TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Today the Beast and two of his buddies (Dennis and Jack) along with the son of Jack, went target shooting at the Beast’s favorite gun range.  The Beast took two of his guns because he needed to fix the sight on one of them.  The other has a scope on it that he adjusted quite a while back.  Dennis brought his gun with him, which is a real trick when you are riding a motorcycle.    I told him it’s a good thing we don’t have any motorcycle gangs in this area or he would have been stopped and, even though his gun was broken down (stock removed), they might have inspected his packs.  I don’t know what the laws are here about such things but cops don’t like motorcycle people with any kind of guns.  Anyway, they loaded up their guns and ammunition and set off around 3 pm.

At first, that left just me and Chewlee who decided to have a pool party with the smallest pool ever (it was a big plastic bowl that we use for Baron’s water when he’s outside).  She put on her bathing suit and I was in charge of the hose.  I sprayed her when she wasn’t expecting it so there was screaming (the fun type) involved.  Then she put about 1/3 of the bowl with water and sat in it.  She drew her feet up and set them along the edge and did a *yahoo!* while I sprayed her some more.  She was having a ball.  We did that for about an hour.  She would take the hose from me occasionally and spray my feet and then give me a head shot.  Trust me, we kept cool!

What was funny was she was playing like that before the *boys* left.  When Dennis pulled into our driveway, she yelled out to him, *Hey, Dennis, come on!  We’re having a pool party!*  She was stuffed into the bowl when she did that and it was just hilarious to watch.  You should have been there!  Too funny!

After we came into the house for Chewlee to get dried off, she got dressed and we went out to the garden to water it.  She, of course, found some newly ripe strawberries that she washed off via the hose and ate, the little stinker.  I told her that if she ate all of the ripe ones she found, we wouldn’t have enough strawberries to make any jam or for me and the Beast to have some.  She didn’t even look embarrassed but said she wouldn’t eat them all after this.  We’ll see how long she keeps that promise.

Then Tara showed up just as we were heading outside for Chewlee to ride her bike.  She had Chance with her and Chewlee was so happy.  They raced around the yard for a bit then went to check out how the wild berries were doing on our other lot.  They brought us a bunch of small berries which was really cute of Chance who only wanted to give them to me.

After a bit, Chewlee went into the house, got her markers, some paper and a couple of packages for under the paper while she and Chance drew pictures.  Tara and I got to talk about a few things like her finding a guy who is doing some of the heavy work around the house that she needed taken care of.  A nice guy who is used to working and even made arrangements to start some work on Tuesday between 6-7am.  Tara told him to make it 7am because she didn’t get up that early.  Now this is a guy who is only about 17 or 18, she thinks.  She told the Beast that he’s a good worker and gets things done faster than she could believe.  She says if we need someone sometime, call her and she’ll give him his phone number.  It’s always nice to know.

The guys got home before Tara left and then the Princess showed up to pick up Chewlee.  I checked with her and, if Chewlee still wants to go to the *sleepover* at Uncle Mustachio’s with me, she can.  The Beast immediately said she could have no markers or crayons in the car.  I told him she would have her leap pad and her dvd player and that would be all she needed.  I plan on bringing along my Nook so she can read some of her books I have downloaded on it if she wants, too.

The Beast took Baron on his daily run around the circle.  He rides his motor scooter (Chewlee calls it the *mooter scooter*) and sometimes takes Chewlee along with him.  She sits behind him and just loves it.  Poor Chance got all upset because he couldn’t go along.  The Beast, when I told him, felt bad but promised Chance to take him the next time he was at our house.  Chance had cried when they took off but when the Beast said he would take him next time, Chance was really happy over that.

The house seemed so quiet when everyone left and it was just me, the Beast and Baron.  But it was nice.  I set up everything for dinner (just steamed hot dogs and mac and cheese).  I cut up onion, sliced a tomato, got out the condiments and celery salt and put on the water for the pasta.  Then I went out on the deck with Baron and relaxed for a bit until the Beast got home with the hotdogs and buns.

