My Trip Down Memory Lane 2015

 Hi Everyone,
 I am hoping that all is good with everyone today. I am fine other than tired for I am going back thru another phase of not sleeping again. When I do sleep I tend to sleep hard and deep and over sleep. I am staying away from naps so hopefully I can sleep some tonight. It is just me I figure. The house is quiet, their is no one blaring the television, no one in and out, (that being Cisco) and I am a night owl by nature. 
 When the kids were little they had their days and nights mixed up and since my husband was never home and off driving a truck, it was easy to let them be up and I would clean house or something and then we all went to bed and slept. 
 That changed when they started school, but summers and weekends and holidays still had me in the night owl stage. And then when I went back to work I did a lot of night work so it has just stuck. I love the nights. So there it is. 

 Patsy is in San Diego today. She left really early this morning and is going to spend the night at her friends house, plus she is planning to take flowers to her son's grave site and then visit with her grandchildren and visit her son Patrick as well as some Christmas shopping. I am going to miss her but it is alright. She will be back tomorrow night and we can catch up then. 
 We had a great laugh last night recalling her visit last October. It was an experience lol. I told her that I was going to blog about her visit. So I will.

 Before we decided to move here into this apartment complex, Patsy and I had a few months to book and plan her trip out to see me. In case she couldn't make it, the ticket was non-refundable so we were determined that she was coming and she did.
 We picked up the keys here on October 1st but I didn't actually get to move in here until October 3rd as we still had some packing and downsizing to do and not to mention we had to clean the other apartment. It was still hot. Even tho I had my bed here, no way could we stay without electricity and air. Too hot for all of us and they were not going to turn the electricity on until the 3rd. (That was another huge hassle as it was supposed to have been turned on on the first but we had to play by their rules and not ours.) 

 So Jonathan made several small trips back and forth getting our boxes moved over and then the Sunday October 2nd Karyn's friend Marcy brought her truck over and loaded all the big stuff. That gave me the rest of the time to clean the apartment. Jonathan took the next day, Monday off from work and helped me with all of the last minute things. He had to. I was just getting over having some surgery done and a bout of the flu so He did the bulk of the hard stuff and we kept 2 chairs so we would have a place to at least sit. The last load was finished by 5:00 pm. We loaded Cisco up and the two chairs, our cleaning supplies and off we went to our new apartment. Joey, Karyn, and Nathan put my bed together the night before. 

 Karyn and Jonathan traded out the car. Our electricity was still not on and Jonathan was ticked and kept calling the electric company until someone finally agreed to send someone out. He told them, my mom is disabled, a diabetic and it is hot as blazes and the woman actually told him "Well can't she get a hotel room for the night?" That did it. He said I want to talk to your supervisor now. She tried her best not to let him talk to her and he kept saying Supervisor now. She finally put her supervisor on the line. Jonathan made a formal complaint as the electricity was already supposed to be on. We didn't figure anyone would come out but Karyn and I left and went to our local supermarket H.E.B. and there I was able to get food for dinner that night and some drinks, and ice and I found a really pretty welcome present for Patsy. I found a pretty throw, and we bought her a couple of our specialty bags and filled it with a Cup from Austin, some special coffees, special sodas we have here and candy and other things. We didn't know if we would have electricity or not, but I got a bag of ice to keep my insulin cold and drinks and other foods just in case.

 What a relief when we got back to see that we had lights... (Hooray!) and so Karyn and I had just enough time to make up my bed, fix Patsy's Welcome bag and to set out fresh towels. Oh we were like... No Hot Water! The gas company had not turned on our gas so we were upset over that but not much that we could do about that problem. We had to hurry up with the necessities because Karyn and I had to leave for the airport to meet Patsy's flight. Luckily we found good parking so that wasn't an issue. I didn't take my walker because not enough room for mine and hers so Karyn dropped me off at the entrance and I waited for her to park. We were early so we had time. But once we got inside they were pushing Patsy towards us in a wheel chair. She had her luggage and walker. We were like okay we will have to make some adjustments here but the attendant said "Oh I will push her to the car." So I took Patsy's walker, Karyn took her luggage and the attendant steered Patsy to our car and even loaded her luggage and helped her into the car. 

 We explained about the not having hot water until the next day but she was okay with that. We wanted to give her a view of the city as much as possible so of course we drove up to the State Capital and it was lit up beautifully. We asked if she was hungry when we picked her up but she said no but after we gave her a tour she said she was. We gave her choices and she spotted a What A Burger fast food place and said... There. I haven't been to one in ages. So we whipped in and had a wonderful time talking about her flight, our move and apologized about the unpacked boxes and so forth. She just laughed and said Oh we will just rough it. 

 By the time we got in Nathan was home from work and Jonathan had his bathroom in order with a shower curtain. Mine was thrown away because I had washed it and it didn't make it thru the laundry cycle. (Actually the dryer) as I had forgotten to turn the heat off when I put it in the dryer. Introductions were made and Cisco went crazy wanting her to pet him. Funny how he never barked or growled at her. We gave her the welcome bag, but Karyn didn't stay for that as it was late and she had to work the next day so she got us settled and went home. At that time she was living across town so she had Jonathan take her home. 

