Would You Stand Up?

I came across this video clip today.  I'm not going to tell you what it's about because that would spoil it.  It made me wonder - would I have the courage to stand up for someone else?  Would you?

Windy Friday

Happy Friday!  It is windy here, and a perfect day to hang laundry on the line.  My line is on my back porch.  During the hurricane in August of 2011 a limb fell out of a tree and took out my clothesline in the back yard, and we never replaced it.  I like my porch line, though.  It is a retractable one, and that's nice, so it's not strung across the porch all the time; only when there are clothes drying on it. 

Not much going on here.  The house in Ocean City is not ready for cleaning yet, so that won't be happening this weekend.  Yesterday I ran (slogged) this week's 5K which was in Olympia, Washington.  So far I am #57 out of 62, so we'll see where I end up on Tuesday when this 5K ends and the new one begins.  Last week's was the Grand Canyon and I was #135 out of 149.

A good portion of my time this week has been spent in caring for the cat in some fashion or another.  He is so very old, and has good days and bad days.  On his good days he acts like his old self, plays and can get around pretty well, and use the facilities he is supposed to use.  On his bad days he doesn't want to move, hardly eats or drinks, and seems to forget where the facilities are and is incontinent - wherever he happens to be at the time.  *Sigh*.  I have lost count of the times I have mopped and shampooed carpet the last two weeks.  I don't mind though, because honestly I don't think he will be with us much longer and the bit of extra work he's causing me is worth it.  He has been a family member for 13 years.  I suppose if any other family member became forgetful and/or incontinent I would clean up after them, too!  

Well, the cat is having a good day today and so I let him outside to sit in the sun on the front porch, but I'd better go check on him.  Kind of like a kitty nursing home, isn't it?!  Put the old folks out to sit in the sun on the porch for a while!  Now if only we had a kitty rocking chair.......

I hope you all have a lovely Friday :)

Wednesday

A lot of bloggers have "Wordless Wednesday" which is where they post just a picture - hence the "wordless."  I have decided that I would rather have a "Worship Wednesday" for two reasons.  First, when have any of you known me to be "wordless"?!  Chatterbox is more like it.  And secondly, I want to share music that I like, and I hope you like it too.

I'm not much on the videos that accompany the music, but if they entertain you, then great!  It's not that I don't like them, but I usually just enjoy listening to the music and, well, since I don't do two things at once very well, watching and listening tax my brain!  Anyway, here is this week's.  I just love this song.  Favorite lyric: Awakening my heart, breaking through the dark, suddenly your grace.

Sharing A Laugh

My sister sent me this card.  I literally laughed out loud!  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did! (Click on the pictures to enlarge in case you have trouble reading it). 

Yes, I'm 49 now.  And according to my sister, I'd better enjoy every day of the coming year!

I Do Have A Brother.......Somewhere.......

I have mentioned before that I have one brother and one sister.  This one brother also has a blog.  Which he hasn't updated in 7 months.  And his last blog post was titled "Spring Is Here." 

While I admire his cunning in apparently trying to wait a whole year so he can recycle that blog post title before he writes again, I would like to request that he at least blog something!  He is an excellent writer and I miss his posts.

I know he is very busy, but I also know that he recently massively broke his finger, and I for one think a picture of said finger is in order.  I wrote about my sister's heart attack and I wouldn't try to take the liberty of writing about my brother's broken finger when he has a writing forum of his own. 

So, brother o'mine, inquiring minds want to know.  And see! 

And yes, I realize I'm asking you to type with a broken finger.

Oh, and unfortunately you'll have to do better than a broken finger to catch up to Sherri.  

All Washers Go To Heaven

Or something like that.  It was determined that our approximately 16-year-old washer had to be put out to pasture.  We went to Sears and got a new one Sunday afternoon.  I'm in love.  Yes, we went with an agitator-less one, but so far I love it.  I don't have to do a small mopping of the floor after every load!  Yay! 

Here are pictures of Jerry taking a look at the old washer.  In a rather, um, unorthodox way.  But what a brilliant use of heavy equipment! 

My hubby is so smart.  And handsome.  Okay, I'll stop now.  You're welcome.

So, the old washer is destined for the scrap yard next week.  At least we'll get something back on it from the scrap metal!  And our new washer is eligible for a $100.00 rebate from our electric company, but in filling out the rebate form I saw written at the bottom, "While funds last for this program."  Yeah.  What are the chances that "funds" will still be available when it comes time to process my rebate?!  I won't hold my breath.

