A full moon on the river

Last night, late, the sky broke open enough to allow for the moon to find its way out for this photo. I did not see the moon at first, but did see the shadows it was casting on the floors and walls in my bedroom. Already the night before I had the camera ready to go and tried my best to capture the full moon on the river. Well, not quite my best, since I did not bother with the gorilla tripod to secure the camera to the rail as this shot required a steady hand. The little squiggle in the water is actually a light from across the river, and I jiggled a bit when snapping. This looks pretty good though, after I figured out to hold the flash thingy down before taking the shot. It looks eerie to me but it was really more peaceful than anything else.

"Chew some gum and call me in the morning..."

Little by little I am whittling away at the 'remains of the day', or rather, of the week, my foam boxes in the fridge. Presently I am enjoying rice and black beans with pork from The Columbia. Mmmm......At Justin's urging, ahem, ahem, I am eating at home today, even though the cabana was open and food was being cooked over there. Such restraint! I was not totally noble about staying home and tackling the foam boxes, however. Starting yesterday already, I had the sensation of full ears, similar to what a person experiences on an airplane upon take off and landing. I could not really get them to clear entirely and I took an allergy tablet to see if that would help. It did not prevent me from doing normal things but the hollowness was quite annoying and not a little bit disconcerting. When Justin was here cleaning in the late afternoon, I told him about it and he was concerned, too, because of what happened with his ear. Since I had no other symptoms like dizziness or pain, I was not fearing what Justin was thinking. When I went to bed last night, I took another allergy tablet and hoped the ear would be clear in the morning. Even my pillow was noisy when I put my head down on it, such a racket feathers make when they compress!

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This morning the situation was unchanged so I made up my mind to have my head examined at the walk-in care clinic. When I did the walk-in thing, there was no one else in the place. NOT what I expected to find at a place like this on a Saturday morning! Without too much delay the nurse took me back for a quick history and I helped her to do her job. She read me the blood pressure results and began to write them down, and then turned to me, asking, "What did I say it was?" Then she wanted me to relate past surgeries and then I had to spell the procedures for her, like she had a brain fart or something. Perhaps I was not the only one needing their head examined today! I had to spell 'hernia' for her and then 'gall bladder'. Or was that part of my exam??????? I passed the spelling test and recollection tests.

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The doctor took a quick look into my ears and down my throat, asked me the appropriate questions, and then determined I merely have fluid built up in both ears for no apparent reason. He suggested taking no more of the allergy medications which was fine with me, but prescribed a steroid nasal spray to use several times a day. That was filled for me right there at the clinic so I was able to avoid going to the pharmacy on my way home. For an unrelated reason I was up before six a.m. and was quite sleepy yet so after a bit, I took a nap. Thankfully Judy J. called me and woke me up which I appreciate because I did not wish to sleep the day away. And guess what---my head seemed clearer, really!

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It was extremely windy today although partially sunny, and I could have spent the day poolside after all. Instead, though, I opted to remain inside and not be tempted to put my head in the water and undo my seemed improvement in my stuffed ears. The doctor suggested that I keep doing the swallowing thing that we do on airplanes and chew gum every now and again to keep the ears cleared. A prescription for chewing gum, indeed! I wish M & M's did the same thing gum does!

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Yesterday I got a few things needed from Wal*Mart including a package of paper for my printer and picked up a scrip. The nice man doing the 'roll-back' ads for Wal*Mart, Darrell, suggested I get the $5 box of Diet Coke which I did. Thankfully Justin carried it up from the car for me because it is not easy to handle, regardless of the price, still a bear to carry. As I was going through the check-out, the clerk struck up a conversation with me, asking what I was doing for the weekend, etc. and I told her enjoying the pool and going to a concert. She asked which pool and I told her the one where I lived and she asked more and more questions, even asking me how many bedrooms I had. The clerk at the next register sort of scolded 'Tequita', or similar, telling her not to ask those questions. But she persisted and asked me how much it cost to live here. I just looked at her and then she said her friend just bought a three-bedroom condo for $70,000. Okay, conversation over, and that really creeped me out! As I went to my car, I wondered if she was going to follow me home....not really, but it was just over the top, you know?

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Before heading home, I stopped to see my lady friends at Great Hang Ups for a bit. They had been expecting me on the day of my haircut because I had posted that I was going to get one. Must be predictable or something, but I sure fooled them this time! As we sat there jabbering, in walked LaMora Phillips and her daughter, Mary. LaMora had the ladies stretch and mount a crewel piece which she entered in several shows and won two blue ribbons and a red. Julia took a picture of her with the piece and ribbons for Great Hang Ups website. It was so good to see LaMora and Mary, though I occasionally see LaMora and Charlie at Wal*Mart or Kohl's! Now she was on my turf. She asked about Justin and said she adored him, which is sweet. It was good to spend this special time with the ladies again (Dee and Julia, that is) and get all caught up on their news. Dee was recently voted "Artist of the Year" by the Jacksonville Watercolor Society, quite a claim to fame....and I knew her when....!

