I received a call at 7:30am this morning from my granddaughter Krystin. She is the granddaughter that we raised most of her life and finally adopted a few years ago. She had become a mother at 1:30am.

Her daughter, Juliana Nevaeh (that is Heaven spelled backwards...go figure out that one), was 7 lbs., 1 oz and was 20-1/2 inches long. She has a full head of black hair. She's a bit bruised on her face because she wouldn't turn over before entering the birth canal so she was born face upwards but she'll get over that.

I was very torn upon hearing the news. On one hand I was thrilled and on the other, horrified. I am too young to be a great-grandmother (I instantly thought). It does, however, mean our family is expanding and another generation is now set on the road to life...good, bad or indifferent.

Krys texted me a picture from her cell phone which, due to it's size, was almost worthless but showed a little figure with white cap sleeping peacefully with one hand thrown up in her bed. She sleeps just like her mother was my thought on seeing the pose.

Of course, the first thing I did was send out emails to my family and friends to let them know the baby has made her appearance. Then I proceeded to call some of my friends who are internet-impaired as soon as the time was reasonable.

Now I somewhat regret being so far away from both of them. I would just love to be able to hold the new baby and get to memorize her features and just see what she smiles like (even if they do say *it's just gas*). You can see so much of what will be their personality as a baby long before most think so but, after four kids and many grandchildren, I don't believe that for a moment. Kids are born with their personalities and you can see it. Whether they are fussy, placid or just adorable because they are so easy-going. I will miss that. We probably won't get to see the baby until we have to travel to Florida if and when our house sells. In the meantime, I will have to settle for her mother's enthusiastic descriptions and pictures. It makes me a little sad.

I remember when I had my first child, a daughter also. I was over 1500 miles away from family and friends, in a strange new state (Florida) and it made me feel so lonely not to be able to share. At least Krys has a load of friends down there for emotional and, hopefully, physical support. It won't compensate but it will suffice, I hope.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful day. I'm still grinning over the new addition. AND still making calls just to share.

A few years back, one of my sisters gave me an afghan pattern that I fell in love with and started using. It was so different from the usual ripple pattern that I had been trying to get *into* and was just bored. This one kind of looked like the steps of a Mayan temple and was very simple. I made bunches of afghans for my niece's three young sons, my only granddaughter at the time, my living room and a couple friends. I almost couldn't stop making them.

I varied the colors to suit the person, using two, three or four different colors. I finally ran out of yarn and then broke my foot so I couldn't even go out and shop for more. I finally stopped making them because I got involved in a different project and then began working for our own company that we started. I did scan the instructions and store them on my computer for the future. It lasted until my youngest granddaughter was born and she was the last recipient of my *cascade* afghan (as I have since found out it was called).

Shortly after completing her afghan on the very day she was born, my husband, in an effort to upgrade something on my computer, crashed my hard drive and lost all my stored patterns, pictures and various other things of importance to me, I found out that my sister couldn't locate the pattern any more. I resigned myself to having to find a different one. Alas, I never found one as easy or that I liked as much.

Fast forward about 10 years and I found myself promising my grandkids that I would crochet them each an afghan. Well, it was my granddaughters that actually wanted them after seeing the one I had made for myself years ago. They liked the pattern and I decided I would try to locate it again. After a couple weeks of site searching, I finally asked the same sister that had originally given me the pattern if she ever ran across it again or remembered what it was called. Lo and behold, she had found it and remembered the name. I could have kissed her!

I got on Google and found it. That was about three or four months ago. I was recuperating from gall bladder surgery and had a lot of yarn available so I started working on one for my granddaughter Amy. I worked on it for short periods of time because I couldn't sit upright for very long while I was healing. I finally finished hers and almost immediately started on my youngest granddaughters afghan in her favorite colors. When I finished that one, I decided I had to make one for their brother, my only grandson. Since he is involved in the Civil Air Patrol, I thought I would do his in red, white and blue. It came out beautiful. By the time I had finished his, I really thought I was done for a while. After all, during this same time period, we had made a major move into our Alabama home, gotten unpacked and reorganized and I had injured my back. It seemed that all the time I spent *sitting upright* had gone into making afghans. My husband was a little tired of my always have the afghan I was working on cluttering up the coffee table and a bag of different colored yarn on the floor next to the couch. I swore I was done, done, done.

