Alive--Barely!

This picture was taken last summer at a "Sunflowers and Sangria" fundraiser for the new botanical gardens. Our picture was published in High Profile, even though it said Patrick's mother instead of mother-in-law!  Contrary to popular belief--it is NOT a sunglasses ad.  It was over 100 degrees and very sunny that afternoon.

Well, it has been a rough week and a half.  I have been very sick, the sickest I dare to say I can ever remember.  It started with a bad cough a week ago Thursday which developed into a high fever for six days, chills, congestion, sore throat, stiff neck, headache, severe nausea, muscle aches, weakness, you name it.  Two doctors visits later, a week off work, and lots of medicine I am finally back to semi-normal.  I feel like I have been in a coma!  Man I will never wish for a few days in bed again.  You think, oh it would be nice to catch up on some reading and t.v. movies and lay in bed for a day or two. WRONG!  I longed for work again so I could feel normal.  I missed 2 weeks at church, including my favorite Sunday of the year, Easter Sunday.  Patrick avoided me like the plague (I really don't blame him).  So I literally had no contact with others for over a week except those that called to check on me.  Thanks mom, dad, Scarlet, and Mi-Mi & Pop-Pop.  It is amazing how you revert to being a little child when you are sick.  You just want someone to take care of you!  And a special thanks to my two nurses, Corkie and Whiskey. Isn't it funny how animals know when you are sick?  They never left my side, and were extra sweet.  So enough of my whining.  I am thankful I was able to put in a full day's work today and make it through without taking fifteen naps or coughing every 5 seconds.  So there's really nothing to report.  I have been out of the loop for over a week.  The good news is that Lent is over, and I survived 6 weeks of no chocolate!  My 6 boxes of Girl Scout cookies have been staring at me for 4 of those 6 weeks, calling my name.  But I was good!  I held off.   My biggest decision today was should I dive into the Thin Mints, Peanut butter patties, or Caramel Delights first? Oh, and then there are the Cadbury eggs the Easter Bunny left me.  Decisions, decisions....

Happy Birthday, Mi-Mi!

I'm a little late...but here is the update from the birthday party last weekend. We celebrated my grandmother's, Aunt Martha's, and cousin Phillip's February birthdays. We had a nice family gathering at my Aunt Jean's house in the country. Patrick and Megan were in heaven! They love the outdoors, and went on two nature walks, even loosing track of time and missing lunch! We had ham, fruit salad, rolls, green beans, and red velvet cake with cream cheese
frosting. YUMMY. We all got to visit and catch up. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

I've been tagged

I've been tagged by my sister-in-law, Amy Jo.  I have to list 7 things people may not know about me.  So here it goes...

1)  My favorite trip-- I have been blessed to go on many vacations in my life including Mexico twice, Jamaica, Bahamas, Key West, Cayman Islands, Florida at least a dozen times, cruises, etc. etc.  BUT the best trip was to believe it or not Michigan!  I loved it.  Patrick and I drove and stopped along the way in Illinois to see the presidential museum and burial place of Abraham Lincoln.  We arrived in Michigan and stayed at a quaint Bed & Breakfast.  We were the only couple there!  It was so fun having the run of the place right on Lake Michigan.  We swam and played beach volleyball during the days.  We enjoyed the cool nights and the endless DVD library of movies we never have time to watch.  It was true heaven.  It was definitely romantic. Who would have thought that Michigan is the untold paradise.  We hope to come back soon.  I am holding out for my cousin to get married :)  (She lives in Ann Arbor).

2)  My somewhat unhealthy anxieties-- I have a few fears that are somewhat crazy to others.  I get nervous going inside banks-afraid they are going to get robbed.  I always use the drive thru. Also, I am afraid of cooking on the stove.  I much prefer to cook in the oven.  I am so scared of grease popping and just know I will cause a grease fire.  I won't even go into the fear of snakes, spiders, and anything creepy crawly.

3)  I LOVE to sing!--  Although God did not bless me with a talented voice, I like to say that I have the soul and rhythm of a singer.  I can literally hear a song once and sing it verbatim.  I think I would do well on the show Don't Forget the Lyrics.  I must know at least 1,000 songs by heart.  My soul is the happiest when I am singing, especially at church.

