JUST A FEW RANDOM THINGS

Hi, Everyone!

WARNING - - - BRAGGING AHEAD!!!

Well, today is Hunter Bean's last day of school. If we keep our fingers crossed, she'll get a good report card and move on to the 6th grade next fall. Actually, I want to share something that happened this morning and caught me totally off guard. I was sitting in my recliner, enjoying my second cup of coffee, and my cell phone rang. I looked at the number and recognized it as Hunter's school. My first thought was that Hunter had forgotten something and wanted me to deliver it to her. My second thought was that Hunter wanted me to get pizza and bring it to her and her friends to celebrate their last day of school. Hmmm, should I answer or ignore? (just kidding) So, I answered and was surprised that it was not Hunter, but it was Mrs. Balderama, the assistant principal.

Being a PTA volunteer, I'm used to getting calls from other PTA parents to discuss one activity or another. But, I can't recall ever getting a call from one of the principals in Hunter's 5 years at the school. If you've had kids in school, I'm sure you remember that uneasy, nauseating feeling of dread in the pit of your stomach when you feel like you're about to hear bad news. Well, I guess Mrs. Balderama could sense my alarm, and she immediately told me that her reason for calling was not bad, but in fact, it was just the opposite.

She had been visiting with some of the teachers at their end-of-school luncheon and had heard Hunter's name come up numerous times, from different teachers. Her homeroom teacher this year, Mrs. Ross, could say absolutely nothing bad about Hunter. She said Hunter was such a good student, she was intelligent and excited about learning, she was always willing to help when asked, she never needed to be disciplined, and she was excellent with all the other kids. Mrs. Balderama then went on to say that the main reason she was calling was to "thank Hunter's dad and me for our hard work and for sharing Hunter with everyone at Wayland Bonds Elementary."

Yes, as you can imagine, I was sitting there in my recliner with my mouth open, wondering what to say next. I thanked her for the call and told her how much I appreciated hearing all those kind things about my 11-year-old. I do realize that I wasn't the only parent called, but it did impress me that one of the principals would take the time to thank ME for sharing my daughter. I hung up and just sat . . . with my eyes a little misty, and reflected on that call. Although my husband and I have noticed an occasional "pre-teen attitude", overall we couldn't be more proud of Hunter and everything she's accomplished. She is a beautiful blessing to us, and she brings us more joy than she could ever imagine!

11th BIRTHDAY

HUNTER AND AUNT TAMMY 

Sorry about the quality, but it was really dark inside the restaurant. 

This past weekend, Hunter and I stayed at my sister's house to dog-sit. I've decided that between Tammy's dogs and my daughter, Ryanne's, dogs, who needs grandchildren?  :)  But, while dog-sitting, I got to crochet a little bit and made a couple of fun things. 

Supposed to be a crown. I checked gauge and 

everything, and I'll be lucky if it fits a newborn! 

This pattern came from the same book. It was supposed to be a beanie. I made the largest size available and even went up on my hook size, but it was still squishy on Hunter's head. So, I turned it into a pillow. 

My husband, JC, has been putting a lot of work into the field behind our house. Recently, he took the mower back there and made three, long and winding trails. I'm not sure of the total distance of the trails, but each one is three-mower-widths. This is a push mower, by the way, not a riding mower. Anyway, on one of his excursions to his little oasis, he discovered a huge patch of blackberry bushes. I've never made jam or jelly, but I think I'll be learning pretty soon! :)

JC AND HIS BLACKBERRIES

And, finally . . .

Remember Disney and her puppies?

Ryanne kept one of the puppies, and he 

is the cutest thing ever!

NEWMAN AND MAMA DISNEY

Well, that's enough random stuff for today. Hope you all are having a super-duper day. See ya soon!! 

CONGRATULATIONS, PAMMY SUE!

Pammy Sue, over at Scotty's Place, is celebrating her Four-Year Blogiversary. In honor of that worthy achievement, she is hosting a terrific giveaway. Check out Scotty's Place for all the details, and sign up for a chance to win some really neat prizes!

Hope everyone's doing well. I haven't been ignoring you. I've just been up to my eyeballs in work, birthday, and end-of-school activities. I need to earmark some time on my calendar to update my blog and put some pictures on here. I'll jot it down on my calendar to earmark some time on my calendar for blogging!  :)

Have a great Sunday! I'll be back to visit soon . . . . . . .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEAN!

Gosh, I'm busy, but I just wanted to take a quick minute to jump on here and wish my baby girl a very happy 11th birthday. She's growing up way too fast, and I don't like it one bit!!!  Love you, Little Bean!

