Busy day, but all is well!

Today was too short. We went out to David and Dorothy’s house this morning to do their haircuts and visit. On the way home we did grocery shopping and then walked. After our walk I cleaned all the veggies and cut carrots for jalapeno juice. It’s a staple in my diet these days. Late this afternoon went to Hobart’s last home baseball game and out to eat at the Pizza Hut with David and Dorothy.

The game was GREAT! The weather was perfect, so that we didn’t get hot or cold. The whole game the other team led until the last inning when we were able to tie it and in the last play of the game we won. The game was tied, David’s grandson, Shane, was at bat and there was a runner on third. The pitcher threw the ball; the catcher missed it, and the runner stole home. How cool was that? The best part was that in a previous inning when Shane was up to bat the same thing happened, only both the runners on third and second were able to score while the other team threw the ball around missing it. Shane had gotten a couple of great hits in the game, but he got 3 RBI’s without even swinging the bat. It was really fun to be on the winning side of such a game. Maybe it didn’t go EXACTLY like that, but that’s how I caught it. If Bill Coffin is reading this or Don, I’ll probably get corrected, but the bottom line is that we won and Shane was our hero. (Of course Shane is our hero no matter what happens; he and his brother moved furniture for us this weekend, so they can do no wrong; at this point in life we are so impressed by brute strength and energy!)

When we got home from the Pizza Hut I remembered that today we used our last packets of herbs, so I had to throw herbs for the next 28 days. Ugh. I got them thrown, but I’ll have to put them into the packets tomorrow.

Tomorrow is also the day that the ladies at church have invited ladies from the area for a salad supper and special speaker. I am helping register visitors and also taking all the irises from the yard to decorate. I’ll cut them in the morning and take them over and make arrangements. Other ladies have decorated the tables and the rooms in general, but I’m just adding the irises for a live touch. I’ll get some pictures for tomorrow’s blog. Today is non-picture. Please pardon! The irises are doing great, so tomorrows pictures will be good. I just didn’t have time to snap today.

God bless us all!

Today has been busy, as always. It seems like Sundays fly! We did get to walk, and it was the perfect day for it. We have to take advantage of perfect weather when we can get it because it’ll be way too hot very soon. Too hot is okay; too cold is not good. We’ll work with too hot. We can get up early and walk when it’s too hot. When it’s too cold, it’s too cold and that’s it.

I was able to catch up a little on my emails today, but I’m always behind. Be patient with me if I owe you email or drop me a reminder.

In my meds protocol I take Sunday off of everything except the Essiac Tea, so that’s kind of nice. I don’t have to watch the clock so much. Then on Monday I go back to the Carnivora, but I take a day off from Essiac Tea. That gives me kind of a treat on both of those days. This is my last week on this protocol. After this week I will go back onto the full protocol of the 16-week aggressive push. It’s certainly a doable thing, but I’m going to have to learn to work my alarm watch and wear it or carry the phone with me all the time, again, so that I don’t miss any doses. It’s not all that demanding, just a discipline.

The pictures today are just a couple more from the flower garden in the back yard. I’m liking it now that the flowers are blooming, the weeds are under control and the stepping-stones are back in order. The skinny sticks sticking up are the crepe myrtles that Don pruned for me. I’ll have to get pictures of them when they bloom; I promise they’ll look good! His sister says they call that crepe murder in Houston, but it’s the way they prune in Tyler, Texas, so we’re comfortable with it. Tyler is one of the prettiest cities in Texas, in my opinion.

God bless us all.

Explanation . . . de-stressing!

Today has been another good day. I need to explain the comment I made in the blog yesterday: “If we sell this house . . . “ We want to scale down a bunch and we want to live where it is warm year round. We believe scaling down will make life simpler for me because I won’t have the stress of always needing to clean and always needing to weed and harvest flowers and veggies in the yard. I’ve decided to have no vegetables this summer. We’ll do baseball with the grandkids and not sweat the veggies. We are not likely to sell this house, so we are looking to make it simpler to live here for the 8 months that are warm. The other months we will go to where it is warm. IF we SHOULD sell this house, then it will be simpler if we have already gotten rid of all the extra stuff we have. We don’t have the house on the market, but we are doing the scaling down part. We love it here except for the cold months. Our plan right now is to go to South Texas for the winter months. We’ll see how that works next winter. We don’t have any plan to move, though. If the house should sell, we’d probably just buy something smaller here in town. (If someone comes up and asks if we’d sell the house, we’d talk; otherwise, we’re keeping it.)

Now to tell you how today went. Dorothy and David mentioned a couple of weeks ago that they wanted to buy a new sofa. I said, “Don’t buy a new sofa; take one of ours!” So, they came shopping at our house today and bought the sofa that was in our bedroom and a chair from a guest bedroom. We rearranged a bit and love the extra space and don’t even miss the furniture. We were at their house playing cards tonight and it looks great in their house. We’re all happy!

I got pictures of the ‘new’ stones in the garden and Roney’s Encore in full bloom. Those are the pictures on the blog tonight. We had a great time playing cards tonight; my team won all but one game, so we did much better than last night!

Ruthie and Phil made it home in one day! I found email from them the first thing this morning telling me they had driven all the way. They’re tougher than I thought! We don’t even do that, anymore! Thank God for their safe trip and for their visit!

God bless us all!

Sunshiny day and irises blooming!

The pictures are from yesterday at the Wildlife Reserve. The first one is a prairie dog showing us how he does spring cleaning. The second one is Phil behind and leaning on the heart rock. The last one is Ruthie and Phil contemplating and deciding against a climb on the rocks. It was a great day of adventure!

