The 4th and Beyond

My precious little firecracker.

The holiday weekend is over and it's back to regular every day life. Our 4th was nice, but I almost hate to say, I'm glad it's over. It just gets to be busy and hectic and loud and I look forward to the calm and quiet. We had rain on Friday, so everything was very wet for Saturday, but there was no more rain. It was just very chilly. The fireworks out over the lake were great, and we sat on our peninsula and on our boat for the perfect view, while we shivered under sweatshirts and blankets. We have the most ideal fireworks viewing spot on the lake and we've had some pretty good 4th of July parties in the past. This year, though, was a little bit low key, which was actually nice. It was just the family, but of course my son Brandon wasn't here as he has already moved to Spokane. Diana, his wife, was only here with Riley for about an hour as her grandfather is very ill and her family spent the day at his home with him. My dad also wanted to bring Grandpa over from the nursing home to enjoy the family for a few hours. Grandpa loves being around the kids and family and eating food other than nursing home food. Grandma wouldn't let him leave her. My dad was so upset with his mother about this. Grandpa is 93 and his mind is failing, but is physically in very good shape. Grandma is the opposite. Also 93, her mind is sharp as a tack, but physically she is very bad. She can't do anything on her own, weighs 75 pounds and is in constant pain which so far the doctors can't find a real reason for. Grandpa is not allowed to help her in or out of bed or to the bathroom because they both have been know to fall down when he does this. But no matter, she doesn't want him out of her sight. It's a very sad situation all the way around for everybody. And then Logan, my 4 year old grandson, ended up with strep throat and so he only came for a short time in the evening to see the fireworks. He loves the water and swimming. I felt so bad for him to miss out on the day. It was not one of our best 4th of July celebrations, but we still enjoyed the family and the day that we had.
I should knock on wood or something when I say this; it hasn't rained since Friday. YEAAA! It's been very nice, although not real warm. About 70 degrees and sunny. Austin, my oldest son the Air Force Recruiter, had Monday off, so he brought Logan out to swim in the lake. Logan is feeling much better and he really wanted to swim. He's only 4, and never goes in the water without his swimmy vest, but I really want to get him into swim lessons at the YMCA.
Last night, my neighbor and her step-daughter had a jewelry party I went to. It was "Stella and Dot" jewelry. I had never heard of it before and it's very nice, I just didn't need any more jewelry. I got a sweet little key hole heart necklace just because I felt obligated to get something. It was very nice to get together with 9 other women and sit on the patio and small talk, so it was worth it.
Today Dee and Riley came back from their last 2-1/2 days in Pittsburgh with her parents. I miss little Riley when I don't see her for a couple of days. The day I leave them in Spokane to finally be in their new home with Daddy, will be a very hard day for me. We won't think about that yet.
I took my little black poodle, Ellie Mae, to the vet first thing this morning for her annual teeth cleaning. She is 10 years old and her teeth are very bad. She loses about 5 teeth every time I get them cleaned. She barely has any teeth left, but her breath smells a lot better. For now.

A true friend is someone who reaches for our hand and touches your heart. I'm passing this along to all my friends:

one) Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

two) Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

three) Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have, or sleep all you want.

four) When you say, "I Love You", mean it.

five) When you say, "I'm sorry", look the person in the eye.

six) Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

seven) Believe in love at first sight.

eight) Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much.

nine) Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.

ten) In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling...

eleven) Don't judge people by their relatives.

twelve) Talk slowly but think quickly

thirteen) When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?"

fourteen) Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk..

fifteen) Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.

sixteen) When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

seventeen) Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.

eighteen) Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

nineteen) When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

twenty) Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.

twenty-one) Spend some time alone.

I wish all my friends a happy and safe holiday!

My babies - Aren't they cute? Today was their monthly grooming day. They don't like it. They shake and shiver once we get about halfway to the groomers because they know where they're going. How do they know? It's so amazing the sixth sense (dog sense) they have. They can also tell things, like, if we're going to be going out of town. Do they really understand that suitcases coming out of the closet means they go to the doggie sitter? And they know when I'm sick. They'll cuddle up next to me and lick my face in a way that it seems like they're trying to make me better. Anyway, we're trying a new haircut style. They've always had the traditional poodle cut, but I saw a poodle last month that had a version of a Bichon cut. I had a Bichon that I just loved and had to put him down 2 years ago and still miss him. So I want to try this on them. It'll take a few more months to get the face fuller. I think Fergie (my little boy on the right) may look cute with the new cut, but Ellie Mae is 10 years old and her hair is thinning a little and her eyes get realy "ucky" so this longer hair around the face may not work. We'll see what happens. Notice their little 4th of July scarves.

My normal schedule is grocery shopping and errand running on Wednesday and office work on Thursday, but I had to switch it up a little this week. Anyone that knows me knows that I don't like to leave the house if I don't have to. Since the dogs were getting groomed today, I decided to get groceries and run errands in between dropping off the babies and picking them back up. And since 4th of July is Saturday and we have people over to watch fireworks, I needed the extra day to get together my list of things I needed for Saturday. But I've already started a new list of things I forgot or just thought of, so I'll have to go back out tomorrow. I hate when that happens. I'm finding it very difficult, though, to get in the outside party celebration mood because it's still cool and rainy. Everyone's mood is starting to become affected by the gloom. WE NEED SUNSHINE! They are saying Saturday is supposed to be the start of nice weather, but I'm not quite trusting them yet. Everything is so wet. The flowers in pots are getting wayyy too much water and not enough sun. They don't look as good as they should. The perennials look pretty good, but I have to keep spraying my homemade stinky deer away mixture because the rain keeps washing it off. I would normally decorate outside a little more, too, for the holiday, but I can't put too much out there. Oh well. People will still show up to watch the fireworks that are put off over the lake, and we'll have food and drinks, and everyone will still have fun. Just praying for no rain from about 4:00 pm until 10:30 pm. and I'll be happy.

