how things are....

 So yesterday, Kathryn was going to Walmart for diapers. With three small children, aged three and under, it's doable, but take Grandma and it's a little easier.  Camille opted to go along, too.  We went out to the garden area, and bought some flowers. I got tortilla chips and bananas, detergent and dishwashing liquid, just in case you were wondering.  :)

We did spend some time in the pool, Miss Cam and I, then Charlotte when she got off the bus.  Sonja was at a study session for her NCLEX exam.  Activity club was playground, decorating parasols and bucket hats, then a big bonfire with marshmallows and hotdogs with all the groups together.  

I don't have much more to say than I'm leaving in ten minutes to drop Sonja off at a study session, then wasting/spending an hour or so somewhere, until it's time for my dentist appointment, then I'll pick Sonja up again.  I won't gross you out as you drink your afternoon coffee, but the abscess broke last night, I'll spare you the details.  I will say that it doesn't hurt nearly as bad anymore, and shh, if I hadn't called yesterday when my whole face ached, I probably would've procrastinated more.  

My goal here today is to let thankfulness rule.  Here's how it works:  I am thankful for modern medical care, for dentistry, for pain relief.  (In old times, they did try:  years ago at the Smithsonian in Washington, there was a skull with a hold drilled in it, they were trying to figure out headache relief...). Anyway, today I will be thankful.  

Drama Queen-ism isn't easy, you know.  I think it's also known as Medical Anxiety.  I do not like medications, or procedures of any kind.  Back in the baby days, I'd realize that when I was pregnant again, I'd have to go to the dr. again...and again and again and again....

Okay, now I'm home, it's evening...I dropped Miss Sonja off for her study session, then had almost two hours before my appointment.  The thrift store:  one little pair of 2t OshKosh overalls, one cute lift-the-flap book, a pair of sandals with the tags.  Then to Marshalls: one little outfit for a grandchild, another little outfit for a different grandchild, and a bag of monk fruit brown sugar. 

$5.50, isn't it sweet?  
 

The appointment:  the X-ray of the crowned tooth doesn't show exactly how much damage is done to the roots...so I have two choices:  go to a specialist for a root canal then back to the dentist for a new crown, with the possibility the tooth cannot be saved, and end up getting it pulled anyway, or just have it pulled and get a bridge/fake tooth.  The dentist thinks that if I take the antibiotic and it continues to clear up, there is no hurry to decide.  It does feel better than it did the other day, but still not so great.  So, now I get to procrastinate some more...I do think I'm leaning toward just getting it pulled.  

The sign in the dentist office...:). New York law, establishments have to post this or the pistol isn't allowed.

Sonja and I took a little jaunt into Aldi, for chicken, ground beef, shredded cheese, and salsa.  Then...home.  We made dinner right away, taco salad.  

This "cart load" of groceries:  $97.  Ninety-seven dollars.  One package of chicken for ten something, the 5 lb. tube of beef for $9.95, cherries, asparagus, one 12-pack of seltzer...how on earth?

This post reads like a third grade writing assignment.  I don't know, life is busy, and good, and the weather is fantastic.  Two more days of sunshine, then some rain.  I'm enjoying it....early mornings watering the garden and turning on the pool filter in bare feet, drinking coffee on the deck...bare feet.  

Ah well.  No plans for tomorrow yet, a gloriously blank calendar...what will happen?

never a dull moment...

 It started as an ache, turned into a throb, but it didn't ruin my day:  a tooth that was crowned a long time ago, a crowned tooth that has given me trouble time and again through the years, but I've ignored, because it usually works, and it's what I do best.  (years ago, the orthopedic dr. looked at the X-rays of my knees, filled with arthritis, and asked, AREN'T YOU IN PAIN?!   Well, yes, I replied, but I've given birth to X amount of children, and I'm fat, pain is part of life!).  But this pain that woke me up yesterday...um, no ignoring it.  I finally took three ibuprofen, and had some relief.  Hmm, I thought, I might not have to call the dentist....but, this morning I woke up and made the phone call.  Lucky me, I can go in tomorrow.  I am a drama queen, I know it, but having that crown put on was worse than the worse childbirth pain I ever had.  He kept putting it back on, having me bite down, and if it wasn't quite right, he'd yank it off and file it down again.  This was when I was pregnant for Camille, but thought I had miscarried her, so may as well have the tooth taken care of...the entire experience was awful.  Not knowing I was still pregnant, still being exhausted and nauseous and overall yucky, I thought I was just mourning the pregnancy loss.  Anyway, ssshhh, here's the It's My Fault part:  it was awful when he yanked it off and filed it again, so the last time he had me bite down, it still wasn't right, but I insisted it was fine.  I wanted it DONE.  I was tipped back so far in the chair, thought I was going to be sick, it didn't so much hurt as it was just so uncomfortable and the grinding sound and the yanking...ugh.  So I said it was fine, and it's never been fine.  I've ignored it for 16 years.  I'd get a little abscess here and there, they'd go away, and I'd be FINE.  So I'm not sure what'll happen tomorrow.  Will I need a root canal?  Will it magically clear up with the antibiotics he called in, and I won't need anything done?  What?  I can hope.  

