August is Slipping Away

It has been a pretty active Wednesday. Woody headed off to go to the farmer's market and Kroger before school got underway. I had a usual Wednesday of school. It was Abigail's turn for her "Grammy Long Time." She finished embroidering the pockets on a denim skirt and sewed the pockets back on..progress! As soon as she was finished with her sewing time. I headed down to the kitchen to make a pan of cornbread. Several from my Sunday School Class made dinner for a class member who fell over the weekend and broke several bones in her leg, ankles, and feet. Almost as soon as the cornbread was out of the oven I headed off to work in the church library. And, then shortly after I got home it was time to go deliver the meal. It was one of those days that sort of catches you in a spin! Now that things have quieted down I can hardly keep my eyes open! I spotted this little chipmunk out my kitchen window this morning. When next we meet it will be September.

Closing In On the End of August

I got up this morning and got ready to head off for an enjoyable morning of visiting with friends. We had a very pleasant breakfast on my friend's deck. There was a breeze and the shade from all the trees made it not seem like a hot August day! We sat and talked for quite a few hours. Woody walked while I was gone. I didn't find out how many miles he walked just that he found it quite hot walking when the sun was up rather than in the early hours. This evening he is at a meeting at church. That about sums up our day to this point!

Muggy Monday

I took tonight's photo on our trip Friday on our way home from the doctor. One never knows what you might follow when on our more scenic route. Slow traffic isn't much of a problem on the way home. But when you get slowed way down on the way to an appointment it can be a problem...one of the reasons that we build in extra time on our trips going to appointments. Today has been pretty much a typical Monday for us. Woody got up early and walked six miles. He is walking with much less of a limp these days...at least it seems that way to me. He says that it is still "slow-go" when he first gets up from his chair due to stiffness. I had school time with six children and Elijah twice. Joy had her long time today. She is learning how to manipulate some of the stitches on the sewing machine...making them longer and/or wider and joining decorative stitches together. She is making a picture using various stitches. Elijah had his long time after lunch. He made a balance scale today and learned more about simple machines, levers, folcrums, etc. He figured out how to make the scale balance when the load is lighter on one side than on the other...by moving the heavier weight closer to the folcrum. He is doing these simple machine lessons with K'nex. Back when Graham was so into K'nex I purchased a couple of teaching simple machine K'nex kits and now Elijah is using them. Woody headed off to the Life Care Center before lunch. He also took a short grocery list with him. I am going to breakfast at a friend's home in the morning and I am going to take a fruit salad so needed some fruit! Woody happily bought extra fruit as he knew that he would get some! After Elijah had his long time, I got the fruit washed. While it was drying I sat and read for a few minutes. Then I attacked the fruit salad. It is now in the refrigerator getting nice and cold for in the morning. Woody left a while after supper to go to the Monday night prayer meeting. I dished him up a bowl of the fruit salad so he could judge whether it was good or not. He ate it after he got home and gave it a thumbs up. Now we are settling in for a quiet rest of the evening. I may do a little cross stitching on Elijah's ornament. I finished the one that I was working on Saturday so started the next one yesterday. It has been a very hot and humid day here in Middle Tennessee...thus tonight's blog title!

Celebration Time

At least it is celebration for those of us who live near to Shelbyville, TN, "The Walking Horse Capital of the World." This is the big Walking Horse event looked forward to all year. Folk flock to Shelbyville if they are Walking Horse or just horse show fans. School lets out for the time of the horse show. Some who live in Shelbyville and adjacent areas rent out their houses to those who come for this show. We drove through Shelbyville on our way to Woody's urologist's appointment so I decided to try to capture some signs, etc. that showed that the event was about to happen. We passed this farm both coming and going and on our return it was obvious that horse show activity had started to happen here in the time that we were at the doctor. On our return trip there were several large horse trailors that hadn't been there when we passed in the early hours. People were sitting around in front of the horse barn obviously enjoying each other's company.

