Saturday Night Blog

Hi Everyone,

 This scrap page is of my daughter Karyn. I was trying out a new technique in my scrapping program and I ended up liking this a lot so I changed the background and added some water drops and it is a simple page but I really like how it turned out.
 I did the sketch of Karyn in another program that I have on my phone and then converted it into a photo and it is what I used.  I was actually working on Text Paths. And tried to use the color white but for some odd reason I am not able to convert my text into white. I know that I am just doing something wrong. If I keep playing with it enough I am sure that I will figure it all out eventually.

 I am sharing this video and song Hello Darling by Conway Twitty. He was one of my brothers favorite singers and he loved this song and he loved every time he saw a pretty girl he would say "Hello Darling".
 Yesterday Karyn and I went out to The County Line where Nathan works and we were listening to the oldie station and music and they played this and Karyn and I immediately reached over to turn it up and both of us said.. "Uncle James" and smiled.
 Oh gosh there are a million things I want to ask him, to tell him and will not ever have that chance again.

 Well we are in for some severe storms tonight. Another reason I wanted to do my blog so that in case the storms get bad I can shut down the computer. I have some other scrap pages to share. I have been scrapping a bit because it has been easier for me to unwind when I have had the time to unwind. I have purposely have kept myself busy. It is easier to handle some things when I have my thoughts focused in a different direction. Every day I have been trying to do some thing. Today I took the top part of my stove apart and scrubbed it down.
 How do those burn pans get so black so fast??
 I am not a messy cook and I wash the stove every night so how on earth does it all get cooked on and black and oh for Pete's sake what about under the top?
 Anyway I did a good job of that but next I have to tackle the oven. I don't have a self cleaning oven here. I find this so strange that the appliances are still nice, they are not the newer models and really should be considering that the rest of this place is so much newer than some of the others.
 One thing I can say about our old place is that it might of been old but all of the appliances were brand new.

 Today Cisco dragged Nathan's blanket into our room. You notice that I said our room, not my room. Anyway I took my big pillows from my bed and put them on the floor and he just found them and is sleeping on them. I took a picture. You can't see Baby because he is laying on top of him. I am not sure where he has Chicki hidden at the moment. He is sleeping more and more on the floor. My bed is too high for him to be getting up and down from so I can just wash the shams. I really need to get him a doggie bed. It is on my to do list but this works too.

 It isn't a great picture. I took it from a distance because I was afraid I would wake him up. I should have gotten a better picture but this is what it is and I found Chicki. He is on my bed stuffed between two of my pillows. I can see it's beak from here. He is so funny about his babies... If you click on the photo you can barely see a little bit of orange. That is Baby. He thinks that he has to lay on them to protect him I guess.

 Oh and here are a couple of other scrap pages. I am not sure if I have shared them or not. My memory seems to be leaving me at an alarming rate lately. I am sure it is because of all the stress and stuff or maybe it is just natural right now.

 I love this page. I did it from a kit from Salt Town Studio's. She has another collection out I need to download called Blue Skies.

And this one is of my son Matthew. I made this page from a kit called Boy Zone by Lins_Creations. It is actually a CT page that I did. I thought that I had done 4 pages for her but I guess that I didn't with my brother passing and the funeral and all the doctors appointments and so forth. So I decided to do another page for her today.

 Speaking of Matthew, he is flying in tomorrow. My daughter will pick him up from the airport and he is taking me out to eat. He told me to be thinking of where I want to go and I have decided on Applebee's because I can get their small steak, steamed vegetables and a side salad.... all in my diet!!!

 My diet is hard but it isn't. I have plenty of foods that I can eat, but it is the cravings that is still getting to me. I still have the urge for things. I still want salt and I am cutting down on that a little at a time. I still want the chips and crackers and that kind of thing. But in all honesty it is getting better and better every day. It is really when the odd cravings sneak up on me or when I automatically reach for the salt for something. I have put the shaker up in the cabinet instead of leaving it out so that way it makes me think about walking to the cabinet for it instead of just automatically reaching for it so that has helped.
 I have been doing a lot of research for recipes. It has been really pretty interesting seeing some of the things I have come up with that I can use my imagination for. I will try them out, add my own little spin to it here and there and see what happens. I found a site that has several great recipes for green beans. They are NOT a favorite of mine unless they are fresh, but this site showed frozen ones, thawed and drained, seared with a little olive oil and some mushrooms, onions and garlic and some sliced tomatoes or the small round ones. And I can have as much of that as I want, but I am really trying to cut my portions down as well.
 The more I do the better control I have and the better my sugars become. Like I said before it all has to start with me.

