or flowers whichever you see when you look at them. we also have at least four of them with us. We also have other cup cake holders that aren't as fancy, but they are also silicon and we have a choice of blue, pink, yellow and green for those. These she uses as her serving dishes. She loves this little lunch box and the holders almost as much as I do, if that's possible.

It's just a tradition. I try to remember to have them washed and packed back into the car for the next trip out with her. It is supposed to be her responsibility to get it out of them car and back into the car again once we have used it. She's pretty good with a little prompting.

We took them in at Piccadilly and added her food to them. She's a pretty good eater most of the time when we go out. She likes to start with dessert first, which today was muffin spread with butter. I reminded her that Mommy probably wouldn't like for her to eat the muffin before she ate the rest of the food and like a good girl she waited until she had finished.

The end of the meal required a balloon from the girl who has waited on our table for years when we've gone there. We almost always sit in the same area so she's watched Annabelle grow up. This time she asked about Mommy because she was missing. She always attaches the balloon's ribbon at the bottom with several paper napkins. This keeps the balloon from floating away. It's a very neat idea, actually. I'm sure it has kept many a child from crying because they lost their balloon. Annabelle asked for a purple one (her favorite color) or an orange one or pink, or white. Her other favorite colors. She got an orange one.

We dropped it back by her house so that it wouldn't break. The last one she got popped before we got out of the parking lot. Since heat can affect balloons it was best for Granddaddy to put it at the house.

Then it was off to Sam's to spend a little time occupying a little girl. She didn't ride in the buggy. She was going to walk beside it. I said she was going to walk beside it. I left her and Granddaddy for one second and come back to find her hanging from the front of the buggy. A definite no, no with her Mommy. I told Granddaddy he would have to do the 'splaining to Mommy about that one.

She got off the buggy and carried me around the store to show me some of her favorite things she knew she would love to have. Which meant pretty much every toy in the store. Now why does she think I'm the sucker in this two-pony show?

We finally got her to sit in the buggy, not on her knees like she wanted, bottom down onto the big part of the buggy. She had already had samples throughout the store. She's so much her Granddaddy's grandchild! While we were waiting for Granddaddy to get a sample of coffee (which he doesn't drink) and let it have time to cool down, she started telling me that Granddaddy wouldn't let her have something. Something was what I didn't understand so she and I made our way back to the back of the store where she told me it was "A looonng way back there". It was and she was wanting some yogurt that Granddaddy had ignored getting her, probably because he also didn't know what she had said.

She had eaten a sample earlier and then it had gotten spilled so she wanted some more. We got it. She ate it. She was happy again for a little while.

Then, before we could go home we had to go by the books. She wanted to read some books before we left. She found one that looked interesting. We read it. Then she saw another set that had fifteen tiny little books in it about helpers in the community. We couldn't go home until we had read all fifteen of them. She knew which ones we had and had not read. She listened to me read every page. She does love those books. I just hope that will continue through out her life.

Then it was back to her house to make sure Shadow (the cat) hadn't burst her balloon while we were gone and to wait for Mommy to come home so she could show her the balloon she had gotten at Piccadilly.

Meanwhile, while I was doing something else I kept asking her where she was, what she was doing, etc. I knew she was in her bedroom doing something because I could see the little shadows moving around occasionally. Just as I was going to check on her she wanted me to come back there and join her. She was probably tired of me asking what she was doing.

I did join her. She had her Bristle blocks and was playing with them. On the floor she had lined up a bunch of the block pieces going down and to the side. She had the directions book for making things in her hand. She had found all the blocks that went with the picture facing the parts needed and wanted my help finding the other pieces. Some had been put in other places, apparently, and she didn't see them. We were searching for them when Mommy came home.

Mommy didn't believe that Annabelle had gotten the pieces all lined up. She did almost every piece if not every piece done by herself, because I had just gone in a very few minutes earlier.

She is amazing at how fast she can put pretty difficult puzzles together with no problem. I'm certainly no help to her.

I give credit to her Daddy for the time he spends with her working on building with the Bristle blocks. I guess he can't relate too much to playing with dollies and having tea parties, so he teaches her what he knows and that is the building part. Mommy can teach her the girly girl things. And she is a good little student. She apparently watches and plays well with her Daddy. I give him lots of credit for the job he does with her. She's well rounded in her play. That's a very good thing. Good job, Daddy.

Mommy felt a hunger for the Varsity. Annabelle had mentioned wanting to go there again last week when we were together. She had found the picture of her with the onion rings held over her eyes and that made her want to go there again.

While she and I were waiting for Granddaddy and Mommy to bring our meal to us she was occupying her little self with the straws. They were covered with paper so I saw no reason for her not to play with a few of them while we waited. After I had talked her into putting a few back into the cup, she decided she would hold out a few. "Dez are for me. Dare x'tras", says she.
She would later say the same thing to her mother who says, "Where do these things come from?" We don't know where that word came from, but obviously it was a part of Annabelle's vocabulary she's kept hidden.

Annabelle doesn't like eating meats much so Mommy had suggested maybe I could share my hotdog with her. Of course Annabelle wanted it cut into an octopus, actually a modified octopus because he only had four arms and not eight. She played with it for a while before eating any of it, so I suggested she might let me put some ketchup into the plate and she could dance her octopus into the ketchup. That sounded like a good idea to me and her both until the octopus had ketchup stuck on its feet. Apparently she doesn't like ketchup. Then the drama of all dramas began. She was not at all happy with having ketchup on her octopus' arms and she started wailing about it. Her Mommy suggested she could wipe it off with a napkin. I made the comment about her getting on its arms and she continued the wailing and blaming me for it.
"You told me to, Grandmomma!" Well, yeah, but that was before I knew you didn't like ketchup on your hotdog octopus. How was I to know? She likes dippy anything. I just figured. Anyway, it was taken care of with a little napkin like Mommy had suggested.

Then on toward the end of the meal she needed something to occupy her mind a little more, or as she once told me, "We need to find something to do." or something like that. She was sitting next to the window and I was pretty sure that by now she had done a good job of cleaning the ledge with her hands and arms and face. She is so her mother's child. Don't tell her not to do something...she will bust a gut to make sure she does it. It's just a deliberate thing with her. I try not to say 'don't' to her because I know she will. So I had pretty much ignored her wallowing all over the ledge and the window, etc.

Next thing any of us knew (I promise you she's very fast when she moves, while we're all still in shock, I guess) she had taken the lid off her cup, dipped her napkin into the water and proceeded to quickly wash the window! No, really, we do all watch her, but at that point it was pretty much just that..."watch her". She quick and she knows if she doesn't do it fast she'll never get away with it.

I have to say it was really funny, though, and I regretted not having the camera with it. It was in the car but did me no good there. At that point there was no need to tell her not to do it, she had already done it. She entertained herself for quite a while, dipping, washing, scrubbing, cleaning that window until finally I offered her a dry napkin to dry it off.

Outside the restaurant a family was leaving and the woman saw what she was doing. She thought it was equally funny (after all, it wasn't her kid, I suppose) and she gave her a thumbs up, while little Missy just kept washing the window.

Finally we stopped her just before we were invited to leave the restaurant. The Varsity had no reason to complain...the window was much cleaner after she finished it than it was when she started. Isn't there a little saying about leaving the place a little better than you found it? She did.

Granddaddy has a hard time letting her do the things we sometimes overlook. He never stayed home with two kids all day and all night. He didn't understand the importance of deciding what would make you go completely crazy and letting them have a little fun discovering things around them. Besides better for it to happen there in the restaurant where it could be more easily cleaned up than being on my hard-wood floors while she was cleaning the sliding door. What would you have chosen?

And why would I want to stop her? She's my amusement many days of my life. And I love her sooo much.

Thank you...

Thank you many times over, former President George W. Bush, for the professionalism you displayed on this day eight years ago. You calmed a nation that had been stunned beyond belief. A nation that had been plunged into the depths of something we had never faced as a country before.

We had grown complacent in how we lived daily. It was mostly about me, me, me, where ever and whatever we faced. Little did we know our world would be completely turned upside down in just a few minutes times. We suffered our own little shocks over what happened but there would be many thousands of people whose lives would be forever transformed into something they never saw coming on that beautiful morning in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Sharksville, PA.

They still deal with the horrible memories of that day. Much more than we do. I fear we have allowed ourselves as individuals, and as a country to slip back into the mode that our little world won't be turned over again. But I also fear, we are so mistaken.

On this day in 2001 all of us finally realized just how much we needed a leader. Someone who could lead us, calm us, stick with us showing leadership this country has never seen before. Everyone, Democrats, Republicans, Independants and those who never cared one way or the other felt the strength of President George W. Bush.

The years would take their toll on this president because he was forced and determined never to allow anything like this to happen again, not on his watch. We would see his hair turn grayer and lines form on his before innocent face as he made decisions everyday, sometimes having to fight with his opposition party as he tried hard to protect you and me. And yes, he even signed up again after the first four years to give it a try for another four.
And, in my opinion, he never blinked until he turned over the presidency in January of this year. He didn't allow anything so horrendous to happen the eight years he was in office.

He encouraged us to continue on living our lives as we had the day before. He also encouraged us to contribute to the future of our businesses by continuing to buy. He encouraged us to continue in service by helping those who needed our help in whatever way we could. He was an optimistic leader. He was exactly where he should have been at that particular time in our lives.

I remember hearing him take the oath of office in January 2001 when he swore to defend this country from the enemy, both foreign and domestic. There's a key word here...domestic. It made me proud to hear him say that. He would defend me, my family, my country, all those I loved, from the enemy both foreign and domestic. Domestic brought it home to my doorsteps. Little did he know he would be protecting us here on the domestic front for the next eight years.

