Putting Down Roots

This is our new Tulip Poplar tree. One of our friends gave us one a while back that she had dug up in her yard and nurtured before she gave it to us. We planted it between Nathan and Kathy's and our house. Well, when the roofers brought vehicles, etc. between our houses, they weren't very careful and managed to back over it. Today the roofing company brought us our new tree and planted it. I discovered that it is quite hard to take a picture of a small tree without leaves, but I think that you get the picture. This tree happens to be a bit larger than the one that we had, but we won't argue with them! The Tulip Poplar is Tennessee's state tree.


We were quite popular this morning...either the phone or the doorbell seemed to be ringing. I think that the TVA energy reinspection has finally been set up. The roofers brought our new little tree and they also took a list of things that still need to be done in order to complete their hail repair job. Then Woody's new urologist's office called and they want him to have further blood work. In that time I continued to try to undecorate. I would climb up the stairs and/or the stepladder and have to climb down to answer the phone or the door. But I still managed to get quite a few more boxes filled and up in the upstairs hallway...slowly but surely?! Last night I managed to get the tops of the kitchen cabinets dusted and wiped down and rearranged on one side of the kitchen. This evening I went back to working on the other side...at least it is the shorter side. I'm about half-way through with it so we will be all neat and clean up towards the ceiling in the kitchen! All my angels "flew" down to a lower perch today. I put away all the dishes that had to come down when the siding crew was over zealous last week. I even wiped off those shelves so it is a bit cleaner in several areas inside the kitchen cabinets. It just seems like that are so many little jobs that keep rearing their ugly little heads that need to be done while I am undecorating and just making the job take longer and longer.


Woody worked on planting more seeds in flats today. He's hoping to grow more of our plants from seeds this year and not have to buy plants. He took the car that we will be taking next week in to have a tire checked that was losing air. The problem was found...probably caused by a roofing staple/nail...so now the tire is fixed and hopefully ready to take us on down the road next week towards Maryland. Woody emailed a young lady we know who has been diagnosed with stage-4 melanoma. He wanted to encourage her. She will start her treatments next week at M. D. Anderson in Houston. Woody seems to be getting stronger and hasn't had any kidney stone pain today...he still tires easily and feels a bit weak, but not as shaky and not as cold (according to him). He walked to and from church this evening for his time in the prayer room. He is resting after his walk in his recliner watching TV.


I am going to make our hotel reservations in a little while. We have decided to stay outside Bethesda in Virginia this time. It worked well and we liked this hotel the last time so we plan to try it again...this time for both of the nights that we will be there.

At This Rate...

At the rate that I'm going I may never get Christmas put away! Today I continued to take boxes downstairs and slowly fill some up with Christmas and take them back upstairs to join the others in the hallway. Then I decided that I wanted to work on the kitchen...most of the decorations are out of the kitchen (just a few Christmas serving dishes on the kitchen table). It is an easier room to undecorate as I mainly just have trees and a few other Christmas figurines intermingled with the decorations that were already above my kitchen cabinets. I have to redo some of the decorative items that are up there due to the siding workers knocking down some of the things. Well, I haven't redone the things up there for a while...which means that there is quite a lot of dust up there. So I have been rearranging and dusting and wiping down the top of the cabinets. The "theme" in our kitchen is apples. I have a LOT of apples due to being a teacher for so long so I use a lot of them up there. I also have a LOT of recipe books. Some of them are quite old as are the ones that are tonight's picture. These three cookbooks were my grandmother's (my mother's mother). One has a date of 1917 and another 1934 and one doesn't have a date...but it does have recipes for Depression Sponge Cake and Economy Chocolate Cake...which definitely dates it from 1929 to sometime in the 30's. Several of the recipes have check marks next to them which means that she had made them. One recipe has a note next to it "try this." I do the same thing to my recipes...check marks or x's and sometimes I leave a comment to try a recipe. Most of the recipes in these old cookbooks aren't ones that you can prepare today as measurements and ingredients have changed over the years. But I am glad to have some of her cookbooks and enjoy looking at them on the top of my cabinets along with apples and other cookbooks and today enjoyed looking through them again.

Woody still feels weak and shaky but not having much pain. He ran a quick errand shortly after lunch. Then tonight he went to Monday night prayer meeting and visitation. We both spent time this morning on the phone trying to get our TVA energy reinspection set up. Some how paper work seems to have slipped through the cracks somewhere between Tullahoma and TVA energy folk. We do know that they have received the fax that our air conditioning company sent today. TVA is processing it and are supposed to call us in the morning to set up a reinspection time. Maybe that energy evaluation will be behind us shortly. We're also hoping that we will in the near future have our hail damage work completed...something on that is supposed to happen tomorrow...time will tell and I'll tell tomorrow night if it does happen. I would get farther in my undecorating "if" I didn't have to cook and/or clean! Today I made our Shanghai Pork Stew. One of my favorites.

Tomorrow I guess I will have to make hotel reservations for our next trip to NIH...four months have passed!

Slow Sunday!

This morning started out on the wrong foot for me as I overslept...Woody was in trouble as he was "supposed" to have awakened me at a certain time...well... Anyway, we made it to the early service on time. We both taught our respective Sunday School classes and then came home.

I knew that I shouldn't have said how "great" Woody had been doing since Friday after his doctor's appointment! This morning his pain was back. He was very glad to get home from church and flop in his recliner. He did take the new pain medication (an NSAID) that the doctor prescribed for him. He rested/slept off and on this afternoon. He did watch some basketball. I haven't done much today. I did empty the dishwasher and refill it. I talked with my sister this afternoon and worked on resetting some settings on my small point-and-shoot camera. Not a lot happening in our household this Sunday. Mainly waiting for Woody to feel better and that seems to be a very slow process this kidney stone round.

Saturday Samplings

We had rather early duty next door. Our two oldest neighbor granddaughters had to cheer at one of the early Upward basketball games this morning. Woody and I took care of Esther and Elijah while Kathy took Abigail, Joy and Isaac. Graham was off helping his daddy. A bit later in the morning Woody took Elijah with him to run errands, go to the library and to the grocery store. When they got back Elijah was asleep in the car and Woody couldn't wait to lie back in his recliner. Woody hasn't hurt due to his kidney stone since yesterday morning...so he is hopeful...that is all I will say! Woody was done in so I got Elijah home and the groceries in from the car and put away. Woody has relaxed this afternoon and evening reading, watching basketball and is now watching a DVD of a World Series game. I have done some undecorating (more table surfaces (with lots of dust) coming to light!) and have talked on the phone with my sister and then got a surprise call from Erin, our oldest granddaughter. She was taking a brisk walk in Johnson City, TN to buy some food for her dorm room. Then later this afternoon I just couldn't keep my eyes open so took a nap. Now I must put forth some final effort on the Sunday School lesson for tomorrow.

