barlow at boat

On Tuesday, we went out to our boat and checked it out. It was really hot and we didn't stay long, but he was glad to get out there and see the water for a little while. Ahhhh! Back to our air-conditioned house!
Hope everybody had a safe and wonderful holiday!

Honor roll students

WELL ALL MY GRANDKIDS GRADUATED AND RECEIVED THEIR AWARDS FOR HONOR ROLL AND GREAT ATTENDANCE. Here's a few pics dedicated to them. Sorry I didnt get one of Sarah, but she is going on to 4th grade and she was on honor roll and had perfect attendance too.




Darin at awards ceremony for honor roll, he's going into 7th grade next.

Amber getting award for special Michigan presentation her school did. She's going into 5th grade next.






Here's Matthew , he graduated Kindergarten into 1st grade.

Grandma's a Ruinscape junkie

Gammamom is caught up in a fantasty world my grandkids brought me into. It's a game of knights and witches and all kinds of Goblins and other scary stuff and I am on a meriad of quests walking through a dreamland of wonderful places. My daughter, Wendy talked me into joining for a mear $5 per month so that I could build a house and enable me to participate in much more of this dreamworld. Grandma's got the bug, and as I see it, millions of other people also have it too. Why don't YOU stop by a www.runescape.com and see what all the fun is about.

______________
I thought this was so funny and I just thought that everybody would like to take the time for this to load and watch. It's a skit of the evolution of dance and this guy can really dance like crazy :
http://www.funnyjunk.com/movies/173/Evolution+Of+Dance/stream
________________________

This has been a busy month

Boy, this has been a really busy month for me. On May 1st we, my husband and I, celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary. Really doesn't feel like it's been that long, but as I look back, I guess it has been that long. A lot of things , good things, have happened in all those years.

On May 7th, last Sunday, I celebrated my 57th birthday. I want to say that this will be the last birthday that I WANT to celebrate. After this, I don't want to add any more years onto myself, because I can't bear to even think of looking at the big 60. So I declare that I will remain 57 for the rest of my life.... how does that sound? Tee Hee! Think I can pull that off? (didn't think so.)

And tomorrow is MOTHER"S DAY and I want to wish all the mothers and grandmothers out there a wonderful and gloriously happy and wonderful day.

It's Amazing!

I was reading these facts and was amazed:

Amazing Facts About Your Body

50,000 of the cells in your body will die and be replaced with new cells, all while you have been reading this sentence!

In one hour, your heart works hard enough to produce the equivalent energy to raise almost 1 ton of weight 1 yard off the ground. (I'm just glad that I can still put one foot in front of another and still walk, some.)

Scientists have counted over 500 different liver functions.

In 1 square inch of skin there lies 4 yards of nerve fibers, 1300 nerve cells, 100 sweat glands, 3 million cells, and 3 yards of blood vessels.

The structural plan of a whale's, a dog's, a bird's and a man's 'arm' are exactly the same.

The world`s first test-tube twins were born in June 1981.

There are 45 miles of nerves in the skin of a human being.

In a year, a person`s heart beats 40,000,000 times.

Most people blink about 25 times a minute.

Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.

Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. (or slower, if you have a slow brain like I do sometimes, LOL!)

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself. ( EEEK! what a thought)

Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.

You use an average of 43 muscles for a frown.

You use an average of 17 muscles for a smile.

Every two thousand frowns creates one wrinkle. (ooops, gotta remember to smile more.)

The average human blinks his eyes 6,205,000 times each year.

The average human produces a quart of saliva a day or 10,000 gallons in a lifetime. ( even more if you have a delicious meal in front of you , he he he)

Every person has a unique tongue print. ( He, he, lets get all tongue prints on record, NOW)

The average human's heart will beat 3000 million times in their lifetime. ( let's hope we live that long....)

The average human will pump 48 million gallons of blood in their lifetime.

You burn 26 calories in a one minute kiss. ( gotta kiss more often I guess.)