Woody walked four miles this morning. Later in the morning he went to WalMart, Kroger, and the library. I machine embroidered another Christmas ornament. I put away the groceries when Woody got home. And, then decided to look for a recipe for an item that he had bought at the grocery store...ground turkey. He thought that he wanted turkey burgers, but I decided that I wanted something that would disguise the meat more than in a patty. I found a recipe for Turkey Quinoa Meat Loaf. It happened to be a recipe that we had everything I needed to make it. It really turned out surprisingly good. I made the meatloaf and Woody prepared steamed broccoli...a pretty good supper for Saturday night. Usually Saturday is more of a snacking/eating leftovers kind of day. Woody also helped me clean up the kitchen...that's always appreciated! I came back upstairs and decided that I would go back to work on my latest cross stitch Christmas ornament. I am about to be finished with cross stitching ornaments for this Christmas. My aim is to have one for each of the neighbor grandchildren. They don't have many hand stitched ornaments so I decided that this year they would each get one. Erin and Alex grew up during my cross stitching days. And, the neighbor grands grew up during my machine embroidery days. Machine embroidery goes much faster...and, when you are trying to make one for each of nine total grandchildren there isn't always the time to do them by hand. So this year I have started early enough that I think that I can get at least seven made. I am on my sixth at the moment. Of course, after I stitch them, I still have to fashion them into an ornament...but the part that takes the longest time will be done and just awaiting the finishing technique that I choose. I plan to machine embroidery Erin and Alex's! So with that said, I'm off to hopefully finish the ornament that I'm working on for Abigail. I will end with a picture of some Shelbyville horses...but just not Walking Horses.

Another Day...Another Doctor!

We were up bright and early again this morning and left the house around 6:30am. Today Woody had his yearly check-up with his dermatologist in Murfreesboro. He was told something interesting this morning...usually when they have a patient diagnosed with 4th stage melanoma, that patient never returns to them. Woody has been keeping up with his yearly appoinments with them for more than eight years now. Once again he is beating the odds! There wasn't much open after his appointments...except for grocery stores. So we made a stop at a grocery store that is supposed to be coming to Tullahoma...Publix. There were several items that we haven't been able to find here in town so we went looking for them at Publix and we were successful...we found stone ground cornmeal and a brand of whole wheat pita that Woody likes. We also looked at the pasta aisle and found a whole wheat penne. Woody bought me a treat. In his eyes a treat for me is something that he doesn't eat/like...thus he isn't tempted to eat it. I got something that I had never had before...goat cheese. I found out that I like it...of course what we bought was flavored with cucumber and chives so I'm not sure that I have really, yet, tasted goat cheese! Once we got home I decided that maybe I had better cook something for our supper since Woody had hopefully inspired me by stopping at a really nice grocery store! I made marinara sauce and then put some browned chicken thighs into the sauce and popped all that into the oven and let it cook for quite a while this afternoon...till the chicken was just falling off the bones. I served it over some of that penne that we bought this morning. While my sauce was simmering, Woody skinned the chicken thighs and I took a nap (our doctor trips always seem to make me tired!). Joseph came over just as I was going upstairs. He played for a while and I guess he got tired as when I came downstairs he was napping on the couch in the family room. Woody left to go on a walk a little while ago. It has been so hot and steamy today...I hope the fact that the sun has gone down that it was just a bit more comfortable for walking...but with the humidity that we are having it still won't be very pleasant out there. Tonight's photos are some that I shot out of the car window on our return trip from the doctor...a few interesting views that I managed to capture. I must end by wishing our oldest granddaughter a happy birthday. She turned 23 yesterday. Boy...those 23 years have passed before our eyes all too quickly! I am going to "really" end tonight's blog with two more photos taken today...just in case some of you who live close by and don't know about the big yard sale going on in Wartrace both today and tomorrow. There were tent after tent lining the road of interesting treasures (someone else's junk).

