Howdy All

Here I am, back again. I posted on the Brain Blog, so please mosey on over there for an update on things medical.

Not too much going on around here. We still seem to do plenty of running around, and Anne does plenty of sleeping and napping. I had to get her up early for her appt today, so she is having a nap right now. She almost fell asleep on the way to the base, and again on the way home.

I managed to get some sorting out done today, so that was a really nice change! I got a basket full of receipts sorted--one pile to shred, one to save, one of medical stuff, one of business cards to store, etc. I love making even that little bit of progress. I have one load of laundry done, too, and another half done. Bit by bit, it all gets done eventually, right?????

I finished the book I was reading, Ilium. It was really good. I did rather wonder about it at the beginning, but it kept getting better as it went along, and I quite enjoyed it. I don't remember if there is a sequel, although I did notice that the author left it in such a way that a sequel was possible. I guess I will have to check.

Mike got home just a bit ago, and then I heard the rain start. I guess he got home just in time!

The butterfly garden is doing really well. The passion vine is recovering nicely, after being munched on by the caterpillars. There are new buds coming out and they will probably be opening up before too long. The plants are all spreading out nicely. I saw three butterflies out there yesterday, and Mike was able to get some photos.

It has been a bit hotter than usual, as it was 92 here yesterday and was supposed to be pretty warm today too. It isn't too horrible outside, but getting into the hot car is very steamy and feels very humid. Thank goodness for a/c!

Well, I am off, things to do, and all that--haha. You all take care and more later.

TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS

How does that go by so quickly? Twenty-seven years ago today, Mike and I got married in Elsinore, CA. It sure doesn't seem like it was that long ago. The time has gone quickly, with a lot of interesting events along the way. It has been great, and I hope we have many more years together!

Brian called last night from Alaska on his cell phone! Who would have guessed that it would have worked? I never really thought about whether it would work from a "so called non-continental state". But, it did! The connection was really good and clear, and although I "lost" Brian a couple of times when I was talking to him, I think it was mostly because he was moving around. He leaves Alaska Saturday evening, and arrives back home late Sunday morning. By the way, he is at Fairbanks!

We are having a quiet long weekend. We had dinner out for Mike last night at Carrabba's. It is one of his favorite restaurants. Very yummy. Later on we cut into the chocolate cake---yummm. I meant to take a photo before cutting it and forgot. Oh well, most everyone has seen it before anyway.

We have had a little bit of rain this morning, but it is sunny again now. I don't think we had any accumulation at all from this.

How lucky was Mike to have a brand new butterfly emerge on his birthday? I think it is pretty neat! We at least have a little bit better idea of what the crysalises look like now.

Well, we may not be totally done with rain today, I think I just heard some thunder. Mike is off at the gym, getting that out of the way. He looks more fit!

Take care all, and more later on.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKE!!!!!

Yep, it is Mike's birthday, once again. I think he has stopped counting, but he is a good sport about celebrating the day!

No photos, as none of the good ones are digitized. Such is life, right?

Mike went out this morning to get the newspaper and got side-tracked. I hope he will blog about it---he says he usually has nothing to write about. Lets just say, he saw a caterpillar out in the garden last week, hanging straight down and wondered if perhaps it was thinking of building itself a cocoon!

It is too early for anything to have happened yet. I did have an email from Brian, and one from my mom, both of which answered a number of Brian questions--haha. He is in Fairbanks, will be back soon, and is having a good time there. He says they are getting about 3 hours of darkness at night. It sounds like he is eating lots of good seafood, etc. Yummm! I am sure Christine will be glad to have him home again, and Michelle too. It sounds like Christine has been bitten by the knitting bug!

Well, I had best get off the computer and get Mike's birthday cake made. He has asked for the Mrs. Raney chocolate cake this year. Yummmmmm--Red Earth cake, and that lovely cooked fudgy frosting!

Before I go, once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKE!!!!!!!

Just for Fun

I was leery of taking this, because it was on an Aussie blog, and I knew it was likely that some of the terminology would be different. I took the risk, and here are the results.

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

Whew! I would surely hate to not be able to pass an 8th grade science quiz. One does also worry on occasion that one is forgetting things--haha!

