September 2003 Archives

Amy wasn't feeling well yesterday, so I told her to go back to bed. Apparently, she missed a lot of excitement at school. A seventh grade boy threatened another boy that if he didn't leave him alone that he was going to shoot him with the gun he brought to school. Thank goodness someone overheard him and tattled! Turns out the boy did have a gun, but hid it at his bus stop. Thank goodness for small favors! Amy made a miraculous recovery this morning, and went off to school. She didn't want to miss anything.

I'm not sure what is going on with our society. Everything is disposable, including lives. Instant gratification is the name of the game. It's scary!

NY Times Early Edition: Yankees first round losers again!

Go Twins!!!

My indifference to Major League Baseball takes a back seat to my hatred of the Yankees.

This last week has been a tough week for young people in Minnesota. A school shooting took the life of one and critically injured another, the shooter was also a teen, a house fire(right down the street from us) killed three college students, an attempted robbery killed a five year-old in Duluth and then four young adults(all were under 20) were killed when their car was hit by a train. I just found out last night that one of the four was the son of the school nurse at Al-Amal School(my kids old school and where I taught). My heart goes out to these families for losing their loved ones at such a young age.
Just a reminder to hold your families tight and keep your prayers strong.

My Dad had a/some stroke(s). How is that? The neurologist and MRI's determined he had at least two, one on either side of his brain. Maybe I shouldnt' be the one to tell this. I have little details except for what I wanted to know. We all feel encouraged that he will recover from this and is on a medicine to help with circulation, a blood thinner is what Elizabeth, Katie, and I determined in a 3-way call. Christina and Sue accompanied them to the Dr. so we were dependent on their information. And he is going to have to go to physical therapy to get his body back in working order. His foot kept catching onto everythng and causing him to fall. I am going over there today to see everyone. I have bagels on the way for Sue. My bananas are going to have to ripen some more for bread, so that's out...

Noone wanted to tell me my loose dress was a maternity dress, did y'all? I was rehearsing a scene yesterday that I will be performing with my acting workshop. I am pregnant in the scene, so I stuffed a little pillow under that dress and ohmygoodness, I recognized it then. That pretty plaid dress I had on is a maternity dress. I bought it at a thrift store and it was hanging with the others. I liked the colors. It is just one of those synchronous things. I needed a costume, but didn't start looking for one yet. I didn't know who I was going to get maternity clothes from. Only one of my sisters would have clothes that could fit me and she is far from those days.

I am glad for pants weather again. I don't have to apply my liquid tan. I am out and that stuff (Lancome) is expensive. My siblings all have lovely tans. Do any of you whiteys care whether or not you have a tan? I discovered the bottle stuff a few years ago and I don't care if it is fake. I like having color. Now, it is a different story if it concentrates around the knee or ankle; then, it is too much of an orange color. I'll still take that over my whiteness. I believe I am a tan woman trapped inside an Irish-looking girl. While I am busy complaining about my Irish-ness, what's up with all these cowlicks? What in that cold, damp environment made people's hair get those? Deep thoughts this morning.

Love y'all.

Mom and Dad didn't need that. They have a delicious rum cake from Ms. Pat. I hate to think while Dad is having temporary difficulties with getting around that he will turn into Jabba the Hut. And, Robbie, I usually put pecans or walnuts in it. Just so you know...

We went to Mom and Dad's after; Katie/Lars/Amy, Sue and Scott, Julia/Aaron/Me, Angela/Christina and Jacob and had Come Back Inn poboys and onion rings. It is my children's favorite activity in the world to hang with the extended family and all of their cousins. It is as much fun for them as it used to be for us when we visited ours in Mn. I'll never forget Aunt Catherine telling us to "simmer down, down there." We had never heard that expression before. That got the opposite response of what she was asking for. We were in Grandma Tompkins basement with our Bye cousins, combusting.

Loved the pictures. I SO want a digital camera. No, scratch that. I need one. It is on my mile-long wish list.

