friday

I finally fisished the ornaments that mom started working on last year. There's one for each of the 11 grandchildren, and 1 for each of the 4 great grandchildren. One of my favorites is the one with my great nephews picture. He's smiling in his sleep. I think it's adorable!

wed.

worked double shifts monday and tuesday. we were slammed with snow and ice sunday and monday. bff work friend who lives out in the county had to spend the night here monday because she wouldnt have made it home from work or back to work the next morning.
I could hear her snoring all the way from the living room to the bedroom..........it was layered by boyfriends snoring. i didn't get much sleep, woke up feeling irritable........boyfriend and bff woke up rested and in good moods...............irritated me even more.
eventually i got over myself and had a good day at work.
now i'm off for the next three days.
i want to go hiking but it's too cold and slippery.
i printed a copy of a book online that lists the top 50 trails in northern ky to give to my son.
i'm hoping the two of us can do all 50 by this time next year.

sunday

So I went hiking yesterday with oldest son.
We went to a place called Saint Ann's Convent.
It's a beautiful piece of property.

This, the second picture, is the driveway. To the end and at the left

is a huge red brick building.

It's a really pretty site to see in real life.

The trails are beautiful.Pictures don't do justice though so I quit taking them........plus I wanted to concentrate on the hike! Son likes to be my guide. He tells me the names of the trees and plants, shows me animal foot prints and their markings on tree trunks..........points out deer when he sees them.....even pointed out some fox poop.....and gives me a little history on the property. It's fun..............the hike wasn't very challenging..........I like to break a sweat and have to work at the hike...........didn't have to on this trail.........but still it was nice. The leaves falling in the woods sound like rain...was a pleasant sound....I want to go back and camp.........I don't think we'd get caught.........son agreed to camp there with me this spring.

After we finished the first hike we went to another of their (catholic church) properties.........

It was a little scary because I could hear the deer hunters on near by properties shooting their guns.

This property had some great Beech trees....farmers grew them and used them for fuel and fire. Apparently they are easy to split and they burn long......the farmers pigs ate the nuts that fall from the beech trees........we looked for nuts but the squirrels had gotten to them already............

 Found this on one of the trees..........humans have to leave their mark, good and bad, on everything it seems..............anyways...we hiked several miles.........and as always it felt good to be out there in the woods............a fat red bird followed us at the second place. :O) Mom loved the red birds that came to her backyard.

saturday

It's my weekend off.
Work has been crazy busy......it's non stop for 12 straight hours.....no down time........i love it and hate it all at once.
We had an in- service yesterday.
One of the best 'I've ever attended.......included a
seizing dummy who eventually cardiac arrests.............it was hands on fun.

My house is clean so I don't have to do that this weekend.
I might finish my Christmas shopping...........oldest son found a hiking trail behind a convent for nuns.........says it's beautiful and wants me to hike it with him...........so if he isn't busy I'd like to do that today too.

grandma

 

 

One of moms dying bed wishes was that her mom be told that mom loves her very much.This is my grandma and one of my sisters.  She wasn't told that mom passed away.  She was told that mom loves her very much. Even though she has dementia she knew my sisters name, and she knew they were talking about mom.

My grandma was something else. She spoke her mind that's for sure.............and  She was an outdoors woman. ...loved to camp, loved to garden, loved to fish. On the weekends you could find her at the lake. She had the same camp site for years. She'd skin, clean and cooked squirrel and rabbit and raised pigs then slaughtered them herself. She could also make some of the best clothes, coats, and doll furniture. She was very artistic like her famous son the painter.......and her home was always spic n span clean. She bleached everything.

 When she was in her 60's she owned a bar. She had a pet pig that lived in the bar. I can't remember his name. But I remember him running around.......

 She raised 6 children. All of them but 2 were pains in the asses.

She was not a sissy girl.