THE WRATH OF MOTHER NATURE!

Not far from my house

We dodged the tornadoes, but got hammered by these!

This one touched down in Yukon, where Baby Sis lives.

This one was 2 miles north of my daughter's house
in north OKC.

Look at the power of the rotation!

This used to be a Love's Country Store . . . totally gone! 

It's Springtime in Oklahoma!

Hi, Everyone!  I've missed you. I've been in the weirdest funk lately . . . not like my usual "just-don't-feel-like-blogging" funk, but really just a gigantic "oh-woe-is-me" funk. I mean, SERIOUSLY!! And, you know what? Today I really kicked myself in the butt for feeling this way. After riding out the storms here yesterday without a scratch or speck of damage and just some frayed nerves, I looked around at all the other unfortunate souls just a few miles from me who woke up this morning to complete devastation, and for some, the loss of their loved ones. And, once again, I am reminded of the many blessings I have, and I am ashamed that too often I take that for granted.

Yes, it was a wild and crazy afternoon, but we’re all present and accounted for. JC was working and unavailable, and Hunter and I were home. She was sick and home from school, so she had control of the remote and was watching something on Disney channel. Suddenly, we started hearing clunks of hail hitting the windows. We changed the TV to a local channel and discovered that all hell was breaking loose! At that point, even though it was sunny outside, the storms were all around us, so even if we’d wanted to take off in the car (which was Hunter’s suggestion), there really wasn’t anyplace to go. 

Right then, the weatherman announced that a tornado touched down in Yukon, which is the little ‘burb just west of OKC, and it’s where my sister lives. I tried calling her a number of times, but the phone lines were all jammed. Then, the tornado sirens started blaring, and the Greyhounds went crazy. About that time, as the hail was pounding the living daylights out of us, it was announced that a tornado was on the ground, crossing I-44 and Hwy 37, which is exactly 2.5 miles west of us. So, Hunter grabbed her bike helmet, flashlight, pillows, candles, and radio, and I grabbed the dogs, and we headed to the bathroom for safety. It seemed like an hour, but it was only 10-15 minutes! J

Sometime while we were in the bathroom, JC happened to call and asked what we were doing. I told him we were hunkered down in the bathroom because of the storm, and he was totally shocked. This was coming from the guy who actually works for our local NBC affiliate TV station and was at work while all this was going on!!! He had no clue all this was happening in south OKC!!  

Well, the tornado that touched down close to us had lifted back up and ferociously made its way on to the east, causing unbelievable destruction. As of now, there are at least 5 confirmed fatalities and still more people missing. During just a few hours, there was an outbreak of 30+ tornadoes. We've had a very mild spring, for Oklahoma standards, but Mother Nature made up for lost time in one day. 

My thoughts and prayers go out to the many families who were affected by the storms

CRABBY TO THE MAX!

I accidentally typed "CRAPPY", and thought about just leaving it because it really describes my mood! I've been back in my "Not-Wanting-To-Blog" mode, just because I've been in such a rotten mood. In fact, do you know how many days it's been since I've picked up my hook and yarn? I believe it was sometime last weekend, and that is VERY unusual for me, to go more than a day without crocheting something. 

So, who popped my bubble this time? Let me see how I can explain this without boring you all to tears. Basically, this is what happened. You all know I was in the hospital a couple of days recently. When I turned in my hours for payroll, I added a BIG, BOLD notation indicating my request to take two PTO days to make up for the days I missed. Well, life was bopping along just fine until this last Monday. I got into Quicken to do my update and give our account a last-minute check before the house payment was deducted. To my horror, I discovered that my request for the PTO days had not been honored, and my paycheck was much lower than anticipated!!  Unfortunately, there was not an over-abundance of money in that account, and even less with the smaller paycheck, so charges started coming through, and this led to overdraft charges. By the time I discovered the OD charges from Friday, there were four more that came through on Monday. This fiasco came to a grand total of $210!!!!!  If you've ever experienced the joy of overdraft charges, you know how the problem seems to compound, kind of like falling dominoes!

My husband and I went to the bank on Tuesday, in an attempt to plead for mercy, since we have had this account for many years and have had very few screw-ups like this. The assistant branch manager told us she would only reimburse us for three of the OD charges, and I would have to go to my employer to get reimbursed for the rest. GGRRRRR!!!  Yes, I realize it was my boss' mistake, and I even have her apology in an email to back it up. But, it really irks me that banks cannot be more customer-friendly. It's not like they manually mailed back checks for non-payment. With everything electronic these days, the OD charges were all generated by a computer. And, it's not like my husband and I, long-time customers that we are, routinely overdraw our account.  So, I will talk to my boss about the possibility of getting reimbursed for these charges. I'm just mad about having to take that step.

