So here's the short of it,
Today was the Wright Family Reunion.

And here's the long.

Today Alan, Mom, and I made a day trip up to Somerset for the Wright Family Reunion. John Wright was married to Lena Ping.  Their oldest daughter was Ola Dean who married Lawrence Hulbert Howard.  Their oldest child was Dad - Gene Howard.

It's Dad's generation that is keeping the reunion going.  For several years they have been having the reunion at the "Old Pisgah School". This is the first year that we've been since Dad died.  It was a lovely drive up. We drove straight up through all the little towns and unincorporated hamlets strung out along Highway 27.  On the way back we crossed over to I-75 along Highway 92 and took I-75 back to Chattanooga. Oh No! We should have come back down 27!  Just south of Knoxville, after the split traffic slowed to about 20 to 30 miles an hour. It put us about an hour late arriving back in Chattanooga!

It was nice to renew contacts, and lovely to have a nice day with Mom!

So here's the short of it, 
White Tomatoes???

And here's the long.

Mom and I had a great morning - we went to the Farmer's Market up the road at Grace Episcopal. I found a new tomato variety. It's called a White Beauty.  It's not really white, but it's really pale. Apparently they come in all sizes from Beefsteak to cherry tomato size.  Some of them are actually kind of yellow,  and some of them are very pale with rosy tones, but the one I have is really pale.  I haven't cut it yet, but I'm excited to try it out and maybe save the seeds to try out next year.

The garden is so weedy right now, although I'm getting plenty of tomatoes. Of course that's just because I haven't been out to pull them.  I used to have a little piece of paper about the size of a business card that I kept in my desk and when a student would tell me that they didn't have their homework or their computer printer quit working, or whatever I would take it out and just hand it to them.  It said. "There are two things in life, reasons and results. Reasons don't count."  So in this instance, the fact that it's been so hot, and I've been working those long days, and by Fridays I'm so tired are just the reasons!  The result is a very weedy garden and no days to get it weeded.  I'll have to say though - the tomatoes still taste so good!

I've also got a case of the blight on the tomatoes. Today I didn't pull many weeds, but I did work on getting the blighted leaves off of the tomato plants and then sprayed them with a copper fungicide. I hope I haven't waited too late to get it under control!

So here's the short of it, 
My last free friday of the summer!

And here's the long.

I slept until almost 9 this morning!
Well, I woke up at 1:30, then again at 3:00, then again at 5:15, then again at 6:something (I forget), then at a little after 7:00 then about 8:15.  Each time I made myself go back to sleep.  My back was hurting something fierce so I think that's part of why I kept waking.  At the 5ish wake up I went to the freezer and got a cold towel.  That helped me fall back asleep faster.

This morning I spent some time at Dr. Schlabach's infusion center.  It was nice to see all the folks who took care of me for a year.  My friend from work is back in Chemotherapy. She has gotten into a study, so she's going every Friday - hoping it will do the trick! There is still so much work to be done - I want to be a cheerleader at a research center!

This afternoon, Alan and I spent the afternoon looking around Home stores and then to McKays. It was nice to have an afternoon together.  Once we got home I took a nap! Usually once I go to sleep it's a couple of hours before I'm up - or I feel all groggy -- but today I slept for 30 or 45 minutes and then work up feeling a bit rested.  I'm still going to bed early though!

So here's the short of it, 
Looking forward to the last long weekend before school starts up.

And here's the long.

I'm so glad to be able to sleep in tomorrow! I hope I can sleep in until 8 or 9 o'clock!

Thank goodness today was the last "long day" I have to work long hours.  Of course educators are known for working long days, so it won't be the end of it, but it will be my choice when I do!

I'm looking forward to this three day weekend before we launch into the school year. Sunday we are talking Mom to the Wright family reunion (more about that on Sunday). But tomorrow and Saturday "I do what I want" (a direct quote from son, Valdis when he was younger).

It looks like tomorrow will be another hot one so I'll try to find something to occupy me in the house. I've also made up my mind that I'm going to buy a small water distiller, so I may look around to see if I can find one somewhere in town. We'll see what I find.

