YUCK

It's been a rough few weeks. Had a really bad intestinal bug a few weeks ago that kept me out of work for 3 days. Then we had Thanksgiving to plan and prepare. Then I went to Marietta the day after Thanksgiving to help Suzanne and Chris start their move into their new house. Last Wed I got sick AGAIN with sinusitis/bronchitis and have been sick ever since.

Australia Bound

Suzanne and Laura are in the air flying from Atlanta to LA for a connecting flight to Sydney, Australia for a once in a lifetime, all expense paid 8 day vacation. Here's wishing them a wonderfully uneventful flight (both ways) and a memorable vacation.

Today I am grateful for my siblings: my sisters and brothers and all my in-laws (and out-laws). They are my extended safety net.
Anne and Rick for always being there, quietly and never asking why, just seeing the need and filling it. They are the best. The best of the best.
Laura and Mike for their faith and most of all because Laura can ALWAYS make me laugh! For her inner beauty, her intelligence and her integrity.
Marti and Bubba for just being themselves and so in love.
Sissy and Dave for a shining example of a marriage enduring through separation and ongoing medical adversity with a child who is challenged both physically and mentally.
John and Rosie for their faith and friendship and laughter.
Greg and Shelly for their humor and beautiful outlook on life.
James and Mariane for their love and trust in each other. And for Mariane who is pregnant again at 38. James is 45. God Bless 'em. A baby!I love youze guys!

Today I am thankful for my daddy who will be 89 in December. He is finally, after these many years, starting to tell us about some of his experiences in the Pacific during World War II. God's Blessings on that whole generation. And I am also thankful for my step-mom who has kept him happy and healthy for so many years.

Veteran's Day

Tomorrow school is out. I have the day off and Damien is determined that we are going to do "fun things". I have permission from him to work tomorrow morning. Lunch will be Cracker Barrel so that he can have pancakes and bacon (Aunt Laura threw his leftovers out Friday night because we left them in her car ~~ he was HORRIFIED!) Then we are going to search a couple of consignment shops for some jeans for him. Then the really fun part, The American Fun Park (formerly known as Putt-Putt) so he can have some FUN. LOL

Today I am thankful for

Today I am thankful for my loving and supportive husband who has put up with my quirks and foibles (and there are a LOT of them!) for 38 years of marriage. He is my total opposite and my absolute best friend. I cannot envision life without him. He is my anchor in the storm and my shoulder to lean on.

I hope you all have the blessing to have someone like Hugh in your lives.

Mariane is expecting

Forgot to post that in the update.

My brother James and his family transferred to Robins AFB in Warner Robins, GA. This is his last duty station. He will retire from the Air Force in January after 25 years. Anyway, Mariane is expecting their second, due date May 25, 2010. She is 38, God bless her. We are so happy for them. They did get started kind of late in life. We still call James "Goof Guy". He'll always be the youngest, our baby brother. But he's going to be a daddy at 45. He's getting REAL tired of all his sisters' admonitions of "You had better take care of her!" I'm still smiling from the news. A new baby in the family. God's blessing!

It's been FOREVER!

My cousin-in-law sent me a letter with some pics of the family reunion last June and mentioned that she still checks this. LOL! FACEBOOK GOT ME! You can find me there almost every day. I'll see about posting a link on my profile. So Ginny Ellis ~~ This one's for YOU!

Anyway Allen did just fine with his surgery. It's been over a year and the cyst has not come back. He and Michelle are divorcing. They tried for 2 years to work things out and it just didn't. Sometimes you have to let things go. Michelle moved to Biloxi in March. Hugh and I took the boys out to see her in June. Damien spends almost every weekend with Allen.

Damien is a shining star. Straight As all year last year, perfect attendance and honor scores on the state Criterion tests. He is a happy boy. Second grade is challenging for him. Sometimes it's hard for me to keep my hands off and let him make mistakes. But that is how you learn.

Chris got back safely from his last deployment to Iraq and was transferred to a Reserve Center in Marietta, Georgia last December. YAY!!! 3 hours away. They have bought a house (closing in a couple of weeks). Suzanne is going to Australia for 10 days with my sister Laura.