However........

I have my first great-grandchild due any day now. I don't think two days had gone by before I took stock of the yarns I still had (without having to go out and purchase any more) and I started another one. Yes, I did. My husband just rolled his eyes and laughed. That was a little over a week ago. I am almost done with one that my 6' 4" son-in-law could use easily. I will be starting one for him, in his favorite color scheme, when I complete this one (which should be in a day or two).

What you have to understand is that right now I have a stack of seven (count them....seven) afghans that I have made since Christmas time that I now need to get out to the people for which they were made. My niece in Ohio is supposed to get three of them. I think one might be too small for her to use (it was made for her to use for the baby in the winter) but I will send it to her any way. Her daughter can always use it later on for one of her larger dolls or she might just like to clutch it. The other is larger and should work and I ended making one for her #4 son that never received on from me. Add my three grandkids with the new pattern and one I made for my sister-in-law just because I love her .

I told the Beast I need to find at least two boxes because I will drop off the ones for my son's kids when I make the trip up to Chicago in June for our family reunion. He lives only 80 miles from us and is (almost) on the way. It's just a short jog off what would be the normal route. They won't make the reunion this year but will come to my home in August for a kind of mini-reunion when my Florida sister comes to visit during her sojourn to visit with her daughter in Ohio. The Beast and I will have lunch with our son and daughter-in-law (and the kids) when we hit the bustling town of Tullahoma, Tennessee before continuing on to Louisville to pick up our daugher and see our son-in-law and the oldest of our two boys. We will spend the night there before continuing on to Chicago the next day.

I was sitting on the couch today, crocheting, and made the comment to the Beast that I would love to make an afghan for his brother and sister-in-law but had no clue as to what colors they would welcome. At first, I thought he was going to have a fit then....surprise, surprise, he said to me...."Why don't you call and ask Betty?"

Well, I attempted to call, figuring strike while the iron is hot and he won't complain about the yarn and the afghan mess (as he calls it) but they were out. I will call again when I get offline because I want to know their colors before I hit WalMart today so I can get all the yarn I will need for it.

The Beast was headed for the bedroom earlier for his grandpa nap and stopped in the doorway and said to me, "This is the first time I can actually point to and say you are obsessed with anything. I've never seen you like this before. "

I had to think about it and I guess he is right. I know I will soon become bored, however, because I have my garden and just planted some flowers and those will be needing my care. When I break the pattern, it will fade away until winter, I am sure. But when winter comes to Alabama, beware! I will be making more afghans for sure.

And just what are YOUR favorite colors? I need at least three...... <>

Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend everyone!

Friends of ours from Savannah, Georgia called today to let us know they were coming to visit us for the Memorial Day weekend. Both are fun and interesting. She is a psychiatrist that specializes in the anger issues that many handicapped adults have and the problems they face in society. He is a mechanical engineer with a zest for learning new things all the time and a perfectionist in everything he does. He's tried (and learned) many different things in his life and had several companies that he dissolved once he had mastered them (figure out that one !) I guess it comes from having a wife that was making so much money that he was free to try almost anything without worrying about paying bills, unlike most other people. It makes for many enjoyable conversations when sitting around the deck. Especially since we've known him for so many years and know that he isn't talking through his hat.

She got a special award from the state of Georgia for her work and is asked by the Governor to address many gatherings if her schedule allows. One of the first things she does is get rid of many of the drugs that her people have been on because she says they don't solve the issues these people face but merely make them more *manageable* which she finds unacceptable. It's very demanding work for her but she loves it.

She and her husband are looking forward to being able to retire, however, and recently purchased a second home about a half hour away from us. It's a brand new, smaller home (well, smaller than the huge home they now live in) on a beautiful lake south of us. The yard is small, which makes HIM happy but has the big, new and high tech kitchen that SHE insists on having. They make friends easily and love to entertain so they both should have a lot of fun when she no longer has to work six days a week most weeks. Her having the whole memorial weekend off is a rare treat and I am looking forward to spending the time with her.

