Dear Mom

Dear Mom,

I cannot believe it's been over three years since you have left us.  It seems like just yesterday.  I've got so much to tell you, I just don't know where to begin.  I remember this picture fondly, of you in your wedding gown just before marrying Dad in March of 1969.  I wasn't even born yet, but one doesn't have to be to look into your wonderous eyes and not feel the elation you were going through.  You and dad sure didn't have it easy, but you never gave up.  For that, you will always be my hero.  Below is a pic of you and dad at the alter.  If you look close, you can see the red splotches on my dad's face from nerves.  He was sooo cute!!

Too bad the pic was in black in white and you can't really see the splotches.  You would be happy for him, I think, Mom.  He now has a new woman in his life, named Gina.  I think you would approve.  She has all the nice qualities that you possessed...kindness, tenderness & generosity.  She treats Dad well and he treats her well.  We will never forget you, Mom, but at least Dad isn't so lonely anymore.

Grandma is doing well, but we both miss dreadfully our California beach trips.  We must have went a million times, but each time it was different.  Between feeding the hungry birds their stale bread we collected for weeks before, to falling all over the whale boat....it just can't be beat.  A fond memory for me was Grandma slipping on the escalator at Ralphs in San Diego.  She for the life of her could not get up, so Mom bowed her head and said, "Let us pray, God."  We got to laughing so hard what when the escalator had hit the top, we could barely get through the store.  I'll cherish forever all the stories of a time well before MY time.  I love hearing about our family and will carry those stores wherever I go.

Frankie is doing well, had another operation since you've been gone.  It was a big one, and he took a long time to recover afterward, but he is on his road to recovery.  I just worry about him so, picking his skin to oblivion.  It's a nervous tick we are trying to get to the bottom of, so if anyone knows how to stop it, please contact me ASAP!!

Frankie's family is doing well.  I can never pay them back (or Grandma, either!) for all they've done for us since your death, Mom.  I can seriously say that if it weren't for them, we'd probably be gone, too.  So thank you, Schranz's from the bottom of my heart for taking me in like one of their own.

Mom, I've had a hard time since you've been gone.  For a long time, I was mad at God for not helping you.  It's taken me months to figure out that He HAS helped you - by taking you out of your misery.  That still doesn't stop my heart from going over the last week of your life.  I will never get over thinking I missed something I shouldn't have.  Or did I work you too hard with the travel nursing? It was hard work packing and unpacking for three months at a time and then moving on.  Maybe I wore you out.  I hope not.  I no longer am mad at God or think I made your death happen....but I still carry around hurt and missing you in my heart.  I think I always will.

Mom, you would be so proud of me, losing 100 lbs since my bariatric surgery in April, 2011.  I still have a ways to go and it was a long, hard road what with complications of diverticulitis and nausea and vomiting at every turn, but I think this six month mark is doing me good.  My stomach is getting stronger with spices.  I just have to be really careful.  And I think about you, how you took life's challenges head on and didn't stop until you completed the task.  If I could be HALF the woman you are, I will be happy.

I see in the picture of my mind, you at work at Medic One Ambulance as a 911 dispatcher.  You didn't let anything get in your way.  You went to work NOT on your two feet, but being pushed in on an office chair when the arthritis was so bad you couldn't walk.  That takes dedication!!
I am in the process of hunting for work soon, Mom.  I think I'm ready to go back to nursing, which is what you always wanted me to do.  You never let me give up in myself, even after I long gave up myself.  You were an amazing mom, one that will be in my heart forever.

I love you, Mom and I always well, no matter how much time I have left on this Earth.  I want to spend each day on the Lord's path and let Him guide me to the future he has laid out for me.  I promise to do my best and follow in your footsteps.  They didn't lead down an easy road, but whoever said life was easy?

May your star shine bright forever, Mom and may you fly on wings of Angels.  You sure worked for it and you deserve it.

Jack is doing well, too.  He misses you, though, I can just tell.  I'm now his "surrogate" mommy.  I feed him, give him water and play with him.  I remember you trying to teach him "no biting" when was a year old.  And you would sing to him the "Daisy Song" that he just loves.  He perches his ears when I sing and NOT in a good way.  How rude!!  Silly kitty!!!  But he gets in lots of purr time.  :0)

We are now heading for the third Christmas without you, Mom.  Or maybe not.  I'll set a place for you in my heart on your favorite holiday, Christmas.  I never thought I'd get this far without you around, but now I know that you are forever inside my heart.  And death doesn't reach there.