But tonight, I'm relaxing - my kitty is sleeping on the other recliner - my doggie is sleeping at my feet - Alan's already sound asleep - and I'm going to head to bed pretty soon.

So here's the short of it,
Almost ready for school to start!

And here's the long.

One more day of "getting ready" before school officially opens and teachers are back on duty.  It's caused me to be a bit reflective. I've been enormously lucky in my career - I found work that I love - that I can be passionate about. I've mostly worked for people who respect me and have given me room to do my work and have allowed me to stretch myself and take risks. I've worked with wonderful colleagues who are bright, creative, and so supportive.

I'm looking forward to another year. Now things are going to be a little tougher this year. Budgets are tight, and lots of people are talking about accountability, but want to count the things that aren't really that important.  It makes me think of the famous Einstein quotation, "Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted."  I hope our little group of teachers will be able to focus on the things that really count!

Tomorrow will be here early... Good night.

So here's the short of it, 
I'm a mountain girl at heart!

And here's the long.

I'm watching part 4 of a 4 part documentary on Appalachia on PBS. I want to watch the first 3 parts! It's called Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People. And I like this so much. How did I miss this all these years?

I've been to lots of writing workshops in my career as I tried to learn to teach students how to write - and of course, tried to learn a few things to inform my own writing as well.  I think that one of the things that this television program really reminds me of is the powerful sense of place that helps us know who we are. Many, many of my growing up memories have something to do with mountains - Walking to school in the fall surrounded by the blazing colors on the mountains - Band practice in the afternoon on the football field down in the valley between the mountains - Heading up the creek to have some dream time and hunt salamanders - One of my very earliest memories walking up the lane from Dad and Mom's garden to the little house on the side of a ridge as the sun began to go down with the soft hills around me - Or driving through the mountains on Highway 25E winding along the mountain road heading to college. One of the reasons Chattanooga captured my love and made me want to stay is the beautiful mountains. 

Of course there's that old saying that captures it quite well, 

"You can take a girl out of the mountains, but you can never take the mountains out of the girl".   

I think that's a good thing!

So here's the short of it, 
Work and sleep - thinking of how to balance all that. 

And here's the long.

OK, long Monday went fine.  I need to work on getting to bed earlier on these long days!

My awesome new computer that I've only had for a few days has something wrong with it. It has this kind of warpy thing going on down on the bottom. I hope it's easily fixed and not something that is going to involve sending it back and waiting for a new one to come!

The pressure to be ready for school to start is really on high now. There's still so much to do before teachers report next week.  There's so much talk out in the community about the schools and the budget cuts, and the principal fruit basket turnover, and the new superintendent -- and how it will all play out in the actual delivering education to our students. I do hope we can just push through all that and focus on the students.

So I yawned all afternoon today, but I can't get sleepy enough to get to bed early enough to get 7 or 8 hours of sleep!  I've got an early morning meeting with my boss, so I should work on that.  Last night I got engrossed in one of the early Harry Potter movies and didn't get into bed until after midnight!

So here's the short of it, 
Happy Birthday Mia!!!

And here's the long.

Tonight we helped cousin Mia celebrate her birthday.

Mia is Dad's first cousin. Dad was the first grandchild of the Mommy and Poppy Wright. Mia was the last grandchild. So there was a big age difference between them!  She moved to Chattanooga after Mom and Dad came here - her son Clyde was beginning Kindergarten that year, and he's getting ready to start middle school this year!

So Happy Birthday to you, Cousin Mia.

It's nice to have a cousin here in town!  

So here's the short of it, 
More Preserved Cherries today!

And here's the long.

Mom got home from a great visit in Atlanta late last night.  She spent the week with Steve and Pat and got plenty of play time with Elijah and Jacob.  Late last night, they brought her back home  -  Alan and I went down for a cup of coffee and a brief visit this morning before they headed down to Birmingham to visit with Meredith and Ben.