I'm just glad to be able report the longest period of time for Woody to be pain free in two weeks. So far he hasn't had to take any of the medications that the doctor prescribed...one still hasn't been approved by NIH so he is glad that he hasn't needed it. He is feeling better but still rather weak and he is feeling hopeful...

(After I posted this blog I went in to read emails and Woody's Fellow/doctor has emailed and approved the other prescription...now the question is does he need it? At the moment he isn't going to take it as the pharmacy had to give him the wrong size capsule as they didn't have any that were the size that the doctor prescribed...so he will wait...unless desparate...and once again I will say...he is hopeful not to need to take it...this time.)

It's almost time for me to start trying to get reservations for our next Bethesda/NIH visit. In some ways it seems like a very long time since we were there, but in others it doesn't seem possible that four months has passed since we were there.

Confirmed

Woody awoke in the night and the pain was back. So he got busy this morning and found a urologist. He called first thing and the receptionist and/or nurse said to come immediately...Woody beat the doctor to the office. Anyway, four-and-a-half hours later he came home with the diagnosis that he does have a kidney stone. He had been to the hospital for "pictures" and to the doctor in that time and dropped off a prescription. So it is confirmed. He was offered surgery or to just wait...he chose to wait! (Of course, he probably would have to wait anyway as he probably can't have surgery except at NIH, (unless it is emergency surgery) ) One of the prescriptions was approved by Woody's NIH Fellow/Doctor but the urologist neglected to get the other one approved so we are waiting to hear from NIH. All medications that he takes have to be approved by NIH due to the protocol that he has been through. The bad news is that there are more stones waiting for another time. Oh, boy!

I have kept busy with the house...cleaning and undecorating. I made chili for our supper. This evening I took care of Graham, Esther and Elijah while Kathy, Abigail, Joy, and Isaac went to cheer leading practice. Woody is taking it easy this evening...not hurting the last time that I checked.

Rain, RAin, RAIn, RAIN, and MORE RAIN!

Woody had a very good night's sleep for a change. Not long after he got up he headed out on a walk in order to beat the rain. He walked four miles. I can tell that he feels much better today. He has done several things around the house today which he hasn't been doing. He has started planting seeds for the Spring, he has read, watched TV and even fixed one of our favorite cauliflower recipes this evening. He thinks that this bout with a kidney stone is over (almost afraid to write that down!). He also looks like he feels better. I have done next to nothing today...just felt lazy. I have taken several boxes down to put decorations in and have brought one or two back up the stairs to add to the hallway. I have read a little, cleaned a little, and watched a little TV, but the main thing that I did was work on sorting and Photoshopping some of my photos to show to a garden club in March.

About the rain...today we have had close to an inch with more heading our way as the cold front passes through. According to Weather Bug we have had almost 12" so far this month!!!!!!!!! That is a lot of rain and a lot of wet days. We really haven't seen the sun shine very often this month. It is supposed to start shining again tomorrow and not rain for several more days! It will be good to have a dry stretch even if it is only a couple of days!

Photo not intended to scare!

Tonight's photo is not an illustration for our happenings of the day! I managed to get this photo of Vanderbilt's LifeFlight helicopter when we were on the way out of the hospital parking lot after the children's and my first visit to meet Isaac and see their mommy on the day that Isaac was born. Nathan was driving us back home and we got the "treat" of seeing this helicopter up close and personal. All were fascinated...but Elijah (2) the most! We commented that its windows looked like a bug's eyes...and Elijah remembered that fact and talked about it for some time (I have a feeling that if asked he will still tell you about what the windows looked like...and I have another picture from the front showing both windows so he can see again both the helicopter's bug eyes!).

Well, I'm late tonight blogging because I fell asleep. My day started out much earlier than planned. I happened to wake up around 2am and realized that Woody wasn't in bed so I went looking for him. He was downstairs in the recliner...once again he had awakened uncomfortable due to his kidney stone. I'm wondering when Woody is going to decide to go to the doctor! But he claimed that soon it didn't bother him as much and hasn't the rest of the day...very much. He did look in the phonebook as to who he might call if he feels like he does need to go to a doctor. His urologist has retired so he will have to choose someone new (if he decides to!). He did go on a long version of his 4-mile walk today. His walks wear him out these days.

I forgot to report yesterday that my doctor's office called yesterday afternoon and said that my insurance company had approved (finally!) my arthritis/transverse myelitis medication. And, then our pharmacist called shortly after that to tell me, also. There will need to be some straightening out still with the insurance company about my December prescription, but January and beyond has been approved...phew! What a tangled web that seems to have turned into...but hopefully from now on it won't be a problem...except for bumping heads with them about the Dec. prescription coverage. I am so thankful that they approved this medication that helps me to have close to "normal" almost pain free days (at least tolerable pain!). I really appreciate the diligence of both the doctor and pharmacist in bringing this end result about.

We had school this morning...Elijah, Esther, Joy (reading workbook, cross stitch, and then she read a story from her school reading book to Goosey), and then Abigail (sewing...she's making a pillowcase). After I had lunch I went to the church library and another library worker and I worked there for a couple of hours. Woody went on his walk while I was gone. We have both taken it easy this evening since our day started out so early. I'm praying that Woody (and I) will get a good night's sleep tonight...that is if we haven't done too much napping this evening!

Lemon Juice & Olive Oil?

A beautiful mild day here in Middle Tennessee today. This is a picture of Lake Tullahoma that I took after getting my hair cut today. The wind was rippling across the lake causing it to vary in color.

Woody got up this morning after finally having gotten a fairly good amount of sleep yesterday afternoon and then on into the night. Upon getting up this morning, he headed to the computer determined to find a home remedy for kidney stones to try. The one he chose to try was a mixture of lemon juice and olive oil (at least ingredients weren't too scary!). He said that it was none too tasty, but he did manage to get it down (and keep it down). He said that he has felt pretty good today...though still feeling weak. He is a bit leary of saying that he feels pretty good as usually that means a "not-so-good day the next day! He did walk to the prayer room at church tonight. We had a "normal" Tuesday at school today...Elijah, Esther, then four for art, and then Graham for his sewing. Graham finished machine embroidering a burp cloth for Isaac. Isaac turned two weeks old today so I had to have a photo session with him for a little bit right at 12:30pm so it was officially his two-week-old birthday! After the photo session, I grabbed a quick bite of lunch and then headed off to get my hair cut. I have done a little bit of undecorating, but not much today. By the time I got home from getting my hair cut I just needed to sit for a while. Then I made us chicken salad for our supper. And, while Woody was at the prayer room I did take some more Christmas out of the china cabinet and store it properly.

