Saturday, July 31, 2010

A Star is Born

Wow!  I just heard this young lady on YouTube and I think that a star will be born.  Thought I would share.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Old MacDonald Had A Farm....

Ee-Ii-Ee-Ii-Oooh!  The other weekend, Honey and I attended the Southeastern Antique Tractor Show.  At this event, there were several antique tractors and engines on view along with a flea market and carnival food and fireworks.  There was also a farm tour.  Let's have a look.....
Hop on the haywagon and go for a ride.
Here is the main barn.  Looks like they are making hay while the sun shines.

With a chick-chick here and a chick-chick there....

Here we are riding past the corn crib and grainery.
This little piggy went to market...
Oops!  Sorry to walk in on you! *blush*
The old farmhouse...
Thanks for letting us tour your farm, Farmer MacDonald!  Until next time...

Friday, July 23, 2010

Yesterday

How do you like my new look?  I went on the Blogger help forum and posted a question about the issues I was having with Firefox/Blogger.  I did get a reply from someone who gave me instructions on tweaking the html code for my "Background Fairy" sidebar.  I am no techie by any means, and I am sure that I may have been able to do it, but I decided to do away with the sidebar for now.  Of course I did this in Safari and it worked no problem.  But when I viewed the blog in Firefox, it wasn't taken care of.  To quote Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind", "I'll think about it tomorrow."

Yesterday my dad went to the Karmanos Cancer Center for a consultation.  My mom and sister went with him while I stayed with my brother.  The trip wore my dad out, and he went straight to bed when they got home.  They said that basically the doctor did not tell them anything differently that what his lung specialist and surgeon had already stated.  Because of his age, surgery and chemo are out of the question.  They could try radiation to shrink the tumor, but you have the side effects from that.  She did say that there was one chemo drug they could try that would be delivered in a port in his chest once a week.  It would not be a cure since there isn't one, but may give him more time.  But again, the side effects.  I guess the regular course of treatment is hard on someone half his age, much less someone in his eighties. All of this has not really hit me yet.  I'm kind of numb to it all.  On the other hand, when we got the news earlier, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I was devastated.  I guess with time, I have been able to process it and absorb it a bit.  Even though my dad has lived a long life, it is still going to be so difficult to let him go.  I just pray that God is merciful and he doesn't suffer.

My mom and sister were quite impressed with the facility.  They said that it was very beautiful and clean.  They were given a binder that was so organized with all the information they were going to need.  Most of all they said that everyone that worked there were so compassionate.  I had heard that they were very good there for both the patient and the families.  I am so thankful that we have a facility like that close by.

Even though this has hit us hard, my mom put it in perspective.  She said as she was walking in, she saw cancer patients much younger than my dad.  As she was walking by each one she said she sent up a prayer for that person.  This disease has no prejudice.  But it cannot overcome the human spirit.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Testing, testing

Please skip this post.  I am having issues with being able to view my blog in Mozilla Firefox.  I decided to actually post on my blog using Firefox and seeing if that would make a difference or not.  I'm guessing not.  I know zip about HTML and do not know how to find a solution to this problem.  If you are still reading this post and you know how I can have my posts to appear on Firefox the way that they appear on Safari or IE, please leave a comment.  I will really appreciate it!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

You Can Take the Boy Out of the Country...



but you can't the take the country out of the boy.  I would have named this post, "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy", but I thought that would be silly.

Last Saturday Ryan had a sleepover at a buddy's house, so that left Honey and I with some free time on our hands.  So we grabbed a bite to eat and headed over to Honey's hometown and checked out an antique tractor show that was located down the road from his sister's house.  This was right up Honey's alley as he was raised in the country and he loves anything to do with machinery.  I thought I would be bored to tears looking at a bunch of old tractors.  But I actually enjoyed the evening.  There was a flea market, carnival food and fireworks at dusk.  And if you look closely enough, there is a certain beauty in the old relics of the field.  Come check some of them out.


Of course you have to have a John Deere tractor, or it wouldn't be a tractor show now would it?;-)
If I am not mistaken, this tractor is from the 1920's.  Notice the wheels are made of metal and not rubber.

So here is your fill of some old machines.  Until next time....

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Sunday Inspiration



After the game, the king and pawn go in the same box.
                                 
Italian Proverb

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Sunday Inspiration


Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean.
    
                                                                                                 Christopher Reeve

Saturday, July 10, 2010

I'm Still Here

Hello!  I've been a bad blogger lately due to life and the fact that I feel like I can't post without at least one picture in my entry.

I have been wanting to post about our 4th of July weekend and Father's Day.  But what would these posts be like without pictures?  You see, I lost both my card reader and cable to transfer pictures from my camera to my computer.  I've finally decided to bite the dust and buy another card reader.  I know once I do this, I will find my missing one.  Oh well....

My dad is holding his own.  He actually felt well enough to bake two pies the other day.  He is the baker in our family and he makes the BEST pies!  We are still waiting to hear from the Karmanos Cancer Center for an appointment.  I am both dreading this and anxious for him to go.

We have a busy day today.  My family and I are going to my parents to help with yard/house work and I need to get some laundry done today if we want clean clothes to wear.  I have been doing some sorting/purging in my basement this week and have gotten behind on the rest of my work around the house.  I do not think our basement has had a thorough de-junking since we moved in sixteen years ago.  Oy!  What a mess!  Does anyone know what to do with 583 cards and can someone come over and help me sort through 1,243 pictures?:-P  Tracey, if you are reading this,  I need you!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Life

I have been MIA for a couple of weeks now. Most of it has to do with the fact that life gets in the way and you have to prioritize. A few weeks ago my family received news that rocked our world and not in a good way.

We found out my dad has mesothelioma.

He has been ill since March and he was diagnosed with pneumonia and pleural effusion, which is fluid in the lining of the lung.  I googled the term and the website that I read said that it could be a sign of lung cancer.  Since my dad is in his eighties and I knew of him working around asbestos, I thought the odds were stacked against him.  But you still have hope and keep telling yourself that the fact he was having difficulty getting over the pneumonia and kept getting fluid in the lung was because of his age.  And with the right antibiotics and time he would get over it.  He has always been healthy, especially for his age.  So when an "open biopsy" was done and the results were that he had this disease, it turned our world on it's axis.

So we have been going to doctors and trying to see what we can do to get them more help for my brother.  I have a physically/mentally handicapped brother still living at home so it makes things more complicated.  Hopefully we can find a good home for him soon so my parents can concentrate on their own well-being.  For right now, we are pulling together to help them out in any way that we can.

I am asking that you send up prayers and positive thoughts on behalf of my parents, that they will be able to handle this burden with grace and peace may be found in getting the right care for my dad and brother.

So I am closing this blog post with a poem that I found regarding cancer:

What Cancer Cannot Do

Cancer is so limited...
it cannot cripple love
it cannot shatter hope
it cannot corrode faith
it cannot destroy peace
it cannot suppress memories
it cannot silence courage
it cannot invade the soul
it cannot steal eternal life
it cannot conquer the spirit

Unknown