The Power of The Mind....

I (we) really don't keep up with local news around here. We watch CNN, and I regularly read the national stuff. But locally...? Well, I really don't know whats going on around here. We don't subscribe to our local newspaper. For one thing, its a pathetic offering as far as newspapers go.
For another thing....newspapers make me a little bit squeamish. They are messy things. One has to unfurl a newpaper to gargantuan proportions to even read it. And then they end up being splayed all over the place waiting on someone (meaning me) to have to pick them up, organize, store and recycle them. Magazines are almost as bad, but at least they don't "splay". Its the splaying nature that makes newspapers so God-awfully hateful to me.

So my son calls me today to inform me that the city water supply here has been compromised. There is contamination with Fecal-something-or-other bacteria in the water. Its all over the news. Locally, of course. So I had no idea. Everybody was being instructed NOT to drink the water, use ice cubes made from the water, brush your teeth with the water...and so forth and so on. EWWWW! I was drinking from a big bottle of ice water that I brought from home, straight from the tap when he called me. And I had not one, but 2 cups of coffee made from our water for breakfast!! I started to feel ill immediately. Not just ill, but really seriously sick. My stomach was flip-flopping and cramping, and I began to wonder just how long I had before I began to die a horrible, gut-wrenching death from having ingested so much fecal-something-or-other bacteria.

Then I remembered that my husband also took a big bottle of crystal light with him to work today. Crystal light made from the fecal-infested water. So I pulled myself together from my dying-phase to make a quick call to him to warn him that his death might be imminent as well. He listened to me for a couple of minutes as I explained to him our dire situation. And then he said:
"Um, you know that we are on the county water system that is in no way connected to the city water supply?" And somehow I was cured. Just like that.

And while our water is safe here, unfortunately our son is on the city water system, and he has to boil his water until further notice. Actually, I think he ran out and bought several gallons of bottled water, cuz seriously....boiling is just too much work.

I know...

I know I have been lax in posting. For months. And I also know that I have given plenty of excuses. The latest one of those is that we have spent quite a lot of time painting and doing other chores to help Stephen and Hannia get their new place not only ready, but decorated to their (meaning Hannia's) personal taste. Its coming together nicely, and our part is almost done.
With the exception of helping them put down a new kitchen floor. Hannia's parents bought the flooring. We are going to help them install it. Well, ok, my husband is going to help them. I really doubt I would be any good at that.

I think they will be happy there. Its a nice place. And since their office is almost done (with the exception of the woodwork/trim needing to be painted....) and the internet installed, desk set up etc....Stephen finally was able to sit down and write a blog of his own. He has been even more lax about posting than I have, but then again, he has been without internet for a while. Or honeymooning out of the country....so yeah, he has his reasons, too. Anyway, if you want to catch up with Stephen's latest musings, you can find him HERE.

Besides that, nothing else is really going on. The rest of the family is down at Bald Head Island, having a great time, I hope. We opted out of the trip this year for several reasons. One of those being that we are trying to plan a special little romantic getaway later this summer for just the 2 of us. I feel like we earned it...haha. We're there in spirit though. Hope you guys get to see some of those elusive turtles hatching this time around.

The Apocalypse...?

It certainly looks like the apocalypse outside right now. Smoke from the wildfires down around the coastal areas of NC has made its way inland and has settled in over our entire town. It looks kind of spooky out there. And the smell is slowly seeping into the house, even though we have everything closed up tight. Areas of it were even thick enough to make driving a little tricky, like driving in heavy fog. Its so weird. I had to run into Target after work today. And it was a bright sunny day when I parked and went in. And yeah, I KNOW I tend to browse in Target for a fairly long time, but not so long as to expect that kind of a change. When I walked back out to my car, the smoke had arrived. Everyone was just standing around in the parking lot looking at it, trying to figure out what was going on. I overheard several people on their cell phones asking if there was any explanation for it on the news. I guess we all expected that the fires were far enough away that we wouldn't have any of this here. But we were wrong, cuz.....its definitely smokey out there.

Stolen Alphabet Meme

I stole this meme from Maria...she said that everyone could use it, so Thanks Maria...haha.



The Alphabet Meme:



-A is for your age:



45...And totally ok with that. I am not one of those folks who get weirded out by their age. Its just a number. Geesh.



-B is for the burger of your choice:



A plain ol' regular cheeseburger fresh off the grill with ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomato, and lots of yummy breath-tainting raw onion. Hold the pickles though, please.



-C is for the car you drive:



A chevy Impala. With a big rainbow colored peace frog sticker in the back window. We have friends who own the Chevy dealership in town, so....yeah....It would be rude to not drive a GM car.