Almost a Week

Sorry about that. Didn't mean to be away for so long. It has been a busy week, that is my only excuse.

Friday was especially busy, with two doc appts for Anne. She saw Dr. Venero first. He was concerned that the sinus infection has not improved, she isn't feeling any better, and she continues to run a fever. Not a bad one, but a fever, nonetheless. He took a good listen to her heart, too. A check of her ears showed that she has an ear infection, and her ear drum looks funny. He wasn't happy about the CT scan of her sinuses not being till 28 July. He wanted it moved up (I was able to get it changed to today--25 July), and also to include the right ear in addition to the sinuses. He also ordered more blood work, and an echocardiogram. Sorry to those that I emailed---I am sure I said an EKG, as we are both sort of sure that is what he said, but he wrote down echo, and it makes more sense. Anyway..... We are still waiting for the appt for the echo. Anne sees him again on Monday.

Then it was off to see Dr. Lozito, where we got oodles of good news. The EEG and the MRI are just fine. No problems there at all. He was surprised to hear that she continues to have trouble with her sinuses, as the MRI shows them to be clear. A real mystery, as when Dr. Venero looked up her nose, her sinuses were very congested. I guess maybe the CT scan will make all clear? Anyway... Dr. Lozito increased Anne's dosage of depakote, prescribed to prevent migraines. She was still having about one a week, and was still having some "regular" headaches---and he says that the depakote should help prevent those too. So, we will see.

After all that, we stopped at the vampire shop and Karen, Anne's favorite vampire, took tons and tons of blood from her. The test required 4 jabs, two from each arm. It wasn't fun, but Anne took it like a trouper. We haven't heard anything about results yet.

Monday---the cars need to be re-registered, and I planned to do that. Also, the hot water heater, which did a bit of dripping back in May, then stopped dripping, has started to drip again---I noticed when I was out putting the recycling tub back in the garage. It is dripping from two spots now. Humm, time for a new hot water heater? That was my plan. Needless to say, the day did not go as planned. We made a trip to the base first, for Anne to talk to the HR gal. All is fine, they are still waiting for more detailed info before they will start her back to work, but don't seem to be fussed about it all. They are so nice there. It was getting late by the time we got done, so we boogied off to Sears, to find that they have only one kind of gas hot water heater, and didn't have our size in stock. Nuts! I could have them order one, it would take about 5 days to arrive. I decided I would rather look around at the other stores, and if need be, can check at the other Sears and see if they have one in stock. The dripping has slowed down, once again, so I guess there isn't too big a rush?????

By the time we got done there, and drove most of the way to the tax collector place to re-register the cars, it was too close to closing time to mess with it. So, we came home.

Today I went and registered the cars, and it was no trouble at all. I am glad to have that done with! Anne had her CT scan, and it was okay. She enjoys chatting with the guy (Ed) who did her scan---he has done all the CT scans she has had done at that office. They joke and have a grand old time. No word on the echo, but I called Dr. Venero's office, as it has become clear that the gal who is to schedule it didn't get the message that he wanted this all done quickly. We should hear something tomorrow morning.

I found out today, from Anne, that Brian is TDY in Alaska--some class he had to take? He didn't think to tell us, Anne found out in passing from Christine. Christine has joined the family knitters---it seems she is quite taken with it. Knitting, that is! I don't know where exactly Brian is or how long he will be gone.

Anne came in to tell me that if you put a barrette in Mickey's fur (on her head), she can shake her head hard enough to make it go flying. Always a good thing to know!

We continue warm/hot and mostly sunny, with the odd rain storm or thunderstorm now and then. We haven't had much rain lately though. Mike did get home to pouring rain yesterday, before we got home, and he had pulled his car up to the garage so he wouldn't have to get any wetter than necessary. It had stopped raining by the time we got home, and we had the interesting experience of seeing him in his car, trying to back it up to where he usually parks. The only problem????? A sand hill crane in the driveway, right in the spot where Mike usually parks. I had a hope of pulling in to my spot, but Mr. Crane decided he wanted to move and he walked right over to my side of the driveway. I went up the street and turned around, and when I came back, the crane was gone and Mike had reparked his car. I don't think this has quite happened before to us.