I've since listened carefully to the oath of office others have taken. I heard the vice president promise this and I've heard new senators, members of congress, etc. anyone who has been connected to the government take that same oath. I missed hearing that word...domestic...when our last president took the oath of office. As I said, I listened very carefully, and it wasn't there. We weren't privy to the second oath he took in private because of a mix-up during the first one. I only pray that this was not an intentional omission and that he will indeed continue to keep all of us safe here in our homeland.

I tend to be a 'word' person. I try to listen carefully to whatever is said, or not said, and I interpret things the way they were said. I hope this was just a slip-up on my part, but I'm not so sure.

As we continue this day where we are remembering those who lost their lives because of people who set out to deliberately destroy and kill our people and our country, may we never forget the leader of this country the day it happened. He undertook an enormous responsibility to lead us. I'm proud of the physical and especially emotional toll he endured for us. I hope I never forget. I hope my grandchildren will all remember and we will continue to tell them as we discuss this horrible event, just how lucky we were to have been brought safely through this disaster.

To those who lost a loved one on September 11, 2001, God bless you as you continue to deal with your loss, and never give up hope. This country has always been a strong country, established by people with an eye toward freedom. May our enemy from outside or any who may be wishing us ill within our country never be successful in destroying what our forefathers envisioned and our men and women have fought and are fighting and dying to protect. God bless America and God bless each of us.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN???

Where have I been for the last two months you ask: Building memories with my precious little Annabelle. I'll begin with the current and work down as I have a chance to post them. I've written down some dates, but haven't worked on the pictures yet. You get unedited mistakes and all because as you can see I've been pretty long-winded on this one.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Today would have been my parent’s 81st wedding anniversary. Yes, I stand corrected by my daughter. How do I remember the number of years? Simple…I was very, very pregnant with my baby daughter 31 years ago when they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. We celebrated their special anniversary by giving them a party and inviting their friends and neighbors. The party was at our local little community church the four children had grown up in and my father’s family had chartered. It was a very, very hot day for this already suffering pregnant woman who had chosen to wear the only dressy dress she had available to her. (Long sleeves, long dress, and silky, clingy to my bulging body. But my soon to be daughter (six weeks away from delivery) was there whether she knew it or not! I just add her age to 50 and know how long they would have been married.
To add to the misery my father-in-law had been and was in the hospital suffering from a heart attack. We had made many trips 2 ½ hours drive away on the week end and this would be the first we missed for maybe 4-6 weeks. I had been restricted from long drives on the road until after my delivery and the prior week end was to have been the last time I traveled to see them. Sadly, he would pass away the Friday following my parent’s anniversary.

About six weeks to two months earlier my sister-in-law had passed away. My mother-in-law and father-in-law had both come up for the funeral. Things moved fast in a very short time.

Earlier in April my only sister-in-law had passed away at a very young age of around 38 of a blood clot to the heart/lungs. She was a wonderful sister-in-law and I felt as though she was my sister, too. She taught me so much, or she tried to. She was fun and she and I could find lots of things to get into and relate to. She helped me make my first meal of hamburgers the summer my first niece was born. She took me to my first movie (a drive in showing ‘The birth of twins’, yuck!. My brother just happened to work at the drive-in to support his young family while putting himself through college and we were able to get into the movies free, I’m sure.

After Granddaddy and I married we still maintained our relationship with them and spent a few week-ends with them. Anytime she got a new gadget or appliance, she made it look like so much fun to use, and easy, too, that Granddaddy knew he would be looking for one in the stores for me later that week. I had to have the exact same Kenmore blender she had because she could make the best coleslaw in hers. Mine didn't quite turn out the same. The cookie maker that made the best spritz cookies was just for me. I could go on and on at the money she costs us during my early marriage.

My sister-in-law had a built-in sense of anything domestic. Too bad more of that didn’t rub off on me. She taught herself how to decorate the most beautiful cakes, probably long before Wilton started offering cake decorating classes. I had to pay for two courses with my best friend to learn how to make and decorate cakes that didn't look nearly as pretty as hers. I remember being in awe at the lovely cake covered with her very first perfectly sculpted home-made roses made from frosting that she brought for either my Daddy’s or my Mother’s Father/Mother Day celebration. She was very young when she came into our family, still in college, and it was such a shock and a very big loss when she passed away, way too soon, in April.

I have always said the ending of 1977 and the first 7 months of 1978 were the worst years of our marriage or even my life that I had ever lived through with all the tragedies we had gone through. They just didn’t seem to end. But the sorrows we had suffered were finally replaced with one of the biggest and best blessings we have ever had…we got the beautiful little girl we had so hoped and prayed for and our little girl was here, safe and sound. She was the very best thing to come out of 1978.



Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Now on to sharing some of the good things that came out of the year 2006…Annabelle!
We had our fairly regular routine of time with Annabelle, today. Her Mom has lots of meetings to go to especially during the summer so we get to spend time with Annabelle and since this was Wednesday we went to her house. We weren’t sure if we would eat fish with her today because my sister and my brother-in-law had other obligations to fulfill and didn’t know if the would finish in time to eat fish. But they did and we did. But first we had to convince Annabelle she really wanted to eat out today. We had to finish dressing in a hurry. There was hair to comb, shoes to find and put on, sippy cups to fill, bathroom runs to make and lots of other things to do, but she had decided she didn’t want to go out to eat today after all. Mommy says she has gotten to the point she doesn’t want to go anywhere anymore. Just likes to stay home and this was another one of those days. When I reminded her we needed to go out to eat she said she didn’t want to go out to eat and ran over to her left-over breakfast I had moved over to her high chair and out of the way. She had something to eat. She didn’t need to go out. I finally had to get strong with her and made her help me get finished. She settled down but not without giving me a bit of trouble.

Earlier in the week I had bought some cute little flower shaped silicone cupcake holders and I just knew Annabelle would love to use them to eat her food from. They came in a set of 12 for $10 from Wilton and I got them at Joann’s using a 40% off coupon, so I got them for only $6.00. There were six yellow ones and six pink ones. My choice would have been to have gotten them all in purple since that is her very favorite color for now, but I had to settle for what I could fine.
She found them on Monday before I had a chance to wash them and she did love them as I knew she would. I know my granddaughter, at least at the moment. I told her what they were for and that we would use them when we ate out or went on a picnic.

I had packed them in the car because I wasn’t sure if it would be a picnic or eat out day. So, I pulled them out at lunch and we divided her meal into those darling little cupcake holders! We used four of them because we just didn’t have a lot of room at the table because we were too late to get our usual favorite spot.

We put her favorite item of cooked broccoli in one, shrimp in another one, coleslaw in still another one and her fried okra in the remaining one. We didn’t have room for her hushpuppy. It drained off some of its grease on a napkin on the side. She chowed down on her food, so much so that she finished off most of my broccoli, as well as hers.

On the way over she had told Granddaddy exactly what she wanted for lunch: Broccoli with butter (so she could stick the broccoli into the butter like they were trees growing out of the butter) coleslaw, okra, shrimp, not macaroni and cheese, hushpuppy, and water. She tells us exactly what she wants each week and usually it’s pretty much the same as above. But it’s fun to listen to her ‘order’ though we know what it’s going to be.

After finishing her meal we headed back home. If you know Annabelle you know she moves at her own pace. She doesn’t let your time constraints affect her schedule. Somehow we were foolish enough to leave the Sunday paper in the backseat beside her. Lucky for us she didn’t see it when we were running late earlier. But she did see it this time. And the particular section she found was covering summer places to enjoy the water around the area. It took a bit of persuading but we finally got her in the car seat and buckled in.

She didn’t stop by casting the newspaper aside. No, she had to ‘read’ the paper all by herself. She examined every inch of the pictures on the page. She reminded me of the days when her oldest cousin always examined pictures on his presents and books, etc. when he was very, very young. She was just too cute not to take pictures of her. I hope my pictures came out, but I had to stop taking them because the camera showed a card error, so I may not have gotten them. (I found out my camera didn’t take but 2 pictures and it really didn’t take those two, so I’ve missed all those great shots of her being her natural self. It just makes me sick. I had taken quite a few of them and it looks like some of them would have been on there. And after Granddaddy reformatted the card and everything was erased he decided I should reset the date on it. I know little about whichever camera I’m using and having switched from the first camera we had to the second camera didn’t help. While I was fiddling with it I happened to come across a picture of my oldest grandson and me when he was just a wee tiny little fellow. How it survived all the previous reformatting we’ll never know, but it was there. Granddaddy swore up and down that it wasn’t possible until he saw it for himself. We just don’t know how to get that one little picture off the camera. I would love to have it so I can see how long ago it was. I’m wondering now if it wasn’t some that were stored on the camera itself and not the card!) Back to my original story…She was engrossed in her newspaper almost all the way home. Finally, she handed me the paper and said, “Read this to me, Grandmomma.” And after reading under one picture she wanted to continue to the next until we had read the page again and read it all. I didn’t mention that when she first picked up the newspaper with the water/beach pictures she found a Joann’s page. Being her grandmother’s grandchild she is she asked if she could put it with her paper and carry it home with her. You can’t start them too young on that crafty stuff!

Later in the night her Mom asked why I had left the newspaper at their house. Because it was her paper and she had really enjoyed reading her paper on the way home.

Since she had slept a little later this morning I knew my dreams of her naptime were just that…dreams…and I was so right. I had gone to bed so late and gotten up early for the last few days and I found it very difficult to stay awake. I suggested we both take a nap. She was having none of that. I laid down on the floor and closed my eyes and a busy little body would fall on top of me and pound me In the chest. “Don’t go to seep, Grandmomma, Wake up, Grandmomma,” so many times I finally gave it up and we played “Let’s go shopping, Grandmomma!” We sorted our goods into sections: food, toys, jewelry, etc. and then went shopping, only to have her finally knock her shopping bag off onto the floor…kerplunk, where it stayed until the day was almost over.

