Thursday Thoughts

[Ramblinrose]

Afternoon ya'll...

I was up early and out the door for a haircut. The receptionist confused the name of the girl I wanted to cut my hair with the one who did. Wasn't a drastic cut so I figured she couldn't mess it up much. Turned out she gave me a great one...am happy about that as the other girl who has been cutting my hair is pregnant so in a few months she'll be gone. Now I don't have to worry about who was going to take her place.

Visited Stein mart looking for some new things to wear and am very happy with what I found. Had to buy two new bras which falls into the same catagory as buying a bathing suit. It took me as long to find some that fit right as it did finding the clothes I ended up buying.

Did a stop at a different W mart to pick up a few things that I realized I needed and then made my way home. Last night I did get all my pixs...all 130 of them...made. Many were triplet pictures of "dead people". Hope my mom or my cousin will recognize a few faces. I was amazed at how clear the pictures were considering I made them with my iphone.

Anyway I divided the pictures into three piles, all in the same order, and then numbered the back of each picture in a pile. That way when we're sitting around talking and trying to figure out who these people are we can look on the back of the picture and make sure we are all talking about the same person. I bought inexpensive photo albums to put the pixs in and "stick and peel" labels to place on the photo holder. Am going to number them as well to match the number of the photo it is holding. Then I need to gather up all the information I have, place it in a notebook and pack it. Geesh, it gets complicated when two out of the three people you're working with either don't know how to use a computer or don't even own one. Doing this is like the "olden days"

I know all my efforts will be making many people happy, so I am taking that to heart...otherwise I might have lost what little mind I have left over all of this....

So sorry about your friend Kathryn..I agree that sometimes there are no words that help and the only thing you can do is be there and listen. I'm sure knowing that you care and there is a great help to your friend. Hugs to the both of you...

Glad to know you made it safely back home Sunny...your side trip sounds a bit like my up coming one when I go home ...visiting cemeteries and churches are on my list as well. In fact after I finish here I will be contacting the church where the cemetery is located to see if someone will be there to direct us to the grave site we will be searching for...I just hope it doesn't rain that day...cause I know rain or shine my 86 yr old mom and I will be trudging through that cemetery until we find what we came looking for.

Waving to ya'll...More to say, but I need to get on these pixture albums... Cya'll later...... ZOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

[bittersweet]

Wow! It's been somewhere beyond forever since I hung out in the village. I didn't even know that you were moving/had moved until I was clearing out my barely used email account this morning. I guess I should change it on here to the one I use more often.

Life has stayed as crazy as ever here. I still work at the puppy prison, still have a houseful of critters, and my DGKs are growing like weeds!! DGS is going into grade 3 this fall, and DGD will be 3 in October!!

Today is no exception - it's my "day off", and I've spent most of it running around doing errands and grocery shopping. There are a couple of other projects I'm working on - putting some old handwritten family recipes into a folder on my Google drive, assorted blankets, kitty blankets, and kittycat pads, the endless weeding (both in my garden and in Mum's), and decluttering. Oh yeah....that's still going on, slowly.

Now I need to get moving to put away the rest of the groceries and get supper started so DH can eat before he leaves for work.

Harriet, thanks so much for remembering the picture of Tiffany!! I'd love to have it back

Kathryn, as a mom who has lost a young child, I can assure you that your presence and unspoken support means far more than any words!

FelineFriend, nice to 'meet' you, too! Always great to have another crazy cat lady to hang out with.

helia, MW, DebMasterX, Sunny, and anyone else I missed, it's great to "see" you all again!

[Emptynester]

Hello all. I've missed posting a few days from running around. DH thanks you for the birthday wishes.

Yesterday was his follow-up Dr. appointment. Good news is that the surgical incision is healing well. Bad news is that he is now "officially" type 2 diabetic and suffering from Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) again.

We spent two hours in the grocery store trying to find things that he can eat. He is on a low salt and a low sugar diet. He will take water pills for a couple of days but all the rest of the treatment will be via his diet. Poor guy - I had to say no to most of the things he wanted. We filled up the cart with lots of veggies so that will help.

Today, however, since it is his birthday I am relaxing the diet. So lunch was strawberries and ice cream. Heavy on the strawberries and light on the ice cream. It is time for his bi-weekly steak, so that and lots of broccoli will work for dinner.