The husband is MY hubby's friend for many years. They both got their AC Contractors licenses together and even considered going into business together at one time. However, it didn't work out since WE stayed in Florida and HE moved to New York due to his (at the time) wife becoming ill. Since the hubby doesn't make friends easily, it's a treat that he has someone around other than me to talk to for a while.

I'm updating this because I can't stay asleep with the Beast moaning and groaning every time he moves in bed. His leg is still very stiff and sore even though he did try to rest it today. He DID spend time watering his new grass twice, however, and did it by hand so he had to stand up and walk around more than I thought he should. He's too stubborn to listen to me so I just watched and worried.

I had to break down and take half a pain pill today because, unlike most other days, I could not get the muscles in my back to relax. Making dinner was a real chore and made me break out in a sweat a couple times. But I got through it and went to bed early.

Now the bad thing about going to bed early is that you tend to get up early because of it. You would think that while trying to heal you might actually use the extra time available for some therapeutic rest. It doesn't work that way. If I go to bed between 9pm and 10 pm, I wake up around 6am and can't return to sleep. It doesn't help that the sun is usually up by that time so I think that has a lot to do with it.

Since the Beast was watching the basketball playoffs, I hit the sack around 8pm figuring that I might be able to get a couple hours of decent sleep before he joined me in bed. No such luck. I was exhausted and, I think, overtired so I lay there for almost two hours before drifting off. I MIGHT have gotten an hours rest before the Beast climbed noisily into bed moaning and groaning loud enough to wake me as he got settled. If I wasn't expecting company, I might have actually gone and slept in the guest room. I just don't want to have to put another set of fresh linens on so I will be heading back to our room shortly and give it another try.

On a worrisome note, I changed the nectar in the hummingbird feeder a couple days ago and noticed that we weren't getting any hummingbirds. I really got concerned because we are used to seeing them feeding almost constantly. I finally went over and gave it a shake and realized it's been *vapor=locked* I guess is how you describe it. I got lots of air bubbles until I finally felt and saw the nectar reach the flowers. I just hope they find out it's *working* again.

Our friends are going to want to go out to eat at least once while they are here (and we will probably make the trip to their new home to see how the finishing work is going) so both the Beast and I need to be in halfway decent shape by this weekend. Pray for us because we don't want to be wet blankets for this. There is nothing worse than being in pain while having company. It makes them feel like they are intruding and you feel like a bad host or hostess.

Have a great day everyone.

One of the few people that read this blog complained to me that I am not updating it often enough and I had to admit, they were right. I thought I would explain.

The Beast (my hubby) had a couple strokes....one major and one minor one six months afterwards. This happened five years ago (against all the odds that he would survive that long). One of the main reasons, I believe, is because he is extraordinarily stubborn. This actually aided in his recovery but may lead to his either having another stroke or just plain killing himself. Let me explain.

We women have this *thing* (call it instinct or just our nature because we have ourselves AND our family's welfare to consider) about taking care of ourselves (as well as those *others* in our charge). We learn to *listen* to our bodies. If we injure ourselves, we do, for the most part, take care of that area. We either take to our beds and let our bodies recover or we go to see the doctor. We try NOT to PUSH our bodies to do more than they can at the time. It helps us recover quicker and, if we listen well enough, we do it early and don't get quite as sick as our stubborn men.

Well, the Beast was having a problem with his left leg (it was left side paralysis that he suffered with his strokes). My advice to him was "your body is telling you that you are overdoing things. You need to relax and rest up for a day or two and let it heal." Did he listen? Of course not.

He always, and I mean ALWAYS, has to have some sort of project (or two or three) going at the same time. Most of these require a LOT of activity. Like his lawn obsession. We had a lot of big, bare spots in our *yard*. He decided to grow his own grass with the use of grass seed and lots of Miracle Grow soil (It has fertilizer already in it!)

That required some rototilling of the areas involved, then raking to gather together any rocks and clumps, then seeding and spreading of the dirt over the seeds. Then watering. Now this may not sound like a big deal but if your leg is already giving you problems, the handling of the rototiller is in itself a chore. You have to brace yourself to keep it from tossing you around because the soil here is HARD. It's so tightly packed and dry that it almost feels like some joker added cement to the mixture. Trying to turn it with a shovel is a joke. When the Beast planted all his trees, just getting the holes big enough was a job that also required watering the ground in between efforts to try to soften it up a little.