The average human body contains enough: Sulphur to kill all fleas on an average dog, Carbon to make 900 pencils, Potassium to fire a toy cannon, Fat to make 7 bars of soap, Phosphorus to make 2,200 match heads, and enough Water to fill a ten gallon tank ( at least on me, they could probably multiply these time 2 each)

Among the first known "dentists" of the world were the Etruscans. In 700 BC they carved false teeth from the teeth of various mammals and produced partial bridgework good enough to eat with. ( I think my dentist went to this old school)

Ophthalmic surgery was one of the most advanced areas of medicine in the ancient world. Detailed descriptions of delicate cataract surgery with sophisticated needle syringes is contained in the medical writings of Celsus (A.D. 14-37)

A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 100 m.p.h. ( Remember to cover your mouth, why don't you.)

If you were freeze-dried, 10% of your body weight would be from the microorganisms on your body. (BLECH!)

According to the World Health Organization, there are approximately 100 million acts of sexual intercourse each day. ( NOT in THIS house there isn't, no way)

Your ears and nose continue to grow throughout your entire life. ( Now they can just Quit that growing, RIGHT NOW!)

When you eat meat and drink milk in the same meal, your body does not absorb any of the milk's calcium. It is best to have 2 hours between the milk and meat intake.

Only humans and horses have hymens.

The tooth is the only part of the human body that can't repair itself.

Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

One human brain generates more electrical impulses in a single day than all of the world’s telephones put together. ( And some I know are more busy lines than others!) tee hee

Fishies

Last Saturday was a good day for working on the boat. We have a 24 foot Four Winns cruiser. It needed work on the Teak wood and the marina got it into the water before we had time to work on it. So I was varnishing the cabin door as it was in the water.

Here's a picture of the captain- Barlow, my husband posing at the wheel. Darin rode with us and decided to fish off the back of the boat, sitting on the swim deck. Barlow was so worried that he'd fall into the water and he'd have to dive into the cold water to save him, so Darin moved to fishing off the docks. He caught two bluegill fishing this way. The first fish of the season! Darin's lucky that way. Usually gets the first fish or the biggest fish every time. He even beats his Dad in fishing, ( to his father's dismay).
Darin's father, Frank is from New Jersey, and he is used to deep sea fishing. He has'nt been so lucky here in fresh water. My girls were lucky that way too. They'd always catch more or the biggest fishes on our fishing excursions.


Here's Darin with fish #2 smiling big, because he was having so much fun.




---------------------------------------------------
Here is a picture of my only little sister, Nancy's son- Robbie getting ready for his Senior Prom with his girlfriend. Can't believe that my sister's kids are all grown up too! (she's 7 years younger than me) They live in the St. Petersburg area of Florida, so we keep in touch with emails all the time. Don't they make a cute couple?

Happy Easter EVERYBODY!

Happy Easter and Good Tidings to Everyone!
The Grandkids and our daughters all met us for a Noon lunch at Country Buffet and we were glad we went early. The line was later, outside the door and waiting was long for the goodies we all ate at the buffet. (Poor Caroline, her battery went dead in her car, and she had to call us for a ride to the restaurant) Her husband stayed with the car, and he and a neighbor went and bought a new battery and fixed the car. Sorry he missed the dinner with us though. The dinner was grand, and o'l Grandma didn't have to lift a finger to either prepare or clean up the mess. We met my aunt, uncle and cousin at the restaurant, and when they were leaving, my cousin invited my grandson, Darin to go to a movie with him and his son.

After dinner, we all met a my house for the kids to pick up their baskets from me and Grandpa. Matthew got a little wheelbarrow for his basket, and the girls got regular baskets with little necklaces and coloring sheets, they all got a couple shorts sets. We took some pictures and sat and visited for a while.


Sarah and Matthew, happy to get their baskets.







Amber's got her basket!
Doesn't she look cute in her new Easter outfit? Pretty in pink!








And Grandpa and Grandma get a nice leasurely Holiday out with the Grandkid outside in the backyard! Only Darin's missing, since he got to go to the show with his cousins. Can you believe the grandkids are already asking us when we are going to open the pool?!!!!! Kinda rushing to get to summer, if you ask me! Guess we'll have to think about it in the next month or so, though.

Still Healing, Happy Easter !