Business is like all business these days . . . slow to the point of agony. But all is not lost. We can still pull out with the Christmas season.

In a nutshell, that's the last 14 months (has it been that long?? Geez I'm bad!)

Allen update

He's on Bactrim DS twice a day. Cullen's office told him he had to be on the antibiotic for a week before anything could be done so he has an appointment next Thursday morning.

He needs to get his Phoebe Care card so that at least the hospital will be covered, just in case Cullen can't do it in the office, which I don't think he will be able to. I haven't told Allen and Michelle that. Allen is scared enough as it is.

I've been busy

Labor Day has come and gone. Had Lisa DeMott a baby shower on the 30th. She had the baby (Milo Alexander) the morning of the 29th. Left the hospital and came to the shower. What a woman!

I hosted Marti and James' 44th birthday party on Sunday the 7th. I was going to 5:30 mass on Saturday so I would have all morning Sunday to finish preparing for the birthday party. At choir practice Laura, Ken Mohl, Mike Wise, David and I just on a lark, sang Come Worship the Lord by Talbot. David decided we needed to do it as a prelude for the 5:30 AND the 11:00 Sunday masses so I ended up not only going to mass Saturday evening but Sunday morning, and then Laura and I cantored at 11 as well.

Then I was behind the rest of the day! Anne and Rick showed up right after 12 with Rick's gas grill and set it up in the backyard. Marti and Bubba were next. They were there before I got home.

We grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, ribs and chicken breasts. We made macaroni salad, cole slaw, baked beans. Celie brought chips. Laura brought ice and drinks. John came down from Atlanta and got more ice. Ice cream and cake and I had made a huge banana pudding for Bubba. Wasn't much left of that!

On a more serious note, Allen got sick a couple of days ago. I thought he might have a yeast infection in the gluteal crease, but it kept getting worse so he went to Convenient Care today. He has a pilonidal abscess and will have to have surgery. BUMMER! We told them not to worry about the expense (they don't have any health care at all), that we would help them. What else can you do? Michelle is calling Cullen Richardson's office tomorrow to make an appointment.

NEWS!!

Chris got his orders for his next duty station which will be a reserve unit in Marietta, Georgia, 3 hours away. They have always wanted to live in the Atlanta area and hope to be near there when Chris retires from the Corps. They are so excited! I won't even bother to expound on how the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters feel about it.

Kelly Easterlin Williams lives there (grew up one house down from us). Also Alayna Wu. Jane and Mike (Hugh's cousin and her husband) live there. Of course, John and Greg live in the area. John lives in Hiram about 20 minutes southwest of Marietta. Greg lives "in the area" if you can define 2 hours away in Sugar Hill, the other side of Atlanta, that way. Hugh's cousin Howard and his wife Jean live in Lawrenceville, near Greg.

Suzanne said they would be house hunting in Dec and Jan, looking for a place to live. She's calling Jane and Kelly today to find out about where she should be looking.

Laura and I are hosting a baby shower for Lisa DeMott tomorrow. Milo Alexander arrived this morning at 9:17 EDT. Lisa said she will NOT be missing chocolate cake. She and Milo will come straight from the hospital if they have to!

Welcome to Our World, Landis Dean Price

6 pounds 10 ounces
18-1/2 inches long
Born about 10:15 a.m. Tucson time

Congratuations, Bonnie and Brandon. YOU GO GIRL! We love you!

Today is Hugh's Birthday

With TS Fay still raining on my parade, I am having trouble getting out to get any shopping done. Promised home made chicken and dumplings for dinner with home-creamed corn.

Rick and I took Nora to her oncology appt yesterday. Dr. Duelge said he was running a flow cytometry to make sure her diagnosis of CLL was correct. That is the definitive test. He is also sending her for a CT scan and mammogram. She has a mass in one breast and hasn't had a mammogram since they moved down here. Dr. D. also said that they probably would not treat the CLL for years, just follow.

