Bits and Pieces......

9/1/14: I know, it has been awhile since I've written anything much but I actually have a good excuse this time. I have been feeling pretty bad (actually - rotten) since I started receiving chemo for the Lymphoma.  I actually did pretty good after the first two treatments but the last two kicked my behind royally.  Sadly, I'm due for my next two treatments the end of this week. Enough complaining......I actually have quite a few pictures I wanted to share starting with one of Samantha right after Jessie had about 17 inches cut off her hair.

I know - she is growing up so fast. So hard to believe she is in the 8th grade. She came and stayed several weeks with us before we all went on our family vacation and school started.  She is such a delightful young lady, constantly asking if I needed anything. Dwight and I both kept commenting on how sweet she is.  Kelly brought me these gorgeous Gerber Daisies

and I love them! They lasted a very long time. I also want to share a few pictures of the flowers Kelly and Brian planted on my deck the last weekend they were here.

I will try to get some recent pictures showing how well they are doing and how filled out the really big planter is.  At the rate I'm going, I probably will not get it done before they start dying off. I know, that sounded negative so let me work on that a little.  I do appreciate them and all the hard work Kelly and Brian put into them in a short amount of time. I do love fresh flowers.

 

We also went out to the farm for a visit with Jen and her sweet family. Samantha is posing in the background in the dress Biscuit insisted she wear because they were playing dress-up. Jen was thrilled since this is one of her good dresses.  Samantha was thrilled with the ribbons Biscuit tied in her hair. It was nice to be on the farm for a little bit. As always, Jen put out some delicious finger foods for people to enjoy.  She also sent me home with this gorgeous Orchid. I had already had it for awhile when I took this picture. I kept it until the very last petal fell off. 

 It actually lived longer than any orchid I've ever had!! I gave it back to her when the last petal fell off so she could put it in her greenhouse. Fast forward to our week at the beach. Tony had called to say the septic tank at the cottage was backed up (because of the heavy rains) so we called the same hotel the rest of my family had gotten rooms in and because people had cancelled (the rain), we were able to rent the two bedroom apartment which made it possible for everyone to be together after all.

Well that took forever. I didn't think I would ever get these three pictures small and lined up.  I still have no idea how they are going to look. I guess this is telling me I should either blog more often or just stop blogging. Anyway- it rained about every day we were at the coast but I didn't mind because we were all together. Kelly and Brian brought their bicycles with them and either walked or rode about every day I think. Monica and Tom joined us and brought Samantha a surprise from her Great-Uncle Sidney - a bicycle! The best part is she took to it right away and really likes it. Kelly knew about the surprise and brought her single bike rack so that Jess and Douglas could take it home with them. We were all sad to learn that Alice and Sidney were supposed to join us as a surprise but Alice started having symptoms of a cold so they couldn't make it.  I'm just sad it didn't work out. 

We went over to the cottage Wednesday afternoon and sat on the porch for awhile to enjoy the great weather.  Dwight had set his tarp up on the dock and the guys were able to do a little fishing. 

A guy who was staying in the other side of the duplex said they still couldn't flush.  You could tell he wasn't a happy camper. Jessie was careful to spray Douglas with sunscreen.  His skin doesn't tolerate the sun very well at all.  We had to change rooms on Thursday which meant we went to a small efficiency and Jessie, Douglas, Samantha and Kelly were squeezed into another room. On Friday afternoon, we all ended up outside - did I mention the hotel we stayed at had a pool? We had all gone outside to look at a very nice rainbow which was followed by a gorgeous sunset and a nice full moon.

It felt wonderful to be outside so we just hung out around the pool enjoying a nice clean breeze.  I think Jessie was reading a good book because she kept reading it even after the sun went down.

Monica and Tom joined us and Kelly decided to join Samantha in the swimming pool when all the young girls she had been playing with went inside.  

