Republican National Convention

Have you been watching the RNC?  I have watched it mostly last night and tonight.  Condi was so good last night.  Sure wish she would run for President.  She is so intelligent concerning America and the world.  I read -- listened to -- her book about her life.  It is really long, and it got hard to listen to, so I didn't finish it.  I need to though.  Her parents were really amazing.  Did you know she is a concert pianist AND an ice skater along with everything else she can do.  Wow! 

Clint Eastwood is talking tonight.  That should be interesting.  Hope he "makes my day"!  I'm beginning to understand Romney so much better.  I have ALWAYS thought he must be a good man because of his family.  Five sons -- all successful -- well mannered, polite, loving with wives and children.  It is no small thing to just hold a family together these days.  I certainly know that first hand.

I don't know much about the Mormon religion other than it is suppose to be bad.  I realize they have a prophet or a wise man or whatever they call him called Joseph Smith, and they follow his teachings.  I don't know that that is so different than the writers and former men of faith of the Protestant religion -- and the catholics have a Pople, for heavens sake.  The Mormons I have known seem to be wonderful people with very high integrity and undying family devotion.  I know they have to do missionary work.  I'd sure rather have a Mormon than a Muslim in the White House!  Yes, I do believe Obama is a Muslim.

Sarah Palin is on Hannity now  I think that woman gets PRETTIER every time I see her. 

That's it for tonight.  I'm on my laptop, so can't attach pics of my new little fish dress.  I imagine you are watching the RNC too waiting for Romney.  I loved his wife!  She loves him like I love Jerry!

Hugs, Joy

Baby Butt Skin

Yep.  My face feels as soft as a baby's behind.  I went to Bella Strada at 3:30 to get my first ever Microdermabrasion.  I'm not real sure what happened, but it FELT like Laura -- the NICEST christian lady about my age -- put something on my face that was like Soft Scrub that you clean sinks with.  It was gritty.  Then she had some kind of vacuum hose with a tiny suction nozzle on the end of it, and she sucked all that gritty stuff off my face.  I HIGHLY recommend it.  I am going to have her do my upper chest -- the part that shows in a v-neck blouse -- next time I go.  She said she could.  Can you see how SOFT my skin is?  I doubt it.  I sure can feel it though.  I don't wear any makeup on my skin.

She ALSO gave me the name of her plastic surgeon.  If you've known me very long, you know I have been talking about having a face lift since I was 50!  Jerry has always DEMANDED that I will NEVER have one.  My x-friend that works for an insurance company told me about all the claims she saw for face lifts-gone-wrong.

That alone made me forget about it for at least 10 years.
Several of the TV preacher ladies have had one, so I've decided it must not be a sin.  I totally understand why they would want to look their best with a movie camera staring them in the face all the time.

Laura, the Microderm lady, has had work done by the surgeon she recommended, and she let me look all over her face and behind her ears and at her eyelids.  She said this guy doesn't use knives -- he uses a lazer.

He also does Lyposuction.  Maybe he could suck some of this tummy off of me.  We shall see, and you know I'll give you step-by-step.  Well, I may not be able to right after, but as soon as I can.  I'm thinking about calling the doctor tomorrow for a consultation.

He will probably send me home and tell me to lose 20 pounds!  Maybe for that, I would.

I'm getting ready to go pick Margaret up for dinner so I can show her my soft face.  I can't quit touching it!  There really is a big difference.  She gave me a gift card for my birthday to have the procedure done.

Okay.  Dinner is all done and I am back at home.  Margaret says I don't need a face lift.  Well, that's what friends are SUPPOSED to say, isn't it?  I'm so full after eating Mexican food at Ted's, I don't care about lifting anything but my jammies! 

I've talked myself out of it a hundred times, and I probably will again.  Jerry says he wants us to grow old together.  No stopping that, face lift or not!

Am working on a new pattern.  After the alterations I made for full bust and hips, it has the most gigantic french dart in it I've ever seen.

I'm going to make a dress because I was able to find a culotte slip on the internet, and it should be arriving any day.  I hate regular half slips because they want to ride up underneath my bra.  I make strange gyrations all day trying to get it to come back down where I need it to be.

Since the last commercial pattern I tried to alter ended up in the trash, I hope this one is a keeper.  This was a "figure it out by yourself and hope it works" pattern alteration.

The french dart WAS curved.  Now, it is straight -- it is two inches lower -- it is two inches wider. 

I should be able to put two basketballs inside this thing!

I'm heading to the bedroom to get in my jammies.  Not sure what I'll do after that, but it will involve sitting with my feet up somewhere.

Hugs, Joy

Moving Done and Hillbillies

I am back at House #2 in Edmond after finishing the relocation of my MIL.  Moving is never fun, but it went pretty well.

I had a very large collection of things to go to The Upper Room (like Salvation Army) this morning, and Aunt Betty Jane was so pleased.  She insisted I stay and go to lunch with her and her daughter and her daughter's husband.  I'm so glad I did.  Tom is a doctor and Mary Ann is a quilter, so we had a lot to talk about.  Betty Jane, like my MIL, always wants to pay for everyone's lunch.  I knew that, so I immediately grabbed Teresa -- my favorite waitress -- and told her to NOT let anyone have my check but me.  I guess Betty Jane got to her after I did though, and the bill went to her.  I complained and tried to pay for mine.  Betty Jane said, "But you have given so much to The Upper Room".  I told her I hadn't given them anything -- Leanida (my MIL) had given it all to them.  She didn't care.  She is such a sweetheart. 

If it ever becomes necessary, I will be more than happy to help in any way I can with her aging issues. I really enjoy these ladies.  They grew up back in the olden days just a little before I did, and they have such high standards and excellent characters.