 The next day Patsy and I got up pretty early and had coffee and girl talk. It was just us. We had made all these plans but we caught hell from Jonathan as he said it was not safe for 2 disabled women to catch a bus and leave for site seeing. We tried to argue our way out of it but when Patsy talked to her husband he agreed with Jonathan so we had to change our plans. We have what is called a "Silver Alert" here for missing elderly or disabled people and Jonathan threatened then and still does to put out Silver Alerts on us if we took off to far from home. We assured him we would not go far. Besides I had to wait for the gas company to show up and turn on our gas and they had to come into the house to get to the water heater. 
 As soon as he left and we had some hot water it was shower time. Patsy had hers first and I took the time to sort of unpack some kitchen stuff and then I had mine and we walked over to The Brooklyn Pie Company and had lunch. We split a chicken strips with wedge fries and she ordered an artichoke and spinach dip. It was so good. I am a spinach lover but not so fond of artichokes but that dip was pretty darn delish. 

 We went next door to Walgreen's and looked around and by that time we were both getting tired. It was either walk and walk all the way to the front entrance and back all the way to the end or call a cab. We called a cab and it was not even $3.00 home so I gave him a $5.00 bill and we were happy to rest. In fact we both took a nap.
 Jonathan came in a little after 5:00 pm and asked if Pizza was okay for the night. We assured him it was. He put it on and the next thing that we knew the smoke detectors were going off and Patsy and I rushed to the kitchen and Jonathan was beating the pizza with a towel because it was in flames.... What Happened? I told Jonathan that pizza had not been in the oven long enough to even be done. We opened windows and doors while he managed to get the smoke detectors to stop going off.  
 We looked at the burned Pizza and we checked the oven dials and I told him that we were going to have to cook the pizza's at a lower temp. So off to the store again for Pizza. This time we cooked it at 350 degrees. Same darn thing happened. Not only did the pizza not get done but it was black on the bottom so we were just looking at each other wondering what we were going for dinner.
 Jonathan said get in the car and he took us to a little place.  We had something but I cannot remember now what it was but it took care of our hunger. The next day the maintenance man came and put in a part.  I cooked a pan of cornbread for Patsy and it burned. So I was totally upset, but she ate the top and enjoyed it but I was so upset so I called the office and they came back out and put in a new regulator. Yay my oven finally worked.
 We didn't do anymore cooking here at home the rest of her visit until the night before she left to catch her flight home. It was a party of sorts. For my birthday and for her going back home.
 The boys cooked these steaks out on the grill and they were delicious. Karyn made corn on the cob, a big salad and mashed potatoes. Then she drug out the cake. Yum, German Chocolate, but I of course couldn't eat it because of the nuts, but I had a bite of the inside. It was too rich for me. Or it could have been that I was just satisfied by the meal.

Patsy and I knew before hand that this was mainly just a hang out and do not much of anything visit. I really enjoyed having her and last night we just laughed about all the things that happened on her visit. 

 We snacked for lunch, sandwiches and soup or left over's from some of the places we ate. We went to Baby A's for Mexican food one night. While we were there I couldn't stand the smell. They seated us in the back and it was over whelming with the smell of sewer. I was the only one that could smell it and it made me so nausea's that Karyn brought me home. Jonathan, Nathan, Patsy stayed and of course Karyn went back. They brought my dinner home to me but I didn't eat it. Patsy and I split it the next day for lunch. 

 Patsy ordering the Spinach and Artichoke dip! Oh Yum...

 The waitress taking our photo as we waited for our food at The Brooklyn Pie Company.

 The first night Patsy was here. We were planning on going to sleep but we ended up just talking and talking and talking. She took this selfie of us. 

 Me and Foxy waiting for Karyn to add the finishing touches to our dinner and the boys to finish grilling our steaks.... The last night Patsy stayed before her flight back home the next day.

 Anyway that is my run down on a trip from Memory Lane. It was a good visit and I hope that we continue to see each other at least for another visit.

 On to some other news. I just got off the phone with my sister Susie. It looks like they will have Daniel's dad's funeral service on Sunday so he and my niece and the girls are planning on coming to our Christmas gathering.

 My nephew Rusty and his family isn't going to be able to make it after all. I understand tho because they are having to come all the way from New Orleans, Louisiana and then try to make the trip the next week for Christmas so it would be to hard on him and the kids and his wife to make the trip, but my other nephew Eddie and the kids will be there. Amy has to work, his wife but she might stop by on her way home from work, but she has a bit of a long drive home, so not sure if we will see her or not, but at least I will see my nephew Eddie and my great nieces and nephews.  I wish that my Brandy could come but she is in Tennessee so that would be a very long drive for her. Maybe she will be able to come Easter. 

 Matthew is on his way over, he has some things for me so I guess I will go for now and try and take care of a couple of things before he gets here. I just spoke to Jonathan and he seems to be in a bad mood so I am just about ready to smack him. I called to remind him to pick up Cisco some food and he bit my head off. So I am going to have a talk with him when he walks in the door. I am sorry he has had a bad day but that has nothing to do with me. 
 So I will add that and a smack to my to do list... Have a great day on Friday..... Hugs to all... BB