Monday, June 30, 2008

Port Aransas birds

So we really love Port Aransas. We would like to go down there more often but we can only manage two trips a year. We usually go around the last week of May and the first week of September (before and after the summer rates). We always take hundreds (literally) of pictures down there. Here are a few of the birds. I love bird pictures! I will add others later, off to bed!
Crested Caracara







Seagull (of course)




Brown Pelican







Blue Heron

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Celling fan woes

Well my oh so darling step-son James put in a new celling fan for me today for my birthday. Lynn bought it and James put it in so it was a gift from them both. I LOVE IT! I am really hoping it will reduce our electric bill. The switch and the way he wired it are sort of WT but what the heck. He didn't charge us and I can live with the 2 switches so close together. Did I say I LOVE IT? It is so funny when he helps us with electrical stuff he gets all "yes I am an electrician" and struts around moaning about how stupid the people were when they wired our house. Get to hear lots MFs. It was 3 hours of hell while he did it but again what the heck it is done. It isn't perfectly balanced but I think it is ok. He said I should not call him if it falls.
To date he has replaced most of the switches and outlets in our house. We are still waiting for him to do the bathrooms and kitchen (which he wont do unless we get the kind of plugs that trip).

Friday, June 27, 2008

so tired

So after 6 days spent keeping Les company (and "working") at the hospital I really wanted to send time posting stuff on my blog. I am WAY tired but I want to try and get some of this stuff out. I am off for the next week (thank GOD I asked for time off 2 months ago so although it happened at the same time as Les being sick it was not planed that way). I think I will post several little things just for fun. We shall see how far I get tonight. So tired I can't be sure I have not repeated myself.

ACK

OK, so for the last 3 weeks I have been doing things that have really worn me OUT. First I had the craft sale stuff to make and then my oldest son got sick. One week ago Les (oldest son) started to feel bad. Last Saturday he started have an upset stomach (vomiting) at work. Girlfriend Emma picked him up early from work and took him home. Not a big deal, that happens to people all the time. So we (Emma, mom and I) went to the Blue Hanger to see if we could find anything cool, of course we found lots of things! Les stayed home cause he felt bad. Later that night Emma called to say she thought Les had fever and wanted to know if I had a thermometer she could use (hell yeah I did, I am a mom right?). A little later she called to say that he had 104 degree fever and wanted to know what to do. Well, I told her to take him to the hospital. If he had been with me at home I am sure I would have told him to buck up and ride it out but I didn't know what he really felt like so the hospital was the best I could come up with. They kept him there for about 5 hours, did MRI and spinal tap, and sent him home. Next day (Sunday) his fever was back and he was vomiting again. Emma hauled him back to the hospital. Way long story short they did every test in the world to him, decided to keep him "overnight" for observation and that was that. I figured they would keep him overnight and send him home... NOT... he was admitted until he could keep solid food down. Fast forward to today (Friday, 6 days after he started to feel bad and went to the ER) and he finally comes home from the hospital. Needless to say I have had a long week! Half days at work and the rest of the time spent at the hospital emptying his emesis pan, changing sheets and keeping him company (of course Emma was there doing the same and more). Yes we both changed the sheets as it was obvious that the nursing staff was far too busy with other patients to take time to change sheets (and that is not to say he didn't get good care I think the staff didn't have time to do all the things that needed to be done). Emma and I were not the only people that kept him company. His dad was there each day as well as my mother (grandma). Other family members and friends stopped by to visit too. It would take me forever to describe the whole week at the hospital and I am just too worn out to do that. In the end there was never an official diagnosis. We don't know why his fever was so high for so long or why he couldn't keep even ice chips down. He is better now and that is all we care about. OMG there are so many other things to say about the hospital but I don't have the energy.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Craft stuff


It is nearly 2am and I had to do this before I go to bed. I don't have to work tomorrow, well I have things to do at home but I took the day off from work. I am working fast and furious to get some "craft" things done for mom. I am making things to donate to the garden club for the craft sale (I hope pictures will be here soon). So I always say (tongue in cheek) that I want to leave a really big foot print behind so people will know I was here. Well I decided to use old jeans and make "stuff" out of them. So I guess this is how I will minimize my footprint.