She and I made a trip to Linda's a little later this morning to bring in corn and beans!  Mia's birthday is today and tomorrow we are having a little birthday dinner for her.  I also got in about 8 pounds of cherries to make a repeat of the Martha Washington Preserved Cherries.  I got 13 jelly jars and processed them so that they can be shelf stable for 6 months or so; I also processed one jar of just cherry juice.  That'll be good to cook with or to put into smoothies or lemonade or OJ...  I also got 4 jars that I didn't  process.  I'll keep those in the refrigerator and we'll eat them up  pretty soon.  We'll probably finish up one tomorrow night!

So here's the short of it, 
More about long work hours.

And here's the long.

I was really tired this morning!

I've been reflecting about how difficult this 4 long day work week is. I'm wondering if it's because my stamina is still not back to "normal". For so many years I've worked long hours and managed just fine... but this is really tiring.  Thank goodness I only have one more week of it.

You know long work days were just a part of life for so many people - and still are in so many parts of the world. I mentioned to Alan how people worked 10 and 12 hour days 6 or 7 days a week for so much of history.... He reminded me that they really didn't live very long either!

My own personal opinion is that people are not as productive in four long days as they are in five regular days. I also haven't seen any data to show that it really saves the district that much money!

In the meantime, I slept quite late this morning.  I actually got up about 7. But it didn't take much to figure out that I wanted to head right back to my pillow!  I was able to sleep for about another hour. I've been lethargic all day. But I did get up and get going and have a day which included a nice visit with Mommy Anne.

Tomorrow Steve and Pat will be at Mom's at breakfast time.  I'm going to head to bed early so I can get up and see them for a few minutes before they head down to Alabama.

So here's the short of it, 
Getting ready for the school year to start. 

And here's the long.

I only have one "new" teacher this year - and she's been in the classroom for 9 years, so the learning curve for her is not nearly so steep.  But the special ed piece is pretty intimidating.  We have spent 2 half days together and I think that's a good start.

This has been such a tumultuous spring and summer.  The budget woes, the superintendent change, the upheaval in the central office. I just find myself thinking that once the kids get to school we'll get ourselves focused where we need to be focused and all that stuff will fade into the background. We've got some wonderful things ready for this year in our department, and I've heard good things all around, so that's what I'm going to focus on.

So, I have the day off tomorrow!  I'm planning to sleep in.  We'll see if I can make that happen.  For sure I know I won't be fighting with some alarm at 6:00 AM!

So here's the short of it,
Only one more day this week!

And here's the long.

So Wednesday isn't really hump day when you are working a 4 day work week.  But I'm ready for tomorrow to be here! Some of my colleagues who work all summer look just exhausted. Now we are all accustomed to working some long days, but we are also accustomed to going home on time if the work is just too tiring.  Thank goodness I only have one more week after this to work the long days.  Some people say they'd like to work a four day work week all the time. Not me!!


So I'm home and I'm tired and I'm going to head to bed in a little while. In the morning when the alarm sounds, I'll be telling myself "tomorrow you can sleep in".

So here's the short of it,
I met a lovely gentleman today.

And here's the long.

Oh my, my!  My second day back at work.  One of those long days. I'm not feeling rested any more. But I'm back in the swing of it.

I'm in a really old building - you know they close a school and let the support personnel use it for offices... As a matter of fact, today I was on the elevator with a gentleman who told me he went to Junior High in that building in the 1940's.  We had a great conversation as we stepped out of the elevator onto the 2nd floor.  He pointed out the various doors and told me the names of the teachers who taught there and what they taught, talked about where he played basketball, and generally mused about those years when he was in junior high.  What an interesting little moment of time in my otherwise busy day.

Now in that really old building on the third floor, the air conditioner is broken - it's terribly hot. (of course when that gentleman was in school there wouldn't have been much of anyone there in July!) But back to today's story - on my side of the building the air is working overtime - really chilling things down to try to keep the building cool! The HVAC men were there working on it all day. It is apparently a complicated fix and one the the men shared with us that the whole building needs to be overhauled. That's such a joke in this day.  They've been talking about closing our building for years.  Anyway, I worked downstairs all day today. Hopefully tomorrow it will be fixed and my office won't be freezing and I'll be able to get in and out without disrupting the HVAC men.

I had a really hard time with the 6:00 AM alarm this morning - thinking I should really try sleeping a little earlier!