Well, we hope for a quieter week, what is left of it. Mike's birthday is Thursday and he has taken Thursday and Friday off work. He will enjoy his long weekend. Take care all of you, and more later.

Houston......

We have a little problem. My sidebar stuff is gone. Not really, it just isn't showing up. I am not sure what the problem is. It all shows still in the template, and when I look at the blog through some other way in bloggerville, it shows up. Just not when I access it as usual. And I assume you aren't seeing it either. I will have to consult with my computer geek gurus later on. Or it may all return on its own at a later time?----it did, it did!

We are having a thunderstorm right now. Not too close, or I would be off the computer right now. We have rain, too. Hard to say how much it will add up to. Not too much, if it follows the current trend. I checked the gauge yesterday, it had rain from about a day and a half of very scattered showers and thunderstorms. There was a mere 2/10 inches in it.

I still haven't shown you the photos of the pink master bathroom, have I? I guess it is about time, right?


  

When I took this photo, I didn't realize how useful it would be. It shows the swirly pink in cream countertop and sink, and the tub is the same stuff. It also shows the pink paint--not sure how accurate the color will be, it is a rather light, cool shade of pink. It also shows the wallpaper border. There are three different rows of the border--along the top of the wall, at the bottom of the wall, and along the sides of the sink/counter and top of tub. The cozy little toilet room has border only along the top of the wall--good thing, it would be overpowering otherwise! Do note that all the colors are perhaps a bit rosier in this shot, most likely due to the range of lights over the mirror, the little nightlight, etc.


  

This photo shows a section of shower tile, painted wall and wallpaper border, near the top of the shower enclosure. The pink of the paint shows as more washed out than it appears in real viewings.


  

A row of this tile rings the shower enclosure.


  

And this "motif" tile is scattered here and there in the enclosure.

The tile is really pretty, I like it, despite the pink. It isn't over the top and isn't tooooooo horrible for a bathroom that a man has to use too, I don't guess? I plan to get rid of the wallpaper border----you never guessed, did you? I also want to repaint the bathroom, once I figure out what will work with the pink but also distract from it--have to be careful not to accentuate it.

Well, off to get some work done, take care and more later on!

Edited to add: I wrote this post this morning, but blogger was down, so I just now had a chance to post it.

We Heard the Shuttle!

Yep, we heard it, but we didn't see it. Yesterday morning early saw us at our friendly neighborhood vampire shop---ie the lab. Dr. Dhruv, being extremely cautious, had ordered another 3 hour glucose tolerance test. Monday was the day that worked best for us to get there. At about 9.10 a.m., a large boom was heard, along with some minor shaking of the building. It was raining outside, down there, but I guess not up at Cape Canaveral? Anyway, it was the shuttle going by. Hurrah! I don't imagine we could have seen it fly by anyway, with the rain. It was still neat to hear it!

After Anne's vampire finished with her, we came back home and Anne went back to bed, totally exhausted from her morning. I worked on some laundry, replaced a light bulb in the kitchen, and got the rest of the under section of wallpaper border removed from over the doorway to the dining room. That bit is all done now, and looks much better!

We seem to have a little bit of rain many days of the week now, but it doesn't seem to amount to much. I haven't been finding much in the rain gauge, anyway--haha. The lawn and plants all seem to be fine, although the sprinklers are still on and do their thing twice a week, so that has something to do with it. The butterfly garden is doing well. The plants are all growing and spreading out--basically, thriving. The passion vine has been doing fine, although it is a real caterpillar magnet, and the caterpillars do love to eat the flower buds. I have lost track of some, and am not sure if they are just eating the unopened ones, or are also eating some of the spent ones? In any case, they are eating. A shame not to have the flowers in some cases, but they are there to support the butterflies, so that is the important bit, right? Mike was able to get one of the plant varieties in the garden identified, it is Lantana. Really pretty, in any case, as are they all.

I have spent the whole morning on the computer, paying bills, talking to AOL help support trying to figure out why email from the credit union won't come through, etc. It has been a busy day, already. Well, I guess not already, since it is after 2 p.m. already. Where has the day gone?

