September 19, 2014

So Glad It Is Friday!

September 19, 2014

As we were leaving the cafeteria after supper this evening

Friday!!  Happy Dance!!  I know for many people, Friday is their favorite day of the work week.  I guess it is for me, but mostly because our grandson usually spends the day with us.  We delight in his humor and how he takes our teasing.  He helped me a lot today with cleaning and filing.  We had a good time.  Ron was out on jobs much of the day and then had to meet the cable repairman at the house in the middle of the afternoon and was gone the rest of the day.

As I was about to leave the house this morning, Stephen called and we talked about wedding things.  He was heading to work.  When we finished our chat, I went to pick up our oldest grandson and we went to the office.  Ron left a few minutes later on a couple of jobs.  There were a lot of walk-in customers in the office today.  I was glad to have my grandson with me. 

We had a couple of customers today who stayed and talked for long periods of time.  Maybe they were enjoying the air conditioning.  It was about 90 degrees with a heat index of 103.  I couldn't believe the weather report said the island was having a heat index of 108!  How crazy is that?  It is usually cooler at the island.

One of the talkative customers was an attorney who proved to be interesting, but long winded.  Maybe that is why he is good at his job.  Another was a lady who is a regular and I was delighted to see her.  The third comes in often and we had a nice chat.  I may sound like a broken record but it sure is nice to be able to hear!  Last night driving home I got to thinking about an incident that happened about 13 years ago when something was going on I really needed to hear and we had asked for help and none was offered.  I realized how bad was hearing was even back then.

After work our daughter-in-law came to pick up the two oldest grandsons.  The second had been dropped off by his other grandmother after lunch and had quietly sat in a corner reading all afternoon.  I chatted for a few minutes with Barb and then came home.  Ron had finally finished with the cable man and we went to supper.  When we came out of the cafeteria, the clouds were beautiful.

 Leaving cafeteria

As we turned to head to our house just before we arrived home, I hollered for Ron to stop so I could take a photo of the sunset.  It was so unique and beautiful.

The sunset looks like a burst of fire headed to the American flag in front of the Credit Union.

This is just a couple of blocks from our house.

Mom is still in pain with her back so my sister took her to the ER today and they found she has a transverse fracture in the body of the first lumbar vertebrae and that explains the severe back pain she has been having.  They gave her a pain shot and sent her home with my sister since they say there is little they can do for her.  It will just take time.  Please remember her in your prayers. 

September 18, 2014

Thursday Night Supper

September 18, 2014

Here I am starting with the end of the day instead of the beginning.  Normally on Thursday nights we go out to supper with my mother.  Usually she lets us select the place and we go to Luby's Cafeteria or Jason's Deli, or once in a while somewhere else.  Mom hurt her back about a week ago and is really having a lot of pain.  My sister, Janet is taking excellent care of her, but we sure missed her at supper tonight.  We went to a hamburger place and thankfully it was not crowded because it can get very noisy, but I sure do like their hamburgers and sweet potato fries.

At supper I started out having to have Ron repeat everything.  Then he suggested we trade sides of the table and it did help a lot.  The food was great and we enjoyed the time together. 

This morning I had to be at the office a little earlier than I have been going lately.  Ron had an appointment in Harlingen later in the morning and ended up being gone for about 3 hours.  While he was gone I had a good number of customers in and did pretty well helping and hearing almost all of them.  One or two were a little challenging.  Just before Ron got back, one man came in and over-stayed his welcome.  He was beginning to annoy me - not threatening or anything like that, just noisy and a little rude (wanted to use our Wi-Fi and stuff like that).  I finally got him headed out the door about the time Ron got back. 

While Ron was gone I did some cleaning and then paid bills.  I had some emails to send out and other office chores.  It was not a very exciting day.  One customer was a massage therapist and wanted me to make an appointment with her.  Actually it was tempting.  Before we went to supper, I went by Mom's house and her yard is looking so pretty. 

After we ate supper, Ron came home and I went to do a little shopping.  I went to Target to get a wedding gift list printout for my son and soon to be daughter-in-law.  They still have things to add but it helped me see what some of the color choices are.  Then I went to Khol's.  I have mentioned this before, but they send me $10 gift cards pretty often.  I had one of those and a $5 reward card from there so I went to use them before they expired.  There was nothing that I saw that I really needed so again, I used them on baby outfits for the Bundles of Love that we prepare at the church in February each year for the pregnancy testing center and other places to distribute to young women when they have their babies and have no supplies for them.  This time, I got four outfits, using my two cards and spent 65 cents.  They were all on the 70% off sale rack.  Yea!  My kind of shopping! 