So here's the short of it, 
Back at work!

And here's the long.

Today was my first day back at work after having four weeks off.  That's been my longest summer vacation in many years. One of my co-workers told me today that I looked like I was still on vacation. I think it's just because I look so rested!

I tried to slide into work easy today, and got a lot done, but not a lot of pressure. Tomorrow, I've got to hit the ground running!!

I'm still needing to work on getting myself to bed and to sleep earlier. I've got two weeks of these awful long 4 day work weeks.

Nite, Nite.

So here's the short of it, 
Dinner time...

And here's the long.

You can take a girl out of the mountains --- but the mountain garden will always be a memory and summertime will always be a time to re-create those marvelous meals that came from Dad's garden to Mom's kitchen and then to our dinner table!

Green Beans.
Not just any green beans, White Half Runners.

I found these at Linda's - our local farmers market.

I got plenty!




    Then of course there's the corn.












This isn't the corn of my childhood memories though. This is one of those new super sweet varieties.  It's called Peaches and Cream - because the kernels are yellow and while. It is at Linda's as well. They understand the requirement to keep it cold, so I can get it home and into the refrigerator until I'm ready to prepare it.  Today I did 24 ears.

So here's dinner. 

The tomatoes are from our backyard garden. 

The cucumbers and peppers are from a neighbor's father's garden.

Yes, the green beans are a little more done than modern cooking calls for. 

What a great dinner!

Then there's the freezer!

Corn and Green Beans are waiting.

On a cold, grey day when we need to be reminded of a summertime, mountain garden

I'll open the freezer and make a dinner.

So here's the short of it, 
Last night's industry was tonight's deliciousness!

And here's the long.

So tonight we had two choices.

A standard favorite.  Blueberry pancakes for dinner.  Made this time of year with fresh blueberries.  There are already some in the freezer for the cold months when they are not in season.  What could be better ...

                       


                       ...look below!







The second choice tonight was plain pancakes with last night's Martha Washington Preserved Cherries and some of the Cherry Juice as syrup!

I think I should plan to make some more of these cherries, and maybe can them in larger jars!  These were scrumptious! Of course they should be, there's 4 cups of sugar for 2 pounds of cherries.



Come visit.  We'll have some!

So here's the short of it, 
Fun in the kitchen tonight -  Preserved Cherries.

And here's the long.

Today I got a big box of junk cleaned out and decided to treat myself by making a batch of Cherry Preserves. It's my first time to try and I think they came out very well.

This is a recipe from a blog I read.  The author is Tori Avey. She has an interest in Jewish Cooking and in Historical Cooking. I have tried several of her recipes. I was especially taken with this one as it is titled Martha Washington's Perserved Cherries. It came from a very old cook book that apparently was taken from Martha Washngton's copied out recipes.  Check out the blog for a bit of the history.  I like the idea of making something that people have been making for generations. This recipe was so simple and didn't really take much effort at all except for pitting the cherries.  Get the recipe here.

The first job was to pit the cherries. I've never really used cherries in a recipe before so my pitting in the past was limited to spitting them out after I popped one in my mouth! I don't have a cherry pitter - and I really don't want one - I really don't need another kitchen tool that has only one use for only one season of the year!  I found a technique using a paper clip or bobby pin - it sounded pretty work intense.  I found a great YouTube video for bending a fork into a tool for scooping out the pit - didn't want to ruin a fork and didn't want to go out and buy a cheap one - and I thought it still looked pretty work intense. So I decided to try the one using a pastry tip -- except I didn't have one. I did however have a very small funnel. So I turned the funnel upside down in a large metal bowl down in the sink.  The object here was to capture as much of the mess as possible. I pulled off the stem and then punched the cherry down onto the stem of the funnel. It popped the seed right out of the bottom of the cherry!  It was so easy - so simple! And I got a little more than two pounds of cherries pitted in no time at all.  I'm so glad to know about this technique.




The recipe is really just cooking the cherries in a simple syrup until they become soft.  There is this step of skimming the foam off as they cook. And there is an instruction to cook them in a very wide dish and to be sure to use a metal spoon.  I have another recipe that specifically calls for a wooden spoon.

