Last day of the Ninth month of 2012

Wow - this year is winding down. Dwight went fishing this past Wednesday and came home Friday morning. I was happy that Geral was able to spend both nights with me. She took me to my acupuncture appointment on Thursday and asked a lot of questions. She didn't bring clothes for the meeting so we listened in on Thursday night. Matt gave the part about our young people and at the end, he just talked from his heart and it was wonderful. Alice and Sidney also visited me on Thursday which was nice. Miya climbed up on Sidney and won his heart. We have lost several people to death these past few weeks. I'm beginning to think this is going to be something that happens more often as we get older. Never easy though, no matter what age you are. Sweet Patsy brought me home from the meeting today. I was worn slap dab out when I got home. My tongue is still doing it's thing every day and yep - it is getting old. We had some visitors at the meeting today which was nice.

I sent this picture to my neighbor today asking him if he can remember about what year it was taken. I'm almost sure it was around 1979 though. I think I was working for the Patent Attorney or had already joined TRW Environmental Engineering. As I said - I'm almost sure it was around that time.

I believe this one was taken in the early 80's on a trip to NY. This is at Wallkill. I'm not sure which trip it was. They all seem to run together. I have another one from another trip and have pants on in that one too. That was before we had to stop wearing pants for tours. I haven't been scanning very much this week but I need to get back to it. I picked up a 32gb flash drive to save all of them on. Today has been the first day that the coolness has stayed in the air all day. Please don't let it get too cold too fast. 

Was it really 12 years ago?

I am finding it hard to believe another year has gone by. At times it seems fast and yet, for me it has slowed down somewhat. I have really missed Page this year. Even when she was here the few times they came, she pretty much stayed away from me - not wanting to "bother" me as if that was possible. Of course we all enjoyed our time together last month at the beach but that seems so long ago now.

As mentioned before, her "other" grandmother has her pictures made on her birth date each year. Her Mom put them on Facebook last night so I snatched them so I could send them to Kelly today.

I'm not going to put all of them on here but thought I would add just a few of each outfit they had her wear.

I have been hoping we might get up to see them next month but to be honest, I'm not sure that is going to work out. I am so looking forward to seeing all of them together in November. Now to come up with a solution as to what we are going to do with Miya while we are gone. Whatever it is has to involve her getting her medication each night.

So out little girl is officially growing up - too fast. She seems to have settled in at her new school. Jessie is waiting to get her first report and will then know if things need to change. I am so hoping she has a good year and that it will prepare her for Junior High next year. Yikes!!!

Elite Personnel days

I worked for a company called Elite Personnel for 15 years. I met the owner when she first started her company. She called on me when I worked in the Personnel Department at TRW Environmental Engineering in RTP. I let her know we were laying people off so wouldn't be needing her services. She stayed in touch and when she found out I had been laid off, she kept calling me trying to send me on interviews for a new job. Eventually, I interviewed with a company in Chapel Hill where I worked for three months before realizing this was a very unprofessional company. (I have written about this company before on here - it eventually folded.)

Then she asked me to come over and meet her husband so I did and before I knew it - they had hired me to be their marketing rep and we were going to try it out for six months and then review whether I would stay. Long story short - I stayed on and eventually became the Vice President. We grew the company to three branches (Durham, Raleigh, Smithfield and four divisions - Temporary, Permanent, Light Industrial and Technical). I've run across some pictures from my time with the company and who should call as I'm scanning them but the Owner/President of the company, Lise! They sold the company back in 1998 and retired. She and her hubby have been in Canada (they are both from Canada and she is French Canadian) at their resort condo for three months. She said they had a wonderful time. They were able to spend time with her sisters, his mother (99 years old) and other relatives.  They are getting ready to fly out to San Francisco and will be there for her 70th birthday. You would never believe she is 70 years old though. She is one of those unique people who looks better with age.

 I think this was our wedding anniversary. At first I thought it was when she made me the Vice President of the company but I believe she did that on the anniversary of my hire date in the summer time. It was a surprise and she had my sister Alice, Kelly, Douglas, Dwight and Monica come to be with us. I think this was taken in 1985 or 1986 - probably 1986.

This is a group picture of our employees at her home for one of her famous company dinners. I think it was taken in 1988 and she must be the one taking the picture.

This was taken of her and her hubby Chris for their 20th wedding anniversary. We surprised them at one of our co-worker's home. We gave them a hot air balloon ride for their gift.

This is how we let them know what they were getting from all of us. We all enjoyed knowing we had really surprised her. Dwight used to tease her and say if they liked this gift, next time we were going to give them a ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Yeah - he thinks he is so cute.

