A New Hairdo and A New Puppy

I am a die hard lover of change. When Jack would leave for the rig I would begin a project to move us from room to room or just rearrange the place. I love to do different things with my hair and am never afraid to try out a new style even if it is radical. In the 60's and 70's I did the Afro and wore a military coat. I dyed it many colors but not at once until the 90's. I only went lavender for a few days. Now I get a perm every few years it seems and this week was my siren call. I made a few extra dollars and was toying with getting my head almost shaved if it hadn't become possible to get the dreaded Perm. I am once again curly topped. It is so new I still smell like a perm. I look forward to growing out my fair and royal locks again and this perm thing helps me get through some awkward stages. I know I will get some yeah's and some nay's but it is okay as I never stay the same way for long.

Speaking of new smells we gave Karah's new puppy Prince a bath this morning. He smells much better now alas it will not last. We will no doubt have to dunk Prince often. Prince is a yellow lab with an English pedigree. He is roly poly with needle teeth and very loveable and sweet. Karah does a great deal of the work of taking care of him but the rest of us fill in when we can help. This yellow lab is darker than Sasha which is my son's yellow lab. I love the temperment and am glad to be around some of the time to watch this little fella grow up. So far Tish and the baby do not like this pup because he licks them and nibbles on their fingers and toes with his needle like teeth. The rest of us don't really like being chewed either but we are learning to distract him and give him a toy when he does that. He is doing well on being potty trained or maybe we are doing well at remembering to take him out often and right after he gobbles his food.

This Monday is Karah's 8th birthday. She is excited but has a cough. So today is slowdown and stay home day to try to get well. We may even try a bath with the vapors later on. Eliana is here and even had a bit of a nap. She seems to have leg aches like I did when I was growing. I rubbed them and helped her get warm to try to ease the pain. My gramma rubbed my legs for hours sometimes. She was a peach! I also have the baby and Tisha and Canary and Demetrius. Later maybe Peggy will drop by with Jordan and Lewcie. I am completely exhausted from a night with puppy and baby and my own back giving me fits. I think I slept 4 hours and paced quietly taking Nsaids. Life has it's moments of trial. For me 6 days a week.

I may post a picture of what the house looks like and I have been right behind them all day. Sigh. After they hit the sack I can whirlwind around and make it nice and try to sleep a bit more so my sabbath does not succeth!

Things are unexplained but normal.

E.R. checked Jack out from head to toe and sent him home with Pam W and Jenna for the night and apparently he has pain meds for tonight. They found nothing definative after a CT scan and blood work and x-rays. He is still in major pain but wants to go home NOW and is hungry.
Thank you for prayers.
Now I must get the six kids in the car and go pick up Anjeline and take her and the baby home get my kids back here and in bed and Peggy should be back about that time to take hers.
At church today I heard the Lord telling me to rest. Rest in Him came later but I heard rest and sleep and take it slow so I am planning that very strategy for this week and next. I am tired through and through. Guess I should not have needed that word from God but it is hard for me to stop doing...

Prayer Request for Jack

This morning he sneezed big while Jenna was shaving him before church. He rose up out of the chair and yelled in pain. His side is hurting bad and now he says it has hurt since he last fell 2 weeks ago. It never bothered him when he went to get an adjustment either week. He has gotton up and down fine without pain. Now he is unable to breathe well or get in or out of his chair without help. Please pray as he has been coughing and I do not want him to get pneumonia. He does not want to go to the hospital or urgent care.
I will go home in the morning and continue to assess his symptoms. In the meantime, Jenna has a high pain level herself and this is a hard chore to be helping lift Jack. Please keep them in prayer.
Post Script #1 - Jenna is taking him to hospital against his will as he is in too much pain. I will update you all later.

To those of you who noticed:

No, my eyebrow is not pierced. I have duct tape decorated with rhinestones on a "removeable" spot. Cool gramma huh?

Age and Style

About 25 years ago my husband and I had our picture taken as a couple. I had large pink glasses on and a hairstyle that was gentle and quite ordinary. This picture hangs on wall above the bed he sleeps in. I make this bed every morning.

So...today I looked in the mirror and noticed my pink glasses and ordinary hairstyle albeit a new color. So I ran for my camera and shot myself with the said delightful younger photo beside me.

Styles come and go over the years but it struck me that I was in a dejavu type look. So posting this will please me and you can see the ravages of time or the amazing way I look just the same. It is all in the eye of the beholder so depending on the day have at it!

Good News!

Jams went home yesterday and her sister is staying with her to help her! I praise God and ask for you to continue to pray for her during this pregnancy.
Jamie has had many attacks on her physical self through health challenges during the past two years. The result has been a harder than usual pregnancy.
Her greatest desire is to be the wife and mother God has called her to be and her health will affect her abilities. So I will pray and urge others to do so also. Thanks so much!

Need Your Prayers!

My Jamie girl needs your prayers. She is in hospital awaiting the news if she now needs a transfusion. She has a kidney infection, e-coli and low numbers in hematicra. If you read this please pray for her and for the baby! Thanks!