So I am watching him, on his hands and knees, crawling around on the ground and gathering up all these clumps and rocks thinking "this is not going to be pretty." I was right. Each day the leg was getting worse and worse. He just would NOT listen to me and I finally stopped suggesting anything. He wouldn't even take a tylenol to help out the leg because he has this *thing* about medication in any shape or form. It's tough enough to get him to take his high blood pressure medication each day. I just remind him on occasion (if I think he's not be conscientious) that "if you have another stroke, it's a nursing home for you. I will NOT go through that again!"

To cut to the chase, now he's been disturbing my sleep and his with his moans and groans during the night when he tries to turn over or move. He can hardly move in the morning and it's gotten so bad that I have to put his shoes and socks on for him. Even getting UNdressed to take a shower he makes the most animal groans that I have ever heard. I am now hobbling around trying to keep him fed and kind of encourage him to rest inbetween his various *absolutely necessary* activities. Some of the things he MUST do daily, he's actually allowed me to do for him but many of them require HIM because I just don't do it right. (raised eyebrow here)

Anyway, with him being in the shape he is at the moment, I haven't been online much at all except to hurriedly check my email and just see if any of my family is online to chat. After all, even *I* need someone to complain to on occasion . I do, however, have to keep an eye on him because sometimes that leg just gives out and he has to be helped to his feet. I'm worried that he might actually hurt himself one of these times.

Now add the garden we put in to that equation (which also requires watering since Alabama is in a serious drought situation) and I have my own things to worry about. The tomatoes are doing well, as are the watermelon and cantaloupe plants. I've added bush beans, pickling cucumbers, salad cucumbers, radishes, beets and lettuce to the mix. These are still in the infant stage so they require care and watering. I monitor the water needs a couple times a day to make sure I don't over/underwater. Then I also take care of the inside of the house, clothes washing, drying and hanging up/folding as well as three meals a day. Yes, I do make breakfast....although some days it's just cereal....because we *old* people need three meals at least.

I haven't felt as stressed out as I do at the moment since the first stroke. That stress went on well over a year before I could finally relax. I sure hope it doesn't last that long this time.

Then add the fact that I fell out of my shower a couple days ago and re-hurt my back and you can see why I am so distressed over all this. Yes, I didn't realize how badly my equilibrium was affected by my one plugged up ear (from my allergies clogging up my sinuses during all this dry, spring weather). I made the mistake of closing my eyes to rinse off my hair during my shower and tilted my head back. Imagine my surprise when I found myself falling over. I twisted into a kind of ball to avoid hitting the china top of our bathroom counter and that didn't help. I do think it's why I didn't knock myself out, however so it's a moot point. Neither one of us is in good shape right now .

So, if I have been lax about keeping everyone updated, please forgive me. I have to go now. He's making movements again about heading outside to do *something*. I can tell by the moans.

Have a great day. Someone should.

I finally got some pain pills and, since I hadn't used any in so long, was able to use just half a pill for the first relief from my back pain in weeks. What a treat it is to walk totally upright instead of half bent over like some elderly cavewoman. I felt like I was living a Geico commercial. :laughing

So I have finally been able to get some of the things done that I have wanted to do since the weather warmed up here in Northern Alabama. My garden is now planted with watermelon, cantaloupe, bush beans, green peppers, pickling cucumbers and radishes. Lettuce will soon be ready to add to it, along with beets, regular cucumbers and a small section of herbs. My tomato plants are in planters and pots on the wooden deck (and doing nicely...they had lots of the little yellow flowers on them when I checked today). We used Miracle Grow soil and they have gotten quite large in a relatively short time.

I am still working on afghans when I take a rest or am watching TV in the evening. I completed the two for my son's daughters and decided I couldn't give them each their own afghan and not have one ready for their brother, my only grandson. I've got it about half done in just a few days and it is turning out beautifully. I decided on using red, white and blue for him since he is quite the little patriot. He joined some kind of Jr. Air Patrol group last year and seems to love it. I haven't seen it but I think he might just like the uniform and, of course, the opportunity to eventually learn to fly has to be irresistable to him.