 Storms are moving in so I better start wrapping this up. Let me see if I can find a few goodies in my stash to share and then I will get off line and shut down the computer for the evening.

 I found this little gem on Facebook.... Yep that is soooooo me... haha.

Of all the pictures of this beautiful woman, this one is my absolute favorite. I really love the look on her face as she cuddles her baby.

 When James passed away I had so many messages and emails from friends and some were complete strangers to me. They were people in groups that I belong to, but not on first hand basis with. It was impossible for me to thank everyone individually. So I made this page and shared it.
 I appreciate the support so much. Even if it was just a small message. It is not easy to be able to know what to say, and a simple I am sorry can mean as much as anything else.
 So Thank you all for thinking of me.... Enjoy the video, have an awesome Sunday and a wonderful week.... Take care of yourselves and I will be back when I can.... BB

Such A Beautiful Service

 Hello Everyone,

 No scrap page today. I did find this as I believe my brother James would have loved it. We are all still raw and hurting, but having the funeral yesterday has helped to start the healing process.

 The service was just so beautiful.The chapel was very nice and the pictures that they shared were so sweet. Some I had forgotten and some that I had never seen before. They didn't play traditional songs that we often hear played at funerals. Instead they played his favorite songs. One was by Conway Twitty. I will get a copy of the CD and the music CD as well.

 James looked very peaceful. His pain is over and I am so thankful. The eulogy was given by my sister Susanne and his grandson Forrest. Ohhh wow... such touching moments. There was a lot of tears but then again there was a lot of laughter. People shared some funny things, some shared some sweet things and his grandson Forrest, well he had to stop several times, he cried, but pulled it together and in the end he did a great job.

 The Military Ceremony was awesome. He didn't have the 21 gun salute because he didn't want to be buried at the Military Cemetery, but they played Taps, did the salutes and the flag ceremony. The immediate family got red and white roses, mine was white. The rest of the guests received red and white carnations. Some kept theirs. I almost did but in the end I followed with what my family did and that was to lay them on his coffin before burial.
 There was so many people that the church ran out of food.

 Now I have a story to tell. This is about me and some unknown man..... I swear that you cannot take me anywhere!!!!!!

 We took the shortest route to where we needed to go. We should have taken the interstate. Instead we were met with a lot of road construction and lots of small towns and speed limits that dropped from 70 to 35 in the blink of an eye. We had a lot of no passing and one lane roads. We got behind several pieces of farm equipment and truckers. We were constantly looking at the clock. We arrived 20 minutes before the service even tho we left in plenty of time.

 When we got there I was going into the entrance and this man was walking out. I swear he looked just like my brother in law Roger. The same height and the same long white beard.... I gave him a huge hug and he hugged me back.....
 I passed him several times and I hugged him again. Each time we passed I hugged him....
 When we were at the grave side I looked to my left and he was standing there with a lady and I thought how weird... I knew that my brother in law was a pall bearer... Uh ok... so I looked at the pall bearers and there was my brother in law.... I was sooooo embarrassed....

 Then at the dinner it just so happened that we sat at the tables next to each other and he was facing me and he got up and moved so his back was too me. LOL.... I will have to find out who he was. I was hugging a complete stranger! My sisters thought that it was hilarious....  Well I just know that my face was red!!!

 It was almost 10:00 when we got home. We gave my sister in law a ride back to the funeral home so she could get her car. So we stood in the parking lot and talked for awhile and I had some books for her and she had some for me.
 She told me that she would come and spend a few days with me. Karyn told her that she would bring me up to spend some time with her as well.

 Bonnie was wearing this really pretty necklace and ear rings, they were of an owl, yellow, blues and green. I said "Oh Bonnie, a little owl, how sweet." and she said "James gave me these for Christmas. He used his fuel miles to buy them for me". She said that they were special because he chose to use the mile points for her instead of something that he needed.

 Sadly so  many people left before we could get Family Pictures. A lot of pictures were taken but so far none have been posted on Facebook but Karyn did take some selfies of her and I. I was just getting into the car and she said Mama let's do some selfies. This is at the cemetery. I was not at my best but here they are...

