Poppy Update

Visited Poppy tonight.

We have good news! Pop can move his leg--bending his knee and even wiggling his toes! And, he can even wiggle his left-hand fingers! His face is not as droopy as it was yesterday.

The new therapist the doctor ordered has already walked with Poppy a little, and says there is hope of him regaining some of his strength!

Whew!

Thanks for all the prayers, good thoughts and "mega-healing vibes." They worked!

Frustration (re: Poppy)

Frustration

So--On Friday (1/27), I received a call from the care-giving staff where Poppy lives, indicating he wasn't his usual self. She suggested sending him to the hospital, since he seemed weak, plus he couldn't put any weight on his left leg. Besides that, he couldn't feed himself. He had trouble bringing the spoon to his mouth, so she fed him.She then called his doctor, saying that she thought my father was having a stroke, and she thought he ought to go to the hospital. In his infinite "wisdom," the doctor said, "Let him stay in bed through the weekend, and if his condition doesn't change, then bring him to my office."Poppy knew something was wrong. He even said to his care-giver that something wasn't right with him. So, she phoned me and asked if I thought he ought to go to the hospital. After hearing the symptoms, I too, thought he was in the middle of some sort of stroke, either TIA or CVA, but yes, he ought to go to the hospital.She sent him, and when I phoned them, they said they were monitoring him and the symptoms were from an old stroke. I thought that was odd, since he's never had these particular symptoms before. I asked if they were sure, and they said they were.Poppy was admitted, and on Saturday morning, I visited him. It was sad to see him in this state. He was so depressed, he couldn't move his left arm or leg at all, nor could he speak clearly, because his tongue seemed weak. The left side of his face had drooped. He tried to say things to me, and with some work, I did understand him. As I left, I saw the attending nurse, named Maureen. She said the same thing that the ER docs had said, that the symptoms he was having were from an old stroke. I asked where the test that shows this data is, and she looked in Poppy's file, but could not find the test. In fact, that whole section was empty. So I told her, as I told the ER docs, that these were new symptoms; he hadn't presented with these before, and that I want the docs to test him for a new (and improved?—yuck yuck) stroke.She indicated that she would write a note in his file for the doctor to see when he came in and examined my dad, and that family was concerned that these were new symptoms.

Sunday, I took care of some things around the house. I received no calls from the hospital, and I visited Dad right after dinner. I saw a different nurse on duty this evening, named Brian, and asked him about Dad’s condition. He also checked the chart, which informed him that Dad’s symptoms were from an old stroke, not from a new one. Bryan did not mention that there might be notes from any other nurse indicating that these were new symptoms, and again, found no test results at all in Dad’s chart. So, I told Brian the same thing I told Maureen, the ER docs, and that Dad’s caregiver told the ambulance drivers. Brian told me he’d leave a note for the docs to check dad for that.
Now, it’s Monday morning. I receive a call from Dad’s doctor, Dr. M., who said that he spoke with Dad, and that Dad was “doing well.” He was “alert, speaking, and as good as he was before.” The symptoms were from an old stroke.

I nearly screamed, out loud. Did he look at Dad’s chart? Did he notice Dad couldn’t move his left arm? That only his right leg moved? That the left side of his face was about ½ inch lower than the right? That his tongue moved around in his mouth nearly randomly?? In a much nice tone, I asked him these same questions.

He behaved as if this was the first time he’d heard of these symptoms. I know that is not the truth, since I know Dad’s caregiver talked with him about them on Friday.

Dr. M. said then that he would give my father a more complete exam, and that in fact, he was near Dad’s room right now. We would talk later after his exam. I told him that I was about 10 minutes away, but was on my way to the hospital to see Dad.

When I reached the hospital, I saw him exiting his office building. I waited for him at the bottom of the stairs to learn what he found.

The first thing he said was, “You were absolutely right. He had a stroke. I’ll have a neurologist examine and test him to find out exactly where.”

