The power of the text message

So yesterday I was lamenting about how messy my kitchen still was from the 24th of July. The dishes from the BBQ were still in my sink, because my dishwasher was still full of dishes. (clean of course).

I was half heartedly complaining that it was funny that I HATE to put away the clean dishes and that if someone would just empty the clean dishes, I would load the dishwasher back up.

Brandy being her cute funny self, pulled out her phone and sent Dan a text saying: "If you want to make your wife happy, clean out the dishwasher when you get home." 

I completely forgot about this as the day went by, and when I got home I was just walking in the door when Dan pulled up too. He came into the kitchen, kissed me, and walked right to the dishwasher. He opened it up before I realized what was going on. I laughed and said "Honey, you don't have to do that."  He laughed and told me about the text. Then he proceded to load the dishwasher and set it to was at midnight.

He in his Dan way, said: " Now you can tell Brandy not only did I unload, but I loaded too." He smiled and then asked: " Am I going to be getting a text everyday with a chore to do?"

I laughed and said, I don't know.  HAHAHA. Brandy says at least one a week. Just what is driving me crazy.  Now I guess it's my turn. I should go home and do something.....

growing in my garden

So our peppers are trying to make it out alive. The heat has not been kind to my plants, but they are pulling through like troupers. The Red pepper plant has pull into the lead with biggest pepper, and the Green pepper plant has come to a halt after the pepper growing like a weed. Hum....

The basil has flowered as I am a slacker and did not harvest it like I should. I'm a failure on that I know, but soon I will have an indoor herb garden and Iwill be much better. :)

My tomato plant is kind of weird. I have had a few branches turn yellow and die. I thought at first that I was over watering it as that can cause the leaves to go yellow, but these actually turn yellow and then dry out like no other.  I have had several flowers on it, but so far I can only see that  I have two little balls of 'mato on them. I took a picture of the bigger one. I'm not all that impressed with this new camera as it doesn't do very good close ups.

I am so excited about the peppers and tomatos.  I am trying to find a way to get the money together to build a bigger planting box. Next year I want cucumbers and watermellon and pumpkin.  As well as my beloved tomatoes and peppers.   I might even try corn if I can figure them out. LOL.

pain in my back....

So for the past few days my back has hurt. I mean like pulled muscle type of hurt. But only in certain places. Right now it hurts when I move too fast, twist my self, or cough.  I have such a dry cough because of the dry weather, and the blood pressure meds. So it's almost torture to cough.  Sneezing throws me into sharp pain too.  I have no idea what I did. Nothing that I can think of that would cause such pain.

I got kind of worried because it felt like the pain is right where my kidney is. But since I'm not a doctor I'm not sure. I tried to look up stuff because as we know, the Internet is the great and glorious scary place.... lol

It says that back pain can be a symptom of kidney failure or disease. and since I 1) know I am having poor kidney function due to my diabetes and 2) one of my kidneys, (although I don't remember which one) has a partially clogged vein going to it, I am feeling a bit concerned.

But I don't want to go back to the doctor. I just don't. It's like being sent to the principles office for not doing your homework. Only there's no chance of making up the work. Silly I know. 

The effort to eat better has been a total failure.  Not really for lack of trying, so much as lack of energy and patience. I am so tired I can't want to do anything that will help me make healthy meals, the past week with my Auntie Elaine passing, Dan and I have been kind of too busy to eat in. So we've ate out a lot. Burgers, fries, ect..... 

I did make dinner tonight. Not a totally healthy by any means, but I am going to assume on the healthy scale Grilled chicken w/BBQ sauce, Smith's potato salad, and corn on the cob is way better than a whopper and fries.  My goal is to get back on track w/my eating. Now I just need to get back on track with my Insulin too. And testing of course. It's kind of crazy how you can go in spurts. One week I'm testing 2 to 4 times a day and then suddenly I'm tired of it and I go weeks w/out bothering. I've got to do something though. My plan so far is a failure, and I do not want to spend the next few years being an invalid.

So wish me luck my friends. Keep me on the straight and narrow. Not by lecturing, but just by being supportive. Please don't make me make excuses to you, because it will just make me resent it. but please do feel free to say: Hey, I hear ______(enter healthy food here) ___ is on sale. You should get some.

Dragonfly in the Garden

On Wednesday afternoon after spending the night missing my auntie and worrying about things, I went outside to check on my garden. I entertained her with stories of my broken tomato plants and my worry of planting too many pepper plants in such a small space. I told her that we would share peppers and I talked about my basil and oregano plants. I shared the story of the Dr. asking if I was high, and the ensuing jokes on Face book about harvesting my oregano.

