Keep those we love in your prayers

I haven't been here in a couple of months it seems, but I'm still writing in a journal on my cell phone.  I love blogging but I need a new laptop because mine has gotten outdated and no longer loads up any new pictures, and I love using pictures when I blog.

A wonderful thing that has happened since I've been here is that my grandson Brandon and his little family of three have stopped by to visit twice.  It is so, so nice seeing them and I really miss not seeing Ody.  The next time that I see Ody he will probably be one year old.  Four visits in one year is unacceptable, but it's my fault because I don't get out much.

I've become a couch potato.  I go out to my front porch twice a day to feed my kitty cat Squeak and that's it.  I haven't been anywhere to speak of in nine years and since my total hip replacement a year after Brian died, I have hardly been out of the house.  I did go fishing a few times, but walking on uneven banks is pretty risky for me.  I tend to lose my balance very easily and being out on a lake bank hurt, all alone,  does not sound good and especially when there is no cell phone service there.  I'd have to wait until some fisherman stumbled up on me.

We've had some really pretty Spring days lately.  It rained last night and everything looks green.  Rick mowed my backyard a few days ago, but this rain has shot it up again and it looks like it needs mowing again.

My sweet little granddaughter Megan is in need of prayer today, God knows the reason.  Delores Powell is also in need of prayer.  I'm also going to keep Brandon H. and Kathy Agee in my prayers.  We are all still mourning the recent loss of Harold Grant and Callie Hayes, and the rest of our sweet angels in heaven. 

Rick has been taking really good care of me.  He insists on doing all the cooking, so I get a nice hot breakfast/brunch and supper.  He keeps himself busy with projects and when he has free time he goes to visit his brothers, Tommy at McDonald's and Bubby (Robert) at his home.  Bubby is doing very well with his Stage IV cancer.  The chemo has shrunk the cancer and maybe some surgery may be scheduled after Cat & Pet Scans are completed.  Bubby is doing great and keeps himself busy with many projects around his home.  He's even gained a little weight back.  Rick told me that Bubby was keeping busy by making fishing lures out of wood, and is looking forward to going fishing soon.  Keep Bubby in your prayers, that he continues to do well.   They seem to have come a long way with chemo since Jimmy.  Even tho I have moved on with Rick, I still miss Jimmy.  He was one of a kind.

Rick has finished working on his project for today and just left to go to McDonald's to visit with Tommy and whoever else might be there.  Men like to loaf there and talk about whatever men talk about.  I'm getting ready to watch The Resident on Netflix before I take my shower.  This evening, instead of cooking, Rick is bringing home supper for us.  Don't know what it will be yet.

Everyone have a nice enjoyable day, pray for those who need prayer, and stay safe.  Don't forget to hug your pets too. 

UPDATE:  Please add Ray Powell to your prayers     

Playing Cards

Rick and I spent the afternoon and evening with Callie, Harold and Kathy yesterday playing cards, eating too much and just having fun laughing the day away.  We always have fun there.  Sometimes our card game gets a little heated, but we all understand that it's just a card game and what happens in the game has no reflection of how we care about each other and all hard feelings are soon forgotten when the game is over or we stop for a food break.

Rick is an avid cheater and we can always count on him to hide cards away for a later round.  Sometimes we catch him and sometimes he's so slick that he gets away with it.  Harold pretends to hide cards but he really doesn't cheat much anymore, anyway not like he used to when playing with Rick in the game.  Harold now just pretends he is placing cards in his shirt pocket to get Rick's goat.

 Rick is a loud boisterous card player and if he draws a good card you know it.  He shouts, screams and makes the games very exciting, and if he's not playing our card games are very quiet and subdued.  None of us have a chance of winning a game most of the time when Rick is playing.  Granted he cheats most of the time, but even when he doesn't cheat he's a very good card player and wins most of the time anyway.  I think he just cheats to make the game more exciting to him, and to make the games more challenging.  He also doesn't like to lose, and refuses at times to play on if he loses or gets caught with too many cards in his hand when someone else goes out.

