It's 8:30am in England

So if you are anything like me - you'll take a look at end and see what time this was posted and think - what on earth was she doing up at 2:30am?! Simple - it's 8:30am in England - so I should be up and I caught a cold out there - and it has decided to rear its ugly head by making me congested and just a bit miserable at the moment. Not to mention the fact that I'm still processing the trip and getting excited about buying a new computer and my mind is just having a hard time shutting down at the moment... B - I know you understand! :) Good thing I have today off!

So we just got back from England and on the trip - there were a couple of people that were blogging daily about the experience and adding pictures to their entries and it got me thinking about how much fun it would be to share the England experience daily on my blog over the next couple of weeks - because you all know how consistent I am about posting! Maybe this will help. Hey - come on now - don't be doubting me - it's worth a try - I posted consistently back in October when I really put my mind to it and set a goal. So as my book on prayer says... make a goal that is achievable - so my goal is 3-4 entries a week - feel free to hold me accountable. The funny thing is - I take notes about stuff that I want to blog about and they are sitting all over my desk - waiting to get out - I'm rambling, huh? Ok - two stories and then I'll retire for the evening.

The first story is about my mum... go figure! I went by today (I guess really, it was yesterday) to see her and when I first got there, she was down the hall chatting with some of her friends and I could tell that she recognized me - but was processing who I was - but she figured it out and introduced me to her friends. She knew I was gone the last couple of weeks - but couldn't remember where I had been - but that's par for the course. Of course, her naber (mom's spelling - how phonics worked for her), Helen, had to tell me about how much I remind her of her own daughter because I am tall - because when her daughter was born - they told her, 'Mother she is going to be tall' - but not to worry because the boys are getting taller also. Usually Helen comes over and asks if I am Lucille's daughter - because I've only met her every time I've been there since February. God Bless Her! The funny thing - my mom tells me that Helen drives her crazy - but doesn't recognize that she tells all the same stories also. So I asked her if she saw John and she said no - however - I noticed a stuffed I Love Mom teddy bear in her room and asked where she got it and she told me she had gone to John's house. Prayer does work!

Finally, the cat. Thanks again, B, for taking good care of her and all her antics!
Apparently, on my last day out of town, the cat knocked the Tupperware container off the counter and somehow got it open - so there was food all over the floor - at least I know she didn't go hungry! And she was so cute when I got home on Saturday night - mewing - with the meow that I only hear after I've come home from a long trip. She has proceeded to follow me around the house since I got home - not letting me out of her sight (she is currently laying on the bed next to me -watching me post)! So, while we were in England - there were several places that I could have gotten some kind of cat toy for her - but I know her well enough to know that she likes the simple things. So I brought home an empty toilet paper roll for her and then when I was unpacking I had a paper bag I didn't need - so I crumpled it up and we played a bit of catch as I threw it to her and she would bat it back to me. She finally got a hold of it - and this photo shows her enjoying it while on her cat tree. For her - it truly is the simple things in life!

Last but not least - a shout out to Jan for showing me that the picture in my blog doesn't have to always go at the top - God Bless You! Although I'm still not sure exactly how you did it - I tried putting the pic in first but it still wasn't working - I'll have to experiment a little more - I did notice, however, that there is an Edit Html option - and I know just enough Html to make me dangerous - so I just altered the coding - and look - it worked. I just noticed that instead of complete sentences I have a tendency to use run on sentences with lots of hyphens - I get that from my Dad - God Bless Him, too!

Ok, it is getting late - it's 3:30am now - so I think I will have a bowl of cereal (that's what my mom always fed me as a kid when I couldn't sleep) and I'm either going to try to get some sleep - or if worse comes to worse - I have two weeks of Pioneer Woman's Blog that I can catch up on... Cheerio and stay tuned for more adventures...

I Don't Want To Be The Parent

I'm struggling tonight. Had a nice dinner with my brother and his family and their friends. He picked up my mom and I took her home and I just struggled - the whole evening. I miss my mom. I know that sounds crazy - but I do - very much tonight. I just have such wonderful memories of the family getting together and the joy and fun... Not that we didn't have any fun - we did and we had some great laughs tonight - but I just miss talking to my mom the way we used to - I miss her being the mom - I don't want to be the parent.

Wouldn't The Horses Fall In?

So I went to physical therapy today and she rubbed some ben gay like stuff - think it was called Tiger Balm on my back before I left. When I got home - I needed to do my exercises, so I layed on the floor to do them. I noticed the cat a few moments later stop and sniff the area where I had been laying. Then she started rubbing one side of her face against the carpet - then the next and was just all out rubbing against the carpet and rolling over and this picture I took - it looks like she is trying to straddle the carpet! She couldn't care less about catnip - but seems to really like the Tiger Balm stuff!

Earlier I was talking to my friends Sharon and Garry and they were telling a story about one of their kids and the big hole they had in the yard of their house and about how they had to fill it back up with dirt instead of leaving it for Monday when they would take care of it. Well, Garry wondered why they couldn't put horses around it - which got me to thinking and wondering myself - so I finally asked - what would horses do? Wouldn't the horses fall in? Of course, he was talking about saw horses! Makes a bit more sense now!

And one more story on myself - went to lunch with some friends (had a great time, ladies - thanks!) - and I always like to squirt the lemon juice from my lemon wedge in my drink. So I'm doing that and all of a sudden lose control of it and it just goes flying somewhere! And I just start to bust up laughing but can't figure out where it has gone - it actually didn't end up too far away - it tried to escape off the table by my elbow, so I was able to recover it. But I could tell that I had turned quite the bright shade of red! Amazing I'm still single, being as graceful as I am - hee, hee, hee! God Bless Me!

