THANKSGIVING

I am missing so may opportunities for photo's lately, however I do have a bunch to share. Our Thanksgiving started on Wednesday a week before Thanksgiving. It seems we have a hard time getting all together close to the holidays so we keep backing it up further and further, lol. I know I will have a hard time getting into Christmas in July so hopefully we won't have to back up that far. Pat was a big help to me as always but probably bigger than normal this Thanksgiving, because I had to work that day and I had him putting things in the oven and taking things out and turning on crock pots etc while I was at work, lol. Once our bellies were full we just sat and visited... I am really enjoying the visiting more and more every time we get together.

With Thanksgiving in Mississippi out of the way Pat, Chris, Kyle and Blake got all geared up for deer hunting. The weather turned off really cold and they all started later than planned. No one has shot a deer yet ... not even a lil buck that would cost them big bucks, lol. I figure one of them will get a deer at some point... but if not... oh well... they enjoy the hunting any way.

Tuesday before Thanksgiving Pat and I left headed to Bama and we detoured by the airport to put Brooke on a plane to North Carolina. Things were right on schedule and soon as Brooke was in the air we headed on to Bama. I could hardly wait to see what had been done... but knew I would be disappointed and it would not be enough, lol. The pictures will show you we have made progress and everything is looking GREAT.

See my arched doorways. The front door will be stained at some point and stand out more. Notice the dining room table is not in the center of the room and I think we will all enjoy that.

You can see the pantry door and the arched doorway to the kids room( xbox room, mud room, seems we can't settle on a name for it.

Thursday Pat and I drove Mom and Dad to Adamsville to the Spears for Thanksgiving dinner. The crowd was smaller than normal but the food was great. Faye can make some good dressing. Again I did not get many pictures here but will post a few. Seems I only got pictures of the kids, I have got to work on that. I am sure I missed some good shots of women cooking etc.

With our bellies all full we traveled back to the lakehouse where Randy and his family would all drop by so we could see all Brandon's children.

The house still has lots of evidence that construction is still in progress so we had to keep close tabs on the kids. Emma got her head banged on the coffee table but we managed to prevent any major injuries.

This is the 1st time I have see the twins since they started walking and they really enjoyed the extra room I have, running and playing chase with their dad.

Walker was my buddy for the visit, even if he was a lil skiddish to start with.

This area is where the dining table use to be and I hope to put a round table and 4 chairs there for playing cards, but will be awhile. This sofa will be moved into the xbox room when they finish the crown molding there.

Notice how quickly the men took to the table in its new location.

I thought this was a good picture of Mom and Dad. They were so tired, they missed their nap, but I did get a smile out of them.

The rest of the weekend was spent getting up early and going shopping looking for those hard to find items that I thought I had to have. I really had not planned to go shopping but I just could not help it... something I have always done. I was pooped each night and in bed by 7 or 8 and would wake raring to go at 3, lol.

Saturday, was the IRON BOWL and we worked on our closets until time for the game. Marcia joined us for the game, Greg preferred to watch the game alone in his favorite spot at home. Its a real test for friendship when you get together with friends that are fans of the opponents for the IRON BOWL. Marcia and Greg are Auburn fans and we forgive them on most occasions. My sister Susan and Rando are also Auburn Fans, but we just offer our sympathy and ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!lol. Nothing like friendly ragging on ball game days.

We returned to Mississippi on Sunday and picked up Brooke from her Uncle Tony, since he had picked her up at the airport.

Have I told ya lately its 6 months and 29 days until I retire? See ya soon.

Mid November

The last week has been a big blur. I started getting sick on Monday at work just a sinus headache but by Tuesday morning I had a very sore throat. The kids had sore throat the week before and Josh also when in Bama so I thought no biggy I will stay home Tuesday and get better so I can be sure to be well to go to Bama on the weekend to help Mom. Well I tried to get better but failed and by Thursday I was in tears with throat pain and in the Dr office to get my shot. I had strep throat and the worst I could ever imagine. I could not even swallow water without tears. As I write this I am still not 100% but so much better. Needless to say I did not go to Bama the weekend and pretty much hibernated in my bedroom, staying away for everyone as much as possible. That's really about all I have to say for the week.



Mom seems better over the phone and I am hoping to make a trip there for Thanksgiving. Speaking of Thanksgiving, I am trying to have Thanksgiving here this week before deer season starts and the men folk run off and before Brooke flies to North Carolina. We will see if I fit it in... probably won;t be the spread I normally do, but will have the basics covered. The sweets will be lacking just because I can't do it all and work.... just ain't as young as I use to be lol. I am sure I can play catchup on the sweets over the weekend while the guys are hunting and they will still enjoy them.

