It was great fun having Sue's family here. I am waiting for her to call me to let me know they arrived safely. I may have to wait a long time because from all I've heard from people who have been traveling this holiday, the traffic has been perfectly awful.
Things did get a bit hectic with all the gang here. It was too bad that I had to have Dick take me to the emergency room last night just as everyone was sitting down to dinner. I had been having some pain in my back which traveled along under my arm to just below my left breast. I took three nitros and when the pain didn't go away after waiting the appropriate time for it to diminish, my directions said to go to the emergency room. I had to call Dick over to my chair to tell him it was time for me to go. Poor guy, he didn't even get to eat any of the beautiful dinner I had prepared. I hated like heck to leave them as I really wanted to be around to celebrate Sue's birthday and watch her open her birthday presents. Dick and I had such fun shopping for them. But I honestly thought I'd better do it right. I hated the fact that the doctor in the ER decided that I must stay over night for a bunch of tests and to monitor me.
To make the whole situation worse, I had just been in my hospital bed a short time when they brought a new patient in. The PATIENT FROM HELL. That woman was totally crazy. She screamed and yelled all night long. I kid you not, I did not get a wink of sleep. Just as I could feel myself falling asleep the bright lights would go on and she would start screaming for the nurse. I felt so sorry for those poor women who had to keep answering her call. If they didn't come running, the screaming and yelling would start. She kept saying that she was in such pain and she needed oxycontin. Of course they kept telling her she could only have what the doctor ordered for her. When she wasn't spending her time giving the nurse hell, she was calling her friends on the phone (lucky friends to be awakened in the middle of the night.) She kept calling until she finally got one that said she would come and get her. So at six oclock in the morning she checked herself out. Boy , was that ever a relief. I tried to go to sleep after that but just couldn't. Too many people kept coming in my room.
When my doctor arrived he told me that everything checked out fine and that my heart wasn't damaged. He feels it was all stress related. He told me I could go home that morning. My day nurse was so nice. When I told her I had my daughter visiting with all her family from Northern California and that they were home hoping that I would get released so that they could say goodbye to me before they had to leave, she told me that she was going to start the paper work for me and can you believe that I actually got out of there at nine thirty? I have never been able to go home before noon.
It was neat to be able to say goodbye and get good hugs from all before they were on their way.
This afternoon I had to go get my second shot of faraheme(sp?, my iron for my very low hemoglobin count. ) I had just been to my primary care doctor and my cardiologist last week and now I have to go back to see each one of them soon again. Crazy!
Now that I have disclosed all my medical woes (sorry sorry sorry) I am going to go to sleep in my nice comfortable chair until Dick gets home from his church meeting
Hope next weeks post won't be such a downer.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Reunion Preparation
We're almost there. It's a good thing we have company from time to time because it gives us the incentive to really do some deep cleaning. Part of our family will be here Thursday and we are so excited to have them come. All five of my kids try to visit us at least once a year, but most of the time they come separately. That's probably a good thing since our home isn't large enough to have them all at once. Occaisionally one of them will come to see the Anderson group. For those of you who might not know (and I can't imagine anyone not knowing by now), that is Sue's whole family. There are 11 of them altogther, including the grandchildren and 10 of them are coming. Karin's husband, Bob, couldn't get off work this time. Sue keeps telling me that we should wait until they go to do the house cleaning, but I just can't imagine doing that. As long as we are able we will continue to do it. It is so nice to go into any of the bedrooms and look at the mirrors, they just sparkle so. Dick really did a great job on them. All of my wardrobes have mirrored sliding doors. I know they are passe but since we have had our home (and it was new when we bought it) for 22 years, it is no wonder they are out of style. Still we like them as it does make the rooms look quite a big larger, so we aren't likely to change any of them as long as we are both alive.
