Simply the best

I don’t know about you but this was about the best Thanksgiving I can remember in years! There are many, MANY aspects of Thanksgiving I have always enjoyed immensely:

1. It is the holiday when we can count on most, or all, of my siblings and families being together.
2. It is about Food and Wine and Beer.
3. There are NO GIFTS, therefore NO SHOPPING.
4. It is a four day weekend, whoopee!

For the past umpteen years my family has taken the show on the road down to my parents. It was not without its own brand of stress, but generally a fun time.

I’m sure you all recall that this year my parents are living a bit….um…closer.

People it was awesome! By seven o’clock Wednesday evening everyone had hit town. My brothers, sisters, spouses, daughters, nieces and nephews. My mother had dinner for everyone on Wednesday night. I hosted Thursday and my sister had everyone for a big breakfast on Friday morning. Then we took the entire clan out for Mexican Friday night. Don’t you love a progressive holiday?

In between we ate and imbibed with whoever happened to be in our respective homes at any given moment. We mostly walked back and forth between homes as the weather was perfect! We even went to a couple of museums, played some games, spent some time at the park and of course watched a whole lot of football.

By five o’clock on Saturday all had departed to their cities of residence except my daughters. We were able to get in church and a movie on Sunday with them before they headed back to school.

I felt so energized by the whole shebang that I (with the help of The Saint) did five loads of laundry and got two thirds of the Christmas decorations up before collapsing last night!

Christmas you say? BRING IT!

This and That - Holiday Edition

Things I've been doing:

• Judging a debate tournament
• Thanksgiving food shopping
• Changing sheets and airing out rooms
• Sampling wine
• Enjoying meals with Precious Youngest – home for Thanksgiving break
• Taking the Terrorist for a Day of Beauty
• Big ass Costco run – God I love that place!
• Counting chairs, plates, napkins, wine glasses, etc.
• Coordinating the out-of-town arrivals of/accommodations for three nephews, two brothers, one sister, one niece, one brother-in-law, one sister-in-law and my step-nephew and his new bride

Things I will be doing:

• Picking up the cases of wine we ordered
• Cooking, cooking, and more cooking
• Baking - only one cake but still…
• Getting a manicure
• Last minute grocery shopping
• Runs to the airport
• Enjoying meals with Precious Oldest – home for Thanksgiving break
• Oh yeah, more cooking
• Laundry, laundry and more laundry

How are your holiday preparations coming along?

Updates (Starring good news!)

My sister is home from the hospital! While she is taking a total of eight prescription medications NONE of them need to be injected. Can we say “halleluiah”?

My mirror is up and I’m very happy with the results.


And let me just add that taking a picture of a mirror and not putting yourself IN the picture? Is a whole lot harder than it might seem!

If you can ignore the “which damn camera are we supposed to be looking at?” expressions on our faces, this is me with my mother, my sister and my niece from the wedding a few weeks back.



Growing up we didn’t think we looked much alike, but geez now that we’re older? Yeah, maybe a little.

How do you think…

A week is going to go when it begins with a dead car battery? At 6:45 AM? In the gym parking lot? Accompanied by a cold and steady drizzle of rain?

I don’t think so either.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

I don’t know exactly what happened this fall but we have been a positive whirlwind of home improvement projects. For the last several weeks I presented a list to The Saint on Saturday morning of all of the things I wanted to get done over the weekend, taking special care to highlight the things I would need his assistance on.

(An aside on the subject of lists: I love them. I love the sense of relief that comes when a large project is broken down into manageable steps. I love crossing items off the list when finished. I love the feeling of accomplishment when lists are complete.)

One nagging item keeps showing up on the list every weekend as no forward progress was being made; purchasing a mirror for my dining room. I've had the same picture and sconces over my side board for something like fifteen years. I have grown weary - WEARY I tell you- of the look and wanted a change.

People let me just say that buying a mirror was WAY harder than I anticipated. I had a good idea of shape, size, frame, etc. nevertheless I failed to execute the task.

On-line shopping was next to impossible because I could not get a good bead on either scale or color. Catalogs, while slightly better than on-line, presented other challenges including cost. Throw in shipping (mirrors are HEAVY!) and... well you get the picture. Dragging my ass through various stores hither and yon proved both exhausting and annoying while yielding no acceptable merchandise.

I began to fear in my heart that a visit to a mega store was the only solution.

