Blahs

I'm sitting in bed with the laptop listening to rumbles of thunder.  I'm hoping we don't have any bad weather.  My prayers are with those in the Dallas area who were affected by the tornadoes.  Thankfully no lives were lost.

Sometimes it feels as though there are tornadoes ripping through my life.  My thoughts are going in every direction, crashing into each other and I can't seem to stop them.  Why is that?  Maybe it's because I've spent most of the week in bed not feeling well and have too much time to think.  Should I do this, or that, or the other?  What if, well maybe, no, yes, oh just forget it.  I don't like feeling like this.  I can't seem to focus on any ONE thing.  I feel restless.  Maybe that's because I'm wanting to go visit my parents and can't right now.  It's hard not to be able to do what I want when I want to.  Most of the time I handle it well, but not this time.

I want to see my brothers and sister and spend some time with them - longer than just a couple of hours.  Time flies by so quickly.  It's been almost four months since I've seen them and that's just too long.  It's hard being so far away.  Guess I'm just homesick!  Below is a picture of my sweet parents with their children and their spouses.  The first couple standing is my brother Johnny and his wife, Teresa.  Next is Leslie, wife of my brother, David, then my sister Ruth and her husband, Rickey, then there's me in the green shirt and my husband, Dale.

I'm hoping I can go visit them soon. 

Promises

Every time I see a rainbow in the sky I am reminded of God's promise to Noah many many years ago.  There have been floods since then, but the entire earth has never been destroyed by floods since His promise long ago and it never will.  

We've all heard the old saying "the only things certain in life are death and taxes".  That's not true. While those are certainly two things we can be sure of,  they  most definitely are not the only two nor are they the most important.  We  have God's promises and there are  many of them.  

He has and will always fulfill His promises.  We choose where to receive the most important promise of all.  My choice will always be Heaven. 

The Weekend

Weekends are spent with my grandson, Andrew.  Here he is back behind the barn riding the 4-wheeler over rocky terrain.  It didn't take much of that to drain the battery. 

I don't have a battery, but I'm drained and need to recharge so this is a very short post.

Happy April 1st.  Have a great week.

A Little Bit of Rambling

After spending nearly a week in bed, I felt better today and did not have to lay down at all.  Thank God.  It's getting time to go to bed though because my energy is gone and I'm having some pain.  It's nothing like it has been though.

I've been busy today going through pictures - not online.  Mom had a lot of pictures and newspaper clippings she'd kept over the years.  There are so many things that need to be put into a scrapbook.  Maybe some day I'll do that.  I found tons of pictures that I had taken that never made it to a photo album.  I've put them in those photo storage boxes for now.  I've emptied a large plastic storage tub so far so I am slowly making progress.  I have another tub to go through, but I think most of the pictures in it are in frames.

Looking at photos from years past brings back many memories.  There are so many photos of the boys as they were growing up.  Reminds me again how time flies.   Seems just yesterday we were taking them to ball practice and ball games.  Now they are 30 and 25.  WOW.  I blinked and they were grown.  They'll always be my babies though and I'll always love them unconditionally.

Goodnight!  

Rambling Friday

"This is your Walmart Pharmacy calling.  A member of your household has three prescriptions ready for pick up.  The total amount of your purchase is $374.00."  Now if that's not enough to give one a heart attack, it's enough to make one sick.  Sick of having no insurance because the premiums are just too expensive.  And Obama wants to force us to have health insurance.  I wonder how much that health insurance will help with the cost of medications.  I also wonder how much the insurance will cost.  I won't get into my anger over everything that got tacked into his health care law.

One prescription is for hormones, one for high cholestrol and one for depression.  The cost is enough to CAUSE depression.   Those meds are not the only ones I take.   My meds alone cost over $500 per month.  Discount cards don't help much at all.   The meds for fibro cost over $150. 

I spent Wednesday and Thursday in bed because the pain was so bad and I couldn't function because I had no energy whatsoever.  My legs felt like wet noodles and just wouldn't let me go up and down the stairs at times.  If you don't have fibromyalgia, thank God above.  It's awful.  I was ready to drag out the crutches.  God is good though and I have faith that this flare up will end soon.  I'm hoping today is much better.