November Begins

This week Pat has been a Go GETHER, he carried me to work and picked me up all week long so he could take the van to the shop for minor maintenance stuff, fuel pump problem and leak, shocks, automatic leveler problem, and problem with lights pulsing. We have had the light pulsing for forever that this mechanic knew what to do. I told ya'll earlier about my parking spot, well I took a picture, mainly for a souvenir, but posted for ya to see. looks like I am really important???

Tuesday I had the honor of taking my oldest grandson with me to vote. We ran into Tracy there as well. This was also the Tuesday that I cook for all so we ate a good meal and watched the election returns for a while. I know it had to be a good meal because Tanner "Thanked me " many times.

I was surprised at the interest that the kids showed in the election results. You can tell they are relaxed and a room full, lol. I guess we did all we could since Mississippi went our way however, the overall election did not. :(

Monday, Mom got really sick and spent hours at the out patient clinic and then went to Emergency Room and was admitted, she had almost pneumonia. She stayed several days and was much better. I think it was Wednesday when she got out of the hospital. Saturday I talked to Dad and he said Mom was fussing at him about not wearing his hearing aid and he was telling me that he could hear fine if she did not slur her words...Well "WE ALL KNOW" he can not hear, I just figured she was tired of repeating stuff to him and both sick.After the ballgame Dad calls after the ball game and tells me Mom just told him that she lost control of her left arm and it went numb around 3 or 4 but was Ok now. Well we agreed that she needed to go to the hospital, it sounded like a stroke to us. Randy was called and went over to check it out and I got dressed made a few calls and got kids situated and headed to pick up Mom's sister to go with me to Bham to the hospital. Mom was carried in an ambulance. She was admitted and I stayed the night with her. She improved as the hours went by. They did some test, and from what we have heard from the stroke was confirmed and was very, very, mild. They are keeping her to get her stronger and on some blood thinner. She was really mad at Dad for calling us and Wanted to be contrary about going to the hospital, but I think she was glad we insisted. When the Dr came in today I felt much better about leaving her, so I did and headed on back to Mississippi, I needed a hospital GPS to get out of the hospital. Do they make them?

I think Mom is going to have to make some changes and accept help from all when it comes to the household chores. This lung disease she has really makes it difficult for her to do these things and she insist on doing them. I am not sure how we will handle this but I do know she had no business sweeping and mopping her floors on Friday, I was there and could have, and would have had I known she thought it had to be done.

We carried Tyler and Brooke with us on Thursday Night to Bama, they had made plans to have Chloe over on Friday night to watch scary movies. Friday morning I got up early to go get my hair trimmed then back to get the kids to go shopping. Tyler really was only interested in shopping for food but he went with us to shop for Brooke some pants for school,but he did stay in the van ( smart guy). We had good luck with the pants and then went to get the food, I let them pick out whatever they wanted to eat and Tyler found a book he wanted as well. Blockbuster was the next stop and we got the movies for the night. I will say I thoroughly enjoyed the extra space in the house. Pat and I watched TV in our bedroom in the love seat while the kids watched their scary movies AND WE NEVER HEARD A WORD OUT OF THEM. It was great to sit and watch TV and be comfy and not have to yell at kids to be quiet etc.

On Saturday we had Hannah and Ali join us about ballgame time and I did have to run them out of the den for doing the girly chat thing and disturbing our ballgame watching.... but that was GREAT too, to actually have a place to run them off to. They went to the guest bedroom and all piled on the king size bed to do their chatting. It was great except no food was allowed in there. They did not suffer cause they raided the kitchen soon as the game was over. I should have took a picture of Tyler surrounded by the 4 girls on the king size bed.

We moved the reclining love seat to our bedroom and it is going to work out very good for us. there is still little things to be finished in the bedroom end, due to the workers getting mud man is suppose to do his mudding this week and its going to rain so I expect that they will truly get all the bedroom end complete doors and knobs included. I was going to try out the shower this weekend since they installed the water heater, but guess what theses fancy dancy faucets are preset for temperature ad it was too cold to enjoy the shower so I decided I would try out the bath tub. Well they had run water in it and left it there to have some weight to make the tub settle in good so I was going to drain it clean the tub and check out the whirlpool bath..... Well I could not figure out how to let the water out!!!!! I had Pat try and he was no better... We figured there was a trick...updated drain that we just did not know about but it did not turn or prop or anything we could try. We checked out the water and as luck would have it the cold and hot are reversed... no biggy but 3 reasons to call Larry and ask questions and let him know from me that I am getting impatient. He answered all my questions and assured me that he will finish bedroom end this week while the mud man is mudding and its raining outside. I will probably go back on Friday to see about Mom and see the finished product or put pressure on Larry.

The FALL leaves in Bama are just gorgeous. I do need a tree with red fall leaves in my yard front and back. I swear they are much prettier than the ones in Mississippi.

Thats all I can remember for now