A Fathers Day To Remember

So, Don and I had decided that we weren't going to make a big deal about mothers day or fathers day this year because of our kitchen and bath reno and how it uncovered all these extra things we needed like ripping up the flooring completely, layers and layers of vinyl and ceramic through the years and warping subfloors.

We had a nice little budget worked out for these renovations and I was doing a ton of the work myself... especially since I'm a DIY pro after all the HGTV and DIY I watched this winter and spring when I had bronchitis and no voice. I took notes and everything. ;)

Well, mothers day was nice and quiet and Don kindly stuck to the rules and he and Katie got me great cards and fixed me a yummy breakfast in bed.

However, me feeling like Don is the most incredible father and husband and he's done SOOOO much this year during my struggles with depression and loosing Gran. He took WONDERFUL care of Katie... I didn't spend a lot of money but I wanted to make the day special.

So, I looked on Cafe Press and tried to find a couple of fun t-shirts (in black of course). I looked all through the Apple stuff and decided on one that said iDAD. Katie loved it. We also picked out a LOST tshirt for him.

Long story getting longer... Katie and I went shopping yesterday at bargain stores for little trinkets to finish off the kitchen. I found these beautiful lace place mats and even cuter napkin holders. They are a lovely white, which I intend to change to black to go with the kitchen. I'll have to spray the napkin holders and dye the place mats. More crafty type things I've learned lately watching HGTV. ;)

Well, last night when Katie and I were getting his tshirts ready in a gift bag and his cards ready... I got the idea to use one of the frilly pink gift bags that I had with pink tissue paper and I put the lace placemats, napkin holders and even some new dishtowels in the bag.

Katie and I giggled all night. First thing this morning (6:45 to be exact) she wakes me up and says "is it time to give dad his gift?" Man, I thought kids were only suppose to do that on Christmas morning.

Don had a long wedding yesterday and didn't get in til midnight so I told Katie we were just going to let him sleep. I had gotten all the stuff to make his favorite breakfast... scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, biscuits and hash browns. All those things I can cook just fine except for the dog gone hash browns. They were those shredded ones like you get at iHop and you have to cook them with oil. I hate cooking with oil. I avoid recipes like the plague that require oil in a skillet.

Well, we started getting breakfast going about 9:30 thinking the turkey bacon cooking would wake him up. That thinking was dead on. Katie made him sit outside the kitchen and brought him magazines and orange juice for his wait.

Everything was going fine with me fixing breakfast. I was getting use to the new stove and range. VERY DIFFERENT!! I had everything going at once and all of a sudden, I realized those $@*! hash browns were burning. By the time I realized, the smoke alarm (which is tied to ADT) started going off. Don immediately put in the code to stop it. Well, ADT started calling us but we wouldn't know this because our cell phones were in the bedroom.

So, about 3-4 minutes go by, we've opened windows and turned on the fan to clear out the smoky from the $#@! hash browns. In the distance we heard sirens that got closer and closer. Guess who came to visit Don for fathers day! The Rural Metro Fire Department.

Guess what else? It was their second visit this week. When Eddie was here Thursday helping Don with the electrical work, they accidentally set off the alarm. Don didn't think it lasted long enough to matter, his cell was in the office and he was with Eddie upstairs. I was at AC's and always have my phone on silent. Both these times, they called my best friend Lisa who in turned tried to call us to make sure everything was ok.

This morning, Don explained again what happened Thursday and what happened this morning and they were all laughing. He asked if we'd be charged for it and they said NO unless it started becoming a habit. I wont be cooking with oil anymore so it definitely wont be a habit.

Long story continuing to be even longer... we ate breakfast which was yummy except for the $#@! which were down the disposal. When we finished breakfast, Katie went and got Don the joke gift. He was all confused about the pink bag and then just figured I was saving $$$ recycling a gift bag. Then when he started pulling stuff out, his ears turned red and I know he was thinking..."$#@!, I know we said our gifts to each other were the kitchen reno but lace.... Seriously?!"

We all laughed hard and he finally picked up that it was a gag. Then we gave him the real gift and he was happy.