After leaving there, I stopped at Walgreen's and got a phone call from the mother of Stephen's fiance.  She wanted to talk about what the two of us will be wearing for the wedding.  I told her I would call her back when I got home - just too hard to hear in the store.  I still struggled to hear her at home, but we managed to get through most of the things we needed to discuss.  She is such a sweet, kind lady.  Stephen is going to be getting a great mother-in-law.  She is very thoughtful.  Neither of us has done any looking for what we will wear for the wedding.  I will see what she selects first.

September 17, 2014

A Beautiful Day With a 70% Chance of Rain

But No Rain Today

September 17, 2014

What a beautiful morning I spotted out my sewing room window just after daybreak today!  It was so pretty.  The sun was shining and the weather man said there was a Flash Flood Warning and a 70% chance of rain.  Usually we would be delighted, but we were ready for a break.  There was no rain today in our area.  Some of the valley may have gotten a little.  The morning's newspaper said that we officially have had 5 inches of rain in the past 5 days.  The National Weather Service website says we have had between 8-10 in the last two weeks.  Any way you slice it, that is a lot of rain.

The town looks beautiful!  The trees and plants don't know what season it is.  Many of them have put out new growth like they think it is Spring!  Our Chinese Tallow Trees have new bright green leaves at the tips of the branches.  The same goes for our oak trees.  I stopped by Mom's house on the way home from work this evening and her rose bushes are sprouting deep maroon leaves of new growth.

The ground was just perfect for weed pulling and I couldn't resist so I pulled long runners of grass and clumps of weeds and Johnson grass out of Mom's rose bed until the mosquitoes found me.  Then I quickly quit.  At home the mosquitoes were waiting for me and you should have seen me hurry through the filling of the feeders.  With all the rain none of the ponds or birdbaths needed filling.  I did take a minute to check for birds out by the water and found the kingbird out there again.

I was hoping to find the Green Kingfisher again, but didn't see him.  The kingbird flew to the same area of the same tree as yesterday.  They are creatures of habit.  Notice how he blends in with his surroundings.  His tail looks almost the same as the seed pods hanging n the tree.

I didn't go to the office until about 10:00.  Not real sure what I accomplished today, but I stayed busy.  Ron was out for several hours during the day and it was rather quiet.  I did have a nice conversation with one of the delivery men who came with an order we had placed.  We started talking about the weather and then it got to a conversation about things God had done.  He was delighted that his young adult children are walking with the Lord and doing well in their college work.  He shared that recently his mother had died unexpectedly but that he knew she was in Heaven and was glad for that assurance.  I told him to teach his children all the wonderful things she had taught him and his face lit up as he pondered that.  What a nice conversation.  How blessed I am to be able to hear conversations like that.

There was one customer though that I could not hear well.  He was an older man and wanted to converse in Spanish but I told him I spoke English.  So he began talking in English, but was too soft spoken for me to understand him.  I repeated several times that I could not hear him and pointed to my sound processor.  He showed me his two hearing aids, but  in the end, the conversation proved to be pointless since I could not hear enough of it to put together what he was wanting.

Stephen called to talk about wedding plans.  I sent out several emails to assorted family members over the course of the afternoon.  Progress continues on the wedding "To Do List".

When I was at Mom's I noticed that here plants in the yard are taking over her deck.  They are beautiful but are about to block the gate entry to the deck.  Her yardman cuts them back off and on and it always looks so bare, so I decided to take a couple of photos before he gets carried away with his clippers.

The huge growths of asparagus fern she has at the end of the side walk are covered in long new shoots.  They will soon be taking over the walkway!  We can water our yard from the resaca do at our house or from the sprinkler system at Mom's house, but God's good clean rain makes things grow much more rapidly and beautifully.  Of course a few days of cloud cover keeping temperatures down doesn't hurt.

September 16, 2014

Some Blue Skies!

September 16, 2014

This morning the trees were still dripping from overnight showers, but as the morning progressed, blue skies peaked out from the clouds and the day was partly cloudy with no rain at our house or office.  Having fallen asleep at the computer last night, I woke up early today and worked on finishing yesterday's blog.  Then I did just a little work in the yard, but the mosquitoes and I don't get along.  They bite.  I hit. 

On the way to the office I went by Mom's since I had not gotten by there yesterday.  All was well and I went on to the office.  I had not been at the office at all yesterday so I had mail to attend to and bookkeeping to do.  Ron was out on a few jobs and errands and I waited on customers.  One was an elderly man.  When the man returned this afternoon to pick up his item, Ron waited on him.  After the man was gone, Ron asked how I could understand the man because he had trouble understanding him.  It made me feel good because I didn't have a problem with him.

