Life prepares us!

In the midst of all that is going on I find myself thankful for all that have happened in my life. 

The main thing I learned to do was find humor in everything. After a good long look at happenings, I realized that the clown in me is the reason that Jerry is still content and happy. 

Top to bottom,

Sparkee (Deb), Merree Berree (Nancy),

Cindee(Cindy), Dottee (me) and George E (Andrew). 

Being able to find joy in putting a rope on the floor and walking in it and telling the audience that I was "online". Hearing their joy. And being able to bring out that joy for Jerry is AWESOME!!

Things to look for

If I had been used to looking for differences I would have known what was happening. 

2004, Jerry was in the Halliburton yard working and the ladies called to ask if he was ok. It seems he was walking slower than the other guy. They had just been teasing him that the speed limit was 15 in the yard. A week later he's walking slow. 

Symptom? Maybe. 

About the same time I realized he needed help navigating around big cities. So I became navigator. Sometimes I told him wrong but we always made it to where we were going. 

He got picky about his food. All of a sudden he didn't want bacon, he still only  eats like one strip. 

He became more of a homebody. Didn't want to go to the movies or just a Sunday afternoon ride. 

Where theses happenings signs for me to keep in my heart? Signs that it really might be Alzheimer's.

I don't know. 

But probably. 

I'm just gonna say it--Alzheimer's.

For the last 13 years I have seen this coming. The first thing I noticed was during the drive to his moms in 2003. We had made the same roads from the time we moved to Oklahoma in 1962. That's what--41 years. On the transition road from Ft. Worth to Dallas we got on this particular strip and he says "I've never been on this road". I made the mistake of saying yes we have. He got all mad. 

Ummmm????

Is this Alzheimer's. ??

Other things cropped up. 

He retired, and then I got of a chance to really see the decline. 

Did I acknowledge the signs.

No I didn't. I just ignored them. 

But this disease doesn't stop, slow down or go away.

Do I like it? 

NOT!!

One word!!

HOT!!!!

Wondering???

Have you ever thought about your influence on others?  Like -what do your kids think about? How do they relate to others? Are they kind or are they just jerks?

Does the person at the convenience store smile when you come in to pay for the gas--or does she hide in the back?

How hard is it for you to give a compliment? All it takes is--I like that blouse! You've got new glasses!! Your hair is gorgeous!!! Hey kiddo you are so smart to figure that out. 

It takes no time at all and believe me YOU will walk taller, feel better and have a happy day yourself. 

A little change makes a difference

That cigarette that burns up while your in the shower. 

That second muffin you decide NOT to eat. 

The kind words you whisper to your spouse. 

 Sometimes a small change makes a BIG difference

Life Is

Life is---

     Fast

     Stressed

     Happy

     Loving

Life is---

     Babies

     Children

     Adults

     Growing

Life is---

     Taking

     Giving

     Being

     Loosing

Life is---

     Difficult

     Easy

     Fun

     Adapting 

Life is

It's a Southern dish?

I've been seeing on Facebook that having cornbread and milk is VERY good and better yet VERY Southern!!

Last night I make cornbread to go with the beef stew. 

Breakfast was

Cornbread in milk and bacon. 

I ate all of mine. Jerry didn't like it at all. 

So I've decided that this Southern thing is NOT an every person thing. It's something that's acquired. 

Strange weather!! VERY STRANGE!!

It is now June 6th and the outside temp is 71 at almost 9 am!!!

Yesterday we had fog!!  

Today the sun is shining bright!  

A glorious day !!  

Seattle it is!!

I've always wanted to go to the north west part of this country. 

Well it's come to us. 

It looked like this yesterday too. 

AND last week

AND the week before. 

No flooding. 

That's in Texas

And it's bad!!  

I'd rather be here in Seattle!!

Sometimes you just gotta

I have fallen behind. I used to have a tshirt that read " the hurrier I go the behinder I get". 

Well, that's so true for the last couple of years. Jerry is my priority. 

So, I'm getting behind. Things like....

Checking expiration dates

Cleaning out the fridge

Putting papers in the recycle buggie

    I did finally put the recycle buggie time 

    On my phone so I could remember

     Which Monday it is. 