The plan was to go visit Mom and Dad at 2PM since they weren’t going to Jacob’s birthday party. Visit for an hour or so and then head to the party. As I’m getting ready to leave for the party, Mom said, “We’re going with you.”. What a treat!

It was a good time.

Pictures, I’ve got pictures.

And to top off the afternoon, the banana bread fairy left me a loaf in the back seat.

Now, I’m off to watch the Saints game. GO Saints!!!!

PSA - An annoying practice of spamming blogs has come up. The Laurendine Blog was spammed today as was CrabAppleLane Blog (My second honor). I ban the IP that they come from but it is likely to come up here before long. If you see an obnoxious comment, please let me know. They’re easily deleted.

Happy Birthday, Dave!

I know you probably won't see this any time soon but I wanted it here for the record anyway. Have a great day! Hope to see you at Angela's.

We were sent home from the emergency room after about three hours of waiting. They ran a few tests on Daddy, including a cat scan. The cat scan didn't indicate anything. At first, the doctors were speculating that this could have been a stroke. Now they don't know because Daddy said that he's been falling for about a month now. Since this is a recurring thing they said he needs to see a neurologist, and since he has an appt. scheduled for Tuesday, there was no real hurry and no real reason to stay at the hospital. We got him a walker to help him get around and will wait to see what the neurologist has to say. We know that he'll need to have an MRI. Sue and Scott are driving in from Atlanta and will arrive tonight. They will stay with Mom and Dad until Wednesday. Christina is also planning to stay for the whole week. We're still planning to have cake and ice cream tomorrow at my house to celebrate Jacob's 3rd birthday. Incidentally, tomorrow is also David Ferrara's 41st birthday. Happy Birthday David! We'll keep you posted.

We're taking Daddy to the hospital this morning. He hasn't been well for the last three weeks. It's been a rapid progression, but this morning he fell. He didn't hurt himself, but we decided it was time to go to the hospital. He's been seeing doctors all through this and had an appointment set for the neurologist next week, however, we think it's become urgent. We hope that the doctors in the hospital will be able to run a comprehensive battery of tests. I guess we're going over to Doctor's Hospital again. We'll keep you posted. Katie and Elizabeth and I are going to the house to assist with the transport.

Note the ridiculous hour of this post. I’m heading off to do inventory this morning. It’s not as much fun for me now as it once was. It’s tedious but not terribly difficult.

Update (6:10PM): Inventory wasn't so bad. Home for 2PM.

And thought I'd add a little color to the place. Posted a picture of these on the CrabAppleLane Blog last week but they look a bit better now. My blue ginger below.

Well Hello Everyone!

I've been reading the Blog for a while now. I tried to jump in, but had no idea how to do it. Rob told me everything I needed to know a few days ago, but I had to work up the nerve to jump in. I'm not much of a writer, I find it akin to torture! And there's always something else I need to do, like mop floors, laundry, etc. Well the floors are mopped, the washer is going, so here I am.

The weather is beautiful! Sunshiney, and low humidity! The temp is 90 degrees according to my thermometer, but it doesn't feel like it. Of course it's easy for me to say while I sit here in the air conditioning. Kevin most likely wouldn't agree with me because he's out in the yard working and sweating up a storm!

Fall is one of my favorite times of year, even though we don't have the dramatic change of seasons that the rest of the country experiences(ie: fall color.) Unfortunately, fall wreaks havoc on my allergies! My allergies have gotten worse in the last few years. I'm beginning to suspect that I'm allergic to Kevin's dawg! I plan to look into shots for relief. I don't have much choice because I certainly cannot come between the Man and his Dawg!

Laura, I'm sorry to hear about Paul's Mother. We lost my Mother-in-law a few years ago. I miss her very much. Your family are in my thoughts and prayers.

Laura, Mary, Carol, Beth, and Janice, I love seeing your entries on the Blog. I have such fond memories of all of you! I look forward to your next entries. Beth and Laura, I have to tell you, you won Kevin's affections because ya'll talk sports! He was quick to point that out to me; you see he would like me to sit and watch football, basketball, or the dreaded boxing with him. And I would rather have a root canal than have to watch any of those! Don't worry we balance each other out, because he'd rather have torture than to have to sit through old movies with me, especially the musicals!

