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 |  Welcome to Whatsit's Wild World. |
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Sometimes I think we're all tightrope walkers suspended on a wire two thousand feet in the air, and so long as we never look down we're okay, but some of us lose momentum and look down for a second and are never quite the same again: we know. ~Dorothy Gilman The Tightrope Walker |
| My husband is an airhead sometimes. Somehow I never have been able to convince him that paying attention while driving is a good thing. Sooooo, the other night his foot "slid off the brake accidentally" as he said it and her ran into the guy in front of him at the intersection. The good thing about these episodes is it makes it hard for him to gripe at me for the little piddly things he likes to gripe about because all I have to do is bring up the last driving episode and it shuts him up. Also, now that all our kids are old enough to know how to drive they help me to nag him about driving correctly. I don't tell them to, you understand, they just do it. I have made it sound like he needs to have his license taken away and he is not quite that bad, but I anticipate the day when he will be. So I say all that to say this. I took him and the kids to work and school this morning so I would have a car. I have sprained my knee and don't have any business driving a car, but I had a couple of errands to run that I know good and well I won't be able to talk anybody else into doing, so I went ahead and got them over with this morning. I was coming in the door and greeting my little dogs. One of my dogs, Jack, has gone on a running-off spurt lately. He needs to be spanked, which I am too tenderhearted to do. He runs out the front door and strolls around and doesn't come back until he gets ready. Which is usually not but a minute or too, but still! Then one of my neighbors way at the other end of the subdivision saw all three out gallivanting and she could see that Jack was the ringleader. She got in her car and followed them until she saw them go back into the gate, then told me when I got home that they were getting out. The lawnmowing guy had been here and didn't shut the gate right. He's newish. My husband traded violin lessons for his kid in exchange for him cutting our yard. Not a bad deal. Anyway, I got home this morning and noticed I was greeting two dogs instead of three. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw Jack looking at the door. The screen door was still swinging shut and I hadn't move far enough inside to shut the big door. Jack was taking little tiny tiny steps toward the door in the hopes that I wouldn't notice him. These are the tiniest little steps you ever saw. His nose was stretched out to kingdom come and back trying to see how far he could get. I told him I saw what he was doing and he just had a little fit trying to act like he wasn't being Naughty Maudy. It cracked me up. He is such a little toddler. I had to share my little funny puppy with you this morning. Everybody can use a smile every now and then! |
| Well, I have thrush, of all things. Dern. I'm not all that miserable, just a little funny feeling, and evidently don't need to get around any more people than I can help for about a week. That suits ME fine. Ha! The Olympic Winter Games are on and I love watching them, so it's more of a pleasure than usual to sit around the house and do nothing. Saturday I went to lunch with these girls I went to high school with. This was before I knew I had the thrush - I went to the doctor Saturday afternoon. It's hard to coordinate schedules as you can imagine. We usually don't meet up but 3 or 4 times a year. It's kind of amusing as to the children situation: Susan has none (her husband died early), Nita has one, Jeanette has two, I have three, and Delena has four. Did we do that on purpose? Not at all. In fact, for years Nita and Jeanette both only had one, but Jeanette popped up and very obligingly had another three years ago just so we could share this amusing anecdote about our group. Wasn't that sweet? Ha! If she heard me say that, I wouldn't be here to write another blog entry. Susan went to get a dog - I think she wound up with a Lab - something Lab-ish anyway. All of the available dogs had already been named and there was one with her late husband's name, Mack. She felt that they were meant to be together and have been happy ever since. Delena's daughter had a birthday and they are having a swimming party at the indoor pool at the Y. I've been to that Y, it's nice. Jeanette's son goes to Catholic school and built a Mardi Gras float from a wagon for their parade and we saw pictures. Nita's daughter has always said something for us to be amused by. So, that's the news from the get-together. Now you know what I know. " . . .my doctor says I have a malformed public duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber . . ." Douglas Adams |