I have been reading more in the evenings, and am zipping through the books. Naturally, I got a lot read yesterday too, while we sat at the lab for 3 hours. Lets see, more Marcia Muller, more Dorothy Cannell, and I finished a book by Bob Hope, that I am going to be sending to my folks. I think they would both enjoy it, and Dad will enjoy reading about the Bob Hope tours to Alaska, etc.

We are still waiting on a new letter from the hematologist so that Anne can return to work. Not that we have really been waiting that long, as the doc has been out, and just got back yesterday. Things do move slowly sometimes. Just a shame that the first effort wasn't what was needed. I'm not sure how the sinus infection is going--not quite as troublesome as it was last Friday, I don't think, and the fever going down a tiny bit. Maybe it will finally start to respond to these antibiotics?

Well, I am off now, things to do, and all that stuff. Take care all!

I'm Back.....

Well, what a day. Dr. Venero's office called this morning, within half an hour of opening for the day, and asked if Anne could come in at 11. Yes, of course. She saw the nurse practitioner, which we hadn't expected, but it was okay. She checked everything out, prescribed a different antibiotic, ordered a CT scan to be done in 10-14 days--after the antibiotics are done. To make sure that Anne's head---oops, sinuses! ---are cleared out. I guess we will see. She asked a lot of questions about the asthma, allergies, etc. Of course, Anne never tests positive on any allergy tests, except that in Germany she finally tested positive for an allergy to dust mites. We know she has allergies, not sure what the deal with the testing is. Anyway, it looked like she might end up either seeing Dr. O'Hare again, or an allergist. Fun. But, if some good comes from it all, that would be great!

We stopped at Anne's favorite vampire hangout--our friendly neighborhood lab. We got the stuff ordered by Dr. Venero taken care of, and most of the stuff ordered by Dr. Dhruv, but not all as we found that she ordered a repeat of the 3 hour glucose test--can't complain that she is slack or skimps, can we? Just being careful and sure, since Anne did have a high glucose level that one time. Anyway, we will have to go back for that, a different day, as it requires fasting, and Anne will have to be there by 9 so the test can be completed before they close for lunch.

We got home to find a message from the hematologist's, and I called them back to find that they have the letter for work. We will stop by and get it tomorrow after Anne's MRI of her brain. This is the one ordered by Dr. LoZito because of the increase and change in her migraines. She has her EEG on Friday. Speaking of migraines, the depakote seems to be working out just fine, no migraines since she started it.

I did a little bit more of the "under-layer of wallpaper border" removal this afternoon. There is just enough texture in places in the wall/paint, that sometimes bits of paint are scraped off along with the paper. I see a little bit of repainting in my future.

Oh, Anne and I went around and looked at the passion flower when we got home, and there are three open flowers at the top, and two down below. Really pretty!

Off I go, Mike is home already and Anne will want a shot at the computer, since she hasn't been on. She had a nap when we got home from the doc visit and errands. Take care all and more later.....

Another Weekend

Funny how that works out, right? They just keep coming, those nice, quiet weekends--a break from the activity of the work week. That will end once Anne starts back to work, since she is usually scheduled to work one day of the weekend. At least that means she has a weekday off, when we can go shopping or do whatever she wants. It works out okay.

Mike finished removing the outer layer of wallpaper border from that long section above the kitchen cabinets. You saw the photo last time, of that bit that was left. I have to say, I am impressed with his "dry paper removal" technique. I tried peeling off a bit of it the other evening and didn't have much luck at all. Anyway, it is all ready for me to get to work, removing the under layer. I hope to have as good luck as I did when I did the bit in Mike's cave--especially in the "not dripping water all down the wall" catagory! There are just two more bits for him to do in the kitchen, if he wants to do more--over the doorway to the dining room, and the bit over the fridge. He has really been a big help on this.

