Memorial Day

Status quo: ice tea, caprese salad, my handy dandy remote control

It drives me crazy when my favorite bloggers go MIA. I check their instagram accounts... their facebook... see if they've posted to Pinterest... because although I am every inch a Southern Baptist I become a full on Jewish mother when people aren't following their standard pattern of behavior. In the absence of information I make stuff up... which is why *in my mind* if people aren't where they are supposed to be they must be dead on the side of the road - there is no other option. And while I wouldn't presume to think I'm anybody's favorite blogger, I know that if I don't check in from time to time y'all wonder what's going on.

tomato, radish, avocado, basil, fresh mozz, olive oil, balsamic vinegar 

Nothing. That's what's going on. It's late Spring/early Summer. My pain hasn't been TOO bad over the past few days - better than usual - up until today and today it's not good. It's one of those days where I need to hang upside down because it feels like my spine is collapsing on itself. I haven't seen anything terribly noteworthy on tv. I'm slowly reading the twelve books I have open on my Nook (twelve may be an exaggeration but not by much). I haven't been to the library. I've been eating basically the same thing every day. The kid is lazy, the cats are cute, the lake is gorgeous and it's all basically the same old. I mean, really, there's nothing to share.

I'm not complaining. I don't like change. I don't like challenges and roadblocks and rant-worthy blog topics. I like things to chug along at a predictable pace. It feels like the days are long but the weeks fly by. Sometimes I get frustrated with the repetition, feeling like I don't accomplish anything new or interesting. However, I have to remind myself that this is a season of waiting. I knew that the disability process would be a long, long battle so when the weeks go by quickly, without any new crisis looming, it's a good thing.

So, I'm fine. Everything is fine. The weather is fine. The cats are fine. It's all fine.

Here are a few pictures from the backyard to make up for my lack of content. Happy Memorial Day! Love and hugs, y'all!

My Youth Group

When I was in sixth grade we moved our membership from First Baptist Church of Red Oak in East Point, Georgia to Valley Hill Baptist in Riverdale. Valley Hill was much closer to our home making it a better fit for me and my big brother as teenagers. I'm sure that's not the only reason we changed churches but it's the one that mattered most to me. Most of my teenage years were spent either at church or with kids from church. I had friends at school but only one or two of those were the "spend the night" kind of friends. The kids in my youth group were my sisters and brothers.

Thirty years later and although I haven't seen most of them in decades, our bonds are still tight. We have reconnected through the magic of the internet and they mean more to me than I can begin to explain. Nobody else understands the utter emergency involved when the preacher's bible is moved to the upper corner of the pulpit (it meant that the teenagers were in trouble... big trouble!)... nobody else understands the danger of DooDoo Lake in Myrtle Beach or the absolute grossness of a Wahine or Mahine (our rugged toilet system at camp without running water). These kids... now middle aged folks... are the very foundation of who I am.

I had a lot of close friends at church. There was Susie and Andrea... and Andrea's neighbor Kim... we had many zany adventures such as the Madonna concert or watching the VCR at Kim's mom's modeling studio (nobody else had a VCR back then). We hung out with the preacher's son... I remember one night where we all sat and worked on a thousand piece puzzle together while the preacher and his wife were in the Holy Land. The puzzle was a cover for less honorable activities that I am not at liberty to discuss... (it wasn't THAT bad) and when a church member stopped by to check on us we were hard at work on the puzzle. My friend Stacy was two years older and would check me out of school when she got out for work/study program. It saved me from riding the bus. Teresa and Debbie were two sisters I spent a lot of time with. Teresa was my age and she made the drill team at her school the same week that I made cheerleading at mine. We were bonded by our newfound potential popularity.

Then there were Barbie and Kim... Kim was this ethereal creature who was always dreaming of a guy in our youth group that she was crushing on... Barbie had the coolest basement bedroom with it's own exterior door that made sneaking out at night WAY easy. We were able to walk to the store to buy toilet paper and walk to someone's house to roll their yard and sneak back in completely undiscovered. The three of us were close to a young girl who visited our church just a few weeks after having a baby - at 13 years of age. Our youth minister and his wife adopted the baby. Barbie and I used to go to the mall and pretend we were buying dresses for a special occasion and try on the fanciest prom/bridesmaid dresses in the bridal store. My Aunt Ginger was brave enough to have me, Barbie and Kim spend the night with her... especially brave when you consider at that time they only had my cousin Christie who was a baby and had no idea how insane three teenage girls can be.

