Mommy and Me

I took Mom to the cardiologist today. She is now on a 24 hour heart monitor and she had some meds increased due to her heart rate being higher than her doc likes. Tomorrow I will go get the monitor from her at 3:10 P.M. and return it to the doctor's office.

My brother had a glucose tolerance test today and he is now diagnosed with diabetes. I really hate that because he is already so limited in his food choices because of an allergy to gluten. Gluten is in EVERYTHING! That's my mom, my brother and me all diagnosed adult onset diabetics. Genetics hard at work there!!

My sister-in-law had blood work yesterday and she has 269 cholesterol and because of a liver disease, she cannot take anything to lower it! We are a mess!

It's the heat, Stupid!

My stamina and endurance have vacated the body. I was only able to mow the front yard today without any weeding or blowing. My shirt was soaked, and I could not continue. Last week I did everything in the yard in the same day without a problem, so I'm blaming it on the heat. I need to wait until the sun sets, but tonight I have a dinner meeting to help plan a golf tournament for the Mardi Gras Krewe that I joined. I've never even played in a golf tournament, but I am willing to learn and help out with whatever I can.

Brilliant observation...

I finally figured out that if I go work in the garden in the morning, it zaps me for the rest of the day. I spent about 3 hours working in the garden today running the tiller and I was completely sweated down and too tired to even stand in a shower to clean up. I still have not cleaned myself up! I just threw on some dry clothes and fell on my bed exhausted. Before I came home, I checked on my cucumbers and found two big enough to eat. I will be eating those babies before the sun sets!! I also dug a few potatoes and gave them to Mom. They need to grow a little more, but there will be lots of them.

Elvis has left the building!!!

This is my brother's 63 corvette sting ray, which he fully restored. It is awesome !


Actually, I LEFT THE BUILDING! Elvis pretty much sucked! Today was yet another event to benefit St. Jude Hospital....Cruising for a Cure....a car show. The "entertainment" was Elvis. I went to the show and sat in the hot sun (with sunscreen....YES) with my brother and his restored 63 Corvette Sting Ray. I really enjoyed seeing all the cars and I looked forward to and waited hours until 2 P.M. to see Elvis. I should have left much earlier!!!

Happy birthday to my dad!

Dad turned 85 today, but he spent the afternoon in the doctor's office. Both he and Mom had appointments and the doc was more concerned about Mom than Dad. Her left arm has been hurting just like it did before her heart attack. The doc wanted her to go to the cardiologist tomorrow, but there was no appointment available. Her doc made an appointment with the cardiologist for Wednesday. I didn't even know her arm was hurting now or that it hurt before her heart attack. Duh! I think she thinks she tells me stuff, but she really hasn't! Either that or I just don't listen! Could be either!!!

Much needed R & R day

After yesterday's exhaustion, I had nothing planned for today and enjoyed it immensely. I am still in my lounging clothes. The only thing I have done is some cooking. I made some potato salad trying to use up my potatoes because soon I will have fresh, new potatoes from the garden. When those are abundant, I will not eat a potato from a store. They just don't measure up to fresh out of the garden. I also cooked some crawfish cornbread, but I substituted ground beef for the crawfish. It's my "go to" dish when I need to take something somewhere. I use crawfish when I am taking it to someone, but they are too expensive for me just to eat at home. It's really quite tasty even with the ground beef substitution.

Southern Fried Hollywood!

Once again our downtown is shut down for filming yet another movie. This one stars Martin Lawrence. One of these days, I am going to go down and watch what goes on, but, so far, I just haven't had time. The streets were closed yesterday and today. We have a quaint Main Street paved with brick and Hollywood just loves our town. They made some new store fronts...one is a general store and another is a butcher shop. We have neither of those downtown. It's way cool!

Dog Tired!

I spent 3 hours this morning making sure my yard was perfectly manicured...every blade of grass trimmed, every edge sharp and clean, and every morsel blown off the sidewalk and driveway. Then the backyard got a good dose of some spray on weed killer that also is supposed to green up everything in 24 hours....yes, I believe all the hype they print on the labels. I'm a sucker....OK! I went in to rest for one hour before heading to Mom and Dad's to see what needed to be done there. Dad had already tilled the garden and he was gone fishing with my brother, so I planted about 30 caladiums that I had left over from my own yard in Mom's yard. I spent a good two hours working there. Then my brother and Dad came home. Within minutes, my brother and sister- in- law were over on two riding lawnmowers mowing Mom and Dad's yard. We are a working machine! I realized when I left that I had not eaten anything all day, so I stopped by the local general store and got a fresh ham and cheese sandwich....I even opted for a regular cherry coke instead of a diet one! I figured I had earned that treat!!

Day Trip

We went here today. I took my mom, dad and cousin to see the irises at my friend's home. There are now 80,000 irises and that does not include the daylillies. It's a sight to behold, but I forgot to take my camera. I'm exhausted and all I did was drive the hour over there, drive my mom around on a golf cart while there, and drive home. It took most of the day.