Everyone enjoyed some good Pizza for dinner and you could just feel everyone start to relax.  I guess the rain had gotten everyone down but now it was our last bit of time left -- time to chill.

Monica is on the other side of the pool taking pictures of Samantha and Kelly. Pretty soon, we were the only ones outside and Douglas started playing some great music. It wasn't long before I found myself dancing to an "oldie but goodie" tune.  It was fun and I felt pretty good.  When I got up and started dancing to Pharrell William's song called "Happy",  Monica put her

hat on me while I danced. It wore me slap-dab out but was worth every minute of it. I can't tell you how nice it felt to be with my family outside at the beach listening to great music and have no mosquitoes biting you. Those times don't come along very often. Jessie bought me this tee shirt to commemorate our wonderful time together. 

 This was a pretty decent picture of me and Brian either before or after I got up to dance.  They told us we needed to change rooms again and Dwight said "no" - basically he was done  - so we didn't plan to stay another night.  

Yep - I was done too. It did feel good being outside though and even though it wore me out, I think the dancing was good for me.  It was a gorgeous day on Saturday when we left for home - of course. 

One more of sweet Monica!  We left the car behind so the kids could stay as long as they wanted to enjoy another day of good weather.  The trip home in the truck was a little rough on me but it just made it all the better to get home.

 9/2/14 -I wanted to share just a few more pictures. This is one of Lori's twins - Derek, his lovely wife, Cristi along with their new baby boy - Luke.  Isn't he the handsome little one!?!

This is Lori with most of her clan. I can never get over how big Faye's family is.  She has to give Lori most of the credit since Lori had a beautiful daughter, followed by two gorgeous twin boys and then they started having babies too. Faye's other beautiful daughter has a family of a boy and girl also.

 This is a quick drawing Gina did of me from her memory and sent it to me via Internet. We are on Facebook together and I commended her on her artistic talents. You notice my hair is dark in this picture - she hasn't seen me since I am pretty much gray headed now. 

 One of my favorite flowers - Irises.  I picked these from my yard. I do wish they lasted longer, Marlan brought me a huge bouquet of flowers that lasted forever awhile back.  I had a picture of them but can't find it.  I keep having to remind myself that I'm taking medications that definitely affect my memory.  The big news of the new Service Year is....Marlan is a Regular Pioneer and will be able to attend the very special two week Pioneer School next year!!!!! We are all so very excited for her!!!! I just know she is going to have an awesome year!!!!!

A quick picture I snatched from Shelly's Facebook page.  I shared this with Kelly but wanted to have it on my blog for me to enjoy.  Aren't they the cutest little ones ever?  Yes - they are twins! So sweet.

 And this is Sherry with her sweet grand-daughter, Lyla.  Lyla is expecting a baby brother pretty much any time now. I know she is going to be a wonderful "big sister" with her brother.
Daddy would have been 100 years old today!  That is so hard to believe.  Mind-boggling......
Adding a few more pictures from the beach taken when everyone was in the apartment.  I didn't get a picture of Faye or John.

 I guess these two pictures are saying that when Kelly and/or I want to kiss one of our men-folk, they may as well just hold on because they have no choice in the matter! 
I was excited to see Marlan with her sweet granddaughter - Emmy today! I can't believe how grown up Em is now!  Been missing so much these past few months.  Love her blonde hair!!!

 It took her awhile to trust Miya which is what we didn't want her to do. Once she got down from Marlan's lap, it was on.  Just like every other child who comes here, she doesn't understand why we couldn't just let her pet Miya as much as she wanted.  Of course, Miya was in her "friendly" mode of meeting and greeting herself.  She has to introduce herself and her scent to everyone who comes here whether they like cats or not.  The bad thing is, I never know what will set her off and where she might take a little "nip" or use one of her nails to hurt someone.  We warn everyone but all they see is how pretty and "friendly" she is.  I think because she is so fearless (because she "owns" her environment), they mistake it for being friendly.  I take that back because I do believe a lot of times she is being friendly. There are several people who come by and she loves them to death and never acts ugly. She acts like she can't get enough of them rubbing her.  There are others who come by though and we can tell she isn't going to play nice.  No rhyme or reason to it - just who she is.