Happy Wednesday to ya!

Happy Sunday

It's a beautiful sunny Sunday.  I woke sometime during the night to the sound of rain which was very nice, but the sun is out brightly now. 

Not much going on today.  Jerry and Andy are outside and have the washing machine apart to see if it can be fixed or should be put out to pasture.  It's not looking too promising.  I am inside at the moment browning ground beef and onion for the crock pot pizza that I am making for dinner tonight.  Then I'll be going back outside to sit in the sun with a fresh cup of coffee, and watch my men work on the washing machine.

Jerry stopped by his mom's the other night on the way home from the tree job and she sent him home with a large basket of vegetables.  I intend to make very good use of those!  The two eggplants will be made into eggplant parmesan which will be my lunch all week.  The tomatoes will go on sandwiches and/or tomato pie for dinner one night.  The green peppers will be seeded and sliced and put in the freezer to enjoy all winter.

So, that's my Sunday so far.  I hope yours is relaxing, too.  Happy Sunday!

It's Happening Again.....

Sorry folks - time flew by again and I haven't posted anything in a while.  You haven't really missed anything, though.  I mentioned in a previous post about going to Mom's; I still haven't gotten those pictures from Tom.  I need to remember to do that so I can post them.  Last weekend we went and picked up Jerry's new flatbed trailer.  One of these days I'll post pictures of that, too.  I seriously need to get it together regarding pictures, don't I?! 

Today is a relaxing day.  Well, except for my washing machine finally deciding to leak profusely.  Oh, well.  I managed to get a lot of extra time out of it anyway before it got to this point.  Now I don't think we can put off getting a new one any longer.  On the bright side, I have the laundry hung out and that makes me happy.  There's something peaceful about watching laundry blow in the breeze. 

It doesn't look like we are going to be doing the 5K in October after all.  That weekend is the weekend that the house in Ocean City will need to be cleaned so it can be turned over to the owners.  That's okay, though. I haven't trained as much as I should have, and there's another one in December that we are going to aim for now.  I have only done two 5K's on the treadmill recently, and my times weren't anything to brag about.  Last week's was in Boise, Idaho, and I placed 115th out of 123 participants.  The person who was in first place had a time of 17 minutes!

Jerry is doing tree work today, so he came home last night instead of tonight.  I get a bonus day with hubs!  He'll probably be kind of late as it's a big job, so we'll have fried chicken (Banquet in a box - no, I'm not cooking fried chicken today - don't judge), something else and vegetable.  A simple dinner. 

And last but certainly not least, I would like to wish my associate father a very happy birthday.  Happy Birthday, Paul!  I hope you have a great day. 

Maggie first used that phrase, "associate parent" as she didn't like the word "stepmother."  It's true.  Step-anything has a bad connotation associated with it.  I think it started with Cinderella.............

Well, off to do stuff on this wonderfully relaxing Friday, while my laundry blows peacefully on the line, and I know that dinner is out of a box!

Fear of Walgreen's

Well, this week I overcame my fear of going to Walgreen's. And my fear of getting on the treadmill again. You see, the last time I went to Walgreen's on the Wednesday after Labor Day, my sister called and informed me that she had had a heart attack on Monday, Labor Day. My sister, who is in great health and has no risk factors for heart disease. Yeah, that sister. And she's not even old.

She had a spontaneous coronary artery dissection which caused her heart attack. You should Google that; there's a lot of interesting information. Turns out that spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is not discriminating. It has happened to people in all walks of life; active, sedentary, old and young. She had symptoms which prompted her to go to the emergency room and she had a cardiac catheterization and stent placement.

And this is why she wasn't at Mom's on Saturday. I just wanted to make sure she was okay with me writing about her before I wrote this.

I found something on the interwebs that described a coronary artery dissection in simple terms, and I thought it was interesting. It said to imagine that the lining of your coat has ripped on the inside under your armpit and you have a hole in the lining there. When you try to put on your coat, your arm goes between the lining and the fabric of the sleeve and your hand can't come out of the end of the sleeve because there's no opening. When that happens on the inside of your artery, the blood can't go where it's supposed to and your heart suffers for it. The stent puts pressure against the "lining" where the artery can heal, and the normal blood flow channel can resume. I am not sure if this was the exact scenario with my sister, but it's a pretty accurate description of coronary artery dissection.

