Weekend in Review

I hope your weekend was enjoyable.   Ours was nice.   Not to busy.  We were all home a lot.  Weather was wonderful.  Here are the highlights:

Hubby and Harry went to see the Spurs on Friday night.  Chip was supposed to go with them, but he stayed home with me and barfed.  Me and Chip watched Monsters University between cleanup sessions so it wasn't so bad.  Chip felt fantastic on Saturday so it was just a weird little stomach bug. 

Saturday, I got in a great walk with Beth on Saturday morning and then did some serious housecleaning.  It was overdue.  The boys cleaned their rooms really well.  Hubby cleaned up the garage.  I cleaned the fridge within an inch of its life and then went to the grocery store it filled it to the brim.  Made some football game snacks and a big batch of turkey chili.  Yummy. 

We got the Halloween decorations put away and the Christmas decorations out of the attic - we haven't put them out, but the storage bins are now in the guest room so they will be easy to get to when it is time. 

We watched the Bama game and it was outstanding.  A little too close for comfort - as is the norm.  Funny how the score after the game always seems like it wasn't a nail biter when in fact it was very stressful.  Happy we pulled that one out.  Now to get by that damn Auburn!  When did they get so good?  

Harry's girl came over to watch the game and she is just adorable.  She even wore an Alabama shirt, so bonus points for her!  She was very out going with tons of personality.  Does not appear to have a shy bone in her body.  She jumped right in to our crazy Alabama watching shenanigans without batting an eye.  And they won, so maybe we can ask her to come back again.  

I walked with Beth and Annette again this morning and we were busting a move.  I think we walked a little over 5 1/2 miles or so both Saturday and Sunday and did it at a 15 minute per mile pace.  That is hoofing.  My hips were really talking to me afterwards. 

I found and bought a new couch today!  Yay!  Placed my order and it will be delivered on Friday.  Now to figure out what to do with the old couch.  It is not in very good shape, but not something you can just take to the curb.  Hmmm.  Need to figure that one out.  Of course getting a new couch leads to needing a new rug, throw pillows and some lamps in the den.  It is always something, isn't it?  Should be fun to change things up a bit.

I hope your weekend was great and that you can find some joy in the Monday ahead!  I know I can! 

Hello again.

I have not been writing for a couple of reasons.  I have been busy.  I have had some big things going on that I didn't think I was ready to talk about and all the other regular day to day stuff just didn't seem worth the effort.  Turns out that I miss the regular day to day stuff. 

So, I am ready to get back to it.  Ready to get back to writing pretty regular.  Ready to get back to the trivial and funny.  Back to the day to day memories. Let's deal with the big stuff in short order and then we can move on. 

Bob's prostate test wasn't great. 

My Granny died.

My mom lost her mom.  That makes me sad.

Bob had his prostate removed and some biopsies taken.

Bob's biopsy came back a little off.

Bob is going to have radiation.

My sweet Harry is going to graduate and go to college.

That makes me so happy, proud, petrified and also gives me a giant hive on my back.

I am calling it my college hive.  It is large and itchy.  I hope it doesn't stay with me the whole time he is in college. 

That is the big, scary stuff that has been happening around here - but I have sat on it, stewed on it, worried over it long enough and now we are going to get back to the regular stuff.  Let me think back over the last few weeks and give you some highlights.  It will be a ten tidbits mini version:

1.  Harry got a great scholarship offer from Arizona State.  I think he has just about decided that is where he is going to go to college.  One more visit scheduled to Phoenix just to be sure. 

2.  Chip was named Super Band Member of the Week at his Middle School!  He was so excited.  And we were so proud of him.  

3.  The very next week, he tripped in the band hall on a girl's trombone and crushed it to smithereens.  Like really crushed it.  He was mortified.

4.  Harry has this disease call "senioritis" - it is a disease where you are already accepted in to a college and so you don't give a crap about the rest of high school.  I thought that might rear its ugly head the last six weeks of school or so....apparently it has struck a little early. 

5.  Chip came home from school today barfing.  He is still barfing at least once an hour.  I love being a mom. Actually, there is not much sweeter than a boy who wants his mom cause he doesn't feel good.

6.  We have the perfect storm happening at work.  Three big fat hairy hard projects all at once.  All with deadlines.  All with big volume of work.  It is fun.

7.  Thanksgiving is less than three weeks away.  What???  How did that happen??

8.  Harry's girl is coming over tomorrow to watch the Bama game with us.  I hope they win or she may not be invited back.  Would that be rude?

