TGIF

Good Morning Sweet Ones,

I spent over four hours taping 450 Boxtops for Education, finishing around midnight.  I took them to Colleen's so she could give them to the kids for the PTO contest at school today.  The class with the most of them gets a pizza party.  I didn't stop because last year, Colleen tried to turn some Boxtops in after school started the day they were due, and they told her the contest was over. for that one.  

I got the front yard cut yesterday, after the pedicure, and shopping.  The doc's appointment was okay, but my PT/INR was a little low.  

Today, I will cut the backyard.   I also have some indoor chores.  I want to cut the grass earlier today.  Yesterday, it was 85 degrees when I was out there.  It is cooler in the morning.

Mom is at my sister, Eileen's,, since Wednesday.  She sounds so much better than she did when she was home for those two weeks.  I don't know if I had mentioned that right after I mailed her Mothers Day card, I order some Probiotics and Emergen C on Amazon, and had it shipped to her at Eileen's.  In her Mothers Day card, I put a Red Lobster and Visa Gift card.  In a minute, I am going to send her some flowers.  I don't normally spend this much money on a gift for her, but she helped finance my trip home in February, and I got my refund check.  

Well, I better scoot, and try to wake up.

Love, hugs and prayers.

Trish

Trish you sound busy with all the organizing and mowing.  I collected box tops for my grandkids' school too and my grandson's class won for the entire school and they, too, got pizza. My granddaughter, who was in kindergarden at the time, was so upset that her brother's class beat, we ended up buying pizza for the entire kindergarten class. LOL  Fortunately, my kids go to a very small school.

I am taking today off.  I rarely take an entire day off without working from home or working on academic articles or chapters in books but my sister in law is going through chemo for breast cancer that she has been battling for years and my brother called and asked if I could come down and visit with her while he goes to his own doctor appointment, so I am leaving here in a minute to drive a couple of hours to spend the day with my SIL...For lunch, she and I are going to go to the elementary school and eat lunch with my two grandkids and one of her great grandkids...her great grandson is in my granddaughter's first grade class and so they eat at noon and my grandson eats at 11....as if that isn't going to cause enough of a commotion, my sister is meeting us there to have lunch with her granddaughter who eats at 12:30...so we will hang out with all our grandkids today....

My nephew is the principal of the elementary school and I called him last night and said we were coming and he said, yeah, mom called.   I laughed...small towns.  

After spending the day with my SIL, we will pick my grandkids up on our way back up the mountain and this weekend, my grandson has to get his cooking badge for his boy scout thing and my granddaughter has to do a green project...so Saturday under my supervision, he is going to make my buttermilk biscuits and chocolate gravy....their favorite.   A friend of mine who works for the parks service is meeting my husband and the kids at one of our state parks and he is going to let them do some creek conservation project...I have no idea what and am so happy I am not needed for that project.  Yeah for friends....I'm sure it will involve cleaning a creek or turning loose some fish or something like that.   

This is the time of year that we say goodbye to those student and student workers who graduate and move on.  Yesterday we had a going away party for one of my undergraduate student tutors...she graduates next week and got accepted to work in the peace corp and in June is headed to Africa.  We also honored one of our PhD students who defended his dissertation and has accepted a position at a fine engineering school in Texas....he will be teaching technical writing to engineering students. 

We had a huge tornado pass over last night; I slept through it but my husband said it was pretty loud and rough for about ten minutes and then it died down and we just had rain and lightening....my porch-plants won't need watering today.