Forever love and I miss you terribly,
Your one and only daughter,

OOOPS!!!

I know, I know.  I screwed up.  Or we would just say that my Wednesday is YOUR Tuesday!!  I don't know what came over me.  I've been so scatter brained these days.  Let me tell you, my mom, if she hadn't already died, she would have KILLED me for posting that picture.  I couldn't resist.  She was sitting the motel chair after dislocating her hip and had to have surgery on it.  Well, to make a long story short, she couldn't get out of the chair.  We huffed and puffed and still her bottom wouldn't leave the chair.   I had ONLY one option and that was to call the fire station to come and help us heft up her out of the chair.  Could I help it if they were FINE looking?  My mom was so embarrassed that she couldn't wait for them to leave.

That whole trip was a disaster from start to finish!  For one thing, I was very obese in the 400 pound rang and could hardly breathe. Then mom goes and she is so weak that needed helped held to the bathroom.  I remember crying like a baby in the ER.  Here I was, alone, 1000 miles away and all the decisions had to be made by ME!!  My dad and husband where in Tucson, getting  really to come to San  Antonio to live.  Don 't give me wrong, it's a pretty city with lots to do, but we didn't feel like seeing anything that day.  I noticed my mom getting weaker after the  operation to reset her hip.  I had clinicals for 8 hours a day, so I'd take my lunch break back to the motel and help her to the bathroom and get her something to eat.

Then, she got STUCK in the chair and couldn't get out.  I tried all I could think of and even called my dad, but he said if she was really stuck, and couldn't move, then I should call for help.  The fire truck pulled up and I thought Mom would die on the spot when they were coming in and heaving her out of the chair.  But, boy, did she feel better!!  And then it happened again!  The fire department (same crew) came and rescued her a second time.  She never sat in that chair again.

Over the next week, she got weaker.  I noticed that with her other hip and knee replacements, she got STRONGER, not weaker.  The morning I called 911 to take her, she was talking gibberish and to even to her dear father.  The paramedics weren' t very nice, though, kept saying, "what can we do about it?"  Plenty, jerk wad!
They finally loaded in into the amubulance and I followed behind like Parnelli Jones.  I don't know San Antonio very well, afer being just almost 2 wees there.  I DO love the "turn out lanes" for idiots like me who don't know what they are doing!!
Luckily the hospital was a short distance away from the motel and would be were I would be working.

In the ER, they did the best they could.  Her white cell count was basically non-existent and she had horrible pain in her legs.  I couldn't do anything but sit and watch my mother suffer.  She told me to go home and rest and come back in the morning.  I obeyed my mother, but I wish I hadn't.  That was the last time I saw my mother as my mother.  When I returned the next morning, she wasn't doing well.  Trouble breathing, her heart kept giving out and they were starting CPR.  I remember trying to find a freaking parking spot and being scared out of my mind.  Here my mother was dying in a building that I couldn't find a parking space for!  I finally did find one and was greeted at the door with a wheel chair for me.  At 400 pounds, I had a little difficulty breathing and walking at the same time.

They took me outside her room and told me the grim situation.  Her kidneys have shut down (causing hallucinations) and lack of urine, her heart had to be restarted 3 times already and they couldn't keep her pressure up, despite three IV blood pressure medications.  It was grim indeed.  And the came the hardest question a person could ever be asked:  "If her heart stops again, do you want us to restart it?"  Luckily my mom and aunt from College Station just got there and grandma was telling me, "honey, even if they DO bring her back, she won't be the same.  You'd have to put her a nursing home and that is even harder than death.  My grandma is a tough ole' gal.  She's gone though death all her life, with her father dying with a brain tumor in his 40's, her mother in her 80's and then her husband to Alzheimers and a stroke in July, 1993, at age 72..  I thought every carefully.  What would she want?  My heart instantly new what to do.  "No, she would not want that, to be hooked up to tubes.  Just let her go."  I thought my crying would never stop, especially when we said goodbye to her.  I kissed her cool cheek and never looked back.  I knew if I did, I would never leave.