Yesterday was a wonderful day, despite the ache in my face.  Sonja and I took a quick trip to Walmart for ice, snow cone syrup, and drinks.  We stopped for iced Americanos, and headed home, with coffees for Margaret and Kathryn, who came bustling in the door right after we arrived, with Rhys and little Jamison. Their husbands had taken the boys fishing with Paul.  Evelyn came over too, then Sam (Grace is visiting her parents in West Virginia with Grant and Ruth). 

I had put ribs and wings in the smoker in the morning, and those wings were done! I took them out, put them on the grill, slathered them with barbecue sauce, and oh dear they were good!  We ate some on the pool deck.  The boys came back, then Emily and Mariel, then Molly and Josh and Ophelia (Lydia was with her dad).   Paul grilled steaks, hamburgers, coneys (the NY white spicy hot dogs), we had watermelon, two different macaroni and cheese (Evelyn's with spicy gouda, and Kathryn's), salt potatoes, chocolate chip cookies (Mariel!), cupcakes...

I wish I took pictures better.  9 of the 11 girls were here (all but Abigail and Suzanne).  Sam was the only of the boys here.  

Achilles

Tennyson

That's Miss Cam floating, kept the leg dry, she's nimble at getting in, and the little ones didn't splash her.

Kathryn with her kids...Rhys, baby Jamie, and Achilles

We roasted marshmallows and had s'mores...Tennyson.

See what I mean about the pictures?  rather random...Paul, Emily, Molly Rose, Darius with his baby Jamison.

Adrian and Sam, then Evelyn, Char, Cam

Ophelia loved the snow cone.  It's like ice cream, she said. 

Kitchen snap:  Mariel in the plaid, Sonja in the back, then Evelyn, Kathryn, and Char with baby Jamie.

Snow cone machine!  And, Adrian, Sam, ect.

We sat by the fire in the evening, what a beautiful night, clear skies, clear half mooned brightness.  The house was a mess when everyone left, but the girls here helped and we got it mostly cleaned.  The floors need vacuuming and mopping, sweeping.  There are towels to wash, and flowers to water, and the pool needs to be turned on and skimmed.  The new grill needs to be cleaned, and the smoker needs to be cleaned out.  (Did I mention how absolutely yummy those ribs were?  Smoked for four hours, then slathered in bbq sauce, wrapped in foil, and smoked a few more hours...mmmm)

Well, my coffee is gone and my conscience is niggling, there are things to do.  I should go pick up that antibiotic, too.  I like my comfy chair, but the sun is shining...but also, my face is aching, the tooth is killing.  wah, poor me, ha.  

This afternoon, Sonja is going in for a study session, and I might drive her and drop her off, and go visit Robert's grave...it's been a while.  I was going to pick up some little t-shirts from the craft store, too, for Activity club tonight...ah well...have a really good day!

everything...everything?

 You can't believe anything these days.  Old Navy:  50% off EVERYTHING.  *restrictions apply.  Wait, what does everything mean?  But I guess we're the same by nature, because it's written:

So that means everything...of course I'm thankful for my new grill, and for the sunshine, and when I get a good night's sleep.  It's something to think about when the dog barfs all over the floor and someone left clothes in the washer and I can't find my other sandal.  

Yesterday after the pool (which was fantastic...once I fought the mind over matter battle and actually got out the door.  It's fun, because we play catch with a big beach ball to warm up, and there's a lot of laughing, old people think the the silliest things are funny, and it really feels good to laugh so much, especially at ourselves when we lunge for that ball and miss, or get splashed in the face.). Kathryn arrived to pick me up, she needed something from Target.  I actually got a pair of shorts and a tank top, and a sleeveless dress.  Mr. Jamison wanted to be held and carried, so I took a turn doing that, poor me ha.  We decided to make a quick run into Aldi too, because I had to make Rice Krispie treats for today, and Aldi brand is much cheaper than Target.  We also got this and that, you know how Aldi is.  