My daughter-in-law finished her finals in college and is now enjoying some much needed rest from studies. She's been going to college non-stop since the spring semester last year. She has wanted to attend college since I knew her as a young woman and hasn't wanted to waste a minute of time now that she has the opportunity. She's worked very hard (she's terrible at math) and has managed to maintain a B average. She actually has an A in almost all her courses EXCEPT for math or she would have all A's. She hates that but, like her counselor at school told her, she has to learn not to be obsessed with the idea that only an A means she's successful.

She's looking forward to her kids getting out of school so they can do some hiking, biking and nature walks. I know she feels like she hasn't really spent any quality time with them and this is her opportunity. I understand her feeling since I once suffered from the same thing while raising MY kids. We did a lot of camping on weekends as well as two weeks hitting state parks and doing the typical camping stuff, including hiking through the mountains. Ahhhh, to be young and healthy again. I couldn't manage a third of the things I did back then but who would really want to at this time of life. I prefer leisurely walks and small challenges now. I never WAS Jane to my hubby's Tarzan. I enjoyed camping partly because the hubby took over most of the cooking. What IS it about being outdoors that brings out the testosterone in men?

My hubby, who once proclaimed that our retirement would be full of leisure and NO LAWN is now going nuts trying to straighten out the grass situation on our property. He's been reading stuff, including the packages of grass seed at our local Lowes, in order to fill in the bare spots. From having NO grass to wanting perfect grass...how and when did that dream go by the wayside?

He keeps coming home with baskets and pots of flowers. I tried to tell him that they were annuals and would only look good for a while but he seems to think he can make them last all summer. In one basket, the flowers have gone through their cycle and is pretty much just healthy greenery and he's going nuts trying to coax them into sprouting more flowers. We shall see.

I even moved some of my pots and pans to different cabinets. Since living here, I have discovered that they were not actually in good spots for daily use. The hubby complained bitterly when I first did it because he couldn't find what he wanted in two seconds. He has, however, discovered that the less frequently used pots and pans are much easier to get to in the new places so that argument has stopped. He really hated having to remove pots to get the one you wanted that ended up at the back of the cabinet as much as I did. Everything is more convenient now.

I even got the last of the stuff that belonged in the camper out where it needed to go. Now I just have to get everything reorganized in there again so we only have to load food and our clothing if we decide to use it. I hate having to take hours to get it packed up so I am pretty happy with things right now.

We are going to take a weekend trip next weekend to attend a festival in Florence. I've been looking forward to going since I found out about it last year. It's an annual event, complete with pot luck dinner the first night and a two day contest of people/bands/whatever with dulcimers in it. I just love that instrument and am determined to buy one and get lessons for myself. I just hope I can find a teacher locally or it will just end up being a decoration on the wall of our little office here at the house.

My girlfriend from high school and her hubby are attempting to come down so we can go together to see this. Spending two days with someone he's never met (HER hubby is a total stranger to MY hubby) will definitely be unique. However, he adores my girlfriend and loves her sense of humor and fun so I think it will be all right in the end. My girlfriend was shocked that her hubby actually accepted the invitation from me to stay with us while they look at properties here. She said that he wouldn't even stay with her family when they went to visit, preferring to get a motel or hotel somewhere closeby. I told her I think it's the fact that we are just a normal couple and don't have scads of money is probably more like it. Her family has all either married VERY WELL or been overachievers and done well financially on their own. Her hubby, who suffered with dyslexia, was a car salesman all his life. He did well and they lived comfortably but not like her family. I really don't care why he will stay with us. I am just looking forward to having her around so we can steal away and do OUR thing while they are here. We have always gotten along like best friends no matter how many years might pass before we were able to physically see each other. It was always like we had just seen each other a few days or a couple weeks beforehand. Since we have been friends since high school, it is amazing to still be good friends.

Well, I really only got up to get some water and I am halfway dozing here in my chair so I think it's time to crawl back into bed and get a few more hours sleep. I've been getting up pretty consistently at around 6:30 am and taking a short nap some time during the day. I've finished my water and figure I have about two hours before my bladder will want to wake me.

VIVA PAIN PILLS!!!! Have a great day and be happy.