I am so thankful that she is okay. I was sitting in the parking lot of Walgreen's when she told me. I was shocked, stunned, and got choked up. I only have one sister and one brother, and I'd like to keep them around, thankyouverymuch. She is now back to work and doing fine, praise the Lord, and I hope and pray that there will be no more incidents for her.

I realized that I kept making excuses for not getting on the treadmill after that. I was too busy, had too much work, hadn't gotten enough sleep, etc. Then this past Monday I realized that I didn't really have any excuses. I was afraid. I had to face that squarely and admit that I was afraid to run again. Jerry and I talked about things, and being the wise man that he is, he reminded me that living in fear is not living at all. I thought about Sherri, not even a week out from what she went through, and she was returning to work on that same Monday feeling fine. So, I got back to it and of course did just fine. I have logged 18.82 miles since Monday. And I'm still here to tell about it. If Sherri isn't afraid to go on with her life like normal, it makes me feel silly to be afraid! So I won't be.

Well, okay - I admit to slight trepidation going to Walgreen's, but I'll get over that!

Hope everyone has a great Friday. I intend to. Hubby is coming home today, the weather is supposed to be beautiful, and we don't have plans to travel, so we probably won't be running over small children this weekend. Life is good!

A Long Ride Home

Yesterday we went to Mom's and had a great time, as usual, but Sherri was sorely missed. We called her from Mom's house, though, and talked to her. I told her that I really missed her being there because I had to deal with brother Mike all by myself! We had quite a spread of food and everyone ate themselves silly, as usual. The next time we all get together it will probably be at Cracker Barrel to draw names for Christmas.

On the way home we went to Ocean City so I could see the house Jerry is building. It was very nice finally seeing it in person. I see pictures and talk to Jerry a lot during the day and know what's going on, but it's a lot different actually seeing the progress up close and personal.

I will post pics of Mom's and the Ocean City house soon, when I get them off my camera.

On the way home from Ocean City we had just turned off of Route 1 onto Route 54 when two boys ran across the road directly in front of us. The cars in the other lane were stopped, so we think they thought that traffic was stopped across both lanes and they could cut between the stopped cars, not realizing that our side of the street was moving. Anyway, quicker than you can think, there were these two boys; one at the side of the Tahoe and the other directly in front of me on the front passenger side. Jerry slammed on the brakes, every one of us screamed something incoherent, and we all jumped out of the vehicle right there in the middle of the street. One of the boys had run into the side of the Tahoe on Jerry's side, and the other one had just tapped the right front.

When we got out they were both standing on the sidewalk looking ashen and shaky, as were we. A man in the other lane said that he had blown his horn to try to get their attention to let them know not to cross, but apparently they hadn't heard it, or known it was for them to stop. We asked them if they were okay and they both said that they were. We asked them where they were staying and offered to go talk to their parents but they said no, that they were fine, just shaken.

The oldest one looked to be about 12-13 and the youngest about 8-9. They looked kind of alike so I assume they were brothers. The oldest one told Jerry that he really was okay; the younger one didn't say anything, but his eyes were as big as plates and when I asked him how he was, he just nodded his head, smiled shakily, and made a motion with his hand on his chest to tell me that his heart was beating really fast! I laughed and did the same back to him and assured him that my heart was beating just as fast as his!

Anyway, finally they said they were really okay, and that they didn't need anything, so they went on up the sidewalk and we headed down the road. A short way later Jerry decided that he should probably call the police just to let them know what had happened, seeing as how we had stopped traffic and everything, and just in case some yahoo got our tag number and thought we left the scene of an accident or something.

We did a U-turn and headed to the Fenwick Police Department. They weren't open but there was a number to call the officer on duty, but he turned out to be inside the building anyway, so Jerry told him the story. He said it was out of Fenwick's jurisdiction but gave Jerry a number to call for the Delaware State Police and said it would probably be a good thing just to have it on record, so Jerry did this.

The police took all the information and assured him that it was okay, that he did the right thing by calling them to let them know, but that the boys were not in a crosswalk when they crossed, both boys assured us that they were okay and walked away, and that there were several people who saw everything and could attest to that. They told Jerry that they doubted anything would come of it, but if it did, they had his report and there were witnesses, so there wouldn't be any problems.

