Deliver Us From The Evil One and Jerry Update

Sunday morning.  My FAVORITE time of the week.  I absolutely LOVE being able to "go to church" every Sunday in my den -- in my pajamas -- with my doggy and Jerry -- and with a cup of coffee in front of me.

P E R F E C T !

Today was about Satan and demons -- a continuation of The Lord's Prayer:  Deliver us from the evil one.

I was taught about Satan and his demons when I was a child.  My parents were very knowledgeable about the Bible.  My father talked about end times and Armageddon and Jesus coming back and Russia and China invading Israel for as long as I can remember.  Mother knew it, but didn't talk about those things.  She was into playing hymns on the piano and having prayer meetings at our house.  We had lots of sing-a-longs at the piano.

Mind you -- this was IN OUR HOME.

The men wore suits and ties.  The women wore beautiful dresses or lacy blouses with full circle satiny skirts and high heels.  I used to just stare at all of them from around the corner because we were supposed to be in bed.  Sometimes we got to stay up for a little while, but not for long.

I remember one time my mother had lit a perfumed Avon candle just to make the house smell pretty.  If someone lit one now, I would have to take off running for the hills due to allergies, but back then, I loved them.  My sister and I actually sold Avon when we were teenagers, but that is another story.






Anyhow, when the ladies arrived, they would mention the candle.  Mother would announce that she was buring a perfumed candle and ask how they liked it.  They would all say it was very nice.

Later, Mother was in the other room -- probably preparing snacks in the kitchen -- and I overheard one lady say to another lady:

"Don't you think that candle is just a little TOO SICKENING!?"

It was a good thing they were there to pray because they obviously needed it, lol.



And I want to tell you about John Hagee's sermon!

He talked about when he went to Seminary and Graduate School and how he was never taught about the devil or demons.  He said his Mother told him they were all in South America where the witchdoctors and occult were.  Hagee asked one time WHAT kept the devils from crossing the Rio Grande.

Then he tells the story that I have heard many times about the rich lady that called him one day at the church.  She did not go to his church, but she had driven by and seen the sign.  The sign had a phone number on it you could call if you needed help.  She said, "I need help, so I called."  She asked him if he would come to her house, so he did.

He said her house was grand and beautiful.  She also was beautiful.  She asked him to come in and sit down.  He did.  I guess he was on one couch, and she was on another either next to him or across from him.  He asked her what the problem was.

She said that something terrible had happened to her while she was playing with tarot cards the night before.  She told him her husband was out of town on business a lot, and she was home alone.  She spent her time playing occultic games and doing whatever one does with tarot cards.  She said she had done it for years, but NOTHING like this had ever happened before.

He asked her again what happened.

She said she was playing with the cards when all of a sudden she heard footsteps coming into the house and down the hall and into the room where she was, and whatever it was ENTERED HER.

Hagee, of course, had no experience at all with demon possession or what to do about it.  He did know about the scriptures in the Bible, however.

Hagee asked her how she KNEW "it" entered her.  She told him she had been cursing and using the filthiest, most vile language.  She said she had NEVER cursed in her life.  She didn't talk like that.  She told him she had filthy thoughts, and she felt like she could easily commit a horrendous act and not have the slightest pang of guilt about it.

Hagee had his Bible with him.  Not knowing what to do, he decided to open his Bible and just READ the story of the demoniac who was possessed by many demons who called themselves "Legion".  It begins at Mark 2:5 if you would like to read it.  Hagee started reading.  He looked over at the lady on the couch and was shocked to see her EYES WERE GLOWING and her face LOOKED LIKE A CAT and SHE WAS HISSING!

Hagee wanted to make make a grand exit through the nearest wall, but he did not.  He kept reading.

The lady hissed LOUDER and her body became CONTORTED to where her head was bent down and her knees were pulled up to where her head was between her bent knees -- still on the couch!  YIKES!  She began cursing the filthiest language and GROWLED at Hagee WITH A MAN'S DEEP VOICE:

"I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaate you, John Hagee!!!!"

Hagee finished the passage and then informed the demons what the Bible said about them.  I don't recall the exact words.  MY words would be:  "In the name of Jesus, COME OUT!"  His were like that.

All of a sudden, the woman uncurled and she collapsed onto the floor.  She blinked her eyes as though waking up, and she asked Hagee HOW she got on the floor.  He told her he believed she had been delivered.  She asked, "What do I do know?"  Hagee told her to gather up those cards and everything she had in her house having to do with the occult.  He told her not to throw them away.  He said to BURN ALL OF IT and to never touch it again.

When her husband came home, she told him about what happened.  From that time on, the lady and her husband attended Hagee's church for the next ten years until he was transferred to another state.

Listen for yourselves at www.getv.org.  He talks about another teenager that was possessed.

Okay, that was the sermon.

I finished a new blouse, but I think I'll show it to you tomorrow and tell you about my play day with Phylly yesterday.  Somehow, playing with Phylly and sewing don't go well with today's sermon.

How is Jerry?