He headed for bed early and I will probably do the same.  I slept great last night and hope to do the same tonight.  I wish everyone a great night’s sleep and a fantastic upcoming week. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Yesterday was a busy one for me.  Busier than usual mainly because I did a lot of harvesting.  I got enough of my green beans for two meals.  There will be more ready before I leave for Chicago but I am going to have to trust the Beast to have him and Chewlee harvest them.  I wish I could trust him to scald them for me since that kills off the enzyme that makes them mold.  Knowing him, he will leave them in too long and they will be half cooked which is not a good thing either.  I guess I will have to trust him to at least harvest them and I’ll have to do that once I am home.

Chewlee got here shortly after I started working in the garden and she was tickled that I had a bowl ready for her and the small scissors she uses for cutting off the strawberries.  She was disappointed that there weren’t a lot of strawberries that were good.  Some had really soft spots from laying on the soil.  But she went through all the plants and told me about the ones that are on them that are green.  I got a plant-by-plant report.    I cleaned out the area we have been using for the lettuce and radishes.  Something rather large had gotten in it.  We know that by the two areas that were rather on the mashed side.  One had lettuce that was smashed down that went into my cucumber section.  I discovered I have three cucumbers started already and one of them is almost ready to be harvested.  Yum!  Then Chewlee and I gathered up the ripe tomatillos.  They are so ripe that they only had to be touched to come off the plant.  I ended up having to gather up some of the ones that had fallen down off the surface of the soil underneath the plants.

The Beast was bemoaning the fact that his green pepper plants didn’t have a lot of green peppers started but I pointed out that they are still full of blossoms and hadn’t really gotten started yet.  Once I dug my way  through the tomato plant branches that seem determined to take over, I found the jalapeno plants and they have started producing tiny little peppers.  I have no idea how long before those will be ready.  I’ll just have to watch them carefully.  They have a tendency to get overlarge quickly if you miss picking one.  It’s almost like it is saying, *Hey!  Here’s one you missed!* 

The Beast has actually produced two or maybe three tomato plants that are damn near seven feet tall now!  It’s incredible.  Two of them have now fallen over quite a bit because the tomatoes on them are HUGE!  And still very green.  I dusted them with Sevin since I saw a couple tomato worms that I squished and Chewlee went screaming away from me when I did that.  I told her that if she saw any to let me know because they are the ones that make the holes in the tomatoes.  That interested her for some reason so she came back and helped me inspect what I could before I dusted the plants.

The Sevin powder is actually good for all the insects that create havoc in our garden.  I read the instructions and the plants you can use it for and all our plants are on the list.  So I lightly dusted all of them just to make sure we get as good a harvest as it looks like we will get.  We even have squash underneath the huge leaves but there’s lots of space so you can see all  the small ones that have started.  It’s always amazing to me to see how they all develop and grow.

Bratfink sent me a link of shroom pictures to see if any of them are the ones I found underneath the leaves of the squash plant.  I found two of them but the yellow ones are still not in amongst them.  Thanks for the pics, Sis.  Chewlee found and picked more blackberries but we don’t really have enough yet to do something with so I washed them and put them into a plastic bag. 

We went next door and the raspberries are blooming and have a few tiny little berries on them.  That disappointed Chewlee but the blueberries there are full of tiny blueberries.  We will watch those closely.

By the time we got back in the house, it was all I could do to immerse the veggies in cold water.  I decided to let them set for a bit while I rested my shaking legs.  I had done a LOT of walking and my hip hurt due to the fact that I am still not walking correctly.  I went a long time with my right leg healing and putting too much pressure on my left leg during that time.  Since I almost never use my cane, I STILL put too much pressure on the left side and that causes the pain in my hip.  Since the right leg is healed now, there’s really no reason for that but, hey, I’m only human!  I’ll get it eventually.

