More Ramblings...and a bit of Sunny Days

Some things seem to be brightening up. It looks like I'm going to Kentucky with my mom, bebe', cousin Karen and Aunt B. Hey...it will have to pass as a vacation. Lookout Harlan County, here we come!
Granny's headstone has been installed ... finally. I haven't been to see it yet. Sometimes I feel just blank about it but then I get really sad. It's like sometimes it's more real than others. I know those of you who have lost someone might know what I mean.
On a happier note, bebe' is getting her 5th tooth! It's little edge has popped out of the gum. She is getting to be quite the little girl lately. She sits up and acts like such a big girl. She likes to play Pop-Up where she is sitting on my lap kind of squatting like and then she "POPS" up straight and laughs and laughs. She also loves her toys. She especially loves her Zoo activity play toy that sings songs and she can put the animals on a turntable and watch them go 'round and 'round. She is also very interested in me talking. She will sit in my lap and just stare at my lips and touch her fingers to them. It's super cute when she does this while I'm singing her nighttime songs for bed and she's very sleepy.
The beasts dogs went to the vet this weekend. Theodore is at 74 lbs and is in great health for what the vet terms "middle-aged", at 8 years old. What impressed me most is how impressed they were with his teeth! They thought we had been having them brushed regularly. I love the pooches but I'm not too keen on the idea of trying to scrape their plaque. The doc said his teeth are like 98% of perfect! Sweet! Oreo is a whopping 76 lbs. He is very thick. I don't know any other way to say it. He's thick. Like a log. He did very good and has only been itching the last 2 days because they gave him a dog biscuit and those make him itch (boo...). Other than that, everyone is in fine health! Thankfully our animals are in good health as it is so costly to take them to the vet. Once a year I can handle. I believe in maintenance...just like with any vehicles :)
BFF and I are back in business on eBay. We took a break..well, I took a break because my lazy butt just couldn't get motivated to post anything. I listed 3 items and wouldn't you know that within 48 hours, 2 of them had sold! Yay! I'm looking forward to selling more and we are looking into other opportunities for selling as well. Also, BFF needs to get her etsy store up and running too. I'd like to get started but anything I did for etsy would have to be small and quick to make.
Speaking of quick to make (as if this post isn't long enough), I have decided on what I am doing for Christmas for my husband's family this year. I hope they go over well. I doubt they read this blog but I'd hate for anything to get leaked early. I don't care so much if they know what they're getting, I just don't want them to not like it ahead of time LOL.
Well, I will try to be more regular about posting. I've been in a deep funk the last few weeks and I'm trying to pull myself out.

OH! One last thing....Phillipa Gregory's latest book came out today The White Queen!

OMG, I can hardly wait to get it!!

Long Weekend

Fourth of July weekend went off fairly well. I was very fortunate to have the day off of work (considering they used Friday as the "observed" 4th) and we used that day to have bebe's 9 month portraits taken. My mom and husband both joined Emily and I at JCPenney portrait studio. Little Miss Smiley as documented on my facebook page decided to sit on the backgrounds and just stare at the photographer. No smiles, no crying..just staring. She cracked a few smiles finally (thankfully, she had 3 outfit changes!). On the third outfit, bebe' wailed. She was not having it. We tried sitting her on a small couch in the photo and that was the end of that. The wonderful people of Briarwood's JCPenney Portrait Studio were kind enough to tell us that if we wanted to leave and feed her or whatever, they would be happy to squeeze her back in and try again in her last outfit. Out in the mall, bebe' quieted down and chugged a bottle. We ran into my co-worker Eric and his family, chatted with them, Eric managed to sneak a smile out of her so we were like "let's go! She's on!" Bebe' was like a pro the second time around. We got a lot of great shots and again, the people were so nice for allowing us to sneak back in and save our sitting without charging us an extra sitting fee or anything (I get free ones anyway for being in their portrait club). Plus, I had a coupon for a free 10 x 13..holla!