The most recent account I have of when my home in Kingston will again have plumbing, counters and a sink is two more weeks.  Unbelievable!!!  Imagine if I had to live there all this time with no kitchen.  The insurance agent said they would rent a house for me.  I'd sure like to know where they would find a half-way decent house down there in the sticks where we live.  People actually LIVE in the nice houses.  It's the beat-up old trailers or mobile homes that people trash and then just leave.  That is one bad thing about living at the lake.  At a 4-way stop, you can have a mansion on one corner -- a gas station next to a quanset hut store on one corner -- a giant garbage collection of huge rocks and old machines on one corner -- and a trailer on the other.  Really!  I should take a picture for you next time I'm down there.  That is the NICE part of town!

I am SO not kidding!

There is a huge clan called The Cobbs that lives in a little "town" called Woodville.  You drive through Woodville to get to our house.  We were told when we first moved there to NEVER go down the side roads in Woodville because the people were all crazy. 

It seems that a brother and sister married each other and then had children, and they had children, and all of them are VERY strange.  One guy told us he drove down one of the roads one time, and a bunch of the people came out and surrounded his car and stared in the window at him!

When you drive by their "houses" --  a nice way of saying "shacks" -- you can see the people passed out up against some beat up old truck or sitting in a broken chair or straddled over some old appliance. 

The yards are FULL of every kind of furniture and appliance you can imagine.  I've seen little children -- barefoot and in nothing but diapers -- playing in the dangerous, trash-infested front yards.  For some reason, they love to collect old beat up cars and trucks that don't even run.  Places to sleep, I suppose.

One place has a huge banner painted on the side of the fence giving you a phone number to call to hire their band! 

The men of the clan seem to either chop up a whole lot of wood and stack it in their front yards OR they drive around with watermelons in the back of a beat-up old truck and park wherever the truck breaks down to sell them.

I have seen one real old man that sells watermelons asleep at the wheel many times.  They say he is "Old Man Cobb".  If you wake him up, he will sell you a watermelon.

As you drive through Woodville, you have to be careful not to run over chickens or dogs or cats just wandering in the street. 

I WILL take a picture next time I am home!  That is IF I can stop long enough to take one.  

If you ever come to visit me, you will have to pass all of that to get to my house way back in the woods where none of those people live.  You probably could get a very strange description of us as well from the right people. 

Gotta go.  I'm sure you just CAN'T WAIT to come visit me now!

Hugs, Joy

Sunday Notes and Mom

Matthew Hagee preached this morning, and his message was very much current and accurate.  Christians have to stop being ashamed of the Bible and of being Christians. 

Yes!  People will hate you.  People will ridicule you and make fun of you.  Why is that?  It is because you are holding up a light and they live in darkness!  We must not forget that Jesus himself was hated, and mostly by the religious bunch. 

You have to ask yourself:  If everyone in the world loves me and gets along with me, am I REALLY living according to God's word?  Am I really living a Christian lifestyle?  So, I suppose I should be thankful that so many in my family dislike me.  I have been told to my face, "Don't you EVER mention God to me again!!!"

Matt said this this morning, and I have said it many times to various family members on both sides:

HOW can you live in the world all week -- drugs, pornogrophy, lying, stealing (whatever sin fits) and then go to church on Sunday and be comfortable in the presence of the Holy Spirit?

And I have always thought it just did not make sense that my supposedly all-christian family could not gather together in a room and talk about the Bible or God without getting into a war over it.  And the things that they would watch on the television were from the pit of Hell.  For instance:  vampire movies.  I have gotten up and left the room many times and retreated to my bedroom because I could not stand the filth on the TV.  I left Jerry one time because of the violent movies he watched.  Haunted Houses -- I've never been to one and will never go to one!  They are full of evil.  How on earth can parents TAKE their children to them?  I don't understand how Christians can celebrate Satan's high holiday of Halloween either.   

Now, I have to admit when I get into the subject of violence and whether or not it should be watched on tv, that there is NOTHING more violent than the stories in the Old Testament. 

God did tell us in the New Testamant, however, to abstain from ALL appearance of evil and to dwell on those things that are lovely and pure.  (Not exact quote.)

A very close relative of mine used to steal clothes from Dillard's when she worked there.  I was helping her move one time, and I could not believe the wardrobe she had.  I asked her how she afforded all those expensive clothes.  She said, "How do you THINK I afford them?"  "The way I see it they OWE them to me for the lousy pay I get there."  And this girl has always claimed to be a Christian.

I just don't get it, and I guess I never will.  What does the word "worship" mean to some people?  To me it means TOTAL devotion and adherence to the rules.  You trust and obey, and there is NO other way!

There I go again -- getting all wound up.  I think two sentences up there are actually from Matthew Hagee!  Please listen for yourself at www.jhm.org and then GETV if you would like.

After internet church, Jerry and I headed over to Room #10 at Countrywood Living Center for the very last time.  We waded through the dead bodies of crickets -- YUK! -- to get into the deepest crevices of the bathroom cabinets, the closet and under the sink.  The only thing we left behind was a shower curtain that I'm not sure was Leanida's.  If it was, she doesn't need it anymore.  The crickets are just horrible in Kingfisher right now.  We saw them in every building we went in.

Mom is now in Room #31 in the Memory Unit, and it is working out so well.  I walked in to see her about 11:15 this morning.  I had just passed the kitchen where I noticed the menu for lunch was Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Creamed Corn and Banana Cream Pie.  I knocked on the folding slotted window covers and peaked inside.  I saw the cook who used to own a bakery here in town.  He knows me as do most of the workers there, and he asked if he could help me.  I told him Mom always begs us to eat with her, and before I went back there I wanted to know if he had enough for two more.  He told me that for $5 a plate, he could "make it happen". 

Mom was sitting at a table with one of the ladies that works there putting a puzzle together.  I walked over, pulled out the extra chair and sat down.

I said, "Well, how are you today!?"  

"I had the MOST HORRIBLE NIGHT!  You won't believe what happened to me?"

"Oh, really?"  What happened?"

"Well, I can't see a thing!"  THAT'S what happened!"

