Another Crazy Week!

My last post was Sunday, May 22nd at 7:11am.  The day started out so nice.  Judy and I worked out in the yard all morning and then fixed hamburgers on the grill for  lunch.  She headed in to get ready to go Megan's dance thing and I headed out to find new pillows for my swing out back.  I love the way I changed around the furniture.  About 5, I came on inside and started getting laundry started and finishing up that "weekend to-do" list.  Well, TV was on and we started getting breaks in the show alerting everyone to the impending weather over in Joplin.  About 5:30, all hell broke lose.  A massive tornado hit Joplin, beginning with St. John's Hospital.  Early reports were that it took a direct hit... later, it was devastated... then, the tornado was on the ground and was massive... then, they were talking about a debris ball. Lisa came over and said "we're all headed to Sarah and Dale's".  I had such a funny feeling about it... I packed up my computer, my external hard drive, medicine and socks and headed out front, not knowing if I'd come back to my house like I left it.  I was so fortunate because we got nothing.  However, Joplin was not so fortunate.  Damage reports started rolling in... devastating damage... fatalities... semi's overturned on I-44... city shut down.  By morning, the news (local and national) was consumed with photos and interviews and death counts and missing people and businesses gone.  By Tuesday night, I felt so helpless.  I wanted to do something for those poor people, but what could I do... just one person.  Someone made a comment to me on Facebook (Janette, i will never forget) and suggested that someone should do a fundraiser crop, hint, hint.  It was like a rocket went off in my brain... well, as of right now, I have a steering committee of 12 people, a 30 hour crop planned for June 10 and 11, 30 some people already signed up, more prizes and auction items donated that what we know what to do with right now... a venue (donated)... food (donated) and a goal of $10,000 set.  And 2 weeks to make it happen.  And I know it will.  I am ready and my team is ready.  Next week is my big conference, but I'll be totally available by email and Keli is keeping track of the registrations and all is good.  Crazy, but good.  I'll update next week!

Crazy Week!

It's been one of those weeks that you start out on Monday and you look up and Monday is tomorrow! 

We've been so busy with June Event stuff that every day at work is just a whirlwind.  Judy has been going through some medical tests and that's not going as well as we had hoped.  On Tuesday, she has a Bone Marrow Biopsy to see what is going on with her.  She has been tired, anemic and feeling just generally crappy.  Well those tests results came back and they weren't conclusive so they had to run more... Friday brought a CT scan of her torso.  And there, they found a 3 cm mass in her left lung with one left hylar lymph node enlarged.  She asked the doctor if it was malignant and she suspected it was, however, she referred her to a pulmonologist and has an appointment tomorrow... for further tests and evaluation.  We shall see.

Well, needless to say, Friday night was kind of crappy around here.  Friday was my birthday, which was fun at work and John came up and took me to dinner Friday night.  When I got home, Sarah, Megan and Ben were over at her house and everyone seemed down, of course.  So, at one point, I leaned over to Judy and said, I have plans for tomorrow... after we go to Panera (she had promised me bagels for my birthday), let's blow this popsicle stand and head to Downstream!  She said YES!

So, yesterday morning, she came over for her morning coffee and to watch the scrapbook show.  After it was over, she said "you really wanna go?"  Well, of course, Eunice!!!  So we got ready and headed that way!  In the meantime, I posted our adventure on Facebook and 3 of our cousins met us there.  We were having so much fun... Judy and I were hanging out at these 2 machines and I was winning a little and losing a little and she was concerned that we weren't being very social.  I said don't worry about it, we can all break in a little bit and have lunch together. 

 The machine we were playing on was one you could switch from a penny to a nickel to a dime to a quarter.  We were laughing and changing the bet depending on what we had done... just being silly... she had JUST changed to a quarter and pulled... TRIPLE RED SEVENS!!!

She had to go out to the car and get her ID!  We didn't even think about winning anything to need that!  So, afterwards, she took all of us to lunch and we laughed and talked and had a great time!

Gerald Dene and Lois Gene left a little bit after lunch and then Phyllis Ann left a little bit after they did.  Judy and I stayed until almost 5:30!  We headed to Joplin and grabbed dinner at Applebees and then to Michael's, where we couldn't find a thing to buy and headed home.  Got back here around 8:30 and we were both POOPED OUT!  I crawled in bed about 9:15 and was asleep in 5 minutes.

What a FUN day we had.  Oh, and the world didn't come to an end like some were saying it was going to ;>)

Lazy, Lazy Day

I can honestly say I did less than nothing today!  And it felt SO good!  Last week was crazy and I was exhausted every single night.  Yesterday was busy with OWH and today, I decided to simply rejuvenate.  I made a pot of coffee, made my bed, did one load of laundry, made 2 cards and watched 3 movies while laying on the couch!  You'd think I would be rested, but NO!  I'm ready to go lay down and watch MORE TV!  Hopefully tomorrow, I'll be ready to hit the ground running!

