Mother's Day

Camryn with flowers.

What a wonderful Mother's Day we had here yesterday.  The weather was perfect.  Kelly and Mom came over in the afternoon for a hamburger and hot dog cookout.  We stayed outdoors most of the day.  

Cammy and I gathered a few flowers from around the yard to make little centerpieces for the two outdoor tables.  We put tablecloths on the tables.




Ron blew the leaves off the patio, the kids picked up all the toys in the yard and Josh grilled the burgers and dogs.
  

Josh

My glass birdbath.

Kelly gave me a beautiful glass birdbath and brought a strawberry pie and potato salad.  Josh and Cyrise gave me a gorgeous white orchid.  They also brought home chocolate covered strawberries and an ice cream cake for all of us.  Jason called from Houston and talked for quite awhile.  It's always wonderful to talk with him.  

Reece and Aubrey went swimming and kept us entertained with their funny antics.  Mom loves being with the kids, and got such a kick out of all the crazy things they do and say.  Cammy talked her ear off, and Gina danced.  With four of them, there is always something going on.  They make us laugh.
  

Mom's gift bag, card and flowers.

I gave Mom a clock for her living room, a new lipstick and a Mary statue.  I bought her a scented jar candle, too, but forgot all about it until I took her home.  I'll take it to her tomorrow.  



Oh, and pretty pink vincas for the window boxes on her patio.  

The braided hibiscus Kelly gave her last year is blooming again.  We were not sure it would come back out, but it is doing great and has huge blooms.  She also has some pots of red begonias that have lasted for three or four years, a salmon pink geranium that continues to come back each year, and a large fern that I thought we would have to toss, but it surprised me by coming back to life.  I cut all the brown or dead leaves off a couple of weeks ago, and it looks pretty good.  Lots of new growth.

Ron planted the crepe myrtle that we got yesterday, and said that was another Mother's Day gift for me.  :o)  I love it.

Hope you had a great weekend and Mother's day, too.    

Fry Bread Recipe (And Shoes)

I've had a few requests for the recipe for the fry bread, so here it is, with my changes.









Cherokee Indian Fry Bread

2 C flour
1/2 C dry milk powder (I don't use this.  See note at the bottom).
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 T lard or Crisco (you could probably just use butter).
3/4 C warm water (see note at the bottom).
Cooking oil for frying.

NOTE:  (Instead of using powdered milk and water, I just used a scant cup of regular milk, warmed for a few seconds in the microwave).

Stir together flour, dry milk powder (if using), baking powder and salt.  Cut in lard/Crisco/butter until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.  (Mine never did look like coarse bread crumbs).  Stir in water (or regular milk).  Turn out onto floured surface; knead to a smooth ball, 10 to 12 strokes.  Divide dough into 8 balls.  Cover and let rest 10 minutes.  On floured surface, roll each ball to a 6 inch circle.  With finger, make a hole in the center of each.  Deep fry, one at a time, in hot fat (400 degrees) until golden brown, about 1 1/2 minutes on each side.  Drain on paper towels.  Makes 8  (These are best served hot).

I fried mine in a large skillet, 3 at a time.  I didn't measure the oil, just poured in what I thought was enough.  It didn't cover the tops of the bread; I turned them after 1 1/2 minutes or so. I drained them on a couple layers of napkins, since I was out of paper towels.

You can eat them plain, or put butter, honey or jam on them.  You can sprinkle them with powdered sugar for a sweet treat.  Or, best of all, you can use them for Indian Tacos.  Just use the same ingredients you use for tacos.  For example, refried beans or black beans, cooked ground beef, pork or chicken, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, chopped tomato, jalapeno peppers, etc.).  Put your taco ingredients on the fry bread and wrap the bread around them like a taco.  Add salsa.  Yummy!

When I took the picture of my moccasins, Reece and Aubrey wanted me to take pictures of their shoes, too.  So here they are.  :o)

Aubrey's Boots

Reece's Crocs

Changes

Lots going on in our lives right now.

Josh will start school tomorrow.  He has enrolled in the Hallmark College airframe and powerplant technology course.  The course will take about 15 months, so next spring he should graduate and will hopefully find a good, well-paying job that he enjoys.  I'm excited for him!