First of all, I am still healing, the stitches that were put back in came out after 2 weeks, and I am still getting a little drainage from the sore, but nothing that I can't handle. The skin is healing, but I have to keep putting on some Bacitracin and wiping with anticeptic.
______________________

Easter is coming and I have the Easter baskets ready for the Grandkids. I had a hard time trying to find little trinkets to fill the baskets for the older ones. (I heard their wining about too much clothes in their baskets) I did get them a couple shorts outfits to start them off. I cut down on the candy, but got a little bit of mineature candy bars and a few jelly beans. I even got them a small chocolate bunny too.

I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A JOYOUS EASTER HOWEVER YOU ALL CELEBRATE IT!

We plan to take the whole family out to eat at a local all you can eat buffet. It'll save me a lot of work, and clean up, and the kids love that kind of stuff. Everyone can eat the kind of food they love to eat. Specially the kids who all have certain favorites, and some particular things they won't eat at all.

Hubby and I have to get out to the lake and get the boat ready to hit the water in the next couple of weekends. Lots of clean up to do after a hard winter. Hopefully, this summer maybe we can get some use out of it this year. The last few summers I have been so weak or sick that we really didn't get to enjoy it much at all.
Ooops , forgot about that bumpy ride! LOL!

Owchie! OOch!

As I said before, I had to go back to the doctor's on Friday to get the stitches out of my head and because my surgeon was delayed in surgery, an intern of his took the stitches out and remarked that the wound was healing nicely. I went home with some new surgy strips to hold the wound again.
On Saturday I felt a little itchy, like the wound was healing and the hair was growing out where they shaved my hairline. I started pressing on a part that felt like a little swelling was building up and got some fluid pushed out of the top of the wound. By afternoon, the tape strips had fallen off. I went to the bathroom to take a look in my 3 way mirror, and to my surprise a big piece of the skin flap was gaping open and some blood and clear juices was coming out of it. I wrapped it up with gauze and the elastic bandage and told my husband what was happening.

I sort of panicked, and immediatley called the doctor's office. Noone was there, but I called the pager number and got a doctor on call who called me right back and told me to go to the emergency room and they would have a resident meet me there.

I went directly to emergency and the resident told me that indeed the flap was opened quite a bit, and that he would have to put back a few stitches, since the skin had not healed enough to keep it together. After some painful shots to numb the area, he told me that he put 3 inside stitches and 6 outside stitches on the skin, and wants me to go back to see the surgeon at the end of the week to have it checked again. Wheeew! At least he didn't see any sign of infection, and he said that maybe the stitches just came out a little too early. I sure don't want all the complications with drainage and swelling like I had the first time! So far there has not been any more problems with it.

I made it through another surgery again!

Well , my surgery on that lump on my perotid is over, and it wasn't bad after all. Just the rest of my body feels like I had to been wrestling and LOST!? I ache all over like they beat the everloving S__T out of me from stem to stern, and I don't know why. The cut is almost about as big as the last one when they took the tumor off my perotid gland, but strangly it does not hurt as much and there is much less swelling and no strange oozing like the last time. I hope it stays that way. I just wonder if I gave them a hard time and tried to fight them off or something? I didn't ache this bad last time. I dont have to see the doctor for a week, and that's probably to get the stitches out.. In the mean while, I'm on pain relievers and antibiotics to keep the uglies away and to make my poor body feel better until then.
At least I made it safe and sound!

On the Road AGAIN!

Like Willie Nelson, I just can't wait to get on the road again! I just got a (New) 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan this past week, and I am so geeked to be able to drive again after 1 year and 9 months after my stoke in May of 2003. I gave my old car to my daughter , Wendy after I had the stroke and was told that I should not drive for at least a year afterward as it was just sitting in the driveway. Well last week we went car shopping and found this beautiful car with all the bells and whistles.

I can't tell you how good it is to be able to drive again, and go where I want, when I want without having to hitch a ride. ( Not that I don't appreciate all the driving my Caroline did for me for the last almost 2 years, thank you Caroline and Wendy too.)

It just feels so good to be out on the road again! (Although I didn't forget how to.... I have to make sure I double check my mirrors and don't get this lovely car in an accident, that would just be catastrophic!)

What's been going on?

Well, first, there was the official birthday party for both Sarah and Matthew on February 4th. Sarah invited her cousins, Darin and Amber as well as some of her classmates for a birthday party (belated) for the two of them. They had a good time, and each kid got to hit two pinatas full of candy, gum and other goodies.