At one point she decided she wanted to put her sippy cup filled with her water/apple juice over in her shopping cart. I knew we would forget where we put it. At least I would forget. I suggested we move it from the cart because we would forget. She looked at me and said, “Nooo, I say, ‘Where are you, apple juice? And it will say ‘I right here, Dannabelle!” This was her logic for finding it. And as she was imitating her talking apple juice that cute little hand was just a moving as though her juice was holding up its hand telling her where it was. And this was all said in Annabelle’s precious little sing-song voice with much animation added.

At some point in the day Annabelle thought it would be a good idea to bake a puppy dog cake. She had found her two ended spatula I had bought her earlier to use with her cooking utensils. She left the room to find the puppy dog cake we would decorate. This was a little pull toy doggy that Aunt Kate, Uncle Ken and the boys had given to her when she was younger. She has loved that puppy and loves pulling him around the floor, but today he would become a puppy dog cake. She handed him to me and said, “You decorate the puppy dog cake, Grandmomma.” And I did. I spread plenty of white frosting on his body with that spatula. I added black for his eyes and she pointed out I need to add blue for his collar until finally I thought I had finished decorating him. But, alas, I had missed a few spots here and there and had to add the frosting to the missed spots until he was perfect to both of us. Until she holds up her hand and says, "Wait…wait Grandmomma, I haven’t baked him, yet!" She had to bake him in her oven and I had to frost him all over again, but he turned into a beautiful, delicious tasting puppy dog cake.

Conversation between Annabelle and Daddy at dinner:

Annabelle: “Daddy, where’s Mommy? Is she stuck in twaffik?”
Daddy after recovering from his shock: “Yes Sweetie, she is stuck in traffic.”
Annabelle as she twists and turns that cute little silly face around in front of Daddy: “But you didn’t get stuck in twaffik, Daddy!”
Daddy: “No, Sweetheart, I didn’t.”
Annabelle, after a moment of thought: “You need to fix doze twaffik lights, Daddy!”

There were two things going on in that little mind. First of all she was remembering what Grandmomma had told her earlier on the way to eat. We had gotten stuck behind a malfunctioning traffic light and it seemed to never want to change. Once it did change, it was a very, very short turn signal and it seemed we might have to sit for another long period of time behind that same light. Grandmomma made the comment that the next time she was with Mommy or Daddy and the light turned red she should say to them, “Daddy needs to fix that light!”

So since Mommy was apparently late due to being caught up in traffic it must have been Daddy’s fault because she couldn’t get through those badly mistimed traffic lights between Mommy’s office and home.

Daddy was a bit puzzled where all this came from. It didn’t take him long to figure out Grandmomma was somehow connected. After all, she gets blamed for quite a bit.

Annabelle has such a tremendous memory! It’s really hard to believe things she can remember from a while back and some from times when she wasn’t as vocal as she is now.

It was not just your ordinary day...

She walked over to me pushing her walker ahead of her. I thought she had a question so I stopped in front of her. She asked me for directions to a street on a card she was carrying in her wallet. I could only semi-guess at the street. I knew the streets around the area, but that particular one I wasn't positive about. I asked her if she had driven her car over and where she had parked. She assured me she had walked, not driven, but she had gotten turned around and couldn't find her way back to her house.

Confused, she looked across the very busy, possibly six-laned street beside us and said, "I don't think I crossed over that road over there." To which I assured her, I didn't think she had crossed that road either! She surely would have been riding in the back of an ambulance or worse, had she tried to cross that busy road under the best of circumstances.

So, she thanked me, and I continued on my way into the donut shop to get two of our remaining free donuts using the coupons left over from Christmas. (Yes, dear daughter, we still have some remaining and Miss Annabelle can now share another dozen with us using coupons for Valentines Day which they gave us as we were leaving.) But, it kept nagging at my very soul. How could I have left that little lady there knowing she didn't know where she was nor how to get back home. That was pure heartless.

We finished picking out our donuts and I told Granddaddy what had happened. We both agreed we needed to do what we could to find her and get her back home. I had peeked out of the donut store earlier and had seen her a long ways across the parking lot. I have to say, she may have been pushing a walker, but that little lady wasn't let any grass grow under her little feet. She was flat-out moving!

So, she had a good head start on us by the time we got back outside, and she was no where in sight when we headed out looking for her. I jokingly told my sister to be on the listen out in case she didn't hear from us. This would be the starting point in case we disappeared from the face of the earth. You never know what scenario can be unraveling even when you think you are doing a good deed. She could have had a partner in crime. After all, she was a pretty fast moving woman.

We drove by the last place I had seen her. She was no where to be found. We looked up and down the street that turned off of the busier street. That street was almost as dangerous as the first one. I had told her the less busy street was probably the one she had come up, and that was why she had headed that way. Maybe she had popped into the bank for directions? Maybe she was half-way home by now? We had no idea so we headed up the road I had sent her on and even down the road she was still no where to be found.

My heart sank and I was really beginning to feel pretty miserable that I had not insisted or at the minimum, offered to take her home when we finished getting our donuts.

We turned around and headed back to the shopping center hoping against hope that we would find her. As I looked at the side of the road where I thought she had come from, I began to have my doubts. The side of the road wasn't paved where she would have walked and it was rough looking where she would have gone with her walker.

Shortly after turning into the shopping center, I saw the spunky little lady talking to a man who was trying to put up a sign or something. He were trying to give her directions, and from the movements of his arms I could tell his directions were opposite from the ones I had given her. We pulled up behind them, I got out of the car and as soon as she saw my face it was as though she had known me forever. I thanked the man giving her directions and told him we would make sure she found her way home.

I asked her if we could take her home in our car. She was not hesitant in the least. I helped her into the front seat, put her walker into the trunk and we fastened her into the front seatbelt and started our search for her street address.

It wasn't the street I had thought it was, so we went down the road further. Nothing looked familiar to her, so we turned around and headed back down the original road I had thought it was. Then we came to the street she lived on, we just didn't know which way to turn. Still nothing really looked familiar to her, but we turned the right way and finally found her residence.

As we pulled into the front of the building a man came out the front door, headed for his car, and saw her sitting in the front seat. He gave her a quick wave and came over to speak to her. I was so relieved to find we really had found her residence. The man said he thought we were relatives and were bringing her back.

All the way back to finding her place she kept saying over and over, "Oh, I'm so embarassed!" "This keeps reminding me of the commercial I saw just last night about the man and woman in the bowling alley and she gets lost!" She truly was very embarassed. I felt so very sorry for her.

Her daughter had put a card printed in large print with her house number, apt. #, etc. so she knew what her address was when she handed me the card. I had asked if she had a phone number of someone I could call, but she would have none of that. I noticed that she had an ICE number below the address information. I asked her permission to call the number. At first she told me it was her home number and nobody was there because she was here with us! I pointed out to her that it was an ICE number (in case of emergency) so it must be someone to call for help, but she was still not buying that, so I didn't think she needed to be aggravated or frightened anymore than she already was, so I dropped that idea. But, I am concerned about her in the future. Maybe she was afraid her freedom would be over if I called her daughter. She had her reasons.

She told us she had been here for seven months having moved down here from an upper northern state. She had just gone for a nice walk this morning and as we found out when we left her house, she really hadn't gone all that far at all. She really would have gone for a nice long walk if she had followed my directions! I am so thankful we found her and gave her a ride home.

Tonight would have been a very long night with lots of tossing and turning if we had left that little lady out on the street by herself. I'm not sure I could have lived with myself.

Sleep well tonight yourself, Miss Ann. And be careful how you venture out of your area. There's no telling how many evil people you can run into. And I'm glad you weren't up to no good yourself! You were a pleasure to meet and talk to. And you weren't a bother at all! No matter how much you thought you were.

Happy New Year

Yesterday I told my daughter I would not be cooking lunch/dinner for New Years Day, today. Her first reaction was of total shock. How could I be doing this to her? Not cook New Years dinner. That was totally unacceptable and then she began to realize I really did mean it. I wasn't cooking dinner today, period.

Then she had to get into gear and figure out what she needed for her dinner. How could she possibly cook her own turnip/collard greens and how could I, as her mother, let her and her family down. They would surely not have any more at all this coming year.

I explained she had a perfectly good pressure cooker I had given her for Christmas just last year and she just put them into the pressure cook, add a few chicken bouillon cubes, a buch of water, a bit of sugar and cook that stuff for a good hour.
I also informed her that Bush made a pretty tasty black-eyed pea in a can if she didn't want to spend her entire day in the kitchen. As for the pickled peaches, she had my recipe. I could help walk her through any problems she might have, but I was NOT going to cook New Years dinner.

Then feeling a bit sorry for her Daddy, she suggested we come over to eat with them.
"No, thank you, I am planning on staying in the house for the entire day tomorrow. My present to myself. My New Years Resolution, so to speak. No cooking on today's New Year's day.

She continued to try to make me feel guilty by calling me every five mintues from the grocery store. And I might add, she was taking precious Grandmomma time away from her sweet baby girl, but she didn't seem to mind. I think she was thinking maybe I would change my mind if she kept being a nuisance. But I did not. I did not intend to cook New Year's Day 2009.

I went to bed with a perfectly clear conscious. I would enjoy myself fully, alone with only Granddaddy and me to do our own thing. I had already planned to pull out my frozen pittance of collard greens/turnip greens, whichever it was. I could open a can of peas and Granddaddy and I would be dining in elegance if I added a side dish of Candied Tomatoes. No excess cooking or cleaning up. It was a done deal.