We've hung out at the pool and we are going to grill hamburgers for dinner.

I talked to my dad early this morning to wish him happy fathers day and my gift to him was a homemade CD of 30 of his favorite oldies songs and setting up a Facebook account for him so he can reconnect with old high school friends.

So except for the fire department making a visit... I think Don's had a nice fathers day.

Again... relying on my faith that there is a heaven

...and that it's amazingly wonderful. I did my best over the past 12 years to take care of Gran and Grandad. I loved them both dearly... they had done so much for me in my teens and early twenties.

I had a hard time, especially the past three years not getting frustrated with Gran. We had to take her car away from her three years ago because the doctors said she absolutely could not drive, I had to turn off her stove and get her on meals on wheels. I had to hire a neighbor to help give her daily medications through the week and we took care of Fri-Sun. We tried desperately to help her keep her house clean. Then we had to do something that was the hardest thing I've ever done... we had to move her out of her home that she shared with Grandad for almost 30 years and move her into an assisted living facility in Rockwood, TN. I hated taking her from her home, I hated that it had to be 50 minutes from Knoxville... but it was a facility that took VA benefits (which she qualified for because of Grandad) and their staff was phenomenal.

I could have never gotten through all this emotionally had it not been for Don. I know Don loved her but he was a rock for me and was always there to help.

I got so frustrated and exasperated with her over these last years. I always tried to think "How would I want to be treated if I make it to 87 and start outliving my mind"... I always tried to remind myself that the day would come when I would miss her terribly.

Well, that day came last Friday. I received a call from Patti Jo, the director at Victorian Square at 3:40am telling me she had a massive heart attack and had passed away.

Don and I last saw her the Friday before. She recognized me as being special family but had no recollection of Don and when we mentioned Katie... she didn't know her.

Katie was the light of her life the past 10 1/2 years. When we brought Katie home from Memphis, that was the last day she smoked a cigarette. I had said that no one would be around Katie that smoked... so she stopped cold turkey.

Katie was truly blessed to have had her in her life until she was 11. I know Katie will have great memories of her and to have memories of a great grandmother is very special.

I'm sure that even in the times I was frustrated, she knew how much I loved her.

I am confident that her and Grandad are together again and that all of us have one more guardian angel looking down on us.

I will miss you always Gran and I loved you!!

Mary Dobson Muecke

MUECKE, MARY DOBSON - 87 of Knoxville, TN, went to be with our Lord April 30, 2010. She was born in Rockwood, TN on December 14, 1922. She married Charles T. Muecke, Sr. on April 4, 1940 and they were married for 64 years until his death on October 4, 2004. She was retired from Robertshaw Fultons but also worked many years in retail. She was a member of The Lords Chapel and she did volunteer work for many years at Fort Sanders Hospital as well as the American Red Cross. The last two years, she resided at Victoria Square, in Rockwood, TN, where she received wonderful care. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Charles T. Muecke, Jr. & Marilyn Muecke of St. Augustine, FL; her granddaughter and her husband, Leeann M. Samples and Don H. Samples of Knoxville, TN. She had a great-grand-daughter, Katelyn Marie Samples, age 11 whom she adored. Also survived by brother & sister-in-law Jack & Sue Muecke of Kingston, TN. She was a wonderful mother, grandmother and great grandmother and will be missed. She was full of humor, charm and had a love for the Lord. Receiving of friends and family will be Monday from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at Highland Memorial Funeral Home. Chapel service will be on Tuesday at 10:00 am with the Internment to follow; Rev. Shirley Delap officiating. Highland Memorial Funeral Home 865-588-0567

I'm loving Lakota so much!!

I will always miss Belle! But, Lakota has turned out to be the absolute perfect horse for me. He is so sweet natured and he learns so well. He's almost 6 years old and my trainer, Arthur says that for him to be so great at such a young age, he's going to be a phenomenal horse.

I went two weeks without seeing him at all because of going to North Carolina and then getting bronchitis. That killed me... he does such wonders for my emotional health. I got to spend some time with him last night and it's just amazing how great I feel after being with him. There is something amazing about a 1200 pound animal coming running when he sees you pull up and then being affectionate!!