Olympics Tullahoma Style

Oh, my what a day! We started out a little before 7am heading to Franklin, TN for Woody's urologist appointment. When we go to Franklin, we take a state highway rather than interstate...at least for most of the way. I guess we are on an interstate for about one mile. Going the way we did we got out of interstate traffic jams, but were in everyday type traffic...like school zones and folk traveling to work, farm machinery, etc. It was pretty "slow-go" in several places. We were thankful when we got to a short cut that one of my friends (a blog reader) showed me years ago. (Thanks, Connie! Cox Road was definitely the way to go!) We got to the appointment a bit late, but it didn't seem to affect how quickly he got in. That appointment didn't last long. He was given another appointment to head downstairs to an imaging center to have an ultra sound of his kidneys. By the time we got home, his urologist had left an email message saying that the ultra sound showed no kidney stones. Wonderful news! Now to our Olympic experience that is pictured in the above photos. Abigail had a volleyball game this evening. Her team is the team in black. They are the Lady Knights. They did a great job and won all their matches/games this evening. Abigail did great serving and earned three points in a row during one of her service times. I think that a fun time was had by all. I was glad to see her out there enjoying herself in a team sport. We brought her home as Nathan and Kathy needed to pick up Elijah from his baseball practice and drop off Joy and Esther at their baseball practice. Never a dull moment! Lots of ball playing in various forms...volleyball, coach pitch baseball, and player pitch baseball...must be the Olympics...right!?!

Hot Summery Wednesday

Well, another rather hot August day. We had a pretty usual Wednesday. Woody got up and walked early before it got too hot. He walked four miles. Later in the morning he did our Wednesday Krogering. I had school with the children. Abigail had her long time. We are at last getting back to work on her jean skirt that she is making out a pair of jeans. I think that it is going to be really cute! She is machine embroidering designs on it at the moment. She got two done today and one ready to embroider the next time she has her long time and has others planned. I ate a quick bite of lunch and headed off to the church library. Donna and I worked on processing books. We got quite a few ready to be checked out. So some of our fiction readers will be happy to find them on the new book shelf. I came home and plopped. This is the busiest that I have been since hurting my knee over the weekend. I will say that they are feeling much better. In the morning we will be heading out fairly early as Woody has a follow-up appointment with his Vanderbilt urologist. We don't have to go all the way into Nashville which is nice. We will go back roads and only be on an Interstate for moments till we are at the exit we need.

Knives! Torches! Yikes!

This afternoon Abigail came rushing into the house. She was all excited as she had just juggled knives for the first time and had gotten something like 12...maybe 14 catches. She wanted us to come out and watch her. She wanted me to take a movie, but I prefer still pictures so I snapped a few. After she showed us, Elijah said that he was learning to juggle torches!!! At this point he is still juggling them unlit! I imagine that it won't be long till they will be on fire. He is really going to town with his juggling. He can now juggle five balls (quite a feat for a just turned 7-year-old). He recently juggled five in one of their programs for the first time. Abigail was really excited about discovering that she can juggle knives. She is probably the least enthusiastic of their jugglers so it is good to see her excited about juggling knives. At the moment she is most enthusiastic about playing volleyball. She is on a homeschooling team and will be playing area middle school teams. She played in her first game last night. Her team won so that made her happy! Fall Ball is starting up and three of them are playing. Elijah is still on a coach pitch team. Joy and Esther are on the same team and they are old enough to be on a player pitch team. The girls were very enthusiastic about the practice that they had last night. Elijah had practice this evening.Sounds like sports are starting up once again! Today is a low-key day for school. I usually only have Abigail and Joy read to me after lunch. But today Esther had her long time with me as we might not be home from Woody's doctor appointment in time for her to have her time on Thursday. My knees are much better. But I continued to take it easy as much as possible today hoping that would help them even more! I have taken advantage of my "sitting time" and have been cross stitching Christmas ornaments. I finished another last night and then looked for the one I wanted to do next. I started that one a little before coming in here to blog. Woody walked to the prayer room at church early this evening and just returned a few minutes ago.

