Graduation

Welcome to another catch-up post from May.  

We officially have three graduates in our family this year.

Our youngest grandchild graduated from kindergarten. He lives in the same town we do and I believe this is the first year they held a kindergarten graduation.  

Later that week we attended our #4 grandson's graduation from 5th grade. Graduating from 5th grade in his country consolidated school means he moves to the other side of the building. 

And that Sunday we traveled to the Big City for our oldest grandson's high school graduation. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with all kinds of awards. We are very proud of him. He is also very tall. He and his best friend are having a joint reception in July.  

We received three out of state announcements and party invitations from great nephews and nieces in Texas, Montana, and Florida. We sent well wishes and checks but were very disappointed to miss the parties.  

We will be attending a neighbor's high school graduation party next Saturday and I am hoping for a sandwich! Graduation season usually means I don't have to cook on Saturday. My favorite graduation parties are hog roasts but I think we lucked out this year. 

Mother's Day

 Yes, I know I will get points taken off my grade for submitting late assignments.  

Meanwhile.  I determined a few years back that if I wanted things in the world to be the way I wanted them to be, I would need to do it myself.  I had an idea for celebrating myself for Mother's Day and moved ahead. I invited both my daughters and both my daughter in-laws, both my granddaughters and step granddaughters, as well as their mother  and mother in-laws to tea. Only my youngest daughter and granddaughter had room in their busy schedules. I made the reservations. 

The facility shared this photo of the scones baked that morning. 

Not only was the reservation for a special Mother's Day Tea, but there were ADD ONS.  Of course I signed up for the optional Flower Bar and optional Mimosa Bar! 

We dressed up and arrived on time. We had a champagne bucket on the table and a glass of sparkling grape juice for my granddaughter. 

This was also posted by the facility. 

The menu was scrumptious (as usual).  My daughter and I each chose our favorite pot of tea and my granddaughter had a whole tea pot of hot chocolate.

These are my actual sandwiches, clockwise from bottom, Chicken Salad Croissant, Pumpkin Bread, Shredded Carrot Bruschetta (which was a baked sandwich with a cheese sauce), Carmelized Onion Jam with Apple on White, Turkey and Cranberry Cream Cheese on White, Egg Salad on Wheat and Bacon, White Cheddar and Roasted Tomato on Wheat.  Each one was as good as the next. 

Our table was very full!!! 

They do offer a smaller "Princess" plate for children but my granddaughter prefers the tiered tray for adults. 

The middle tiers were slightly different. Mine showcases the Blondie (My girls had a chocolate peanutbutter brownie), a Fruit Cookie, Chocolate Mousse, and a scone. 

And the top tier featured Homemade Canoli, Strawberry Shortcake and Almond Layer Cake which was something I am still dreaming about. 

Now let's talk about the Mimosa Bar. 

We had decided that a bottle for $25 was a better bargain than two glasses for $20. Neither of us is a drinker, but this was a special occasion! There was lots of fresh fruit and mixers. 

We tried champagne with orange juice, cranberry juice and pink lemonade. My daughter's favorite was pink lemonade and my favorite was cranberry juice. We did not try the syrups. 

My daughter as maitre 'd. 

Posing my champagne glass. 

Sparkling Grape Juice. 

The Cranberry Mimosa. 

As you can tell I was enthralled with the Champagne Bar.  I was documenting for future parties and celebrations.  Then I went to my cardiologist appointment a few weeks ago and found that my newest forever prescriptions require zero alcohol and this was my final hurrah. We are slowing down my heart rate and blood pressure to ease the strain on my heart and alcohol will reduce it further to dangerous levels. 

Now on to the Flower Bar. This was my first flower bar, too, and I was very impressed. 

We had lots of flowers to chose from. 

Of course I purchased the Flower Bar for everyone. 

We all chose our own flowers. 

The ribbons were to tie your bouquet together.

 

The bouquets actually lasted over two weeks. 

Happy Mother's Day!  

(and don't worry - Mr Merry drove us to the tea and my daughter's husband picked us up afterwards). 

The First Concert

 

Just a little update on the free concert in the park in our small town last night.  I packed some fruit and cheese, a cooler with drinks, our lawn chairs and a small table and we got caught in traffic.  

The band is a dad with three daughters, one son and the son's friend who dad met at their high school production of Grease ths spring.  They are sensational. 

We aren't the only people who think so.  This is seating on the terraced hill in front  of the stage. We are in those trees WAY back there behind the stage.  (in the shade). From our seat, we can't even see the audience. 

We don't mind that we can't see because the sound is great.   We aren't sure how many attended but last year's appearance drew 500 people and there were many more this year!  What a lovely evening.  

