100 years

 Today, May 17th would have been my Mom's 100th birthday.  Not sure if they have birthday parties in heaven, but if they do I hope Mom is having a blast with all her family, my Dad, , my brother Greg, my nephew Jono, and perhaps others who aren't family by blood but by love.  Here's a few pics I gathered from over the years.  I know I have more, but they're not downloaded for sharing here.  I miss Mom every day as I would call her just about every day to check in, enjoy her thoughts and hear her voice. She was a very resilient woman who worked hard at her career as a switchboard operator/supervisor in a 500 bed hospital. She was so smart.  I always thought she was the smartest women alive!  She was a wonderful wife and a wonderful mom to us 6 kids. Happy heavenly birthday Mom! You are so missed and always so loved by me and all our family and the friends who were lucky to know you!

So pretty!  So Greek!

Mom, me, my sister Midge. The 3 musketeers!

Grand marshall at the neighborhood July4th parade.

Her 93rd birthday and she ate that all down!

All the young family.

Serving at the church giving mother's day roses to the women.

The last time at my house doing what she always enjoyed...chipping in to help either cooking or cleaning up. Yes, you are missed Mom.  She passed away May 29th, 2020, at age 94.  A long, full, love filled life, but we sure wish we could celebrate this one together here!

More Drama

 Sometimes it feels like the trials never stop. Wednesday evening I was sitting reading a magazine when I felt a little weird and my left arm was weak. When I stood up my left leg also felt weak.  Jack took me to the ER to get checked out.  The weakness had gone away but they ran me through stroke checks. Blood work, CT scan, heart monitoring.  My blood pressure was sky high which was different for me who never had high blood pressure.  They kept me for 2 days doing MRI, heart scan, ultra sounds looking for clots. Very thorough.  Everything came back normal except for a small hole between heart chambers that could have allowed a small clot to go through.  My body took care of it so no damage.  So managing BP symptoms and other things like cholesterol  is now going to happen. Im grateful for Jack pushing me to get checked quick and for good care from the nurses and doctors.  Feeling blessed and hopefully this won't happen again. 🙏   When it comes to strokes, getting treatment ASAP is essential for a good outcome.  Mine was a TIA that could have turned into a full blown stroke if I had ignored my symptoms.  Im now hoping for a quiet, healthy May!

April Endings And Beginnings

 I realized this is the last week of April and I thought I'd better do some blogging!  I hope to get to my blog buddies posts tonight too.  I'm happy to report that Jordan and I are healed up and putting this crazy month behind us!  So that's a good ending and then we have a real beginning....My Granddaughter, Driana, was due to deliver our first great grandchild in May but he decided to make an appearance last week! Little Roman James was born April 22nd at 9:02am, weighing 8lbs even.  It was a difficult labor and delivery, and she ended up with a broken tailbone and a bladder issue.  Roman had to go to the NICU for a few days with breathing problems but thankfully Momma and baby were able to go home Saturday.

Lots of dark hair! We'll see if that stays or turns blonde like Mom and Dad!  I'll look forward to getting to see him, but we'll let them get lots of rest and recoup first! The rest of our time has been spent getting the yardwork done and ready for planting of flowers and veggies in a few weeks.  We've had some pretty chilly nights with frost, so I usually wait until after Mother's day to plant flowers and then we usually do the vegetables near Memorial day.  However, we went to our favorite Amish plant nursery to get some raspberry plants, and I couldn't resist just one hanging basket!

All their flowers and plants were so nice, but I'll get more in a few weeks.  Just can't walk out of there without something though!  I still have strawberry jam from last year to use up before putting more up this June and I made a blueberry pie from the last of our frozen berries from our bushes.

It looked much prettier before I cut into it but it tasted delicious anyway! Speaking of the Amish...Jack had taken our big weed whacker to get the leaking gas tank fixed from an Amish gentleman that fixes all kinds of machinery.  We pulled into his place and besides tons of mowers and such, there were many of his children doing chores or helping him.  While I waited one of the kids came out of the barn to check on his little sister who was playing.  I snapped a pic that I thought was so cute of them.

He was so sweet with her!  He picked her up and carried her to the house as we were leaving.  Just made me smile!  Well, I hope your April has been good and I can't believe we're heading into May! Our weather has gone from 30 degrees to 80 and back down again.  We've also had those famous April showers and the flowering trees and bushes have not disappointed us! 

Night all!

Easter Doings

 We celebrated Easter a week late but that was also Greek Easter so no worries!  Growing up in my half Greek family we always had 2 Easter celebrations most years.  I didn't put on as big a deal as those good old days, but we still had plenty of food and some fun too!

A little food first!

Can't forget my annual lamb cake.  That's something we always had for Easter growing up.  Mom had a cast iron lamb mold that she got when she got married. My sister has that one and my brother Phil got me one some years ago so I could continue this tradition in my home.  I got a cast iron one for my daughter-in-law, Amy years ago.   I guess they are antiques now...like me!

