Category Archives: Brian

Apr3

Show and Tell

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Peachy keen orchid, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

My husband Brian and I were in Kmart on Thursday and I started to snoop around the floral/plants and found a table of orchids. I’ve been interested in orchids since I was given one by Brian and it bloomed for me. It must be my fairly new garden window in the kitchen that helps them along. I decided to get this peachy color one. Now I have three!
Orchid from Hawaii
This one is blooming again (this is an old photo), but the edges of the leaves are browning. Need to give it some TLC. Bought two from Longwood, only this made it.
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Gift from Brian about 3 yrs ago.

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Wish Brian luck as he has to have two procedures in outpatient on Tuesday-an endoscopy and a colonoscopy. Hope to get to the ‘bottom’ of his issues. When my mom had her colonoscopy, I took her out to lunch. I hope Bri feels like eating too. I’m happy to say he has been eating better the last few days.

Apr2

A new stitcher in the family?

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I got up to use the computer, and Cosmo scooted over to where I had been sitting and stitching. Brian thought he looked cute and I suggested he put my stitching near Cosmo’s paws. These are cute shots and they gave us a good laugh.
I’m going to the GI doc with Bri later in the afternoon. Our time schedules are really off and we both are a little light-headed today. Whoa!
I enjoyed the finale of ‘Life on Mars’ last night seeing that Sam Tyler was really from the ‘far’ future in a spaceship that was about to land on Mars. Didn’t see that coming-but the name of the show should have been a hint. I enjoyed seeing his ‘dream’ about living in 1973. Too bad it was canceled. I do like the show ‘Cupid’. Jennifer said it had been on before, somehow I missed the first time around.

Apr1

No foolin’ day

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Today did not start out very typical and when Brian woke up and came in the family room at 12:45 am and said he was in pain, we decided to take him to the ER. There are a few different hospitals near by, but we went to the one affiliated with the doctor he is seeing tomorrow-good thinking (he can see the results of the tests from the computer right away-in system ). I’m not use to driving at that time in the morning and was scared about deer and wildlife-a few bunnies hip-hopped out of the way. We got there and it was pretty deserted except for the young guy with the dry heaves. They asked Bri the same questions I have asked him for days and then they took blood and a few x-rays. It took forever (it seems) for them to look at the x-rays and he is rather ‘bloated’ so they sent him home with a mix to clean him out. He’s waiting for it to work. So we got to bed about 4:30 am. I think he’ll be scheduled for a certain test every 50 year old is suppose to have.

It’s a typical spring day here with spotty rain and is overcast. A good day for a nap.

Thanks for all your comments of concern, we appreciate them.

Mar31

A little better

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I didn’t get my act together until after dinner. Brian and I both slept better, but he’s still having GI issues. He brought home cheesesteaks and only ate half of his-I ate all of mine. I took kitty for a walk as I see I’m not the only one who gained a few more pounds this winter. ; ) I then got the rake and cleaned out a few more spots and completely wiped myself out. Bri did come out and clean up the debris, hoping that moving around would help. I can’t believe how much tall grass got in my irises and roses. They are going to be a bugger to weed.
I was happily stitching on a new cross stitch piece-Herb Bouquet, and lo and behold-that blasted linen-I was a stitch or so off. I was thinking about stitching around it, but it messed up a stem on a plant. Rats.
Herb Garden Bouquet cross stitch begins
So that’s about all the excitement besides Sean having to write 5 papers by May and not getting a good grade on one he worked so hard on. A Facebook friend and former high school pal John, said he would take a look at Sean’s papers to help him. He use to help under grads at Harvard with their papers. What a nice guy. I told Sean and I think he appreciated that.

Mar30

Touching base

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Hey, just to let you know that things here could be better. Brian hasn’t been sleeping or eating like he is suppose to. I made an appointment for him to see a specialist. I’m grouchy and suffering from lack of sleep myself. Keep us in your thoughts. Thanks.