Until next time, Ciao!

I so look forward to Thursday nights. I love all the shows on NBC from 7-10pm. I know I shouldn't admit that and I should say I don't ever watch tv but I love Friends and ER and Scrubs too!! Friends was funny last night and ER was great, as usual. Does anyone else watch ER. I would love to dish about it with someone. I know there aren't any Ferraras that do. That's pretty much it though. I don't watch any other shows on a faithful basis. Okay, I like the Real World too! When Phil was working in Houston last year and I was only seeing him for four days every two weeks, I got hooked on late night reality tv. This is not something I'm proud of and I am proud to say that I no longer see it on a regular basis! Does anyone else have any guilty pleasures concerning television?

Sometimes when I want to open the comments section of an entry, it doesn't work. I hit it and hit it and nothing happens. This morning I accidentally used the right click and lo and behold a lovely wall-to-wall page opened with all of the comments. I will always use the right click now, but is that what everyone does? And if so, how did they find that out?

This isn't the best place to post this. Paul's Mom passed away Thursday afternoon in her sleep at the nursing home she was placed in on Saturday. We're finalizing funeral plans today. The funeral will be on Monday. Hug your families tight, I'll pop in on the blog again next week.

For our newer bloggers:

An early entry worth reading here.

I did this early this morning and if I do say so myself, it was an outstanding entry. Then I hit something that said "edit" and I found myself in another area and then floundered around in there for awhile and finally the machine just kicked me out. So my thinking is that this one will be somewhat abbreviated and probably not interesting at all. You might just want to skip it.

All I wanted you to know is that I'm on pills now rather than an IV. The infectious disease doctor pulled the implant yesterday so now I'm liberated and it's such a good feeling. I'll see him in two weeks. Same with the surgeon. They might be able to nurse this along through the holidays. Just kidding. I have confidence in both of them.

On a different note, today we have the windows and doors open. There's a lovely breeze and it's very comfortable in here. Lately, we've been cold so we adjust the AC and then we're warm so we adjust it again and then .... you get the idea.

Somehow this morning (well actually, I left the gate open) Liezel walked out and who knows where she went, but she was discovered sitting on the front step, exchanging barks and woofs and bow-wows with the two Rottweilers across the street. I always thought if she ever got loose she'd make a bee-line for them because that's what she tells them when she's on the leash, walking to the car. And they tell her if they could only get out they would eat her alive. So it seems it's nothing but big talk and that's okay. We all do that sometime.

Hi. Well, after a busy birthday weekend for Ashley (she turned 15 on Sunday) life was starting to quiet down today. My folks left this morning (Monday) and took their dog....now Cookie (the cat) can have the run of the house and not have to hide downstairs. This afternoon Nicole was helping me carry a couple baskets of laundry downstairs and when she went to put the basket on the floor she caught her knuckle on the edge of the furnace. She cut her "naughty" finger knuckle on the left hand and it started to bleed. So of course I applied pressure then looked at it once in the bathroom. I thought it looked fairly bad, but couldn't be sure. So off to urgent care we went. Well, 5 stitches later we were done at the urgent care! Good thing we followed my gut instinct. (Dr. Mom strikes again) She's doing fine 'specially after we stopped at Culvers for an ice cream Sunday! She has to have the stitches in for 10 days and then can have them removed. For the first 24 hours she has a pressure bandage on it and wrapped in gauze so it looks pretty serious. She isn't in pain and I think she enjoys the extra TLC. Well, that's our adventure for the day. Just when ya think things'll calm down......
TTFN Carol

IMPORTANT:
The next time you "LOGIN", go to "Edit Your Profile". Make sure you enter something in the "Birthplace" field. If you forget or lose your password, you'll need to have something there to be able to retrieve it. Please do this because I can't retrieve it for you and I haven't kept track of any of them. You can also change your password there if you like.