My mom went to be with our Lord Jesus on July 8, 2008, 1 day after her 60th birthday.  It just isn't fair!!!  I was mad at God for a long time for taking her, then I started feeling a peace over me that she was no longer suffering with arthritis and Lupus.  She was finally free and could fly the skies to her heavenly home.  We should all be so lucky!  There are many ways to die, and hers was in a peaceful manner.  She just let go of her spirit and she woas gone in the human sense.  In the psychological sense, she will NEVER be gone from my heart.

Grandma helped me in so many ways those first few days of signing papers, getting a morturary to cremate her and she would nag at me to eat.  I believe I could have lived off the land for 20 years, but she insisted.  Then I started the long journey to Tucson.  I had NO clue what to do next.  We put our things in a rented storage facitity in San Antonio and haven't had the money to get it back yet.  In that stuff are very precious items to me:  my mom's Precious Moments figures, her purses, her books, her glasses.  And all our furniture.  We are going to save up and get it all back and move into an apartment of our own.  I will be looking for work, soon, I hope.

I heard from Gina yesterday, and things didn't go well on the way back to Oklahoma. I'll leave the details out, it's Gina's story to tell, anyway.  But dear ole' dad is in Michigan.  I think he is just scared about being with someone that isn't my mother.  I'm no Freud, but every time he gets close to someone, he blows it.
Please pray for me and for Gina during this rough time.  I hope they can work it out.  I'll end this post with a picture I took when I was much thinner with my mom and grandma at her trailer in Michigan:

                                            3 Generations of Craziness!!
God bless us all.  And forgive me for my Wednesday post on Tuesday.  Now I won't have to worry about tomorrow!!  :0)

Semi-Wordless Wednesday

This is the last photo I ever took of my mom.  We were in San Antonio as I was going to a new nursing job and a few days after this picture was taken, she died of acute kidney failure.  I love and miss her more than any word could ever say.

Good bye, Mom.  I will always remember you.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Howdy, everyone!!
Sorry I haven't been so good with updating the blog.  It's been such a long, hot summer!  Not only that, but ever since the surgery, I haven't gotten my stomach back!  I think it's working TOO well.  Take today, for instance.  I just got back from the Ford dealer, as my in-laws invited my hubby and me for burgers & hot dogs at their new dealer.   They just bought a kick-butt Ford Escape.  Anyway, I had half a burger and it felt like I ate the whole grill!  I had a few sips of Mt. Dew (nothing much because of the carbonation & gas!) and that about did me in.  It's been a few hours and it feels like I just ate.  I can't even go out to eat anymore!!!  I can't complain, though.  My last weight, after my car wreck, was 257lbs.  I will be getting weighed again this coming week.  I'll have to get a picture up here.  It's really coming off!!

My diet these days is yogurt and skim milk and some chicken, when I can tolerate it.  I kid you not, that is what I've been eating these days.  That bout of diverticulitis has left its mark.  Enough about that!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!  Today he is a young....whatever!  :0)  He is recovering well from his broken collar bone.  I don't know if I told you, he had a nasty fall and that is what happened.  Poor guy!  He sure knows how to live it up in Oklahoma!  From what I hear, that is going to be his NEW home pretty soon.  I'm very happy he has found his soul mate in Gina.  I'm happy to include her in the family now!!

That is pretty much all that's happened here.  Still hot, but we did get a little spitting of water from the sky this morning.  I pray for those that live on the East Coast and have suffered from Hurricane Irene's wrath.  Hopefully all those roads and power have been restored.

Here is a picture from the past: My dad and I when I was about 25 yrs old and had first moved to Yuma, AZ.  Don't we look young and foolish?  Happy birthday, again, Dad and a good Labor Day weekend to all!!!

Just for the heck of it, here's some more from the past:

                                       My mom and dad.  Nice hat, Dad!

               My mom and I after buying my first new car, a 1995 Dodge Neon.

My dad..how I miss seeing that smile and that hat bobbing down the hall!!  :0)

Stay tuned...there's more from where that came from!!