What a whirl wind week!

What a lot of 'w's in that title! I just glanced up and noticed a slow moving barge on the river, which is really quite pretty at night. They look like a stack of Christmas presents all lit up as they float along. It might not be a barge, might be a only tug, but still is brightly lit. So far I have not seen the moon rise and I hope the clouds are not concealing it. Last night when I came home from dinner the rooms were so bright, it was almost as though I left a light on or something. The Outreach meeting turned out to be a true delight with more people than usual and plans being made right along for future efforts.

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Judy J. and I met after the meeting to enjoy a stromboli at Aron's, dining el fresco until the management began their clean up. I added the balance of my dinner to the rest of the boxes in the fridge. What a week of foam boxes! Justin looked them over today and found none of them appealing so he 'suggested' that I eat at home tomorrow and get some of them eaten up. Yes, dear.....

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We have two members in the hospital right now but Bonnie was expecting to go home this afternoon. Sue was moved to CCU overnight as she was not doing well after her surgery. She had a colonoscopy the day before I had mine and found a growth which had been surgically removed. The doctors seemed to think they 'got' all of the cancer but her future treatment has not yet been determined since she is quite weak. Her daughter is keeping close tabs on Sue, even staying in the room with her mom, except for the CCU situation. Poor Sue has really been through it these past few years and I pray she heals quickly after this bout.

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Justin and I very much enjoyed the Bible study yesterday although at first he flinched when he saw what we were studying. The topic is still our adoption as sons by our heavenly Father, but the discussion was about the many faces the devil wears. Justin said, "Oh, no! You're going to hold this over me...." What? The picture on the page showed a family sitting in the dark, surrounding a TV, totally mesmerized by what they were looking at. Over the TV was a devil mask dangling like a puppet. It was not really as 'bad' a picture/story as Justin thought it was going be, about TV watching or video game playing or other distractions. More, the lesson was how the devil disguises himself in an attractive way, attractive devices, rather than scary like the mask over the TV. No one is afraid of pretty, which the devil banks on...Good lesson.

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We met Paul and Emily at Bahama Breeze for lunch, again on the veranda. There were not so many lovebugs as there were the week before. Because I so enjoyed my Cuban bread on Tuesday night at The Columbia I decided to have a Cuban sandwich. It was delicious but only half of it was eaten, with Justin taking the rest of it home with him. He ate chicken with sweet potatoes and ate my fish chowder, which came with my sandwich. It stunk, if you ask me! Ew! Good thing he liked it. Paul, Emily, and Sarah are going to the Concert on the Green with me Sunday, and we'll be meeting the rest of the church peoples there. Can't wait to hear the cannons during the 1812 Overture!!!! More tomorrow, I am tired as can be, waking up around 6:00 a.m. today, tooooooo early!

I should have done this earlier today

For some reason I find myself extremely tired tonight. And all goofed up on what day it is today as I got myself situated in the family room to watch "Selling New York"....but it's only Wednesday today! Now I must do this again tomorrow night after the Outreach meeting. How did I get so confused?? Now must I go to a Home???

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Suzanne and I met for dinner at Panera as usual but we both ate lighter meals than normal. She had been at a baseball game in the afternoon, right from work with her boss and other staff members. Nice! She had eaten at work, they did a bbq and shared dishes before going to the ball park, all within walking distance. Cool! It was good to sit and talk before heading to choir. We had a good rehearsal singing from the Supplement and our choir anthems, but not so much with the LAPPY. Some of us have an 'issue' with using it, except that some of the songs have been used by our choir in the past in the form of sheet music. Somehow it's different that way....

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Today I was still giddy with excitement about seeing my friends last night and then had a chance to 'chat' on Facebook with Judy before going to get my hair cut. I had met Judy R. on that trip, even though we had communicated via e-mail prior to meeting the first time at the Women's Leadership Conference. We spoke there in passing but really connected on the cruise a few days after the Conference. And the rest is history! The cruise, retracing the steps of St. Paul, was organized by Pastor Jim Humann from the Seattle area, with the majority of the group coming from the west coast area and the Midwest, and then, me! I traveled alone but met up with some of the gang at the airport in New York City. I told the Hulses last night about how my cab driver from the airport to the hotel in NYC clipped a bus with the side view mirror, but said, "That's not too bad" and kept right on going. He gave me a stern lecture about going to Turkey 'alone' but I assured him I would not be alone, others were meeting me and a group was going, but he was quite concerned for my safety. Except when he was driving, that is!