We all had such big plans... college wasn't as big a deal to us, at least not in my circle of friends as it was to be a wife and mother. We all wanted to fall in love and feather our little nests and have babies. After high school graduation Barbie and I both found our "Prince Charmings" and went to work at Life of Georgia's home office (now ING) and my mom kept our babies while we worked. Neither of us had marriages that lasted. I don't know if Kim ever married but she never had children.

Kim died a few years ago... it was very sudden and unexpected and although I hadn't seen her in years, the world without Kim is different from the world with her. She was just a precious soul... maybe she was born to be an angel. Her brother has a little girl and every time he posts photos of her I think, "Your Aunt Kim would LOVE you so much!"

Barbie battled breast cancer five years ago, just a few short months after losing her mom and grandma to cancer. She went through 8 rounds of chemo and 33 rounds of radiation and she was cancer free. Since then she has lived life in a way that amazes me... she does more in a day than I do in a month... she owns her own business... she wrings everything out of every day. A few months ago she developed  a numb spot in her jaw. Today she found out that the breast cancer cells have metastasized to her jaw. Now she begins the battle all over again... testing to see if there are any other spots of cancer... knocking this cancer out of her jaw... and I'm just so sad for her. I know she can do this. I believe in healing. I know God is big enough to get her through this but I hate that she has to go through it.

The thing is.... the mortality and frailty of your peers makes you acutely aware of your own mortality. Just last Friday sweet Juli-Ann who was a few years younger than me but such a trooper as a kid... she has hearing loss and was the reason my brother learned sign language, to be able to interpret for Juli-Ann. Last Friday she had heart surgery. I'm used to my childhood friends going through the heartbreak of divorce and financial struggles and over the years we adapted to deal with those things. Dealing with illness is relatively new and I don't like it. I can handle my own suffering because that is under my control. I can't do anything for anyone else but pray. The good news is, the biggest bond we all had growing up was our faith and for now, that's the biggest weapon in our arsenal.

Anyways... many of you pray and so I would ask for you to remember Barbie. Just... every time you see a Barbie doll, think of our Barbie and ask God to give her strength for her journey and heal her, once and forever.

I re-read through this and I know I've left out a bunch of people who were also good friends at church. I hope you'll forgive me and chalk it up to old age and fatigue. I love all my old Valley Hill friends. You're a part of me... nobody else knows what it's like to drive all night on an old church bus to get to the beach... or remembers Mrs. Batten's inspirational lessons on abstinence... or understands the rite of passage involved with getting the "Hilton" - the biggest tent at camp. I'm thankful for the people I grew up with... and I am thankful to know you now.

Mom went to the neurologist today and neurologically she is good. They are concerned about her blood pressure dropping when she stands up so there will be further explanation of that situation. The doggies and I got through a long morning together and it turns out that my doctor's appointment isn't until Tuesday so tomorrow will be a true rest day for me. Happy Memorial Day weekend! Safe travels, love and hugs, y'all!

My Long, Long Day

Remember how yesterday started rudely at 7:30 am with a dog breathing on my face? A dog with a very fickle bladder who had already had an adventure getting to me, therefore I knew I had to hurry-scurry her to the backdoor? ... Then this morning started rudely at 7am with my hadn't-been-to-bed-yet kid saying, "Mommy... time to get up". I had an appointment for lab work at 8:30 am... you know, early, because it was fasting blood work. And today was shower day so I had to get up early enough to shower and dry my hair. And straighten it. And put on makeup. I set my alarm for 7:30 and then promised myself that if I woke up before then on my own and/or my kid happened to be awake and could wake me up, I would do the full glam routine. He was awake. I glammed.

After two days in a row of waking in the 7 o'clock hour can I just say, respectfully, that I'm not a fan? I know I used to be up before the dawn but back then I was also asleep before sundown. I'm tucking myself in around 2am and this five hours of beauty sleep is leaving me lacking in many ways.

