Blog Break

 Just a quick post to say I'm taking a blog break.  I'm recouping well but it's been more of a challenge than I thought. So hopefully by June I'll be in a better place for blogging and life in general. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes.  As Arnold (the big guy, not my dog!) would say: "I'll be back".

One More Hurdle

 

I'm sure everyone is sick of my health posts...me too! Hopefully this is a last challenge for the year. Yesterday I had cervical neck surgery.  Because I had issues from C-3 to T-1 they went in posterior.... back of neck..to repair damage. It didn't happen because of my fall in March. Congenital and degenerate from age has plagued my neck for years . Good Chiropractic care kept me going but my symptoms went into high gear this year.  The surgery went good and hopefully I'll be home tomorrow. I had to go to the big hospital in Cleveland... University, not the Clinic.  Driving over an hour to get here is a pain but necessary.  So that's all folks! Fingers crossed 🤞!

Mother's Day And Birthdays

 May is a big month for gifts around here.  We have #3 son who's birthday is today and I always tell him he was the best Mother's Day gift I ever got! Happy Birthday Phil!  May 7th was our Granddaughter Lexi's 15th birthday. Oh my, she's growing up so fast!  She's an amazing young lady.  So smart and sweet and a wonderful big sister to Rae Rae!  May 12 is our Granddaughter Katie's 19th birthday.  Sure wish she and family lived closer to us. We'd love to spend special days with her!  May 21st is our Granddaughter Summer's 23rd birthday.  Now we're getting up there in the ages! But May is also Mother's Day.  A big Happy Mother's Day to all of my blog buddy Moms!  It's a bitter sweet Mother's Day for me since this is the first one without my sweet Mom.  Last year, thanks to Covid, Mom couldn't have visitors in the rehab facility and we did a Zoom with all of my siblings.  It wasn't a good day for her and she just wanted to come home.  I cried after that and felt it was a horrible Mother's day.  Her birthday is also in May.  May 17th and last year she turned 94.  I was out in Chicago and we stopped by and dropped off her gifts and flowers but it wasn't the same.  Mom came home a week later finally and we were so hopeful that she would continue to recover and we'd be celebrating Mother's day with her this year along with a birthday for turning 95.  But it wasn't to be as she passed away a few weeks after her birthday on May 29th.  So I will remember Mom fondly and all the things she taught me over the years.  I'll remember all the phone calls and the times we got together with my sister and laughed ourselves silly and talked until the early morning hours.  Her talents were many and I always said she was the smartest woman I knew.  She was fearless, loved to travel, a wonderful cook, and a fabulous seamstress.  She was a smart business woman also and my siblings and I were sure lucky to have her as our Mom.  Happy Heavenly Mother's Day Mommo! Sure miss you.  

Mom and Arnie.

Phil and his girls...Lexi in tan and Rae Rae in red. 

Miss Katie!

Summer...who we always say her personality is bright, warm and fun just like the Summer season. Happy May birthdays to everyone and I hope it was a lovely Mother's Day also.  If your Mom is still with you, hug her and know you are blessed!

Happy Easter! (Greek Easter I Mean)

 Although I'm not Greek Orthodox I am half Greek. Growing up we always celebrated both Easters.  My Mom's relatives would do the whole roast the lamb on the spit and tons of food thing and we would go and manage to have a good time even though we didn't speak Greek and didn't understand many of the grown-ups.  But the memories of those days have stayed with my siblings and myself and have become sweeter over the years as all those adults that were there have now passed on.  I know many of my cousins have taken over those traditions and it makes me happy when I see that on Facebook.  Today we decided to gather our kids and Grandkids and celebrate Greek Easter since we didn't  get to have regular Easter in April because of my accident.  So I made some traditional Greek foods and we did ribs instead of Lamb and there were lots of other goodies brought by those that came today.  We had  our traditional Easter Egg hunt and even did an Easter Egg hunt with the adults who seemed to have as much fun as the littles!  We put money in the little kiddo eggs and the adults had candy in theirs and then were awarded lottery tickets when they completed the hunt.  A few won a little dough even!  The weather was perfect, the food was really good and the smiles and laughter made it all the better.  My hope is they all will have fond memories of time spent with YaYa and PawPaw and remember the traditions we've shared.  My sweet  Mom was on my mind today as I was putting out the food and making sure everything was going well...just like she did when I was little and also when I was all grown up.  I sure hope she had a smile on her face in heaven  as we celebrated her heritage along with our family traditions.  Miss you Mom!  Here's just a few pics of today.  I usually snap food pics but I guess I was too busy having fun!

The weather was sunny and warm and perfect for gathering on the deck.

Lexi is old enough to get the Gator out and give rides to the younger ones and keep them entertained before lunch.

The kids enjoyed the Easter Egg hunt and then they hid the eggs for the adult hunt.

The dude in this pic is our #3 son, Phil.  2 things about this make me smile.  #1...It's been many years since I saw him carrying his own Easter basket hunting for eggs and #2...He's pretty grey on top!  But it looks good on him and his Dad always says..."Our hair may be grey but at least we have a full head of hair!"  True words.

The hunt was divided into teams and team Jackie and Evelyn were the first ones done! Winner, winner chicken dinner!  Well, actually rib dinner and Jackie had a $20 winning ticket!

A couple of other egg hunters...Summer and her brother Anthony and Driana and her fiance, Jonathan. Driana won $20 too!  Some others won small amounts but at least not all were duds!

Everyone was busy scratching off those tickets! We decided this was going to be an annual event and I was glad they all enjoyed the day and the games.  I love it when we can all gather together and make memories.  Happy Easter everyone!