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Later in August of 2007, a group from church plus my sis-in-law, Nancy and sister, Lynn, flew to Seattle for a cruise. We were cruising to Alaska and the others had flown in from Jacksonville. We came from Milwaukee since I had been up there for my mom-in-law's funeral a week or so before the cruise. How do we get from the airport to our hotel???? We were going to meet Jim Humann, my host from the previous cruise for dinner, so they offered to come to the airport to pick the three of us and take us to the hotel. Nice!!! Jim's wife was a classmate of my sister, Kerry's, at MLHS, which was cool. So, I had spent time with Jim and Beth for over two weeks between NYC and the cruise, and now we met again in Seattle!

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Facebook has allowed me to stay in contact with many who were on that trip with me and the memories of that time together are so wonderful. This summer I am hoping to catch up with Vicki, Jim's daughter, who lives in Rhinelander either when I am up in WI or when she comes down here in July to see friends south of Orlando. Neither is exactly next door, but, like with the Hulses, we can make it work!

I do not think I can sleep tonight...

.....after such a fun evening!! It was just AWESOME meeting up with the Hulses in St. Augustine for dinner at The Columbia. AWESOME!! They have a time share south of Daytona Beach and are on vacation from the St. Louis area this week. Naturally, I was running just the tiniest bit late and could kick myself for going 'the long way' instead of jumping on the freeway. As it turned out I was only about 10 minutes late. They were already seated when I came in and I found them with little trouble. It was wonderful to see Cynthia and Lynnette again, and meet Cynthia's hubby, Les, for the first time. Hopefully not my last time! Lynnette brought a friend along to keep her company and her name is Leslie. Les and Leslie---easy enough to remember. We, and I use that term loosely as I talked my head off, talked about everything. Like we never missed a beat. Les told me that after the two ladies came home from the cruise in 2007 he heard all about me....I said, "What???" and he immediately came back with, "...all good, all good..." Whew!

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I think it came up when we talked about how at the Athens airport the two young girls, Lynnette and Becky, were wanting to take in the night life on Mykonos, which was actually several days into the trip, and Cynthia said they could. but only if I went along! Wow! They had really just met me but Cynthia felt confident enough to set them free with me in charge. After she got to know me, she changed her mind about that! As it turned out no one went back to the island that night, to my knowledge, so I was not put to the test. I think the girls would have had their hands full with me if we had gone back over as even Justin had to coerce me back onto the bus in 2006. It's VERY difficult to leave Mykonos but it helped that Santorini was only a day away.

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Judy and Kim on the cruise ship (sorry, but I have no photos on this computer of Cynthia or Lynnette...)

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Back to the dinner tonight, after we shared that little story, Les shared about them talking about me...Lynnette then piped up and said that Kim and the Ruserts made that cruise special for Becky and her, and no sweeter or kinder words were ever spoken. Thanks so much, Hulses, for making my night so special and for the great revisit of memories from our cruise. I was so excited about our fun time tonight that I tried calling Judy R. to tell her but got the answering machine instead. I left such a long, excited message that I ran out of time...imagine that!

Kim and Judy at her home in Winona in the spring of 2008. Friends forever!!!

Scrambling down memory lane...

This is what happens when you have good intentions of cleaning out a closet!!!! You can click on the photos to make them larger, if you dare...

If and when I ever finish writing my book about Timmy and our lives, I want this photo on the cover. I think you can see why....Look at how that light plays across his concerned face. Cropped out of the photo is his uncle Harvey and for some reason, Timmy is not in a car seat. For room, perhaps? I just do not remember, but Justin thinks this was the time that Harvey sneezed in the car and scared Timmy so badly that he cried and cried.

This photo was taken on Lisa's wedding day, and she, looking like a princess, is surrounded by her cousins including Timmy, Dusty, Alayna, Danny, Jamie and Justin. The three in suits were part of the wedding party, sort of like zoot suits. They did not wear the fedoras or the chains until after the service was completed, out of respect. They did look dashing though.

In my younger days, I hired myself out to stand up for people's weddings, often as Matron of Honor. My friends and family liked to pair me with very tall guys, and this was no exception. It appears as though I am having a delightful time for a change, in the Grand March.

We love Christmas in our family and opening the presents was a hoot! Evidently Kerry got a funny coffee mug, although I believe she was still in high school in this photo. Jill and I have matching glasses, I see, big ole' googly eyes! I am wearing my wedding watch around my neck on my Queen's Way blouse. If I had not gotten rid of it, that blouse would still be wearable as they last forever!!!

