THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

On the ceiling in my room are 11 plastic glow-in-the-dark stars in different sizes. They are in the shape of the big dipper. When my daughter Nan was around six, (2001)I was going through another though time as far as health goes. I had been diagnosed with a tumor in one of my bones in my right forearm. The doctor diagnosed it as probably being cancer. I was to under go multiple test including a full body bone scan (this would let us know if there were other tumors), a CAT scan, and an MRI. These would all take about a month. Then I would have the surgery in which they would drill into my bone and remove the tumor. Before the surgery, I was told they weren't sure exactly what was going to happen when they got in there. Worst case scenario was I would loose my arm from the elbow down. I spent quite a bit of time in bed while waiting for the surgery. I tried to work as much as I could (waitressing), but being on such high doses of Lortab made it hard to stay awake and hard to concentrate. On night while I was at work, Nan decided that if I was going to have to spend so much time in bed, she was going to give me something to look at. I spent a lot of time looking at that ceiling in the months that followed my surgery. They are still there 13 years later. They are just one of the things that make me happy. I have found it doesn't take much; bubbles in soda, my family, silly things my dogs do, being able to move in the morning. These all make me happy.

JUST PUT THE STUPID BOOK DOWN AND GO TO SLEEP!!

I am having one of those "approach with caution" days. I don't know, maybe it was the fact that I stayed up until 4 am reading a novel, thinking all the time, "just put the stupid book down". Then I finally get to the end of the book. What a huge let down!! I hate books like that. Now I'm sitting here, it's 4:10 pm. In an hour, I have to go to work (waitress). I have spent the last 2 hours trying to remember the password to get into this blog. Do you know how many passwords are floating around in my head. So I thought I would just reset the password. I couldn't remember the answers to the security questions. Tell me, if you can't remember a stupid password, how do they expect you to remember the last person you e-mailed from that blog, when the last time you logged onto the blog, including month, date, and year, and who your first childhood friend was. So I have spent the entire day accomplishing nothing. I could have slept the entire day and got as much done.

GRAPEVINE PERGOLA-UPDATE

Just thought I'd post another picture of the grapevine pergola we built. This is only the begining of summer of year number three. By the end of summer, it should fill in quite nicely.

GRAPEVINE PERGOLA

Our house is south facing and we needed some shade for the patio. I wanted something unusual to provide the shade we needed. My husband went to one of our neighboring towns for lunch and saw this same set up at a burger joint there and decided it was exactly what I was looking for. When I saw it, I fell in love with how it looked. The owner is Greek and told us that where he comes from everyone has grapevines growing over their pergolas. His pergola has been around a few more years so it has filled in a lot more (this is only our second year). Eventually, it will cover the entire pergola for lots of shade and provide us with grapes to eat and make juice out of. Just make sure you plant white or green grapes, not purple or red (very messy).