So much to catch up on, but first........

Yes, I’ve been gone for a while. Nothing major, but between working 46 hours plus a week and taking three college classes and still running to North Carolina every other weekend, I just didn’t have the umphh to post.

I have been wanting to, but have been enjoying the scaled back hours now that tax season is over, and couple that with taking NO classes for the summer semester, and it breeds for one very lazy person.

However, my love for blogging has not left. So many times in the last month I have thought that I really needed to sit down and write something. Catch things up. The Yahoo support group for caregivers of those with Alzheimer’s and dementias gave me a reason to today. The Barry Peterson, CBS corrspondent interview about his wife with early onset Alzheimer's. Here it is. They are well worth the time to watch.




Watch CBS News Videos Online

Talk about the tears flowing........Oh, how well I understand. The most striking quote to me was this one "A friend calls it grieving, like saying goodbye by going to the same funeral over and over again." That is how I feel almost all the time. Still. It. Never. Ends.

I will post again shortly with all of the changes that have happened over the last six months. Most were good.

To My Darling Daughter, Jessica

Twenty years ago this morning was, and will forever be, the best day of my life. It was the day that you, my precious daughter Jessica, were born. Everyone that knew your daddy and I, knew that today was the day that we had dreamed of ever since we first met. You were the catalyst that brought us together. Our hopes of a future, with children, was our dream from the beginning.


I remember the evening that your dad and I first discussed children. We were not even dating. We were just friends. He was telling me how much he loved babies, and how he had always wanted one. He felt that it was something that would never happen for him. I remember looking at him and saying, “If we were together, we would have had several by now”. That my darling, was the day that I think he saw me in a new light. Soon after, we began to date.

You are everything that we could have ever hoped and wished for and more. I look at you, and I see so many others in you, that make up who you are today. When you are shy, I see my dad, your Grandfather Clyde. Your habit of doing things immediately, and not procrastinating comes from Nanny (my mom). Your patience, from your Me-Maw (Butch’s mom), and of course your stubbornness, from both sides of the family. You got that quite honestly. Sometimes, that is a good thing.

From the moment I first peered into your eyes, you were everything that I ever wanted in life. My darling daughter, daddy and I love you and will always love you. No matter what the future brings, please be secure in that knowledge. You have made all of our dreams come true.

We love you Jessica,
Mom and Dad

Grace is NOT my middle name!

Two years ago, we remodeled our bathroom, and when we did I had the contractor put in a detachable shower head with a six foot long hose so that I could easily spray the tub walls down when I got out of the shower, which I do everyday. I also had him install it a little higher because I hate a shower head that is right there at the top of ones head. Anyways, here is a pic of the shower head.

Well, this morning I sprayed down the walls after bathing as usual and must not have placed the shower head back in the holder correctly because it fell, SPLAT!!!, right across the bridge of my nose and I think I saw stars. Jessica heard the commotion and came rushing in. She promptly looked at me and said "Oh my gosh Mom, you're bleeding!!! Ohhhh, I think I'm gonna get sick!". She helped me out of the shower, we got ourselves together and went to the Patient First.

One examination, five x-ray views, some steri-strips, and one tetanus shot later, here I am being chauffeured home.

Here is another view with my black eye starting to really show.

Now, it is eight hours later and I have one good black eye, one kind of black eye, and a lovely knot in the middle of my nose. I look like I went a few rounds in the boxing ring.

Note to ones self. DO NOT fight with the shower head, the shower head will always win.

By the way, my middle is Louise, not Grace.

Christmas Cookies

On Friday evening, December 10th, my very good friend, Pam, invited me over to her house to have a mad cookie baking night. We ended up making several different types and Pam gave me a new recipe for the coup de grace, oreo cookie truffles. When I brought them home, Lewis proceeded to rename them "crack balls" because he said they were as addictive as crack.(not that he would know anything about that but, anything that I make that he absolutely loves is called "crack" whatever, as in the hash brown casserole that I make every holiday is AKA "crack potatoes". Anyone with a teenage boy will understand how they rename EVERYTHING!!!)

Here are a few pics of that night. Please excuse my hair. I must have gotten bedhead when I pulled my scarf off my head.

Here I am rolling the easy pecan balls and getting them ready to go in the oven.

The finished product! They taste just like Pecan Sandies. YUM!!!!

Here I am again spooning out the haystacks. These were okay, but I doubt I will make them again. They did get consumed, but let's be real. If it's chocolate covered it's a done deal in my house.

Finally, Pam with the be all to end all, Oreo Cookie Truffles!! After making these together I know I made at least 6 dozen more in the days leading up to Christmas. Jessica even made them using Sugar Free Oreos. They were mostly consumed before they even made it to the cookie tins.

So, just in case anyone wants to know how to make these delectable goodies here is the recipe! Enjoy!

I Think I've Ate Too Much Chocolate.....

and my tummy hurts. I've ate and I've ate and I've ate tonight. Ooooooh!!!!! I'm going to get sick, I think.....

Jessica is getting all of this awesome candy from work. "Ms. I've lost 79lbs" won't eat it. She sure doesn't get her willpower from me. The issue is, she brings it home and gives it to Lewis and I. Lindt Double Chocolate Truffles, Ferrero Rocher Chocolate Hazelnut Candies, Hershey's Dark Chocolate Bars, and the list goes on......