This morning I got up and thought since I'm not cooking a big meal today I will make a recipe I had seen on the internet earlier for Sausage/Gravy with Biscuits. I've tried to make this before but I just didn't have the recipe I wanted. This one appeared to be the winner so I made it for breakfast. I want to tell you that was a delicious/scrumptious/wonderful recipe without a lot of trouble. I will definitely be trying it again someday. It isn't something you need to eat every day but it's certainly good for occasional breakfasts.

Then my perfect day began to unravel, so to speak. My sister called and wanted to go walk. It's been a good two or three weeks since we've been able to walk due to my brother-in-law having some medical problems and us keeping a grandbaby to help her sick mommy out, or so Mommy could go in to work, etc., etc.

Then the guilt began to pile on. Maybe we should get back to walking again, so just as I was getting ready to tell her we would walk, caller-id showed my son was trying to call us. I told her I would have to call her back. My son was calling to invite us over tonight to eat our usual New Year's fare. I'm sure he wondered why I was trying hard to stifle a good laugh that was building up inside me. He had no idea I had committed myself to a day at home alone, no cooking, etc.

I accepted the invitation and decided I would also tell my sister we would walk.
And, he was inviting his sister and brother-in-law over, also.

Then while we were walking I decided I might better call my daughter-in-law and let her know I was alright with cooking and bringing the collard/turnip greens. She welcomed the chance not to have to cook those greens. Nobody seems to want to cook greens. They talk an hour but other than that, frozen one are no problem. Once they are adjusted you need not worry about them if you have enough water in them.

Well, since I'm tooking the greens, I might as well cook the candied tomatoes. I'll just surprise them with another sidedish that I would keep a secret until I pulled it out to heat it up. These were the thought that were running through my mind.

After walking I started the collards and worked on the candied tomatoes. It really wasn't that much of a problem. I didn't have a lot of clean up to do and since I wasn't cooking the whole meal, I wasn't as tired as I would have been had I done it al myself.

Earlier I had talked to my daughter and she gets a nasty attitude with me. Why did I say I would go to her brother's house but not to theirs for New Years? Oh, get over it, won't you? Well, her baby's daddy wasn't too happy with me either, but I'm sure that isn't the first or last time that will happen!

We all made it over to their house at the approximate alloted time in time to watch my son smoke up the house with his cooking of the country ham. It's a miracle the fire department didn't make a run by to make sure everything was alright, it was sooo smoky. All windows and doors were raised and opened to help eliminate some of the smoke.

I have a hunch I know what daughter-in-law will be getting for Christmas next year. A new pan to replace the one I'm sure he's ruined to the set of the expensive ones he gave her last Christmas. I think sometimes men just do things like that to get "fired" from the household chores!

Everybody seemed to like the candied tomatoes. I suspect it was because they served a general purpose of covering up the taste of the collard greens as they were consumed by those grumbling, unappreciative children of mine. I think I can make a pretty mean pot of collard/turnips greens if I do say so myself. Someday they'll appreciate it.

For now they are so intimidated by the idea that they had better eat their greens or black-eyed peas or stand the risk of having bad luck and/or no money for the coming year. I'm not willing to take a chance on it, myself. I want to insure that I will have at least some money even if I have to eat the greens and peas, but then again, as I said, I like them and since I grew up on them it's not that hard for me. But just because they can, they continue to grumble, year after year after year. Even my son who has never, ever been a picky eater can't seem to cultivate a taste for them.
My daughter on the other hand, has seemed to acquire a bit more of a taste for them.

It turned out to be quite an enjoyable evening. Nobody was overly stressed out by having to prepare huge amounts of food, the kids had more than ample room to play, which would have been a different story had they met at my house, and just in general everything was great.

The boys enjoyed visiting with their only little girl cousin and she was in heaven with the room full of little boy toys to play with. She blended right in. Where or where has my little lace gone?

If I dared make plans for myself again, it might be that tomorrow I will stay inside all day, no cooking, no cleaning, just enjoying a quiet day semi-alone to catch up on some much needed sleep. We'll see.

I've already fallen asleep while trying to type this. Who knows what I said above that wasn't really true! But I'm not reading it over again before I publish it.

It looks like I've already broken my first and only resolution by going out and by cooking. I don't think I want to even try to make anymore if I can't at least keep simple resolutions.

Nah, we all enjoyed that broken resolution.

And, little Sophie, the newest little granddaughter puppy has gained five whole ounces this week. She's getting there.

My daughter missed the best photo of the night. Annabelle and Sophie were standing at the glass door looking out. Annabelle with her little face pushed up to the window and little Sophie so tiny with her little front paws stretched out onto one of the lower window panes standing by her new found buddy. It was a winning photo for sure, but two-year olds and puppies move at flash speeds and wait for no one, so I was the only one who was able to capture it in my mind. How precious it was. A shared moment, for sure.

Good night and a very happy and prosperous New Year.

Some experiment results

My banana experiment has gone as follows: The banana on the counter inside the cereal cover has retained its yellow color more; however, it has become riper and is less firm. The banana I took out of the bag as of yesterday per my daughter's suggestion is much the same as the banana in the bag on the counter.

The banana in the cereal bag inside the refrigerator has gained a few brown freckles over the last couple of days, but the banana feels firmer than the ones sitting on the counter. Refrigeration has apparently kept both the ripening process and I think the bag has helped maintain the coloring better than putting into a brown bag or just in the refrigerator.

Maybe my next batch will include putting some in a bag with holes punched in the bag. I think I will use a hatpin with a mouse pad underneath for punch the holes when I try this experiment.

Still letting these bananas work for a little longer, however.

This is just an experiment...only an experiment...

I'm trying out something I read on one of my favorite sites recently. No, I don't remember which one, but it was just in passing conversation that someone mentioned things they couldn't stand. One particular writer said she couldn't stand those television commercials selling those little green bags that are supposed to keep your fruits and vegetables fresher for several days.

This brought on a few more replies as to how each contributor had their thoughts and methods for surviving without the little green bags, which are expensive and can only be used for a few times before they are discarded along with the money you spent on them.

One suggestion was to save the inner lining of your cereal boxes, you know those waxed paper linings, and use them to store your fruits and vegetables in them to maintain quality as good as, if not better than, those little green bags.

Since I had just finished a box of cereal this was my time to try out this suggestion. In all truthfulness, I had two bags because I had read this much earlier and had already saved my first cereal liner. The liners I used were from my boxes of 13.5 oz Kellogg's Special K Protein plus. These are thicker bags than the regular old sugar-laden varieties of cereal. You have to replace this cereal more often because there are only about 13 days worth of cereal in each $3.00 plus box, but once you cultivate a taste for it, it's not bad cereal and supposedly much healthier for you than some of the stuff out there. Anyway, you can see your wait won't be long for a new bag.

I had just been to the grocery store and bought several just-right, ripe bananas. It passed through my mind that now I could do my own experiment with my bananas, so I decided to put one of my bananas into the cereal bag and seal it up using a plastic clip and throw it into the refrigerator to see what reaction I would get from that banana.

Little Princesses' mother cannot stand eating bananas that have turned brown from being put into the refrigerator. After all, remember she is the Queen. There's absolutely nothing that changes the taste of those bananas, and the skin will be removed, but she still can't stand the look of those bananas. I've tried putting them into brown paper bags before and while it slows down the change in color of the skin, they still turn brown, just not as much.

I've also sealed them, minus the skin, using my hot shot food sealer gizmo (great thing in my opinion) and then tossed them into the freezer. They don't turn brown through this process and you have some yummy bananas ready for homemade banana bread.

But, for now, I'm wanting to see how long they keep pretty and yellow, just in the refrigerator and not the freezer.

So, I'm pleased to announce that after almost one day, well, alright, since around two o'clock yesterday afternoon until this morning around 8:30, my little banana has maintained it's pretty yellow coloring. I also put a couple on the counter in the other waxed bag and it doesn't appear they have over-ripened, but there is moisture on the inside of the bag left on the counter, but not the one in the refrigerator. Needless to say, those will be the first to go.

So, the experiment goes on. I'm hoping this will work. Maybe it will work for keeping blueberries, strawberries, etc. fresher in the refrigerator. We all know how expensive those things can be especially with the price of food going higher and higher each day.

So try your own little experiment with your cereal bags and let me know how you come out. It's free money except for the ever-rising cost of cereal. I'll maybe try another one later when Granddaddy finishes his cheapo-thino-waxed-paper bag of cereal.

The one who originally suggested this said she wipes out the first time and then washes her waxed paper bags and reuses them the next time. You do the same for the green bags so I'm sure it would be just fine. You might want to confine using strong-flavored things such as peppers to the same bag.

This sounds like a winner for such things as those baby carrots or even that yellow squash that has a tendency to go bad before you use it all up.

Oh, and since I am not familiar with hands-on handling of those green bags I don't know if they come with little holes in them or not, but I didn't add any to my bags. I would think letting any extra air in would cause the food to ripen faster, then again, sometimes the gases inside might cause them to ripen faster.

This is an experiment...only an experiment...so, we shall see.

Tornadoes, tornadoes, tornadoes everywhere...

Saturday, March 14, 2008
Today has been a horrendous day, weatherwise. We have had tornado watches on top of each other all day long! Probably the most I've ever known. I have an absolute fear of tornadoes. I have had dreams since I was a small child that I would be killed in a tornado or airplane crash. Who knows why I would dream such as a young child because I really don't remember tornado watches or warnings out at that time. Maybe it reverts back to the days of the storm shelters of the '50's. We never had one at our house, so I'm not sure about that either. Nonetheless it has been a recurring fear for me. As far as the airplanes are concerned, I never knew what an airplane looked like close up until my brother left for the Navy and we took him to the airport.