Chewlee, ever the ball of energy, kept running outside to ride her bike and watch for Ian (the little boy next door) to get home from nursery school.  When he did, she got to play with him for a while since his mother was outside watering her flowers.  She came home when he went in to eat.  She got a little depressed when his parents went out to visit with his grandparents for a while but she told me she knew he had to go see them because he was so excited over going for a visit.  She said to me, *It’s like me when I come to see YOU, Grandma!*  I told her she got to see me almost every day and even spent two nights a week here.  Her reply?  *So?  I still like to come here.*  I think it’s because I can spend so much time with her.  It’s so different for parents and I think they miss a lot of the fun of their kids but life happens.  I don’t have a limited time to get wash, grocery shopping and house cleaning done like parents do.  I CAN spend more time interacting directly with Chewlee.  It’s how God rewards Grandparents.  **Grin**

When it was bedtime for Chewlee (she came and told me that), we both went to bed together.  She loved that and gave me instructions on how her mother told her she could cuddle with me (that’s what Chewlee told me).  So we cuddled and, after a little bit of playing, we finally fell asleep.  I slept all night long.  I didn’t even have to get up for the bathroom, which was a huge surprise.  Then it was time for Chewlee to dress for church and she did so with a big smile and no problems.  She insisted on brushing her own hair and she put it into a pony tail down around the nape of her neck but it was neat.  She’s learning to do a good job on her own.

Chewlee did one thing that surprised me yesterday.  She took and ate a green pepper (uncooked) after I had washed it.  She always says she doesn’t like vegetables but I find she eats them on occasion, often without promjjpting.  She watched me cleaning the lettuce and putting it in the bowl.  I then cleaned and separated the green beans.  She wondered why I blanched them in hot water and I told her but I’m not sure she understood entirely.  But she will learn.

Well, love you all.  I have a lot of wash to do today and I need to start my packing.  Talk to you later if anything new comes up. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Due to a busy day harvesting and replanting some things, as well as doing things to get ready for my trips, I am taking the night off from blogging in order to go to bed early.  I will, however, blog in the morning after the Beast and Chewlee leave for church.  Deal?  I thought so. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

The Beast’s buddy showed up early today.  I had no idea because the two of them set off across the street to his lots and started working on mowing them down to what should be a normal level.  I had no idea that he had started out mowing the lots at a height of 5 inches.  It didn’t look to me like it was all that high when he started out but I never crossed the street to really look either.

Since the three lots are over 1-1/2 acres, it took something like four separate going overs to get the grass down to a decent height.  At least with the two of them working on it, neither of them had to do it to the point of exhaustion in the heat.  Did they get hot?  Yes, they did.  Did they suffer?  I guess not since they both lived through it…..LOL.

Later on, Dianne came back to the house after doing a few errands.  That’s when I became aware that we had company.  Dianne and I grabbed comfy chairs and sat outside watching the activity and chatting until Chewlee got home from Summer Camp.  The poor baby fell asleep on the bus again and this time, after the bus driver woke her up, she laid back down before the Beast got over there to get her off the bus.  The poor thing was tired and she really had no idea where she was when she was awakened by the driver.  All she knew was she was hot and tired.  But I brought her into the house and let her lay down in my recliner.  I brought her some cold milk (and the pickle she asked for) which she held in her hand like a treasure.  She slept for about 15 minutes, then woke up, ate her pickle, drank her milk and then was raring to go again.  Out she went (and so did I) and I sat back down while she got on her bike to ride around and *tire herself out*.  Her words, not mine.  I know better. 

Gonna take Chewlee up to Marcus’s house with me on Tuesday.  She will be here anyway so I will bring her with me to meet up with her mother.  She will go home with her mother then.  We are all avoiding telling her that I am going to be going to Chicago.  She still really wants to go with me but her mother made other plans for her.  It’s a shame, really, because I do have fun with her.  But next year for sure she is going with me come hell or high water.