AMENDMENT... I wrote the above rambling crap 2 weeks or so ago. so much has happend since then but I wanted to post this anyway. Pics are here now. Crafts of all kinds! The craft sale was a success however I don't think that anything that I made was sold to anyone other than my family (they love my creations). Here they are!

Random thoughts

I am not sure what I like best about my blog. I can't decide if it is actually posting things that other people can read or just the free feeling I get when I write. I guess this is very much like keeping a journal which I have always wanted to do but never got aroud to it. I do like that I can write for hours and just save the draft. That way I can express myself, go back and look at what I said, and keep it to myself. HAHA.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Follow up to the trip to Sam's

I suppose I get along with everyone and Lynn's ex-wife (Karen) was no exception. I really did like her (she passed away from breast cancer in 2006). Karen stayed with James (Lynn's son)and his family during the last few weeks of her life. She took her final breath in his house (that is story for another day). James was over to see Lynn for Father's Day. When I got back from Sam's Lynn said "James tell her the story" and of course I was in the middle of putting groceries away. So I gave my stock answer "give me just a minute to finish this." Lynn is always saying "come see this" or "can you do this" while I am clearly busy with something else. After putting all the stuff away I sat down to hear the story. James started by saying that he had gone to lunch with Sandy (Lynn's sister). They talked about Karen and Jeanne (Lynn and Sandy's mom, James's grandmother). Jeanne passed away in December 2007. James said lunch was nice. Later that day, when he got home from work, he sat down to relax. While he was watching the news he saw something (some sort of reflection in a picture on the wall) out of the corner of his eye. He said he didn't see anything but the reflection in the glass and didn't really think anything of it. That night when he was putting his daughter to bed she looked over his shoulder and said "I see you grandma" and smiled. Well, she has never called anyone grandma (she calls her grandmothers by other names). Karen was the only person that was dubbed "grandma" and Laura was not very old when she passed away so she has never actually called anyone "grandma." James told Tess that story and she said "I have always felt that Karen is here." So after my odd encounter with the man at Sam's this was the icing on the cake. I told James that children seem to "see" things that adults don't because they don't know they are not supposed to see them. Maybe Karen is floating around in their house.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Trip to Sam's Club

