I've Been a Little Busy . . . But Who Hasen't?

 This little doll, otherwise known as Baby Cakes, has been keeping Grandma and Grandpa busy lately.  We kind of like it that way.  It has a little something to do with why no one has seen much here lately!

I keep thinking I'm going to find an extra minute or three to post something or other, and then it's midnight and I'm exhausted and I haven't posted anything.

So, I'm going to try to post something now.  My #2 daughter and her three children (who have lived with us for the past two years) are now out west.  I drove them out (in daughter's van); my husband and our son drove out a few days later and we had a nice visit with several of my siblings and their various children/children's spouses, etc. including a super surprise visit from one niece-in-law back home for a brief visit from Germany (where nephew is serving in the USAF).

Since we got back home, it's been B U S Y!!!! Crazy busy.  Youngest, or #3, daughter (expecting her second child) has been with us since we got back, so we could get re-connected with her little Doll, our youngest--for now--granddaughter, before our second trip out west--scheduled for this week--with a truck load of household goods (including 30 boxes of books.  30 very heavy boxes of books, I might add) for # 2 daughter who is working to graduate in three weeks with her Bachelor of Science degree at BYU, and on getting settled in a new home, new job (we're praying for), and all the things that go with all that with her three very special, delightful, busy, intelligent children!

Not-so-good news:  Two weeks ago  my mother fell and broke her femur while getting out the car to go into Church.  Several members of the Church who are medical professionals were on the scene and came running to assist as soon as they saw what happened.  Surgery was successfully performed the following day to secure the break so it could heal properly.  She's okay, thankfully, but not progressing with therapy, because she, unfortunately, doesn't like to do any kind of exercising.  We're all concerned for her current/future well-being under the circumstances.  She's stubbornly and avidly avoided almost any and every form of healthful, minimum exercise for at least the past 20 years, so that mind-set is really difficult to overcome in her present circumstances.  My brother and his wife--where Mom's been staying since March of this year--are looking after her along with my nieces and their families.

Also, since returning in early/mid-June, this Grandma, ME, has been dividing her time between getting caught up
     on paying bills
     taking care of #1 daughter after gallbladder-ectomy surgery/recovery
     taking care of Little Baby Cakes during the mornings (while her expectant Mom--#3 daughter-struggles
          with the effects of her new pregnancy)
     trying to stay on top of all the new changes in medical insurance stuff that goes along with someone  
         (read:   my husband) retiring
     working to rearrange our two storage units so that we can divest ourselves of a bunch of stuff by taking it
         to #2 daughter and her three children
     with Church callings
     and breathing and enjoying the summer (WHAT?  Do I get to do that when it's 100+ outside and the
          humidity is 75% or more?  Occasionally, yes. When it's a little cooler)
     and packing.

I know, waa, waa, waa and double waa.  But such it is/was.  And then we load the U-Haul--(Yes.  We are trying our luck with U-Haul once more . . . PLEASE PRAY FOR US!!!  The other options are slim to none.  **Sigh.**)--on Wednesday and pray that everything packed (and yet to be packed), along with the pieces of furniture we're planning to take, will all fit therein and in my husband's truck, which I will be driving so we have a way back home--and I imagine . . . you get the picture.  Buying the gasoline for the gas-hog U-Haul for 1500 miles will be bad enough, but then we're talking 3000 miles round trip for the much smaller truck that's ours, as well.  (Guess that's partly why someone who recently retired is going to be going back to work.  But then they do want him back and were a little loath to let him go, so they said multiple times.  It will be a new job to him, so I think he'll enjoy it.)

So, with all that, the yard is showing the great effects of Husband's labors.  The garden is making tomatoes and peppers for us to enjoy along with a volunteer "pie pumpkin", as well as with the various flowers and herbs planted here and there in the yard and in pots likewise.  And Baby Cakes has become excessively attached to said Grandpa for various and sundry TLC she's received at his hands.  (We are all so grateful for Good Grandpa's and their TLC!!)

I'm not sure how we'll survive once we get back home in August and all the children and grandchildren will be far, far away.  Well, the children who have children will be far, far away. The other two are, fortunately, not so very far away.  I'm getting a little misty eyed even as I type, just thinking of it.  We've missed the three older grandchildren so much since we left them in Utah in early June, and now the youngest will be leaving (about the time we leave to go west) to go back to Georgia and I don't know how I'll survive!