Thanks for putting up with the whine

1 bag Aldi frozen ravoli, 1 pint of homemade freezer salsa that I need to use up, 1 small can tomato sauce, 1/2 pound Aldi Mild Italian Sausage. Spray pan bake covered per ravoli directions.
Sprinkle cheese and bake until melted. 

Thank you all for putting up with my whiney posts and all the sympathy. I promise to start being more optimistic! 

I am committed to wearing the new glasses for 7 days to see if I can "train my eyes".  The eye office are trained professionals and maybe they are right.  Otherwise I will go back to the readers I bought on Amazon midway between my reading prescriptions that are bifocal with a clear top.  I wasn't doing too bad with those and that may be the answer.  

My daughter is finished in her classroom and today I slept in until 10:30 am and feel much better.  Tonight our commuity begins free concerts in the park and the band opening the season is the sisters from last year who sing acustic soft rock. The temperatures are in the 70's and it should be fabulous! 

Tomorrow I am back in the church office and Friday my middle school grandson has invited me to take him to the amusement park if he doesn't have to work.  He was gathering golf balls out of the creek by his house (his dad's house and my house are both near a golf course), washing them and selling them along the course. The owner stopped by one of the holes and bought some, interviewed him and hired him to wash and gas up the golf carts, fill divets, pick up trash and empty trash cans.  Not only is he getting paid by the hour, he has a free golf pass for the season! Not bad for a twelve year old. 

The weather has been nice enough to walk in my neighborhood this week although I think I will be back at the gym when we hit the 80's. 

I'm sorry for not visiting as much, it is hard to read my screen right now, but I am comitted to these glasses for a week.  I will be back.

Hope everyone is enjoying the pre-summer. 

No Memory Monday Today

 No Memory Monday today.  

School is out and the grandparents are busy! Today we had children arrive at 6:50 a.m., ready for breakfast.  

The six year old had tennis camp at 9 am and we had to leave early because the major street in my town is under construction this summer.  We were also lending rackets to some cousins.  

We then went to the eye doctor to pick up my new glasses.  Unfortunately I can barely see close up. My readers from Dollar Tree are better. They told me I will need to retrain my eyes and that I need to wear them every day for a week.  

Side note:  I deeply regret cataract surgery.

By then it was time to pick up the six year old at tennis camp and drop off the ten year old.  We all went grocery shopping, brought groceries home and went back to pick her up. 

Today is the Burger King's birthday and we went there for lunch. A few weeks ago a gentleman in a big pickup hit the gas instead of the brake and drove through one wall. It is braced but not repaired yet. 

We came home and grampa put them to work setting up the fairy garden while I went to my church meeting.  

I came home and quickly made some hot dogs and macaroni and cheese for the ten year old so she could eat before her softball game. Step dad picked her up. 

I am now feeding the six year old the same thing before his little league game.  Mom had a mandatory teacher day (and again tomorrow and Wednesday) and has a teacher retirement party this evening.  We will take him to warm up soon and hopefully mom will meet us before the end of the game.  

Tomorrow we add the ten year old's basketball camp in the afternoon. 

Then we need to go walk our two miles since we missed yesterday. 

Whew!

AND my daughter called last night and volunteered me to be the assistant 3 year old Vacation Bible School teacher at her church. She is the teacher and told them she knows I will say yes.  That is in two weeks. 

Quick Update

I guess I am not over my last post. 

1. I forgot to mention my family has not mentioned any weight loss. 

2. One of my co-grammas actually sent me a message this morning comparing a photo of us at a kindergarten graduation last year and a fifth grade graduation yesterday and said "look how much thinner you look lady!"  

Okay. I feel better now.

Frustrating

This is another one of those medical posts I might leave up or I might delete.  I don't need anyone to comment.  I think I am just letting out my frustrations and getting over it. 

I am still mad that I got sick. Is that rational? No it is not. But facts don't make it less frustrating.  I am tired of doctors and drugs and appointments and insurance compainies and pharmacies. 

After a brief break, I started again. The hospital called out of the blue and wanted to schedule a CT Scan. I scheduled it and never asked who ordered it.  It was pulmonary.  I read the results and printed them. 

I had a follow up with my primary. He didn't want to give an opinion and said to wait for pulmonary to follow up. They haven't.  

Today I had an appointment with cardiology. He did not mention anything, but when I read the clinical notes on line, he found decreased lung sounds. Should someone be worried about this? Or the "numerous" nodules grouped in my lungs? Or am I being a big nervous baby? 

The cardiologist has ordered a test I have never heard of that will see how I am doing on the medication. It did not sound like a big deal. I looked it up. I will have IVs and the test itself will take 90 minutes. So a bigger deal than a CT Scan.  But it sounds like I will get some good answers (whether I want them or not).  And he did schedule an appointment to talk about these results. 

