It is suppose to get down to 37 tonight and as much as I hate the thought of it I’m sure Bill will turn the furnace on. It says it’s 59 right now but it sure doesn’t feel like it to me. There is hope though. The weather man (if you can believe him) said it will warm back up by the end of the week. I sure hope so! At least the sun is shining! The wind was something else yesterday, things were flying all over the place. We have a empty lot for sale and it blew the sign right out of the ground.

Did you see on the news this morning about this women in Michigan who was doing her friends a favor by watching their kids for free for about 40 minutes in the morning until the school bus comes and picks them up? A neighbor must have complained for some odd reason and the state sent her a letter telling her she either has to stop watching them or get a day care license. If she didn’t get a license she could get fined and or go to jail. Now isn't’ that the most ridiculous thing? One of the mothers contacted her representative and he looked into it and found that is the law there. If you watch children for more the 28 days a month you have to get a license. It doesn’t matter how long during the day you watch them either. I guess he thought it was a ridiculous law too or the way it was written and he is going to try to get it changed. Whatever happened to it takes a village to raise a child? It’s a crying shame people can’t help each other out for fear of going to jail or acquire huge fines for being a good Samaritan. I hope he can get it changed.

I guess it’s about time I changed the theme of my space in here huh? I will look for some pretty fall pictures and use them for awhile. I need a change anyway, it’s been this color for a long time now.

Hoping that you are having a great day. Do something nice for yourself today!

Hugs

We had a nice time at his class reunion. Even though I thought the dinner was quite pricey it was delicious. It cost $30.00 a person and the choices were filet, salmon. chicken and prime rib. It did include the tip so maybe it isn’t so bad considering that. It didn’t include drinks though. Almost all who were notified showed up and some came from Arizona, Missouri and Florida. I think he said that only 9 have passed away so that’s not to bad I suppose. I must say everyone looked great and are ageing quite gracefully in my opinion. The lady sitting in the chair in the picture is someone I graduated with. She lost her husband 3 years ago but he graduated with Bill’s class and she grew up with most all of them so she asked if she could come to the reunion. I was happy to see her as I never go to my reunion. I took the photo in two shots and stitched them together. It turned out pretty well didn’t it! Sunday morning we met a bunch of them for breakfast and that was fun too. They are all very nice people and even though I don’t know most of them very well I had a great time. I like watching Bill when he’s around people he grew up with and listen to their stories of the things they did as kids. They laugh and still pick on each other like they did in school. A couple of their teachers came as well and boy one of them was so funny. He talked and joked around and actually kept the conversation going. They had a band who was quite good and a couple who were there but not with us were fantastic dancers. I could sit all night watching people who really know how to dance well together. Anyway, it was fun and we had a good time.

Today is a chilly windy day so I think I’m going to cook roast chicken for supper tonight with roasted potatoes. Will probably have a salad to go along with it as we have salad almost every night with dinner. It is a little crispy in the house so having the oven on will help warm it up some without having to turn the furnace on. It really isn’t cold enough to turn on the furnace yet but I feel it heading that way. Temp will be only 49 tonight they say so it wouldn’t surprise me if Bill does turn it on, he gets cold easy and I don’t so…Houston we have a problem. Last winter he practically drove me out of the house as hot as he had it sometimes so I’m sure we will go through that this year too. I wonder if they have electric long johns lol.

So, how was your weekend?

I’m talking about my grandson here. He won the spelling bee at school and will participate in the city wide next month. I’m so proud of him as are his parents of course. I’m not surprised though, he is a pretty smart kid. He started reading when he was 3 years old and he loves getting books as gifts and I think that’s great. I could tell he was so tickled and proud of himself when he called to tell me last night. He’s in the 5th grade but when they go to the city wide I think he competes with others in other grades. I’m not sure but will find out next month I guess. I wish him all the luck in the world. I know he’ll do well and hope he wins :). I’ll let ya know if he does