I am not sure where Jonathan was.  I think that he was talking to Eddie, his cousin by the car. I had just walked from grave site. My sister in law told me to tell the kids and I to go ahead and go to the church. I stood outside waiting for Bonnie. She was at this point breaking down again and when she got there she and I found a table and Oh I forgot to mention, friends that I had not seen in years and years.
 Bonnie's sister in law Brenda and her husband Brad. I didn't get a chance to talk to Brad but Brenda and I had 2 or 3 great conversations, and then there was Alice... Oh Alice is such a trip. I was so glad to see her. She came and set at the table with me and Bonnie and Jonathan and my sister and her husband.
 I looked around for Karyn as she was sitting next to me so I could introduce her and she was gone. Jonathan said she went out to have a cigarette. Well I knew at this point that Karyn was very stressed as she does NOT smoke. But she did yesterday. I figured that it was time that we needed to leave but we were giving Bonnie a ride back to her car so we had to wait on her to finish saying goodbye to the rest of the family and guests. It was ok tho. Karyn took that time to take a mini cat nap in the car. She does that a lot. Mini cat naps.

 On to other news. My sugars are running very high. Due to my diet I know. I have to work on the root of the problem. So I had a doctors appointment today with a diabetic nutritionist. Now I know that it was sneaky of me but I made Jonathan go with me. Jonathan is my main grocery shopper and everything that he buys he is either (A) out of a box (B) pasta (C) corn and potatoes (D) breads..... plus a few more no no's.
 Well he heard first hand from the doctor today that he was high risk of developing diabetes and he heard first hand from her what I can eat and what I cannot eat.
 Education is the first form of understanding this horrid disease. It didn't matter if I said I am not supposed to eat this and yet he bought it anyway.  So I had to eat and in the process I was only adding to the problem so now he is more on board with understanding. He also committed himself to a few work shops that will help us both.

 Plus I have to motivate myself to exercising 15 to 20 minutes a day after each meal. Keep a log for the next 4 weeks and I am going to work on this. I am going to make it happen. I am going to get my sugars down below 200 and I am not going to eat what I know I cannot have. I can splurge once a month on something that I enjoy with in reason. I can once a month have  steak and baked potato or I can have a child size Mexican meal. But the main thing is to cut out all of the breads, crackers, pasta, corn and potatoes. No more of that not even in small portions for my daily meals. Once a month. And once I get use to getting this food out of my diet then the cravings for it will naturally go away.

 I found out a lot of useful information today as well due to the old rules of what I was allowed to have and now what is not recommended. For example I was told to always have a snack at bedtime. 4 saltine crackers and a slice of cheese or peanut butter. Not anymore. Now my bedtime snack is a quarter of an apple dipped in Almond butter or 1 ounce of white cheese and 9 grapes. A yogurt or a slice of fruit. 2 pieces of melon or a small peach. I can have all the veggies that I want anytime. As long as they are steamed or raw. Cherry tomatoes is a good choice.

 I have also changed to using coconut oil and was told today that it is an absolute NO NO!  Hmm so some things that are supposed to be good for me are not. I have to start using a different type of margarine. Smart Balance or Benecol, but one thing that I can have is sherbet. I found that strange but she said it is a thousand times better than eating 2 tablespoons of ice cream. I can have a quarter of a cup of sherbet earlier in the day. Not at bedtime and of course she pushed the water.

 We talked of my sleeping patterns and she recommends that I talk to the mental physchrist to help me develop a sleeping pattern. She would like to see me in bed by 10:00 pm and up by or around 7:00 am and if I am in a lot of pain or just feel that I do have to have a nap then it is to be no longer than an hour.

 I will find this hard because this is my quiet time. The time that I catch up on emails, or work on my blog, or read the news or just relax, but I have known for a while that I have to get on a better sleep schedule. The people that I enjoy talking to are on a total different time zone. Most of them are over the pond so I am going to have to adjust that. And my friends in California will either have to call me before 8:00 pm or wait until the next day. I have to take control and I have to work hard at taking care of my needs.
 There will be days tho that will be hit and miss because of the pain that I have. I will have to work on that as well. I have also signed up with some other resources to get me out and busy more. Ride Wth A Senior will be a good start. They have a full list of activities once a month and a new calendar each month so that is going to be a big help to me.
 Also I am going to work at getting to the office at least 3 times a week to work out and even if it is just for a few minutes at a time I will gain more strength and she put me in touch with a swimming team and coach. They do water exercises and they also do laps and such.