We bought a van over the weekend.  We need it with the grandkids getting bigger.  The truck was a tight squeeze for all 4 of them.  So now everyone will have his or her own seat and plenty of room.   It seats 7, so there's even an extra seat.  It's a silver Dodge Caravan, not new, a 2008, but it's loaded with extras and is very nice.  We had a Dodge conversion van for years, and it was a good one.  I hope this one will be even better.    

With Josh in school during the week, I'll be the one taking the kids back and forth to school now.

A Reecism:

A few days ago Reece and I were sitting on the couch, talking about reading and the sounds letters make.  I asked him to tell me some words that start with the B sound.

Reece:  "Ball."

Gramma:  Yes.

Reece:  "Banana."

Gramma:  Yes.

Reece:  "Baby."  

Gramma:  Yes, that's a good one.

Reece:  "Bastard."

Gramma:  Oh!  (trying not to laugh and covering it with a cough and an hmmm).  Yes, that's a B word, but you probably shouldn't share that one with your teacher.

Reece:  "Okay."

(I did not teach him that word).        

Mom and the Little Green Machine

(My mom with Reece and Camryn. She's so cute).

The weekend has gone by so quickly.

We watched the kids yesterday while Josh and Cyrise went to the river. I went to Mom's alone and vacuumed her living room in preparation for spot cleaning it today. I got her a Little Green Machine for pet spots. She forgets to take Teddy out as often as she should, which results in pee spots on the carpet.

Ron used the machine on a few spots last week, and I got up most of the rest of them today. I'm really pleased with how well it works. Some of the spots were pretty old, and her carpet is light colored, but it took most of them out. I'm going to borrow the machine to clean some spots on my carpet.

Mom never wants to sit by and relax when someone is cleaning. She wanted to help. It made her shoulders sore, but she was so happy. I was watching her as she sat on the carpet and cleaned some spots and it reminded me of how she was when we were growing up. She always worked so hard, and took pleasure in keeping her house clean and neat. I had a lump in my throat, watching her today.

The carpet looked so much better when we finished. Mom exclaimed over and over about what a good job the little machine did. It doesn't take much to make her happy. :o)

Reece and The Angry Birds

Reece has discovered Angry Birds. He has never played video games, but a little boy at school told him about Angry Birds several weeks ago, and he was very interested in them. Then his daddy put the game on my phone, so we were up late last night playing it. I can see how it can be very addictive, but he has limited access to my phone, so I'm not too worried. I really, really dislike video games, usually. I think they are time wasters and keep you from real life, so I've always been glad that Reece wasn't interested in them.

Last night he was sleeping with us and started laughing in his sleep. He laughed and laughed and woke me up. I asked him this morning what he was laughing about, but he didn't remember it at all. I love that he is such a happy little boy that he even laughs in his sleep. :o) He does it quite a bit.

Sandi and Gran will be here later. They will stop here on their way to Bryan and drop off Teddy, who will stay with Kelly while Gran is away. Kelly is looking forward to having Teddy join her dog pack again, and has plans to take him to the vet and to be groomed. She's such a treasure! I'm sure glad she loves dogs.

May you all have a peaceful and blessed Sunday.

Photo Credit

Whitsunday

Our Lord Jesus Christ, being seated on the right hand of God, sent, as He had promised, the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, who, after His Ascension, continued in prayer at Jerusalem, in company with the Blessed Virgin, awaiting the performance of His promise. Let us pray in like manner with the Church: "Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and kindle in them the fire of Thy love." (The Roman Missal, 1962)

We have a new priest at St. Pius X helping with the Latin Mass. His name is Father Moses of Jesus and he celebrated the Mass today. I like him. Here is where he is from. I'm excited to learn more about him and the Mission of Divine Mercy.

During his homily, he mentioned that the Sequence used in today's liturgy is a wonderful prayer for all of us sinners to pray, asking the Holy Spirit to be with us. It's a beautiful prayer.

Sequence

Come, Thou Holy Spirit, come,

and from Thy celestial home

shed a ray of light divine.

Come, Thou Father of the poor,

come, Thou source of all our store,

come, within our bosoms shine.