MWS

Howdy!  Guess I'm a restless soul....three blog posts in one day!  I just was thinking about Easter and how one of my most precious memories of my mom and I was when we would go see Michael W. Smith in concert.  We saw him two times and the last time we went, I swear he looked right at my mom and I (we were standing/sitting in the middle row of the arena) and smiled.  I will never forget that.  One of her all time favorite songs, Easter or not, was "Above All."  I will leave you today on that note.....

She so loved Easter, and we would watch "Passion Of The Christ."  I cannot watch that movie right now as it's stuck in San Antonio with the rest of our junk as we can't afford to have it shipped back to Phoenix.  I remember, always, the movie and my dear mom.  How I miss her so!  Here is her picture with a bouquet of flowers she got from my dad...probably when she was in the hospital with her hip replacement.  Anyway, you can see how happy that made her.

This is for you, Mom....

Love,

Semi-wordless Wednesday

Howdy, friends!  Before I put up the picture for this Wednesday, it WILL require a LITTLE explanation.  You see, for as long as I can remember, my dad has had really bad teeth, but we couldn't afford to get them fixed.  Heck, ALL our teeth aren't the greatest.  Anyway, when we all moved to Yuma, AZ in 1993, Dad immediately hi-tailed it to Mexico and got his much needed and much awaited for dentures, both upper and lower for about $800.00.  He has been happy as a clam ever since.  So when we were in Mexico again, I couldn't resist taking this picture:

 

Is he adorable?  He knows it, too!!!  Only HE would stand outside the dental office and LOVE it!  The man was born in a dental chair, I think.  Me, I don't go....unless somebody knocks me out!!!!

I won't be doing a post tomorrow, since I will be off to Gilbert the WHOLE entire freakin' day.  I've got the upper GI test, my labs, the dreaded ABG test and the EKG.  The upper GI test is at 8am and I can't have food, water or pills before the test.  I'm gonna be in agony!  I'm taking them with, though, so right after the test, you bet your bottom dollar I'm sluggin' them pills down!  And then the EKG is not until 2pm.  So in between is the labs and ABG.  Fun.  I hope and wish I will have my doctor's approval note at that time.  But something tells me I'll have to wait until after tomorrow's results and then she'll sign off.  So that means the hubs and I are traveling BACK to Gilbert for the third time this month.

Hope you all have a great Wednesday and Thursday.

May God bless & keep you, my friends & family!!

Hugs,

Who I Am

Howdy, everyone!

I hope I'm not too late with the "Show Us Your Life Friday" at "Kelly's Korner" blog..  She had a topic there that I found really interesting and the linky is open still, so I'm gonna do a post about who I am and where I came from.  I hope I don't bore you too badly!

I was born June 24th, 1970 in Watervliet, Michigan to my proud parents, Bob and Cindy Karchunas.  The picture below is my newborn picture.  Hard to believe I was EVER that small! Ha!

 My mom and dad tried very hard to have more children, but my mom suffered from a condition called endometriosis and she had it severely enough that she had to have a hysterectomy when I was 5 yrs. old.  So we were a small, but very loving little family!  Below is a picture of my mom and dad getting married and then below that is our family picture taken when I was probably 7 years old.  I was waiting for my front teeth to arrive!

Hard to believe my parents were THAT young, too!  They married on March 1st, 1969 in Eue Claire, Michigan, which is where my dad was raised in.  My mom was born and raised in Dowagiac, Michigan.  They met at a drive-through restaurant and the rest is history!  They dated awhile and then tied the knot.  They were great together, like peanut butter and jelly.  I cannot say enough how great my parents are and how much I love them.  They raised me in the leanest of times and a lot of times we had no food or transportation for awhile.  But we survived and when I got my nursing job and moved to Arizona, my parents came too and we had a good life.

 

My mom worked a lot when I was growing up, so I basically was with my dad most of the time.  I adored our time together.  My mom always said he was the big brother I never had!  He was a big, goofy kid who never grew up!  We would play games together, take walks in the woods and he helped me in nursing school with my pharmacology and chemistry.  I got an A in pharmacology and a B in chemistry.  Thank you, Dad!!  And lucky for me, the State of Michigan paid for nearly all of my college education via the "Pell Grant."

Me and my daddy!

Here's me after my pinning ceremony in May, 1993.  I'm a full, bona-fide RN!  Yay!