Getting ready for the littles to do an Easter egg hunt.  Most years we do one for the adults, but we had a game for them to play instead after the hunt was over.  We only had 3 littles...Hazel, Tatem, and Aria doing the hunt, but they had fun.

Here's Aria finding some loot.  This is the only pic I got of her that day.

Hazel was enjoying herself.  She's getting so big!

Not to be outdone, little sis Tatem was a champ at finding those eggs!  The oldies played a silly egg game, and I didn't get any pics of it!  We had some good laughs, lots of candy and lottery tickets were won too.  The weather was beautiful, thankfully! Here's a few of the other family members that day:

Grandson Cameron.  This dude will graduate this year!  Time sure flies!

Granddaughter, Summer and her little baby bump! She's due in August.   Her sister, Driana, is also due but is too close to delivery for her and her hubby to make the 1 1/2hr drive down from Cleveland area.  We missed them!  Lots of new littles for future holiday fun!

My daughter-in-law Evelyn's daughters: Samantha (Mom to Hazel and Tatem) and Megan. 

3 of my 4 boys: Jack, Phil, and the much healthier Jordan having some brotherly chit chat! I'm glad we all could get together.   Wasn't sure that would happen after the crazy weeks we've had but thankfully Jordan got a clean bill of health today from his trauma surgeons and kidney doctor and my little messed up face is healing pretty good.  I worked on Monday and didn't scare the patients away!

I went from this:

This was last Wednesday.  To this:

This was Saturday.  My stitches came out Monday and I'm getting back to normal.  Life is full of ups and downs.  I've had enough of the "downs" so let's go for some "ups"!  Tonight we had a very vibrant sunset.

I hope it's a "red sky at night, sailors delight" kind of finish!  It does look like the trees on are fire though!  Happy late Easter everyone and good night!

April Has Brought Some Surprises

 Well, it's been a bit since I've posted.  My son is out of the hospital and doing pretty good.  Working just half days for now.  He still has some kidney issues to deal with but hoping it all gets better soon.  He was really banged up in the beginning as I said in my last post:

Now he's looking more human!

Now lets stay well Jord!  Just to make it more interesting, my sister had a little incident that landed her in the emergency room around the same time as Jordan's stay.  After knowing he would be getting out soon and in good hands with Jack, I drove to Chicago to help her out.  She didn't have to stay overnight at the hospital and went home but all her kids were heading out of town for Spring break, so I filled in! We had a nice visit, and I was able to help her with her Easter preparations as well as doing some fun shopping and just hanging out. Jack and I are going to celebrate Easter this Sunday which is actually Greek Easter.  My oldest son and his family were in Spain and on a cruise for their Spring break, so we decided to celebrate this weekend.   I went shopping and got some good deals on Easter candy on sale.  Thinking I might need a little more, Jack and I went into town to drop off the lawn mower tire that needed fixed and then go shopping for more junk.  Coming out of the Dollar General with nothing I preceded to trip on the curb and face plant in the parking lot!  Jack was waiting in the car and thankfully heard me yell!  I was bleeding pretty good as head wounds will do:

Looking lovely.  Nothing broke but my dignity.

3 CT scans and 11 stitches later, I'm good to go.  I hope those scrapes on the nose get healed quick!  What a crazy day.  Besides dealing with Jordan and my sister's health issues I was sadden to hear that one of our general surgeons passed away.   I worked very closely with Dr. Mary and couldn't believe  that she was gone.  She taught me so much and we had many long days and even longer nights around those OR tables. We laughed a lot too and shared many stories of our families and I felt she was a friend as well as a coworker.  I always tried to remember that doctors that I work with aren't my friend, no matter how much I may admire them or enjoy working together, but I made an exception in her case.  She left behind her husband, 5 children, and 2 grandkiddos. Her patients all loved her.  She did surgery on Jack on 2 occasions and I was glad she was there to help him.   RIP Mary, you are very missed at Samaritan.  I hope everyone had a lovely Easter and I'm looking forward to celebrating this Sunday and seeing all my kids and Grands that can make it.  Let's hope the rest of Spring is less dramatic than the beginning.  

Covid Crisis

 Last week on Thursday our son Jordan stopped here after leaving work early saying he didn't feel well and wanted to just crash with us.  He had a sore throat and then stomach flu symptoms.  He doesn't get sick often and when he does it's over quick.  But he was still here and sick on Friday but didn't want to go to a clinic to get checked out.  I felt he had strep.  He went back to his house, and we didn't hear anything from him until his girlfriend called and said he was really sick and had fallen and hurt himself.  We rushed over, had her call the squad and he was rushed to the hospital.  He was so sick and septic from the strep infection and then they also said he had covid.  He was bruised and bleeding from taking a fall (actually, more than one!) and had even broken a rib and punctured a lung!  He couldn't even talk since his throat was so inflamed. Then they were concerned about his kidney function which did eventually shut down.  He's in isolation and has had 2 rounds of dialysis and will get another round tomorrow.  His blood work is still messed up and although the antibiotics are clearing the strep, the covid is the real problem now. So please send prayers if you have a minute.  His small improvements give us hope that he will get through this and back to his new home he just purchased!  You never know when life will hand you a bad day and this has really been a crisis for him.   Thanks for any prayers for Jordan.