For some reason I will always remember watching The Swamp Man with her, or maybe it was called The Swamp Thing..............it was a scary movie to a young girl, she seemed not to be afraid of anything. She tackled things head on....... She always had the greatest egg hunts when I was a child. It was anything but your typical egg hunt. She'd load the attic floor with hard boiled eggs, we'd be blind folded and bare foot......then walk around smashing eggs. Why she did it like that I don't know........but it was fun,it was exciting! And she had a flare for decorating at Christmas........very creative...........

She marched to the beat of her own drum..;........you could join her whenever you wanted.......she would have liked that...............

 

11/05/14

I have the next 3 days off! Any day off is a good day.

Mom started making ornaments for the grand/great grandchildren last December.
She finished a little less than half of them. She wanted to give them to each child
for Christmas.
Makes me a little sad to see them undone and I feel a little regret
that I didn't work on them with her to help her finish them.
That's one of my plans for these 3 days.....to finish the ornaments.

I was sitting on the couch one night, a couple of months after my mom passed away.
I was  hurting, and missing my mom.
This feeling of warmth, love, and contentment enveloped all of me......it was real. It was palpable..............now corny as it may sound I knew it was my mom wrapping me in her arms and in her love.........I have no doubt  she was there with me.

I finished painting the dresser.
It looks OK as a buffet in my dining room.................and since the drawers are huge and deep
it gives me some much needed storage for dishes and cooking ware that we don't use everyday.

november 2, 2014

I butt dialed an old friend the other night.
He text me letting me know what I had done.
Then text something sexual.
Just talking to him feels like being pawed .......not a nice feeling.........how can a grown man
not know better? Gross.

Oldest son and his girlfriend had dinner with me and boyfriend
last night.
Boyfriend cooked dinner the night before but neither me, him, or daughter
was hungry. I packed the dinner away in the refrigerator
and served it last night. SO dinner was easy. We had fried chicken, collard greens, corn, mac n cheese.......and then I made some cornbread. Boyfriend is a great cook. Everything was delicious.........and we had a
good time.
Sons girlfriend has been in a rehab center for a year. She has weekend passes. I like her
a lot. She's smart, and has a dry, wicked sense of humor.  We crack up together. But I have to say
I worry about son being involved with her.  If she relapses like so many addicts do, it would be devastating for him....not to mention all the bullshit that an addict puts the people they love through.........and if they ever had children.........imagine how relapses would affect the child. It's a horrible disease. I just wish for something/someone different for my son. (son does not use, ever. never has.)

So I went to the doctor about a month ago.Routine check up........had routine blood work done..........didn't hear from them........can't check my results on-line cause I've never signed up.....figured no news is good news even though I know better.....so I called them to make sure everything was OK, missed their call back....got a letter yesterday saying they've been trying to get a hold of me.........they need to go over some lab work
results ......................a little worried I guess...............

moms flowers

It's cold here. It's windy, rainy, and cold.
I was looking out my window last night
and noticed I had new flowers that had bloomed.
Last year mom spent almost 3 weeks in the hosp. after her car wreck.
Then another several weeks in the house getting physical therapy, too weak
to go out.
She was so excited when she was finally able to go out for awhile.
Our first trip out was to Walgreen's.
I took her there because it's small........wouldn't require her
to walk long distances. It was a trial run......to see how she would do......before we could move on to bigger, better shopping.Mom loved to shop.
She did good.......walked that store pushing a shopping cart in front of her..........she was all over that place...........one of the things she bought was a box of wild flower seeds.
She gave them to me to plant in my back yard.
Mom didn't garden.........wasn't interested in it.............I honestly didn't know she knew
I dabbled in it.....................maybe she did. I honestly don't know................but it was sweet that she
got the wild flower seeds for me.....................I didn't have the time to plants those seeds that summer..........mom was sick and much of my time was spent with her or at work.............................I planted them this summer..........................only one flower bloomed until last night..................................so I looked out the window and saw these flowers flowing in the wind..........waving at me...

...............makes me happy and sad all at once!

 

So  I have to finish cleaning my dining room today. It's become a catch all as I get the house together for the holidays.

I have no place to go with this stuff! My house

is a tiny old house.............the closets are little............and some things just can't go to the basement!