Debbie C, Elaine and Savanna brought me these beautiful roses last week! Debbie said they had been in service and Savanna said they had to go visit ME!  She is such a sweet girl.  She was playing with a small globe I had and I could tell she liked it so I gave it to her. She truly is a special and very sweet little girl.  I enjoyed their visit. 

 I think Miya could tell we have been talking about her.  Just kidding - I took this yesterday. She loves to sleep on my lap - especially since I've been using an old comforter to keep me warm and cozy.  I guess this has pretty much caught me up to date. 

Cancers, Doctors, Nurses, Flowers, Family, Reunions, Vacation, New Congregation, Beloved Pets, Baby, GiGi, Animals

(And again, I have started an entry to my blog, gotten side-tracked and realized I never finished what I started. I've decided to recap as much as I can remember to bring us as up to date as I can.) How do you catch up for over four months when you barely remember yesterday clearly? You don't! You just grab what memories you recall and share what you can remember and feel like sharing in that moment. I'm not going to worry if I have forgotten anything.  Now that is something I used to have a real problem with.  I used to be what Mama called a "worry-wart".  My anxiety got so bad at one time, I eventually ordered some tapes and used the exercises to bring it under control once and for all.  It has been interesting to me that as soon as I was diagnosed with Melanoma almost three years ago now, I felt a calmness come over me that I can only attribute to an answer to the prayers of so many others at that time. The first thing I did was email all my Elders and friends and asked for their prayers.  I actually felt their prayers throughout everything and it gave me a real peace of mind. When I saw my Radiation Oncologist, Dr. Brizel, earlier this month, between the two of us we realized I had not been seen by a Melanoma Oncologist in over a year.  I then remembered when my daughter had contacted their office awhile back asking for assistance with a situation regarding overcharges for some of my medications.  The PA I had really liked a lot was very rude to her telling her that they had not seen me in over a year and I was not their patient. I left several messages for her myself but never heard back so I figured they were through with me so I told Kelly to forget about the money we could have gotten. Dr. Brizel was not happy at all to hear this and immediately scheduled me to see a different doctor, Dr. April Salama,