Some Good Days and Some Not So...

I was in the mood to post a sunset yesterday so went back into my "photo archives"...well, tonight this is the sky at the end of our street...no archives tonight! This has not been the best day for Woody. He once again has had pain...so yesterday a pretty good day and today not so... He is missing out on sleep. So this afternoon he has made up for it (at least I think so). Sometime between 3 and 4pm he went upstairs. I thought that he had gone up to work on the computer. When he didn't come down in a while, I checked on him when I went upstairs. And, he was in the bed...sawing logs. Now he has just come downstairs (8pm) and he "claims" that he slept not a bit. Well...no comment on my part. Well, I will comment... any time that I went up to take a filled box up to the hallway, I could still hear what I thought was someone sleeping. I didn't even want to go into our room to get my book as I didn't want to disturb him. While he slept I continued to undecorate...a slow but sure process. I can almost see the tops of several tables, cabinets, etc.

This morning Woody and I went next door while Nathan, Kathy, Esther, Elijah and Isaac went for an appointment. We mainly worked on school lessons. Since our time was a bit off and I did other school lessons with Abigail and Joy, Graham didn't come over to do his sewing till after lunch. He was determined to use a new treasure that he was given last week...an antique darning egg. He had a sock that had a hole in it...so he now knows how to darn (not high on most sewers' lists!). He really picked it up once he realized that it was just like weaving. After he fixed his sock, then he got out the new lap loom, that they got as part of the pickle present this year, and did a bit of weaving. And, then after he left I rested a bit in the glider rocker in the family room and then got busy undecorating.

Woody does say that his pain is somewhat less since he "rested" for the last four or so hours.

Aches and Pains Waning (We Hope!)!

I felt like posting a sunset tonight...this doesn't happen to be tonight's sky...but one from my photo "archive." As the sun is waning in this picture, I think that "perhaps" Woody's and my aches and pains are waning also. Woody said that this is the first time in a week that he can say that he has had hours of being pain free. He woke up really early this morning and was having pain then, but not long after getting up his pain went away and "so far" it hasn't come back. I still have aches and pains...but they are mostly heading back to my normal everyday aches and pains. Woody mainly comments on how weak/tired he is. He has lost quite a bit of sleep this past week. Hopefully now that his pain has subsided, he will start getting better rest. Woody went to the early service at church and taught his sixth grade boy's Sunday School class. I stayed home and rested. I just wasn't up to sitting in one place for any length of time. We both watched one of the library DVD's that Woody checked out yesterday...a 1954 movie: To Catch a Thief with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. I enjoy older movies so much more than ones made today. After the movie, Woody walked four miles. He then watched football. Then he went to the evening church service. I have pretty much done a lot of nothing...a little reading, watched the movie, made a dessert for us and the neighbors (we shared...Woody and I got a couple of pieces and then passed the rest on to their hungry crew), worked a bit more on my photos, and rested. We are due for some rough weather during the night. So far the only actual warning is for strong winds and we're supposed to get some rain and perhaps a thunderstorm or two passing through. It's one of those above normal temperature days...which can bode for bad weather if a cold front approaches (which is what I believe is happening) and bumps into all that moist warm air.

Saturday Entertainment!

We provided entertainment for at least some of our neighbor grandchildren today...that is the workers who came to replace our siding provided entertainment. The siding is being replaced due to the hail storm that we had several months ago. We have had so much rain that there has been little time for them to take care of that task. Today wasn't the greatest of days to do it as it had rained in the night so it was rather mucky underfoot. The entertainment that these workers provided me was trying to keep things from crashing out of our kitchen cabinets and off from the top of our kitchen cabinets. We had several close calls...but as far as I know only one thing got broken. So now there is even a bigger mess than just my undecorating mess....dishes that we had to take out of the cabinets. I didn't do much undecorating today except for taking the Christmas additions off the top of the cabinets in the kitchen. I spent a lot of the day sorting through my photos looking for possible ones to show to a gardening club. I have been asked to do a program in a couple of months and I'm trying to go through and decide just which ones I want to show and the direction that the program might head...only time will tell on the latter which will end up making my decisions on which photos to show! At least at the moment I have tucked away a lot of my favorites and will next cull those down.

Woody is still hurting, but went about his regular Saturday morning activities. He ran errands and did our grocery shopping and also went to the library. The rest of the day he has taken it easy watching basketball and DVD's and reading.

Late this afternoon I did head into the kitchen and made a new soup...Curried Cauliflower Soup (made with roasted cauliflower...a first for me to roast cauliflower). It has a very good flavor. I'm just not overly fond of pureed soups. I like something in my soups to chew! I also peeled and cubed and cooked a few more potatoes to add to our potato soup to add more substance (more to chew!) to the milk base and to make it stretch a bit farther. I worked a bit on cleaning up the kitchen. I have also done a couple of other light household chores today, but that is about it. I am not moving really swiftly (not that I ever do these days!)...but slower than usual. Last week it was because I was going without my medication and this week it is that I managed to fall last night. I was going to look out our bedroom window to see what the weather looked like outside (we had a tornado watch) and I was just checking by looking out the window rather than looking at the radar on the computer! I should have headed toward the computer in the sewing room rather than around the end of the bed (safer)! I got my foot caught in the edge/corner of the bedspread and my feet went out from under me...klutz that I am! I landed (sat) pretty hard and also bounced off the wall with my right shoulder and then landed on my back...and broke a nail on my left hand...so probably managed to come in contact with the footboard of our bed too (very narrow space between the foot of the bed and the wall...perhaps a good thing?). I soaked in the tub for a while last night and I think that helped me not be too sore today. And, this morning I thought that I was going to not have many aches and pains...but, as the day has worn on I am feeling those aches and pains more and more. I'm ready to flop on our bed and rest my back as soon as I finish blogging. Seems like a very good excuse to do some reading...about to finish my third book for this year. Woody and I are quite a pair with all our aches and pains.