What is with the pink poly pantsuit???? Oh, my goodness! "What Not To Wear" would have a field day with that one, for sure! Jill is watching me open something and I am wondering if it is perhaps the year she gave me a ceramic ET figure. I still have it, in a box ready for a yard sale. Sorry, Jill.....still love his eyes, though. Different glasses in this picture, upgraded to aviator frames now to go with the pantsuit!

Awwwww, so sweet! Lori and Kim, obviously different races, posed together in the snow. We usually had these knit caps, made, I think, by the next door neighbor or by Auntie Dale. Mom might remember, or Lynn does. I say this is winter but it just might be May or early June, hard to tell in WI..... I do not know why I am so much darker than Lori in this photo, though.

Kerry in her mini-skirt and me in my maxi-dress which either Mom, Lynn, or Lori sewed for me, as we posed in front of the tree. I am probably still in high school in this picture which means Kerry was at First German as I left MLHS before she got there. I remember hearing that one of the teachers, upon hearing her last name, said, "Oh, no, not another one....!" Kerry was the last Lahaie girl for a while until Lisa got there and had her father's last name for safe keeping! It was pretty hard for anyone NOT to know she was one of us!!!

"I could care less about flowers...."

Late in the evenings, I have discovered something on TV that I watch on occasion, perhaps you have heard about it, "Everybody Loves Raymond". It gets on my nerves so I do not make a habit of it and sometimes it seems like the same program every time, lots of whining and hollering. BUT, on occasion, something hits me. There is an obnoxious mother/mother-in-law who lives across the street from her son and his family. Just like Kramer on "Seinfeld", she comes and goes freely, there is never a locked door, it seems. Even finds the couple in their bedroom, which is weird enough.

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Tonight 'Marie' was all upset about getting a gift from the couple, fruit of the month club membership. Oh, she was in a tizzy wondering how in the world they would ever eat all that fruit and then to find out it keeps coming month after month after month....It reminded me of when Justin and I were giving his grandparents flowers of the month for Christmas. They would get different bulbs to plant in the provided basket with dirt in it, during the winter months. Since Arno was a retired farmer, I thought it would be a kick for him to plant the bulbs and tend them as they produced spring flowers. They would have beautiful flowering plants to grace their kitchen during the winter months and then in the summer, when the bulbs quit coming, they could then plant them outside or give them away, whatever. And only one basket came for the entire 6 months so they did not have to deal with a mess of containers. Seemed like a good idea to me, to us...

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Well, one day in late October, I got a phone call from my mom-in-law, and she asked, "You know how you get us those flowers every year for Christmas?" Yes, of course, I do. "Well," she went on, "I could care less about flowers..." What??!!?? Aside from that being a terrible thing to say, I was astounded. Who does not like flowers??? I said that I was sure Arno appreciated being able to be a farmer yet, even if it was flowers on the table, and she brushed it off, like, 'he doesn't really care'. What she was actually getting at was this coming year for Christmas, what she really wanted were gift certificates for area restaurants, in particular, Subway Sandwiches. It seems Arno was not strong enough any longer to do much cooking for them (she had sort of given up on that old 'making meals' thing) and Arno, who was older than she, just could not do it either. But really, was there not a better way to say it than "I could care less about flowers....."? So ,when Marie, on the TV show, was so upset about the fruit coming every month, it brought back the horror of spring flowers growing in the middle of winter!

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They could never throw anything away so the bulbs had to be divvied out equitably to the kids living in the area for their own planting, instead of just tossing 'em. So, stop the madness! Harv and Barb were here shortly after this conversation and we had quite the chuckle over it, and every now and then we'll say, "I could care less about flowers..." Please, in the future, tell us, me, if you do not like our gift, but be diplomatic about it. I personally would say something like, "This year for Christmas, Arno and I want restaurant gift certificates because it is easier for us to stop for lunch than make it...." There, that was nice, soft 'no', as they say in the customer service business. A soft no goes a lot further than a karate chop!

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Another thing that made me chuckle was when I had my colonoscopy. Prior to the actual 'event' I had to do some more medical questionnaire stuff and give them, somehow or another, a urine sample. Since I had not had anything to eat or drink after midnight, this was a good trick. I asked the nurse what they needed it for and the nurse said they had to do a pregnancy test. What? Any female who comes in for a procedure and is between the ages of 11 and 55 gets tested, unless they had a hysterectomy. I told her I have been single since fall of 2003 but she said they still have to do the test. So, I tested negative on two tests that day! Both of which are good things to fail!