Feeling Much Better

Wow, I can't believe how much better I feel. Of course, I slept until almost 1:30 PM yesterday....then had trouble sleeping last night but finally fell asleep and now I am up and feeling pretty good. I think I will still take it easy for today though. I think I had the respiratory flu and maybe I wasn't as hard hit as some because of the flu shot I had last October. Whatever the reason, I'm glad to be feeling better!

I have a new microwave! I forgot to mention that we went shopping last Saturday evening and purchased a replacement for the one that succumbed to overuse. It's similar to the old one, just a different make but does look a lot like the other. So now I can make the quick Mac-n-Cheese.....but the need is no longer there. That little girl was returned to her mother on Saturday. I can't believe that she arrived here without having eaten any supper. When mine were small, I always made sure they had eaten before they went anywhere to spend the night unless I was told specifically that they would be eating with the host. Some parents believe that the 'community' WILL care for their child I guess.

Got a call from my son last night. It seems the place he moved into the end of December is a foreclosure home and the rental agent had no right to rent it out. A lady showed up on his doorstep yesterday at around 5:30 PM with the police and said he and his family would have to vacate the premises by Friday or all of their possession's will be thrown out onto the edge of the road. Now that they have no money after paying the rent and security deposit it seems as if there is nothing they can do. At my sons request, I sent an email to one of the local television stations that does investigative reporting uncovering fraudulent business dealings and they are now checking into it. Hope something good comes out of it and they are able to help with finding a new place for them to live! And/or get their money back!

Yuck!

Okay, here's the thing....I'm feeling like crap.

I feel queasy off and on, have a severe headache, my body feels as if a small truck has run over me, I have a fever of 100 degrees and I have the chills. I am terribly tired, but not sleepy and have absolutely no energy.

Those are my symptoms....anyone willing to take a guess as to what this is?

I'll be back when I'm feeling better...if I ever do.

Bad day!

I'm not the only one having a bad day!!

My DIL called yesterday around 5:30 and asked if we would mind watching the little one while they went to look at a new refrigerator. I told her we would love to watch him so they brought him over. In the meantime, Amber's momma called to see if Amber could come for the night and bring a friend. Seems they needed a babysitter and so did the friends mom. I said yes, that would be fine if they provided the transportation; after all, I'm doing them the favor they can pool their resources and buy enough gas to get them here and back and here and back again today to pick up the girls.

So the baby starts to scream and won't stop unless I'm holding him, Amber's friend is hungry because she didn't have supper at home (mom didn't have time to feed her before she came to my house and it's 7:45 PM). I start to make Easy Mac in the microwave for her with this screaming baby on my left hip and the microwave runs for 2 seconds and quits! I'm thinking a breaker blew. Holler into the other room to ask hub to check the breakers, he does, not a breaker. Microwave is totally dead!!!
Baby still screaming, little girl (only child) standing next to me repeating how hungry she is and she wants to eat now....I'm about to blow a gasket so I calmly tell her that it will take a little longer since I have to now prepare it on the stovetop instead of the micro. She rolls her eyes and goes in the other room and the baby continues to scream while riding on my hip. Oh Calgon, take me away!!!

Feast One Hundred & Thirty Two

Appetizer
Where on your body do you have a scar, and what caused it?

Have lots of them from open-heart surgery, legs, chest.

Soup
What is something that has happened to you that you would consider a miracle?

Surviving the above mentioned surgery

Salad
Name a television personality who really gets on your nerves.

Amy's brother on "Everybody Loves Raymond"

Main Course
What was a funny word you said as a child (such as "pasketti" for "spaghetti")?

"covered" for "cupboard"

Dessert
Fill in the blank: I have always thought ______ was ______.

the old penny candy store was the best and we need them again!

Bumpa's Smile

It just dawned on me that after all the posts about hubby's oral surgeries, I never showed a picture of him smiling with his new smile. So that's what I'm doing here......meet my hubby, aka Bumpa, with his beautiful smile! If you click on the photo I believe it shows a larger image in a new window where you can see his smile better. Anyway this is the love of my life...I know, kinda corny but that's what he is.