I moved to Arizona after graduating from nursing school to help my grandma with my grandpa, who was in late stages of Alzheimer's.  Lucky for him, his suffering ended about a month after I arrived in Arizona.  I loved it so much there, I never went back to Michigan!!  So my parents joined me six months later and we lived together (to share expenses, as my mom was on disability for her severe arthritis) until my mom passed away at the tender age of 60 in San Antonio, Texas.  We were looking into a potential job for me at a hospital there and then all of a sudden, her kidneys just failed and she died 24 hours after on July 8, 2008, a day after her birthday.  I can't tell you how much I miss her.  There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about her.  I sometimes feel like she is in the room with me.  Am I crazy?  Ha!

 

This is how I will always remember my parents.  We may not have had a lot of money and had junker cars when I was growing up, but my parents taught me the important stuff in life: respect everyone, treat them as how you wish to be treated and money isn't everything.  It's nice, but it can't get you to Heaven. And so many more things.

I may not have had siblings, but we had plenty of kitties to liven up our home.  Here they are in the order that we had them:

Our black beauty, Boots.

1979-1995

Our "Gentle Giant" Toby, 1992-2003

Sweet Lil' Tora  1996-2009

"King" Jack!  2003-Present

                                                      
                                                      
Well, that about does it for my life story.  Or some of it, anyway.  I hope I didn't drone on and on.  If I did, you can give me a good kick in the "you know what!"  Ha!

Hope you have a great day!
God bless,

Dinner Date

Howdy, friends!!!

We had a fabulous time over at my sister & brother-in-law's house for dinner.  My brother-in-law, Jay (who doesn't want his picture on the the web) had his mother and sister and one niece and one nephew came  from out of town for a short visit.  His mother comes from Nebraska and his sister and family come from Burbank, CA.  They are all very delightful and we ate ourselves full.  We had baby back ribs, salad, pickles, broccholi, and brownies, cheesecake and these decadent chocolate-peanut butter bites.  Barbara & Jay were taking a "feebie" day on their Adkins diet.  I don't blame them!  Everyone needs a break!!  We had to leave early, though, as Frankie was starting to not feel well even though he took his pills at the right time.  Poor guy.  I just wish I could stop this nausea and vomiting for him!!!

On the way over to his sister's, our car's dashboard lit up with a "check engine" sign.  Please pray it's nothing major!  The car runs just great, we haven't noticed anything weird about it.  But luckily we have some savings so if something really is wrong, hopefully there is enough in our savings to cover it.  I just love that car!  It can't be really sick, I REFUSE IT TO BE!!!  I'm stopping my feet now, refusing!!!!  It took us over a year to save for and it's been a really great car.  Tomorrow we are taking it to Auto Zone and have it "diagnosed" and see what the problem might be.  Please pray it's nothing major!!

Here's some photos of the evening.  The first ones are of early v-day gifts my hubby got me.  I'm SUCH a big kid at heart.  Dr.Seuss has always meant something to me.  My mom would read it to me as a little girl.  Now seeing this book and the favorite stories I love so much, I couldn't help but get misty eyed.  Here's what else I got:

My very OWN "Pillow Pet" that I've named "Cindy Bug" after my mom.  Isn't she cute?  And my mom just loved ladybugs.  I squeeze the pillow real tight when I need a hug and nobody is around and boy, does that help lift my spirits!!  Thank you, Frankie!!  Have I told you today just how much I love you??  I'd be lost without you as you are the other side of me.  We are soul mates.  :0)

Here is Carol, my mother-in-law and Frankie.

Barbara and Jay are dog-sitting Jay's son's dog, Bentley.  Isn't he adorable?  And very active and excitable, too!

And last, but certainly NOT least, I had Barbara take two pictures of Frankie and I together.  We hadn't had that done since we first started dating.  And then I got real sensitive about my weight and now I'm at a point where people will either like me or not like me, fat OR thin. I'm the SAME person inside.  OK, that being said, here are the two of Frankie and I:  (GULP!)

Good Lord, someone hurry and get me out to pasture before anyone sees!!!

Good Godfrey, I practically swallow up Frankie!!!  That bariatric clinic just has to be calling me soon so I can get started on my road to a better, thinner me!!!

Hope you all had a great Saturday and Sunday.  Stay and home and relax.   I hear the weather is clearing up for a lot of the country, hopefully that is true.  NO MORE WHITE STUFF!!