He had a pretty hard week.  Nearly passed out several times, but if he just lands on the floor or in a chair, he will recover after about an hour.  He tries to do too much, BUT too much has to be done.

We had to go back to his Mother's house and cut all the carpet and pad out from under the flooded closet.  The bottom of the closet has 4 huge drawers.  When they are pulled out, you can see the whole bottom of the closet.  Jerry had to crawl inside and so did I, but we finally got the job done.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

And so Margaret doesn't yell at me for making Jerry do all this work, I took a picture of my hand pulling out all the wet pad.  BELIEVE ME, if I could do it all myself -- and he would let me -- I would.  I found that I was able to slice the carpet away from the floor with a mere 200 slices!  We would still be there if Jerry hadn't done most of that part.

Gotta go.  We are going to Hideaway Pizza.

Lindy is working, and we need Lindy-hugs!

Jerry is feeling much better today and, OF COURSE, he wants to go back to our other house now.

We will load up the two cats and Jackie and head South in the morning.







Hugs, Joy

Jerry, Jackie and Water, Water EVERYWHERE!

Let's start with water.

We take care of Jerry's Mom's house in Kingfisher, OK.  It is a little over 1600 square feet, and we have had it on the market for over two years.  Jerry's Aunt lives in Kingfisher, and she drives by it nearly every day to make sure everything looks okay.  One thing Aunt Betty Jane CANNOT SEE, however, is if there is a broken pipe INSIDE the house between the brick on the outside and the sheetrock on the inside.  She also cannot see the water heat that is in a closet in the garage when water is spewing out the top of it -- the bottom of it -- and out of several cracks in the pipes behind it.

Actually, IF Jerry and I didn't have the habit of always turning the water off at the meter when we leave there, Aunt Betty Jane WOULD have noticed because there would have been a river pouring out underneath the doors.

We were just there for Bob's service, as you know.  We, of course, turned the water on.  The first time was a week ago when we went to put the chairs and the pictures up.  I asked Jerry to turn the water on so we could make ice in the ice maker in case anyone wanted a drink.  Jerry turned the water on.  I turned the ice make on.  We drove back home to our Edmond house an hour away.

THANK GOD, Aunt Betty Jane went into the house to show it to someone that was interested in maybe buying it, and she noticed water on the floor in one bathroom and water coming out of the closet onto the garage floor in the garage.  She called me.  Jerry directed her to take the funny black metal "key" and turn the water off at the meter.  Now Aunt Betty Jane is 87 years old.  I don't know if she did it, or the lady that I'M POSITIVE had lost all interest in the house turned off the water, but it got turned off.

The next day -- last Wednesday -- was Jerry's Chemotherapy treatment #5, so he sure couldn't go to Kingfisher.  Therefore, I was chosen to tend to the task.  I really didn't mind, but I am not crazy about getting up real early in the morning.

It's not so much the getting up -- it's more of the way I look: kind of like Albert Einstein hit by lightning and put into non-matching tee shirt and pants with funny looking fuzzy slippers and a cup of coffee glued to one hand and a box of Kleenex in the other.

My daughter has the same gene!  We joke about people who get out of bed in the morning, and they don't look any different than when they got into it the night before.





I arrived at 8:30.

Aunt Betty Jane was there and she had let the plumber in.  The plumber called me over to show me the many cracks in the pipe and described the water flowing out in a high fountain out of the top of the water heater.  Seven hours later, we had a new water heater that was now 18 inches off the floor with a new smoke stack that went up through the new hole in the roof to comply with current codes.

Pic on the left is what I found when I arrived.  You can see where the water sprayed all over the wall in the back and was going down through the floor drain.

I guess the water heater there had been there since the beginning of time.  The bill arrived via fax the next day for $1700.  How sad that Jerry's Mom is still incurring expenses from the grave!

This is after is was all done.  The green tag is from the City Inspector.  I requested he come out, and he did.  All passed fine.  You never know about these plumbers.  They may have been in business for 20 years or 20 minutes.


That was all done and I drove back home that afternoon to be with Jerry.  All was well.  I had turned the water off at the meter when I left Kingfisher JUST IN CASE.

That was Wednesday.  We went back there on Saturday for the service.  We got there early to guess what?
Yep.  Turn on the water!  We looked around to be sure water wasn't spouting out any of the faucets or appliances or under the sinks.  No problems.  12 people showed up.  12 people left dry.  AGAIN, we turned off the water at the meter when we left although I didn't think we should have to.

The next day was Sunday.  We had planned to go home to our KingSTON house (not to be confused with Mom's KingFISHER house).  Jerry decided that we needed to go back to Kingfisher and water Mom's very big lawn that had been sprayed with that green fertilizer just a few days earlier.  The weed sprayer guy had left a note saying we needed to water the lawn if it didn't rain.  Okay.  BACK we went to Kingfisher two days ago.

