Looking Forward

Really looking forward to New Year's Eve. At first thought Clay had to work but we found out today that he does not. We have our fireworks and are planning on setting them off tomorrow. Alex should enjoy it and building a fire and roasting marshmallows, or mawmawos as Alex calls them. Clay and I are just going to spend the New Years holiday enjoying each other and our time together. Looking forward to the new year and all the wonders that it will hold. Making plans for our garden, new animals and getting a big porch on the front and a big deck on the back. Lots of new projects and activities for this next year. I AM BLESSED.

Presents

I think that the best present that I could ever get for any holiday is my family and the love that they give me. As for material things my 2 favorite things are, Frances and Drew got me a key chain that I had been wanting for the last 2 yrs. It is a beautiful silver key ring with an attachment that has pearl inlay and on one side in beautiful engraved script that says, "Nana" and the other side is engraved with, "Isabella, John, Alexander" I love it. Also Clay bought me a remote control massage machine it is small and compact and has different types of massages and it attached with wires and small pads. It is a lot like a TENS unit. The nicest thing about the gift is that he thought of it himself and I was in no way able to guess what it was. It wasn't a cheap gift either and it just made Christmas day that much more special. I am having a hard time though, unable to not think about this time last year and the memories are something that I don't want and would like to never remember but at least I am not letting it get to me the way I used to let things. I am sad for the loses of so many different things. Betrayal and the lose of faith and trust are the hardest. But a new year is upon me and many many more wonderful times to make new memories of and be able to think of next year at this time.

Christmas Day

Well Clay got home from work last night and played Santa. Alex got to look out the front window and see Santa standing in front of the house waving really big. He ran to the door and let Santa inside. He even sat on Santa's lap to open his present, but would not look him in the eye. He did not catch on to the fact that it was Pappy but he did notice that Santa and Pappy had the same boots. Then Santa went next door to the neighbors to give them baked breads and cookies. This was a wonderful Christmas. Last Christmas I sat here alone so that Clay could fly to Utah and Drive Angela and her family back here to live, as they were having a hard time then. Erin called this morning and talked with everyone and that was soooo very nice. Almost as good as her being here. Maybe next year we can be together.

Drew and his usual carefully opening presents. It is such a family tradition I would be disappointed if he did it any other way.

The aftermath. Christmas certainly hit this living room.

Alex's new SPURS outfit.

Even Frances got a SPURS shirt this year.

Christmas Eve

Yesterday the 23rd was spent baking. Baked Banana-Nut bread, Pumpkin bread and Pecan Sandies cookies. Then all of us watched our traditional movie, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" with Chevy Chase. We still laugh at all the funny parts and Clay and Drew would say most of the dialogue before it was said on screen. Alex liked certain parts also. It was a nice day.

Today has started off with making my traditional "Hot Cranberry Punch" the house smells so good. Clay and Frances are making "Chewy Chocolate Candy Cane" cookies as I write this. Clay is going to take some punch to work with him this afternoon and then tonight after he gets home from work, Santa will be coming to visit Alex. This morning I made up a Christmas sack for our mailman. He is so nice to us and it is always a pleasure to see and visit with him. He has a guinea hen that is all alone on his farm and he is going to bring it here to live with our guineas. We gave him half a loaf of banana-nut and half a loaf of pumpkin bread and half a dozen of our fresh hen eggs.

Will write more after all the festivities of tonight and tomorrow.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, I LOVE YOU ALL

Nothing Much

Not much going on. Loving the cold, listening to Alex point at the presents and say, "open, open" Santa will come and visit Christmas Eve and even Clay has Christmas Day off. Well we have had the worst time with the tree this year. Actually both trees. Only a few days of having the little one in my room that the colored lights on it stopped working. All the white lights work and so I didn't fix it and after some time I realized just how much I have to have colored lights on my tree. Then the big one in the living room. AH, poor thing. Between 2 cats and Alex I don't think it had much of a chance. The bottom 3 rows of popcorn have become less and less almost daily and all askew on the tree, then Alex's fascination with the ornaments. I guess he figured, "hey good idea, put up a big green thing and put little toys for me all over it" He has quit taking ornaments off but most of them have been hung higher up on the tree. Then a couple of days ago all the lights went out except for the bottom part of the tree. Clay was able to get the next layer of lights to come on last night but there are so many many lights and such a big tree it is hard to find the original problem. THEN a few days ago Alex decided, "hey, look at those things hanging from the fireplace" I had put one stocking stuffer in each stocking and he had a few minutes alone and pulled one of the stockings down and took the present out of it and ran and hide under the open door of the dishwasher. He was found laying under the dishwasher door with the present in one hand and the stocking in the other. He is so funny. It is like watching the world's dummest criminal in history. Sort of like an ostrich, if I stick my head in the sand no one will see me.