I got several jars of preserved cherries as well as a bottle and a half of cherry juice.  I'm thinking cherry coke, cherry lemonade, cherry frosting, cherries in brownies, cherries on vanilla ice cream.

My first idea I think will be to put my homemade chocolate sauce on some vanilla ice cream and then put the cherry preserve juice on top!

So here's the short of it, 
Another day's gone - only 3 more until I have to go back to work!

And here's the long.

Tonight I'm sitting in my recliner. I've had another day - had a breakfast date with Alan, visited with Mommy Anne, took Mom to get a rain barrel for her back yard, fixed a nice dinner...
      Sophie's stretched out near me snoozing away, looking up every now and again and then closing her eyes again -- Lola's curled up on the other recliner, I've got a soft towel there for her. She's sleeping as well.  Alan's in the bed sound asleep.

I'm awake.

I start back to work on Monday.  I need to get myself on an early to bed, early to rise routine.

So here's the short of it, 
Yucky, Yucky, Yucky!!!

And here's the long.

Well!

This morning I started thinking that maybe Lola was sick.  I also started thinking that Alan should learn to clean the litter box while I'm gone. I just couldn't figure out why her poops were smelling so awful.
So I got her litter box - and all around it cleaned up.
I sanitized the whole area.
The stink was still there!

Alan had told me that while I was gone a little bird got into the house - I started thinking that maybe it had died and crawled off somewhere. When he got home I asked him to use his super sensitive sniffer to see if he could locate a place in the den where Lola might have had an accident or where that bird might be.

Alan came back into the kitchen almost retching!  He gave me the low- down...something in the bathroom behind the little portable heater.  I clipped my nose with a clothes pin and headed to the back with a roll of paper towels!  There was a beautiful little chipmunk. I couldn't even see any wounds that could have been responsible for killing it.  Needless to say, I scooped it up, got it disposed of, and cleaned up the area.  What a foul odor for such a beautiful little critter.  It still smells - the fan is going and I'm hoping by tomorrow the bad smell is gone.

For now...
Stinky, Stinky, Stinky.

So here's the short of it, 
I'm fine. 

And here's the long.

Today I had a stress test.

After we went up Pike's Peak, I started having pains on the right side of my chest.  It centered around my port at first and then became less localized. I was worried about it. It kept up and last week I went to the Physician's Assistant in my doctor's office. She was concerned about heart, because she indicated that women often present with right side pain with heart problems. So she ordered up a stress test.

I was supposed to be at the hospital at 7:00 AM without coffee! I got florescent medicine injected and imaging and then I got to sit and drink a bunch of water.  Next I spent some time on the tread mill to get my heart rate up really high, then more medicine injected. And then - more imaging.  I got a call from my doctor's office this afternoon saying the test was "negative". I'll call them tomorrow. I still have some discomfort around the port area. I'd like to get to the bottom of that.

I slept quite a bit once I got home - maybe it was the no coffee morning that made me so tired.

I'm hoping the napping won't keep me up very late tonight!

So here's the short of it, 

So the very best part of going away is coming back home again.  

And here's the long.


Mom and I spent most of the day on the road.

We had a nice breakfast with Aunt Frances and Uncle Bob - fresh peaches and biscuits!  As Uncle Bob explained to me - they "don't use coffee" so we bought several cups of good McDonald's coffee last night and had it ready to just warm up this morning. It worked out great.

After breakfast we headed out for home.  We had great weather and light traffic.  We had a stop at Berea. They have a new Visitor and Artisan Center to display and sell some of the crafts of Kentuckians.  It was a nice stop and doubled as a restroom break.  Then we headed on to Knoxville.  We went by for a quick visit with Aunt Joyce and then went over to Aubrey's Cafe for a late lunch. It was nice to spend some time with Mom's two little sisters!

We took a detour coming out of Knoxville since on the way up on Thursday we saw a huge back up on I-75 that we thought was because of the construction they are doing.  We took Kingston Pike down to Lenoir City and since we could see that I-75 was moving nicely we got on there.  Not much of a detour, but boy o boy!  The upscale subdivisions that are now in what used to be cow pastures were amazing.