Prior to him being in the service, I would lay out in the field sometimes and watch the airplanes fly over, but they were so tiny and I never had thoughts of ever flying in one at that age. I do remember one time a helicopter had to make an emergency stop in the little community I lived in, but I don't remember any fear from that.

Oh well, for whatever reasons, I am deadly afraid of tornadoes. I don't really fear an airplane crash as far as I'm concerned at this point in my life. I've enjoyed my trips on planes so far.

Any-who, these tornadoes were referred to as being like trains coming in, each adjoined almost to each other.

We finally were hit with hailstones of maybe 1/4-1/2" in diameter while other places around us were being hit with them as large as 4.50". Scary, huh? Ours went over fairly fast. My new roof and I thanked them for that. I could just see all that money going down the drain. Some things can't be help, I guess, and that's one of them. Much worse things could have happened and I'm just thankful they didn't.

It started last night around 9:30 when a tornado hit downtown Atlanta. It hit the Omni, The Georgia Dome, where they were having play offs for the SEC Basketball championship, CNN Center, and several places where lots of activity was going on. Luckily, it hit while things were still in progress and not at the time for them to leave.

Windows were blown out of some of the buildings in downtown one of which was made of all glass. The true damage wasn't known until today, but thankfully no one was killed in that one.
There were two people killed in the upper rural areas of the state during today's storm.

It was just a big mess everywhere in the northern part of the state. I'm glad it's over!

Ten absolutely, totally useless things , #3

Back in mid 70’s I got a bee in my bonnet that we ‘needed’ a microwave oven. The prices of microwaves were exorbitant (I know, that is a big word, but remember, I won the spelling bee in eighth grade.) way back then, but I really needed one. We had a two-year old son, and there would be many ways I was sure I could use it since he was now a part of our lives. I don’t think I had to beg too much because at that point my hubby also wanted one. We had visited his uncle and aunt in North Carolina and they had one for years, and we were both very impressed with those things. And, I’m a gadget-type person.

We did our research and price checked until we finally decided on a gigantic Sharp Carousel at a cost of $500-$550, plus another chunk of change.

Recipes for foods cooked in the microwave were just beginning to be adapted from the oven to the microwave at that time because a lot of people were still using them mostly for reheating their leftover food and other basics.

Several months later our power provider ran a notice in one of their monthly flier that they were looking for recipes of dishes converted to use in the microwave and wanted people to submit theirs for the contest which would be held state wide. Each district would have first, second and third place monetary winners then those winners from each district would meet for final competition on a state-wide level.

This intrigued me and I decided maybe I should compete. I would try this recipe and that, until I finally had one perfected to my satisfaction. I submitted my recipe and after final district competitions I was judged to be first place winner in my district. The rules required that my district sponsor would have to come out to my house and I would cook my dish for her, using my oven, my directions, time cooked, etc. and she could help me with any little suggestions, if there was a need for any. They could be only minor adjustments. She came out, found no need for any corrections, and I was off to the state for finals.
During the waiting period, my little two-year old cheerleading son walked around the house proclaiming, “Mommy’s gonna win! Mommy’s gonna win! Mommy’s gonna win!” He had me believing that indeed, “Mommy’s gonna win!” Those are some sweet words coming from a two-year olds little mouth.
The power company made arrangements with the microwave companies to provide the exact model we had prepared our food in when we met for the final competition. Of course, this was crucial to me because I had the Carousel and it cooked the food more evenly without having to turn it. I was chosen to be one of the first to cook my dish.

The power company treated us to a delightful luncheon accompanied by the judges and other dignitaries.

The winners would be announced later in the afternoon after everybody had cooked their dish. The stress was off of me because I had cooked my dish before the luncheon, and I was good for the rest of the afternoon, just waiting.

During the luncheon, strangely several women that I didn’t even know walked up to me and asked me if I was the one who had prepared the chicken dish, to which I replied I was. Not just one woman, but several. It was so very odd, and I began to wonder if maybe I had placed somewhere in the competition after all. However, these luncheon ladies wouldn’t give any further information. Very strange indeed!

So, after all, it did become a very long and nerve-racking afternoon. Finally the winners were announced, and I was lucky enough to place second in my category. I still couldn’t understand all the questioning by those ladies at the luncheon, just because I won second place. It was a good chicken dish, but… Later that afternoon my district sponsor told me that I would have won first place, maybe overall had my dish been cooked thoroughly.

It seems there was a problem. Since I was one of the first to cook, my microwave was hooked up to an area where apparently there was a lot of power being pulled from it, and it resulted in a brown-out of a type, thereby making my dish just a little under cooked.

You would think that since the power company was sponsoring this big shindig they, of all people, would have had a clue you can’t run so many microwaves off of so few cords. Mine just happened to be on the wrong hook up. They quickly corrected the situation, but since I had to provide my own food and I had already used it up there would be no do-overs on it. They had to go with the results they got from the food preparation that day and couldn’t depend on my sponsor’s word that my dish had really only needed that amount of time to cook at my house, under regular power.

All was not lost. I didn’t mourn too long. I had come a lot farther than I ever dreamed I would. How can you possibly be a loser when you have a handsome little cheerleader who believes in his Mommy? Even if I had not won at all, he believed in me and that made it worth it. He had spent an extremely long day waiting for Mommy to win without complaint.

What did I do with my prize money? Like any good citizen suffering during the energy crisis of the l970s, I invested every penny of it in storm windows for our house. It’s still paying off benefits after all these years. Quite an investment, I think. Maybe it eventually paid for that $500 plus microwave we invested in thirty-two years ago.

How much fun would it have been to simply write that I won first place in a state-wide microwave contest? There’s not enough drama in something so simple. I love being able to write about the drama in my life. My life is far from dull. I live it every.single.day. Don’t you wish you were me? Sometimes I wish you were, too. But since that’s no possible, you get to re-live my life here on my blog with me.

Just in case I’ve failed to mention it…my hometown's Only Newspaper In The County ran my picture and a big write-up about me winning. Twice. Once when I won District, then when I won State. Umm huh! THE VERY same one! My mother and daddy were so very proud of their baby daughter. Could you tell?

And it even made the BIG, Big city paper, too, complete with picture and all. That would be the State’s largest newspaper! I’m surprise you haven’t heard of me before now. No… No, really.

Check for new pictures

I've updated the blog of February 2, 2008. Check it out for pictures of Beautiful Blue Eyes and some of him during his visit with us. There are three new pictures posted!

A chickens got what?

When my husband and I returned from our honeymoon and was settling into the life he never promised me, it was necessary to do our grocery shopping. Those were the days you couldn’t run into the McDonald’s or Burger King for a fast hamburger; you really had to go home after a hard day at work and cook something.

We made our way to the A & P Grocery store four blocks, more or less, from our home. As we carefully walked the aisles of the store, watching the pennies we had to spend for the weeks’ groceries, we stopped at the meat counter. I picked up a package of meat, looked at it in total amazement and said to my husband, “A chickens got what? Look, this package says ‘chicken breast’. A chicken doesn’t have breast!”

I grew up on the farm and OUR chickens didn’t have breast. They only had backs!” He would try to persuade me to put the package of ‘funny meat’ back saying it wasn’t any good. I wouldn’t like it. But I was intrigued. I had to have it, so I bought it over protests from him. He preferred the red meat called roasts.

A little background on the two of us: He grew up in a minister’s family; I grew up a poor girl on a farm. He and his family ate their meals every Sunday with some of the families in the community; we struggled to feed a family of four children and two adults living off the land. Every Sunday the people in the community where he lived would serve them chicken along with all the good vegetables from their gardens. Yeah, pretty much every Sunday. Back to my family: We only had chicken when we had the preacher and his family over for dinner. Chicken was a luxury to us, not just another weekly meal.

When we had the pastor and his family, our chicken became the ‘sacrificial lamb’. We didn’t have that many chickens so each one we killed for the pastor was one less we had on the farm. That, and we were bonded to those chickens. Sometimes they had names. We fed those babies every morning with leftover cornbread and biscuit scraps.

I had to listen to him as he complained about how ‘they had to eat old chicken every Sunday.’ He had to listen to me as I complained because 'I never got to eat a part of the chicken that wasn’t the backbone.'

He probably was able to sit at the dining table with his family. I had to eat in the kitchen most times, alone, because the bigger kids got to eat at the dining table, and either I couldn’t be trusted with what I might say or did say, or there wasn’t room. Most likely it was the first thing mentioned and not the latter, but for whatever reason I was assigned the kitchen and Mama always gave me the backbone. (Had I been seated at the big table I probably would have questioned why everybody else got the good parts of the chicken, and I got stuck with those backbones. My mother knew her child and any injustices I might have felt would have been brought up anywhere, in front of anybody.) Anyway, that is why I have questioned that chicken had anything but backbones.

My husband’s attitude towards chicken always bothered me once I learned how unappreciative he was of what those families gave up for them to properly feed their pastor and his family on Sundays. Those chickens DIED for him and he never appreciated it one bit. Now if he had had to eat the backbones I could understand his resentment, but no, he got the good pieces. He did recognize that chicken breast in the grocery store, remember?

I’m still not over it. But I get my revenge now. As long as I cook the meals I can have chicken as often as I want. I just can't fry it like my Mama could. Hubby does now have the option of going to Burger King or McDonald’s or some other place, but most of the time he’s just too lazy, so he’ll eat chicken. He still has an awful pained look on his face, but he’ll tolerate it.

Now I’m glad to know that chickens really do have other parts. I’ve learned to like the wings and the drumstick as well as the breasts.

*Disclaimer: this may not have been exactly how it went down in the grocery store, but it's pretty close. The rest of the story is pretty accurate. I really did know what a chicken breast was. I wasn’t that much of a hayseed that I didn’t know there were other parts of the chicken. I remember times my brother and I would fight over the pulley bone, (That's at the top of the chicken where the breast pieces join) and he would always make me snap mine off short, so he’d have good luck and not me. I’m sure he was lucky enough to eat that piece of meat on the pulley bone, too. Yeah, we would fight over chicken in my house!