Drew learned one of the lessons all parents eventually learn last night. Frances and Alex went to Springfield and spent the day at the stores and so after work they all went shopping. At this one place Alex saw a vintage stuffed Donkey Kong and he loved it and when they tried to leave he had to put it back but every time they took it away he would cry and they couldn't believe how he JUST HAD TO HAVE IT and it being vintage Donkey Kong of course Drew thought that was so cute. So daddy shelled out the money and Alex got his stuffed monkey and.... you guessed it, by the time they got home Alex didn't want anything to do with it. AHH the joys of parenthood. I love watching my children raise their children. I love how different the are but at the same time exactly the same as they were.

Alex's First Snow

Nana swept off the steps so Mommy and I could go turn on the extra light in the hen house to keep the chickens warm for the night.

This is me standing in front of my wagon and the little hill that my Nana calls, "Alex's Mountain" I like climbing it and then sliding down the other side.

Thoughful Snowy Saturday

Woke up this morning to the ground all covered with a dusting of snow. Then about 15 mins. ago it started snowing and at first just really lightly, you could hardly tell that it was snowing but now bigger and bigger flakes and lots of them. The ground is nice and frozen so what is falling will stay for awhile. There is just something about snow that is so mesmerizing but maybe what it is, is the fact that it is so special because it doesn't come very often. The Christmas time this year has made me really miss Erin. I would love to have her here for a little while to share the holiday with. I can only hope that some day Angela and her family will be a part of our holidays. It is really hard to have family that you love so much to pull away with no explanation, they are just gone. I've reached out and reached out but I am obviously not what they want in a mom or a family? Don't know and maybe that is the hardest part, not sure. In a family each of us have our own ways of being and doing and all of us have our imperfections but in a real family there has to be tolerance and acceptance and to love one another in spite of our frailties. The end of the year has always been such a time for me to think about and assess my life and this is the first year in a long time that I have felt like I am worth something, that I am strong and can get through whatever comes my way. It is also a time that makes me want to hold my family close and give out love and get love from them. I want for all my family and friends to know just how important and special they are to me in their own unique ways, their unique beings. I don't think I have been so excepting of others as much as I have during this past year. I was already changing and getting there and then this past year and all it's ups and downs have made me realize how much I am blessed with. I will never be able to thank Erin, Drew and Frances enough for their support this last year. If not for them I wouldn't be here any longer but they showed me how loved I was and how much worth that I was to them and it got me through the worst time ever. I love all of you and look forward to a new year and new joys.

Drew's 26th Birthday

Yesterday was Drew and my "golden" birthday. He is exactly half my age. So hard to believe. Frances and Alex went to Springfield with him and they hung out at the mall and there is also a Toys r Us and Kmart really close and about once a week they go into Springfield with Drew and spend the day there while he is at work. Whenever he is in town he tries to meet them at the mall to have lunch together because his place of business is right across the street from the mall but he has been working in Branson every day for a couple of weeks now. I baked him a cake. We were going to put candles on it but he said that since candles come in a box of 24 and when you need more than one box, then you are too old for candles. Drew has started back at college, the same one as Clay and so there are constant talks between Drew and Clay for hours about so many things. Recently Clay has been working on "tasks" concerning "Global Warming" and "creation vs evolution." The guys go on and on for so long that Frances and I finally wander off into one of our rooms to get a change from them and their discussions. I love it, I love seeing father and son back together and respecting each other again and enjoying their time together. Right now they are putting together plans for a big car port. The front porch will be put off so that the cars and our truck will be out of the icy weather. Well here are some pictures of "Drew Past" enjoy.

The Christmas that Clay was in the Persian Gulf for a year, so "mommy santa" had to come visit on Christmas Eve.

San Antonio

Virginia and Kentucky

The last Christmas that Drew wasn't a daddy.

Drew's most recent picture and the one that I love. We are so proud of the young man that he has become. He is such a good, decent and giving man.

