what's been going on?

seems like i've got a lot of catching up to do, so here goes-

last of march, first week in april -we went to lizards thicket.

weather was great.

i hadn't been there for an entire year & the house was a tad bit in need of a good cleaning. we all pitched in & did what we could to make it "clean enough" for the week.

i felt bad for corrie & eva because they slept in the middle bedroom & it must not get enough ventilation or air circulating through there, and it always smells musty. i think it needs a dehumidifier or something. it got pretty cold a couple of nights, and the furnace was on the fritz, so eva's little fingers & nose were pretty cold in the mornings. we moved the space heater from the bathroom into their room & problem solved.

corrie had to listen to shelly snore all night, every night & me hack & cough all night, every night.

my "cold" just got worse & worse while i was there.

shelly & his brother jerry worked on the kitchen. a water hose on the washer sprung a major leak last fall & they had to gut the back room where we had the refrigerator & washer & dryer. they decided to go ahead & knock down the wall between that room & the kitchen & make it all one room. great idea! they got all the walls & ceiling & floor finished, while we were there. we'll need to paint when we go back the next time.

we all did a lot of reading, which the 3 of us rarely have time to do. that was great. i read "the shack" & about 5 other books. the shack was very intense & i'm still not sure of how i feel about the way God was portrayed in the book. what did you all think? (all 3 of my readers, ha!)

corrie & eva & i went to myrtle beach on friday & stayed overnite. it was perfect weather, though a little windy. here's a picture of eva's first trip to the beach.

the wind took her breath away & the sun kept her scowling. but she was too cute in her little head scarf. (our little hippy baby, ha!)


Easter at the Parker House -

we had a smaller gathering this year.
ruth & fred, carrie & justin & henry & carrie's parents(sharon & wiley), lee & eston, corrie & dan & eva. angela & justin were in philadelphia for a hindu wedding & jean & corbin were under the weather.

we had our annual egg hunt. we only hid 100 eggs this year. there's still one somewhere in the house that wasn't found. glad it was plastic, not real!

food was great!!!! the strangest thing happened. first of all, our oven doesn't work right. it's a ge profile gas/electric convection combo. very beautiful! however, it's 25 degrees too hot all the time & doesn't like to cool down once it's been cranked up. we have to keep a thermometer in it, so we'll know what we're dealing with & lower the temp by 25 degrees. this isn't a bottom of the line stove, either, so it's very irritating. anyway - we had a 21 # turkey & we put it in the oven at 6:30 or 7 am. we had it at 425(meaning it was really 450) for 30 min. & then lowered it to 325(or really 350) for the remaining time, which we thot would be 5 hrs or so. well, before we left for church at 8:30, i lowered it to 300(325), because the thermometer in the oven said 400 & the thermometer in the turkey was already at 120! oh, i forgot this part: when we lowered the temperature the 1st time, we covered the breast with a molded alum. foil cover. sooooooooooo-we came home from church at 10:30 & the electronic thermometer in the turkey was buzzing. that baby was cooked! in 3 1/2 hours! so we took it out & put it in a big electric roaster in the laundry room & kept it on warm until a little before 1 pm. that was the best turkey ever! so moist, so tasty! (we filled the cavity with lots of S&P)
we could probably never duplicate the process, i'm sure.

the rest of the food was just as good. it was a very enjoyable low key afternoon.

the cold that's lasted over a month -

on march 21st - i woke up with a sore throat. by the next day, i had a nasty cold that continued while we were in south carolina. i went to the dr. on april 8th, thinking i probably had pneumonia because my chest didn't hurt but i was soooo tired, had no energy & couldn't stop coughing. he said it was a sinus infection. i started on antibiotics that day & i'm still not over it.

the dreaded COLONOSCOPY -

who in their right mind would schedule a colonoscopy for 2 days after easter? what was i thinking?

i couldn't eat anything after 9 am on monday & had to start the "prep" at 5. i have never been able to drink that vile stuff & this time was no exception. always in the past, though, they would give me an alternative drink, some kind of 7 up like stuff in a pint bottle. but they took it off the market because of it causing kidney problems, so i was left with the go-lytely! i made it through less than 30 oz. before i gave up. there was no way that it'd done what it needed to do, but i just kept praying that it had.

ruthie took me the next morning for the procedure. i was so anxious. i told them as soon as i got there, that i knew it would need to be rescheduled, but they said they'd go ahead anyway. they took my blood pressure & it was 135 over 118!!!!!!!!!!

yes, i was a nervous wreck. i get so sick from anesthesia & i just knew i'd throw up all the way home.

guess what? it was the most uneventful procedure ever! except for the fact that they removed 3 polyps & did several biopsies.

then i went home & chowed down on fried potatoes & eggs (to start making some more polyps, i guess).

still waiting on the results of the biopsies & the blood test to determine if i'm a celiac. the dr. thinks i either have microscopic colitis or that i have celiac disease. i started on flagyl in case it's colitis. today is day 2 of the flagyl & i'm so sick & so shaky from it.


still working on the other house we need to sell -

justin has been working hard putting on new doors & painting inside & working on the yard. we're hoping to finish up in the next few days. can't wait til the "for sale" sign goes in the yard. just having it listed will be a big relief.

billie's 75th birthday party -

this past sunday we went to marietta for a surprise 75th birthday party for my sister, Billie. the surprise was she wasn't surprised. our oldest brother spilled the beans to her when he called to say he wasn't coming but wanted to wish her a happy birthday, anyway. it was a really nice party. we took henry with us & he really enjoyed playing with some of his cousins (even the girl cousin!)

i love billie so much! what an awesome sister she has always been.
happy 75th, billie!


women of faith

i'm looking forward to going to women of faith this weekend with ruthie & jody. a very large group of women always go from church & this will be the 1st time i've gone since 2005.


that's all for now -

blessings -