(An aside on mega stores: As nearly as I can determine my residence is about a nine hour car ride from the closest IKEA store. I will wait here while those of you NOT geographically challenged vis a vis IKEA stop to weep on my behalf at the injustice of my situation. HOWEVER, what we DO have in close proximity is Nebraska Furniture Mart.Vast amounts of floor space, an army of salespeople, furniture, appliances, rugs, electronics and crowds, oh dear Lord the crowds!)

After an exhaustive search for the now elusive mirror, The Saint suggested I try Nebraska Furniture Mart. I nearly went apoplectic. Very few times have I ventured to NFM because the sheer size of the place fills me with dread and a side of panic. I came up with all sorts of reasons why it was just.too.damn.hard. Then he offered to come with me. He would shield me from the wretched refuse and huddled masses that are the other patrons. He would leave a trail of crumbs so that we would not get lost in the maze of furniture displays. He would not complain if I found something I liked but had to look at every last OTHER mirror just to be sure.

After girding our loins we set out in search of a mirror....

to be continued...

Overheard

Hospital room on the cardiac wing -

Nurse B: “Hi, I’m Nurse B and I’ll be taking over your care for tonight.”

Sib #2: “Hi, this is my sister Fannie. She’s here for moral support.”

Nurse B: “Great. OK, I brought something to help with your nausea. But we really need to get your heart rate down. I’m going to give you Cumadin, Atenolol and Lovenox. Have you had Cumadin before?”

Sib #2: “The blood thinner? Yes”

Nurse B: “How about the Lovenox?”

Sib #2: “I’m not sure.”

Fannie: “Hon, I think that’s the injection they do in your stomach.”

Sib #2: “Oh man, I hate that one, it hurts!”

Nurse B: “I know, I’m sorry, but we really need to get your heart rate down. You’re going to need the Lovenox every 12 hours for about four days to give the Cumadin time to kick in.”

Sib #2: “Wait, four days? Will I have to stay here that long?”

Nurse B: “If we get your heart rate down enough to send you home you can do the injections at home.”

Sib #2: “No WAY am I doing that to myself!”

Fannie: “I could do it!”

Sib #2: “No way I’m letting YOU near me with a needle!”

Fannie: “Hey, when my time comes I’m letting you pull the plug!”

Sib #2: “Oh alright, you can stick me.”

Nurse B: “This is what you call moral support?”

Fannie: “I’m holding her hand aren’t I?”

Sheesh.


All kidding aside, they have only been able to get her heart rate from 205 to about 140. A normal heart rate is 70 to 80. We’re also waiting for the results a CT scan. Please keep my sister in your prayers.

Small Request

Sib #2 was over last night and told us she has not been feeling well. Pain in her back, racing heart, some nausea. She planned to go to the doctor this morning and get checked out.

She did the right thing. Her doctor had her admitted to the hospital for tests because her heart rate was in fact much to high. Test results are pointing to Hyperthyroidism (ding-ding-ding - family history)which they will deal with when they get her heart rhythm under control.

Sib 2# is a single, working mother who needs this like the proverbial hole in the head. If you so inclined, a good thought or a quick prayer would be much appreciated.

Sometimes you feel like a nut

Precious Oldest was on the phone and we were comparing Halloween notes.

Fannie: “We ran out of candy at 9:00! And I had two HUGE bags of assorted candy! I almost resorted to handing out the Almond Joys I held back!”


Precious Oldest: “I did the same thing – took out all the Almond Joys!”

Fannie: “Well of course! Kids don’t like coconut!


Or nuts!


It’s really for the best.”

Precious Oldest: “But …I bought a huge bag of candy that included Almond Joys ON PURPOSE….”

Fannie: “So what?”

Precious Oldest: “SO, I bought candy I had no intention of passing out to the kids! OMG - I am turning into my mother!”

Humph, she says that like it’s a bad thing!

Just don't call me crazy

After running errands last weekend I went about the business of putting groceries and sundries away. I came up from the laundry room and said to The Saint that he must PROMISE me that if I died tomorrow and people came over to help him clean out the house that he wouldn't let them call me “Crazy Soap Lady”.

When I went to put this recent purchase in the cabinet:



I found THREE of these already stowed away:



A close up:



Yes - a combined 56 bars of soap. For two people. Who only rarely engage in mud wrestling. Upon reflection I suppose "Crazy Soap Lady" DOES a certain ring to it, no?