And here is what I am really mad about.  I have been doing everything right. I started walking at the gym and am up to 2 miles a day.  I completely changed my eating habits, cut out sodium and caffiene. I have lost over 24 pounds since the heart incident in January all on my own.  And none of these doctors noticed. Why do they even weigh you? What is the point?  

Today the cardiologist asked if I had noticed a weight gain. I know it is because we are worried about retaining fluid.  But good grief. I said NO, actually I have lost almost 25 pounds.  He said, gosh, how did you do that?  

I'm petty. I am mad.  Shouldn't they compare numbers from your last visit? Jeesh. I feel like their first words should be, oh, you have lost weight.   

And because I am me, I don't mention this.  The cardiologist actually described me in the clinical notes as a "pleasant woman of 69".   And then he doubled my medication. 

I would also like to add that my family has not mentioned anything about my weight loss - like "mom, have you lost weight?"  or "mom, you look really good" or any acknowledgement.  Do they not notice? 

 

Two Days

I can't keep up, I'm sorry.  I never meant to go missing for so long without posting.  I wouldn't be here at all if I hadn't had to dig in some old photos and got ahead with my Memory Mondays.  For no reason I can fatham, I feel like I am running backwards in life. 

Here is how I spent two days of my life.  

My son is a police detective. Our town has decided to "change the colors" of our police department. Who knew police departments had "colors".  All of his uniforms and jackets and accessories have insignia in the old colors - a brown background, green and black lettering, khaki accents.  The new colors and grays and navys. This affects me how?

He usually wears street clothes. But due to personnel issues and the offer of additional pay for overtime (he needs a new roof) he was back in uniform for Memorial Day weekend. And he needed at least one shirt and one jacket to have the new insignia.  Each sleeve on each garment requires the large badge looking thing and the sergant strips so that means 4 patches for each garment.  And because he is my son, he waited until the last minute.

We started by using my seam ripper to remove all the machine stitching from the factory when the shirt and jacket were ordered. This took me quite a while.  

Let me insert a special issue.  I had cataract surgery recently.  For my left eye I had a regular lens inserted. What I did not know was that it would worsen my close up vision when it corrected my distance vision.  So when we did my right eye, I paid the big bucks (almost $2000) for the bifocal lens. Unfortunately I am always the "one in a million" and the lens improved but did not correct my vision.  At this time I have different prescriptions for distance and for close up for each eye. I am wearing bifocals I bought on amazon that are the correct precription for my left eye but not my right eye and clear for distance which is my left eye but not my right eye.  This means it is fun to see small details. 

Back to day one.  It took me all morning just to remove the old patches.  The only good thing I can say is that the pin holes from the factory stitching left an imprint to line up the new patches.  

I used long quilting pins to line up the first sleeve and decided maybe it would be easier to sew them on by hand.  I used to be quite the handsewer.  Well, the patches are heavily machine embroidered and have some kind of plastic coating on the back.  My thinner needles were almost sharp enough to force throught the patch, but the needles would bend or break. And my thicker, stronger needles were not sharp enough to go through the patch.   

By afternoon I gave up and went for our two hour walk.  When I came back, I re-pinned the first sleeve and decided to use my sewing machine.  I have not used my sewing machine in a long time.  I had to wind a new bobbin in navy thread.  I remembered how to do that.  Then I had to thread the needle. I spent almost 20 minutes and could not get it threaded.  I finally rigged my husbands shop lantern to shine on the needle and bobbin plate without blinding me and got the needle threaded.  But the bobbin seemed jammed.  

Using the lantern along with a lamp and ceiling light to try to see what I am doing. 

I spent all kinds of time trying to remove the bobbin holder.  I looked on Youtube and chats . I was getting very frustrated.  I finally googled troubleshooting my sewing machine model and was reminded that after you wind a new bobbin, you have to move one little piece back where it was before the bobbin will work.  Duh. I knew that.  

Taking a photo of the needle with my phone to enlarge it so I can see if there is thread in the needle. Because I did "sew" one patch on with an unthreaded needle. 

I did a practice round with an old patch on one of my husband's old work shirts. Then had to rip it out. 

So finally we are ready to sew patch one.  Did I catch the other side of the sleeve while trying to sew it just past the shoulder? Yes, twice.  So then I got to pick out that patch and redo it.  Did I catch the opposite side of the sleeve on both large patches on the jacket? Of course I did.  I did manage to sew one set of stripes on with no problem. And then I caught the sleeve on the second sleeve, had to pick it and re-sew it.  

Picking out stitches and entire seams that have caught in the sides of the sleeves. 

Then I went to bed. 

The next day I was sure would go better.  This shirt was short sleeved and would be easier to twist.  I caught the sleeve on the first large patch and had to pick it and re-sew it.  I repeated the same steps as the day before, sewing, picking and re-sewing both of the large patches and one of the smaller ones.  

Then I pressed the jacket and the shirt, walked two miles and went to bed. 