My aunt knows how much I love my garden. So I firmly believe that she is the one who sent the dragonfly.

Wednesday afternoon as I was examining my plants and thinking of my Auntie, a sweet pretty dragonfly buzzed around me once, and then lightly landed on the stick that holds one of my plants up. This beautiful creature sat on the end of the stick, fluttered her wings, and looked at me.

I got such a sense of peace. It stole my breath away. I stared a long time and was tempted to get my camera, but I was sure it would fly away as soon as I did.  I went back into the house and when Dan came upstairs I took him outside to look at the peppers growing nicely.  There she was, my sweet dragonfly. Still sitting on her stick. I still did not get the camera, and now I kick myself for that, but it was such a precious moment.

I love you Auntie Elaine.  Please keep sending the dragonflies....

The loss of a friend, and a mom

My Auntie Elaine passed away on Tuesday night, July 13, 2010. She struggled so much with her health that although we are sad, this is some what of a blessing.  I know that she was there through my childhood, but when I was 10 she disappeared from my life for 13 years.

She found me again the evening of my father's viewing, haven spotted his obituary. I didn't recognize this woman and actually had to ask who she was. When she said I used to know her as Aunt Sue, it immediately brought back memories of a time when my mother was around and I wasn't sure exactly how I felt. But I gave her my number and said she could call me, and expected no further contact from either her or my cousin. 

Soon I learned that she was as she liked to put it: "I'm like a bad penny. I just keep showing up." She was always calling even though I didn't answer, always leaving messages and when I did answer or call back, she was always concerned on how I was doing.  After several months I finally let her into the privacy of my life and allowed her to be my acquaintance.  Next thing I know she is at my house, talking to me and even getting me a job. We worked together at Marriott until the time of my being layed off. During that 5 year stretch, I gained my cousin who is like a brother, his wife who is my cousin, my big sister, and my friend. I got a little sister and two sweet if not obnoxious young  cousin/nieces.  And a couple years later I got a sweet little boy who is my nephew and two very sweet little grand cousin/nieces to call mine.

She gave advise, shared wisdom, and showed compassion. She gave it too me straight when I needed it and showed the strength it took to survive. For all the times I rolled my eyes when she called, or thought I would just get back to her later, I always knew she was there when I needed her. I hope I was there when she needed me.

She was my strength when I needed someone wiser to talk to, and she was my ride when I was car-less. She was my opportunity when I needed something to get done, and my sounding board when I was looking for objectivity.

She was my mom when I need mom stuff, and my aunt when I needed that. She helped me with the answers when I wasn't even sure of the questions, and never once did she make me feel unwelcome or unloved.
She loved everyone and was always such a friend. I was always warning her about her "strays", but she kept on helping everyone she met.  If you needed an ear to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, she was there. And if you needed something else like a place to stay or help with a car, well she would do her best to help there too.

She never had a lot of money, but she had plenty of heart to share. She learned some hard lessons in life and was the first to impart her lesson so that you could avoid her mistakes.

I am going to miss talking to her and laughing and telling her all about me and my world. I realized that my goal was always to tell her something funny, just to make her laugh. Now I will have to set those stories here just so I know she can read them.  I hate that suddenly she's not a phone call away. I hate that she will never call me "girl!" again, or that she won't tell me to calm down and remember that my husband loves me for all he's worth.

I get to go away with knowing how proud she is of me, and that she knew that I loved her.  My life has been blessed the last 14 years knowing her again.

When the world is on your shoulder all you can do is stand strong. When a loved one has to leave us, all we can do is say: "goodbye, I love you and will see you later." and when the tears threaten to fall, all you can do is let them go and cry. There is no shame. There is only strength and love and understanding.

My God be with you until we meet again. May you know how many lives you touched and left better. You will be in my heart always. Please give my love to my Daddy and tell him I miss him so much, but that you took care of me. Give my love to Uncle Bill, to Lyle and even to my mother.

Miss you my Auntie Elaine.    Lady Elaine "fairchild" has left the building.......

And then there were seven......

We did it again. We have another cat. *sigh*.  My cousin Christina and her husband Matt are moving into his grandmothers house and could only take the one cat. They asked us to take Blacky, who for all future notations will be known as SBO (skinny black one).  So far there hasn't been much trouble. I was actually against it, not because I didn't want to help, but because we already have 6. But Dan said yes if Matt & Chris will supply a bag of cat food every two weeks and a thing of litter every month. And  this is only until they can get a place of their own where they can keep the cats.

