Yesterday was Heaven

I went out yesterday for several hours and I felt like an animal must feel when caged for some time and is then released. We had an errand to run in Asheville so I basked in the delight of sunshine, leaves, breezes blowing and just even in sitting in the car while Wayne grocery shopped. I had not worn my "boot" that was given to me to wear instead of that awful splint I had post op. The boot is even worse. It makes my foot hurt something fierce while on and I am not able to move my foot around in the car because the boot is so large and cumbersome. I was very careful not to put weight on my injured foot. I could prop the foot up on the dashboard and lean back and be cool. I said my obligatory prayer and 95 Allah'u'Abhas and then just sang as many of the Baha'i songs that I have committed to memory that came to mind. I had a ball! I was at peace with myself and felt so liberated just being out of the house. Isn't that the weirdest?
After we drove home I was able to go into the basement for the first time since I returned home from AZ. I rolled around in my "wheels" and saw all of the progress Wayne has struggled to make to create the room we want in the basement. There is still much work to be done yet it looks much better now. We need a "family work day" to really make a difference in a short amount of time. Any takers on that?
After my time in the basement I then "hopped" onto the golf cart and rode around the property to see all of the outside work Wayne has accomplished this summer. He has transplanted wild daisys and violets into our rock wall/garden along with some of my creeping pholx from the entrance to the driveway out front. Our newly planted boxwoods survived the winter and look healthy. They just need to do a lot of growing. We rode around the "lower" flat area where the house site once was and critiqued the erosion spots. Things look like they are holding up fairly well. Back up in the front yard I saw the transplanted raspberry bushes taken from our property along the road way away from the house and yard. We hope they will survive and give us raspberries by next year.
Gotta run, breakfast is redy. Love to all...

Cabin Fever

It is a shame that it takes bones so long to heal. Especially when those broken bones prevent one from walking. Try hopping around on one foot without putting any weight on the other one. Try sitting in one's house day in and day out without being able to go anywhere. If I have to spend many more days of watching Little House on the Prairie, 7th Heaven, Touched by an Angel, The Waltons and MASH, I will have each show's script totally memorized. I have already worked enough Sudoku puzzles to choke a horse.

Well, the good news is it should not be as long as it has been. If my visit to my orthopedist on July 2nd will finally allow me to put at least partial weight bearing on my right foot, that will be something to look forward to. Maybe then I will be able to get out of the house more easily.

On a cuter note, I have put some pics of the Eury pets in AZ. First is Vivian and doesn't she just lay the cutest you have ever seen?

Then there is LingLing hiding under the chair.








Last is Cash who really gets into chilling big time.

Pics from AZ

I did not have my pics taken while in AZ in my computer yet when i last posted. So here they are:
Alex doing a mean job of cooking breakfast on Saturday.
Bella eating watermelon and lovin it.
Sofia at the restaurant where we celebrated her birthday.












Can't say with my foot down any longer. I will show the animals in the house tomorrow.

Winding down in AZ

I want to start by saying that where I was over the past three+ weeks is the first time in the history of our family that I have had the opportunity to stay with one of my children's family for this length of time, and when none of the time was a vacation for their family. I lived with them and watched their family dynamics day by day. This has been a great experience.

I know all of us live on hectic schedules and the Eurys in AZ are no exception. Their week days being at an astonishingly early hour. The baby in the family, Bella, who is almost 4 now, wakes first, somewhere around 5:30AM every day, as if she has an alarm clock that goes off at that time. From that point on, it is one mad dash after another but done very smoothly. Sofia, who just turned 12 while I was there, is the first to go to school. Usually Cris takes her to her school downtown leaving at 7:00 while Tag and the other two are still getting breakfast squared away. Then Alex has to be driven to school before 8am. Cris tries to be home by 10:30 in order to nap Bella for about an hour. Soon it will be time to pick up Sofia and Alex around 3 (although, sometimes Sofie gets a ride home).

My time of better than three weeks were filled with fun, reading to grandchildren, playing games with the family, waiting on Tag to get home from is extended work/class days. Grabbing a taped Oprah or two late in the evening after kids were in bed, and learning about a self-help healing therapy called Jin Sen Jutzu (Sp?) and all that goes with it.

