After Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday comes So-So Saturday and Gloomy Sunday

It has been a gitchy gloomy Sunday in south Alabama today. I have already taken a nap and have been wrapped up in my favorite blanket vegetating on the couch watching Bruce Almighty.

I finished my current book and have been watching out the window as the low gray clouds seem to hover like fog over Burgamy Swamp. A fine mist hazes the hayfield and I feel cocooned off from the rest of the world.

Only a few cars have driven past the house today and it seems as if everyone is in the same lazy state as me. I don't know if everyone else had too much turkey and the triptyphan has them in a turkey semi-coma, but I am zoned out.

Just wanted to let everyone know how I was doing.

V is a friend of mine...

If you look to the side of my blog you will see "Other Bloggers I Find Interesting." Please view Velta's blog, she is new to blogspot and she is very creative and talented especially in the card crafting arena. I am so proud of her for making her blog and creating her awesome cards. I am sure she will be famous one day and I can say I knew her when. Please take a look and feel free to make lovely comments on her artwork.

Since it’s October…

Let's tell our scariest ghost stories ever. If you don't have a real-life personal ghost story, then relate one that you have heard around a campfire. I have a couple that I can share.

Right after my paternal grandmother died and we got home from the funeral, I was sitting in a chair right under the wall phone when it rung. I picked it up and it was my grandmother's voice. She kept saying Deborah, Deborah, Deborah. I turned white as a sheet and my mother asked me what was wrong. I told her it was Grandmother and she laughed and took the phone away from me. When she listened it was a dead line, not a dial tone, but like the phone was dead. Mother said that was weird. Several years later I was telling this same story to two of my brothers. They did not believe me. I was adamant that it was my Grandmother on the phone. I heatedly said that I wished there was some way that she could show us a sign that it was actually her the day of her funeral on the phone. About that time the depression china that we inherited from her which was in a china cabinet in the kitchen started rattling and shaking making a large noise. My younger brother screamed like a girl and jumped clean over the couch and one of my older brothers said the hair stood straight out on the back of his neck.

This same grandmother had a house that we kept in the family for several years after she died. At one point one of my older brothers and his wife rented it. There were huge french doors off the main foyer/parlor into a room that my brother and his wife used as a living room. My grandmother had used it as her sewing room/storage and did not like any of us going in there messing with her things when she was living. She always had to have the french doors closed. After my brother and sister-in-law were living there for a while, my sister-in-law noticed that the french doors were always closed in the afternoons when she came home from work when she distinctly remembered opening them in the morning just before she left. At first she thought my brother was doing it. She asked him about it and he said that he had not shut them. Then they thought it must be a problem with the doors not being aligned properly and that they were shutting because of that, so my sister-in-law got some huge, heavy planter's pots with some kind of large plants to put on either side of the doors to hold them open. She liked the sunshine from the foyer/parlor to shine into the living room. I kid you not these pots were heavy and hard to move. Shortly thereafter, my brother and his wife left for a party one afternoon and they came back just after dark and when they came in the front door through the parlor, the first thing they noticed was that the french doors had been shut, but the potted plants were still in the same position that they had left them and no one else had been in the house. Isn't that eerie? I guess my grandmother wanted those doors to be kept shut. My brother and his wife soon moved out of the house saying that my grandmother was still there haunting the place.

What stories do you have to tell?

Indoor/Outdoor Carpet

Eddie and I drove to the nearest "big" town today and bought some indoor/outdoor carpet for his storage building. Since he has been unable to work, he has been slowly cleaning out his storage building to move some of his hobby stuff in there for more room.

His hobbies have been slowly creeping over into my side of the hobby room. I even had to move my beading to the dining room. I actually only have one-third of the hobby room for my scrapbooking and bill-writing. I was beginning to feel cramped.

Anyways, we went and bought some carpet for him to put down. Indoor/outdoor carpet is not heavy and the kind we bought is kinda scratchy, but we got a spotted gray/black color so it won't show dirt as bad, we hope.

The only thing I worry about is that he will start going out to the storage building and/or the shop so much that he will never be in the house anymore and I will miss his company. I guess I will not let him do that. Maybe I will move my hobbies out to the storage building with him. LOL

Hope the path you walk is covered with at least indoor/outdoor carpet!

Type at ya soon,
Shop/Storage Building/Hobby Widow

bullies, snobs, and ignoramuses

Three things that scare me:
1: sharks
2: heights
3: scary movies

Three people who make me laugh:
1: Eddie
2: my brother, Chris
3: Shannon

Three Things I love:
1: family
2: my dogs
3: to read

Three Things I hate:
1: bullies
2: snobs
3: ignoramuses (other car drivers)

Three things I don't understand:
1: Rob Zombie
2: Marilyn Manson
3: math

Three things on my desk:
1: a paper weight
2: a desk calendar
3: procedural manuals

Three things I'm doing right now:
1: listening to a college football game
2: squinting to see my typing
3: pursing my lips at some of these questions and answers

Three things I want to do before I die:
1: lose weight
2: see Shannon get married
3: hold my future grandchildren (and in that order please)

Three things I can do:
1: love
2: cook
3: blow air out of my eyeduct (where did that answer come from?)

