Flowers for Thee

Can We Talk?

FWEO!

(For women's eyes only!)

If you are of the male species, I would suggest you just move along on to the next blog.

I went to my gyno today because I was having some tenderness in one of my breasts. I figured I had better get on it since I am already two months' behind in getting my annual mammogram. Um, make that three months. And there lies my dilemma. Time and the passing of.

When my NP walked in, the first thing out of her mouth was "Where have you been?" Hmmmm. I thought for a moment. I knew I had been in last year for a pap because last year was my year to get on top of this stuff. So, I wondered if it was just a general question. But, to make sure, I said "Excuse me?" She then asked the same exact question. As I began to think of, truthfully, where I had been traveling, she must have noticed the wheels turning. Then she says "You haven't been here since 2005." Wha? I immediately corrected here. "Oh, I know I was here last year." Nope. Then I started pulling those old dusty files from my brain. Well, if I didn't get one here, where did I go? It started to bother me, and I continued searching my noggin for that stupid 2007 Pap "file" (which I never could pull up, daig nabbit).

Regardless of when I was last in, she went right into my breast exam. OMG. Why do women have to be poked and prodded and kneaded like a food product? Daig. I know the woman had to do a thorough exam, but golly gee whiz! Holy mammoly, ouch. I think I'd rather have a mammogram. Which I will be having in two weeks' time. Thank God, all seemed well by her exam.

Now back to the 2005 issue. After much thought and at a loss in figuring out anything other than her date being correct, I started to worry. When has one year turned into 2+? Gawd, I'm not that old yet to be forgetting stuff and having two years pass without my knowing it! Scary stuff. And I thought I was doing so well! Pretty soon, my boys will be making all my appointments for me (and mom!) and making sure I make them. Lordy.

Ok, so 2008 will be the year to get my medical life in order. I have been thinking about changing internists for the last six months (or has it been a year or two?). I have been with her for over five years; but recently, I'm just picking up some bad vibes. Granted, she has her own practice and is trying to convert to holistic care which is A-ok in my book. She has yet to offer any alternatives for any of my ailments. In fact, I don't even think I have seen the woman in over a year. Oh yes, I've been in the office, but I'm always given the nurse practitioner each time (again, fine). But, if you see me in the office, at least pick your head up to say hi. You would think that is just good manners when you're running the show. There's never more than one other patient in there with me, so it's not that she's that busy.

The last straw came last week. When I called to make an appointment for my "annual" mammogram and told them I had some tenderness, they asked that I tell my physician to call which would get me in a lot faster. I did. I have yet to hear from her. Lord forbid I have anything serious going on. That's when I called my gyno, yesterday afternoon. She had me in at 8 a.m. this morning! This wasn't the first time my internist never called me back. And, get this, the week before last, I received a LETTER telling me my February appointment had been cancelled. Now, why couldn't they have picked up the phone and told me? Wouldn't that have enabled me to set another appointment? Ok, enough, I'm just moving on.

I took all of these photos at my gyno's office. Nothing better to do at 7:30 in the morning. All the preggers didn't even start showing up until after 8 so I had the entire place to myself for almost an hour. Perfect for a photo shoot, I say. I've always liked this set of doctors and their offices. Even if I only see them every couple of years. Grin.

A New Teetsie

When the teenager was a baby, he called his blankie a teetsie. Then the kid came and the tradition began. Now, everyone has their favorite teetsie.

My new teetsie was found at Anthropologie. I saw it, all balled up and looking quite like the odd-man-out; and of course it called to me. I was thinking of taking it to Riverside which is where I have all of my other favorite teetsies. You see, the hub keeps it so darned cold in the summer time, we all are walking around like Eskimos in the house when it's 100+ degrees outside. I think one morning, I even had to bring the blow dryer in to the kid's room in order to melt his frozen body out of the bed. But, you know what? I'm kinda liking it here on the little church pew. It certainly matches the Indian crewel pillow, no? Well, let's do this. It will stay here until the weather turns warm at which time I will deliver it to Riverside to keep us cozy in the ice house. Good deal. If you look really hard, you will see Fallen Lamb is again upright and even has a pygmy flock grazing next to him. Go figure.

