Catching Up PS

Spent from midnight Saturday until 10:30 a.m. in the UAMS emergency room with my mother. She was so swollen she couldn't stand it any longer and wanted a miracle drug to ease her up. Enter Morphine and Phenergan. She really felt bad, and wanted to stay in the hospital until today, since she had chemo scheduled, but that pesky insurance thing reared its ugly head. She had to come back home. The pain med she was prescribed for home really knocks her for a loop, but she doesn't care how she feels when it's in her system.

She began chemo to help her symptoms today. We are hoping and praying it makes a big difference and she can get back to her life as she knows it. For the time being anyway.


 

Catching Up

I haven't written about my Mom lately, mainly because things have been pretty calm. Unfortunately, this week, her symptoms have begun to increase, so we have an appointment with the oncologist Monday morning, then she will get a dose of chemo. The chemo will make her feel better, but we don't know if it will be given on an "as needed" basis, or regular schedule yet.

About three weeks ago, she decided she didn't want to pay the exorbitant cost of Dish Network any longer. I cancelled the service, but she found she was unhappy with out a satellite. I've tried to get her a Direct TV account, but there is a LOT of red tape, or there is in her case and so we are still trying to figure out what to do. In the meantime, she has no tv and is not a happy camper. I don't blame her.

Luckily, my brother who lives in Chicago, is coming in on Monday to stay for a little while. I'm hoping he can help in the tv department. If he can find a job here, he will stay for a while and try to help out with Mom. Keep him/us in your prayers, because I could really use the help.

Today was SR's 57th birthday and I cooked a huge meal. The in-laws, LeLe and LMW all attended. J and K couldn't make it and MK was under the weather. I had a mountain of food left. Ugh.


The weather has been awesome. I sure hate to think it will go back to  hot dry days but it's inevitable considering this is still August. Still, fall is just around the corner and I'm ready. Man! and I ready!

Unsatisfied

Friends, I need some advice. I've been sitting in my dreary living room, realizing that everything is either brown, sage green, dull rust, or wheat colored. It's beginning to be very monochromatic and depressing. Everytime I've bought something, it's the same color again. All my furniture is some shade of brown, and the new flooring we put down last year is dark brown. (I wanted a lighter brown, but I let SR choose) Take a look in these photos. And don't be fooled by the camera flash. It made the pictures look brighter than the room actually is.

As you can see, furniture is brown, tan and sage. Walls are wheat. Decorations are brown, and dull rust. Floors are brown, lamps are brown, pillow, throws, curtains, all dusty brown, rust or sage. I'm in a rut.

I can't paint because the room opens into the dining and kitchen. Toooo much work. I can't paint just a focal wall, because the only walls that would make an impact are the ones running into the kitchen or dining room. Besides, SR just wouldn't go for it. He is in love with the wheat walls. I need a way to infuse something more dramatic into the scene. Maybe some different pillows or curtains. I could change out the artwork, for something a bit livlier, but what color?

I can't paint any of the furniture because of the monumental task that would be, and again, SR would not go for it. He lives there too, and has a right to his opinion. What would you do ladies? What color would you introduce? I can't see the popular aqua fitting in. I could add a little black, but I don't know exactly where. I did mull over the idea of painting the tv cabinet a crisp white, but I don't think that will really solve the problem.
The only color is in my rug.

So, if I drew one of those out, which one would make an impact? They are all pretty muted as well. If I changed the drapes, what color would look nice, but not clash. 

I'm usually pretty good at this sort of thing. I'm lost right now. Just don't have a clue. And not a lot of money to spend in the doing of it anyway. HELP! This is an SOS and I need all hands on deck!

August 24, 1934

On this day in history, my father, AJ was born into a very poor farming family in central Arkansas. He was the second son, and middle child of my grandparents, L and O.

A short time after this photo was taken, O left her family for another man. No one knows exactly why, or the events leading up to this abandonment, but there are theories. We won't go into them here. My grandmother's leaving left a definite mark on my father, and helped shape him to be the man he became. As you can imagine, his life changed dramatically, and not in a good way. My grandfather later remarried, and that improved life a bit, thank goodness.

When Dad reached the age where he could escape the farm on his own for a little while, he would hang out with my mother's brother TC. They spent much of their time aggravating my mother as much as possible.

At the age of 17, AJ joined the USMC. He left school without graduating, but obtained his GED while in the service.

He was known to say that compared to his life growing up, boot camp was "nothing" or "a picnic".  He was sent to Korea, where the war of that era raged.  His assignment in that war, was to recover the dead. Can you imagine being 18 or 19, and having to find your fallen comrades, and physically carry them off the field of war? I can't. And I can't imagine the nightmares that must have provoked.