The kids all had a ball. And Darin got some cheat tips from his uncle and cousin on how to defeat the dinosaurs in their King Kong game.
_________________________

I just got word from my physician that the lump on my neck where I had the perotid tumor removed last May is an infection that set up since the operation. They tried antibiotics to get rid of it, but to no avail. The doc set up another surgery for me for March 17th to remove it. Lord, I hate surgery, but I guess that's the best way to get rid of this thing. The only concern is, that the nerve to my face is right in the same area, so one slip of the knife and I could end up with a paralized face muscles, I know he is going to try to avoid it, but now the possibility is much more expected. Will let you know more as things progress. I just hope I don't have as much complications as last time. The hospital stay is still only going to be one night, as long as I do well.
____________________________________

My daughter, Wendy, has been trying to help me with the problems with trying to copy my video to dvd disc. I took back the Dazzle equipment and traded it for a dvd recorder. My problem is, my TV broke down and I had to get a new one, and with all the new stuff, I am having trouble hooking up the new dvd recorder. I think we have the problem figured out, but I need one more Coaxial cable to hook it all together to my video player in order for it to work all together. We'll see.

HELP ME!

HELP! I own on old RCA video recorder (circa 1989/1990) with the C type film cartridges and spent $80 for a device to transfer the VHS into DVD on my new computer.......... BUT....... the Video/Audio IN cable that came with my camera is defective and wont transfer the video out of the camera for ME! (It hooks into the back of the camera with a rubber round head with multiple prongs, and the other end had and white and yellow plug in jack to deliver the audio/video to a VCR player.)
I have checked online in RCA's site for parts to order another one, but this camera is so old, and all they have is for the new ones. I even tried parts stores online. Anybody got a clue where I can find such a thing available anywhere?????? I even tried a phone book for dealers handling video equipment and No Such luck! I'm stumped, can anybody help me here?????

Matthew and Sarah's Birthdays are coming!

Well, tomorrow is Matthew's 6th BIRTHDAY and coming up on the 30th is Sarah's 9th Birthday. I just picked up their birthday cards, and as soon as I get the chance, I will have Wendy stop by and get their cards with money for them to spend on the latest game they are wanting for their game systems.. whatever. My little grandbabies are getting so grown up and I love them LOTS! HOPE THEIR BIRTHDAYS ARE THE GREATEST THIS YEAR!
Wendy's Birthday was just on January 3th and Marks' is TODAY I think! ( the 15th??) A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mark and Wendy..... and MANY MORE!

________________________________________

Daddy's got a flu bug or something:

My husband had been feeling a little under the weather the last couple of days, and today I took his tempurature and it was 101.4! He's feeling better this evening, and a dose of Tylenol has helped his fever. No wonder he's been complaining of aching all over lately................... I sure hope that he don't give it to me..!

___________________________

Caroline posted the new pics I took of Amber with her new haircut, reminds me a little of Buster Brown, but Amber looks good in any hairdo. _ Caroline got one too, but she didn't post her own pic up. (Want Momma to do it for you? Huh Caroline?)

Too bad both of my grandgirls hate to have their hair up in braids, or pony tails or anything, then they would look like my little princesses, like they did when they were little. They never kept it in very long though............ Everything came out, and hair flew free after a short time, even then. These girls are so active, it's hard to even make them STAND STILL for brushing their hair!

I understand Sarah got a hair trim after Christmas too, but I haven't gotten a pic of her since, and ..........this is funny.......... Matthew had a knock down, drag out fight with his Mom, when she attempted to bring the shears near HIS head....She had him pinned to his bed in a leg lock, but she couldn't reach the plug to plug in the shears! ..... HE WON! He claims he wants long hair like Harry Potter! A 6 year old that weighs over 100 lbs. and is as strong as a ox is too much for Wendy to wrestle with! So the hair stays,...... for the moment. he he he he!

____________

Ha Ha! Mommy got a new scanner./ and printer combo today. It will take the place of the STUPID old one I had, that wont load on my new Hewlett Packard- Windows XP computer I just got last week! NANANA NA NANA!