to be my Melanoma Oncologist the following week.  Another part of my appointment with Dr. Brizel was when I got an answer to a "what if" question that didn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy but after Marlan gave me a "talking-to", I felt a little better. These moments have cropped up through-out this entire ordeal and for the most part, I have been able to put them where they need to be and moved on.  But then I found myself facing a situation that was a little scary to me.  Because of the aggressive radiation, I have been instructed several times that I am not to have any teeth extracted unless it is absolutely necessary. He stressed again that if it came up, my Dentist was to contact him first. SO, my wonderful Dentist had been trying to perform a root canal on a back molar and it wasn't going well at all.  It resulted in severe pain even after taking two different antibiotics.  Strangely, the strong pain medications I take every day didn't touch the tooth pain so he suggested I take Tylenol and surprisingly, it helped.  Then his assistant called to get Dr. Brizel's telephone number because after looking closer at the x-rays, he felt it was obvious the tooth had to come out.  It is one that the root is bent at the end so I think it is impossible to reach all of the tissue that needs to come out before they can re-fill it. And that ladies and gentlemen is what threw me. I almost had a full blown panic attack. After praying incessantly for about an hour I tried to figure out what was causing me so much anxiety. After all I have been through, a tooth was going to be what threw me? And then I realized I had failed to follow my own advice - I was "worrying about tomorrow".  What an exercise in futility..... Again, I'm not saying we should have a blase' attitude such as brought out in the Bible at 1 Corinthians 15:32 - "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we are to die" was their view" but let's be honest - why worry about something we have no control over. After thinking about it, I realized it is because of what I knew could have happened after he pulled the tooth that was causing the anxiety. So when I went in to have it extracted, I asked him what the doctor had said and he explained that Dr. Brizel felt that since I received only a 1/3 of the radiation on my right side compared to what I received on the left, he felt it would be safe to extract it without complications. The extraction itself was pretty rough. At one point I thought Dr. Jordan was going to have to climb on top of the chair to get it out!!! He finally cut the crown off and pulled the tooth out in pieces. He showed me one of the roots and it had a large brown place (decay) on it that a root canal could never have reached so it was the right decision. He put several stitches in it for a few days and it's still a little sore but overall, I think it went well. So now we will move forward to the latest in the drama of Belma's fifth (and favorite) Pearl. ;-) I went to meet Dr. Salama who ordered a PET Scan the next day. She told me the Scan didn't show that my Melanoma had metastasized to any new locations but there was activity with my Follicular Lymphoma (I was diagnosed with it in 2009).  She said she was forwarding the results of my Scan to Dr. Beaven who called me the following day and moved my appointment up to last week. She mentioned that she wanted to get me started on Chemo before the pain started.  I decided see Dr. Hathorn (my first Lymphoma Oncologist from 2009) for a second opinion and he agreed with her and offered for me to receive Chemo in his office in Chapel Hill. I explained that I wanted to keep everything at the Duke Cancer Center and he understood.  In the midst of all of this, I had my regularly scheduled appointment with my Surgeon, Dr. Scher this past Tuesday. He hugged me when he came in and asked me how I was feeling and I whispered not real great and he whispered back, "I know". Of course he had looked at my record before I got there.  I had coughed a lot Monday night and noticed a tiny bit of blood in the mucous. I also had a pain in my right side when I took a deep breath and I thought, "Oh great, maybe I have pneumonia now." I asked him if he would mind listening to my lungs so I could relax about it, especially since it felt a little better.  He noticed a rattle in my left lung and ordered x-rays for me to have taken before I left just to be safe. He had the results forwarded to Dr. Salama for her to follow up. (She called me to tell me the only thing that showed up in the lungs was the active Lymphoma. Oh great - something else to make me all warm and fuzzy but good news - no pneumonia.)  I mentioned to Dr. Scher what had happened about my Melanoma Oncologist.  I said, "you know how you doctors always schedule my appointments and he said yes". Then I reminded him of how he sent me to the Pain Management Clinic at Duke to see if I could discontinue the Oxycodone. My Melanoma Oncologist's Nurse Practioner is the one who got me refills for that particular medication and I told Dr. Scher that maybe that is why they stopped seeing me.  Maybe they were thinking I was stopping seeing them and I could tell he didn't care what they thought and I have a feeling he will not be referring anyone else to that particular team.  Sadly, we couldn't get the chemo done before the pain came.  I had everything planned so well for me to attend all three days of our Regional Convention being held in Raleigh last weekend. I gave Karen my handicapped placard and she was going to park as close as possible and find me a seat in the handicapped section near that entrance. (She goes to the convention very early and I would never have made it that early) I had a key to her car and would have been able to go out to the car during the break and pushed the seat back to recover for the afternoon session. Dwight would have dropped me off and if I got too sick, he could have come back and picked me up. If not, I would ride home with Karen. I just knew it would have worked because it worked so well when I went to Doug and Jessie's Circuit Assembly in Salisbury. (The last CA to be held in Salisbury - they will all be one day assemblies there now). I didn't miss one meeting or talk. I truly enjoyed being with them. Marlan drove my car and I stayed in the hotel with Doug and Jessie and she stayed in another hotel with her Katie. I was so happy with be with Douglas and the rest of the family. It was sad to see how much pain he endures every day with his MRH Disease but he made it both days and we all went out to dinner with Wally, Carmen and Wally's cousin who was so much fun. I kept admiring her earrings and right before we left, she slipped them off and handed them to me! I tried to return them but she wouldn't hear of it. Wow - so now I have another nice pair of earrings and these really mean a lot to me. Jessie's Uncle saved us seats at the back both days. Doug's knees could not have gone up and down the incline of the auditorium.  Marlan, Alice and Sidney are at their Regional Convention in Raleigh this weekend. (Alice has called me both days so far to let me hear the music or tell me about the long lines for the rest rooms.) We originally had it planned that I would break it up between theirs and mine in the event I couldn't do all three days in a row.  SO - I woke up in agony late last Thursday night/early Friday morning. I woke Dwight and we called the on-call doctor, a Dr. Ross. She said "I am so sorry but I believe it is the lymphoma" and suggested I go to the Emergency Room.  Dwight asked me if I wanted to call an ambulance and I said NO - I do not plan to go back to that ER again unless there is no other way.  Have had two very bad experiences there and the idea of trying a third time on a holiday weekend was out of the question.  I took some Tylenol and finally went back to sleep. It felt like a full blown case of the flu. I held on until my two chemo treatments Thursday and yesterday. It went very well on Thursday but not so well yesterday. Problems with the location of the IV in my arm. The nurse became quite frustrated with me because she had to re-do it. She made a comment about having to replace a perfectly good IV.  Then she was pushing the medication in a little too fast which was quite uncomfortable so she "begrudgingly" slowed it down. I have no idea what was going on with her because the day before everything was great! I told Kelly about it and she offered to come up and whip her "blank" but I assured her I was capable of doing that myself if it became necessary. :-)  When Monica found out she was livid and wants me to complain but that isn't who I am. At first I was a little angry - to have beaten a cancer as deadly as Melanoma (so far) and have been feeling so much better lately - getting to most of my meetings and planning to get out in service - and then to have this low grade, slow growing cancer I was diagnosed with in 2009 decide to rear it's ugly head really caught me off guard. I can't express how much support I receive in the dark times from so many wonderful people. I have been receiving so much encouragement from Barbara's sweet daughter-in-law, Lori. We have become very close since Barbara died and she is so good at staying in touch with me and keeping me up to date on my family up North.

