Custom Order for Sally!

Ah, last weekend I was a vendor at a small quilt and fall festival. It was such fun talking to all the people walking by. One very nice lady by the name of Sally ordered one of my hooded scarfs. So today I am posting pictures of it just so you all can see what I do!

I am told they are Japanese Carp

Summer is almost over and I am so sad! I miss our two week trips to the lake. But hubby is just to sick to take them any more. So my boat sat in the driveway most of the summer. But Sunday Ray (daughter #3) wanted to take a few friends down to the river for the day and asked if I would take them. Daddy won't let her drive the boat cause she drinks too much! lol! So Saturday afternoon, we washed the boat off real quick, packed a few snacks and fixed a cooler. We were all ready to go! Sunday morning D & J who are sisters got lost coming to the house so we got out of here a little later than usual. Our third friend was our son's ex girlfriend and she went also.

So, they drank, swam, ate and partied all day. I was the only sober one in the bunch. But at least I got out and got some sun.

We told D & J that if we got going fast enough that the fish would start flying. I think they thought we were joking until one almost hit J! lol! I call them the flying fish, but I think they are really Japanese carp. I have been told that the vibrations from the boat get them jumping out of the water. We ducked all day but it was a hoot! At least I didn't get any in the pontoon and have to throw them back in. I still haven't checked the sides to see if I have any dents.

We stopped at Smitty's and ate lunch outside. D & J were done after that, so we took a quick swim and pulled the boat out and came home.

The End!

It wasn't free!

So my daughter is shopping in Walmart one day. Browsing around in the vitamins, she is approached by a tall thin man. She looks up into the face of this young man, who is clean shaven and dressed in a suit.

"Would you like up to ten free dinners? All you have to do, is listen to me talk for about 15 minutes."

Now the bells should have been going off in her head, but she is related to me, so I will forgive her.

"What?" She is the brightest of my bunch.

"You can bring your whole family and have dinner at (I will not mention the name of the restaurant). You do have kids? They can eat free."

Now daughter is really interested. She can feed all four of her kids and her stepson for free! So of course she says "Sure." She takes her ticket and he moves on.

So she calls me. "Hubby doesn't want to go with me tonight for a free dinner. You want to go?"

I told you, we are related! "Where we going?"

So she tells me her little story and I respond with what she wants to hear. I didn't really want to go listen to this guy but I like mexican food and IT IS free!

We get there and this place is small. Bells should have been going off, but now I'm curious instead of wary. We go in and they ask if we are here for the lecture. Oh Boy! So they escort us back to the little room in the back with about ten tables in there. At least we weren't alone, half the tables were already full. We had only three of the boys with us. The two girls were home and one was sleeping. She has a bad habit of taking a nap at 5 in the evening.

We take the big table in the back and this tiny lady comes around with a sheet of paper to be filled out. They want to know how much you hurt. Well, hello! I spent twenty five years working in a hospital. I hurt all over! lol! You try lifting 300 lb people up on an x-ray table!

I finish my little questionaire before daughter and look across the table to see what she has checked off. She hurts more than me and she is considerably younger. I laugh.

Thin man walks in and starts hustling around. Talks to tiny lady and starts setting up his chalk board and plugs in his light to show x-rays on. I am beginning to get the picture now.

The room magically fills up with lots more families and he decides to talk. I instantly can not stand him. He talks to us like we are all fifth graders and incredibly stupid.

" Hi, I am Dr. Baylard and I am here to talk to you about your health. Have any of you been in an accident or had a fall? Does your back hurt anywhere? Raise your hand?"

We all raised our hands. We raised them a lot during his little speech. He asked a lot of questions and we answered with our little hands. He even took my grandson and showed my daughter how to check for scoliosis. Of course, he was a little off. But so is the rest of my family! lol! Then he moved on to show us what a normal x-ray of the lower spine looked like. Then he showed one with scoliosis. It was more hand raising time and dumb looks.

Then tiny lady collected all of our papers and gave them to him. He started with me in the corner. I am sure he loved the fact that my left leg is shorter than the right.

"Were you ever in an accident?"

"When I was a kid." I wanted to tell him the time I got hit by a car. But I really wanted to get rid of him. I wasn't about to tell him about the motorcycle accident when I was sixteen and how I bounced across the road on my butt and didn't even tear my pants.

"How did you hurt your back?"

"Lifting people for twenty five years. Pushing wheelchairs and stretchers." I don't like to give too much away.

"Do you think you should have to live with this pain?"