4)  I prefer the old rather than my peers--  I have been told I have an "old soul."  I have never been one to have a lot of friends, usually just two or three close ones at a time.  I find peers shallow and just too gossipy at times.  I have always preferred to spend my time with the aged. Even as a child, I would spend my summer days with my Aunt Nita, my dad's oldest sister, hearing about the good old days rather than playing with people my own age. And of course this love helped me choose my career.  I love working in the nursing home.  I literally learn something new EVERY day.  The elderly are so dear to me.  My idea of fun is hearing WWII stories and how people survived through the depression. 

5)  I saved a person's life--  In high school, I was chosen as a suicide prevention counselor.  I was trained and one of ten high school students in the state to sit on the Attorney General's Board to prevent suicide.  Knowing this, a classmate confided in me one day at school that she was suicidal.  I invited her over after school, and we talked for hours.  I called her mom who came and got her.  The following weeks, I went out of my way to be nice and invite her to talk. Months later she told me that she had the note and prescription pills ready to go through with her suicide that first day we talked and that I had saved her life.  Although we never hung out in the same circles, we are still in touch today. 

6)  I am a true detective--  Patrick's nickname for me is the "constable."  I am always suspicious and scouting things out.  Even as a child, I would keep watch on the neighborhood and report anything different.  I am very observant and notice everything.  

7)  My true desire is to be a Nurse--  Since I was 4 years old, I wanted to be a nurse.  The desire was still there in high school when I became a candy striper which turned into a 3 year job!  I loved every minute of it.  When I got to college, I chickened out.  I didn't think that I could take the blood and guts and changed to speech therapy.  Although I love my career, I frequently dream about being a nurse and even entertain the thought of going back to school.  Who knows what the future holds.  Moral of the story--follow your heart, and your tolerance will build up.

Under Water

We've had a busy week. Monday night was my dinner group's first meeting. 5 of my sorority sisters came over for food, fun, and conversation. I cooked chicken spaghetti, garlic bread, salad with raspberry dressing, and banana pudding. Yummy! Nothing makes me happier than entertaining and feeding others. I wish I had time on a daily basis to cook. I love to do it-just not after 8 hours of working. Plus I hate to clean up afterwards. We had a great visit. Jennifer, my college roommate and maid of honor from my wedding, told us of her upcoming trip to do mission work in a Guatemala orphanage and kept us entertained with her constant jokes. We talked of how easy we had it in college and how hard the real world is. Boy were we clueless back then!

Valentine's Day was fun. We had a great party at work including crowning our Valentine's king and queen. It's so cute to see 80 year olds waving from their throne complete with flowers, sashes, and crowns. That night, Patrick & I decided to order in from our favorite restaurant, Taste of Thai. We ate and ate and exchanged gifts. I got a new pink Razor cell-phone and pajamas. I live in PJs. I spent all weekend trying to figure out how to work the new phone and transfer all of my numbers over.

We had quite a weekend of rain--I think about 3 inches. I intended to take a picture of our backyard but forgot before it turned dark. Our yard is completely flooded. There are only 2 things I don't like about our house--our next door neighbors (college kids) and our poor drainage system. Our yard is always damp and with this rain, there is literally a pond. In the morning, I guess we can go ice skating because our pond will be frozen! Well, I guess you live & learn. We'll definitely do more research on drainage before purchasing our next house. Other than watching our yard flood, we did a lot of shopping this weekend. I HATE to shop. Thank goodness my friends and family get married, have babies, and have birthdays because the only time I shop is for other people. I had 2 baby gifts to get and 3 birthday presents. After buying and wrapping, Saturday was pretty much gone.

I guess the biggest news from our exciting lives is Patrick's new look. As you can tell from the picture, he has glasses now!!! He has been noticing diminishing eye sight for awhile now and signed up for eye insurance at the beginning of this year. Sure enough, they recommended glasses. Believe it or not, he is so excited about them. He was like a kid in the candy store at LensCrafters.He had it narrowed down between 2 pairs when he asked my opinion. Guess what? Of course he chose the one I did NOT pick. Typical. Kind of reminds me of the commercial where the wife is trying on clothes and her husband gives his opinion and she always picks the opposite.Anyway, he's happy so that's what matters. In fact, he is totally obsessed with them-not even wanting to take them off for bed. We'll see how long that lasts. What I'm worried about is him loosing them. He lost his cell phone earlier in the week and freaked out. Turned out it was in his pants pocket all along. Maybe since he doesn't want to ever take his glasses off, he won't loose them. A girl can hope anyway!