"But Mom, you are putting this puzzle together, and you did this word search puzzle this morning too."

"Well, I can't see!"

I changed the subject because it was obvious she could see fine, and I asked her if she remembered all the people that came to visit her yesterday.  She said she did.  Then she started telling me the craziest story:

"I had my car and I was going somewhere -- but where IS my car -- I can't find it.  Anyway, I was going to the black -- their name was "Black" -- but they would NOT let me leave.  I never got home last night because they would NOT let me leave." 

I said, "Mom, you ARE home."

"Well, you should have BEEN HERE and seen those two women.  They would NOT let me leave."

I changed the subject and announced that Jerry and I were joining her for lunch today.  She was happy about that.  The worker (I've got to learn their names) cleared off all the extra puzzle pieces and said we could eat right there, which was very nice as it was out in the main living room area.  In a bit, Jerry walked through the door and joined us at the table.  Mom looked at him and then she looked at me and she said, "Well, where is Jeff?"  "Did he have to stay home?"

I looked at Jerry and cracked up.  I've been calling him "Jeff" ever since!  We don't know anybody named Jeff, and neither does she that we are aware of.

I just told Mom that Jeff couldn't come.

We ate lunch and Mom, as always, tried to give us her dinner.  She has always been that way.  Yesterday, she got a large box of chocolates for her birthday.  She kept getting up out of her chair and passing it between Don and Jerry and me.  We kept telling her we weren't hungry and didn't want any.  She would sit for a second -- then stand up -- grab the box of candy and come pass it to us again.  After about the third time, she said, "Well, I WANT you to just get a piece whenever you want to.  Don't think you have to wait for the lady to offer you a piece!"

Jerry has not really grasped the fact that his Mom isn't "all there" anymore.  He talks to her like she is in her right mind, and he kind of scolds her.

He was scolding her for turning her heat on last night and asking her WHY she did that.  I have to give him the "evil eye" to get him to stop.

He was telling her to sit up and eat over the table because she was getting fried chicken crumbs on her pants.  I gave him "the look" again.







Here are a couple pics from her  birthday party yesterday.  She looked so nice, and she was having such a great time.  She could not follow our conversations with each other, but when she saw that we were laughing, she would crack up laughing herself.

Jerry was telling everyone how many times he used to get robbed by armed men when he owned Pharmacies, and then he was talking about the guns we both recently purchased.

Mom piped up and said that LAST WEEK, somebody got a knife from under her bed and tried to stab her with it.


 




 AARRGGHH!!!

I've been 15 minutes trying to arrange these pic's.  Windows 7 is NOT cooperating at all with Blogger.  It wants to make this typing BLUE and it wants to UNDERLINE all of it.  How BAZAAR!

PLUS, a little BOING chimes every few seconds.  Wonder if the battery is going dead.  It is supposed to last seven hours, and I've only been on for about 30 minutes.

Think I'll plug it in just in case.  Hold on......................

See how Mom has TWO necklaces on in the pic on the left?  I gave her the white "pearls" for her birthday, and she wanted to wear it.  Later, she tried to give it to me and asked me where it came from.

Okay.  Let's see if I can post this picture of Jerry, my husband, and Don, his 10 year younger brother.  He is the one that was on meth and various and sundry other concoctions.  This look is "normal" for him.  He tells us he is in a band, and all the guys are drunks.  Lovely!

He is her baby and the one she thinks lives with her.  He actually is extremely smart and is a Pharmacist like Jerry.  He loves chemicals and math and hard stuff like that.  Guess you would need that to build your own meth lab though.  Not a Pharmacist anymore after all of that, of course.

And if you happen to remember the 3rd brother, Bob, who is NOT in the picture, it is because when Jerry went to pick him up, he was drunk.  THANK GOD, Mom has no idea.  Bob has been sober for several years.  We don't know what happened to set him back.

I must say in Bob's defense, however, that if there ever was a GOOD REASON to become an alcoholic, he has one.  He was a Marine in Vietnam.  He not only was shot there and nearly died, he watched his best friend be blown to bits by a hand grenade and saw parts of his body hanging in trees.  NOT ONLY THAT, when he returned home, his wife left him -- first for another man, and then for a woman!

Mom has always felt responsible for all of that because she signed for him to join the Marines when he was 17 years old.  Of course, none of it is her fault, but you sure can't tell a Mom that.

I have to tell you one more thing, and then I have to go to the grocery store. 

Yesterday, after Mom's party when just Jerry and I and Don were in her room with her, this lady walked into Mom's room and sat down in the chair next to me.  I looked at her and said, "Hello".

She looked at me and said, "That is a nice blouse."

I said, "Thank you!"

Then she looked at me again and said, "That is a nice blouse."

I asked if she came to see Mom.  She said she was looking for a friend.  I told her Mom loved to have friends, and I would introduce her.  About that time, Mom got out of her chair and told me in no uncertain terms that this lady was Ruby and was ALREADY her friend!  Ooooooooooookay.

Ruby proceeded to tell me that she had a car and she was going to go somewhere.  I asked her WHERE she was going.  She said she was going to find her Mother.  Well, her Mother had to be at least 110, I would guess.  I asked where her Mom was.  She said she was way over there and pointed to the wall. 

I don't know why, but it actually took me a minute to figure out that this lady must LIVE there also and have dementia, like Mom. 

She explained to me that she was going to go outside and start walking down the street.  She said that as long as there were people on the side of the street while she was walking, they could tell her where to go. 

At that, she got up and left.  She wandered out into the big area, but we could still see her.  She was just staring off into space.  Mom, who had been sitting in her wheelchair (not because she can't walk, but so we could have the chairs) motioned to me and said, "Look at that strange lady out there."  It was the same lady that just a moment before had been her good friend, Ruby! 

Sad, yes, but funny.  To them, these conversations seem perfectly normal, I suppose.  I just go along with them.  Jerry thinks he has to explain to them that they are wrong.  He will learn.

