I made my man happy!

 We went to the store yesterday.  Cliff used to stay in the car and read or just play around on his phone.  Now he needs to come with me.  I do fine getting what I want, but I have trouble one way or another as I'm getting checked out, and it's embarrassing.  We use a credit card now because I don't have to reach in my purse and get money out.  Even then, I like him with me just in case.

I always tell him to get anything he wants in Price Chopper, and he usually finds something.  This week it was pot pies.  Then he saw some pimento cheese, which he loves.  I told him to get it, but he said the price was too high.  I told him we have plenty of money to get whatever we want to eat, but he refused.

This morning I though about his love of pimento cheese and thought, "Maybe I have what I need to make some."

I always look for any recipe first on Allrecipes.com, so I found one that had a solid five-star rating and had everything I needed to make it.  It was so easy I couldn't believe it!

Here's the recipe:

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese      8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 half-cup mayonnaise   1 (4 ounce jar) diced pimento, drained

1/4th teaspoon of garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne powder

Put all that into a bowl and mix until thoroughly combined.

Cliff had a sandwich for breakfast!  Don't tell him, but I think he still spent almost the same money as he would have spent if he'd bought it at the store.

 

Everything is harder now

Since I messed up my latest blog, I decided to come to this one, which ended in 2008.  Once in awhile I do miss "talking" about something.  Since most of my friends who followed me here know that I have dementia of some kind, I'm sure if you notice a mistaken word (or worse) from time to time, you will know why.

Here's a strange thing.  I totally stopped playing my guitar and singing at a certain point; I just didn't care about it any more.  Last July, a nephew asked me to sing Bobby McGee, my favorite song (except for all the hymns I love, of course), but  I couldn't do it.  I didn't even know the first line (busted flat in Baton Rouge waiting for a train).  Cliff told me I should sell my guitar if I couldn't use it, but for some reason I just couldn't do it.

On Sundays at church the preacher would ask me to sing, but I knew that when I picked up my guitar, I wouldn't know an A chord from a C chord, so I really couldn't do it.

Then one day I decided to write down the words to Bobby McGee.  With a little help from my husband, I managed to get the tune back.  Most of the time now, I can sing that particular song without the lyrics in front of me.  

So I decided to try some of the old hymns, found two I loved, and sort of put them together and sang them at church.  I couldn't believe I got through it, but I did; of course, I did have the words in front of me, but I made a decision:  Every morning I would spend some time with my guitar, singing hymns.  It's the best decision I could have made!  I have three hymn books with shaped notes from three Church-of-Christ congregations, and I use them all, although the one from my Grandma Stevens is pretty hard to read:

Notice the bottom line is 1940

Grandma's church was "Zion Church of Christ".

I start my day happy now, and all those songs are words of life.  

A rewarding day!

Cliff and I went off in search of some shade trees today.  We ended up at Colonial Nursery, south of Blue Springs.  I figured they'd be a little pricey for us, but surely we could afford a couple of trees.  I wanted fast-growing trees with a little size to them.

I'm impressed with the people at Colonial Nursery every time we're there:  they are so knowledgeable and helpful.

Turns out we landed right smack in the middle of a 25%-off tree sale!  We came home with two Autumn Blaze maples, and a Chanticleer Pear tree, all of them at least ten feet tall.

We also got a start of Pampas grass.  I've always been fascinated with the stuff.  I realize that in some places it's considered an invasive weed, but I'll take my chances.

All of that for less than $100.  I love a bargain.

To make a good day even better, we'd no sooner gotten home than the propane man arrived with a boom truck and moved our tank.  So that unsightly thing is no longer ten feet away from my deck and hot tub.

As icing on the cake of a wonderful day, I checked in with my sister and she's feeling pretty darned well.  She'll see her doctor tomorrow afternoon, but I expect only good news from him

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.

Tags: trees, home sweet home

musings from the trailer house

My sister went home yesterday, and her son and daughter-in-law are going to stay at least for a couple of days with her.  She'll see her doctor on Tuesday. 

Cliff's sister Charlene and her husband are here for the weekend.  They've spent lots of weekends here lately, and since they are our favorite guests, we're glad:  They accept us as we are, we're comfortable with them... and they're so much fun.  We no longer call the extra bedroom the "guest bedroom".  Oh no, we call it "Pat and Charlene's room".  They leave a few clothes, toothbrushes, and so forth, here.  It's their home away from home.

Their last visit, they were here getting their farmhouse ready for its new tenant.  This time a funeral brought them.  They say this will probably be their last visit for awhile, and that makes me rather sad.  I guess we'll have to go visit them in St. Louis... but they haven't bought their hot tub yet!  I don't know if I can survive without my morning soak in the hot tub.

Of course I jest, but it surely is a wonderful way to wake up, with all those jets massaging my back, legs and feet.

The chemicals drive me crazy, though.  Not that it's time-consuming, adding them; because it isn't.  But I'm always wondering if I'm doing everything right.  Some things are to be added with one pump running, some with two pumps but no aerator running, whatever that means.  Oh, and if you use the wrong chemicals it can mess up some of the workings... and that's not covered in the warranty.  Cliff says, "Don't worry about it; if we have to get it fixed, we will."

Charlene and  Pat love the hot tub and have intentions of buying one for themselves before too long.  I told them that perhaps by then, I'll know enough about these pricey chemicals to be able to advise them.

I have cinnamon roll dough rising in the kitchen.  Yesterday we had biscuits and gravy.  I cook like that when our favorite guests are in residence, but I do remind Cliff not to over-indulge.  And he listens to me pretty well. 

Life is good.

Tags: hot tub, Pat and Charlene

Hello, from the hospital

I brought my laptop with me when I came to spend some time with my sister in the hospital, figuring to play some big band music I'd put on a CD for her.  Imagine my delight when I realized I had Internet access here!  I created a station on Pandora which I named "Bing Crosby Radio" and added Glenn Miller and similar names to the roster.  As I type this, I'm hearing Bing Crosby sing "On The Sunny Side of the Street".  Maxine isn't hearing much, because she's taking a nap in the chair.

She's eating adequate meals; this morning she was able to stand at the sink and brush her teeth.  So far, so good.

So when she's taking her little naps (usually right after her dose of pain-killer) I've been educating myself on polyps.  I've learned that the procedure she had is called a laparotomy.  I've been instructed on these websites that anyone who has a family member with a history of polyps (that would be my sister) or a family history of colon cancer (one of my dad's brothers) should start having colonoscopies at age forty.  Hmmm, I'm twenty-four years late.  But as soon as we get Maxine home (four to seven days after surgery), I'm scheduling my first colonoscopy.  Once that's over, I'll schedule one for Cliff.  Our doctors have been telling us for some time we should do this, but it's taken this little adventure to really push me into action.

So, that's what's up with me and my sister.

Tags: Maxine, colonoscopy

Spammed!

Am I the only person in J-land who keeps getting spam comments in my journal?  This hadn't happened in a long time, but now I keep getting what appear to be "bot" comments on old entries.  As soon as I discover what's happening, I block that user and delete all comments they've made; next day, they're back with a slightly-altered screen name.

Grrrr.