-D is for dog's name:



Scotty, Scarlet, Scooter and Shep.



-E is for an essential item you use every day:



Moisturizer. I may not mind telling my age, but I don't want to look like it. Ha.



-F is for your favorite TV show:



House, MD. I love me some Hugh Laurie.



-G is for your favorite game:



Cranium. I never laugh harder.



-H is for hometown:



Greenville, SC. Home of the creepy cult-like Bob Jones people. We had a rule to never, ever make direct eye contact with any of them (yeah, it wasn't hard to spot them...they dressed uniquely) or they might come up to you and start harrassing you with pamphlets and religious dogma. I don't miss that. Like, at ALL!



-I is for instruments I played:



Clarinet, flute, and piano. I didn't really keep up with any of them, though, so I doubt I have much in the way of skills left now. Honestly? It was kind of a forced issue in my childhood and I don't miss it.



-J is for favorite juice:



um, let me see....I don't really drink much juice because its full of sugar. I like the diet V8 Fusion occasionally though. Its supposed to have servings of veggies and fruit, but it doesn't taste like the regular V8 tomato-y stuff that makes me gag.



-K is for what you'd like to kick:



The managerial staff at my job. All of them. In the face. Repeatedly. Hopefully taking out most of their teeth. But since I am basically a non-violent human being, I try to be content with waiting on Karma to do the dirty work for me. Its going to happen, and its going to be spectacular. And satisfying.



-L is for the last restaurant that you dined at:



We haven't eaten out lately. Lets see...Probably Captain Bill's when we had the rehearsal dinner for the wedding. Although my daughter did run and pick up some take-out from Parker's Barbecue for us right after we got home. We've tried to do a little better since all the celebrating that went on..haha.



-M is for your favorite Muppet:



Kermit, cuz I am totally into the frog thing.



-N is for the number of piercings that you have:



2...one in each ear. I'm not a huge fan of extreme piercings, or tattoos or any of that body art.



-O is for overnight hospital stays:



Wow, lets see. Too many to count, I think. Once for each of the children. But I was hospitalized several times during each pregnancy. I didn't have an easy time of it. Then I had a twisted ovary that had to be removed. And of course, the hysterectomy last year.....Clearly it would have been much easier on me if I had been born a man. I feel like I am leaving stuff out, but I prefer to repress unpleasant memories.



-P is for the people you were with today:



So far, just hubby, but its still early and I am planning to head over to help my son do some painting at his new place.



-Q is for what you do during quiet times:



Nap, read, blog, watch mindless tv



-R is for regrets:



Seriously? I try not to have any. If I have to come up with something then I would say that I regret not figuring out earlier in life that things usually do work out just fine in the end, and I regret wasting so much time worrying about stupid things that never happen.



-S is for status:



Happily married. And hoping that all of our favorite gay and lesbian friends will have the right in the very near future to be able to say the same.



-T is for the time you woke up today:



8am. I am just a morning person.



-U is for what you consider Unique:

My husband's warmth, heart and spirit.

-V is for favorite veggie:

Fresh corn on the cob slathered in butter

-W is for your worst habit:

These crazy nicotine lozenges. So, I quit smoking over a year ago, and I am thankful for that, but now I can't seem to get rid of the lozenge habit.

-X is for X-rays you have had:

Seriously? I have NO idea. It seems like my doc is always wanting to take an x-ray of something or other. Lets just say a whole heck of a lot of them.

-Y is for yummy food you had today:

We had pizza for dinner, cuz its Monday and its hotter than 50,000 hells here and I was NOT going to cook. No way. But the pizza was yummy, so its all good.

-Z is for Zodiac sign:

Virgo. To the core. And I am not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing.

The Newlyweds are BACK

-Stephen and Hannia got back from their honeymoon today. They were supposed to fly back last night, but they got stuck in NYC due to some ugly weather. Most east coast flights got cancelled yesterday evening apparently. They just stopped by to show us their pictures. I'm jealous. I think they had a lot of fun in Madrid. And they made a quick hop over to Brussels for a couple of days, too. I'm just glad to have them back home again. And they brought me Belgian chocolate. Yummy!

-So apparently summer has roared in with a vengeance. It was 98 degrees here today. Its going to be even hotter tomorrow. I know I have said it before, but I will say it again....I HATE hot weather. Passionately hate it with every fiber of my being. I wish I could move to Alaska or the North Pole or something for 3 months out of every year. Of course, with global warming maybe its not even that cool there....??