Mar24

Happy Birthday Brian-Down Memory Lane

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It’s hard to believe that three of these photos were taken almost 25 years ago on our honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico. The other was taken 8.5 yrs ago in New Hope, Pa.
We celebrated his birthday in 1983 as an engaged couple. I remember using most of my pay that week to buy him a Walkman. Seems like such an old concept now with the MP3 players and Ipods around now. I wanted to get him a MP3 player this year, but wasn’t sure if he’d use it.
I thought he’d enjoy seeing these photos again. Didn’t he look hunky in those earlier photos? He’s still my hunk. ; )
I baked some yellow cupcakes with dark fudge icing for him and placed them on the  ‘special’ plate:
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FYI-I didn’t have vegetable oil and read where you can substitute apple sauce for the same amount of oil needed. I did this and they are light and tasty. This will be good for my brother to know as the veggie oil bothers him when mixed in waffles.
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My mom sent Bri a bouquet:
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I also finished this to be made into an egg shape for my niece T as her birthday is the day before Easter:
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The Prairie Schooler

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All the Kosher food is on sale at the store, so I bought some toasted coconut marshmallows and potato pancake mix which I made last night:
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They were good with meatloaf. I will say I should have used a bigger pan and I had to get the hang out of making sure they were solid and brown before turning. Be sure to check out your Kosher stuff-there’s some good eats there that you may not try that much!
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Sean is enjoying seeing the sights of Vegas-he saw some of the fancy hotels like The Mirage and Treasure Island last night and said they were huge! He is all dressed up in these clothes for the job fair:
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FYI, the suit coat is from the Goodwill and only cost $6.50. We bought the shirt and tie in Macy’s to match the jacket. If we had purchased a new suit coat, it would have been approx.-$150-$200. This assemble cost $83.50. So we saved a lot! He may not even have to wear a suit if he works in the field, so this was a wise thing to do in these hard times. He wore a used jacket in his high school portrait too-who knew?

Mar23

Flying solo on Sunday

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I just talked to Sean about 11:50 est (Sunday) and he was waiting on his luggage out in Las Vegas! He had 12 hours of travel today and is beat. He left State College and drove himself and two buddies to the Pittsburgh airport. The flight was delayed about 1 hour 45 minutes. So the entire day his dad and I were on pins and needles as this was Sean’s first non-family air flight (He’s only been on 3 other plane trips in his life). Here’s where we watched the progress of his flight:
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As you can see, they were flying over the corner of Texas at the time of this screen capture. He flew through 9 states. Knowing Sean, if he could, he would have wanted to stop and check each one out if he had the time.
I’ll keep you posted on his trip. It’s a conference/job fair for Geography majors.
My mom and her friend Jim stopped by for a little bit today. We weren’t very good hosts as we were waiting for Sean to board the plane. After dinner, we ran down to the grocery store and it was pretty much empty. Bri will have my van again, so I wanted to get shopping out of the way.
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My nephew K. enters the teen years today. Hope he has a great 13th birthday. Even though Sean doesn’t have any siblings, he has watched K and T grow up and they really like their cousin.

Mar18

A quick wave

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That one hour of sleep I got last night didn’t quite cut the mustard, so I’m heading to bed early tonight. I had tummy issues and mom and Brian insisted I go to the doctor. About 8:15 am, after a night of tummy ‘rumbas’, I finally took something that usually helps my IBS (over the counter Equalactin-that stuff is magic and they better keep making it) and within a few hours, everything was calm, except for my brain. When I can’t sleep, I can’t turn off the mind box. And I was so sad to hear about Natasha Richardson and didn’t know the extent of her now fatal injuries until later today. Was thinking about how fragile life can be.
Bri went with me as my van is still at my brother’s house (it’s inspected and fixed). We waited 45 minutes for the doctor to say, I think you have IBS! I made him check my neck as I thought I had a swollen right gland-didn’t and had him look at my the left ‘girl’ scar as it’s developed a bump-he said it was ok. He still thinks I should go to the GI doc (a new one that I originally wanted to see). Everything he mentioned I said I had had already- an ultrasound in the fall of 2006 (the first GI checked off a special blood test and I brought the paper to show this doc before I get the blood work-this one mentioned an ultrasound) and I continued to get cholesterol and liver enzyme blood work yearly and he thumbed through my papers and found the results for that stuff. So that was a wasted $30 in my book. I learn more off google search. I definitely think we need to get a new GP.
Off for my van tomorrow and hopefully I can pick up a few gifts for Brian’s birthday soon!