Even if Rick cheats or anyone else cheats, I still have fun playing.  To me it's not all about winning the game, but just laughing and having fun.  I win once in a while and I do enjoy winning, but it's not all that important to me.  Granted it's a challenge to win against all of these good card players, so when I do win it's a very rewarding feeling, and I ask Callie our score keeper to put a great big star next to my name.

She's like that bunny that just keeps on ticking, and never stops

 Callie and I went shopping yesterday, and for an 80 year old she is quite spunky.  After the first couple of hours I couldn't keep up with her, and had to sit and rest some.  At first it wasn't too bad, but as the day wore on I was in so much pain that I couldn't go on any longer, so we had to cut the day short.  We got to her house and Kathy unloaded all of Callie's stuff sometime after 7:00 p.m. and, by the time I got to my house it was almost 8:00 p.m. I had been gone from my house for nearly 11 hours.  I was never so glad to get home.

This morning Rick babied me a little by bringing my coffee to me.  He can be so sweet at times, and that's the Rick that I fell in love with.  That's why I have to ice my back and get healed up today, so that I can help him with the mowing.  It would be a shame if he had to do it all and still work 40+ hours per week at his construction job.  We work good together.......at times, haha, and other times I just have to stay out of his way.

Getting back to Callie......She surprised me with this beautiful top for taking her shopping yesterday.  I love it!  

Besides admiring every flower and plant in Richmond, Ky. yesterday with Callie, we stopped and ate at Olive Garden.  I think Callie loved it.  She spoke to other patrons who were having lunch within ear-shot of us, she thanked the bus boy for her wonderful lunch and complimented him on his beautiful restaurant, and she raised her hand and called our waitress to our table at least ten or more times; to the point that I noticed that our waitress started avoiding us.  I finally had to tell the waitress candidly  that Callie didn't get out much and to please forgive us for bothering her so much. 

   

Callie also insisted that we tip our waitress $5 each, which made it come out to a 25% tip for me.  Of course, Callie ordered two more hot meals To Go, so her tip was probably not enough actually.  

When we first arrived at Olive Garden and were placing our order, Callie gave our waitress her whole life story, and the poor waitress had to stand there and listen the whole time, and I guess out of sheer desperation, the waitress then gave Callie a free dessert of her choice, so I guess sometimes you get rewarded for being so annoying, even tho Callie is very sweet too.  She just doesn't know when to stop talking.

    

Callie's last words about the restaurant were, "We won't forget this place, because of the coffee with the curdled cream."  

Someone from the kitchen came out 3 times to bring her a new cup of coffee, so finally the last time they came out they told her that they were going to stand there and watch her put the cream in her coffee to make sure that this time it didn't curdle.

It was quite an experience going out to eat with Callie and I guess you could say  that it was one that you wouldn't want to repeat again for at least another year.  Of course this was just the start of the day, and believe me, it was a very long and painful day for me.  We had already made two stops and maybe if I hadn't been in so much pain, I would have enjoyed it more, but Rick & I had gone grocery shopping the evening before and I was tired from that still.

Callie had lots of stops and places that she wanted to go to after we ate, and finally the very last stop was to the grocery store, so at Kroger's she picked up her prescriptions that we had dropped off earlier in the day because I had heard that they take 2-3 hours to fill them, and I sure didn't want to wait that long.  Callie then slowly and tediously picked up and priced each grocery item as she put them in her grocery cart.  It seemed to take another 2 hours to grocery shop.  When she had gotten all of the things on her list, we went and found a bench, sat down and added each item up, then she counted her cash to see if she had enough money left from all of her other stops to pay for the groceries.  She barely did, but when she went through the checkout lane she picked up a magazine and when all was totaled up, she had to give back the magazine.  She really didn't buy much ($85.00) at the grocery store.  Prices are just so high now.  Rick & I could have picked up all of these things in 30 minutes, but Callie spent more time going from one end of the store to the other end so many times hunting for things she had passed up.  For about the first hour at Kroger's, I sat in the car until the pain in my back eased up.  Then I made the mistake of going inside to help her out.  I tried two of those handicap carts, but neither of them ran, so I had to walk around behind Callie for another hour or so.    

She could have shopped until midnight I think, and still had enough energy to stay up even longer.   She stays up all night sometimes and now I can understand why......that woman never gets tired.  I wish I had her stamina.