Dianne went out back to check out the garden for herself and ended up checking out the blueberries.  I hadn’t thought to do that.  She found about a dozen or so nice big blueberries that she picked and brought in the house.  They were tart (we checked…LOL) but truly are huge.  Now I have to check on those to see how many more are ready in the next few days.

She saw the same mushrooms that I had found and urged us not to try eating them (like I would!) AND she also found a few other strange s’rooms including one that was blue!  The Beast had to go back and check them out and said, *Well, I’ll be damned!*  He picked them all and threw them in the garbage because he is never sure what Baron (or Chewlee) might do so he won’t take the chance.  I guess I give Chewlee a little more credit than I should because it never even occurred to me that she might be tempted to try them out.  If it’s a veggie or something around it, she wants no part of it.  Not without bribery, anyway. 

Well, I want to get this posted early.  I will be heading for bed early tonight once again since Chewlee will be here fairly early and I want to run up to Belk’s as soon as they open to try to find two good pair of slacks.  Otherwise, I may just look for some when I head for Nashville and Louisville.  After cleaning out my closets and getting rid of the clothes I will never fit in again, I was left with very little to wear nowadays.

Love you all.  Have a great weekend. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

I went out into the garden today to check on the progress of all our veggies and the strawberries.  The strawberries are large but not ripe yet.  My bush beans are full of beans that I will need to pick tomorrow and perhaps can them before I start on my vacation plans.

The Beast’s tomato plants are just full of unripened tomatoes.  Two of his plants are falling over because the cones can’t hold them up, the tomatoes are that large and heavy.  He plans on getting a couple big stakes to help them out.  His tomatillos are just full of those and they are ripe enough for me to can them for future use in tomato sauce.  I ended up pulling out my radishes because they were going to seed.  I need to plant some more lettuce since we’ve pretty much used those up now.  There’s just enough left for one more salad if I mix it in with some head lettuce.  The jalapenos are doing well.  I can hardly wait for those to be big enough to harvest.  I am definitely going to can some for use this winter.  I’ll also use some of them for when I make my salsa.  That never lasts us at all because the Princess and Tara love it.  I make some special for Tara because she doesn’t like it hot.  She prefers my mild salsa.

The Beast’s squash plants (only two this time) are going great guns.  I found some yellow mushrooms underneath the leaves and wonder if they are any good to use.  I’ll have to Google them and see what I find out about them.  I’ve never seen anything like them.

The strawberry plant roots (that’s what they looked like) seem to be finally growing.  That should please the Beast.  He planted a bunch of them in one section of the planters as a test.  I hope they do well because about six of them are for those huge strawberries you see in the stores but never seem to find in any nursery for your garden no matter what they say.

So, here’s my schedule for next week.  I leave on the 25th to go to Marcus Aurelius’s house to see my Marine grandson and visit with the family.  I hope to take them out to lunch.  After that, I will drive up to Mustachio’s in Louisville.  We are having dinner with his mentor, Don and his office manager, Deanna.  Then I will spend the night with him.  I will leave early on Wednesday (which happens to be my birthday, BTW), stop off at Marcus’s for a bit, then continue on home.  I will meet up with my niece, Tara, to have an early dinner as her gift to me for my birthday (you are so sweet, Tara.  Thank you ahead of time!).  On Thursday, I fly out of Huntsville with a stopover in Atlanta then continue on to Midway Airport in Chicago.  I arrive around 6:30pm and will pick up a rental car there.  I will continue on to my sister-of-my-heart’s home and should be there before dark. 

I will be there until July 3rd where I will fly back in a reversal of my flight up there and arrive back in Huntsville at 5:30 pm.  I will be able to spend the 4th with my family.  I’m hoping we might picnic at Lake Guntersville.  I haven’t been there in two years but I think Chewlee would enjoy it.  I will make some potato salad and we can grill some hot dogs and have some watermelon for dessert.  Doesn’t that sound like a perfect day?  It does to me. 