Thou of Comforters the best,

Thou the soul's delightful guest,

sweet refreshment here below.

In our labour rest most sweet,

pleasant coolness in the heat,

solace in the midst of woe.

O most blessed Light divine,

shine within these hearts of Thine,

and our inmost being fill.

Where Thou art not, man hath nought,

nothing good in deed or thought,

nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew,

on our dryness pour Thy dew,

wash the stains of guilt away.

Bend the stubborn heart and will,

melt the frozen, warm the chill,

guide the steps that go astray.

On Thy faithful who adore,

and confess Thee evermore,

in Thy sevenfold gifts descend.

Give them virtue's sure reward,

give them Thy salvation, Lord,

give them joys that never end.

Amen. Alleluia.

Quiet Sunday Afternoon

I started a post yesterday, got interrupted and thought I'd saved it as a draft, but instead I accidentally published it. When I saw that it was published today, I tried to delete it, but it's still in the Google Reader. I don't know how to delete things from there. Oh well, if you find the post you'll see that I use stream of consciousness writing, then I go back and edit out most of it. :o)

Anyway, Ron's been in the middle of some big exercise, so he had to work yesterday (Saturday), which made it seem like it wasn't the weekend. He said that he would have to work today, too, so we decided to go to the evening Mass. Then he didn't go in after all. So Reece and I went to Gran's at lunch time to give her her meds and because I was driving the truck instead of the car, I didn't have her meds with me when I got there. (Ron had been taking them to her, so he had them in the car).

I took Mom a bunch of leftovers--pasta from Friday, part of a pork roast, broccoli and roasted fingerling potatoes, french bread and sliced tomatoes from yesterday. She enjoyed a big lunch on her patio. Reece kept her company out there while I cleaned up inside.

The tomato in the picture is one of my Cherokee purples. They aren't very pretty--from what I've read they usually have those cracks in the top. But it doesn't affect the taste, and they are very delicious. Not as acidic as most tomatoes.

That's one of my morning glories that I planted in March. The blue ones are big and pretty, but the pink and white ones are smaller. I like all of them, though.

Yesterday Reece and I went looking for a drawing book and pencils and he found a windmill that works by solar power. It looks like the old windmill that he loves so much, so of course we had to buy it (Hobby Lobby in the crafts aisle). His daddy put it together for him when we got home, and he is learning about solar energy and how it works. :o) As we were walking into Hobby Lobby, a lady coming out asked me if I had a coupon. When I said no, she gave me a 40% off coupon, so we got a good deal on the windmill. Wasn't that sweet of her? :o)

Guess I'll go see what is going on downstairs. It's hard to get a minute to post as Reece is always looking for me! And when he finds me on the computer, he always wants to watch a video.

Little Sunday Pleasures

Blue-eyed grass.

Big doggie grins.

A rose (every day lately) on my kitchen sink.

Baby tomatoes! Eight of them!

Lots of blooms on the tomato plants, so more babies to come.

And a baby cowhorn pepper.

Americana music station on the radio, on the patio.

Birdsong. Everywhere.

The scent of my tea olive.

Carnitas for lunch.

And the day is only half done, so I'll be back to post more Sunday pleasures later. :o)

And now it is Monday. I didn't get back to the computer yesterday after all. Josh stopped by and Reece stayed with us so he could go to Mass with us Sunday evening. They had been to feed the goats and donkeys. Fortunately he had clothes here to wear to Mass. Once again he was very good at Mass.

We stopped for dinner at Chester's after Mass. Reece had us laughing the whole time, and a lady at the next table as well. He was just delighted to be having dinner out with us and his joy was overflowing.

Reece and I took Papa to the airport this morning. Papa will be gone for another week. Then we went to Gran's and made her some brownies. We came back to my house and his daddy picked him up. They were going to Lowe's. Reece loves to go to Lowe's with his daddy.

Here's what I saw when I woke up this morning. The sweetest little pleasure of all. :o)

Sunday Evening

My sister Sandi is in town. She got here yesterday evening. It's always so nice to have her here.