This morning I woke up with some tummy problems. I think it's going around here. I know two friends who said they had a "stomach thing" and I guess that's just what I had. It came and went rather quickly this morning, quite the way to start the weekend I must say. But it left as quickly as it came. It did leave me with a horrid headache all day which I will take any old day over the other problem. Since I was afraid to eat much, I finally broke in to my lebkuchen (a soft gingerbread) that I had purchased in NYC at Teuscher's during the Christmas Holidays. I think it's a lot like Stollen and lasts a very long time if wrapped correctly. It indeed was wrapped correctly because it still tasted fine to me.


And, speaking of tasting just fine, our Honeybells arrived today! I have to say, they were well worth the year's wait. No wonder they come complete with bibs. Of course, I already have juice on the front of my shirt because I opted for no bib. I don't need no stinkin' bib. Well, I guess I actually did. These babies are just the perfect little fruit. I don't think eating the other half will upset my tummy, do you? I am dying to eat it. Absolutely dying. Ok, I'm just going to go eat it. I just can't control myself any longer. Wish me luck about 2 a.m. this morning!

Fallen Lamb

Tennessee Tornadoes

I am finally getting a grip on how hard hit our state was during Tuesday's tornadoes. There are so many people that were effected and need our help.

If you can, please take a look at any of these sites.


Nashville Red Cross (You are able to make a one-time donation and mark your gift specifically for "Tennessee Tornado Relief " if you wish.) PS They accept Paypal.


The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee


Second Harvest Nashville



For local Tennesseeans:

Kroger stores are accepting financial donations on behalf of the Red Cross. 100% of the donation will be given to the Red Cross for the local relief fun.

Publix stores are accepting financial donations on behalf of the Red Cross.

Please help if you can.

Photos borrowed from The Tennessean

Proud Momma

Valentine's?

I found a whole slew of new shops that opened up in Nashville before Christmas this week. Lord, I have really been out of the loop for way too long. I will NE-VER EV-ER do another remodel as long as I live. Not one that involved, anyway. I truly feel I lost a good six months of my life. As if! Anyhoo, I don't know how I heard about it, but I found out an Anthropologie opened in our little Nashville! This is one of my favorite catalogs; and I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I found there was a shop in Georgetown, (DC) a couple of years ago. But, I really wasn't too impressed with the local one here. DC had a lot more household items. Perhaps it's because the items are dispersed between all the clothing (all of which is way too small for this hefty body) and it just seems that way. Not to say that I didn't enjoy myself, of course I did! There were other shops that caught my fancy, of course. The above heart was in the Whole Foods Market window. First time in that store. DC was just getting them when we moved. Pout.

What about this little number for Valentine's Day? Hehe. Yea right. Not even in my younger days--well, perhaps then. I think I'm more up for the Louis Vuitton steamer trunk. Gawd, my brother Jim would die for this piece! Yep, this is more my speed. Just pack my things, darling, and whisk me away to places unknown. Yes, definately going for the trunk over the corset. This little paper mached dress caught my eye also. Actually, I'm not quite sure if it's paper mache at all. It was fun, just the same.

It was a nice outing. Before I could even get out of my car, there was a knock at my window. I opened the door and it was a gentleman with a video camera. Gawd. "I'm from channel 4 news and am wondering what you are doing for Valentine's Day." Gee whiz (which is exactly what I said), "Isn't that like a couple of weeks away? At least a week, now that I think of it. Still, a pretty long time!" I'm sure I looked like a deer in the headlights. Even so, he still wanted to "interview" me. "What are you planning for Valentine's Day?" "Well, to tell you the truth, I haven't given it much thought. I still have a week, don't I? I normally make something for my husband. Two years ago, I made him a scherenschnitte heart--intricate cutting involved in that one." I really didn't know if I should look at the camera or at him, so I did both. "And what do you want for Valentine's?" Hmmmmmm. "Well, I'm really not one for wanting gifts so I would just say lots of love and attention and having him at home--he travels a lot." The interviewer liked that, which is what he probably tells everyone once they're done. Of course, I never saw any of it because of the tornadoes and then yesterday, our cable was out! Just as well. He sure did have that camera up in my face! F-A-C-E! Lovely. (not)

Today, I found some pretty bulbs at the supermarket and of course had to have them. They are so cheerful. I think daffodils are one of my all-time-favorite spring flowers. I can't wait for the hyacinths to open. I love that smell. I am still enjoying the photos my little point-and-shoot Sony takes. What a difference in the close ups. Love them the most.

