Questions and Answers

If any of you or if you know of anyone, who would like their genealogy done, please e-mail me with a mailing address and I will send you a brochure that explains pricing and all that will be included in the finished book.  I will even waive the usual $100.00 deposit I normally require.  We can even set up a payment plan so you don't have to pay for it all at once.  I need the work and something to occupy my brain.  

Most genealogists will send you pages that look like this and leave it for you to figure out:

My pedigree pages show each individual, then I add pages that show the other family members information and other pages that show the written story of the direct ancestors.  Plus any photos you want added or ones I find, plus--much more. Each book is about 100+ pages with a real nice front and back cover and printed on acid free, archival paper.  They also make nice gifts for family members.

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Someone, I think Deb, asked how far along I was with the cross stitched baby quilt.

What with the basketball tournament continuing until April and then baseball games starting--I should have it finished by the 1st of May.
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PT went very well today.  I have been asking, the last couple of weeks, if my therapist could do the traction machine on my neck.

Finally today, because I still have numbness in my arms and hands, she relented.  She got me adjusted in the head contraption and started it.  OMGosh!  It felt soooooooo good to have my neck stretched up, held for a few minutes, then released and repeat, and repeat, and repeat.  I could almost feel the vertebrae opening up and letting the nerves flow.

My therapist doesn't like to use the kind of "tools" I have had other therapists use with good results.  She prefers manipulations, with her hands which are extremely painful.

She said that we will do the traction each visit from now on.  YAY!!! Anytime I have had PT on my neck, traction is the only thing that gave me really good results!

She had an intern there who is 19 years old.  We had a great conservation about woman's lib, and politics and religion.  My therapist is almost 30, so her mother would be in her 50's.  I told her we needed her mother to join us next time to get a perspective on how it was when she was growing up.  Then we'd have an old woman, one my daughter's age, the therapist my grand daughter's age and the intern, a younger grand daughter.

We agreed on most of the religion and woman's lib stuff.  They are both Liberals, but calm, moderate Liberals, so we all agreed in most part on politics.    I sure got my money's worth today and stirred up my brain.  I loved it.

I would truly enjoy being in a conversation/discussion group---with people younger than me.  When I tried the Senior Citizen group, those people are way too old for me--as are my School chums luncheon group.

They don't want to explore philosophies, or anything interesting.  They mostly just complain about their husbands, and moan about their illnesses.

I do like interacting with younger's and I need the stimulation to keep my brain from dying out.  LOL
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This little Princess is 13 years old today.

 and nearly as tall as Gramma.  My New Jersey girl, Elise Ann.

<sigh>

A Truly Lovely Day

I woke up to a bit of haze that turned into nice, warm sunshine and 58 degrees.

I was even inspired to do a bit of vacuuming and dusting and straightening up.  Not in the mood to run up to Walmart, but I needed to take in two bags of pop bottles to return, the cats needed wet food and I needed one last batch of squirrel food and bird seed.

After I got underway, I kind of enjoyed myself.  The Walmart was pretty quiet and calm.  No little kids running around and screaming, just a lot of old people like me, strolling along and looking at everything.

After I left there, I stopped at the Tractor Supply store and got a couple of bags of peanuts, a larger bag of shelled corn, sunflowers seeds and a medium size bag of bird seed.  It was all pretty heavy, but I got it all unloaded, filled up the feeders and put away the groceries.

I got a lot of liquid stuff to drink, some orange Popsicles, and orange jello, chicken broth, some Gatorade and lots of water--in preparation for my two day preparation for the colonoscopy next week.

Then Karen called and wanted to know if I wanted to go out for supper!  We haven't done that in quite a long time so I was excited.  We went to an authentic, hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant.  She had General Taos (?) chicken and I had my usual beef and Chinese veggies.  Of course we had the obligatory hot Oolong tea, white rice, soup and egg roll.  We both brought more home than we ate.

We had a wonderful catch-up conservation.  Of course, we talked a lot about her grandbaby, Della.  Della will be baptized April 2.  The other grandma may not come as, come to find out, she is a bit miffed about the whole thing.  Luckily, her son, the husband/Daddy doesn't mind at all.  He doesn't care if the baby is raised Jewish or Catholic.  