I hope you all have a fantastic Friday.  Eileen, I know how hard it is to retell the story of your attack...One of the reasons why I got involved in the rape crisis center and was so active for so many years is that when a person is attacked and they tell one police officer, then they end up telling another one and another one...then they get to the hospital where they have to give medical history and tell it to a nurse, then a doctor and if there are X-rays, they say, what happened.  When I first started working with the group, years ago, we helped silence the staff of hospitals so that they don't ask over and over.   When someone is attacked, we would get a call from the hospital or the police and we went with them through the entire process...  Sometimes the hospital staff, not meaning to upset the victim, would just ask without thinking...so once the person comes in now, they are given privacy and are put in a quiet place with a councilor....or that was how we did it years ago.   I think they still do it that way at most hospitals.  The sad fact is if a victim has been raped and is in the hospital and every time the story is told to a nurse or a doctor, they write it down and those records can become part of the evidence and if the victim says, he held me down to the doctor and to the nurse she says, he threw me down ...the defense can use those words to hurt the victim and help the attacker.  Anyway, I, too, am sorry you are having to relive that awful time and I so hope that they arrest him and make him spend time in jail for what he has done to you.

Vic, I sure hope Butch has a good day today and I hope you are finding your strength to get through this.

Hello Jeannie.....your story of the pizza and box tops made me giggle!!

Awwwww that is sweet that all of you can eat with all the grandchildren. They will love that!!

No....I couldn't clean a creek or mess with fish...not at all!!

Your students sound amazing...they sure are someone to be proud of!! Saying good bye must be hard to do. 

Buttermilk biscuits and chocolate gravy...hmmm...I know you told me once about the chocolate gravy...I can't remember. I am sure your grandson will get his badge!!

Lots of love and hugs to you....connie d

Good Morning Ladies!

I have a lot of my agenda today, but I did want to stop in and say hello!

Geez, 400 boxtops Tri****hat is some dedication! Jasmyn's school stopped doing them once she moved up to middle school, but I remember collecting them for her, throwing out cereal boxes and then remembering I had to get the top and digging thru the trash...ugh...I was relieved when I didn't have to do that anymore.

Now they just send home a new fundraiser for the kids to sell every couple months for candy, candles, you name it, but for the most part it is expensive stuff for what you get so we don't get into it like we did for the boxtops.

I ran around from 2pm until almost 8 last night, and got in bed by 9 I was so exhausted. Took Jazz out for our 'ladies nite out' dinner and then shopping for some summer clothes. I enjoy doing these things, but at the same time they make me feel really old. I was in the dressing room with her looking at her perky boobs and long sleek legs and feeling ancient. Then I glanced in the mirror and saw how tired I looked...not from running around, but from being 58 to her 13!

Ugh!

Trish, spoil your mom regardless...I truly miss mine everyday...I think that is wonderful what you are doing for her!

Today would be a great day off from work if you live in the Northeast...sunny and mid-70's. It is really nice to be there for your sister-in-law thru her chemo treatments, and I am sure your brother appreciates it! My last job required me to be on call 24-7 365 days a year... plus I had to take work done to get it done where I could think clearly without distractions. There was pluses to being able to work at home, but in the long run I think the combination of doing that for years and the 2am crisis calls around the clock burnt me out. Enjoy what you can of your free time! If I had to do things over I would have gone into teaching rather than social work!

I gotta do the weekly grocery shopping and some other errands so I will check in later. Hoping to hear how Vickie/Butch are doing as well as Eileen.

Hello Kathy....you did have a crazy day yesterday...6 hours of shopping...I would have had to call a cab to drive me home! I bet it was fun anyway!! Yes...I have lost my glow that is for sure...it is wasted on youth!! You are not ancient...I am older then you!!!

I praise you for the job you did working 24/7 365 days a year!! I would have burned out on that job pretty fast!! Good for you!!

I am hoping we hear from Vickie and that they are home tonight!

Love and oodles of hugs to you....connie d

Good morning sistas!  Don't have any official word yet but butch's blood work shows a big improvement in his numbers today. Waiting for the doctor to make rounds. I sure hope he says we can go home today.  I'll update when I know something for sure. 

Hi Trish and my OFF family:

Got up way too early this morning ... 7:30 a.m. I'm already sleepy. Wish I could sleep like I used to. I had to get up for a 10 a.m. phone call, but 7:30 a.m. is too early. 

It was good to come back to work and do something normal again ... even having the computer crash right off the bat was normal. Plus, I had to clear my cache and reboot too ... normal! Even if that's a pain, it felt normal. Our computer system is crappy, but yesterday, that felt normal. And that was good.

