Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Wordless Wednesday


Ten on Tuesday

1.  Having a hard time coming up with ten on Tuesday these days.  I like to keep a record of what's going on in my life and with my family, but I find I'm not writing much during the week now, saving everything until Tuesday.  Also, my ten things can be pretty boring.


2. I was glad to hear of the Penn State Sanctions due to Sandusky.  They have been fined 60 million dollars to help abused children, lose their football victories for the past 12 years. Paterno's statue was removed, amongst others things.  They a bishop from Pennsylvania, I think, was sentenced to six years in jail for moving pedophile priests from one parish to another.  Maybe people will start reporting thses creeps rather than turning the other cheek.


3.  The Batman massacre last Friday morning was shocking.  They keep showing the guy on T.V.; I wish we did not even have to look at him.  It is kind of odd that Colorado seems to have its share of tragedies--Jon Benet Ramsey was murdered, and the killer never found in Boulder, there was the horrible massacre at Littleton and now the killings in Aurora.  My niece and her husband live in Aurora, but they are fine, just sad about the killings.


4.  It is still over 100 every day here, I think for two weeks now.  Our flowers burning up.  We got our electric bill yesterday and it was over $300.  I hate to see what our water bill will be.


5.  We are going to Cincinnati Friday, just for the weekend, to see baby Stephanie.  We got pictures last week and I couldn't stand not seeing her any longer.  I must admit I have seen her almost every month--went in Jan. when she was born;  in March for spring break; they came to St. Louis for Easter; we were together at Gulf Shores in May and all together in Cincinnati in June for her christening.  She changes so much every day, so we have to visit her often.  Loads of pictures to follow.


6.  My older daughter who lives here in St. Louis goes to the New Jersey beach every year the first week in August for her husband's family vacation.  They are leaving Saturday, but found out yesterday her mother in law had intestinal blockage and had to have surgery.  She will be in the hospital 5 to 7 days.  Everyone will still go to the beach, but I feel terrible for her because I know how she plans the whole vacation and looks forward to it all year, like we do with our family in May.


7.  I'm still working on Corinne's b-day present, my Boston granddaughter.  Her birthday is Sunday, but they are going out to the Cape for a long weekend.  Some good friends of my daughter have a house on the Cape next door to a house owned by Ally Raisman's family, one of our olympic gymnists.  They are going to have an big party to celebrate the start of the olympics, though Ally is in London.  Hopefully she will win some medals.


8.  Speaking of Olympics, we are really looking forward to them for the next three weeks.  It's so cool how names we've never heard become household names after a week or two.  Looks like USA has quite a few good athletes and is predicted to win quite a few medals.

9.  I stopped at Great Clips on the way home for work and got a haircut.  About half way through the gal said, "Man, you've sure got a lot of hair."  I apologized.  They always tell me that; maybe I'm supposed to pay double since I have so much hair.

10. Well, it's Wednesday now and I still cannot think of a number ten to write about.  My life is pretty dull, but I kind of like dull.

Monday, July 23, 2012

6 Months

Baby Stephanie is six months old today.  We got some pictures of her which made me miss her so much, so we are going to Cincinnati this weekend to see her, and to see John and Chellie.  

Where's Stephanie???

Jumping for joy

Where is that light coming from?

Happy girl!

Watching Baby Einstein.

Six months and six teeth--my daddy is showing my teeth, not sticking his finger up my nose.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Ten on Tuesday

1.  One of the fish I gave Sara for her birthday had a baby.  Katie looked gestation period for Mollies up on the internet, and it is 30 days, so it must have been pregnant when we bought it.  The mystery to them is why she only had one baby, when they are supposed to have 15 to 20 at a time.  I started to tell them the Mollies probably ate the other ones,  but Amy motioned to me not to say anything.


2.  I'm not doing to well with my iphone.  People keep saying just to play around with it, but I keep getting stuck and put it away.