Today was beautiful! We hated to see Ruthie and Phil leave, but we rejoice with such a wonderful visit. We played cards tonight, and everyone in the group was sad to miss them. The men won all 4 games, so we’re out to get them tomorrow night. We played here tonight; we’ll play at David and Dorothy’s tonight. We’re all meeting for breakfast in the morning. We’re a tight group and can’t get too much of each other.

My blue irises were blooming this morning before Ruthie left, so she got to see them. She sees plenty in Tennessee, but I wanted her to see I’ve got a bit of Tennessee here with me. The Roney’s Encore is in full bloom in the back yard. I should have taken a picture, but I didn’t get that done today. Phil had taken me up on my offer of some cool rocks I had in the flower garden, so I spent today putting the walkways back in shape before the ground gets hard or more rain comes. The ground was just perfect for working out there, so I got with the program. I had a huge rock shaped like a heart and a few shaped like states. I loved them, but if we sell this house, nobody but me would love them. I thought Phil and Ruthie might love them in their garden, and I was right. I had plenty more good stepping stone sort of rocks, so I just filled in the spaces. I loved being in the garden. I hoed weeds that were sneaking back, so I’m ahead of them right now. Whew! It was a great day even if Ruthie and Phil did leave. They couldn’t have left if they’d never come, so I’m thanking God that they came and asking Him to give them a safe trip home.

God bless us all!

Last day of Ruthie visit.

Today was our last day of adventure for this visit. We went to Oklahoma’s best-kept secret, the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Reserve. It was very windy, but it was still nice. The first picture is Ruthie and I with a windy hair day; we’re grateful for hair! The next picture is Ruthie and Phil sitting on a rock with the HEART ROCK behind them and to the left. The last picture is of Don, Ruthie and Phil at the Prairie Dog Town. Tomorrow I’ll show you a picture of one of the prairie dogs that put on a show for us. In the last picture look at the mountains behind and between Don and Ruthie and see if you can tell why they call that Mount Lincoln . . . turn your head to the side and see if you don’t see Lincoln’s profile.

Ruthie and Phil loved the Reserve; we do, too! We love to climb around on those rocks, and we feel so blessed to have them out here in this flat country. Come to see us and we’ll be sure to take you to see it. Bring your hiking clothes and we’ll have a great picnic and fun day!

Ruthie and Phil are leaving in the morning, so we hate that. We love so much that we’ve had this visit, though! I’ve been lucky that it’s during this month that my meds are real simple; no under the tongue stuff, so I could talk the whole time. Ha!

Pray with me that they will have a safe trip home! God blesses us all and we give thanks! I love you for looking in on us.

The Pantry has great food and fun!

Today’s pictures are on the stairs up to Diana and Bob’s front porch and at The Pantry, but they don't seem to be going onto the blog. For some reason I'm not seeing pictures, but only little boxes with red x's in them. That frustrates me, but I can't fix it, so I'm going to bed. SORRY! It was a beautiful day to visit and travel!

We toured Bob and Diana Clark’s home first, and then Diana went with us for lunch. I went to school in Japan with Bob and we feel like we all went to school with Diana because she’s so easy to know and love. I think it was 3 years ago that they came here and bought a beautiful old house, and they are restoring it themselves. Bob is in Russia working right now, so we missed him, but it was great to tour their house and see the progress they’ve made. Then lunch with Diana was a hoot. I can’t tell the trick that Phil pulled on Diana, because it will ruin it for his future antics for his friends and family who read this. I will say, just beware when you eat with him and be ready for some fun.

Ruthie and Phil are going home Friday morning, so we’re already dreading missing them. We can’t talk them into staying longer, but they do say they will come again, so that gives us hope for another fun visit even though this one seems so short. We thank God for this visit and ask Him to keep them safe as they travel home. God bless us all!

Big sister!

I wore the Kangoojumps around while I fixed dinner tonight and got to be the BIG sister for the first time in my life! Phil thought it was so funny! He said, “Do you wear those out in public?” I think he’s embarrassed! He wanted to know how many wrecks I’ve caused. We didn’t have any wrecks in the kitchen.

It rained most of the day today, so we did good to get out and go to the museum in Hobart. Ruthie and Phil were really impressed. We’re really proud of the museum; it’s a really good one. After the museum we went to Roy’s for lunch since we were already out in the rain. They liked Roy’s, too. It really can’t be beat in Oklahoma.

Ruthie and I spent hours listing a pair of Earth shoes on ebay! I hadn’t listed anything in months and they have changed a lot, so it was a new experience for me. My goal was to teach her how to get set up to sell some things for Phil. I’m afraid I discouraged her more than I helped her! I hope she’ll be able to figure it out when she gets home.

Tomorrow we’re going to Altus to have lunch at the Pantry and really cool tearoom sort of place. Don will have a glass of tea with us and then we’ll stop and get a burger for him because he doesn’t like that girly food. I hope I remember to get pictures tomorrow!

Gretta called today to tell me that Elena broke 7 pounds! I think she weighs 7lbs. 4 oz. and she’s 20.25 inches long. She’s a big girl, now! Ha! We love her and are very, very proud of her.

God bless us all!

Here’s our baby darling (Elena) in the picture we got today. She’s still so tiny; Gretta has to stuff a blanket into the multipurpose walker with her to fit her in there. She looks a little overwhelmed with it all!

The other picture is the picture I have on the bar from right after she was born with my new irises that opened today. The peach colored ones are the ones that opened before and this is the second stalk. Linda, they are called Roney’s Encore. The pink colored one just opened for the first time this year and it is called October Splendor. I love to bring them inside and put them beside Elena! Today was a warm and very nice day.