I've not posted here in almost a week and decided I better come up with something so people didn't worry about me. It's just that I haven't been feeling very creative and I think you must all get bored reading about the daily happenings in my life so I started some spring cleaning instead of posting. So when spring finally arrives, if it ever does (and I have some doubts) I will be ready to spend some time outdoors sitting in my lawn chairs watching the birds or reading; after the gardening is done, of course!

Our little Amber called last night and she will be turning 12 on March 17th and asked if she could have her birthday party here. When I asked her what kind of a party she wanted to have, she said a sleep over and "my mom won't let me have it here 'cause we don't have enough room!" I then asked how many girls she wanted to have over and when she told me only three, I told her of course she can have her party here. This isn't the normal thing for grandparents to do, but Amber lived with us for the first 5 years of her life and we were her legal guardians; and when a child lives in your house and you are the primary care giver 24/7 they become almost like your own children. Not that we love her any more than we love any of the other 13 grandchildren, but the love is of a different nature, if that makes any sense. She and we feel like this is her home too, and she will always have a place here if she wants or needs it.

My Sweethearts !

Here are a couple pictures of two of the important men in my life! Hubby and Drew working on MY jigsaw puzzle together. Drew came to spend some time with us on Valentine's Day....not because it was Valentine's Day, but because his mom and dad had something they had to do. I had no idea that Drew liked puzzles but as you can see he does. He sat up at the table like such a little man and every time he would say 'puzzle', Bumpa would hand him another piece. Then Drew would say an entire sentence of jibberish and look at Bumpa waiting for a response to what he said. I don't remember what Bumpa said back to him and I don't think it really would matter anyway because Drew just wanted to have a conversation and since we couldn't understand most of what he said I'm sure he wasn't to particular as to what was said to him either. It was funny to watch and listen to and had me cracking up!

Usually when Drew is here, Bumpa is at work and misses out on interacting with Drew so this was a welcome opportunity for both of them. And speaking of work, hubby received a call today from his employer telling him the lay off, at least for some of the employees, is over! Hooray!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

How many of you receive these kind of items from your Sweetheart on Valentine's Day? Me either; and do you want to know why? Keep reading....

You see, I don't need flowers or candy on Valentine's Day from my Sweetie! I don't need candy or flowers or any other gift just because it's Valentine's Day. He shows me all the time just how much he loves me by getting up and going to work each day to earn a paycheck. He shows me in the way he helps me in the house, and so many more ways than just supplying me with empty calories in the candy and a runny nose from the flowers. And I show him just how much I love him by keeping the house clean, paying the bills, doing the laundry and cooking the meals. Oh, there are other ways we show our love too, but the above mentioned ones are the ones that people rarely take the time to thank the other one for. Probably because they are the ordinary day to day mundane tasks of living. Not the kind of thing that sells Hallmark cards.......but in my opinion the ones that really matter!

I remember when I was hospitalized and hubby was there for me. He stayed by my side and was there when I needed him. Love is being there for the bad along with the good. He showed just how much he loved me.....and he continues to do so to this day. Oh sure, I get angry with him and he gets angry with me. Two people can not live together without having differences. Love means fighting fairly. Love means working through those differences and re-connecting afterward. Love means forgiving one another and not holding a grudge. Love means wanting the other person to be happy and being able to put them first, not that you will always have to, but the ability to do so really shows a strong and lasting love.

So, this is my tribute, my offering of love to my hubby this Valentine's Day. Thank you for being there, for loving me, for putting up with me (I know I'm not always easy to live with), but mostly thank you for staying true to yourself and just for being the wonderful man you are to me! I love you.....Happy Valentine's Day!

Improvement in the weather.....

is a welcome thing for me. The roads are much better to drive on now and I can actually get in the car, well at least when hubby isn't using it since his truck still isn't running right, and drive myself to the post office or anywhere else that isn't too far for me to venture by myself! Most of the roads are just wet with icy patches along the edges now instead of being totally covered in ice.

The above picture is of our "fur-kid", Prancer, dressed in her winter coat for playing in the frigid temperatures. She hates it, but it doesn't really matter anymore because she's outgrown it anyway. What she really needs is boots!

Hubby is at his uncle's house today working on the truck and I took Amber to visit her Daddy at his place for the afternoon. The sun was shining so pretty when I left to take her, but the closer we got to his house (16 miles south of my house) it was snowing so hard that I couldn't see too far in front of the car.....maybe 2 car lengths, but I made it okay!