Dick is off to the church for his regular Tuesday night evening with the Bishopric. I seem to find this a great time to do my blogging. I just can't seem to find time to do it more than once a week. It's a great way for me to keep track of all my doings though because I am not so great at journaling. I found an old diary from 1981 that I posted almost every day in and I find it is so much fun reading back over that year. It was the year that our youngest daughter went on her mission to Austria and a lot of the time was preparing her for it and seeing her off. It was a very happy time for us as you might imagine. Dick was not a member of the church then, but he didn't seem to mind financing Jayne on her mission, with my help, as I was working too. It was so great having her there and getting so many letters from her. We had planned to go meet her after she was finished and tour Europe with her. You can imagine how disappointed we were when our Stake President said that we couldn't travel with her until she came home and was formally released. Of couse we found out later that we could have, as lots of parents have done it. Still, it was good to have our very spiritual daughter return and try to convert Dick. They used to have talks that would last half the night, but it still didn't work. He was so stubborn and does he ever regret that now!! He feels he could have been a better influence on our only son, Rich, who is totally inactive and now says he is an agnostic. It is sad, but all we can do is pray for him, which we continually do. Since he is marrying a very strong active Catholic in August, I don't think it is likely he will come back to our church and he has made it very clear to Stacy that she musn't expect him to attend her church either. We'll see. I think I would rather have him go to the Catholic Church than no church at all.
Well, that is enough about church. Needless to say, it is a big part of our lives now and I am not sure what we would have done without it. We probably would have been among the group that gets very bored because they have nothing to do with their time.
Incidentally, I cannot take Methadone either as I found out I was allergic to it too. Still it was great for two whole days. I was pretty free from my pain, but on the third day, I started to itch all over my body. Funny thing, I didn't break out in a rash, but I just about went crazy. It still itches a little bit so I'm not likely to take it again in the near future. Oh well............
Dick and I made a double batch of Carmel Corn today. It is hard to keep from scarfing it all up. Sue has tasted it. In fact, that is a funny story. When she was here the last time when Rich brought Stacy to meet some of the family, I had made quite a bit of it and she was convinced she wouldn't like it because her Mother in Law used to make a similar kind that was really chewy and stuck to her teeth. She hated that, but when she saw how it was going over with everyone else, she had to try it. What do you know, she found out she loved it and soon she was scarfing it along with everyone. That is why we made a double batch this time. Those of you who haven't tried my recipe, you can go back and look it up. Everyone who did try it, has made subsequent batches of it rather frequently. So you see, it does come well recommended.
I have decided I am not going to edit these posts, because that is usually when I run into trouble and I am not even going to go there when Dick is not home. I don't like trouble even if he is home, so will beg you all to forgive typos. It just isn't worth it to me to make it perfect. Til next Tuesday evening,
Love to all,
Darlene
Dick is off to the church for his regular Tuesday night evening with the Bishopric. I seem to find this a great time to do my blogging. I just can't seem to find time to do it more than once a week. It's a great way for me to keep track of all my doings though because I am not so great at journaling. I found an old diary from 1981 that I posted almost every day in and I find it is so much fun reading back over that year. It was the year that our youngest daughter went on her mission to Austria and a lot of the time was preparing her for it and seeing her off. It was a very happy time for us as you might imagine. Dick was not a member of the church then, but he didn't seem to mind financing Jayne on her mission, with my help, as I was working too. It was so great having her there and getting so many letters from her. We had planned to go meet her after she was finished and tour Europe with her. You can imagine how disappointed we were when our Stake President said that we couldn't travel with her until she came home and was formally released. Of couse we found out later that we could have, as lots of parents have done it. Still, it was good to have our very spiritual daughter return and try to convert Dick. They used to have talks that would last half the night, but it still didn't work. He was so stubborn and does he ever regret that now!! He feels he could have been a better influence on our only son, Rich, who is totally inactive and now says he is an agnostic. It is sad, but all we can do is pray for him, which we continually do. Since he is marrying a very strong active Catholic in August, I don't think it is likely he will come back to our church and he has made it very clear to Stacy that she musn't expect him to attend her church either. We'll see. I think I would rather have him go to the Catholic Church than no church at all.
Well, that is enough about church. Needless to say, it is a big part of our lives now and I am not sure what we would have done without it. We probably would have been among the group that gets very bored because they have nothing to do with their time.