 It is up to me. 99% of everything that I do or consume is at my control. I have just not been serious about any of it. Not really. It is so easy just to give up when people around me do not listen. For example Jonathan. How many nights have we had pasta such as spaghetti or a pan of cornbread and beans for dinner? Too many. Or sometimes just a box of Mac and Cheese or a frozen dinner. It will help now that he knows that it is hurting me and him as well.

 Well gosh I have spent a long time on this blog so I am going to share a couple of quick funnies from the internet and I am going to bed.... Hugs to all.....

 Now isn't that just too cute....????

 I really love this. I would love to do this with my sisters or my daughters and grand daughters.

 I cannot help but to love this photo.... It is so precious.... and they look so much alike...!

 And with this ending with my brothers printed pamphlet. I am sure that James will have a place in my blog posts for a while yet. Please understand that this is a part of my healing and grieving process.... Blessed Be to all.... Remember to be kind to one another. It is the best gift that you can ever give to anyone. Also remember that those you love need you. Not only when they are sick but every chance that you have to say I love you, I am thinking of you.... So for all of my friends and family, I truly love and treasure each of you.... BB

My Brother Has Left This Earth

 My brother James Ray Adams,

 I lost my brother James yesterday afternoon at around 4:30 pm. James had cancer. They found cancer in a tumor in his kidney, spine, neck and in his chest. A week ago today the doctors told him that it was stage 4 and they gave the news of 2 to 6 months and the doctor said that was stretching it.
 Hospice came in and set him up last Friday and he didn't even last a week. He was home, that is where he wanted to be. He went in his sleep. For that I am grateful. He has suffered a lot of pain these past few months so now his suffering is over.

 It is not about me. The sadness that I am feeling is about me, but for the most part it is for all of the things that he went thru and having cancer ravaged his body.  This post is dedicated to my brother.

 James was 70 years and 6 months to the day. Bonnie my sister in law said that he had a painful night the night before. She gave him his medicine and thought that he was hallucinating. He kept talking about a white cat. Bonnie said that she told him that it was his medicine that and then he started talking about other people that had gone on before him. My mama and daddy and uncles. In the end he went to sleep. Bonnie said that she and her daughter went out to water the yard and something told them to come in and check on him. He was gone.

 It was hard understanding Bonnie over the phone as she was crying really hard. What a lot of people don't know is that James and Bonnie were pretty private people after they sold their home and moved away. We didn't see each other as often as we had before. But our last phone call was filled with a lot of laughter and joy and I will keep those memories close by.

 My cousin asked me to post this page of James that I had made a couple of years ago and I will add it to Facebook at some point. Maybe later tonight. Or maybe later on. Right now I am filled with bittersweet memories. From the time that I was a little girl, to the years he was fighting in Vietnam, to the stories that he told and later on as I grew up my whole world revolved around my brother. I am so serious about that.

 I was going thru some pictures and I want to share them with you today. Some of these are from years ago when the girls were younger. These were taken the year that my older brother from my dads first marriage came to visit. It was a family reunion for all of us... Enjoy these pics from the past.

James is in Blue and my brother Barry is in the red. James served in the Navy and Barry served in the Air Force. Of course there was a lot of bantering back and forth between them. This was the first time that they had met. James was my mother's second born and Barry was my dad's first born.

 This is James with his family. Bonnie his wife in pink, their daughter Mary Jo and the young man is Mary Jo's son Forrest. This was taken one Christmas. Actually it was New Year's Day. We had a big ice storm heading our way and my furnace decided to die on us in the middle of the night. I made a huge ham and all the fixings this particular holiday. Bonnie helped me and Mary Jo and Forrest had brought either a Guinea Pig or a Ferret that year and they entertained the kids with it.

 James and Laurie... same Holiday. You can tell by the way that Laurie is dressed that the ice storm had not hit us at this point. Laurie and Karyn had a free membership at the local tanning salon. Laurie was getting a good tan going at this point. We were surprised that she didn't burn being so light skin and blonde hair. She is sitting on her Uncle Jame's lap.

 Next in line was Karyn sitting with her Uncle James. He loved all the kids but the girls were always his favorites... He just loved the pretty girls is all... haha!

 The boys were so little then. Wow... This is the Christmas my brother Barry came to visit. I took this photo just before James and his family got there. We had 2 Christmas Trees. We had this one in the kitchen/dining room and the big one in the living room.