Angel has not been too thrilled to have her old house mate show up. I think she was more upset seeing him then she was the strange cats. They hissed and spat at each other. It was some definite rivalry there.

The other cats tip toe around, and I'm sad because I just don't have the proper time to devote to them all. I sent Stef and email today asking if they would think about fostering Angel. She loves Andy and Andy seemed pretty fond of her. She's a short hair so hopefully she won't be horrible on his allergies.

I hate to up heave her again, but they only have one other cat, and two dogs and some time to give her the loving she's missing from Auntie Elaine.  And this will help with the SBO/Tiger/ Argo/ Patches/ Meela/ Princess situation. I love all my kitties, but honestly! NO MORE PLEASE!

Tightening up the belt.....

Yesterday was rough. It started off innocently enough, and I was pretty sure it would be awesome since it was a Friday. But then Murphy snuck up and knocked me over the head with a two by four.

I have a client who is kind of high maintenance right now. A co-worker from another department is supposed to be working with me and them. I realize that he has a lot on his plate, but since this client was basically dropped in my lap, I feel like I'm sinking in an ocean of pain. Yesterday was just one more time in which I felt out of my league.  I know it's OK for me to say: " I didn't know.", but I still feel pretty frickin' stupid. I realize that I am taking an email communication pretty personally, but I can't help that  I feel like I'm being chastised for an honest mistake. My department co-workers all assure me that he didn't mean it like that, and that they are sure it's just because he has so much going on, but gee whiz, give me a break. I didn't know.

To add to that, I have to plan my next surgery. Yep this will be the 2nd surgery on my right leg, and the 3rd all together. If they try to do it before the end of July, then I'm screwed because it will still fall in the guidelines of continuation from my last stint on short term disability, and I will only get 60% pay. So I have to work with the Doctors office to move it to mid August. *sigh*

I was also spending the day thinking my Auntie Elaine was going to die at any moment. I seriously sat with the phone on my desk waiting for that call to say she's gone. When I talked to Beth the night before, she said Bill was pretty sure she was going. She has refused to go to the hospital and her body has put back on another 20 pounds in water.

And then to top off an otherwise dreadful day, Dan sends me a bad news email. It seems that his position is being eliminated at his company, and rather than moving him laterally they will be demoting him. This means a $2.00 an hour pay cut.  Because of the way he is, always second guessing himself and seeking the assurance on what he is doing, he comes across as weak. So they want him to build up his knowledge and confidence and prove he can do better before they move him back up.  So not only do I have to stress out about the sudden decrease in income, but I have to deal with a man who's confidence and self esteem just took a nose dive. How can you build someones confidence so he can promote up, when the same persons just told him he was a loser?

The decrease in pay of course comes at a completely awful time too. I really relied on that additional money in Dan's checks to help when the bills went tight. I have it set up so that a certain amount of money from each paycheck goes to the bill pay account. But some months the bills might be a bit higher then others. And we rely on that extra that Dan gets to supplement if need be. Now I can't rely on that.

So...... we are going to have to cut back. It's amazing how you can adapt your lifestyle to a certain dollar amount and then feel so darn deprived when it's no longer that high. I'm only whining about this because I'm scared. It has been a VERY long time since I have really had to panic about money. I know we can make it, we've done it before, but right this minute that seems so impossible.

We have some things planned though.... We are thinking of dropping Vonage who has gone up almost $2.00 a month in the past 6 months. (apparently the phone taxes are increasing).  Dropping them means that we will be w/out a land phone. This wouldn't be such a problem if our Cricket mobile phones worked in our house. LOL.
Dan says he knows some people using Magic Jack.  It's only $20.00 for a whole year. So I think we will go with that. Can't hurt.....

And we've been thinking about our Cable Bill. We have Comcast and pay $160.00 a month for TV and Internet. We have not had any problems with either, except for the high bill. But I think we will keep the Internet, ($50.00 a month), and move to a satellite provider. The question is who?  Lorie says that Direct TV offers the channels that Dan and I watch for I think she said something like $50.00 a month. So that would save us $60.00 a month right there.  Dan is going to look into them more. We really need the like $29.99 a month deal...... :)

We of course will eat out less. Which was planned anyway. But now it will be more forced. And I will need to pay off my Library fine so I can get books from there. No more expensive just out video games, and other money involved entertainment will have to be limited/budgeted.  I think we will be playing a lot more of the board games we got for Christmas over the years. 

I am very glad now that we planted our little garden. While it won't be much this year, I will work and save to build a big one for next year. This year was to see if we can do it. Next year, we will do it grand style.