I’m pretty sure that trip to the grocery store was the first I learned about his true attitude about chicken. If I had known it a week earlier, I probably wouldn’t have gone through those marriage vows. That’s a pretty big cultureal divide between two people. I mean, how can anybody who grows up in a preacher’s family not be appreciative of families who gave up their chickens so they could eat?

We didn’t go to the grocery store for our meats like they did. No, no, I’m sorry they didn’t either. The neighbors also kept them in meat during hog-killing days. That’s probably another reason he and his dad never cared that much for pork.

As an afterthought, the backbones of a chicken don’t have much meat on them, but if the bone is floured up and fried real good, you don’t always miss the meat. It just all tastes like….chicken?

Ring, ring, ring....

I guess there's really no ringing to a telephone anymore, but you get the idea of the noise I was abruptly awakened to this morning at 1:38 a.m. It's been a rare occasion lately that I've gotten phone calls in the middle of the night, so I stumbled around knocking things around trying to find the cause of all that gosh awful racket.

A quick look at the phone told me it was my son calling from his cell phone. That can’t be good, getting a call from him at this hour of the morning, but I managed to shake a few of the cobwebs loose long enough to hear why he was calling.

Apparently someone had dialed his cell phone or house phone, I’m not sure which, (remember those cobwebs are still dangling) and before he could answer it they had hung up without leaving a message. He was very concerned because the call was a number from a local to our area hospital. Now my son and his family relocated to the cold gloomy north a little more than a year ago, so for him to get a call from a hospital in our area was of great concern to him. He had called the number and found it was a general number in the hospital and nothing that could be traced back to a specific person.

The first thing he said was, “Are you guys alright?” I assured him we were, but he asked again, “You guys are alright?” I think he even had to ask once again to reassure himself or to make sure I was really awake enough to confirm it. That we were indeed alright.

The first thing that popped into my mind at that point was that maybe it was someone trying to get in touch with him about his father-in-law. His mother-in-law was still with them after returning the baby grandson. My son was going to call to make sure he was alright. I told him to call me back and let me know if things were OK with him. He left me with more common sense than I had at that point. “I’ll call you if there’s a problem, otherwise, if you don’t hear from me you’ll know he’s fine.” That makes sense. I guess he had been awake a little longer than I had at this point.

By now I was completely awake. But I didn’t mind being awakened at that time of the morning since it was him, and everything was well with them.

There was a little bit of sweet revenge now that everything obviously turned out alright from both ends. He finally probably “gets it”. As a younger man he could never understand why in the world I could possibly need to stay up until he got home from a date. (This was many years before cell phones took over our lives.) He knew exactly where he was and that he was just fine. He was not lying in a ditch with a car dangling on top of him. That was always my biggest fear! And a guilt trip I laid on him every date night. I'm sure Little Princesses' mommy also heard this constantly, too. Because it really was a horror of mine.

Now that he has three handsome little sons, I’m pretty sure this is just the beginning of many lessons he’ll learn over the years. Children have such a way of making us change our minds about a lot of things.

It makes me feel good that he was concerned about us for a change. He’s matured quite a bit in the last fifteen years, but oh, how much more he’ll grow over the next 8-10.

He never did find out who made the call. Apparently it was just a misdialed number. That happens. I hope that whoever made the phone call wasn’t the bearer of bad news, and all is well in their life today, but you never know because people don’t usually make calls at that time of the morning from a hospital unless it’s serious.

Some good news… Little Analyzer won first place for his Scout den in his derby car race and number four in the overall competition for speed. He makes me proud. I’ll bet he appreciates every nick and cut, every drop of blood he sacrificed, at the expense of his new pocket knife. Way to go, Little Analyzer! I can’t wait to see those pictures.

All this talk about obsessive compulsive disorder

got me to thinking. I'm not the only one in this family who can be accused of being obsessive compulsive.

My husband shows definite traits of OCD. Yes, he does! He arranges his french fries in log-cabin fashion. He stacks his onion-rings one on top of the other. Now that qualifies as obsessive compulsive. And now the world knows!

I ain't taking being accused of being the only obsessive compulsive in this family! No, no, I am not. He doesn't have a blog, so I can get away with telling things on him right now. Life gets really interesting sometimes.

Reflections on being prepared for the simple things...

My husband recently bought a small LED flashlight for each of us to keep on our side of the bed in case we needed to use it during the night. (Sometimes one of us will get up in the middle of the night and “play” on the computer, if we’re unable to go back to sleep, and we need that light.) It is a small little thing, but it puts out lots of light.

Last week I blogged about our power outage and the little flashlight certainly came in handy at that time. It’s very difficult to find the power company number, punch the numbers that need to be punched into the telephone, etc. if you don’t have any form of light nearby. Of course, it is also a challenge to try holding the phone in one hand, holding the flashlight to see the number to dial, and dialing the number, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

I had suggested to my sister she might consider investing in one just in case she needed it when she got up in the middle of the night or if the power should happen to go out. (She didn’t see the real need for one, but then again they’re never without power, whereas, every winter ours goes off just because it can.)

She mentioned, and I had forgotten, Daddy always kept a flashlight by his side of the bed, and it always had fresh batteries in it. He always believed in being prepared for emergencies. We are so accustomed to having things at our disposal we don’t always think we might need something as simple as a flashlight. Until we need it.

Of course, Daddy did grow up most of his adult life without electricity, so perhaps it wasn’t as hard for him to get into the habit of making sure that flashlight was in its place every night. We didn’t even have power in our house when I was younger until I was probably around 4 or 5, maybe 6 years old, but it didn’t take me long to become quite dependent on that luxury in life.

And that little small flashlight beside my bed has really become a nice little luxury as well. I think I’ll keep it there. Just in case. The power goes off again. Which may happen. Any time.

Today has been a much better day for AT&T....

now let's see if they can keep it up. However, the trucks have still been seen in the area along with one of those competitor Com****. Maybe there have been a few people who have been fed up with AT&T and they decided to switch to the devil competition. Just keep it up (my internet that is) and you will help keep my blood pressure down!

I called Little Princesses' mother this morning to see if they wanted to join us at Captain D's for lunch, since we haven't seen Little Princess today. Well, Mommy decided she doesn't like the place enough to eat there more than once a year and she met her quote at the beginning of this year. I can't use that for an excuse. I have to go along with hubby or he won't take me anywhere else to eat, period. He's very vindictive. So, we went with the sibling and her husband. It was pretty good eating today and I'm not overly fond of the place either. Must have been very hungry or not wanting to cook awfully bad.

So, the most part of today was spent working on those adorable pictures you will see at the post below. And I do mean most of the day. If they look a little out of place I can't help it. My daughter tried to tell me how to move them around once I have them in picture form on the blog, but for the life of me I can't seem to get them wrapped around like I want them, so I finally reverted to the old way of doing them, and it worked much better for me. But before I got to the point of putting them on the blog I had to reduce them down, and I had to crop them and change the lighting on some of them, etc. Hubby wasn't a great big help at all because he said I was supposed to build a file for them first and work from there. Guess what, I didn't have to do that at all. I think he was just trying to keep me dependent on him, but I outsmarted him this time. I figured it out on my own. Really, they accidently fell into place, and I have no clue how.

Guess I will have to ask Little Princesses' mother how she does it. She probably won't know because she very seldom posts any pictures lately. She just lets me use up my blog space posting her cute little girl's picture on my site.

As we can all see I have a hard time using few words, and I also have a problem using few pictures. She's just too stinking cute. That's my problem. And when I'm not around her I don't have a lot of stuff to blog about. That's another problem.

Another day with no internet for almost all the day…

This has gotten to be just a bit of a touchy subject with me, especially for the last three or four days. What is the problem with AT&T? Why can’t they keep my service up during the day? I just happen to be able to get on at night, but that is the time you have to get some sleep, for goodness sakes. I want my service when I want it. Not when you want to give it to me. That wasn’t the deal. I made the deal for twenty-four/seven, three hundred sixty-five or six days a year. Get on the ball.

I will continue to report to you on the poor service I’m getting as long as I don’t get something done about it. And I will continue to tell you my server just happens to be AT&T. I’m sure tomorrow morning will be the same way. Our neighbor has also had the same problem for the same length of time. Do something, people! This can’t be good for public relations for you.

Don’t make me have to keep hounding you. I’m sure my file is getting thicker and thicker and you’re seeing me as a nuisance. I’m finding you to be quite a nuisance, myself! Stay connected! Stay connected! Stay connected! That’s all I’m asking.

And I will post another blog later covering events of the day today. At least I will try if I have shamed my server, AT&T into being more efficient and keeping me on the internet. Right now I’m a little tired. I need to get some pictures downloaded and then resized to put on my blog for today. That requires the assistance of my husband since I'm a very slow learner. Just bear with me and AT&T.

I'll try to do it as soon as I can.

Sorry, Little Princesses' Mommy, you'll have to check back for an up-date on all your little bumpkin was in all day today while you were having fun at work.

You’re wondering why you didn’t see a blog yesterday?...

Tuesday, January 22, 2008
You’re wondering why you didn’t see a blog yesterday?...
You will recall I blogged Sunday about my terrific experience with the sweet little automated lady from the power company. Problems with my internet server, AT&T, pales in comparison. At least the power company has more to lose by me not being connected than AT&T does as my server for the internet. DSL internet, I might add. That means it’s supposed to be much faster than the old dial-up we had years earlier. My internet was down yesterday and so far again today. Sometimes the screen says I have it back, but no, in real life, I don’t have it at all.

