May came in like a Lamb, Left Like a Lion

May began so wonderfully on May 2nd when Mary, Kevin, Liz, Chris and I headed to Sarasota, the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. We came back on May 9, planning to hold some kind of memorial for Kathy's birthday on May 23, as requested by her kids.

For the next few weeks I worked frantically printing out 150 pictures, as Mary, Susie and my Granddaughter, Anna made three scrapbooks for Kathy's husband David and her two daughters to share with young David. What a job and how hard it was to relive all those moments in pictures. We planned and executed a dinner for the whole family and presented them with the scrapbooks after we ate.

I also found out that Susie (Kathy's daughter) was going to give me a Great-Grandchild which was so bittersweet, as Kathy would have been so thrilled. If only ..

We also planned and carried out a surprise 50th birthday party for my Sue. She may have suspected something, but never in a million years did she know her daughter Jennie and her son were coming in too, along with Jennie's three month old baby, Sue's first Grandchild. More printing of family pictures for posters for Sue. I blew up a big picture of Sue which we cut out and pasted on paper plates, attached a craft stick to the back for everyone to be wearing Sue's face as she arrived. Kinda scary to see all the Sues in our back yard.

And then . . . I had my CT scan and mammogram. I needed to have an ultrasound on my right breast, but it showed nothing wrong nor did the CT scan see any sign of cancer, just scar tissue from the radiation. However, since a week ago last Thursday, the pain in my back and left breast are literally breathtaking when I move my arm to pick up something or lean over to pick up something or just to put on my shoes.

Ed (my son, the doctor) gave me some pain patches to use, as I can only take extra strength Tylenol, and I tried them, but got nauseated and my eyes got all squiggly, so forget the patch. I get a bone scan on Monday. In the midst of all that, Martha and Joe bought a house and are moving today. I will miss them a lot, but am so happy for them. They lived here since 2002. It will be so good for them. As for how Chris and I will manage, only time will tell. We are supposed to go out in fifteen minutes to celebrate Mary's birthday, but had to go upstairs to get Chris, only to find out she didn't answer me because she was taking her hour and a half shower. It's things like that which will drive me bonkers.

Anna and her boyfriend and two dogs have moved back to Oklahoma. I miss them too.
We went from seven adults and two dogs living here to just Chris and me and Sue who is only here on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday night. Mary is so worried, but I don't think she needs to worry (yet). I'm a tough old broad (wait, did I just say OLD???)

Anyway, that's what's been happening in my corner of the earth. I keep reading my favorite blogs from my favorite people, Kim, Sandy, Bobbi, my daughter, Liz and my Granddaughter, Karen, so don't think I've forgotten any of you. This is the first day I'm trying to get back to some semblance of a normal life.

I know this is way too long and not a very funny blog, but it does explain why you haven't heard from me in a long while. I miss you all so very much. Hopefully, I'll see you all this month. I'll let you know.

Special memories

I had forgotten about this event until my granddaughter Elizabeth posted it on Facebook.

It all began when my son and I went to an estate sale a few months before Christmas.
My eyes were immediately drawn to a table full of vintage hats and in one of those brilliant flashes I so seldom get, a voice began whispering in my head, "Christmas presents, Christmas presents". The prices ranged from two dollars a hat to five dollars for the ones with feathers and veils.

It was late in the afternoon and few people were still there, so I approached the salesperson running the sale and asked, "Would you sell all the old hats for $5.00?"
"It's a deal", she sighed, probably thinking I was crazy for wanting them.

I was now on a mission and pursued it with a passion. Garage sales were perfect places to purchase prom and bridesmaid dresses, some as cheap as two dollars. junk jewelry, white gloves, some full-length gloves and even a cheap wedding gown to go with two others I had acquired, along with a veil.

Working furiously, I cut off hems, using the cut-off material for capes and sewed the hems of the dress-ups so they wouldn't drag on the floor, visited the dollar store for earrings and more jewelry, collected my old high heels and was almost ready for Christmas. I bought under-the-bed boxes for the five girls and tissue-wrapped three outfits apiece, complete with white gloves, necklaces, earrings and high heels and those vintage hats, Christmas-wrapped their boxes and then . . . the doubts set in. Would they think it was a dumb present, as that was all they were going to get from me?

Well, when they opened their boxes, the squeals of delight made the boys look on in envy and I wished I had done the same for the younger boys. The entire week everyone was here, all we heard was the clopping of heels and no sight of them until they were forced to come down to eat dinner. It was the most memorable Christmas present they ever got and if you asked them about their favorite present, they would always say, "Oh, the year Grandma made us those outfits".

Second Weddings are more fun

I had the pleasure of attending my son's second marriage to his wife of 25 years at the church they attend, as they renewed their wedding vows. It was a big surprise to Karen, as she had no idea he planned to do this. His best man was there as was Karen's maid of honor.

