Melinda’s Mothers Morning

Mother’s Day, May 14, 2017          

Happy Mother’s Day, Melinda!

It was a wonderful day!!    OR “wunnerful”, as Laurence Welk used to say!!      (Google him, millennials; a famous band leader, had a TV show).

Went to church with DD1.     DD2 called.    I had a Steak-n-Shake Garlic burger, fries, {What GF diet??} and a purple milkshake.    

Only the best purple shake in the world!!

 [Thank you Sweet Friend, for giving me the gift card!]     

 

 

 

 

 

 

Talked to my Mama; Sis, Brother, and Shirley texted me.

Went to new house, and had a Nap!!      Very important part of any great day!!

When I got up, unpacked 4 boxes.     Purged a small Walmart bag of new stuff from crafts, and threw away a half way full, small moving box of old legal papers.       They were from getting my disability in 2012.     But first I tore off all my names, addresses, and Social numbers!!     I shredded the tiny pile of that stuff, by hand even!!

By that time I was starving, well no, not literally!!      So DD1 got us each small pizzas.     She likes pepperoni, yuck!!      I only want cheese.    

      Or, hamburg, and onions, if we’re getting fancy!!

Then, Sweet Friend came over, and asked where the screws were to put together the beige leather recliner.     How would I know??     I didn’t take it apart!!        And the take-apart-ee, never mentioned it to me.      But, DD1 and I had already decided we didn’t want it, due to its poor condition, and lack of space for it in living room.    

                                                                    (Old pic)

So, when he said “Well, I can’t put it back together without the screws!      And then you can’t sit on it!”    We both looked at each other, with smiles on our faces, and said in unison, “Put it outside, by the road!”      He was flabbergasted!       We couldn’t really mean that!                 Yup, we did.           I said “Watch!    Somebody will take it!”         (I’ll be watching to see if that’s true.     But even if they don’t, trash pick up is in the morning, so 1 way or another, it will be gone!!     And I don’t care which way either!)

So, my first purge, at the new place has already occurred!       And I couldn’t be happier!!

Finally, to finish out my perfect day, I got kisses, and hugs,

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from the girls when they came back from their dad’s!!

Nothing could be sweeter!

Christmas Crunched

(Written Jan. 6)

Finally Christmas arrived!!          Uh, Melinda??     I hate to tell you this, but Christmas has been come and gone for almost 2 weeks now!

Let me explain.

Our extended family always celebrates Christmas, on Christmas Eve.     But, this year due to so much sickness, we had to postpone till NYE.

Then, still too much sickness, so we had to postpone again!!       It was sad.      SAD, I tell you!!

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But, ever so hopeful, we have rescheduled for THIS Sat.!      And whoever is sick, has to just stay home, and the rest of us will carry on!!       I sure hope ALL can make it!!

Wed. I had to go to the bank, so I stopped by Mama’s.     She had grown weary of waiting, so she gave me all my gifts right then!!      I loved it!!       Thanks, Mommy!

(In case you’re wondering, that tiny dress is NOT for PPJr!      It’s for my bottle of dish soap! It’s not decent for it to be naked!     (Not to mention it’s blue, and is therefore hideous!)

Much better!!

                                                       There!!!    So much better!!

Oh no!    I just realized!     What am I gonna open Sat.?????           Well, I KNOW  Brother and Shirley have me a present!!      (She already told me what it is!)     And Sis already gave me hers, long ago.       (She’s almost as impatient as me!)

Gorgeous!!

Thanks, Sis!!       So pretty!!

Well, guess I’ll just have to re-wrap some things for myself! lol

 

Nope!!   Sis had a bunch of little things for me!

And the wrapping paper was so gorgeous!      (no pix, of course….. sigh)      It was purple, (DUH!!)  with “Joy” written all over it!!

And this:

Is what Curtis, and Sis Shirley gave me!!!       I was blown away!!       So stunning!!        She is a professional artist!        I’m blessed to own an original Shirley Hawkins!!         Now, all I gotta do is get someone to put it up!!

(Oh Sweet Fr-iend!!     Oh, XH!!      Calling all my men!!)

Quazy Quilt Queue

Here it is the end of July, and still haven’t finished Kim’s Kwilt.   (When I first started this post.)            And the final deadline was May 20!        Majorly disappointed with myself.      But, I’ve been so busy with the girls, nannying, and full time taxi-ing for DD1, that I have felt like a chicken with its head cut off. Sorry Carmen!

Now she has a car again, {DD1, not Carmen!} and steady day care, so maybe I can git ‘er done before Winter!

Update:   I finished the infamous kwilt, on Saturday, Oct 22, 2016!!

I’m almost having a headache from that lattice pattern spinning!

The back, above.                                                                                     The front, below.

It was already folded in half, cuz I wanted ya to see my face!

And all the angels sang: “Hallelujah!!”

And all the readers screamed “YES!  Finally we can quit hearing her whine about that pesky kwilt!!”

And SF mailed it that next Monday.

And she (DD2) liked it!  She really liked it!     She said, and I quote,      “Thanks, it’s awesome.”