God bless you, my friends.
Until my next post,

Oh, Better Day!

Good day, my friends!

I can happily report that we are having a better day today.  No vomiting for Frankie in two days (of course, I probably just jinxed him really badly now!), but he does complain of an occasional pain in his stomach.  I think he just is constipated!!  Luckily, I KNOW the cure for THAT!  LOL.....

As for myself, physically for me I'm a nightmare.  I think it's easier to list what I DON'T have than what I do.  But I learned well from my dear mom in Heaven about living in pain and still surviving. (My mother-in-law, too, is a phenomenal lady with living with Juvenile Arthritis for over 6o years.) And she would do it with such grace and always a smile, no matter what bad news was coming up.  And it always did....I'm so glad she's in a comfortable place, but God, do I miss her badly!  I think of a million things I want to say to her but I can't.  It's just not fair!!!  OK, better get off this subject or I'll be needing my Kleenex again.  I've been nostalgic like this all weekend.  When Grandma was here and got me the camera for Christmas, it came with a coupon for a free 8X8 photo book from Shutterfly.  I compiled up my favorite photos with mom, dad & Frankie.  It came to me in a beautiful 20 page hard cover book in which I named "Down Memory Lane."  I am a new believer in Shutterfly!  So if you are looking into a special gift for someone, photo books are always GREAT!

It's been two full years without my mom and I can't begin to tell you the ways my life (and my husband, father, Grandma and in-laws) has changed.  It's just amazing how the absence of ONE person just completely threw us all off track.  For my whole life she has been there, protecting me, shielding me from trouble (as much as what a mom can do, anyway!) She took complete care of my dad and made sure that all our needs were met before her own.  I could never lie to her and tell her I was OK when she knew I wasn't.  Boy, she REALLY should have consulted with us before just taking off into the while blue yonder!! I will be talking to Mom about that when I see her in Heaven!!!  Anyway, I was looking through some photos and found a little video of Mom playing with Jack in her favorite recliner chair.  It has no sound, as I didn't have a fancy camera back in 2003, when we very first got Jack.  My mom so loved Jack, and he loved her (and all the attention.)  I've never seen such a sociable cat!  He could be the greeter at WalMart....nah.  Make that Petco..."where the pets GO..."  OK, I'm being weird now so I'll see if I can upload that video clip into my blog.  Sometimes the 'net is my friend and others it is my worse enemy.  So here goes:

I titled this clip "No Biting" because here she was trying in vain to stop Jack from biting her hands.  He has good teeth and he knows how to use them!!  Below is a precious picture of my mom and Jack.  Gee, I'm so glad I decided to change the subject!!  Hehehehe.....

Jackie came to live with us after our beloved Toby died at the age of 12 due to kidney failure.  He was a BIG cat and the vet told us they tend to have more kidney problems.  But they can't lose weight too fast, or it will hurt their liver!  What can ya do????  Anyway, the day Toby died we were bawling like babies over the phone when I called the vet to see how he was doing.  They gave him IV's overnight, but when they came in the next morning, he had died.  My dad said, "well, if we are gonna get another cat, let's get one now."  I was determined to name whatever cat we got "Jack."  I just liked it.  A nice strong, boy's name.   We trooped down to the Humane Society and they have only five cats, and Jack was up on his first day of adoption on the day we came to get a cat!  Because he was found on the streets, they always hold them for 30 days to make sure he isn't previously owned and just lost.  But nobody came in, so he was ours!!  The vet attendant picked him up out of his cage and said, "You will LOVE Jack.  He is AWESOME!"  We just could NOT believe it!!  The odds of a stray having the same name that I was going to name him are probably a million to one!!  Since my husband and I cannot have children, we adopt our "furry" kitty sons...we always got male cats for some reason.  I'd love a female kitty one of these years....

Well, gotta close and get ready for a busy afternoon.  Hubby has a psychiatrist appoint he has to go to and then we are going to return the webcam.  I was using it the other night and the damn base broke off of the camera.  So now it's just sitting on top of the monitor.  One little movement and its off the monitor!!!  It has a receipt. so we'll just exchange it.  Should be no problem.  I LOVED talking with my dad and Gina over the webcam the other nice.  It was like they were right in the room with me.  To bad I couldn't reach over the web lines and give my dad a big hug!!  I haven't seen him in almost two years now.
Gee, does that make me an orphan?  :0)

Hope you all are well and happy.
God bless ya!
Until next post,

Thanks, Gina, for my new siggy logo!