We got there.  I landed in the living room with a crochet project and my Ipad.  Jerry turned on the water.  There was one of the traveling tractors that always jumps the hose or gets stuck in the mud in both the front yard and the back yard.  Water was coming out of both of them just fine.  UNBEKNOWN to us, the water was also pouring into the closet in the front bedroom -- following the length of the closet under a wall and down the hallway where it flowed under another wall into the bathroom tile floor.  Jerry walked into the bathroom to see if the new doohicky he had put in the toilet tank was working, and he saw the floor covered with water.  NATURALLY, we assumed at first it was the toilet.  It wasn't.  I walked into the hall where my feet got wet from splashy carpet.

ANYWAY.  We used the shop vac and sucked for hours to get as much of the water out as we could.  I put every towel and blanket in the house down on the carpet and walked all over them to soak up water.  It was Sunday.  No plumbers on Sunday.  We turned the water off AGAIN, and we went home.

Yesterday -- Monday -- Jerry and I went back to Kingfisher again and met the plumber.  The zero degree weather had broken a pipe between the brick and the sheetrock.  It didn't take long at all to find it and fix it with a new pipe.








 Phylly thought to loan us her carpet cleaner, and we took it along.  I used it for a long time sucking up every last drop of water I could feel or see.  It worked very well.

We will go back tomorrow to see if the carpet has all dried yet.

I have ordered ANOTHER apple pie!  The owner, Ginger, of a little restaurant there in Kingfisher makes the pies herself.  This pie is the CLOSEST I have ever eaten to my Mom's amazing apple pie.  My Mom has forgotten how to make it now, so I may never know.  I took this picture yesterday.  YUM YUM, as Jeannie says!

And, I know you are DYING to see a picture of our baby, Jackie.  She is so adorable.  She stays by Jerry most of the time.  It is like she KNOWS something is wrong, and he isn't feeling good.  He has been really weak today, and his body is swollen from the drugs.  If you see Jerry asleep in the middle of the day, you better call 911 or already know why he is doing that.

If Jerry's feet weren't up on the lift, Jackie would be sleeping ON Jerry's feet.

Only one more Chemo treatment on April 9th.  We will be so glad.  I told Jerry I want him to grow a mustache to celebrate having his hair back.  I may change my mind on that, however.  I was married to him 20 years before he shaved off the one he had when I met him.  It was SO SCRATCHY when smooching.




And here is a picture I took a little while ago when Jackie came to be by me ONLY because I had a cookie in my hand.

I NEVER feed her our food from our hands or while we are eating.  I can't stand it when I go to someone's house and the dog is under the table begging for food.  Just me.  I know.  Jerry feels the same.  She got NONE of my cookie, but I did get a pic so you can see how BIG she is.

This baby is only five months old.





Look at this paw.
I lightened the pic so you can see it.  It is all very black, of course.






And here is her darling face.  Also lightened.  I keep her face shaved or you wouldn't even be able to see those eyes or the nose.  Her hair gets very long.  I have her body hair cut by 1/2.

WHAT A FLUFF!







Gotta go.

I need to finish fixing my Ally Oop dress.

Hugs, Joy

Farewell to Bob - Until We Meet Again

Yesterday was the day we chose to have the Graduation Ceremony (what my Mom always calls it when you die) for Jerry's brother, Bob.

It was a very small gathering -- just 12.

Jerry and I decided to have the small memorial service at his Mother's house which is still for sale in Kingfisher, OK.  We arranged some folding chairs furnished by Aunt Betty Jane around the scarce amount of furniture still remaining there.

We hung up the amazing pictures that Bob had drawn over the years on the living room wall.  I used straight pins to put them up.  When I removed them all yesterday, you couldn't even tell anything had been there.

Everyone was amazed at how talented Bob was.  Bob never talked about his artwork.  He never thought anything he did was good enough, although we tried to tell him it was really good.

I took a close-up of some of the pictures Bob drew.

I was using my cell phone, so pics aren't too good.














This frog is done with just pencil -- or charcoal -- or some kind of black marker.  It has his name clearly written on it:

Bob showed this one to me after he did it.  He called it "The Dead German".  I couldn't believe he did it with just a pencil, and I told him how good it was.  He didn't think it was good at all.  Maybe I should have drawn MY very best rendition of it, and he would have realized it takes TALENT to do this.

This next one is SOME man we don't know.  It is really good too.  I can't find Bob's name on it, but I'm sure he drew it as it was with all these others in his apartment.

This one was in color.  He signed it "Bb".

I suggested that Jerry take an over-bed table for a podium -- since we sell them at our store -- and it worked out perfectly.  I took a pic of our trial run before anyone was there.

Jerry was feeling so emotional -- mostly because of all the steroids and the chemo drugs.  He wasn't sure if he could even make his speech.  He asked me the day before if I would do it for him if he wasn't able to.  I told him I would, but I knew I couldn't do it justice.

One of the bad side-effects of the chemo is that Jerry's nose drips like a faucet constantly.  He took several pills to try to stop it, but they didn't work.  I had put a box of Kleenex on the table next to him, and it was a good thing.

Between the drugs and the sadness of the event, Jerry could barely speak a lot of the time.  I was so proud of him, I thought I would burst.  I'm sure my readers must get tired of hearing how amazing I think this man is, but I have to tell you:  After yesterday, I think he is even MORE amazing than ever!  I am so honored to be his wife.