She stays with Mom when she visits. She came by and got me this afternoon (in her new car, a Nissan Rogue--very nice) and we went shopping for a coffee pot and groceries for Mom. Mom's hip is still bothering her, so she stayed home. I know she was glad to get the groceries.

I went to Mass by myself this evening. Ron wasn't feeling well. We both caught the kids' colds, but it seems to be affecting him more than me. We thought he might feel like going if we waited until evening, instead of going this morning, but that didn't happen. I went to Atonement again. I feel very much at home there. Mass was beautiful.

When I got home Ron went to get us something to eat. He brought home Chipotle, which I like very much. I had a burrito bowl, carnitas (shredded pork), black beans, rice, lettuce, salsa and sour cream--yum.

Two of my cousins are coming to visit tomorrow. I haven't seen them for a long time and am looking forward to their visit.

Hope you've had a lovely, peaceful Sunday.

Weekend Knitting

Here's the dish cloth (or wash cloth) and hat I made over the weekend. I threw in the little baby hat I made some time ago just because it is so cute. :o) It's premie sized.

The wash cloth is made of cotton yarn (can't remember the brand, and the label was missing). The hat is a wool blend, lightweight, warm and very stretchy.

I bought 5 skeins of the wool-ease yarn on sale for $1 each last year, and I probably used 1/4 of a skein for the hat, so it cost 25 cents (and lots of time). What a bargain. :o)

I like the shaping on the hat. The edge and top is garter stitch, the body stockinette. I don't like the seam in the back though. I am terrible at hand-sewing. I need to learn to knit in the round--no seams.

Ron, Mom and I went to Mass on Sunday, then had lunch at Luby's. Mom's back was bothering her. I gave her two tylenol when we got back to her place, and we found the heating pad. When we left she was planning to relax on the sofa with Teddy and watch TV with the heating pad on her lower back. I won't see her today. Ron is taking her meds to her on his lunch hour.

It got up to 76 degrees yesterday. Ice, snow and below freezing temps on Friday, 76 on Sunday. It won't be quite that warm today, but it is beautiful outside. Ron worked on the playset yesterday, I knitted and helped him whenever he needed help. It was a nice day.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

It's been a quiet Sunday. We went to Mass, then had lunch at Mom's (beans and rice with cornbread--carb overload)! :o)

I didn't use all of the lights and garland on the stairs that I usually use, so decided to put the leftover garland and lights on the patio. I asked Ron to get the ladder from the garage for me, and of course he took over the task of hanging them. (I didn't plan it that way. No, really). ;o) They look so cute. Now it will be Christmasy when the guys sit out on the patio smoking cigars and drinking their Jamison. Josh says we need a new chiminea. The bottom fell out of the old one, so I guess he's right.

We don't have any lights in the front, just a wreath on the front porch, but I like to put electric candles in the upstairs windows. I need another extension cord.

I got boxes at the Dollar Tree. I'm going to wrap presents tonight. The grands from Houston will be here this week, and I don't dare leave unwrapped gifts around, even hidden in my closet. I also got a box of Christmas cards for Mom. Her neighbors have given her several, and she wants to reciprocate. We'll probably give them a little gift, too. One year we gave loaves of orange cranberry bread, last year small tins of fudge. This year we're thinking little bags of cookies tied up with pretty ribbon.

See that little handcrafted ornament in the picture? I guess it's some kind of Santa Claus. I got it years ago. It's made from a small pine cone, some gesso, a bit of paint and a sprig of garland. It used to scare the heck out of our oldest grandson when he was little. If it was on the tree, I'd have to take it off and put it away when he was here.

I hope you're enjoying your Christmas preparations. Less than a week now! Veni, Emmanuel!

Veni, Veni Emmanuel

Today we began the beautiful season of Advent. We will use the next 4 weeks to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ.

I have an Advent calendar to share with Reece. We will prepare for Christmas slowly, first putting out the Advent wreath and candles, then the nativity set, to which we will add the pieces a few at a time. The tree will go up with only lights until Gaudete Sunday, when we will put on all of the ornaments. I'm looking forward to thinking of other ways to celebrate Advent with him.

To get a better idea of what Advent means to Catholics, please read the excerpt below.