I have no idea whether or not I will be able to post anything while I am gone.  I will try.  I have plans to meet up with several girlfriends of mine from high school.  I am also going to try to meet up with some cousins of mine that I have lost contact with since their mother died.  Since we have no land line telephone any more, there’s no way they could even contact me by looking up our phone number.  I didn’t have their phone number because I had their mother’s.  I finally found one of my cousin’s phone numbers so I will call him when I get into Chicago and see if we can arrange a time to get together.  These are the nephews and niece of my biological father.  They spent years trying to find me and finally did when I was around 35 years old.  Losing track of them now seems sad, don’t you think?

Okay, time to get this posted.  I promised the Beast some food when he gets home from church tonight.  I’m just going to fry up some pork chops and make some yellow rice with it and some corn.  I need to make the corn before it dries up and is only fit for feeding pigs or chickens. 

Love you all.  Hope you have a nice weekend. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Today we had a surprise visitor right around lunch time.  Tara came in her new (used) car.  She said she felt a little bad about the car just because of how she came to be able to buy it.   I told her to stop thinking like that.  She needed a new car so that she can get around to her clients and expand her business.  She also has kids that she has to take care of.  She has Keith, who will be graduating in another year and Chance, who will be starting school next year.  Talk about a wide spectrum! 

She brought lunch with her today from Taco Bell but the Beast had bought us a variety of stuff from Captain D’s so we had our dinner already taken care of courtesy of Tara.  She also had brought me a bunch of clothes to take a look at and see if I wanted any of them.  They were really great clothes from one of her clients.  Some were just too big for me but there were things that fit me nicely, mostly tops.  I even have some nice shirts that I can use as overshirts that I had been looking for.  A lot of the clothes looked like they had never been worn!  I was really grateful.  I even have this cape top that I can use next winter.  I packed it away with my other winter things that I had just washed to get rid of the tobacco smell.  Now I can take them out to the cottage until I need them next winter.  The Beast just picked up a lot of Damp Rid to put out there to make sure we don’t have too much humidity out there.  We shouldn’t since we DO have air conditioning we can run from time to time to help out that way.  He’ll know by how the Damp Rid is absorbing the moisture whether he needs to run it or not.

Chewlee was funny  today.  We have a rule that she cannot go out front to play unless the Beast or I are out there with her.  I was elected today and she went out for a half hour of riding her bike around until this one program came on that she loves to watch.  After it was over, she wanted to go outside again.  As she told me, *I need the exercise, Grandma.  Riding my bike will help tire me out!*  She said it with a big grin on her face and then sang while she was riding her bike around.  She yelled out to me once, *Do you like my singing?*  Actually, I was surprised at how nice her voice sounded and I told her that I liked her happy song.  She smiled and kept singing while she rode up and down our driveway and the one next door.  We finally came in to watch another of her programs and then Johnnycakes finally came to pick her up.  She hid on him and he came to find her and it was a game with her laughing (he did, too) while he was trying to grab and tickle her.  She finally came out and slid into her flip flops to go home.  Johnnycakes said they were having a cookout and he was in a hurry to get home.  Off they went and I took my nap, finally.

It was warm and sunny out and the Beast waited until around 5:30 or so before he started  mowing the lawn.  He’s become quite good at guiding it now.  He’s not as unsure as he was when he first got it.  Chewlee and I watched him zipping around.  I kept telling her that he was gonna *get her* but she said she was faster on her bike.  But she liked kind of playing hide and seek with him on her bike but staying near me.

Tomorrow, more of the same.  I’m looking forward to that.  I have to run up to the store to pick up a couple things for my trip, including some of those small size shampoos, creme rinses, etcso there’s no problem going through security.