This was coming to an uneventful close until early Saturday morning, May 10, as I was tying to quietly take Bella down to the kitchen to get her something to eat (it was 5 AM), I slipped on the stairs near the bottom of theI made m and broke my right ankle in 2 places. The rest of my stay was spent being waited on and helped with every move I made after I took a trip to an ER and got the bad news on an x-ray that I had fractures. They placed me in a splint and sent me on my way. I flew home Monday morning, the 12th, and have been in recovery mode since. I had surgery on my "breaks" with screws and plate on Monday May 19 to get me on the road to recovery faster. I also had JSJ to help with this healing process, thanks to Cris and her tireless devotion of teaching me what I needed to know in order to speed up the recovery.

It was a wonderful trip and time well spent. Yes, I would have loved to have left on a healthier note but it sure gave a challenge to my son and his wife taking care of me for those last two days. They were wonderful and I know they were relieved when I boarded that plane allowing them to get back to just their hectic schedule. Thanks, Guys!! Pics will come later...

May Day AZ Day 12

While it is already Friday(day 13), I am going to blog about Thursday. Yesterday was May Day and in the Waldorf schools May Day is celebrated by dancing around the May Pole. I don't remember ever having the opportunity to do that but I do remember that there was a May Pole with ribbons around it for dancing around that some children did somewhere in the world. I regret that neither Cris nor I remembered to bring cameras so we got no pics. It was a sunny day [like every day isn't sunny in Phoenix :) ] . One of the grades played May Day songs and another grade sang them. Alex danced around with his first grade classmates. All wore flower wreaths around their heads. It was so very sweet. Guess you had to be there to really appreciate the mood of the day.

I also attended Bella's play group all morning. The teachers direct the children with soft singing voices. This is a Waldorf concept that I feel keeps the room atmosphere calming and soothing for those children who might be challenged by the need for uniformity when teaching. Remember, this is an age group of 2-3 year olds. They are barely out of infancy and we all know what that is like for a child. All mommies are present and participate with their child, somewhat. It is very sweet. I get to be Bella's "mommy" next Thursday because her mommy will be at a training workshop.

I am really enjoying this time I am getting to spend with our son and his family. I read to the these grandchildren daily (yes, even Sofie sometimes gets a charge out of some of the books in their household when she hears me reading to the two youngest). I can hardly wait until they move to Florida where it will be a lot easier to visit and be visited by.

Today we are going to go with other Baha'is on a teaching trip around Phoenix. The children will be with us. Should be exciting. Bye for now.

Finally Ikea AZ Day 11

Today was the day. I trudged out on my own and went to one of our favorite stores, IKEA, that we have really missed since moving from Chicago in 2005. I was looking for a certain type of S hook to use in our kitchen at home. I was also looking for a pot/pan rack that one suspends from the ceiling in one's kitchen. I was not able to use a riding buggy because they did not have any. What? I said to the employee. Come on guys get with the program... all stores these days have at least one buggy for us old folks to ride around on, don't they? Anyway, I got a cart to hang onto and began pushing it through the store. I started on the 2nd floor and found nothing of what I wanted. Went to the 1st floor and found a rack but it didn't look exactly like Tag's so I wasn't sure it was sturdy enough. I asked where the S hooks were and the sales person sent me on a wild goose chase to "Home Organization" saying everything would be there. After 15 minutes or so of searching I determined she had led me astray and at this point I was beginning to have a lot of back pain (occurs when I walk on concrete for too long without being able to sit a spell intermittently). In fact, I hurt so bad I just wanted to get out of there. I had planned to eat lunch there but lost my appetite. I did purchase some nice wooden coat hangers for use at home
(gee, I hope I can get all 8 of them in my suitcase). I also found a set of three small multicolored boxes with lids that will make good storage items for, whatever. And finally, I bought an apple corer for the Eurys because theirs was broken and they eat a lot of apples.

I got in the van and drove back close to home and because I was terribly thirsty, decided to find a "Jack-in-the-Box" fast food to get me a good drink and a good hamburger. My iced tea (with lemon) and my sirloin melt on sourdough bread were both delicious. Then I found a Target and hoped to find S hooks there but there were none. Here though I got a can opener that cuts off the lid and leaves no sharp edges. I had not been able to find one at the house so I hoped they would like it.

I came on back home a bit frustrated with Ikea but when it was time to pick up Sofie from school I asked Cris if we could go back to Ikea and maybe she could help me find those S hooks. By jove, she did find them and we found more things to boot to go with the rack (that we must order online because it IS too big for me to carry in my luggage).

So, my day was rewarding after all. Tag came and joined us and we ate supper at Ikea where I had my favorite, Swedish meatballs. It is now 11:40 PM AZ time so I had better hit the hay. Nite all.