Jerry talked about their childhood together.  Bob and Jerry were two years apart.  Don, the youngest brother, didn't come along until 8 years after Bob.  They grew up on a section of land, and they played together all the time riding horses, playing cowboys and Indians, racing horny toads, catching large turtles and putting boxes on their backs with army men in them and so many other things that boys do outdoors.

After Jerry's talk, we went out to the graveyard and spread Bob's ashes on top of his grave site, right next to his Mother's.  That is why you see gloves on some of our hands in this picture.  Aunt Betty Jane and her daughters, Janie and Mary Ann brought tulips.  I wish I had thought to bring flowers too.  They were beautiful.

There was the BEFORE Vietnam Bob and the AFTER Vietnam Bob.  Two different men indeed.  I think the real Bob was lost way back then with so much pain and suffering and some things so horrible that he couldn't even talk about them that woke him up over and over in the night torturing his mind.  I remember one night over 30 years ago when Jerry was trying to console Bob.  They were in the car in the driveway at 2:00 in the morning.  Bob was telling Jerry that he witnessed something so horrible in Vietnam, he could never tell anyone, and he could never get it out of his mind.  Jerry tried to pray with him and assure him that no matter what it was, God understood.  It was WAR!

Dear Bob, at last your troubled mind is at peace.  We will see you again one day, and you will have a whole new story to tell.

Hugs, Joy

Mad Bull and a Near Disaster

Another whirlwind day, but it was nice -- sort of -- most of it, at least.

Jerry and I decided to go to his Mom's house which is still for sale in Kingfisher, OK to set it up for the Memorial Service we are going to hold there for his brother who died last Monday.  We drove up to the driveway and noticed that a neighbor had decided to park his huge suburban with a camper on it in Mom's driveway.  Jerry and I had to park in the street and haul chairs and pictures and toolbox from there.  I was NOT happy.

I found a piece of notebook paper in a kitchen drawer -- a fat black marker -- and I wrote a note that said "MOVE YOUR TRUCK - PRIVATE RESIDENCE - DO NOT PARK HERE" and then I took the roll of bright blue painter's tape and I taped it with LOTS of blue tape to the driver-side window.

There is a particular neighbor that keeps doing this.

He is the SAME neighbor who brought a bull home one night.

I kid you NOT!

Two Summers ago, I spent five months at Mom's house getting it ready to sell.  I lived there off and on for weeks at a time.  The neighbor across the street owns some farmland somewhere around there, and I guess he raises cows on it.  His house is directly across the street from Mom's -- and the bedroom I slept in was at the front of Mom's house.

One night, I went to bed like always, and I had dozed off to sleep when I heard the STRANGEST noise.

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I thought, "WHAT ON EARTH is that?!  I never dreamt it could be a mad bull outside in the street.  Who would?  I thought maybe it was a bullFROG making a weird croaking noise outside my window.  It would finally stop, and I would start to fall asleep, and then it would happen again

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I was wide awake again and thinking that was the STRANGEST sounding frog I had ever heard.  I thought maybe it was a cat.  They make strange noises, right?  Or a dog?

It would stop for a little while again, and I would almost go to sleep, and then it happened again!  I was SO MAD!!!  I finally got OUT OF BED -- walked to the window -- opened the curtains and looked out.  I noticed a truck with a large trailer behind it parked in the street in front of Mom's house and a VERY MAD BULL was inside the trailer.

OF ALL THINGS!  I could NOT believe my eyes.  That **** bull mooed all night long!

The next morning the trailer and the mad bull were gone.  That night, I happened to be outside in the yard when the neighbor man got home.  He asked me how I was.  I let him know in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that I had not had ANY SLEEP, and I was NOT in a good mood after listening to his bull moo all night.

He said, "Well, you won't hear it anymore.  He was killed and turned into steaks today."

GOOD HEAVENS!  No wonder the bull was so mad!

Back to today.

Jerry and I left Mom's house and went to the City Cafe to eat and to reserve tables for Saturday for the family members coming to the Memorial Service for Bob.  The staff there knows me very well from when I was living at Mom's that Summer.  The owner came to our table and asked what kind of pies I would like her to bake for the occasion.  Isn't that sweet???

We then went out to the graveyard where Mom is buried to be sure we could find it on Saturday.  That is where we are going to spread Bob's ashes after the Memorial Service on Saturday.  We found the place quickly and returned to Mom's house.  The neighbor man appeared from somewhere and removed his vehicle.

Jerry and I prepared the living room for the service when I got the BRIGHT IDEA to have Jerry turn the water on at the meter so I could start the ice maker in the refrigerator.  We keep the water turned off when we aren't there because we live 200 miles away.  Real nice when the Realtor takes people inside and they HAVE to use the bathroom and the water is turned off.  You can imagine the surprises left behind.

We picked up our tools and cleaned up our messes.  We got in the car and started the 50-mile trek back home to our house.  We JUST arrived at our house when my cell phone rang.