Incidentally, I cannot take Methadone either as I found out I was allergic to it too. Still it was great for two whole days. I was pretty free from my pain, but on the third day, I started to itch all over my body. Funny thing, I didn't break out in a rash, but I just about went crazy. It still itches a little bit so I'm not likely to take it again in the near future. Oh well............
Dick and I made a double batch of Carmel Corn today. It is hard to keep from scarfing it all up. Sue has tasted it. In fact, that is a funny story. When she was here the last time when Rich brought Stacy to meet some of the family, I had made quite a bit of it and she was convinced she wouldn't like it because her Mother in Law used to make a similar kind that was really chewy and stuck to her teeth. She hated that, but when she saw how it was going over with everyone else, she had to try it. What do you know, she found out she loved it and soon she was scarfing it along with everyone. That is why we made a double batch this time. Those of you who haven't tried my recipe, you can go back and look it up. Everyone who did try it, has made subsequent batches of it rather frequently. So you see, it does come well recommended.
I have decided I am not going to edit these posts, because that is usually when I run into trouble and I am not even going to go there when Dick is not home. I don't like trouble even if he is home, so will beg you all to forgive typos. It just isn't worth it to me to make it perfect. Til next Tuesday evening,
Love to all,
Darlene
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Jam-packed Weekend
I'm going to do something I swore I would never do again. Maybe Tuesday nights are not such a good time for me to post on my blog. Every Tuesday evening Dick goes over to the church for a fun evening. His financial clerk comes and the Bishopric is there . After Dick and Cole (his financial clerk) get all the work done they have to do, they just visit with everyone who comes into the office. There are always a lot of people there because it is the night our youth meet at the church. After Cole leaves the Bishopric have an impromtu meeting which is totally informal. They have such a great time together--all of them have a great sense of humor and whenever they get together anything can happen. I hasten to add that when they have their formal Bishopric meeting at 6:30 a.m. every Sunday morning it is strictly business. Sometimes on Tuesdays Dick doesn't get home until 10:30 p.m. and then we watch the Dancing with the Stars reveal. The reason I hesitate to do this blog tonight is that I had made up my mind not to post directly to my blog because I have so often lost the whole thing when my computer does crazy things. ( I think I need to correct that last sentence to call the computer Dicks, instead of mine, because I refuse to admit any ownership of this hateful machine! Whenever anything does go wrong, I have to yell for Dick and when he isn't here, I am beyond frustrated. I am going to apologize in advance right here for any typos because the one thing I am not going to do is edit this. Whenever I do, that's when I get into trouble most. So sorry everyone.
Having said all that, I should get on with it and start with Saturday when I made chocolate krispy treats and oatmeal cookies. It was just part of getting ready for Sue and the gang. Dave loves to have a couple of oatmeal cookies with his non fat milk(ugh) before he goes to bed at night. At home, he gets the kind you buy at the store, so I try to have that special treat for him when he comes here. I freeze a lot of things before they come so I don't have to do that much cooking and baking while they are here.
Sunday was really a hard day. Dick gets up at 5:00a.m. and leaves at 6:00 after waking me up. I may have mentioned that I can't hear the alarm clock which is right next to my side of the bed. It is pretty soft but I don't want to replace it because it has these great big numbers which I can read in the middle of the night if I wake up. I know, I could probably find one that would be loud and still give me the great big numbers, but who wants to go shopping for an alarm clock??