Several thoughts ran through my head at one time:

1. So, my diagnosis was correct, eh? Let me charge you $400 for an office visit.


2. And what, pray tell, could have been done if Dad had been thoroughly examined and tested Friday in the ER as requested—even demanded?


3. Was it once again Dr. W who ignored my father in the ER, as he had my mother?


4. Is my father permanently paralyzed now?


5. What’s going to happen to his living arrangements?


6. What about his finances?

These questions I asked in my head, in that order.

Dr. M. assured me that there would be further testing; that he would have the hospital social worker phone me to see what my options could potentially be. He also promised physical therapy for my dad, to see if any of this left side strength could be regained.

I said, yes, that would be great, thank you, and went into the hospital to visit with my dad. This depressed me, as I saw my father in a whole different light. I tried to get him to move his left arm, or even wiggle his toes or fingers to no avail. His speech was still significantly slurred, just like my mom’s when she had her stroke.

My poor dad. Ignored for three days, until somebody finally got it through the heads of five different medical staffers that indeed, he did have a stroke. All I can hope for is that at least some of his strength returns.

Friday's Feast

AppetizerChoose one: Popcorn, Pizza, Pretzels, Peanuts, or Pasta.
Pasta

SoupDescribe your personality in terms of a particular vehicle.
large, slow, luxurious and skin like Corinthian Leather

SaladIf you won a shopping spree, from which store would you want it to be?
Right now? Home Depot—I need a new kitchen!

Main CourseWhich television show re-runs do you enjoy watching?
M.A.S.H.
DessertIf you could look into the future, how far down the road would you like to see? 10 years? 100 years? A million?
10 would probably be enough, but 100 would be so cool!

Reality Check time moves on regardless of our desire

Reality Check—time moves on, regardless of our desire

As the girls go through their stuffed animals to see what they can live without, I sit down and go through Sarah’s papers from school.  I got a shock when I reached the flyer advertising kindergarten registration for next fall’s semester.  

I realized as in a reality check realization, that my youngest, beautiful little baby of mine will definitely be old enough to enter kindergarten, or as everyone we know calls it, “real school.”  It sort of made my heart drop to have to acknowledge that both of my children will be in elementary school; it also however dropped at the thought that my Emily is growing in spite of me telling her often to not grow up.

I may not be making sense, but I don’t want her to attend kindergarten. Or first grade, or second… All those external influences on her sparkling personality, all those things she’ll learn from other kids, all those expressions she hasn’t learned yet even though she has an older sister. It will be hard to “send her to the wolves” of influence for 3-1/2 hours, five days per week.

Plus, it will be a very long time before grandchildren (if we’re lucky).

I couldn't help myself!

Resistance was futile, once again:

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Charmaine!

1. Charmaine never said 'Play it again, Sam'!
2. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are Charmaine!
3. The Charmaine-fighting market in the Philippines is huge - several thousand Charmaine-fights take place there every day.
4. Charmaine is black with white stripes, not white with black stripes!
5. The first American zoo was built in 1794, and contained only Charmaine.
6. Europe is the only continent that lacks Charmaine!
7. Charmaine was first grown in America by the grandmother Maria Ann Smith, from whom her name comes.
8. Britain's Millennium Dome is more than double the size of Charmaine.
9. Charmaine is actually a mammal, not a fish.
10. A sixteenth century mathematician lost his nose in a duel over his love for Charmaine, and wore a silver replacement for the rest of his life.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

There you have it!

testing Blogger for Word

This is a test of Blogger for word…just wondering how this will look when I post to my blog from  Word for Windows—it might make my life easier—and might not.  However, I’m willing to try, and really want this font to work.

Thanks for reading!

FRIDAY'S FEAST

Appetizer
About how many times per day do you check your email?

No less than 5 times a day

Soup

If you had the money to collect something really valuable, what would it be?

airplanes...a DC3, a P38, a p51, 2 737s, and a Gulfstream or two at least.