Operation Write Home Today!

Operation Write Home is today.  We are moving to a new venue, Pasta Express.  The room is bigger and I think it is going to be awesome!  I'm hoping for a nice size group, but I'm not so sure.  I can only count about 10 in my head.  It's been a rough week fo a lot of people, so I just don't know how that will affect the attendance.  Regardless, we will have a great time making cards for such a great organization.

Judy's birthday was yesterday, but bless her heart, she had to have an upper EGD and a colonoscopy.  I checked in on her late afternoon and she said she was hungry!  Which was great!  I stopped and got her a birthday cake and a hamburger from Steak n Shake and French Fries from McDonalds.  While I was in line at McD's, she called and said that Sarah and Lisa had just run to Steak n Shake to get food for them and the kids.... it ended up being a Birthday Party!  We had a good time but left a little early so she could get some rest.  Hopefully, her birthday wasn't a total bust!

Happy Mother's Day 2011!

What a beautiful day we have today to celebrate Mother's Day!  Judy and I just got back from a day full of shopping!  We've got a whole big wagon full of flowers to plant out back. And now, we are too tired to plant them!  Is that a sign of getting old or WHAT!  Kind of makes me laugh!

I hope every Mother I know is having a great day and doing just what they want to do today.  I hope they are being pampered and spoiled, because we mom's deserve it!

I wish my mom were here to spend some time with.  She would love planting stuff with us and she would love this weather.  It's been 12 years and I still miss her like crazy.  Love you mom.

Rumbling Thunder....

There is just something about waking up to rumbling thunder that just makes you want to stay in bed, isn't there!  But then, I think... I would SO enjoy being up and awake listening to it.  I really do love the sound of the rain and the thunder and lightening (as long as there aren't any BAD storms coming!). 

So, now I'm up and awake and the storms are just about done.  What a great start to a Saturday!  Hopefully by afternoon it will dry out and we can mow!

Update

Yesterday was my Trella's 5th birthday!  She turned 5 on 5-5!  Cool, huh!  Here's my sweet girl  I just can't believe how she is growing up!  I know that happens, but I can't believe she's so grown up and so beautiful!

Well, Lavon's daughter is getting better everyday.  She was one lucky lady!  Her main injury appears to be the tissue damage all over her body.  She is going to have to have some plastic surgery.  It was amazing she came through that as well as she did.

Sunday is Mother's Day!  Happy Mother's Day to all!  I sure miss my mom.  I'm going to have to get out there and find a wonderful picture of her and get her on here!  I'll do that tonight!

Peaceful Sunday

Today is such a wonderful, peaceful Sunday.  We've had some rain and are expecting some more and that just works well with my plans for the day... which is to stay inside, make some cards, clean house a bit and do some laundry... oh, and be a little lazy if time allows!

Shelly and Devin came in Friday night and Shelly and I went to Nathan P. Murphy's benefit jam.  John and his band, Bert Smith and the Walk, were the headliner and it was also their CD release party.  We had a great time, but weren't out too terribly late... I had to laugh at Shelly talking about how "old" she felt!  Then, Saturday morning, we were up early and after feeding Devin breakfast, we headed out to his some g-sales.  Didn't fine much, but had a great time!  Got home, fed Dev and they headed back to Chanute.

I had my scrappin' buddies coming over at 2 to play all afternoon and stay for dinner, however, that was abruptly interrupted when I got a call from Lavon telling me her daughter had been in an accident with a truck and they didn't know her status, just that she was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.  Yikes!

After several hours and lots of tests, they determined that she was more beat up than anything.  She works at a truck sales company and was starting up a 1ton pickup.  Somehow, the thing jumped out of gear, knocked her down and ran over her right leg and then the middle part of her body.  She had tire tracks across her stomach!  She's going to be fine, thank God, but she's also going to be very sore for a while.  It could have been so much worse and everyone is so thankful that it wasn't.

Michelle, Vickie and I headed up to the ER to provide some support for Lavon and Deb.  We stayed for a short while and on our way out, were able to stop in and say hi to Melissa.  We headed on home and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.  We were pleasantly surprised to look up around 7 to Lavon and Deb coming in the front door.  Deb had convinced her she needed to eat and thought we'd be just the right place to do so!  Sure was plenty of chili!

So, today, I'm just chillin'.  Getting ready to head into the work week tomorrow.  At least I feel very rested, refreshed and ready!