Monthly Archives: July 2018

Blessings July 13-27

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Friday July 13
checked and answered email
*This is a big deal because I have been avoiding email like the plague. DH says it is because of the trauma that came by email.
Slept well.
Walked dog.
Got invited to a make-up class with friends.

Saturday July 14
went to 2 new antique shops in town–said I was going to try to go Thursday, but did today. ]
*Only one was open. The other is only open the first weekend of the month. It’s in the place where my dad bought Lij’s furniture.
Bought an absolutely gorgeous vintage freshwater pearl necklace. It is beautiful. Also purchased drop faux pearl earrings. (Think they might be gold, but might be faux that, too.)
Texted Jo about it. She came over to see the necklace. Said it looked great with the green-blue dress I was wearing.
I didn’t think Ron would like the necklace but I modeled it and he did!
Jo offered to make earrings that match the necklace. Will have to order spacers. Need to giver her $$.
Jo brought the puppy dog tennis balls. He is good at catching.

Sunday July 15
Went to Beltway for church
tried to go to CowboyBBQ and Abihaus for lunch, but closed or slow. We had chicken for lunch.
Got about 20 of the weekend field research projects done for PokeGo.
made country club muffins (not great, better after freezing and reheating)

Monday July 16
got the oil changed on my car
ordered the purple Edwardian skirt to show DH that Amazon was working for me, even on Prime Day
took the give away stuff to Salvation Army
met MrsWeemDog and talked about kids, anniversaries, trips
did laundry

Tuesday July 17
watered the lawn
walked the dog

Wednesday July 18
walked the dog
walked at HSU
had a good TM meeting, even though started 2 minutes late (ended on time, though!)

Thursday July 19
survived the SHHS trustee meeting
got some of the things done
finished the agenda in only 1.5 hours

Friday July 20
drove to Dallas for the weekend
got some new pokestops

Saturday July 21
walked 9 miles
went to Chase on foot to get $$
went to Luke’s Locker and got 2 pairs of shoes
talked to South African clerk with a wonderful accent
went to Dragon Statue Park
saw an exceptionally good show at Vivas

Sunday July 22
walked for 1 hour
got Alolan Raichu in a raid
ate breakfast at Mockingbird Diner

Monday July 23
weight lifting with Penny
walked early with dog at home
watered lawn
finished Haven Point series by R Thayne

Tuesday July 24
found mid-century drapes for DH. They pull in the wall and carpet colors. They look good.
did 2 raids with DH
got to talk Pokemon with a teen, a 10yo, and their dad

Wednesday July 25
Diana did an amazing table topics with pom poms and a panel of three folks.
I gave my speech on mentoring.
took Ron’s phone and fixed his pokemon names
did a raid with Ron’s phone
we had lunch together at Pizza by Design
ate those left overs for supper
went by PetSmart for puppy training information
got rods for Ron’s drapes
bought mat for guest bathroom to replace the one that got peed on a month or so ago

Thursday July 26
walked dog for an hour
finished edits on Jo’s chapter 3
watered 1/2 lawn
checked and answered email
wrote the notes up into a Tall Tale for tonight’s open mike at AWG
did Table Topics at AAS TM
went to AWG and read my Uncle Guy tall tale

Friday July 27
walked dog
watered lawn
got the pickup filled up
Ron killed about 20 of the wasps on the truck
finished this list
got stuff ready for trip to Austin to see the elders off to Malaysia
ate a great spinach salad at Natural Food Center with hubby

8 Years Ago

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I’ve been reading Timehop, which is a lovely and fascinating app that gathers your past Facebook posts, Tweets, Instagram, and photos and shares them with you, day by day. It’s a great app for encouraging you to remember things that you might have otherwise forgotten that you thought were significant at the time. In fact, I have 105 hops in a row, which means I’ve been using it all summer.

The past three weeks have been bittersweet as I read about things leading up to my mother’s death. Some of them were so encouraging and some of them were devastating, even in retrospect.

Tomorrow is the 8 year anniversary of the loss of my mother. I still miss her.

Mom loved tulips and the color yellow. She loved entertaining and believed the best about everyone. When we were sick, she would crawl into bed with us and hold us.

I had to give a toast in 2015 and I thought 5 years was probably long enough that I could talk about my mother without crying. This is what I said:

Mother: called her when I was sick, said I didn’t need help. Three hours later I called back—She was already on the way. When I was 5 she was getting dressed for her anniversary. I was being watched in the pool by neighbors, but got into the deep end and was floundering. She jumped over the rail and into the pool in the first new dress she’d had in 7 years.