Nostalgic Friday

At times our minds seem to spin webs of memories and that has been the sort of day it has been for me. One of the first things that I learned this morning is that one of my grammar school through high school friends is in Hospice care and has been taken off dialysis...very sad news. So while I was talking to my sister I headed in to one of our file cabinets and looked in the files of my early days in school and looked for my second grade class photo. I found that photo and found my classmate in that photo. Then while talking to my sister I started going through the files and thinking back and sharing some laughs with her. Part of those memories she doesn't have as she is seven years younger than I am. One thing that I am glad about...that I grew up in simpler times...growing up in the 50's and 60's was pretty good. I like the "Leave It To Beaver" day and age!

Woody was feeling some better yesterday, but today hasn't been the best day for him. He's still hurting. We did take care of five of the neighbor grandchildren while littlest went to his pediatrician for a check up and a weigh-in. Elijah came over to our house and spent some alone time with Goosey and I stayed over at their house with the bigger kids. They did come over toward that end of the time and rejoined us. I played around with my point-and-shoot camera. Found a setting that I really hadn't tried out before. Good subjects to try out camera settings! This evening I made potato soup which hit the spot for Woody. He said that it was the first thing that had appealed to him to eat today and that it tasted good. Potato soup = good comfort food.

I asked Woody when he thought that he might consider going to the doctor and said in a few weeks...in other words...when we once again head Maryland and NIH way.

Thursday on Friday

A bit upside down here as I couldn't post last night due to internet connection problems. We had a pretty much stay at home day yesterday. Woody did manage to go on a four-mile walk yesterday afternoon. The rest of the day he took it easy reading and watching DVD's. He's still not feeling 100% (but I thought that he seemed to be in less pain (due to kidney stone) yesterday). I continued to work on taking Christmas down...slowly but surely the pile of boxes in the upstairs hall is growing.

Lookin' at Wednesday!

It's been an interesting day...I guess. Woody woke up early due to his kidney stone pain and went downstairs to his recliner and turned on early morning news. I got up and got ready to head out as I had my six-month check-in with my primary care physician. It takes 45 minutes to get there so we started out a little before eight as my appointment was at nine and we have to travel through quite a few school zones. We got there in good time...just a bit early for me to go in and find out that the doctor had had an emergency to tend to and that it would be at least a 45 minute wait. Since we had come all the way from Tullahoma we wanted to stick it out and not reschedule the appointment. It was more than an hour till she got to the office, but she had left blood work orders...so my blood was drawn and the nurse had weighed me and asked me all pertinent questions prior to the doctor's arrival. I think that I was the first patient seen when she did get there. While I was sitting in the office, the doctor filled out the latest form from the insurance company. It was the third form that she had had to submit to them. But she "thinks" that this one was going to get the ok for my medication that so far had been denied. She said that she can tell by the questions that they ask if it is going to be approved and she was pretty sure that what she was having to answer was going to get the job done. Here's "hoping!" The doctor's office will call when they get the final approval (note my optimism by that last statement!). On the way home we stopped at a barbeque place and bought a pound of pulled pork. Yum...boy did that smell good when Woody brought it into the car...especially since I had been fasting since the night before. I will confess to eating a bite before we got home...really before we pulled out of the parking lot! We got home just a little before 11:30...so my doctor trek took around 3 1/2 hours total...not too long considering. We had pulled pork sandwiches in pita bread for lunch. Very good!

After lunch, I went to the church library for a work afternoon. Once again three of us got quite a lot accomplished. Woody rested while I was away. He has taken it quite easy today...except for driving me over to McMinnville for my doctor appointment. When I got home from the library, I was in need of a rest (still feeling the effects of not having my medication for five days). I sat and watched a little TV and then went upstairs to flop on the bed as my back was hurting quite badly. Well, resting my back turned into resting my eyes! Before I went upstairs to rest, I put in a call to Graham, as I needed a courier. He came over and I handed him an envelope to deliver to the birthday girl...his mommy! Happy Birthday, Kathy!

One Week Old

I took this picture not long after 12:30pm today so Isaac really is officially one week old! All in his family seem to be doing well. We tried to get back on a school schedule this morning. Elijah and Esther had their turns and then we had art with the four oldest and then Abigail had a sewing lesson. I went over to their house after lunch so I could have a one-week photo session! Elijah was really wanting to watch a DVD and he had to wait till after his older siblings finished their school work. In the end he came over to our house and watched it with Goosey. I started undecorating. I'm going at it very slowly...taking out a box and heading for the item that belongs in that box. I will be at it a while, but at least it is started. Elijah decided to have his rest over at our house so I read him a couple of stories and he snuggled down under a soft fleece throw (a substitute for his own blankie that he seems to have accepted when he is over here). I went back next door to take a few more pictures of Isaac in a new outfit that he had gotten in the mail from my sister. Woody still isn't feeling the greatest...still in pain...so he has sort of taken it easy today. He did go to the prayer room this evening, but he did drive instead of walking. He has watched a DVD this evening. I stewed a couple of chickens this evening and now have more liquid gold simmering on the stove top. Around six I sort of played out and had to lie down...while the chickens cooled enough to debone. Then it seemed like it took forever to debone them. But that job is behind me...not my favorite cooking job! I guess my medication is kicking back in, but I still know that I hadn't had it for a while.

Angry Bird!

I had tonight's blog titled "Uncle" but then looked at this picture and thought about the game that my grandchildren seem to like called "Angry Bird" so decided that it went better with tonight's picture and also one of the subjects for tonight's blog.

I am the "angry bird" and this morning I finally cried "Uncle!" and threw in the towel and called in my prescription that so far the insurance company is still denying. I hadn't had any of my NSAID/anti-inflammatory drug since last Tuesday. I had been able to thus far cope with the arthritis pain, but when in the night I started getting some of the symptoms of my Transverse Myelitis I decided that it wasn't worth risking its return! I did talk with my primary care physician's office today and they said that they are working on it and that they had turned in the information to the insurance company and that it takes a while for insurance to make a decision and get back to them. They did have some free samples, but it meant a 45min-1hr drive to go get them and Woody didn't really feel like that drive today (more about that in a minute). I did call my neurologist here in town to see if they perhaps had some free samples, but they did not. So then I bit the bullet and called the pharmacy and asked them to fill the prescription and that we would be paying for them this month. Woody walked to the pharmacy this afternoon and picked up my one month supply and picked up his prescription for a three month supply...his cost less than $15 and mine...well...I think that I am getting the picture as to why the insurance company doesn't want to foot the bill...yikes...it had best make me feel better! We shall continue to work to get mine covered...that's a guarantee! I had kept one of my pills in reserve for an emergency and decided in the middle of the night that it was time to take it. So I just took my second of the day so guess that pain relief is getting back into my system...