Are You Going To Take A Shower Too?

Here I am with the birds! These are the paper birds we cut out - glued together and then hung from the shadow box. And as much as I wanted to kill all the birds on Saturday when we were putting it together, it looked really cool on the alter - if I must say so myself!

So I went by and saw my mom again last night - and when I walked in the lobby door - I could hear her laughing from down the hall! I went into her room and put some stuff away before I went down and broke up the group. When I got down to where they were all sitting and chatting - she was sitting next to her boyfriend, Bob! She was so cute - the way she was talking and playing with him - just like a schoolgirl flirting with the boy she likes! God Bless Her.

So I got the shower ready for her again - she did much better this time - mainly because I figured out how to make the shower head taller! I was wearing a skirt yesterday with pantyhose (a must at work) and before I left, I decided to take the pantyhose off and she looked at me and said "Are you going to take a shower too?" She thought I was taking my clothes off for a shower at her place - it was pretty funny!

And last but certainly not least - a shout out to my Taco Tuesday friends tonight! What a fun evening - we'll have to do that more often - especially if I get carded again - hee, hee, hee! Must be the blonde highlights that make me look younger - whatever it is - I'll take it!

Protecting That Smaller School Bus

Talk about mother kitty... yesterday sitting in traffic I saw some guy messing with his hair - first the top, then each side - over and over. All I could think was - Sadie does that too when she is grooming her face and head!

At lunch yesterday we saw a lizard doing push ups!

But the best from yesterday came in the morning when I was leaving for work - I looked over and there was this group of small school buses traveling together - and right in the middle of the group was a smaller school bus. And I looked at it and thought - how cute is that - they are all protecting that smaller school bus! Crazy - I know.

So tonight, Terrie, Charlotte and I were doing arts and crafts at the church - so for those of you that will be at church on Sunday - take special note of the birds on the banners - we all worked very hard on those! I'm sure I'll be dreaming of them tonight - or more likely, having nightmares!

Mother Kitty

Now that I've probably lost all of my readers - I just felt compelled to write tonight. My mom is all moved in to her new place and she just seems to love it. When I went by this evening after dinner - she was down the hall laughing and chatting with a bunch of her neighbors and they all seemed to be having a good time. Thank you, Lord.

So she came back to her room with me since I had brought her some things and clean laundry and I asked her if she had taken a shower yet. I found out a week or two ago that she has been been playing mother kitty in the sink and not actually taking a shower. So I decided that I would run the water and help her in and make sure that she took one. She shares the bathroom with her neighbor and there is a chair in the tub that her neighbor uses that my mom doesn't want to use - but she will sit on the ledge at the far end of the tub - go figure. So she gets into the shower and I hand her the shower head handle and she starts pointing it around the shower - up to the ceiling - at me - and can't quite figure out that she needs to point the water at herself! I'm now wet and trying to get the handle away from her! I finally do and just hold it above her so she doesn't have to worry about scrubbing and holding the handle! It was hilarious! I wasn't actually in the shower with her - but I may as well have been! God Bless Her!

She was also telling me about this one man that is really nice to her that she thinks is "Hot" - her word, not mine! She even joked about him being her boyfriend! As long as he isn't after her money - he will be in for quite the shock - there isn't any!

So I ended the night with a nice candlelight dinner of corned beef and cabbage at the Boys house - we ate by candlelight because their power went out! Luckily dinner had just finished. And it was yummy! As a kid - I would never touch the stuff - but now... mmmmmm!

This Coffee Is Cold

I know it's been a while - and I didn't originally intend to write tonight - but am struggling this evening - so I thought a few good mom stories would make me feel better. Have been doing fine - as you all probably know - got my mom moved in this weekend to a place in Orange and she seems to really like it - my Aunt even called me after she had talked to my mom and told me how much my mom was enjoying the place after just a day. So why am I struggling - well I went by my mom's old apartment this evening to pick up a few things we forgot and I started cleaning a few things up and there were just memories there - memories of when my mom was truly my mom and then there was a box of pictures and then it was just all over after that... but before I get myself all boo-hooey again - enjoy some stories...

Before she moved, I was over packing some things up and just going through the dresser and my mom to keep herself occupied was washing some dishes - after she was done with the dishes, she decided she was going to wash the 4 dish towels since they were wet. So I started to gather a few other things she could wash so that she wasn't spending all that money just on the dish towels - so I go up to her and start to hand her the stuff I had and she said, "Are those things wet too?" And I told her no - but I thought she could go ahead and wash them to make a bigger load - she wouldn't take them - they weren't wet! I could not convince her to put the dry items in with the wet dish towels! Of course I've told this story to several people and they all said they would have just gone to the sink and made everything wet - I was just so stunned about the whole situation - didn't even think about it at the time!

So the first night she was in her new place, I stayed and had dinner with her. She asked for coffee and I asked for milk with dinner - well she wanted milk in her coffee - so I just put a few spoonfuls from my cup. A few minutes later she again said she needed milk in her coffee - so I put some more milk in her coffee. The third time she wanted milk for her coffee, she stopped the serving guy and started to ask him for milk and then noticed that I had milk and she said - "oh, she has milk" - well, not wanting to give up all my milk for her coffee, I asked him to bring her some milk. When he did, she poured about half the cup in her coffee. A few moments later she took a sip and said, "This coffee is cold." God Bless Her!