At some point while I was in the glam process my mom got up to take Lily (the old dog with the fickle bladder) to the poop pen out front and somehow, for some reason, passed out. This had to have happened during the shower or during the hair drying because I didn't hear a thing.

SOOOoooo while my parents were trying to get the doctor on the phone I headed out the door to be on time for my lab appointment because I'm prompt and courteous like that. I arrived in town STARVING (which is weird because I don't normally eat much by that time of day anyways) about ten polite minutes before my appointment time and proceeded to warm a seat in the uncomfortably warm lobby for over an hour. If I wasn't already a little out of sorts by the pre-8am wakeup call and the lack of food in my belly, this large man with a larger cough planted himself RIGHTBESIDEME. Doesn't everyone know the proper seating etiquette for a waiting room? If possible you never seat yourself in a chair beside anyone else. There was a section of three seats side by side available and he planted his tubercular self right next to my highly susceptible to respiratory illness lungs. For an hour. Remind me of this when I'm complaining about having pneumonia in a week.

The sweet nurse who, like everyone who staffs the clinic, is a volunteer, apologized for my long wait and explained that they try to get the diabetics back first. Apparently I looked like I could live off the fat of the land for awhile. The blood draw was painless and my blood pressure was lower than it's been in ... my lifetime, I think - 100/76 - which is ironic because my mom's blood pressure has been riding a roller coaster all week, which *may* be why she passed out.

On the plus side... I never watch Good Morning America but this morning I sat through a large chunk of it and was rewarded with the Dancing With The Stars recap. I also got to see half of Live With Kelly and Michael.

I had three library books due back today so I stopped and dropped them in the outside bin. I guess the library season has come to an end for now... at least until I catch up on the dozen books I'm in the middle of reading in my Nook.

I stopped at the grocery store to buy the necessary items to recreate my fab salad from yesterday (pictured here)

. By the time I got home I was about to drop between the pain from sitting and the hunger from fasting... I quickly put together a salad and settled in to some bonding time with my laptop.

Then... all too soon but I'm sure not soon enough for her... my mom and dad had to leave for mom's doctor's appointment and I was on dog duty. Not just dog duty but stressed out because we know something's wrong dog duty. I made no fewer than six trips upstairs in the next three hours to refill water bowls and let dogs in and out. Oscar swore he needed to poop and he will only poop out back so I let him out the back door and he promptly ran up the stairs and scooted off up the driveway. I almost let him run all the way to Cleveland but decided that my parents would miss his rotten little self so I chased him down.

And then Little Kitty aka Killy brought me a gift...

A dead, bleeding gift. That I couldn't bring myself to pick up, even with a wad of paper towels and a plastic bag. I could still feel the carcass. I had to get a shovel and scoop him up on the shovel and dump him outdoors... screaming the whole time... which trust me, doesn't do a lot to comfort nervous dogs.




Then I climbed the stairs AGAIN to go pick up my nieces from school. Pop usually gets them on Wednesday but since he was at the doctor with my mom, I was called into service. I absolutely love hanging out with my girls so believe me, this was not a burden in any way but it was so hot outdoors that even with the a/c going full blast I was covered in sweat by the time I got home. Of course it was worth it to hear Sarabeth casually describe her career presentation as a "prezzy" because she's almost a middle schooler, you know.

My parents were home when we got back from school. Pop fixed the girls a small bowl of ice cream for an afterschool snack and the girls and I watched My Little Pony together. (because she's not THAT grown yet!)

They left to go to the library and church and Austin asked for a ride to the store which made me roll my eyes and curse. I'm so exhausted, y'all. I mean, I could go to sleep now, even though it's before sunset.

There's no explanation yet about mom's black out. They did some blood work and told her to get a walker for her injured ankle (did I mention she hurt her ankle in the process?) and she goes to the neurologist tomorrow. My up all night kid needs to dog sit overnight so she doesn't have to get up. Lily usually starts stirring around the time Pop gets up and goes upstairs to the computer room in the morning or leaves for the golf course. We can't keep the dogs down here because there is no pen for them to go out to down here and you can't just turn them loose in the dark out here - there are too many creatures in the night. Plus, we're so far out from civilization that there are no street lights so when it's dark it's very, very dark. Three dogs wandering in three different directions in the dark would be a bad thing.