| I have been addicted to several things over the years. I have the tendency toward addiction, you understand. I got lucky that I never started on any of the typical substances people usually think of in connection with addiction because I'd probably be dead by now. Once I get addicted to something I tend to stay addicted to it. Of course, what I get addicted to, there aren't any twelve step programs for. I've been addicted to Diet Mountain Dew for about 30 years. I think I started drinking it the year it came out, but I'm not positive of that. I "get off" Diet Mountain Dew periodically. I just spent about a year drinking only about one or two a month, but right now I have a refrigerator full and I am almost wallowing in the pleasure of drinking them again. Chow mein noodles are a weird thing to be addicted to but I went through that phase. I confess that this was more of pregnancy thing when I was expecting Anna Claire, who is 16 now. I actually got tired of them before it was over with and it's been a while since I had any. The texture was what I had a problem with, but I couldn't quit! After AC was born, this one went away, thank goodness. Chocolate! Need a say more? It has kept me out of jail for murder many many times. I say all that to say this: my most recent addiction is in the form of cashews. My husband is diabetic and he is always trying out new things that he can actually eat that won't elevate his blood sugar, and nuts wound up being something he liked. He went through a big almond period and then got tired of them and kind of went through all the nuts. I went through them with him so I could add my opinion and see if I found anything I liked. They say you are supposed to add nuts and seeds to your diet. Well, my friends, cashews have really struck my fancy. I had no idea they were so good. I think there must be some nutrient in cashews that my body needs because I just can't quit eating them. I have googled this and it seems that they do have a lot of nutrients in them and prevent cancer. So I just keep right on being addicted to them. So there! Cashews. Who knew? |
| My life right now though . . . wow. I have 125 Altoid tins sitting in a box: the small Altoid tins. I have somewhat of an addiction to Altoids (Somewhat? I can hear my family saying). I don't know, I just like Altoids, and I have somewhat of a fixation on having fresh breath. Anyway, I never used to save the tins. I have been buying them for so many years there would be nowhere to put them if I saved every one. However, I have a friend who wound up with a recipe for homemade lip balm and thought my empty Altoid tins were just the thing to put individual dollops into for Christmas presents, so every time I had 3 or 4 empty ones I would give them to her. She kept saying that at Christmastime she would make the lip balm. This was a couple of years ago. Christmastime came and went and she didn't make it. Now, she is my great good friend and I wouldn't trade her for anything. But you know, everybody on earth has their quirks, and hers is that she has a hard time keeping up with things. It struck me that she probably didn't have one clue where a single one of those tins went. Well, dern, I thought. It just happened that my mother had just given all three of my kids some shoes, so I picked the biggest shoebox and started saving the empty tins for her myself. Another Christmas has come and gone with no mention of the lip balm. No matter. At this point I'm kind of enjoying saving my Altoid tins. It's oddly satisfying to see them all sitting there in a row, looking exactly alike. Strangely, we were able to make use of a few of them. One of Matt's teachers said he needed some Altoid tins if anybody had any empty ones. I couldn't get Matt to remember to ask what for - he IS a teenage boy. I had collected 22 at that point, so I told him he could have half of them. I guess 11 Altoid tins is an odd present to send to your kid's teacher, but he did ask for them. Now you know what I know. |
| The Whatsit Christmas was pretty good. I did something I have never done before. I just gave all my kids money. My husband had gone around in the car one day and asked them what they wanted and money seemed to be it. Anna Claire wanted some new clothes but she can buy those with her nice new money. So there. As far as presents to actually open goes, they always go on a shopping trip to get each other presents, as well as us and their grandparents. Also, my husband had bought them a few things and wrapped them. I just never felt inspired to go shopping because I truly couldn't think of what to get them. They have all the games in the universe which they never play, if you try to pick out clothes for them they don't like them, etc etc. I put their money in envelopes and sent them on a scavenger hunt to find it, which they loved. They finally located their money in the dryer. Ha! I amused my own self on that. Merry Christmas season to all. |