I'm such an animal lover... as evident in the fact that we have three dogs and two horses.

Arthur and I plan to enter several shows this year and I'm really looking forward to it. Lakota has such an awesome prancing rack... he will do great in the racking class.

The first show is May 8th and I will definitely be posting on how we do.

I'm also excited about some of the online classes I'm continuing to take at Jessica Sprague and Little Light Studio. They have been so fun and I'm loving digital scrapbooking.

I'm going to post a few more layouts in the next day or so.

More later!!

Working With A Wacom Tablet

One of the digital classes I took a couple of weeks ago was on working with a Wacom Tablet and since I've had my Wacom Intuos for almost a year, I thought it might be a good idea to finally try to start using it for more than handwriting... which stinks by the way. I hate using it for writing... it's like when you have to sign the credit card screen at Target or another store... you know how nice your signature always looks... same thing!

Anyway, there is so much more you can do with the tablet... design pattern paper with your own handwritten designs, add pretty edging to papers, etc.

Here are a few layouts I did using the tablet. You can click on the layouts to see them better.

I love learning new things and it seems and though Photoshop is like owning a horse... you'll never know it all! :)

This was a great game night we had with Lisa and Rick like two years ago!!! We should do that more often!!!

This was our Florida road trip. I couldn't really dot the line all the way from Knoxville because we flew to Ft. Lauderdale...

Here is an example of why I hate the handwriting aspect of the tablet. I think I'll just stick with the cool design aspects.

Isn't that cool how I was able to superimpose Brinkley's photo in the bottom of the layout? Photoshop is just too cool!!

More later!!

Digital Scrapbooking Junkie... I think

As I said in my "catch up" blog, I think I'm hooked on digi scrappin' but I wont know for sure until I get some pages back from the printer and put them in a book.  My scrapbooks sure will be a lot thinner.  Here are some of the pages I've done in the past couple of weeks.  At least it's been something to do to take my mind of the horrible weather we've been having.

Here are some of the first ones I did...























I'm having a lot of fun so I hope I like the final pages when I get them.

It's snowing again!  Katie's watching Scooby Doo and Don's working so I'm gonna do another page!!  :)

Don & I Just Celebrated 20 years

of knowing each other!!  It was 20 years ago on February 13th that we met on a blind date!!  I can't believe it!!

I think I did fall off the face of the earth...

Well, not really but blogging just hasn't been a priority to me for the past several months.  My last posting was back in September 2009 and at the beginning of October, we had to pull Katie out of school for almost 3 weeks.  We had experienced nothing but problems after she transferred schools last March and it ranged from her not getting her medicine or not getting the correct dosage on at least 15 different occasions to her getting slapped repeatedly by an aggressive student... and finally the last straw was her coming home with a black eye.  We hired an attorney, not to sue the school system, but to help us know what Katie's rights are because of her multiple special needs and complex situation.  It took 3 weeks to have her placed at a new school and she's now at Rocky Hill Elementary and things are back to normal.  It was difficult because Katie has been in the Knox County School system since she was 3.  She went to Ft. Sanders for 2 1/2 years before going to Kindergarten (through mid-year 3rd grade) at Cedar Bluff Elementary.  For all that time... preschool through half-way through the 3rd grade we NEVER had one complaint.  She had the BEST teachers, the best staff working with her and her school experiences were wonderful.  And  seemingly, that is how it is again.  We still miss Cedar Bluff but Rocky Hill is a good fit.  Now we have 1 1/2 year to dread middle school.

Also in October, we had to move Gran into Reflections, which is the Alzheimer's unit at Victorian Square.  That was very hard to do.  She made the move very well but until the past couple of visits, it was hard on us.  We have to enter and exit the unit strategically because there are residents who try to escape.  It just makes visits harder sometimes because the other residents are much more "involved" than they were when she was upstairs.  There have been visits in the past months where she didn't recognize me at first and she doesn't know my name anymore... or Katie's or Don's.  She remembers Dad's usually... but her memory from the 30's - 50's is usually pretty sharp.  She's been in and out of the hospital numerous times for pneumonia, pancreatitis, hallucinations, etc.  I guess that is just how it will be for the rest of her life now.  Thank goodness she gets such good care at Victorian Square and thank goodness for VA Benefits that help us to afford her living there.