Now I am looking at him like he is crazier than me. What does he want from me? I know my back is screwed up and will stay that way. "I have narrowing of the spine between L-4 L-5 and L-5 S-1 and it isn't going to change."

"But do you think you have to live with that pain?"

"I've lived with it for years and I don't pay much attention to it unless I can't move."

"Would you like to live without it?"

I'd like him to go away now because he is really irritating. But he is one of these guys that will sit there in your face until you give him the answers he wants.

I sigh. Okay, I'm stuck here. But I will have to tell you more later as I have to go take a shower and go to the chiropractors this morning. See ya later!

I'm so Bad!

Yes, I am! I have been procrastinating! My poor blog is suffering from lack of communications. But it has been a crazy month here. My Charlie was sick with cancer and we have been babying him. He's my first and probably my last cocker and we finally couldn't watch him suffer any more. I had to take him to the doggy doctor and put down. That was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I know it sounds strange when I worked in a hospital for twenty five years and have seen a lot of humans die. I just keep telling my self it was the humane thing to do. It still doesn't seem right around here and I just hope that he is happy running thru God's fields.

Well, I have been playing around with cotton piping and strips of material. Darling daughter has been making baskets to sell but I can't do what she does because it takes me too long and I get bored. I made one basket her way and it took me a week. I don't think anyone wants to pay $600. for a basket! lol! So I was at the fabric store one day and ran across a really cool book showing how to make baskets using your sewing machine. I thought, I can do that! So I bought it, and started making hot plates. Then I made the hubby a coaster. But dummy here couldn't figure out how much piping she was using, so I tried cutting 4 1/2 yards and sewing it up. It didn't quite reach the size I wanted for hot plates so I tried again. But this time after I hit my mark for a coaster I stopped and measured how much I had left and now I know what I need for those. I'm not too bright some days, well most days anyway! Now I have all these ideas.

After a week of hot plates (which I sold most of at the Peach Festival) I got brave and tried making a basket. Ohhhhhhhhh, was it pretty! And yes, I am proud of it! It was the only basket that sold at the Festival. And yes, now I am all fired up about making more. But I did run into a small problem, I ran out of cording. So I cleaned out the local places that were reasonable and I couldn't get anymore from them. Good thing hubby has a brain. He suggested I get online and look around. I found a good place to buy in bulk and am now waiting for my big order. Good thing these come on spools for easy storage. I am saving the empty spools. I am sure someone will come up with a good idea how to recycle these too! lol!

Well, dang! I am out of time today! I have to be at the chiropractors in an hour and have yet to take a shower. Oh, yeah, that's a good story. I gotta tell ya that one tomorrow! lol!

Nightmare at the Lake

My thought and plan was to get up in the morning, hook up the pontoon boat, throw my coolers in the van and leave. Of course my plan was all wrong. I had told the kids I wasn't working hard on my birthday so I told them they had to do the packing. But again, I had to go pick up Rach and her two kiddies, come back and load firewood in the back of the truck, go to C's and get her kiddies bicycles before I could hook up the boat. Then we had to put all of the suitcases, tv, food and coolers in the back of the van before we could hook up the pop-up camper to it. By then I was grubby and needed a shower but I figured I could get it at the lake after unloading and setting up.

My son-in-law had been working on their motorhome for two days. Their fuel pump had gone out and they had to order one. So he was going to pick it up at one and put it in. Of course that didn't happen on time either. So here we are sitting forever waiting for him to get done. They had been packing for days. It is amazing how much of your house you pack just for a four day vacation. But then they packed for seven and Rach packed for three and I packed for all of them and me. Hubby opted out of this little trip since we weren't taking our RV. Gas is just too high to take it since it only gets nine miles per gallon.

By four in the afternoon we still weren't on the road. So much for leaving early. Ray came home from work and we talked her into going with us since they cancelled the races and she didn't have to work her second job that night. So she threw a bag together and we all sat for a while longer. We were trying to figure out how to get her home Sunday as we were staying til Tuesday when our truck driving son said he was going too. So he threw a bag together and said she could ride home with him.

Five came and went and we were still sitting there. Ray and Rach decided to call their sister and see how the progress on the motorhome was going. Fuel pump was in but now the carburetor was not acting right so he had to work on that. Ray and Rach took the van and the pop-up and left followed by truck driving son. I waited for son-in-law and daughter to get the RV going so I could follow them and make sure we all got there.