We have decided to come home for Jacob's birthday this weekend. Phil's brother Edwin will be in town with his daughter Angelle so we figured it would be better for us to come home. Besides it's been a record 4 weeks since we've been home. Who were we kidding thinking we could last until Halloween? We'll probably be home again before then!! Here is an invitation to all: Cake & Ice Cream at Angela's house at 3pm, Sunday September 28th. Please join us in celebrating Jacob's 3rd birthday.

I am heading to Lake Charles on Saturday morning to celebrate Jacob's 3rd birthday with my sister and the boys (Phil included). If anyone has anything to go to Lake Charles, I'll be happy to take it with me. Joey won't be going with me because he's going for a work weekend at his deer lease in Mississippi.

This just in from Christina:

"Look at him go! It's official: my boy is now a two-wheeler riding
boy!! The last picture of him on his bike came out a little blurrier
than the rest but I sent it anyway to show the big smile on his face.
He's so proud of himself. The other two pictures were snapped when we
were having a moment of civility between the two boys, taking a break.
While practicing to ride his bike I kept offering to do it again and
Jackson was happy to oblige and even at one point said I was the "King
of Mommies" because I kept helping him. It doesn't get any better than
that!!"

On the bike:

With his brother, Jacob.

I'm humming "Take me out to the ballgame" while writing this. Mike and his daughter Ashley went to the game last Thursday night. Danny and I are going to the game Tuesday night along with everyone else in the metro area. Should be fun. Danny is not a sports kid and is still learning the game of baseball, something unusual for a 9 yr old, at least in our family! The Twins catcher, A.J. Pierczinski came to his school last spring for celebrity reading day so now Danny thinks A.J. walks on water.

I was able to purchase the tickets for the home opener at the last minute from a coworker who has seats right behind home plate, row 4. I'm not sure how much of the game Danny saw because he was either looking at A.J. or at the pitcher's speed gun which was in the row in front of us. Tomorrow night's game's seats are over 1 section and up in row 18. I bought him an A.J. t-shirt at the last game, it's already laying over his chair in his room so he knows where it is.

Oh yeah, the Vikings are now 4-0 and the Packers lost to the worst team in football. (nyuk nyuk nyuk!)

Mom and Lars below. The date on the back of the print is January 1990 but it doesn’t sound right to me. That film may have been in the camera a while.

Crispin is on top of Casey in the picture below. I don’t remember this picture or how this came to be for long enough for someone to get a camera. This is not something Casey would have liked. The date on the photo is December 9, 1996. You can make it out in the lower right hand corner. Crispin is 2 months old and Casey is 3 years old here.

Update (9:35AM): Today's CrabAppleLane Blog entry contains some new pictures here.

Update (10:17AM): David F. Gallagher of lightningfield.com says, "self-publishing is the best thing about the Web". He is absolutely right. In that spirit, I present these taken May 18, these taken on July 6, and these taken July 20. Regular readers (As if) of CrabAppleLane Blog have probably already seen them.

This was sent to me today by Christina. Jackson at his first soccer game.

just a little survey. What types of animals do you have? I have two cats; KC and Sammy

I painted the boys' bathroom today and it came out so precious, if I do say so myself. I should say, I painted the trim. Phil painted the walls on Monday, but as we all know, the real work is in the trim! I almost didn't do it, thinking it could get by without being painted but now that I did it, it looks fabulous. I just finished hanging the new shower curtain and the new towel bars (Phil did that) and put up the new towels. It is so precious that I think the boys will have to sleep in the bathroom tonight!! Now that it's said and done I can sit back and say "that wasn't so bad". Five rooms down, three left to go. Who wants to do it? I'm never painting again!!!

Jackson just walked in from school and brought with him the absolute, most adorable first school pictures you have ever seen. He looks just like Phil. And he loves his bathroom. I asked him if he liked his new towels and he said " I wanted red towels!".

Q: What's the difference between a vacuum cleaner and a Harley Davidson?
A: You can put two dirt bags on a Harley.

My biker friends like that one more than I do.