We had slow dial up for many years (did I mention my carrier then was none other than AT&T?) until my husband decided we had to have DSL under Bell South. We fired AT&T and found Bell South to be the greatest even with dial up, but hubby still wanted faster DSL.
We were so excited to have fiber optic installed in front of the house a few years before we decided to connect to DSL. This was supposed to be a "no problem" way the company had to connect to the internet. Modems sometimes gave lots of problems.

Everything went fairly well to begin with when we still had Bell South. On a rare occasion when it was first in the start-up stage we did have down time, and even then they fixed it fast. They would send someone out to fix the problem or fix it from their office and we were back on once again with a minimum of inconvenience.

Within the past year, maybe a little longer, AT&T was allowed by the FCC to acquire Bell South. Big mistake in my opinion, for the consumer. Since then it has been down hill all the way. I can’t even count the number of times we’ve been without service and had to call, spending countless unnecessary hours, yes, hours on the phone talking to the tech support team, in who knows what country. (All time tolled it was a minimum of an hour and probably even more.) All with these people with their little books spread in front of them with questions for my husband. Is this plug plugged in behind the computer, can you see a light, unplug and replug XX plug, re-boot the computer, and on and on until finally they determine the must send a service man out to check it out. Good, that’s the only solution to the problem, it seems. The only hitch here is WE have to be inconvenienced by being home, (what if we both were employed, would we have to wait until a Saturday? Or take time off, half a day to meet them?)because they will have to come into our house and check our lines, etc., etc. blah, blah, blah. And more blah, blah, blah. They will make us an appointment for a window of (insert any four hour period most convenient for them). We’ve learn to tell them up front, this is the typical problem you guys have quite frequently, we don’t have a problem in our house, nobody needs to come in, and no, we will not pay for a service call. Yes, there will be a service call charge. No, there won’t be a service call charge. Finally, always a second call is necessary to make sure they understand we will not be paying, and to cancel the appointment. They must teach them to argue until you finally have to hang up and call back to get another dummy to deal with your problem. Another large amount of time on the phone with someone else who has to read from that same book you’ve been read from before. Finally, miraculously you’re back on the air while you’re talking to them. Cancel the service call, hang up, leave the house, come back and find you still don’t have internet service. For the rest of the day, or at least the biggest portion of the day.

Did I mention that upon leaving the house this morning, what was sitting in the driveway down the street? Yep, an AT&T truck. And did I mention this place was swarming with AT&T trucks when we returned. Oh, I forgot, they're out working on our line. Fat chance!

And we still don’t have service. The computer indicates we do, but we can’t get through to any lines or to our e-mail. Guess they’re repairing the lines of all those people who called to complain and got hoodwinked into paying a service call.

Anyway, as I sit here at 2:00 in the afternoon on Tuesday, we are still without service. If you get this a week from now you’ll be lucky. I can’t tell you how very irritating this is to me. If you can’t take care of your current customers why in the world would you want to keep adding more and why would the FCC allow them to you to take on more customers?

If only they had to suffer for the exact time our service is down and not get paid for it like the power company does, but alas they don’t. They’re not accountable to anyone for it, apparently. I certainly don’t want to take on their partners in crime, Com****, because we’ve also had our experience with them in hotels, but I certainly think we should consider firing AT&T again, for the second time. With my luck we would chose a server that is being bought out by AT&T again.
And I did mention, didn't I, that at the end of the last conversation with the tech support they gave my husband the website to call next time we have a problem. Umm, I’ll be sure to use it. As soon as they connect the internet so I can, ok?

Don't you know those tech people must feel awfully stupid having to relay such information to their patrons! I think I would be forced to admit it, because it sure makes one appear plain ignorant. This isn't the first time we had this message relayed, so it is definitely in the book.

...So what happened to the snow? Or more to the point, where's the power?

We didn’t have a major outbreak of snow like they predicted we could have. We didn’t have icy streets like they predicted we could have. I’m not sure about the prediction for the tremendous drop in temperature, however. We didn’t have the ice on the power lines. They did predict we wouldn’t. They got that right. I didn’t hear the wind blowing wildly last night like they predicted we would have. But as I mentioned earlier, they did say we wouldn’t have ice on the power lines so we wouldn’t be bothered with power outages like we so often have. And there was no high winds that I could determine.

Promises, promises, promises…At around 5:00 a.m. this morning my husband stumbled back into bed with his ice cold feet thrown against me, laughing, yes I said laughing. He had gotten up earlier to play on the computer since he couldn’t sleep. While he was awake the electricity went off. What the heck? The power was off?

Well, I shouldn’t be too surprised. We never have a winter, and for that matter not too much of a spring, summer or fall that we don’t have a power outage. It used to be just the winter months, but for some reason anything can provoke a power outage. We apparently live in a grid area that covers half the county on the northern side. Every traffic light, every street light and every light bulb goes dead between our house, the nearest little town to us, and the Interstate fartherest away. Obviously it is the power company’s aim to restore power to all the businesses in between and leave us to freeze in the meantime.

It hasn’t always been this bad. It used to be just our subdivision. But for some reason the grid has expanded over the past years. Maybe that’s the problem. It’s expanded too much. Anyway, we can always be assured we will at some point be without power.

Anyhow, upon hearing the news I grunted, turned over and tried to go back to sleep. I didn’t even know what time it was at that point. After all the electricity was off, you know. The 5:00 time came later from my husband when I asked him what time the power had gone off. We normally have plenty of little lights glowing around the room, but not last night. It was pitch dark outside, except for a small gaslight glowing from the back yard of the house behind us.

Around 7:00 I got up and decided since we still had no power I should call the power company and report it. Of course, first of all you need a telephone that still works on battery since your power is off. Secondly, you need to find the power companies emergency number for reporting power outages. Since dear hubby was having no problem sleeping through the power outage, it was my job to find the number and call it in. What do I know about his filing system? Obviously not much. Well, we’ll take care of this. I hate when people wake me up at 5:00 in the morning to tell me the power is off. I.really.don’t. care. Let me figure it out AFTER I’m awake. Don’t wake me to tell me. I also hate his filing system, which I’ve shared this with him on numerous occasions. So, I do the only thing I know to do. Hee, hee, hee. I stand beside the bed of a snoring man, shine my trusty little flashlight in his face and shake him, not so gently, and tell him, “Get up! You need to help me find the telephone number for the power company so I can call them and let them know we’re freezing over here!” (Sometimes revenge is sooo sweet. Remember, he did wake me up this morning to tell me the power was off and to stick his ice cold feet on me.)

Evidently all those other people in the neighborhood were unaware their power was off. Probably a bunch of lazy kids sleeping in. Otherwise, they would have saved me the trouble and I would have awakened to a warm house.

In the meantime I see a big white truck driving slowly up and down the street, stopping here and there and in front of my house, then going back down again and stopping to look back at my house, like I’m the culprit that created all this havoc! Move along, mister, and find out where the outage is. I can’t be the only one without power. And I didn’t do it. Maybe my husband did this morning at 5:00 just so he could laugh about it and wake me up just to stick his old cold feet on them. But it wasn’t me!

I made the call to the power company. I just love those calls! First I get this nice pleasant lady on the other line who tells me to hold on just a moment if I wish to speak in English while she tells all the Spanish people in Spanish to hold on while she’s talking to me in English. First of all, I don’t like talking to a pleasant-speaking lady whose voice is automated asking me if my number is the one the service is for. (Let's just say, I don't like pleasant when I've got a power problem! I just want my power on!) Then she gives me a few options, which I promptly have forgotten by the time I am finally able to speak. When I speak, “Yes” or “No” she can never understand. Must have gotten the Spanish version. So I have to say it all over again. At this point I’m really not feeling especially cordial. All I want is my power back on. I don’t want to give you my life history. You know my phone number, you know my address, you know my name. You know I’m obviously without power! I wouldn’t have called and punched that number if I wasn’t. Just cut my power back on! “Oh,” she says, “There seems to be a problem!” No joke! “What is my problem, no power, need to talk to her about a bill, and whatever else?” No, just put my power on. “Thank you. Would you like for us to call you back when your power is on?” NO, I THINK I’LL KNOW IT’S ON, WHEN IT’S ON! “Thank you, it may be necessary for us to contact you by phone if there is still a problem.” I DON’T WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU AGAIN. ALL I WANT IS MY POWER BACK ON. CAN’T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?

Just put a live human being on the other end of the phone. One who is answering from my State. One I can understand and who doesn’t argue with me about calling me back!

I guess I should count my blessings. At least I could understand her sweet little automated voice and she obviously hadn't been out-sourced to India. There are a few blessings in disguise.

Now for the rest of the story…I felt it only fair that my husband should get completely dressed just in case that man driving around in the truck decided we really were the culprits and needed to stop in. Just after he got dressed and headed to the kitchen door, I thought he hit a switch. Then the lights miraculously came on. He said he wasn't that powerful. It was just a coincidence.

It’s amazing just how lost you can feel without the luxury or maybe that’s the necessity of good old power. We cranked up the heaters and brought that temperature back up in this house pretty fast…and the sweet little automated lady apparently found other people to keep her company because I never heard from her again.

But, never fear, I’m sure we’ll be talking again before the winter is over. I’ll try to keep your number handy, sweet little automated lady, just for the times I need it. Unless my husband puts it in his no-filing system again. I just hope it doesn’t happen in the middle of the night when my husband’s feet are so darn cold! And he’s so chatty! But if it does happen in the middle of the night, please let it happen when he's fast asleep, and I can be the one to spread the good news that the power has gone off...right after I've made a trip to the bathroom and my feet are nice and cold!

Saturday, January 19, 2008 - Another day of snow so soon?

