More episodes

or spells, or whatever you want to call them. Mother had another little episode today. It's her right side & her hand & foot goes numb. And she just gets weak.

Then a breathing spell. I had spent the afternoon with her. We watched a movie from Netflix. A Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, "Homecoming" with Anne Bancroft. The movie is based on the novel "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt. One of my favorite books.

I went to the grocery store & did some shopping for her, went back, fixed supper & she ate that. I left & I only got a couple of blocks. The wind was gusting & the dust was bad, lightning was flashing. I decided to go back & roll up the window's on Nan's Am (Don-Mike's 1980 Trans Am) & help Mother with her open windows. I got back, rolled up the windows on the car, went in the house & couldn't find Mother. She was in Don-Mike's room struggling with the windows. She could barely breathe.

Puttering she was not. She was downright working. I had put Don-Mike's work uniforms in the washer & told her they were there. She had got the clothes out of the dryer, hung them up, & put the uniforms in the dryer when the wind came up. So she was hurrying around, closing the windows & was ready to collapse. I sat with her, helped her with her inhaler & she finally caught her breath. She'd been too long without oxygen, too.

OMG, I need a book blog

I found another reading blog AND another challenge. As if I need another one. I added it on "Other Blogs I Like To Read." At least I think that's what the name of the list is, LOL. The new blog is She Read a Book. It requires 250 points.

Mother needs more practice puttering

Today was a production day for the weekly newspaper I work for. Production days are hard. Some harder than others. One of the things I enjoy about my job is flexibility. What is it about Monday & Tuesday that brings on personal crises? The days I really can't be flexible.

Today was a typical Monday with not one crisis, not 2, but 3! Mail at our house tends to get buried. Is it any wonder we're always living on the edge financially? I picked up a stack of towels on the arm of a chair & found a final notice of a final Qwest bill! What???? Of course, it couldn't be taken care of over the weekend. And I couldn't get online. So, this morning I clocked out & went out & sat in the car to call. Forty-five minutes later I returned to work.

The second crisis came at 4:17. Don-Mike called to tell me Mother was having an episode. He was on his way back to work. I called Luana & asked her to check on Mother. She suggested I call Dr. Beckstead & see what he said. I really enjoy having Mother's doctor right here in town. I called, talked to his nurse, she said she'd talk to Dr. B & call me back. She did. He didn't seem too concerned, but said to watch her. He was on call tonight at the hospital if we needed to come in.

I decided Mother was having caffeine withdrawal. Don called while I was talking to Luana. So, I called Don back & asked him to go get Mother some Mt. Dew. I also asked him to bring me a refill of ... you guessed it ... Mt. Dew. Don brought my refill & while he was there, Nick called, angry & frustrated. He hung up on Don. Don jumped right up & tore out of the office like he was being pursued. Next, I received a phone call from Nick, which was incoherent & he hung up on ME. So, I took off. I did have the presence of mind to grab my street glasses, bag, clock out & lock the door after me. It was after 6 & I was there alone.

Don, knowing Nick was working on a car, was afraid the car had fallen on him. I, not knowing what he was doing, thought maybe he, or one of the cats, was hurt & bleeding. He was okay. Just frustrated & jumped to the conclusion that his dad would take forever.

At 8 o'clock, I decided to call it a day. Besides I've promised Kelly (publisher) & Rod (editor) that I will not stay later than 8.

I went directly over to Mother's. Luana was there. Mother had red all over her shirt. That gave me a jump start. I thought it was blood! No, she'd missed her mouth when she was eating some red jello that Luana had brought her. That concerns me. She missed her mouth.

The washer was going. I had heard her say something about washing Levis when I was talking to Luana earlier in the afternoon. I thought we'd talked her out of doing the laundry. I didn't want her up when she was weak on one side. Luana had started the washer. I love having Mother right next door to Luana.

Tomorrow is another day. Dr. Beckstead wants to see Mother in the morning.

The fine art of puttering

Mother had a checkup with her new primary care physician, Dr. Beckstead. He again reviewed her meds with her. He reviewed why she was in the hospital, congestive heart failure. He wants her to continue to take the 80 mg of lasix & not to work, but to putter. So, I asked him to define puttering, LOL.