Six can and went and I was playing online bingo by now. Ray called me from the road. They had stopped by and checked on the progress of the RV. Not good. I was informed I had the diapers and the clothes in the back seat of my truck so I needed to leave. Oh, and we picked up Cara and Button. So at six thirty, I left pulling the boat by myself. I stopped to check on the progress of the Rv. Still no good! Now my daughter was playing online bingo. She couldn't do anything to help so she was sitting and waiting. I left at six fifty all by myself.

Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me! It sure was a quiet trip all by myself. I took my time checking the boat often to make sure the tires were okay. We had such a time getting the boat ready in the first place. Some one had broken two stems on our tires and we had to get that fixed. Then the motor wouldn't start, so hubby and son-in-law took the boat in and had it overhauled. I stopped at the Shell station right off the exit at the lake and put in $75.00 in gas. It still didn't fill it. By the time I got to the camp ground it was dark. I pulled the boat out of the way with two tires on the road so eveyone could go around me. I wasn't about to try to put the boat in the water in the dark. That was going to wait until morning.

Ray and Rach were chasing babies when I got there. I reminded them I usually kept both of them two days a week and had a quiet laugh. They were trying to drink beer and take care of children and found out that just didn't work. So I took over Cara, since I was the only one she wanted. I finally put her to bed around eleven.

The phone woke me up around one and son-in-law, daughter and their three boys were on their way in to the camp ground. So we got up with the flash light I had packed and helped them back in. They set up with our help, put their awning out and went to take a shower that I never got.

All right! Vacation at the lake had started!

I woke up hot since we had to turn the air down for the babies. Son had started a fire already. He had gone next door and got his sisters flat griddle and was cooking bacon already. He is sometimes a blessing in disguise. He cooked bacon, sausage, fried potatoes, pancakes and eggs for all of us. We ate breakfast and put the boat in the lake.

Button, who is 12 was in seventh heaven. He's my little fisherman. He can do it all by himself. He can fix his own rod, bait, catch, take the fish off and put it in the net. He even knows how to put the catfish on the stringer. He helps keep the boat clean, put out the minnows over the side, throw anchors and tie down the boat. Grandpa taught him how to filet fish so he even helps me there. He has learned how to wash the filets, and how to freeze them. He is good at cleaning up afterwards.

We have to fish in shifts as I won't allow too many at one time on the boat. So I missed the first trip out. I decided it was a learning experience for son. He had never driven the boat before. You would think why? Well why was because we never trusted him with it. He is reckless and dangerous at times. So I let him take the older kids out and told him to stay in the cove where we could see him. It was a hoot! He took his sisters cooler and we called him and told him to come back so we could switch out. He couldn't find neutral to start the boat and we watched him float around for awhile. Ray thought she was gonna have to swim over and get it for a bit but he finally got it started and decided he didn't like to drive. So Ray took them out for a couple of hours while we played with the little ones and did dishes and cleaned up.

I finally got to get on my boat late afternoon. Ray, Button, TJ and Tim went with me. I took them to one of my favorite spots up the cove to fish. We puttered up there in the no wake zone and had been fishing for a while when my phone rang.

My son-in-law was on the phone and I couldn't hardly understand him. He repeated himself twice when I finally understood "CARA IS NOT BREATHING!"

"CALL 911!" I slammed the phone shut. I turned to the others. "Get the anchors up, Cara isn't breathing."

Thirty seconds later we were out of there. I didn't care if it was no wake or not. I put the boat in full throttle and we got out of there. All I could do was pray. I had no equipment to work on her. I told Ray call back and tell them to start CPR not even knowing if they knew how. Ray called and they said she was breathing, so I told them to hold up. Button was so upset, I thought he was going to throw up. This was his baby sister we were talking about. We hit the bank running. I left the boat to Ray and Tim to tie down.

Cara was laying sideways on the picnic bench on a folded up towel. Her mother was almost poor cold water all over her. She said Cara had been hot and she thought maybe she was running a fever when Cara rolled her eyes back in her head and started convulsing. They had called 911 after my call. Cara was a limp rag laying there but I could see her little heart beating. I was debating on whether they should just get in the car and head for the hospital in the next town when the park rangers showed up. They tried to put oxygen on her but she raised her hand and tried to fight it. Next thing I knew, there were at least 15 vehicles skidding in full of people to help. We had park rangers, fire department, ambulances all there in a few minutes. They took my limp baby and put her in the ambulance and we followed them out to Franklin County Hospital. Momma went with Cara. They stripped her in the ambulance and wrapped her in a blanket.