We made it home about 5:00.  I love being home.  It's so good to see Alan and Sophie and Lola.  Take a shower.  Sit in a home chair.  Walk the circle.  Think about going to bed.  Head to the bed early...

Emily and three of the Howard girls - Irene, Dot, Mom(Emily) and Mary  cousins in the back

So here's the short of it, 
Mom and I made it back to Lexington tonight.

And here's the long.

Mom and I ended up being the only two at Aunt Dot's last night, so it got kind of quiet after everyone left!  We spent a relaxing evening visiting with Aunt Dot and Cousin Doris. It was another great afternoon and evening with Aunt Mary and Aunt Irene, and cousins Lynda,  Doris, Kenny, and Mike with his wife Mary. Fun stories and great times.

Early afternoon we headed to Lexington with a stop off at the big nice K-Mart that they have in Springboro.  I sure do miss the K-Mart that used to be near our house in Chattanooga!

We had an easy trip to Lexington.  The traffic was light; it wasn't even too bad coming through Cincinnati and the weather was perfect for traveling. We got here about 5:30 and we've had a great visit with Aunt Frances and Uncle Bob.  We had a nice dinner at the Longhorn Restaurant and here it is awfully late and I'm still up!  I've been helping Aunt Frances with a project that she's been working on....

Tomorrow we will head home pretty early...

For now, I'm headed to bed!

So here's the short of it,
Mom and I had another wonderful family day!


And here's the long.

Today we visited with aunt Dot, her daughter Doris, Aunt Mary, and her daughter Lynda from late morning til late afternoon. Then we were joined by Aunt Irene, and her son Kenny with Aunt Dot's son Mike and his wife Mary joining us for dinner.

Doris made a wonderful dinner of cornflake chicken, corn, white half- runners, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet onions, and coconut cream pie and watermelon fir dessert! Wow! It was great.

The evening has been full of family stories a couple of old, old pictures, and lots of laughter.

It's good.

So here's the short of it,
Mom and I have had a wonderful day punctuated by a big road adventure!

And here's the long.

Last night Uncle Bob kindly turned off his 5:00 AM alarm so I could sleep in. I turned off my 7:00 and 7:30 alarms. (but I forgot my 6:00 AM one). I could never get awake enough to get it off so my morning attempt to sleep was periodically pierced by having to stir enough to hit the snooze button. I just don't know why I couldn't just turn it off!

We had a great breakfast visit with Aunt Frances and Uncle Bob. He was off to do water sampling and we got on our way with great directions just a little past our intended push off time. We got to cousin Bonnie's house with no trouble. It was so great to reconnect with her after all these years. We had a wonderful lunch, and also got to see Ann and Mary June as well as Aunt Muriel. And of course a bunch of kids and grandkids. Great food, wonderful family, marvelous time.

On the trip up to Aunt Dot's in Springboro we had quite an adventure. We got onto I-75 with no problem. Within about 5 miles we were in huge traffic. It took us an hour and 15 minutes to get to the next exit where the state troopers were routing everyone off the interstate. Of course we know nothing about the back and side roads of Lexington. So three stops later, several calls to Aunt Frances and Uncle Bob, and a few more miles than we might have quavered finally made it to I-75 N above the road closing- 3 hours after we first got onto the interstate!!

We were late for supper but arrived to Aunt Dot's to a house full of Aunts and cousins. We've spent the rest of the evening eating and visiting.

It's been a great day and I'm ready finally for sleep!!

So here's the short of it,
Mom and I are off on another excellent adventure!

And here's the long.

Late this morning Elijah headed back to Atlanta with Wayne and by early afternoon Russ was on his way back to Okaloosa Island. By 2:00 Mom and I were on the road.

We stopped for an early supper with Aunt Joyce at the Cracker Barrel in Knoxville. That was a great visit. We made it all the way to Corbin before we had to make another stop. Then on onto Lexington with no problem...well there was a UPS truck that got on my tail at the top of Jellico Mountain. We can be assured that since Mom took down the license number they will hear about his unsafe driving! We've had a nice visit with Bob and Frances this evening. We're staying at the Natchez Tr. place. Frances is coming back in the morning to do breakfast with us!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. We are visiting Dad's sister Muriel and cousins!

