HAPPY NEW YEAR !

I hope each of you rang the new year in safely and peacefully. Frank and I had a mostly quiet evening at home. The neighborhood set off fireworks and I slept through it... well, Frank said I talked through it.  He wanted to know what I said and I said I don't know... he was the one listening and I was sleeping :-).

I haven't slept well in weeks. With the damp weather we've had comes the flare up of bursitis in my hip. I see the doc on Monday and I know he will do something to help.

We are doing some more renovations to the house. The latest is taking David's old bedroom and making it an office.  It hasn't been David's bedroom for over 16 years.  It has mostly been a junk room/sewing room.  It wasn't always this  messy... this is the packing up stage :-)

The paneling was removed.  The carpet was removed along with padding.   Underneath was another layer of padding.  It was stuck to the floor and Frank scraped it up and I swept.  Then Frank ran the shop vac over it. What a mess!

Looking better!   The picture shows one of the old windows.  As you can tell we live in a house made from cement blocks.

This shows a bit of both old windows and the newly painted ceiling.

One of the new windows.  They were a bit hard to put in.  Frank is smart and figured out how to get past the glitches.

Next we put up drywall. So you see we are busy.  Busy is good.  

Of course I'm still addicted to the games on Face Book  :-D

My thoughts and prayers to each of you.

Bringing In The New Year

Click on pictures for a larger view.

Bringing in the New Year with food that is good and bad for you. We had blackeye peas with hog jowl and onion and mixed greens (turnip & mustard fresh from the garden) with hog jowl, onion and homemade pepper sauce... both dishes have other ingredients that I'll keep a secret. I can't tell all my recipes :-) We had corn bread and some sweet taters and pork chops too. It was all good. Lots of the greens went into the freezer, but some will be for tomorrow's dinner.

We always eat our big meal at midday. It makes it a bit easier to sleep at night. We eat very lightly in the evening... sometimes not at all. Today may be one of those days that I eat no supper. I ate so well at dinner.

I hope each of you had a good New Year's Eve. We just stayed at home and listened at our neighbor's children and their friends. The boys were playing basketball until very late. The girls talked, giggled and squealed. We were awakened at 12:05 am to the sound of fireworks and gunfire! Some people are so crazy and fire into the air. Hopefully when the bullets landed nothing was harmed.

Before going to sleep last night we thought about our first New Year's Eve together as man & wife. Frank had finished Army basic training and was sent to school (The School of Music) at Little Creek Naval Base (Norfolk) Virginia. I went with him and after we arrived we found out that I wasn't suppose to come with him. They let me stay :-) ... I would have hated those six months without him.

Our New Year's Eve was spent at the Old Dominion Motel. It is no longer in business and I can find no trace of it on the internet. It was not the greatest motel. As I pulled back the covers that night I saw a sheet covered in rusty spots. I didn't want to stay there, but we didn't have any choice. When you have limited moneys you can not be very choosy :-)

We managed not to contract any diseases at the motel. The next day we found an apartment close to the base. The one bedroom apartment rented for $75 a month. The bed was horrible. I was pregnant with our daughter at the time and my back was not doing good then because that is where she decided to nest... in my back. Frank managed to find a piece of plywood to put under the mattress to make it almost bearable to sleep. I didn't get enough sleep at night and would take naps during the day. The bedroom had a day bed that was a bit better than the bed, so that is where I took my naps.

Frank had long days at school and I kept myself busy at home. We did our laundry on the weekends. We took long walks on the beach and flew kites on the beach.

I had my clock radio that I had gotten as a graduation gift, so I was happy with my music to listen to.. Frank had a record player and I had a few records to add to his collection. We would go to sleep every night listening to the record player. Frank wanted something besides music so he bought an old tv for $10. We did not get much more than snow on that old tv.

That is how Frank and I started out our first New Year together as a man & wife. not an exciting story, but part of our story :-)

I hope your dreams take you to the corners of your smiles, to the highest of your hopes, to the windows of your opportunities, and to the most special places your heart has ever known. -- Author Unknown

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

~

Christian Glitter by www.christianglitter.com

I tried to think of great words to express my wishes for the coming year for you, but I can't say it any better than Ann Landers.

Let this coming year be better than all the others. Vow to do some of the things you've always wanted to do but couldn't find the time. Call up a forgotten friend. Drop an old grudge, and replace it with some pleasant memories. Vow not to make a promise you don't think you can keep. Walk tall, and smile more. You'll look ten years younger. Don't be afraid to say, 'I love you'. Say it again. They are the sweetest words in the world -- Ann Landers

That will also be the quote for this post.

Today I thought about this year. It was a mixed bag of great joy and agony. We started off the year with my neck and shoulder acting up. Because of my neck / shoulder problems I wasn't sure I was going to be able to make the cross-country trip we were planning. Between steroid shots and a great physical therapist my problems eased.

We still almost didn't make the trip because gas prices were high. Our truck that hauls our travel trailer runs on diesel fuel which cost quite a bit more than regular gas. We decide to go... who knows what our health holds in the future or how high gas prices will be.

So on May 06, 2008 we left on our trip. We returned on July 22, 2008. We had a blast! You can read of our adventures at our blog, Wandering About. At our blog is a link to the right for the pictures we took. Some of the pictures aren't so great. I had not had my camera long, so the trip was a learning experience. The train ride pictures at Durango were taken with my older Sony camera and the Las Vegas pictures were taken with my pocket Sony camera. I wasn't going to lug a heavy camera around all day there :-)

I was so proud of myself for when we got back home I had lost 10 lbs or so of weight on the trip. Then as I was putting stuff away from our trip my back started hurting more and more to the point I could barely walk. So the weight came back. Then back surgery... now recovery. So an up and down couple of months here.

The new year will bring surgery for Frank. I'm hoping no surgery for me. I am starting the new year out with neck / shoulder pain again. I'm hoping that all that will be needed is perhaps steroids to get swelling down. My excellent physical therapist that did wonders earlier this year has moved on to a new job.

So the new year will start off a bit rough for us. We will still do things that will give us pleasure when we can... like the country drive... or even the walk around the block. We'll try to make this year a better year.

We lost two family members this year. One was the sister of my grandmother... the last of that generation. The other was my Daddy's sister. She was the last of her generation. We will still celebrate their lives.

Today our son, David and his wife, Tish are celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary. Congratulations to them !

The evening they were married.... It was a cold 32° in SW Georgia. Frank video taped the wedding.. he had a bug of some type and was breathing like Darth Vader.

FROM ZAROGA & FRANK