Anyways. The devil is a big ole meanie. It's no coincidence that the two mornings I have woken up to my really amazing, encouraging sign (see yesterday's entry) have been not-so-great mornings. But... I did have a nice long text-chat with my cousin today and gave my nieces their end of the school year gift (knee socks of all different varieties, they love knee socks).

Someone asked in comments how I prepare and recover from busy days. I just try to not schedule activities on consecutive days. I allow myself a little leeway with other things (I didn't make my bed today and that NEVER happens). I try to not have to do the glam routine when I have to be up and at 'em early - that was a fail. There are just some things we can't predict and prepare for... and in that case I just suck it up and rest the next day. I'll rest tomorrow (other than dog sitting but Austin promised to help) and hopefully be recovered in time for my doctor's appointment in Gainesville on Friday. That involves a long drive so it's a little more demanding than a blood draw but the good news is they never keep you waiting. I'm tired just thinking about it.

Goodnight y'all.

Mornings and Stuff

I made this! Ok... really, Austin stained the boards and my brother helped him attached them with some nifty woodworking tool he has and I just did the lettering but y'all, the lettering was hard. The words are from a song that has always been particularly calming for me. The idea came from something I saw on Pinterest. It's now hanging on my bedroom wall so that when I wake up in the morning and EVERYTHING hurts and it's tempting to start the day feeling sorry for myself... this will remind me that I can do this. I can get up every day and be grateful for what I have and not worry so much about what I'm missing. I used Sharpie paint pens for the lettering, btw. They work on wood and fabric and... pretty much anything... I can see myself using them for making Christmas ornaments and... whatever other craft projects I find inspiration to endeavor. I'm the girl who goes to craft fairs and doesn't buy a thing because I think, "I could do that"... and I never do.

Anyways. This morning started out rough with Lily the old lady dog (who is still alive - a full year after her thyroid cancer diagnosis) breathing in my ear at 7:30. She squeezed past the gate blocking the top of the stairs and came down looking for... what I don't know. Fortunately my mom was awake and instead of walking Lily around outside like I've had to do several times before,  I was able to open the back door and tell her to "go find Mawmaw" and holler upstairs for my mom to let her in. I intended to just go ahead and start my day but when I sat down on the bed to figure out what to wear I ended up laying down and falling back asleep. Just another hour but it helped. I had about a fifteen minute nap this afternoon but honestly, I want to sleep about 24 hours straight. It will never happen with my one hour bladder but a girl can dream. Or not... if she doesn't sleep.

Austin had a rude awakening... or rather was RUDE when he was awakened. There was a new water mark on the ceiling right outside our bedroom doors and my dad was up on a stepladder trying to determine the source while I banged on the floor upstairs so we could figure out whether it was a bathroom or kitchen leak. I mean, I'm sure that's not a pleasant way to wake up but it was nearly noon and it was a time sensitive situation. He's had a rough time lately. His girlfriend very abruptly broke up with him and he's really bummed about it. He's going through some "not growing" pains. Everyone else in his life is moving forward and going to school or having babies or working and he's just not doing much of anything. Part of me wants to be compassionate and part of me wants to extend a little tough love so that he will be motivated to do something with his life.

Tomorrow will be an early day because I have an appointment at the clinic for lab work since my liver enzymes were elevated last month. I think they're trying to see if that was a fluke or consistent. I do lab work again in July and then see the doctor to review it all. I don't really know what it all means or if it has anything to do with the evil gut pain but it's free so I'll play. I go back to the pain clinic on Friday and then I'm done with them until August. Good times.