Now, on to Woody...he told me after he got home from church last night that he thought that he had a kidney stone once again. So he hasn't felt the best today. He did decide to take the "short" walk to the pharmacy this afternoon. He thought that would make him feel better. He is currently at Monday Night Prayer meeting at church.

We took care of the five oldest next door for a short time this afternoon, while Isaac went for a weight check. This morning we spent a short time next door as dear friends stopped in to meet Isaac and we went over to see them. I did abbreviated school time with Elijah and Esther and then Joy had her x-stitching lesson and Graham had his sewing lesson.

Five Days Old

Here's little Isaac at five days old. He's in the little gown that Kathy knit for him...the gown he came home from the hospital in. I had to run over and take a couple of pictures, as I didn't see him yesterday...had to check to see if he had grown too much since I saw him on Friday! He's still pretty little, but he does have his eyes open more now.

Woody got up early and went for a walk on this cold, brisk morning. He said that the bank thermometer read 22F. He walked six miles this morning. He went to the early service at church and then taught his 6th grade Sunday School class. I decided to take it easy and stayed home today. I slept in...so I may be catching up on some lost sleep. Woody has read and watched football today. He is now at the evening service at church.

Next Excuse!

As you can see, (well, I guess you really don't know when this picture was taken...but it was taken just moments ago) I still don't have our Christmas decorations down. As a matter of fact I haven't even started taking them down. A week ago I decided that I wouldn't take them down till after Isaac was born. What is my excuse now? I'm blaming it on my medical insurance this time! When Woody went on Medicare, the policy that we had had rolled over to a single policy for me. Well, rolled over and played dead...I am thinking! They are now denying any of my non-generic medications which means my arthritis med (which also helps with my Transverse Myelitis pain also). We/the pharmacy/doctor's office have been working on getting this resolved for over a week. The insurance company has fallen from my favor, since in the meantime I have run out of my medication and am going without...have gone without for four days now...and I know it in just about every bone and joint in my body. So newest reason for not undecorating is that I'm hurting and just can't go up and down the stairs the number of times that I need to when undecorating. So this morning I sat and drank a cup of tea and enjoyed looking at the Christmas tree with the sun shining in on it (the sun hasn't shone on it many days this Christmas season as we have had so much rain). Didn't really want to undecorate anyway...but really don't want the delay to be for the reason that it is!

Despite being in pain, I did manage with Woody's help to make a new soup today. Woody brought home a cookbook from the library a week or so ago and wanted to try this soup. The cookbook is "The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen." One of the goals of this cookbook is to help make things palatable for those who have undergone chemo and things just don't taste good. Another thing that the recipes in this book attempt to do is use ingredients that will help stave off cancer. So Woody's choice of the recipes was "Ma's Mushroom Barley Soup." We asked Melany to stop and buy us some shiiitake mushrooms on her way here yesterday so we could make the recipe according to ingredients called for (no shiitake mushrooms to be found in Tullahoma...at least not when Woody looked for them). It is really quite tasty. It has parsnips in it...a first for me to cook. Mother used to cook parsnips for my father...but they never interested my taste buds (not sure that I ever even tried them!). So this week we have had parsnips, turnips, and rhutabaga...again, all three on a like list for my father, but never for me. But in soup, I will admit they taste quite good (well, really one doesn't know that they are in it once all the ingredients blend all together). I just read about some of the ingredients the we used at the front of this cookbook and many of them have anti inflamatory properties...I'm still waiting for that property to kick in for me! Here is a note from the book: "Science has discovered that many edible mushrooms have potent anticancer properties. Take shiitakes, which have anti-tumor, cholesterol-lowering, and virus-inhibiting effects. And one of those active ingredient, lentinan, is part of a larger family of complex sugar molecules known as beta-glucans, which may also kick-start the immune system. " This book has lots of interesting notes throughout the book about the positive aspects of ingredients called for in the recipes. Like I said...this one is quite tasty. It is just a little close to the soup that I made last week (Ham and Barley Soup)...I like a variety in my soups and am not one to make the same soup too close together. I had also not ever cooked with shiitake mushrooms before...so several new items for me to cook with and also to eat.

We were out of "Liquid Gold" (homemade broth) and I decided the other day that I would make vegetable broth this weekend. So I did manage to plop the vegetables into some water and let them cook all afternoon. Now to go strain the veggies out of the broth...the timer just rang a few minutes ago.

Woody did the grocery shopping this morning and went to the library. After lunch of Ma's Mushroom Barley Soup he took a walk. Today the temperature actually warmed up to 51F...much better than the last couple of days and it wasn't raining...another big plus! This afternoon and evening he has been reading and watching football.

Busy Friday the Thirteenth

The day started out very cold...low was 22f. It did manage to get into the lower 30's this afternoon, but has already dropped down into the 20's tonight. Woody and I headed next door to take care of five of the six as Isaac had a pediatrician appointment this morning. We got school underway for the older children and Woody read and played with Elijah for a while and then Joy and Esther read to him. I tried to keep the older children focused on their school work. Not long after we got over there, Melany called. She had the day off for a snow day. And, since it really wasn't all that bad out (snow-wise), I suggested that she and Alex might like to come today instead of tomorrow. She decided that was a good idea and the two of them arrived around 11am. They made a stop at Kroger in Murfreesboro for shitake mushrooms for us (our Kroger doesn't seem to carry them or at least didn't have them when Woody looked last week). She and Alex ate lunch with us and then we spent the rest of the afternoon over at Nathan and Kathy's. We all had a very nice visit. Alex played video games with the children...showed them a few new moves...and...Melany held little Isaac!

From One Generation To The Next!

Here's little Isaac at just a couple minutes short of being two days old. And, there is something in this picture that was handed down from one generation to the next. The little sleeper that Isaac is wearing was his daddy's! So it was worn almost 40 years ago by his daddy who was much smaller than Isaac. Nathan weighed only 5lbs. 12oz. and was only 18 inches long. This was a little outfit that Woody's father bought for Nathan when he was born. I always loved the color and how soft it was and it is still that pretty blue color and still soft after all these years! We ate lunch with Nathan and Kathy and family today and when I walked in Isaac was on Kathy's shoulder and all I could see was his back and I asked if I recognized his outfit. Kathy said that I should!