From the Roman Missal, 1962:

The liturgical texts used during the four weeks of the season of Advent remind the faithful of the "absence of Christ." The Collects of Advent do not end with "through our Lord Jesus Christ," as during the rest of the year. In a spirit of penance and prayer we await the Mediator, the God-Man, preparing for His coming in the flesh, and also for His second coming as our Judge. The Masses for Advent strike a note of preparation and repentance mingled with joy and hope; hence, although the penitential purple is worn and the Gloria is omitted, the joyous Alleluia is retained. The readings from the Old Testament contained in the Introit, Gradual, Offertory, and Communion of the Masses, taken mostly from the prophecies of Isaias and from the Psalms, give eloquent expression to the longing of all nations for a Redeemer. We are impressed by repeated and urgent appeals to the Messias: "Come, delay no longer." The Lessons from St. Paul urge us to dispose ourselves fittingly for His coming. The Gospels describe the terrors of the Last Judgment, the Second Coming, and tell of the preaching of St. John the Baptist "to prepare the way of the Lord."

In Advent, the Greek Church celebrates particularly the ancestors of Our Lord--all the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Testament, but especially Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Latin Church also mentions them often in this period. In the Breviary, many texts are taken from Isaias (Introit of the second Sunday, Communion of the third Sunday).

The idea of Advent is "Prepare you for the coming of Christ." Therefore the very appeals of the Patriarchs and Prophets are put in our mouths in Advent. Prepare for the coming of Christ the Redeemer, who comes to prepare us for His Second Coming as Judge.

When the oracles of the Prophets were fulfilled and the Jews awaited the Messias, John the Baptist left the desert and came to the vicinity of the Jordan, bringing a baptism of penance to prepare souls for the coming of Christ. The world took him to be the Messias, but he replied with the words of Isaias: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare ye the way of the Lord."

During Advent we make straight for Christ the way to the our souls--and behold, our Lord will come at Christmas.

October Sunday

Guess where we went today. :o) Yes, the Pumpkin Patch! Reece had a great time. He likes pumpkins and enjoyed just walking around looking at them. We rode on a hay wagon pulled by a tractor. He thought that was fun.

They had a place to take pictures--hay bales stacked up, with fall flowers, pumpkin and scarecrows--but Reece didn't really want to sit down for pictures, as you can see by his expression. :o)

We bought three pumpkins and he is thrilled with them. His Papa drew a face on one of them, but we'll wait until a little closer to Halloween to carve them. We learned our lesson about carving too soon last year when our Jack-O-Lantern went bad a few days before Halloween.

Reece wanted to make cookies, so I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I thought he was going to help me, but he was more interested in helping Papa with the Jack-O-Lantern face. :o) He liked the cookies, though.

Cyrise called to say that she had made lots of chicken stir fry for dinner, so we had dinner with the kids when we took Reece home. It was fun to see Aubrey and Camryn, to hold Camryn on my lap and give her bites to eat. They are so sweet. Aubrey was acting bashful when we first got there. She would hide her eyes behind her hands whenever we paid attention to her. But after awhile, she got over that. I had planned to take her with us to the pumpkin patch, but they were both napping when I picked up Reece. We will have to do something special with them.

It was nice to go to Mass today. It's been a few weeks since we've been because of my illness, and i've missed it. I still didn't feel well during Mass, or at Mom's afterward. We had taken some leftovers to her place to have for lunch, but I didn't want anything while we were there. Later Ron got me a little pizza from Schlotsky's, and I ate every bit of it and felt much better after that. Eating is a sort of catch-22 for me. Eating helps to keep the nausea away, but sometimes the nausea keeps me from wanting to eat.

I love the last picture of Reece as a very solemn pilgrim. He also wanted to pose with the woman pilgrim because she was holding a pie. :o)

This And That

Ron took a picture of one of our climbing peace roses today. Isn't it pretty? There are buds all over the bush; I guess it likes the cooler weather. They smell so good, too.

We went to the hospital this morning for blood tests. I did wind up getting a platelet transfusion, which was no surprise. I don't have to go back until Wednesday.

We left there around noon and went to Mom's. It's nice to have her home again. She and Sandi went with us to Cracker Barrel for lunch. Sandi had to go back home this afternoon, so we didn't get to spend much time with her.