Salad
Write a sentence using the letters of your favorite beverage. (Example: The egret admires.)

My Old Jalopy Is Too Obsolete

Main Course
If you could be on a game show, which one would you want it to be?

Either Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, or Jeopardy

Dessert
Name 3 computer programs or web sites you would hate to be without.

Eudora, BankOfAmerica Online, and Photoshop

Thank you Karen & Leah!

Thank you Karen & Leah! I tried, but resistance was futile!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Charmaine!

1. Charmaine never said 'Play it again, Sam'!
2. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are Charmaine!
3. The Charmaine-fighting market in the Philippines is huge - several thousand Charmaine-fights take place there every day.
4. Charmaine is black with white stripes, not white with black stripes!
5. The first American zoo was built in 1794, and contained only Charmaine.
6. Europe is the only continent that lacks Charmaine!
7. Charmaine was first grown in America by the grandmother Maria Ann Smith, from whom her name comes.
8. Britain's Millennium Dome is more than double the size of Charmaine.
9. Charmaine is actually a mammal, not a fish.
10. A sixteenth century mathematician lost his nose in a duel over his love for Charmaine, and wore a silver replacement for the rest of his life.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Your Life is Like

Better Off Dead...

What John Cusack movie are you?

Now I'm copying from Leah!

Meme--Friday Five

lifted from Karen's page...

Friday's Feast

By Karen

Appetizer: Have you ever seen a ghost or an angel?
I think I have. Odd, because i don't believe in them.

Soup: What is your favorite board game?

Pictionary

Salad: What was the last movie you saw that made you cry?

Wit--Emma Thompson (2001) made for TV...just saw it a few months ago. Cried like a baby. Too many memories and thoughts of my good friend the Norwegian Goddess, plus, it was good. Really very good. And Emma Thompson made me believe it was she who had the cancer.

Main Course: What would you do if you had 3 months off from your job? (I consider staying at home raising my two children, and attempting to manage the household my full-time job.)

Sit every day reading for hours on a white-sanded beach...walk two or three miles every day...shoot at least 40 frames of photographs each day...play the piano more often. And drink wicked tropical drinks. Often and a lot. And sleep as much as I want, when I want.

Dessert: What kind of shoes are you wearing today?

None at this moment, but earlier I wore my ballerina flats from Land's End. The black ones.

The Last Four--from WC Editor

Not Water Closet Editor, silly! The West Coast Editor!
I've Accepted Leah's challenge for this meme...

The Final Four

This meme came to me by way of Leah

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: cosmetic consultant (who'da thunk that?), gas main digitizer, ski rental assistant (one night), research assistant for technical, engineering and finance libraries.

Four movies you could watch over and over: Office Space, Ground Hog's Day, Fifth Element, Brother Where Art Thou? (and many more, but...you asked for four)

Four places you’ve lived: San Gabriel, California; Greenville, South Carolina; Headington, Oxford, England; Redondo Beach, California

Four TV shows you love to watch: Daily Show w/Jon Stewart, Grey's Anatomy, Boston Legal, Desperate Housewives

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Costa Rica, Norway, China, England/France (one trip)

Four websites you visit daily: Yahoo Calendar, BofAOnline Banking, favorite blogs, whatever Leah links on her blog, bloglines.com

Four of your favorite foods: my mother's fudge, crepes w/nutella & orange marmalade, gnocchi, Eggs Benedict Arnold (EG w/avocado-traitorous!)

Four places you’d rather be right this minute: Kauai, in a cleaner version of my house, Lake Tahoe, Lake Como, Lake Anywhere in the Mountains

Four albums you can’t live without: Big Easy soundtrack, Steely Dan Aja or Gaucho, Beethoven's Pastoral, Pat Metheny Still Life Talking, (Jonie Mitchell's Court & Spark, plus any Chopin theme would have to sneak in there somehow).