This blog is a plea to please discuss with your spouses, parents, in-laws and anyone else who will listen to your wishes should one spouse be injured/ill, need nursing home care or in case of death.

My mother-in-law's health has been declining for the past several months and rapidly since she fell and broke 4 ribs 10 days ago. My 90 year old father-in-law has been resisting nursing home care because he wanted to take care of her. Needless to say, at 88 and 90 things were not going as smoothly as they had hoped and Dad now agrees that she needs to be in a nursing home. She was taken to the hospital yesterday and will not be going home again. I could not believe that they had NEVER discussed the what if's...

So, please do it now while you've got (most) of your faculties. My soapbox for the day.

I dropped a plank of wood on it, if you must know. It throbs when I think about it too much so onto something else...

...Okay, nothing much to write about here. All my stuff is too mundane and tedious to write about. And it occurs to me that I am avoiding doing other things while I sit on this PC.

Wishing everyone well.

Janine

18 years ago today.

We are advanced bloggers already according to this article. We have been on Movable Type since inception. Thanks to everyone for their participation and their contribution. You make it what it is. The connecting and re-connecting has been a real treat.

Well, hunting season has begun. Joey went this morning and yesterday morning for teal. There were 7 guys with him yesterday and they only killed one duck between them. I tried not to make fun of him, but I had to question his desire to wake up at 3:30 in the morning just to see the sunrise. Today he went with one other guy, and Joey killed three ducks. Brooke has not gone with him yet because there are still too many alligators in the water. She'll go during big duck season, when it's colder out and the alligators are hibernating. She had some training during the week that we were out of town in July and is doing quite well. We went to the Spillway tonight to train her some more. I'm impressed with how well she's doing. Her general obedience has gotten better because of the hunting training. She actually sits on the porch and waits while I drive in and out of my driveway, instead of darting out the gates. Her birthday was September 11th. She's two years old- born on that terrible day. I keep waiting for that magical age when she won't scavenge in my recycle bin anymore. Does her diet lack metal? She keeps tearing into Coke cans-the dummy.

Hi, hope all is well, Me I am happy that the Packers won today!!!!!!! I had to work during part of the game, but saw the last quarter. I am in on the football pool at work and so far it looks as though I might win $125.00. It all depends on the game tonight (vikes) and Monday night game I win I will be able to be in the pool all season. Congrats to all you Saints fans!!!!!!!!!

It has been my intention to let everyone find their way around here on their own but I thought I should point out a few things to make everyone’s reading, commenting, and posting experience that much more enjoyable. I know it’s easy to get lost in here or to lose track of where you are and this is still new to all of us, including me.

Only the last 10 days of posting and commenting are here on the “Main” page. I could set that number higher but it would take a longer time to load this page. Many of us are still on dial-up phone access to the internet.

If you make a comment on an entry, only the original author of the entry is notified. Those who previously commented on that entry are not notified. They can keep up by seeing if the number of comments has grown since they posted their comment.

If you do a search, or if you click on one of the “archive” links on the right, or if you click on a date on the calender, the blog may take you to an entry that is no longer on this main page. And that’s fine and wonderful. However, if you choose to comment on one of those entries that is older than 10 days and not on the main page, bear in mind that only the original author of the entry will be notified that you did. The people who commented on that entry will not know unless they happen to be looking at the older entries and notice that comments have been made.

I hope everyone will explore the archives periodically just to see if there is anything they might have missed and I will try to call attention to comments on older entries that people may not have seen like this one.

Happy Blogging!

This is a picture I scanned a few years ago for the website that I thought I’d share here. That’s Sue and I (Or is it Sue and me, Mom?) in front of Grandpa and Grandma Tompkins house in 1959, I think. On our reunion visit back in 1988, we passed by that old house. That spruce tree was still there although it was a bit unkempt. Even from outside and even with the dormer that some subsequent owner added to it, that house got a lot smaller in those 29 years.

More pictures from the reunion here. I think these were all taken by Patsy. Katie is pregnant with Lars.