Rhys!  (I try to keep a well stocked purse, they ate all the mini M&M's already in Target)

Frenimies?  Mama Kitty, and Orange Guy, her son.  They'll growl and swipe at each other sometimes, he's bossy, and she isn't having it.  But they'll also sleep peacefully for a nap.

Ah well, Emily is picking me up in a few minutes, we're going to make 72 pieces of barbecued chicken, some burgers, and help with all sorts of other food prep, the older ones are putting on a cook out for the younger ones.  Off I go....out the door...

all's well that end's well...

 

First of all, can we ogle this forecast?  Admire it a bit?  

Here's the new grill, same as the old grill...(The Who?)...but, it's new and shiny, and I'll always clean it after use and keep it spotless...(here's the new promise, same as the old promise...)

My view while grilling steaks last night...Paul and Sunny.  (We still have meat left from the partial cow we bought last year, and it's still really good)

We stayed the longest at day-surgery, and it was almost spooky-creepy.  

Little Miss did well, she's a champ now.  She looks so little and vulnerable and sweet, but that's because she IS.  The good news is that there was no sign of infection, just a big huge knot of fluid, a bursa, because of irritation from the screw.  Hopefully it won't happen again, because this isn't fun.  It isn't free either.  :)

I didn't have to leave the hospital this time, and no one was wearing a mask, so we could see each other's faces.  It made it a better experience.  I brought "Love Comes Softly", a Janette Oke book, that I picked up at the thrift store the other day....a mindless book to read in the waiting room, from cover to cover with time to spare.  (it's actually a sweet book, his life is such an example...)

(It was better than the television in the waiting room, with some city police drama, I mean, call me an  ultra conservative pearl clutcher, but oh my goodness:  one show was about a pair of guys who targeted women and took turns...never mind.  The phrases, details...ugh.  Yes, these things happen, and it's horrifying, but there are other people sitting there in that waiting room, and this garbage is on...I was glad for my book and my years of practice in tuning out noise, ha, I'm a pro.

Anyways, she had to stay until almost closing time to get IV antibiotics, so it was a long day.  She got the anti nausea patch again though, so the drive home was better.  

This fine morning, I'm headed to the pool, then to pick up her prescriptions, then home...then to Aldi for Rice Krispies and marshmallows to make treats for tomorrow's barbecue, and some buns and sides for Monday.   

As usual, I sat here too long, so it's hurry hurry hurry now!

heading to the hospital...

 ...on a nice sunny day.  This procedure should be relatively quick:  Miss Cam needs a new screw, a bigger one, to hold that graft in, and then the fluid will be drained, hopefully it's not infected.  There's still the effects of anesthesia to deal with,  and a fresh new bandaged wound to keep out of the swimming pool.  

Yesterday after water aerobics (ahh, it was SO nice to get back to the pool!), Costco with Kathryn.  Shh, yes, this time those chocolate covered almonds ended up in my cart.   I know, if I were reading a book and the overweight character put them in the cart, I would be like NO, DON'T DO IT!  WE KNOW THIS WON'T END WELL!

Kathryn came over afterwards with the kids, it was a chilly dark afternoon, perfect for coffee, visiting, and baby rocking.  I bought two roasted chickens, a big bag of yellow potatoes, and some fresh green beans, and also made some stuffing and opened cranberry sauce for dinner.  Sam and Grace came over with Grant and Ruth, and Darius joined us for dinner.  

Camille made a chocolate cake with brown sugar buttercream meringue frosting.  (four and a half sticks of butter in that frosting!)

She brought it to a girls' gathering, they all said it was really good, but um, how could it NOT be, with all that butter?  She didn't use all the frosting though, there's some left.  

Not too long ago, not too far away, in Washington D.C., three small children celebrated a parade.

Two lazy doggies.

One Princess Ruth

One handsome Grant

One bad puppy with her Kamala Harris dog toy (courtesy of Evelyn, and yes there's a Joe Biden one too)

And, 13 years ago today, Camille broke her leg on the trampoline...she was only two and a half, talk about a princess, she was certainly sweet, still is.