So here's the short of it, 
More Elijah visit.

And here's the long.

We are so enjoying Russ and Elijah's visit. This has been such a good few days for Mom. She is in her element.  The toys are all over the den. She's reading Jack and the Beanstalk over and over again (beanstomp according to Elijah) He can tell the story with just a bit of prompting, and tonight when I was there for a visit he wanted to show me the magic beans that he and MaMa harvested from her garden.  We decided that since they were green and not red and yellow like the ones in the story that they wouldn't grow up into the sky where the giants are, but their magic was to make little boys grow up big and strong!  He's having so much fun riding his bike with his PaPa Russ. We will sure miss this little fella when he heads home tomorrow.

Here's another picture of Alan and Elijah.  They are using the Read Me Stories app on my iPhone. He loves the stories, and tonight he particularly liked the one called Teddy Is Real, I Think.  He likes to have his Teddy Bear with him while he "reads" it.

He thinks "Unkin Alan" is a really cool guy.

So here's the short of it, 
Doctor's visit today because I'm a nervous nellie. 

And here's the long.

I've been having a bit of discomfort on my right side ever since our descent from Pike's Peak. It began with an achey, feeling around the area of my port along with occasional sharp pains. It has gradually begun to be in my arm and my chest and almost like in my joint. So today I had an appointment with the PA in my doctor's office.  She did an EKG and is ordering a stress test. I don't know exactly when that will happen yet.  She also put me on a regular dose aspirin a day until we figure it out.  If it's still hurting after the stress test, she will think about having an ultrasound done to look at the area that was occluded when my port went all awry during chemo.

In the meantime, I'm trying to stay low and slow.

Of course Russ is here visiting Mom and Elijah is here as well so it's certainly not all low and slow. We are having great fun! Tonight we played with "Read Me Stories", an app I have on my phone.  He loved it and listened to the stories over and over.  He's also been riding his bike that Gramma Betsy and Wayne got for him this visit. He rides from MaMa's house up to the circle and then around the circle. Of course PaPa Russ is right with him the whole time.  They are such fun to watch.

So here's the short of it, 
Reflections on the 4th of July...

And here's the long.

We celebrated the 4th of July today by going to the Neighborhood Picnic - a tradition that started just after we moved into this neighborhood.  We didn't read the Declaration of Independence.  But that's how it all started.  The Declaration was read throughout the villages of the new nation.  And the people built bonfires, fired their guns and set off firecrackers.   The holiday has grown with our nation and now we think about our independence and lots of us think about the generations of young men and now women who have served in our military to assure that we maintain that freedom.  I always think about my eighth great grandfather, Samuel Howard, who at 15 volunteered and was in the army at Valley Forge and with George Washington at the Yorktown surrender. I imagine he was in some audience somewhere and heard the Declaration of Independence read.  The idea behind it, the desire to be our own nation, inspired him and so many others like him to step up and say, I'll go.  I'll help make this amazing dream a reality.

I've heard it said that the Declaration of Independence is the most copied political document in the history of the world. I can imagine that it must be one of the most inspiring.

Of course, now the holiday is more about BBQ, leisure time, and fireworks.  But somewhere we all remember that it's really about our freedom to do those things - and about that amazing time in history when people had a vision of what could be and the commitment to take on what might have been the most powerful country in the world at the time.

So Happy 4th!

So here's the short of it, 
I got another e-mail forward from Aunt JoAnn!

And here's the long.

Alan's Aunt JoAnn sends me (and lots of other people) interesting e-mails all the time. Often they are funny or full of amazing pictures. I like them. Sometimes they have an idea or a message. So as somewhat of a departure, I'm going to share one of those "forwards" tonight.

God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs.
For example:
-the eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7 days;
-those of the canary in 14 days;
-those of the barnyard hen in 21 days;
-The eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days;
-those of the mallard in 35 days;
-The eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days.
(Notice, they are all divisible by seven, the number of days in a week!)

God's wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant... The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction. No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a huge body, too large to live on two legs... For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily.