I can't remember what I ate yesterday but today I've done pretty well. I had cantaloupe and cherries for breakfast... avocado, tomatoes & snap peas with basil over cubed french bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for lunch (it was soooo good!) and for dinner Austin made stuffed mushrooms and rice. No main dish, just stuffed mushrooms and rice but honestly, I was full after eating that so... good enough, right? I'm thinking about having some peanuts while watching the Dancing With The Stars finale. #TeamMaksandMeryl

I watched the premiere of the Bachelorette last night. I have never watched any of the seasons of Bachelor / Bachelorette because on the surface it seems like oversexed young people acting inappropriately on tv. This bachelorette is from Atlanta so I'm mildly curious. Just mildly but there isn't much on tv on Mondays other than random documentaries and/or Antiques Roadshow on PBS. It's also mildly interesting because one of the contestants died between the time the show was filmed and now. I realize I'm making a very thin case about why I would burn any brain cells on the Bachelorette but I really don't have much. It's come to this.

And that's about all I've got today. Usually if I'm quiet for more than two consecutive days y'all worry. No worries. It's been a better week than last week but not great. That's all. Love and hugs, y'all.

Getting Out, Book TV and Food

Last night I was up late watching the Barbara Walters special (much better than I expected) and playing kakuro on my Nook and the evil gut pain started flaring up and I thought, "I just can't do this any more this week". Mornings have been the worst and I have really been anxious about going to sleep knowing that at some point I'm going to be woken by pain. Knowing that my day starts with negotiating with my stomach about how much pain medicine I can handle... and how much I can't deal without ... has made this morning person anything BUT a morning person.

So I binge read some travel blogs (some really good ones are listed here on Rick Steves' website) and once it got too cool for comfort in the living room, I put a big comforter on my bed and snuggled under it with my gigantic biography of Queen Elizabeth I. At some point Little Kitty came and claimed his favorite spot (wherever I'm laying) and demanded that I pet him with BOTH hands until we both fell asleep. I woke up around 9am this morning WITHOUT the evil gut pain and the back pain was milder than usual. Sometimes I think God just knows when we've reached our breaking point.

I can't claim to have done anything even mildly productive today. I made an abbreviated grocery trip with the kid to pick up a few things on the never-ending grocery list that is kept in the kitchen. It seems to work best that as things run out or as we plan meals we add items to the list and then either Pop or myself, whoever makes a trip to the store, knows what we need. It works pretty well that way. I hate crowds and it was midday before the kid was ready to venture out (and it's his week to pay for stuff) so we decided to just pick up a few necessities. We ran into a dear friend (and blog reader!) in the parking lot so I scored a hug which is SO much better than anything I bought. I love my small town!

The hardest thing about going through a pain-filled week is the sense of isolation that it brings. I'm happy in my space and am fortunate to have my parents upstairs and the kid here in the Whine Cellar and all the fur babies to cuddle and love from my nieces but sometimes you just need to feel like there's life outside these four walls. Getting out was a good thing. I do what I can to feel human when I don't feel like venturing out - I get dressed and about half the time I put on makeup. I step out on the patio for fresh air a couple of times a day. I try to vary my activities (although truly, it's all mostly screen related). It still gets to feeling very stale and redundant after a few days in a row of not leaving the house. I'm grateful that today was easier.

Usually once or twice a day I pick up Little Kitty and hold him over my shoulder like a baby (which he loves) and walk outside with him. He loves listening for birds and checking out the things that are growing in the backyard. If he wiggles or tries to get down we immediately go back inside. I always tell him that kitties have to be held if they are outside or bad things will happen to them. That's not just a scare tactic - there's a lot of various wildlife around here that would love to make a snack out of him. This morning he snuck out of the screened porch while Pop was doing something and Pop took off trying to catch him. Little Kitty is a loving cat but he will only come to me - and sometimes Austin. About the time my mom yelled down, "Little Kitty is out" I looked up and found him standing at the back door. He has been fixated on catching salamanders on the screened porch. They sun themselves on the patio right outside the screened porch and I'm sure that when the door opened he thought he was going to catch him one and then realized that he was OUTSIDE and panicked.  It's like he KNEW right away that being out was a bad thing because nobody was holding him and he couldn't wait to get back in the house. All of our trips to the backyard have taught him exactly how to get to Mommy. I was so proud of him for coming right home and not running away.