Monday, Day 9 AZ

Sure is hot in this ole state. Why am I not surprised? The dryness of the air makes the heat different. I hardly break a sweat unless I get physically active in a hot kitchen then I get drippy.

We all got invited to a cookout yesterday. Unfortunately, Alex started running a fever so I stayed home with him while the others went. He seems better today but is not going to school. Don't know what I will do today. Maybe just chill (that's a joke in AZ) and get more reading done. Might chance to read more stories to the two youngest sometime today if they want to hear more stories. I simply must think of more stories of either my childhood or their dad's because they love "made up" stories more than those in books. Even Sofie seems to like those. I had many adventures as a child. Perhaps they would love to hear them?

More later of this continuing saga....

AZ 6th Day Lazy One

Woke up early and read more of my current book Dreams From My Father by Barrack Obama. Ummmm... it is a great book. Both cats found my bed last night as their spot to sleep. You'd never know they were there, they are so quiet. Had breakfast with the family and while they went about their busy schedules I just went back to my room and read and napped a bit... Later I went with Cris to the Waldorf school . She had some work to do there so I found me a bench and once again dug into my book. Afterwards we went to the grocery store where we discovered parking places up next to the store that were for "Hybrids Only." Very interesting, don't you think? We got a pic of the sign but I don't have it at my disposal tonight so I will post it later.

Tag is at a training until 9 so we had dinner and then the kids were off to bed. I had an opportunity to read some more and I expect to finish this book before morning.

I have discovered that Vivian, their little French bulldog, likes to catch flies and when she gets one she just eats it, of course, so fly swatters are not as needed. Cash, the male of the two cats, is a whiner. He likes to bug you with this pathetic sounding, high pitched, faint meow like he is starved (which he certainly is not) or otherwise in need of some other kind of attention.

I am sleepy so I may just hit the sack. Good night!

Birthday Fun in AZ on Day 4

My birthday day started very early with a 4 AM phone call from Lynn to wish me a happy birthday. She had forgotten about the time change. :) We talked for over an hour. It was great. Then, very early on, I was awakened with the patter of little feet as the Eury grandchildren ran into my bedroom wishing me happy birthday. I was then given a birthday card signed by all (yes, even Bella was helped to sign her name and she was so proud). They left my room but before I could get dressed and get downstairs they came in again because the kids couldn't wait until I came down so they rushed in with a beautiful miniature pink rose plant full of blooming roses. It is so lovely. I immediately tried to figure our how to or if I could get it on the plane to take home. Alex handed me a long envelope all licked shut with a little lump I noticed inside. I opened it and found two little shiny mineral stones. One he said was a "tiger eye" and the other is a beautiful purple and white stone. I love them.

Upon checking my e-mail I discovered I had an e-card from Bonnie. Being the sentimental slob that I am I teared up while reading it as I listened to the really sweet music that accompanied it. I tried to call her but couldn't get through . She called me instead and we chatted a bit before she had to get back to work.

Later in the day I received phone calls from Anne and Bill wishing me a happy birthday. Bil and Marziah stated out singing but stopped prematurely (Hee, hee, I asked if they had gotten too old to sing the song all the way through. We all laughed).

After Tag came home from work we all hoped in the car around 4ish to go to the restaurant where I was to be treated with the "best pizza in the entire country." That would be at "Pizzeria Bianco" owned and operated by Chef Chris Bianco That is him in the picture. Sorry I cannot figure out how to rotate this pic of the restaurant.


We did have a void in our midst. Sofia had left by bus with her class from school early this morning to go on a field trip to California. She will return on Thursday evening. I am sure she is having a great time but we miss her.

It is a good thing we arrived 20 minutes before the restaurant opens. That kept us from having such a long wait. Ha Ha! Our wait was only about 1 hour and 25 minutes before we were seated. While we were waiting I received a phone call from Mary wishing me a happy birthday. She was on her way home from work. We chatted a bit seeing as how we were still outside waiting for the restaurant to open so that we could then get on the waiting list for seating.

Now, the unusual thing about this restaurant, besides having really great pizza is that the Chef/owner creates and cooks them himself. There are 6 choices of pizza. One is called "Wise Guy" and appeared to be a family favorite for the Eurys. Another is named "Margeurita" and that one proved to be my favorite. Two others were ordered as well so we had 4 choices of pizzas from which to savor. Naturally we all wanted to try at least one piece of each one. Except Bella, and the only one she wanted was , you guessed it, my favorite, the "Marguerita. She knows a good thing when she sees it.


