Mourn and Celebrate -- all in one weekend

The last few days have been very hectic and very emotional.

Friday we had the visitation for my uncle who passed away last Wed. We spent several hours at the funeral home, meeting friends and family members, plus taking care of my aunt. My Uncle Bob was loved by so many. The room was packed and people were still trying to get in.

Saturday afternoon was the funeral. The room was the same. They had to squeeze in more chairs for everyone. The weather was co-operative, beautiful in fact. That was a relief because 90% of the funerals I go to the weather is horrible. The car procession to the cemetery was the longest line I have ever seen.

After the funeral, the ladies of his church made us a fantastic meal with all the trimmings. We spent a couple more hours there, talking to family we haven't seen in a long time. My cousin made the comment: "this stinks! We never see each other anymore except at these things." My aunt is now the eldest in the family, and I'm coming in 3rd.

Today was a much better day.... a day to celebrate. Our daughters, Lori and Teresa, graduated from Therapeutic Massage School. We are so proud of them.

Teresa and Lori

Teresa was the first to be called up to receive her diplomas. She walked up to the podium and stood there while one of her instructors read off the long list of credits and certifications she received. Lori was 3rd to be called. Her list was almost as long. They worked and studied and missed several weekends with their families in order to get in as many classes as they could. This went on for almost 2 years and they never lost hope or their dream. This Momma is so proud I could burst.

This is their whole graduating class.....

One thing I didn't realize until the school's CEO/owner explained today that in the state of Ohio, these ladies (and Matt, down front) have the same medical classification as a chiropractor and nurse's aid. It's also a fast growing field in great demand.

Teresa plans to work in a chiropractor's office or in a hospital. Lori wants to work in a spa. That is the reason for each taking different classes than her sister.

After the graduation ceremony, our family went to get something to eat. We were all there, all 15 of us, in 4 cars! Waitresses always get the same look in their eyes when we walk in. lol But we had a great time on a very special day.

I'm so proud of all of them. My girls have turned out to be special, loving, and giving young women.I forgot to mention Lori and Teresa's other sister. Lisa is Lori's twin and she's still in school. She goes to Ohio State, studying business, plus works full time, has a husband and 2 boys to raise. She already has her Associates Degree. So, she's also a pride and joy.

I hope I didn't bore you with my bragging.
You have a good week ahead.
God bless.

Mourn and Celebrate -- all in one weekend.....

The last few days have been very hectic and very emotional.

Friday we had the visitation for my uncle who passed away last Wed. We spent several hours at the funeral home, meeting friends and family members, plus taking care of my aunt. My Uncle Bob was loved by so many. The room was packed and people were still trying to get in.

Saturday afternoon was the funeral. The room was the same. They had to squeeze in more chairs for everyone. The weather was co-operative though, beautiful in fact. That was a relief since 90% of the funerals I go to the weather is horrible. The car procession to the cemetery was the longest line I have ever seen.

After the funeral, the ladies of his church made us a fantastic meal with all the trimmings. We spent a couple more hours there, talking to family we haven't seen in a long time. My cousin made the comment: "this stinks! We never see each other anymore except at these things." My aunt is now the eldest in the family, and I'm coming in 3rd.

Today was a much better day.... a day to celebrate. Our daughters, Lori and Teresa, graduated from Therapeutic Massage School. We are so proud of them.

Teresa and Lori

Teresa was the first to be called up to receive her diplomas. She walked up to the podium and stood there while one of her instructors read off the long list of credits and certifications she received. Lori was 3rd to be called. Her list was almost as long. They worked and studied and missed several weekends with their families in order to get as many classes as they could. This went on for almost 2 years and they never lost hope or their dream. This Momma is so proud I could burst.

Here is the whole graduating class.....

One thing I didn't realize until the school's CEO/Owner explained today that in the state of Ohio, these ladies (and Matt) have the same medical classification as a chiropractor and nurse's aid. It's also a fast growing field in great demand.