9.  Bob sent out a hysterically funny email about having his tubes removed after surgery.  I will be sharing it. You should check back...it will be worth it.

10. Baseball is over.  Flag football is over.  We have nothing this weekend.  It is a beautiful thing.  I am going to clean out the fridge - then fill it up again.  

Glad to be back.  Hope to be back regularly.

Sweet Memories

I love this picture that my Aunt Gail took of my Mom and Granny.  

Precious memories.  

My Granny

My Granny passed away yesterday.  She was 94.  Tough as nails she was.  Relatively healthy until the last few months.  She had a run in with bypass surgery many, many years ago - but was still raking leaves, digging up bushes, organizing pantries, cooking like a beast, moving boulders and any thing else in her way for a decade or more after her heart surgery.  She was a pistol.  She loved a HOT meal, her talk shows, talking politics, bragging about the mile she cranked out on the treadmill and how healthy she had eaten that day.  It wasn't always healthy cause I have a fair amount of memories of her unzipping her pants after a meal cause she ate too much.  Don't even get me started on the Granny bathroom stories.  There are many.  She was fighting a little dementia toward the end...but did I mention that she was 94?  She was a bit ornery, a bit critical, a bit gassy....not exactly a Grandma from the movies.  But she was mine.  And I loved her.

She was my Mom's mother.  And my mom and her sister were by Granny's side for the last few weeks. Mom said it was very hard.  I bet it was.  My mom's sister, Gail is a Hospice Nurse by trade so she was very prepared for what to expect.  Granny lived with Gail so she had already been caring for her for several years.  They made sure she was comfortable.  They shared some laughs and some special time together.  What a treasure.

Those two sisters stayed by their mom's side until the very end.  What a gift that is to have people who love you right beside you as journey through the final stages of life.  I know it was their honor and privilege to be there with her.

When I got the call that she had passed my first thought was of my mom and my Aunt Gail.  I knew they were so sad to say goodbye to their mom. My second thought was of Jesus meeting Granny at the gates of Heaven.  I imagined him saying "Good grief Wanda, you are hard headed.  Now get in here and let me love you for eternity."  I bet he did too.

There aren't many like my Granny.  She was loved and will be missed.   Rest in Peace, Granny.

Harry's Homecoming 2013

Harry is on a date with his girl tonight!  They are going to the high school Homecoming Dance!  

Here are the good pictures of the cute couple.

And then Chip got in on the action! 

And here are the outtakes, just because there always has to be outtakes!  

Harry planned up a special night for them.  It involved a pickup truck, a dvd player, bacon,  and macaroni and cheese.   I will leave it at that!  I hope they have a fantastic, memorable evening!

Rapid Fire

So much to say....so little time to say it.

Rapid Fire....

1.  Work is trying to kill me. It is Government year end - always the busiest time of year.  My company officially split into two new companies last Friday.  Ridiculous amounts of administrative actions being thrown our way due to the split.  We are in a system blackout because of the split for about 10 days.  We won a new Task Order last week.  Should be good news but ACKKKKKK ..... more work!!  Audits.  Big proposal coming soon.  Very, very soon.  Flying to Bama this week for three days of training.  Trying to get the training slides updated - procedures re-written or written to match the training.  I have hives (for reals) and sores in my mouth.  Hair is falling out.  I am eating like it is my job.  Stress is a beast and right now it is soundly kicking my ass!

2.  Chip is already playing songs on the trombone.  Ridiculous how quickly he has picked up playing the trombone and reading music. He is a natural.

3.  Harry received an acceptance letter from Arizona State University and was accepted into the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.  Wow.  So very proud of him.  Now he wants to visit ASU and Bama one more time and then decide where he wants to go.  Let's do it!

4.  We went to Washington DC last weekend.  Me and the boys gave hubby baseball tickets for his birthday in August.  He only lacks going to a couple of baseball stadiums before he sees them all.  The National's Park was one of them.  We flew up on Friday night and went to a Smithsonian Museum on Saturday, visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier then headed over to the baseball game.  It rained.  It rained so much, the game was rained out.  Super sucky!  We did get in to check out the stadium, buy some snacks and souvenirs and watch the rain fall.  I am calling it visited.  Mark it off the list.

5.  Harry asked his girl to Homecoming.  She said yes.  That means I get to make a Homecoming Mum.  It is a big deal here in Texas.  The mums are given to girls to wear to school on Friday.  They are huge elaborate ornate corsages with tons of ribbons and streamers, etc.  I cannot wait to get my glue gun fired up for that!  Should be fun.

