Some fluff stuff...

to make me smile. These lovelies are from Nester.

So I had great plans...

of getting some more Christmas decorating done today. But instead I've got my sweet MIL here. I'm basically babysitting her, easier to do at my house rather then me sitting at her house. I have to take her to a neurologist on Tuesday for follow up. Husband was told that she has dementia, twice while at hospital last week. We need to find out out how severe the dementia is. I've got her reports to bring to neurologist and they don't look good. Too much white brain matter, etc. I hope to get some HAPPY pictures and POSTS soon. I know that no one wants to read this sad stuff. But just hang in there with me, until I have a little free time of my own!

Since my last post....

just in these 3 shorts weeks ....here's what's happened:

Monday (17th of November) night HUBBY hit by a deer in our SUV on his way home from work. He's ok, just pissed as this is his 2nd deer accident. Car damaged, hustled to get that vehicle fixed since we intended to drive it to Oxford the following Wednesday morning. So body shop estimates, insurance phone calls, then being without one vehicle after bringing it to body shop. Me, stupid me, did not put rental reimbursement on that vehicle!

Sunday (23th of November) SON comes home from Ole Miss/LSU game with BEAUTIFUL GIRLFRIEND (BG) from NC and big black grand dog Bailey. They drove from Oxford to Baton Rouge on Friday to stay with SON'S LSU friends. This was our first time to meet BG, she has been in his life since early this summer. BG is delightful.

Monday SON brings BG to airport as she flies home to Winston-Salem, I'm preparing to pack up for Oxford.

Tuesday SON & HUBBY playing golf. I get call that MOTHER-IN-LAW on route to ER. She has suffered what will be first of 3 TIA's. HUSBAND spends all day & part of night at hospital. SON leaves for Oxford bringing up 1/2 of all the junk I think we have to have in Oxford for 4 days.

Wednesday (plan to leave early this morning) HUSBAND brings MIL home from hospital. 45 mins later she has 2nd TIA event. This was very scary as we witnessed it. HUSBAND brings MIL back to hospital, symptoms subside after 2 hours, ER says don't bring her back again but go to larger city hospital that has stroke unit. HUSBAND tells me to go to Oxford alone, as he is torn about leaving his MOTHER. I start to leave twice but come back. I can't leave him. Eventually we both get on the road at 4:00PM packed with thawing turkey and all the frozen dishes I've prepared last 2 weeks. We set up care takers for MIL.

Thanksgiving Day in Oxford is beautiful. DAUGHTER & SIL arrived last night from Shreveport with Miller. Condo is beautiful and spacious. MIL has 3 TIA, she has friends and neighbors taking shifts. We stay in touch throughout weekend.
HUSBAND, SON & SIL take dogs to THE PARK in Oxford. HUSBAND gets plowed from behind by frisky playful dogs re injuring his severely injured and operated-on knee (from college Lacrosse).

Friday tailgating in the Grove is great, even sweeter with OLE MISS'S big 45-0 win. HUSBAND in pain and hobbling, still refuses to go to hospital.

Saturday walked around the SQUARE, lunch at the Rib Cage as everyone was tired of turkey. Dinner at City Grocery. Husband still in pain.

Sunday home from Oxford and the care giving of MIL begins. She can not drive so I'm shopping, cooking, and taking her to all her doctor appointments.

Tuesday HUSBAND finally gets in to start assessment of his knee, X-Ray taken, MRI will be taken tomorrow. I hope he doesn't have to have surgery. I don't think I can handle 2 patients at once.

Me? I'm taking extra care of myself, exercising every day, going to bed early (I love to sleep), and staying positive. Christmas decorations are all most finished and it will be another online shopping year. No time for stores. MIL cancelled her Christmas trip to Chicago, DAUGHTER & SIL, & Miller come in Christmas eve, SON & Bailey will be here after finals end next week. So I'll have a house full for Christmas! What more can one ask for? I love having my children & family for the holidays!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend!

I'm still here....

I really can't explain why I haven't blogged! Maybe a break away was good for me. I've been cooking, traveling, planning, sewing, hiring workers, got a plumber coming to fix Katrina screw-ups...etc...
I'm sorry, y'all, was not intentional, just one of those self absorbed few weeks!
Please forgive me!

Giving to our national community.....

We are trying to raise money this weekend for St. Judes, yet I'm complaining....
Here's where I've been and why I'm not able to read about ya'll...