Saturday is Bill’s 50th class reunion. Boy can you remember what it was like back in 1959 if you were even born or old enough to remember that far back. I was 12 years old and still in grade school when he graduated high school lol. That sounds so funny doesn’t it. I met him when I was 17 and he had just gotten out of the Navy. If we had known each other in 59 and someone told him that we would be married someday he would have laughed his head off and I probably would have run home to mom and dad lol. Anyway, the class reunion should be fun. We’ve gone to just about everyone of them so I do know most of the people who goes so that helps. I hate going somewhere where I don’t know anyone but it usually doesn’t take me long to get to know someone and have a good time. I just hope the DJ they got is good. I hate polka’s and one of the reunion’s they hired a polka band and I couldn’t wait to leave. I can dance polka’s. My aunt taught me when I was a kid. She loved dancing as much as I do and she loved polkas. If we were somewhere with music she would always grab  me up to dance with her. I love my aunt so I would dance with her of course but I still didn’t like the music lol.

Well that’s my news for today. I hope you all have a great day and will be there soon. Hugs…me!

Now isn’t that rude to rain on his birthday? He’s 69 today. How in the world did I end up being married to an old man lol. Anyway…Happy Birthday honey! I love you! I don’t think he looks 69 at all and most of the time he doesn’t act 69 either. Some days he does but don’t we all?  He even still has a full head of hair, I don’t think he’s lost any from the first time I met him.  I don’t know if we will do anything today or not. Right now we don’t have any plans but that can change. We’ll play it by ear. I never know what to get him anyway. If he wants something he just goes out and gets it. That way he gets what he wants.

This morning Terry and I went to meet our cousins for breakfast. One of them is from Florida and she comes up every year so we try to get together when she does. My cousin who was in the hospital with liver damage came as well. I went and picked her up as she still isn’t driving yet but she’s doing a lot better. She’s not yellow anymore and looks like her old self again. She still tires easy but she is on the road to recovery and we are grateful for that. She was a hair’s breath away from having a transplant when God answered our prayers and her liver started responding to the meds. Now it is starting to work like it should and they said in about 3 months she should feel more like she use too. Thank you God!

Boy, Atlanta sure is getting the rain aren’t they. My heart breaks for the parents whose little boy was swept away in the flood waters. I can take just about anything but if something happened to one of my kids or grandchildren I believe I would lose my mind. My heart goes out to them and to the other families who they say were 5 more lost because of the flooding. The thing is it’s all from rain water. None of them live near a river or stream or something like that so I doubt they have flood insurance like we have to have living by the river. Watching that on the news sure brings back bad memories from last year for me. I feel for them all as I know what they are going through. Tennessee is getting it bad too so I hope and pray the weather clears up for all of you.

Well my sister-in-law just walking to to wish her brother a happy birthday so I better go and visit with her. I hope you all are having a great day.

Hugs

Our little guy is getting the hang of walking now. We were at our daughter’s yesterday for a while so I took this video. He’s so darn cute and he’s grandma’s boy. When I’m there it won’t go to anyone else. The minute he sees me he either holds his arms out for me to take him or he comes over to me and wants me to pick him up. We tried to get him to walk to grandpa but he would just turn around and head for me lol. Of course I love that! And grandpa knows how kids can be so it doesn’t hurt his feelings at all. I just love looking at that smiling little face and hear his giggles. The other grandchildren are older now so it’s a joy having a little one again. To see all those first once again makes your heart swell with pride and joy. Being a grandma is the best part of getting older.

I’ve mentioned before how much Josh is infatuated with snakes. Well, they have two in a tank and of course he had to get them out to show us. I’ve never held one before and always wondered what they feel like so I had Josh give it to me. I held Devan’s snake as Josh’s is a little more aggressive where hers is more tame.

See Sherry holding a SNAKE!

They feel so weird! So smooth and slippery. It wrapped it’s body around my fingers and that felt creepy. I didn’t like the way it was looking at me here either lol. So I can take that off of my bucket list of things I want to do and experience  now. I’ll try just about anything once and besides, it was just a little one.

Well I guess that’s all for now. I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend so far. Ours has been great. The weather has been absolutely perfect for the last couple of weeks and I’m loving it. We won’t have too many days like this left and I’ve been spending as much time outside as I can. I’m still walking everyday and it does feel good. My legs and back feel much better so I hope I have the conviction to keep it up. Today I plan on taking 2 walks around the neighborhood which probably adds up to 2 miles. I should drive around my route once and see just how long it is. I might do that just out of curiosity.