After my lunch, I needed to go to Harlingen to see my urologist for an annual checkup.  It was a quick visit.  All was well.  From there I went by the quilt shop and picked up a couple of sale items.  While I was on the way to Harlingen, the a/c in my car quit cooling and I was rather warm!  With the mosquitoes being so bad, I hated to roll down the windows, but did so on the way home.  I will need to take it in for repairs in the morning.

Green Kingfisher

Back at the office, I worked on a few things and then left a little early to get ready for the quilt group.  Our son Stephen called and updated me on the things he has been checking on for the wedding.  He has so many things to do and so little time to get them done.  I worked briefly in the yard and was delighted to see a Green Kingfisher fly from one section of our yard to another.

Probably a Couch's Kingbird

I spotted a Kingbird high in a tree in the backyard along with a sparrow also perched in the same tree.  They wanted me to go away so they could go finish the food in the bird feeders.

The quilt group showed up right on time and we had a good time together.  There were 5 of us here tonight.  After they left, I talked to our daughter-in-law in New Mexico.  It was a good day.  The Green Kingfisher was an added bonus to my day.  I love seeing birds I don't expect to see in the yard.  I have seen a Green Kingfisher once before in the yard, but they can be hard to spot.

September 15, 2014

LOTS of Rain After a Dry Summer

September 15, 2014

We have been getting heavy rains here now for several days.  Today there were several spells of heavy rain with the heaviest coming in the late afternoon and early evening.  The ground is now pretty well saturated and the water has no where to go.

This morning I was up early to go spend the day at our son and daughter-in-law's home caring for their children, while Barbara was returning from a visit to her dad in Kansas.  Jeff had texted me last night to say I did not need to get there too early and that the kids would probably sleep late.  I arrived a little after 7:00.  I think he is the only one who slept late.  He had expected to be on the road before that and as soon as he left the two youngest boys came out of their room.  The youngest said he was hungry (a constant state of being for him).  The 7 year old boy didn't say a word but went right to the piano and began to practice.  He loves his piano lessons and practicing on the baby grand piano helps his desire to play and practice.  He is quick to memorize the pieces.  There are two pianos at this time; with 5 children taking lessons, that helps. 

They were quickly followed by the baby of the bunch and she too was hungry.  I had gotten the oldest boy up so he could be ready for my husband to pick him up to spend his day doing his home schooling at our office while I was at the house and not in my place at the office.  It was not long until the two oldest girls showed up for breakfast.  The only one that slept late is the second oldest boy.  Once he got up, he spent most of his day doing school work.

This blog posting probably should have been titled Too Tired to Type: Part 2.  At this point in the blog, as I was typing last night, I fell asleep.  Woke up about an hour later with my head on the computer desk.  Went to bed.  Now, Tuesday morning, I am finishing the blog.

The youngest of the boys helped me after breakfast as he rinsed the dishes after I washed.  He is not the most willing helper, but once he got started, we had a good time working together and shared a bunch of laughs.  He is constantly thinking of ways to do things, like: get out of work, get an extra snack, turn a toy into something it was not designed to do, or how to defy gravity.  He is 100% all guy and all active.

The younger children played together much of the morning and after a while we discovered some empty plastic drink bottles and set up a bowling alley by the front door.  Laughter could probably be heard down the street along with shrieks of delight.

After a mid-morning snack, those who had school work got started on their assignments, some more willingly than others, but all of them finished what had been assigned.  Lunch was a variety of sandwiches and although I took orders (like a short order cook) before fixing, we ran out of one kind and had some of another kind left over.  Nap time came next for the two youngest and the others worked or played quietly while I made Rice Krispie treats for afternoon snack.

Little Miss Perfectionist had to arrange her tiny pieces of Rice Krispie treats evenly around her plate.  She and her oldest sister are born organizers.  The others had already had their treats while she finished her nap, so she was eating alone - with Grandma.

The kids watched a video while I worked on supper and while we all listened to the rain and wondered if Mom's plane would be able to get in  on time.  (It did - the rain was mostly in Brownsville and not in Harlingen where she was landing.)

Supper was delayed a couple of times while we waited to see who could join us for supper and finally we served without the rest of the crew while rains delayed their arrival.  It was flooded around our office so Ron and our oldest grandson were very late arriving.  Our son was slowed as he returned from McAllen, due to the heavy rains.  Our daughter-in-law arrived before the guys did.  Of course the children were delighted!  I had put cupcakes in the oven about the time we sat down to eat supper, so after everyone arrived, I frosted the cupcakes while the children took turns helping to decorate them.  They were SO good!