Four to pass this meme along to: Alyn, Kim W., Casey, Scott

Late Night Thoughts

To plagerize from a very dear departed friend,

The Good: My own personal version of Life...I have a home, two healthy children and husband, and my dog.

The Beautiful: My children are more beautiful than any flower at the peak of spring time.

The Bad: My mother isn't here to see them grow up and see me finally get comfortable in my own skin.

The Ugly: Too many of my friends have either fought and succumbed or are still fighting cancer. When, oh when will we destroy this evil terrorist?

That's it. Now maybe I'll sleep tonight.

Bedtime and Children

It's after midnight, and I've just finished cleaning the kitchen...when I came home from walking the dog at nearly midnight, I was acosted by my newly nine-year old.

Just as I entered the house, I hadn't even the time to unleash the dog when I got called--MOM MOM MOM___EMILY PUSHED THE BOX IN HERE TO SLEEP--SHE WANTS TO SLEEP IN THE FRONT ROOM WITH ME...

I got so annoyed that Emily was even still awake, let alone still in the damn box (kind of funny to think of her pushing this huge tv box all around the house tho)...I bent down and got in her face and told her that I DON'T wish to be awakened in the middle of the night because she has to pee. It's NOT fair...she has to pee & for some reason has to wake the whole family including the DOG--& her dad is not happy in the morning when he's not had enough sleep!!! So--she can sleep where she wants, but DO NOT WAKE ME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AGAIN. She got a real serious look on her face, then walked into the fr. room---she started to come back, and I looked at her, which must have made her reconsider, 'cause she turned right around and got into her "bed."

So I cleaned the kitchen to watch and see if she got up again, and she hasn't yet. Sarah seems to be asleep, too, and there isn't a noise in the house except my fingers and the keyboard.

I warned them that for the next few nights (the warning came Sunday night of this week), they'd be going to bed earlier because they need to get back into their routine for school next week. HAH. The last two nights they've managed to get to bed a full two hours later even than they have been going to bed during the holiday fortnight.

Tomorrow, I hope will be different. We're leaving somewhat early to go to a local amusement park with friends, so maybe they'll tire earlier and not fight bedtime so much. Let's all cross our fingers and hope this wish comes true.

One really very cool thing happened while I walked the dog tonight tho--I saw a beautiful shooting star. It was gorgeous! That makes five shooting stars that I've seen in the last few months while out walking the dog. I feel so special!

The Year of 2005 in Review

I hardly ever write these things, but here goes one attempt...(plus, this is also going into my blog, so it's going to be looooonnnnngg.

2005 for the Mankeys

Poppy in the hospital 5 times this year...2nd broken hip, 2 bouts of pneumonia, 2 UTIs. He'll be 83 in March...right now he's very lonely, but grateful every time he sees "the babies"--his granchildren (Sarah and Emily are his only grandchildren). He misses mom, but never misses a chance to flirt with nurses and other women he meets. You'll never get the sailor out of him!

Sarah the Dec Babe--Did well in Soccer, gave up on Tennis, but wants to retry it. Straight "A"s on her first report card...brought me breakfast in bed twice when she knew I wasn't feeling well. She's enthusiastic, a great studier...has learned very good study habits (with NO help from me--I only made the rule that homework and piano practice comes before anything after school, and if her room isn't neat she can't play with any friends). She still has events where if she doesn't get something she wants, she gets this unbearable whine with tears that escalates until you think she's going to have to be institutionalized...and if not her, then surely I will need it...but we're getting through these and they are happening less and less often. She's done so much this year--with soccer, swim camp, tennis, piano, more homework than I think a 3rd grader needs, Brownies, and helping me a lot more than she ever has. Sarah knows some Spanish, greetings and courtesies in French and a few phrases in Italian. Her French accent is pretty good, too! We haven't really celebrated her 9th (!!!) birthday yet--she wants to take a friend to Disneyland instead of having a party. I don't understand that--we go to D'land so often and rarely have parties, but that's great for me...I won't have to clean the house for a party! And D'land is free for us! It's all good.