Today we just enjoyed being around her together except for when Don and I went to our friend’s funeral. I can’t believe how time flies when we’re just having a good time with each other! Oh, we DID go to the library and Ruthie fell in love with the centennial quilt. They were having a used book sale and Ruthie and I both bought a sack full. We’re not so good at getting RID of stuff, but we’re great at attracting stuff!

Tomorrow we’re going to the museum in town and we’re going to list some things on ebay. We’re planning to go to Roy’s Backyard Barbeque for supper. We think Roy’s is the best barbeque place in Oklahoma, so we’re really proud to have it here.

Enjoy whoever is near and dear to you! God bless us all!

Beautiful Sunday!

Today was a great day. It was sure fun to introduce all our friends at church to Ruthie and Phil and vice versa. Ruthie and I were floored that so many people think we look alike. We’ve NEVER been accused of looking alike; it’s a complement, so we’re content with it whether we see it or not. After church we ate at the Mexican restaurant like we usually do with good friends from church. We came home and got into comfortable clothes and drove around the town and the county. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed being outside in the sunshine. We came home and sat on the back deck awhile where I got today’s picture of Ruthie and Phil. There is another picture of Quartz Mountain State Park Lodge about 15 minutes from here on the lake. Notice not a cloud in the sky! Ruthie and I meant to play Scrabble today, but never got to it. We’ve shared some good reading, though.

A dear friend’s husband, who shared a room in the nursing home with Don’s Dad, passed away this weekend. We’ll go to his funeral tomorrow. The stages of life are sometimes so difficult for us to accept. We loved Clarence and we love his wife; she’s taught us a lot about love and giving in the years that we’ve lived here and known them.

Another good friend in Tennessee lost her mother on Friday. Life is so uncertain, but always remember that God has a plan.

“ . . . how long does a man live? Is it as long as you can touch him or is it as long as he touches you? . . . ” This unknown author has given me lots of comfort as treasured people have passed from this life as we know it. I thank God for treasured people and their influence and love in our lives. God bless us all; we need Him every moment.

Home again!

We had the best time in OKC! Of course it was wonderful to have Ruthie and Phil get there safe and sound! We visited with Trish and Rob and their kids. Then, we took Sadie to a slumber party and Nate kept the other kids while we all went out to eat at Bricktown Brewery, my favorite restaurant in OKC. There are pictures on the blog of Tricia’s family and Ruthie and Phil with Gabe, Mason and Grace and then the bunch of us at Bricktown Brewery. You can tell we were having great fun. The picture I took of Tricia’s family is kind of blurry; I have no clue what I did wrong, but at least I got them all in one place at a time. That’s hard to do!

After our fun night out we had a good night at the Extended Stay America hotel. Phil and Don keep Ruthie and I giggling all the time! Don and Phil got up early and went to breakfast and then to a car show. They nearly froze, so Ruthie and I were glad we missed that! We met Trish and Sadie and Grace at a garage sale, instead. I’m supposed to be getting rid of stuff, but I relapsed today. Surely I need all the stuff I got. I’m a hopeless packrat.

We met Don and Phil and headed back to Hobart. After getting settled in and having dinner we drove around Hobart to show off our little town. They’re all in bed and I’m up washing and drying all the yard sale stuff and our clothes from the trip. I’m headed to bed as soon as I finish this blog and read our emails. We’re so grateful for a safe trip for all of us and it’s wonderful to have Ruthie and Phil here.

God blesses us all and we give thanks!

Friday the 13th - Yikes! A note from the former blogmaster.

Hi guys!

Mom doesn't have internet access tonight and didn't get a chance to sit at my computer, so I'm posting a quick note for her. Aunt Ruthie and Uncle Phil made it here just fine, everyone is checked into the hotel and we all had a nice dinner in Bricktown tonight. The weather is Oklahoma weird, but not severe so we are all surviving it just fine. The plan for tomorrow is to check out the car show and then mom and dad and Aunt Ruthie and Uncle Phil will head to Hobart.

Hope everyone had a 'lucky' Friday the 13th! No tragedies here.... yet......

Tricia

They're almost here!!!

This picture is Ruthie and Phil at our high school reunion in Dover last summer.

Today was our last day to wait for Ruthie and Phil to be here. I did a quick spoof up of the house, and then I got all the stuff ready to get out for 2006 Christmas that we missed. Some will go home with Ruthie and Phil for their family and the rest is ready to go into the mail when they leave. I got it all sorted; I just have to get it into the mail. We’ll take the Oglesby stuff tomorrow when we go to OKC. How terrible is it to have Christmas in April? Everyone has been so wonderful to be patient. We’ll leave first thing in the morning. I can hardly wait to have Ruthie and Phil be here!!!

I talked to Ruthie as we sat down to eat supper and they were just approaching Fort Smith, so they are nearly to Oklahoma. They’ll spend the night near there and then we’ll meet in OKC around noon tomorrow. On our way to OKC we’re stopping to see a friend in the hospital, so that’s another thing to make tomorrow special. For a Friday 13th, it has a lot of promise and hope. Every day is a good day. The day your family comes is a spectacular day!

God bless us all!

Lake is full!

I almost went to bed forgetting to write in the blog! I’ve been brewing Essiac tea to get us through until Monday or so, so that I won’t have to do it right away after Ruthie and Phil get here. I’m so excited about them coming I could just dance if I knew how! I was headed to jiggle and then fall into bed and remembered the blog!

We had a nice day today, so Don and I walked around the park. I took a couple of pictures of the park and lake for the blog. If you look closely you can see the dam at the back of the lake; there is a walking trail up on top of the dam, so we can walk all around the park. This park is just a couple of blocks from our house, so the kids from this family for the last two generations have loved to go there and play. Us big kids love to go there and walk! I took a couple of shots so that I could get the playground as well as the lake with the ducks and geese. Notice that the lake is so full that the water is right up to the bottom of the bridge. We’ve had a good bit of rain since we’ve been home, so the farmers are happy and the lake is full.