I'm reading a book that Charlotte Claire read, she's hurrying me along so we can discuss it.  It's the prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy.   I'm not so sure I'd be so gungho to read it, but she's excited to talk about it, so it's worth it.  Then of course we can go see the movie when it comes out...

Anyway, got to run, sat here for way too long...imagine that, ha...

well, here we go again, again!

 Camille has to have another surgery.  It's a small one, but is any surgery in a hospital, under anesthesia, really very small?   The big lump on her knee:  the doctor said there was good news, and "okay" news.  The good:  the graft is intact.  The "okay":  the big lump is fluid, a possible infection, and the cause:  the screws holding the graft in place, one is sticking out too much.  I don't know if it loosened up, or just because it's a screw in there it maybe caused irritation/inflamation/possible infection, I don't know.  Before these procedures, we are warned these are possibilities.  The dr. has been very gracious and kind, but here we go again.  Thursday, we're going to the hospital again.  It's "stat" because of the possibility of infection, which they don't think is very likely because she doesn't have any fever, or redness or unusual warmth, just a big lump.  So it might just be fluid.  

She seems okay about it, I am concerned, but battling not to get upset.  

In other news, all these millions of pieces jangling around in that big box turned into a new grill!

Sunny....all nosey about the neighbors.  

Cam and I stopped at Walmart on the way home, but the grill covers were gone, and they had nail primer.  We did get a watermelon for Monday, and a bag of salt potatoes, and a gallon of milk.   We got a pizza dough, a bag of mozzarella cheese, and some pepperoni, so the girls made a pizza for their dinner.  I made taco meat for Paul and me...

Tomorrow morning, pool, for the first time in a week!   (Friday was cancelled, Monday I had to bring Cam in to the dr., so yay, tomorrow finally.)  Then Kathryn and I are going to Costco so I can get things for the barbecue, as I'll now be busy on Thursday, and probably not wanting to leave Cam on Friday.  Ah, life is interesting.  Then Grace is coming over with Grant and Ruth.  :). 

Bedtime now for me...

wait, summer is too hot!

 Camille and I decided to get our swimsuits on and go back and enjoy the pool deck.  It didn't take long to remember that summer is too hot.  :). Winter is too cold, spring is just right, but it needs to be hot to warm up the pool, and for us to enjoy the pool.  

It's almost clean, really getting there.  Now it just needs to warm up, brrr.

Ah, the morning sun dappled through the trees...it IS lovely, all barefoot and all.

Anyway, Camille and I lasted about an hour, I cried uncle first.  She sat on the edge of the pool and froze her feet, I stood on the top step of the ladder and froze mine, while we got too hot and sweaty.  It is absolutely gorgeous out there, our backyard might not be a landscaped dream yard, but it IS beautiful, and very private.  

I did putter around this morning, after driving Sonja to work.   I did laundry, had to wash the clothes I bought yesterday from the thrift store.  (The bathing suit is a Maxine of Hollywood, and for $3.50!), I vacuumed the kitchen, living room, and stairs.  I swept the back patio, and pulled weeds. I swept the pool deck steps, and the front porch and sidewalk.  I washed some dishes, wiped counters, and trimmed the lovely flowers that Sonja got for graduation.  I threw away most of my Mother's Day flowers, but a few were still lively.  

Now I'm sitting in the comfortably cool house in my comfortable chair, but now for long.  Camille and I are leaving for her ortho appointment.  She had the MRI done yesterday.  Will the giant lump be fluid that has to be drained in the OR?  Will it be scar tissue?  The dr. mentioned hoping the graft didn't fail.  I hoped I heard him wrong, but Cam heard it too.  Another surgery sounds bleak, not to mention expensive.   But we'll see what he says, poor Camille. She's all ready to be healed up and enjoy summer.  She already has a plane ticket to go to Norway with her sisters for a summer church camp.  And it's not as if the airlines will say, Oh honey, you have a boo-boo on your leg, of course we'll refund you money...

I forgot to post the pics of our Saturday thrift store trip with Emily...

Emily (the oldest), Camille (the youngest), Sonja K. (#13), and Charlotte Claire (#16, counting baby Robert...)

This weekend, we're having a mission feast at our church, and the older ones (over 35) are making/grilling/smoking/preparing a cookout meal for the younger ones.  Emily and I are doing barbecued chicken, and I'm making a dessert.  I was thinking a white sheet cake with whipped cream and berries, but then you have to have plates, utensils, and serve it.  Cupcakes are so simple.  Not sure yet what I'll do, but it'll be fun.