Teresa plans to work in a chiropractor's office or in a hospital. Lori wants to work in a spa. That is the reason for each taking different classes than her sister.

After the graduation ceremony, our family went to get something to eat. We were all there, all 15 of us, in 4 cars! Waitresses always get the same look in their eyes when we walk in. lol But we had a great time on a very special day.

I'm so proud of all of them. My girls have turned out to be special, loving, and giving young women. I forgot to mention Lori and Teresa's other sister. Lisa is Lori's twin and she's also in school. She goes to Ohio State, studying business, plus works full time, has a husband and 2 boys to raise. She already has her Associates Degree. So, she's also a pride and joy.

I hope I didn't bore you with my bragging.
You have a good week ahead.
God bless.

Senior Surfer

I stole this from another blogger, but I love it, so I had to share a little chuckle with you today. I needed it. Maybe you do also.

"As we Silver Surfers know, sometimes we have trouble with our computers.

 
I had a problem yesterday, so I called Eric, the 11 year old next door, whose bedroom looks like Mission Control and asked him to come over.

Eric clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem.
As he was walking away, I called after him, 'So, what was wrong? 

He replied, 'It was an ID ten T error.'
 

I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired,
'An, ID ten T error?  What's that?  In case I need to fix it again.'

Eric grinned ... 'Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?

'No,' I replied.

'Write it down,' he said, 'and I think you'll figure it out.'

So I wrote it down:

ID10T

I used to like Eric, the little shit head."

Wet Wednesday

Today's weather has been nasty... dark, rainy and now the fog rolls in. We can hardly see the street light on the corner. School will no doubt be delayed in the morning.

Hubby and I put off the trip to WalMart as long as we could. We had to go out today. It wasn't bad going out, but by the time we got ready to check-out it was pouring. We got soaked getting the bags into the car.

The gremlins are still here working their havoc. On my cell phone, I got a text this morning to my daughter from a friend of her's. This is so weird that I would be getting messages that aren't for me.

Before I started supper, I thought I'd take a few minutes to check my email to see if I had gotten anything from my boss while our internet was out. I couldn't get into my account. Hubby then tried his with the same results. So I knew what I had to do.... call Time Warner again. They put in the new cable modem yesterday, so I figured that was the problem. I was on the phone over an hour with another foreign tech specialist. He was nice tho' and I didn't have too much trouble understanding his broken English. He walked me through several steps on both computers, my desk top and Hubby's laptop, and we got the problem solved. While I was doing this, Hubby cooked our supper. It was very good... fried chicken and potatoes.

I got word tonight from my sister that our uncle Bob died today. He is my mother's sister's husband. He walked out to the mailbox this morning and when he came in the back door, he fell down and was gone. I haven't talked to my aunt yet. I can only imagine how she must be dealing with this. And her being in the shape she's in. She had her leg amputated a few months ago and is having trouble walking on a prosthesis. He was taking care of her. Now she's alone, in a big farm house, in a wheel chair. My heart breaks for her.

Today's quote:  "Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.”

God bless.

The Attack of the Gremlins!

The last few days have been very nerve-wracking with yesterday being the worst. By last evening, I had to laugh because it was all so crazy, I could hardly believe some of the things that happened here. I guess I should explain a little of what went on... but just the highlights.  A lot more happened than what I'm going to mention, but you'll get the picture. The title of this blog should give anyone a little hint to my trials.We call them gremlins.

It all started last Saturday evening. We had trouble with our internet. It was just acting up. I was here in my home office on the desktop and Hubby was in the other room on his laptop. He was getting a signal and playing games, but I couldn't get online. Then he lost the signal but I got on. By bedtime, neither of us could get online. Then all day Sunday, no internet. It was awful. All I could think of was my friends were talking about what was going on in their lives and I couldn't "talk" to them. Crazy, huh?