It started with dinner. I fixed Sloppy Joes. Slack I know, but I had the first one and gosh, I hadn't had a Sloppy Joe in ever so long and it was sooooooo good.

So I ate another.........

and, uh, I ate another.........

and I ate a Hazelnut Candie.....

and another.......

and a Hershey's Dark Chocolate......

and another......

and a Lindt truffle......

and another.....

and another.....

I think I'm gonna get sick. I don't eat much chocolate......really.......ask anyone that knows me.......I don't.

Boy, I sure know how to go overboard.

My last final is Saturday. So is Jessica's. We are going at 9AM. Phew, one semester down. I can't look forward, it all seems too far away. I can only look at right now. I definitely have three "A"'s, I'm hoping for a fourth, but will probably get a "B". I'm happy with that. Signed up for all of my classes for next semester and already ordered my books and will pick them up Tuesday. So has Jessica. We did not procrastinate this time. Unlike my last paper I wrote Monday night, at the last minute. Plus, I changed my mind three times about the subject. That's why I hadn't wrote in a week. I just didn't have it in me. I had six papers due since Thanksgiving.

See, I overdosed on papers too, not just chocolate....excuses...excuses....

Jessica thinks she has 2 "A"'s and 2 "B"'s. She will officially be in her Sophomore year in January. One year down for her.

I think it would be kind of cool if I can catch up with her, and maybe we can finish together.

Maybe looking forward isn't such a bad thing. Maybe you have to eat too much chocolate sometimes to remember when to say enough. Maybe you can't appreciate the good times if you didn't have bad to make them good. Make sense????

Nah, doesn't to me either. I think what I'm trying to do is justification. Oh well, it's Christmas time, that's justification enough.

A MeMe Tag and A Big Thank You!

Over the last few months I have picked up a few new blog followers. One of those followers has been especially supportive, leaving comments and tagging my blog of which I am very appreciative. Jennifer, I want to thank you for being so kind. I should probably come out to Oklahoma and help you clean your house or something nice, but if you could see mine then you would know that housework isn't my strong suit. It's like my mom always says, "your dad didn't marry me for my cooking skills (said with a wink!)". Butch may have married me for my cooking skills (he went from a 32 waist pants to a 42) but he didn't for my housekeeping skills. Oh well, we all have our faults.

Anyways, a few weeks ago Jennifer wrote this post tagging me. At that time, I was too preoccupied with the biopsy deal to respond. Now I am catching up.

5 Things Meme

5 Things I was Doing 10 years Ago:

1. Working as Claims Rep/Customer Service Analyst for TRICARE
2. Organizing a Christmas food drive at work for the needy and without thinking drove into THE worst neighborhood in Portsmouth to deliver to a family. I'm talking, this development was so bad that the ambulance wouldn't go in there without a police escort. I just didn't think about it until I was already there, and my car was surrounded by these great, big guys (who were probably a bunch of drug dealers) wanting to know what I was doing in their neighborhood. I explained why I was there, and they helped me carry the food in to the family. When I left and pulled out into traffic, I immediately burst into tears. Butch was terribly angry with me for not thinking and going there at all. Oh well, I was doing a good deed.
3. Mom to a 9 year old! Gee, where has all the years went?
4. Still missing one of my best friends, Gwen, who had moved back to Georgia the year before. I still look out my kitchen window and wish she was back across the street.
5. Ten years younger(36) and on the downside to forty, not fifty!!!



5 Things On My To-Do List Today:

1. Go to my last English class!!!! YIPEE
2. Stop by the grocery store for borax and bread.
3. Read two more chapters of my Developmental Psychology book. BLAH
4. Get more wood in from the backyard to inside the house. It's supposed to get cold this weekend and I still haven't turned on the gas to my furnace yet.
5. Fix the Christmas tree lights that Jessica hooked up too many on one circuit and blew a fuse somewhere. I'm not gonna complain, because she did put the tree up and decorate it.


5 Snacks I Love:

1. Montery Jack and Jalapeno cheese with crackers
2. Fritos
3. Brach's Maple Nut Goodies
4. Kraft sliced cheese
5. Ham & Cheese sandwich


5 Things I Would Do If I Were A Millionaire:

1. Buy the new 2011 Mustang in Black.
2. Pay off all our debts and my loved ones too
3. Not work, but I would volunteer.
4. Travel
5. Set up a scholarship fund for college for older women that are returning to get their degrees

Isn't this just a sweet car!!!! Oh, I could see myself getting all kinds of tickets in this baby!!!

5 Jobs I’ve Had:

1. Electrician
2. Medical Insurance Clerk
3. Medical Claims Analyst
4. Medical Claims Trainer
5. Tax Preparer


5 People I Tag: (That I know will respond)

1. Sarah
2. Lisa
3. Katie
4. Meagan
5. Curvy

How Can One Truly Study.....

When their cat is intent upon helping? When I am at home my cat, Tommy, is somewhere close by. When I go to bed at night, he is either on my pillow being a pig, with his paw touching my face, or under the covers fighting with the dog on who gets to sleep closest to me.

When I study, he is right besides me, or on my lap trying to push my book out of my way, or trying to sit on the laptop. Tonight he kept trying to grab my pen with his mouth and yank it out of my hand.

Notice his paw on my arm.....

You just can't get any closer than this!

Right now he is draped over my shoulder. Crazy cat!!!