Ron headed home and later texted to tell me to spend the night there and not to try to drive home due to flooding across the roads on my path.  The rest of us sat at the table and visited a long time and eventually, the rain stopped.  The children pulled out costumes and played dress-up for the rest of the evening.

Our daughter-in-law found a wonderful sale on costumes last year and they enjoy playing in them.

 

  I missed getting photos of many of the costume changes, but all I can say is, they had a ton of fun!  Thankfully there was another room where they could do their role playing.  I was about overwhelmed with sounds.

I enjoyed my time there, but after 14 hours, I was ready to try the drive home.  The rain had been stopped for a couple of hours so I headed home and after driving through water a few places, arrived safely.

I told my son that he is a great dad and we are so proud of him.

I told my daughter-in-law that she is Wonder Woman!  She says she has the t-shirt.  They are an amazing couple who love the Lord above all else and love each other completely, and love their children with all their hearts.  They are a fun family.  (But, I did come home and take off my sound processor and had some quiet for a while.)

September 14, 2014

Rainy Sunday Afternoon

September 14, 2014

The rains continue here in South Texas.  For the most part, they come in bands and there is time for the rain to drain away or soak into the ground between the rain bands.  The town is so beautiful - if you look at it from inside your car or home, and not outside where the mosquitoes are big and hungry!  Looking out my sewing room windows is so relaxing.  The bright green leaves, shiny with the rain, are so beautiful.

This morning was very comfortable and early afternoon was cool when I went out to feed the birds after we had our lunch.  It had rained during the night, but didn't rain while we were at church.  It was good to see our grandchildren.  Their dad was early to Sunday school with all the children - impressive for the son we always waited for when we were going anywhere!  I was able to to talk to Jeff for a bit.  He is an amazing dad.  He showed he was up to the challenge this morning as one of the kids had a meltdown. 
Our middle granddaughter is the most shy of the children and she was sad to see that her Sunday school class was being divided in half today.  She thought her world was being crushed, but after the class, I saw her full of smiles and asked how it was and she gave me her usual grin and a "thumbs up"!  She said it was great.  She knows the new teacher well and loves her; she just wasn't ready for a change. 

We had an excellent class and then a great worship service with a sermon that could apply to each of us.  Our pastor has been talking about suffering and today's sermon was about how we should respond to suffering in our lives.  At one time or another (or several times) we will all go through times of suffering.   The sufferings may be physical, emotional, or mental.  It can be physical pain, loss, changes in our lives, or a wide variety of other things. 

After church Ron and I went by my mom's to pick up some things and then by the shop to check to see if any water had gotten in.  It had not.  The placing of the sandbags was a good choice to prepare for a rainy weekend.  As we left the shop another downpour started.  We were planning to pick up some lunch and the rain stopped in time for us to do that and then started again.  There was another heavy rain during the afternoon.  Today we only got about 1/2 inch, but there is water standing all over town from days of rains.

My afternoon was mostly devoted to a nap.  As usual, I slept longer than intended and expect to have trouble getting to sleep tonight.  I hope to sew for a while.  I have three projects in progress and am trying to make myself focus on one for the time being.  I got a lot done on it yesterday, but none so far today.

Usually on Sundays, I think about how my deafness and Cochlear Implant impact my hearing of music at church.  I did notice last week when working with one of our grandsons at the piano, that my recognition of tones has improved slightly.  I had shared months ago that if I sat at the piano and started on one note and went up the keyboard playing both black and white keys, I would play 8 keys before I heard a difference in tones.  Now it is 5 keys.  I had thought there had been an improvement, but was pleased to see how much.  Of course I don't know which of those 5 is correct for the tone I hear.  In church there were 2 new songs I had not heard and could not begin to tell the melody or even the beat. 

For supper I made a big pot of broccoli soup and it was delicious.  I guess the rainy, cooler day called for soup.  Tomorrow I will be with the grandchildren.  The oldest one will take his school work to the office and work there in case Ron needs him. 

I must say that although I am making a lot of progress with the hearing, it is still isolating.  Knowing I can't hear people well in a large crowd, I avoid being in a situation where they will expect me to hear.  During the service this morning, a lady spoke to me as the service started.  I have no idea what she said.  She was behind me and on the opposite side from the one with my Cochlear Implant.  But on the other hand, as I left the worship center, a man from our Sunday school class stopped me to tell me how much he appreciated what I had shared in class and I was so glad I could hear what he said, and also I was very touched by what he said.