He said puttering is a fine art. You have to work at it. He doesn't want her working. She's worked hard all her life, now it's time to putter. She can get up & walk out into the kitchen & get herself a Pepsi. Then he laughed & said maybe he shouldn't have said Pepsi. I said it was ok, Mt. Dew is Mother's drink of choice. OK, she can get up & go get her a Mt. Dew. She can walk around out side & sit in the swing for 15 minutes. But while she is wandering around outside, she is not to grab that hose she sees laying there & drag it around. If she sees the vacuum sitting out because someone forgot to put it away. Leave it there. That is a job for the boys.

He doesn't want her to do anything to make her breathe hard. Just putter. He was pleased that her ankles are down. They are not as swollen as they have been. He wants her to continue taking the 80 mg of lasix & see him in a month.

Disappointing response to article

Well, at this rate, there is no earthly way any one of our Franklin County charities is going to make it into the top 200. What is so hard about voting?? People can play Farmville & all the other games, yet they can't take a few minutes to figure out how to vote on Chase Community Giving.

We had 12 votes on the Oneida Stake Academy when the paper hit the news stand. We now have 27!!! Only 27 measly votes. West Side School District has 6, 4 when we started. I am so disappointed.

Necia Seamons called me a cheerleader on a discussion of the Oneida Stake Academy's Facebook page. I'm jumping around making a fool of myself & no one gets motivated.

25 years ago today

Today is Don-Mike's 25th birthday. I told him we were both feeling better today than we did 25 years ago. Don told Don-Mike he wasn't eating steak that day. Neither was I, for that matter. I was one sick woman. And my baby wasn't doing too good either. But 25 years later we were sitting on the patio at Deer Cliff Inn celebrating Dm's birthday. It was a little chilly, but I did see a mosquito. One lonely little mosquito.

I don't have any current pictures, but this is a good one that was taken at Glacier National Park in July of 2008.

Happy Birthday, Don-Mike.

What 7 charities?

Ok, I should have previewed before I clicked "Publish Post." What 7 charities do I endorse? All but the NCVTG, of course, the Wyatt Foundation, United States Bowling Congress and whatever the Habitit is. Yes, it is actually entered as Habitit. Vicki wouldn't let me leave it misspelled in the paper, LOL.

Facebook article in newspaper

I am a published author. Ok, I've been a published author for several years now. Does having articles published in your local newspaper count as being a published author? I doubt it, but this is my FIRST front page article. It will be published in the Wednesday, June 23, edition. Comments in blue are notes from me & will not appear in the paper, LOL

Facebook users can vote for county charities (I think that's the title of it.)

By RaNAE BARTLOME
Citizen copy editor (Rod wasn't going to give me a byline credit, but I didn't want Tom, who writes as CITIZEN STAFF, to get credit for MY story.)

The power of giving is in your hands at Chase Community Giving on Facebook. A few months ago Chase gave away $5 million dollars to 200 charities. They are back to give away another $5 million. We can help decide which 200 charities receive donations.

Eleven Franklin County charities, and many others throughout Cache Valley, are entered in this go round. These charities are the Oneida Stake Academy, Franklin County Healthcare Foundation, Preston Community Food Pantry, West Side School District, Preston Education Foundation, Franklin County Theatre Arts Council (FCTAC), Franklin County Senior Center, Wyatt Foundation, United States Bowling Council, Idaho Sportsman for Habitat and Northern Cache Valley Theater Guild (NCVTG). (Don't vote for NCVTG. It is no longer a valid charity. They changed their name 6-7 years ago! It is now FCTAC.)

All we have to do is vote for them. However, there are over 7,000 charities entered. As of Monday, the top vote getter had over 1,000 votes, the lowest of the top 200 only had 61. If Big J’s (a local fast food restaurant) can get over 1,000 (Facebook) fans in just 2 weeks, the potential is there for one or more of our charities to make it into the top 200. If a charity just makes it into the top 200, they will receive $20K. How easy is that? You don’t even have to remember to go to the library or the Robinson Building (local community center) to vote (and spend 5 minutes arguing with the election person that your last name really doesn't have an "h" in it. After all you know how to spell your last name better than she does). All you have to do is log into your Facebook account and vote from there.