I've tried to get all the house work done. Ain't happened all in one day like it use to. But I've figured it out. I have a dusting rag that I put in areas-tv or tables by chairs or pictures and that's where I clean that day. Then if something has a drawer it gets cleaned out another day. 

Voila!! It works!!

It just takes a little flexibility. 

Life is for living!!!

Living is just that

OR

It can be more!!

There are seasons in everyone's life that are stressful. A pregnant woman whose spouse leaves because of the baby. A military family that has someone deployed. People in their fifties who have to take care of themselves, their kids and both sets of parents. 

Life is not a bed of roses. 

It's your choice to be bitter or be better. 

Better is best. Less stress. 

It's Officially Summer at our house

I know that by the calendar it's not summer. I have white hair but I can read. 

I also know animals know more about what's what than people do. We had a mutt once. So cute!  There was a tornado in Fredrick OK, that's about an hour away, and she hid behind the recliner. When I picked her up the Gaia down her back was standing straight up!!  

So when I saw Heckle and Jeckle fly in this morning I just KNEW!!

SUMMER!!!

Nightmares!!

I haven't had a nightmare in years. In fact I think the last one was when Lance told us the plot of a movie he had seen. 

During the night I woke up screaming!!

Lance was one of the high school

students in the commercial art class I took for 4 years. Loved it!! And the "us" would be my friend Linda. The art class called us " the Linda's".  

Back to nightmares--I had them all the time as a kid. When we finally got TV--that new thing on the market- dad wouldn't let me watch some things because of the nightmares. 

Once I dreamed that a man in a trench coat with a hat on with the brim pulled low over his eyes was following me. So I made a big fist and turned around to knock him out quicker than a roadrunner can run.  Then I starting saying " it's Jerry. I know it is! I can't hit him. He's my husband." But hit him I did. 

Woke him up when I popped him in the nose. I told him he had a bad dream and to go back to sleep. 

I've never told him the real reason he woke up. 

I had nightmares after taking the kids to see Willie Wonka with Gene Wilder!!  That was scary to me. 

All my nightmares are in color. 

Why am I blogging this?  I don't know,I think it's just important for me to get all these memories out. 

Taking about changes

When I was a kid-back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth-we moved. A LOT.

I went to 3 kindergartens. In one year.  3---that's a LOT.

By the time I went to high school the total was 26. That's a lot more!!  

Did I resent it? Did I get anxious? Did I go into tantrums?

NOT!!!

I learned a lot. How to step back from what's going on and to analyze it. I learned how to be flexible in my mind and desires. I learned how to accept others for what and who they are. 

It made me who I am today. 

Things NEVER stay the same

I've known for years! Or it might just be since I had a birthday over 50, that things change. 

Sometimes rapidly, but most of the time change is slow. 

Tornadoes rage through Oklahoma this time of the year and in a matter of minutes the damage is done. Earthquakes in Oklahoma too cause damage quickly. 

Hurricanes on the other hand takes hours to makes changes to the area they go over. 

Change also comes as we age. My hair starting turning white when I was 22. Now it's all white. Joint pain, and headaches, allergies and food tolerance. That happens to all of us. 

And you know what--it's ok!!  Changes are what life is about!!

Embrace those changes!!  

Allergy time

This year Jerry's nose is running and his eyes are itchy. 

Yuck!!!!

Allergies!!

I got him some antihistamine and it works but takes about an hour. In the mean time he sniffs, coughs, rubs his eyes, and is just miserable. 

Me I just try to blow my nose because it stops up. 

That's yuck too!!!

 

It's Rainy Looking!!

I'm so happy it's rainy!!  It's almost 10 in the morning and it's just 59 degrees

The rain has made the dirt wet ( of course) and that means moisture in the air and that's means cooler. 

Oooooohhhh hooooo!!

And that means - I hope - a cooler summer!!!!

When haven't you----

Watched scary movies when you knew you would have nightmares?

Eaten ice cream for dinner or supper whatever you call it?

When haven't you tried to not laugh - out loud - to keep from hurting someones feelings?

When didn't you kiss your new babies toes and smell that baby scent??

When didn't you want to go to Paris or Florence or even Pompeii. 

Roadrunner

We've got roadrunners!!!