Woody got up early and went for a walk as he knew that it wasn't going to get much warmer. Today the temperatures have been dropping all day. Today's high was in the mid 40's but that was sometime in the night. Presently it is 27F. For a while this afternoon we had snow flurries, but prior to that we had over an inch of rain again today. So far this month Weather Bug says that we have had a little over 7" of rain...and it is only the 12th of the month! That's a lot of water! Everything is squishy underfoot. After Woody got home from his walk, he got things set up to grind up a couple of London broils. That took a while and was quite a bit of an effort on his part. I stayed away when I heard what he was doing...I didn't want to get into the mess! After he was through grinding he packed it up in pound portions and we have frozen it. We also broiled some hamburgers to take next door for part of the lunch. Nathan had made some hummus and then we gathered all sorts of condiments from both houses to make hummus sandwiches and/or hamburgers. It was a very good meal and fun to eat with Isaac at the table. Woody held him for a while so Kathy could eat her lunch. After lunch, Woody invited Elijah over to play for a while. He played and then said that he was tired and he decided that he would have his rest over at our house. So I got the art things that were out in the school room (the girls had fun doing art when they were waiting on little Isaac's birth and I just hadn't gotten in to pick up from that and didn't want Elijah to get interested in art rather than a nap!). He snuggled up on the bed that is in there and I read him a story about a dragon and then he went right to sleep with a nice soft throw over him. A little later Abigail called up and asked if she could come over and read to one of us. So she came (when it was snowing) over. Not long after she finished reading Elijah woke up and then they both headed home in time for their supper.


Isaac had an unusual problem with one of his eyes that was discovered not long after he was born. He had a little flap of skin that attached the top lid to his bottom lid. It was keeping Isaac from being able to open that eye. An ophthalmologist was called in. The doctor said that he had never seen this before. The doctor thought at first that all it would take was swiping it with a Q-tip, but in the end he had to cut it with a scalpel. Isaac will go in to see the eye doctor next week...one so young already having an ophthalmologist appointment!

Tradition!

It has become a tradition for the children to pile onto their mommy's hospital bed and have a family portrait made in the hospital. We took that traditional picture less than an hour before Isaac turned 1 day old. Isaac and his mommy were discharged from the hospital and arrived home when he was just about 27 hours old. All seem to be fine. I went over a little while ago to give them pictures that I had printed of each of the children holding Isaac. They will take the pictures when they go to church tonight so they can show their teachers and friends their new baby brother. The girls were helping their mommy change a diaper when I got there...and thus it seems that baby routine has begun!

Let Me Introduce You!

Let me introduce you to little Isaac Zachariah Dorrell. He was born today at 12:30pm. He weighed 7lbs. 7.6 oz and was 21 inches long. And, we all think that he is very special. "How Sweet to Hold a Newborn Baby!" Mommy, Daddy, and Isaac are all doing well as are the siblings and grandparents (though tired!). Woody had a busy day with the Grand Jury. He didn't get home till after 7pm and hasn't met little Isaac yet.

Things Are Hoppin' Around Here!

Well...where to begin?! Woody walked this morning...guess that is a good place to begin. He ended up walking in the rain...though it wasn't raining when he started out...so he didn't take an umbrella...so he got a bit wet. I had school with Elijah, Esther and Joy. Graham's sewing got a bit interrupted as Kathy's doctor appointment got rearranged and Nathan ran an errand with Esther and Elijah while Kathy was at the doctor and the others were at our house. I ended up helping Abigail with her math and when Graham and I got around to sewing it was almost time for lunch. So he ended up coming over this afternoon and chose an embroidery design to machine embroider on a burp cloth for his baby brother (Graham's next project). Woody was walking out the door when Kathy called about her appointment change. Woody went to see a friend who is having in-house rehab here in town. Then this afternoon Woody headed over to Manchester (our county's county seat) for his jury summons. He got picked for the Grand Jury...which starts tomorrow (no comment on the timing!). I am ensconced over at Nathan's as it looks like tomorrow will also be the arrival of our eighth grandchild! I'll be sure to update you tomorrow night! I am pretty sure that we will have an announcement to make...and we will know his name (I hope, anyway)! I keep thinking "how sweet to hold a newborn baby!"

Online!

This picture reminded me of a cute cartoon that I saw the other day. The picture had many wires and many birds sitting on said wires and the caption was: "Looks like everyone is online!"

Woody got up early and went on a six-mile walk. We both went to the early service at church. Abigail sat with us this morning. We both went to Sunday School. Woody taught his sixth grade boys' class. We came home and had a sandwich for lunch and then I got busy and made the soup that I didn't have enough energy yesterday to make. I made Ham and Barley soup. We had it not long ago. It is a really hearty soup with lots of veggies in it: carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, turnips (this time we added a rutabaga along with some turnips), and green beans. All the flavors blend and you really don't realize that you have a couple of unusual (ones (turnips and rutabagas) that we don't eat except in this soup) veggies in it. It is a stick-to-your-ribs type of soup. We ate some for supper, but I look forward to eating it tomorrow when the flavors have had a bit more time to blend together. While the soup was still simmering, Woody headed out to the monthly deacons' meeting. The soup was almost ready when he came back in the door a couple of hours later. After making the soup I was pretty much done in so flopped in a chair in the family room with a football game going and promptly fell asleep and had a good nap. Woody has read and watched football. I did a little reading prior to falling asleep. It has been a pretty calm Sunday...so far. And, so far, we're still on baby watch! We had a back-up plan if Kathy went into labor this morning during church/Sunday School times...trade vehicles...they would take ours to the hospital and leave theirs so we could get all the children home! Today will tell if this baby will march to a different drummer...all their others have been born exactly one week prior to their due date and today is that day...still a few more hours for him to follow suit!

In a Bluebird Mood!

I guess this is a bit spring-like photo for tonight's blog...but I couldn't decide what photo to post and started looking through my bird pictures and came across this little bluebird. And, I decided that tonight would be a "bluebird night!"

I have done about as little as possible today. I was going to take some pictures of my decorations and then start undecorating...but I talked myself out of it. As much as I dislike undecorating, it isn't very hard to talk myself out of it! With the baby going to be here so soon, I just hate to be in the midst of the mess. Thanks, Kathy, for an excuse to wait! Woody did our weekly shopping this morning. We got them put away and then he went to the library and on the way home stopped at the pharmacy and attempted to pick up a couple of prescriptions for me. New insurance for me is causing a bit of a problem...hopefully this will be corrected pretty quickly. I have an email into my doctor to get her approval for several of my prescriptions. Woody also realized this morning that he is out of his antibiotic that he takes three times a week so I emailed his doctor at NIH requesting her to have the NIH pharmacy send him some. Medicine problems for us today! Woody watched various sports on TV this afternoon. Then late this afternoon he headed off on his four-mile walking route. He came across several friends as he walked so he did a bit of visiting on this walk.