After yesterday's fasting, we were mighty hungry tonight. I found a beautiful beef roast and that's just what we had. It was delish.





And, before I forget, the kid found the baby in the King Cake. Check out where it was. It wasn't even baked into the cake. I think that's just not right! I made a mistake as to who found it last year. I thought it was the teenager; but he and his friend reminded me that it was indeed the friend. He tried again this year; but low and behold, it was the kid's turn. Ay-yeeeeee!

All's Ok

We were lucky enough to have the bad weather stay a couple of miles Northwest of us, but some areas got hit bad last night.

I spoke with Bethy this morning. I thought about her and her mom Lottie living in Dickson when the storms were heading straight toward them last night. I was glad when she called me. My cable was out and I couldn't get any of my info off my computer (on my TO DO list to move everything where I don't need to go "online" to get it). They were spared also. Thank God. But, the bad news was her mom, Lottie, is in the hospital with her back. She's scheduled for an operation on President's day, after being postponed from January. Beth says she was in so much pain that they took her to the ER last night right in the thick of the storms. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

As I said, our cable was out all day, it JUST now came back on. We're fortunate to have only that to worry about as others in the area are out of power and may be out for over a week because of a natural gas explosion a little ways from here. It was a very long night with my weather alert going off every hour or so. I kept the TV on all night so I could awake when the alarm went off to see if we needed to go down to mom's and crawl in bed with her. We never did though.

I am just now catching up with my email and trying to listen to the news as I was out of touch with any news about last night. Not fun. Gee, we (I) seem to take all this stuff for granted these days. Lord forbid I pick up a newspaper.

Thank you all for your emails last night and today. Big hugs.

Super Tuesday Primary

Have you?

For information on Super Tuesday, click here.

Mardi Gras 2008

I will share more later. But I had to get the carnival started! Aiyeeeeeeeee!

The King Cake is out, albeit a little disheveled. When the kids get home, we'll make our first cut. I wonder who will get the baby this year. The teenager got it last year, I think. He took all my beads to school today so I'm a little bare. Oy.

We're just warming up. I have had our Mardi Gras XM station tuned in and mom and I have been doing our dancing off an on.


This is guaranteed to get ya movin'!


This one too!


This is one of my favorite Mardi Gras songs . . . but the video is a tad boring. (I'm still looking for a goodie to share!) But, if you're ever in New Orleans, Mardi Gras World is a must. This is where most of the Mardi Gras floats are made. It's an amazing place.

Cotton Textiles

This is the hub's new baby, Fibermax cotton. Look for it on shelves soon. Well, not really soon. It was just introduced like last week! This new long staple cotton is scrumptious to the hand. I want all my T-shirts made out of this stuff. I especially love the Texas theme, having Texan blood running through my veins. My dad was from Texas.

Here the kid is doing a mini fashion show. Fun stuff. It's always enjoyable seeing the hub's hard work come to fruition. For many years it was hard to "show" what the hub did as he worked mainly with numbers--textile quotas, etc. Boring. You can click on the photo to get some of those stats.

Speaking of cotton, I finally got some close-up photos of the old European pillow sham I have on our bed. Mom and I had a favorite antique/thrift shop down town we use to peruse. They have since closed their doors, much to my dismay. We found this when she first moved here. I only paid a couple of bucks for it and it sure was in better shape back then. The hub insists on using it as a prop up pillow! Oh my. Every time I catch him, he just slides it from his back ever so slowly knowing what words will soon be coming out of my mouth. Thus, there are now tears in the fine cotton. Whatchya gonna do? As I was trying to take photos of it, Bella insisted on tearing it even more! Oh well. If you use it, it gets worn. I'll be darned if I'm going to put it away won't I can't enjoy it. It's one of those pieces that I truly get enjoyment out of each and every time I look at it or run my hands over it. The detail work is incredible. I had never noticed a little garden hat hidden in the intricate work. So pretty. One day soon, I must darn it and get it back to looking its best. The actual shade is a true white, like the worn photo on the right, not like most the photos. I turned the flash off as it was fading the detail out at such close range.

At any rate, enjoy the beauty of this almost lost art.







PS The quilt hanging over our bed was made by my Grandma Rosie. She used to save all her old dresses and my Aunt Ollie would send her pieces of fabrics she used in home decorating. Grandma would make crazy quilts out of all the scraps. This one is my favorite. You can tell which pieces were the silks as they are actually disintegrating before my eyes, unfortunately. I was told that the cause was the metallic salts used in treating the silks way back when.