Can you guess what the call was about????

It was Jerry's Aunt Betty Jane who lives just a few blocks away from Mom's house.  She had asked if she could show it to a friend of hers, and we told her she could.  They walked into the house to find water flowing over the bathroom floor and out from under the walls in the garage.  THANK GOD Aunt Betty Jane went by there.  It would have been a TOTAL disaster area by the time we got back there on Saturday.

Tomorrow morning, Jerry and I will both get up early.  I will head BACK to Kingfisher and Jerry will go to the hospital for Chemo treatment #5.  The plumber is going to meet me at Mom's house at 8 AM.  He found several broken pipes behind the water heater.  Lovely.

Bedtime.

Hugs, Joy

Our Daily Bread and Play Day w/Phylly

The sermon from Pastor Hagee was a continuation of the Lord's Prayer.  "Give us this day our daily bread" was the subject.

It was a fun sermon as he talked about his children when they were young.  I always love it when a preacher does that because it makes them seem more "like us" -- I guess - and you realize that they are just husbands and daddys away from the pulpit.  "Daily bread" really refers to ALL of our needs on a day-to-day basis that we require from God -- not just food.

He described how God provided Manna from heaven for the Israelites when they left Egypt BUT -- unlike our Government -- each person had to go out DAILY and work to pick the Manna off the ground.  God didn't give them enough Manna to last for a week or a month or a year so they never had to get off their lazy behinds to work.  He gave them enough for ONE DAY.  That is EXCEPT for Friday.  On Friday, He gave them enough for two days so they could worship on the Sabbath.

Hagee said that we must BE SPECIFIC about what we want from God.  He said that some of our prayers are so vague, even God can't figure out what we are asking for.  I read a book years ago by Paul Yongi Cho of China.  He needed a bicycle.  As I recall, he had prayed and prayed for some kind of transportation, but never got it.  One day, he somehow realized that he needed to tell God EXACTLY what he wanted.  He prayed for a certain kind of bicycle with certain features and a certain color.  I don't remember how long it was, but he received the EXACT kind of bike he had described to God.

Hagee told a funny and sweet story about his 5-year old daughter wanting a male Pomeranian puppy that could live in the house.  Hagee was raised where dogs lived OUTside, and if they were hungry, they went to find their own food.  One day they were driving home from church and his daughter, Sandy, asked him if he believed what he preached.  He had just prayed on asking God for specifically what you want.  He said he did.  Then she told him she wanted a dog that could live in the house.  Hagee said NO, NO, NO -- NEVER!  Dogs belong outside.

Sometime later, they were at a pet shop where Pomeranian puppies were for sale for $500 each.  Sandy asked if she could have one?  NO, NO, NO!  Then she asked her Daddy this:

IF somebody GIVES me a male Pomeranian puppy, can I have it?

Hagee, assuming that was totally IMpossible and would never happen said, "Yes, if someone gives you one, you can keep it."

Hagee said he went into the kitchen one morning and Sandy had several pictures lined up on the table that she had drawn and colored.  One was of her and the dog walking, another of her and the dog playing, another of her and the dog doing something else -- there were about 5 pictures, and the dog was COLORED a certain color.  She told her Daddy that those were pictures of HER dog.  He thought the dog would always stay in the pictures and never be real, of course.

I think it was the next day that Mrs. Hagee called Pastor Hagee at work and informed him that a neighbor had called and told her that he would like to GIVE Sandy a male Pomeranian puppy.

He said he went into hysterics and accused her of setting him up.  He assumed she and Sandy knew about the neighbor and the puppy all along and just acted like they were asking God for the puppy.  He said that after MUCH loud discussion over the matter, they went over to the neighbor's to pick up the puppy.

He said when they got that puppy home, he compared the puppy to the pictures, and the puppy was the EXACT color that Sandy had colored it in her pictures.

He also said that the dog was a super-genius (like my Jackie), and they all loved her dearly -- IN THE HOUSE -- for 12 years.

Soooooooo!  Let's tell God EXACTLY what we want.  Jerry and I asked that Leanida's house sell for the current asking price (twice reduced) THIS WEEK.  (Jerry's deceased mother's house that has been on the market for over two years.)  www.getv.org if you would like to hear a really good sermon.

Yesterday, was Saturday, and Phylly arrived at 8:30 in the morning.  The time went by SO FAST as it always does.  We blend together so well.  We played "sewing and fitting" for a few hours.  Then we decided to go to Panera Bread for lunch so we could buy some Cinnamon/Raisin bread to bring home with us.  Then we went to Hancock's to see if the clerk really had made a mistake the day before when she charged me only $1/yard for stretch Poplin instead of $9.99 as marked on the bolt.  SURE 'NUF!  The fabric really was $1/yard and Phylly and I bought all they had.  We got red and light blue and navy.  We use it to make muslins of new patterns so we can tweak the fit.