My mom and I went to JoAnn's later that day and I bought a bouquet of fake flowers that were really very pretty - I meant to take a picture. My momma took me to the cemetary so I could put the flowers with Granny. I hadn't left her anything yet. I felt silly doing it. Not silly at Granny, but silly for me. I'm still very angry that she's not here. I'm not angry at her but I'm angry because I don't think it should have happened. I miss Granny.
My mom and dad had their usual 4th of July cookout celebrating eating and my dad's birthday (go figure, the foreigner was born on America's bday) more than America's Independance but I digress. Granny was always a sweetie, but in the later years, she became really angry about cameras. REALLY angry. She would actually yell at us, well, snap at us if she so much as saw a camera in the vicinity. I had to explain to her when my baby shower was coming up that there would be cameras but no one would take her picture. She was so concerned about people taking her picture and she would talk about my mom and aunts and cousins by saying "everytime I turn around they've gotta stick that in my face." Truth is, once we knew it bothered her, we did everything to avoid that but she would still get mad. My cousin had a birthday party in the fall right after Emily was born. People were taking pictures of my cousin (it was her birthday), and/or the baby and Granny was all the way across the banquet room and had a fit! It was sad. I don't know why she got that way. Up until about 4 or 5 years ago, I have TONS of pictures of Granny and she was fine in them. Anyway, it was odd being able to take pictures at the cookout this year. I think Granny would have been alright. My mom and I had a good way of convincing her (truthfully) that we wouldn't take her picture. She probably would have been ok with it because of Emily. That is one thing I am thankful for. She did come to the hospital to see Emily after she was born and held her and let me take pictures of her doing so (she called me Sharon the whole time - something she never did before or after that day); she also came to my house a couple of weeks after we came home and we got a picture of our 4 generations: Granny, Momma, Myself and Emily.

Haddy

So, this post may not be exactly what it should be but bear with me. Last Sunday morning, Granny died. I know it hasn't sunk in yet. I keep thinking that it didn't happen. It's really very strange. I know that she had a small stroke in December, but she didn't have any real issues with that. There was no paralysis, her speech was slightly affected but not slurred, her word-finding was the problem but within a few days, it was back on track. They did surgery to unblock her carotid artery and she was back to being Granny again. So, although people say "she was old" and "she lived a good life", while that's all well and true, it wasn't time. I don't believe it. I just had lunch at Arby's with her on Wednesday and she gave me a birthday card. It was expected but not expected, you know? I don't know when it will sink in. I did not like the funeral (well, who does though?). I did not like seeing my Granny laying there. I was very sad. I am very sad but I'm not sad like last week. I'm sad but I feel more confused because even though I sometimes can be smart, I don't believe this happened. It just seems weird that I'll never, ever see her again. To me, right now, that's not right. So, to wrap my head around this and to maybe stop rambling on and on, I am going to make "Granny Lists." The first one is what she ate at restaurants. I'm so afraid I'll forget everything.

What Granny Ate

1. Arby's - Back in the old days, it was the Ham and Cheese sandwich, then it became chicken strips, and most recently a Jr. Roast Beef with Arby's Sauce, curly fries and Pepsi
2. Big Boy - Slim Jim combination, no lettuce on the sandwich, fries and coleslaw
3. Taco Bell - 2 soft taco supremes
4. Wendy's - She used to get a Single with cheese, mayo, tomato and onion, fries and a Pepsi. More recently she got chicken nuggets with BBQ sauce, fries and a Pepsi
5. Bob Evan's - Years ago she would always get the Chicken 'n' Noodles, more recently is was breakfast: The Homestead with scrambled eggs, home fries, sausage patties and biscuits and gravy
6. Leo's - Usually breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled, sausage patties, hash browns and white toast
7. Cracker Barrell - The Old Timer's Breakfast with 2 eggs scrambled, sausage patties, hashbrown casserole, and biscuits with gravy, no grits. For dinner she sometimes got the Country Vegetable plate with dumplings, coleslaw, hasbrown casserole and macaroni and cheese
8. O'Charley's - Chicken fingers dinner
9. Herc's (VERY old) - Salisbury Steak, a piece of custard pie
10. Mark's Coney Island - Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled, baked ham, hash browns, white toast. Lunch: Coney burger and fries (a LONG time ago)

One of the funny things Granny did with her food was when she would eat a french fry, she would not eat the ends. So, at the end of a meal, there would be all of these little pieces of ends of french fries. I never understood why but I thought it was cute.