Student: Mom was in high school when my folks got married. After she finished high school, and wanted to go to college, my dad told her she could—but only if she made good grades, because they would have to pay for someone to take care of us and they didn’t have much money. Mother had been a so-so student in high school, but in college, she was a star. I remember Mom working on a speech for class. She explained the unique quality of her kids. I was delivered by a cat and my brother, the only boy born in three days at St. Edwards in Austin, slept with 76 females at once. My sister was born on the very first election day my mother could vote in. Mom stretched the point to say that an election from that day was passed by one vote.

Healer: She knew about healing in God-given ways. She explained that you could use brown sugar to help heal bed sores—which was proven to be true in a study released in 1979. There was a woman in my college class who was pregnant. I came home and told Mom that she couldn’t fit in the desk and had to sit sideways and that she was wondering if she would make it to the final. Mother said she would not, because she would have had twins. Which is what the professor announced at our final.

Encourager: She had incredible faith that if I said something, it was true (after some early false starts that proved I did know what I was talking about sometimes). She called Grama when I told her something was wrong. Grama had been hit by a car. I told her something was wrong with my college buddy Rex. She said to call and check on him, but I told her he wasn’t home. Turns out he’d been mugged and robbed and, after he was cleaned up at the hospital, his friends took him to a place out of town to recuperate.

Friend: Her sister-in-law stayed her friend for life, even when Aunt Stephanie and Mom’s brother divorced. When I overdrew my checkbook for the first (and second and third) time, she didn’t fuss. She just said she understood and covered the issue. She was an amazing friend. Until she got sick in 2001, we talked on the phone once a week after I got out of college.

History of other things:
My mother was diagnosed as bipolar when she was in her 50s. That’s weird. Most people don’t get bipolar then.

My mother was going crazy in 2006. I wrote a post about how weird she was being.

In 2007 my mother was institutionalized.

My mother was dying of brain cancer for at least four years prior to her death and none of the doctors found it until the day before we took her home to die.

Blessings July 6-12

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Ron has been recommending I start a blessings list again.

I decided I should, but then I haven’t done it.

So this is the last week in blessings–though obviously not every one that I have experienced.

Friday, July 6
had lunch at the Abilene Women’s Club, got to sit with Melanie, Neil, and Pat, wore my new hat (was the only one in a hat this time)
the dr said I don’t need a colonoscopy
Lij bought a house!

Saturday, July 7
Ex-Raid, caught a MewTwo
have lots of rare candy to make it stronger
met some players and they told me about their messaging (can’t download the messages, though)

Sunday, July 8
went to Beltway, had communion
Pokemon Community Day today–caught tons of Squirtels, evolved a Shiny with Sunglasses, evolved my saved Squirtle
chatted and walked for 1.5 hours with two folks I met at the raid

Monday, July 9
It rained!
I walked 12,000 steps
did strength training with Penny

Tuesday, July 10
s3x
watered the lawn
walked the dog
Haunted Abilene–got to see Melanie
saw Jo and gave her feedback on her make-up
Ron made from-scratch chocolate chip cookies, which tasted like muffin tops

Wednesday, July 11
gave good speech at 5440
had visitor at 5440
tried new restaurant–BenaV’s–good burger (and Ron said fries were good, too)
walked dog 2x
worked on speech topics for Abilene Speaker’s Bureau

Thursday, July 12
slept in
s3x
walked got 2x
tried new restaurant–El Pulagarcito–had fried plantains!
wanted lawn
found out we have a new member at AAS!! (agreed to be mentor)
… and the day is not over yet!

Country Club Muffins

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I attended the Abilene Women’s Club last month and had wonderful little bread/muffins, that tasted more like cake (imho). This month, they were served again. This time, I asked about them and Jean G agreed to send the recipe! She came through with that promise and I am putting the receipt here.

Abilene Country Club Muffins

2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
¼ tsp. salt
4 scant Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. melted butter

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Beat eggs until thick and lemon yellow in color. Mix remaining ingredients in order. Fill greased miniature muffin pans ¾ full and bake 25 to 30 minutes until lightly browned.
Yields: 2 dozen.
These freeze well.

Why So Long?

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I haven’t been writing here, much, because I’ve had some issues with my online presence. But I finally decided that the problems weren’t worth losing the journaling ability. I will try to remember to make sensitive posts private–and also posts that I don’t remember what all is in them, at least until I’ve had a chance to read them.

I could just make them all private, I guess.