Here’s how to get started. Log into your Facebook account, type in Chase Community Giving in the search bar at the top of the page, above your name. That takes you to the home page of Chase Community Giving. Halfway down the page it says, “Voting Open Now.” Click the “Like” button and you are in. There is a button that says “Search & Vote.” Click the button and enter 83263. Franklin County charities are on the first three pages. Each participant has 20 votes.

Chase will close the initial voting on July 12.

Another round of voting will begin in which the top 200 vote getters from the current round of voting competes. The top charity receives $250,000, four will receive $100,000 and 195 others receive $20,000!

I blogged about Chase Community Giving a few months ago here and here.

I would really like to see these 7 charities up there in the top 200 charities. Right now there are only 9 votes for the Oneida Stake Academy & 3 or 4 for the other 7. NCVTG has 2 votes, mine & Don's. That was before we found out that NCVTG was no more. Three of the charities have no votes because I voted for 5-6 SMA charities.

Summer Solstice

Don reminded me today that the summer solstice is tomorrow, June 21. OMG, we finally got a nice warm day. Don said the temp got up to 91 today. The garden finally got planted. They left 2 tomato plants for me to plant in my upside down buckets.

Wow!

What a change on my new background. I was loving my floral background until I discovered there was a rabbit on it. I was using an Easter background & didn't even know it! So, I went looking for a new background. I've had a headache all day & so, one was too bright, one was too dark, one popped too much, the stripes were just, um, not the thing I had in mind. I really couldn't find one I liked any better than the Easter background until I found this one. Talk about pop!! Oh, well, I'm ready for summer.

Hope you enjoy it. If you find it changed within the next day or 2, know it "popped" too much.

Not a public restroom ...

I finished the book All I  Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. It took me 6 weeks to read it because I read it a little bit at a time. I carried it in my bag & took it out when I was waiting. I thoroughly enjoyed this book & gave it 5 stars. I have several pieces of paper sticking out of the top of the book marking things I want to remember.

There was an essay toward the end of the book about people going into other peoples bathrooms & looking in their medicine cupboard & just plain snooping. Fulghum says he has a friend that does it all the time. The friend is doing research for a PhD. in sociology. If you want to know the truth about people, that's the place to go. You can tell all sorts of things about people just from their bathroom. The friend says most people are secret slobs.

OK, I'm no secret slob. The world knows I'm a slob. I'm one of those SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives). All you have to do is take one look at me & know I'm a slob. If you are lucky enough to get in the door to my house, you don't have to wonder, you can see for yourself. If you can make it to my bathroom, ...

Fulghum ends the essay by saying, "And from now on, please go to the bathroom before you visit me. Mine is closed to the public."

At Farmer's Insurance yesterday I noticed an 8-1/2 x 11 piece of paper taped to the wall, "Not a public restroom." I wondered what was in their restroom. I really needed to go. Really bad. But not bad enough to show them I was functionally illiterate. I can read AND I can comprehend what I read.

Since it's more interesting to read a blog with pictures, instead of just read a blog, I went looking for a picture & I found one. I also found out how to clean a bathroom. Wow! Who knew it could be so easy. Maybe, just maybe you'll check my blog some day & see a picture of my clean bathroom. However, I wouldn't count on it.

An interesting connection

President Porter, the stake president that performed Bonnie & Travis' wedding, is a distant relative. I met him the first time at Bonnie's brother Matt's wedding. Pres. Porter was their bishop at the time. He has been stake president for 5 and a half years, so Matt's wedding was about 6 years ago.

Gloria, my sister-in-law who is also Bonnie & Matt's mom, introduced us. Of course, the name Porter is fairly common, but ... you never know, there might be a connection. Gigi, who is also Gloria, said we were from Idaho. President Porter said his family comes from Southern Utah. OK, I remember going to Escalante when my folks took my Grandpa (Fred) Porter to meet some relatives. Grandpa's grandpa was Jared Porter & he settled in Escalante. So, I asked where in Southern Utah. He said Escalante. So, I got excited about that. I asked who his grandfather was. He said Jared Riley Porter. Jared Riley is Jared's son from his 2nd wife, I think it was his 2nd wife. The one that died in Wyoming crossing the plains.