Take care everyone and have a terrific Sunday! I’ll be at your place soon.

The other day when Terry wrote about her son getting his arm caught in the wringer washer reminded me of a couple experiences I had with my son. One morning when he got up to get ready for school he came down stairs and said he had pain in his stomach. I asked him to show me where the pain was and he pointed to his right side. Right away I thought of his appendix but I also knew that he eaten about a half dozen of peanut butter cups the night before so I thought it could just be an upset stomach. I told him to go lay back down and see if he feels better in awhile. It wasn’t an hour later that he came and said it was getting much worse and he could hardly stand up straight.  I decided he better be looked at and took him to the ER. The doctor there ran a bunch of tests and found his white blood count was elevated and determined it was his appendix and needed to come out. A few minutes later she comes back and said she put a call into the surgeon. I asked her what surgeon and she told me Dr. W. I looked at her and said “Well you can cancel that call. That Dr. won’t lay a hand on my son” She said “Oh, you have a preference?”. I told her yes and to call Dr. S. You see, Dr. W. had a very bad reputation. I knew 3 people personally who he performed surgeries on and botched them. Those people had to have several surgeries to repair the damage Dr. W did to them so that man wasn’t touching my son or even coming close to him. Just then the phone rang and she hollered out to the nurse and told her that if that was Dr. W to tell him to never mind and to put a call into Dr. S. Dr. S came in and removed his appendix right away. I’ll never forget the look on the ER doctor’s face when I told her to cancel the call to Dr. W. She was surprised to say the least. Hi missed about 3 weeks of his senior year then and boy did he have a lot to make up lol.

Some months later this son started having black out spells. He would all of a sudden just stop and stare into nothing and then not remember anything during that time. He could be walking along and all of a sudden he would do that. I never saw it happen but his sister and girlfriend did. I made an appointment with our family doctor and he ordered some tests. Those tests showed nothing so he sent us to see a neurologist. This doctor took EEG’s and several other tests which again showed nothing. He did a test where you watch a strobe light thinking he was having epileptic seizures which if it was that the strobe could bring on a seizure. It didn’t and none of the other tests showed a thing. Regardless of that he wanted to diagnosis him as an epileptic and put him on seizure meds. Well I went through the roof. I said no way are you diagnosing him with that unless you are absolutely sure that’s what he has. I told him that you don’t just throw a diagnosis out like that unless you are absolutely sure that’s what it is. Besides a diagnosis like that would affect his insurability, his employability and his drivers license to boot. So I fired him! I made an appointment in Madison to see a specialist. They ran even more tests with the same results, nothing abnormal showed up. To this day we don’t know what it was but it only lasted for a couple months and then stopped.

This same neurologist was my best friends Dr. who has MS and the day I was taking my son to see him I talked to her that morning. She was having a bad day and was crying and said she called him and was waiting for him to call back. Our appointment wasn’t until late that afternoon so I called her before we left to see what he told her. She said he hadn’t called back yet. When we got to the clinic and they put us in his exam room I bet we sat there for a good 45 minutes waiting for him I could hear him out in the hall talking to someone about his vacation and what they did. He went on and on for at least 20 minutes or more and I was getting madder by the minute. Finally when he came in and finished giving us the results of the tests he took I told him that Nancy was my best friend and that she’s having a bad day and is crying and was waiting for his call. He looked at me and said “There’s nothing I can do, she has MS.” I looked back at him and said “ You don’t even know why she is calling you or what’s wrong and you could at least call  her back.” He walked out and when my son got dressed we walked out and he was standing there and told me I made him feel guilty so he’s calling her back. Boy when I got home I called Nancy and told him what he said and to fire that SOB! She did. She found a better doctor who returns her calls. It breaks my heart to see her that way but she has a great attitude and is always upbeat and happy no matter what. I admire her for that.

So I have fired 2 doctors over the years but when it comes to my kids I don’t care who you are. I will tell you what I think and what I want no matter what lol.

Ok, now I’m off for my walk. See ya later gator.

To our oldest son. He’s 42 today!!! How in the world did he get that old on me lol. Not only that, my twins turned 37 on Saturday and they are my babies. Dang those kids will be catching up with me pretty soon :0). We all got together a week ago to celebrate so there will be nothing special going on now. It’s always great having them here but I don’t like that fact that I have kids in their 40’s lol. Just doesn’t seem right. Anyway…Happy Birthday kids! We love you!