I can not remember what year this was but it was when we had our Open House and invited our clients and friends to join us. It was well received and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Lise always had the best food catered at every event we had.

This is Dwight cooking his famous BBQ Chicken at one of our company gatherings on the deck at her house. Everyone loves his chicken - he is pretty well know for it locally.

I eventually went to Raleigh and worked in that office for a few years. This was my first staff there.

They eventually asked me to come back to the Durham office and this is the staff in Raleigh after we hired Beth to manage it. Beth was promoted and brought to the Durham office right before they sold the company. She went on to start her own agency and as far as I know, it is still doing well.

If I'm not mistaken, it was when Dagmar moved to Wilmington that I was asked to come back. This was her going away party.

This is Kimberly (1996) who eventually managed our Smithfield office. I'm not sure what she is doing now. I do know she had a couple of little girls. She and I traveled together to Peabody, Mass after the company was sold. We were there for two weeks in their headquarters being trained.

Like I mentioned before, when she found out we could celebrate our wedding anniversaries, she started making that a special time for me, Dwight and our children.  These are from one of our little anniversary parties she always gave me and Dwight. Since we got married in December, it seems we were always getting our pictures made in front of the office tree.  I always felt funny like we were "making" the staff celebrate this with us when I didn't celebrate anything else but they assured me many times they wanted to do it and we always appreciated it.

This is the year we surprised Lise and Chris with a little brunch for their wedding anniversary in the office.

This is our beautiful Stephanie who became the branch manager for awhile. She stayed on with the company that purchased us and did very well with them. 

This is "our" beloved Blitzen. He was Lise and Chris's sweet little dog who had a very good life. You can see his gray hair here.  We always enjoyed loving on him when we had functions at their home.

Another one of a company dinner in their home. There are many more pictures but I haven't come across them yet. I promised Lise I would send many of them to her when she gets back from San Francisco. Good memories......

Still scanning away

Was glad I got to the meeting last night. Have definitely got to keep moving when the weather is nice. I do believe Fall is upon us - so, so hoping it stays mild for awhile so we can truly enjoy it. Not ready for cold weather yet. I've been scanning a little bit every day except today - so far.  The day is still young but I'm definitely going to get out of here and walk today.  Janet explained a little bit about what she thinks is going on with my tongue seizing yesterday when I had my acupuncture. She had me push real hard on a spot under my tongue and it did help a little bit.  One more piece of the puzzle is she thinks the muscles affected are shifting.  Did you know there is an actual condition called tongue tied? Well of course if there is, I'll be the one to have it.  Anywho - I've enjoyed sharing a lot of the pictures on FB.

This one of Daddy holding Douglas while Mama looks over his shoulder. I miss them every day. The blouse Mama has on was mine but she loved it so much I gave it to her.

I love this one of Mama holding Kelly. She loved both of her Grandmas. She has always said she had the perfect combination of Gmas- one who adored small children and the other who was great with teenage grandchildren. Kelly was extra special for a little while to all of our parents since I lost my first baby (when we lived in Norfolk, Va) and then had trouble throughout the first half of my pregnancy with her. I even went into labor early with her later and then the little booger dug in and decided to wait until her due date. I put this one up just because I'm missing Mr. I.T. today.  Anyway, I'll share more later but right now, I need to get outside and walk.  Later taters........

Where does the time go?

Believe it or not, I've been quite busy this past week. As you know, I've been scanning pictures whenever I feel like it. Sadly, the scanner stopped working so I decided to try and get a combination printer, scanner, copier to replace it that would still fit on the little fold up table beside my chair but wasn't sure how I was going to pull that off unless I ordered it on-line. Dwight went fishing this past week. I was able to get three baby sitters to stay overnight with me so that was fun. Thank you Deborah, Marlan and Amy.

I totally enjoyed being with all of you. Dwight came home Saturday refreshed and happy. He picked Kelly up at the airport later that evening and they picked up some of her favorite Chinese food. I tried to eat some of the soup but it was a little bit too spicy. Since Kelly is using my car for work this week, I rode in the big black beast to see my Dermatologist yesterday for my regular 3 month appointment. He told me that since they haven't found anything, he will see me again in 6 months. That was good news. Dwight had some jobs to do and was frustrated because I have three appointments this week so I called Deborah and she took me to my acupuncture visit again today. I enjoy listening to them talk when she goes. Deborah and I love how passionate Janet is about what she does. She is being very aggressive with my acupuncture right now and boy do I need it. I have another appointment with her on Thursday. I am so ready to truly be better. Dwight, Kelly and I went to see Ennis Sunday. It was hard but I'm glad we got to be with her if only for a little bit. She and Mike were both asleep so I woke him up gently first and then I woke her up. She responded to us very well and tried to talk to us. Mike said she had a lot of company earlier and he thought that was why they were both sleeping when we got there. She was very happy to see us which made us very happy we were there. After we left there, we went to Costco for Dwight to pick some things up.  Kelly and I went inside with him so I could see if I could find a printer/scanner.