Monday Once Again

No picture tonight. I am having knee problems. I just went downstairs to get the ice pack and sat back down in my recliner and got all situated with the ice pack and realized I hadn't stopped first at the computer to write the blog so...I will attempt to write it on the iPad. Google and Apple don't like each other and it just doesn't work as well on the iPad as it does on the laptop using Microsoft Windows. I had a usual day of school this morning and then had Elijah's long time after lunch. Woody walked four miles while I was teaching this morning and then went to The Life Care Center to have Bible study with Jeff. Jeff is a quadrapeligic and was having a bit of a rough day. He was having pain in his legs. Woody, a lady who was visiting Jeff and finally a nurse got him positioned so he was in less pain. After Woody had Bible study with him, Woody attempted to get Jeff's TV on the channel he wanted it. Woody had a problem with getting it changed so went to find a nurse or aid to help. On the way back the nurse asked him how he was doing. Woody answered with his usual "Fair to middlin'." The nurse said, "That is what your mama used to say." Woody was rather surprised to hear that. It had been many, many years since Woody's mother had stayed there after she broke her hip. Small world! This evening Woody went to the Monday night prayer meeting that is starting up again. I have been reading, icing, cross stitching and napping since Saturday evening. Taking it easy really helped the one knee, but then the other knee started hurting today. I guess because I was favoring the other one. So at the moment I am sitting here with the ice pack that Woody got when he had knee surgery. I have it draped across both knees! And, in a minute I am going to put it under both knees. It is one of those ice packs that goes in the freezer and then goes inside a Velcro pocket that will let you wrap it around your leg...it works better the way I am doing it when it is both legs! There's usually more than one way to "skin a cat!" No Olympics so back to reading, doing Sudoku puzzles, and cross stitching in the evenings. I finished one cross stitch ornament over the weekend and got underway and am almost finished with another. Think that I am going to post this and read for a while.

Party, Party!

This has been a very active day for us. Woody started out first by running errands so he would be back before I needed to leave for my Sunday School brunch. (Our second car has been on the fritz...may be okay now...Nathan and Graham worked on it again.) I was hustling around the house getting the dish that I was taking baked and getting ready for Melany and Erin to come and getting myself ready to head out the door. We had a great time at our brunch as can be witnessed by the top picture. What a great group of friends! We have so much fun when we are together. It was a lovely day for an outside brunch...the rain held off, their was a breeze beside the one that the fan provided. Due to the rains yesterday and it still being cloudy, the temperature was a bit lower than a typical August day. So all-in-all a great time was had by all who attended and we missed those who couldn't attend. Did I mention that we are great cooks? Melany and Erin arrived a little after I got home. We visited the rest of the afternoon and then had a light supper (though I am way too full...think that I have eaten too much at the two events today!). I managed to snap a couple of photos, but didn't quite get everyone in the pictures. We had children playing board games on the card table behind the couch, some watching the Olympics, some reading (Aunt Melany read for a while to Joseph), and most of us a part of several conversations! It started pouring late afternoon and again during our supper. Melany delayed her departure a bit wait out the rain. It's now just the two of us and we are both ready to put up our feet and watch some more Olympics. I won't be talking Olympics after tonight as they will be over when next I blog!

Partly Rainy Friday

Woody got up early and went for a four mile walk. This time he beat the rain...maybe felt a sprinkle or two. The rain waited for me to head off to run a couple of errands. So this time I was the one who soaked up some of the rain with my clothes. I don't know if he checked to see how much we got today, but it came down pretty good for a while...most of the couple of hours that I was out and about. I am in the midst of preparing food for two "events" for tomorrow. Our Sunday School class is having a brunch mid morning. I have a breakfast casserole in the refrigerator awaiting cooking in the morning before I head out. And, now I am in the midst of making something for supper tomorrow evening. Melany and Erin are planning to come spend the afternoon with us and have supper with us. I told her that it was either food or a clean house...most of the time our family will choose food over a clean house! I'm thankful for that as I would rather cook than clean! I don't think that I will have time to do much cleaning what with running errands this morning and cooking this afternoon and evening and going to a party in the morning. I was just barely able to vacuum up some dirt that Woody tracked into the family room! We got our friendly Vanderbilt automated reminder this evening for an appointment that Woody has next week. Well, back to cooking!