Graham called this afternoon and asked if four people could come over. I asked him where he would find four people. His answer: "Oh, around the house!" In the end just three little people came over for a while.

Heading Back Home!

Flat Corbin is on his way back across the Mississippi...heading back to AZ. He has spent three weeks with us virtually venturing around TN via my photos. I scanned the Flat Corbin that was sent to me and made two more of him...both smaller sizes. Then I pulled up different TN photos on the computer screen and then placed one of the smaller Flat Corbins on the screen as part of the picture and then took a picture of the computer screen. Above he is on the screen crossing the Mississippi...I told you that he was crossing heading towards AZ...but in reality when I took the picture Woody and I were heading back to TN from AZ on a very foggy morning!!!! The original Flat Corbin has accompanied us around here in daily things...but in telling about TN (which this project is all about) then he did a bit of it virtually...and often in a funny way! I have him standing on the giant guitar that greets us as we come back into TN from VA. On our last trip I took the guitar's picture when we stopped at the TN Welcome Center. The picture I took showed a lot of other folk taking pictures of the guitar...so I placed one of the scanned Flat Corbins on the neck of the guitar...and it looked like the people were taking his picture. That picture gave me a way to introduce that Nashville is the Country Music Capital of the World. Yesterday I printed the photos and today I printed out facts about TN, a few brochures about things in TN, and printed out the diary that Flat Corbin "kept" while he was here. Thanks to the blog I was able to plug something in for every day that he was here and insert TN information as I went along. I gathered up all the papers, photos, the diary, etc. and Woody and I got eve;rything...including the three Flat Corbins back into the padded envelope that he arrived in and readdressed it. Then Woody took his daily walk...this time to the Post Office to mail Flat Corbin back to AZ via Priority Mail. Now when Flat Corbin arrives, 3-D Corbin and his family can make a poster of Flat Corbin's TN adventures so 3-D Corbin can make a presentation to his class. Hopefully 3-D Corbin will learn a little about his TN Aunt and Uncle's and his TN cousins' state.

Today several of the children have filtered in and out. Elijah came over first to read with Woody...but guess what he insisted on...having school!!! Fridays are my days off from school...but who could resist a little two-year-old's request!? He only did a little and then was ready to go down to Goosey. So I headed back into the sewing room and the computer to work some more on Flat Corbin's TN adventures. Pretty soon Elijah came into the sewing room and crawled up in my lap and looked at pictures on the computer for a while and then he went back to Woody. Several of pictures that I showed him were when we saw him for the first time after he was born. I thought that it would be a good introduction to the hospital environment that he will be introduced to any day now! Each time the phone from their house rings, I wonder if it is "the call!" We'll have an exciting announcement to share with all of you within the next several days! Joy and Esther came over before lunch and after lunch. They had a wonderful time playing dolls, doing some art work...and there is no telling what all. It was so sweet hearing their little voices just playing away. I told Joy that I was just about ready for a nap at one point when they were over here after lunch. And, she insisted that I was NOT as big people don't take naps! I told her that babies and small children take naps and then as they grow they stop taking naps until they grow up and get older and then they start taking naps again! I'm not sure that I convinced her...but as soon as Woody came back from his walk to the Post Office I was able to snooze...for quite a while...probably too long...but these days the philosophy around here for both of us is..."get sleep when you can!" And, now here is a picture of Flat Corbin on the guitar:

Thoroughly Thursday!

Here are all the shirts. You will have to see them in person to appreciate them! Graham's has a robot, Abigail's a megaphone, Joy's a ballerina, Esther's a star, and Elijah's a road sign. And, each of them has the words "I'm the Big Brother (or Sister)" on it. Time is nearing that they will wear them! Pretty soon there will be a new little one to snuggle! Can't wait! Plus I want to know what his name is!!!!!!!!!!

Today we had school. After Elijah had his time of school with me, he spent time with Goosey (Woody). Elijah brought a DVD over that he wanted to watch with Goosey. Esther fell down as she was coming in the house for school so she ended up back at her house and Joy swapped school times with her. Joy read a little bit, but was most anxious to get started with the hand sewing that she is learning. I took Esther's reading over to her house when Joy was finished and Esther read to her mommy and daddy and was videoed while she read. Then it was Abigail's turn to come over for sewing. We continued to work on her notebook. We are just about finished catching it up with her projects and then we will move on to her next actual sewing project...a pillowcase. This afternoon and evening I have been working on getting Flat Corbin ready to send back to 3-D Corbin in AZ. I have been printing off pictures and writing a diary of things that Flat Corbin has been doing. I still plan to include some TN facts and then get him back in an envelope and get him in the mail. The Flat Stanley projects that schools do are fun! I'm glad that I got to participate in my nephew Corbin's school "Flat Stanley Program."

Woody walked this afternoon. It was fairly mild today. It almost got to 60F today. Woody has read and interacted with grandchildren today.

Wednesday...all day long!

Today has been a busy day. I got up early so I could get the art room converted back to a school room...it really didn't take all that long and Woody restacked the plastic bins that they used as art desks. Then Elijah, Esther, and Joy came over at separate times and had school with me. Joy read some to Woody and Woody read some to Elijah. Abigail had her sewing class today. We are updating her sewing notebook. We printed pictures of the projects that she has done so we can put them into her notebook. She'll put them in tomorrow. After the sewing lesson I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then got ready to head to the church. A couple of minutes before I left, Woody headed out on his walk for the day. I worked with two other library workers for around three hours then came home and have been relaxing. I guess that Woody has decided to relax also as when I went downstairs to find out how far he walked this afternoon, he was dozing. I know that it wouldn't take much of a still moment for me to fall asleep.

Coming In For a Landing!