Teddy looks so cute with his new haircut. I'm sure he is happy to be home again, too, but I think he's going to miss Kelly and her dogs. Kelly is already making plans to bring Hunter to visit him. :o)

There is a lady who had her stem cell transplant a couple of weeks before I had mine; I see her often when I'm at the hospital. We had a chance to talk for awhile today, and I am relieved to know that what I'm experiencing seems to be common. As she talked, I could relate to nearly everything she said has happened to her. I was especially concerned about my low energy level and constant fatigue, even though the doctors keep telling me that is to be expected. But she is going through the same thing. She also mentioned how food doesn't taste right, and the constant queasy feeling, which along with the fatigue are my main complaints. Although I hate that she is experiencing these things, too, it comforts me to know that someone else understands exactly what I'm talking about.

The funny thing about Mrs. S is that the nurses are always getting us mixed up. I have to make sure they don't have her name on my lab work. She said they are always calling her by my name, too. I guess I can understand why--we're both short, smallish, bald ladies, about the same age, we dress similarly, and have the same kind of disposition.

I played frisbee with the puppies for a little while this evening. They never want to stop playing, once we get started. I sat on the patio with them while they ate their dinner. They're in their kennel now, happy to be inside. They will probably go out one more time tonight, but for now they are snoozing and content.

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend!

Not Much To Say

Lovely High Mass today. We sang Lift High The Cross--reminded me of my Lutheran days.

Asian buffet for lunch. General Tso's chicken. Yum.

Little rain showers this afternoon.

Criminal Minds marathon on TV.

A quiet, restful Sunday. Naps and foot rubs.

Not looking forward to the bone marrow biopsy tomorrow.

Have a great week, dear readers!

Yes!

They harvested some stem cells today! My count needed to be above 10 before they would attempt it, and mine was 12. So they went ahead with it, but I'm going to have to go back tomorrow and probably Tuesday to do it again.

My body isn't making white blood cells as quickly as it was in past weeks. It's probably because of the Rituxan that I had last week. The purpose of the Rituxan was to kill any cancerous cells that might have been floating around in my body before they did the harvest. I continue with the Neupogen shots each morning, and I'm feeling some aching in my back today, which is a good sign that I'm making white cells.

The harvesting process wasn't too bad. I was pretty apprehensive this morning, but once the procedure began I was able to relax. Now that I know what to expect, I won't be as anxious tomorrow.

They used the central line to take blood from my body. The blood went through the machine, which separated it into layers. They programmed the machine to take out the stem cell layer, which it did. It can't take out just the stem cells, but also takes some red and white cells and platelets along with the cells, but not too many. Blood was returned to my body through the other "nozzle" on my central line. It wasn't painful at all. I was told to let them know if I felt any tingling sensation in my fingers or around my lips, which would indicate a low calcium level. I didn't have that, but if I had they would have given me more calcium.

The only unpleasant thing that happened was that I felt something like heartburn or reflux, but raising my bed to a more upright position and having something to drink helped that. Ron and I watched two movies during the procedure, which really helped to take my mind off things.

I had to go upstairs to the bone marrow transplant clinic after the stem cell harvest for another platelet transfusion. My platelets were pretty low before the harvest, and quite low after it. Fortunately, platelet infusion goes much faster than red blood, so we were only upstairs for a little over an hour.

I'm feeling tired. I thought it might just be from the Benedryl they gave me before the transfusion, but even after a little nap I'm still tired.

Here is a good, clear article about apheresis if you'd like more information.

Fat Lotta Good...

...that did.

Last night I put some shock in the pool. I didn't want the puppies in the pool while the chemicals were still strong, so I tried to block their path by putting the chairs from the patio across the steps where they usually go in.

This morning when I let them outside they went exploring around the yard, and then decided to take their morning dip. The chairs didn't deter them one bit.

Katy is looking at me all innocent, as if to say, "I didn't do anything. It was Sister!"

But she is just as guilty as her sib; her wet coat tells the story.

Sister: "Rats! Caught in the act by Mom!"

The pictures are hazy because I was shooting through the (dirty) patio doors. If I had gone outside, they would have been all over me, and I didn't feel like getting wet.