3.  My assistant, who is from Romania, got her green card last week.  She won the lottery from her country, so she didn't have to marry an American to get it.  She wouldn't have done that anyway.  She is in the nursing program here at Meramec and will graduate next May.  She is thrilled to have her green card and will hopefully be able to bring her son here from Romania when she graduates and gets a full-time job.


4.  We are really having a drought here in St. Louis.  The temperatures were over 100 for ten days straight and then in the 90's last week.  Today it is supposed to get over 100 again.  My car has a thermometer, and when I got in one day last week the temperature was 115.  It's usually over 90 in the summer, but during the heat spells it is over 100.  We finally had some rain one evening for about half an hour.  I hate to see our water bill this time.


5.  Garage sales were a bit better this past Saturday.  I found some brand new Sperry penny loafers for Jack; I called Kate from the sale to see if I should buy them and they were just the right size.  She always buys him penny loafers for dress shoes and usually pays $50 to $60.  I got them for $10 so I felt pretty good about it.  I also got some cute outfits for baby Stephanie.  The garage sale had some really nice stuff, but the sign said $5 a piece.  I didn't think that was bad for some of the smocked clothing, and most were good brands, so I asked the gal if everything was really $5.  She told me to pick out some things and she'd give me a deal.  So I found four things, two summer rompers, a onesie and a cute top for Christmas.  She told me I had expensive taste, because they were all really good brands, and I told her that her prices were too high for garage sales.  She could have made a lot of money on E-Bay, but people don't go to garage sales wanting to pay $5 for a onesie.   So she told me I could have the four items for $15.  That was a good deal because they were pretty cute.  I also got a few books and a couple of khaki skirts for Erin for her uniform for kindegarten at another sale.


6.  When I got home Rob had called and asked me to look for shorts for Erin.  So I had to go to the thrift store later Saturday and got her a bunch of shorts and some Polo Jeans for Abbey.  I also got a few things for the baby.


7.  The Cardinals were swept by Cincinnati this past weekend.  That was pretty disappointming.  My son lives in Cincinnati and was at Friday night's game, but I'm pretty sure he is still a Cardinal's fan.  They finally won a game last night against Milwaukee.  They were losing the whole game but got three runs in the bottom of the ninth to pull it out.  Hopefully they will turn things around now.


8.  My husband and his brother went out to see their mother on Sunday and talk to her about his brother taking over her checking account and paying her bills for her (I wrote about her last week).  She really likes to have cash around and to have access to a checking account, so they are opening an account for her at Friendship Village where they have a small bank.  That way she can cash checks when she needs cash.  We aren't too sure what she needs the cash for, but she always has $200 to $300 in her purse, and holds on to her purse very tightly.  I guess it gives her a feeling of control over her money.  She was agreeable on Sunday, but we don't know how she will be from day to day.

9.  My old dean was back last week and I talked to him on Friday.  He is now on vacation for two weeks, but hopefully things will get better now that he is back.  I still haven't heard back from the retirement guy we talked to last month.

10.  I've lost two pounds.  I figure if I write it here I have to keep working on it instead of feeling like I deserve to let up on it.  I have a tendency to reward myself when I lose a little weight.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Scammed

My mother in law is 91 years old, and she is in the early stages of Altzheimers.  She has lived in Friendship Village, a retirement home, for five or six years.  She has four children, two whom live out of town, my husband (R.W.) , and one of his brothers who moved back to St. Louis five years ago to help take care of their mother.  He still works full time as a lawyer for SIU, so most of the day to day care is done by my husband, who is retired.  

She rides in a scooter and is quite dangerous--going about fifty m.p.h.  Last year we went and had dinner with her, and when I went to tell her good bye she ran over my foot.  A few months ago we got a call from the management that she had run into the mailman and put a whole in the wall and would have to pay for the repairs.  She kept insisting no one was around when she ran into the wall.  We finally found out she was going to get her mail, and the boxes are built into the wall.  The mailman was on the other side putting in the mail when she ran through the wall and into him.