I've been watching Book TV on CSpan all day. The most interesting book I've seen so far is Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and The Spending of a Great American Fortune. Huguette Clark is a woman who died a few years ago at the age of 104 leaving behind a estate worth over $300 million dollars. Despite her enormous wealth she had spent the last twenty years of her life living in a hospital. Her fabulous properties had sat empty for as many as sixty years. I'm fascinated by her story and I'm thinking about using some of my birthday Barnes and Noble money to buy the book. Usually I only buy books that are marked down to a dollar or two on Nook. This one may merit a splurge.

Tonight I'm watching a lecture on Arab Winter Comes to America by Robert Spencer which also sounds interesting (but I've been interrupted a few times during this lecture so I'm not sure). It sounds like a very plain truth about how Islam feels about America (they want us dead). I'm not sure I would enjoy reading that book. I'm interesting in knowing ... but it's one of those life conflicts that I am powerless to change. I feel like I need to know enough to be aware but not so much as to have it keep me awake at night. I have enough to worry about with the evil gut pain and the unresolved disability case and starving children in Africa. Being a single mom teaches you to only accept guilt for things that are within your power to change.

I made caprese salad over french bread for dinner and Austin made a blueberry cream cheese cobbler for dessert. I had a late lunch of a ChickFilA sandwich that Pop brought from the Relay For Life. For breakfast I had a few vanilla wafers and a few pretzels and then a little bit later I had some baby carrots with hummus and then I had some yogurt. Weird food day... it happens sometimes.

It's still way too cool for May. I'm dressed in layers again today.

And that's about it for today. Happy Weekend! Love and hugs!

My New Bulletin Board

It's the sixteenth of May in Georgia and I'm wearing my warmest yoga pants and a sweatshirt - with a long sleeve t-shirt under the sweatshirt. On Monday my kid went swimming in the lake. It's just so unseasonably cool here right now and I am not a fan.

I haven't blogged this week because honestly, I hate hearing myself say the words, "I'm in so much pain today" again and again and again. It has been a rough week pain-wise and I'm completely exhausted from it.

I got a little birthday cha-ching from a sweet blog reader.  I used it to buy a big bulletin board to hang all my treasures that I've had tucked in books and drawers and stacked up on every available surface. I've been a lousy pen-pal lately (for the past year - when you would think I would have PLENTY of time for correspondence!) but I really appreciate the sweet cards and notes that you guys send. Nothing makes my day like having something in the mail that doesn't ask for money.

I hung it by the sliding glass door beside the pantry shelf in the "kitchen" area of my Whine Cellar. I can see it from my Nest but it's not actually in the living room. Because that would be weird, having a bulletin board in your living room. Not any weirder than having a lot of stuffed animals in your living room, I suppose. Eh. It's my space. Somewhere between dorm room and kid's bedroom and comfy den.

I also bought some decorative lights (Christmas lights meant for long term use) for my bedroom but they have not come yet.

I have been wasting many, many hours playing the new kakuro app that I bought for my Nook. I'm really, really good at it. Scary good. Like, if there were kakuro tournaments I would win. And I'm not that good at math so it's weird. I just quickly recognize patterns of numbers.

It was so cold last night that Little Kitty slept under the covers with his head on my pillow. Every time I moved a millimeter away from him, he moved closer to me. Guess he needed some body heat. By next week it will be ninety degrees again.

Last night was the season finale of The Big Bang Theory and Grey's Anatomy. TBBT was kinda dull. Grey's Anatomy was it's usual shark jumping self. I'm just glad they didn't kill Cristina off. It seems like nobody leaves that show alive. I'm not looking forward to the Summer drought of decent television, with the possible exception of Big Brother which... hasn't really captured my interest over the past year or so.

I haven't gone to the library this week, part of that whole, "not feeling good" thing. I have a gazillion books on my Nook that I need to read. I started reading one last night about Queen Elizabeth I. It's 616 pages so it will take me awhile.

And I guess that's about it for today... hope your week was lovely and that your weekend will be all you hope for it to be. Love and hugs, y'all.

