And some think God doesn't hear and answer.

Have you never heard or understood? Don't you know that the LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:28-31 (New Living Translation)

However, I am weary, tired and worn out. Does this mean I'm still waiting on the Lord?

The burden feels so heavy, I offer it to God to give me that strength.

It's Thursday.

kASEY gETS a hAIR cUT!!

Kasey got a hair cut today and it is so adorabibble!! She looks so cute and stylish. I was awed after I cut the long hair away what remarkable facial features were hidden by the longer tresses and how much she looks like her Grandma Peggy.
Kasey really like the hair outof her face. I need to get something so I can post my pictures on-line from my digital camera. That is a feature I miss most from my last computer.

Time for my hot tea and Ibuprofen. I have so much pain today. Yuck

July 24, 2008 Happy Birthday Jaime

Well It's not been the best of birthdays for Jaime, but she has proclaimed it is the first anniversary of her thiry-ith birthday. she is not getting any older. Mom and I gave her a book by Mary Higgins Clark, one of her favorite authors, a pretty orchid set of nurse scrubs, and a couple of dress tops, one in black and one in a cream color. Carolyn brought her a pretty pink rose decorated chocolate cake. Carolyn got her the prettiest set of soft pajamas and Dianna a lighter that looks like a miniature purse. Who would have thought it was a lighter? Really kewl, neat, groovey, okay so I AM old. Remember Jaime is 30 something.
Darn if she didn't get a toll ticket for 50 cents and it will cost her a postage stamp to mail it in.
Next time she will remember her change for the troll. ha ha Poor kid was all upset, then she gets to her friend Heathers and the brakes go out on her car, another $250.00 Should've stayed home and celebrated, but if the brakes were gonna go thankfully her guardian angels kept her save. God does watch over us in everything we do. Heather baked her a cake too and John fixed her brakes.
New boyfriend, Mike made her dinner last night and had roses for her. He also surprised her with a heart tennis bracelet with diamonds set in sterling silver. Very Preeeety!!
Kasey had her last night at VBS. The puppet show was great, the songs good and they got prizes. That was really sweet. Kasey picked out a magnifying glass and a Pterodactyl us bone. It contains some kind of gooey gel. The theme was dinosaurs and that in the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth. We are created and that we are to Praise Him for his mighty acts. I think we need to move to Arkansas so Harrison can teach and train her in archeology. She sure shows a lot of interest in rocks and to pick a magnifying glass over a stuffed animal, well it has to be showing a genuine fondness of discovery! You go Girl!!
Talked to my friend Hal for a bit on the computer. He will be heading for Portland, Oregon. It is so beautiful there. He's hoping to go a bit further south and visit his son in California. He was concerned about Jaime's headaches as I am, but now we wait on them finding a doctor that will accept her insurance. I pray it isn't delayed for long.

Wow It's another Monday and it's off on the wrong foot

Have you ever been asleep, morning comes, and you feel a "presence"? You open one eye and there stands your 6 year old, in your face, saying,"Can I go out and play?" (groan) Kid you haven't even had breakfast yet! For that fact, "You talkin' to me? Me, who hasn't had coffee yet?" What time is it anyway?

Wait, I have glasses somewhere. ( feeling around the table top) What DOES that clock say? Crap, it's 9 am and I'm not up yet, but there you have it. One Kasey D. dressed with her shirt tag sticking out of the front of her shirt, that's put on backwards. Okay Okay, I'm up already, but that doesn't mean I like it. Yes go out and play, I'll call you for breakfast.

I stumble for the bathroom, going through the kitchen, coffee water on, head towards the living room,,,
Is Mema still asleep? Or is she in her chair waiting for breakfast too? Nope still asleep, I'm good for one cup of coffee before the day gets into full swing.

Waaaaaa Waaaaaaaaaa sob choke sob, oh good golly, what's happened already, it's been what all of 5 minutes? Lord, Just where did I wake up this morning, because it fells like,,errr, ahh yes, the childs crying. No coffee YET, and I hear a voice from the bedroom, "What's the matter with the little girl?"

I'm getting the story between hiccup sobs, "I fell faaaa, faaaa , aaah hiccup,,,down Gloria's steps. Sh--sh--she told me to move away from the door,,,,sob,,,ooooo" The cold wash cloth on the scrapes good , but not so good,,,

You know when they yell here comes Mama,,,Standback, they aren't intimadated, they mean, have the water and a package of Stanback Aspirin ready.