Now we all went to the Jewish naming and blessing event the other grandma had and although none of us understood the Hebrew words or the whole ceremony, we found it very interesting and lots of fun.  I like the Jewish grandma and I hope the she comes.  I told Karen, she could sit with me because I won't be going through all the "rigmarole" of kneeling and crossing and getting Holy water sprinkled on me.

Personally, I think it is wonderful that Della will enjoy all the traditions of the Jewish faith and also all the traditions of the Christian faith.  She will learn all the prophecies of the Old Testament and see them come to fruition in the New Testament.
and probably disappoint both grandmas when she grows up, discards both religions and becomes a Methodist.  HAH!

I felt so good today, both emotionally and physically.  I can tell I am standing straighter from the PT and walked all over Walmart, tall and with a firm stride.

I felt alive!!!!!!!!

Whew!

Friday afternoon--late, I got a phone call from my doctor's office.  I did not pick it up and let it go to voice mail.  I was going to wait until Sunday, go into my Patient Portal and read the results myself.

So all day Saturday I reasoned, they wouldn't have called me so late on a Friday if they had bad news and wanted me to come right in.  Then I reasoned that perhaps they had called to set up an early morning appointment on Monday.  Then I just quit reasoning and cross stitched and watched the basketball tournament.

Up early Sunday morning and clicked into my Patient Portal--still the report was not visible.  So I reasoned that they weren't going to allow me to access the report until my doctor cleared it and since I hadn't answered his call on Friday..............................must be something bad showing on that CT scan.

Then, I just quit reasoning, said a prayer of 'whatever will be, will be" and cross stitched and watched the basketball tournament.  I am real good at denial.  If I don't know about it, it doesn't exist.

Then around 2:00, I got real brave.  My anxiety was gone and so I dialed into my voice mail.  

"Hello Miss Judy, this is Michelle from Doc Vassallo's office.  I just wanted to call and let you know your CT scan is normal.  There are no lesions, inflammation or COPD in your lungs.  One teeny nodule, in the lower right lobe, which is nothing and most people have...kind of like a small scar from a bout of the flu or a bad cold you once had. I know when you and I talked, you were expecting something to show up, but.........you're still as healthy as a horse. (laugh).  Have a great weekend, my friend.  Oh, it says here, you can have another one in six months, if you want to.  Byeeeeee."
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Now to prepare my mind for my first colonoscopy on the 30th.  I will think about that next Monday.  This week I have two sessions of PT and nothing else--so far.

Happy Spring!!

Friday--again!

How did I miss Wednesday and Thursday posting?

I went to have my CT lung scan.  It took less time than a mammogram!  Then off to get my hair cut.
It was the Idea of March so I was thinking and missing my Mother a lot.  She has been gone 47 years and I still miss her!

Then I checked my Patient Portal to see the results of the scan and it said, "Pending until March 19th."  Now that freaked me out!  With blood work, I can get the results in 2 hours.  With the x-ray, I got the results the next day.  I am wondering why this is taking so long.  Is there something bad on there and they are going to let my doc know first?

Thursday, I kept expecting to get a phone call from my doc all morning and I vowed I would not answer it!  I want to know the results first.  If it's bad, I can prepare myself.  When I had my chest x-ray last summer, he called and said, "I want you to come in and talk about your x-ray."  I was a nervous wreck for two days.  When I got into his office he asked, "Why do you get these?  They won't show anything important.  You need to get a CT scan."  Nothing had shown up on the x-ray.

I took off outta here at noon to drive the 45 minutes north to have lunch with my Old School Gal Pals.  There were 8 of us today.  Missing Bethie who now has a Chamber Commerce meeting the third Thursday of every month.  So I campaigned for her that we change lunch days.  I thought the third Wednesday instead, but one of the gals baby sits her great grand kids on Wednesdays and another one goes to a quilting group every Wednesday.  So, we just moved the lunch day up to the 2nd Thursday of every month.  All those in favor, say Aye.  Those opposed? (None). The Ayes have it.

Then out to The Farm to visit with little sister.  We had a really nice conversation and I dropped off her birthday prezzie.  Home by 6:00 with daylight to spare.
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The few Irish ancestors I have came from Northern Ireland and were "Orangemen".