I'm off to buy some bread.

Hugs, Joy

Tale of Two Moms

This will be my first post on the new computer.  I am in Kingfisher tonight.  Went with Aunt Betty Jane to move more stuff out of Mom's old room and to see Mom.  What a hoot she was today.  I took some pics.  IF I can figure out how to post one here, I will.

Aunt Betty Jane who is 85 and doesn't know how to use a cell phone took this picture.  I don't know if she was shaking or we were shaking.  I know she pushed the camera button about 5 times before my phone took a pic. 

This is Jerry's Mom, Leanida.  She will be 92 years old tomorrow.  She thought she was going to be 97 and wanted to know what happened to the other years.  She asked what year she was born because she was sure I didn't know her right age.

She was SO, SO HAPPY to see Betty Jane and me today.  She just loves to have company.  Always has.  The more, the merrier.  BJ and I sat with her and explained how many were coming to visit her tomorrow for her birthday.  She looked around her new room and said, "I have some tents we could put up in here."  BJ asked her what she wanted to do with the tents.  Then she explained that she could move her bed over against the wall, and then she would have "them" move in several more beds and put them end to end in her room.  She seemed to think BJ and I needed a place to sleep tonight.  She didn't know where we lived or how we got there.

She was in the best mood until I suggested she let the assistant help her take a shower tonight.  She informed me she already HAD a shower today, which she had not.  They say they can't get her to drink water there, but she drank two glasses for me.  I feel like I should stay and visit every day to be sure she drinks water, gets her hair done and her nails done.  Nobody cares like we do, and they can't convince her like we can.

Oh!  Let me show you a pic of Betty Jane.  This is Jerry's Aunt -- married to Mom's brother, Johnny, who died about 10 years ago.  My taking care of Mom has given me the delight of getting to know Betty Jane much better.

Mom's hair is way past a perm and hair dye.  We have that scheduled for next Tuesday.  Too bad we couldn't get it done before her birthday.  I will do her nails in the morning and find her lipstick. 

I picked out a pretty outfit for her to wear and hung it on a nail that was in the wall from the last resident.  Hopefully, the night girl will tell the morning girl to put it on her.  I don't know any of the girls that work in the Memory Unit yet.

Both these women are very, very special!  Betty Jane (on the left) has run The Upper Room here in Kingfisher for over 20 years.  An UNair conditioned metal building that is like a small Goodwill.  The place has a large garage door on it that she had to lift herself until just last summer when an automatic door opener was put on it.  Mom (on the right) worked at The Upper Room with Betty Jane for nearly as many years.

Mom was a nurse -- the old fashioned kind - that truly cared deeply for each and every patient.  She snuck vitamins, at her expense, into some of her patients to help them get well.  She rubbed Vitamin E Oil over one old man's legs that were covered with scabs and sores, and the doctor couldn't believe how well they healed.  She was the Administrator of several Nursing Homes, and put in a zillion hours of her own time planting flowers and decorating and caring for everyone.  She was still working in her 70's part time as an in-home nurse for terminal patients.  She became very attached to each one and their families loved her.  Both of these women are so wonderful and giving.  Mom would never want any of us doing anything at all for her.  She wanted to do everything for everyone else.

She used to tell us stories way into the night of all her adventures.  I remember her telling me a story about one young man who had cut his you-know-what off and was carrying it down the stairs and got blood all over the stairs.  YUK!  She told me about a doctor's wife who used to give herself overdoses of sleeping pills so her husband would rush home and save her life.  One time, he didn't make it in time, and he came home to find her dead on the couch.  She told us about how she used to find the grannies and the grampas in bed together at the nursing home.  She told me about a woman that gave her husband a jar of some kind of fruit or jam.  He kept telling her how delicious it was, and he kept asking for more.  The jam was rotten, and he died from eating it! 

I watched this woman rescue Jerry's brothers more times than I can remember.  Both were alcoholics of the highest degree, and one did meth and other drugs as well.  Mom would drive 100 miles in a day to take these boys food or get them out of jail or rush them to the emergency room or whatever it took including thousands of dollars.  I watched her nurse them back to health time and time again.  BOTH are off all that today and are alive and as well-as-can-be-expected because she never gave up on them.

How on earth she had time to do all of that PLUS have the most beautiful yard and gardens in Kingfisher that won the green spade award every year, is beyond me.  Quite a woman!  No wonder I love her and have such respect for her.

Better go.  Tomorrow is her birthday, and I want to be ready.

Hugs, Joy 



Mom's 92nd Birthday and New Laptop

This has been a really nice day and I had a very nice lunch with an old-fashioned waitress who had an actual combed hairdo -- no strange facial piercings -- and no visible tattoos.  She was friendly and knew what she was doing.  Loved it!  Phylly was with me because we may not get to see each other for FOUR WHOLE DAYS! 

I am going back to my Mother-in-Law's (Mom) tomorrow to finish moving her out of her former room and to begin preparing for her 92nd birthday on Saturday. 

I want to get some birthday balloons and a cake.  She knows it is her birthday, and she gets real excited when people visit her.  Countrywood doesn't celebrate birthdays because they have too many residents.

I received a call last night from Jerry's Aunt Betty Jane -- Mom's sister-in-law -- informing me that the help in the Memory Unit was complaining that Mom's 1000 pair of Size 10 pants no longer buttoned at her waist.  They requested pull up slacks with elastic waistbands.  I went to Penney's today and bought her five pair of Alfred Dunner elastic waist slacks in different colors.  Sure hope they fit.  I bought Size 12.  Would LOVE to measure her and make her a bunch with my SFD Pant Kit, but I don't think I could get Mom to let me measure her.  She would say she didn't need any more pants, and she wouldn't want me to go to any bother for her.

