One never knows when one might need a favor from a rose!

ahhhhh! a relaxing weekend - no real plans...just take off westward and see what happens!

the sun went before us and sang for our way...course the bugs on the windshield didn't hinder the song...

We were both so tired, our days have been full and strong and left us depleted of all but the last flickering light

laughter filled our car though, as we drove towards the city...memories and stories it was like we hadn't had a chance to "catch up" in a long time although living in the same house...

Arrived at daughter's home fairly late...she was off enjoying her Friday, son waited up to entertain then when we drifted towards the guest room he took off on HIS friday...we thought it sweet that he stayed behind for so long

Almost as soon as we awoke we were ready to go. Where? No plans - again, just hop in the car and enjoy the beautiful sunlit day!

FIRST on the agenda though, give our faithful steed a bath! He reveled in the soapy water on his glassy face...sparkly and cheerful onward we went:-)

this delightfully colored wild rose asked to have her picture taken...of course I obliged for one never knows when one might need a favor from a rose!

Ahhhhh coastward we went! We stopped by as we do annually to pay our respects to my dearest friend "Bratty" whom I had loved deeply and who left this world far too young...we brought her the customary shiny gift and also paid our respects to K___ the friend of my sons.

I began to feel that sense of anticipation, you know the one...like something amazing is around the corner and somehow it smells green and fresh like ferns and berry bushes?

MMMM! Smell it?

Soooo finally we arrived at the coast...the first salty scent made me laugh out loud - really:-) and my brother looked at me and said "what?" and I said "uhhh, just this" and we chuckled because he knew exactly what I meant.

First we went and gambled a little...for surely you know we are Indians...and Indians gamble...or so we're told. We had fun, didn't come out ahead but had fun...

We wanted to go to the beach and the casino we went to has a path that leads down some stairs to a beach but my knees were giving me problems so I asked my brother if we could go down the highway to a beach I knew of that was right near the road. Off we went...when we got there, SERENDIPITY:

IT WAS KITE FESTIVAL DAY!!!!!

It was such a fun day...ended with ice cream and classic cars

Drove back to the city where we finished the night by visiting with "the girls" and I got a pedicure AND got to play "fingernail polich" which topped off a perfect day

Sometimes I forget my age and just go with my love of color and sparkle...H___, I think you in particular would enjoy THESE fingernails!

Sunday morning arrived and off we went towards home, stopped and visited D along with the fam, and by NOON we were headed back eastward!

Crossing bridges going home and here we were...no mare tired, we felt invigorated and rested...not stressed, we felt relaxed and joyous...not empty, we were filled with the awesomeness offered to us and received with gratefulness and smiles...

THANK YOU!!!!!!

these beads

these beads
sparkling stories told yesterday
graceful dance with songs sung
strong
not all see
nor will be seen
but these beads know
and will tell through the dream
ever shining and rich with colour
dangling long on the tiny girl
...maybe shorter on a tall young man
beads and bells, shells and bone
these mean so much more than simple adornment
stories and songs - woven discernment
look through the colors at the stories told
listen through bells ringings at strength
mmmm yes these beads
sparkling like water
crafted with skill and given in love...
for dancing...

for smiles...

A modern day cowboy has spent many days crossing the Texas plains without water.



His horse has already died of thirst.


He's crawling through the sand, certain that he has breathed his last breath, when all of a sudden he sees an object sticking out of the sand several yards ahead of him.


He crawls to the object, pulls it out of the sand and discovers what looks to be an old briefcase.


He opens it and out pops a genie. But this is no ordinary genie.


She is wearing a FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) ID badge and a dull gray dress.


There's a calculator in her pocketbook. She has a pencil tucked behind one ear. 'Well, cowboy,' says the genie....'You know how I work....You have three wishes.'


'I'm not falling for this.' said the cowboy.... 'I'm not going to trust a FEMA genie.'


'What do you have to lose? You've got no transportation and it looks like you're a goner anyway!'


The cowboy thinks about this for a minute and decides that the genie is right.