Bundle up and enjoy it....

I'm not the only one talking about the weather. Cucoo had to bundle up to go outside, but where's the snow? That's right, some of you may recognize this as an old picture that I've used before on my blog, but I'm using it again because it gives me an excuse to talk about our weather and how cold it is here.

This morning the thermometer we have outside said it was 8 degrees whether that's right or not, it's still cold and it's still snowing. Jimmy says it's snowing because it has warmed up and I seem to have heard that before, that it has to warm up to snow. They say it won't snow when it's too cold. Who knows if it will or not? How about you Kerri & Ross or Sweet Pea, you live in the frozen tundra during the winter months? Is it ever too cold to snow? I'm thinking if it's too cold to snow then how is there snow at the North Pole or in the frozen Arctic Circle when the temps are below zero?

Although I'm getting tired of winter there is an advantage to it....I can stay on my computer longer and chat with all my friends more. I'm finding that the people who are snowed in or just staying inside because of the frigid weather are spending more time online too and I like that. It's not very much fun when you're the only person online and you're spending your time talking to yourself and leaving yourself comments just for entertainment.
And all of you are probably wondering what Jimmy does when it's cold. He reads a lot after he makes his rounds outside feeding the birds, squirrels & cats. He also watches lots of college basketball games & professional bull riding. Another thing that we seem to do more of in the winter months is cook more. It helps to warm the house and home cooking sure does smell good too....especially if I'm baking or fixing something we both really like. Today feels like a no-bake cookie kind of day as an added treat for Jimmy. I have all the ingredients for a small batch.

Whatever the weather, there is always something you can do to pass the time and make the best of it. Some of you prefer to do needed chores around the house and some of us prefer to cook...notice that none of us prefer to clean house but with a little peppy music in the background it can also be fun....for you.

Today is my second Sunday, so I already did what I was going to do today yesterday...so today I'm free to play and as Jimmy says, I play everyday. I'm retired and isn't that what retired people are supposed to do? Tomorrow will be Monday and the weather will be warmer and much, much nicer, I guarantee it. Be nice until I talk to you again and don't do anything
that I wouldn't do :)

I'm feeling sunny

This week has just been glorious, full of sunshine and flowers blooming. The pink azaelia is doing great this year and although it got bitten by a little frost, it still looks great.
Most of the flowers that are currently blooming are little wildflowers that I find mixed with the grass and are very tiny and low growing. These are often stepped on as we walk through the yard. They grow sparsely and in my younger days I would have dug them up and put them altogether in one place. Now I just wander about the yard admiring these little delicate flowers.
I really love all of these little flowers. Click to enlarge the picture and you can see these little white flowers with a tinged spot of pink on them better. Nature, just on its own is so perfect and beautiful. Back at the creek some wild blue phlox are blooming right now, but I didn't want to get my shoes wet to go over and get a picture of it...although its warm here, it's not that warm.
Here's Callie sitting on a rock in front of creeping phlox that we have planted around our flag pole. Although I didn't think the phlox was going to be as pretty as it was in years past, it has done fine. When it's not in bloom the cats like to lay on its edges and play hide n seek. The real hide n seek games begin when, in the same spot, some taller yellow flowers are in bloom.
Of course the red-headed woodpecker came for his usual visit and one of these days I'll get a crisp & clear picture of him. He's still very shy and hides on the opposite side of the tree if he sees me. But on this day I was being very still sitting across the yard and not very close to the tree.

I'm getting ready to head outside now and just wanted to touch base here. I heard there was an earthquake in our state last night but I didn't feel a thing...of course I was asleep and I once slept through a tornado, and my daughter arrived early to check on me and when I looked outside I couldn't believe the damage that had occurred all around me with trees toppled and broken off like match sticks. I was extremely lucky that night and have blessed everyday since then to have been spared my life. So, I'm not the person anyone should be asking if I felt the earthquake last night....And no one in my family has called to ask either, so I'm assuming that its quakes didn't reach over to this part of the state.

The weather report

"You stupid bird!
Why are you dressed like that?

"It's still a little chilly out here."

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