I called Paul this morning.  Remember Paul at Accent Marble in Sherman, TX -- the company that is bulding the countertops for my kitchen in Kingston?  They have been working on them for several months already, and it appears it will be two or more weeks from now.  UNbelievable!!!  Since they made the mistakes that screwed up the FIRST set of countertops, and what they are doing now is a make-it-over, and they have already been paid, they are not in any rush.  Nothing we can do about it but wait.  Thank goodness, I have another home.  My kitchen there has no plumbing, no sink and no countertops.

Jerry said I could go pick out my new laptop computer all by myself today (remember mine got stolen out of his truck Monday night).  That is a FIRST, I assure you!  I guess he knew he could always take it back if I screwed up the task too much.  My brother, a computer tech, texted me a short note to get a Lenovo which I had never heard of.  Evidently, they were formerly IBM.  It has Windows 7 on it, but you can use it with XP also.  Jerry was excited about that.  Here's a picture I found on the internet.  I would have preferred BRIGHT RED, but it only came in black.

I was playing with it awhile ago and discovered that it has a BUILT IN video camera in it!  I was filming myself squealing with delight, and I didn't even know it.  New things are so cool.  My Ipad may be taking a back seat to my new laptop.  And this was CHEAPER than the Ipad.  Go figure!

Let me say that it took me a total of THIRTY SECONDS to pick this computer out.  If Jerry had come with me, we would be out until every store that sells computers is closed tonight!  Of course, my brother said to get "Lenovo", and Best Buy had only this one to pick from.  Kind of narrowed things waaaaaaaay down for me.

Gotta go.  Jerry has taken over the new computer, and I need to fix him some supper.  All is good in my world today!

Hugs, Joy

Tattoo Lunch and Earrings in a Flash

I met Phylly for lunch at Applebee's today.  It is the Applebee's that I ate at years ago and decided it was horrible, so I have not been back until today.  I guarantee, it will be NEVER before I visit that place again!  It was worse than the last time.  The dress code at that place evidently requires you have giant holes in your ears, and at least, 20 tattoos up and down your arms, and another odd piercing or two located someplace on your head!  One guy had what looked like bright lime green wire coiled through his earlobes about 3 times.  Lovely!  Those people scare me, and I sure don't want them waiting on me.

My own grandson has those big holes in his ears, and I HATE them!  He knows it too.  For awhile, he covered them up when in my presence, but now he proudly displays them AND his tattoos on Facebook.  I never see him in person since he is now a teenaged father, and his girlfriend doesn't like me.  How DARE I suggest she might go back to High School after getting pregnant at 16 years old -- among other things I don't approve of. 

America is looking more and more like a heathen nation -- to me. 

So, that was the help working at the less than half-full restaurant.  You would think the management there would get a clue.  The next issue was the food. 

I ordered a dish that looked awesome in the picture on the menu.  When I got it, it resembled something I would have thrown away.  They aren't into presentation there. 

Evidently, the tattooed, pierced people burn all the vegetables, throw them in with some chicken, toss it a bit, and pour it over a kind of pasta that ISN'T the pasta in the picture.  It stands to reason that if they don't care what THEY look like -- why would they care what the food looks like.  Thank goodness Phylly ordered a salad, and it was enough for both of us.

Speaking of piercings.....

When I got dressed this morning in one of my now favorite blouses -- redesigned from a Silhouette pattern that had a wierd collar -- I realized that I didn't have any MATCHING earrings.  It was 11:15 AM, and I was meeting Phylly at the "Tattoo Parlor" for lunch at 12:00.  I hurried into my jewelry-making table -- formerly my cutting table -- and quickly made two earrings to match my outfit.  I LOVE doing this! 

Turns out that the beads I used yesterday in the "cocoon" necklace matched this blouse perfectly too. 

I didn't have any silver ear wires, so I took two silver plated head pins and twisted them.  Turned out great. 

I've decided I am going to have to purchase a small U-haul trailer to pull around behind me now that I have to travel not only with my fabric and patterns, but with my jewelry-making paraphernalia. 

Did I tell you that Jerry finally allowed me to buy the LARGE tool bag that I wanted in the first place?  He is using the small tool bag to carry some kind of wheelchair fitting implements he takes to customer's homes. 

I'll take a pic for you.  It is just TOO KEWL!

Hold on ........................

I took 4 pics for you.

Notice all the plier compartments all around the outside of this tool BAG and all the handles. 

Notice the gray and black zipper bags.

I have them both full also.

One has headpins.

One has beading wires.

The fishing tackle-type box came with it too.

I love these little screw-on containers to hold my beads in.  You can easily see through them, and they come in three different sizes.  Gets my organization juices running wild!

I can't believe how much this one tool bag full of stuff cost!  Yes!  I will be having earrings to go with EVERY new blouse.  Too bad I can't wear the large dangly kind so I could use up more product.

Anyone want some earrings?

Guess I better do something besides sit here and let my backside spread further than it already has!  The weather here is GORGEOUS today.  Hope it is where you are.

Hugs, Joy

Comments about "Comments"

I have been so discouraged lately because I seldom receive a comment when I check my blog.  I read other blogs, and the comment sections are always full.  I realize that my blog is just chatty stuff that doesn't really matter when you throw it in amongst all the weighty matters of the world.  Really, my blog is my email to my friends everyday, and I really like it when they "comment" occasionally.  I know my friend, Pam, is on vacation with her grandkids, so I haven't heard from her for weeks.  I'm looking forward to her return!  She is my jewelry instructor, and we can all see I NEED instruction!

ANYHOW!  I brought that up to say that I was just pushing various buttons on the blog background page, and I saw I had over 450 comments.  I thought that was really strange.  If there have been 450 comments, WHERE have they been hiding from me???  I started reading through them with GREAT DELIGHT -- thank you for them all -- and I discovered that MY BRAIN needs a comment! 

     "Learn how to use Blogger!!!"











Here's the thing:  After I type my daily post and publish it, Blogger moves to another page.  It is a page that is kind of a REPORT of how many people read my blog and what posts they read.  There is a little section that shows "Comments" and the number of them.  I KNEW it was there, but I just ASSUMED that I already knew if anyone commented, so I never paid attention to it UNTIL TODAY.