So, one of my vehicles had to go to dealership this week for service..."service engine light" came on. It had an evaporate emission canister vent stuck....whatever the heck that means. Under warranty, yes fix it. Then they told me 2 other items needed to be serviced, the air filter needed to be changed out and a fuel induction service needed to be done. Do I want to have this done while vehicle is in shop or bring it back after. Obviously I wanted it all done, if I'm without a vehicle and it is a huge hassle dropping it off, then getting someone to bring me back to dealership...DO IT! $250 later....

I'm driving home and I realize my XM radio won't work. Try as I might, I could not find XM. Got home, called XM radio to see if something happened to my XM subscription on that vehicle. Nope, all my accounts are fine, and by the way did you have service on vehicle lately? Well, yes. So I call service dept back, they say bring it back in the morning. So Friday morning, hubby & I head to dealer. These are long time friends, as we've bought vehicles them for 25 years. They look at radio and say "you need a new radio"!
WTH, the XM was fine when we dropped it off 2 days ago. Now they have to order that specific radio to fit the VIN #, thank goodness still under warranty. But come on now, what really happened? Now I've got to be without a vehicle for a day or two next week, never mind the logistics of dropping it off and picking it back up. GGRRR!!

Trying to get hubby to make my 16+ FT long window rod. OMG what a mistake....he argued with me at Lowes, every idea that I had, he said wouldn't work. Such as...."you can't paint on PVC or metal pipes". I said "Yes... they make all kinds of new paints that will adhere to those surfaces. " Disaster & a fight in the works! He bought 2 wood 10 FT dowels, spends 2 hours yesterday trying to mathematically figure out the center point on a 1 1/2 inch diameter dowel to put them together with no results. OMG , now I remember why I don't ask for his help. Still not done. He is playing in a golf tournament for St Judes Hospital this weekend. I said I'd help out with the tourny, taking up my weekend time, and we had to go to banquet last night and again tonight. So I'm not expecting my 16+ FT curtain rod to be installed this weekend. I've got the panels together, stitched, and ironed.

So, I'm just off "volunteer wife golf cart duty" and I'm complaining to all of you. Sorry! I've got to shower again and get ready to help with the meal for tonight. I really have NOTHING to complain about if I put my thoughts into perspective with the families associated with St Judes. Shame on me for being so shallow!

Sorry, I can't visit with ya'll. Thanks for listening, I miss reading about ya'll, I promise to catch up soon!
XOXO!!!

Redoing window treatments

I've got some problem windows that are only a problem when it's fall & winter since Katrina took away 25 trees on my lot that used to block out the sun. This kitchen window below is a huge glare problem. There was a 200 year old water oak in front of window. Water oaks don't lose their leaves completely till March, so for 14 years this was never a problem. I don't want to hide the pretty trim around the window and I still want to be able to look out that window. I bought a long piece of plastic molding, which I can easily shape to the half circle of the window. Attaching it is my dilemma as well as making a commitment to fabric. I plan to make a balloon type shade that can be raised or lowered.Below, this 17 foot expanse of windows has blinds. It was never a problem with too much sun those 14 years before 2005. Now in the fall & winter, even with blinds closed, the glare is horrific. If I could just cover a couple of these windows a little more, but also be able to look out when needed to see my pond.

My plan is to find some type of 16foot + length of solid PVC tubing...I hope, I hope... to go across this expanse. Above transom windows. On rings, so the panels slide easily. Remember these stationary balloon puff thingies from my TV room? Never put them back up.

They are bronze colored dupioni silk, and consist of 2 180" lengths, folded in half and made into stationary balloons. Now I've taken them apart, cut the 180" ft lengths in 2. I bought white lining material, plan to sew all together. I've got to find a long fringe, at least 5 " to attach to bottom of panels as I need more length to cover the transoms.

When finished, I should have a 90" wide panel at each end of above room. Each 90" panel will cover 2 windows. And block out a little more sunlight, I hope...I hope..

So for the past 3 years, I've been saying I need to do something to fix these problems. The time has come, I'm on a mission. Please give me any advice, thoughts, tips, or better ideas to fix these problems!

Back Home!

We had 8 glorious days on the Cape & in Boston. The weather was perfect. We visited with lots of family, we shopped, hubby golfed, and we gobbled up clam chowda, lobster, quahogs, and fried clams!!!! And Sam Adams Ocktoberfest! On Thursday, we went to Fenway Park to see about tickets for that night's game.

Had lunch at Cask n Flagon, while watching the ticket line form on Lansdowne Street ticket gate.