Not Measles

Well it seems that it wasn't measles that Alex had but actually a really light case of Chicken Pox. It was such a light case that it didn't seem possible to be Chicken Pox but it was confirmed by a nurse and it makes much more sense. Let's just hope he isn't like his daddy and his Aunt Angela and get the Chicken Pox repeatedly. If it had not happened to my own children I would never believe that someone could get it over and over but they sure did. Some times a really light case and other times they broke out horribly. It is all frosted over outside and we have had lots of freezing rain but no snow to speak of. I am hoping that as a Christmas gift to us this year that we get a good snow fall by Christmas Day. I guess it doesn't really matter, the day will come and there will be enough snow to go out and build a snowman and build a snow fort and pull Alex around on his sled. Drew and Frances bought him a really nice one a month or so ago. They wanted to be ready when it did finally snow. Not much going on here, same old same old. We have so many, many requests for eggs. One of the Sheriff's from Clay work came by the other day and bought 3 dozen. It is the first time that we sold any. We were just giving them away, to friends and neighbors. This spring we will get another 25 chicks and once they start laying then we will have a regular income from the eggs. We already have people who want to commit to a certain number of dozens a week. We get from 10-12 eggs a day. We finally got a HUGE egg the other day and it had a double yolk. I think the egg selling will be Frances' job and it will give her some extra spending money. She really babies and looks after the chickens so much. We are all excited and getting the plans ready for a HUGE garden and getting our goats and 2 feeder pigs this coming spring. Hopefully we will be eating pretty much what we grow. All looking forward to this coming year.

New Toy

Clay and Drew found this down the road from us and went and bought it. It is Nana's, Frances and Alex's new toy. Now we can go shopping or to the park any time we want. There is a really nice new park about 3 miles from here where we can let Alex play on the playground equipment and have picnics as soon as spring gets here. Lot's of fun ahead.

Mr. Alex Boy

I have never had trouble with my children messing with the Christmas tree and this year I was so worried about Erin's cats tearing up the tree. WELL

Guess what, it is Mr. Alex Boy that is the problem. Of course it is a problem that I love. But he has broken at least 2 ornaments and has taken at least 6 ornaments off the tree and tore up part of a strand of popcorn, he loves popcorn and I'm sure that he considers the strands to just be a snack waiting to happen. I can't even put presents under the tree. He would have them torn open and playing with whatever within a bat of an eye.

I love him so much and I love his curious mind, how he has to look at and figure out EVERYTHING, it isn't enough for him to just "see" something he has to know how it works and what all the uses for something are. He is not an out of control child he is just VERY, VERY inquisitive.

Clay and I are so blessed to have him close and being able to watch him grow.

Frances signed him up for WIC here and they are so informative and knowledgeable compared to the stupid people who worked for WIC in Hawaii. Here they also talk to you like you aren't an idiot and keep you informed and want you to know and understand what they do. He also came home with a coloring book, stickers and a frisbee. When they poked his finger for his blood test to check his iron levels he didn't even flinch.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow

As I write this the first snowflakes of the season are falling. We had about 30 minutes of freezing rain and it has turned into snow. Don't know if it will turn into anything but it is snowing and it is Christmas time, I am so pleased it really feels like the holidays. I LOVE CHRISTMAS. I am so happy to be here in Missouri.

Ho Ho Ho

First, you have to go and see what you want Santa to bring, then....

you go straight to Santa and give him a big hug, then....
you get down to business and let him know about that great John Deere that you saw earlier.

A great Santa at Battlefield Mall, it's his real beard and hair and he obviously loves his job at this time of year.

True Meaning of Christmas

It is really Christmas this year. I don't feel the need for lots of presents given or a lot of anything really. I just feel thankful. I have so many blessings and the most I believe are the family that love me and just the love I feel in my heart. The cold weather, the privacy and beauty that is our farm and home here, the slow progress of building our dream here is such a joyful thing to me right now. A little over a month ago I found myself not wanting to live anymore and wound up in ICU and then an acute care unit for a few days and I have no memory of how I got there or any of the ICU stay, just gone, no memory. I felt at first scared that there was no memory of it but something happened that was an incredible enlightening moment for me. I WANT TO LIVE. I am strong, I am a good person and I am thankful that I have the opportunity to live. I have had so very many horrible things happen to me this past year and as this year ends so does all the bad stuff that happened. I am closing the book on 2007 with pleasure and assurance that 2008 will be an incredible year with many things to look forward to. I want to continue losing weight and get that last 44 pounds off and to get physically stronger, more so than I am now. My arthritis makes for some really painful days but I have many more good days than painful days than I have had for years.