Eyewitness

Woody headed out early for his walk. I didn't hear him leave. But around 5am or so I was awakened by pretty heavy rain. My thought at the time: "I hope that Woody hasn't already left on his walk." I went back to sleep just occasionally aware of the rain and a couple of thunder claps. Around 8am the door opened and in walked Woody--very wet! It had taken him extra long as he had to "hole up" for quite a long time to stay out of the storm. His shelter was the pavillion at Frazier McEwen Park aka Big Springs Park. After he got home and the rain had stopped, he went out to check the rain gauge and we had had 2 1/2 inches of rain. Quite a bit in several hours time. And, Woody was an eyewittness to most of those inches! I decided that I was going to continue making ornaments for Christmas. Today I chose one that I made for several friends last year and never got around to making it for our tree. So today's ornament I made for us. I was putting away thread and came to the special thread that I had purchased especially for this ornament and decided to make this one before I put the thread away. Our tree doesn't "need" another ornament, but I can't resist making and/or buying one for it every so often! The neighbors (Nathan, Kathy and family) had been away all this week and came home late this morning. After lunch, Isaac and Joseph came over to pay us a visit. Isaac didn't stay very long, but Joseph settled in and stayed till it was his (and my) nap time. I took a nice nap after he left. I hope he had a good one as well! I spotted tonight's photos subject around noon--guess he was having his lunch. I was able to move around and get a better view without stalks, etc. between me and him. I just love goldfinches! This one was really enjoying the cone flower seeds as you can tell.

Wednesday's Winding Down

As we come to the close of this Wednesday, I will look back and see if I can remember what we have been up to! Woody didn't walk early this morning as he got his exercise in doing our Wednesday Krogering. Bringing the groceries in is quite a work out for him still. He also went to the Wednesday local Farmers' Market. Looks like he came home with some peaches. We have had some really good peaches from the farmers' market this year. I put away the Kroger groceries. I spent time in the morning working on the cross stitch Christmas ornament that I am working on at the moment...I can't knock out cross stitch ornaments the way I can machine embroidered ones! I am still working on the one that I was working on over the weekend. After lunch, I headed off to work in the church library. I went to Office Max before heading to the library as we (the library) needed some labels that I can get there. I got caught in a down pour and had to sit in the car and wait for it to subside a bit before I could get out and go in the store. We don't have an umbrella in the car. My excuse for not having one in the car is that I grew up in Arizona! I finally was able to get into the store, found what I was looking for and checked out quickly and was on my way to the church library. We are processing new books and made great headway on those today. By the time I got home from the library I was bushed as this is the first day in several that I had attempted to do very much. I am feeling better, but just getting ready to go to the library sort of wore me out. I came home and took a short nap. We had the leftover casserole that I made yesterday. After supper, I stitched some more on the Christmas ornament. Once I get through blogging, I will head downstairs to join Woody where he is watching Olympic events.

It's Hot!

Last week we had a break from the heat and it only got into the 80's, but the heat has returned and it has reached into the 90's the last couple of days. I haven't felt the greatest the last couple of days so I have been very content to stay inside and stay cool in the air conditioning. In an attempt to beat some of the heat, Woody got up quite early and went for a five mile walk. I really haven't done a lot today. I did read some and worked on the latest cross stitch ornament. Then in the afternoon I went downstairs and watched what they were showing of the Olympics. I did manage to make a casserole for our supper. Shortly after supper, Woody headed off to the prayer room. Since he walked this morning, he drove to and from the prayer room. He is back and we are going to settle in for another evening of Olympics. I forgot to tell in last night's blog that Vanderbilt called and changed his appointments for October because Dr. Wyman was going to now see patients in the afternoons now rather than in the mornings. I figured that he would have to rearrange his schedule since he had taken on Dr. Sosman's patients.

A Check to See How Dense I Am!

