Wonderful, glorious days!

The past few days have been absolutely perfect. Right now the temp is 71 degrees. That's just unheard of for this time of year here. It's so, so pleasant to be outside, which is where I love to be these days. My flowers are all blooming and my caladiums are coming up. Each day is a new surprise that I look forward to. Today I went to the garden and got a bunch of cucumbers and potatoes. My brother had already picked all the squash, but there will be more in a few days. I even pulled a few carrots. I only have about seven plants, but they each have a carrot under them. My brother loves beets, so he picked some beets for Mom to pickle for him. Life is good. God is good!

Eat...eat...eat!

That about covers my last two days! Yesterday I got about half of the yard done before I was DONE! It was very hot and steamy, so I had to go in the cool to save myself and rest before going to get Mom and Dad and taking them to my brother's lake house for a fish fry. Needless to say, I was full like a tick when I got home last night.

Today has been totally wasted and it is such a pretty day. The weather is cool and dry after storms last night and I have totally blown off the whole day inside. Before 11:00 today I had cooked cornbread, REAL chicken strips, new potatoes, and squash. I had also eaten it before 11:00. Then I took a little nap until 2 and went back and ate again! Yes, I am a glutton! I should not be wasting this perfect day when I still have yard work to do, but my excuse is that tomorrow is supposed to be even cooler, so I can do it then!!! Yeah, that works!

For me....it just doesn't get any better!

After working in the garden this morning, I gathered some vegetables for my mom and me. Not many things are ready for harvest yet, but I just finished eating new potatoes, cabbage, squash, cucumbers, and hot buttered cornbread, all of which were growing this morning....well, except the cornbread! I brought those babies home and after a short rest, I cooked it all up. At 4:30 in the afternoon, I have already had dinner. My guess is I'll eat again before I go to bed. That's just how I roll!!!

My duties are done...

I went to get Mom to take her to the cemetery event. Usually, it's just her and me. Today my dad came with us and my brother met us there. They haven't been in years. My brother and I found out where we will be buried....NICE! I don't even care! It is a beautiful place there and well cared for. My brother and I put flowers on our grandparents' and great grandparents' graves.

I had planned to go to the garden and get me a cabbage and some potatoes, but I was too tired and not dressed for the garden....besides that.....IT IS HOT! Tomorrow I will go to Mom's church and Monday I will go work in the garden. Two days in advance is about all I can muster!!

Mom Time!

I have been focused on Mom for a couple of days. Yesterday after I got some groceries for her, I went to her house to get her heart monitor and return it to the doctor in Shreveport. When she removed it, she found that one of the leads was disconnected so she may have worn it 24 hours for nothing. Today I was trying to find something for Mother's Day. Finally ended up with some pretty plants. Right now I am cooking a cake to take to the cemetery dinner on the grounds tomorrow that they have twice a year. Mom always wants to go, but I have to take her. She will make some cornbread chicken dressing, but I told her not to make anything else. I will fill in the blanks. She always thinks she has to take several dishes, but I am trying to get her out of that mode. Dad took us all out to dinner tonight. Ummmm.....boiled shrimp!

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!