Skies Still Dark, Mood Brighter

Today felt much better than yesterday, as I knew it would. My Bob was much calmer and into his work week groove, as I knew he would be. After almost 30 years of marriage you just know the best way to deal with each other and hang onto the saying, "This, too, shall pass". The longer you're married, the better you become at reading and handling the needs and moods of your spouse; or is it, the better you are at reading and handling the needs and moods of your spouse, the longer you stay married? Either way, it has worked well for us.

Today is Tuesday, so half the day was spent working in my "office", as part time office assistant for My Bob. Thought you may want to see my "office". It's a great corner office with a great view, and comes complete with a full kitchen. Ha Ha. I have my little antique desk, file drawer and printer set up in the corner of my breakfast nook. When I'm done working, I close up the desk, file all the papers, and my kitchen's back in order. It's a great set up and I know I'm very fortunate to be able to have it this way.
After lunch, our neighbor asked if we had any use for some left over gravel that he had in his pick up truck. He's had to tear out and now rebuild part of his patio because it sunk about 4 inches after the winter. My Bob appreciated the offer because he needed to fill in some sink holes that develop every year out on our little peninsula in the lake. The muskrats and the water digs away at it from underneath. Here's Bob and Corky, the neighbor, shoveling the gravel into our wheelbarrow. My Bob always feels good after some physical activity, so this was a welcome break. I do mostly all of the yard work, but the heavy lifting stuff I have to leave to Bob.
Thank goodness they got this little project done just in time, because guess what? You got it, as usual, it started to rain. And not just a little bit. It poured, and the wind blew, and so much hail came down my back deck looked like it was covered with ice cubes. That storm didn't last too long, although it has continued to sprinkle the rest of the day. Bob came down stairs from his office, walked into the dining room and yells into the kitchen at me, "What happened in here?" There was water all over the floor in front of the bay window. And it didn't come in through the window. It was dripping from behind the molding on the ceiling. Great! It's always something, isn't it? But you know what, surprisingly neither one of us got too worked up. We remained calm, I cleaned up the mess, and we'll have to get someone to take a look to find the problem. It's not leaking any more, even though it's still raining. The strong wind must have done it. We'll get it fixed. "This, too, shall pass". (My new mantra)

The puddle was on the floor right under the plants. You can see the sudden water stains on the ceiling, but thank goodness it was on hardwood and not carpeting. I guess you need to look at the positive.

Rainy Days and Mondays

After the very relaxing and quiet Sunday we had, waking up to Monday was a little hard. My Bob especially gets stressed on Mondays. The start of the work week and the pressures puts him in a foul mood. And his office is in our home, so I hear about it all day. As the week goes on he settles back down. There are a lot of pressures on him and I wish I could make it all calm down for him, but there's not much I can do other than listen to him and understand. He's a Financial Planner and does well, but this has been a very trying year. What used to be a good and fun career is now very difficult with many changes. I don't know how he does it and I'm amazed at how knowledgeable and intelligent he is, but I hope it becomes fun again some day soon. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I work with him doing mailings, paperwork, bookkeeping, etc.

Mondays for me is busy, but I actually enjoy it. I keep a pretty tight schedule for myself during the week days. Mondays I wash the sheets and clean my bedroom and bath. I do the laundry and some ironing, clean the guest bathroom and usually I clean the hard wood floors and vacuum the main floor. Today, though, I knew more rain was coming later this afternoon so I worked outside trimming more of my row of hedges in the front of the house. With all the rain, they are just out of control and the weeds are ridiculous.

With Bob taking on the responsibility of income, I try to take care of everything else and make our home and life as comfortable as I can. We have a large house and a big front and back yard so I need to stay on a schedule or I can't keep up with it all. I am cursed with being a perfectionist which causes me more work than is probably necessary, but I have no control over my neurotic ism.

Austin, my oldest son, came out for lunch. He starts his new job as Air Force Recruiter on Wednesday. So today he was out taking care of some things he needed to do, then wanted to work out so he came to our house. Bob has weight equipment in the back of our garage. People come here all the time to work out. Bob is a part time personal trainer, pro bono. He loves it. I always told him that was his natural calling. He should live in Hollywood and be a trainer to the stars instead of dealing with all this financial mess. Yea right - that's not going to happen!..Or he'd be great as one of the trainers on "The Biggest Loser". That's not happening either, but he really would be good.

I just listened to the weather for the week and it's supposed to rain every day through Friday and temperatures in the upper 60's to 70. Great fall weather, except it's summer. Doesn't really feel like it.
Hopefully tomorrow feels a little more positive, especially for my Bob. When he's down, I'm down. You know you love someone when you wish you could take their pain, or misery on yourself so that they would feel better. Of course, all the rain and clouds don't help.