Quick Trip Home

We made a quick trip home Saturday to help Patrick's grandmother, "Oma" move.  Oma will turn 88 on her birthday and has finally made the difficult decision to move into her daughter and son-in-law's home (Patrick's parents). They built Oma a 900+ square foot apartment onto the back of their house complete with a large walk-in closet, large bathroom, bedroom, den, and kitchen.  We are so relieved that Oma will be looked after and safe.  I work with geriatrics everyday and know what a HARD decision it is to leave your home of more than forty years--but how fortunate we are that she has family that is willing to take this big step.  I just hope and pray I have family that will do the same for me in my late life.  It is so hard to see people in the nursing home who never had children or whose children don't care about them.  I guess you see it all in my line of work.  

Anyway, Patrick helped set up the electronics, and I stayed busy lining shelves and hanging pictures.  Then we headed down to spend time with my dad and stepmother.  We had catfish Saturday night along with all the fixins.  Got up early Sunday and headed back so Patrick could finish a school project.  It was a great trip--got a lot in.  Will head back in 2 weeks for my grandmother's birthday party. Thank God for our grandmothers!  We love them both so much.   

What a good weekend we had. My best friend from high school, Susan, came up this weekend for a basketball game, and boy what a game it was. I'm not much of a basketball fan, I prefer football hands down. But any game is fun when you are winning by more than 20 points. We were on our feet and cheering the whole game. Susan and I were able to catch up on everything. With our 10 year high school reunion just around the corner--we took many trips down memory lane. In some ways I miss those days where life was so simple but in other ways am glad to have my own house, my own schedule, and not worry about the peer pressures, gossip, and drama from an all girls school. Overall, high school was a wonderful experience. I loved my school which provided me with not only a solid academic foundation but instruction on loving thy neighbor and devoting your life to do so. My second week of school, I had an embarrassing experience tripping and dropping my lunch (nachos) all over the cafeteria floor. Susan and I met because out of all of the people in the lunch room, she jumped out of her seat and helped me clean up the mess and offered to share her lunch so I wouldn't starve. It's funny how acts of kindness like that are ingrained in your memory.

Nothing much else has been happening. Trying to plan my grandmother's 85th birthday party which will be at the end of the month. I LOVE to plan parties/showers/family gatherings. I should have been an event planner. Maybe in another life. My biggest success would have to be my mom's 60th SURPRISE birthday party. Was that hard to pull off! But I did it. We had people fly in from all over the country. I had a cocktail party at my house and then all 50 of us went out to eat at an upscale Italian restaurant. My mom had a great time visiting with friends from all chapters of her life--grade school, high school, college, and on and on. I've also got a dinner party coming up next week. But this week--all of the focus will be on Super Tuesday. I love politics-I guess it's in my genes. I can't wait to watch CNN coverage. GO HILL!

I have posted a pic of my love, Ian (my cousin's baby). He is a true miracle, born almost 3 months premature--and now walking, talking, and so happy. He brings so much joy to our family. Just looking at this picture makes me smile and hoped it would make you smile, too!

What a day!!! I went into work yesterday so that I could take off today to meet a repairman at the house who decided not to show! I was so mad, but at least I got a day off (even though I would have preferred my Sunday off). Oh well! I went to see my home health patients and met my mom for lunch at our favorite deli--had chicken and dumpling--and then went shoe shopping. My mom is off on a business trip next week and wanted my advice on some "cool" athletic shoes. No granny shoes allowed! We compromised on some white Reeboks with a pink design. And the good news was the sale was buy one get one free so she let me pick out a pair of shoes for myself. I got a pair of black pumps for church. Very cute with pointed toes and a strap on the back. Thanks, Mom! Nothing much has been happening. Same old, same old. Work, come home and go to bed, and do it all over again tomorrow. My student is supposed to start tomorrow, but we are expecting ice so I'm not holding my breath.

On another note, Happy Birthday to my son, Whiskey! Because of Whiskey's heritage and date of "adoption", we celebrate his birthday on Martin Luther King's birthday. Whiskey came to us on a cold January day 6 years ago. A stray, he had been abandoned and was in terrible health. Among his problems were mange & rotten teeth. After a several hundred dollar extreme makeover and lots of food to make up for his dumpster diving, he is a fat, happy, and healthy kitty. The vet thinks he is approximately 12 years old, but you would never know it. He acts like a kitten--jumping in the TV cabinet, clawing the blinds, and literally climbing the walls. I love him although he prefers his daddy!