Night Lights and Liver......Yuck

Update on son.

Keith is really struggling with forgiveness for these men along with the physical aspects. He has no idea when he might even be able to return to work as an RN. The ringing has continued so loudly he can barely hear anything else. The headache persists. The vision is still cloudy. The doctors have not been able to tell him if these issues will even ever clean up. That's the frustrating thing for him. He called the hospital to set up some kind of counseling and is going to call his bishop for spiritual counseling with him on forgiveness. I think his spirit is wounded even more than his physical body at the moment. I think that any and all of you mothers out there can sort of understand what I'm going through at the moment. I lay awake at night praying. I also get weepy during the day when I think of how valiant he was and why this had to happen to him. But I truly do have faith this will get better.
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Then last friday morning Love Bunny told me he was experiencing vision problems since the day before—bright flashes of light in his left eye. I told him to get into QuickCare asap and he was over there by 8 am. They set him up with an ophthalmologist at 3 pm that afternoon and at 4 pm he walked into the house and told me he had to be back at the eye doctor in 25 minutes for emergency surgery. He said I had to go and drive him there and back as if I wouldn't have anyway. *Sigh*........ I take things in stride usually but I thought he was joking. He wasn't! So they lasered a tear in his left retina that afternoon. I could tell after about half of the laser shots that he was hurting badly because he motioned for me to be silent. This man doesn't "hurt" very often, I tell ya!

I then treated him to liver and onions (one of his favorites and I refuse to even be in the same state as liver if I can avoid it, much less COOK the stuff!) at this "restaurant" (using the term loosely as you all can admit being in one of these places at some time in your life! You know the kind of place I mean—where the dust balls hang from the ceiling and the waitresses call you "honey" and do everything but burp ya and you're afraid they might even try that!) for being so brave having his eye beeped with 183 laser "shots." He was grateful because I absolutely hate going into this cheap greasy place to eat. But I thought he deserved it! Men tend to want their mummies and wives with them at times like this and we mummies and wives certainly want to BE there at times like this.

Is life ever going to get back to an even keel around this house?!!?! Hmmmmm??
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I put the sheers back out on the patio. (Will I ever get this backyard like I want it?!?!?) Then I decided to put some strings of lights I have around the poles and light it up back there for a more romantic feel. And we alllllll know how I feel about romantic feel! Yes, it turned out quite well I think. Oh, it's not like those fancy homes that have gobs of money to have it done professionally but it does serve the purpose I wanted.

I think the azalea survived the winter in the family room but not so sure about the hibiscus and bougainvillea in the front yard that Love Bunny had under some of those styrofoam things you get at WM or Home Depot. We'll see, but they look a bit pathetic when he uncovered them yesterday.

Squeeeeeeeeal!!! With the lights on last night. I love the feel they give the patio.

Couture Dresses

These dresses aren't made by the great couture houses of europe but by ordinary women here in the U.S.A. who wanted to learn how to do it for their own wardrobes. Each one was made for themselves to wear. Magnificent! See what you can do by making your own clothes when you know the techniques. Aren't these gorgeous?! I think they're absolutely beautifully stunning!!!!

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Random Thought:

Are the Burger King and Dairy Queen married? And if they are, is Carl's Jr. their offspring?! Just wondering, chicks.

Sharing the Gift

I've been looking at some beautiful art prints to buy to supplement my favorite wall in our living room and came across this one a while back by my all time favorite artist, Susan Rios. Just about all the prints on this wall are by her so it was wonderful to add to my collection. I love her art and we've been emailing back and forth. What a sense of humor this woman has. I am astounded by her beautiful paintings and showed her a picture of my wall. I think she liked it, but I would truly love to be able to paint like this little chickee. Oh my, how gorgeous is this one! It is called "Sharing the Gift" and I'd love to have a patio like this one on which to sit with lace cushions, smell the roses and dream of my garden.

This is how it looks on that wall above the biggest painting
Closer view of it.

And a little mosaic table my daughter made that I confiscated while down in California last week. It fits just perfectly there by my chair. I've been looking all over for a side table to sit in that area but wasn't able to find anything. Thank goodness I found this in her garage while down there.
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Random Thought

If you can't forgive your hubby or wife of anything, then you don't love them enough.

Saving Money on Repairs and Being Green

A couple of months ago I almost burned the house down from cooking. I turned the stove burner to low and I mean real low but something malfunctioned and it didn't go low, instead, it went HIGH! Luckily we caught it in time.

Now, does this mean I shouldn't cook anymore. Nuuuuuuu, hubby doesn't like that kind of talk since he really enjoys eating but likes to save money any time he can. Me??? I just want things to work well and as they should and not become a hazard. He's my hero when it comes to fixing things but for this particular time he was busy with some other business and told me to call an appliance repairman. I did. Just to have that man come in cost me $70.00 plus the cost of the part. It was a switch behind the knob, not the element itself. Hubby was flabbergasted at the price. So I happened to do some research on doing the job ourselves and found a wonderful place to buy replacement parts for just about any and every appliance you can imagine. If you need to replace any part of an appliance go to EasyApplianceParts and buy it at a savings and repair it yourself. Save money!!

Now, the advantages are cost saving in more ways than one. First of all, you don't pay for a repairman to come out and I think it's important these days to know how to fix your own appliances. Our stove is less than 4 years old and no way were we going to buy a new one. I just wish I had known there were people on the internet who sell appliance parts at a discount so we could have saved 70+ dollars. With the economy the way it is every little bit helps. Plus things aren't put into a landfill to rust for eternity. It just makes sense to save money, be as "green" as you can and get it done quicker. Oh, did I mention it took him almost 2 weeks to get here?

Looks like a simple stainless steel sink, huh??? Nope, it has so many things underneath that you wouldn't believe it. The spout on the right hand side with the little black handle is for instant hot water for hot drinks. That's very hot water. The curved neck spout on the extreme left is filtered cool water. But there's even more underneath the sink. We have an instant hot water tank that gives us instant hot water for washing hands and dishes. This is not as hot as the spout for drinks however. So you can imagine how many things could go wrong just under our sink!

We all need to know where to get the correct part for any appliance in our homes and to learn how to do it ourselves. It just makes sense, ladies!

Creating For A Special Chick

I created this for a chick. She doesn't yet know she is getting it. It's made of shabby roses fabric, paper roses, tissue paper garland, buttons, netting around the bottom, a "special chick sigh" and little charms. I can't wait until she gets it.

I am sooooo loving this new camera and the pix it takes. Much better than a few weeks ago!!
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