HALLOWEEN IS DEAD

Last night was Halloween and my new step-granddaughter and her friend came by a little early to show me their costumes and make sure they got their goodies. Oh they knew they would get something good because my step-granddaughter made sure that she told me they wanted candy bars/ chocolate not any of that old hard candy. So I made sure that's what I had. They got their goodies and left to wait for the darkness and the fun of trick or treating.

Shortly after that my daughter-in -law came over to ask me to come over and see what my son had done to his four wheel drive. Well since they live right next to me it was a short walk and she seemed so excited, so I went with her to see what she was so excited about.

Much to my surprise he had decided to take the girls trick or treating along with his new wife and he had decorated the back of his old four wheel drive. He had strung a big high circle of lights over the bed of the truck, filled up the back of the truck bed with hay and had a huge cauldron with a big Crooked stir stick in it.
It was adorable but frankly I was surprise at his enthusiasm. He never did anything like this in his first marriage, I guess the second time around is the charmer because he certainly seemed happy to do it. All that was left now was to wait for the darkness which came soon and off they all went, and as they past my house on their way down the road, I yelled don't forget to go down Cherry Street, they always have good things there.

It wasn't long before I heard the familiar sound of that noisy truck coming back up the road. All I could think of was, Wow, the girls must have filled up their goody bags awfully fast. But in a few minutes the girls were at my door to share with me how broken their little hearts were and their disappointment that no one was giving out candy. They only found one lady that would open her door and she only gave them one tiny piece of hard candy. All the other houses had lights out and doors bolted and no one was answering to their knocks on the doors and their calls of trick or treat.
So I gave them some more of my candy and they went back next door.

In just a short while my grandson and I heard a loud noise, a huge noise.
It sounded like an explosion and we ran out the door to see if everything was alright next door. But it wasn't an explosion at all.

My son had built a big fire and he was setting off fireworks.

In addition to my daughter in laws nine year old girl, she also has a grown son and daughter who are both married and each have a child of their own.
They were both there with their families. In fact the back yard was full of people.

Adults and children, friends and neighbors from up and down our road were all gathered together in my sons back yard. Laughing and talking and making bets on how fast my son could run every time he put more firework into the fire.
The fireworks were absolutely beautiful shooting high up in the sky as though they had been shot out of a cannon then bursting into their vibrant shades of blues and reds and yellows.

What started out to be a sad Halloween turned out to be a wonderful night of fun and friendship for all. It was wonderful to see such camaraderie.

My son turned a very sad evening into a happy occasion.

So you see -- Halloween is not dead, it's just different.

I have a feeling that from now on Halloween is going to be a back yard party, maybe even with food and goodies for the kids, for sure, there will be lots of fireworks!

SURPRISE -- I'M BACK

I fooled you didn't I? You thought you'd gotten rid of me didn't you?
No such luck my friends, I'm just like a bad penny, I'm always going to turn up.
The truth is I never intended to be gone this long.
In fact I never intended to be gone at all, a couple of weeks at the most.

I hope that no one thought that I was ill because I was not. The truth is I'm very healthy and if my outer looks were as good looking as my inside feels, I'd be a good looking twenty year old. But no such luck.

Ah but I'm grateful for any small favors that the good Lord chooses to send my way, I can live with a few (a few to many) wrinkles for what feels like a young healthy feeling body any day. But let me tell you why I haven't been blogging.

It all started like this, I have this huge yard almost two acres and all the way around it, it is lined with trees and bushes. Every winter Mother Nature sends us winds and storms and she reeks havoc with my trees and bushes breaking limbs and damaging bushes all over the place.
So when spring came and the weather got so lovely I started to clean up my yard. My son and grandson did a huge part of the work but there was still plenty for me and anyone else in the family, with the exception of one. My daughter.
I think she has glue on her derriere because when she is home she never gets up from the chair in front of the computer. It doesn't seem to bother her at all to sit there for almost twenty-four hours. She even eats setting at the computer.
And God forbid someone else might need to get on. If she gets up at all, she will stand by your shoulder and repeat every five minutes, are you done yet, are you done yet.
Well sure I'm done because I can't think with the constant echo of 'Are you done yet' ringing in my ears.

The longer I stayed away the harder it was for me to come back. I felt so lost, so out of the loop, so brain dead. Where would I find the words. I have missed all of you so very much.
Little did I realize that all I had to do was say 'Hello'.

I love this place that I like to call Blogsville. And I love my blogger friends, each and every one of you is like a part of my extended family. If I should never hear from you again you will always be with me, for each one of you has their own little place deep within my heart.

Ah yes, it feel so good to be back.

EMERGENCY

A couple of weeks before school was out I received a phone call from the school asking me to pick up my grandson and take him home. He was sick. But when I got to the school I found him not just sick but in excruciating pain. He was half cramped over, moaning, pale and clammy.
I asked where it hurt and he said here in my side. He put his hand on his right side.