So we (seven of us) took a trip to Sam's today. OK I bet you are dying to know who went right? It was mom, my aunt Ann (mom's sister), my cousin Leslie (Ann's daughter), Leslie's friend Mai Lan, my son Les, son's girlfriend Emma and I. We took 2 cars even though we all could have fit into my cousin's van but where would we put the junk we bought? (We know better from the last trip we took together). So I am not really a big Sam's fan. I don't really think the savings are that great and you have to buy in bulk. Where in the world am I going to put 24 jumbo rolls of TP, a box of laundry soap that will wash 180 loads, 50 packages of chips and a 1000 napkins? My house is only 1100 sq feet. And I don't have a freezer big enough to hold enough frozen food to feed an army. Nevertheless I can't get out of the place without spending at least $100 and that is because I find some kind of neat thing that I "can't live without" but have to buy IN BULK!
It seams that the only time we visit Sam's is when I have not had anything to eat all day. Sam's always has food samples all over the place (almost as many as Central Market). If you are homeless and can scrape up enough money for a membership then you will never go hungry. So we start on the side that has all the non food items. Of course our party splits up and soon Mai Lan shows up with something in a sample cup. I asked her what it is and she says it is a "hot tamale" Popsicle. Mmmmmmmm that sounds good. I am really getting hungry now so I suggest that we move to the area where the food is. Long story somewhat shorter Emma says there are samples of sausage near the tampons (why????) so off I go. I pass a girl giving out samples of chicken in a biscuit (once again alone everyone is looking at other stuff). Have to stop! So as she gives me the sample she asks "so how is Utah?" I am thinking "what the f are you talking about" until I remember I have on a t-shirt that has a big UT on the front. So I go along with it and say it is great (I have never been to Utah in my life). She says "I always think of weird people living there and never think of anything else." So I figure she is thinking of the LDS or FLDS and agree there are weird people there but it is a really nice place (what the heck I will never see her again and like DUH). I guess she assumed that UT meant Utah. Well if she had looked more closely she would have seen it is a shirt that says Explore UT The University of Texas at Austin. Sample taken have to find the sausage. Follow my nose to something that smells like sausage but turns out to be bacon (I really want the sausage). A very nice, and somewhat mentally challenged, man is standing there with the samples. Now I am thinking that all the sample people have some sort of mental challenge. I look at him, he looks at me and does not say a word. So I ask if he has samples of the bacon. He says "sure, hickory and pepper, I like the pepper better." What the heck, I will try the pepper. It was pretty good but I still want the sausage! Emma shows up about now and says "the sausage is over here by the tampons (again why?) so off I go. By the time I get to the sausage samples the group has reunited. We all get a sample and thank the man, telling him how good it is. I linger while the group wanders away again (I do love sausage and want to pick out a package to take home). Just as the last of my party (and other shoppers) drift away the man says to me "has anyone ever told you that you have the gift of healing?" Like what ????? I say no and he tells me "I can see it, you need to put your gift to use. You shouldn't let a gift like that go to waste." He says "you need to put your hands on people and heal them." What do you say to that kind of thing? I thanked him for telling me and walked away (of course I did get some of the sausage). Let me just say that he was the only sample person that didn't seem have some kind of mental challenge and he had the kindest eyes. He really was serious. When we finally left the store I told everyone what he said. Later my aunt said "put your hands on my leg and make it feel better" so I did in a "whatever" kind of way and she said "no you have to be serious." OK in my most serious healing way I put my hand on her leg, then on her head and said "you are healed." Later my back started to really hurt and she said her leg felt better. Cousin Leslie said "you transferred her pain to your back" (in a very tongue in cheek way). So am I John Coffey "like the drink, only not spelled the same" now? Creepy.

Pics of Les and Walter

Well, I think I am having too much fun. Pretty much I am doing this for me because I can :) So I have posted pics of everyone except me, Lynn and my kids (well there are a few of us in the other posts but not identified as such). So if you stumbled here by accident I am sorry you have to look at pictures of people you don't know. And if you did get here by some random accident why are you still looking at the pictures? BECAUSE IT IS FUN! I love looking at other peoples pictures. It is fun to see how the pictures are composed, the lighting, what is interesting to them, adventures they have etc. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Les and Walter. Enjoy!











I left people out

Well in my haste to get my first blog going I neglected to mention that I also have two step-kids. The oldest, a boy, is married with two children (a girl and a boy). The younger is a girl (Misty), married with three boys (so yeah count them up I have five step-grandkids). Love my step-daughter and her family but don't get to see them enough (about twice a year and they live less than twenty minutes away). I would love to see them more often but I am not very good at keeping in touch so there you go. Also love my step-son (James) and his family tons and do get to see them often and that is because they make the effort (and believe me thats not to say I don't want to make an effort I just get too envolved in junk around the house and forget there are other people in the world). I think I take after my daddy that way. So here are a few pics of them. I will start with James and family.
Here is James with the Tony Romo jersy I made him for christmas. That was funny. He wanted one really bad so I made him one. Very WT but funny. Of course I did give him the real thing as well.

And here they are with the newest addition to the family.

Here is Misty and family



About Me

My photo
I love to sew and that is about all I have to say about that. I am not creative but I can follow instructions so I love to re-create all sorts of things. If I am not spending time making "junk" I am hanging out with my family. I also love to take pictures. I will take hundreds of pictures at any event with the hope that I get best picture EVER! >ôô<