After we were adequately stuffed on pizza we came back home to get the little ones ready for bed. After all, it was after 7:00 by this time. We decided to watch a little TV (a rare event in this household). All of a sudden here comes Tag with, you got it, a birthday cakecomplete with flaming candles, the whole smear. Cherries, my favorite, on top. Only, if you look closely you will see that I appear to be celebrating my 48th birthday (he didn't have any sixes and thought it better that I appear 48 rather than 98 or 88). That gave us a good laugh.
Oh, I just had a thought, that 48 could be for the anniversary Wayne and I just celebrated earlier this month! Yea...



So my day was quite meaningful with happiness abounding.

AZ Day 3

It is not too hot this time of year and therefore the weather is quite pleasant here in Arizona.

We went to Sofie's choir concert Monday night. It was awesome. Then last night we went to her band concert. She plays the trumpet. They were great. It is so thrilling to watch young talent. I really enjoy seeing all my grandchildren perform whether it be singing, musical instrument or sports. It is very special and I am delighted when I have the privilege to attend their activities.

I read books (about five) to the two youngest last evening while their mom was fixing supper. Kept them occupied and was good bonding time for the three of us. Both really love being read to. I always loved to read out loud even as a child. Reading to others is a great way to share time with each other.

Love all of you... Bye for now....more later.

Day 2 in AZ

Well, nothing bombshelled today. As we were getting out of the car on our first outing today, Sofie said to her dad, ?"Do you have the keys?" whereupon we all laughed. I said he was going to get asked that question for a while, for sure. :)

We watched a movie today that was really nifty. "The Railway Children" Trusat me, if you haven't seem it, it is a good movie for all ages. It is from an old Masterpiece Theatre production, yes, it is British but it is quite good. Came from the library.

Guess I will hit the sack, now that I have slept on the couch for 2 hours... I just noticed that my Blog posts in EDT so don't think I am up at 2 AM. Ling Ling just joined me and is sitting on my bed behind me waiting to be carressed..... Nite nite!

Arizona or Bust

I kissed my sweetie goodbye, shed a few tears and began my journey to AZ on April 19. Here I was at the Nashville airport having arrived more than 2 hours before departure, just to be sure I was there on time for all the check-in stuff to be done. I had asked for a wheelchair on the advice of Cris who told me I would be able to get the seat that best met my needs by doing so. She was absolutely right. Not to mention how much it would save my back and feet from standing excessively in lines. So on board wheelchair with carry-on in tow, we processed everything and I was placed at the gate with nothing left to do but board. It all went so quickly I still had a wait of greater than 2 hours before leaving. Meanwhile Wayne was well on his way with the 6 hour drive ahead of him. Just as we were boarding we were given the news that our non-stop flight would have a refueling stop to make in Amarillo, TX. Wouldn't take long, sorry for the inconvenience. Yada, yada, yada. As it was, we did not arrive in Phoenix more than 30 minutes later than the original scheduled time.


I need to back up for a moment and tell you about our adventure in the Ramada.... Gone are the days of motels meeting our expectations. To make a long story short, we had to change rooms after Wayne looked at the A/C unit and found it to be caked with dust from the 20th century. That was after we discovered that the potty had problems that were unacceptable also. What you can see in the pic is layers of grime. along the entire area where the air is "filtering" thru when the unit is running.

Now back to arrival. Sofia and Alex met me at baggage claim and we quickly got luggage loaded into the Eury van. Due to the now lateness of the dinner hour, Tag had made the decision to go to a new restaurant to have dinner. It was called the Original Hamburger Works. We had a nice meal and as we proceeded to leave Tag discovered he had left his keys in the car (that had been carefully locked to protect my purse and camera). Oh, I said, I have AAA and they will come unlock for us. Naturally, my AAA card was in my purse inside the car, as was my cell phone. Luckily, Tag had his cell phone in his pocket so I put in a call to Wayne to get our AAA card number. Got it, but forgot to get the phone number to call them. Luckily, Engine 3 from the Phoenix Fire Department had just pulled up and parked across the street from us because they were coming to Hamburger Works for supper! Tag asked them if they by any chance had door unlocking equipment with them. Did they? They had an entire tool kit of various "unlockers" and a manual to look up which one to use based on the year and make of the car. They tussled around a bit and finally got the door open, Hurray! Opppps, they couldn't get their tool out of the door. It was hung up in the door works. After carefully taking the door panel loose they managed to free up their tool and we were set to go. After about 45 minutes of diligent work, we could at last get on the road to go home. Poor Bella, she had been put in her car seat as we waited for them to get their tool loose. She was very tired (hadn't had a nap) and she became very worried that they were going to break our car. Tag had to hold her to comfort her.


