Game of Thorns

Being a sucker for political books, when this popped up somewhere, I went straight to eBay and bought it. 

No doubt there will be a lot more books out there about the election, and my advice is to skip this one and wait for one that wasn't rushed out so quickly.  Much of the book is devoted to previous Clinton scandals, which on one hand are old and rehashed many times but on the other hand are germane to the discussion of Hillary's potential election.

At least a dozen glaring spelling and punctuation errors ruined the reading experience for me. And I expected more about the events of election night. The author also tends to toot his own horn throughout. 

However, the book was yet another reminder of how, though Trump has his own glaring flaws, I am so thankful that Hillary was not elected.  How we ended up with two such weak candidates is a huge shame.  However - those were our choices, and at least Trump is not a continuance of the Clinton machine.

Friday's Fave Five, 3-24-17

LINK to Friday's Fave Five host blog

My parents at Andrew's wedding 6/3/16

1. Today my parents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.  That is quite an accomplishment in this era when longevity in marriage is not common.  The celebration is much quieter than originally planned, due to my dad's recent health issues, but it's still a cause for great acclaim.

2. Last Sunday we went to our son and his wife's church in Georgia for a special speaker and then a church dinner.  We really enjoyed seeing our friends there once again, and hearing the speaker, who is the head of the mission group that our son went to China with.  It was a great morning.


 3. Please see the previous post titled "Wear White for William."  (William was our great nephew.)  This cause is not for raising money, or anything of the sort; it's only for raising awareness about meningitis and organ donation.  Word about this is spreading rapidly.   If you would like to help spread awareness about this, please consider wearing white for William on April 5 - and letting people know about it through any form of social media or any other way.

4. Last night I went to sleep at 10:30 and didn't hear another thing until 5:40 the next morning when the alarm went off.  Maybe that sounds odd.  However, it has not happened in quite a few years.  I awakened with a wonderful, rested feeling!

5. Our Gamecocks are headed to the Sweet Sixteen!!  A great accomplishment for a team/school that is not known for its basketball accomplishments!

Wear White for William

Our great-nephew, William, age 12, died in late January of spinal meningitis.  He got sick very quickly and was gone surprisingly fast - in a matter of a couple of days.

William loved golf, especially the Masters.  In an effort to bring awareness to the issue of bacterial meningitis, and how quickly it can happen; and also to bring awareness to the issue of organ donation - William's dad has started "Wear White for William" on April 5, Wednesday of Masters week.

Word is spreading rapidly.  News stations, schools, organizations, are picking up the drumbeat.  This is not an attempt to make money, or raise money - just to bring awareness to meningitis and organ donation.

If you read this, no matter where in the country you live, please consider encouraging people to Wear White for William on Wednesday, April 5!

Please use the hashtag #wearwhiteforwilliam, and if you do wear white on April 5, please post a picture to the FB page wearwhiteforwilliam!  Thank you!

And please feel free to put a link to this blog post as well.  We want to spread the word far and wide.

So - I'm old-fashioned.  It may not spread the word the way the internet will, but a bulletin board will at least spread the word at our school:

Close-ups of the information on the bulletin board:

Friday's Fave Five 3-10-17

LINK to Friday's Fave Five host blog

I hesitated on which picture to put at the top of this post.  The week has been beautiful - temps around 70, some rain but a lot of sunshine.  But by Sunday we are to have cold rains and temps no higher than the 40s.  I told someone today that springtime is a great time - it would just be nice if it would follow winter this year.

1. After about ten days of sickness, I am finally at about 85%.  After writing last week's FFF, I was back down for the count for the entire weekend.  No fever, just debilitating cough and the accompanying exhaustion.  It is a slow process, but we are getting there.

2. Dad is a lot better.  He is home from the 2nd hospital stay.  He has a ways to go to get energy back, but he is doing well.

3. Mike has been off.  This week, he took Dad & Mom to an appointment, blew out their garage, cooked breakfast four mornings out of five, did laundry, dusted, and just generally kept up with things around here.  He is a keeper.

4. Hats. For whatever reason, I've gotten crazy about making loom hats.  I especially like doing them now that I've figured out how to make a nice brim with a purl stitch along with a regular knitted stitch (see red hat at left and hat in the single picture).  Mike asks what all these hats are for - I don't know but know that the reason will be clear at the right time.  For now, it's just fun to make hats.

5. These little goodies.  I am notorious for throwing out wildflower seed every spring and then doing absolutely nothing to nurture anything.  And usually nothing happens.  However, an entire bed is filling up right now with these little beauties, which must be left over from a previous year of seed-throwing.  They'll be doing well to survive our cold weather this weekend.  But it's kinda fun to see something happen after all those years of just tossing seed out.

Friday's Fave Five, 3/3/17

LINK to Friday's Fave Five host blog

1. Finally appear to be on the mend after a week's worth of bronchitis and head stuff.  "On the mend" does not mean "mended."  It takes a L-O-N-G time to get over this.  But it's a far cry from how I felt last Sunday morning when I went to an urgent care, because Monday was too long to wait.  Now if my husband can just get to feeling better also.  He has a 100 fever, which for him means he is really sick, because he rarely runs a fever.

2. My dad's surgery this week appears to have been successful, and he will probably be getting out of the hospital this weekend.  Now maybe we can get him on the mend as well!!

3. Thankful for a supportive job situation and a boss that said "Stay out all week if you need it."  I did go back today (but probably shouldn't have).

4. Soup and muffins from my mom, a chicken salad sandwich picked up by my daughter, and a breakfast sandwich brought home by Mike - so nice not to have to figure out much food this week.
M&Ms from my sister (inside joke), plus her being here for two weeks to stay with my folks - plus her tag-teaming with my other sister who is here for the weekend.

5. Our little house is gone.  It rode away yesterday in all its glory to a new home.  17 years of memories, but it was time to have it gone!

I am thankful that February is over with and March is here!  Hopefully March will bring better things than February did!

The End of an Era

The little house in our back yard is no more, at least not for us.

When I think of the little pool house, I remember ML and her friend Alicia spending many hours in there doing all the fun things young girls do when they have a little house like that to play in.  I remember children of all ages running in to change clothes before jumping into the pool.  I remember little boys whose moms told them to "hurry!!!" to get to the restroom in time.  I remember sneaking out there to nap on the couch when just a few minutes of privacy were a desperate need.  I remember most of all long Friday evenings when our teenage children and their friends would watch movies on the little TV out there, free from the parents hanging over their shoulders all the time, but with me bringing food out about every half hour, which was my sneaky way of making sure everything was OK.

The pool is gone.  There was really no more need for the little house.  It might have made a nice "she-shack" for me and all my little projects, but we really wanted it out of the way because it neatly blocked any good view of the back yard.  And with the fence around the pool no longer an issue, we really did want it out of the way.  Moving it into another place on our property, then re-plumbing and re-wiring, would have been quite a job.

So we sold it on Craigslist.  It took the buyer a couple of months to get down here (a several hour ride) to get it.  He and his workers got it onto a trailer, but discovered that it was not stable enough to take it up the highway.  So - they re-sold it to a man at a crane company that they had contacted about stabilizing it.

Those people came this morning.  They knew exactly what they were doing, and had the house strapped down and ready to go in a couple of hours.  And they rolled away.  

So it's goodbye, little house.  The end of an era.