Love you all.  Hope you are having a great week so far. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Monday nights we keep Chewlee overnight because her mother gets off work so late.  This way she doesn’t have to be woken up at 11:30pm and taken home.  It takes her mother an hour and a half to drive home.  That’s just dumb so we keep her here and the bus driver picks her up around 6am.  She is his first stop.   I worry A LOT about her missing the bus and having to have the Beast wake up to take her to school.  It is NOT how I want to start my day.  The result is that I wake up almost every hour on the hour.  Needless to say, I am very tired by the time the alarm goes off at 5am.  I jerk awake when it does off and my stomach rolls for five minutes or so.

I have learned how to wake her up so that she is smiling and not cranky.  I get to have some fun with her and she starts the day off with a smile.  But, as soon as I see her off with a smile and a wave, I head back to bed where I fall asleep at the drop of a hat and I sleep for five or six hours.  Of course, that depends on the Beast.  He does love to come and wake me up for no reason at all.  I tried to tell him that I do NOT sleep soundly on Monday night but it’s like it goes right over his head or he just doesn’t care.  With him, it’s hard to tell.

On Tuesdays, I also tend to need to nap more.  If I only sleep four hours after Chewlee leaves in the morning, I take about two *naps* during the day.  I can’t avoid it; my eyes slam shut and I have to force myself awake in order not to fall off my chair or end up face down on my keyboard.  But…I endure it because I love my great-granddaughter.  I sleep with her on those nights she stays over.  She wants me to and makes me promise that I will, especially if I don’t lay down with her when she goes to bed.  There are times I am talking to people (like Bratfink) or my son, Mustachio.  I also have a couple friends that pop up from time to time lately.  Also, I usually shower late in the evening.  Chewlee hates that but puts up with it because I tell her that I don’ t want to stink, tyvm. 

Today she asked me if she could have a slumber party at my house.  When I asked her what she meant, she told me that she had never had one and thought it would be fun.  However, I told her that she should ask her mother if she could have one since she is supposed to have her friends over for a slumber party.  Here, all she would be having is a sleepover.

We usually go outside before the bus comes and she rides her bike around for a little while and I sit on the steps.  This morning she didn’t get to ride it for long when the bus came round the corner and stopped out front.  She got on the bus, sat down and waved to me.  So did the driver.  He knows that I am her *grandmother* and that she stays with us often.  During the regular school year we adjust the days he picks her up in the morning here at our house (but at a later time, thankfully) and she gets dropped off here pretty much every day. 

Today, Chewlee and I went outside in between her favorite programs.  Just as we went out and Chewlee was riding her bike, the little boy next door arrived home with his mother.  Chewlee was happy because she was told she could play with him for a while.  I told her that I would let her know when her program was on so she and Ian played out front together.  Ian is only 2-1/2 yrs old but he loves Chewlee and she loves having the chance to play with him when she can.

When I called her in to watch her program, she came running and almost forgot her bike.  When the Princess got here, we didn’t hear her come in so, when Chewlee was going to open my door to go get some milk to drink, the Princess scared her with a loud, *Boo!*.  I laughed because Chewlee looked like she was going to collapse on the floor in fright.  Her mother laughed and said, *Did I scare you?*  I think that was pretty obvious…LOL!

We had both bad and good weather here today.  It rained in the morning then the sun came out and so did the heat.  But it wasn’t as hot as it has been.  I don’t think it hit 80 degrees here so that was nice for us.  The Beast’s tomatoes are getting big now and we are getting more strawberries.  I have green peppers that are starting to grow and my cucumbers are climbing like they are supposed to.  I’ve already gotten green beans off my plants and I have a bunch more to collect tomorrow with Chewlee. 

Love you all.  Have a great week. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

The Beast went out with some of his church compadres to pass out invitations to a big rally they are having next Sunday.  He wants me to go with him and Chewlee and I just might because it will mean dinner out for us at one of my favorite places.  I am a bit curious to see if things have really changed much from the last time I went to one of these rallies like he claims.