So, it was a VERY long ride home! We dropped Tom and Sam off at about 10:30 and got home about 11:15. I remember collapsing into bed shortly after we got home, and that's it until I opened my eyes this morning and saw the sun shining.

That incident was really scary, and I hope those boys never try anything like that again. Judging by how shaken they were as they were both visibly shaking and looked like they would burst into tears any minute, I think maybe they'll use the crosswalks from now on. I hope so, anyway. Praise the Lord that they were okay.

Now that I've caught you up on our exciting ride home, I'm off to do stuff. Don't know what just yet, but I'll think of something! Enjoy your Sunday, and give the good Lord praise for EVERYTHING - just because He is!

Six Weeks

Six weeks from now (okay, five weeks and six days) the boys and I are doing another 5K. That means I have six weeks to get my act together and try to beat my time. Actually, I'd like to beat the boys' times, but I'm not holding my breath! Considering I haven't been on the treadmill in a week, I think I need to step it up a little - oooh, bad pun. Sorry.

I think I'll focus on tomorrow for starting - right now Tom and Sam are on their way here and they have stopped at Pizza Hut to pick up pizza and wings, and we're going to gorge ourselves and watch Frontier House. Yeah, tomorrow sounds much better!

Happy Sunday!

I'm Such A Nerd

It doesn't take much to impress me. You all already know that. But today I was really impressed!

Tom called last Friday to talk about stuff in general. Since we both have Bank of America accounts he asked if I had used their new mobile deposit feature yet. He told me he had just deposited his paycheck from his desk at work, and how very cool the app was. I reminded him that I hadn't gotten my iPhone yet. I'm waiting until September when the new model comes out; then I will get the one that's out now for REALLY cheap.

So, today Jerry received a check for his business. Usually if he's in Delaware, I will deposit these during the week but I wanted to try this stuff out. We used Andy's iPhone and it was very easy. You just put in your account information just like you're doing stuff online, and then take a picture of the front of the check and the back of the check, then it comes up with your different accounts and asks which one you're depositing it into, you pick the account, and that's that!

It tells you to hold onto the paper check for 14 days just in case but you can get rid of it after that. Right after it confirmed the deposit on Andy's phone, I signed onto the bank on my computer and sure 'nuff the money was in the account. I'm such a nerd that this absolutely thrilled me! As I said, it doesn't take much.

Oh, and it works on other smart phones, not just an iPhone. I see less trips to the bank in my future.

Happy Sunday!

I have been loving the rain yesterday and this morning. I'm a rainy day kind of gal. Sunny days - meh - they're okay, but there's something cozy about a rainy day. Last night, though, storms kept me up intermittently throughout the night. If it wasn't a boom of thunder waking me up, it was torrential rain that did. Then at 5:30 this morning it was the cat banging the side of his food dish letting me know in no uncertain terms what he wanted!

Speaking (writing?) about our cat, I believe he has diabetes. Over the last month or so I noticed that he was drinking TONS of water and then consequently flooding his litter box, to the point that I had to change it every other day. Now, if that had been me or a family member, I would have immediately put the symptoms together and it would have screamed "diabetes" at me. I guess I'm slow because it took me a while to put those symptoms together for the cat.

Anyway, turns out cat diabetes is much the same as people diabetes. Dry food is not a good thing for a diabetic cat, so we switched him to Fancy Feast Classics. There are other kinds of Fancy Feast varieties, but only the Classics have the low grain level and therefore lower carbs, which help control the blood sugar.

So, I changed his food a week ago, and he's like a new cat. He's playing again and not laying around all the time. His water intake has returned to normal, and thankfully, he's not flooding the litter box anymore! I got some Ketostix to check his urine (sorry if that's TMI!) and it was negative, so I think we've got this!

Please note that I chose to try to handle this ourselves first rather than take him right to the vet and start down the insulin and vet-bill road. Because the cat is 17 years old as it is, the extensive research I did indicated that at his age a vet would probably recommend putting him to sleep rather than treating his diabetes, and because he only has 2.5 legs too, that would almost certainly be recommended. We don't want that, and will treat him ourselves, but if he got worse or changed in any way, we wouldn't hesitate to take him to the vet and do whatever was necessary for him. I don't want to be flamed by anyone or have anyone accuse me of neglecting our pet.