A few years ago, Mom and Dad allowed the kids (The grownup kids) to pillage their old photo box. I started to scan the ones I scarfed a few years ago when I got the scanner but I never got around to finishing the job. A lot of them are not great quality by today’s standards but they are quite wonderful otherwise. I’ll try to remember to add one or two per week to the blog.

Nancy's first comment to the blog here.

Maybe we can get Mom to share that story of what Sue did when someone commented on Janine’s lovely curls.

Got a new log on from Robbie? This is just a message to tell you hello. Since I wrote you this a.m. via e-mail, I have dropped the cat off to be neutered and had company for coffee and biscuits. Nothing like company to motivate me to do housework. At least most of it is out of the way now.

I am making my grocery list. Julia is having 3 friends over for a slumber party tomorrow for her birthday which is the 15th. She will be 9. Then I am bringing a cake or some kind of dessert to my circle supper kick off dinner this Saturday night; either Orange Chiffon or Coconut Cream. I am making potato salad for Sunday night's book club. Feast or famine, eh? Nothing to do for weeks on end, and then all at once, I have activity. It is all good, though.

Well, Mom came home about 9pm last night. She still has an iv and will be seen be a homehealth nurse for at least another week. I see she's already been on the blog and forwarding some emails so she must be feeling better! I'd like to write more but I'm being paiged by Jacob for more waffle with syrup. He's very impatient and will not be put off. Phil's trying to sleep in a little so I'm sure he's not appreciating my ignoring Jacob!! I'll write again later.

When those people get on the bus and leave me for the day, I am one happy woman. I feel glutinous because both kids spent two nights in a row out with friends. Both nights - Michael and I rented movies. Both nights - I fell asleep on the sofa between 9 and 9:30. I try telling Michael it has to be romantic comedy or comedy adventure. The first night we watched 4 black comedians. I can't believe I fell asleep during Bernie Mac's stand-up. I guess I got desensitized to his Mother effing everything. All four comics used the language as adjectives. I have been known to have a sailor mouth too, but nothing in comparison. DL Hughley was the funniest one on the tape. Cedric the Entertainer didn't deliver what I think he is capable of.

The second night was "Bowling For Columbine" and that should have kept me up and at 'em. Now, I feel like it will be a long time until I get another night off and I blew the two spontaneous ones I got. Darn! I mean eff.

Took Julia and her friend to the hummingbird festival in Folsom Saturday. It was a nice day for a low-key event.

Talked to Mom by phone. She is worried about you, Dad, getting enough sleep and stuff. Can you not appease her and sleep more often and for long periods? Just until she's better. I will try to go see her today or tomorrow or the next day or the day after that or sometime in the near future or later. Got that? And hey, Dad, that potato soup I brought was for you. All you have to do is pour it into a bowl and heat it in the microwave. I understand if you don't feel like even doing that, but really, I wanted to simplify things for you.

Aaron just departed. Now it is time to get Julia up and going. I am motivated.

Y'all have a great day.

It is going to be a long season if the packers and the saints lose I hope that Sunday's game was the only loss for both teams.

Janine should have saved her “Peeeeuuuuuuuu” title for today’s Saints game. They stunk it up pretty good. Got a message from Beth yesterday. She has a posting account here now. The last thing she said in her email to me was “Hope all is okay down in SAINTS land. Go Saints and Packers!!!!”. The Packers stunk it up pretty good today, too. So, now you know. It’s Beth’s fault.

Congratulations to Jessy and Daniel on their new little girl. What a beautiful and unique name! Is it Irish? We had a friend whose twin girls were born at 32 weeks. They are now very spry and healthy 4 year olds in a Pre-K program. Mairin will be just fine!

I've been visiting Mother daily. She is tired of being in the hospital, but otherwise in good spirits. I peeked at her infection yesterday, and it's looking a lot better. It's not "angry" anymore. I know she's missing her email and this Blog.