I hoped to actually get some things done this weekend, but was feeling lazy and slightly overwhelmed--where to start?---so didn't. I did get out (off the shelf) and start reading a book I bought ages ago in Ohio, that is supposed to be good. I guess it would be catagorized more as fantasy rather than science fiction. It is Ilium, by Dan Simmons. He has combined Homer's The Iliad with The Future, to write a very fat and interesting book. I also read more of Anne Field's The Ashford Book of Spinning and am almost through it now. This is a really good, comprehensive book on spinning, by the way. For lighter reading, I started and finished Alexander McCall Smith's The Full Cupboard of Life. It is one of a series about a female private investigator in Botswana. It is a very good series---I really enjoy these books. Lest you think I did nothing but read, I also baked an angel food cake yesterday. Not that it is a strenuous activity by any means, with the super easy one step angel cake mixes these days. We finished up the birthday cake the other day, and Anne wanted something sweet. This works out nicely, just sweet enough and it is so nice and light.

We had rain last night, at midnight or so. It sounded like more than it was--I just checked the rain gauge, which held just 2/10 inch of water. Just as well Mike didn't turn off the sprinklers. I walked around to the butterfly garden, to see how the passion flower is doing. There are 15 buds, that I could see, and two flowers open. I am sure the plant must be non-fruiting, as there are no signs of any fruit forming where it has already bloomed. Just as well!

Anne has had no improvement of the sinus infection over the weekend, so I have already put in a call to the doc's office. They will see if he wants to call in a new prescription, or if he wants to see Anne again, and will call back. I guess we really should have done this last week, as even a week without improvement was surely too long. Oh well. Hope springs eternal, and all that.

I had thought I would include the photos of the tile and wallpaper borders in the master bathroom today, but I think this is already long enough! I will save it for another day....

Preserved for Posterity

Sort of. I posted photos of the wallpaper border in Mike's cave ages ago, when I removed part of it before the bookcase went to live in there. Mike made good progress over the long weekend, removing the outer layer of the rest of the border in his cave, and getting most of the outer layer of border in the kitchen removed. I decided it was time to take photos, so you can see what you would otherwise miss. When you come to visit, it will be gone!

This is one repeat of the pattern in the kitchen. This is most of the section that is above the doorway to the dining room. There is a section over the fridge too.


  

This is the last bit over the counters, in the main part of the kitchen. It extends about the length of the kitchen, so there was a good bit of it. You will notice that I have some of my tins up on the shelf over the counters! This is just part of the stretch of wallpapered area/length of kitchen.


  

Now to Anne's bathroom/the main bathroom. The tub is a solid white/creamy color, so not a problem in the scheme of things. The sinks/countertop is this white/cream with a sort of turquoise color swirled in it.


  

The tile in the tub/shower area is really pretty and goes pretty well with the sink/countertop. It doesn't photograph well, but here is a stab at it. Most of the tile is the plain tile, with this patterned tile running around the enclosure to add interest. To see it (the plain tile) in real life, it has sort of a gold/green/aqua patina look to it. That doesn't begin to describe it, but it is pretty.


  

Difficult to decide what color of paint might go well with it. What is there doesn't do the trick! The border doesn't either. The paint is a cool toned light blue. A pretty color, it just doesn't go with the tile. Here is a photo that includes both the tile and the painted wall.


  

And finally, here is a photo of one repeat of the wallpaper border. There are two rows of it, one all along the top of the wall, and another run about where a chair rail would be. It goes nicely with the paint color, which means it doesn't go well with the tile.


  

Humm, I think the colors came out a little funky on that one. Keep in mind, your computer may not show you things in quite the same color we see them here in the house.

I will show you the tile/paint/wallpaper border in the master bath next time I do one of these montages!

Not much else going on around here. Anne's sinus infection is not improving, it seems. She just hasn't been complaining much. Her throat has been really sore too (more so than usual), although we found some chloraseptic strips at the commissary yesterday and they are really helping a lot. She is just past halfway through with her course of antibiotics already, so she surely should have some improvement by now? It looks like she needs to see the doc again. Poor kid.

I have been reading a bit in the evening these days, now that we are into the summer re-run time. I have read books by John Dunning, Dorothy Cannell, Kathy Reichs and Marcia Muller over the past couple of weeks. Some I read for the first time, some were re-reads, all are from my collection of books.

We had thunderstorms and rain yesterday, but only had half an inch in the rain gauge. Still, every little bit helps, right? Anne has an appointment today to get her hair trimmed, so we need to get moving. It looks like we have more thunderstorms to look forward to today, I think I have heard thunder already. Drats!

Happy Birthday, Kaeleigh!