I still have 30 minutes of jiggling to do, so I’m going to post this and get with the jiggling and then to bed. I’ll do the blog tomorrow, but Friday I may take off since we’ll be in OKC with Ruthie and Phil. I doubt if I’ll have Internet connection. If I can, I’ll post on Friday, but I don’t know if I’ll get to or not. Hang tough with us while we goof off and enjoy each other!

God Bless us all!

Warm, cold, warm; it's OK!

It did finally warm up! We actually took off for a walk with me in my kangoojumps. They weren’t tight enough and there was nowhere to sit down and adjust them. It’s the first time I’d been out of the house in them, so I was fumbling. We made it to the park and I sat on a bench to tighten them. We decided to come back home, though, because I was afraid they’d rub blisters on my ankles. I never wear any kind of boots, so these were rubbing me where I’d never been rubbed before! We got home and I put on tennis shoes for walking and we went back out for a real walk. By then a storm was brewing, so we just went around the block and came back home.

We enjoyed a while just sitting out on the back deck watching the birds and enjoying the warm. We heard the phone ring and I came in to answer it and it was David and Dorothy telling us Hobart was playing their first home baseball game. They were there and wondered if we wanted to join them. We’re pretty hooked on watching their grandson play, so off we went. It was great for about 30 minutes and then Oklahoma’s weather took a change and blew in cold weather again. It was still fun! David’s daughter, Stephanie brought a bunch of blankets and we survived. The team lost, but they saved face, and it was still fun to watch. After the game we went to our favorite Mexican Restaurant and had dinner with David and Dorothy. I had my camera in my pocket, but forgot to take a picture. I should have asked the waitress to take one, but flat forgot. It would have been a good shot of real fun and love. We love David and Dorothy like family. Today’s picture is one of them at our house one time in the past.

Yesterday I told you about my exercise efforts. I didn’t mention what I do about meds. One thing I do is brew the Essiac Tea. I’ve learned how to do it so that it doesn’t stink up the whole house (use the exhaust fan). I have to brew it every 3 days and it keeps the refrigerator pretty full of icky tea. It’s not all that bad to drink, but it’s no joy. I’ve gotten used to it. I just pretend I’m playing mud pies and get to really drink the stuff. It makes water taste absolutely delicious! This week I only have to take medicine 4 times a day, not within 30 minutes of having food. The tea I have to drink an hour before eating and 2 hours after eating, but only twice a day. The timing of the whole thing is the hardest thing.

I’m taking my regular handful of herbs, plus another two specifically for cancer. Those are just taken twice a day; they don’t have to be at any certain time. It took me two days to sort out all the herbs and vitamins that Don and I will take for the next 2 weeks. Every couple of weeks I have to get those sorted and bagged so that I don’t have to do it every day. So, if you wonder what I’m doing, it’s probably some sort of exercise or sorting herbs (I call it throwing herbs). I’m about to go take my de-tox bath to get the chill from the baseball game out of my bones, not to mention whatever toxins are brave enough to still be in my body!

God bless us all!

Grace's haircut

Ha! Today my cousin wrote that I should bring my energy for cleaning to her house and get to work, or something like that. It dawned on me that I’m giving the wrong impression. I don’t have the energy for this cleaning; I’m just using the energy I can muster for that purpose. We left for Tijuana in such a rush, that I didn’t leave things in the order that I would have liked. Even if I had cleaned before I left, there would still have been 4 months of dust lying around inside, and 4 months of whatever the wind blew up and weeds outside! Doing the taxes was such a burden, I was really glad to escape to cleaning. I don’t like cleaning, but relative to taxes, cleaning is like a trip to Disney Land! Also, having it hanging over my head motivates me to get it done. I don’t know why that is, because then it just needs to be done AGAIN. We’ve decided that we want to snowbird to somewhere that is warm next winter, so we’ll do it again. I want to have a better plan next year! If we have an opportunity to sell this house and move to something smaller, we need to scale down, so I’m challenged to get rid of lots of clutter as I go with the cleaning. That makes it more interesting than just plain old cleaning.

Another cousin thought maybe I had quit writing the blog since she had trouble finding it. I wonder sometimes if I should quit writing it because it sounds kind of boring with my report of cleaning. I thought maybe I should be telling about the exercises that I do.

We walk 2-3 miles if the weather is good. Everyday I do an hour on my jiggling machine. It’s a machine that sits on the floor, and I lie down and put my ankles into a padded cradle on the jiggler. I turn it on and just lie there and read. It is my salvation as far as my back is concerned; I don’t know what I ever did without it. It is also very good for lymph drainage, which is important to my situation right now. Circulation and lymph drainage are very important all the time, but particularly when I am aiming to get healing medicines into all parts of my body.

I do a HOT bath for 30-45 minutes 3 times a week. That’s good for de-toxing. (I also LOVE it!)

I have those Kangoojumps, and I wear those around the house as often as possible. I’d like to do 15 minutes a day in them, but I forget sometimes. They are very good for lymph drainage, too. They are too much fun; I tend to think of them as a fun thing, and put them off and don’t get around to them. I’m going to use them for our outside walks as soon as it warms up a bit; maybe tomorrow.

The excitement of today was that Grace cut her hair. Grace will be 4 in a couple of weeks. So, Trish had to take her to the beauty shop to let them give her the bob she wanted. We’ll get to see her Friday when we go to OKC. We’re meeting Ruthie and Phil in OKC, so that’s the big deal of this week! We’re staying the night in OKC to go to a car show on Saturday; then we’ll come to Hobart Saturday afternoon. I can hardly wait!