Sunday, I tried working on a project I'm doing on the computer (not internet related) but my computer was still acting up. I worked on a complete scan, hoping I hadn't gotten a virus. After the scan, I shut down and it wouldn't restart. I worked some more and got it fixed (long story I won't bore you with). I got my computer running again, just fine, like normal. So I left it and fixed us some supper.

Later on, I came back to work on my project -- I've been making a slide show for my daughter from pictures she had taken the last 2 yrs. of her massage therapy classes, showing some of the things they did, the teachers and the friends she's made, and some of the crazy things they did. Then my DVD burner couldn't find the drive. It wouldn't burn a disk. Needless to say, I was very upset. I need this to work. I have less than a week to get this finished and 8 copies made, or her gift to everyone at graduation this coming Sunday is gone. Then somehow it came back to life and I got most of disks burnt.

The next thing to happen: my brother lives in Texas with his family (a wife, one son and 2 grandchildren) . We often send text messages and pictures back and forth on our cell phones, so when he sent me a cute picture, it was normal. But then it got weird. I got a strange message from him, and I wondered if it was meant for me, or someone else. I found out in a matter of a few seconds that he was texting his wife, because she answered his question and it all came through to me -- on my cell phone! Now, how weird is that? I sent him a message back, telling him what his wife said, in case he didn't get her response. By then I had to laugh at everything! But to my dismay, it's still not over.

Now this brings me to Monday: Hubby got through to Time Warner to report our internet out. He went through their menu, which he hates with a passion, and got a tech in India.  That's what he told me. This man had my husband doing things to my computer and to our modem and I wondered if he knew what he was doing. He didn't. The man told him he was checking our IP address and was going to reset it because "it was old" ???? An address NEVER gets old or out-dated. Anyways, the tech said he'd have to send someone out to check the modem because it wasn't responding. I just hope that's all he was able to do. I never have trusted these 'remote' operations... especially if it's someone I don't know. It's like giving them my chair and leaving the room.

Today the TW repairman, which we knew, came to check things out. He's such a nice guy and knows his stuff. We told him about the tech that Bob talked to yesterday and he got to laughing so hard. He said he wished he'd have been here so he could teach him a few things about his job. Anyways, he checked out everything and said the modem was bad. He brought in a new one and got us back online. Then he's telling us he'd had so many calls today, he hadn't had a chance to get lunch. He's diabetic and was feeling the affects from not eating. I fed him some cheese so he wouldn't get sick. He left here a short time later and was on his way out to Micky D's to get a sandwich so he could take his pill. I was worried about him. I've had a lot of experience with diabetics in my family and I know what could happen.

So, do you see why the title? The gremlins came here and worked their shenanigans on our stuff. Then left! Thank goodness.

Thursday Sept. 20

Today was an emotional day. My daughters Lori and Teresa finished up with their final exams last evening. They both did so well. Lori will graduate with one B and the rest A's in her classes; Teresa has straight A's.  Their dad and I are so proud of them and how hard they've worked the last 2 years. Now they have to continue to study for their state license exam for massage therapists. I'm sure they'll do just fine.

I never realized how extensive the studies for this profession. When my girls were studying together the other day, the conversation sounded like doctors with all the muscles, nerves, even meds and supplements that affect the body they had to know. Very intense. I now have more respect for these ladies/men who have gone into this profession.

Since Lori is finished here with school, until graduation day, she went back to Michigan to be with her new husband and her 2 teenagers. She left this afternoon and that was very emotional. Her 2 sisters cried. Mom didn't. She could have but she didn't. I didn't want Lori to feel anymore worse than she did. She kept telling them, this is not good-bye. I will all be back next week (for graduation).

We had a beautiful day weather-wise. Lots of sunshine and around 73°. I'm a "cloud watcher" and I almost took pictures of the sky this afternoon. The clouds looked like a pile of large marshmallows. It was so pretty.

Well, I'm going to bed with a good book. I got up early this morning and my day has caught up with me.