What happens is if someone reads a post that is BEFORE today, and they go down to the bottom of it and click on "comments" to write a comment to me, the comment shows up under that date's post. 

So if you read something I wrote a month ago -- or you watch a tutorial -- and you put a comment there TODAY, I won't know it.  I will never see it, because I only see today.  BUT, when I go to that "report" page and check on "comments", I can see every post that is posted TODAY! 

Isn't that EXCITING!!!  I am so excited that I am going to get showered and dressed and email Phylly to see if she wants to meet me for lunch today so I can tell her all about it.  She just LIVES to hear whats on my mind, you know.  (Don't I wish!)

I will probably have an exciting waiter story when I get back, so watch for another post today.

Hugs to all and THANKS for the comments!

Joy

Target Practice, New Blouse and Bad Jewelry Design

Hello late on Tuesday night.  Jerry and I went to the gun shooting place and practiced shooting our guns.  After the break-in of his truck and the theft of my $2500 laptop, Jerry decided I should keep my gun loaded and in my nightstand.  He brought it to me and showed me it was loaded.  That made me VERY nervous.  I do not feel totally comfortable with that gun yet.  He understood and decided we should go shoot some more.  My new paper man is VERY dead, I'm happy to say, and I took my sister's suggestion and hung him up in my garage so any theft-minded passersby would see that whoever lives here owns a gun and can shoot it!

We must hope the thief doesn't find out that my nightstand not only has a gun in it, it also has a bottle of Benadryl, a bottle of antacids,  Kleenex, a baggie full of precut rectangles of Nyquil (as one could die of congestion by the time one got one open in its original packaging) and various lotions and nail files.  I don't think the thief would be too scared if he saw me reach into my nightstand and pull out a bottle of Vitamin E Oil which usually has a Kleenex sticking to the side of it.  He would probably think I was waving a surrender flag!

The top of the nightstand wouldn't work either.  I could grab the lamp, or the alarm clock, or my glass of water and all of that would have to be AFTER I found my glasses on top of the nightstand and put them on my face!  My point is, I'm not sure if the nightstand is a good place to put the gun.  The policeman at the class we went to said that his wife has hers ATTACHED to the back of the headboard.  Wish I had thought to ask HOW she attached it.  Would it be hanging from a string?  Stuck on with velcro?  Be inside a holster that was superglued to the headboard? 

I took a picture of my new blouse today.  It isn't that exciting really, and it is a pattern I have made before.  Remember the Amoeba blouse?  My sister saw the Amoeba blouse hanging in my closet and said it was awful, so I guess I was right about that one.  Phylly and Jerry said yellow buttons looked good on this blue floral blouse, but I don't like them.  I am going to change them to blue. 

I think the reason I don't like them is that they would distract from the necklace I am trying to make for it.  I made a necklace today, but it looks awful.  Jewelry-making is definitely an art. 

I picked out some beads from my very large collection that matched the white and the blue in the blouse.  Then I strung them together in what looked like a pretty design.  I finally got gutsy enough to actually use a bit of the 14K gold filled chain I bought and attached it to the necklace.

Here it is laying on a scrap of the fabric, and then a picture of it on my neck.  The idea was to make a hanging bobble to make the necklace form a V-shape, like the neckline.  You can see that was a total failure! 

The white beads look terribly out of place to me -- sort of like cocoons -- and the whole thing is too big and bulky for my neck -- except for the tiny gold chain that is more my style.  I hate drawing attention to my 62-year old neck anyway.  Tomorrow, this necklace will become a bracelet with just the blue beads and the gold spacers.  I can make some simple earrings too. 

The blouse is so busy with all those gigantic flowers, that it doesn't really need jewelry at all.  Plus, everything I make and wear is casual, and jewelry is so fancy.  BUT, I have spent a small fortune on all these pliers, and jewelry MUST be made!

It is after 10 PM, and I am tired.  I shall get in my jammies and snuggle up in my bed with my Ipad so I can play Scrabble with Margaret. 

Hugs, Joy

Pattern Trashed and Jerry's Van Broken Into

This day sure hasn't gone well.  Still, it is the day the Lord has made, and I WILL rejoice and be glad in it!  Things could be way worse, and are for so many people.

Jerry went out to his little van this morning about 10:00 to get his shoes, and found the side window smashed and broken out.  It was a dark shaded window, so the thousands of bits of glass inside and outside the van were almost black as he swept the dustpan full of them over and over and over again.

I am ALWAYS nagging Jerry about locking his truck because it is usually parked outside.  I've explained a million times that if they can open his truck, they can get the garage door opener, and then they have access to our entire home.  Since we took that gun class though, Jerry has been locking everything.  The truck WAS locked.  Fortunately, the garage door opener was not in the truck because we play musical cars here all the time, and we had taken it out and put it in another car to go out to lunch yesterday.

The Lady-In-The-Box (I never can remember the right name for that thing) was still in the glove box and everything looked the same AT FIRST.  Jerry called to see if the glass place could fix his van today, and they could, so he left about noon.  As soon as he arrived at the glass place, it dawned on him that my computer had been in the van.  Remember MY laptop that never has worked right, and he spent most of the weekend working on?  That computer.  It was in a real nice computer bag with all of the necessary cords and accessories.  He called me here at the house and asked me to be sure it wasn't here.  It isn't. 

I squealed with delight thinking I was FINALLY free of that computer, and I could get a new one now.  But then Jerry informed me that since he had been working on it at his Mom's house, he had copied the page he keeps on all of his computers of all his passwords to that desktop.  Yep!  I've nagged about that one too.

You can just click on the icon, and there are two pages long of passwords to everything we have in the world --  bank accounts, savings accounts, investment accounts, store software.  