Everyone have a great week; I hope it warms up everywhere and spring will really be here! God keep us all safe and healthy!

Easter Dogwood

” . . . the blossoms shall be in the form of a cross; two long petals and two short. In the center of each petal there will be nail prints, crown with rust and stained with red. In the center of the flower will be a crown of thorns. And all who pass and see the Dogwood tree and will remember our Jesus and what he means to us." Author Unknown

Here is my macro shot of Hazel’s dogwood across the street.
























We didn’t get the freeze that was predicted last night, but it’s been really chilly for Easter Sunday. That’s okay; we’re so grateful for the farmers that their wheat wasn’t ruined. I’m really happy that my irises didn’t freeze; I look forward to a beautiful spring.

Jo Ann and Frank invited us to their home for dinner after church with both their family. Jack and Tillie of the canasta group joined us, as well. It was a beautiful and delicious dinner. After we cleaned up, we all played canasta; we’re so hooked! Tonight I am packing herbs for our next several days.

We are healthy and happy. Praise God! Our wish and prayers for you is the same gift!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, Everyone! Tomorrow is the day, but it’s not too early to thank our Lord for all He has done for us. I am especially thanking Him that “ . . . by His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5 More important is the beginning of that verse: “ But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him . . .” What an awesome gift! Salvation and healing all in one verse.

Tonight we played canasta, again at our house. Before we started I ran over to our neighbor across the street’s house to get a picture of her dogwood before tonight’s predicted freeze gets it. She is Hazel and she plays canasta with us when we have someone out sick or someone extra. She was Don’s sister’s best friend from high school years and she and her husband used to keep an eye on Don’s mom and dad when they were growing older and feebler. She’s a treasured friend! This weekend she played with us because Kristy was here. Kristy is Jo Ann and Frank’s daughter. She LOVES to play canasta as much as the rest of us do. She lives near Oklahoma City, so we don’t get to play with her too much, but love it when she can come. We even go there sometimes.

This weekend was sort of like a canasta reunion because we all got to play together. There are some others who play with us from time to time, but there’s no telling when we can get us all together. We just do the best we can. The first picture is Joan, who knows every iris by name; Dorothy, who has known Don since he was Donnie, and Hazel who has the dogwood and brought those awesome cookies. The next picture is Tillie, who brought the other awesome cookies, Jo Ann, and her daughter, Kristy. These are all such great friends. Next time I’ll get the men who go with them. The last picture is Hazel’s dogwood.

Have a wonderful Easter, but celebrate it every day!

Iris in full bloom.

It’s cold here! We’re ready to go back to Hawaii! We thank God that we have a warm place to live and plenty of warm clothes to wear when we go out of the house! We have great friends who make life cheerful, too. We played canasta at our house tonight and will again tomorrow night. Tomorrow many of us will meet for breakfast. We enjoy the fellowship!

It’s hard to get in our walking when it’s this cold. That means I have to do more exercise in the house. I did get my bathroom de-cluttered today. Don was surprised to see that I have a counter on my side, too!

My iris that I cut yesterday opened all the way today. I got a picture of it to share today. I know this isn’t as exciting for you as it is for me, but this is the kind of thing that entertains me, so I’m sharing the best I have with you: my cut flower and a picture of the latest grandbaby.

God bless us all!

Winter is back?

The cold is catching up with us! We managed to escape for the winter, but it's BACK! I went out to check on my iris and decided to cut it and bring it inside; I can't stand for it to freeze. There are lots of other spikes, but I hope the cold won't get them. Iris are pretty tough. Even if it does, there will surely be more.

One of my big iris beds is right under the basketball goal, so it's taken a beating, but I think we'll have plenty. Our precious neighbor girls practice ball diligently every single day; that's way more important than a handful of flowers, and we have gobs of other flowers. Those girls are just 6 and 3 and they're going to play basketball for years. I love it when I hear their ball bouncing out there and see them practicing. I'm amazed at that kind of diligence at their ages.

I was headed for my bathroom counter to clear off the clutter in there, but ended up in the bathroom off the laundry room. That is really the room that catches everything. When we built on our bathroom we swiped the stool out of the bathroom in the laundry room, so there is only a sink and cabinet and drawers and shelves in there. I have that all crammed full and then 'stuff' sitting in the floor, too. UGH! Well, it's a lot better tonight. Tomorrow I will get to the counter in my bathroom. It's been fun to get rid of a lot of clutter around here. It feels good to have a cut flower on my bar, too. That always feels good to me. I'll share it with you; that's sweet Elena by the flower.

God bless us all!

Remember Betsy Clark?

A cold front came through, so my iris didn’t open today. I only got out to go to the dentist so he could fix a tooth that broke a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t bothering me, but I figured it needed to be fixed before it caused me pain and agony when I was up to my ears in something fun. I didn’t run across anything worthy of taking a picture at his office.

Then I came home and spent the rest of the day going around cleaning up little stashes of stuff that I have EVERYWHERE! I even cleaned out my pantry. Don is amazed and afraid to hinder me while I’m on a roll. I just hope he doesn’t ask for anything because there is no telling what I’m throwing away and what new stashes I’m creating. I’m such a pack rat; I can’t even believe some of the stuff I have!

Anyone remember Betsy Clark? I’ve loved her forever and when Trish was little she made a card for me and put that it was from Besty Clark, so around here, we call her Besty Clark. Anyway, most of my collection is hanging on the walls going down to the basement. Betsy was the forerunner to Precious Moments.