Yes, the Phoenix Fire Department came to our rescue. The children plan to write them a letter of thanks for their good deed (which, to them, was all in a day's work).

Dad's first blog, "DRIVING ME CRAZY"

First driving mishap.
I recall the time I was driving back from the country. The country was where my Grandparents, the Picklers, lived. We were in our old 1938 Plymouth sedan. I was just learning to drive and had very little experience. I had managed to keep it in the road for about a mile, there were no sharp turns or intersections. Then we came to a tee in the road I slowed as I approached the turn but kept on rolling. In the process of making the turn I just kept turning and ran out of the road across the ditch on the left side of the road, I was turning left, and into a newly plowed field. After running through the ditch, first bounce, and many bounces later the car came to a halt. My little brother Doug was in the back seat and had been thrown back and forth, up and down, and was now screaming like a banshee. Dad in all his wisdom made one memorial comment. " Well you got us in here, now get us out.". After restarting the car I got it into first gear and commenced to lurch and bounce back across the field through the ditch and back onto the road.

Our first new car.
We had always had some old car for family transportation, The '38 Plymouth is the first car I can remember. Later we had a 1946 Plymouth station wagon with wood body parts. Part of the wood had rotted and Dad and my Granddad Pickler, who was a wood worker, made and installed a new part which was a perfect match to the rest of the car. The next car was a black 1953 Plymouth Cranbrook 4 door sedan, our first new car. I had just turned sixteen and had my drivers license. I think at this time we had two cars. A 1949 Plymouth 4 door sedan that had been a taxi cab then a painters work vehicle, and the '53 Plymouth. On one special day I asked to drive the '53 to school. Dad agreed with the stipulation that I drive to school and back and no where else. At lunch time we would often go to a popular downtown eating establishment. Hot dogs all the way cost 10 cents and hamburgers were 15 cents. Both were great, steamed buns and plenty of grease for flavor. The hamburgers where made the way I often make them today, with bread, onions, and egg smushed into the meat and then shaped into patties. but back to the car. loaded with my buddies we left school and headed out to lunch. When we arrived at the grill I had to make a right turn into the parking lot. As luck would have it someone was exiting the lot and I had to stop abruptly and WHAM I was rear ended. That night I was to receive my eagle scout award. the Clerk of Court was presenting the award. His opening comment to me was, "Well I believe we run into each other before." Yes it was the same man who had rear ended me earlier in the day, while I was driving when I was told not to.
My? first car.
The '49 Plymouth was mine to drive most of the time even though it was the family car. It was great to have wheels, all of the guys I associated with were not yet old enough to get their drivers licenses, so I had friends. In high school it was really cool to "get a wheel", squeal the tires while taking off and changing into second gear. Well an old '49 6 cylinder Plymouth doesn't have enough power to spin the tires on wet pavement much less dry. About the only way to squeal the tires was to get up to about 30 mph change into low gear and drop the clutch, resulting in a loud tire squeal and rapid stop. Not really getting a wheel but it did get attention. I had been performing this stunt a number of times one day and never realized what had really happened. That evening I had gone home picked up my Mom and was driving out to the farm that belonged to our preacher. We worked a small portion of it for additional garden space. We were just about a mile from the farm when a rumbling, thumping, grinding sound came from the right rear wheel. My first move was to put on the brakes as I thought it was a flat tire. The brake peddle went all the way to the floor and the car just kept going. When we reached the bottom of the hill and started coasting up the next I was already looking for a rock, just in time I saw the perfect rock to scotch the wheel to prevent the car from rolling backwards down the hill. Upon close examination I found the tire or wheel and tire was only with the car because it was contained by the fender. All that tire squealing from earlier in the day had caused the rear axle to snap and the drive out to farm had caused the wheel to come off and break the brake line. Dad came along and we managed to get the car into someones yard until we could get parts to repair the damage.

