Oral Cancer Revisited

You know, when we have our children, we as parents always have dreams for them, that they would accomplish great things, that they would be successful, and that they would follow in our footsteps.  Today, I would give anything if my youngest daughter, Emily, was not following in mine.  You see, her husband, my Fab Son-in-law, was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx last week. 

Right now, they are trying to be very optimistic, hoping for the best, while preparing for the worst. The only thing is, we don't know exactly what the worst can be. I do know that FabGrandpa and I will be able to guide them to some extent, to show them the road, to help them along the way. As I told her, "unfortunately" they have someone who has gone before them, to give them advice and to listen to their fears. While FabGrandpa and I had each other, and an online support group, Emily and her husband will have us, and I hope we will be able to help them in whatever way we can.  

Fab S-I-L is a surgery scheduler at a hospital in Atlanta. Right before Christmas, he lost his voice, so he went to the doctor to have it checked out. That doctor said he had a polyp in his throat, and scheduled surgery to remove it. When he got in there, he discovered that the mass was not what he thought it was, and just did a biopsy instead.  He was referred to a specialist at Emory University Hospital, who did a thorough exam, including a CAT scan. He is going to do another biopsy next week. We are hoping for good news. 

So, I am here to nudge you all, again, to get an exam for oral cancer at the very next opportunity--it is painless, doesn't take much time, and can save your life. Please, just do it!

My Vacation Kicked My Hiney

FabGrandpa and I went on a little trip to Atlanta last week. Our daughter, Becky, gave us tickets to a concert, and two nights in a swanky hotel downtown. We had lots of fun, but I'm tellin  ya, that trip kicked my butt!  

 

We stayed in our hometown of Douglasville for one night before heading to the Big A. While we were in town, we we stayed at Hotel Palomar. It was fun to be pampered for a couple of days.

I got to go to my favorite place in Atlanta, the Dekalb Farmer's Market, and to Whole Foods, where I found the most divine chocolate bar ever, Mo's Bacon Bar. 

Yes, you are seeing correctly--it IS chocolate covered bacon--food for the gods!

The concert was fun, the whole reason for the trip, Dweezil Zappa Plays Zappa. Frank Zappa's son playing his father's music. It was a great concert.

 

But now that I am home,  I am having trouble gettting back into the swing of things. I don't know if it is the blood pressure meds the doctor put me on, or the hectic pace of the trip, but I slept for 14 hours the last night of the trip, and have done nothing but veg out since we got home. 

I am hoping this lethargy will leave me alone soon, because I have so much to do!

It's A Girl!

 

Remember back in the dark ages when we old grandma's were having our babies,and we had to actually wait until we woke up after the delivery to find out if we had a boy or a girl? Sigh...

We found out yesterday that our newest FabGrandchild is going to be a girl. We are all so excited and can hardly wait until May for her to get here. The proud parents, my son and his wife, are still debating names for her.  I'm just calling her Baby Girl until she's named. 

I was so happy to know there is going to be another FabGranddaughter, that I drove 35 miles to Tuscaloosa yesterday to go shopping.  OK, we also had to go get FabGrandpa some new pants, but seriously, I couldn't wait another minute to look at girlie girl baby clothes.

 

Isn't that just the most adorable outfit?

 

And ooooooooo

 

ahhhhhhhhh! cutie cute cute! You know Fabgrandma is going to be sewing for this girlie soon!

So The New Year Is Upon Us

 

Now that 2010 is here, I am spending my day making a list of goals for myself.  I don't make resolutions. A "resoulution" is an "act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure..", and what I am doing is by no means a determined course of action. I find that in my life, setting out on a course of action usually leads to something other than what I started out to do. So, if I set goals instead, no matter what course of action leads me to the desired result is ok.

Some of my goals are simple, direct things that accomplish a specific task:

I want to clean up my computer, and by that, I DO NOT mean dusting off the screen. I want to get rid of files no longer needed; bookmarks that lead to pages that make me wonder why I bookmarked them to start with; organize folders in some kind of order that make sense, and put the ones I use the most at the top of the list. If I accomplish that, it will make my days infinitely better and help me save time. 

