Hi ya'll

I know it's been a long time. July was a hectic month and August turned out to be the same. On July 10th, I had some tests done and everything was AOK. It's nice to get good news for a change. Now if I can just get this silly shoulder calmed down, maybe I can get some work done around here. I also visited my daughter, SIL and baby James in July. That trip turned out to be a hard one for me. I went down also to visit a friend of mine whose son is battling leukemia. He got a marrow transplant earlier in the month and was finally able to move to an apartment near the hospital. He and the family have to stay close (within 30 minutes) to the hospital for 100 days. If all continues to go well, he should be able to come home for good in October. Back to my trip story. I had a good drive down. It's about a 4 hour drive and traffic was really easy. I stopped a couple of times. According to my doctor, I'm suppose to stop every hour but that just makes the trip longer. I checked into the motel I normally stay at only to find that the key card was not working on the door I use. It worked fine on my room door but the door to the outside where I park wouldn't read it. On well, got all my stuff into the room and hurried off to see my baby boy. He is growing so much. He gives me the biggest smile when he sees me.  Back at the motel, I got ready for bed and was having a good sleep. Around 3 AM, I got up to use the bathroom and the fire alarm went off. All I can say is, it's a good thing I was already in the bathroom! I grabbed my shoes and purse and headed outside. It was amazing to see the other guests just standing in the hallway, not making any attempt to leave. Some even went back to their rooms! Luckily there was no fire; just a broken water pipe. We were finally allowed back into our rooms around 5:30 AM. The trip went downhill from there. I started having pain in my hip and leg on Friday but managed to get to visit Robin anyway. Thank goodness for my sweet daughter. She drove us and we had a great visit. Saturday wasn't much better and when I got ready to leave on Sunday, I had to call Abby and Doug to help me load the truck. We had breakfast together before I hit the road. It took me over 3 days to recover.

August started out in high gear. It's been a month of doctor visits and tests but things are fine. I signed up for a sampler class at my local stitch shop and that was the first day of August. I have to say, I'm not really good at working on linen but this class gave me some confidence. We learned several different stitches. Each stitch creates a row on the sampler and it's been a joy to do. I have all my homework done and I'm ready for the next session in September.

I'm also working on a Halloween cross stitch now and loving every minute of it.The fabric is an overdyed orange and uses only black thread. It will be a silhouette when finished. I don't know what it is about it but I am enjoying it so much and can't help but smile each time I lay it in my lap to re-thread my needle. :)

I went to the mail box, a few days ago, during a sprinkling rain and wow, a memory just came popping into my head. We have these very tall Willow Oak trees which give tons of shade in our front yard. They make the porch a really nice place to sit even on hot days if the humidity isn't really high. Walking to the mail box under the trees, I noticed there was very little rain hitting me. When I was a kid, there were big maple trees in the front yard of Grampa and Gramma Broyles' house. The leaves blocked the rain in all but the really hard downpours and we kids could play under them and never get wet. It is a sweet summertime memory of rain, wet grass and the drip, drip, drip of the raindrops on the leaves. Those days keep pulling me back and I feel a peace when I'm wandering around in my memories.

Below is an oil painting of my grandparents house. One of my aunts hired a local artist to do one for each of her sisters. When my Aunt Shirley passed away, Uncle Billy called my Mom and told her he wanted me to have her painting. It hangs in my hallway and I can take a trip down memory lane each time I look at it.

I had to take it at an angle because there's not enough room in the hall to get back far enough.

This past weekend, Sweet Baby James came for a visit. We were so happy to see him and his mom and dad. He's sitting up on his own now and has two teeth. Little man is growing way too fast for his Grammy. He handled the trip fairly well except for one meltdown when they were about an hour away. He was just so tired of sitting in his car seat and Abby said he really cried hard. When she got him out of his seat and turned him so that he could see me, the biggest grin spread across his face. I love that he knows me and is happy to see me. Everyone had a great time. The Hubs and SIL went to ride a trail up north of us. It's a 60 mile round trip and the Hubs loves riding it. They spent the day and my daughter and I and James spent some great time together running around. The weekend was such a great one that on Monday, when they left, I sat down to watch a show on TV and fell asleep in my recliner. I slept for 2-1/2 hours. James wore Grammy out!!!! But I wouldn't have it any other way.

I hope to start blogging more regularly. The weather is getting cooler (most days) and that makes me feel better. I'm dealing with some pain but that's a normal thing these days. I've learned to just go on and take lots of breaks. When I was younger and had better health, I would have loved to be able to justify my breaks as needed. I just didn't realize how lucky I was that I had mobility and pain free days. I guess I'm not ever satisfied with my lot in life. But actually now I am. I don't enjoy the painful days or the days I can't get out of bed, but I'm happy to still be able to get up and do what I can. I am learning to accept that life is slower now and that I have to adapt.

As always, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are have a great summer/winter wherever you may be.

Hugs,
Sharon/Grammy