When we got home from my Chemo treatment yesterday, these are what I found sitting on my screened in porch. I do love fresh flowers - especially beautiful Sunflowers!  They are from my sweet Lori and my family up North. Thank you Lori - for taking such good of your family including Tadashi and for staying in touch with me through the good times and the bad times.  That pretty much brings us up to date on my health issues. We had our annual Perkinson Family Reunion June 22nd. We always have it the fourth Sunday in June. Evelyn called to see if we were still planning to have it since her Mom had died last month. Her Mom was the last of our parent's generation. We decided I would send emails to everyone to see what kind of response we got. I felt so bad because I normally start sending emails a month ahead of time.  My Mom never missed this family reunion. It is the one she and her siblings and their mates started having in addition to the one she went to from her Mom's family. Evelyn booked the little cabin by the water and we decided we would go forward. I had spoken to Arlene earlier and they are having so much sickness in their family right now I knew not to expect any of them. They very seldom came anyway but I was hoping one or two could make it. Between Alan and Judy, they had almost 20 people so we all had a nice time.  Alice came over and rode with me and Dwight. Faye didn't go because none of her kids wanted to go. I hope she will come next year regardless of what her kids do - Mom went many times without any of us there. I know she would be happy if we continue doing it. How else would we ever see any of our cousins?

 

None of the pictures were very good but these are a few of the least bad looking ones.  A lot of people had left before we got the large group picture. Hopefully, I'll do better at reminding people for next year. I asked for people to put their contact information down but I didn't get many names.  I'm glad we went and I hope Evelyn will continue to have this nice place for us to all come to.  We are all looking forward to our Annual Beach trip the first week of August. We are very excited that Lori, Paul, Brandon and Tadashi will be coming down to the beach again the first part of the week. They are driving down on Saturday and will visit Tadashi's brother and then visit Barbara Ann's grave site.  We waited too long before asking about the duplex beside us and it isn't available for that week. Brian had already decided to get a room down the road from where we are staying. When I told Lori about the cottage not being available, they rented an efficiency plus an extra room for them and Tadashi and it turns out it is the same hotel that Brian is going to be staying at.

