[gma22]

Good morning girls. Fortune jumped off the bed wanting to go out so I dragged myself out of bed and came down to let him out and decided to post.

Susan: Sure hope the appetite supplement will jump start his desire for food. I know you worry about his losing more weight and the fact of not eating having effect on his dialysis. I know Stan has to be glad about his aid being back with him again. Nothing worse than having someone not so great messing with you all the time. When I went in to have my test, I met one of my CNA's that I had when I was in the hospital. She was my favorite and very good to me. She went around telling all the other personnel how sweet I was and such, but I think it was because I respected what she did and the hard job she had. I was not unreasonable with requests and told her thank you for whatever she did. Things any decent human being would do, but they get treated the worst of all health care workers because people think they are their slaves. I had a couple nurses I would gladly have traded for her anytime.

Jean: Sounds like you and the other teachers have no where to turn. That is tough when there is no support whatsoever. When Jack was in the Navy, we moved approx every three years for 20 years. It was always scary moving to a different place and trying to find housing and such, never knowing what the schools were like for the kids, all the expenses of big cities and such. I dealt with it the best I could, but can't say I liked the life. We moved down here without jobs, but we were in a position in Indiana that we were financially going under little by little and there were no prospects at a better paying job for him so we just up and moved. I can't say I love Memphis, and my hopes for being closer to Thomas never panned out the way we thought they would, but Jack has an excellent paying job and now has the ability to retire in 7 more years. We have our own home even if it is old and needs lots of work and the winters are certainly less brutal. All in all, it was a much better trade off. My sister and her husband will never be able to retire for several reasons and I can't imagine not being able to enjoy your senior years, which they absolutely aren't doing in any way.

They were predicting a winter storm warning for today and tonight, but we haven't gotten the rain they were predicting for overnight, the temps are close to 40 still and supposed to stay above freezing it looks like so we shall see what happens. We brought the sidewalk deicer stuff out of the garage and put it next to the house in case we needed to put it down this morning, but it is dry as a bone outside still.

Have a good Friday and a wonderful weekend. I can't wait to see Thomas on Sunday.
Faye

[Jean]

Good Evening, Flowers! I am too tired to do the "happy Friday dance!" This has been the longest week at school. Guess I am spoiled by late starts, early dismissals, and "no" school days to shorten the weeks. It was -11 when I got up this morning and with a north wind it was cold, cold, cold all day long. The sun did shine, but no melting. We did get a dusting of snow last night.

"Gma" -- Have a great time with Thomas on Sunday! Amanda has begun to work on her CNA classes given through a nursing home where the administrator happened to be in her high school class. It can be a small world! She is working with the patients under the supervision of another CNA or nurse and seems to like it. She plans to go for her RN as time permits. The only crabby nurse I've run into was one on the maternity floor when I had Beth. Bob tried to sneak Jason up to peek at her through the nursery window and got caught. He told the crab he was paying the bill, she was his baby, and her brother could have a quick look at her! Now they can have the whole family in the room for the delivery.

I'm starting the laundry piles tonight because we will be gone all day tomorrow. I don't mind the drive to Sioux Falls, but the drive home seems twice as long. I'm hoping to do some shopping; spring has got to be on it's way and my wardrobe is hurting.

Don't forget to set your clocks ahead tomorrow! I reset the clock beside the bed as soon as I get up so I won't forget. Have a super Saturday and enjoy whatever it is you are going to do!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[gma22]

Good morning ladies. It is pretty chilly here this morning and this is what happened to us yesterday (see pic) That is the deicer I asked Jack to bring out from the garage so that if the rain turned icy we could put it on the deck. Yeah right! This started around 3 yesterday afternoon. I think our area got about 6 inches. When we watched the 10 o'clock news last night they had had 70 crashes! Good ole Memphis, you can always count on them to not slow down in bad weather.

Hopefully I can get out to the commissary today. It will depend on whether they have gotten the streets cleaned, especially the back ones, which we have to use to get to the base. They don't even start to plow until the snow stops and it was still going at 11 PM last night. It has stopped now and that is the end of it for us thank goodness. It is supposed to warm up to around 38 today and into the upper 40's by tomorrow with no precipitation so we had our little joke and we now want to go back to normal!

Jean: Yes, rules have changed a lot with hospitals. You can bring anyone up to the rooms now and Thomas and Jackson were both in my room well past 9 pm. We even had a squalling newborn next door. Have a nice time at Jason's today. Hopefully Bob and Jason can get a handle on the house project.

I have the sweater back and front done, the shoulders sewn together and the neckline done. I ran out of yarn and have to wait for it to come to make the sleeves and put them in than I am done with the lace sweater. I had to do single crochet around the neckline, which I have never done, but found a video website of how to do it so watched it a couple times and crocheted it on. I decided I liked it better and it is sturdier with two rows so I put two single crochet rows in. I think while I am waiting for the yarn to come in I will practice making socks. I can then order some sock yarn and the proper needle size once I have the techniques down.

I am going to grab a blanket and get in the recliner for an hour or so. Have a wonderful Saturday!
Faye

[QuilterInVA]

Good evening, ladies! Gosh, it was 67 degrees at 8 am this morning and raining. It cleared and was sunny but we've had a lot of high winds (still blowing). We had rain yesterday, too. The creek in the back is now a lake.

They increased the potassium at dialysis for Stan so hopefully that will help and he'll get to feeling better. I got him on soup and jello and cream of rice today getting his stomach straightened out. His GERD has been really bad. His wound continues to heal so hopefully this time it will be over.

I was down another pound at WW yesterday. Out of the 1700 WW meetings that are held every week, our is one of 6 that was chosen to be filmed. That will happen March 21. We have a wonderful leader and everyone participates and the success rate if very high. They will use the film for training purposes and also shots for tv commercials. If I ever see myself in one, I'll let you know which one to watch for. I'm always a front row sitter.

I spent the day doing laundry and cleaning house...what fun!