THEN -- while at Hancock's -- I actually REMEMBERED something I wanted to do.  I wanted to crochet a scarf because the other day when I crocheted the necklace, I kind of got "in the mood" to crochet again.  I did it a thousand years ago when my first grandchild was born, but lost interest in it.  Phylly had to guide me like a seeing eye dog to the yard and the needles.  She is a big-time knitter, you know, as is my daughter, Tammy.  I figured crochet would be easier for me since I had done it before.

ANDDDDDDDDDDDDD, Look what I almost made last night:

It is the beginning of a scarf.  Of course, it will soon be Summer, and I won't be needing a scarf, but what else can one make as a BEGINNER crochet project?  Maybe a potholder or wash cloth.  Hmmmmm.

And did you see what Phylly FOUND for me at Hancock's?

I had no idea WHAT size to buy, of course, so Phylly pointed out this package with six sizes all together.  Then I remembered someone mentioning a Size 8 needle, so I bought one of those.

Gives me something to do at night while sitting in front of the TV.  I can NOT sit still unless something is in my hands.  If I don't have something to do, I fidget and wiggle and turn.  I pop the foot rest in the recliner up and down and up and down.  I get out of my chair every five minutes to do something that doesn't really need to be done such as:  get a blanket -- remove the blanket -- turn the blanket around --turn a light on or off -- pull down a cobweb from the ceiling -- pick up a piece of fuzz on the carpet -- get a drink or make some popcorn -- pet Jackie and tell her how adorable she is.  I don't know how Jerry stands it.  He is the TOTAL OPPOSITE.  Once he lands, he never moves.  Most of the time, I think he is asleep, and I will get OUT of my chair, walk over to the couch, and get near his face to see if he is awake.  INSANE!

Gotta go!  I am going to make my "Alley Oop" dress today.  I had some very strange fitting issues with the Victory pattern, but I think I have conquered the beast.  We shall see.

Have a BLESSED Sunday, my friends, and a very happy week!

I'll be back soon with my Alley Oop dress.








Hugs, Joy

A Date with Alley Oop

Hey Everyone!!!  Isn't the weather just MARVELOUS.

Except for yours, Rhonda.  So sorry about that.  It is 71 here today, and I HAD to get out, and WHILE I was out I figured I might as well go to Hancock Fabrics.

I had NO INTENTION of buying any fabric.  Well, that's not true.  I was going to buy some fleece to make a sweatshirt dress out of.  I bought this pattern on line the other day, and I want to make it QUICK before it
it is 108 degrees outside.

This is "Lola" by Victory Patterns.  You have to go on line to get the PDF file.  Then you print out 31 pages and then slice them all up and tape them together.  Don't have me committed, but I actually LIKE doing that sort of thing.

Here is a line drawing of the sweatshirt dress. 

Notice the princess seam lines and the empire waist and the POCKETS!!!  Way too cute.

Of course, I may not feel that way when I get it done. 

 I bought the fabric for it today. 

I'm a little afraid I may look like I'm ready to go on a date with Old Man Alley Oop.  That's my fabric -- pink and black animal-of-some-sort print.  And matching jewelry, of course!

Here's another picture of it:

It is a real light weight fleece.  Very soft.  I can't wait to make it.  PRAY it fits or I may be raffling it off to a skinnier version of myself.

After I found this bright pink fleece, I was walking over to the cutting table when this OTHER fabric just JUMPED into my cart.  I TRIED to stop it, but it would not take "NO!" for an answer.  It is a beautiful cotton sateen with a little stretch.  My new favorite kind of fabric.  

And -- I probably shouldn't admit this because it isn't really my fault that THIS fabric was right NEXT TO the Jungle Jane fleece.  I had to buy it too.  This is a linen look.  I will make a matching skirt and blouse from this.  Isn't it YUMMY?  Only problem with this type of fabric is it tends to fade a lot.  It is in the dryer now.  I pray it stays black and doesn't come out gray.  If it does, it may be going back to live out its life next to the Jungle Jane fleece.

Gotta go.  

Hugs, Joy

Pet Scan and the Dreaded Phone Call

Hard to title this one and not make it sound like the Pet Scan was bad.  Jerry went to OKC by himself Sunday night -- had the Pet Scan and the Heart Scan done Monday morning -- got the CD from the lab -- and drove all the way back here to Kingston Monday afternoon (yesterday).

Jerry arrived right at 5:00 when I decided to put Jackie on her leash and go outside the fence for a walk to see if we could walk together with her on a leash.  I was just getting the hang of how NOT to have the leash cord wrapped around my legs three times while Jackie tried to WALK ME sideways!  I was sure glad to see Jerry when I got to the driveway.  He grabbed his things from the truck and went right into his office.  I unwrapped myself from Jackie, put her in the back yard, and I went in his office where he already had the Scan CD loaded in his computer.

It takes at least five minutes for the CD to load to the point you can see anything.  As we were both sitting there waiting for pictures of white bones and black innards to show up on the screen, Jerry's phone rang.

Now, Jerry has this really ODD thing he does.  He never answers his phone until he picks it up -- holds the phone in front of his face -- stares at the number displayed at the top of the phone -- and tries to guess who is calling.  Most times, the phone quits ringing before he figures out who it is.