 Of course, they know they are to hang out with us at the cottage most of the time.  The fact they will have a pool might be very enticing for Samantha and Brandon. I wouldn't mind going in the pool myself.  I was happy to see they had good reviews.  They are about 3 blocks from the Ocean so that will be nice for them too. They had scheduled my chemo for that week but I called and she put the chemo off for a week.  Hopefully, I'll still feel okay but either way, I'm not going to miss this trip. Sadly we have lost another member of our family.  Douglas, Jessie and Page lost their sweet Vincent. Douglas and Jessie all but grabbed this little fluffy kitten out of the claws of an owl or hawk - I can't remember which - right after they got married.  When they brought him over, Dwight and I fell in love with him immediately. Dwight said his tail was so fluffy, you could use him to dust the furniture. His little blue eyes and pink nose were so tiny in all the fur that was him.  No matter when I would go to visit, he would make his way to me because he knew I would grab his comb/brush and give him a good grooming. There is a picture of me on here from last summer when I went with them to their Convention. I had already gotten dressed and was in my zero gravity chair waiting from everyone else. He was sitting in my lap and stayed there until it was time for us to leave for the convention.

I will miss  his quiet way and how he always found me and sat on me or near me. He became quite sick at the end and his body just started breaking down. One of the hardest things about having a pet is how much you grow to love them and how hard it is to have to say good-bye to a friend and family member.  I'll miss you sweet Vincent. You were our first grand-baby.

We also lost dear Coco last month. I only met him once but felt like I knew him from all the things I heard about him. He was a rescue dog who refused to sleep in the house because his job was to be the "watch dog" over his master's domain. He took care of Bebe until she died because that is what he was supposed to do. He was a wonderful watchdog and I'll admit I liked the idea he was around when Kelly was at his house.  I knew no one would ever hurt her as long as he was around.  He was good at taking care of others but not very good at taking care of himself. Again, even though we know we will more than likely lose our beloved pets and that it will break our hearts and we will cry many tears over that loss, we will still eventually find another animal friend to love and be loved by.  And we will have our wonderful memories of those that come along every so often and totally steal our hearts. 

And now to share another picture I snatched from Facebook. This little boy is Randi's baby Bain. He is growing up so fast and I still have not met him. I know Pam and Leif are enjoying their first grandbaby and the first boy in their lovely family. 

 

Dwight drove down to Nags Head to see GiGi several weeks ago.  He stopped along the way to fly fish and took a picture of one of the fish he caught.  When he arrived at GiGi's place, they were all lined up on their nice front porch in their rocking chairs.  He said there were some beautiful flowers right in front of this porch. It makes our hearts happy to see her happy face (she has on the striped shirt) in her home near the ocean.  I know her children are so relieved that she has adjusted, is happy and not alone.  He left his small tackle box on a post near where he caught this fish.  It had some of his really old flies and lures in it and he hated that when he dropped back by to get it, someone had taken it.  A man who steals another man's tackle box ain't a good man is he?

I ordered a few cotton summer dresses from Vermont Country store to wear to the Convention I didn't make it to. I took them out of the bag they arrived in to try them on.  When I turned around, Miya had claimed the bag as her own. Cats are so funny aren't they? Especially our Miya - we love her more each year that we have her. I almost forgot, we have a new congregation - the Mineral Springs Congregation. Sadly, I will lose Dwight, Debbie and Matt but I am very excited about the growth that caused a need for a new congregation and I want to feel only positive about that!  

