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.