Don has been very busy!!  I think after 2 years, I've finally learned to share the office.  That was an adjustment.  I couldn't imagine having been through the past several months without him.  He's such a rock!!!  It is nice to see him so happy and LOVE what he does.  He's made a lot of great friends and he loves working from home except when he's filming an event.  He's gotten so good at it.  He continues to donate time for STAR and he's also going to donate some time this Spring to The Wellness Community... which is a cancer survivor organization.  He's also started doing legal video depositions.  He stays really busy and I've been helping him with editing some.

My dad has been here numerous times with Marilyn.  Mainly because of Gran.  He has now had 3 PET scans that have come back clear.  He's had numerous growths and suspicious places removed that have come back benign.  He has truly been given a gift of time.  The odds that he would have survived 1 year when he got his diagnosis of Stage IV Metastatic Melanoma in March 2008 were less than 5%.  Even his oncologist tells him every visit that he needs to never take one day for granted!!

We really hit a rough spell in December with Katie.  She had a huge growth spurt and her meds got completely out of whack.  She is now 4'6" and weighs 104 pounds.  She wears a ladies size 7 1/2-8 shoe (we can share now) and she wears a juniors size 7.  I had to take her shopping last weekend for a training bra!  SHE'S 10 YEARS OLD, y'all!!  Crazy!  But, we took her off the Adderall ADHD medicine because of the stimulant in it... she had been on it for several years and it finally got to the point where it was causing her to have violent, long lasting rage episodes.  She's now on a new ADHD medication, Intuniv and she's been on it since December 17 and I feel like we have Katie back!!  The change over was hard... her sleep, or lack there of, became worse than ever... but in the past week, she has finally been sleeping almost through the night.  Fingers crossed... mood is stable and sleep is better so hopefully we are almost there.

I continue to love spending time with my precious Lakota.  The horrible weather the past couple of months has limited that time.  I went to go see him this past Saturday.  The sun came out, it was 37 degrees and I thought I'd at least get to spend more than an hour with him.  What I didn't check before heading out to the farm was the wind chill... I didn't get to stay very long.  He's so smart and such a good horse.  He's fully grown now and about 16.3.  That's big!!  I never would have gotten him had I known he was going to get that big... so I'm glad I didn't know.  Belle was only 14.2... so it's a huge difference.

Last week was the year anniversary of me loosing Belle.  I don't think I really realized how much of an impact loosing her had on me until last week.  I love Lakota and he's been great... and is great!  But, he's not Belle.  Lakota is a "mud lover"... he's a gelding and he's strong and self-assured.  He rolls in the mud and gets filthy.  Belle was a "foofy horse"... I think because she was skittish and always low horse on the totem pole... she never rolled or laid on the ground so she never was filthy.  I guess I will always miss her.  I had such a connection with her.  But, I have also developed quite a connection with Lakota.  I can do ground work with him and he totally responds to my body language and energy.  It's an amazing feeling to control a 1200 pound animal... or at least direct him and him respond.  He's a horse... I never have complete control over him.

That's about it I guess.  At least, it's enough for this catch up.  Oh, except I've really gotten into Digital Scrapbooking.  I've take a few online classes at Little Light Studio and Jessica Sprague and that coupled with the Photoshop CS classes I've taken at UT, I really have gotten into it.  The cool thing about it is, I can do it anywhere.  I can sit and watch a movie with Katie and do two pages.  I had resisted it for so long because of the fact that I'm always on my computer for work and scrapbooking with "real" supplies got me off my computer... but it had gotten to where I wasn't scrapbooking hardly ever.  I'm going to upload some pages that I'm fixing to send to a printer.  We will see when I get the pages back and they are all flat and not three dimensional with embellishments if I like it as much!

More later... and hopefully it wont be 4 months.  Oh, and in my next posting, I'll talk about Boomer!