There's only one thing that I think about. Roadrunners eat bugs and seeds and other BIRDS!!!

We have a cardinal family with us this summer and I want them to not become part of Mr. Roadrunners supper. 

Time slowed WAY down

This morning I found the flower seeds had germinated but the dirt was dry. Here comes Jerry to the rescue!!  Hose in hand!!  

I watered and then put the weeds in the flower pot I keep to put peels and weeds so they can deteriorate into dirt. Came back to the front of the house missed the step and fell between 2 big pots. In VERY slow motion. Talk about feeling stupid.  

I called the doctor and made appointment for tomorrow. I'm going to call in the morning and cancel. Besides being a little sore my mind has cleared, nothing's broken and I can think. 

It scared me for a little while but "I am woman hear me roar!!!"

Computer trouble

Telling it like it is. It's been raining cats and dogs. The grass --or in our yard, the weeds--are green. The Iris have bloomed and been destroyed by the rain. The Day Lillies are getting ready to bloom and there are bunnies eating the weeds!!  

SPRING!!!!

There is ALWAYS lots of wonderful things happening even in the midst of not so good things. Jerry is down to 149 pounds, but he is eating more now. He's coughing more because he's allergic to grass and its Spring and what happens in Spring?  The grass grows and needs to be cut. Making Jerry cough up buckets of phlegm. 

Yuck!!!

The upside is that he brings me roses off the bushes. Iris from the bunches. He smiles and has as good a time as he can. He watches the birds and keeps their feeders full along with the bird bath filled with water.  

God is soooo good!!!

Teaching!!!

Jerry worked International for 24 years. His or rather our first assignment was in England.  Right on the East coast of the Country in a city call Great Yarmouth. The city where David Copperfield and Black Beauty lived. The city where the Pilgrims set sail to come to America. A walled city that swelled to three times its size in the summer as it is a holiday place. Lynn met a man who had been coming to Yarmouth for 50 years I believe she said. Every year to the same bed and breakfast. 

We found a bungalow in a quiet area. A small house with a large road. One bedroom downstairs and two upstairs. And a church right next door. With a cemetery on the grounds. 

To get to the bus stop you had to go down the path - the unlit path - right next to the graves. Ok in the daylight but the kids walked it on Friday and Saturday night. Movies and bowling!!! And that wonderful mussaka.  Sometimes in the summer it took the bus an hour to get over the draw bridge because of all the traffic. Two lanes and 3 times the traffic battling with a draw bridge. Most of the time in the summer I'd take the kids to Norwich (pronounced nor itch). It was so much quicker. 

We loved it. I told Jerry once if I ever ran away don't look for me in Yarmouth because he'd probably find me. 

More later

Linda

THE couch

Sarah's Christmas present!!! She finally likes it!! Yay!!!!!

Heckle,Jeckle,Jack,Cory and Big Daddy

Looked out the kitchen window-there was Heckle,Jeckle,Jack and a big lump out towards the back of the garage. 

A BIG grey lump!!

And then Cory flew in. 

Well, the lump just stayed a lump!!! 

HJJ&C stayed close to each other. Kinda shuffled their feet. But they did NOT get far from each other. 

THEN-----

THEN the lump moved!!!! 

It is a hawk. And he had a brown furry something ON the ground. 

It didn't move. 

See that little dark spot at the back of the garage?  

Not that one!

The lump that's just to the right of the garage, well actually about 2 feet from the garage. 

THATs the HAWK!!

He's gone now and so is the furry lump. 

And HJJ&C left before Bug Daddy, or as most would say, the HAWK!!!

2016 Trip To Alaska!!

This is Alaska 2016

This is the RETURN to warm country

It's been awhile

I know my blog last time was misunderstood. I'm not worried nor am I upset about our lives right now. I just know God has the whole situation in the palm of his hand. Kinda like when mom died the summer before I was 10. I could see myself sitting on Gids lap. He would just hold on and it was so good to feel Him. So now I feel him put His hand on my shoulder when I get frustrated. It settles me to go again. 

And today I realized that jerry was like a 5 year old a lot of the time. So, and think about this, a five year old will forget, he will get upset, he will want to eat only what he likes. 

And I was once again feeling that comfort that only God can give.

More later

Linda