At the appropriate time, Greg asked everyone to go to the chapel and turned to Karen, held up a bread wrapper twisted into the shape of a ring and announced to one and all, "This is the original ring I gave to Karen when I first proposed".

This was my son who always seemed to be a real Red Neck, arguing about anything and everything, just to get his dad riled up. He was a real character. Somehow, he grew up and became a caring, loving individual, planning this charming ceremony for his wife.

Their first wedding was not as charming as this one, since he fainted while getting married the first time. We watched in horror as we saw his legs start to wobble and he turned deadly white. Just as I turned to tell my husband, "watch Greg, I think he's going to fall", down he went, out cold, and was carried off the altar while Karen looked on aghast. Ten minutes later, he was back and the wedding ceremony proceeded as usual.

You can imagine all the comments at his twenty-fifth exchange of vows. Being an old pro by now, he breezed through this one. I think everyone who has been married that long should have a "renewal of vows" party. I wish Ed and I had done the same thing, but we did have a fantastic twenty-fifth surprise party thrown by my kids.

Spring cleaning the easy way - Who Knew?

I am one lucky Grandma. My Grand-daughter Katie was kind enough to offer to come over to help me by cleaning my room. It was an amazing transformation, which took two days to accomplish. I swear, I never knew I could accumulate so much junk.

Along with the junk, there was a thick coating of dust over everything she touched. My bookcase is now lighter by twenty-four books and two inches of dust. Poor Katie was sneezing constantly. The second day, the windows were opened wide immediately. She's a quick learner, that one. After hanging some pictures and rearranging some things, my bedroom now looks like a Better Homes and Garden room.

Today, she came over to clean out the stuff under my bed, as I'm getting a new box spring Tuesday. Yikes! Two massive under-the-bed boxes filled with summer clothes and three boxes of pictures later, my room is now spic and span.

If I can get her over here for another few days, I can probably coerce her into doing my whole downstairs.

Movies and More Than I Bargained for

Sometimes just going to a movie is worse than the movie itself. Mart, Chris and I went to the Wherenberg theatre last week. While waiting in the lobby for them to get the tickets, I noticed tables were set up for children to get fingerprinted for the kids' ID program. There were several people dressed in costumes, I guess to make the kids feel like it was a fun activity.

Waiting patiently for Mart and Chris, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see this old geezer, dressed as a baby, only inches from my face. In a conspirator's whisper, he took my hand and said, "I'll bet you would like some candy". With that, he dumped a fistful of candy in my hand. "No, thank you, but I don't eat candy", I said rather frostily. "Give it up for Lent did you?", he asked. "Yes" was my short reply. "Well you are a good Catholic woman and you sure are darn cute", he responded.

Oh my dear sweet heaven, not only was I being bribed with a fistful of candy, but this guy dressed as a baby was hitting on me.

I saw with relief that Mart and Chris were coming in with the tickets and as we made our way to the ticket taker, "Baby" rushed over again and leaned over and tried to take my hand in his and said, "You really are darn cute".

If I ever hear the phrase again "Like taking candy from a baby" it will forever remind me of this episode. What movie could possibly compare with this?

Blogspot101

If anyone can mess up a blog, I can. The last post I did, I changed my prim picture to what I thought was my original picture "mom in cap", but when I posted it and "viewed blog", much to my horror and chagrin, my original picture was about a gazillion sizes too big and covered the entire top half of what I wrote.

Not only was my face endeavoring to eat the entire post in one big gulp, but it showed every blemish, flaw and unsightly feature of my face, up close and personal. So I did what any self-respecting blogger would do, I deleted the entire post forever. So my "memories are made of this" no longer exists and if I try (and I did try 4 times to find it) apparently I no longer existed either!

So to my dear granddaughters who reminded me that they had taken me to a show and spent the evening with me just a few nights before I complained about being lonely, I do apologize. And to those who were confused about my picture being the same instead of a new one, I'm sorry. I will go back and study Blogspot101 yet again.

A more dignified image, but not more fun

I was inspired to change my profile somewhat by a fellow blogger's changes in her blog. But I found that I look too dignified and anyone who knows me, would never call me that. Besides, I look so old! Who is that silver-haired stranger?

I plan to change my picture back whenever I get time, but gathering information together for the "TL" (tax lady) is a chore, with no one helping me to get everything together. Thank goodness I have Quicken or I'd never get my taxes done.

Mary and Kevin will be back tomorrow, thank goodness. I have really been in a funk since they left. For seven people living here, I might as well be on a desert island. When Joe is off work, I never lay eyes on either one of them. Everyone is working except Chris who has the Hannah Montana show memorized word for word in case she ever has a test to become an understudy. I'm pretty much on my own every day and most nights.

I know I shouldn't complain though, especially with Spring coming. I can hardly wait. It's my favorite time of year with days getting lighter and vacation to FL coming up. When taxes are done I'll feel a lot better. For some reason, I really dislike giving so much money to the government, but on the other hand I have enough to pay my taxes and still keep my home.

Now, where did I put that original picture?