I wanted to take some more pictures of the snow, but the batteries in my digital have died. They were rechargeable but they don't seem to charge anymore. I tried two different chargers and the batteries won't charge in either one of them. My thoughts are that the batteries have totally died!! Note to self: pick up AA batteries at store.

It's Tuesday and hubby did not have that oral surgery yesterday! Oh it's not because he didn't go to his appointment....it's because after we got there the oral surgeon refused to do the surgery. He said it didn't really need to be done as the dead bone would flake off and there would be new gum tissue under it. I'm thinking it had more to do with the fact that it was 're-work' so to speak and we weren't paying for it! Hope it's true and it all works for the best and hubby doesn't have to go through it at some future date and time.

We did take Amber home and I'm definitely glad that I wasn't driving being as I 'white-knuckled' the entire 66 mile round trip. The roads are treacherous to say the least. They are sanding them and that does help with some traction, but it does nothing to melt the 3 inch ice-cover on most roads. Of course, with the temp only being in the single digits, the salt they use on the roads wouldn't work anyway.

Hubby got to sleep in a little this morning. He got called for jury duty and had to report this morning at the county courthouse by 8:30 AM. This is the first time he has ever been called for jury duty and he isn't really happy about it, but since the big meeting at his work on Friday informing him of his lay-off beginning this past Monday and he isn't missing any time from work it isn't that big of a deal. Well, except for the fact that the courthouse is 20 some miles away and unemployment checks already have to be stretched just to meet monthly bills and we thought that at least we would be able to save on gas for the vehicles. Well, we are saving some on gas for the vehicles......he is driving my car because his truck isn't working right...AGAIN! But I don't mind....really! It's not like I'm about to get in and drive it anywhere with these road conditions. If it weren't for hubby, I would be a hermit all winter long....as long as there is snow and ice build-up on the roads. Hmmmm.....I wonder if he needs a chauffeur license?

Snow and more snow!

This is the view out my kitchen window.

We were under a "lake effect snow warning" most of the day Thursday. For those of you who are not familiar with lake effect snow, please read the following:

The heaviest lake-effect snow episodes usually occur when a bitter cold outbreak dives southeast across the Great Lakes. As cold air flows over the warm water, the bottom layer over the surface of the water is heated from below. Moisture also evaporates into the air as it is heated. Since warm air is lighter and less dense than cold air, the heated air rises and begins to cool. As the air cools, the moisture that evaporated into it condenses and forms clouds. When enough moisture condenses out of the air, snow falls over the regions downwind of the Great Lakes. The greater the temperature contrast between the cold air and the warm water, the heavier the snow showers will be. If the temperature contrast is great enough, the rising air will have enough buoyancy to form thundersnow, which are thunderstorms that have snow falling out of them rather than rain.

I happen to live in one of these so called snow bands and in the last 2-3 days we have received about 18 inches of new snow! Now this is the kind of Michigan winter I grew up with. We use to play outside every day in this stuff and we didn't know anything about windchill back then either. Cold was cold and that's all there was to it!! We went sledding, and built snowmen and rolled down hills and had snowball fights and went ice skating at the local outdoor rink. When your toes and fingers hurt and you could no longer feel your nose we knew it was time to head inside for some much needed warming up and a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows floating in it. If we were really lucky we might also get some homemade cookies or brownies! Yum yum! And you know what else? I don't ever remember having a 'snow day' off from school! School was held no matter what and was only dismissed early if there was a tornado warning or watch. I guess we were tougher in those days; or maybe they just didn't know as much technology back then and no one really knew just how cold it was.

It is official now, the television just announced that we received 9 inches of new snow yesterday....I guess there is even more snow out there than I thought. There is another snow advisory out for today for more snow and blowing and drifting snow from noon until 7 PM, and than at midnight EST, we will be under a 'winter snow warning' until midnight on Saturday.

I think it sounds as if it's a good thing that we didn't have any plans to go anywhere to watch Superbowl Sunday! We will only have to worry about getting Amber back home safely....she is coming for the weekend today after school. Hubby will pick her up after he gets out of work....maybe we can build a snowman and slide down the hill and then come in for hot chocolate!