loud and smoking
You just can't imagine how cool it is to back fire the exhaust system. The ideal method is to get the car up to about 55 mph while heading downhill, turn off the ignition switch while leaving the car in gear, and coast as far as the hill will allow. This lets a lot of unburned gas build up in the exhaust system primarily the muffler, so that when you restart the engine you get a very loud explosion from all that unburned gas and excess pressure in the muffler. Usually a big bang is all you get. however on a really long hill you can get a really big bang. So big in fact that you can split the muffler from one end to the other. A lot of heat escapes from a split muffler and when you are driving a retired taxi cab which had also been a painters work vehicle you can more than you bargained for. Loud noise from a busted muffler in cool. Exhaust gases from a busted muffler are not cool. As a matter of fact they can be hot enough to ignite layers of paint spilled on the floorboard of a painters work vehicle, leading to fire in the back seat. After putting out the fire we attempted to repair the muffler with oil cans and wire, not possible when the muffler is split from one end to the other. Trying to sneak into a driveway which goes uphill, in the middle of the night, will wake even the most sound sleeper. Dad did not confront me that night but when he needed to leave for work the jig was up. I did have to put a new muffler on and it was not the cherry bomb that I wanted, but a stock muffler that was quite enough to navigate the driveway without waking anyone.

Reflections

Ahhhh, I see the sun trying to peep through the clouds on this foggy morning. It is warm on top of this mountain but the fog hasn't yet "burned" itself off so visibility is still very limited.

Our flowers are at last shooting forth from their hidden bulbs and giving us color unlike any we have seen on our land. Tokens of much more to come to be sure.
Our new perennials look small but they should perpetuate and fill in by next year.
We have no ending piles of rocks. We are filling in on hillsides to prevent erosion and beautifying the landscape with picturesque rock placements.
This has been our first winter in our new home and we are looking forward to our first spring and summer. Spring is being slow to manifest itself at our altitude of 4260 feet.....
We are waiting on leaves to take us away from the deadness of winter to the vibrant new growth of spring.

New Haircut

This is more for the AZ Eurys' benefit because they haven't been able to see me since I got my hair cut recently. I did not want to look like a stranger to my AZ grandchildren. I did a self photo on one of them. Can you tell which one?

Found something

I received a wonderful book some time ago from one of my children called "I Love You, Mom." There is no note in the book stating who gave it and I cannot remember which child did. It could have been from any or even all of my children because they are all thoughtful enough to have shared such a sweet bunch of poems with their mom. One in particular, written by Barbara Cage, spoke right to the point of our most recent discussions within our family. It expresses in poetic words my feelings about my children., I am going to copy it (just like it appears in my book) to this blog:

The Love Between a Mother and Child is Forever

The love we share
as mother and child
is a bond of the strongest kind.
It is a love of the present,
interwoven with memories
of the past
and dreams of the future.
It is strengthened by overcoming
obstacles
and facing fears and challenges
together.
It is having pride in each other
and knowing that our love
can withstand anything.
It is sacrifice and tears,
laughter and hugs.
It is understanding, patience,
and believing in each other.
It is wanting only the best
for each other
and wanting to help any time
there is a need.
It is respect, a hug,
and unexpected kindness.
It is making time to be together
and knowing just what to do and say.
It is an unconditional,
forever kind of love.

What a Day!

My Honey and I celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary today. We got a very pleasant mixture of congrats from our 4 children and one from an old friend we sang with in Chicago at the House of Worship years ago. I am in a reminiscing mood right now so I am going to tell you a story. Every morning I wake up and thank God I am still alive, that God has brought me forth from my disappearance again another day. Reminds me of the prayer I used to say as a child: "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray Thee Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee Lord my soul to take. If I should live in other days, I pray Thee Lord to guide my ways." Pretty neat, huh? One does not have to be a child to feel good about that prayer.
When I awake I can see the sunrise almost every day from our bedroom sliding door. When it is overcast the sun does not manifest itself so I miss the sunrise on those days. The sunrise is just beautiful from our room. It comes up over a mountain and in the winter one can see it through the leafless trees. I guess I won't be able to see it when the leaves all come as there is no visibility of the mountain in late Spring and all summer. We'll see (or won't see..).
Guess I will end with that so this does not get to be too long and boring a blog. Love to you all.