The weather people have been warning us most of the week that we will once again have snow and maybe sleet and ice today and tonight. Did we believe them? Well, maybe a little, but sometimes it's hard to take them seriously. After all this is the week end. We almost always have bad weather during the week.

I had warned my daughter last night, bad weather was coming in again, possibly sometime even as early as later in the night. She acted totally shocked! Does this child never watch television or listen to the radio? Apparently not. That's the job for her mother, I suppose. (I'm also the official tornado warner for her, too, only I have been known to assume she would know when there was bad weather around.) Anyway she was forewarned this time about the snow, sleet, ice, cold weather, etc.

We had no signs of bad weather when we left her house last night around 9:00-9:15. Still not a lot of anything special this morning. Seems the front decided to stall along the way. By around 9:00 this morning I called my sister to see if they intended to walk this morning, knowing full well they wouldn't move their bodies out of the house if there was a possibility of a single snowflake touching the ground around us. She surprised me, however, and called back around 10:00, after obviously carefully deliberating and weighing all the pros and cons of how much snow would or would not hit the ground within the next hour or so.

As we were leaving the house we did see a few drops of moisture on the windshield and even a fat, fluffy flake on occasion as we made our way to the mall. We each even made our guys give us a ride to the drive thru so we wouldn't get our little heads wet, just in case the sky should drop a flake between the car and the door.

(Let me get a little off course here to tell something my husband and I both noticed upon arriving at the drive thru. It was blocked by a car in the right hand lane and at about the time we wanted to go thru an armored truck pulled up and stopped. The car in the right lane pulled up a bit and the armored truck was in the left lane. We could see a couple of guys standing outside the door, not really talking to each other, but maybe standing a little apart, but something about them just drew my attention to them as kinda strange. Just made me a little suspicious. So thought my husband, and apparently the armored truck guy also, because he didn't stay there any length of time before he hit the petal to the metal and he was out of there.

I don't think he moved out of courtesy to let us get there. And I don't think he had made a wrong turn into that shopping mall today, either. I believe he wasn't taking any chances, and for that, I thank him because I've had enough of being in the wrong place at the right time lately. Case in point...right before Christmas or right after Christmas, I really can't remember which because I failed to mark it on my calendar for future reference, we needed to stop by the local grocery store on the way home from walking. My husband had decided to play nice and since it was a colder than we had had recently day, he gave me a ride to the front door. He was going to park and then come into the store. I had noticed a couple of police cars sitting out front, but really didn't think a lot about it. I got out and started around the back of our car when this police officers says, "Don't go in that store, ma'am, there's a hold up?robbery in progress." I'm not sure which word he used exactly, but he didn't have to tell me twice. I immediately started trying to find where my husband had parked, but in the meantime, I noticed several other people who also weren't allowed in the store, one being an employee. I walked over and asked if that was what the officer had said, and they said that was right. It dawned on me if there was a hold up or robbery inside, what the heck were we doing standing there in open view so they could shoot us up on the way out? The police office was hiding behind his car. Duh! I mentioned this to the people around me, and they all ran that thought through their little brains and at the same time we all scattered. We were all sitting ducks, for goodness sakes. Or, I guess we were more standing ducks. I found the car, got in and we waited it out. (Oh, and big brave husband was still hiding safely in the car, not bothering to let me know where he was parked! I had to search for him.) But since I didn't want to miss out on all the excitement, as I said we waited it out. Hey, I'd gone through this much, might as well see it through to the end. They cleared the way for us to go into the store and we all went about our shopping without any problems, so I don't know if it was a possible shoplifter and they had carried him/her into the manager's office to talk to him/her, whether it was really a robbery/hold up of the little bank inside the store, or whether it was just a joke. Anyway, that was beyond a doubt the most exciting part of my day that day, then I went home and promptly forgot to blog about it...if I was even blogging at that time!) I've been known for getting myself into a lot of things in my lifetime, so I shouldn't be too surprised. It's just that I'm getting too old for too much excitement anymore. Things aren't like they used to be. Like thirty five years ago I found some kind of weird excitement in sliding sideways down an ice slicked hill hitting any mailboxes in the path of the car. Yep, that happened! Before children. Now, I'm pretty content to stay close by home when I know there's ice out there.

Back to the original story...the relatives arrived and we made our first round around the mall and when we looked outside what did we see? Snow coming down so thick we couldn't believe it. My sister immediately says as she shakes and shivers from fright, "Ohhhh, we've got to get home!" Heck, I was surprised they came out in the first place! But we did stick it out for another round and even though it was a good amount of snow we all made it home alright. I guess. I haven't heard anything else from them, so I guess they made it home alright.

As for us, we had to make a side trip by Costco for some more groceries. This weather always makes people feel the need for more food. We think we're going to be stuck for at least a month without anything to eat or drink and we can dream up more things we just have to have to make it through.

What would a day like this be without a good hot bowl of potato and dumplings like my Mama used to make? Good old comfort food! Only problem was I forgot to add the chicken bouillon cubes and after finally figuring out what was missing, had to go back and add that. It wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be, but after playing around with the bouillon it was better. And since I was making dumpling I made another pan of biscuits. Just in case we're iced in and we need them for breakfast tomorrow.

Make mental note to self: self, don't use red potatoes again in the potato and dumplings. They don't have enough starch in them. Since it was all I had, it was better than nothing.

My daughter and son-in-law had planned to take my husband and me out for dinner tonight to celebrate his birthday. Since the weather wasn't so great, we took a rain check on that. Happy birthday, Sweetie. It's not been that awful just being stuck in the house all day alone with me, has it? I didn't think so.

And what were you doing four years ago?

You can’t tell me what you were doing four years ago? Neither could my husband or my daughter. Apparently some things are more important to some of us than to others. To me it marks a very big day for me. It was four years ago that I fell and broke my arm at the wrist area.

We had both gone with our daughter and son-in-law to Knoxville, TN where he would begin class at his beloved University of Tennessee to complete his Masters degree. This would be a chance for us to help our daughter get a few things in order and then be able to spend a few days with her the next week before she started a full-time job in Tennessee.

My daughter and I rode in her car with a cat named Jezebel, while Jezebel’s adopted sister rode with my son-in-law in his truck. My husband followed along behind. We were lucky enough to get the psychotic cat that decided to spend the entire trip up howling and screaming from her cage in the back seat. But all things considered the trip was pleasant.

We arrived at the apartment, finished unloading the vehicles, got the psychotic cat from the cage and let her find a hiding place that she would continue to hide in for approximately the next year and a half or longer that they were there.

Finally, we were finished enough to go eat and it was getting a bit dark outside. Many times my daughter had made the comment, “Watch those steps, watch those steps.” And we had. Many times. Most of the trips were made by her Daddy and hubby as they unloaded. We mostly took the things from the top of the stairs and moved them in.

It was between 8:15 and 8:30 as we were leaving the apartment and somehow I managed to fall up the bottom step. It was a different height from the others and easy to misjudge even though I had been warned, and I just gracefully fell. Just completely fell up the step. I tried hard to keep anybody from knowing I had fallen. That’s always my first reaction. I don’t like to be embarrassed by showing just how dumb I can be by ending up on the ground. I scrambled as fast as I could to get up. My daughter was right there with me when I did it and she was afraid I had been hurt. I could tell my arm wasn’t exactly right, but I kept ignoring it because we were trying to eat and get back to the apartment so my son-in-law could get back and to bed early. He either had class the next day or was starting his new job and needed to be out early.

My daughter kept asking if I was alright and suggested maybe we should go by the emergency room and have it checked out. I kept assuring her all was well, until finally I realized it probably wasn’t really alright after all and maybe I had better have it checked out rather than pulling my son-in-law out of bed in the middle of the night for a trip to the emergency room. I figured he would get over it faster having to delay his dinner than having to lose sleep later, so I said, “Maybe we should just stop by and get it checked out.”

My daughter said she told her husband something was really wrong for me to agree to go to the hospital. And she was right. This wasn’t the time to be a martyr. I may have been stupid, but I wasn’t completely crazy enough to know there was some pain that would be probably much worse later on. I have a good tolerance of pain and sometimes it tends to get me in trouble because I do put things off when I shouldn’t, but this was one time I made the right decision.
After waiting in the emergency room and being x-rayed in several places, they took me back to my daughter and her daddy. She asked me if they had said whether or not it was broken. They hadn’t, so I asked if they had told them. She said, “Yes, the doctor said it was broken.” I think it made me mad more than anything. Mad that I now wasn’t going to be able to help her get her things organized like we had planned. Mad that we would have to go back home earlier than we had planned because I would have to have a cast put on it back home. They put on a temporary cast there, but that would have to come off very soon.

Long story short, the doctor fixed it up, sent me home with a prescription for pain (which I did get filled even though I was pretty sure I wouldn’t need it, but again, I knew my son-in-law wouldn’t forgive being awakened at night because I had been so stubborn,) and went back to their apartment. That night I even took a dose of the medicine, just in case I would need it in the middle of the night. I didn’t regret taking it.

I spent the next day or so supervising (?) while my daughter put her things away where she wanted them. It wasn’t as much fun as it was supposed to have been and we didn’t get to spend that time later in the week with her we had planned, but in spite of everything we did enjoy our time there.

Always every trip afterwards we still heard the same, “Watch that step, watch that step”. And we really were more aware of those steps.

We missed the kids while they were off in Tennessee doing their thing, but we had a lot of fun visits with them during their time there. I was introduced to A. C. Moore and another of the little scrapbooking stores in the area as well as several visits to Pigeon Forge/Sevierville to check out one of the large scrapbooking stores there. It’s probably a good thing for my pocketbook they finally moved back home.

And how do I know what I was doing four years ago tonight? Because it happened on the eve of my husband’s birthday and two weeks shy of my 60th birthday. So, now you know how I can remember!