-Scooter is alive and well. And back to his old annoying self. He has to take some steriods and antihistamines for a couple of days, but it looks like he is not going to go see Jesus anytime soon.

-Erica has been in Boston this entire week for a bio-med conference. I think she has been having a really good time there, too. Well, apparently the science parts have been kind of boring, but the after hours social scene sounds like a blast. She will be home Sunday....I think. Unless flights get cancelled. Hopefully not though.

-Tomorrow is Friday. Yay!

Re-check

So, I had the six month re-check mammogram today. There is still something there that the doc doesn't like. I've been assured that there is a 99% chance that everything is fine. But to be sure, I have to go back AGAIN in another 6 months. Just to keep an eye on this spot. I am not worried, or upset or anything like that. I am just a little bit frustrated because I wanted to be done with this for at least another year. But to be on the safe side, I will go back in November and do whats been recommended. Even though I HATE these things. With a passion.

And...Hubby took Scooter to the vet today. Scooter is our dog that noone likes. I hate to be unkind to an animal, but seriously? Even our other dogs would vote him off the island if they could. He just has an annoying personality, and he can't seem to help it. Its just how he is. He's loud, and boisterous, and is always all up in the other dog's faces wanting to play or get attention or whatever. But anyway, he has a thyroid problem (like me...haha) and he has to go for regular blood tests to make sure his thyroid medication is right. The vet also gave him his distemper shot at the same time. About 2 hours later he was running around, acting all weird, trying to scratch his belly and his back on the carpet. Granted he always acts a little weird, because thats just how he rolls. But this was almost frantic. So, we wrestled him to the floor to check him out, and he had broken out in these huge welts, I guess they're hives, all over his belly. Bruce just left to take him BACK to the vet for them to see this reaction. I did a quickie online search and apparently hives can be a common reaction to distemper shots. They will probably give him a shot of benadryl and some antihistamines and send him home. I hope.....I mean, I know this dog is a pain in the ass but I don't want anything bad to happen to him.

ETA: Scooter is going to be ok. He had to have some shots, and wait around the vet for a while to make sure he was going to be alright. Bruce said that by the time that he got to the vet, Scooter's face had swollen up so much he could barely open his eyes, and his breathing had become labored. Yikes! It was about to become really serious. I'm glad we were home and caught this allergic reaction before it became critical. Anyway, most of the swelling has gone down, and doggy is groggy, probably from the benadryl. I'm guessing that he will sleep good tonight. Poor thing. The vet said that they are no longer going to give him any of these shots except for rabies, which is required by law. The dogs are all old and stay in the house most of the time anyway......Beware these vaccinations because this dog is 13 years old, had all of his shots for his entire life and this is the first time he has ever had a bad reaction to them. Strange.

And its DONE!!!

My son is a married man! I am officially a mother-in-law! And I am somewhat exhausted by all of the festivities of the past few weeks. We had son's college graduation AND wedding in a 2 week span. Whew....that was a LOT of stuff going on.

I am happy to report that the wedding was beautiful. It didn't go off without a hitch. There were a few minor situations here and there. Like, for instance, just a few minutes before we were supposed to leave, I discovered that I had forgotten to pack Hubby's shirt. He had a suit.
He had a tie. He had no dress shirt though. I panicked. He was wandering around the hotel, visiting with all of the family we had staying there, and I couldn't find him. I ran to Dad and Barb's room almost in tears, and on the verge of a serious break down. But Dad had an extra white dress shirt. And it fit. Well, almost. The neck was a little tight, but it sufficed and I was grateful. I found out later that Hannia's Dad, Rodrigo, had a similar situation and he was also wearing a borrowed shirt...haha. Funny.

Anyway, it couldn't have been more beautiful. Stephen and Hannia were so perfect and so obviously in love. Even my sister who is not overly inclined to be emotional got all choked up when she said to me, "He just looks at her in this way that makes you KNOW he loves her."

And then the reception....we had a blast. There was much dancing, and music. My daughter did a most excellent job of her best man's toast. I got a little teary over that one. It was sweet, and heart felt, and I loved every word of it. Every minute of the ceremony AND the toast has been captured on video, so I can relive it all over and over again....haha.

Also? I have heard briefly from Stephen, and they made it safely to Madrid. The place that they are staying apparently has really unreliable internet. So communication has been limited.
But its their honeymoon, so I didn't expect to have long drawn out conversations. I was thankful just to know they are safe, and everything seems to be fine.

I'm sure there are about a million things that I want to write about the past few days, but I'm tired and my brain is frazzled......I will get back to you all later. To sum it up in a couple of words: Good times!!!!