Take care. God bless.

I can finally relax....

We have had quite a busy schedule the last few days. But as of now, our calendar looks empty for the rest of the week.

Last Friday we had our grandson Dylan's surprise 16th birthday party. Our daughter Lori had it all set up at the local bowling alley where they love to go eat, bowl and play video games. It's a nice family place to spend an evening. And they have the best pizzas. Dylan had a great time with several of his friends. This party will probably be his last chance to see most of those friends for a long time, since Lori and the kids have moved to Michigan where Lori's new husband Mike lives and works.

Saturday was spent catching up on some things around the house and getting laundry done.

Sunday we had 2 different parties to go to. The first one was my cousin's retirement party. Several of my family was there and it was great to see them and talk.

The second party was another surprise party for my brother-in-law Michael, my sister's husband. It could have been a pool party, but it turned too cold, so we all sat on the deck around the pool, ate lots of good food, and talked to that side of my family. By the time we got home that evening, I was stuffed, sun-burnt, and tired. But we had a good day.

Yesterday, we went to our daughter Teresa's house to help our girls out. Lori and Teresa are in the last week of school, taking all their finals, but Lori still needed 2 more people to do a massage on and get evaluations to turn in. Bob and I let her work on our stiff backs. :) It felt so good. Of course we gave her good evaluations. Both of our girls have such a wonderful touch and have done so well in their pursuits of this new career, Bob and I are so proud of them. They are both going into therapeutic massage, working in a hospital or chiropractor's office. 

Lori is staying this week with Teresa until they finish their finals, then Lori will be going back to Michigan until graduation day on the 30th. Her new home is only 3 hrs. away, but with my husband, who doesn't like to travel on busy highways, Lori might as well be a thousand miles away. At least her husband Mike said they will come down once a month for our family dinners, so I'll get to see her and the kids then.

Then today we met up with Bob's brother Jack and his wife Elaine for a very long lunch. We hadn't seen them in a long time, so when we do get together, that lunch hour could last 2, and it did. We always have so much to catch up on.

When we got home I had to finish a load of laundry and then I sat down to relax. We both did. The busy weekend, and all the miles we spent in the car has finally caught up with us. I think we're just getting old.

Bob called his brother Rick this afternoon to see how Pam was doing, Rick's wife. She had pneumonia so bad, she couldn't breath. But she's getting better. She's still in ICU. They took the breathing tube out of her for a couple hours today and she was able to breath on her own. They'll do that again tomorrow to see if she can do better. What a horrible way to spend her birthday. Maybe by the end of the week they'll be able to move her out of ICU. As soon as Rick can leave her, he's flying back to Arizona to clean out their house, put it in the hands of a realtor, and drive a truck back here with the things they want to keep. They're staying in Ohio. This winter is going to be hard on both of them. They've been living in TX and AZ for the last 11 years.

Quote to Live By:  “A good life is when you assume nothing, do more, smile often, dream big, laugh a lot, and realize how blessed you are for what you have.”

Take care & God bless.

September 11th... 11 yrs. later

Today is the 11th anniversary of that horrible day when our enemies attacked us. It was such a horrible day that will always stick in our minds. I can remember exactly what I was doing when I first heard the news.

I worked as a secretary in a real estate office. One of our clients came through the door so fast she scared me. She had tears in her eyes and told me to turn on the TV, "something horrible has happened". I had no idea what she was referring to, but I did as she said. We stood horrified, watching the first tower burn, the news man hardly able to talk, he was crying, and trying to make sense of the whole thing.

We listened to the reporter say an airplane had 'accidentally' hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center. It was then that the cameras caught the second plane come flying straight into the second tower. My knees buckled. I had to sit down. This wasn't happening. This wasn't an 'accident'. We were under attack!

I called my husband right away to tell him. He turned on our TV at home and we stayed on the line, watching what was happening. Neither one of us could talk. It was like something out of a horror movie.