It will be far too quiet and still around here!  There will be no pudgy little cheeks to snuggle and kiss.  No thrilling giggles to hear from tickles being administered, or various games of peek-a-boo being played.  No multiple readings of various books along with the pointing out by tiny fingers of this and that picture, or character, or color, or alphabet letter and the little voice calling out the proper names of all those listed things found in the various books that accompanies the pointing tiny finger . No spontaneous tiny voice singing her own songs or dancing to music on the TV to the delight of her mother and grandparents who applaud and clap with joy at the precious moments. But, there will be other days for future joys.  It will just be so very quiet here till then.

So, I might get caught up on my cleaning.  I might actually get the smaller storage unit emptied and its remaining contents moved into the large one.  I might be able to remember things I need to be doing a little better.  I might be able to sit down to read a book or two.  And I might just sit down and cry in the quiet house that will be filled with sweet memories of when little, precious children graced us with their presence on a daily basis and cluttered the living room with their toys and books, and smiles, and giggles and hugs and kisses.

I've got to be more positive!  I'm planning to go to Georgia for the birth of Baby Cake's sibling when that time comes.  That will certainly be a welcome experience and that thought brings a new smile to my face, as we speak. God is certainly good to me, and us, day by day and week by week.  Challenges abound for us and everyone else we know, but with challenges come new opportunities to grow in so many ways, particularly as we recognize that God's always near and willing to help us on our path as we rely on His loving care and keep moving forward.

Here is little Baby Cakes.

She was pulling faces like this BEFORE the camera came out.  Finally got ONE after the camera came out!  She's teething and enjoys a Popsicle to ease the discomfort.

 

We were dancing and having a great time together--after she danced and entertained her Mom and Grandpa and me first.

(I don't  know why I can't figure out how to flip pictures up 90 degrees to the right when I need to!)

This child has quite a repertoire of expressions to entertain us with!  I can't tell you how much we've enjoyed having her and her Mom with us the past few weeks.  I'm just trying to figure out how we can get her and her cousins in Utah back together again sometime soon!  They would have so much fun together again!

Something Wonderful and New

Today we had a new addition to our family: A Precious Little Baby Girl. First child of my youngest daughter. There is simply nothing sweeter to me than a precious, innocent, babe dewy fresh from Heaven. I want to hold her, sniff her sweet smell, and snuggle her and coo and hum to her. And then, I want to start all over again. I know of nothing better than brand new babies.

And in other less exciting news-----Just in the celebration mood, to start the New Year off really right . . . at supper tonight, my 2 year-old dental bridge fell out while I was eating supper. Fortunately it wasn't located in the front of my mouth!

However, I'm grateful for all blessings! I never liked that bridge from the get-go! (I'm afraid I'll like being nearly toothless even less, but . . . AND NO. I haven't looked in the mirror yet. I'm not ready for that.)

But . . . my husband (who was admitted to the hospital Wednesday for pneumonia) was released yesterday. So we spent our oldest daugther's birthday and New Year's Eve (same day) in the hospital just like 34 years ago. It wasn't quite as fun this time, however, but hey! Grandpa/Dad and Grandma/Mom are back home and that's always good.

So, with a brand new Granddaughter to celebrate, all is good in the world. Right?

Rainfall Calculations and Blogger Friends to the Rescue, OR 59 Thousand Gallons of Rain on the Ground

Jeanie, here you've just gotten married only hours ago, and now you're already solving mathematical problems for the weak-minded, rain deluged Louisianians!? You are a generous "jeanie-ous"! Thanks, my lack of working out math problems past 1+3=4 or something like that, sorting out the bills and bank statements, etc. has made me weak-brained, I'm afraid. I used to like math, though I never excelled in it. (another post sometime, maybe.)

THANK you for the web site you mentioned. I went there and worked with the lovely formula. Since I'm not a surveyor, and since I'm assuming (and in good mathematics one never assumes anything) that our property is the approximate 1/2 acre I was once told it probably was, I'll use the figure of 21780 square feet to be the figure to monkey with. So after all the calculations, checking of calculations and thinking a bit and rechecking my calculations, I've arrived at a number to represent (perhaps loosely) the possible number of gallons that fell on our entire property last week in a 24 hour period. That number is . . . drum roll, please! 59,735.28 gallons total (give or take a few inches, or quarts, or sprinkles, or . . . whatever!) Anyway, after finding another formula, I came up with this way of determining how much water fell in my yard (approximately, of course) by using the following chart found at http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthrain.html. Somehow, it looked easier to comprehend, but the math works out so closely, it's all good! (In case you're wondering, the chart didn't copy, so this is what did copy!)


Amount of water received when an inch of rain occurs
Area Area(square miles) Area(square kilometers) Amount of water(gallons)

1 acre .000156 .004 27,154 gallons

Just to make it easier on myself, this is how I calculated:

Whereas 1 acre of surface = 27,154 gallons of water per 1 inch of rain

27,154 x 4.4 inches = 119,477.6 gallons on 1 acre. With me so far?