 One of my favorite pictures of my brother. He was a part of the SeeBee's.... This is where he learned construction work. I have this copy but I would love to know what happened to the framed picture that my mama had.

 Before the Navy my brother James was in the National Guard. He trained in Puerto Rico. After he was discharged from the National Guard is when he went into the Navy. I remember my mom praying every night for his safe return from Vietnam. She never could understand why he joined the Navy and went back to Vietnam. I remember this year because he made a surprise visit home. He knocked on the door and and my mama answered it and there he stood. It was late at night and we had school the next morning but all was forgotten as he walked in the door. If I remember right we still had to go to school the next morning.

 During this leave, I remember that James and I watched a movie "Call Of The Wild" and we watched on Saturday Night "Roller Derby and Wrestling. I was a pest and I know I was. I was afraid to let him out of my site. One of our favorite shows was The 3 Stooges... and since there were us 3 girls that is what he called us. I was Mo......

 Now these next pictures are not as easy to share. But they are my latest pics of him. Cancer certainly really ravishes the body.


 This is this past Easter Sunday. He had a good Easter. His grandson Forrest and the kids. He was a sucker for these kids....

The Chemo really was harsh with him. Hard to believe that in 4 days after these photos were taken that he passed away.

 My sisters called tonight and said that there is a 48 wait on his Military paper work. He will have a service in the Funeral Home Chapel. My sister Linda said that it was really beautiful. Then they picked out their plots in the town of Morgan Mills. He didn't want to be buried at the military cemetery. He wanted to be close to his family and his beloved cattle, horses, donkey and dogs. So we will drive from the service at the funeral chapel to the grave site where he will have a 21 gun salute and instead of flowers they are draping the coffin with his flag. In lieu of flowers they are asking for donations to the Cancer Society. So I canceled my flower order.

 This is the easiest way for me to get out my grief. We all have to mourn differently, so this is how I choose to do so. In remembrance. I am finding comfort in the fact that he had a good Easter and was able to spend the time with the kids, had a great meal and had fun watching the kids hunt Easter Eggs.

 I probably will not post again until after the funeral. It is going to be a hard day but this will be for the family. We know that he is not there. Just the vessel that use to belong to him in this life. My sister's say that my sister in law Bonnie is taking it hard as well as Forrest. Mary Jo hasn't said to much. Other than they were giving her grief about work. She is like... Are you serious? I just lost my step father and you want me to come to work. .... Bonnie and James Married just before Mary Jo turned 6. So he raised her. Of course she is taking time off of work. Her mother needs her.

 I am going to see if Bonnie wants to come and spend some time here with me. We will have to share my room, but she made need a break. Then again she might prefer to just stay home. Someone will have to tend to the animals as well. Maybe I can look at my calendar and see what appointments I have that can be rescheduled and spend some time with her. We will see what she wants to do.

 So for now I am going to close and try to sleep.... I will probably go and post the page of James on Facebook that I made for him and try to get some sleep. We are all tired and mentally struggling in our own way. I know that he would not want us to bogged down in grief, but I also know that it is a natural process that we have to go thru.

 Be kind to one another and don't put off those phone calls, and tell those that you love them. Tomorrow is not promised to any of us.... Until next time.... BB

Monday And A New Scrap Kit

http://berryapplicious.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_156

http://wilma4ever.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=52_447 
 http://treasuredscraps.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=93_354
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http://www.faithsisters.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=37&zenid=5505a39889655efe8ced08daf1f1597c

 Hi Everyone,

 This is a page that I did for my friend Lins with her new kit called Boy Zone. I had fun working with this kit and it offers so much. This is the first page that I did but I will definitely be doing more. I have a picture of my dad with some old cars around. I know that I have mentioned it before but my dad and uncles were always tinkering with something or other. Especially old cars.

 So I promised pictures of Cisco and his new baby.... well Chicki. He is just to darn cute. Cisco loves him. So here are the pictures from last night. Enjoy!

 I added filters from a program on my phone called photo lab. I love this little program. It is a lot of fun to play with. He couldn't make up his mind which one to cuddle with so he got them both. It was so funny, see my pink robe. At one point he was trying to cover them up with it with his nose. He is just so excited to have his babies...

 Easter here was very nice. Of course it was a bit sad as the grandkids are not with us and I didn't hear from Matt at all. He is working or is supposed to be back on the night shift so I didn't call him in case he was sleeping. Very unusual for him not to call me. The last time I talked to him he wasn't feeling well with a stomach bug. I hope that he is over it by now.