I want to get organized in my life. I do so many different things that I sometimes just get overwhelmed with the list. I want to make myself a schedule, so that I have an hour a day to write; an hour a day to sew, an hour a day to play, and an hour a day to exercise. (Not that putting the hour a day on my calendar will actually make me do those things...)

 

I want to get a tripod and learn to take better photos. If I had done that last year, this photo of the gorgeous blue moon rising over Payne Lake on New Years Eve would have been better than this:

Other goals may prove to be a little harder for me to do, but not starting to work in that direction will assure me that they won't get done:

I want to move my blog to a hosted website with my own URL. I have some very specific and some other vague goals for myself for this blog, and have already started working towards them. I want it to be the most Fab blog, ever. (Now how is THAT for a goal???)

I want to get my Etsy store up to date, and get all the purty things I sew listed on there for sale. I want procrastination to be a thing of the past.

I have a goal to get all my gluten free recipes sorted out, typed up, and presented in some type of cookbook, whether it is an e-book or a printed one. There are other gluten free cookbooks out there, but I am a southern girl who cooks in a "southern" way. I want other gluten free cooks from the south to feel comfortable in the kitchen, making all those mahvelous southern comfort foods we grew  up on, minus the gluten.

I want to make myself a quilt with these fabrics. I have already started it, by cutting all the pieces. All I have to do now is the sewing (HA! that's easy to say!)  I have a baby quilt to make, and a couple of other big sewing projects that I want to finish by spring, but of all my goals, this one will probably be the easiest for me to accomplish.

So, there it is, out there for public consumption, and public scrutiny. Making these goals public will put me at greater risk of completing them. What are YOUR goals for the year 2010?

A Trip To My Hometown

We haven't been "home" in about 18 months, so we were overdue to visit there. Last weekend, we loaded up the truck with computers, suitcase, and sandwiches, and hit the road for the 200 mile trip. 

Our first stop was at the mall, because Fabgrandpa needed a new winter jacket. He melted his old one in a commercial dryer when we were volunteering at Unicoi State Park back in 2007. He didn't need one last winter because we were in a pretty warm place, but, as we have discovered, Alabama is COLD! Oh, and let's just say that planning a quick trip to the mall two weeks before Christmas is BIG mistake.

After we got out of the mall, we drove over to Becky's hair salon to get prettied up. She is the best "hair-doer" I have ever known. We always get our hair done by her when we come to town. (Of course, she IS my daughter, and NO I am not biased in my opinion. he he he).  FabGrandpa went first.

 

Then it was my turn. Becky cut off about two inches, trimmed my bangs, and then styled my hair. I always feel like a pampered princess when I go there. 

Here we are, all dolled up, and FabGrandpa in his new mall jacket.

This is something I DON'T miss on a daily basis: lots of traffic. It was raining, too. And don't think that all this is from Christmas shopping--no, it is like this all the time in Douglasville. 

 

Remember last year when I lost that diamond?  When Becky came to visit us at the Grand Canyon, she took my rings home with her, and had them repaired, complete with a new diamond. The jeweler cleaned and shined them up, so that they look better than ever! She gave them to me when we were at the shop, and I cried like a baby. She is too good to me!

 

From the beauty shop, we drove over to visit my mother. That's her Christmas tree there, and if you look, on the shelves behind the tree is a huge collection of Santas.  We had a nice visit, then left to meet Becky and her true love for dinner.

 

That's the happy bride to be with her guy, Rafe. He is a very nice guy. We'll be proud to call him our son-in-law. The wedding won't be until February, 2011. That's still quite a ways off, but hey, I still haven't bought my mother of the bride dress. I'm still looking. 

 

We finally made to the motel, a Holiday Inn Express. The room was very nice for the money. It even had a big screen TV. But FabGrandpa spent most of his time in the room playing Left 4 Dead. He said there wasn't much on TV to watch, anyway.

 

The next morning, I got up and went back to my Mom's for breakfast. My sister came over, too, still in her pajamas. We spent a couple of hours talking girl talk while FabGrandpa slept in at the motel.  