Joey and I are off to Galatoire's tonight to celebrate our 4th anniversary. I'm looking forward to the dinner. We watched our wedding video the other night, and it was fun to see how different we all look after only four years. Especially the children. They look so young! Aaron was most adorable in his tux. Mary Catherine and Amy were such little girls then. You can see a 1 year old Jackson playing around in the cry room up above in the back of the church. I have to look into having my video switched to a DVD because the video seems to be aging somewhat. We don't even own a DVD player yet but I'm sure it's inevitable.

Joey and the guys have finally joined the new millenium. Their website is up and running. It's still a work in progress, but you can check it out at www.johnstuxedos.com. They just finished remodeling the front of the store. After the truck drove through it in March, they decided they needed to do some remodeling.

I'm off to a movie now, Uptown Girls, with my friend Gina. Looks cute, but I'm not expecting much.

Had a nice long visit with Mom tonight. The doctor said she may be in the hospital for another week. After taking that wonderful bit of news on the chin, her spirits seemed unchanged to me. She’s a lot tougher than I am. She’ll beat this thing.

Antibiotics seem to be working. No other information to depart. Robbie just called from his truck. He's on his way to the hospital. I'm joining Angela and Joey for Pizza. They're baby sitting the four Soule children tonight and invited me. Happy to have people around for dinner. Hate to eat alone. What great news about the additions to the Tompkins Family. Have to head out now. Keep tuned.

Well we have a new baby in our family. Jessy and Daniel had Mairin Dease Tompkins on Wednesday, Sept. 3. She was 3 lbs. 11 ounces and was 17 in. long. Gotta love that big Tompkins blood helping that little girl out. She is not in ICU but rather a step below in her little Isolette in a neonatal nursery. She will have to be in until she is at least 36 weeks. She is doing quite well and they were grateful that she came out breathing on her own, which means little to no oxygen. She will start on breast milk through a feeding tube in her nose until she learns to suck on her own. Jessy is doing quite well and ate a pizza and fries about an hour after Mairin's birth. She was just so happy to be sitting up right and able to get up and move around at will. After lying on her sides for 5 weeks, she was kicking her heels up with delight.

I'm sorry to hear about Ginnie. I've heard those staph infections can be quite painful. What hospital is she at? I would like to send something to her.

We are looking for volunteers to help out with some cabin projects; can anyone fly in for the weekend? Actually, we have been scheduling some cabin improvement projects and have run into several snags along the way. We have been working with Home Depot, and they have been slightly difficult to work with, mostly because of distance from the cabin, but also the contractor they hired out for the work is missing a few screws. We actually discovered while working on this flooring project, that we have a small mouse infestation problem. Apparently, they wanted to see what all the flooring commotion was about. It has launched another project in an effort to stop the little buggers from coming indoors for the winter. I will not even handle them or look at them, thankfully my big and stronger older sister courageously captured 3 of them and disposed of them, unfortunately, they had to accompany us home in the garbage in the back end because she was not courageous enough to open the trap to drop them in the woods. Suffice it to say, I was not pleased acting as funeral director on that long drive home.

Joan and Ed stopped over last night with the newest addition to their family. The puppy (name undecided) looks like a replica of Joan's dog who died in April. He's a 10 wk old Cocker Spaniel, buff color. I have a small dog and of course the puppy makes Daisy look huge. Daisy is a 3 yr old black schnoodle. Joan also has an almost 1 yr old huge mutt named Mikey, short for Michaelangelo. Joan's son Mark (20) brought him home and of course Joan could not say no. Now that he's pushing 80 lbs...

Joan's younger son Bill (18) is in basic training at Fort Benning, GA. He graduates on 9/11. Last I heard Joan and Ed are planning to fly down for graduation and fly back the next day.

We are staying home this weekend, not going to the cabin for a change. Like Mary said, it's like all of the cities head north on the weekends. I now know each cow on the side of the highway on a first-name basis. My exciting weekend plans include trying to reclaim my bedroom from all of the clown props. You'd be suprised how fast they accumulate and take over the room.

School started on 9/2 without much of a problem. Brian is settling into high school and loves his new school sofar. Easy to say after 3 days of classes. Danny is just happy that his teacher gave them a reprieve the first week of school and did not assign any homework. Brian was not so lucky. Two reports due the 2nd day and lots of math homework.