Richard was seen on our work grounds earlier this week. HR knows he's not supposed to be there ... it was early in the day, about 10 a.m. or so, and my boss saw him. She went to tell someone; first the editor, then she looked around for security. Eventually he left. He was sitting on the picnic benches in the smoking area. The men's shelter he's staying at is right across the street. That makes me antsy. My boss, Joan, has told me to make sure I have someone escort me to my car ... my coworkers have offered to follow me home, too. I feel OK going home because Richard would have a problem getting here. Still, I have problems sleeping. Also, I still have a problem with pain in my left side. It really is giving me a lot of issues. 

Trish, wow, that's a lot that you're spending on your mom. I'm sending a card. I don't know what to get mom. She doesn't go out to eat anymore; she has plenty of sugar-free candy and books. Gary  says she needs new clothes, but he wasn't sure of the size. And even then, if she doesn't like it or it doesn't fit, then it has to be sent back. So I'm just sending a card. 

Jeannie, thanks for the kind words about my having to repeat my ordeal over and over. It's so fresh in my mind I can see it happening just sitting here right now, like a movie playing in front of me. I can see his crazy eyes and him bearing down on me. I really wish I could get out of this apartment sooner, but it's not going to happen. I can't move into a new place without my brother. And he's not ready now. And neither am I, financially or otherwise. 

Vickie, glad to hear a little bit of good news about Butch. Hope you can go home.

Anyway, I'm going to get in the shower and reheat the chicken. Have a good day

Hello Eileen...sorry you woke up so early today....I hope things settle down to where they once were. Hopefully you could manage a nap sometime today. 

You Boss is amazing....that is great that she is concerned enough to be sure you are walked out to your car after work. Him living across the street from your job isn't good. Once you go to court you can get an order that he can't come that close to your job. I am so sorry that you are feeling so antsy. It will get better at some point. Stay strong and be brave!! 

I am glad that somethings are feeling a bit more normal. You are headed in the right direction. 

Have a good evening at work...more love and hugs..connie d

Hi Ladies -- 

Just got back from the hospital with Jim - he was supposed to have a liver biopsy - but doctor wouldn't do it because it was high risk.  He is retaining fluid and his abdomen is swollen.  I am both angry and upset.  Being a man, he thinks he knows best -- more than the doctors even.  He is "playing games" with his prescriptions - not taking the medicine as prescribed.  And because of that, he is not getting rid of the fluid.  He's scheduled to see the specialist next Wednesday, and he seems to think she's going to prescribe a pill that will solve his problems.  He read about a pill the other day - take one a day and it will cure HepC - if you have "genotype 1" - which he thinks he has.  I reminded him that the doctor told him about that pill last summer - and there are certain conditions to be met before it can be prescribed.  It costs about $1,000 a pill, and you have to take it daily for 24 weeks.  That's $168,000.  She has been telling him he has to have the liver biopsy - he was supposed to have it last summer/fall - but didn't.  He was scheduled to have it in March, and rescheduled it to today.  In the meantime, he's supposed to take certain medicines to get rid of fluid build-up and constipation problem.  But he doesn't take it as prescribed, so he's still full of fluid and sh*t.  Doctor went to proceed today, but said it was too dangerous to do in his present state.  So now he says he'll take the medicines as prescribed. I'll believe that when I see it.  I keep thinking he'll reach the point where his health is bad enough and he'll listen to the doctors -- but in the meantime, his condition is worsening and I wonder about it getting to be "too late".  I'm sure the doctor will lay the cards on the table next Wednesday............I'll see what happens then.

In the meantime, I'm really tired - I actually dozed off in the waiting area at the hospital -- they had to call me twice.

I'm going to go take a nap.  

Prayers and good wishes to all.    

Mary

Mary, am so sorry to read you now several times about Jim and his liver problems . Men are stubborn hopeless when it comes to meds, always thinking a miracle pill will be prescribed. I hear you when you say one day it will be "too late" for anything. Keep hoping yourself.

hugs

jennifer