I seem to have lost a daughter, son-in-law and 2 grandchildren but I cannot dwell on that, I have an incredible last half of my life to live and I am going to do that and just remember all the love that I do have in my life. Maybe some Christmas all of my children and grandchildren and Clay and I will be together to celebrate and cook and wrap and unwrap presents all together in the same place but for now I am a very blessed lady who is thankful for what she has.

I had to stop and wipe away the tears that flow from my eyes but I am glad I have this blog and I hope that everyone that reads it that knows me realizes how much I appreciate them and how much they mean to me.

Measles

Alex has been running a high fever for a couple of days and this afternoon he broke out all over. It seems he has the measles. We figured he had just picked up a bug but now we know exactly what bug he had picked up. Luckily he has had all his shots so his breakout is pretty mild and except for when his fever goes up and he gets so tired and cranky he acts his normal self.

We have been having such mild weather here. It is still cold enough for the holidays but of course we are all hoping for some snow soon. It will be Alex's first snow. Clay and I are going to Springfield next week, going to do a big pickup from the library and do some Christmas shopping. Looking forward to it. There is talk about a Super Wal-Mart being built in Buffalo to replace the small one we have now. That would be nice but still the Super Wal-Mart is only another 18 miles in Bolivar from here. I don't really care how big Buffalo gets because the 6 miles that we are from it, it's growth will never affect us here in our country setting. At least not in our lifetime.

Cold, Cold, Cold

Everything was covered with ice this morning. It made everything look like such a winter wonderland. We are getting 11 eggs a day now. We only have one more hen to start laying then all of them will be laying. We have 12 hens, 2 roosters and 3 guienas. So with the 3 major attacks we had on our original 31 that is what we are left with, we started with 25 chicks, 1 turkey and 5 guienas. It surprises me for them to start laying in this cold weather. The frost was so thick last night that when the sun came out this morning we had water dripping off the eaves of the house. If it had been cold all through the day we would have had icicles hanging off the house.

Alex has a cold and Drew didn't feel very well last night and I was up most of the night with a sore throat and headache. When I was in the hospital they gave me a flu shot so I shouldn't have to worry about that at least.

Drew starts college next month to finish up his degree and Clay is hard at work on his school work now.

Well Erin mentioned how Alex and John in the previous picture at the end of the meal woke up and started screaming together, which is true but at least they slept peacefully all during the meal and it wasn't until we were getting ready to leave the table that the scene below happened.

Thanksgiving 2 Years Ago

The difference 2 yrs can make in a little ones life. This picture was taken 2 yrs ago during our Thanksgiving meal. Bella was at the table eating with us but our 2 new guys were sleeping right through it. The holidays bring back so many memories of past holidays and seeing little ones grow so fast makes us realize just how fleeting life is, how quickly it passes, how quickly things can change and we can't ever get those times back. We just have to be thankful for the moment and what we do have. I am very blessed.

Day After Thanksgiving

Yesterday was a success. For it being the first turkey I ever cooked in my life I have to say that it was delicious. 3 things we did that we had never before made all the difference. First was the brining overnight and then stuffing it with oranges, lemon and onion and then waiting 30 mins. after it came out of the oven before carving it. When Clay sliced the first piece of white meat it was dripping juices. So moist and tender. I also added pecans to our sweet potato and marshmallows this year and it gave it such a nice flavor. Dinner was delicious.

Drew (with Alex's help, ok not really a help but he thought so) put the tree all together. It reaches to the top of our vaulted ceiling then Clay put all the lights on it. It didn't snow like we had hoped but it is nice and cold just like the holidays should be. Frances and I got a lot of popcorn strung and Alex ate handfuls at a time. After I get off here I'm going to work on stringing more, with such a big tree it takes a lot. When we take the tree down we will take all the popcorn off the string and feed it to the chickens. Next year we want to pick a tree outside and decorate it with things for the wild animals to eat. Things like pine cones smeared with peanut butter and then rolled in bird seed and strung popcorn and other things like that. A Christmas treat for the wildlife.

Our first Thanksgiving on our farm. The only thing that would have made it any better than it was would have been to have all our family here. Maybe some year, of course if I had to chose I would always chose Christmas as the holiday to spend with all our family.

Thanksgiving Day

Today for the first time in my life, I baked a turkey. Clay had always cooked the turkey, one, because he really enjoys doing it and two, because his family raised turkeys on his farm growing up in Washington.