That is the fastest I've ever bought a printer. They didn't have a large selection and I knew I couldn't take too much time so this is the one I bought. After we got home, I proceeded to scan tons of pictures but I had connected everything wrong so none of it worked.  I had to call my computer guru to come over and “fix it” last night.  Kelly had a company dinner at Kanki Steak house in Raleigh last night and tonight she and Barb went to Angus Barn for a glass of wine and snacks after work. Kelly called Dwight and brought dinner home for him. I can't believe she will be going home around lunch time tomorrow but it has been so nice having her here if only for a little bit. We haven't seen Douglas, Jessie or Page since the beach trip in August. I hope it will not be until the end of November until we see them again. I might ask Dwight to take me up there for a short weekend next Month

after my Pet Scan and doctor appointments. It has been raining off and on all day. I mean - really raining. There have also been tornado watches all day today. I have felt blue the past few days. As I mentioned about 9 months ago we lost my dear cousin. It was hard seeing his wife at the reunion this summer but she seemed to be doing pretty good. This is a picture of her (Joy) with my Aunt - my cousin's Mom - taken several years ago. My Aunt has been very worried about Joy ever since Dwayne died. We found out this week, Joy died on Monday. She had been sick for quite awhile but it seemed very sudden to me. It is hard for me to believe we have reached the age that we may be losing many of our loved ones.  Enough of that! After my appointment yesterday, Dwight took me to see Judy.  I think she was happy to see me. She has been so supportive of me since I've been sick and I wanted to try to be supportive of her now that she is having such a hard time.  It was good being with her and her dear hubby.

These are two of the many pictures I scanned today. So many years ago and yet, at times seems it like yesterday. These were taken in the late 80's early 90's I think.

An oldie but goodie. Back row is my sister Faye, cousin Nellie Gray holding cousin Cleo, my sister Alice with her hands on my shoulders and Grandma King with her hands on my sister Amy's shoulders. Amy was named after this grandmother.

And this is a really, really old one of me at age 5. It was taken by a neighbor who had a little boy and she would ask Mama to let me come down to play with him. She was very sweet to me. Those are the little bloomer shorts my Mom would make for us out of chicken feed sacks. Oh - I almost forgot some big news. Katrina is having another little girl.

I'm a bad girl. I snatched this picture from her blog page. It is the only one that shows her pregnant. That means Marlan will have four granddaughters and one grandson. I can't wait to meet her.

Happy 15th Anniversary Douglas and Jessica..

I have to take a few minutes to wish Douglas and Jessica a happy 15th anniversary. It is hard to believe the beautiful young couple in this picture have been together that long.

As with all married couples, they have had their ups and downs but happily, they are still together and seem to be happy with that. For the most part, they can and are at times still as playful as they were in the picture above. 

This is a picture of them at their rehearsal dinner in one of Doug's favorite restaurants. The pretty blonde between them is Doug's cousin (my youngest sister's youngest daughter) who loved him to pieces. We were happy she was able to be there, as we lost her several months after the wedding. Since this was their 15th anniversary, I wanted to do something a little special, SO I got them a gift card for a very nice dinner in this same restaurant. Doug was thrilled when I told him and said Jessie is too. Good - I got this one right. I hope they know how proud Dwight and I are of them and how much we love them.

After reading Sonia's post on her blog for today, I think I'm going to follow suit and not try to think up a title for each post I make. I wanted to comment on her blog but couldn't figure out what had changed and wasn't able to. I make it very easy to comment on my blog.  Why allow it and then make people jump through hoops?  As stated on my blog, these are the "meanderings" of "my" mind. They should be spontaneous - not "thought out" or planned. I went to my acupuncture appointment this morning. It had been 12 days since my last visit with her and I was looking forward to it. I did let her know that my primary care physician had gotten her name and information from me so he could refer some patients to her. She was thrilled. Dwight told me I should stop referring people to her because she has gotten so busy it is hard to get an appointment with her now. I'm happy for her though. One of the things we talked about today is how I can't breathe out of my nose anymore. I can breathe in my nose easily but not out. She gave me a little exercise to do with my tongue that we hope will help.