My Doodle is doing well in school. First grade is LOTS harder, he says, but "I'm really great at Math!" They have about an hour of homework every evening. That's a lot for a first grader IMO!

Laura, Mike and Johnathan are in Orlando getting John settled in. They took a tour of the DAVE (Digital Animation and Visual Effects) school at Universal Studios. Laura said she was not just astounded, she was stunned by the work they are doing there. If John is one of the class "stars" he will be able to write his ticket. I think he wants to go to ILM in London.

We're having a baby!

Celie called me this morning at 8. Bon's water broke around 3 their time (Tucson) and she is at the hospital. Cool BEANS!!! Update when I get more info. Born on Hugh's Birthday, too!

Tax Free Weekend

Shopped for D's school uniforms and supplies yesterday. Have to get some more supplies and won't get his long pants for a couple of months in case he grows. Geraldine said that I should go ahead and buy them and just get a size larger. But what if he doesn't grow that much?

He's going to Mommy and Daddy's tonite. Laura and I are the cantors tomorrow at 11:00 mass and I have found that I can't manage him and cant at the same time. Too much distraction. He insists on standing with me at the microphone. And when he's "at his seat" behind me, he's mugging it up.
I am so far behind on my laundry, I don't think I will ever catch up. It hurts my arms, shoulders, neck and upper chest to hang stuff up and I get so tired just sitting and folding clothes. What was once a Saturday morning chore has become a nightmare of discomfort and sometimes pain.

Temper, Temper

I got D one of those floor rugs that you play checkers and tic-tac-toe on from Cracker Barrel. He was playing checkers with Hugh tonite but kept cheating. Then he pitched a fit when Hugh wouldn't play with him anymore. I'm going to have to talk to his therapist about this little episode. He thinks he ought to win all the time, even be allowed to cheat to do it.

I put him to bed and we said prayers. After we finished, he said they didn't count because he didn't want to do prayers tonite. I told him that it was okay to feel that way. God could see into his heart and knew that he was upset and that had he said his prayers anyway, even when he didn't want to.

Back up

We're back up and running. I have almost completed my IPEs for the day but still have to get my OT production in. Also have to take Damien shopping for school uniforms and supplies. We're just going to try things on. This weekend is tax free for school stuff so I'll just have my sizes and go in the middle of the nite.

Hugh came home for lunch and played the Wii with D for a while after he ate.

Now our major chart access system is down

IS does not know why. They are working with MedPlus trying to get it pinpointed. Still on mandatory OT. No way to work.

Suz, Jessica and kids left today. They are going to Valdosta to see Carl and Christie and spend the day at Wild Adventures. Annette and kids will be there, too. They will spend the night with C&C and leave for NC Thursday morning from Valdosta.

We had a pizza party last night so that anyone who could get here could visit a bit before they left.

I have my house back. It's quiet, even with Damien watching TV. Gotta love that Katherine. She painted her toes, feet, legs and the bedroom carpet with deep, bright red fingernail polish last night. Poor Suz. She scrubbed and scrubbed to get it out. This is the SECOND time it has happened since they came.

I have laundry piled up my bedroom wall! Have to get it caught up.

As for the rheumatoid arthritis, I can't say I'm in PAIN just pretty much ache all the time. And stiff, stiff, stiff. But the pain comes when I move wrong, especially in my rib cage. Leaning forward to get out of a chair, or just sitting down and my back settling on the chair will set me off.

There are so many people who live with so much worse pain and discomfort than this. I have to keep reminding myself.

Blogging

I don't have time to blog right now. Mandatory OT, deficient iron stores from donating blood frequently and now rheumatoid arthritis. Film at 11.

3M Update

We had a 3M update scheduled for today. 11:00 to 1:00. So I came home. Last time it took until right at 2:00 to complete the update. There is no way I was going to sit around for 2 hours waiting for the system to come back up. Right now it is 3:09 and we're still waiting. AND we're on mandatory overtime. Which means we have lost at least 4 hours of prime worktime.

Does anyone see the irony here? At least I've done a couple of loads of laundry.