We left right after Sacrament meeting to take the Sacrament to one of the sisters that Dick and I visit and home teach. She has been too ill to come to church and she doesn't feel comfortable when the young men come. This is the first time we have done it, but I don't think it will be the last as she really did appreciate it. She feels very comfortable with us. Dick took me home right after that because I always have to go home after Sacrament Meeting. I just can't sit through more than one meeting on Sunday. I usually try to go to Relief Society at least once a month and then I have to skip Sacrament Meeting. My back and legs just won't take those benches for much longer than an hour. He came home just in time to change his clothes and we were off to Riverside (about an hour and a half from our house) to attend an engagement party for our grandson and his fiance. It was so very windy that Dick really hated to go. He was very tired and we knew that the wind would be bad going through the pass which takes us out of our beautiful valley. We had winds up to 50 and 60 miles an hour. Whenever you are driving an SUV this is not much fun for the driver. Even though ours is a small one, we really did rock and roll. It was 70 degrees (can you imagine this in Palm Springs in the middle of May?) when we left here and about 58 degrees when we got there. They had put up a very very large canopy and the winds were so bad they had tied it to the fence with bungee cords. Talk about problems. Everything on the many many tables they had so beautifully arranged with pictures of the couple, centerpieces etc. that kept falling over. They had tried to tape the tablecloths to the undersides of the tables. Nothing was working well. About half way through the whole thing came tumbling down and fell apart. What a mess. I felt so sorry for the hosts. They had such wonderful food, barbecued ribs, corn on the cob, meat balls, hamburgers and hot dogs. Believe me, no one went away hungry from that place. The theme was western and they had this humongous big cake in the shape of boot. Dick said it should have been their wedding reception instead of just an engagement party. The biggest surprise of all though, was that our youngest daughter, Jayne, who lives in Salt Lake was flown in by her oldest sister so that she could be with the happy couple. Jayne is very very close to Nancy's four boys and so Nancy felt it just wouldn't seem right without Jayne being there. I was so surprised I almost fainted into her arms. What a great surprise!! Imagine how I would have felt if we hadn't come.
Monday was also a bit crazy. I had to go to the doctor in the morning and Dick had to go to the dentist in the afternoon. Dick was hoping he could help me with my peripheral neuropathy. We had been to a presentation at our hospital by a pain specialist. He mentioned that the only thing left for the pain if neurontin didn't work (which it hasn't for me) was a tens unit implant (which seems to be working for Jerry Lewis) was a very addictive drug called Methadone. It is a drug that they give to heroin addicts when they try to go off that horrible drug. I told my doctor that I absolutely didn't want to take Methadone. He asked me why and I said, " I don't want to become a drug addict." his answer to me was "why not?" Boy did that shake me up a bit until I got thinking that after all I am 84 years old and if I do get addicted, what difference will it really make? I have a couple of meds that I will be taking for the rest of my life, so what would one more matter, if it did help me. He actually talked me into trying it. I started it this morning. I took a pill ( the directions are to take two a day, but he wanted to start me out on one) and it really didn't do much until noon, when it really hit me. Honestly, I started to feel so weird. I honestly felt that I was high on that drug. The pain went away, and I have been on high all day and it is noq 8:30p.m. and I am still feeling it. You just can't imagine how much work I have done though. The only thing is I have had to move carefully or else I would get quite dizzy, but it really did work for me. The only thing is I am definitely not going to take it every day. It will be great though to have it when I am having a really bad day, only the next time I take it, I will only take a half.
And now, believe it or not, nothing has happened so I think I'd better quit while I am ahead. Remember now, I didn't edit this so there are bound to be many typos. I do type quite fast, but I think though, that I will probably continue to do these posts just once a week .........and likely on Tuesday.
Love to all of you,
Darlene
Saturday
Having said all that, I should get on with it and start with Saturday when I made chocolate krispy treats and oatmeal cookies. It was just part of getting ready for Sue and the gang. Dave loves to have a couple of oatmeal cookies with his non fat milk(ugh) before he goes to bed at night. At home, he gets the kind you buy at the store, so I try to have that special treat for him when he comes here. I freeze a lot of things before they come so I don't have to do that much cooking and baking while they are here.
Sunday was really a hard day. Dick gets up at 5:00a.m. and leaves at 6:00 after waking me up. I may have mentioned that I can't hear the alarm clock which is right next to my side of the bed. It is pretty soft but I don't want to replace it because it has these great big numbers which I can read in the middle of the night if I wake up. I know, I could probably find one that would be loud and still give me the great big numbers, but who wants to go shopping for an alarm clock??