I know the events of that day with the reports of 2 additional planes, one into the Pentagon and Flight 93 in Pennsylvania, will always stick in our minds. It has changed us, as Americans. At least I would like to think it changed us as a nation. So many people came together as a whole, leaving behind family and friends, to help the victims and find as many survivors as they could. We watched the news for the next several days, hoping for more GOOD news. There wasn't much. It was all tragedy to the highest proportion.

I like to think that this day, 11 years ago, did change us. If anything, it proved that America is not indispensable. God bless us all.

Beautiful Sunday

Today is going to be another nice day. The temperature is suppose to be around 72° with lots of sunshine and beautiful white clouds. Our night time temperatures though are getting very cool... down to 49°. That requires a sweatshirt or light jacket. But, after all, it is September.

Our weekend plans were cancelled. This was our Hot Air Balloon Festival and we were suppose to go out to the fairgrounds to see the balloons lift off. But due to the weather conditions, we stayed home. They launched Sat. morning at 6:30, but I was still sleeping. :) The launch Sat. evening was suddenly cancelled because of a strong wind that kicked up at launch time. They waited 2 hrs., hoping to still take off, but it didn't happen. They did, however, do the 'night glow' last night, but we didn't feel like going out just for that. A night glow is when the balloon operators light up their burners but they don't lift off.
A friend of mine took this picture:

Since I had lots of free time yesterday, I got back to my projects. I'm making slideshows for each of our grandchildren (7 of them). I'm putting together pictures and videos of them from birth to today, watching how they've grown, complete with background music. Four of them runs through a span of 14 to 20 years. Twenty years!! My gosh, that's hard to believe. Our oldest, and the only grand-daughter, is 20 yrs. old already! I feel so old. But when I look at her baby pictures, it seems like just yesterday. I've also included pictures of us, Bob and I, plus other members of their family hoping when we're gone, our grandchildren will watch them and say, "There's my Grandma and she made this for me way back in 2012".


I've got a roast cooking in the crock pot for supper and it's smelling so good. I haven't decided what to fix with it yet. I think I'll just do some veggies. Our #3 grandson, age 10, has a football game this afternoon and I'm trying to talk Bob into going up to watch Ian play, but I may have to go alone because he says he doesn't feel like going. We'll see.

Quote for today... "A good life is when you assume nothing, do more, smile often, dream big, laugh a lot, and realize how blessed you are for what you have.” -- Author Unknown

Government Spending

I received this from a friend in an email, so I'm not sure of its validity. But let's say this is all true. It shows an example of some of our government's wild spending.

Here is a list of CUTS the new Republican House has proposed in the budget that our president has failed to pass numerous times. Have you ever heard of these programs? 

    This needs to be brought to the attention of every voter you know.
    Notice Social Security and the military are NOT on this list. Thank goodness.