| Well friends, I haven't blogged in 8 months because I haven't had an Upgraded Account in that long and the reason why not is that I have been trying to hang onto my money. What for, I don't know, I still never seem to have much! I finally put in a few dollars to be able to look at my blog long enough to see which recipes I had placed in there. This was in preparation for Thanksgiving. I did have a little green notebook with white polka-dots in my desk drawer with all the family recipes in it - Bigmama's Jam Cake, Sara Helen's Chocolate Pie, Sweet Potato Casserole, Memaw's dressing, (poor Sweet Potatoes don't seem to belong to anybody, maybe to my descendants it will be Whatsit's Sweet Potato Casserole) but my notebook seems to have flown the coop. Ah, me. It is what it is. I had put the Jam Cake recipe in a blog entry, but nothing else. Mama had the Chocolate Pie recipe - I was impressed because she still had the original one that Sara Helen had written down decades ago. Between the two of us we recalled the Dressing recipe and googled a Sweet Potato Casserole recipe and we were fine. Whew! A good Thanksgiving was had by all. Oh, we had turkey too, which I don't like much, that's why I almost forgot it. Also Green Bean Casserole. Anyway, I thought I might as well do a few blog entries as long as I could. More to come later . . . " . . .my doctor says I have a malformed public duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber . . ." Douglas Adams |
| My family has gone to Walmart. I am sitting here at the computer while tea is brewing on my stove. I'm shocked to see that it has been a little over a month since I blogged. My sense of time is going out the window, just one of those symptoms of getting older. I am listening to a show on PBS on TV about the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler and enjoying it. I am mightily glad to be finished with this day. A good while ago, I'm ashamed to say how long ago, my left leg swelled up. I put off going to the doctor because it didn't bother me that bad. I finally went to the local In-and-out type clinic, the MEA, to get it seen about, where I saw Dr. Brooks. The MEAs are owned by the local Catholic hospital, St. Dominic, so that's where Dr. Brooks sent me to get an ultrasound to make sure I didn't have any blood clots. One of my happiest moments was getting through having the ultrasound because I hate being touched by people I don't know, but that's neither here nor there. They sent the results to Dr. Brooks at the MEA and since there were no blood clots the next step was a CT scan. This is where I found out that I have a ventral hernia and gallstones. The MEA made me an appointment with Dr. Jonathan Adkins, a surgeon. Dr. Adkins barely glanced at me before he was sending me to Dr. Adrian Smith, a plastic surgeon. Evidently this diet I was on not only helped precipitate the gallstones but also stretched my skin funny so Dr. Adkins wanted it to be fixed at the same time as the hernia and gallstones. I went to Dr. Adkins on Friday April 7. The soonest appointment they could get for me with Dr. Smith was for 8:45 this morning. Well, I had invited my mother to go with me to see Dr. Adkins, which was a mistake. I kind of thought she could find out the answers to all the 8 million questions I knew she would have from him. Dr. Adkins turned out not to be that communicative, to the point that he intimidated all three of us, my mother, my husband and me, from having questions. That invitation made her assume that she was invited along today to see Dr. Smith. My husband had also taken off work to go. The first thing that happened was that I got upset because he started fussing at my son and couldn't understand why today was not the day for that. I just kept asking him to stop fussing, and that just made him worse. There is no possible way to make him understand that griping and complaining every single day of your existence might not be the best pattern for your life, especially one that you share with somebody who has gotten to the point that a bunch of negativity is extremely bothersome. This made me start to cry and it took me a long time to stop. I had to be at the doctor at 8:45 you understand. Then we pick up my mother and get to the doctor's office. Guess what she had to say? The shoes I had on were not acceptable, we were going to have to go by the department store after the doctor and purchase the proper ones, my mother being the ones to decide which ones I was to have of course (which we didn't do, I might add). I had some dry skin on my leg which she happened to see, which of course was unacceptable. My feet needed a manicure. There were several other things which I don't remember at this point, probably because I had started to cry at this point. When the doctor came in I was still crying. I really could have done without my husband and my mother today. Now the doctor is concerned about doing surgery on me because, in addition to all the risks there evidently are, such as that I'll probably need transfusions, the incision will be an exceptionally long one, and overweight people don't tend to do as well under anesthesia, among others, he is concerned about my "fragile emotional state." It