"Woody" sited at Windy Ridge

Which of our children were with us in Florida when your dad slammed on the brakes and excitingly exclaimed that he just saw a piliated woodpecker. He hastily turned around and went back and if memory serves us correctly, we all saw it. Well, have I got one for you. This morning we were sitting in our recliners watching TV and I noticed a little songbird on our North deck rail singing away....He was so pretty and we quietly, without moving for fear we would scare him away, watched him for a few seconds before he decided to take off into the tree area of our woods. Spring is here, I thought. The birds are back. I looked back at the TV but felt my eyes drawn to the window in case another songbird appeared lest I miss it. All of a sudden it came into my view. Out in our woods high up in one of our oldest trees I saw a very large pilliated woodpecker pecking away. I got so excited, I told your dad he needed to move over to my view so he could see him. We both just gazed in awe as "Woody" tore into that old tree. We tried to get a video of him but I guess your dad got just a little bit to close, even though we were still inside, to the big window and Woody flew before we could get the shot. We can only hope he will come back and we will see him again. What a thrill! Oh, and BTW, in case someone doesn't know, Windy Ridge is what we call our little piece of land on this mountain.

First week of subbing

After we got our approval as substitute teachers we carried calling cards around to various schools introducing ourselves, etc. The very next day, we got a call for Wayne to go to Waynesville Middle school. His day went well. He had small classes and the subject was in his field of study so he was happy. No calls for the next day so we worked on the house. Then Wayne got 2 calls one for Thursday and one for Friday of last week. The Thursday call was for Pisgah Hi and he would be teaching the Spanish class. Fortunately, the teacher left great lesson plans so he had no trouble getting through the day. He did have a couple of obnoxious students to deal with but he managed. Around 9:30 I received a call requesting that I teach at Canton Middle Schnool for the afternoon. I worked from 11:30 til 3. My classes were with 8th grade science students. Other than having to quiet them down more than I would have liked my day went okay. It was neat. I missed a call request, by being at work, for teaching at Waynesville Middle on Friday. I had a lab appointment to get my blood checked for thinning components at 11 am so it was just as well. I made my next appointment after school hours so that won't happen again.

On Friday Wayne left for Bethel Middle School and when he got home he said, now I know why I was glad to get out of middle school teaching....and he laughed. The kids were kinda smarty, he had all three middle school age students so he had his hands full. Hopefully, we will get called tomorrow for some days this week. It was an interesting week and we are very glad to be making some money.

Update on our latest

Well, folks, we are both just doing fine. We got news yesterday that we have been approved by the school board of Haywood County to be substitute teachers so we got busy and made a bunch of business cards to take to the schools and pass out to teachers, secretaries, etc. Maybe we will get a bit of work to help out our empty pockets.

We will be getting a fairly nice tax refund enabling us to pay back family who have helped us out lately and also go to Arizona in April/May as previously planned. Looks like we may have to take both pooches with us on the trip as no one seems to be able to keep Windee. She is no trouble as long as she doesn't snore too loudly :), and we think we can manage, so hopefully, the Eurys in AZ won't throw us out in the street if we have to walk in with both of our babies. They are both house broken, sleep a lot and can stay in the back yard much of the time. Cadie will be clipped to within an inch of her hide and freshly bathed. Windee has beagle fur so she just needs a fresh bath.

As soon as we finish painting, we will post pics of the house. We are almost done so look for pics soon!

What Do We Do?

Yesterday we got a bee in our bonnet about going out to eat (rare occasion these days). So, we called Lynn, since she is alone this week, and asked if she would like to eat out with us. She agreed and asked if we would like to go to a free movie. Only problem was, the movie didn't start until 9:55 so we knew we would be getting in late, but there are worse things, so we agreed to go. It was a rainy night (badly need rain), 34 degree temp, so we drove home and found it was also raining in our neck of the woods. We started up the mountain (last mile home) and after we got about 0.2 miles of the way we began to slide and totally lost traction. The temp was still 34. It seems though that the rain was freezing on the ground and there was a nice sheet of ice we would have to drive through to get home.

We maneuvered our selves off the highway and into the ditch on the right side of the road and realized we were, without a doubt, stuck with the car leaning at about a 30 degree angle toward the bank. Wayne decided to try and walk home along the ditch, where the ice seemed less ominous, and I was to wait in the car as I did not have on boots and he was sure I would fall. The plan was to bring the truck down the mountain and we would ride back together. Both of the flashlights in the car had dead or near dead batteries. Not helpful. The car was running, but not on a full tank of gas. In fact, the first thing we were going to do the next time we drove the Prius was go get gas. I was warm so I settled down for the wait. A few minutes later here comes Wayne back to the car. The road was extremely slick and our truck tires not steel studded. He did not feel he could maneuver on this slick road to be able to come back to get me.