We left right after Sacrament meeting to take the Sacrament to one of the sisters that Dick and I visit and home teach. She has been too ill to come to church and she doesn't feel comfortable when the young men come. This is the first time we have done it, but I don't think it will be the last as she really did appreciate it. She feels very comfortable with us. Dick took me home right after that because I always have to go home after Sacrament Meeting. I just can't sit through more than one meeting on Sunday. I usually try to go to Relief Society at least once a month and then I have to skip Sacrament Meeting. My back and legs just won't take those benches for much longer than an hour. He came home just in time to change his clothes and we were off to Riverside (about an hour and a half from our house) to attend an engagement party for our grandson and his fiance. It was so very windy that Dick really hated to go. He was very tired and we knew that the wind would be bad going through the pass which takes us out of our beautiful valley. We had winds up to 50 and 60 miles an hour. Whenever you are driving an SUV this is not much fun for the driver. Even though ours is a small one, we really did rock and roll. It was 70 degrees (can you imagine this in Palm Springs in the middle of May?) when we left here and about 58 degrees when we got there. They had put up a very very large canopy and the winds were so bad they had tied it to the fence with bungee cords. Talk about problems. Everything on the many many tables they had so beautifully arranged with pictures of the couple, centerpieces etc. that kept falling over. They had tried to tape the tablecloths to the undersides of the tables. Nothing was working well. About half way through the whole thing came tumbling down and fell apart. What a mess. I felt so sorry for the hosts. They had such wonderful food, barbecued ribs, corn on the cob, meat balls, hamburgers and hot dogs. Believe me, no one went away hungry from that place. The theme was western and they had this humongous big cake in the shape of boot. Dick said it should have been their wedding reception instead of just an engagement party. The biggest surprise of all though, was that our youngest daughter, Jayne, who lives in Salt Lake was flown in by her oldest sister so that she could be with the happy couple. Jayne is very very close to Nancy's four boys and so Nancy felt it just wouldn't seem right without Jayne being there. I was so surprised I almost fainted into her arms. What a great surprise!! Imagine how I would have felt if we hadn't come.
Monday was also a bit crazy. I had to go to the doctor in the morning and Dick had to go to the dentist in the afternoon. Dick was hoping he could help me with my peripheral neuropathy. We had been to a presentation at our hospital by a pain specialist. He mentioned that the only thing left for the pain if neurontin didn't work (which it hasn't for me) was a tens unit implant (which seems to be working for Jerry Lewis) was a very addictive drug called Methadone. It is a drug that they give to heroin addicts when they try to go off that horrible drug. I told my doctor that I absolutely didn't want to take Methadone. He asked me why and I said, " I don't want to become a drug addict." his answer to me was "why not?" Boy did that shake me up a bit until I got thinking that after all I am 84 years old and if I do get addicted, what difference will it really make? I have a couple of meds that I will be taking for the rest of my life, so what would one more matter, if it did help me. He actually talked me into trying it. I started it this morning. I took a pill ( the directions are to take two a day, but he wanted to start me out on one) and it really didn't do much until noon, when it really hit me. Honestly, I started to feel so weird. I honestly felt that I was high on that drug. The pain went away, and I have been on high all day and it is noq 8:30p.m. and I am still feeling it. You just can't imagine how much work I have done though. The only thing is I have had to move carefully or else I would get quite dizzy, but it really did work for me. The only thing is I am definitely not going to take it every day. It will be great though to have it when I am having a really bad day, only the next time I take it, I will only take a half.
And now, believe it or not, nothing has happened so I think I'd better quit while I am ahead. Remember now, I didn't edit this so there are bound to be many typos. I do type quite fast, but I think though, that I will probably continue to do these posts just once a week .........and likely on Tuesday.
Love to all of you,
Darlene
Saturday
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Continued
Well, if this hasn't been something. I was writing away on my previous post and all of a sudden my screen went completely white. Very scary. Whenever anything weird happens I yell for Dick, and he came running. The upshot of the whole thing is that our aol is not working properly and I was just sick because I thought I had lost the whole thing. He sat down at this computer and has been working for the past hour trying to save what I had written and get things working again. He finally did save it on to our word perfect. At first we couldn't get it pasted back on to this because every time he would try it would come up "Error 400" When he went on to look at Error 400, he found many places to get it fixed and he was afraid to even try one because he was afraid it might be a virus. I can't really explain it all because I am not smart enough to really understand myself, but anyway the end result is that he was able to get it on through Internet Explorer. I don't know what happened to aol but am not going to worry this any more. Funny, I was in the middle of a sentence when it happened. I finished it and then went ahead and posted it really thinking it might not post, because we had tried many times before and it wouldn't post, but it did . I was pretty shocked and upset that I hadn't even had a chance to edit it. I do make errors when I type so fast. Oh well. Now I am just going to try to write the last paragraph I had written on the end, which never did get saved.