Our grandmother is Harriet Preece Porter. She divorced Jared & moved "home" to Cache Valley, bringing the younger kids with her. She lived with her brother Mark Preece. Harriet named a son Mark. Her brother Mark named a daughter Harriet & called her Hattie. Our grandmother married a man named Joseph Perkins. Mapleton was originally named St. Joseph for him. Harriet Preece Porter Perkins is buried alone in the Porter section of the Franklin Cemetery.

Small world, huh?

Bonnie's wedding

Some pictures of Bonnie's wedding.

President Cornell Porter giving some advice before he pronounced them husband & wife. I took this picture from my seat. I was sitting behind Bonnie's mother, Gloria or Gigi.

 

Don took this picture of Travis & Bonnie leaving the church for some pictures.

Bonnie looks so happy.

Sleepin' the day away

I didn't go to bed until 2:30 a.m. last night, but I also didn't get up until 3:45 p.m. I was awakened several times, but just couldn't seem to get up. My head ached ferociously. Finally I got up and took the lexapro. If I don't take it, I feel terrible. I thought maybe the fact that I hadn't had my meds might be causing my headache. I opened a can of Mt. Dew, thinking maybe it was the lack of caffeine. I took ibuprofen, hoping that would help. The ache dulled enough, I could get up.

Yesterday at the wedding the photographer took LOTS of pictures. I know flashes will cause my head to ache, so I tried to not look. I missed a lot of the wedding just because I couldn't look. The photographer hovered taking picture after picture.

I fixed supper. Weird supper, but hey, it was filling & didn't take much to fix.

I'm still really wiped out & my head still aches. I've read my scriptures, checked out my favorite blogs & now I'm ready to go to bed - again.

The visitors

I love Facebook. Because of it I can connect with friends all over the U.S. When I was just a toddler, the Walborns moved to Preston from Ohio. So, their friendship spans almost 60 years. When their kids, Sylvia & Charles were in high school, they moved to Logan.

Their daughter Sylvia died a few years ago, 4 or 5 at least, & my sister Wanda died almost 40 years ago. But I connected with their son Charles on Facebook. Charlie lives in Georgia. I found out, through Facebook, that he was spending the summer with his folks, who are both in their mid-late 80s. I wanted to take Mother down to see them, but Charlie brought his folks up to see Mother today.

We went to Big J's for lunch. Is there anywhere else in Preston to go?

Charles and his folks, Bob & Loretta, with my mom. Mother ordered a fruit pizza from Pizza Villa. The rest of us had almost finished eating before Mother even got her pizza.

Look how all three of them are wearing red. Loretta has to have oxygen all the time. She is on 5 liters. Mother is only on 2.5 liters, but I think this is the first time Mother has worn her oxygen in public in Preston. But, hey, she was in good company.

I invited the boys to come up & have lunch with us. Don-Mike had the day off. They are in the booth behind me. I didn't get pictures of them. I should have.

After Walborns left, I took the opportunity to make a couple of calls I needed to & while I was on hold, Mother's sister Onda & her husband Keith walked in. They had been up to see Dorin. Luana walked across the driveway & so the 3 sisters got a chance to visit.

After Keith & Onda left, I was going to work on my DUP, but I was so tired, I laid down "just for a minute." I never felt like I ever fell asleep, but I didn't "wake" up til almost 8. I was one tired old lady.

OT-Day 7

It's been a whole week of reading the Old Testament. Tonight I read Genesis 24:63-27:35. I am on Day 7 of 213 days. I plan to finish on New Year's Eve.

Mother spent most of last week in the Franklin County Medical Center, Tuesday through Saturday, with congestive heart failure & pneumonia.

This week is shaping up to be a very busy week, sigh. One of those Little Gingerbread Man Syndrome weeks - run, run as fast as you can. A week that is a month long.

New car

I got my car back today! W00t! W00t! I am so happy. Nick got a new car, 2008 Chevy Impala, pretty red 4-door. He's happy!!

Old Testament reading schedule

Since I have finished The Book of Mormon & I want to continue reading the scriptures daily, I turned to www.readthescriptures.com & created my own schedule. I want to read the Old Testament by Dec. 31, 2010. I did the math & that is 214 days. So, rather than have to figure out just what I'll be reading, when, the web site will do it for me. I read the first reading assignment tonight, Genesis 1-4.

I love reading online, it is easier for me than trying to follow the little print in the book.

I still haven't blogged about my trip to St. Louis, but it is coming.