Three ways to describe my personality:
1: offbeat (obviously)
2: corny
3: blunt, but with tact

Three things I can't do:
1: become invisible
2: stop a speeding bullet
3: leap tall buildings in a single bound

What kind of Pizza are you?

I am a large thin-crust ham and hamburger (beef) with extra cheese, please!

Eddie and I went to Pizza Hut today and that's what I ordered. I could only eat two slices, but now I have enough for supper tonight, breakfast tomorrow morning and maybe enough for lunch tomorrow. I absolutely adore Pizza Hut pizza.

Eddie likes his deep-pan. He used to only order meat lovers, but I have persuaded him that my toppings are better. They make the pizza taste great. With a little spices and parmesan cheese sprinkled on top, yum, yum!

A lot of my blogs are about food, but I can't help it, food just tastes so darn great. Sometimes I wish it didn't taste so good. LOL

If you want to, comment and let me know what kind of pizza you are.

Debbie

What's for Supper?

Eddie is cooking pork steaks smothered in onions and gravy with rice and string beans for supper tonight. He is the best cook.

He tells me he just got a "hankering to mess up the kitchen." LOL He is not into cleaning up after he gets a "hankering" though. That is the only downfall to him "fixing" supper.

I guess there are worse things to have to live with.

Gonna have a feast tonight,

Jelly, Junk, and Jewelry

Hi, peoples!

Today was a "J" day for me.

First, a question. Doesn't everybody just love Bama Jelly? I think Bama "Grape" Jelly is delicious, especially on toast or biscuits. I guess you are wondering, did I have jelly toast this morning or did I have a jelly biscuit? A biscuit was the correct answer. MMMMMMM I love me some Bama "Grape" Jelly.

Second, Eddie and I went to the Highland Home's local "Flea Market." We walked around and looked at all the junk. The proprietor even sells crickets and worms for the fishing guys. She said she is interested in looking at some of my "junk" I have stored at the big house.

Thirdly, and lastly, I made some more jewelry (earrings). I made some "Alabama" earrings, some pink janglies, and another set of Black Ice. I have an idea for a different little silver and blue set. When I make them, I will try to remember to scan them to my blog before I sell them.

Everything is just "J" around here, which I guess means peachy or today it would have to be "Grapey!"

See ya later,
D

A Great Big WOW!!! Moment

WOW!!!!

I have just experienced my greatest "WOW" moment in my life so far. My eyes have been leaking ever since I heard what the weatherman had to say. This may be a little bit of a long story, but please be patient. If you are like me, you may just get goose bumps after you read it.

Before my mother died, she collected Seraphim angels. Her favorite was a barefoot "little miss" with attitude. The angel's name was Ophelia. Quite an unusual name, don't you think? Also, while she was sick, about a couple of months before her death, she required breathing treatments due to her lung cancer. Every night I would remind her it was time for her breathing treatment. For some reason she did not like to do this. She said it was much like torture. We jokingly said that it was not me giving her the treatments, but my evil twin sister "Ingrid." I would even use a Swedish accent when getting the apparatus ready. Quite an unusual name, don't you think?

Prior to her death, late one night, when we were discussing her leaving me, I asked her if there was any way she could show me a sign from Heaven that she was thinking of me, I would love to know. We discussed the only way I would be able to tell that it was a sign from her, was if she would use either the name Ophelia or Ingrid, because they are just so unusual, we both knew they wouldn't be used and/or heard often.

I have been contemplating some different options for my life recently. I have been wondering what Momma would think about such things. Tomorrow would have been my momma's 75th birthday. I asked her today for a sign. I told her that if there was any a time when she should come to me it was now. I asked her to show me a sign that I would recognize. I asked her to come to me with the name Ophelia or Ingrid, through butterflies ("butterplies", as she called them (inside joke)), maybe a song that reminds me of her, or a familiar scent.

When I got home this afternoon, the 5:00 news report weatherman noted that the tropical storm Humberto was to make landfall in Texas today. He stated that a new depression was forming which would probably be named as a storm tomorrow (Sept. 13th, my momma's birthday). Guess what it's name is ???????? The new storm to be named (on her birthday).......is Ingrid. Do you think that is a sign or what? It was a wonderful WOW moment for me. She let me know she was thinking about me and gave me her opinion regarding the options that I had asked her about. I am amazed that she is still right here with me and can let me know what she thinks about my life. But I shouldn't be, GOD knew I needed to hear from her. Isn't it amazing that he knows and supplies all my needs.

The gazebo and lemon pound cake

I have been in a picture taking mood. I have failed to post previous pics of my gazebo that Eddie built for me. I have taken pictures of the cupola on top of the gazebo featuring Eddie's airplane weather vane, but have never taken pictures of the whole view. It is my bug-free outside haven. If the weather will ever cool off, I will be outside in the gazebo.

Eddie made another pound cake, but this time he used lemon extract instead of vanilla. I made lemon drizzle icing to go on the cake.

Here are pictures of the gazebo and lemon pound cake.