Then, since I only have approximately ½ acre of surface, I divided the 119,477.6 gallons by 2. That equals 59,738.8 (which is really close to the above calculations) then since a ½ acre equals 21780 square feet, the number of gallons that fell that day must be . . . 59738.8 divided by 21780, or 2.74 gallons per square foot, or something remotely close to that figure. Nearly 3 gallons of water over a square foot in one day. I think I need to get a cistern and work out a capture system to save some of that liquid for when the rains don't come! (Almost forgot to convert to liters for my friends "down under". It's about 14.16 liters per square foot.)

Whew! My brain hasn’t worked that hard since I took a college pre-calculus class over 11 years ago. And as you might guess, my ten year old son, who came with me (I was home schooling him—you might say) helped ME with MY homework for that class. What a twist, huh?


So, thank you Debby and Jeanie-ous for taking me more seriously than I take myself and actually helping me find a way to figure it all out.

However, I still want to know . . . don’t mind me if I seem a little silly, ‘cause I am, but what about all the pine straw and leaves that fell at the same time with the rain, and whether it sprinkled or torrentially poured, or the wind blew some of my rain onto the street or into the neighbor’s yard, or . . . or . . .

Okay. I’m stopping. It’s very late and my soft brain has done all it can do for one day.

Thanks again to my friends, and Jeanie, enjoy being married. Kiss V and ‘Salina for me. (I hope that doesn’t scare any of you, too much!)

I’m calling it a night. I’m not going to dream about rain, either. In gallons, or cubic or square feet. I’ll probably dream of the cleaning, scrubbing, dusting, washing, cooking I’ll be doing for the rest of the month getting ready for and enjoying Thanksgiving with my family!

Oxymorons: What To Do When You Can't Sleep

Have you ever spent time thinking of putting together a list of oxymorons? I’m sure there are a gazillion out there if we can open our minds to the possibilities. Right?

This ** is not an inexhaustible list, (no kidding) and perhaps not a list at all, but I’ve thought of a few things that MIGHT be a bit on an oxymoron list. If you don’t agree, which by all rights you may, please set me straight (or is that strait?—I think the former rather than the latter).

The thing is, I got shot today. Well, shots—inoculations—the kind of things they do to you in the doctor’s office when you’re dying of terrible, yucky infections and things. And because of one of those shots, I’ll never be able to be a professional athlete. I’m sorry. I know you’re all disappointed in me. But that’s the fact of the matter. I . . . was injected . . . with . . . (sob) . . . steroids. The truth is out. The fact that I’m 59 and could probably walk a mile or two if I needed to—in say an hour or two—and have to sit for another two to recover; and that my girth approximates that of an eight or nine month pregnant woman (well maybe only that of a seven or eight month pregnant woman) and I am and always have been excessively athletic (insert sarcastic tone) all of my entire, and might I add energetic, life. Well the jig is up. I have to confess.

So, I feel better now. Well my stuffed head is less stuffy and I can breathe more reasonably. But my belly! Oooooooooh. So much the worse. Antibiotics treat me badly. Yes, they do kill little microbes that harass my health, but that’s far from all they do! But that’s another story, isn’t it.

Why, you may ask, (or not) did I begin speaking of oxymorons then launch into morbid detail about my health and depredatious use of drugs? BECAUSE it’s 4:30 AM and I can’t sleep!! That’s why! And it’s because of the STEROIDS and ANTIBIOTICS I’ve been given! They’re wreaking havoc on me.

Why is the CURE every bit as miserable as the illness? Just different in its effects? I don’t know. I don’t like either. (I know, I know. Hush with all the whingeing (as Bush Babe puts it) and complaining.) Sorry. I just thought I should let you know the state of my being and how I got started thinking of oxymoronic statements in the wee hours! (There’s no other explanation, is there.)

So, back to that list ** I mentioned. Please share your thoughts about some of the things that passed through my mind a littler earlier. Are these true oxymornons, or not? And please feel free to share your own concoctions. I’m DYING . . . to hear/read them. THANKS.

**Here goes nuthin':
a dark light
a mighty weakling
blissfully depressed
closed-mouth windbag
deliciously distasteful
gluttonous ascetic
idiot savant
jaded innocence
jumbo shrimp
permanently transient
sardonically sincere
simply complex
tender-hearted cynic

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE share your thoughts/oxymorons/disagreements/corrections. In the comments below, even. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Another confession. My son did provide the lion’s share of these. I’ll color his contributions separately, so you can decide for yourselves what’s what.