Getting Ready for Chemo

(Facade of Mission San Jose, one of the old churches along San Antonio's Mission Trail).

Mass was lovely today. Fr. Mesa, the parochial vicar, was the priest. His homily was very nice, about faith, hope and love and the two "schools" where we learn about those virtues, prayer and penance. And his Latin was pretty good, too. :o)

Mom's chicken turned out very yummy--moist and full of flavor. We made some mashed potatoes and corn, and she made gravy which was delicious! We had brownies for dessert. Kelly came for dinner, too. Mom was happy to be the hostess today. It was nice.

Kelly came to my house after we left Gran's, and wrote out a schedule for taking care of the dogs and Maggie. They were extremely happy to see her. Kelly will also be in charge of Gran's medications while I'm in the hospital. So a big load of worry has been lifted from my shoulders. Thank you, Kel!

Josh just came by, so I got to see him for awhile before I go into the hospital for a few days. His new job is going well, and he seems to like it. He works long hours, and six days a week, but he hasn't complained. He just bought himself a TomTom since he drives all over town for his jobs. His training period is just about over.

I'll probably not post on my blog until I get home. I can post from my iphone, but it's much easier from my computer. I can't get on the internet with my computer in the hospital, though. But I can read and answer email from my iphone.

So, see you Wednesday!

Beautiful Sunday Morning

Reece spent the night last night. We made chocolate fudge oatmeal cookies. He likes to eat the raw oatmeal, straight from the box. He said, "I yike these oatmeal seeds!" :o) Ever since he was a little bitty boy he has thought the Quaker Oat guy on the box is a picture of his Papa.

His papa took him to the store and bought him a Transformer car and motorcycle. I can never get those things back to the original after they've "transformed."

Reece played outside quite a bit, while Papa was vacuuming the pool.

He likes to go through the old toys in a box in one of the spare bedrooms. One day he asked what was in the box, and I said, "Oh, just a bunch of junk." So when he wants to play in there, he says, "Can I play with the junk?" We put batteries in the sleeping Ernie toy that was Caelen's when he was little, and it still works. Reece got so tickled when Ernie would talk and snore. :o)

Funny story about that Ernie. I was sleeping in the spare room one night, and just as I was falling asleep I heard someone say, "I feel great!" I thought Ernie must have shifted in the toy box and it made him talk, so I rolled over and was falling asleep again when I heard, "I feel great!" I finally had to get up and take the batteries out of the crazy thing. I guess they were going bad, and Ernie wouldn't shut up! Creepy.

Reece went with me early this morning to take Papa to the airport. I dropped him off at home on the way back. He and his mama were trying to decide what to have for breakfast when I left their house. The little girls were still asleep.

I'll pick Mom up for Mass in a bit. She was going to put a chicken in her crock pot last night for our Sunday dinner today. Kelly is joining us for dinner after Mass, then she will come over to my house for awhile. She is going to take care of Sister and Katy for me while I'm in the hospital, since Ron is out of town. She is my angel.

Hope you are having a beautiful weekend!

July Sunday

(Maggie Cat).

Mom and I had lunch out again today after Mass. We ate at Cracker Barrel. We had not been there for a long time, and both of us wanted chicken and dumplings. I just wish it wasn't always so crowded and noisy.

I wanted to get so much done this weekend while I still have energy and feel good, but my body still needs naps. I finally went to the grocery store this evening. I knew that I wouldn't feel like going shopping for awhile after the chemo tomorrow. Once again I am dreading it. It hasn't been quite 21 days, so I feel like I'm being cheated out of two days of feeling good.

I bought a Patricia Cornwall novel to read while I'm at the hospital tomorrow, and some snacks to take since I'll be there all day.

Josh and I worked on the pool a little bit today. He is going to come back tomorrow to clean the filters and brush it again. It might stay cleaner if the puppies would stay out of it! Josh will also go to Mom's for me, to take her meds to her. She will like seeing him. :o)

Talked to Ron this evening. He is still in Indiana, and said he is ready to come home. Unfortunately, he will be there until the end of the week.

Can't believe that 2010 is more than half gone! Christmas will be here before we know it.