Everything about Betsy is based on the simple things in life and love. One time I was visiting my sister, Ruthie in California and we found a Betsy Clark doll! I think she bought her for me because I’d spent every cent I had to get out there for the visit. For a long time we shared her. When I came to her house I’d bring Betsy to her and leave her until the next time I came and then I’d take her home with me for a few months. Anyway, she’s been at my house for a long, long time and I still love her; she’s a tie and a reminder to me of all the people I love and cherish, starting with my sister. I guess I was thinking of that today because Ruthie is coming to visit here in less than 2 weeks! I’m so excited about that visit that I could just dance! Anyway, today I hung up two of my most recent additions to the Betsy collection; they’d been leaning against the wall for months, and I wanted them to be hung before Ruthie came. Ruthie, take a look at these walls, so you’ll feel at home when we go to the basement.

God bless us all!

In God We Still Trust

Things are looking good around here. My Japanese magnolia still has a few blooms and I had time to get a close up shot of one today.

The irises have spikes on them; one is showing color, so I got a shot of it. Maybe it will be open tomorrow and I’ll get a shot of it, then. The Irises really make me happy.

Don vacuumed the house and I did the wood and vinyl floors today and dusted. I’ve taken three more bags of clothes out to the van. Tomorrow I’ll take them to the thrift store. We even ate supper out in the Florida room tonight. It’s supposed to turn cool here tonight, but if it’s not too cool in the morning we’ll have breakfast out there.

Now, I’m ready to have some company. I sure hope someone will come so that we didn’t do all this cleaning just for us! You love us enough to watch the blog; why don’t you come and see us? We’d love to have you!

A special friend sent me this address today. If you have high speed, it won’t take long to download. Dial up will take longer, but when you have some time, listen to this song and the video that goes with it is very good, too. This song has never been released to the public because it was considered politically incorrect. UGH! It’s a GREAT SONG!

http://gunbarrelcityradio.com/InGodWeStillTrust.wmv

We’re watching the Lady Vols tonight! Go Vols!!!

In GOD we still trust!

Spring cleaning is getting done!

WHEW! Today we finished cleaning the Florida room, windows and all. We also did some investigative work at the courthouse to see what houses around us have sold for and what their square footage is. We need that information, so that we can be ready with a price on our house if we find something smaller in a year around sunny place. We dream. We counted up the square footage in our house, and no wonder it makes me tired to clean it! I put my ‘big girl boots’ on to do some tall stuff, and Don got a shot of me in the entrance to the house. I haven’t braved out of the house with them, yet. I think they’ll be the most fun walking outside. Around the house, it sure comes in handy to be taller, but bending over its tricky. It’s amazing how they relieve my back!

I took a picture of the whole house from the front. It has no curb appeal; if we ever sell it, the surprise of how much house is here will be a good feature. From the outside it looks a lot like our old Astro van; blah! Wait until the irises bloom, though. They’ll be gorgeous! I have several that are re-bloomers, so they’ll be pretty for a long time; I love them! Hobart calls itself the city of irises, and they are the Tennessee state flower, so I’ve always felt at home with them since Tennessee was my first home.

I pulled 3 bags of cloths out of my closet today. I’ve got them packed in the van to take to Searchlight’s thrift store tomorrow. I’m weeding out inside and out! It feels good to me to be getting shed of a bunch of clutter. Don is so thrilled to see me do it; he just wishes I would do it faster!

My reward for working so hard today is I get to watch the basketball finals on TV tonight while I re-do these poor nails! I love basketball because I can see where the ball is. These guys floor me!

We are healthy and happy; I give God the glory and thanks!

A centenial quilt for Oklahoma!

What a beautiful, perfect day it was today! It was so comfortable to be outside. We had no wind, which is way unusual for Oklahoma! Usually, it’s so hot that we need the wind to stay alive, but it was just perfect today! So, I was able to spray the driveway where weeds were having their way. Don was a saint again and pulled a million weeds in the flower garden. I got the rest and then sprayed in lots of places. I’m so pleased to have the flowerbeds in order. WHEW! What a relief! Then as we came in to get cleaned up, he suggested we get started on the Florida room; of course we finished it. WHEW; another big task marked off our list. Well, tomorrow we’ll wash the windows out there, which is two walls, but that’ll be easy with him helping me. Then we’ll be done with that room. That’ll be nice; we can start having breakfast out there! Our drier vents out to the Florida room, and we keep a pair of panty hose on the end of the vent to catch the lint. (That’s the popular Hobart way of doing it; cool, huh? NOT!) Sometime last fall the hose came off the vent and lint was everywhere before we realized it. So it looked terrible out there and really needed cleaning. It’ll be fun to use it, again.

Today’s picture is of an awesome quilt that was made to celebrate Oklahoma’s centennial celebration this year. My good friend, Diana had the idea for women from Hobart to each make a quilt block for a quilt that we would raffle off in the fall to raise money for the city. She did an awesome job of promoting it and getting it completed. I wish the quilt showed good in the picture, but the details don’t show in the picture like they do in real life. These blocks are awesome. One lady’s block has a clothes line on it with a little tiny quilt hanging (literally in 3-D, not just a flat piece, but an actual little quilt hanging there!). Diana got a retired home economics teacher who teaches quilting at the vo-tech to piece the quilt, and then the Mennonite women did a beautiful job of quilting it. It is absolutely gorgeous. The tickets are $5 each and I think the drawing will be this summer or fall, if any of you are hooked on quilts, this one is certainly a one of a kind! Right now it's on display, hanging in the library here in Hobart; we're all really proud of it, and of Diana for making a dream become a reality. (She is married to another one of my classmates from Japan; they moved here a couple of years ago!) Remember, you can click on the pictures and you'll see a bigger picture; that'll help you see this quilt even better.