Okay, now that is off my mind!!      I can go on to the rest of my quazy quilt queue.      And it’s a long one!!

• Shirley’s.    My brother commissioned this one when they were dating.     Their first anniversary was back in August.     This is my progress so far.  

  Getting there!!     So close!!

                                                                                 

• PP’s Panda quilt.     DD1 commissioned this one in 2014.      Ahem   (Can’t find the pieces.     EEK!!)
• The Campbell twins.      They’re only 5 months old, and I have all the squares cut out already, so hey, doing really well on this one!  

Oops!  No I don’t have all the squares cut out.  I have 3/4ths of the squares cut out!  

This fabric has me flummoxed!!      I want each square to be 1 flower, (or “buttehfy”, as PP called them), but how do I do that without the squares going wonky??      I surely AM NOT gonna cut each one individually by hand!

So, I’ll just be as careful as I can…….

• A bigger quilt for PPJr.      Her wonky quilt is WAY too little for her already, and she’s only 8 1/2 months old!!     (Haven’t even decided on the fabrics yet.    Yeah.)

• Aulani’s.       She was born about 12 weeks ago, and I’ve already done this much.    

  Woo hoo!        On a roll here!           

 

Then, I wanna do one for ..      STOP!!          What?   Why??         Until you get all those done, I’m officially declaring a moratorium on saying you’ll make more!            You can’t do that!        I think I can, cuz I just did!

NO MORE QUILTS

Well then, yes ma’am!        I’ll get back with ya on my next recipients, soon as I’m done with these.         So, mid 2027, would you say??          That’s kinda mean.         Is it mean if it’s true??      Well, it has been true so far…..

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Bubba’s Birthday

I can’t believe my little brother is turning 53 today!!       Has it really been 3 years already since we threw him that big funeral party for his 50th??    (Notice he is a tiny bit shorter than me, so he truly is my little brother!)

We’re in black to mourn the passing of his youth.      We made so much fun of him, all night for being old!        Good times.

(It’s incredible how much has changed in 3 short years.    Michelle lost Jeffery, and became a widow.      Curtis found Shirley, and became a happily married man.  

Wedding Day bliss!

 And I went from married to divorced.       And we’ve all moved.     Some of us, more than once.    [ me.]  Makes me wonder, what will happen in the next 3 years?       We never know.)

 Time flies so fast, I’ll be 55 before I know it!       Ahem, Melinda, you’ll be 56 in February.      What????      Wow!       That illustrated my point!

(I know you’re thinking, is Melinda sick??  What’s up with the red, and blue??     They’re Curtis’ fave colors, and since this is his birthday post, I thought I’d be generous, and make it all about him.      I’m such a good sister!)

As a blast from the past. I’m gonna showcase some of his finest (or not) hours, in pictorial form.        Get ready- here we go!!

First stop in our time machine trip,  circa 1964, 65?

   This one is April 1970.                Yes, of course I have to be in the pix too!!

   Yes, he knows he’s all that and a bag of chips!

     Flying thru the air with the greatest of ease!

 

Able to leap tall buildings (or 6 ft hi fences) in a single bound!

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Proud Bartow Yella Jacket!!    I always wondered why their color was blue????

Boys with their toys!!    Christmas Day, 1993, I think.     (Do you recognize his fellow warrior??)     Not sure what the hat is about.  After I gave them the water guns, I stayed inside!!

  Thanks to the time stamp, I can definitely say this is 2007, May 7.      Never too old to play pretend with a niece!

He’s a good daddy.

   And now, Poppy!  

Happy 53rd Birthday, Curtis.    I love you!!

 

Pecan Pie

For Thanksgiving, Mama made fresh pies, with love!     Oh so good!!      She made 2 pecan, 1 coconut cream, 2 sweet potato, and 1 chocolate.    Did you hear that, Katie??    ONLY ONE chocolate!!   My worst Thanksgiving fear came true!!     Oh, horrible day!        It was a fight to the death, between Bro. and me!!      (No, neither one of us died, but the pie sadly didn’t survive!)

Since there isn’t any evidence to show you on that one, I decided to blog about the pecan pie.      And, it is pah-cahn, not pee-can, for those not from the South.     (I’m so sorry for you, that you weren’t born here.)

Here is the way I brought it home, packaged so prettily by Mama.

    Then, revealed in all its gooey glory!  

Nuttin else like a pecan pie, made with love by Mama!!       Except 2!!  

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(Word of warning:  Do NOT ever research “licking lips”, unless you are prepared for some visual trauma!      Why do people have to be so nasty???? )

I only took 1 slice,

What do you mean 1/4 of the pie is NOT 1 slice?? It certainly is!!

My breakfast:

   The only reason for these shots is proof that I didn’t inhale it!    (I’ve been accused of that on multiple occasions!)       See?    I do take bites!                                 Going, going,    gone!           Yummy!   IT was delish!!

Hey look, Gail!    And Dolly!   And Lynn!     I’m becoming a food blogger!     LOL    (NOT!!)        I’d have too much trouble not eating it all first!

 

Deluxe Dining

Remember when my dining room was my sewing room?

 Yeah, it was AWFUL messy.