OK!, I wish I were in a lush oasis with plenty of food and drink..'


**POOF***


The cowboy finds himself in the most beautiful oasis he has ever seen.


And he is surrounded with jugs of wine and platters of delicacies.


'OK, cowpoke, what's your second wish?'


'My second wish is that I was rich beyond my wildest dreams.'


***POOF***


The cowboy finds himself surrounded by treasure chests filled with rare gold coins and precious gems.


'OK, cowpuncher, you have just one more wish. Better make it a good one!'


After thinking for a few minutes, the cowboy says... 'I wish that no matter where I go, beautiful women will want and need me.'


***POOF***


He was turned into a tampon.


Moral of the story:


If the government offers to help you, there's going to be a string attached

company

two of my darling offspring, two of THEIR offspring and my lovely daughter in law just spent some time here...oh how i love that they call our little house on the prairie "home" and i have to pause and give thanks for the many friends of the past who with smiles and hugs greeted my family of six to their homes, fed and kept us and then sent us on our way - i shudder actually, in embarrassment for now i know that my children must have left a wake of disaster behind us that i was blithely unaware of...

this morning after they left for the city at the ungodly hour of 6:00 AM i walked around the house....beads from my projects strewn joyously about on the table - oh what a wonder of color that must have been for the little ones...

pans piled high in my sink - why? because my daughter in law loves to cook for us when visiting and bless her heart, she hasn't mastered the fine art of preparing a delectable homecooked meal in ONE PAN, nay, she uses maybe 6 pans minimum for her preparations of love...

of course this visit included a tour of the new building i work in, this included the little first aid room and the girls had to take their temperature...i don't know, they just did:-)

i walked into my room to get ready for work and there in the middle of my floor was a pile of my purses:-) i had to smile because yesterday while the two granddaughters were playing Izzy Bizzy says to Nellie Bellie "hey NETTY, do you want to go to the Wonderful City?" she then put the paper towel tube trumpet to her mouth and announced "Nettie and Izzy are now going to the Wonderful City" how could i chastise such imagination? no worries that the Wonderful City was my room and all of the amazing jewels they found and draped themselves in were in my jewelry box...they thought themselves to have found The Answer with all my purses and even sampled some of my makeup.

even the dogs are tired...this morning as i finally left (after picking up said Wonderful City) Paw Lee sighed and mumbled to me "have a good day today." when i asked him what his plans are, he said "absolutely nothing, those two are HARD to entertain!" Paw Lee's cousins from the city had visited too, Bella Donna had shown up in her carriage and brought with her a new sister Stacie. Stacie was pretty shy by the way, didn't talk much and Princess Phat thought she was rather stuffy...

all in all it was a wonderful visit but tonight i fully plan on pouring a nice glass of icy orange tea, sitting back and joining Paw Lee with his quest to DO NOTHING!

walking her out...

You might think this is a sad story. It's not really, in fact when you add up the moments, it's a rich story full of memories and poignant moments. Thank you Atway Auntie for letting me be there.

Thursday we got word that our auntie wasn't doing so well, our niece said "I'm worried about Auntie Eileen she's just not looking good"

Friday morning I got a phone call that she had been taken to the ER in our little town and was enroute to a nearby larger town where she could get more detailed care...

Time goes in slow motion when you're in a hurry I think, we hurried to get over to Richland...when we got there, Auntie was groggy but seemed a little better, the doctors gave us the usual "oh we'll keep her overnight" which to my brother and I somehow seems to be the harbinger of doom. Everytime we've been told that our relative has passed away within a few days. We didn't want to appear doomsical (ohhhh duuuude I just made up a word!) so we didn't mention this to the other family members who were there, Auntie's son, our niece, another cousin, my brother and I...