Son wanted a Coco Crisp #10 jersey....a little shocked at the price...$550!

Boston's finest before going on crowd duty.

I can never keep up with hubby and take pictures. That's him in front of me. Half the time my pictures were all blurry from hurrying. Once or twice I lost sight of him as crowds got heavier.

We decided against waiting 2 more hours in line for tickets, then another 2 hours for game to start. Went to Qunicy Market instead, shopped and eat dinner there. Went back to the Doubletree on Washington to watch the rest of the game in comfort. Red Sox were losing 7-0 in 7th, shut TV off as we watched the crowds leaving the Green Monster. We all gave up! And they won, with an amazing comeback. What bad fans we are! They won again last night and tonight is the BIG ONE!

Walking down a country road, the foliage turned brighter the longer our stay went on.

Glad to be back home although it takes me days to get back to normal. I'll be catching up in blogland soon!

Stuff on the table...

or my newest addiction!

Nancy @ http://southernlady-nancy.blogspot.com/ just started making tassels! And beautiful tassels they are. These things are my weakness, I'm might need to count them in my home just to see if I am truly an addict. I buy them with the great intentions of giving them as gifts, by themselves, or as a lovely decorative addition to a beautifully wrapped gift. So far I've only parted with 1 and that was heart wrenching. It was the adorable dachshunds that Susie Harris made. I gave that one to daughter & SIL to honor Miller, my dachshund grandson! Yea, so it's still in the family! See my problem, here?

We'll see if I'm able to part with any more! I guess that would mean....I just need to buy more!

Thank you Nancy, fabulous fluff stuff & stuff on the table!

The winner is...

I took a cue from Monogram chick and used Random.org to pick the winner. To make it fair, I removed my comment, Monogram Chick's comment and 1 of Diane's as she left 2 comments.
Here are the results:


Search RANDOM.ORG
True Random Number Service
List Randomizer
There were 32 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

The Golf Widow said...
Susie Harris said...
Brie said...
maggi said...
Far From Perfect said...
Jen r. said...
Lauren said...
jenniferadams said...
Lynsey and Brian said...
BroncoMom said...
kacey@doodlebugspaper.com said...
The Promoted Princess said...
Joy said...
Joanna said...
My thrifty victorian home said...
M.L. @ The House of Whimsy said...
Kristy said...
Anonymous said...
flip flops and pearls said...
5 Boys And Me said...
southern queen bee said...
LovesPINKandPEARLS said...
southerninspiration said...
Belle in Bloom said...
Fran said...
Kelly said...
Domestic Goddess..Diva sometimes said...
Preppy 101 said...
The Nester said...
Diane@A Picture is Worth.... said...
edie+steve said...
Tammy Lou said...
Timestamp: 2008-10-06 14:01:05 UTC

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So Golf Widow was 1st on the list generator, you can see where everyone else came in.
Golf Widow, if you email Monogram Chick, she you email you the gift certificate. Happy shopping!

A POOPIE redo with an extra bonus

This is my first attempt to replace a POOPIE, I've got so many it's overwhelming. I decided to give the entire hutch a new look, ya know how one thing leads to another, and another...

So outside I'm taking the fake ivy and grapes out of their basket that they been in for many years.

Lo & behold I find the missing piece of a bracket that I've been searching for since we moved back home after Katrina...3+ years. I realized once I saw the oak leaves what happened. We hurriedly had to move every bit of salvageable STUFF out of this house while the house was open to workers rebuilding. Things got piled on top of each other. We lived at MIL's, all my STUFF, JUNK, and LAMPS took up every bit of space inside and in her garage. This basket was in her garage for all those months, oak leaves blew in that winter.

I'm so glad to find this. Now I can fix and find a new home for these brackets. If I could only find the 12 Waterford Linen place mats that disappeared. I think hubby threw them in trash heap. I'll never forgive him for that, they could have been cleaned.

So I threw some white paint on the hutch and a little red on the backboard, put away the pink & green plates. I bought 2 little curly-edge ferns. Trying to find the right container to keep them in so they'll be easy to water.

Below won't work: Ohh...this pic is so whiteish and bright....not what it really looks like...

This container is the perfect size but the black and gold just doesn't look right. Thought about painted it white, but I really like the black and gold in a different room. Just have to keep looking.
Below pic is more true in color.... sorry for my bad photo skills!

The red sure gives the kitchen some spark. My kitchen is so bright, especially in fall and winter as sun gets higher. I've got to do something about window treatments. Ugghh! the to-do list gets longer and longer!