Then on Monday, some of the family will be over to swim and grill, and maybe we'll go to the parade in town.  It's at three in the afternoon though, wish it was in the morning.  (the heat of the day!)

Camille and I are planning to stop at Walmart on the way home today, for a grill cover, a new grill brush, and some nail primer for her, and a gallon of milk.  We wouldn't last long on the prairie, back in Laura Ingall's time, would we?  I marveled at how they fit everything they owned into one wagon.  

Ah well...time to get moving...:)

a dull one? um, no!

 

Cousins: Tennyson and Ruth

Cousins: Grant and Wulf

Aunt Sonja with Tennyson

Wulf with his mama, Margaret....and there were many more pictures, but not all the best photos, and when the girls grow up and care about such things...well, I don't post them.  I won't post the one I took of Camille this afternoon, for instance, with vitamin E capsules taped to her knee...what on earth?, you might ask....well:  Cam has a big lump on the side of her knee, her "surgery knee", as we now refer to the left knee.  The physical therapist had never seen anything it, so we called the surgeon's office, and she was fit in at eight this morning, which isn't even Aldi o'clock.  Cam was so happy, it was the first time we didn't stop there after her appointment, because it's literally across the street and down the block, but alas, it wasn't open yet.

Anyway.  The dr. decided some imaging was necessary, so the office would call us about an MRI. Off we went to pick up a new gas grill at Target, and bear with me on my grill rant/tangent.  They only last a few years, but maybe it's because we use them so much.  I did my homework, and unless you go really expensive, they're not going to really be much better.  So, a two hundred dollar grill...it was $240, on sale for $192...worth about fifty bucks, but also worth it's weight in gold on hot summer nights.  Cam and I somehow got it into the back of the car...I AM excited about it, a nice clean new grill that won't maybe catch on fire so easily...

We got home just in time for me to go to Aldi with Kathryn.  She drives right by my road, so it's not hard for her to pick me up.  I carried Jamison in, while she carried Rhys and held Achilles' hand.   She carried Jamison through the store, and I pushed the cart.  This Aldi has the double seat in the front, and when Achilles was done walking, he sat nicely next to Rhys.  I had treats in my purse:).  Kathryn needed something in Walmart, so I stayed in the car with the kids, singing Itsy Bitsy Spider and The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock.  I felt like my mother, not so very long ago.  

Home....ah, home. I'd gone north south and back again so ahhh, home.  I put away the apples, cream, strawberries, cheese, and eggs, and vacuumed....then sat in the sun and talked to my sister on the phone, on the deck aka the treetop resort.  

But, there is no rest for the wicked, so back into bye-bye clothes and off we went, to have an MRI done, another half hour trip north.  (The office called and said it was a stat order, wow, never had one scheduled so quickly!).    Sonja had been mowing/doing work at church, and had to come home because Paul had to leave unexpectedly to take care of some things, so we got Miss Char off the bus, and headed to the MRI...with big plans afterward:  the thrift store!  (I found a brand new with tags jean skirt/skorts thing, for three dollars, and a nice bathing suit for three fifty.  A Corrie Ten Boom book, a few toys, and a few things the girls found...)

Home...again, and dinner time.  We smoked a beef roast, a venison roast, and some chicken wings yesterday.  A sliced onion sautéed in olive oil, the rest of the beef roast all sliced and chopped in with that onion, a bit of salt and pepper, a dash of sriracha salt, some black olives, sliced orange peppers, salsa, cheese, ect., and voila, fajitas.  

The girls went to do some cleaning at church, and Paul dropped his truck off to get a new exhaust system. Sonja is going to work again tomorrow, mowing, so I'll have to get up and drive her so I can have the car to bring Miss Camille back to the surgeon's office to discuss the MRI.  

And, remember we lost Paul's truck keys?  Remember that he really thought it was ME, and I really didn't think it was ME? We have two sets of keys, when I take the truck to the gym/pool, I tend to bring the littler set, without all the bling on the keychain. Anyway.  He thought I lost them last week when I used it to go to the pool.  I turned everything inside out, searched the yard, under the truck keys, the pockets of jackets and skirts and jeans...I cleaned out my purse and backpack, and still I looked...then, this morning, I got this text:

Molly found them in her bag!   She was here last Sunday, and somehow...well, far be it from me to suspect my sweet little grandchildren of anything, but hmmm.  I do wonder.  Tenny has a thing for matching people with their phones and water bottles.  I can just see him thinking those keys belong in that purse.  I KNEW it wasn't me.  Or rather, I had really really hoped it wasn't, and IT WASN'T.  I am sort of kidding/not kidding.  (To be clear, Paul wasn't mad...he just really thought it was me...maybe because the last time, when we had to have new keys made for the red minivan, they were in my old jean skirt pocket...oops).