Have a wonderful week; God bless us all!

Breakfast at the Kozy Diner

Today was a beautiful day! We started the day out eating at the Kozy Diner with some of the Canasta group. One who we missed last night joined us for a bit. I took pictures and included these great friends. They are all a big part of our lives in Hobart, so you may see them often. The Kozy Diner is the place to have breakfast if we’re not making it; everyone feels at home there and enjoys the food and atmosphere.

After breakfast I needed to shop for a wedding shower I missed last week and one that was this afternoon. Before the shower I got to work in the yard. I pulled lots of weeds and picked up the branches that Don cut off the crepe myrtles and took them to the dumpster. It really feels good to get some time to work in the yard. I hate when the yard is getting away from me, so it’s a big relief to think I’m getting control of it, again. I still have a lot to do, but I can do a lot tomorrow if it doesn’t rain. The rain we’ve had makes the dirt really soft so the weeds pull easy. I’m so thankful! God is good to me!

I got some more cleaning done in the house, too. A little each day and I’ll get this whipped. You’re all probably wondering why we have so much cleaning to do! Remember, we left for Tijuana in a rush, so we packed and left everything just as it was. Then the house sat here for 4 months collecting dust. PLUS, we’re making real life style changes, and looking to downsize when the time is right. That means we have collected lots of things over the years that we need to make disappear. I know to never wear an under wire bra again, so I’m pulling all the wires out of my bras and trashing lots. (You’ve got to be tough to read this blog!) I’m also pulling out lots of clothes that I will never wear to take to Searchlight, a local thrift store in town. I’ve got a box in the garage for garage sale things, etc. I’m sorting as I go with the intent of making life simpler in the future. We’d like a much smaller place somewhere without a yard where the sun shines every day, so we’re keeping our eyes and ears open. We can get sunshine about 8 months of the year here, so we’ll snowbird until we can figure a better place to live.

I’m getting accustomed to the Essiac Tea. I feel like I’m playing mud pies and drinking the water, but I can do it. Maybe I’ll actually like it some day.

The pictures below are from the Kozy Diner this morning. The first one is me with Joan, and Dorothy. Joan is our dear friend who watches the house when we’re gone and picks up our mail and gets it to us. Dorothy is our dear friend who has macular degeneration. She lets me cut her hair, so we are pretty close. I mean, you just don’t let anyone cut your hair! She and David have traveled with us when they were healthy enough; we’d love to have them go everywhere with us.

The second picture is Joan and then Dorothy and her husband, David. Beside David are Frank and then his wife, Jo Ann. They’re the kind of friends who organize a hayride for all your grandkids when you mention your four year old would like to ride in a tractor. The kids ended up getting to DRIVE the tractor, plus have a hayride, a picnic and go fishing at their pond! These are the kind of people we go through thick and thin with, arm in arm . . . like all of you! Among my blessings I count you all and thank God!

WOOHOO; taxes are SENT!

Woohoo! The last information we needed came today; we completed our part and SENT IT ALL to The Tax Club! I am so glad to have that off my back. They will call and we’ll go over it with them, but the headaches are over!

We had a last minute card game at our house tonight. We had 6 of our usual people, plus us, so that made 8. There are 2 more who usually play with us, but I couldn’t ask them because I had used some cleaning stuff today that bothers one of them. I wasn’t thinking we’d play cards when I did that. I was just so glad to be done with the bookkeeping; I got busy cleaning in my Kangoojumps! I was like a bird out of a cage! So we threw the card game together right quick and it worked. We were all sort of sweating the weather around here, but we have a basement, so it was a good place to be. I'll have to have Don take a picture of me in those Kangoojumps; that'll be a hoot to share!

I’ve got lots of cleaning left to do, but it’s starting to really feel like home around here. The hot water heater in the old part of the house went out today, so we have a repair job going. It’s not a big deal because we have hot water everywhere that we need it. If we have company before we can get it fixed we’ll share our bathroom. The plumber came today to scope out the situation and he’ll probably be able to replace it sometime next week. It feels good to have fixable things happen. That tax deal was so out of my comfort zone. Could you tell? Ha!

Here are a couple of pictures of tonight’s canasta crew; God blessed our lives with this group and all of you! Have a wonderful weekend!

Sunshine for a little weeding!

Today I didn’t even see the camera, so please be patient for a picture There was bad weather east of us today; it usually goes right through here, but we missed it! I thank God for that! A couple of people in OKC are in critical condition due to injuries from a tornado that touched there, so I may be spending some time in the basement soon. I love the basement in this weather!

Don and I actually got to go outside and do some yard work. We did as much as we could with the taxes and went outside to burn off some frustration. I got so confused on the bookkeeping stuff, today. It’s not really taxes; it’s the bookkeeping that drives me crazy. It’s just that Uncle Sam asks for details that would be right there if I had done the bookkeeping right. I had bookkeeping in high school and made an A, but I’m flunking the real life test. I laughed today until I was in tears. (Don reminded me that it wasn’t a laughing matter, Tom, so I cried.) As soon as all our information gets here in the (snail) mail, we can be done with all these details and send it to the cpas. YES! Then, I promise to do every detail right all year, this year!

I pruned my lavender plants and cleaned out all the leaves trapped in them. I never got them pruned last year and they were taking over the back walk. They may not survive the pruning. If they don’t I will miss them, but I won’t plant more. I’m not planting anything that needs attention. Lavender is pretty easy, but it does need to be pruned. Don picked up all the windmill weeds that had blown in and were packed in every corner. Little by little we’ll have the yard looking good before long. I have some iris spikes, so there will be flowers soon!