So anyway, because I can't leave food out for him to eat whenever he pleases and he has to be fed on somewhat of a schedule to keep his blood sugar under control, when it is feeding time he isn't shy about letting us know! He has figured out how to put his paw underneath his food dish and flip the dish up and then it clatters down to the floor. He will do this repeatedly until someone feeds him. He's old and crippled, but he's a character - a spoiled character!

Well, I guess I'm off to try to do some more organizing. I have NO organizing abilities WHATSOEVER. But I'm trying!

Hope everyone has a happy Sunday, and I hope you make time for the good Lord today :)

Oooh....Hold Me Back!

How 'bout these guys?! This is an actual page from a 1970 J.C. Penney catalog. Hold me back, ladies - I may not be able to control myself..........................................................FROM LAUGHING!!

Hmmm.......I think my brother would look stunning in the first outfit.

Just.....Wow!

Andy had me listen to this group, Pentatonix. They are an a capella group and they are AMAZING. Here are two of their songs; Google them and you can find more. They are really talented.

Monday......*Yawn*

Good morning, Peeps! Happy Monday to ya.

It is another cobwebby-brain Monday. Jerry left for Delaware at about 3:00 this morning which is his usual time leaving. And we usually can't seem to get to bed at a decent hour Sunday night; we are always trying to stretch the weekend just a bit further. So we got to bed at about 1:00 then got up at 2:15. Hence the *Yawn* in my title. Sometimes I do go back to bed, and I did this morning, but only for a little while. This is the house he is currently building; this house is actually in Ocean City.

I haven't mentioned any names, and Ocean City is kind of a big place, so I think I'm okay posting those pics, without invading any privacy of the homeowners. Andy and I will probably be cleaning this one too when it's ready to turn over to the homeowner. Well, that's the plan right now, anyway. I like cleaning Jerry's houses because he's a stickler for keeping the job clean as he goes anyway, and makes sure each subcontractor cleans up after themselves and leaves it clean for the next subcontractor to come in and work, so that makes the job much easier for Andy and I.

I'll tell you about my WONDERFUL weekend in a later post. Right now I've got to get some work done - it's going to take me a little longer today, what with all the *yawn* breaks I'll be taking, and the coffee I'll be pouring!

Hope your Monday is a lovely one :)

Not Much To Report

Not a lot going on around here. Some sort of bug/cold/flu has been chasing me this week and I've been doing my best to get away from it. I haven't exercised this week. I'm feeling a little more myself today, though. I still did what I had to do this week, but just felt blah, and felt like I could nap every hour. Glad that's gone.

Now those storage bins I told you about from Dollar Tree are sitting here mocking me, and I intend to do something about them. But I am also the Queen of Procrastination, remember?!

The final tally for last week's 5K was that I was #97 out 103 participants. I would like to try to do this week's before Tuesday. This week's is in Houston, and on the overview it looks like there are HILLS! EEEEK!

I shall end my mundane post now and get to work! Enjoy your Thursday.

A Story to Share

I love this lady's blog. She is a talented seamstress and does great crafts. She recently shared an update about her friend's baby, Dylan, who has had some trials, to say the least! You can read the story here. It's a great story with wonderful pictures.

What I Woke Up To.......

A couple of weeks ago Andy had a friend over. These two friends always stay up all night playing video games, guitar, whatever, which is perfectly fine with me. One time I woke up in the morning to my vitamin bottle having graffiti on it which was hilarious - as soon as I can find the picture I will post it - but this particular time, I woke to find this staged scene in the living room.

And because I happen to know that this friend's mom reads this blog - I won't mention names! You're welcome. The boys had brought in Jerry's yucky ashtray from the deck, and they said since they couldn't find any dice, they put out dominoes!

Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I KNOW these boys and this was STAGED and just for FUN. The only reason I shared it here with you is because I totally trust my son and his friend and wanted to share their fun with you. They are wonderful and trustworthy young men, and I appreciate their sense of humor very much. Just wanted to add that in case anybody thought we were running a gambling house!

Results

I mentioned in Friday's post that I wanted to do this week's 5K, and I did that Friday afternoon. Here's my torture device wonderful treadmill welcoming me. See the "Welcome Karen" at the bottom of the screen?

I did better than I have in any previous runs. This is the screen after I finished. My time was 46:04. Sorry about the glare of my flash. Right now I am #90 out of 95 participants. I hope those numbers look better at tomorrow's final tally, but even if they don't, I'm still proud of my old lady self!