That's about all from here - no big monsoon rains for us - they have gone on all sides of us. We do get the cool air coming down the mountain and the wonderful smell of the wet desert.

[helia]

Wow, bsweet! Great to see you again! Your dgs is in 3rd grade?! Are you sure?! And dgbaby is 3? Wow, time flies.

Nice to see you, MT! The century plant in our local botanical gardens is starting to bloom - and I immediately thought of you when I heard about it! ((Mr. MT))

And Happy Birthday Wishes to Mr. MT!! I'm glad he can have a steak on his bday.


Nice to see Sunny here again, back from her travels. I have friends who live in Pburgh, so I've seen and heard about that incline! It seems like a really great city to live in.

Done:
x library
x bank
x Walgreens
X B and N - I need a fun book for the trip
x more emails
x 1 more lol
x tried to get a plan from dd18 to finish what she needs to finish before leaving

Dh gassed the van for me yesterday, so no need to do that today.

Ped Endo. never called back. I don't know if they renewed the script or not. We're kind of getting down to the wire. Dd16 is finishing mowing the lawn.

I'm now going to collect my thoughts on last minute todos before we leave while heating up leftovers for supper. . .

[Twins' Mom]

I am back home for now, dh and I are going out for dinner soon.

When I left earlier, I went to temple to sign cks and talked to secretary there for awhile. Then JCC for mother's meals, on to her house, where dbro pulled out a box of photos to look through. I'm excited that one was identified by dmom as my grandfather, who died in 1926. There is some family resemblance to my dfather, but OTOH there are a lot of things that dmom can't remember, and she and ddad didn't marry until 1947 so she never met or knew ddad's father. Dbro thinks he has a photo somewhere that was identified as paternal grandfather, but he "put it in a safe place" and can't find it for comparison. Am going to query via Facebook an older cousin of ddad's to see if she knows, and also ask about another unidentified photos. I took a photo of one picture of me c. 1958 and put in on Facebook for TBT.

I had ordered some clothes for dmom, but the two tops and one of the pants has to go back. (I wasn't sure about sizing because she has lost weight.) The other pants I need to take for hemming.

Last summer a dfriend took an outstanding photo of dMacs, and dh had it cropped and enlarged and mounted on canvas for me for our anniversary, which is end of August. It's over my desk right now and is lovely! What a sweet thing to do for me, especially since he says that dMacs rates ahead of him in my list of important people.

[FelineFriend]

Bittersweet, that's ME- another crazy cat lady to hang out with!

I did 2 more things on my 10 x 5 list:
I did stretching and yoga.
I sorted the mail, but did NOT do it yet....

I've only had 5.5 hours of sleep and all I seem to do today is LOL after LOL! DH bought Dgs a belt and while he was there, DH bought himself a tee-shirt in a pretty teal color ♥ and 3 pairs of underpants. They're size Large 36/38 and he's a 36, so the next size down: Medium, at a 32/34, couldn't fit him. He's wearing these new underwear temporarily, I'm washing/drying them so they'll shrink, and if he goes onto Insulin and gains weight, the underwear will fit. But if he's on the drug in the drug study, without the Insulin, he might lose, so he said he'd go to Macy's and get underwear that fits, at that time.

I don't know if I'll be able to answer my 2 letters I received today or not or if I'll be able to crochet on the dgd's Granny squares. I wanted to get these last 2 things done before 5 p.m. I am starting to think, since I am doing 10 things a day by 5 p.m. and 1 always doesn't get done and today, it's 2 things undone (so far by 5 p.m.) maybe I should make my lists 10 x 6 lists or else write a short 5 x 5 list and once that's done, do another round of 5 x 5. Maybe going with the 5 x 5 is the way. A better idea? With little sleep, it's hard to get everything done.

The dryer just dinged at me. It's bathrobes in need of their belts. Then, I'm off to dry another load and start the last LOL.

Have a GREAT later afternoon and evening!
Will "try" to BBL.

[Nancy]

We loacated the life vests.
I have been working on the tree branch that broke off trying to pick fruit off of it. It is quite a job. Taking a cool down break. Dgd left when dd came this afternoon so I did not get the help that I was anticapating. Sigh. The house is in need of attn. As well.

[bittersweet]

I haven't gotten much done since I last posted - watched a bit of a movie with DH, talked with Mum on the phone....that's about it. I got thrown completely off track when I checked my work emails (yes, I need a life so bad I check my work email from home! ) There was an email letting everyone know that Molly is being put to sleep tomorrow morning.