When AJ returned, he noticed pretty quickly that my Mom had grown up. A lot. And thus a courtship ensued, resulting in marriage

They began what was a 20 year life in the military.  During my fifth grade year, my father was deployed again, this time to Vietnam. That year was terribly long for all of us, and I can't imagine how he felt being separated from all of his family for so long.

Again, he came home with nightmares and was very sensitive to fireworks and loud noises the rest of his life.
We moved from station to station until I was 12 years old, and then came back to settle close to my mother's parents. After retirement, Daddy held several jobs, mechanic, logger, postal carrier and then was elected county judge for two terms. The roll he was happiest in. (Aside from all the coaching he did of young men in baseball.)

 Then without warning, he was stricken with Laryngeal Cancer. He fought it for years, rallying at times, and then it would blast him again. He fought that battle as the Marine he was. He never gave up, even until the end. But he was ready to meet his Lord face to face, on March 12, 2005.

Today, he would have been 76, and in his memory, and in love, I placed a Marine Corps flag at his grave.
I miss you my dearest father. You were always faithful....to the end.

Semper Fi....

My Monday Minute

It's 10:15 at night and I am wide awake. For me, that's a little unusual. I normally fall asleep pretty easily, (it's the staying asleep that is my trouble) but today wasn't the normal day for me.

You see, at around 3:30 this afternoon, I received an epidural steroid injection in my neck, for pain caused by a herniated disk. They gave me lots of La La juice, and I don't remember much at all. I was able to keep my consciousness until we ate a bite, and made it home, and then I crashed. At 9:30, SR woke me up to help me change my clothes and actually get into the bed. Unfortunately, now I'm awake. And a little hungry.

Tomorrow is my father's birthday. I have a post ready for that, but need some photos to go in it, so I hope I find them and get it all online by the end of the day. It's looking iffy, but it's important to me. We'll see.

It's the Middle of August

And I don't have enough projects finished. It's a bit frustrating, and alarming, considering I have sooo many plans for Christmas presents. I don't know why I can't get them done. I'm working on them, but somehow, the work seems to multiply.

I'm still working on my mother's quilt.
I haven't sandwiched the latest baby quilt.
I stopped working on that one, to do a rush job on another baby quilt, and ran out of fabric. Can't finish that one until I get to Hobby Lobby next Thursday.
I finally finished painting the decking of the back porch, but still have to touch up a few places.
I still have to seal my bird tray, and figure out how to hang it up.

My house is in desperate need of some deep cleaning.
My computer desk needs purging.

At least I don't have time to be bored.

Finally Found

I've been looking for a specific photo for weeks. It's one of J with my Dad. I couldn't find it and I enlisted the help of my Mom and sister to no avail.

You see, for J's wedding reception, there will be a video of photographs of J and K as they were growing up, and then the two of them together. Nice idea. I spent hours searching through our albums, and scanning pictures into my computer. But the one picture I was deterimined would be in that video was playing hide and seek. I agonized, I prayed, I searched and searched....

Today, as I was looking through my genealogy stash of notebooks, I found one album I forgot about. EUREKA! The photo was in there. Thank you God!!!!! Now all the photos are downloaded to a disk, and I'm a happy camper.

Wanna see the photo? Of course you do.

My Dad was very involved in J's sports activities and he coached J several years. He lived for that kind of thing. He would have been 76 on August 24th and I still miss him so much. He's been gone 5 years now, and the pain of losing him never goes away. At least I have found the very important photo and I can rest easier now.

I Have My Name Back!

It's been a while since I added the new blog. (Because blogger wouldn't let me change the email on my original one!) And I'm just now realizing how to change the name back to B Lines. I never really liked "To B Me", but had to come up with something different to set it up.

Yayyyy!

I've posted a new project on The Seam Rippers.

A Couple of Things

While waiting for the heat to subside, I've been staying inside and working on a few things. You can see them at The Seam Rippers.

When the 105 degree temps decide to stay down around the 90-94 degree mark, I'll get back on that porch. I did try to paint the decking a darker taupe color this morning, as there was a little break in the heat, but it quickly became unbearable and I didn't get even half way through the first coat. But, it will be there when I get to it. :)

Going Out On a Limb

Ok, I'm going to try to be a videographer....

This was made August 1, with my little digital camera.  I started thinking we had no video of him and needed some. And then I remembered I had that capability on my camera. I didn't know if the sound would record, so in most of the videos, we sound pretty stupid. I think this one is pretty quiet, just whistling and clapping. And you can barely see SR, and he likes it that way, thank you very much!

LMW gets pretty excited with his Grandpa's clapping, but when I sing to him, he really gets revved up! Unfortunately, that is not for public ears yet. The boy loves music....even bad music. I'll have to tone things down a bit before I post anything like that....