Pictures of the bead jewelry I have made

An eclectic bag of pictures

Eddie's remote control cub airplane built from scratch


My Willow Tree Angel Collection


Eddie's hand-made Log Cabin Birdhouse

My Bead Station where I store and make my bead jewelry

All about nothing...

I have been working every Saturday and my only off day is Sundays. I had every intention of getting some stuff done today, but it didn't get done.

Eddie wanted to get out of the house for a while (getting cabin fever), since he has not been able to work. His back pain has not gotten any better, I doubt it will. So we went to Montgomery to get some weather stripping to put around the door, and I wanted to go by A. C. Moore to see if they had any paddle eyepins for beading. They did not. I guess I will have to order some online. I did find a bead store in Montgomery. I will have to check it out soon. By the time we went to Montgomery and back there was no time to do much of anything else.

I was going through my pictures for Shannon. She is participating in a baby photo contest at her work. This is the picture she submitted.

Forbidden Fruit

We had some happenings over the weekend. Someone came on the property and stole two of Eddie's watermelons and a couple of canteloupes. He was upset. We called the sheriff, because we think it was one of the guys who was helping bale hay on the hayfield on Friday. It happened either Friday night or Saturday night. He drove up behind a dilapidated house out back of our shop and hid his truck. He used a flashlight to help find the watermelons. He then had to heft them back to his truck and dropped his flashlight. We called the sheriff, who said that if it is who we think it is, he is very familiar with him and the guy is nicknamed "sticky fingers." He has also been in trouble for buying and selling dope in the area. I ask, "Why is he still out on the street doing these illegal things, if he is so well known to the sheriff's department? How is he able to continue his shenaingans?" Oh well, it is just fruit!

Wow, can you believe I'mmmm Bloggin!

It has been so long since I have blogged. The only reason I'm here is a lady at work emailed me a blog from here on blogspot. I linked to the blog and then thought maybe I should update.


Eddie had an MRI which shows he has very severe spinal stenosis from the L3 vertebrae through S1. He has been in severe pain and taking pain medications, a muscle relaxer, an anti-inflammatory and has had two epidural injections. It seems that the epidural lasts about three weeks. It is already past time for the third, but his doctor referred him to a neurosurgeon to see if he is a candidate for a new procedure called an X-Stop. The doctor said that if Eddie is not a candidate for this new procedure, there really is nothing more that we can do except what we are already doing. He told Eddie that his condition will only get worse. He is unable to work and can hardly walk on some days. I am so upset for him. I know if Eddie says he is hurting, he has to be in severe pain, because he has a high threshold for pain, unlike me, who winces with pain when I see somebody get a paper cut on a television show.

I am doing fine, now that I have recovered from my sinus surgery. All it seems like I do is work. Now that I see how miserable Eddie is, I appreciate the blessing that I am able to work.

Tomorrow is Father's Day and Jeannie is coming down to visit Eddie. I am glad she is coming. I don't think we have seen her since Easter. Shannon will be with her dad this weekend, but she told us she would be down next weekend to celebrate Father's Day with Eddie.

Speaking of Shannon, she has been doing great with her job and is being fought over between her supervisor and the owner of the company who has offered her a promotion into his department. I don't know if she turned the owner down for the promotion or not. She really likes what she is doing right now. She is also engaged again to another guy. Hopefully, this is the right one. They actually have picked a date for June 7, 2008 (06-07-08), easily remembered I think. She has already been planning. She is on the ball.

I guess that's all I can think of to say right now. I will get back with ya soon.

Pictures

Here are some pictures of the Gracey Greybeard tree in the yard; the blooming rose bush, the upcoming canteloupes, and our greenhouse full of seedling flowers. Spring has sprung.

Sinus fungus versus polyp/cyst

A health update.

I have been having headaches for the past month and 1/2. I thought it was from my high blood pressure, so I was getting my kidney specialist, who is prescribing my hypertensive medications, to check it out. He changed my medicines with no results. He then referred me to a neurologist.

The neurologist was fascinated with me having a meningioma excised last year from my back. He was sure I had a meningioma of the brain. But an MRI proved otherwise. He then referred me to an ENT specialist.

The ENT specialist did a sinus x-ray and an examination and informed me I either have a fungus in my right maxillary sinus or it is a polyp/cyst. He indicated he would start aggressive therapy and for the next two weeks I am to use very stong antibiotic and anti-inflammatory nasal sprays to clear up the possible fungus.

On April 4, I will return to the ENT and if the sinus x-ray still shows gray instead of black in the right maxillary sinus, I will have to have surgery to remove the polyp/cyst.

I hate to spray anything up my nose and I have to do this two times a day for two weeks, yecccch!!!!!!

Sweetie Pea

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I haven't blogged in forever.

Seems that time keeps passing me by. I never have time to do anything anymore. I just live life day to day and work and enjoy my family.

I at least try to keep up with my emails as much as possible, so most of you know how I am doing from that standpoint, if not from my blog page.

I am going to try and blog more.

I hope to have more pictures of the birds and such since Spring is just around the corner.

Eddie is building a greenhouse and is itching to get ready and plant all his seeds he has ordered. This year we are going to try canteloupe and we have ordered more watermelon. I even ordered a fair amount of flower seeds.