Suddenly, instead of being delighted, I was terrified!  "I told you so" didn't seem to really matter at all.  Also on that computer is Team Viewer which gives us access to every computer at both of our stores -- at least 25 of them.  I feel sorry for Jerry, but what a way to learn a lesson!!!

Our hope is that the computer will blue screen every time the thief tries to boot it.  That is what it was doing to us.  If it does that, the thief will never see the desk top.

With my stomach knotted up over all of that, I attempted to redo the pattern I was working on yesterday.  I decided it looked funny, so I cut it all apart and put it back together in its original shape.  Then, I started over with a lower dart position on the side seam.  When I got all done, it looked freakier than it did yesterday, so I wadded the whole thing up and threw it away. 

Glenda is right.  Just put the style features onto the SFD blueprint, and make it.  Then you don't have to worry about that dang bust dart alteration!

I've decided that maybe I can go to Walmart and buy groceries and not screw that up too bad. 

WHEN does life start getting easier???

I need to call Countrywood and check on Mom, but I am AFRAID to.  I figure if they aren't calling me, then everything is just perfect, and I need not worry.  Maybe I could ACCIDENTALLY leave my cell phone here at home while I go shopping, just in case.

Just kidding!



Jerry just called and told me he called all of our accounts and verified that nobody has tried to empty them since last night, and he has changed ALL of our passwords, and he will NEVER leave them on the computer again.  YEAH!!! 

Someone stealing the computer was a good thing -- right?

Hugs, Joy 

Sunday, FBA on Dolman Sleeve Style and Mom

What a pleasant Sunday this was.  First we listened to Rev. Hagee talk about Matthew 18:19 -- where any two agree -- which is a scripture Jerry and I have stood on for 30 years.  I am going to listen to the sermon again because it was really good and my mind was half way on something else because Phylly was coming over today.  It was basically about the New Testament POWER that Christians SHOULD have in their lives, but don't.  So many factors interfere with our ability to live the way God intended for us to.  Television is one of the main ones, of course.  If it wasn't for Jerry, I probably wouldn't even have one.  I seldom turn it on when I am alone.  So many channels, but so little programming of any value.  We watch Fox News and The History Channel.  I think the alligator people and the mountain people are over with now, so we don't even watch those channels.  I got tired of the Pawn Shop show too.

Phylly got here at 10:00.  Jerry entertained her with a sermon on healing while I was in the shower.  Then Phylly and I sat in our chairs across from each other at the cutting table and worked on separate projects.  She is still working on her red couture dress.  She spent the whole 5+ hours hand stitching the entire length -- both sides -- of all the seamlines.  Being a princess seam design, there were a LOT of them.  I don't think I am the "couture" type.  I'm not even sure I am spelling the word correctly!

I put the buttonholes and the hem in my latest creation, and then I opened up a new pattern for Phylly to help me P&P.  (Palmer/Pletsch fitting system.)  After I do that, I compare it to my Sure-fit Designs blueprint just to MAKE SURE everything looks right.

You can see that the pattern has a Dolman sleeve.  This was quite a challenge when I was applying a Full Bust Adjustment.  It also has a wide yoke.  I am not sure if my adjustment was correctly done, or not, but I will let you know when I get it made up.  Here is a picture of the front AFTER all the adjusting I did to it:

Scary looking, isn't it???  I am not at all sure this is right.  I think maybe I should have cut more of a french dart to lower the side of it.  How is the back underarm going to sew to this???   

I am making a combination of all four views.  It is going to be made out of denim and I will wear it like a jacket.

The back of the pattern isn't quite as crazy looking.  I added a slight upper round correction and a 1" sway back correction. 

I hope to get it put together tomorrow if Jerry's Mom behaves herself, and I don't have to go back to Kingfisher.  After Jerry's Mom tried to "escape" by going out the main doors, but could not remember how to open them, and then started knocking on all the other resident's doors asking for help, we received a call from Countrywood (assisted living center where she has lived for three years).  They insisted that we move her to the back of the building to the "Memory Unit".  The Memory Unit is supposedly closing in two weeks, but they MIGHT stay open longer.  Seemed like the easiest thing to do at the time, so Jerry and I moved her.

When we walked in Mom's room, she was sitting in her pink recliner.  We told her that we were going to move her to another room.  She informed us we were NOT moving her anywhere!  Some of the girls that work there invited Mom to come make a puzzle with them, so we were able to move her bed and furniture from one room to the other without her seeing us.

While we were at lunch, the girls got her back into the little kitchen in the Memory Unit to eat her lunch.  Since then, Mom has not even TRIED to leave.  She LOVES it back there.  She says she likes the quiet.  There is a very small dining room with only 3 tables.  She likes eating in there at her own table.

There is a main area that all the tenants can watch TV in, and Mom was sitting there next to the only other tenant we saw back there.  She is a very old woman, and she kept saying "Hey!", "Hey!", "Hey!" -- and she kept talking to Mom, who was sitting in the recliner next to her, in a long string of odd-sounding syllables.  Mom told her it would be okay, but she kept on talking and saying "Hey!"  Mom hollered at Jerry one time and said, "Hey, Jerry, your wife is calling you!"  She wasn't talking about me.  She meant the lady in the chair next to her.  We cracked up when we left the room.

There were three employees on duty, and Mom was loving the attention they were giving her.  We should have moved her back there months ago!  I think the much smaller living space makes her feel less confused.

I've got to sew on some buttons.  I wanted the buttons to be blue, but they are yellow.  Phylly and Jerry said the yellow ones looked best, so I will trust them.  I'll show you a picture tomorrow because my hands can't reach this keyboard all the way from the recliner I'm getting ready to go land in for the rest of the evening. 

That is AFTER I jump on the trampoline for a minute or two.

Hugs, Joy 

FINALLY! I Can Post Again!

Goodness!  I was beginning to wonder if I was EVER going to get to write another blogpost.  I am busy with Jerry's Mom, of course, but I have my evenings free.  I am still at her former home with my ancient laptop computer.  You know how computers are -- if they are a year old -- they are practically antiques.  This one is well over 10 years old, and it wasn't too fast when it was new. 