Mar17

St. Paddy’s Day

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Being married to a man with an Irish first and last name and naming our son Sean Matthew, you know we like to at least eat corned beef and cabbage today! Sean just called and didn’t even wear anything green today! Shame on him! I have this cutest green tam that I haven’t posed in yet-neither would the guys!

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(Had to take my own photo!)

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Missed posting yesterday as I had to go down to my hometown and drop my van off so my brother Ken, the mechanic could inspect it. There are a few things I asked him to check out. It’s 13 yrs old and I don’t trust other places with it. Sean’s car was just inspected down the road from here and he said it was giving him a little trouble starting. He tried it this morning and it turned over right away. He needs to make sure it’s fine as he is driving 3 hours to the Pittsburgh airport on Sunday to go to Las Vegas with his Geography group for a conference.

My sister-in-law did my hair yesterday and then I went to my mom’s. My second brother is getting ready to move in and he and my other brother’s family were cleaning out rooms over the weekend. They had quite a task and I wish my basement looked like mom’s-they did a good job. Of course she is complaining about not being able to find things that she hasn’t been interested in for years.

All that made me want to do a little dusting and straightening up tchotchkes here and I’ll work on doing more of that since I can’t go anywhere. I’ve had some muscle spasms in my tummy that have come and gone for years-not sure why it does that, but usually a Tylenol will calm it down. But it usually spasms around 6 in the morning, so I’m wondering if I’m just hungry? I looked it up and seems it may be associated with IBS. I remember it happening way back in 1997! The doctor was no help-I saw I posted about it back in 2006. I’m not in pain, it just moves by itself like a baby kicking-I call it alien gut. My one friend said it could be scar tissue from my 6″ long gallbladder scar rubbing on the muscles. Wonder if a tummy tuck would help? : )

I’m going to toss the corned beef in the pot shortly and add cabbage too! Have a great day.

Mar6

Show & Tell

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Stenciled slates, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I had the opportunity several years ago to earn a little pocket cash by stenciling ‘Welcome’ signs on slates. We had to base coat them with ecru acrylic paint first. Stenciling is a precise craft. I can see where the hummingbird could have been neater. I ended up doing at least 500 or more of these over the course of almost a year. The end of my stenciling career wasn’t pleasant-I mentioned this before. The lady had a meeting with all her ‘workers’ and nit picked everyone who didn’t copy the stencils perfectly. I added a few touches like foam on waves, which looked nice and made seashells a bit pinker to show up against the ecru. She didn’t like that. My former friend copied perfectly and got lots of praise. Another friend cried. Why I mention this is a few days later, the woman went out of business. Why she had to have that meeting is beyond me when she was going out of business! I thought it was pretty awful.
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Bri still doesn’t have his car. The tow truck guy mentioned that sometimes the alarm system goes fluky and causes the car not to start. Maybe Bri should mention this to the repair guy.
I feel lots better! I made a yummy Rachael Ray chili dish last night and slept well.
Cheesy Hash Brown Chili
Sometime down the road, I’ll get my back checked out. Back in September, the chiropractor thought I didn’t need an x-ray. I have been lifting and moving things since December and I’m not small in the front, so those ‘factors’ can’t be overlooked either. Plus one Tylenol seems to fix me up for a while. That is pretty good. Thanks for your concern and I will definitely take care of myself.