had not occurred to me that I had a fragile emotional state. I guess you could call it that. I'm thinking that once my mother opened her mouth and started talking and asking him questions and going on the way she always does, he may have seen one of the things that I may have been upset about. She will ask the same thing three or four times, especially if she doesn't like the answer you give her the first time. This afternoon I had to go over to her house for a few minutes. She wanted to talk me out of having the surgery. She has needed knee surgery for about five years but she refuses to have it because she is scared. Of what? Going under the anesthesia, for one thing. She would rather barely be able to hobble around than have surgery, plus she complains ALL THE TIME about how much she hurts. I knew she would try to talk me out of it. Luckily my husband took it upon himself to have that discussion with her, because I don't want to prolong the inevitable and I am going to go ahead and have the surgery. Dr. Smith is going to call Dr. Adkins - evidently they know each other - and they are going to have their discussion. Dr. Smith said that if I wasn't called by one of their nurses by Thursday, to call his office and Chelsea, his nurse, would fill me in. Dern. It has got to go up from here. |
| 1. I went to First Baptist of Brandon this morning because I found out that the preacher where I went to church when I was a teenager was preaching there. Evidently he has been the interim pastor there for around three years. About six months ago he had some type of accident and is in a wheelchair, but he's still a good preacher. I enjoyed it. I went there at 8:30. Then I went got some breakfast and went to my church at 11:15. So I have an extra bright halo this morning. Ha! 2. Kristy's husband Herbie lost his job Monday. He found out when they got home from our house Monday. I'm not sure why. That stinks doesn't it? He thinks he has another one though. 3. We celebrated Kristy's daughter's Cheryl's birthday yesterday. This is Anna Claire's best friend. Kristy got her income tax refund so she treated everybody to lunch. It was nice! Then we went next door and got ice cream. I got Chocolate and Hazelnut. Yum yum! 4. Emily is walking around wearing her owl house shoes looking all cute. 5. Matt has been so kindly planting flowers by the mailbox. Isn't that sweet? His dad's insistence that he get out there and plant them was a help in motivating him to do it. Imagine that. |
| Today was Pi Day, at least in America: 3-14. So, in a burst of appropriateness, my family went to a restaurant called Pie 5. Everybody is out for Spring Break so we were able to go for lunch. We had never been there before - it's fairly new. It's called Pie 5 because they make each person an individual pizza and it comes out in 5 minutes. They send it through this oven that evidently has a conveyer belt in in it because they put the pizza in at one end and it comes out the other all nice and cooked. Pretty good gimmick! The pizza was just okay to me. Anna Claire just loved hers. Maybe I just got the wrong one. Their desserts, though, are phenomenal. Oddly enough, Anna Claire and I got the same dessert and she didn't really like hers. I guess we just have different taste buds. Afterwards, Emily wanted to go to Cups, a coffee place. My whole family except me loves coffee. I will drink it, I'm just more of a soda person. Well, since I mostly gave up soda, I am mostly an unsweet iced tea person. I did have a Mocha Hazelnut thingy today, which was delicious. Everybody seemed to enjoy theirs. The kids all got iced coffee, which I truly do not see the appeal of. It seems yucky to me, but whatever floats their little boats, right? Matt got into All-State Honor Choir for about the fourth year in a row. He is practicing his music now. He sounds pretty good. His voice has changed and I am enjoying listening to him. I figured out how to put a picture at the top of my blog. Go up there and look at my little dog, Jack. He got a bath yesterday, so he's nice and clean. He's a cutie, isn't he? |
| My daughter, Anna Claire, has a best friend named Cheryl. Cheryl's mother, Kristy, and I are good friends too. I tell her kids what to do and she tells my kids what to do. We go to Sunday School and church together. Kristy has two daughters and has been a single mother ever since I've known her, which has been around five years. She has a job in a school cafeteria and struggles sometimes but I've never seen it get her down. She invariably has a good attitude and is always smiling. Kristy got married to Herbie today. He's a good guy. My husband married them - they came to our house and got married in our living room with my kids and her kids and her niece and nephew in attendance. Oh, and me too. Ha! Emily made them a cute little cake, which was delicious, and it inspired me to vacuum my living room.  I'm glad she found a good guy. She needed a break. |
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Well, it is the time of miracles I guess.