Emily is -- well, she's our Emily--She tells great, imaginative stories, and loves to play a "what if" game--like what if everyone in our family was named Emily...what if our house was just a playground--the swimming pool in the master bedroom with a slide from upstairs to come down and splash into the pool...the current playroom could turn into the game room, their bedroom could have a permanent jungle gym...the kitchen could be a play kitchen where anyone who wants to bake with the EasyBake equipment, and the children's recipe books that we have...the family room would be the Home Theatre (duh), the front room would be sort of a library for crafts and reading...upstairs we'd have our bedrooms and kitchen and maybe a bathroom...the two bathrooms downstairs would remain bathrooms for all the kids to use...to get upstairs we'd have a "lifty thingy" and to get downstairs we'd have a firefighters' pole.
All these ideas came out of Emily's head!

She's had some great stories, too about her "real" family--they live in a yellow house (she's pointed it out to me) down the road; when we visited Paris, her parents were robots that lived at the top of the Eiffel Tower and they owned all the pigeons in Paris. She is tall for her age; she's growing up too fast of course. She constantly surprises us with her jokes and stories, and does all kinds of things to make me laugh. If it works the first time, she'll continue doing it until I can't take it anymore. She has a favorite bear, Beary from that horrid money grabbing place the Build-A-Bear workshop. I have successfully avoided going back into that place since Sarah's 7th birthday. I think if we get invited to another b'day party there, I'll unregretfully decline, and not tell the girls they were invited (well, not really, but it is so d*m* expensive!!). Off the tangent now... It amazes Scott and I both that in just 5 months, she'll be 5 yrs old!! She's bright, funny, and adorable, still has blonde-ish hair and two dimples. She has been quite loving with her Poppy--she climbs onto his bed and gives him great big hugs and kisses. She remembers her Nonni--sometimes says she misses her a lot. Sarah says that about her Nonni, too.

Kerri's right--Love doesn't divide--it multiplies--but it intensifies, too. Sometimes I think my children define love for me. I never knew how deep love could go until I became a parent.

I'm embarrassed to say that Scott and I have now had ten years to lose enough weight to be healthy, and have we?? nope. We weigh enough to have another adult in the house and still have some weight to lose. Yuck. Since we got married, he has gained 140 lbs, and I have gained 70 and I wasn't a skinny chicklet then, either! SH**! That's two healthy adults we could lose!! oh boy.

Scott, our Daddy, DH, other DH, continues to like his job at Disney--rolled off Chicken Little earlier this year to work on Meet the Robinsons coming out at the end of next year, we think. He thinks Robinsons will be a great feature...he loves the story and really likes how they are making it. He's actually had some challenges, and has learned some new skills to add to his repertoire/reel. He's got at least another year there, which we need in order to pay off his car and a few other things.

Not much to say about me, still fat and sassy, the heart problems seem to have been resolved, yet I do not like taking so much medication. I take a lot of meds for pain already (arthritis in my neck, fibromyalgia, nerve damage in my hands and occipital neuralgia--all fancy terms for pain in the neck, butt, knees and ankles). When it rains my neck stiffens so much I have trouble looking right to left without some more pain. But the pain meds help all that. Other than that, my health has been great! Really! Not very many colds since discovering Zicam and Airborne--Airborne tastes better, but produces a lot of gas--the fizzing like an Alka Seltzer--Zicam has these meltaways that aren't too terrible--don't get the chewables in the strawberry flavor tho; they taste so horrid that I'd rather have the cold! I got my Honda Odessey, a used 2002 with low mileage and I love it! We've travelled with it and it's fairly comfortable, plus the gas mileage is livable for now. On trips the gas mileage is nearly 30 mpg--in town, it's only about 18 on good days without the air conditioner and a lot of "baggage." I passed the CBEST test, and have considered substitute teaching, but it seems not do-able right now, since Emily doesn't go to preschool for long enough hours to justify me being away...However, I'll apply soon to see if maybe it would work out when Emily is in Kindergarten. I did get hired as a tutor; I signed a contract and everything, but haven't heard from them yet. That would be great fun, I think, but it's a little tiny bet unnerving knowing I'll have to go into strangers' houses to do the tutoring. The hours are great--I'm supposed to be able to choose what hours I can work, and mostly evenings/afternoons and weekends, so childcare costs would be at a minimum. Enough about me.