I signed him out as fast as I could he had already gone to the car but he couldn't make it to get in and was waiting for me hanging on to the door handle with one hand and his side with the other. I knew he was in deep trouble.

This is one tough kid and he never complains even when he's very sick.

A few years ago a picture frame in his bedroom fell of the wall the glass had already been cracked and a piece of glass broke into a long sharp point and stabbed him in the back.
He had a huge deep whole in his back shoulder and he just came walking out of the bedroom into the kitchen and calmly said grandma the picture with the crack in it fell off the wall and cut me. He was so calm, so contained.

I walked over thinking it was just a little cut, but when I walked behind him to look at the cut on his shoulder I had to pretend to be calm. But believe me I was not calm.
He had a very deep wound, it was gaped open and about two and a half inches in length and blood was pouring out of it.
Wouldn't you know it was a day when I didn't have the car.

I tried to hold the wound closed with one hand while I dialed the phone with my other hand to call a friend to get him to the hospital. I made the call but the blood was pouring out around my hand.

She arrived within minutes and I grabbed a towel and off we went.
Using the towel to apply pressure didn't work so I tried to hold it closed all the way to the hospital but the blood was still escaping some between my fingers all I could do was hold it the best I could with one hand and use the towel to collect what was seeping through my fingers so that the blood wouldn't get on my friends car.

When we got to the hospital he had to have several stitches. He took it all like a man. Maybe better them some. My little hero, not a whimper, not a complaint.

So when he was whimpering at the school I knew he was in trouble. I rushed out of the school and found him bent over in pain by the car. We got in the car and started to leave the school and he was moaning terribly. We were only about a couple of blocks from the school and he started vomiting and he couldn't stop. I hit the gas like I was Mario Andretti determined to win the race. He vomited all the way home.

When I hit the long driveway that leads to my front door I started honking the horn like a crazy maniac to get the attention of my daughter. She didn't come to the door right away so I threw open the car door jumped out and yelled get your shoes on we have to get you son to the hospital. She came, we left. She did the driving to the hospital and I kept an eye on him. He vomited most of the way to the hospital.
I kept thinking it could only be one of two things a kidney stone or appendicitis.
But if it was his appendix it should be hurting more towards the front. It had to be kidney stones, but what had me fooled was the constant vomiting.

We got him to the ER. He had a kidney stone.
They couldn't do much for him except give him pain medicine and run a IV and try to flush fluids through him so that maybe he would pass the kidney stone that night.
We were there for hours but it didn't happen.
He didn't pass the stone, but the pain medicine made him very happy. Happy enough to keep teasing the nurses.
At one point he said he felt the stone move so he wasn't in any pain but still no luck getting him to pass it.
The next morning we were home and he still wasn't in any pain.

The day after that we were back at the hospital for the Urologist to evaluate what he wanted to do. He decided not do anything just yet except prescribe some more pain pills just in case and give my grandson four to eight weeks to see if he would pass it.

If he passes it were in good shape, if he doesn't pass it we have to think about surgery.

I am praying for the passing of the stone as though it is a religious ceremony.
A-men.

UPDATE:
School has been out for the summer, it's been much more then eight weeks and he still hasn't passed the kidney stone. The good news is that it is still lodged it's self in some way that he is still not in any pain.

My biggest concern now is where will he be when it hits again. I worry every time he gos somewhere alone.

BEHOLD WHAT I SEE

The things some never think about,
are what's important to me.

The things that so many never see,
stand out in my memory.

The retarded child with happiness,
and sweet and innocent love.

The courage of the wheel chair bound,
and how they have overcome.

The blind who seem to see with their soul,
so much more than we.

All of these things I view with love,
for all humanity.

IT WAS LOVELY !

The wedding came the wedding went. It is over! Done! They finally got married and I officially have a new daughter-in- law. Hooray!

It was a beautiful outdoors wedding and it took place in her Aunts back yard. Her back yard starts at the top of a hill and works it way down to a lake. At the bottom of the hill over looking the lake and a boat dock, the family had set up tables and chairs and the bride and groom stood in front of the boat dock to say their vows with a backdrop of the lake. It was really a beautiful scene.

I noticed that a lot of children ranging in sizes had walked up just to the left of them during the ceremony and when the preacher asked who gives this woman to this man, to my surprise, in unison all of her relatives children yelled, "We do"! I was so tickled I could hardly contain myself.

It was suppose to rain that day, but her aunt was fully prepared. She had umbrellas on her porch for all, just in case.

During the ceremony a drop of rain here or there dropped, but not enough to even make anyone take notice.

After the vows were said and done all walked back up the hill and
there awaited food and drink for all.

Everyone stood still and watched the bride and groom feed each other that first piece of cake, but no one suspected, not even me, that the groom would mash that piece of cake all over her face.
Bless her little heart, she ran into the house to clean up. When she came back out he apologized and leaned over to kiss her, she turn her head up to accept his kiss then -- wham! She smacked him across the side of his head with, yes, cake. He was digging cake out of his ear for the rest afternoon.