 I really think that my son and I have a physic connection. He just texted me!!! Wow... I love it when that happens. Remember ever looking at the old land lines thinking really hard about someone and they call you? That use to happen to me a lot.

 Well with every bit of sunshine, some rain must fall so I have mentioned that my brother has cancer. He was released from the hospital on Friday and told that he has Stage 4 cancer and so they set him up with Hospice. He is at home and not in a center.  He loves his great grand babies and grandson and they were over yesterday for Easter. He sees them all the time but usually he goes to their house which is close by but now they came to him. I am so thankful that he had family with him yesterday.

 I wanted to share this picture with you. This is a friend of mine's Christmas Cactus... It started blooming a couple of months ago. Can you believe this? Isn't it just gorgeous? I have mine sitting outside on the patio. I don't get an awful lot of light in the house but she has hers sitting by a sunny window. If it wasn't for giving up my private Bathroom I would switch bedrooms with Jonathan. He has light in his room. But he likes his privacy and if I moved it into his room I would never get to enjoy it, so it is fine on the patio. It gets enough sunlight out there and in September I will put it in the storage closet for the month and bring it back out in October so the cooler weather can start the budding and blooming process.

 And finally a pic I found on the internet... This is me today... It is definitely a false alarm. I walked into the kitchen, decided I needed to put the rest of the dishes in the dishwasher, looked again and sighed, made another cup of coffee and walked right back out. I don't have many. It would only take about 5 minutes to take care of, but I am just too tired to think about doing any kind of house work today.

 I am going to go and find something for lunch so you all take care and have a wonderful day and I hope that Peace and Love and Light follow you everywhere you go.... BB

Happy Easter 4-16-2017

Happy Easter,

 This page is one from last year but I thought that it was still a lovely page so I am re-posting it again this year.
 Last Easter we had the kids over for a dinner. I remember that it was fun and a lot of laughter with the little ones around. What a difference a year makes.
 This year we stayed home even tho we had plans to go for a ride and see the wildflowers. Instead I actually slept in late and caught up on some blog reading and after that I made some calls to family. No one answered so I figured everyone was out having fun with their families.

 The Easter Bunny made a special trip today to hand deliver a package to Cisco. A Chicken. I have pictures...  I have to download them to my computer.
 I do want to thank Edna for talking to the Easter Bunny on Cisco's behalf. He was having a blast! It was so fun watching him. He knows when a box arrives it is for him. I swear he does. He gets so excited I can barely open the box while he is tail wagging and happy go lucky smile. I can see the excitement in his big brown eyes.

 I talked to my sister in law Bonnie today and my brother James was going to have their Grandson and family over to visit him for Easter dinner. I am sure that he enjoyed that. I wish I could have been there, but somethings I just can't do and this is one of them right now.

 I have spent the day not sure of just what all I have done, but I am getting tired. Maybe that means I can sleep as well tonight as I did last night. It was really restful.
 Yesterday was exciting for me as I watched the birth of April and Oliver's new baby being born. A perfect drop. The little one isn't quiet as little as we think. He was estimated on weighing 150 pounds and standing around 6 feet tall at birth. April was pregnant for 16 months. Whew and we think that we have it rough carrying around an average 7 pound baby for 9 months.. But the baby Giraffe is just so good. Congrats Mom and Dad, you did good.

 I have a few things I have gotten from the internet. Some are old and I have probably shared before but on the other hand, they are still good for another go round...

 Haha... well yep it is that hot in some places... Today was a rather cool day for us...

 I get a kick out of this one... I have seen doggies that you could barely tell which was front or back. Just have to look for that little pink tongue!

 And I wish each and everyone of you Peace.... BB

Bittersweet Memories and Scrap Pages....

Hi,

 It has been a few days since I last posted. A lot has been going on, but not too much. In fact I have been sleeping and when I am not sleeping I have been working on some scrap pages for my friend Lins.

 This page above is one that I did for my friend Ri. Her birthday was on the 9th and I had it done a few days earlier. I just couldn't post it because it was a surprise for her. But now that her birthday is over and she has seen it, I am posting it.