Last paragraph, here goes:
A strange thing happened to me ealier today. I got scammed by a telephone call. At least the guy TRIED to scam me. He had me convinced at first that it was my grandson, Todd. I started to think maybe it wasn't him, even before he tried to get me to wire him money to fix a rental car in Madrid Spain, if you can imagine. I knew that Todd was taking finals so I didn't think he would be in Spain. These things happen all the time and I had read about these guys that try to scam Grandparents into sending money, usually out of the country. He finally hung up when I refused to send him money. Crazy day, all in all and I won't be sorry when it is over.
Sorry about not being able to edit prior post today. I think once a week is about all I can take. I don't know why but things happen to me when I try to post anymore.
Last paragraph, here goes:
A strange thing happened to me ealier today. I got scammed by a telephone call. At least the guy TRIED to scam me. He had me convinced at first that it was my grandson, Todd. I started to think maybe it wasn't him, even before he tried to get me to wire him money to fix a rental car in Madrid Spain, if you can imagine. I knew that Todd was taking finals so I didn't think he would be in Spain. These things happen all the time and I had read about these guys that try to scam Grandparents into sending money, usually out of the country. He finally hung up when I refused to send him money. Crazy day, all in all and I won't be sorry when it is over.
Sorry about not being able to edit prior post today. I think once a week is about all I can take. I don't know why but things happen to me when I try to post anymore.
Yes indeed, it is a brand new week and the last one actually went very well. I had meant to get at least a couple of "rest days" in, but that never really worked. It seems that when I don't have anything at all planned, I can always think of many things to do, so it was a fairly busy one. Unfortunately it wasn't too productive. We went shopping a couple of the days and ended up with zero, so that is always a bit sad, but at least we didn't spend any money. I have been looking for a white A line skirt for about four years and I just don't understand why I haven't been able to find one. There are full skirts, and straight skirts on line, but no A lines. I may have to make one, but not until next month, at least.
I did buy a new sewing machine--well, not new, but new to me. The gal that sold it to me was so nice. She even gave me a hug. It's funny, how sometimes you meet someone so casually and you feel like that is a person you would like to really know and have in your life. I felt that way about Diane. Her mother in law had given her this portable Singer sewing machine about four years ago hoping that she would use it to learn how to sew. She has a darling little girl and I'm sure she would have loved to have Diane make cute clothes for her. She had no desire however, and every time she would see this machine she would feel guilty, so she finally moved it out to the garage. She still would see it though and the guilt never left so she advertised in on Craig's list where I saw it when I just thought I would take a quick look to see if anyone had advertised one. We had just put our make down sofa bed on Craig's list, which incidentally, I haven't recevied one single call on.
We are very pleased with our day bed and know this will be such a much better situation for our family. The time is passing very quickly now and it won't be too much longer before they will be here. I am trying to do a little something every day to prepare for the feeding and caring of all of them when they come. When we are all together, there will be 13 of us. Sme will only be here for a couple of days and some for all of it, so I want to be sure I have plenty of goodies. I made oatmeal bread today and Dick and I just had to have a big slice of it while it was hot. I had mine with butter, honey and almond butter. Yes, ALL THREE of those fattening things. Dick had his with peanut butter. My kids eat it without anything on it at all. Crazy, to my way of thinking.
My Mother's Day was great. Went to church, came home and talked to all five of the kids. I knew they would all phone, so it was fun just relaxing and waiting for them. They sent me such neat presents too. They are all a little too generous though. I would rather they just called me because that is all I really need, just to hear them tell me that they love me.