That got my week off to a rip-roaring start, and it's just gone downhill from there. But, lest you are already dozing off, I think I will leave you for now, and I promise to return in better spirits.

MURPHY STRIKES AGAIN!

This message is coming to you today, straight from the keys of my brand new Dell Inspiron laptop. You might ask why that is such riveting news. Well, you know me, and you know that I have a way of building the entire clock when you just ask for the time. So, I am going to tell you just exactly what happened .

As you know, I had my heart cath last week. The incision site on my groin has been very sore, and it causes me a great deal of pain to sit at my desk for extended periods of time. Since I work from home and do 95% of my work on the computer, I've been fortunate to have a desktop computer, as well as a laptop, which allows me to be a little more portable. I have the coolest little lap table . . . one of those "As Seen On TV" jobbies . . . and it allows me to work from bed, the couch, or my favorite recliner. On Monday night, I was coding charts, while watching the men's basketball finals, and jumped up to let Hunter in, who was furiously pounding on the front door. I tried to move the lap desk, the laptop's cord got caught in the foot rest, and as I stood up, the laptop went crashing to the floor. No biggie, I thought. It has hit the floor before with no serious damage. Well, not this time. When I settled back in and turned the computer back on, the screen looked like it had been hit with a baseball! I rebooted a couple of times, but no luck. JC walked through the room, and I handed it to him and said, "Turn it on and see what it does." He did, and he just stood there shaking his head. "Wow, you must've dropped it, huh?" 

I was so upset. I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, and honestly, I wanted to throw the laptop across the room. But, alas, the violent impulse passed, and I went to bed instead. Yesterday, I called a good friend of mine, who is the biggest "geek freak" I know. I asked her if she, by chance, had an extra laptop lying around. She actually would have had one but she had recently loaned out her "extra". Well, one thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was accompanying my friend to Best Buy to look at computers.

Now, obviously, this friend is special. In addition to calling her one of my best friends, I have also had the pleasure of working for her since 2005. I have helped her manage her medical coding company, and she has given me her company AMEX card for business expenses. Last August for my birthday, Mary told me to go shopping and spend $300 for a gift. I felt guilty with her generosity and never took her up on her offer. This past Christmas? Yep, she told me the same thing, and once again, I never went shopping for myself. So, yesterday, at Best Buy, Mary told the sales person that she was buying this computer for me as a birthday/Christmas gift!! I just stood there, like a fool, with this goofy look on my face!

Mary, like I said, is very special. She has always said she's blessed and because of that, she wants to share her blessings with others. She did just that yesterday, and I am eternally grateful. Mary doesn't read my blog, and in fact, is the first to admit that she doesn't like messing with computers any more than necessary. But, I didn't want to let her generosity go unnoticed, and I wanted to tell you all about this person who does so much for others and expects so little in return.  Thank you, Mary, for being you!

TYING UP SOME LOOSE ENDS!

Get it, tying up some loose ends? Greyhound running with the yarn unraveling? Okay, maybe it's my own private little giggle! :)  Well, I just got the permission I needed to properly credit the designer of my new blog heading, so . . . (drum roll) . . . it was ingeniously created by Pammy Sue and her husband, Barnaby! What a fantastic job they did. I had always worried that people would think I didn't know how to spell the word "Great", so I wanted something to show my love for both of my passions, Greyhounds and crochet. I think the new logo pretty much says it all! Thanks so much to Pammy Sue and Barnaby for taking the time to do this for me. I'm conjuring up something really special for them to show my appreciation.

It's back to the grind here on this gray and HUMID Monday! No more recuperating for the weary. I enjoyed my weekend of rest and relaxation so much and really got spoiled to having JC and Hunter wait on me. I don't want any more trips to the hospital, and I don't want to lie around in recuperation mode, so I'm just going to have to figure out some other way to have more "Rest and Relaxation" weekends!

Happy Monday, everyone! Talk to you soon . . . . .

HAPPY EASTER!

I'm excited about so many things right now! First, I am tickled to pieces with my new blog heading. I had been working on some business cards with this idea in mind. However, due to my severe lack of artistic talent, I could never make the idea materialize, and I ended up with a boring basket of yarn on my cards. I want to give the creator of my new heading all the credit that is due, but I want to get the proper permissions before doing so. I was so excited with the way it turned out, and I just couldn't wait any longer to show it off. I hope the designer doesn't mind me gushing with all this praise! :)  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Next, I am excited that the Oklahoma Sooner women are getting ready to play in the NCAA Final Four against Stanford. The men's tournament has been full of surprises this year, and it's been exciting to watch (even though my bracket was null and void after all the upsets in the first round)! Oklahoma is not really known for being a "basketball state", and our men's teams had nothing to offer the tournament. But, the women have a good chance of moving on to the finals. Let's go SOONERS!!