The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first. A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first. How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation!

God's wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains.

-Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the rind.
-Each orange has an even number of segments.
-Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
-Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.
-Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number.

-The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather.

All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks, and the Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundred fold - all even numbers.

God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day, so that Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed! 

The lives of each of you may be ordered by the Lord in a beautiful way for His glory, if you will only entrust Him with your life. If you try to regulate your own life, it will only be a mess and a failure. Only the One Who made the brain and the heart can successfully guide them to a profitable end. 

Thus the Lord in His wonderful grace can arrange the life that is entrusted to His care in such a way that it will carry out His purposes and plans, and will be fragrant with His presence. Only the God-planned safe life is successful. Only the life given over to the care of the Lord is fulfilled.

I HOPE YOU FIND THIS AS FASCINATING AS I DID!
May God Bless You In Ways You Never Even Dreamed Today!

So here's the short of it, 
Today was a Mother Daughter Day. 

And here's the long.

So today I decided that my mile long list could just wait another day.  It's been waiting for years anyway, and Mom and I would just see what we could get into.

First stop was Mia Cucina.  The kitchen shop.  Mom had ordered a ceramic skillet and we needed to go get that.  Needless to say, there were a few other things around that needed to go to Mom's today, as well.  I got out without anything this time.

Our next stop was Five Guys.  Mom was in the mood for a burger and what better place to get a burger than across the street from where we were!

Next stop - back home.  We had a bunch of coupons for EarthFare and we both forgot them!  So we headed back home picked up our coupons and then headed back with a stop at Hot Dawg.  It's a do it yourself dog wash and supplies shop. And it's on Hickory Valley Road between Lee Hwy and Shallowford Road - quite convenient.  One of the owners was there today and we had a nice visit with her. They have several stations where you can wash your dog - all supplies provided.  They also have lots of toys, upscale natural food, and thunder shirts for dogs that are afraid of noises, and life jackets for all different sizes of doggies!  They even bake their own natural doggie snacks.  The owner recognized us from a day that I took Mom over to Bare Escentuals for a makeover (she doesn't work there anymore).  Anyway, I came home with some samples of a different kind of dog food, and I'm excited that this place is close by my normal routes when I'm working!

Next stop was PetSmart for a Furminator.  We've really struggled with Sophie's shedding, and our Vet, Dr. Carter suggested that we try the Furminator.  Hot Dawg didn't have it...  Sophie is a real sweetheart, but it's a mighty expensive comb! Thank goodness it was on sale.  She got a good brushing tonight too (as did the cat) and I got a small trash can full of doggie fur! Hoping we keep on thinking it's wonderful.

From there it was on to EarthFare to use those coupons. Mom and I both got a few things and had a good time looking at all the stuff.  They were having a party and selling hamburgers for a dollar apiece!  If only we'd known before we went to Five Guys!

Then last we headed out to Publix.  Mom and I almost never make the trek out to East Brainerd to shop at Publix.  We normally just do the nearby Bi-Lo or Wal Mart and we both love to go to Linda's Produce.  So today it was a treat to go over to Publix for regular grocery shopping.

Great Day! Great Mom!

So here's the short of it, 
We had a great family get-together tonight.

And here's the long.

We had a lovely get-together tonight.
Since Pennie and Myra were both in town, and since it's Mommy Anne's almost birthday, we had a get together for family tonight.

Liga hosted us in her apartment Party Room.  It is a great space to have a party. And we had quite a nice turn out.  It was a great way for us to get to see lots of people and have a nice visit.


I love this picture of the Richelson/Reingold cousins who were able to be there.

Mommy Anne seemed to enjoy herself, and we kept her out past her curfew!

Events like this always make me reflect on family - how we have the family we are born with (and how lucky I am in that regard) and then we have the family we chose (I'm pretty lucky in that regard as well!) I ponder about what the glue is that holds family together and why it isn't so for every family. It seems as though I know lots of people who don't have very close family relationships - and then there are others who have deep family attachments.  I think that's worth some social investigation!  Anyway, these cousins are great folks who have enriched my life in lots of ways. It was good to spend some time with them and their spouses tonight.