My dinner for the picky eater turned out very well. I found out he isn't as picky as I thought. He doesn't like any gravies or creamed stuff or fancy cooking. He will eat meat, potatoes, vegetables and salads. They brought the most interesting pie for me. Claudia made it and it was from Oklahoma (the recipe, that is) called the Oklahoma oatmeal coconut pie. It tasted like pecan pie with oatmeal and coconut instead of pecans.
Will finish later.
I did buy a new sewing machine--well, not new, but new to me. The gal that sold it to me was so nice. She even gave me a hug. It's funny, how sometimes you meet someone so casually and you feel like that is a person you would like to really know and have in your life. I felt that way about Diane. Her mother in law had given her this portable Singer sewing machine about four years ago hoping that she would use it to learn how to sew. She has a darling little girl and I'm sure she would have loved to have Diane make cute clothes for her. She had no desire however, and every time she would see this machine she would feel guilty, so she finally moved it out to the garage. She still would see it though and the guilt never left so she advertised in on Craig's list where I saw it when I just thought I would take a quick look to see if anyone had advertised one. We had just put our make down sofa bed on Craig's list, which incidentally, I haven't recevied one single call on.
We are very pleased with our day bed and know this will be such a much better situation for our family. The time is passing very quickly now and it won't be too much longer before they will be here. I am trying to do a little something every day to prepare for the feeding and caring of all of them when they come. When we are all together, there will be 13 of us. Sme will only be here for a couple of days and some for all of it, so I want to be sure I have plenty of goodies. I made oatmeal bread today and Dick and I just had to have a big slice of it while it was hot. I had mine with butter, honey and almond butter. Yes, ALL THREE of those fattening things. Dick had his with peanut butter. My kids eat it without anything on it at all. Crazy, to my way of thinking.
My Mother's Day was great. Went to church, came home and talked to all five of the kids. I knew they would all phone, so it was fun just relaxing and waiting for them. They sent me such neat presents too. They are all a little too generous though. I would rather they just called me because that is all I really need, just to hear them tell me that they love me.
My dinner for the picky eater turned out very well. I found out he isn't as picky as I thought. He doesn't like any gravies or creamed stuff or fancy cooking. He will eat meat, potatoes, vegetables and salads. They brought the most interesting pie for me. Claudia made it and it was from Oklahoma (the recipe, that is) called the Oklahoma oatmeal coconut pie. It tasted like pecan pie with oatmeal and coconut instead of pecans.
Will finish later.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Another Busy Week
Honestly, I thought by the time I was 84 things would begin to settle down a bit so that we could sit back and enjoy our "retirement" for a while. I just don't understand people who tell me they are bored by staying home. I just can't seem to do all the things I want or need to do, so no boring days for me.
We are trying to get everything ready for the time when part of our family will be spending time with us at the end of the month. It is Sue's birthday on the 31st and they are usually here in Palm Desert with their family. All the guys play golf at a different course each day and they do have their favorites! I try to have lots of good things to eat, so bake and make a lot of things to put in the freezer. That is always fun for me because I like to do both. Still, they like to go out to one of their favorite places to eat while they are here and Dick and I usually stay home although they invite us to go.
The last time I had a group of them here though, two of my daughters told me that they could not sleep together on our make out couch. I know those beds are really uncomfortable, but Dick had done quite a bit to make it less so by putting plywood between those awful things that go across the bed. He put it between the bars and the mattress and then we put a visco elastic cover on top. They said it wasn't comfortable enough for two and Sue ended up sleeping on the couch. (Dave wasn't here). We decided then and there that we would have to make a change. The room isn't big enough for two single beds and it didn't make sense to put a queen size bed in there because when the guys come, they refuse to sleep together. The only solution was to have two single beds. So we went back to what we had in there origianlly, trundle beds. We ordered one which was to have been installed today but now they aren't coming until tomorrow. We ordered two really good single bed mattresses to go on them and they are both pretty high. The top one won't matter so much because no one actually sits on the couch/daybed anyway. We call it a den but it is never in use except for sleeping. The big problem is going to be how to store the too deep mattress in the trundle. We will solve it once it is here. We may just have to put it in the closet. I just didn't want to compromise the bottom mattress not being as good as the top one. We did get the spring mechanism that makes the trundle come up to the height of the other bed so it should all work out well. Of course we will now have to shop for a cover for it and if I can't find what I want it means I will have to make it. I am very fussy because I want it to go with my existing color scheme, so I probably will end up making it.