He did all of that and noticed an unfamiliar phone number on the screen and just sat the phone down.  I was there, of course, and I said, "PICK IT UP, JERRY!"  If you answer it, you will KNOW who it is!

He picked it up and there it was -- the dreaded phone call.  The one you KNOW is going to come someday, but you pray it won't be today.  It was Terri, the Manager of the apartments that Jerry's brother, Bob, has lived in for many years.  It is government housing that is really cheap.  You pay what you can afford, or something like that.

Terri told Jerry that mail had been stacking up outside Bob's apartment door for days, and he had not come to the office to pay his rent.  She decided to have someone open his door and check on him.  Whoever did that found Bob lying on his couch where he, according to Police, had been for at least a week, deceased.

As I said, we knew this could happen at any time as Bob had battled the bottle and cigarettes for as long as I've been married to his brother, at least.  He was wounded in Vietnam -- his wife left him -- his son was adopted by the wife's next husband, and Bob just could not seem to overcome all of that sadness and tragedy.  I have often said that if I had seen what Bob had seen in Vietnam, I probably would have been an alcoholic too.  He experienced the worst nightmares there.

The saddest thing is that Bob was an EXTREMELY talented person.  If we find any of his drawings, I will show them to you.  He could fly planes.  He used to work on planes.  He took Jerry up in a plane one time and did all kinds of maneuvers with it.  Jerry thought Bob was amazing, and he loved him dearly.  They were only a year or two apart and were very close growing up.  He had the MOST beautiful handwriting I have ever seen.  Hopefully, I can find a sample of that too.

If you ever told Bob that his work was amazing or his handwriting was awesome, he would growl and say, "It is CRAP!"  None of his work was ever good enough in his opinion.  So sad.  I could not BEGIN to draw a branch from one tree in his picture, never mind draw a picture WITH a pencil OF a pencil that was so realistic, it looked like you could reach down and lift the pencil off of the paper.

Anyway, Bob had gone on.  Jerry witnessed to him a thousand times, and the last time he talked to Bob he asked Bob about the scriptures and the "Sinner's Prayer" that we had enclosed in a get well card to him.  Bob said, "I have taken care of that."  We hope and pray and believe that he did pray that prayer, and that is why God allowed him to leave this world and be free of the misery that tormented his soul.  We hope to see him again one day on the other side.

We have to get back to OKC to make plans for Bob's memorial.  Jerry and Don, the only two relatives, will go through the apartment and look for any important papers on Wednesday.

OH!

The Pet Scan.  Jerry and I finally looked at it.  All we know FOR SURE is that the tumors that were on his spine are ALL GONE!  We haven't talked to the doctor to hear his conclusion of the scans, and we don't really know how to read them, but we know what WAS there before IS NOT there now!!!  Praise God forevermore!!!

Hugs, Joy

Sunday and Sunshine

The sermon was good, as always, but it sure is terrifying to think about all that is coming faster and faster at us due to the lack of any government responsibility or common sense in our nation.  I don't see how we can survive another two years of O's insane policies!  Yep, you are right.  I AM a conservative of the worst kind -- the "Christian" kind.  I long for One Nation Under God again like back in the "olden days" when I was a child and the worst catastrophe in the classroom was some kid chewing gum.

I am worn out!  I have been trying all day long to redo the header of my blog so it has a picture of Jackie (my puppy) in it.  Blogger does NOT make it easy to make a header to start with.  It took me forever to make the first one.  I may work on it some more tomorrow if I get in the mood.

Other than that,
Jerry has gone to Oklahoma City all by himself for the Pet Scan and Heart Scan he has to have tomorrow.  I wanted to go with him, but he said he didn't want to haul our entire "zoo" up there, and he is going to come back home tomorrow afternoon.  Now, that MAY or MAY NOT happen, but either way, I am home alone with the puppy who is now giant-size, and the two cats, one of them being a pure PITA since Jackie came to live with us.

You saw the cut on my wrist Barney gave me didn't you?

It looked a lot worse when he first gouged me.

Jackie has been here for a whole week now.  You think Barney would GET OVER IT!

Bootsy, the other cat, is fine.  He doesn't throw his legs around Jackie's neck and purr or anything, but he doesn't snarl and make ugly faces either.

He just looks at her and walks sideways.





Jerry had a pretty hard week, but he is improving now.  Something in the array of drugs makes his jaws and his stomach hurt.  Something else makes his whole body swell a lot.  He couldn't get his shoes on at one point.  He had to wear his flip-flops for days.


I did make some more jewelry.  I found a you tube video showing 12 in 1 chain mail, so I decided to try it.

I'm not sure my jump rings were the exact right size, but I used what I had.

I figured out yesterday morning that I had lost all of my Itunes on this computer when it crashed and Jerry had to reload the operating system.  I knew I could download them all again, so I spent some time doing that.  BUT THEN, I discovered that one of my two really cheap "free" speakers wasn't working.  I walked around to where the mass of tangled wires are behind this desk, and I found the wires going into the speakers.  And because this is the only thing I know how to do to fix speakers, I WIGGLED the wires.  Sure enough!  When I wiggled one way, the speaker worked.  When I wiggled the other way, it didn't.

