Where's the humor? I need some humor..... please!

Seems like the closer we get to the end of the school year, the harder and more stressful it gets.   I'll elaborate on this later.

First the week in review. 

Sunday we went to visit a friend from looooong ago.  Back about 20 years ago we lived in McKinney Texas.  That's just north of where we are now.  Our next door neighbors were J and Martie A.  A few months ago I got a FaceBook message that said something like "are you the same JC that once lived on McC Place?"   I said "YES!  Are you the Martie that lived next door to me?"    What do you know.... she still lives there.  She and the hubby split, but her daughter, who was only about 6 months old when we moved, still lives with her.   She had invited us over to watch the Mavricks play.... needless to say we didn't hang around to see that tragic story.  It was so great seeing her and now the ball is in her court and I hope she comes to see us really soon.

Keep in mind, this whole week at school, the 3rd, 4th and 6th graders were taking state tests.  ALL WEEK... shhhhh, we're testing.  Do you know how that sets off a child that isn't in those grades?  

Wednesday my brother's new wife Di, came over to have dinner with us.  She was in North Texas this week taking care of some medical appointments and taking in a weeks worth of yoga classes.  Remember, they live way out on a ranch in West Texas and the nearest yoga studio is about 89 miles away!  It was good to see her and I was able to hand off Michael's socks that I FINALLY finished.  Mikey called last night to tell me that the socks fit perfect and felt soooo good.  He'll not need them for about 8 months but they'll be there when that cold wind starts blowing out on the prairie.  The next pair I knit will have to be for my niece Andee.  Di said she was really bummed that she didn't get a pair when Di showed Andee her's and the messed up Deer Socks.  I'll get started on a pair for Andee sometime this summer. 

Another thing that happened Wednesday, my blood pressure was high.  I never worry about my blood pressure.  For the past 28 years when I have gone to the doctor he usually has to take blood or something to know if I'm really alive.  My blood pressure is naturally REALLY low.  I never stress about anything.  But, Wednesday afternoon I had a dental appointment and my long time Dentist almost didn't clean my teeth because my blood pressure was 150 over 90.   I had no idea if that was high or not.... like I said, I never even think about it.  She even asked me if I'd been having headaches.  Does that mean she was thinking I could have been having a stroke?  I told her "No, but I have been having some pains in my Arse.  But we won't name names."   Great!  Now my blood pressure will go up because I'll be stressing over my blood pressure.

Thursday I had taken the afternoon off to take care of some medical appointments of my own.  My sinus/allergy problem was coming back.  Just when I thought the hacky little cough was gone, the wind started blowing and here it came again.  I dropped by the Minute Clinic.  I LOVE this concept.  No appointment necessary.... It's right in the Pharmacy, when you walk out of the office from seeing the Doctor, your prescription is ready and waiting.  La farmicia es fabuloso!  Mi gusta esta concepcion. I speak Spanish best first thing in the morning. This doctor said I had an upper respiratory infection. YES! No antibiotics for me.  Mi no gusta antibioticos.  They screw up my system.  She did give me a rescue inhaler, some awesome pastillas pills for cough, and some saline nose drops because my nasal passages were swelled it's an allergic reaction.  She told me to lay off the Afrin nasal spray it causes swelling of the nasal passages, you get that 'bounce' effect and not to take anymore Sudafed. I do need to take Zyrtec everyday during the Spring and Fall, my worse allergy seasons. The Sudafed was probably causing the blood pressure to go up.   It was at 111/78 when she took it, coming down.

Later that day I went to Dr. P......  to have some blood work done.  I'll go back to him later this month to get those results and then I'll start shopping for a new OB-GYN.  Dr. P is good, don't get me wrong.  I think he want's to hold the record for delivering the most babies of all OB's in the history of mankind.  I think he holds a record in our county, he has a few personal records himself.  He's just not that receptive to me now that I no longer wish to be birthing babies.  I wonder if he wished he could have delivered my two squirts?  That's exactly how long they took to birth.... the Doc just walked past, caught that baby, quick hand-off to a nurse and he was off to the golf course.  It was almost like a NFL play.  Sorry.... TMI for those non baby peeps. BP was at 110/68... he said that was fine.