We stayed with her for several hours and she seemed to be stirring around so we tried to make her more comfortable. We weren't too pleased with the nurse by the way, I do respect the work of nurses the world 'round, really, I do! Nurses have the thankless job of dealing with humanity at it's most base level, and they have the distasteful job of witnessing us at our most unappealing moments...humans are a messy business you know? Well this nurse was a crisp curt practical type, showed absolutely no visible hint of human kindness; we all communicated our dislike of her mannerisms to each other without uttering a word and wouldn't you know it? This bright little woman picked up on it and explained to a few of us that this wasn't her usual floor, she's usually an ICU nurse - ahhhhh! the light went on! ICU nurses aren't used to having to deal with patients that talk and respond. HELLO.I did commend our little nurse on her competence and focus and we went on from there.

Finally, we all kissed Auntie and said good night, we hugged each other and took the long drive home.

I went to work the next day, casually texting Son #2 to see how his mama faired through the night. "She's not doing well, she suffered cardiac arrest this morning at 5:00" OMG are you kidding me? I called my brother and we headed out to go back to the hospital.

We got there and to all intents and purposes we believed that our little Auntie had left us at 5:00 that morning. Oh, her body was functioning...all machines hooked up to continue the physical manifestation of being alive, but if you looked closely you could see she wasn't in there...the doctor came in to talk to us all and he shared the nuts and bolts of Auntie's condition and he said to us "she suffered cardiac arrest this morning, she was gone for twenty two minutes (TWENTY TWO MINUTES???? SHE IS GONE...) he went on to explain some more factors and shared what he was going to do to help her.

We visited with her one at a time, then my brother and cousin took a quick ride to go pick up "Son's" partner and then we heard it "Code blue ICU room ___" we all looked at each other and said "is that US?" Yes it was.

Those of us remaining all ran to her room, we wanted just one glimpse of her on this side I guess. The code team was working not at a feverish but at a competent consistent level, calling out doses of drugs to each other, and the other technical phrases one uses in such a case. My niece and I, although we were not able to sing fully began humming to Auntie...we knew the song we meant to sing, it just wouldn't come out - we stood there with tears streaming down our faces humming to her, we'd all told her it's okay, just go, and we looked at her other son standing there - do you want them to keep on? Finally they stopped...

We went up to her and continued to sing. Auntie's one son returned with my brother and we all gathered around her as her "light" went out. There's only one way to describe it...you could see the light leaving her kind of like a time lapse when you see the sun setting...I encouraged the sons and nieces and nephews to speak to her as she left, somehow I just know she could still hear them. They all said their "I love you's" and it was a moment I'll never forget.

EVER.

My brother lead us all in another song and we left her side to go gather in the waiting room.

Thank you Auntie for letting us walk you to the Gate.

idyllic sunday

It's been a hectic few weeks fraught with too many emotions and situations to actually bother with here...however first things first, Gary is growing by leaps and bounds! He's about to outgrow his coffee cup and move into a roomier pot.

Although much of the day was spent indoors catching up on projects - for instance (SHUDDER) I did a TON of ironing I also took time throughout the day to give Paw Lee and Princess some much needed affection. As you can see they appreciated this to the depth of their sweet canine hearts.

You also may notice that although Princess has heretofore thought of herself as the "alpha bitch" she's now been trumped out of that station into that of "trying to get a word in edgewise"

Well after a restful day of cleaning, watching "girl" movies (clearly, as you know, I'm not a girl...I'm the grandma and mama, auntie and niece...but I do love me some bitchy girl movies from time to time:-)

At any rate, to set the story straight, I was crocheting a potholder set when our good nephew Robert pulled into our back yard. He's been talking about building a sweathouse out there and here he was to do so!!!!

Below, Uncle (my brother) and Robert (in the red) survey the site picked out for the sweat. Below, they've begun work on it and are deciding what to do next.

The branches are tied together and bent into the round shape then covered with blankets to make it airtight inside. The guys gathered a lot of blankets and rugs to do this job...Princess and Paw Lee ask if it's okay what they're doing because no one ran this project by them!

It was a beautiful day for this project, not hot, not raining...THANK YOU!!!

Sweat rocks gettin' ready!

All in all it was the most amazing perfect day...