The Fall Retreat

On Oct. 2nd I had the joy of going to a women's retreat at Spencer Lake Campground in Waupaca. I rode up with Jean and Pam in Jean's Prius and the ride was fun. I hadn't known Jean very well and thought she might be stiff. Far from the truth actually she was a kick and her mom joined us from Milwaukee and it was great having her along.

We shopped and ate and I rested while they played games and put together puzzles in the evening. I was bone tired when I went and getting over being very sick so an opportunity to melt down in my bunk and read the word of God and journal while I took supplements and just rested was so welcome to me. Fortunately the ladies didn't question my right to take this time and it turned out well for all.

The speaker had a wonderful testimony and there were additional highlights including prayer up front for those of us who wanted it. I welcomed it and received peace. Angel met me at the front and prayed "Peace" and "Bulldog" over me. I do know I am tenacious. I hang on for dear life to the promises God gave. I only wish I could hang on to my money a bit better. Sigh. So did I mention we shopped?

Once again I put a "Doris Weed" painting on lay-away. This one is for the dining room and it is just delighful! I adore her style. It is so funny and full of whimsey. I alsobought a few small gifts for the Thanksgiving get together at Nashrock. I love getting gifts for others. Heck I love getting gifts for me too! I got myself a glass nail file of all things and a purse hanger. They just may be too specialized for me and others may receive them. I usually have a messy and heavy purse with tons of junk inside. I buy the kind that can hold 50 # and then overload it. So finding what is in there is a chore. I want to be organized and strive for it but fall a bit short on account of over-booking and not setting time boundaries on what others take from me. Needy people will always take all the time you have if you let them and then soon you are one of the needy ones. I struggle with time boundaries.

So Jenna had some problems with Jack falling while I was away and she was highly stressed when I was on the way home. I still took time to stop for a last dinner, had two glasses of Chardonnay and a tray of nummy appetizers as a treat from my new friend Jean. It was so fun that Pam, Jean and I plan to go to Minneapolis for a special weekend after the first of the year. If that happens I will need Jamie's old direction notebook to find the wonderful antique store and boutique we used to go to so I can share it with these ladies. When I arrived things had settled down a bit and he had less falls after that but still one really different one where he fell on the walker and gouged his hand really deeply, bruised his hip and hurt his neck. Sigh!

What was the best part of the weekend? Coming home with more peace and feeling refreshed and ready to face the next task at hand. I will go again next year if God allows.
What am I looking forward to now? Thanksgiving (of course) And spending tomorrow with Mike cleaning the old house. Then Girl's night in tomorrow night working on the books we are building of our authentic selves. Oh and Jesus coming again in the sky for His church!

Farmers' Market

Hey, had a ball yesterday when I decided to take an hour and 20 minutes to explore the farmers' market on the capital square in Mad-town. Went against the flow of foot traffic no matter what way I chose to go but it turned out except when I almost tumbled over a wagon tongue because of my bi focals. Whew. That kid would have been surprised as would his cauliflower.

I was on the lookout for apples and flowers and cauliflower. I got peppers (both green and mild), apples, broccoli and cauliflower plus a tiny bouquet of straw flowers. It was fun and the cauliflower grown locally was 1/4 the price of the one at Whole Paycheck the day before that I luckily weighed before purchase. I carried my own bag and only took a 20 and brought home 5 so did really good.

I tasted a few really good bites of horseradish cheese but resisted the high price per pound. I love the flavor of the market and the music and the $1 cup of good free trade coffee made me wake up instead of lay on the grass and look up at the trees as I was tempted to do.

As I made my way back to the car I felt really proud of my purchases and look forward to eating them this next week. I would love to go every week instead of to the grocery store. It is like a throwback to the 60's for me. Good food and open air with music and flowers ...well, that is why we were called the flower children, huh?

The Rest of the Story

So all week I have worked at cleaning up the biggest mess I have seen in a yard for quite awhile. John cut and run in a big bad rainstorm and I had to stay and do the cleanup. I got a helper here and there for a couple hours but mostly just plugged away at it. 8 truckloads went to the city brush pile and I have given logs away and still have an amazing pile to move this next week. Dave S came over and used my electric chain saw to cut up the long pieces I couldn't take to the city and now it is looking like a done deal! I am grateful to Peggy, Jenna, Josh and Dave for helping me and to Pam for a night out watching Mama Mia one last time on the big screen as a reward for a job well done. I do know how to reward myself you know. It makes the whole thing a lot more fun.
I wore my headband like a sweatband one day as I was dripping and we ran to Culver's for some Soup. You know that Soup is good food and they had Mexican Chicken Enchilada...MMMMM Good! So the lady asked if we had any discounts or coupons and Pam said "NO"...I said "Wait what kind do you offer and she said well are either of you over 60?" and I crowed "Yes! I am 62!" She looked at me like she almost was gonna ask for an ID but Pam said "She always looks younger when she wears that headband!" Ha! Gotta get your laughs where you can huh?