Four years ago, a lady came in and dropped off a "stray" cat - a large, very matted, long-haired calico cat. It turned out that it wasn't a stray at all, but her own cat that she decided she didn't want any more. We found all this out because the lady happens to be the cousin of a friend of mine. For some reason, everyone fell in love with this cat. She was opinionated, vocal, bossy, and downright annoying at times. However, she loved people...all kinds of people. Adults, children, men, women...didn't matter to her. Pet her, and she would just purr. We were allowed to keep her as a facility pet, and she became a source of stress relief for many. She was about 13 when she came in, and now she is 17. The past couple of months, we've noticed that her hair wasn't growing in properly (we keep her in a lion cut because when she first came in, she was too fat to even groom herself!). Then came more subtle behaviour changes - generally more quiet, less demanding. The facility vet checked her over, but couldn't find anything obviously wrong. Then two weeks ago, we noticed she was drinking water like there was no tomorrow. A blood test showed that she is diabetic. The bloodwork done in March was all normal, so this is quite sudden. We don't have people at the facility to give her both shots of insulin a day that she'd need. One shot a day could be managed with no trouble, but one every twelve hours...well..we aren't there that long each day. It would have meant someone taking her home to treat her, and given that she doesn't get along overly well with other animals, that wasn't going to work. We're all animal lovers and have pets of our own. A friend of mine has reached out to several cat rescues, but no one has the space or resources to take on Molly's care. I know that euthanasia is the right and humane thing to do - her quality of life is deteriorating...but it stinks!!!!!!!!!

Farewell, my friend.

[Sunny]

Hi again.

Happy Birthday Mr. MT!

We've had several waves of storms pass by us today, all thunder no rain until this evening when we had a short sprinkle. I did get the suitcases emptied and nested together again and most of the clothes put away. I took a walk around the yard to see what was blooming. The grass will need cut by this weekend. The dining room table got cleaned off, then I took a nap.

Kathryn, prayers for your music friend and family.

MT, I'm glad your dh is healing well from his procedure. My dh likes sweets, too, so we use sugar-free cake mixes.

Dee, hope you're feeling better again.

Helia, thanks for the welcome home. Wish you a good trip and wonderful birthday party for dfil.

Mystery, so cool that you come to Pittsburgh for games.

Pittsburgh is a wonderful city; lots of good history, charm, etc. A lot has changed in the time I was gone. There are more interstates connecting different areas of the city, new sports arenas and a new Science Center. We visited Heinz Field, ds was hoping it was open for a tour, but it wasn't. The closest we got was the gift shop! Point State Park looked nice also. I hope we can go back again and visit the museums and other things in Oakland.

Tomorrow I want to download all the pictures I took while in VA and PA.

Time for a little more cuop.

[FelineFriend]

Good Evening, Village Ladies- again!

I got my LOL all folded, hung and put away! I even washed my black embroidered fleece jacket from L. L. Bean, which says to dry on low OR line dry. I didn't want to shrink it, so I'm line drying it on a plastic hanger over the shower pipe/head in the glass-enclosed unused guest/main bathroom shower with the door closed, do my cat won't try to get up on the shower door to play with it. She gets on the bathroom counter, then gets on the back of the toilet (usually when I'm sitting down on it.) and then she jumps up high on this narrow metal frame to the glass tub doors, she balances on her little "balance beam," and then she leap-jumps into the bathroom tiny window high above the tub! I'm always afraid, as I sit there, she's going to fall on my head! But she's nearly 8.5 - 9 years old now, still can jump to that window, so I guess I'm safe for awhile. I "know" I didn't finish the LOL by 5 p.m., but at least it's done by 6:10 p.m.

Also, I got so ill from what I drank and ate today. I don't know what happened, but I ate yogurt, but didn't put Optifiber into it, because I was so hungry, eating in a hurry, and after that, I had coffee (which is NOT on the Gastritis Diet I'm "supposedly" following. After that, I ate a wrap from the store with wonderful white chicken, full of coleslaw and the coleslaw, plus iced tea (not on the diet again) AND more coffee, because I'm tired, all caught up with me and I got ill. But I have pills for it, from my Dr. and I'm fine now. I decided to have the plain strained Greek yogurt with Optifiber in it, take an extra probiotic, and settle down my tummy. I feel a LOT better.