 My brother has cancer. It is bad and I am very worried about him. We knew that the tumor in his kidney was cancer, but it has spread. It is now spread to the bones, his neck, spine and I don't know where else. We will know more on Wednesday after the tests are done. I have so many memories of my brother James. They have started him on a chemo pill that is supposed to help at least to slow the cancer down. Why they didn't do chemo and radiation after his lung surgery we just don't know. The doctor kept saying We got it all, there is no need, but my sister in law said that this new doctor said anytime there is lung cancer that it is in the blood and  there should have been chemo. Anyway I am going to be spending what time that I can with him. Karyn is a Godsend to me that is for sure. She is helping me in so many ways. Keeping me sane for the most part and keeping me from falling apart.

 I have been sleeping a lot. I have needed it I try to sleep at night but it seems that is when I am awake the most. I toss and turn and toss some more. I have been to bed about 3 times and finally I have just given up sleeping. I don't like it when I sleep the way that I do. Fits and starts but today I really needed it. Hopefully as soon as I finish this blog post I can actually sleep. Cisco keeps deserting me. One minute he wants to be with me and the next he wants to be with Nathan. I am sure that when Nathan goes to bed Cisco will wind up with me. I was lucky today and got lots of cuddles and kisses, He knows that my heart is hurting with thoughts of my brother. I can't imagine what he is going thru right now.

 I had blood work drawn today and I will find out the results when I go back to the doctor on Thursday. It is time for my annual and so I will be seeing my Primary Care Doctor. I have ran out of one of my medications and I really need it but for some reason she will not refill it until I see her. Why is this? If I have been on the medication for this long, why can't she just refill the prescription without making me come in for an appointment?

 Sorry to be crabby, I am just tired and ready for some sleep, so on that note I am headed to bed. I turned the air down as I was so hot. I know that Jonathan is always cold and he will get up in the morning and turn it back up. I will wake up sweating I am sure. It is hard when one of us is hot nature'd and the other cold nature'd but we make do I guess.

 I hope that the weather warms up for everyone that is wanting sunshine and warm temps. We are supposed to be getting rain but so far the alerts have been wrong. No rain for us. We could sure use it. I would even be happy to have a nice cold front, but for us the spring temps have left us and hot muggy air is here. It was 87 here today. When I went to the doctor today I was happy that they had the air conditioning on and it was cool.

 Sweet dreams to all that are sleeping. I hope to be sleeping soon myself... On that note I will say good night and good morning to those just starting there day... Hugs to all.... BB

Happy Thursday

 Hi Everyone,

 This is my profile photo for Facebook and below it is my cover, or Time Line photo... I enjoy making them each month. This time around I used Rosie's Artistic Ann kit. I loved the bright sun shiny colors and she has some fun elements to go along with her kits and papers. Thank you for looking.

 Not much news to share here. I finished my book, "The Girls Of Mischief Bay" and I really enjoyed it a lot. It is time that I started going thru my books and get ready to pass them on.  I have several that I would like to give to Karyn but she is not into reading much anymore except on her Kindle and Audio Books. I wish that I could enjoy audio books but I just can't seem to get into it. I love a book in my hands! Right now I am reading Heather Graham. I like her but I really enjoy Susan Mallory the best.
 I have some books that I can never part with. But I do have quiet a few that I will not read again so they need to be passed on to someone who will enjoy them. Where I use to live we had a really great thing going. In the laundry room we had a give away book shelf. People passed on books that they had read and I still have a lot of them in my collection today. I loved it. I would wait about once a month and take a fresh stack down and see what newbies were there.
 We also put out other things for the tenants. Gently used items, dishes, clothes and sheets and towels. Odds and ends. So many people like me moved in with nothing and it was great having all of these things available to us at the time.  People donated as they moved out and we also had a pantry box so if you might need a can of soup or perhaps a can of tomatoes to go into your dish we could always go downstairs and check what was in the box. I always donated to the box every month. A lot of times I would get mac and cheese 3 for a dollar, or soups and if I bought 2 or more I would put in the box. Share and share alike. I think that was the only good thing about living there and I loved my apartment. It just started becoming hard as some people in the office would make these crazy rules and it seemed every week someone was causing conflict at the meetings and so I dropped out of a lot of them. But the main reason I moved here was to be closer to my kids and to my doctors.

 I have the kitchen cleaned and that is a relief and I don't have to make my coffee as it is ready for me to just turn the pot on tomorrow when I get out of bed. I have to schedule the extraction of 3 more teeth tomorrow and I want to do that now before they start hurting and I have some doctor appointments to schedule and the ride transportation. I really hate spending time on the phone but it is all necessary.
 Nathan cooked dinner tonight. I was really thankful as I wasn't in the mood to do any cooking. He made Spaghetti with meat sauce, and garlic toast. I did the clean up. I love his spaghetti. I think that I love it because I didn't have to cook it lol.