 I will close this long drawn out boring post with a picture of the baby birds Kelly watched hatch. She loved watching them take their first flights. They would huddle together in a little group to take their naps and sleep.  The mother put her nest in the un-finished sun room and they kept an eye on the eggs. They have all flown the nest now but I got the feeling Kelly really enjoyed the experience.  Dwight and I just received some photo-shopped pictures of her that are hilarious. I almost put them on here but was afraid it would make her mad so I'll just laugh at them myself.  Been watching old movies on the TCM Channel.  One of Marilyn Monroe's first movies is on right now.  

This and that ---- not really that much to share ...........

There really isn't much news so I'll try to keep this short and.....well, short.  I had an appointment with my Duke Lymphoma Oncologist this morning. I was scheduled for the blood work at 11:00am and for the doctor at 12:00pm.  We didn't have to wait long for the blood work so we figured that meant we would have a longer wait for the doctor.  As it turned out, they were running ahead of schedule and got us in right away.  It was the fastest appointment I have had at the Duke Cancer Center since I've been going there over two years now. The other good news is my blood work didn't show many changes so I was pretty happy with how it all went today.  Dr. Beaven asked me how often I see my Melanoma physicians and I explained how I see one of them every 6 months - when I see my Radiation Oncologist, he schedules me to see my Melanoma Surgeon in 3 months - then when I see him, he schedules me to see the ....you get the point.  She then suggested we change my appointment schedule with her to every 6 months instead of every 3 months and I agreed that it would be fine. I haven't scheduled a follow-up appointment with my other Lymphoma Oncologist and may just stop going to him altogether.  It really is a duplication of efforts having two of them.  I'm not going to worry about it since I can make that decision later.  I was happy that I had time to listen to a young man playing the baby grand in the downstairs lobby while waiting for the car to be brought out front.  That piano has a beautiful quality to it - especially when it is played by someone so talented. Made me think of Barbara Ann - she played beautifully too....

I may have shared this before but ran across it in my jewelry drawer and decided to share it again. I always loved hearing Mama sing this song so one day, I made her write it down for me.  I also love seeing her handwriting again.  Brings back nothing but good memories and feelings.....

Debbie came to clean yesterday and I asked her to help shake out the valances in the kitchen. She actually made these for me after Sue had bought the material for them when she was here last. Dwight came home in time to help her hang them back up after I was given the job of putting them back on the rods.  She also pinned up several skirts I want her to hem for me.  I realized today that I may have given her a skirt I was planning to wear to the Assembly Saturday. I'm pretty sure I can make do with another one I have that didn't need any alterations. 

Dwight asked me if I needed anything from the store and under my breath I said, flowers.  It worked - he brought me this small bunch of daisies! This was taken as soon as I put them in water. About an hour later, the water had turned a deep pink color.  Actually looks even prettier that way. 

This is a great picture of three of my favorite people in the world.  I miss Ike and Ennis so much.  I'm sure Judy misses them even more than I do.  I just realized I haven't written anything about Aunt Eunice.  I received  call from her daughter, Evelyn, telling me she had died this past Sunday.

She was 86 years old and the last of my Aunts (last of that generation) on both sides of my family.  She was married to Mama's brother, Charlie, but Mama loved her as much as if she was her own sister. She and Uncle Charlie had three children, Dwayne (Joy), Rex (June) and Evelyn (Barry).  Dwayne and his wife, Joy, died a few years ago. I know Evelyn and Rex will miss her but life will move on.

 

 It is a little unsettling to realize you are now part of the older generation in your family. That you and your cousins make up that generation Mama and Aunt Eunice used to be from.  It brought back home that there are only 4 sisters now - not the original 6 or the long term 5 girls in Mama and Daddy's family - just the four girls and their children and for some grandchildren.  Oh well, this one really makes me sad.  She really was a very special lady and will be missed by everyone who knew her. I have been fighting sleep the entire time I've been trying to write this. I really do need to give up and let the sleep I've been fighting take me away to dream land.  Good night.......