Category Archives: Mom

Oct2

Doggone it!

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Yes, I’m quoting Governor Palin from the debate tonight. She seems like a genuine person who is a good speaker. I happen to be a big Biden fan, enough said.

Anyway-thanks for those who have answered my ‘top of the head’ questions (I promise there will be more). They are things I wonder about, especially the religion and politics one. That happens to drive me crazy personally with a spouse who always votes one way. I’d be an Independent if I could.

So, my little ma was in the outpatient pavilion at the hospital from 8:30 this morning until 3:45 this afternoon. Seems she had an air bubble in her eye and they had to wait for that to dissolve or something. I called at 11:15 and she hadn’t been in surgery. Called three more times and finally was able to pick her up at 3:45. She had a monster headache, but tea and a damp cloth helped and she even let out a little snore snort at one time. I went down to a favorite restaurant for takeout which she only nibbled on, so at least she has a nice meal in the frig for tomorrow. She only ate some bread and applesauce while I was there. I hope she doesn’t get floaters in that eye too.

So that was my day, full of stress and worry. Glad she’ll never have to have that kind of surgery again.

Yeah-Sean is coming home for the first time in a month tomorrow!

Oct1

I can see clearly now…

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….the cataracts are gone! Well, that may be so for my mom in a few hours. She’s getting her left eye done tomorrow morning. Seems she went on a crafty shopping spree this afternoon at JoAnn’s as she needed more yarn. I had gotten her interested in crocheting again and she’s doing a triple crochet stitch afghan for my niece. I had seen some pretty wavy pink yarn in a box that she said she was getting rid of it. I brought it back here and started the afghan. She got the hang of the stitch and she’s doing good with it! This pleases me to no end. I have to go around 12:30 to pick her up and will probably stop to get some lunch first. Wish her well…your vibes really help!

I was a cleaning fool today. Did the kitchen floor, some of the hardwood floors and vacuumed. Yep, paid for all that activity with sore spots in my back. I guess I need to get it checked out, though it doesn’t hurt everyday and doesn’t keep me awake. I hate to think it’s arthritis, but it’s a possibility.

I was trying to think of some questions for you guys. Here’s a few to start with and please answer if you want. It’s a survey for me!

When you upload photos, do you keep them on your computer, print them out or store them in a place like Flickr?

I keep them on the computer briefly, but upload to Flickr. I also burn them on a disc. I haven’t printed out photos for a year!

Is your husband or significant other the same religion and political party as you?

We are the same religion, but different political parties. Sean chose what I follow.

Do you ever cross bridges to see friends or family?

We do cross over the Brandywine River to see our parents who live in different areas.

Have you eaten liver in the last 5 years?

No way! When I worked at a daycare center in 1979, they had liver about once a month. The kids hated it and I couldn’t eat it. What a waste of money. If you want kids to have iron, there are other things they can eat. However, my mom, uncle and late grandmom ate it all the time!

Sep28

Gloomy Sunday

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Yesterday, Bri and I took my mom home after 3.5 days. We had waited for 3 hours for brother #2 to show up to get her. He hadn’t been here for years. Actually, I can say that about all 3 of my brothers. They know they don’t have to be invited to come here. Mom called about 3 times and he finally answered and said he was peeved at her for something she said. I was going to take her by myself, but Bri came along and drove. He’s been really stressed out about his dad and kept playing with my air conditioner. If you recall, it didn’t work for the hottest months of the summer and I told him to leave it off or on. Geez.

Once we got to mom’s house, we did little chores for her that haven’t been done for months. Remember, I have two brothers that live a few miles away and mom’s SIL Bri (who lives 23 miles away) had to do these things that took minutes to fix. He replaced the belt on her vacuum that hasn’t worked for months. I ran the vacuum and what it got up was nasty. My brother had the nerve to do a mold test in her house, yet he wouldn’t replace the belt on her vacuum. And Bri fixed 2 lights for mom! She just had eye surgery on the 11th and is seeing major floaters. I think she needs to see around her kitchen! Plus the lamp post wasn’t working. I’ve replaced the bulb a few times and it still didn’t work. One reason her friend fell and hurt himself! I guess when Bri was flipping  circuits/fuses, he flipped it back on as mom said it was on last night. Unbelievable. I can see why she gets really depressed as her own sons don’t keep her in check. I can’t say stuff to them about helping either or they’ll get mad. They say they don’t like being ‘used’, but tell me, does helping your elderly mom categorize being used? Do any other women out there find their parents depend on them more than your brothers? And why are they acting this way? Not having a dad around caused them to treat their mom so poorly? I thought it was girls who suffered more from not having dads (electra complex). Sorry, venting.

Bri and I did go to Ruby’s for a burger and then the bookstore. We watched Penn State win their 5th football game and wondered where Sean was in the crowd of 109,000.

I haven’t been to the store in 10 days-gasp-so need to head in that direction soon.