Hummmmmmmm, we said to each other. Now what do we do? We thought and thought. It was 1 AM. No neighbor was safely reachable to try and walk to their home. Our only cell phone (mine was at home) might not work as signal is extremely poor on our mountain. We gave it a shot, however, and low and behold, the phone worked! First plus for this event. We called Lynn and asked her to call the Haywood County sheriff with details of our crisis to keep us from using up our only phone's battery. The sheriff's office dispatch called us back to get directions on exactly where we were and told us the highway patrol would be there momentarily. He said to keep our lights on so that we could be easily seen. We waited and waited and waited. No HP car could be seen, with his lights burning brightly, coming to our rescue. As we sat in our car feeling totally helpless, we realized that we had never been in this type of dilemma before in all the 49 years we have known each other. Lynn called, or maybe we called her, about this time to get/give a progress report. It was now around 2 AM. While they were talking, a call came through. Wayne hung up and took the call. It was the sheriff's office dispatch telling us the fire department would be there shortly. We hung up the phone and were puzzled about the change in our rescue plans. We know there is only a volunteer fire department. It's not like a grand fire truck would come barreling up the mountain, scoop us up in their vehicle and take us home.

Suddenly our car stalled as if it was out of gas only the gauge said otherwise. It would not crank and stay running. Ummmm, there goes our heat and lights. We hoped help would come soon.

Again, we waited and waited. The dispatcher called back and said a fireman was on the way. In clarifying directions, we became aware that the firefighter would be coming from up the mountain instead of the way we had come and we knew our road had no other outlet. It must be a neighbor who was the volunteer fireman. Wow! Soon we saw headlights approaching from above but then they stopped coming and even disappeared. Suddenly we saw someone approaching with a flashlight. It was our fireman and hhis name was Sean. WE had never met him or his wife but we knew their house well because they were the only neighbors on the mountain who had Hummers. Yes, I said Hummers. He and his wife both have a Hummer. Hers is a small one and his is one of the biggies. Get this, his wife's hummer (the one he chose to bring down to get us) could not navigate on the ice any further than several tenths of a mile from where we were. He said the ditches on the left were better to try and walk in than the deeper one on the right but even the ditch on the left was slick. He held onto me firmly and we worked our way to his vehicle in what seemed like it took forever to do. Wayne was struggling along behind us and slid down several times but did not get hurt. We all got soaked as the rain was still coming down fairly hard. I had on my full length down coat and it kept me very warm in spite of getting wet. Wayne had on his leather jacket. Our hands got very cold such that our fingertips hurt for some time. Finally and with some difficulty, we arrived at our house. Our driveway that adjoins the apron of concrete coming out of the garage was iced over and Sean had difficulty getting his car up to the garage doors. He asked to leave his vehicle at our home and we had him park it in our garage where our Prius usually parks. He would not stay the night with us but instead insisted on walking home. He said he and his wife would come up in the morning and get his vehicle.

By this time it was nearly 4 AM and we were exhausted, unnerved and ready to crash. We slept well and hard and when we got up, the sun was shining, the temp was above freezing and all was right with the world. We hope we never have to go through such an ordeal ever again.

Guess what we found?

Yesterday, while frantically searching for my high school diploma (needed for my new job of substitute teaching) in amongst the many boxes we have yet to unpack, that fill our basement to an undesirable level, we discovered a gift we received from Tag many years ago (Please pardon the run on sentence...). We were so tickled to find it and the pictures show you exactly where in our kitchen its final resting place now is. Needless to say, we had a great cup of coffee this morning made with our newfound prize.

A bit frigid I'd say

Pretty snowfall. Today was a crisp but cold day and the mountains look quite striking. We got about 4 inches of snow up here on the mountain and really frigid temperatures as you can see on our atomic clock. The dim picture is from today. Sorry it is so hard to read. 3 degrees this morning as I took this picture. It was 0 degrees when I first got up. Yesterday it had gotten down to 5 degrees and was 13 degrees when I first got up. Our dogies go out the door first thing in the morning and scurry right back to the warmth of the house. Brrrrrrr. At least the wind was calm today and no chill factor made things even worse.

Snow and Bitter Cold

This is our biggest snowfall for the year to date. It is 5 degrees right now and our water froze last night so we are having to deal with that.













Cadie just loves romping in the snow. She came back into the house with snowballs frozen to her nose hair. She was hysterical trying to bite them off.

True sisters

This was so cute. Cadie crawled in her cage voluntarily while Wayne and I were looking at something on my computer. Windee politely crawled in there with her and sat down. They get along well most of the time.