This afternoon a flock of Bronzed Cowbirds flew into the yard.  They seem to come on rainy days.  They are about 1/2 the size of the grackles but sure do take over when they arrive. 

September 13, 2014

Too Tired To Type

September 13, 2014

There was not a blog yesterday because I was "Too Tired To Type" at the end of the day.  I was just sleepy.  We had gotten up early to go to the Birthday Breakfast for our youngest grandson at Burger King.  We arrived a good bit before the rest of the family.  How can seven children be so happy and full of energy at 7:30 in the morning?  Our youngest granddaughter bounced and bounced around and was such a delight to watch.  The birthday boy was in a very good mood, taking time after each gift to go and hug the giver - even when it was a sister. 

Or a brother.

There had been rain overnight before the breakfast party and it was still rainy and overcast.  The restaurant was very cold.  That is fine for me, but not for everyone.

This one shivered and shivered until her sister went to the car and found an extra pair of socks.

Before long it was time for the gifts.

It is hard to believe the birthday boy turned 6 years old.  He is such a handsome guy and the most energetic of the bunch.  His dad and I discussed how hard it is to get a photo of him that is not blurred because he is never still.

The kids just had FUN.  We about had the place to ourselves, so hearing was easier than usual.  What I did hear was laughter, appreciation, and kind words.  They are a great bunch of grandchildren.

His next oldest brother thought all the gifts were great, too.  They had a super fun day playing with all the neat toys.

I left the breakfast and returned home for a little while before going to the office.  I got my lunch to take with me, went to work and spent the rest of the day working on an assortment of projects.  We were much busier than usual - especially for a Friday afternoon.  Lately Friday afternoons have been very slow, but not yesterday.  We were both working the counter and Ron was trying to answer a variety of phone calls and place some orders.  We appreciate the business.  Then, since we were so busy, the credit card man who spent so much time at the office a few days ago, was back to set up the new machine.  It was about time for me to leave to go take care of my grandchildren so their mother could go out of town to see her dad who is in a rehab center for a while as he recovers from some recent surgery.  She will be gone a few days, so I will spend Monday with the children again. 

Before I went to their house, I stopped by the orthopedic surgeon's office to pick up a CD with photos of my x-rays on my broken elbow.  When I arrived at our son's home, his wife said her flight had been delayed so we visited for a while as she finished getting things ready to go.  I had never seen the movie Frozen and the kids wanted to watch it with me.  We watched it to help distract the youngest who was not thrilled that her mom was leaving again. 

After the movie, I fixed supper and about the time I was going to get things on the table I dropped a bowl that shattered into about 1,000 pieces that flew throughout the kitchen, into the computer area, the pantry, the entry way, the family room, and the dining room.  How in the world?  The next to youngest of the boys had been asking for chores so he could earn some money.  I had not yet thought of any and without saying a word, he began picking up the broken pieces and helped until it was all done.  That earned him some money and a big hug from an appreciative grandma.

While we were cleaning, their dad arrived home from work, and helped with the last of the clean-up and then he changed clothes while I got supper on the table.  The kids were hungry and good eaters.  Before we finished supper, a downpour of rain started.  As soon as it let up, I headed home leaving them to clean up the dishes so I would not get caught by the next band of rain.  After I arrived home, I decided it was time for a relaxing bath and bedtime. 

During the night we had another heavy rain.  Ron and I were both up early this morning when the housekeeper arrived.  He left to run a couple of errands and I did some picking up of things that my helper would not know where to put.  The birds were at the feeders and I kept them full.  Ron had gone to get more seed.  I like the kind from Loop Farms better than what I get at Wal-Mart and so do the birds. 

It was cool and overcast - cool by the numbers on the thermometer, but it was very humid and sticky.  The birds were glad to have the fresh food delivery.  It was a lazy, laid back day.  I did some sewing, some cooking, some cleaning, some organizing, and a little bit of bird photography.  The mosquitoes are so bad outside, that my pictures were taken from inside.  About 2:15, it got very dark and by 2:30 we had another downpour. 

That grass will be knee high before it is dry enough for me to mow it.  While it was raining, Stephen called and he is still looking for a place for the rehearsal dinner.  Time is running out!  We had a good talk as the rain continued.

As you can see, water was standing in the yard.  The rain came off and on during the afternoon and so did the birds.  About an hour into the rain, they came back out of their hiding places to eat as the rain continued - not as hard as earlier, but still steady.  Thankfully, Ron put the sandbags out at the office yesterday before he left.  We have not gone to check, but we expect it was good they were out.