Marilyn Sent this to me. Tickeled my funny bone

WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER BRING PLANTS INTO THE HOUSE....Garden Grass Snakes (also known as a Green Snake or a Garter Snake... Thamnophis sirtalis) can be dangerous... Yes, grass snakes, not rattlesnakes.Here's why...A couple in Sweetwater, Texas, had a lot of potted plants. During a recent cold spell, the wife was bringing a lot of them indoors to protect them from a possible freeze.It turned out that a little green garden grass snake was hidden in one of the plants and when it had warmed up, it slithered out and the wife saw it go under the sofa. She let out a ve ry loud scream. The husband (who was taking a shower) ran out into the living room naked to see what the problem was.
She told him there was a snake under the sofa. He got down on the floor on his hands and knees to look for it. About that time the family dog came and cold-nosed him on the behind. He thought the snake had bitten him, so he screamed and fell over on the floor.His wife thought he had a heart attack, so she covered him up, told him to lie still and called an ambulance The attendants rushed in, wouldn't listen to his protests and loaded him on the stretcher and started carrying him out.About that time the snake came out from under the sofa and the Emergency Medical Technician saw it and dropped his end of the stretcher. That's when the man broke his leg and why he is still in the hospital.The wife still had the problem of the snake in the house, so she called on a neighbor man. He volunteered to capture the snake. He armed himself with a rolled-up newspaper and began poking under the couch. Soon he decided it was gone and told the woman, who sat down on the sofa in relief.But while relaxing, her hand dangled in between the cushions, where she felt the snake wriggling around. She screamed and fainted, the snake rushed back under the sofa.The neighbor man, seeing her lying there passed out, tried to use CPR to revive her The neighbor's wife, who had just returned from shopping at the grocery store, saw her husband's mouth on the woman's mouth and slammed her husband in the back of the head with a bag of canned goods, knocking him out and cutting his scalp to a point where it needed stitches.The noise woke the woman from her dead faint and she saw her neighbor lying on the floor with his wife bending over him, so she assumed he had been bitten by the snake. She went to the kitchen and got a small bottle of whiskey, and began pouring it down the man's throat.By now the police had arrived.They saw the unconscious man, smelled the whiskey, and assumed that a drunken fight had occurred. They were about to arrest them all, when the women tried to explain how it all happened over a little green snake.The police called an ambulance, which took away the neighbor and his sobbing wife.The little snake again crawled out from under the sofa. One of the policemen drew his gun and fired at it. He missed the snake and hit the leg of the end table. The table fell over and the lamp on it shattered and as the bulb broke it started a fire in the drapes.The other policeman tried to beat out the flames, and fell through the window into the yard on top of the family dog who, startled, jumped out and raced into the street, where an oncoming car swerved to avoid it and smashed into the parked police car.Meanwhile, the burning drapes, were seen by the neighbors who called the fire department. The firemen had started raising the firetruck la dder when they were halfway down the street. The rising ladder tore out the overhead wires and put out the electricity and disconnected the telephones in a ten-square city block area (but they did get the house fire out).Time passed.Both men were discharged from the hospital, the house was repaired, the dog came home, the police acquired a new car, and all was right with their world.A while later they were watching TV and the weatherman announced a cold snap for that night.The husband asked his wife if she thought they should bring in their plants for the night.That's when she shot him.