I decided I would just toss them and order a new set, and as I was fixing lunch, I informed my husband of the whole issue.  He informed me that I WAS NOT going to order new speakers.  He was going to FIX THE BROKEN ONES.

To make a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery loooooooooooooooooong story short, he spent about 4 hours working on the broken speakers.  Then we waited all night for the fancy glue/epoxy stuff to dry that he had driven 16 miles to get at the hardware store along with a soldering gun.  He came up this morning to connect the FIXED speakers, and guess what???????????????  They were still broken!

I got my laptop out while waiting for church to start, and I found a pair of speakers for $15 at Amazon.  I told Jerry I would just order them.

OHHHHHHHH, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I better let HIM look at those before I buy them.  I kid you not.  Jerry spent the next TWO HOURS looking at speakers -- all the reviews on them -- the specifications and whatever else he could find.  He came to me at one point and asked if I could MOVE A SEWING MACHINE to put a subwoofer on my table.  WHAT!?  You have GOT to be kidding, says me!  All I need is two little speakers!

But Joy!  These are only $200 and they have 500 Watts of something or other and the sound would be really great.  And NOT ONLY THAT, there is an EXTRA little box that you put by your mouse so you don't have to reach ALL THE WAY TO THE SPEAKER to turn the sound up and down.

Are you believing this?????????????????

Finally, he agreed to get me a set that was about $40, I think.  I'm sure they will sound super terrific compared to the broken ones I've been using for a very long time.  And the sewing machine is staying where it is!

Gotta get.  Jackie is outside.  The last time I checked on her she had a gardening tool in her mouth.  You know the one that has the 3 rounded hooks at the end of it?  She had one of the hooks in her mouth and was swinging the thing around.

Yesterday, she dug a bunch of dirt out of one of our flower pots.  Jerry wasn't too happy about that.  I told Jerry she was just trying to help us by getting the dead plant out of it, but he didn't buy that at all.

She seems to have a real knack for gardening, lol!

Hugs, Joy

Tip of the Day: Make SURE It's DEAD!

You know how I like to learn new things.  Well, I'm not that happy about what I learned today.

I went downstairs to hand Jerry my cell phone because he had a call on it.  When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I noticed 3 black spots and one long straw colored thing on the gray-blue carpet.

Our house has a secret hole in it somewhere that wasps can fly into -- find a nice place to live in the attic or the air vents -- and come out of hiding later only to croak on our living room carpet.  There were only 2 today, and they were in pieces.

Now, one would ASSUME that if a wasp is in pieces, he MUST be dead, right????

Wrong!!!!

I suppose I should admit that to see what things REALLY are, I must reinforce my vision with a pair of reading glasses on top of my contacts, and I had not done that.

One other time -- years ago -- I did the same thing.  I noticed what LOOKED LIKE a coiled up necklace chain on the floor.  I reached down with my bare hand and picked it up at which point it began to move in my hand.  I thought that was ODD, so I looked closer to what was in my hand and it was a VERY ALIVE SCORPION!  I dropped that sucker like a hot potato!

Back to today.  I handed the phone to Jerry.  I then pulled a Kleenex out of one of the ten thousand boxes I keep all over my house, and I picked up the wasp pieces and the straw colored stick.  I was walking to the trash can when I felt a HOT PRICK through the Kleenex INTO my finger!

Let me tell you!  That sucker may not have been dead then, but he is VERY DEAD NOW!!!  He had yellow stripes, so he may have been a giant bee.

Other than the wasp/bee sting, my day was quite nice.  I worked at the store for several hours, and it was nice to talk to Candi.  She seemed to feel so much better today.  She is suffering from severe back pain, and I feel so sorry for her.  It has persisted for a very long time.  Hopefully, she will have surgery in the next few months and be able to enjoy life again.  She is way too nice a person to suffer so.

OH!  I wore my new necklace and matching earrings.  Nobody was the least bit impressed except for Pat.  She always notices what I make, whether it be a quilt or a blouse or a piece of jewelry.

For my seamstress friends,
notice all the wrinkles above my bust in that RTW (Ready To Wear) blouse.

That is how you KNOW you need a bust dart or a Full Bust Adjustment that does NOT come in RTW.  You won't see all those wrinkles wrestling each other above my chest in the tops I make.

I've got to go get Jackie.  She thinks when she goes outside to go potty that she should jump in every mud puddle, nibble on every stick and smell the entire length of the fence we put up for her.  By the time I call her in, she is dripping wet!  It's a good thing she is SO DARN CUTE!!!

I have a video of Jackie, but I can't figure out how to upload it to You Tube now.  I lost my Real Player when my computer crashed, and now I have Real Player Cloud.  My videos can't go to You Tube now.  They are in a cloud somewhere, and I have NO IDEA how to show them to you.  I'll figure something out later.

Hugs, Joy