It has been a pretty hot day here in Middle Tennessee. We had been hopeful a couple of times that we would get a drop or two of rain. At least the clouds looked like they could drop some on us. But those clouds just passed us by. At this point we are getting very dry. Woody went to The Life Care Center and had Bible study with Jeff after lunch today. Not long after he got home, I had to head off to have a bone density scan. I guess this is a test that you hope to be as dense as possible (at least at my age). I am afraid that I am not dense enough. I guess we will find out after the test results are in. I am getting shorter (sigh). Woody started a few days ago to pick up some of the exercises that he was given after his knee surgery--working on his achiles tendon. He thinks that just the few days that he has been doing this exercise he can see/feel an improvement. I guess I will head downstairs for an evening of Olympics.

Day Before Sunday

We have pretty much had a "same ol', same ol'" Saturday. Woody did our weekly WalMart shopping and then made a stop at the library. He watched a DVD that couldn't be renewed. I searched through some of my recipes for a friend and then looked through various recipes trying to decide what I want to take to a brunch next week (still haven't decided). This afternoon we both watched Olympics and dozed off and on...a pretty relaxing Saturday afternoon. Last night I finished the cross stitch ornament that I was working on and then looked through my designs for one that I wanted to do next. I found the thread and fabric that I want to stitch this one with. And, got underway with it after the Olympics ended for the afternoon. As soon as I finish blogging, I will head downstairs and see what Olympic events NBC will choose to show tonight. I know one is supposed to be Michael Phelps' last Olympic race.

Esther's Shoe Turn

Woody walked to and from the library this morning for his walk of the day. He also worked on cleaning out the white car...vacuuming, etc. My only outside job today was to trim back some flowers. They have bloomed once and might bloom again this fall if they are cut back in the summer once they are through blooming. Mid morning Esther, Kathy and I went to the shoe store to get Esther some shoes. This afternoon Woody and I both watched some Olympics. I also have worked on Christmas ornaments. I am back to cross stitch for the moment. We had leftover Eggplant Parmasan for supper. It was delicious last night and delicious again tonight. This time it was made totally with eggplants that we grew and with fresh basil from my herb planter. A little after Woody ate his supper he headed next door to take care of the seven grandchildren so their parents could go out on a date. This date is special...one that they can only go on once a year. It is their anniversary. They have been married 16 years. And, now several of our blog readers know where they were 16 years ago today! Happy Anniversary, Kathy and Nathan!

Hisssssss Thursday!

Oh, the exciting discoveries of childhood! On Monday, our first day back to school, what is pictured in the above photos was the discovery of the day. Joy had just come over for her long time and she had been in the house for just a few minutes and one of the children stuck their head in the door and beckoned us to come next door to see the snake they had found. Interesting to watch it for a few minutes...a good addition to Joy's long time with me! We left when the snake went into their garage. I will report that it was captured and taken out of the garage and it slithered away in another direction...probably to our garage!!! Well, today marks the end of my first week back to school...and I can tell that I have been away from it for a while. Abigail had her reading time after lunch. And, once she was finished I plopped for a while. I was going to go take a nap in my chair upstairs, but the Olympics caught my attention so I rested downstairs in front of the TV and ended up not napping. After resting for a while I attacked our supper...Eggplant Parmasan...a rather lengthy recipe...lots of steps. It is finally in the oven for its final cooking time. I hope that the taste will be worth the effort! I am bushed from doing that...and, you should see the kitchen! I came upstairs to blog while it is cooking. We will be eating in front of the TV tonight watching the Olympics. Woody got up early and walked SIX miles today. That is the first time that he has walked that distance since before his leg broke...maybe even before his knee surgery...anyway, it seems like a long time since he reported six miles to me when I ask him how far he walked. Well, off to eat and watch the Olympics.