Nothing To Talk About

I don't have anything exciting to blog about so I thought I'd share a few photos. I posted these on Facebook already but some of my blog readers aren't on Facebook (and some of my Facebook friends don't read my blog). I was in a pretty pickle yesterday with pain but I didn't want to miss my nieces' first boat ride in Granddaddy Pennington's fishing boat. Granddaddy would have loved those girls... he died when I was ten so (of course) my memories are limited but most of my memories are of him being outdoors. Even after he was diagnosed with brain cancer and they had moved into a little apartment, he would sit out on the back porch and grin at me turning cartwheels in the yard. I've got to think he would have loved the crazy antics of these adventurous redheads. I know they keep me amused!

A few more photos from the lake yesterday:

This girl LOVED the boat. Sarabeth wasn't a fan. I think something about putting her life in crazy Cousin Auggie's hands... but Jamie would have stayed out there until dark.

 that grin... I love that grin!

Selfies with Sarabeth on the dock - that awkward moment when your 11 year old niece has to hold the camera when you take selfies together because her arms are longer... check out the reflection in my sunglasses of her long arms!

 Sarabeth bailing on the boat ride

Jamie dipping her toes in the water

All of a sudden I'm having trouble going to sleep at night. I've been up past 2am the past two nights. I still wake up around the same time (thank you, Little Kitty) so I've been sort of groggy during the day. It's just about impossible for me to nap during the day because inevitably about the time I doze off there's some sort of activity here in the Whine Cellar that wakes me up. Being woke up from a nap is much worse than not taking one at all. Part of it is pain related as I'm having a hard time getting comfortable. Part of it is my highly animated roommate who hits his stride around 11pm and wants to chat. I try not to be unsociable too much. His Basement Clown Posse has moved on to parenting and other adult roles and he's feeling a little lonely. He's also mostly enjoyable and I don't want to miss this time with him. He might leave some day and I would miss him.

I'm not doing as well with food this week. The whole "big meal in the middle of the day" hasn't matched up with life. I'm still trying to pick healthier food choices... snacking on peanuts instead of pringles, chocolate covered strawberries instead of Little Debbies... and I still find myself unable to eat huge portions. I want more food than I can comfortably eat and more often than not, I stop eating before I get full. That's progress.

Today I tripped over the garden hose while going out to get an ice cream for a snack. Eating poorly can hurt you in more ways than one. I didn't hit the ground but I had a big jolt which is never good.

Mother Goose and Father Goose have been MIA for the past week or two. They came back today with five little goslings! I couldn't get very close and my camera doesn't really have any sort of telephoto close up magic but you can see the beebies in the grass.

In other wildlife news... there was a cute little bunny sitting right beside the garden when I got up this morning. I always pick Little Kitty up and hold him where he can see out the window in the morning. When I said, "do you see the bunny rabbit?" He purred like it was his job. I don't know if he thought it was a friend or thought Mr. Bunny would taste good or what but he was sure glad to see it. We finally got Little Kitty to allow us to put the harness on him and tried walking him on the leash. He didn't quite get the hang of it... he just wanted to sit, like it paralyzed him.

The windows downstairs have a very narrow windowsill, too narrow for him to sit. He goes through all kind of crazy maneuvers trying to see out. Of course... he could just go stand at the sliding glass door and see the whole wide world...  but I guess the windows offer a better vantage point.

 Kitty standing on his hind legs in the window so he doesn't miss anything... he's got some sturdy hind legs. He could walk upright if he really wanted to.

"walking" on a leash

I was really stressed out watching Dancing With The Stars last night because it looked like Maks and Meryl were going home which is RIDICULOUS because she is the best one on there. My sentimental favorite is Candace Cameron Bure but let's face it... she's no Meryl. She has white girl hips... they don't lie. Tuesday night TV includes the Duggars, the Little Couple and their adorable adoptees and Tori and Dean's train wreck. Maybe it's the tv watching that's giving me insomnia this week. Not sure.

I downloaded a kakuro app on my Nook today. Kakuro is sort of a crossword puzzle with numbers. You're given the total and you have to figure up the digits that make up that sum. Digits can't be repeated in the same line. So if you have 3 as your sum with two blocks beside it, you know your digits are 2 and 1 and you just have to figure out which goes where. I've mastered sudoku so well that it was time for a change. Have to have something to keep my mind stimulated with all the reality tv I watch.

Anyways... that's all the "nothing to talk about" that I have for you today. Happy Tuesday! Love and hugs, y'all!