Tonight's picture has something to do with two things that I/we have done today. The first on my part was rather a not thought-out move. I set my cell phone last night to be my alarm clock...well, when I went to turn it off it slipped out of my hands and went under the bed. So I reached under the bed (while I was still in the bed) to retrieve it and the cell phone was farther than I realized and I had to reach farther and...well, I ended up falling out of the bed. This little bird makes a much better landing than I! I fell in between the wooden side of our bed and the large basket that I keep books in that is on the floor next to my side of the bed. On top of that my feet stayed encased in the covers so I was sort of trussed up! (I'm so glad that I am the one who takes pictures around here! But I couldn't rouse Woody who was downstairs so...guess pictures wouldn't have been taken anyway!) I wondered for a few minutes how long I would have to be there till Woody came upstairs but in short order I was able to get my feet untangled and managed to get myself out from in between the bed and the basket. I hope that I have at least brought a smile to a face or two...as it has made me laugh just trying to type the description of what happened and can just imagine what all of you are picturing as you read this! I will say that at first I didn't feel any ill effects from falling, but this evening I am a bit sore in several places...but my discomfort could be from the extreme cold temps that we have had today or...it could be that a weather front is on its way. Transverse Myelitis never lets me know whether there is something physical causing my aches and pains...it masks a lot of ills!!!!!! Enough said...but I'll bet some are snickering over my morning plight (and rightly so!)! (After thinking about this post I have come back in with a further explanation about this basket that I got caught between...it is quite large and quite heavy with books, magazines, etc...so you see it barely budged when I fell between it and the bed...I really was wedged in!)

I also used my photo software to make tonight's picture look like a painting. That is a big reminder that we had art class today and we PAINTED!!!!!!!!! I made five children very happy today! They love to paint. Right at the end of our class Nathan and Elijah came over and Elijah came up and looked in the school room. I asked him if he wanted to paint and you can guess his answer! I had one more smock so we got it on him and we got him a place to paint and paint he did! Today's lesson for the four older children was on the color wheel. Their first painting was to create a color wheel that included the primary colors and then the secondary colors. They did a good job and enjoyed mixing the primary colors to make the secondary colors. Several of their papers actually had a color wheel on it when finished...all had managed to have the primary colors and the secondary colors! Then I gave them another paper and they could paint whatever. I was the paint distributor...squeezing out dabs of whatever primary color they had run out of. Lots of "Grammy, I need more..."(fill in the blank with red, blue, yellow, or white!). A good time was had by all. But boy do I have a huge mess to clean up before we can have school in the schoolroom tomorrow. So far haven't felt up to the challenge! We went too long and it was time for Graham's sewing lesson so we didn't do the best job of cleaning up...we'll do better next time. They were having such fun that I didn't think to stop in enough time to do the clean-up.

Woody has read, watched a bit of TV, looked through some recipe books to find some new recipes using ingredients that we have on hand...and in the end I made my tried-and-true chili recipe. Tasted very good on this very cold day! It got down to 19F in the wee hours of the morning and never left the 30's today. I never left the house...trying to avoid too much direct contact with the cold temps. Cold temps and I just don't get along! Woody left a while ago to walk to the Prayer Room at church...he left fairly well bundled up...he needed to...it is already back down to 26F.

I have my final count on how many books I read in 2011...54. I finished the 54th on New Year's Eve. Today I brought my list up to date with the last book and decided to do something that I always say that I will do...add up the number of pages that I have read during the year. Not only do I keep a list of titles and authors that I read, I also write down how many pages are in each book. So my grand total for this year is.........drum roll...........18,909 pages! That averages out to 350 pages per book. The longest book that I read was 725 pages and the shortest was 64 pages. This list doesn't include the photography or sewing how-to books that I have read as I often don't read every word of those so don't include them in my list unless I do read the entire thing. I do have another list that I add them to if they are really good and I might like to peruse them again. Some of the books that I have read are paperbacks...so small pages (but usually equally as small words!), some of the books that I have read are Large Print...so more pages than a "regular print" book. But my record keeping is all in fun so it really doesn't matter! Just a quirk that I like to do and I definitely like having a list of all the books that I have read...at least all that I have read "since" I started keeping my books-read list. I will type this year's book list into the computer in a data base so that these will end up with other books by the same author that I have read previously...the list is alphabetized by authors (librarian in me comes out!).

Oh, another drum roll, please..................I finished sorting my pictures on New Year's Day...and at this point the only photos that aren't sorted are the ones on the camera that I took today. I know that for a while I will sort as I download...but as in the past that habit probably won't last and I will be faced once again with a daunting task!

Pain-Medication Free

Woody wrote the following for the blog tonight:

Upon leaving Vanderbilt, I was in quite a bit of pain. The peach-size tumor on my left shoulder blade was causing considerable discomfort. Dr. Sosman had me taking Percoset and Oxycodone, but they didn't help much. I was still working and couldn't take the medicine half the time because I needed to drive.

When they needed to remove a second tumor (because they were unsuccessful in growing cells from the first one), I begged them to take the one on my shoulder blade instead of one under my arm. They finally agreed, However, after the surgery the pain was still there. When I returned about six weeks later to undergo the protocol, a nurse noticed that I was in pain. She called in the Pain Team. The Pain Team switched me to Neurontin--and the pain went away.

Early on I switched from taking two Neurontins a day to one. At my last appointment at NIH, my doctor said that it's been a year now--see if you can't cut back and maybe get off the Neurontin altogether. It's going on three months now and I can not only say that I'm pain free but also that I'm pain-medication free.

Beginnings

Just as a sunrise begins a new day, January 1 begins a new year...2012 (first time that I have written it...at least I remembered!). New days and new years make us wonder what will be in store for us...time will tell!

It has been a very mild day today with just a bit of rain...Weather Bug says that we started the year out with around an inch of rain...I hadn't realized that it rained that much. Woody headed out on his walk fairly early since the temperature was so mild. He said that it was around 60F even at that hour. When we headed out for church, it actually had a feeling of humidity in the air (rather a Spring-like feeling in the air). We both taught our Sunday School classes and then went to the church service. We came home and had a rather lazy afternoon. Abigail came over and she and I spent it in the sewing room. She helped me put machine embroidery thread away. Joy and Esther also spent some time over here. Graham started out 2012 with a bang...I mean a fall...from pretty high up in a magnolia tree and got a few scrapes and bruises as he crashed through the branches along with a cut on the back of his head. He came over here for a while after his fall. We ate supper over at Nathan and Kathy's. I came home to continue sorting pictures. Just before signing in to blog, I got the November and December pictures ready to sort. Woody has read and watched football and played with the children. He and Graham attempted to do a magnet experiment to help Graham get his mind off his fall. I had never watched "my" Christmas movies this year so have them running tonight...White Christmas and Holiday Inn. I'm "watching" them while I sort pictures and while I blog (my back is to the TV...but I have watched them so many times that I can "see" them just by listening).

Woody and I wish you and yours God's richest blessings in 2012!