While he was gone, I pulled down a couple of my old purses (that means I’ve owned them for a while but haven’t used them much) to pick out the one I will bring with me to Chicago.  When I did, I found an old, unopened pack of cigarettes in one of them.  I was shocked…..but very tempted because I was having one of those coughing fits.  I wondered if having a cigarette would really stop the coughing.  It doesn’t.  In fact, after just two or three drags on a cigarette (yes, I gave in and tried one), I was dizzy and a little nauseous.  It was just like when you first start smoking as I recall.  Not worth it!  Trust me!  Do NOT do that after not smoking for 17 days.  I’m still feeling a little sick and am trying more than brushing my teeth to get that taste out of my mouth.  I grabbed the newly opened package and poured water into it then hid it in the garbage so my misstep would be known only to me and not the Beast.  Although he may have had his own misstep along the way, I think that was HIS to keep to himself if that is what he chose to do.

At least I now know that I do NOT want to go through that again.  Not the quitting.  That part was easy once you decide to do it.  I didn’t want that taste in my mouth or that smell to be on me or my clothes or in the air around me.  You don’t notice it when you are smoking but, once you quit, peeeee-uuuuuuu!  It’s awful!  I still can’ t open the doors to that closet without getting a whiff of that stale tobacco smell and I’ve sprayed everything in it a few times with several different products.  The only way it will get out of there is to paint the damn room along with the closet and rip out the carpeting and replace it.  I’m going to take down the blinds and clean them while the weather is good.  The windows can use a good cleaning, too.  Guess I should get going on that now while I am thinking about it and before Chewlee gets here.

Love you all.  Talk to you later. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

I can hardly believe it when my KIDS start complaining about getting old to me.  THEY are complaining about getting old and they are saying all these things to the woman who gave birth to them!  I’m astonished, to say the least.  Marcus told me today that he wanted to age like Charlie Sheen but he looks in the mirror and he sees Martin, instead. 

I see not only wrinkles, no…deep crevasses on my face…and I am scarred from my (missing) big toe to mid-tummy (slightly below the belly button area).  I was looking at the scar from the arterial bypass in my right leg and it actually resembles the shrapnel wound my dad had in his leg from World War 2.  I kid you not.  He would feel some real sympathy for me if he saw it.  It’s the upper part of my right leg….the inside of the thigh….that is so picturesque.  The rest of the surgical wound has actually healed in a nice, thin line that is almost invisible.

I’m not counting the scar on my neck from having the left carotid artery roto-rooted out.  That looked really ugly but it sure healed well.  I’m going to have to have the other side done in the future but that no longer worries me.  I know  it will heal nicely.  I had to have that done because it was affecting my left eye.  Yeah, I’m just falling apart like an old doll that’s had some hard use.

This is the woman that Chewlee thinks just needs a little bit of *her* makeup and looks beautiful.  Gotta love her for that.  How can you NOT love a child that feels like that about you?  I love her to pieces.  She worries about me but she also keeps me moving and prevents me from acting as old as I sometimes feel.  Even when she’s chewing me out (yes, she does) for yelling at her for some reason or other, she can still make me laugh over the way she does it.  She’s not like other six-year-olds.  Her vocabulary is what is so incredible.  She can surprise us with her viewpoint on a lot of things.  And she DOES have her own view of things….lots of things.  She will tell you all about how she feels about EVERYTHING that comes to mind.  She really would have you rolling on the floor, laughing, in just a few minutes in her company.  And she’s not trying to be funny at all.

Chewlee will tell you that she loves two women…her mother and me…best of all.  After that, it depends on the situation she’s in how much she loves anyone else…..LOL. 

I also have neuropathy in my feet that can make me crazy some days and on other days, it’s just a kind of background numbness.  Falling apart?  Yep.  That’s how I feel.  But I’m in better shape than the Beast who often can’t remember things for as little as 15 minutes.  I kid you not on that part.  He had to call me the other day because he forgot the second item he went up to the store to get.  Even worse…I hadn’t requested either thing he went to buy.  They were two things HE wanted, not me. 