July 14, 2008

What I would to be able to go back in time. Today is my friend Becky's 53rd Birthday. It garners a lot of friendship for us as we go back to the 3rd grade at St. Paul's Elementary in Akron, Ohio. We have gone through the teasing of childhood, to walking in then graduating high school. I got married, Becky, always the smart one, went on to Ohio State. Once she graduated from Ohio State she moved home to Akron for a small amount of time. She worked a stint in my parents restaurant and I'll never forget the first day she got the job at a magazine selling subscriptions. It was definately going to be her big break into journalism, I just felt it! But time went on and Becky hates the cold, so it was off to Florida. Miami was one home she had there and she would always write and tell me about movie stars and such that she saw. Don Johnson in Miami Vice for one. I really didn't appreciate him until he teamed up with Cheech Marin in the hit T.V. show, "Nash Bridges". Ah, but I digress,,,It's Becky's Birthday. The most wonderful thing we have done together is a 9-Day 10-State wonder tour. What I call her mid-life crisis, she left Florida and moved to Seattle, Washinton. This is my sunshine friend, she needs warm air and sunshine, go figure, she moves to Seattle. Any who time passes she packs up to move home and falls ill. She gets her possessions stored and flies home to Akron and family(yes, I consider myself family) to get well and get well she does! (TY GOD) Myself, having never really been anywhere, was aksed to fly out with her and drive back in a rented Penske truck. Did we ever have a ball. We hit Seattle, WA ; Portland, OR; Northern California and the Redwood Forrest on down the California Coast Highway 1 to Monterey/Carmel. At that point the road was closed due to rain storms and we turned back. Off we went and landed in the town of Williams, Arizona. A higher elevation and a snow storm! We made it through with a few choice words from Beck on my choice of map readings, but it all panned out well when we drove through the Painted Desert and all I can say is oh WOW,,,we also stood on the Corner of Winslow, AZ. That night we spent the night in a pitch dark Roswell, NM. Not one light into that city until we were in it. Then it was on to our friend Jill's in the Piney Woods of East Texas. A stop in Hope, AR, my mom's home state, and met someone who knew my cousin back in college. Of course we were bound for Wynne, AR. to visit with my family and we stayed with my Aunt Ruby. We left the next morning and toured Graceland in Memphis, TN and then on to Bowling Green and Louisville, KY, and last home to Ohio. It was awesome. We hope to be able to do that again one day. But alas, she moved on , back to Florida until this past year. I am so glad to have her home and the sad part is I haven't seen her but at my brother-in-law Lee's funeral in April. We really thought living closer together we would see each other more.

Emmy Ruth from Tara's Blog

I love the Spirit of Emmy Ruth. We took such delight in visiting with Emmy Ruth this summer and her cousin, Solomon

Yesterday

Yesterday was another day in tears. I can't help it. The auto-immune disorders have me so fatigued I can't move my muscles without hurting and I'm exhausted. And poor Mom can't understand where I go when I lie down. She thinks she is here all alone and wants to move where someone will talk to her. That stresses me even more. Plus Kasey w ent out to swim with NAthaniel in his pool across the street. He must have gone into lunch and I Kasey was riding her bike with Austin and Chris. Being boys they targeted her bike to play Dodge'ems with her. I heard her yell for me just in time for me to see them both crash her at the same time. She was in tears and I lost my temper with the boys and yelled at them. I brought her in and we fixed some lunch but I broke down and cried while making it. By 6 pm I was struggling to even move. I went and got dinner at the Steak n Shake, frd Kasey and Mom and then excused my self at 7 pm and went to bed with an 800 ibuprofen and anti-depressent sleep aid. Now I'm wide awake. But if I want to feel good for tomorrow I better call it an early morning and get a few zzzz's before the day starts all over again.

Maxine's Corner

Maxine's Kitchen Wisdom

.The only thing I stir up in the kitchen is trouble.

I hate housework! You make the beds, do the dishes, and six months later you have to do it all over again!

If you can't stand the heat, go in my kitchen. It's a pretty safe bet I won't be cooking.

I read recipes the same way I read science fiction - I get to the end and think, "Well, that's not gonna happen!"

Recipes are like a dating service. They never end up looking like the picture.

There should be support groups for women who can't put their dishes in the dishwasher dirty.

I love a good meal, so I don't cook!!

A household hint: Stop dusting, and you can use your coffee table as a message board.

I understand the concept of cooking and cleaning, just not as it applies to me.

If it fits in a toaster, I can cook it.

I find it helps to organize chores into categories: Things I won't do now; things I won't do later; things I'll never do.

The only thing domestic about me is that I live indoors.

I've Had Quite a Day,,,

and I really haven't done much. It's dealing with Alzheimer's day in and day out. Do you realize that family and friends believe that just because a person has Alzheimers they can't be visitied or talked to?

The fact is, they are just as normal as they ever were, in that moment of time they are spending with you. They love hugs, talk about the past, and may repeat themselves several times. Now, I realize that there are several stages of Alzheimers, each one varies, but with the medications they have now and with patience the Alzheimers patient still enjoys socializing.

Alzheimers patients can be shut-ins due to age, walking disabilities, or just for the fact if they leave the enviroment they are in they can become disoriented and it can set their thinking back and they wonder when they "moved".