Wednesday Doings

On Sunday after we got home from church, I happened to look out the window and see this goldfinch enjoying the seeds from our cone flowers. When Melany first helped us plant cone flowers, she told me not to dead them as the birds enjoy the seeds from them. And, here's proof! I am always happy to see these bright little yellow birds. I'm glad that they are enjoying our coneflowers as they have definitely faded in their glory...but now they attract brightness to them! Today was a pretty typical Wednesday once the school year begins. Woody headed off before school got underway to go to the local farmers' market. He got what he went for...an eggplant. We needed one more to suppliment the ones that we grew...ours are rather small. I am planning to make eggplant parmesan tomorrow afternoon. Abigail had her long time and started and finished a project all in one day. She wanted to machine embroider a volleyball design on a T-shirt. We found the design and got it ready for the machine and got the T-shirt ready to be embroidered and got it started embroidering before her time was up. I had lunch and went to the church library to work for a while. On the way home I stopped at the public library and returned some books and got some others. I let Abigail know when I got home and she came over and she finished embroidering her shirt. It really turned out cute. She chose a cute design. After she got her shirt finished, I was ready for a nap. I slept until supper...tonight was a scrounge night (aka leftovers or whatever else there is that sounds good!). Now I am ready to go down and watch some more Olympics. Our TV/antenna behaved itself last night as it seems to be behaving so far tonight.

They're Everywhere! They're Everywhere!

I decided that I wanted to go get Chick-fil-A for supper tonight and look who I ran into--the Crazy Tie Guy and three of his children (of course to me that means our son and three of our grandchildren). I did know ahead of time as Kathy came over to tell me something and when she found out where I was going she told me that it might be crowded. It is Chick-fil-A's "Back-to-School-Bash" and Nathan, Graham, Abigail and Joy were part of the "fun and games!" Well, I almost didn't go and then decided to go and see if it would be possible to get some food without having to wait forever. And, it was a quick "in and out." On the way out I decided that I would try to snap a couple of pictures of part of my family doing what they do best--making children happy--tonight with balloon sculptures! I only saw Graham, Abigail and their daddy. I found out from Kathy when I got home that Joy was there too. And I did get her in the picture without knowing it...she is in the bottom right corner of the first picture...with a balloon circle on her head. I like their bright orange shirts--these are among the new sets of shirts that they made before heading off on their three week trip. These are really bright and showy. I managed to take these photos unbeknownst to them...tricky Grammy! Woody made two trips to the pharmacy today attempting to get a prescription that he has been trying to get since last week. We found out last week that our doctor had gotten married and that she gave the whole office the week off while she went on her honeymoon. So he couldn't get the refill last week. While at the pharmacy the first trip today, the pharmacist called the doctor's office and found out that the doctor's office was having computer troubles since coming back after their week off. Woody stopped back by the pharmacy on his way to the prayer room tonight and still no word from the doctor's office. Maybe tomorrow? Woody did drive to the pharmacy and prayer room as the humidity is still way up there which makes walking rather uncomfortable. Tuesday's are going to be a bit different for Grammy school this year. I won't have students in the morning on Tuesday, but after lunch two come and read with me. One of my accomplishments for the day was to create an overdue book list for our church library--we aren't very strict on overdues at the church library--but every so often we need to check to make sure that they are still where our computer says they are! Woody and I are settling in to attempt to watch the Olympics this evening. I'll see how long I can stand to watch the TV go in and out on a weak signal!

Back in Session!