I decided this evening, how I'll answer my pen pals, as I relax and the end of the day comes to a close. My 1 pen pal hadn't written in such a long time, so I thought 'did I say something wrong?' and 'did I offend her?' and 'maybe she dumped me as a pen pal.' She wrote today, had gotten real ill with arthritis, went to ER, but is better now. She said 6 pen pals, she'd been writing to, had dropped her and then, she said she dropped ladies who had 100+ pen pals, because they wrote once every 6 months. She said, by the time their letters came, when she went to reply, so much in her own life had already occurred in those 6 months, so it was hard to identify with her. She decided to keep pen pals she's only "bonded" with. Then, she went on to say she feels she's "bonded" with me, she views me as a good friend, and hopes we continue our pen pal relationship to get to know each other and hopes I feel the same about her. ♥ I felt so *GOOD* after she said all that, and here I'd thought she'd "dumped" me? Far from it. It's like Sally Fields at the Oscars: "SHE LIKES ME! SHE LIKES ME! SHE REALLY-REALLY LIKES ME!"

Bittersweet, We had a dog called Molly-dog. She was part blue heeler and part Australian Shepard. We had her for 15.5 years, she'd gotten Cushing's Disease in Dogs, in later years. We kept her as she slowly failed, but finally, the day after Easter in 2002, she was put to sleep. She'd gone into seizures/trances, couldn't hold her bladder or eat/drink, so we have no other recourse, but to peacefully put her to sleep. Mollys are wonderful. Your kitty story reminded me of our Molly-dog. We/DH, decided to never get a dog again. I wish we could, but our cat detests all dogs. She hates them, even if they're outdoors with a trusted friend. So no dog's been in this house, since we got our cat in 2006. I adopted her. I see your Molly looks like a Calico. Was she? Or was she a mix because of her longer hair. She looks adorable looking at the little aquarium, too. She looks like a love. ♥ Sorry for your loss and thank you so much for sharing your story, too.

Nancy, I'm glad you're wise enough to take life vests on your first-time kayaking trip, too. It's very wise because so many times, here in W. WA, there are so many drownings when people don't use life vests, even if they're inner-tubing or rafting.

I'd better run and eat a late dinner and take a late shower, write my letters, and take it easy. Doing LOL wasn't on my "list" today, but for some reason, people kept bringing laundry to me. I LOVE doing laundry because Dmom taught me how when I was 9, how to operate the washer/dryer twins. But Dmom used to do something "odd." She had a huge utility room sink between the washer and dryer, in this huge utility room with 6 windows. It was a large as a kitchen or bedroom. I can't really understand this- still. However, during the washing cycle, Dmom would stop the washer, take the utility hose off the spigot, then removed the black ball stopper on the hose. She'd let all the water spin out into the utility sink, with the plug in the sink. She'd finish the load, but when she dried that particular load or hung them on the clothesline, she'd take a bucket, and she'd bucket up the old suds from the previous load, to wash the new load. Dmom called it "Saving the suds." In her brain/mind, she figured she was saving on the power bill by re-washing our clothes in DIRTY WATER! She was so Very Angry at me, because at age 9 - 16.5, I never could "grasp" "Saving the suds," and I washed clothes with clean water. She's try teaching me a lot, but she became so frustrated. Now, as an adult, I'm thankful I have an itty bitty utility room sink, in the middle of the counter, so it's not between the washer/dryer, so I'm never "tempted" to re-wash our LOL in dirty water/suds. But Dmom also, when I was 9, hated to iron. So she paid me a nickle for any size of item I ironed. It could be a tablecloth, Ddad's boxer shorts, or a handkerchief. I loved to sprinkle the dry clean laundry, roll it all up in larger things, to prepare for when I ironed, because we didn't own a steam iron back in the 1950's. Did they make them in 1959? I just don't know.

Have a Happy Evening, Everyone! Take care! I'm off to eat/shower/write letters. I'll also re-write tomorrow's list to become a 5 x 5 list with 2 lists, to be done by 5 p.m., to "see" if I can make that 5 p.m. deadline easier. It truly inspires and motivates me, gets me moving, keeps me happy, and I feel like a SHE who is truly learning in baby steps. P & P did all of us so much good and their wonderful OMM list is so helpful, too. Wow. Such a simple 3 initial term! OMM!