Sep25

Show and Tell #11

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Stitching girl, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This is one of the several porcelain dolls I have around my home. I got her at least 10+ years ago and she sits on top of my hunter green roll top desk in my living room (I forget her name). She is a stitching girl (opps-where is her needle!) She came with a little stitched piece that had a few letters of the alphabet stitched in it. I found the little basket of flowers I did several years ago and swapped it with the piece it came with.

Since I love cross stitching, she is very dear to me. She has gorgeous auburn ringlets. I love the little pinafore she is wearing too.

Behind her is one of our ‘Tree of Life’ prints. We have one for Brian’s birthday month-March and mine-November. We’ve had them for over 24 yrs.

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My mom is still here. She is staying in Sean’s room. Yesterday really wore her out and she napped for 2 hours during the afternoon. She’s not use to all the fresh air and 2 hours of walking. I made a pot roast for dinner and even roasted a butternut squash in a dish in oven along with the meat. I have her eating more. I know if I lived closer she would weigh about 20 more pounds. Brother #2 is suppose come out and get her on Saturday. He hasn’t been here in many years.

I’m proud of Sean for getting help writing summaries for very dry reading material. He usually sends me stuff to proof, but since it was over my head a lot, he got help on campus. He sent me his latest paper and it was very good, I didn’t touch it. Yes!

Sep24

Early Autumn Day

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Mom and I ventured over to Longwood Gardens a few hours before it closed. That was just enough time for me to take 99 photos! Mom did really well walking around, I think better than me as I am knee to toe Icy Hot right now. We finished the day with a Philly cheesesteak. Here’s the link to the slideshow if you are interested. : ) I just noticed how badly the tops of a few of these need cropping. Geez.

Mom poses near the walk of flowers. It was so nice, around 72 and sunny.

Ornamental orange peppers and bronze-orange mums

Lots of real pumpkins and gourds of every shape and variety. These are grown here. It really wasn’t as dark as it looks.

We happen to peek in a room in the conservatory and there was a gorgeous display of handblown  pumpkins, gourds, acorns, etc from a couple in the San Francisco bay area:

This was the front of a huge cornucopia.

We almost had the entire place by ourselves. Pretty neat.

Sep23

Media shots

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The photos are some scenes from my hometown. This is the Trader Joe’s I go to when visiting mom and is located in the old Infantry building. I have to say it’s pretty neat.

Trader Joe’s in the 11th Infantry Building, Media PA, originally uploaded by garyhymes.

I brought my mom home to stay here for a few days. She really loved her gifts from us and the canvas I made for her. She cried when she saw Sean’s portrait. Though we both had tummy issues, we did go out to dinner to The Olive Garden and then looked around a Border’s and then Michael’s craft store. I thought I was getting Sean a neat book on the earth ( his birthday is next) and when we got home, mom saw he had it on his bookshelf! Good eyes there mom. I’ll have to return it. We also visited my brother’s house and I showed my niece my Flickr photos on their computer, which she enjoyed.

Everybody’s Hometown, originally uploaded by hhsc/Greg.
They leave the lights up all year round-I believe they were up the last time I looked.
Sep23

Mom’s birthday gift-Portrait of a Lady

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Mom’s birthday gift-Portrait of a Lady, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

To my mom Jeanne, this is your birthday card on an 18 x 20 recycled canvas!
I hope you see the special meaning in this collage, from the choice of flowers to the various images. It wasn’t that easy, but it also helped get my mind off my back.
Thanks for teaching me about music and creativity, things that have been a flagstone in my existence.
I pray for your eye to improve so you can see the beautiful colors of the world. I know you feel like the weight of the world is on your little shoulders, but it really isn’t when you have me.
Lots of love,
Dianne

Sep18

Proofs

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We got our portraits today and I’d thought I’d tease you with showing you the proofs. Our church is making up a directory and one of these will be in it too. That’s the main reason we had them taken.  I will show the excellent shot of Sean as we are calling it his graduation photo (May 09). We also purchased one of the two of us to represent our 25th wedding anniversary coming up in April.  I did buy some Christmas cards with one of these also. Can you guess which two we used? And the seat belt mark is softened (my neck) on the 8x10s as is Sean’s shiny head, but they didn’t get rid of the string from my upper dress (like my Liz Claiborne?). You’ll have to look at these in larger mode. I didn’t wear my glasses so I wouldn’t have nose marks and then I get the selt belt mark! I personally like the one with #26 on the end of me and the one with  #18 on the end of Bri, but I had my eyes closed (we didn’t use them)!

I love this photo! Look at the cute dimples! His shirt is green, though looks gray for some reason. This is the air-brushed one. As I mentioned last month, it was the last shot the young photographer took when Sean was more relaxed. I can’t believe my baby looks so grown up here.

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Went to my mom’s on Thursday (I am writing posts late at night now) and took her to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. They had the nerve to change their chicken salad recipe which I have salivated over for 26 yrs! They added tarragon, almond and grapes which doesn’t go in a club sandwich at all. Shame on them!

We then went to AC Moore craft store, another disappointment. Before that, we had gone to say ‘hi’ to the rescue kitties in Pet Smart. They were so cute. I fell in love with a black and white one with long fur and a pink nose who seemed playful. Most of the other kitties were around 7 and miserable looking as I guess they had to be taken from elderly owners.