What do you think about Ellen DeGeneres becoming the new judge taking Paula Abdul’s place on American Idol? I’m kind of on the fence with this decision. I like Ellen a lot but is she a good fit for American Idol. Personally I hate seeing Paula quit and was hoping she’d change her mind and go back. Ellen has a hard time talking to anyone without cracking a joke somewhere in the conversation which is what I like about her but is AI the right place for that? And can she spot talent when it’s standing there in front of her? I don’t know? Maybe it will work out, I hope it does. To me though I would think someone who has been in the music business would be a better choice. Someone like Naomi Judd or Pink, or someone like that. Ellen said she’s going to be kind and gentle like Paula was and I can see her being that way. She’s a good person with a huge heart and it would crush her if she thought she hurt someone’s feelings but she’s going to have to criticize and tell them they way it is if what they do doesn’t sound good or doing it completely wrong. She did say she will try to do that the way Paula did with gentleness and love. I wonder how her and Simon will get along lol. I can just see her throwing some good digs into him lol.

Isn’t it sad about Patrick Swayze? He was such a great actor and to die so young just doesn’t seem right. My favorite movies of his was Ghost and Dirty Dancing. I would have loved to be able to dance with him once. Wouldn’t he be great on Dancing With The Stars? I’m sure they would consider him a pro so would never invite him on the show but he’d be awesome. He fought a hard battle. So rest in peace Patrick, and a quote from the movie Ghost…

"The love inside...you take it with you."

I’ve started walking again and I must say it does feel good. For the life of me I don’t know why I get lazy and stop but I do. I hope I round up the motivation to stick with it this time, even during the winter. I don’t mind if it’s kind of cold but the below zero temps might cause me pause. Maybe if you guys asked me everyday if I walked yet that would make me stay at it lol. See that way I can blame you if you didn’t remind me hehe. Evil huh?

Well It’s time I got around to see what you guys have to say today. Hope you are all having a super day!

The ninth month brought the end to many,
The eleventh was a day of testing
Nine one one a call for help from any
It left no time of resting.
True warriors dressed in red suits
Navy blue or yellow
They called in all the recruits
to rescue ailing fellow.
What senselss acts of violence
Rain down on us today
what path will cross with terror
and cause us great dismay?
This is the world our children face.
Their lives are being molded.
The acts of hate, time won't erase,
Like a shroud it has enfolded.
What can we say? What can we do?
As time whirls swiftly by
Let love be instilled with a family view
So our values never die.

I have no idea lol. That’s why I haven’t been blogging much lately besides playing those silly games of facebook. I’ve been around visiting a few of you and you guys sure are making me hungry talking about the food you are cooking today. Our menu today consists of stuffed pork chops, mashed potato’s with delicious milk gravy, a salad in place of a veggie. I’m not much of a veggie eater. Never have been, I try but there are some that I just can’t swallow. Broccoli, cauliflower and green beans are the worst in my book. I’m so tired of hamburgers and hot dogs and chicken on the grill so the pork chops will be a nice change. I will say Terry’s beer can chicken was good. I took just a bite to taste and it was yummy.

I’m looking forward to Saturday. Our daughter-in-law, her sister and brother are having a surprise birthday party for their mom. I really like her mom a lot. she’s a lot like us. She has a super sense of humor and is a very nice lady and easy to get along with. My son took a lot of my 50 and 60 rock’n’roll and do wop cd’s home with him to put on his computer  so he can play them at the party. I have to laugh when they talk about our music. They say it puts them to sleep and it’s boring. I tell then that is real music and their stuff is just a lot of talking or yelling and screaming lol.

Well I guess that’s all I can think of to talk about today. We live such a simple life anymore lol. Or should I say a boring life. Today would be a perfect day to shampoo my living room but I’d rather sit outside on the deck and read. We won’t  have too many days like this before it starts turning cold and I want to enjoy them to the fullest. It’s been perfect weather here this week with no humidity and comfortable temps. Even the mosquito’s haven’t been too bad this year. It’s been a cool summer and I hope that doesn’t mean we are going to have a COLD winter. I can always hope.