It got quite cool last night and felt great today. When we got home and Dwight pulled into the driveway I noticed some wildflowers growing beside the "crick" as my neighbor calls the ditch running between our properties. I came in and got the scissors so I could cut a few of them to brighten my day. I know they won't last long but it will be nice while they do.

I've been sharing the pictures I've been scanning on FB and Paul scanned some he had and shared them with me. I love these pictures. The top one is Kelly and her second cousin at Mama's, the middle one is Kelly, Douglas and my sister Barbara on Mama's front porch and the bottom one is Page getting out of my Volvo (I'm the passenger) in Mama's front yard.  The fact she is driving means she must have been at least 16 years old here. This must have been during one of Barbara's few visits home. Paul thinks it is the year I let him drive my Volvo home one night. After we got home, he said, "that is the first time I've driven a car with straight drive". I was surprised because he did very well. I was thinking about sharing a few more but decided not to overdo it (which Kelly reminds me I do so often). I can't wait to see her this coming weekend. Dwight is planning to go fishing so I'm going to work out some logistical "stuff" for while she is here. She sent me her agenda so I'm hoping Matt will be able to pick her up. She definitely wants her favorite Chinese food while she is here and I'm hoping I can try a little bit myself.

Forgot to post a picture

I forgot to post this beautiful picture Jessie sent me from their trip to Pittsburgh. It is my favorite from their trip so far.

The only thing missing is Lori. She was taking the picture I guess. Also their beloved dog - Tetsu. Oh well - next time. I am so glad they got to be together.  I just took my daily walk (I try) and was rushing to get it in before the rain starts. The wind started really gusting and it felt so good.  It is quiet right now so will probably start raining soon. Dwight just left to pick up some prime rib from Texas Roadhouse.  I just noticed how sad Page looks. I'm guessing she didn't want to come home.

I have been wanting to post this picture I scanned from 1988. It was taken the same time we stopped for lunch. I hadn't filed it with the other ones yet. I was trying to remember if I had put it on here before and decided - who cares. We can look at it again. Right?

A friend had this on FB and I had to snatch it and put in on here so Kelly will see it. I LOVE IT! It is so whimsical. I love reading but Kelly loves reading AND riding bicycles. :)

36th Saturday of 2012

Dwight went fishing Tuesday and came home yesterday. My dear friend Geral came up and stayed with me. She went in service on Wednesday and then took me to the meeting on Thursday. I started feeling bad on Thursday and haven't felt well since. I'm not sure what has caused it but I'm taking several new things. It may be the medicine I'm taking for my thrush, the Aleve or maybe another pill they have me taking. Hopefully it will even out and get better soon. If not, I'll have to call and go in to be checked next week I guess. I didn't take an Aleve last night in case it was that but my leg was aching pretty bad this morning so I had to go back on it. Here we are - it is almost Autumn again. The temperatures are still pretty steamy but the weatherman is saying we may be getting some cooler evenings. I would love to have a "real" Autumn for a change. One that lasts a little longer than a week and doesn't go from steamy hot to freezing cold.

I love this picture of Kelly and Douglas. Check out the rabbit ears on the TV. I have been scanning pictures quite a bit this week. They aren't in any order but I'm really enjoying looking back at some of the older ones. Dwight is going to take the old ones from his sister's house I've already scanned back and will pick up some more for me to go through.  Kelly has enjoyed seeing some of Dwight's Mom from when she was a young woman and girl.

Isn't Douglas the cutest thing in his little bathrobe?  He had just gotten his bath and was chilling.

I love this one taken of my sister Barbara Ann in 1988. We had traveled up to Buffalo to visit some friends and stopped back by her house in Pittsburgh for a quick lunch. She was so excited to see us.

I love this picture of Kelly at her graduation party. Monica had given her this little kitten for her gift and Dwight was furious about it. Kelly named her Charlie and it turned out Charlie became one of Dwight's favorite cats. They had a very special relationship and she became his. We still miss her.

Kelly told me this week that she is saving this dress I bought her for her graduation party for Page. I thought that was so sweet. Kelly is flying in next weekend. She is going to be working in their local office for a few days so I am really looking forward to seeing her.

This is a picture of our 25th wedding anniversary. That is my sister Alice on the end beside Kelly. The funny thing is we had both Kelly's graduation and our anniversary party in the same house. A dear friend had a large house and offered it to me for Kelly's graduation formal. Then Kelly asked if she could use it to surprise us for our anniversary. They moved back to California after a few years but we stay in touch and get caught up regularly. I do miss her though.