Our family has gone on a few trips this year. The biggy was to Paris. We stayed at Disney Paris, and toured both the park, the city and London in 8 days. We didn't lose the children, and I was able to communicate to both the Parisians and the Brits in their own languages (kidding!). I did ok in French--hadn't spoken any in 15 years, and I understood the British people much easier than Scott and the girls, for whom I always seemed to be "translating." While in Paris, and looking for the train station that would take us to London, our "guide" walked up to a group of men standing outside a middle eastern travel agency and asked them, in her perfect Californian English, where such and such train station was...most of the men looked at each other, and one man looked at her saying "what is it you want" in French. I couldn't take it anymore. I was frustrated that we were told to blend in as much as possible and not blatantly look so American, and she goes up to these terrorist looking guys to ask for directions in US English! So, I walked up to them, and excused myself in French, asking in FRENCH where the station was, and he was very happy to help us and point out the way to the station. IN FRENCH. I was very pleased and proud of myself that because of my halting knowledge of French, we were able to find the station after that. Ok, ok, off the "try to learn some of the language of the country you visit" pedestal. We all had a wondrous time in France and England. We made a Scavenger hunt of sorts for Sarah for a Brownie badge where she checked of landmarks in London and Paris that she saw and wrote a report about them for her class. I loved seeing the cities through the eyes of my children, and a marriage-long dream has now been accomplished: I have seen Paris and London with my husband. Not quite as romantic as I had dreamed, but we've done it!

Thanksgiving took us to our dear Lake Cachuma with a rented RV that I did not drive this year (last year I um, took out part of the side of our rented RV at a gas station, and have since decided that RV driving is not for me!). We had a lovely fresh air weekend with good friends, great food, great games, long walks, lots and lots of stars, good wine, big huge hot fires.

No trips are really planned for this next year, except for the December Mom's 10-year reunion. I'm hoping to plan it so we can take extra time and go down to Washington DC to see the Smithsonian and White House, etc. Sarah will be in the 4th grade next year, so in the fall we may have to visit a California Mission so she can complete her mission project. I hope to incorporate that into the Lake Cachuma trip at Thanksgiving. Santa Barbara has a beautiful mission that would provide lots of data for her report and project.

And now to Christmas, the inspiration of this update (Thanks Sandra Griffin--I think this update might be long enough to get it's own digest!):

This Christmas/holiday (Chrismahanakwanzaka) has been a nice relaxed couple of weeks. The shopping got done in November, the wrapping got mostly done the 2nd week of December, the shipping got done mostly the same week, so I for the first time had time to enjoy the time with the family.