Ok, have a great afternoon you all and take care!

It was a perfect day for us yesterday. September is when I am bombarded with birthday’s. Bill’s, our oldest son and our twins all have birthday’s this month so we got together yesterday to celebrate. Of course any time we have all the kids here at the same time is a perfect day for me. We discovered that Brody loves watermelon and couldn’t get enough of it. He’s getting so big and he starting to walk more now. He’s such a joy to me. I love it when he’s crawling around and I say I’m gonna get you and start going after him. He tries to crawl away as fast as he can laughing the whole time. He brings a smile to my heart and he sure is grandma’s boy. The minute they come in he holds his arms out for me to take him and when they are ready to leave and I’m holding him he turns away from them when they try to get him to go to them lol. My daughter said I’m enjoying that way too much.

  After dinner we took a walk around the neighborhood right at dusk. It’s so peaceful that time of day and I love walking then. Later we played a rousing game of hearts and guess who lost…ME. Josh was suppose to bring his guitar and play happy birthday to grampa but he changed his mind darn it. I would have loved to get that on video. Speaking of Josh. The other night at 10:50 p.m. my phone rings. Well since my parents passed away I seldom get calls that time of night and I couldn’t imagine who it was. Hoping nothing was wrong and wondering who was calling me that late I run to grab the phone. A host of things were going through my mind in the few seconds it takes me to get there. When I answered it was Josh calling to tell me he caught a milk snake lol. That kid is fascinated with snakes. He had to tell me all about it, where and how he caught it and wanted to know if he could bring it to the party the next day lol.  He didn’t bring it though, I guess his mom wouldn’t let him. It wouldn’t have bothered me though if he had as long as it is in it’s cage. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a milk snake.

I might shampoo my living room today. I did the dining room Saturday and it looks so nice again. I was going to do the living room then too but Bill talked me out of it. Not that it took much talking though. I sure am glad I bought that shampooer, it so nice to have to clean up spills right away. My stairs need it too really bad but boy what a back breaking job that will be. I dread the thought.

I hope you all had a great weekend too. Smiles and hugs to you from me.

My son finally finished his story about “Timmy’s walk home” and this mom was pleasantly surprised. I think he did a very good job for his first try and would even like to see if he could get it published. I asked a author friend of mine if she would read it and give us her expert opinion and she said she would soon but she’s working feverishly to meet a deadline right now. I’m anxious to see what she says. Here’s the link if you’d like to read it or for those of you who has read the first parts of it and would like to read the rest.http://shapuhi.blogspot.com/  It has 4 parts and when you click on the link it will take you to the 4th part so you will have to scroll down and on the left hand side are the links to the other parts. I would love to know what all of you think and so would my son.

My sister-in-law had a scary thing happen to her the other day. She was taking her daily walk (she lives just up the street from us) and was walking on the road by the river on her way home. Right across the river is a park called Big Hills. I’ve talked about it before if you remember. It's pretty foresty there and there is a deck built for a overlook where you can stand and look across the river. You can see the homes that are on that street from there. Anyway, all of a sudden she heard gun shots. She even heard the bullet whiz by and ended up hitting a house right above the window. The people who own the house lives in Chicago so they wasn’t there at the time. A neighbor who lives next to that house was out working on his front steps and he yelled at whoever it was shooting. Sound really carries across the river so I’m sure they heard him yell at them. He went in and called the police right away and the cops came here and over to the park looking for the culprits. People who were in the park saw a car with 4 young men dressed in gang colors and said they sped out of the park as fast as they could. My sister-in-law and our neighbor was lucky that they didn’t get shot. It makes me worry that it was some kind of gang initiation and when things settle down that they’ll try it again. I walk that street too when I take my walks or go over to my sister’s and now I’m kind of scared too. They had to use some kind of rifle for it to go that far and the police thinks it was a .22. Years ago people use to duck hunt on the islands there in the river but the islands are almost gone now and they stopped hunting there a long time ago, besides shot guns would never travel that far. I’m sure these hooligan’s will do something else and eventually get caught and I hope it’s soon and before someone gets hurt or worse.

Enjoy your 3 day weekend those of you who work. And those of you who are retired you can enjoy it too lol.

Hugs