6.  Chip is rocking middle school.  Getting great grades.  Making new friends.  Trying to get taller than me.  Good stuff.

7.  Harry got the part of "The Head Guard" in the high school musical production of "Shrek The Musical".  I can't wait to see it.  He also got invited to the State Thespian Festival in November.  Should be a great year in theatre.

8.  Chip is playing baseball again this fall.  They had two terrific games yesterday.  Won both in the bottom of the fifth inning.  Low scoring.  Real baseball.  It was an awesome Saturday of baseball.  We were rained out the rest of the weekend.  Boo!!

9.  The Crimson Tide has been playing some good football.  Still waiting for them to win and mean it!  Always on the edge of my seat with those boys.

10.  Bible Study has been amazing as always.  So enjoy listening to Beth Moore.  She is a gifted speaker and her love of God is contagious and inspiring.  I do wish that my couch was not falling apart.    So embarrassing to have my bible study peeps come over and sink wayyyy down on the couch.  Not sure if we have springs missing, or busted or what...but it is turning into a hazard.  Must find time to shop for a new one!

That is all I have for now.  Have a blessed week ahead.   

Bob Chronicles - Fourteenth in a Series

For those of you who might be new around here (who am I kidding?), this is a series of blog posts about my Dad.  There are thirteen previous ones that are quite entertaining.  Might be worth the time it would take to search the archives to read.  But this one I have read several times and it still cracks me up! 

So Bob recently had to have a prostate biopsy because his annual PSA blood test was a little high. At the young age of 69 the doctor's recommend that a high PSA test get followed up with a biopsy.  Just to be sure everything is fine.  Well Bob entertained us all through this procedure and sent this highly informative summary of his day.  It was just too awesome not to share! 

Phase 1...Got up at 5 this morning to start the coffee pot and do a little worrying about the 5:30 enema.  I'm not sure Lana is fully up to date on the correct procedures for doing this which causes me a little anx. After all this is a very delicate area in which she will be working.  Well it's time to get her up and get the show underway.

It's 5:30 and time for the procedure to begin.  The enema box said it takes a few minutes to get all the stuff in....wait 10 minutes then let it out.   Hope your not eating right now.  I will put this on pause now and let you know how things worked out....later.

Well it's over and I'm glad.  I set up an enema station in the bedroom which is about 20 feet from the bathroom.  If it was 21 feet from the bathroom I would still be back there cleaning up.  Lana took her time and did a great job with the insertion tool.  She got all the liquid in with no problem.  The only problem was the waiting 10 minutes after the liquid was in before going.  I made it like 1:43 minutes before it all came out.  Kind of surprised me how fast that stuff works but it's done.  I'll probably have a few more visits to the porcelain queen before leaving for the big procedure.  Later......

Phase 2....Departing for the doctors office. Arrived early as I always do but they processed me in pretty quick.  Probably saw I was a little nervous.so a nurse took me back to the get-ready room.  She gave me my Ativan (anxiety pill) and a Hydrocodone pain pill an hour before the doctor started the procedure.  Told me to take everything off below my waist and get up on the table.  Those were all new words for me.   Anyway the table had stirrups in which to keep my legs separated and raised so he could look at the area dead on.  There were trays of medicines, shots. grease, TV screen and other tools used for this procedure.  He first inserted his finger, I think, which had a camera attached.  It displayed a picture of the prostate gland on the screen.  Said it looked pretty good.  I thanked him.  He thought it best if he gave me two Novocain shots in the gland to help the pain as he took biopsy's from the gland.   It worked as I felt just a little pain as he took the snippets from the gland.  He actually took 12 samples so I'm not sure how much of the gland remains.  I'll guess I'll see when I try to pee. He explained that there might be some bleeding for a few days but that is to be expected.

Phase 3.  The recovery room.  The nurse called Lana in to help watch me as I was a little groggy.  Explained where all the cleaning material was located and when ever I could sit up real good, to put my britches back on.  She also said I could wear a pad in case there was still some bleeding.    Lana positioned the pad and I yanked my pants up real quick so it wouldn't slide out of position.  Then proceeded to check out where I got my next appointment to get the results of all the biopsies.  He said I could eat and drink all I wanted but couldn't have sex today.  Like that was going to happen with a Ativan and a pain pill in my system.  So Lana will just have to wait and be patient.  We took out of there and headed to Bojangles for a ham biscuit and a senior coffee.

Phase 4  The rest of the day will be rest and more rest.  This afternoon I have to get ready for my nerve conduction test tomorrow.  I'm sure it will be much simpler that today.

Thanks for your prayers it worked!