He, he, he. He has met his match! Little but mighty, just like her Mother-in Law.

With the exception of the cake episode, it was probably one of the nicest weddings that I have ever attended and I'm not saying that because it was my sons. It is because it was also a time for people to gather that hadn't seen each other for a long time. Old friends were reunited and caught up on old times.
And the good Lord held back the rain until it was time to go. How can you beat that gift.

When my daughter and I left, we found a little liquor store and bought a bottle of wine and a couple of wine glasses and snuck them in the bride and grooms home so that they could have a private toast and unwind.

On our way home it began to rain in sheets. It' rained so hard neither one of us could barely see anything out of the windows.

We were thankful that we made it home safely and we ended the evening with our own unwinding, with the bottle of wine that we bought for us. Oh yes we did.

Do you really think that a Greek person is going to walk into a liquor store and walk out without a bottle of wine of their own? Impossible.

ASK HER, HER NAME

BE AFRAID -- BE VERY AFRAID

WE DON'T KNOW WHO SHE IS?

We don't know where she comes from and we don't know where she go's. She comes into our house at night reeking havoc with all in sight. She's mean and rude and evil. She uses vial words. But if you don't address her, she remains quietly unheard. So please don't say a word or she'll start a terrible fight. There is no way to win with her, in the dark-- in the night.

I have never met her she comes when I'm asleep, but I hear she's a holy terror, if you dare to speak.

She makes my daughter angry, my grandson terrified, of the women who curses threats to them, in the dark--in the night.

I fear one day she'll hurt someone, someone that I love. And yet she bothers no one if they just leave her alone.

She walks about my house at night and even eats my food, then she go's away, only to return once more in the dark --in the night.

My grandson is much older now and much braver too, so he has tried to confront her and he asks her who she is, but every time he asks her she gives the same reply. "You know who I am", she gruffly says with an evil look in her eyes.

Then one day my grandson said that she had been back and her name was Maria. I asked if she told him that and he said no that is what I call her. A few nights later she returned and he told her that he knew who she was and he called her Maria, she abruptly told him that wasn't her name that was the name he gave her, but she never offered to tell him what her name was.

How can I make her go away this someone I've never met, who comes into my home at night and terrorizes the ones I love.

And yet I know that I am the only one who stands a chance of making her leave, for you see I'm the only one who knows who she really is.

With my eye wide open I am very convincing that I am awake but,

I WALK

I EAT----------------------------I TALK

IN MY SLEEP

She is me. She is the other side of me. The side of me that I don't use or show in my daily life.

She is the 'Dark Side' of me and we don't know what she is capable of--in the dark--in the night.

BE AFRAID -- BE VERY AFRAID

WE STILL DON'T KNOW HER NAME?

I'M NOT LAZY, I'M JUST TIRED

OK, I admit it, I've been a lazy blogger lately. But I have been busy, with my son getting married soon there has been a lot of things that needed to be overseen.
They bought a new trailer to replace the old one and since they both work they needed someone to help them out. So I was the designated someone.

Little did I realize just how much needed to be taken care of. Calling everyone to get the utilities cut off was a simple task, but when the new trailer was moved in, that was all together a different story.
Arrangements had to be made appointments for different things on different days and I had to make all of the arrangements and be there to oversee that everything was done by their specifications.

It was not as easy as I thought it would be. They needed things done immediately because they needed to get moved in as soon as possible. At this point none of these companies seemed to be as accommodating as they where at turning things off. After all it was a bit more complicated now.
New wiring had to be hooked up to the new trailer home. Water pipes had to be laid, television cables needed to be put in and I had to be there the whole time.

Through all of this my phone kept ringing off the wall, some days every few minutes. Here is a small part of some of the phone conversations. Him, Mom do this for me. Her will you please do that for me. Him, ten minutes after his last call, did you get it done? Me, yes. Her, did you get in touch with them? Me, Yes.
Him, will they be there tomorrow? Me, No not until Monday. Him, why not. Me, because they have other appointments first. And so it went on all day.

When each crew arrived on their designated day,I had to be there to make sure that everything was done right and that nothing in the trailer was damaged and that any holes that need to be drilled were drilled where they wanted them, not where the workers might have wanted to put them.

So to make a long story a little shorter. I ended up being, Secretary, Appointment Maker, Trouble Shooter and even Crew Boss and I might add a darn good one too.

Thank God it's done and all done to their specifications and they are now moved in
and stressful as it was, I was glad that I was able to help.

I went over there the other night to give them my sons bills so that they could start budgeting, his, hers and theirs together.

As I was about to leave, I was sweetly and properly thanked for all of my help and told how much I was loved and appreciated. Of course that made it all worth it.

I told them you're welcome, I'll send you the bill for my services in the morning. lol