Well, on May 6th, DH moved everything around, and

Voila!  Restored my dining room!

I’m so happy to have an actual dining room again!

It’s even been used, as a dining room!!

Thursday, May 7th, Brother brought home a ginormous Greek salad, (that Kristen correctly identified as being from ABC Pizza- yum!)

Boy, did we enjoy that!

Me more than him, apparently.

(He just forgot I can’t have rolls anymore, and tried to hand me one.  No, I didn’t bite his hand off!  I just gave him “the look”.  He quickly realized his mistake and apologized!  It was agony to turn that down!  And he’s still embarrassed.)

ABC Pizza rolls are my most favorite restaurant rolls!!!  Waaaaahhh

Oh, yeah, back to the dining room…

Delighted, the deluxe duo daintily dined on dinner.

Finaally, A Little De-Cluttering.

And when I say, a Little de-cluttering, I do mean, little!

When I published the pic of Granny’s Gorgeous Corner Cabinet the other day, did you happen to notice the tiny bouquet on the top left?

Well, it doesn’t look as bad in the pic as it did in real life.  And be very thankful we don’t have smellavision yet!

It was….um…. yeah… dead.  And decaying.  (In my defense, it had ONLY been 3 weeks and 2 days since I received it for my birthday from Brother!  Aren’t flowers supposed to last a month?? No???)

See, Mama? I did it! I am capable of de-cluttering!  It just takes me a little while to even notice the mess!  I have Slob-o-vision.  Which means, I really don’t even see the messes anymore.  But, I kinda started smelling this one!

So, there it is, all nice and cleaned off.  It even inspired me to do a little decorating, the rest of the living room looks so nice!

Okay, that is a really horrible picture.  I just snapped it on the way out the door this morning.  No lights on in the living room.  So, I will have to retake in better light.  But it’s a beautiful amethyst vase, that coincidentally, was also given to me by Brother.  He’s so sweet to me!

I will try to remember to retake the pic in better light, and post later.

I’m a Slogger, not a photographer!  (Just in case you couldn’t tell.)

Recovery, Two Ways

Lately, (since May) recovery has meant 2 things around here.

My learning to declutter and clean, recovering from slobbery, and healing physically and emotionally, recovering health.

Both are important.  Both are extremely hard for me.  I’m not used to being a cleanie, which I am NOT yet!! By any stretch of the imagination! But I am working twards it, which is an improvement, ask any body EVER who has visited me on a non-party day!  Putting myself first so I can heal is also difficult.  I’m more accustomed to helping others.

So, if I talk about physical recovery, it’s still under the definition of my blog, to my way of thinking.  If you disagree, well… my blog, etc,etc

Trying to decide how to show a pic of my physical recovery.  (whirring sounds while brain works. Yes, like everything else these days, my brain makes audible noises while active.  Joints creaking, anybody?)

I had to have this pic cuz Mama loves giraffes!

I love my zebra legs.  While I was in rehab for my knee  surgery 2 years ago, I asked my sis Michelle, to get me some purple duct tape to personalize my walker.  (In the nursing home, everybody and their brother had one, and I didn’t want mine to get lost in the shuffle.) Sadly, the store she chose was out of purple that day, so she chose zebra print, which just happened to be my niece’s favorite.  So, she got the rest of the roll.

When I graduate to a wheelchair, I’ll just spray paint the whole sucker.  (I asked Hoveround about their color choices, none of which were purple.  I think if you pay that much money for something, they jolly well should make it the color You want.)  But if not, I’ll take care of it myself.

Life Happens

Yesterday (whoops, it’s already Sat. morning, so I mean, Thur.. confused yet? lol) we got off our rhythm. DH had to go to a nutrition class before PP even woke up. So, no walk until he came home. By then, my get up and go, had already got up and gone! Know what I mean? Sweeping and mopping just wasn’t happening. But hey, I had done it the 3 days previous, so it was a lot cleaner than usual, right? So I comforted my lazy self.

Then yesterday, we had an early morning trip to ER. DH was in tremendous pain.  After a cat scan, they determined it was a pinched cervical nerve. Frightening? Absolutely! Life threatening? No, thank God! Yes, he’s better thanks to Dr. Robin’s  adjustments.  Thanks for asking.

But it started me thinking about life, and what’s important.  The most important things in life are not things, they are people.

Love, hug, kiss and cherish the ones in your life!

LOVE!

 

Yes, a clean floor is important too, but not at the expense of my relationship to my husband, my daughters, and my grand baby. (Yes, Michelle, I’m gonna mention you too!) Other family falls right in behind there, mom, brother, sister, in-laws, nieces, nephews, aunts, cousins, uncles, ex-husbands, step-mothers.. (Did I forget anybody? Make sure you message me!)

The most important person in my life is Jesus, my Lord and Savior.  If my relationship with Him is in order, it’s much easier to love everyone else properly.

So, God, family, friends, etc. THEN things like clean floors, gourmet meals, hand sewn dresses, etc. Oh, ha ha ha ha! I have to hold my stomach! It hurts from all the belly laughs! Gourmet meals! lol I crack myself up!

Take care of your loved ones, you never know when their next breath will be their last.