I had better get some work done now as our computer finally came up. Something about overnight processing taking too long. I start work at 6:45, it's now 7:30. Not a bad way to start the morning talking to you! Have a great weekend. Do something fun!

It was a great class and I am thoroughly psyched to be participating in this.

Aaron took his trumpet to school for the first time yesterday. His lesson was cancelled ten minutes before he was to go to it. Later, Michael and I competed over which of our favorite tunes Aaron should listen to yesterday to hear what a professional trumpeter sounds like. I put on Average White Band's "Pick Up the Pieces". It turns out I can't distinguish if there are trumpets in that. Michael's pick was a Glenn Miller tune. Aaron's choice was to turn off the stereo.

Julia is not in the choir. She says that she doesn't care and I believe that. She is going to be getting sewing lessons from Elizabeth, starting soon I hope. And she is in the Brownies. She can still sing anytime she wants to for me.

I commented in another entry that Mom needs a laptop. She liked that idea. I was trying to look on the bright side of staying in the hospital; t.v. all day and night if you want, reading anytime, three square meals a day delivered and the waste and dirty dishes disappear without any effort from you. Still, one knows how much time can pass when one is sitting in front of a computer screen.

Elizabeth is delivering "Get Well Soon" balloons to Mom right now as I watch Polina. I gladly watch the baby while Elizabeth does the honors of visiting. Thank you, Angela, for giving Mom a bouquet and saying it was from all of us kids. I hear it is very lovely. That was so sweet of you and Elizabeth. You are thoughtful girls.

Katie was going to get some flowers for Mom yesterday and broke down on Veterans Hwy. before she could get there. Dad rescued her. I didn't hear how she got home, nor what the outcome of all of that was when we talked this morning.

The Guiding Light is about to come on so I gotta go. These are actors who have my utmost respect. How can someone play the same character day after day for years? Then they have to say some of the most inane lines with a straight face. I wonder about that every time I watch it.

Hasta Luega!

Talked to Ginnie 10 minutes ago. She was seen by an Infectious Disease Specialist a change in last night. He instigated changes in the IV she will be given different ones through the night and this morning. No surgery at this time, but more time in the hospital.

Chapter 3 - The infectious disease doctor was in last night again. Seems like she wont be coming home soon. It's a staph infection and they're trying to find the right antibiotic to fight it. She says the infection perimeter seems to be shrinking very gradually. She's in very good spirits considering her status. Katie spent most of the day with her yesterday. Stay tuned.

Took Ginnie to the Surgeon's office so he could check her incision and the very large area around her navel that was an angry red color. She has been on two different anti-biotics for the past 10 days without any result. Doctor said "into the hospital". Put her on a different anti-biotic though an IV will check tommorow to see if the incision will have to be reopened and the mesh cleaned up or replaced. When she reads this account she'll give me a time about it because I probably have missed something or got almost everything wrong.

What a way to start my first comment on this blog

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!

I know you probably won't read this but Happy Birthday anyway. This might be a long year for you. Mom was 39 for 10 years or so and you do have her DNA. That gene skips the men somehow.

Happy Labor Day!

Is that what we say? Merry Labor Day?

Summer is over. Technically, it doesn’t end until September 22/23 this year but most kids would disagree with that. The weather here is no indicator because it will stay hot through November.

Note to all: The Washington Parish Free Fair in Franklinton is October 15 through 18 this year. Patsy and I have the 16th and 17th off. The 18th is a Saturday. The full schedule hasn't been posted yet but on Thursday night, October 16, we know The Charlie Daniels Band will be performing. We will be going for that. Like most, I don’t mind seeing them for free and I expect a pretty good crowd for that one. However, I’m planning a return trip on Friday afternoon, the 17th, to see and do the things in daylight, when the crowd will be thinner, that are quite a tad more difficult to do at night with a crowd. If you’re interested in joining us or even just following us up there (There is a major advantage to this), please drop me a line.