We never celebrated St. Patrick's Day, but the guy does deserve some credit.  He rid that land of snakes, so he's a good guy in my opinion.  
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Today both University of Michigan and Michigan State University played basketball games in the NCAA March Mania tournament.  One at noon and one at 9:20 tonight.

You know what I'll be doing during that time.  You do know?  Then, pretty soon it will all be over and I can concentrate on Major League baseball.  I do love to watch baseball.  It is a nice slow game and a lot of cross stitching can be done without having to look up a lot.  (insert smiley face).

Hanging tough on a Tuesday..............

The warmest February on record in the Mitten State.  Then March arrived.

Single digit temps at night.  In the 20's during the day and.....snow.  Oh not as much as that N'orEaster heading to the right coast.  We were on the north edge of it and only got 2" up here, Detroit (south of here) got more--about 5".  We are expecting a little bit more, but no big deal.

I actually drove out into the snow for my PT yesterday afternoon.  The visibility was poor, but the big road in front of our park was fine.  They salt it heavily, so it is always clear.  That's why every few years, I have to have an all new undercarriage put on my car--from all the salt caused rust.

The appliance repair guy got her 4 minutes after I got home at 4:00.  He not only lit the pilot light, but put in a new thermo-couple...just in case, so the gas would keep flowing like it is supposed to.  The guy that came last year, about this time, did the same thing.  That should keep me for another year, unless we have another gale force, 60mph, wind gusts.
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I saw Dar's friend come and pick her up again Monday morning.  They were back in 90 minutes.  I felt kind of bad that Dar still can't get around, but then, 15 minutes later, she and her Daddy hopped in her car and took off.  Back in an hour, and as I was leaving for PT, she was in her car driving out ahead of me.  I wondered why her friend picked her up this morning, as Dar and Daddy were in and out half a dozen times over the weekend.

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Today's agenda--get my hair cut and eyebrows trimmed!!!!  This is imperative!  

Monday Moaning

The beginning of the dreaded Daylight Saving Time AND a full moon?

The full moon I can handle.  I love it and will do my monthly ritual of going out on the porch and howling at it.  The DST will affect my Circadian Clock for at least three weeks.  It always has and I suspect, it always will.

My neighbor/friend Pearl, isn't affected by it at all.  She doesn't even notice the time change.  Dar gets bat s*** crazy from the time change.  Even more so than normal.  HAH!  I just feel a bit discombobulated for half a month.  The sun now comes into the rooms at a different angle than what the clock says.

I thought maybe, I'd try something different.  Saturday at noon, I went through the house and set my clocks ahead an hour.  Then, when the cuckoo clock cuckooed 11 times, I went to bed.  When the alarm went off at 8:00, I got up.  I concentrated on what the cuckoo clock "said" and tried to ignore the sun angles.  It did seem to help.

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Five days with no hot water.  Dar was out too and her brother came to light the pilot light on her water heater.  She e-mailed me later to say, "I'm sorry.  I forgot all about your pilot light.  I should have had him come over and light yours."

Yes, that would have been nice, but since it is always all about her............

I have an appliance service plan through my electric company.  The service man was to arrive this morning between 7-11:00.  I got up at 7:00 to empty the closet, get dressed and get ready for the call that he was on his way.

It is now 10:30 and I just got the call.  "Because of the snow (1") he will arrive between noon and Two."

"I have an appointment at 2:30 and won't be back home until 4:00.  It's just a pilot light that needs lighting--it will only take a few minutes."

"Okay.  I'll put him down for before 2:30 or after 4:00."

<sigh>  It would have been nice to get a shower in and wash my hair before PT.  Guess I will warm up some water and wash down the important parts.  The hair will just have to be wild.

The electric had 900,000 customers without power since Wednesday--mostly in Detroit.  So I guess I am at the bottom of the list for my insignificant issue.  Maybe I should switch over to the appliance service plan my gas company offers?

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Other than that and a dishwasher filled to the brim with dirty dishes, a laundry basket filled to overflowing with dirty clothes and a cat that is on a diet and keeps meowing for food--everything is fine.

I guess I'll see how the rest of the day pans out before I get too anxious.

Missing these two a lot......................

Daughter Karen Helene and her grandbaby, Della Helene