I guess it was about 10 years ago when I was really into embroidery.  I got a notice via email or something that there was going to be some great Embroidery Seminar in Dallas, TX.  My embroidery software was pretty new, and I wasn't that familiar with it, and I noticed that a lady from Bernina -- Marlis Bennett (?) -- was going to be there teaching the new Bernina embroidery software.  You had to take a laptop computer with your software installed on it.  Jerry had just gotten me this laptop, and I asked him if I could use it for that class.  He assured me that I could.  He also agreed to come with me because he -- as usual -- had not done his Pharmacy Continuing Education for that year, and it was late in the Fall.  The deal was he would sit in the hotel room and do his CE while I was attending classes downstairs.  Seemed like a PERFECT plan.

We get to Dallas -- get our room -- and the next morning, I head down to the Bernina class with my laptop.  I was so confident and excited that I would actually have a NEW laptop computer.  I am the kind of person that likes to be at the very front of any class, but for some reason I ended up in the very back of this one.  The teacher instructed us all to boot up our computers.  Ahhhhhhhh, yes.  I knew how to do that.  She told us to put in our dongles (security key) and start up the Artista software.  Smiling happily, I did that.  Then she asked us to click on some command so we could learn all the things we could do with the alphabet.  I clicked on the command, but my computer seemed to go into shock by the command, and it just froze.  EVERYBODY in the whole class was on the screen they were supposed to be on BUT ME.  I was saying I wasn't ready, so every lady had her head turned around in my direction thinking, "Who let the dunce in the back in???"  FINALLY, my screen came up.  Thank goodness, I thought, now the teacher can get on with the lesson.  But NOOOOOOOOOO!  There was ANOTHER command, and ANOTHER command, and every time I pushed a key, my computer took five minutes to operate it. 

After about 15 minutes of me dying of humiliation in the very back row because all the ladies in front of me had there heads turned around backwards and were staring at me, the teacher came back to my computer, and she SHUT IT DOWN.  She told me I should just watch and listen.  I was SO EMBARRASSED!  It was a good thing Jerry was way up on another floor, or I would have strangled him with the computer cord!!!

And I told you all of that so I could tell you that the computer I am typing on right this second is that SAME computer.  Yep!  When I knew I had to come here to Jerry's Mom's house for an undetermined amount of years, it was decided I could bring my laptop computer here as it would be my sole source of entertainment.  Remember, this is a vacant house.  No TV or radio.  The **** thing hasn't worked worth a hoot the whole time I've been here, but this week, it decided to join Jerry's Mom in the Advanced Dementia realm!  I figured it must be the internet service in this town, so I called them.  They kept me on the phone for over an hour having me do a bunch of speed tests, and then they said they would send a Technician the next day.

The next day was Tuesday.  I got a call about 9 AM from a guy who said he was from Pioneer, and he was coming to check my service problem.  Okay.  He didn't sound too bright on the phone, but you can't really tell, I suppose, on the phone.  But a few minutes later, I noticed a bright red Pioneer truck parked in my NEIGHBOR'S driveway.  I knew they weren't even at home.  I walked out in my driveway and stared across the street at his truck.  In a few minutes he stepped out of the truck and started walking toward their back fence.  When he came back around to his truck, I was waving at him, and he noticed me.  I asked if he was looking for me.  He asked if I was Mrs. Bernard.  Close enough.  I told him I was.  He then got in his truck and came over to my house.  Too bad I didn't tell him I was Mrs. Smith and send him away!

He was as big as a telephone pole.  His hands were HUGE.  No fat -- just huge.  He didn't "walk", he "lumbered" kind of stooped over, I suspect from running into everyone's door openings.  He had huge feet with huge MUDDY boots.  The mud was dry, so every step he took knocked off a few nice chunks onto my kitchen floor.  If I had been where I can use my photo software, I would have taken pics.  He came in my kitchen and sat in a chair.  He put his very dusty laptop -- he drives around in a lot of dusty places -- next to mine on the kitchen table.  Then he just sat there, and sat there, and sat there .....  I was sitting or standing close by the whole time, but the guy didn't talk or move or do anything.  He kept pushing buttons on his computer, but I couldn't figure out how that would help mine.  Anyway, after an hour, the guy got up and announced, "Well, I guess this is as good as it will be.  Do you want me to have them put you on a lower speed?"  HUH???????????????????????????

I didn't know what he did -- if anything -- but I sure was glad he left!  What a numbskull!  Later that day, I called the service number and spoke to the lady I had talked to the night before.  I told her they had sent a moron to my house to fix my service, and he didn't know WHAT he was doing.  I explained that he never talked to me or told me what he was doing, and he left mud on my kitchen floor.  I asked her if she would please send someone else to my house that had experience and knew what they were doing.  She was not happy with me, but she agreed to send someone else.

The next day, a bright red Pioneer truck pulled up in MY driveway, and a fairly intelligent guy named Johnny came into my house.  Turned out Johnny was the other guy's boss.  He explained that they had a really hard time getting service techs here.  I told him what the guy did and how he never told me anything.  He said he would try to train him better.  Johnny explained fully what the situation was.  Of course, I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN.  The internet service is as fast as lightning.  He proved it by hooking his laptop up to it.  The problem was THIS computer I am typing on.  It had a major infection or something.  Anyway, Jerry has spent most of yesterday and several hours this morning completely erasing everything on it, and putting the operating system back in it.  I am using it now, and it is working WONDERFULLY!!!  No Photo Shop and no Bernina Software, and it probably can't ever handle that software.  At least, I can type my blogpost!

Gotta run.  Back to Countrywood.  We are moving Mom completely out of her room and way down the hall into the Memory Unit.  More on that later when Jerry isn't standing here waiting for me.

Pardon boo boos!  I'll proof it later.

Hugs, Joy