I have been watching cooking shows and saw one on brining the turkey overnight so Clay put together a brine got the turkey in it last night. Clay had to work today so the dinner has been mostly up to me. I just finished mashing up the sweet potatoes to get them ready to put the marshmallows on top and into the oven when the turkey comes out. I stuffed the turkey with oranges, lemon and onion for flavor and of course we won't eat the stuffing but again saw it on a cooking show and it sounded nice.
We are having the usual Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, mushroom stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallows melted on top, mashed potatoes, peas with mushrooms & onions, cranberry sauce, gravy rolls and naturally pumpkin pie for dessert.

Frances got up first thing this morning and put a Christmas CD in to listen to. Drew makes sure that no one here listens or takes out anything Christmas until today. Clay is on his way home now and we will eat then put up our tree and decorations. Drew and Clay are in charge of putting the tree up and lights on it. We are going to build a fire when it gets dark and pop popcorn to string to put on the tree. A big tree so it will be an on going project for the rest of this month.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Thanksgiving Week

Got some really exciting news this morning. It might snow the night before Thanksgiving. It is so wonderful to have seasons and to have cold weather for the holidays.

We absolutely love our farm. Clay and I so wanted this kind of life for our kids while they were growing up but being in the Navy really prevented that so we are glad to have this place and watch our grandchildren enjoy the freedom that it gives them.

I take Alex outside every afternoon lately and he rides his bike and burns off some of that energy he has so much of. Clay put some blocks next to the trampoline so that it is easier for me to get on and off of it and yesterday while outside I told Alex he could get up on it himself and so now he gets on, runs a circle around it, then jumps and throws himself down in the middle and then gets off. Of course then he repeats that over and over again.

I actually have the place to myself today. Drew and Clay are at work and Frances and Alex went to spend the day at a friends house.

We are all excited about Thursday. Clay has to work in the morning but will be home by 1pm. He is going to bake the Turkey Wednesday and then I am cooking all the sides for it on Thursday. We will eat when Clay gets home and then put up our tree. Our 10' tree fits nicely in our living room and we are putting lights up outside also. We will watch "Garfield's Christmas" on Thanksgiving but will save "National Lapoons Christmas Vacation" for a later date.

Our traditions of decorating for Christmas on Thanksgiving Day comes from being in the Navy and not having family to spend the day with I started making the day special by us having our Thanksgiving dinner and then the rest of the day decorating for Christmas. Then the "Garfield Christmas" dvd and "National Lapoons Christmas Vacation" movie came later. I am not one to watch a movie over and over but these 2 movies make me laugh every year even though I know what is coming.

We are going to be baking cookies this year and giving them to our neighbors and our mailman. With my diabetes I won't be able to enjoy them much this year but I don't need all the calories anyway. I still haven't been able to control the diabetes the way I need to with some medicine and diet and exercise so I am considering going on insulin. Didn't want to do that but my feet are already pretty numb from nerve damage and my fingers have started tingling and I DO NOT want to lose my feelings in them also.We don't have much money for Christmas this year but for the first time in a long time it doesn't matter.

Just living here and decorating and the cold weather is so enjoyable it makes up for any material gifts I could ever get or give.

Lots Of Eggs

It has been a busy past few days. Clay, Frances & Alex put up a fence around a really big area that is attached to the chicken house.

The chickens have been found out on our road and headed toward neighbors. It is a long way to the road for them but with the cold having come in there just aren't any bugs for them to forage throughout the day the way they were used to.

I thought of the idea of clipping the hens wings so that they wouldn't fly out of the fenced area. The next day we all went out and took care of that. We have had lots of practice clipping wings having taken care of Yaco for about 15 yrs now. The clipping did the trick. Chickens are such lemmings. Where one goes, they all go, one runs, they all run. The are very entertaining to watch.

Finally Drew was convinced to change his family plan cell phone numbers to local ones instead of hawaii.So now all 4 of us have Missouri cell #'s.

Today was an all time record, we have 8 hens laying now, 8 eggs a day. It is really nice because with the holidays coming and the cooking and baking it is that much less we have to get at the grocery.

Things That Are Fowl :)

We have 2 roosters. The one below is the 2nd in the "pecking order" We have not named them yet. We intend to keep them for a long time. So they will not be joining us at the dinner table any time soon.

This is our most dominate rooster with one of the "lady hens"

This is this roosters favorite lady. They are always together.

Alex loves the chickens. He calls them, "babies."

The chickens let Alex come up behind them and pick them up and carry them around. What is the most amazing thing is that the roosters let him carry them around also.

We are now getting 5 eggs a day now. We have 3 that lay first thing in the morning and 2 that lay late in the day.