The 4th of July weekend

*** once again I feel the need to post a warning. This post may be incredibly long. Pack a lunch and be prepared to spend the day. ****

My 4th of July weekend started on Friday. Dan and I both had the day off and it was lovely! I did have a doctors appointment in the afternoon which sort of ruined the ability to really get out and do something, but that was alright.

Braydon and Lance were coming to stay with us for the whole weekend and I was getting mentally prepared for that. Beth decided to bring Jadon and Autumn over, and Jason dropped the boys off at about the same time. I offered to pay Lance a penny per cherry if he went outside to pick cherries, and suddenly this became a contest between Jadon and Lance. Of course Dan was right in the middle too. The cherries were so ripe and yummy, but since we don't spray the tree, I had to warn them about checking for worms.

Autumn had her first cherries I think, and she sure liked them! Beth and I helped pick some too, and Dan put some of what he picked in each bowl.  Lance actually made me count all his cherries and he got to $5.00.  So did Jadon. Fortunately for me, Beth was paying Jadon. LOL.  When I weighed the Cherries Lance picked it came to just about 6 pounds.  I had taken a bowl to work on Thursday and it was about the same amount. Wow and the tree is still 1/2 full. But now they are starting to rot. :(

After Beth left Dan left too.  He was taking Bill and Jadon to see the SL Real game. It was just Braydon, Lance and Me. I went to Wal-Mart to do a bit of shopping because I wanted to get stuff to can Cherries with, and I needed something to feed these two boys.  I bought little Totino's pizzas. That seemed to work. I also found this nifty little Ziploc device. They use specially made bags, and has a small pump similar to a bike pump. Except that it sucks the air out.  It was only like $3.50, so I bought it.

Saturday I got the boys up and all 4 of us went to see the parade in West Bountiful. Even though Lorie wasn't there, I felt it was important that we go anyway. By the time we got everything we needed and everyone in the car, I was ready to send them all back into the house to take a nap. Talk about Cranky! But we got on the road and soon found ourselves right where we needed to be.

It was so much fun. Braydon took off for Grandpa's laptop, but Lance hung out on the parade route with Grandma. I was so worried when we got there that no one was there yet.  But we parked in the drive way, and waited. Soon enough Anne and Duane were there and right behind them was Grandma and Grandpa. YEA!

Anne was my parade buddy and we sat and talked. I love that girl! Soon the parade got going and Jordan was so excited.  He kept saying where are the Frikin' fire trucks?!?!  It made us laugh and laugh.

Then he pretended like he was scared of the sirens, but his mom knew better.  The different participants threw candy and I helped Jordan get his share. He was really shy about picking it up, but after a while he got the hang of it.  I kept cheering for the people throwing candy so they would throw more, and somewhere along the way, someone got in a good toss. One piece hit me right on the temple. It hurt. But we all got a good laugh, because that was funny.

Jaxson was in the parade, but of course no one told me until after the fact. LOL. So I totally missed seeing him.  Once the parade was over, we realized that Grandma & Grandpa were planning a BBQ. I felt awkward as I didn't bring anything, but felt better when Anne said she didn't know either, and didn't bring anything. We had Hamburgers and Corn on the cob. Fluff salad and Chips. And for desert we got homemade dutch oven peach cobbler. YUMMY!   Jordan was all about spraying the whip cream on his. I think he had more cream than cobbler.  It was so nice to sit in the shade of the walnut trees and just relax. I got to spend time with my favorite family ever!

Lance & Steven went up to the park to play with one of  Brian's friends and his little boy. Jaxson was already there. I finally went up and got there just in time to see Lance, Jaxson and Steven, participate in a Watermelon eating contest.

I found out later that Jaxson got 4th place and Lance 6th, but I never did find out what Steven placed.  They were so cute and I was just sure that Jaxson was going to win. I kind of think he did better than 4th, but the little guy who won 1st was an animal.  HAHAHA

After that, Lance went to Tabitha's to spend the evening with his cousins. It was really cool of her to invite him to go and he said he had a great time.

Sunday we got up and lazed about. Of course the boys played on the computers until Dan got them outside for a little exercise.  They played with a hackie (sp?) sac and while they weren't good they had fun.