We went straight into a room with her at the hospital. They tried to take her temp but couldn't get one. Cara had not opened her eyes yet. She was slightly blue until they got the oxygen on her. They got Tylenol down her with a syringe and took her blood pressure. Next they took blood for a work up. I held her arm so she wouldn't jump. I have had plenty of practice doing that. Then they carried my limp baby down to x-ray for chest films. I explained to my daughter what they were doing so they understood why. Half an hour later, they tried for another temp and got 102.3. They figured she hit at least 104-105 before she began to seizure. They pushed another doze of Motrin at this time. Before they finally got her temp down, she had a total of five doses alternating Tylenol, Motrin. Cara finally opened her eyes at 9:15. We finally left there at 11:00 with her. We had instructions to call her physician for a follow up and for them to call the hospital for the rest of her blood results. They couldn't find anything wrong with her other than the fever. What a night!

We went to Walmart for Tylenol and Motrin. I picked up some Pringles as she was starving! She ate those until we got to McDonalds and she stuffed herself with chicken and french fries.

We went back to the campground and I sat outside by the campfire. No one else was up. I took the time to thank the Lord for helping us and prayed he would watch over all of us.

One more bad day and we were all going home.

Sunday was better, but of course we watched Cara like a hawk. It was overcast and windy so the boys fished off the bank. We cooked and ate and played. Finally late in the afternoon I took the boys out in the middle of the cove and let them swim. Ray and Tim left for home and our camping trip got a little quieter.

Monday was good. The sun came out and we packed up a lunch and all went to the beach to play. We took Cara's medicine with us. She was her perky little self, back to normal. She had a good time and got quite brave walking thru the water. They played in the sand and I took her bottoms off and washed the sand out. She likes being naked, but then she is only two! lol!

We had our usual fire that night and cooked our usual marshmallows and watched the starts in the sky. I thanked the Lord again.

Tuesday we packed up. You think we got home? Eventually! lol! Son-in-law had a leak in the gas tank. We found that out at the Shell station when we were trying to fill up. We sat for an hour at the picnic table in the shade. I had to stop twice because I didn't put the cover over the boat and my gate flew open and the strap around the top came loose. I was so glad to be home!

Think Positive!

That's my motto for the month of July! June was a really busy month and not all that great. But here I am getting ready to tell you all that happened that was good and bad. Maybe I should have titled this, the good, bad and ugly! lol!

Savannah Lee finally got here on her uncles birthday, Saturday, June 21st. She is a cutie! Looks like she got her grandpas' chin. I had to leave the day after she got home from the hospital, so we haven't had any time to bond. I'm getting to that soon!

My bowling buddies and I left for Detroit early Monday on the 23rd. It was an all day trip. We stopped several times at rest stops, for gas and lunch. We were almost there when we spotted the wineries. We managed to shop at two before they closed. So we added a whole box of wine to all the bowling bags and luggage. We got to the hotel around 7 that night, checked in and headed to the airport to pick up our fifth bowler who opted for flying in and out. She didn't want to waste time playing with us! lol! By the time we got out of the airport, it was heading on ten and we didn't know where to eat. It was going to be a late dinner. So we decided that since the casinos were open all night, we would go there. So another ten miles down the road, in the middle of Detroit we found one. After finding a decent parking place, we roamed the casino for food. We opted for a fast food spot after looking at the prices of the buffet. I just couldn't eat a big meal by then, so it was salad for me and I took over half of that back with me to the hotel. We took showers and got to bed by one in the morning.
Day two, we bowled team. We bowled bad. But so did everyone else. It took me to the third game to hit my average. I just looked at it as a warm up for tomorrows' doubles and singles.
Day three, I left part of my thumb in the bowling ball during practice. Thank goodness, Mary had liquid skin in her bag. I put everything into the first three games. In fact, I think maybe we have a shot at some money. My singles sucked. But at least it was over!
Our beloved Cardinals were in town and of course we had reserved our seats for the game. We wore our Cardinal shirts and took the jibes in style. We had a great time, even in the rain. We met loads of lovely people. Hooked up with three young guys from Canada, that were young enough to be our sons and we laughed all night. They were so nice and funny! They even walked us to our car to make sure we would get back to the hotel.
Day four, we ate breakfast, packed the car and headed home. I got home around five that evening. Hubby and I missed each other, so we talked a lot that night. I didn't bother unpacking my suitcase as I was leaving for the lake the next morning or so I thought.

Lake Trip.............to be continued.