We also went to another shopping center. Mom was having problems with what she thinks is a floater, but I think it’s the tail of a stitch. It’s driving her batty. I went in a Home Goods store and bought a little 3 drawer cabinet for CDs for my family room. Guess what, it barely fits any in the drawers! I asked Bri if he could make a shelf unit for the top and he half- heartedly said ok. He’ll have a spot for his collectibles then. I’ll show you the little cabinet in my ‘Show & Tell’ post.

Sep17

Awesome nature!

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I went outside to look around yesterday. I’m pretty much through with gardening until I have to put all the decorations away, which is a back breaking job in itself. My back wasn’t good yesterday and I made it a little worse watering potted plants after dinner. My heating pad isn’t working that great and I even tried the infrared thing-a-ma-jig. Bri found some Therma-care heat wraps and so far the one I have on is awesome. It’s like having little warm peebles on your back. It seems to be getting hotter, so I better watch that. I need the winter to get myself ‘fixed’ and ‘rested’ again.

So enough rambling! My mom went back to the eye doctor and he took a stitch out of her repaired right eye. Imagine laying there while he did that! He still wants to see her again on Friday and her next surgery may be postponed until she can see better. I was hoping she would be lots better by now, but it was a hard cataract.

Heard brother #2 went to see Joe Biden last night at Linvilla Orchards, a neat place we use to go to all the time as kids. They had hay bales there for the people to sit on. I believe Gov. Rendell was there too.

Here’s what I found out in the herb bed, munching on fennel and dill:

I think there were about 20 Monarch butterfly caterpillars on these herbs! I guess since I’m not using them, they decided to move in!

Also did a little art last night. A few more Skinny cards. My flickr pal had sent me one, so I made her one too:

Found the neat weathervane in an old American history book, the crow from an old bird guide, and the stone wall is from a desk calendar.

And I thought this turned out cute:

I call it ‘Dear Child’

Later the Dishnet guy is suppose to come upgrade the tv. He cancelled out on Monday due to van issues. Bri had to call to reschedule since I wasn’t the name on the account, they wouldn’t let me do so! I was the one who scheduled it in the first place. Needless to say, I was a bit steamed. It better be so worth the hassle.

I’ll show an update of ‘Sleeping Kitty’ later. I’ve been working on him diligently as I want a finish to frame soon. I also want to do a few Halloween designs from the JCS Halloween issue. I have a little Halloween tree for such things with little round orange lights. Someday I’ll take photos of some more of my autumn decor.

Sep12

Mom update, etc.

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My older brother came and took Mom to her follow up visit. The eye doctor said it was healing slowly and she couldn’t even read the big ‘E’ on the chart yet. I had called her before she left and she was sweeping down the steps! OMG-with an eye so susceptible! What was she thinking? Thank goodness she is loading the eye up with 4-5 different drops. She said she had a monster headache all evening. The doctor said that was probably from the anesthesia. He also said she was probably ‘feeling’ it as the anesthesia was wearing off too soon. Mom said she didn’t sleep well, was thinking about all the mess in her house. I told her to worry about her eyes. My mom mom always said the dust will be around in 100 yrs and you won’t.  Wise woman. Mom gets rechecked on Tuesday-keep thinking about her please. : )

I forgot to mention that we got a new t.v. on Wednesday night. We went with Courtney’s suggestion, and got a 26″ Samsung LCD-HDtv. We need to get the high def hooked up. It has a really great picture, she was correct. I am still getting use to the rectangular format over the square. I’d like it maybe 2″ higher too.  I am so old-fashioned! We’re getting our Dishnet updated on Monday to HD-made those arrangements late in the afternoon. Won’t cost anything and we can sell back the old receivers too. I was talking with the young lady and she had cataract surgery as she got a hockey punk to the eye, sort of a coincidence.

It’s rainy here again. It couldn’t rain when we wanted tomatoes and peppers. And there was again another Philly police officer, a woman, who got killed by a 16 yr driver who went out of control in an SUV (I believe). Our local stations have been televising the funerals-so sad.

This evening-

Saw James Taylor selling his new CD ‘Covers’ on QVC tonight. You know, I wonder if I could have been in the stinkin’ audience? Ahhh! The QVC studio is about 25 minutes from here. I guess I’ll have to see if they have a calendar. James seems to have a deal with QVC as he’s been on before hawking CDs. He’s sure not comfortable doing PR and must have taken 8 sips from his water bottle in 1/2 hour.

I’m working on one of those canvases I bought to alter and so far it’s not proving easy. My main image was the front of a catalog and she is wrinkling-a lot. My friends swear by gel medium and I use tacky glue or Mod Podge. I’ve been sticking little holes in it to get the air out. I will just have to layer more. I painted it with Gesso first, that got a little crackled. Then I added red and gold acrylics. I can see ‘something’. My 3 pieces of large art that I found (two from a Christie’s auction catalog) are pretty. I’ll definitely share one way or another.