The school year for the Dorrell Family Homeschool started up again today. I had a pretty busy day as six of the seven filtered through during the morning and one in the afternoon...so all total I had seven come for their "times" with me--one came twice. Elijah came for his reading time in the morning and his long time after lunch. Graham is the only one who isn't coming and he is a freshman this year...so has pretty much graduated from Grammy school! (Graham just came over and I told him that I was writing about him. He wanted to know "about what?" So I told him and he said that he thought that he had graduated from Grammy school last year--and he is correct!) Woody waited till after lunch to go to The Life Care Center to have Bible study with Jeff. He hoped that he would find several of the residents who he visits awake if he went right after lunch and he did so he visited as well as had Bible study. Early this morning he walked two miles. He said that they felt more like four miles! Maybe he will find the miles easier as time passes and also once temperatures drop and humidity goes down. The air seems thick due to the humidity. It rained a couple of times this afternoon for short periods. After all the school times, I was pretty beat. Grammy wears out more easily these days! I had to go sit down for a while and even dozed a bit before I could tackle a recipe that I wanted to make. It's a salad that needs to marinate over night. So it wasn't for today's meal but hopefully it will be nice and chilled and the flavors well blended for us to eat tomorrow. A little after supper we got an invitation to go next door to watch "Isaac's show." We did and got to watch four of the seven dance and prance about for a few minutes. Then I sat there for a little while longer and watched Olympic ping pong--Japan vs. Northern Korea women. I came home and added the last ingredient to the salad and mixed it up well and got it into the refrigerator. I don't know about the children, but the first day of school wore Grammy out!

Another Saturday

The birds are happy with me. I filled their (and the squirrels')feeder this morning. Woody headed off to do Saturday errands which included a stop at WalMart, Kroger, and the library. Graham helped me get ready for school starting next week by getting a couple of K'nex teaching kits together. I plan to use them during Elijah's long time--Elijah and I are going to study simple machines...at least that is the plan at this moment! The rest played and Kathy worked on her lesson plans. I got back in the school room attempting to have it ready for Monday. I just need to vacuum in there and then it will be ready. This afternoon Esther came over and found out that the rest of her birthday present had arrived so she, Elijah and Isaac checked that out for a while. Woody is down watching the Olympics. I am going to attempt to watch some this evening. The TV reception didn't cooperate last night for the opening ceremonies...so I'm not putting a lot of faith in being able to view them this evening. But it is raining and sometimes that helps with the reception on NBC...we will see...or I hope that we will be able to see!

Let the Games Begin!

Ahhh! One of my favorite times...Olympics time. We started to watch the opening ceremonies next door as Woody was child sitting our seven neighbor grandchildren while their parents went on a date. I came home to work on getting the revolving antenna (Nathan's household shares the TV antenna with us) in a better position and came upstairs to blog before going back next door. Just a moment ago the door opened and Woody came in--date night is over, I guess. Woody walked four miles early this morning. He says that four miles are slow these days! Joseph and Isaac came over here when their mom came over with a load of wash to do (their washer is still broken...new one comes next week). They decided to stay when their mom went home. Joseph played with the "animals" (plastic farm and wild animals)and also watched videos of sounds that animals make. Isaac helped me make another Christmas ornament. That one took a bit longer than the one that I made this afternoon without help! So two more ornaments made...I think that the total now is eleven. Before I went next door to watch the Olympic opening ceremonies, I was working on Sunday's Sunday School lesson. Now I am being drawn to go downstairs and watch some more of the opening ceremonies. I'm hoping that our NBC channel cooperates this year...NBC is not the strongest signal for us. In years past I have missed a lot of the Olympic coverage due to a bad signal. Time will tell about this year! I rested this afternoon and when I went back downstairs Woody had the kitchen all cleaned up--nice! Well, let the games begin!

We Voted

Our main accomplishment of the day was voting. And, we almost forgot to do that. We are sort out of the loop when it comes to what is happening in Tennessee. The reason for that we aren't up to snuff on TN happenings is that we don't watch Tennessee TV stations. We watch TV from Huntsville, AL. They aren't having elections today so we weren't getting constant TV messages about voting. Now, I will say that we have been bombarded with voting literature, but the election day date isn't always hightlighted in that literature...usually what is stressed is something negative about who they are running against! Last week we mentioned to each other that election day was today. But the day slipped up on us and as Woody said, "It didn't seem like Thursday!" Being retired days seem to run together...one very much the same as another. The way we remembered was that I turned on the computer and opened up Facebook and I saw a post where someone mentioned voting today. Well, at that time there was still more than an hour till the polls closed so...off we went. Our polling place is only about five minutes from our house so not a problem getting there with time to spare. I guess from the reaction of the folk helping at our polling place not a lot had voted today.