The past few months she has been getting more and more forgetful; her daughter came from Texas in May to clean out closets and my mother in law called the front desk and told them someone was in her apartment taking her stuff.  Last week she told R.W. that his older brother plays left field for the Cardinals. Besides her fantasies, she always seems to be getting angry at someone or another, but I think that's understandable if one's mind is going. 


A few weeks ago R.W. was taking her to one of her doctor appointments, and she casually commented that she wasn't taking any of her medicine anymore because there was nothing wrong with her.  Her mother had died in her sleep at 91, so she figured she would just go to sleep one night and not wake up.  So my husband and brother talked to the administrators at Friendship Village and arranged to have a nurse give her her medicine every day.  She also needed some vitamin shots, which the nurse could give her.  She seemed okay with that, but a week later my husband was supposed to take her to another of her doctors, and she called a few days before and said she wasn't going because she had never met this doctor, though she had been going to him for years.  He finally convinced her to go, telling her they would go and get her records and go back to her old doctor.  When she got there she recognized the doctor and was very compliant.  She asked if she really needed to take so much medication, and he said yes, so she just said okay, no big deal.


Then this past Tuesday she called R.W. and said she had gotten a bill from the health care office at F.V., for whom the nurse who distributes medication works, for $136 and was not going to pay it.  She only pays $28 a month to have her sheets changed once a week, so why should she pay $136 to get her medicine which she didn't even need in the first place.  So R. W. said he would come out and talk to her yesterday to see if the bill was correct.  

R.W. always calls her before he goes there to let her know he's on his way, and her phone was busy for 45 minutes.  He finally got through at 11:30, and she said she couldn't talk to him because she was so hungry and it had taken her half an hour to get this other guy off the phone who wanted her checking account number and social security number.  She wasn't sure who he was, but she gave him her checking account number and couldn't find her ss card.  So R. W. went out there, and by that time she realized she had been scammed.  He told her she was going to have to change her checking account since she had given out the number to a stranger.  Meanwhile, the guy called again to see if she had found her ss card.  R.W. got on the phone and asked him who he was, and the guy hung up on him.  So R.W. spent the rest of the afternoon going to her bank, contacting the people who deposit her retirement checks and social security who also does direct deposit, opening a new checking account and arranging for direct deposit.   

She called last night around dinner time and asked R.W. casually if he had been out there to visit her yesterday.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Ten on Tuesday

1.  Went back to work on Thursday, after my Boston trip and the fourth of July, and my old dean was back.  I was never so happy to see him.  I wanted to hug him but thought that would be inappropriate.  Our temporary dean is gone and no one knows where she is.

2.  We held our neighborhood July 4 breakfast, and it was very hot.  It was so hot and dry in St. Louis that they cancelled the neighborhood fireworks.  People came and ate but didn't stay too long due to the heat.

3. We participated in the pot luck dinner and talent show in the evening.  Three of my grand kids participated; Katie sang, Sara played the violin and Michael played the harmonica.

4.  Sara got her aquarium all set up and I took them to get fish Friday afternoon.  She picked out three, which took quite a while, and Michael and I walked around the pet store.  He desperately wanted a pet.  He had a hermit crab from Gulf Shores which died after a couple of weeks (he never fed it or gave it water), so he did not want another crab.  He loved the hamsters and gerbils, but after looking at them for about two minutes he began scratching himself all over.  He has allergies to just about everything, and I knew he could not have a hamster.  We walked back to see if the girls had picked their fish, and he hung his head and said he was just going to be sad the rest of the day.   On the way out I spotted Betas in some little containers, so I asked him if he wanted one and he was thrilled.  Katie was quite worried about what her mother would say--she kept telling me to call her mother and ask if it was okay.  I finally told her not to worry; I'm her mother's mother and I decided it was okay.   On the way home Michael was trying to think of a name, a boy's name of course, and we pointed out that the container said it was a female.  He decided to pretend it was a boy.