Andrew comes over this afternoon at 6.  I'm looking forward to seeing him and getting hugs, kisses and love.  He has a hard time understanding that sometimes Nana just has to stay in bed.  He got some games for his birthday, so maybe he will play games with me!  We're supposed to have rain today and tomorrow so he won't be able to play outside much, if at all.

Prayers are requested and appreciated.  Hope your Friday and weekend are great!

Old Things

While going through some things during my organization adventure, I found the container that held Mom's photos.   Mom was my mother-in-law who passed away two years ago this past February.  This is an old photo album that she had.

This photo doesn't really show how worn this album is.  It's literally falling apart and obviously has been for years.  If you look closely in the photos below, you'll see someone tried to keep it together by sewing pages together.

See the black thread in the one just above?  I wonder how long the book has been held together by threads?

It's really barely holding together.  Some of the photos have come loose.

I look at this photo and feel as though this family worked hard.  I feel certain they went through hard times, yet look at their clothes.  It's obvious they were dressed in their Sunday best.  There are no smiles.  I wonder why.

I wonder who was cut out of the photo on the top right.  I adore the old car and look at the girl posing along side it.

 The newer looking photo is of Mom's niece.  I have no clue who the others are. 

I insisted Mom come live with us when she could no longer live alone due to her health and age.  She was probably 92 at the time.  We moved her into our spare bedroom which is upstairs along with the other three.  She was unable to get up and down the stairs without a lot of assistance so she spent hours upstairs in her room.  She'd wander into our bedroom while I was folding clothes, or watch TV in her room, or fall asleep reading the newspaper.  I knew she had to get bored to tears. 

One day we were looking at some photos she'd brought with her and I asked her to please go through them and write the names of the subjects on the back of each photo.  She did and this week I found little notes she'd written too.  I haven't gone through them all, but I was absolutely thrilled to find the notes.

This photo album holds pictures of people that are long gone.  Mom couldn't write the names of them on the backs because the photos are glued to the pages.  Hubby has no clue who some of these people are.  I'm going to go visit Mom's niece and see if she knows who any of them are. 

I was just intrigued with this photo album.  The wear and tear, hanging together by threads, the faces and the stories behind those faces. 

Old things are needed and useful in many ways.  Older people are as well - even more so.  They have experience, knowledge and ideas that could teach us so much.  As I get older I listen to those older than me for I have learned that they know a lot more than I do.   I wish I could bottle up their wisdom  and keep it to use when they're no longer around.  

Mad at Murphy

Murphy is evidently mad at me and I'm even more mad at her.  As you may recall, Buddy died and we let Murphy stay inside a few days because we felt sorry for her and figured she was mourning the loss of her constant companion.   BIG mistake.  Due to the hair shedding and tick season, we put her back outside.  When darkness came, she would stand at the doors and bark.  She would go to the windows and bark while scratching on the window screens.  We decided to lock her inside the garage at night so we could sleep.  This is what she did to the door coming into the house from the garage.

We decided to make her stay outside.  That didn't work because she kept us up barking.  The next step was to bring her inside at night and put her in the cage.  That worked rather well for two nights.  Last night, however, she started barking to come in and when we let her in to go to her cage, she stopped and refused to go in.  Hubby asked her if she wanted to go outside and she made a beeline for the door.  We thought all was well.  She didn't wake us with her barking!

This morning when I got up and let Giz out to do his business, THIS is what I found on the door coming in from the patio:

Now, we will have to replace two door frames.  That's not cheap.  I'm so angry at Murphy.  She has never done anything like this.   She's going in the cage tonight whether she wants to or not and it will probably be inside the garage.  At the rate she's going, she will chew and scratch her way in somehow.

Any dog lovers out there who have a suggestion for me?  This cannot continue. Do you think she's acting out because she wants to come inside, because she misses Buddy or both?  I'm just at a loss because this is so unlike her.  We've let the outside dogs come inside before when the weather was cold and nothing like this has happened.  I'm open to suggestions.

Hope your Monday is better than mine thus far!