Thanksgiving Memories

Howdy, everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving!

I sure do miss my mom more than ever today.  She just ADORED Thanksgiving and was always so proud on how she would get up early, watch the "Macy's Thanksgiving Parade" on TV and then start in on the turkey.  When she would be done with it, it looked too good to eat.  Of course, I've never been a turkey fan, but if you cover it with gravy then it's not tooooo bad.  This coming from years of experience!!  Or, you can cover it with a dollop of potatoes AND the gravy on top of the turkey and it is so good.  My mom could never understand why I didn't like turkey too much.  "It's an American tradition!" she would always exclaim.  Yeah, well, some people aren't too much into THAT tradition!!

I remember one Thanksgiving in Michigan where we spent it with a few friends of ours, Roger and Marie.  He was responsible for cooking the turkey.  Mom made the side dishes and I think Marie brought over the pie.  Anyway, Roger lived in the same complex that we did, so we went down at almost the time the bird was ready to come from the oven.  We knocked on the door and Roger opened it up and he was dressed (if you could call it that!)  in a quilt.  He had a horrible toothache, he said, but he did get the turkey into the oven on time.  We went into the apartment and he went to change in his bedroom. You couldn't smell the aroma of cooking turkey, which we thought was strange.

Roger came out of the bedroom and we followed him in to the kitchen.  We peered into the oven and what we saw was frozen turkey from a malfunctioning oven!  Of all the days for the oven to poop out, it had to be now!!!  Roger had the brilliant idea to microwave what we would eat of it.  It would turn out almost the same way.  So that was the Thanksgiving that we ate turkey by microwave.  At least the sides were good, as was Marie's pie.  Roger still was having a time with his tooth, but he is like me and actually has to be FORCED into the dentist.  He did go some time last week, the tooth was abscessed so they gave him antibiotics to take and when he started feeling better, he saw no need to return.  That decision burned him in the butt....or shall I say mouth?

Anyway, what I learned that Thanksgiving is even if things to turn out differently than you planned, you can still laugh and have fun anyway.  And we did our plenty of share of that!!

I also remember my first Thanksgiving with my in-laws.  It was in 2002.  Here are some photos I took:

Ummm.....our Thanksgiving spread!!  Almost done, just waiting on the turkey.  I love Thanksgiving with all the treats and spending time with family.  I just wished my folks could have made it, too.

The chefs, hard at work.  I loved watching my in-laws in the kitchen. They always fought over something....the oven, how something was prepared, too much salt...you name it, chances are they fought over it!!!

The turkey coming out of the oven.  My husband standing around and watching his dad pull the bird out of the oven.

Ahhhhh....time to eat!  And eat we did, until our sides were stuffed.  We had a great Thanksgiving with my new in-laws that year.

This year we are doing a ham and Frankie's brother-in-law and sister will be over to join in the festivities.  We always have such a hoot of a time with them.  They are so fun to be with and we all love hearing their stories of their work and play time!

We are saving the the turkey for Christmas when Jay and Barbara (brother-in-law and Frankie's sister) and my grandma are here.  That will be an even LARGER fare...but one we are all looking forward to.

The weather here has been totally radical.  I wish I felt better.  I'm so exhausted all the time and my leg is just absolutely killing me with either sharp, aching pains or that burning electrical type of pain.  I can't do much to help because I can't stand for more than a minute now (I kid you NOT!) so I feel so bad that my mother-in-law is working her butt off and she hurts like hell, too.  The only difference between her and me is I've got all this weight on my bones and she doesn't.  So she can move a lot better then me at this point.  I just hope and pray that NEXT YEAR will be a different story.  I'll be post surgery and on my way to weight loss bliss!!  AND, I can help out where needed again.  I can't wait!!

I hope you all have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.  Make lots of memories with your family and friends....you never know how long you will have to do that.  I learned that valuable lesson from my mom and her untimely death.

Blessings to you and your family!!!
Until next time,