After having breakfast with them, I went to Cracker Barrell to meet my daughter, Emily and niece, Nikki for another breakfast.  I had not ever met Nikki before, well, except for when she was a tiny baby. My sister "found" her on Myspace a couple of years ago. I have not been in town when she was since then, so we arranged to meet last weekend. It was nice to meet her. She is a gorgeous girl, and smart too, just like my daughters. She spent 6 years in the Air Force and is now in school to be a medical technician. I didn't get a picture, though, I was so busy talking I just forgot!

After the second breakfast (yeah, no wonder I am so fat! But, honestly, I only ate a little bit at both of them), Emily and I went fabric shopping. I spent a LOT of money, but I had specific projects in mind, and still didn't get everything I needed. Yes, yet another fabric trip is in the planning. 

Emily and I decided we did not want to do any other shopping after the fabric store, so we went to her house and just hung out. My grandson, Spencer, thanked me again for his quilt. He is so cute, don't you think?

I made this bag for Emily and gave it to her while I was at her house. She loved it!

 

 It is big enough for her teacher self to tote books and papers and pencils and stuff. I made a matching zippered pouch to go with, which of course I have no picture of.

 

There's Spencer again, trying to figure out how to take my picture.

 

And Emily's Christmas tree, in her living room with her new floors. I love it! She has redone the entire house since I was there the last time. I

 

We left Emily's house and met up with FabGrandpa and Becky at Longhorn Steakhouse, one of our favorite places to eat. I had a salad, no croutons, no dressing, a ribeye medium rare, and a baked sweet potato. No gluten anywhere, and it was delish! There's FabGrandpa with Emily.

 

 And me with Becky
 

And me with my dinner date, Spencer. Spencer's Dad was there too, but he does not want me to show his face, so I won't.  We had such a busy weekend, but it was fun, and we'll do it again, soon.

How To Tell You Are In The Country:

When the menu includes neckbones, rutabagas, and fried okra.

Oh, Just ZIP It!

I really really hate it when I can't find something I want or need, and when it is something as simple as a zipper, then what in the heck is up with that?  

While I found that lovely quilt shop in Tuscaloosa, they do not sell zippers because, well, quilts don't need zippers.  And I have a project in my little brain that requires a zipper to complete, and it was driving me crazy. So, I began looking for zippers. 

The Wal-Mart in town does not have a fabric section. There is not another store that has fabric unless I go to Tuscaloosa again, to Hobby Lobby, but I did not want to drive all the way up there just for a zipper. So, I thought to myself, that I would go online to Joann Fabrics website and order some. 

I typed in the url, and guess what? it wouldn't load on my screen. I thought it was my crappy internetz service, because it was raining, pouring, outside, and it is satellite internetz. I felt like banging my head on the table. 

    

The next morning, I got an email from Joann that said: "We apologize!-Thanksgiving Promotions Now Extended + Free Shipping.  We're aware it was a challenge to shop Joann.com this weekend...."  So it wasn't just me. That made me feel a little bit better. So, I went on over to the website to shop for zippers.  And guess what? it is STILL a challenge to shop for zippers on their website. Just go look!  I'll wait. When you get to the page, scroll down to choose a color. Can YOU tell what the colors are on those zippers? You can't actually see what the color is until you get to the cart to check out. THAT is where they have conveniently typed in the name of the colors. 

So, OK, I got my zippers ordered and on the way. And THEN FabGrandpa decided to drive over to Calera, Alabama to the Jayco dealer to get a new gasket for the toilet. And guess what was right next door to the dealership? A different Wal-Mart. One that sells zippers!

FabGrandpa Installs A Shelf

My "place" in our trailer is at the dinette. And the seat has become my office desk. It is where I have had a stack of "stuff" for about six years. You know, the stuff that would normally be on your desk if you had a house:  bills and other important papers that need attending to; notebooks; maps; pens and markers; books and magazines I'm reading at the moment. I get so annoyed by having that stack of stuff there that I went out and bought myself an organizer shelf. 

 

This morning, FabGrandpa (who is feeling much better, thank you to all those who have asked) installed it on the wall. It was a perfect fit for the space I had.  There are three shelves and a small drawer. 

 

I couldn't put it as high up on the wall as I would have liked because the window trim wouldn't allow for the drawer to be opened, otherwise, I am really happy with this small modification to my space!