Wild And Windy!

 The double W week of wild and windy started on Monday with a trip to my dentist to check on a tooth that had cracked.  Then back on Tuesday for him to see if a fix was possible.  Nope. I'm never that lucky! He removed the broken part, sent me to an oral surgeon to remove the rest.  That went down on Friday.  This was a new oral surgeon.  Young, good looking, and it turned out he was also super nice, quick, did a good job and fairly painless. (except for the bill..that part hurt the most!) Plus, he called a few hours later to check on me. I'll give him a good review! In the middle of the week, I painted my dining room.  It wasn't a big job because I just did the upper portion that I though needed refreshing. It's about a shade lighter than the old shade and I'm sure nobody will even notice.  The first person to notice wins a gift card from Amazon!  We'll see if that happens.  The weather was doing the up and down, sunny then rainy dance all week.   But the worst part was the wind. It was super strong and a lot of folks in Ohio lost power.  We were some of those!  My dental appointment on Friday was in the morning and then we had a few hours before the wind knocked down some trees at the end of our road and put us out of commission.  Without power we can't get water from the well to bathe, flush toilets, drink, etc. Oh, and no heat either. We quit burning wood because the temps were too warm.   Of course, on Friday they decided to dip down.  We have 2 fireplaces, but they really don't put out much heat. This isn't our first rodeo on the power front. We probably should have invested in a generator, but we haven't so we do the best we can.  Gallons of water can be used for flushing and drinking and those soapy wipes are good for cleaning ourselves. We were hoping to get the power back quickly, but the whole town of Ashland was out and us country bumpkins are usually last in line.  But the electric company and the tree guys came and worked their butts off to get us up and running and around midnight last night we were good!  The house was a cool 55de and I could have cried when the lights went on along with the furnace.   So hot showers all around and clean dishes too made me feel much better!  So on to next week.  St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in Ashland on Saturday and they dyed the creek green and will do it again on Tuesday.  They held the parade on Saturday because the weather was better.  Tuesday will be only 29de and snowy! Figures!  So have a good week and maybe some corned beef and cabbage will be on the menu!  Here's just a few pics to close me out:

The refreshed upper wall.  Plus some Easter decorations.

Cold temps don't bother these cuties.  The few days of warm helped out too!

I found this bunny at the thrift store, but it was white and pink, so I spray painted it gold. It looks like one of those chocolate bunnies in gold foil!

I found this bunny runner at Hobby Lobby. Ready for the Easter season!

Without a stove I used the grill to make Friday's dinner.  A little breakfast was good!  That's all I have! Over and out!

Aging

Sometimes I just can't believe how old my kids have gotten and even how old my Grandkiddos have gotten!  I think to myself, wasn't I just that age?  Then I look in the mirror and go, oh yeah, I guess I'm getting up there in age too!  Well, better than the alternative!  The topic of age has me thinking because yesterday was my birthday. When I was little I looked forward to the last day of February because it meant birthday parties and presents.  Now I look forward to it because it means the worst, we hope, of winter is over and now there's the hope of Spring!  So, hello and welcome March!  I did see some daffodils poking up from the ground the other day. Made me smile!  Folks were asking me what I was going to do on my birthday and I said we were heading up to a place in Willouhby.  It's a little, cute town near Cleveland.  My Granddaughter, Driana, and her hubby, Jonathan, live near there in Willowick.  We were going there with other family members to attend a baby shower for them!  Driana is due May 4th but the docs think she may go sooner.  It was well attended and it was fun to see everyone,, have good food, some games,, and see all the cute gifts!  They are having a boy!  Of course here's a few pics of the event:

Jonathan and Driana and in there is baby Roman.

This was a game to see who could finish the baby bottle first.  My son Jack in the plaid shirt won! Does that mean he's just a big baby? Ha!  If you brought diapers you were put into a raffle and I won that. I never win anything but it was a really nice gift.

A cute basket, blanket, candle, Stanley, and also Starbucks coffee and a foamer thing.  I don't drink coffee so I gave that to Driana.  She'll probably need that! I offered her the other things but she declined.  Whoever put together the shower did a great job and really put much thought as well as money into it.  

My sister sent gifts too and made this soft, pretty blanket for the baby.

We were asked to bring a favorite children's book and they received a wonderful collection for the baby library!

This is my Granddaughter, Summer, (Driana's sister) and she's expecting too! She's due in August so I know we'll be partying again this summer for Summer.  She's also having a boy. 

Here's just a small example of the food. There were Italian sandwich wraps, a pasta dish, meatballs, salad, smoked Gouda mac 'n cheese and these cupcakes for dessert.  It was a nice way to spend my birthday, celebrating the soon arrival of our first Great Grandson.  Yes, time was on my mind as I looked at all the family there and was so grateful for all the love but also super aware of how fast time has gone.  So, cheers to me for another rotation around the sun.  I usually post a young me and a current me....here goes:

First grade

No grade!  Good night, everyone!