    "These are all the programs that the new Republican House has proposed cutting. Read to the end.
    * Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy -- $445 million annual savings.
    * Save America 's Treasures Program -- $25 million annual savings.
    * International Fund for Ireland -- $17 million annual savings.
    * Legal Services Corporation -- $420 million annual savings.
    * National Endowment for the Arts -- $167.5 million annual savings.
    * National Endowment for the Humanities -- $167.5 million annual savings.
    * Hope VI Program -- $250 million annual savings.
    * Amtrak Subsidies -- $1.565 billion annual savings.
    * Eliminate duplicating education programs -- H.R. 2274 (in last Congress),
authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 programs at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.
    * U.S. Trade Development Agency -- $55 million annual savings.
    * Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy -- $20 million annual savings.
    * Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding -- $47 million annual savings.
    * John C. Stennis Center Subsidy -- $430,000 annual savings.
    * Community Development Fund -- $4.5 billion annual savings.
    * Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid -- $24 million annual savings.
    * Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half -- $7.5 billion annual savings
    * Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20% -- $600 million annual savings.
    * Essential Air Service -- $150 million annual savings.
    * Technology Innovation Program -- $70 million annual savings.
    * Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program -- $125 million annual savings.
    * Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization -- $530 million annual savings.
    * Beach Replenishment -- $95 million annual savings.
    * New Starts Transit -- $2 billion annual savings.
    * Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading
Partners in Massachusetts -- $9 million annual savings
    * Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual savings.
    * Title X Family Planning -- $318 million annual savings.
    * Appalachian Regional Commission -- $76 million annual savings.
    * Economic Development Administration -- $293 million annual savings.
    * Programs under the National and Community Services Act -- $1.15 billion annual savings.
    * Applied Research at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings.
    * Freedom CAR and Fuel Partnership -- $200 million annual savings.
    * Energy Star Program -- $52 million annual savings.
    * Economic Assistance to Egypt -- $250 million annually.
    * U.S. Agency for International Development -- $1.39 billion annual savings.
    * General Assistance to District of Columbia -- $210 million annual savings.
    * Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- $150 million annual savings.
    * Presidential Campaign Fund -- $775 million savings over ten years.
    * No funding for federal office space acquisition -- $864 million annual savings.
    * End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.
    * Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act -- More than $1 billion annually.
    * IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers
(such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of
allowing it to remain as part of its budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten years.
    * Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees -- $1 billion total savings. WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT ABOUT?
    * Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees -- $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
    * Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of -- $15 billion total savings.
    * Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress.WHAT???
    * Eliminate Mohair Subsidies -- $1 million annual savings.
    * Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change --
$12.5 million annual savings WELL ISN'T THAT SPECIAL
    * Eliminate Market Access Program -- $200 million annual savings.
    * USDA Sugar Program -- $14 million annual savings.
    * Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- $93 million annual savings.
    * Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program -- $56.2 million annual savings.
    * Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs -- $900 million savings.
    * Ready to Learn TV Program -- $27 million savings.. WHY?????
    * HUD Ph.D. Program.
    * Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.
    * TOTAL SAVINGS = $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years "

    My question is... what is all this crap doing in the budget in the first place?

--- AUTHOR UNKNOWN 

Busy days...

Labor Day! The last official holiday of the summer. It's September already. The summer went by too fast. The kids are all back in school and our weather forecasters are predicting a taste of autumn by the end of the week. I'm not ready for cold weather yet. I hate the thoughts of getting out the coats, gloves and boots.

The last several days have been so busy. Our youngest daughter had surgery last week (hysterectomy) so we spent a whole day at the hospital. It's amazing how things have advanced so much in the last years. When I had my surgery, I was in the hospital 3 days. Our daughter went home that evening. I stayed and helped her out with the kids and the house work. Her husband is no good at that stuff. Today she had her follow-up doctor appointment and she's doing well. She can drive now so she went back to school tonight.

We had our usual family dinner with all the kids Sunday. Our 3 daughters, their husbands and 6 of our 7 grandchildren were here. The missing grandson had to work. Everyone had a good time and we all ate too much food, as usual. We do potluck and the girls bring covered dishes or desserts. We always have way too much food but they love to take home my left-overs.

Our county fair is going on this week out at the fairgrounds. When everyone left here Sunday, they all went out to the fair to walk around and see some old friends. At least the girls didn't have to feed the boys. We didn't go out with them and I won't be going out at all this year. My husband doesn't want to, he can't take the heat and humidity. So I won't be getting my yearly elephant ear. :(

My sister's husband had a heart attack Friday, but he's doing very well. The surgeon removed the blockage and Mike says he feels better than he has for awhile. Thank God.

Next weekend will be our annual hot air balloon festival. There are hundreds of them coming from all over the country. My cousin and his wife are going to renew their wedding vows in the air in one of the balloons. I'm hoping to get lots of pictures. To me, this festival is more exciting than the fair. I love to watch all those balloons take off.

Take care.
God bless.