Then there was Friday, haven't I always said that we have to pay for our weekends?  If not, I'm telling you now.  Our weeks build up like an earthquake.  The tremors start rumbling around Tuesday morning and by Friday afternoon we're getting the 5.0 shakes.  We sometimes have anywhere from 1 to 6 in the ISS (in school suspension) room in the office.  Which really means 2 in the room, 1 in the ISS office, 1 each in the Principal's office and Asst. Principal's offices and sometimes 1 in my office.   This past Friday was only different in that we had 2 in ISS.  A couple had OSS or moved on to the Alternative School.  I was in the process of helping the two students swap places one in the room the other in the ISS office area when the one in the room a 1st grader decided to sling a book off his desk at my head.  Luckily I was able to fend off the book with my left elbow because my hands were full of his other books and supplies that I was bringing into the room.  I now have a bruise on my elbow.  Does this mean we are going to build up to an epic volcano by the time school is out in a month?   Lord help us.... the pain in my Arse is killing me! Can we get some relief with the barometric pressure too?  No... it's tornado season that won't happen until the end of June.

On another note,  look at the deck!   Nice and clean....  I can feel the breezes now the wind was blowing about 65 mph Friday.  We'll put the new umbrella up in the next couple of weeks and we'll finally be able to open it after the wind dies down in June. 

Have a great week, I'm off to a dance recital today.  I hope I don't have flash backs. 

Happy first day of Fall...

We were all set for Fall and Summer returned. I think it was warmer today than it has been in a week or so. In fact it's 7:40 PM and it's 85 degrees! Here we thought Fall was just around the corner and lo and behold we're getting a sunburn at recess.

My roses were starting to come out and now they are getting sunburned too. I used to have the most beautiful roses and then two years of drought really hurt them. I may cut them all down to the ground and let them start over. We did that to one and it came back with long stem roses! But I'll leave this rose bush, it's the one the school bought for me as a memorial when my mom passed away. It's always so pretty. It looks like something out of Alice In Wonderland. That's not really weeds down there growing in the rocks. It's just your imagination....




I'll have to take another picture of this little lovely in a few days. This rose is called "Dolly Parton" because when in full bloom it can measure up to 7 inches across! Again, the heat hurt it the last two years, I hope it will come back this Fall.



The daises have been going nuts all Summer. They usually don't do well in the heat. But this year I've had daises for cutting all Summer long.











Oh and this rose bush... I don't think anything could kill it. It's growing on the hottest corner of the house. Sometimes it gets a little sunburned, but the minute the nights cool just a little bit, off it goes putting on the nicest blooms, and talk about fragrant!!!





As for this beast... maybe it's the reason the daisys are blooming, it's blocking all the harsh sunlight from them. This is a Lady Banks Rose bush.... don't ever plant one. It will try to eat your house. We can trim the 'canes' and in 24 hours it will have grown a foot. Everywhere you cut it, another new shoot will start growing at an alarming rate.

This view is from the yard looking up to the deck.




This view is from out in the yard looking back toward the house. You can see that it looks a little top heavy. I was hoping Hurricane Ike would come up and make it fall over. It's the most needy plant we've ever had in the yard. We could trim on it every day and still have work to do.

And here's what it looks like from the deck side, not too bad because in order to sit on the deck we have to go out and trim the branches out of the way.

Anyone out there have a machete? Oh, better yet a chain saw. I know, it serves it's purpose... it makes a really nice privacy screen, and a wind block. When I open this umbrella I have a garden room... And it does have really pretty little yellow flowers in the spring, but if you trim the darn thing then you don't get blooms! Go figure! Oh well, we'll just have a giant green tangle in the yard. Google Lady Banks Rose, I wish I knew how to add a website, I'd do it for you. But anyway, look up Lady Banks Rose and you will learn that the largest one is the roof of a restaurant in Tuscon, Arizona. Part of ours is about to go over the roof of our house.

If you are not watching Dancing with the Stars you are missing Cloris Leachman... she's stealing the show. I'm shutting down now to finish watching. She is so funny, reminds me of my late Aunt Shorty, only Cloris is about 3 foot taller than Aunt Shorty. She was calling the judges nasty names when they gave out her scores. They had to cut her mic off! I'm voting for her.

I'll post pictures of the Fall color... as soon as it shows up. (shhhhh, you locals don't tell them we have no fall color in Texas!)