The girls and I did a little baking, and two batches of fudge: one to eat and one to give away...we saw Narnia, both girls really enjoyed it...the battle scenes didn't seem to bother them at all. Got to go to the Disney Family night at Disneyland--that was really fun--Santa was there with his reindeer (real ones!)...then a few nights later, we attended the Animation Studio Holiday party...They provided real snow and discs and the girls had a terrific time sliding down the hill that the coordinators had built in the parking lot. Plus there was a snowboard simulator...Sarah did fairly well on this, and Emily, while very determined, did ok for a 4 yr-old. We had Christmas dinner on our new Christmas plates at our home in our dining room with just our 4-member family (Poppy was in the hospital--we visited him that evening). I actually made a turkey!! Quite an accomplishment for me, since I had vowed never to make one since a catering fiasco about 20 years ago. Scott helped, and it was fun working together in the kitchen with him! He and the girls did most of the decorating of the house; I brought down the linens and decorated the girls' dressers, the tables, the kitchen and the bathroom, and was proud to put our newish Christmas quilt on our bed. Next Christmas I hope to have Christmas quilts for the girls beds. (Story for another time.) Sarah's b'day is the 24th so we let her pick what she wanted to do, and the four of us went to our favorite smokehouse/bbq restaurant Lucille's for dinner after seeing Narnia. That was a great afternoon/evening. We had a small ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins for dessert and she opened her b'day prezzies. She begged us to let us each open one Christmas present ( I was all for it, but Scott wasn't very enthused, but Sarah, Emily and I won--hee hee).

Of course, I may have relaxed a little too much, because our Holiday letter might get to our friends and family after all the other letters have been put away/trashed. Maybe it will be a good time to send a letter, since after all the letters and cards coming every day for a month, nothing but bills in January can be depressing. I will think that way, and get them out in tomorrow's evening mail, and hope our friends and family members feel the same about the issue.

I've been sitting way too long at this pc, and the girls are bored--(for the first time during the holiday fortnight--we did good that they only have a few days left and this is the first time they are bored!), so I'd better end this and go on with the laundry, ironing, and vacuuming that needs to be done now that the decorations and tree have come down.

Happy New Year, again, too all, and to all a good afternoon! I do hope that this year we can have love for each other, good health, and can attain peace some how.

Love and hugs,
Charmaine

Bicycle Accident, and 4 year old

Sarah rode my bike today (I lowered the seat for her) and when a car came in her direction, she tried to stop, falling on the nasty asphalt street, and scraping her elbow pretty good.

So, it's been hurting her all afternoon, and I put stuff on it, a bandage, but the bandage made it worse, and now that she's TWO hours late for bed, she's giving me all kinds of whines about how it hurts, and how she can't get "comftortable" and how she doesn't want to go to bed because it will hurt.

I did all the explaining, hugging, more Neosporin, more water, and a Motrin that I knew how to do, and finally got her to go to bed.

Emily the Younger is sleeping in a box tonight.

All the money in the world on a great bunk bed (this is the 2nd one), and she wants to sleep in a box. Go figure.

Before you go and call the Division of Family Services, please note that it's her choice. it's a box from a 27" TV and it's huge...she has all her favorite blankies and her Beary the Bear, plus a flashlight, and she's happy as a clam.

Another Year, Another Batch of Fudge

A new year!! a new chance to start over! Such a deal!

I've made resolutions before, and like most people have not been able to fulfill them...especially those about losing weight or exercising more or eating right. In fact,

last night, at 10:30, I got the urge to try a second batch of fudge (I ate most of the first batch). My goal was to make Mom's fudge...the kind that isn't soft, but hardens so much it's nearly granular, but it's so rich and chocolatey that I loved it all my life. Mom always said it never came out right, but I loved it, and never really liked that soft stuff--though, I'd sacrifice that if it was the only kind of fudge around and I wanted some.

Last night's batch was PERFECTly like Mom's!! I was so proud of myself and found myself having the argument that I had many many years, where she was disappointed, and kept point out this or that batch of fudge's flaws (e.g., too hard, too soft, to grainy, whatever), while I would only say, "it's great! I love it! it's the best fudge in the world!!" Back and forth, with each batch of fudge, until it was completely gone because I had eaten most of it. Yum. Made me the girl I am today! I did the same thing with this batch, except I gave half of it to my neighbor who professes that it's the exact kind of fudge she loves, too. I hope it brought back some good memories like it did to me. If you're interested, here is the recipe (click on the word "here").

I may be sick later, but it was sure worth it!