 I think that I am heading to bed. It is almost 11:00 pm here so I think that I am tired enough to sleep... Sweet dreams to all. Have a wonderful Thursday and enjoy the few little pics I borrowed from the internet...... BB

Aren't they just too cute?

 I get disappointed to Sylvester!

 And my favorite... There are times that embarrassing  your kids can come in handy!! LOL BB

Stormy Weather

I did this page for my friend Lins Lindsay.... Here is the links below:

Hmmm well forget the links, I can't get them to stay in place. I don't know why! I copy the links, and then go on to my blog and they disappear... how strange!

 Anyway this is such a cute kit to work with. It is called Spring Time In Paris. 

 Hello to everyone on this Stormy Sunday. It has been bad. We have had a tornado on the ground 8 miles from us. I haven't heard any breaking news about it. Karyn called me this morning and told me about it. I thought I was going to have to shut down my computer but the storm has passed us by for now. We are in for some heavy storms today tho. 

 I slept until 10:00 this morning and still feel tired. I feel like I had no sleep at all. I was hoping that I would wake up and have some energy but that is not to be. I see a nap in my future. Oh I am almost done with my latest book from Susan Mallory. It is called "The Girls Of Mischief Bay" and it is really a good book. It has a lot of sadness in it as each of three women face different obstacles. They will prevail tho because they are stronger than they think. 

 News is short here for the most part. Karyn and I went to the bank to deposit some money that she owes me and then went to Chili's for dinner. She had the sampler and I had the turkey sandwich. I had ordered the club with avocado and bacon but when it came it was the turkey and provolone and the girl offered to take it back since she had misunderstood what I wanted. I said oh no, this is just fine. So I enjoyed that. It was really good. Then we each had a Blueberry Pineapple Margarita. Oh yum! It was very good. Her cell phone died and mine was left at home. We hadn't planned to go anywhere but to the bank so I forgot to bring it. Unusual for me as one never knows about emergency's but it worked out. We had a nice meal without our phones constantly going off. Hers more than mine. She gets a lot of work related stuff and we both agreed that it was good that we didn't have to deal with our phones.

 I came home and visited with the boys and we played a game and then I decided that I was going to bed and read. When the words blurred and I kept dropping my book then I knew it was time to turn off the light and roll over and sleep. I must have drifted off really fast as I don't even remember going to sleep. 

 I did clean the kitchen before I went to read. I love my dishwasher. It is a good one. Much better than the brand new one that I had at the other place. It has more water pressure and the cycle is not so long. I continue to hope that it stays in good working order. The kitchen took less than 15 minutes to clean. I made my coffee for the next day so that I could just turn on the pot when I got up this morning. By the time that I checked outside, went to the bathroom, put a towel down for the leak in our dining room window, my coffee was ready. I didn't even have to wait. I had my cup ready too so all I had to do was pour and enjoy.

 Cisco didn't move all night I don't think. He was still in the same spot when Karyn called me about the tornado. He got up when I got up. Unfortunately the  rain is still coming down hard and he will not go out in it. We have to wait for a break in the rain and wind before he can go outside. It would be nice if we had a covered area, but we don't. 

 I have a few goodies to share today and then I have some scrap pages to do... Have a fabulous day to all...

 Oh this is so me. I love sitting outside with a glass of tea and a cool breeze. We don't have a screen door, but when my kids were little we did. Many great conversations were had on that front porch. I decorated it every season. We had a jigsaw puzzle of the season set on a card table. Even the mailman stopped to put in a piece or two. 

 Sweet tea was a staple in our house but I should just say tea because I didn't add sugar to mine. My kids grew up with sweet tea but slowly they were drinking my unsweetened tea more than they were drinking sweet tea. It varies now. Some add a little sugar and some don't. I love the taste of brisk tea on a hot summer day.

 Does anyone remember post cards like this one or similar?  I actually got this from a free vintage scrapbooking site. My grandmother had stationary like this. And my mom collected post cards and she donated regularly to the Indian school and to the VA and they would always send her post cards and stickers. Mainly of birds. My mama loved birds. She knew all of them. 

 And on this note, I am going to say good bye for today with lots of Bear Hugs... Have a Blessed day and take care of yourself... BB