However, they don't stop smiling, they don't stop loving, they don't stop caring. They still want to Help in daily living and be given a job to do. They are old and tired. Do they like company and folks to talk to them? YES, they are not stupid or crazy. Their memory is slowed down. That's all. Short term memory. Remember when you use to tell someone who looked at you funny, Take a picture, it lasts longer. Well,,,it's true. Taking a picture of yourself with the Alzheimers patient is a good way for the "Caregiver" to keep a journal and be able to discuss your visit once you have left. They may not remember when they saw you, but you do stay in their mind. When they mention , "I haven't seen so and so for so long, the picture journal comes in handy.

Caregivers need the respite too. When nothing new happens, the same questions can nearly drive the caregiver out of their minds. Family can be so helpful in this area. Coming and taking the Alzheimers patient for a drive or just out to the drive-thru for a coke or coffee gives the Caregiver and the Alzheimer's patient a break. Even if it's only for an hour. Phone calls are great too. Hi Grandma, How are you? I have a new job. I remember when I was 5 and you came to my party. Or how about, I love you, Happy Birthday.

Can you tell this Caregiver is on fire? I'm near burn out after 2 1/2 years of full time care for Mom. If Jaime and Kasey did not live with me, I would be out of my mind. No one comes to visit except my sister once in a while and my nephew David has been here twice. No one ever offers to come and stay and I can have a night out with a friend or an afternoon lunch. If I want help, I always have to ask for it. My dear sweet friend and sister, Jill, will call my Mom long distance so I have prep time in the kitchen to make dinner or just be able to clean something up in the house, while she chats with Mom about farm chickens, children, church.
And don't get me started on mail. The woman longs to get personal mail. Who doesn't like to get a letter!

Well enough. I'm totally and physcially exhausted. What happens if I burn out? Who takes care of Mom then? Well enough. Just yesterday was Mom's birthday and I'm ashamed of my family. I stay close to tears most of the time. Carolyn stopped by on her way out of town to bring Mom flowers and cake and ice cream. Oldest granchild of 6 is 35. Haven't seen or heard from any of them except Jaime who lives here with us and Vicki who lives with her mother.

Funny, in all those years, Mema never forgot a birthday or present or missed a party.

Well enough, now that I have blown steam it's time for a family intervention.

Wanna See What True Love Really Is?

Did you notice they are not exactly holding hands? This has got to be True Love!!

The 4th of July

Well, I spent the day moving the furniture around. I have it where I want most of it, but I figure it will be an all week-end long event.
Today is actually July 5th and Mom's 88th birthday.
Carolyn , Mrs. Lee and Vicki were over on the 3rd before they left for WV for a Lee Family reunion. Actually I believe it's Dot's family rather than her husbands family. I believe they are the Spindles. Mom I think is waking up so I better get busy with breakfast at 10:45. Brunch??

News from Marlene

Hello, I think of and pray for you too dear.
By the way, you will always be Cathy to me.
Hope you have a happy fourth of July.
We are busy busy busy. Got windows finally but the picture window was made wrong so they are coming on the fourteeth to install the new one they remade. Last winter, it was so cold in three of the rooms, we had to wear winter sweats and a warm robe over them and was still chilled.
Give Gladys a hug and kiss for me and tell the family to enjoy the holiday too.
Love you, Marlene

A Letter from Esther & Kenny Robbins

Yes, it is time to send you a hug and say that we love you.
We just got back from Ohio - yes it was a quick trip. Barabara, my brothers wife, past away on June 20th. She was 75 and has been sick for a long time but she had a heart attack so, also sudden. We had a good trip and got to see a lot of people.
The sad new was that Delmer, Lois's husband, had a colon operation today. Lois called awhile ago and said it went well. When all the tests come in they will know better but all looked good today.
We also seen Marilyn and Bill - they are doing good. Bill seems to be better this week.
That is the latest news from us.
We think of you often.
Take care.
Love Esther and Ken

Miserable Day, The Aches and Pains Ouch!

Terrible day. The Fibromyalgia has kicked me today but good. I went to Wal-Mart to put get the pictures the kids took on vacation. I had no clue they had 600 pictures on the disk!! I stood there 4 1/2 hours editing and had to go back because 1 hour wouldn't do it. I came home and took a nap I was so tired. I don't think I could go back to work with the immune disorders I have. Ugh and AAAARGH. I went back 2 hours later to pick up the order and by the time I got home I was hurting all over with a head ache. I'm awake now after sleeping 2 hours. Tomorrow hopefully, I will feel better. Am unable to think again now which is frustrating. Anytime anyone is around my mind goes haywire. They call it Fibro Fog!!