Canine Intuition!

Full GARDEN mode!

I went to pick Mom some turnip greens this morning. We do not allow her to bend over because she will fall face first in the dirt. She wanted to help, but I just couldn't let her do that. While I was there I found some turnips and some potatoes that were ready. My brother and I both did some plowing with the tillers, he with the big one, and me with the small one. We got some more ground ready to plant. My dad is so excited about the garden this year and it is beautiful, if I must say so myself. I cannot wait to feast on fresh vegies, which will start tomorrow. Mom is cooking the turnip greens, turnips and potatoes tomorrow.

Computer Illiterate!

I spent the entire morning going through all these steps to make IE7 let me log in to my Metlife IRA account. Nothing worked. I can't even use Firefox to log in. Finally, I uninstalled, yet again, IE7, and can now access my account. It's just crazy and so am I! I guess I'll just stick with IE6, especially since the stock market is doing so well right now. I have to see every day what my account has done that day. It's another one of my obsessions!!

7 Deadly Sins

I confess.....I am guilty of one of the seven the past two days....slothfulness! Tuesday, I was so worthless. Monday night I took 2 tylenol PM's and Tuesday the residual effect was evident until about noon. By then, I just didn't care. I never got out of my sleeping attire or made my bed. That's the first time since I moved here that I didn't make my bed.

Yesterday we were scheduled to go see the 80,000 Louisiana Irises at my friend's estate on Caddo Lake. The storms came and beat the flowers to death. We have about another week of bloom time, so we will try to get there during that window. It is a sight to behold!

OCD..Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

That would be me! I don't know why I am so anal about having things clean. I bought a Bissel Steam Mop for my ceramic tile floors and today I worked them over. That thing worked great. I am so very impressed. Next, I am going to take it to my mom's and clean her kitchen floor.

I told my cousin, the bluebird expert, about losing my babies to some animal. She said it would be either a raccoon or a black snake. This is why the houses must be mounted on a metal pole with a predator guard below the box. I took the box down because I cannot bear to feed more predators my next babies. The two parents are still hanging around out there and yesterday, I saw the male look inside the box again. It just kills me, so I'm not setting myself up for that again. They will just have to build somewhere else.

Green Acres

Sing along with me......Green Acres is the place to be...Green acres is the place for me!!! I woke up this morning all refreshed and ready to go, so I went to Mom and Dad's and did some tilling....actually, a lot of tilling! Then I just had to mow my own yard. It was deep! I got that done and the edging and the blowing and the watering! I'm feeling relatively caught up now. I still have some caladiums to plant, which I will get done next week. It's time to buy some hanging baskets, so I will do that next week as well. Things are shaping up around here and that makes me happy.

I didn't eat breakfast or lunch and I am too tired to cook or go for take out, so I did the worst thing possible......broke out the deep fryer and fried potatoes and onions....real potatoes...I don't do frozen! That's it...I know it's WRONG and I don't CARE!

Really, Really TIRED!

This week has taken its toll on me finally. Four days were spent going to funeral homes and funerals. After I got back from my aunt's funeral today, I just crawled up on my bed and went to sleep. When I went outside after my nap, I looked in my bluebird box and the babies were gone. They were too young to fly away, so something got them. I saw some little feathers on the ground. That made me sad. Now I'm thinking about just taking the box down. Last year there were two clutches hatched from that box....8 babies, but since some animal has found it I don't want to take the chance of once again losing my babies. I'm not hatching bluebirds for a raccoon or some other animal's lunch. On top of that, my hummers are gone. I haven't seen any this week. On a happier note, I have a big, beautiful rose blooming. I was going to cut my very first full size rose and take it to my mom, but I just can't cut it.

AAWWWW!

As I was walking around in the backyard, I found a dead bluebird. I hope it is not the mother of my babies. I don't know what happened to it. It wasn't killed by a varmit. It was in tact and not something's lunch. The male bird does feed the birds as well, but the babies need their mommy, too!

IE 7 Finally!

Once again I downloaded IE 7 and had the same problem with it that I had before when I gave up and uninstalled it. This time I went to a message board and posted the problem. Had an answer momentarily on there, did what he said, and voila.....it's fixed! I love message boards. There is always someone who knows the answer. Now I just have to get used to the new browser. I have Mozilla also, so I have a choice.

I spent 2 hours at the funeral home tonight. Too damn long to stand in dress shoes. Now my feet hurt and I have to wear dress shoes again tomorrow. I'm ready for a break from dress shoes and funerals. I'm running out of funeral type clothes!!

Blooms......WooooHooooo!

I was greeted this morning ,on my usual walk around the grounds ,to my very first rose blooms! This one is actually lavender, but the picture doesn't do it justice. It's beautiful!

Two down...hopefully, none to go!

My aunt died last night. I just returned from the funeral of my friend's mom. Tomorrow night will be family visitation at the funeral home and Friday will be the funeral. These two were ready to go. Now.....we all need a break!