5.  The heat finally broke this weekend and we had rain Sunday night, probably the first time in about three weeks.  It was still in the 90's, but compared to over 100 for a week straight it was a cool front.  I think ten people have died from the heat in St. Louis so far.  That is sad.

6.  I'm working on a birthdaygift for my grand daughter, Corinne.  Her birthday is July 29.   I can't say what it is in case her mother reads this blog, though I don't think she does.  I want it to be a surprise.  It's really cool.

7.  I went to about six garage sales on Saturday and didn't find a thing.  Nada.  Very disappointing after being gone the previous week.  I did stop by a local thrift store and found a cute little platter, more like a piece of pottery, blue with sunflowers.  I should have taken a picture, but I'm at work.  I'll add one later.

8.  I got an IPhone this past weekend.  I decided to come out of the dark ages.  The poor guy I bought it from had to spend a long time showing me how to use it, and I still can't figure it out.  Just putting my e-mail in took about ten minutes because I kept hitting the wrong letters.  I've never texted.  I told him my fingers are too fat, but he said I'd catch on.   I'm going to bring it to work and ask my co-workers to help me. 

9.  After the fourth and my vacations, I've decided I'm getting back on a diet, or I should say watching what I eat.  I really need to lose 25 more lbs. and haven't lost any weight this year.  I did gain a few pounds but have gotten those off.  My biggest problem is ice cream, and eating in the evenings.  I haven't bought any ice cream for about three weeks and am really missing it.

10.  Work if very slow.  I sent out recruiting letters last Friday and am starting to get leaders lined up for the fall semester.  I have to limit it to forty leaders because I've gone over my budget the past couple of years.  I really wish I didn't have to work in the summer, like a teacher, because it is so boring.  Oh well, another year and I'll be retired, hopefully, so this will be my last boring summer.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

Elly and Rooz--the bride and groom.
I missed Ten on Tuesday and Wordless Wednesday, so I thought I would just catch up with what's been going on.  I got in from Boston Monday night and have finished my summer travels.  My niece was married in Marblehead, which is about an hour north of Boston, on Saturday--which was also her 30th birthday.  It was a beautiful weekend, starting with the rehearsal dinner Friday evening:
Seven sisters: Susie, Patty, Libby, Kay, Julie, Lorie and me--we have one more sister, Nancy, who was not there.

And the wedding and reception on Saturday afternoon, at the Old North Church with the reception at Endicott College, which was beautiful:
Elly, her father, Dennis, the minister, and Rooz

The beautiful wedding party

My little sister Julie and her family--gorgeous redheads!

My sister Susie, mother of the bride, and Elly, the bride

My little sister Lorie and her darling family

The reception on a hillside at Endicott College, overlooking the ocean

Bride and groom's first dance


Beautiful bride


I also got to spend a few days with my daughter in Boston and got to spend time with her two children.  Her son Jack turned six on Tuesday and had a great birthday.  They will not come to St. Louis again until Christmas, but I'll probably go up there again for a long weekend this fall.  It is hard with them living so far away. 
Eva and Tara, cousins of the groom, and Jack and Corinne, my grands

Corinne dancing with Uncle Jamie

Jack modeling his Cardinals shirt, a gift from Aunt Amy

My granddaughter Sara turned 8 on Sunday, while I was still away.  I got her an aquarium which she had to set up before getting fish.  I got an e-mail from my daughter a little while ago that the aquarium was all set up and we could add fish tomorrow after 11 (we have to wait 24 hours).  I'm going to go by and pick her up tomorrow afternoon and shop for fish.  

Our 4th of July celebration was extremely hot!  The temperature was over 100 degrees all day, and has been for the past week.  We had the breakfast at our house at 8:30, and it was already really hot.  They cancelled our neighborhood fireworks due to the heat and lack of rain--they would have been a fire hazard.