Yep, it is Kaeleigh's 11th birthday this year. She was born the summer we moved to OH. We were still in a temp. apartment at the time. That seems like such a long time ago. I hope you have a great day, Kaeleigh!

Not much else going on around here. We made a trip out to the base and caught up on that kind of thing. Did a quick trip through the commissary and picked up a few things. Nice to go through the express lane again, it seems like it has been a while.

We have a good thunderstorm in the works---we saw lightning on the way home. Of course, it had to start raining as soon as we left the house today, but it hasn't been bad, all in all. It does look like we might get dumped on though. It is supposed to be from the tropical wave out in the Atlantic, that is supposed to go up and hit the Carolinas. Maybe it will stay little and weak? After all the fuss about the early start we got to the hurricane season, now it seems we are way behind the curve, with really only one named storm, and 4 by this time last year. I won't complain!

No rain to speak of since the holidays, but that might change today. This is to be our big best chance of rain this week.

Nothing else to write about. Take care and have a great birthday, Kaeleigh!

The Day After

What a day we had yesterday. In a good way, mind you! Mother Nature did her bit to make sure it was a good day. Nice and sunny, just a few scattered clouds here and there. And it stayed that way! Till way later in the day.

I turned to the NASA channel at 12.26, too late to see the final astronauts being settled. Instead I was in time to see the ground crew finishing up sealing the hatch on the shuttle. Oh well. I watched part of the Twilight Zone marathon on the SciFi channel, and switched to NASA now and then to see what was happening.

Mike got his camera ready as it got close to time for lift-off. He had been keeping track of things online, I think? We watched the lift-off on the tv, then all dashed outside to watch for the shuttle. We spotted it pretty quickly and had a really good view. I was amazed at how long I could see it. Mike and Anne gave up after a bit, but I decided to watch till I couldn't see it any longer. It was pretty tiny, but I didn't end up giving up till my view was blocked by a big enough cloud that I was certain it wouldn't be visible once it was clear of the cloud. I watched it for about 4 minutes. (I was amazed to hear that it was only about 4 minutes, it seemed longer, in a good way) Wow! I think that is about the very best way to see a launch. Kind of the best of both worlds. I imagine that the astronauts got a kick out of going up on the 4th of July!

As Mike mentioned, I made reservations at the Chinese restaurant. We had a really good dinner, with some leftovers! For those who might be interested, we had General Tsao chicken and cashew chicken. Yummy!

Luck continued to shine upon Anne. She wanted to make a stop and have a look around Ron Jon's. It is a famous surf shop. There are several stores now, and the first store was in New Jersey. If you are interested in the story, go to www.ronjons.com and click on locations. Anyway, we figured that it would be impossibly crowded and no parking spots to be found, but we would drive by and see. As Anne's continuing good luck would have it, I pulled into the lot and a car was just pulling out of a spot right there at the front row, by the store. We took a good look around, Anne found a cute shirt she wanted, and we found a cashier upstairs with no line. Wow! The store is huge, by the way, two stories, open 24 hours a day. They sell surf boards, and just about anything else you might want that is remotely beach related.

We had a good trip home, and watched as more and more clouds moved in, some of them quite dark and thick. No rain till very late that night. Anne had calls from both sets of grandparents and Jo, but she missed a call from Brian while we were out. We did presents and cake and that was all good too! Oh, the cake--applesauce cake with butter cream frosting. Yum! I think she had a pretty good day!

In other news.... Mike spent part of the long weekend working on some of the wallpaper borders. He pulled off the outer layer of all of it in his cave--well, most of it, as I had removed the paper around where the bookcase went. Yesterday he started on the border in the kitchen, and has a good bit of it done too. I will take a photo of some that is still left, so you all can see it. I had gotten used to it, amazingly, so it wasn't quite as jarring, but I do like the kitchen better without it! I will go through and removed the lower layer of the paper--although both rooms look better as they are than they did with the paper---keep in mind, we aren't into all this wallpaper border stuff--haha!

Joel and the guys were here on Monday and put down mulch in all the beds, around the trees, etc. It all looks really nice, and there is that nice smell of cedar when we go outside!

Mike's folks have left VA and are headed for home--we hope they have a good trip!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!