Today we decided we needed to find out how we get rid of an unwanted dishwasher. First step was to call our garbage service, right? Wrong. Well, I guess it would have been if it had been listed. That's right, it wasn't listed. Not that it had an UNlisted phone number but the phonebook didsn't list it under any category that we could think of....like trash removal, garbage services, hauling, waste management...heck, I even looked under the state and local services. So, I got the great idea of calling one of the other utility companies. They should know, right? Wrong.

Apparantly we are in a black hole here...at least for information. I found out that, of all the communities that surround us, only our town does not list a city hall phone number. I know they have one because we've driven past it several times. It must be an empty shell or something. I even called the infamous 4-1-1. There is another useless effort. If you can't find it in the phonebook from the phone company, how would they know? I guess it must be a new company or something even though I have been paying them for almost a year now. **Sigh**

I finally got a number from this gal that took her valuable time and told me that our current garbage company (she thought she remembered) had bought out this OTHER company and she still had that number on her computer. She gave it to me and wished me luck. I almost fainted when I called it and a real live person answered AND they answered it with the name I've been writing on the checks!!! Amazing. It only took me almost a half hour to get.

Anyway, that gal informed me that they didn't pick up *stuff like that* and advised me to call a waste removal company OR the county. She did give me the contact number for something called District 3, which I was informed was where we lived. So, I called there. A very nice gal answered and was extremely helpful. She said, yes, they did pick up stuff like that but the next scheduled pickup for our area wasn't until May 23. I was frustrated but told her to put me on the list and where should we put it to help out? She asked me if it was outside already and I told her we had it in the garage currently. She then told me that if we could put it outside the garage, it would be helpful because......now, get this......on days they can't do roadwork (like when it's raining) they go ahead and pick up the stuff they know is outside. She then told me that she would give me a call if that happened before the 23rd, however, which I thought was nice.

Now, what confuses me is this.....how does it make any sense at all that the same crews that work on the roads here also do bulk pickups for big items? Is it for landfill or what? I am just floored over that. Speaking of which, they do the most amazing repaving of roads. I have never seen any company as well organized.

They were repaving a road a short distance from our house and it happens to be a busy one. We groaned when we saw it but figured we couldn't do anything but grin and bear it. Well, let me tell you, they have it down to a science! I won't describe it in details but as they were taking up the old road, they were loading it into trucks that hauled the rubble away, behind it were all the supplies and equipment to do each step in a timely manner. It was no nonsense and get it done! They paved more road in one day than I have seen get done in a year in some areas (and that includes Florida at it's finest....if there is such a thing). They repaved several miles of road in less than two weeks. There was only a brief time when we were reduced to any sort of wait since traffic had to be directed for the one lane open for traveling. Amazing....absolutely amazing. I know a lot of companies that could use some lessons from these people here.

I seem to be healing. Slowly, slowly but I am getting better. I still have a lot of pain but if I pace myself and keep moving, it gets better every day. I was really starting to worry about muscles atrophying on me because, between the gall bladder problems and surgery, then the back injury, I was spending more time prone than upright. Today, I actually cleaned both bathrooms...and that includes the toilets (a job I just hate). It's the getting down and really cleaning it since men are so non-specific when they pee in the dark of night. They looked really nice (and smelled nice, too) when I got done. I was proud. I almost felt like declaring them unuseable....LOL

I spent some time sitting on the deck today watching the hummingbirds darting around like bugs. A couple of them seem to be fascinated with the wire enclosure we have around one of the tomato plants in my Earth Box. They even stop and perch on them. It's amazing to see those tiny little things and how colorful they are....well, most of them. We do have a couple of rather *plain janes* this year. I guess they are the females of the breeds since God seems to have dressed up the males of the species in the bright colors.

I've been putting out some of the yarn ends I trim off as I am crocheting. I started saving them after my sister told me a friend of hers puts them out for the birds to use in their nests. I thought that was kind of a cool way to recycle them so I saved them all winter. I put out a few at first but found the birds were taking them so I put out more in several different areas away from the house but within sight of a window. I hope their babies find the nests a bit more comfortable because of them.

Well, it's the end of another day in Alabama. Tomorrow will be busy for me because I have to be brave and do some grocery shopping. I'm running out of meat variety so I need to pick up some chicken, fish and sausage. I have plenty of veggies, including salad fixings but am almost out of dressings. It's time...sigh.

Have a great day and stay healthy.