Time to go and take my late-in-the-day nap while I can.  Love you all.  Hope you had a great weekend and an even better week ahead of us.  Say a little prayer for Woofie, Bratfink and Sheldon’s dog.  The poor little thing is terribly ill.  The vet has no idea how old the dog is but it might actually be dying of old age for all anyone knows.  Be good and take care of yourselves.  Be careful driving. 

TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

Today the Beast, besides mowing the lawn like he was in some kind of race, actually emptied the gun safe out.  With the help of Johnnycakes, he got it unbolted from the floor and moved into the cottage.  Now he just has to move all of the stuff he took out and put it back in.

Me?  I am going crazy with the coughing.  Some nights (and days) are worse than others.  They tell me it’s due to the little hairs in the lungs starting to grow back.  I’m past the five days of time without smoking that gets the nicotine out of your system.  Now my lungs are supposedly clearing up and those hairs coming back that the smoking originally killed off.  I’m learning more than I care to.  But the coughing…THAT makes me crazy and it’s going to last for weeks!  I am NOT a happy camper.  But, having come this far, I refuse to break down and start smoking again.  The Beast’s cousin, when he stopped smoking a couple years back, developed allergies due to the fact that these new hairs really WERE new and had no immunity to many of the new things they were exposed to afterward.  I’m hoping not to have anything like it happen to me, TYVM!  Right now, I fall asleep when I can stop coughing long enough to doze off.  But that’s only when I am having a bad night like I did last night.

Chewlee, the Princess and Johnnycakes went kayaking today.  Johnnycakes didn’t decide what they were going to do until all the canoes were reserved so she rented two kayaks.  Chewlee said that her mother was in the *garbage* boat while she and daddy were in the *party* boat.  At one point, Johnnycakes and Chewlee tipped over and Chewlee thought that was so much fun!  She actually enjoyed it and wasn’t scared or afraid.  She just held her breath until Johnnycakes righted the kayak.  Although they were out for 8 hours, I was really impressed by the fact that he had killed a 12 pk. of beer off and was still able to walk.  He just smiled and said, *I’m an Alabama boy.  I was raised on beer.*

Chewlee asked if she could spend the night since she wanted to make sure she got to church tomorrow.  When she was told she could, she whispered to me, *This makes it a PERFECT day!*  She was so sincere that you just had to smile.  She went to dinner with her mother and Johnnycakes and was dropped off afterward.  I asked her what she had to eat and she told me *steak*.  It has to be that she shared her mother’s steak because I think that would be the only way she would eat it.

The Princess and I discovered one thing.  Chewlee thinks that because she only dips her chips into the juice of salsa, she is not getting any *vegetables* in her diet.  We told her even the juice has vegetables in it and she looked at us like she knew better than we did.

The Beast bought some salsa verde and I don’t think Chewlee is going to like the *juice* of that as much as she likes regular salsa but she hasn’t tried any yet so we shall see.  She does like the chili con queso (cheese/salsa dip) that I really like, too.  I’m sure she’s going to want some tomorrow after church.  I think while they are gone, I am going to go up to KFC for some chicken.  There’s a graduation party for one of the older girls at the church that we got an invitation to.  I don’t know the family at all but I have seen a picture of the girl.  I understand the mother is a bit of a mental case but everyone tries to be kind to her.  The graduate/daughter is a sweet gal from all I’m told. Too bad she won’t be going to college.  They don’t believe in a higher education for their kids.

I found a ring I forgot all about having that I can let Chewlee wear now.  It’s not a good one but she likes it.  It has two dolphins leaping (and is adjustable).  As long as she likes it, it will keep her out of my jewelry box.

Time to get this posted now.  Another hot day here for us tomorrow.  Hope yours is great and you enjoy your Sunday.