Afterwards I sent Dan off w/the boys to buy some fire works and I went to see Auntie Elaine. She's not doing so well and I really think we're going to lose her soon. I know she's tired and hurting, but I am not ready for her to go just yet. She keeps bouncing back and forth, and each bounce back is slower and not as strong as the last. :(

We called Beth and Bill and asked if they wanted to come over and do fireworks with us. We didn't have a big BBQ, but decided to do hamburgers and such. So I ran to the store to get some BBQ stuffs. I made sure to buy some Corn on the Cob, because it's my absolute favorite. I put it in the pot with some boiling water and well, ignored it. Corn can take such a long time to cook, and I was working on cherries. When Bill, Beth and Jadon showed up, I figured it was almost done. Soon we saw smoke and Beth said something's burning. OOPS!  I actually boiled all the water out of the pot. No one would eat the corn but me. It was a bit charred on the ends touching the bottom of the pan, but it was still ok. LOL. Of course my pot is ruined, but I will try to scrub it anyway. Impromptu get-togethers are awesome! 

Beth showing off her scared of fireworks look.

The boys, (Lance, Braydon, and Jadon) got to set stuff on fire. The neighbors were out too, and they had bottle rockets. We had to explain to the boys why they were illegal, but I must admit we did enjoy them.  Dan bought punks to light the stuff with, but they sucked. I had to override him, which I tried not to do, and allow the boys to use the lighters we use to light our fireplace and grill.

Jadon holding his Spakler Pacakge

They got to set off Tanks and fountains and sparklers. They got a bit inventive and set off some of the sparklers while they were in the box.  Braydon fell and hurt his wrist and Jadon picked up burning plastic, but no serious casualties were had.

Lance Playing with his sparklers

Braydon and Lance lighting off thier tanks in a battle    

Jadon, Lance, Bill and Dan watching Braydon light his Fireworks

On Monday we made the boys pick up the fireworks. Dan wasn't as impressed with their clean up job as I was, but he's a perfectionist. I was just happy that 95% of it was cleaned up.  Soon it was time to take the boys back. Dan and I wanted to have Tuesday to ourselves.  So we packed the boys up and took them home. As usual stuff got left here, like Lance's parade Candy, and blow up toys he got when he was with his dad. Braydon left his grenade. But he said I could just throw it away.

I think we will do a big Family get-together on the 24th. We can clean out Auntie Elaine's storage and then come back to eat.

Tuesday Dan and I got up and I wanted to go see a movie. But Dan had other plans. He wanted to go see Ghost Towns. I wasn't very keen on this. I don't like to drive long distances. But I felt like I should go because he really wanted to. I told him he needed to find some that weren't far. He picked some that were out Tooele way. We grabbed our cooler, filled it with ice, got some drinks and away we went.

Once we reached Tooele we stopped at the Flying J. For some reason Dan has it in his head that the food there is just wonderful.  He was stoked when they have a breakfast that is EXACTLY how he likes it. I have a feeling I will be eating at a lot of Flying J's in my future. I thought the food was alright, but nothing to get excited over. We then bought a map and compared it to the small ones from the Internet, and off we went.

First stop was Jacob City. It is just east of Stockton. We stopped to ask for directions and the guy told us our car wouldn't make it. Dan insisted that we try anyway, so up the canyon he started. Suddenly the pavement stopped and it was a dirt road. With really big rocks. Dan kept going and I was imagining the oil pan being punctured. I finally said to him: "If you get me stranded up here, no one will find the body!"

He decided that we'd gone as far as we could and back up. We had to go aways to get to somewhere he could turn around. Of course it wasn't meant as a turn around for a car. But after the 4 wheeling experience Chuck the car seems OK.

Next we decided to go to Ophir. This one was easy. It's a paved road all the way up the canyon. It's not a true ghost town as far as I am concerned. There were people still living there. They have a few historical looking buildings, but it's been made up for tourists. Of course they were closed as they only open on Saturdays. We did meet some guy who was looking for the person in charge of the town. Seems he's a movie scout of some sort and was looking to see if they could film there. Huh?

In somewhat disappointment we left and decided to follow the pony express trail for a bit. We stopped at Camp Floyd in Fairfield and took the $2.00 tour. It was interested and killed a hour. I had to pee so bad by then I almost went outside the commissary. But they pointed out the tasteful park like restroom next to the little park next to the Stagecoach Inn.

These are the stairs going down from the second floor rooms. This is the sign for the persons touring. I didn't go up. As most of you know I am a bath lover. I found it interesting to see the bath tub they used. I would need something bigger. Much Much Bigger.This is the toilet. Better than an outhouse, but...... Eww.

We finally left and headed home. It was a lovely drive and the stop at the Camp was worth it. After getting home, we ordered pizza and then went to bed. Sigh, it was a good weekend!