 

Just look how much better it looks!  There is room for my camera and the USB cable for it in the drawer. I bought a little photo album for 97 cents to keep my ever growing collection of business cards in, too! 

 

So this:

 

Now looks like this:

 

Getting organized is so much fun!

Checking Out The VA in Tuscaloosa

Since FabGrandpa is a veteran from the Viet Nam era, he is elegible for health care through the VA.  It can be a little bit of a hassle, because every time we move to a new location, he has to be "enrolled" at the facility in the new area before he can be see by a doctor. He needs to have surgery for a cataract this winter so, at the very first opportunity I had after we got here, I called the VA Medical Center in Tuscaloosa. The person I talked to told me that someone would come out to our house and help us fill out the paperwork involved in the enrollment. 

I was very surprised by this, as we have dealt with the VA on several occasions, in Maryland, Georgia, and Arizona, and this was the first time anyone offered such personalized service. The day the nice young man was supposed to come, Tropical Storm Ida was pouring buckets of rain on us. He called to reschedule, and showed up at the appointed time, here in the middle of no-where, as promised.

The guy told us that it would take a few days to get the enrollment done after he took the paperwork in, but we would hear from them to set up the initial appointment for a physical and lab work.  FabGrandpa has been sick with what he thought was a cold since we got to Alabama on November 1.  Thursday, he got up and told me he felt like he needed to go to a doctor. Since he NEVER says that, I thought it would be prudent to find one. 

We drove up to Tuscaloosa to the VA Medical Center. We walked in and requested that he be seen by a doctor. He was taken right up to the first floor. The nurse on duty up there sent him for lab work and a chest X-ray, and told us to be back as soon as possible. She said they had made him an appointment for 3:45, but if we got back sooner, they might be able to see him sooner than that. 

So, off we went for the lab--it took all of 5 mintues. Then, we went to X-ray, another 5 minutes. Since it was 12:30, we went down to the cafeteria to eat some lunch. We got back up to the first floor at 1:45. As soon as we walked up to the check in desk, the guy told us they were ready to see FabGrandpa! 

Turns out, he has pneumonia and bronchitis. They gave him a prescription for Ciprofloxasin and one for a strong cough medicine. We'll go back in week for them to check him again.  In the meantime, he is a cranky patient. I threatened to get a stick last night if he didn't straighten up, but I filled him up with fried chicken and ice cream. And it wasn't gluten free.

We Went To See Alabama

We set out the other day to go see Alabama, to find our way around our new neighborhood. They had recently scraped the sides of the road, and that orange dirt was showing on the shoulders. For some reason, I found this to be quite lovely.

 

We drove through the Talledega National Forest along County Road 50, and came out in the little town of Moundville. This tiny restaurant was on the corner of County Road 50 and Hwy 69. They are open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and have what else? Catfish, on the menu. They also have shrimp, oysters, and other seafood. They were closed the day we were there, but we put them on our list to try before we leave the area. 

 

 

Just off Hwy 69 is Moundville Archaeologic Park. This area was inhabited by Mississippian Indians 800 years ago. They built the mounds here along the Black Warrior River. Archaeologists studying the area don't know why the Indians built the mounds, or why they left. These early inhabitants left behind lots of pieces of pottery and other of their handicrafts, but, alas, the museum was closed for renovations so we did not get to see them. We are planning to go back in a couple months when it opens up.

 

 There are about 15 mounds there in all. Two of them are larger than the others, and were probably where the chief or religous leaders lived. 

The holes where the dirt was dug out to build the mounds became man-made lakes, and the Indians probably used them as fish farms, growing fish to feed the village. They were farmers, too, growing squash, corn, and beans among other things.

 

We drove down to the Black Warrior River, where there is a picnic pavillion, a conference center, and restrooms.  A small outdoor Indian village replica was there but it wasn't open, either. 

 

The park charges $5.00 per person admission, and was an interesting stop for the day, but it would have been better if the museum had been open. There is a small RV park, with full hook ups on the property. Sites cost $12 per night, but it was not clear where you go to register and pay. Call ahead to get more info before you go. I wish we had.