That leads to another problem. The other day, my sewing machine jammed and the thread is really caught in there. I have usually been able to free it, but just couldn't do it this time. Dick is still trying to find time to look at it, but even after he does, I will probably have to take it some place to get it fixed.
Thurday we are having friends in for dinner and I hate to cook for the guy because he is the pickiest eater I have ever known. She is one of my dear friends and I tell her often that I would hate to be married to him even though I truly love him lots. I wouldn't know what that would be like because thank heavens Dick will eat whatever I make, good or bad. Needless to say, I don't have them over more than once or twice a year.
Enough already. I am tired. We had our monthly Relief Society Birthday dinner where we celebrate all the birthdays in the current month. It is pot luck and lots of fun. I made a cassarole that I used to make years ago with macaroni, cheese, tomatoes and a few other things. It was okay but a little dry. There was quite a bit left over so I will have to "doctor it up" so that it will be yummy. I am pretty good at that, I admit.
That really and truly was my last paragraph.............Love to all
Darlene
We are trying to get everything ready for the time when part of our family will be spending time with us at the end of the month. It is Sue's birthday on the 31st and they are usually here in Palm Desert with their family. All the guys play golf at a different course each day and they do have their favorites! I try to have lots of good things to eat, so bake and make a lot of things to put in the freezer. That is always fun for me because I like to do both. Still, they like to go out to one of their favorite places to eat while they are here and Dick and I usually stay home although they invite us to go.
The last time I had a group of them here though, two of my daughters told me that they could not sleep together on our make out couch. I know those beds are really uncomfortable, but Dick had done quite a bit to make it less so by putting plywood between those awful things that go across the bed. He put it between the bars and the mattress and then we put a visco elastic cover on top. They said it wasn't comfortable enough for two and Sue ended up sleeping on the couch. (Dave wasn't here). We decided then and there that we would have to make a change. The room isn't big enough for two single beds and it didn't make sense to put a queen size bed in there because when the guys come, they refuse to sleep together. The only solution was to have two single beds. So we went back to what we had in there origianlly, trundle beds. We ordered one which was to have been installed today but now they aren't coming until tomorrow. We ordered two really good single bed mattresses to go on them and they are both pretty high. The top one won't matter so much because no one actually sits on the couch/daybed anyway. We call it a den but it is never in use except for sleeping. The big problem is going to be how to store the too deep mattress in the trundle. We will solve it once it is here. We may just have to put it in the closet. I just didn't want to compromise the bottom mattress not being as good as the top one. We did get the spring mechanism that makes the trundle come up to the height of the other bed so it should all work out well. Of course we will now have to shop for a cover for it and if I can't find what I want it means I will have to make it. I am very fussy because I want it to go with my existing color scheme, so I probably will end up making it.
That leads to another problem. The other day, my sewing machine jammed and the thread is really caught in there. I have usually been able to free it, but just couldn't do it this time. Dick is still trying to find time to look at it, but even after he does, I will probably have to take it some place to get it fixed.
Thurday we are having friends in for dinner and I hate to cook for the guy because he is the pickiest eater I have ever known. She is one of my dear friends and I tell her often that I would hate to be married to him even though I truly love him lots. I wouldn't know what that would be like because thank heavens Dick will eat whatever I make, good or bad. Needless to say, I don't have them over more than once or twice a year.
Enough already. I am tired. We had our monthly Relief Society Birthday dinner where we celebrate all the birthdays in the current month. It is pot luck and lots of fun. I made a cassarole that I used to make years ago with macaroni, cheese, tomatoes and a few other things. It was okay but a little dry. There was quite a bit left over so I will have to "doctor it up" so that it will be yummy. I am pretty good at that, I admit.
That really and truly was my last paragraph.............Love to all
Darlene
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