I'm extremely excited that I got a couple of days off last week, and my boss wanted to give me some recuperation time, so she gave me ZERO charts to code this weekend! That makes me VERY happy. I can't even recall the last time I had absolutely nothing to do over the weekend except R-E-S-T. Thank you to my very wonderful husband and daughter for taking such good care of me!

Due to all this R & R time, I got lots of crocheting done. I was hoping to have pictures to show you, but I haven't mustered up the energy to put the camera into action. I promise I will do that this week.

Finally, I'm more than excited to report that my heart cath was considered negative. I have some "irregularities" in my coronary artery and what the doctor said were spasms. But, he feels confident that we can get these things under control with medication and a healthier lifestyle. That means, bye-bye Mexican food, love of my life! Well, maybe not completely. I'm just going to have to limit myself to taco salads and give up the enchiladas! :)

I was going to share some of the more humorous highlights of my stay in the hospital, but I'm sure you've all probably "been there, done that" and have some great stories of your own. The nurses and aides that took care of me were all very professional and kind. They did their best to make my visit somewhat tolerable. Thanks to you, my sweet blogging friends, for your kind thoughts and get-well wishes.

It is my wish that all of you are having a wonderful Easter Sunday.

JUST A LITTLE NEWS!

Happy April Fools Day to you all! I wish I had a silly prank or a funny joke, but alas, I'm not feeling real humorous today. I'll tell you why a bit later, but first, I want to tell you about my daughter, Hunter, and her amazing day yesterday.

Some of you might remember that we bought her a Genesis bow for Christmas because she was showing a lot of interest in archery at her school. Well, she ended up making the team and up until yesterday, she had participated in two tournaments. In fact, in her last tournament about a month ago, she came in FIRST PLACE amongst the fifth grade girls. Unfortunately, the only picture I got of that event was taken with my husband's iPhone, and for some reason, the picture never made it home with us. :(

Well, after lots of practice and hard work, Hunter qualified to go to the state tournament with her school's team. This was held yesterday in downtown Oklahoma City at the Cox Convention Center. There were over 1700 participants and over 70 elementary schools, specifically. I'm happy to report that the Wayland Bonds Broncos came in 2nd place, and this qualified their team to go to the national tournament in Louisville, KY, in May. Hunter's dad, her Aunt Tammy, and I all took off work so we could be there for the big event. It was really spectacular, especially when the flag was lowered and 280 archers shot their first arrows at the same time. It kind of sounded like a machine gun or a bunch of Black Cat firecrackers exploding! :)  So, I thought I'd share a few photos from Hunter's big day.

MIKAELA AND HUNTER

COACH GATLIN AND THE TEAM

HUNTER CONCENTRATING (OR DOZING)

MODELING HER MEDALS

So, throughout the day, there was lots of "down" time. Of course, I had my crochet bag with me, and I started two more squares for Bev. The ones below are the ones I had already finished. The pink one was my first, and I think it's a bit on the ugly side. It was not turning out to be 12 inches, so I just kept going with my DC border. I don't care for all the pale pink. But, I really, REALLY like the blue square. You can see that it's not as big as the pink one, but rather than ruining it with an extra border, I stopped and decided to let Guru Bev deal with the size difference. :) 

It looks like I'm going to have a long weekend to get some serious crochet done. I am going in to the hospital today to have a heart catheterization done. Remember all that heart nonsense that started back in November that ultimately led to the stress test and Holter monitor? Well, apparently, the next step is the heart cath, to see if I have any blockages that might be contributing to my symptoms. I have to be at the hospital at 11:00 for pre-op lab, chest x-ray and EKG, then the actual procedure is at 1:00. This means, friends, that I am writing this WITHOUT MY COFFEE!!!! Nothing by mouth after midnight, which is absolutely the WORST part!! :)

The doctor already told me that he wants to keep me overnight, but I'm going to beg and plead to get him to let me come home this evening, assuming everything turns out okay with the test. I hate hospitals and would rest much better in my big, soft, comfy bed! I'm a little nervous about the whole thing, so any warm fuzzy thoughts directed my way would be greatly appreciated.

I'm hoping by Sunday afternoon I'll have some more crochet to show you. Have a great weekend, and I'll be back soon.

In the meantime, GO SOONER WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM who will be playing in the Final Four this weekend!!!