I also pulled the weeds out from under the magnolia tree. That makes me feel better; I take what happens with that magnolia really personally. Everywhere we live I plant a magnolia tree because I love the blooms. The spray guy couldn’t spray the weeds under it because it would have damaged the tree, so they had to be pulled. The magnolia tree is my mark on this place, so I’m hoping it will live. It’s been broken off (even with the ground) TWICE since we planted it, so it’s a fighter and I’m hanging in there with it. Last year it bloomed for the first time.

Happy, safe spring to everyone, and I thank God for all of you and your support.

Bad storms not too near here.

If you're watching the weather, it's not pretty out here tonight. There are two fatalities in the panhandle, so far. We haven't had any fatalities in the state since 1 in 2001 and 42 in 1999. We have lots of guys out there watching them and the TV stations keeping us informed of where they are, etc. We are under a watch, but not a warning. We have a good basement where we will go if we hear the siren; Don will hear it because he's a light sleeper.

Other than the weather, everything else is good here today. We worked on taxes today and made good headway. Poor Don. I'm surprised he doesn't wad me up and throw me away; he doesn't even keep score. He's amazing. He can't believe what a sloppy bookkeeper I am. I keep saying I do biscuits and gravy. I bet he'd slop that up pretty bad. He does numbers and I do biscuits and gravy; that's pretty simple to me. It amazes me how he can be so kind after I frustrate him so much with the books; then he smiles and thanks me for fixing lunch. For the mess I've made, I'd expect him to be mad for a couple of weeks or months . . . or wad me up and throw me away, like I said. I think he's a saint.

The saint is waiting on me to take a bath and get to bed. The good thing about no pictures is that the blog loads quickly for the dial up folks. Let's all be glad about that and give thanks for dial up and high speed! It's a wonderful way to communicate. God bless!

Spelling better today.

It's still raining in Hobart! Actually, it's not raining this minute, but we got more rain today. It's pretty amazing. I took this picture of the redbud with the drips of rain on it. I'm out of practice with the macro shots, so maybe I'll get a better one tomorrow.

Today we got a lot done on the taxes, so I'm feeling better about that project. It's still a hassel.

We drank Essiac Tea for the first time today. ICK! It tastes terrible; someone called it robust, but I call a spade a spade, and it's terrible. However, it tastes a lot better than cancer, so I'm drinking it. Don is drinking the maintenance dose. We'll report if we see any differences. Today all we could tell was how bad it tastes. I have tasted worse stuff, but this is not pretty. The maintenance dose will be more tolerable to drink, so I can do it the rest of my life. Actually, I'm probably a pansy, because I think wine tastes awful, too.

All is good here. Praise God for the rain, the beauty of spring, healthy and happy family and friends!

Tea is brewd and the rain is nice!

It has been a wonderful day! We didn’t work on taxes. We’re waiting on some more information to come in the mail, so I got to do other things today. I cut my dear friend’s hair and that’s the kind of thing I love to do. I changed the sheets on our bed and put the suitcases away from our room. There are still some piles of cloths in our room, but I’m working through them. I also did three loads of laundry.

It feels good to be doing regular things. An out of the ordinary thing that I did was brewing the Essiac Tea. It looks and smells awful, but I’m not drinking this to enjoy it. I’m drinking it to enjoy LIFE. It has to sit overnight, and then I will begin drinking it tomorrow. Don is going to drink it too. I’ll report to you how it goes. I’m so pleased that one of my friends read the blog and wrote that she is sending for a sample of the tea. I think it might be really, really good for her. She doesn’t have cancer, but it has so many benefits!

Another wonderful thing is that we had a slow rain all day. That is so unusual for us. It usually rains and storms and blows, so that rain just blows through. Today it really sunk in. I know the farmers are happy. It was relaxing.

I’m thanking God! I love you all for looking and caring about us.

Taxes are not winning . . .

Today was a good day. I’m more relaxed about the taxes now that Don has taken the lead. See, the big deal is the corporation with the web sites. The concept is easy, and the web sites are fun. The bookwork is not fun for me. We’ll get through this tax season and then come to terms with what changes have to be made. Don always takes care of our personal taxes, so this corporate junk is unfamiliar and distasteful territory for me.

Don is a dear; he will let me do whatever I need to do to make it work or help me make it disappear. He wants me de-stressed, too. We have to answer to Uncle Sam and then we will make some decisions about the future for our business.

We went to church this morning and today was our day to do the devotional at the nursing home. I love the people at the nursing home, so it was my joy to go participate in that devotional before I hit the taxes. This week we have information we need for taxes coming, so we should be able to knock them out this week. For now, I’ve done all I can do, except work on a better work plan for 2007, so that the tax effort won’t be any big deal.

Tomorrow my order of Essiac Tea should be here; I will brew it and it should be ready to start taking on Tuesday as part of this next 4-week treatment plan. Actually, I will take Essiac Tea for the rest of my life, but I will be taking an aggressive dose for the next 20 weeks. This next 4 weeks is an interval where I take only Carnivora before I hit the complete 16-week treatment plan again. Essiac Tea is something that was referred to me about 15 years ago by a good friend who is a doctor. He told me if I ever had cancer, I should take Essiac Tea. Now I’m being told that again, and as I study it, I realize I should have been taking it years ago for the many benefits it gives. You might want to consider its benefits, too, and maybe you will want to take some. As soon as I know I’ll tell you how it tastes. You can read about Essiac Tea at this location, and they even will give you a free sample if you like: http://www.discount-essiac-tea.com/essiac-tea-benefits.html

Thanks for hanging tough with me while I pitched my tax fit. I love you all and thank God for all His abundant blessings in our lives.