When he picked them up I told him that I would like to offer to pay the cost of whatever a professional would like to charge to redo the patches in the new colors on all the other articles of clothing he has.  How I ever survived two girl scouts and three boy scouts, I will never know. 

And that was two days of my life. Ier thick and have a plastic coating on the back. Couldn't push a needle through

Memory Monday: Memorial Day

My grandmother and my mother had a firm belief that every family must travel to our local park, known as Memorial Park, and have a family picnic on Memorial Day, regardless of weather.  

Here we are on a freezing cold Memorial Day 1983.  Left to right - a very pregnant (with my fourth child) Miss Merry, my mom in her blue coat, my dad clutching a cold beverage while bracing himself against the wind, my grandmother setting the table her way and my poor husband assisting her. 

Memory Monday: Graduation

 Sorting through old photos and I found these from 1974. 

My graduation photo. We had a choice of b/w or the new thing - color. I chose black and white because my best friend chose black and white to match her two older sisters. 

The photographer recommended we wear white sweaters for contrast and for our 8x10 "oil" tinted photo our parents framed, he would tint the sweater the color of your choice. My friend and her sisters all wore the same sweater and had it tinted different colors. I am pretty sure mine is white in the 8 x 10.  

Meanwhile I had two younger brothers and their portraits on the wall were normal color photos. 

Graduation Day

Memory Monday

 

My mother, my grandmother and spoiled rotten me with the high cut bangs. I still have this dress, another my grandmother made for me. It is a pink and black plaid with a little black velvet bow. 

My mother is wearing a smock apron. I know because she wore one every day. My grandmother will have been wearing a conventional apron that ties at the waist. I kept a box of aprons, stained and threadbare for many years until I could part with them. 

Ramblings

Ramblings 

Tonight we went to a cocktail party.  Doesn't sound like us? It isn't. It was a fundraiser for the democratic chairwoman in my county, hosted by the mayor and county auditor. Both are friends of ours so we felt we should go and bring a check.  We stopped at the cash bar and splurged on two ginger ales and a big tip for the bartender.  There were some delicious appetizers, including sauerkraut balls that rival my recipe!   

 This morning we had the pleasure of attending a fourth grade history fair.  Each student made a poster about a famous person from our state. We had the opportunity to interview them about the person they were portraying. My grandson was Thomas Edison (remember our field trip on Easter break?).  

He told me we were the only ones who interviewed him. Most parents and grandparents only looked at their students poster and took a picture.  I loved interviewing all these famous people! I met a musician who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,  Annie Oakley,  several Neil Armstrongs and John Glenns, even more Steph Currys and LaBron James, several Travis Kelces (I congratulated them on the engagement), Vera Ellen from White Christmas, the woman who has voiced Bart Simpson for thirty five years and is also Sabrina Carpenter's aunt, as well as many many gymnasts.  The kids were so eager to share their facts and we stayed until the end of the fair to talk with as many as possible! 

I was also going to ramble about the 15 1/2 hours I spent as a poll worker on Tuesday.  But in retrospect I believe I will need a whole post to rehash that.  

Tomorrow I am going on a road trip with my glass class friends.  I think I was in on the original plan but now I can't remember what we are doing besides going out for lunch in a different city. But I am always ready to go out for lunch!  

Saturday my youngest daughter and granddaughter and I are going to the tea restaurant for the monthly tea which is going to be extra special.  

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Lacrosse

We have a senior!  I spent two days  of my life creating his senior lacrosse poster.  I don't remember posters when my kids were in school, but I guess it is a thing.  I am not the sports gramma so instead of attending sports events (and with ten of them sporting all over the state, how could I) I am the one who creates the posters. 

Since it was the senior's special game, we did attend. It was freezing but it did not rain. I shared my blankets with my co-grandparents. 

My oldest daughter and family.

Crazy cousins who tagged along.

The girlfriend. Her parents came too. 

The girlfriend dashed to the hair dresser and the grandson raced home to shower because it was also prom night.  Don't they clean up well! 

They live in a big city.  Photos were taken at the Museum of Art.  The prom itself was held at the aquariam at the zoo.  And the parents decorated the entire high school like a movie set for after prom.  

In my town the kids go to the reservior or even my country church for photos.  The prom is often held at the school (includes a catered meal) and the after prom is held at the city recreation center which has basketball, volleyball and pickle ball courts, a pool, lots of rooms, etc.  This year prom was held in a fancy barn used for parties and receptions (no need for decorations) and there was no dinner or after prom because somehow the class of 2026 never did any fundraising during the last four years.  

One last prom photo

And here are some from my daughter who helps set up and chaperone the after prom.  The theme (I think) was something like traveling around to locations around the world. I do know my grandson was in a sports tournament at some "location" and won a dorm sized microwave for his future home. 

That was our big weekend!