Pictures of "our men" all three of them hard at work :)
Getting ready for the cold. Looking forward to sitting, looking at the Christmas Lights and a fire in the fireplace. LOVE the cold. By the end of Jan. I will be sick of the cold but it is so nice to have seasons again.


I love all these outdoor pictures of the guys. I will be really happy when we can finally have pictures of the front porch being built. We are going to build it to stretch all the way across the front of the house. Eventually we will screen it in.

Blogger Problems

Well I've tried all day to upload some new pictures and there is a problem with the blog site.

We are having 'coon problems again and so last night Clay and I had been asleep for awhile and I turned over toward the door and realized a light Drew and Frances use on their side of the house was on, it was almost midnight. Then I heard one of the outside doors close. Clay got up to check on things to find that Frances had seen 2 'coons on top of the hen house and she woke up Drew and he told her to just scare them off (I can't imagine why he didn't want to get out of his warm bed to go chase down wild animals:)
So Frances goes out to scare them off and she turns around and there is Drew, they don't see the 'coons anymore but here something moving around in the woods (crunchy fallen leaves gives them away) so they go off into the woods chasing, whatever, and Drew sees something and shoots, it's just an armadillo. By then Clay is outside so Drew comes in and Clay and Frances look around and check on the chickens. Finally they come in, Clay goes to bed and then finally gets up again to tell Frances to go to bed and stop worrying about the chickens.

Frances is incredible around here. She is thriving on the farm life. Her and Alex both call the chickens, "babies" plus she feeds and waters Yaco (our African Grey Parrot) every day also Erin's 2 cats that are living here for awhile. In the spring we will be getting 2 baby feeder pigs, then have them slaughtered in the fall and we are going to also get 2 pygmy goats. There is a guy at the Sheriff's Office that has a friend who raises them so we are set to buy them in the spring. The goats are going to be for weeding our acreage but mostly just pets. Frances used to spend so much time in Hawaii watching tv. It was too hot to do anything else. Here though she is always outside and always finding something that needs to be done. Our family is so blessed that Drew married such a wonderful person. We love her so much.

Well I will try and post new pics tomorrow but that was our adventure last night.

love you all

Neighbors Across Road

Alex's favorite neighbors, he goes and visits them at least twice a week. We can see them from our living room in the winter when the leaves are off all the trees.

First he pets them.

Then he feeds them, usually apples or carrots.

Then before leaving them he gives them big hugs.

Eggs Finally

Well our hens are finally earning their keep. We now have 2 hens that are laying. The first 2 days it was only one hen, 1 egg a day, now we have 2 hens that lay once a day. Considering winter has set in we are happy to have the eggs we get.

We love it here in Missouri. This is our first Fall in quite awhile. We are so looking forward to the holidays. It is just not Christmas when you have all the doors and windows open and trying to decorate the tree with sweat running down your back because it is 85 degrees outside. When you walk around the front yard the dry leaves crunch under our feet. Drew bought a snow sled the other day. We are going to have a "kitchen garden" next year so we are going to go ahead and take the topsoil off that area and when we know that there will be enough days of freezing weather we are going to make an ice skating area out of it.

The hens aren't the only one "earning their keep" :p

Erin's cat, Tabbers, laying in wait for her mommy to come back and get her. OK, ok, she is really just a big lazy cat snoozing in the window.

Well I am finally updating the blog. I've been home from the hospital for a couple of days and am still feeling exhausted. I'm doing better than ever. Got my medications adjusted and some much needed rest and my

diabetes under control.

Learned so much about diabetes and also want to share with those that don't already know, Since Jan, this year I have lost 66 pounds. I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF. I just finally am in control of food instead of food controlling me. I have 44 more pounds that I want to lose so this time next year I will be older but oh, so much more less of me.:)

This is a Halloween WAY past. That masked "man" is an adopted son of ours. OK, not legally but love him just the same and are still in touch with him and wanted to share this picture of that special Halloween. In case you can't read his name it is Aaron Freeman. We lived on Adak one of the Aleutian Islands off mainland Alaska in this picture.Alex one year ago. Alex was a Monkey and had a long skinny tail that you can't see in this picture. He was getting ready to go trick or treating.

What fun and look at Alex's new "wig"

Drew doing the intricate work on our "Ursula" pumpkin

No, the one on the left is not a picture of me :) almost could be me though, hehe and of course the one on the right is Tigger

Fun games at the Halloween Festival

The people on the right we don't know but this is Alex in his row boat getting ready to go fishing. Who is that Lion Crawling up on that bale of hay???
I am Lion hear me ROAR


Hey, let's get this thing loaded and start the hay ride.