Yes folks, it is once again that time of year. The day we celebrate the "birth" of our country, and the birth of Anne! I know I will never forget the night she was born. The hospital staff was thrilled to have a 4th of July baby born that evening. Especially since it was an Air Force hospital! They dubbed her their "little firecracker!" We called her that too, of course.

I have raided a number of files on the computer to find some photos of Anne. Our first photo is of young Anne, who enjoyed having her hair put in rollers by Grandma Brady. Isn't she just so cute????


  

Here she is with an emu in Australia. That was our world traveler's first trip abroad--3 weeks in Australia. She was in Cairns for her 16th birthday, just days before coming home.


  

Here is a shot of Anne in Chile. I'm not sure if it is the first trip or the second one. She went from world traveler to world traveler/scholar, doing two studies abroad in Santiago.


  

Here she is with her favorite brother, Brian, during a time at home!


  

Then she graduated from Mount Union College, with a double major, no less!


  

Then a school year in Germany. This is the only photo I could find of her taken there. I am sure there must be others somewhere, but I couldn't find them.


  

And here she is in Florida with us. I love this photo of her at the beach, with the sock I was knitting. I am sure I have other photos of her at the beach, but....


  

Happy Birthday, Anne!

In other news..... no rain at all yesterday, but we had 1.9 inches on Sunday. We are hoping the launch goes off okay today.

I talked to Brian on IM today. They are doing fine. He has been hard at work, getting their storage shed set up. He built a floor for it, and they are almost done. They had rain delays yesterday, or was it the other day? I know he will be glad to have it finished! Michelle is getting around quick as can be, and those teeth are slowly working their way in. I am sure Christine keeps plenty busy chasing around after her!

Well, I had best go. You all take care, and have a great day!

July? ..... Already?

I guess that says it all, right? Time just keeps on chugging along, and we get carted right along with it.

You will all have already heard that the launch was scrubbed yesterday and again today. We sure weren't surprised about it being scrubbed today--I woke up to the sound of thunder, and we had a good downpour. Then later, more thunder and rain. We are surely catching up a little bit on monthly/annual rainfall? We did hope that it would all clear out in time for the launch, but it was not to be.

I did finally get smart yesterday and really checked out the NASA channel that we get with our cable. I had looked at it before, just to see what there might be to see, but I seemed to catch it at the wrong times, and found nothing much of interest. That is not the case before a launch!

Yesterday I got to see the crew "who does such things" getting the last astronaut settled into her seat and buckled in. They do an amazing amount of wiggling, jerking, etc, of the astronauts, to get them firmly and solidly settled into their seats, then put the astronaut's helmet on. They were just finishing up when one of the above mentioned crew members turned off the camera inside the shuttle. Party pooper! All this action was interspersed with shots of the outside of the shuttle, the view from a park across the way from the launchpad, etc. Sometimes there was no sound, other times there were interviews, the radio checks to listen to, etc.

Today I switched it on in time to see Astronauts #5 and #6 get in, get settled in and then finally #7 crawled in through the hatch and into her seat. The above mentioned crew, or some other crew, after setting all the switches on all the walls and panels, puts covers over them all, so that the above mentioned crew and the astronauts can get in and climb around as needed, without messing things up. Some of the seats have straps that are hooked into the wall (which appears as ceiling for the astronauts while still on the ground) to help them get into their seats. Anyway, it was really interesting. They get the astronauts put into the shuttle quite early---when I put on the NASA station today at 12.30 or so, most of them were already in and settled. That was for a launch time of 3.25, I think it was? Makes for a long day, I would think. No knitting or reading to kill the time--haha.

So, we have had two batches or waves of thunderstorm and rain, and it looks like we could still get more. I haven't checked the rain gauge yet, but I imagine we have accumulated a good bit of rain?

Mike is off work tomorrow, and Tuesday too. Anne has requested Chinese for dinner on her birthday. I think she wants a trip to Ron Jon's too, which works out well as it is just on up the street from the Chinese restaurant.

Not much else going on. We have had a typical quiet weekend, except for the rain, which hasn't been typical at all this year! Take care all, and Mom and Dad Walters--have a safe trip home to Texas!