Anyway.  We got our truck keys back.  

The girls are home, I cleaned up dinner, and what a day it was.  I had a yucky night sleep, I woke up with a thigh cramp, that proceeded all the way down my leg.  A leg cramp sounds like such a lame complaint, until you have one...oh my dear goodness, it's painful, like hot and cold and feeling faint painful, not like a calf cramp, much more intense.  It's still sore today.  And I couldn't fall back to sleep...for a long time.  Then today I worried a bit that I'd have one when I was driving.  I pictured myself pulling over, jumping out of the car carelessly, and wham getting ran over by a passing car, and Camille saying, "Well, her leg cramp isn't bothering her anymore."

Anyway.  trials and tribulations, they find us all.  But oh my goodness life is good.  Camille walks around saying, It's wack-a-doodle time. Then today Char was saying that Dad has to fix the weed-eater, she would totally weed-eat all-around the house if/when he does.  Even your room?  We pictured Char weed-eating her room, and I said, It's wack-a-doodle time!   Such silly nonsense, but it feels good to laugh.  We got some good iced teas from Dunkin, and enjoyed our drive home. 

Ah well....the girls are here, so I'm closing the laptop...have a good evening! 

stayed home all day long!

 Staying home is nice, why don't I do it more often?  Charlotte Claire had/took the day off from school, so I didn't need to get up at 6:30, but then there was still water aerobics...then I got a message that it was cancelled, as the lifeguard had to leave for some reason.  I still got up, but more leisurely.  Coffee, feet up, morning crossword puzzle, ahhh.  Then vacuuming (I had washed the filter for the little Dyson canister, the one I bought on Mother's Day like four years ago, for sixty dollars, I love it)(The filter was dry, so I could use it again),  window washing, dusting, washed towels, some clothes, some blankets.  Then I changed into my painting clothes, and painted the trim around the back door, the front door, and the deck door.  Paul had bought one last new door for the house we are all but finished re-doing, it was primed but needed a coat of paint, so I painted that.  It kept me busy for most of the day, but I did sit in one of the comfy chairs on the deck and put my feet up for a bit.

Random:  Ten children went to school, once upon a time.  Emily, Abigail, and Benjamin had already gone on to college, and Jonathan, Charlotte Claire, and Camille were too small for school.   In this old pic, that's Aaron in the blue, Molly next to him, Joseph in the back, Sam in therein, then lovely Mariel...then those five-girls-in-a-row-in-five years,Margaret in the bright pink and hair down, Suzanne with the pink and pink skirt, then Sonja in the middle, then Kathryn in the orange, then Evelyn...(age order:  Mariel, Joseph, Aaron, Molly Rose, Samuel, Margaret,Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja)

We went to Old Navy yesterday. Sonja let Rhys walk, and Camille held baby Jamison.

Rhys rode in my cart in Target, and oops, she was tired!

Camille has made macarons for the fourth time:  chamomile tea with salted honey chamomile Swiss meringue buttercream filling, this time.  I hadn't tried any of the previous ones, wanted to of course, but last night, I wanted just a half of one.  Cam handed me a small one, and I thought I would just take a bite.  Ha.  We all know I shoved that whole thing in my mouth, and let me tell you:  bliss.  It was delicious.  

Mother's Day flowers from Aaron and Riley...

The pool isn't really as green as the grass, it's actually not too bad.  

I got lots of sun today, and have paint splatters on my legs and hands, so it's been a good day.  There are things to do around here that need doing, so I just need to do them.  Right now what needs doing is dinner.   The cook isn't here, again, oh wait, I'm right here!  I cannot complain, I have a few steaks to pan-fry.  We have steak WAY more than we ever did, because it's reasonable, and we only need a few.  $4.49 a pound, a half pound steak is only like two bucks, can't go wrong.  I think I'll make some potatoes too...and a salad.  I'm hungry, haven't eaten yet today....

Off I go...wait, is there a cook?  I'm so lazy, I'd like a cook today....