A Series of Threes

Ok, they say bad luck comes in threes. Alright then, we've had our three. Not to make light of any of it, but I sure hope this is it.

Last week, Johnny indeed get home from the hospital. Yay. But in turn, my brother-in-law was admitted. Kidney stones. Ouch. Seems things went ok there, with much pain, I'm afraid. Poor guy.

He phoned us, which I thought was to fill us in on his malady, but that wasn't it at all. My father-in-law had just been admitted to the hospital after suffering from a stroke. The doctors have been going back and forth on how serious it was for two days. Then, as fast as he was admitted, he was released. Thank God. It doesn't seem to be a full-blown one.

The hub is on his way up to NY in the morning to help out at the house with whatever is needed. He had a flight out today; but after dropping him off and arriving back home, he called to tell me the flight was cancelled. To tell you the truth, after hearing that another brother stepped in tonight, I was glad to have him home another evening. The poor guy is dead tired.

He only got home Friday after being away all last week (and being sick on top of it). He even tried to get into the ER two nights in a row in Texas because he had his tonsils acting up. The last time he had this ailment, the doctors almost had to lance one tonsil after the infection got so bad after only a few days. They were so swollen, he could barely swallow. (Ew.) He thought he would nip it in the bud and get a fat antibiotic shot in the butt only to find people waiting outside just to get into the ER. What in the {bleep} is happening to our country? Lord have mercy. My poor father-in-law lay in the ER for two days because there weren't any rooms for him. WHA??????

(RANT ON) I tell you, if Americans don't follow this election closely, we are truly going to hell in a hand basket. We're already there, if you ask me. We HAVE to get our heath care back on track in this country. (RANT off) Ok, deep breath.

It's difficult watching our parents age and all that comes with that. But then, we're not getting any younger either. I suppose this is the next stage in adulthood. I don't like it much. I'm hoping the threes had their go of it and our family is now on the mend.

Princess Bella

Thank you Heidi for the wonderful idea. Bella certainly does deserve her own tuffit and by golly she got it!

On Bedside Tables

Laura, of The Poet Laura-eate, did a posting on her bedside tables. Since I'm totally bored today and couldn't think of anything else to blog about, I decided to take the bait and show mine in all their winter splendor.

The main component of my bedside table is the clock radio. I hardly ever turn the radio on unless I'm doing some heavy-duty cleaning--which is hardly ever. I'm sure there are dust bunnies under the bed giggling at this amusing thought. In contrast though, Bella loves to turn the radio on by way of walking over ON it, normally at some God-awful hour of the night. I have my smelly room stuff--my lavender sheet spray, oils to burn and normally a natural lavender room spray which must have fallen behind the table. Lord only knows what's behind there.

I have my hand cream, my Burt's Bees lip balm (which I must use in order to fall asleep), my mineral night powder, some glass kisses which I picked up here and there, a little dish, broken, which I got cheap in Geneva, Switzerland, my watch and an old bible my Aunt Ollie brought back from Jerusalem for me many many moons ago. It feels good by my bedside.

The lamps are a pair of cheap (and I do mean cheap in the real sense of the word) ones I bought when the kids were small, and we were "house" poor but in real need of lamps. I purchased a set of four of these cheesy brassy things for under $50 which I immediately painted. They have lasted all these years, although I am starting to see some of the "pretty" gold show through in spots.

You'll also notice on the floor my hepa filter which runs 24/7 (probably in need of a filter change, now that I think of it). My humidifier that keeps me from turning to stone in my slumber. And, of course, there's always Bella by my side. So sweet. This is why you see no water glass there. All the cats thought it was the communal watering hole. Had to do away with that years ago. I have one of those small pitchers with the glass that covers the top. But who wants to be pouring water, bedside, in the middle of the night? Not me. Also found are various magazines, ripped pages from old ones and my trusty wrist guards which I have to wear every night. I look like a boxer when I get tucked in. Lovely

Now the hub's side, oooooooooof! It's all very guyish with papers and books and tax stuff and a sound machine, TV remote, shoes and computer parts. Lol. Maybe I should put the hepa on his side, ya think? hehe.

Ok, who else out there is willing to show us their bedside tables? C'mon.