Has Fitzgerald run amuck?

Most of you probably read Jodi's encounter with a ghost. Or was it a weird wire? Most of my extended family thinks it was a ghost as it sounds much more entertaining. Plus Eric's family already has a name for their ghost. It's Fitzgerald. (Doesn't every family have a ghost who does all the weird things around their house, or stuff that your kids do that they just don't want to admit that they did?) So Jodi is saying that when Eric's family came down last weekend to visit mom, they brought and then left Fitzgerald the ghost at their house. Jodi told Danica to come & get him.

Well, I think that Fitzgerald has decided to visit my house. Probably because I watch too many ghost shows, so he thinks he would feel right at home.

And why do I think that we have a ghost?

I'm glad you asked as I'm going to tell you.
Here we have exhibit A: My alarm clock. And yes, I know it has huge numbers. Remember that I'm blind without my contacts and glasses.

I don't really need an alarm clock. I never set the alarm to wake up in the morning. I have my own internal alarm clock. I always wake up at 6:30am (pretend that the clock says 6:30am).

Yesterday morning I woke up and looked at my alarm clock & it said 6:30. So it was time to get up. But it seemed kind of dark outside. I just chalked that up to it being left over clouds from rain the night before. So I got up and took my shower.

After I got out of the shower I looked at the clock in the bathroom & it said it was 6:30am. What? How could that be? I got up at 6:30 and it takes me about 20 minutes to shower, etc.

So I walked back into the bedroom & looked at my alarm clock. It said 6:50. Then I looked at Mike's alarm clock and it said 6:30. I went into the kitchen/family room & every clock in there said 6:30. So that means that I got up at 6:10am, not 6:30am as the clock had said.

Someone, or something had set my alarm clock ahead 20 minutes!!! Must be a ghost. Could it be Fitzgerald?

And this morning, the same thing happened. Only this time my clock was ahead by 7 minutes.

Strange! Very strange!!!!

Insert Twilight Zone music here.

Maybe I need to call these guys:
I wonder if they are still in business?

I do like watching ghost shows, I just don't want them in my house! But then, maybe I just need a new alarm clock. Nah, a ghost sounds much more entertaining. And who else am I going to blame if not a ghost?

Danica, are you missing Fitzgerald? I think he is at my house. Come and get him!!!

A Strange Thing Happened

This morning while I was getting Mom ready for the day I noticed that the light and fan in the extra bedroom (Mom's Closet) was on, so I asked Mom and Dad if they turned it on. They both said that they didn't, so I turned it off. A while later I noticed that it was on again, so I turned it off. Just a while ago I noticed that the light was on, so I turned it off and went into the bathroom and when I came out again it was on. I took the remote and changed the battery and put the remote back into it's holder just inside the bedroom. I went into the living room to tell Mom about it and she told me to take the remote into my Bedroom I did. Next thing I know the light is back on again and before I could turn it off the light went off by it self.

Do you have a ghost? Do we have a wire that's going out? I don't know, but Mom has the remote in the living room and next time it happens I'm going to turn the light off at the Fan. I hope it doesn't short out.

Trucks for Jesse.... Lots...

93 Jeep Cherokee.... $2,500.00 4x 4 ................... Auto

Jesse, all these trucks are on Race-Dezert.com- Classifieds- Off road vehicles- 93 Ford Ranger $1,800.00.

Inside the cab of the Ranger....
This one is $2,500.00, and it's on Race-Dezert.com too. Ford Ranger- Auto.
Jesse, this is for sale for $3,000.00 on Race-Dezert.com. 5-speed Dodge Dakota. Eric sent this.

Happy birthday Jodi & Todd!!!

Can you believe that 48 years ago today Jodi & Todd were born? We can't either! Just kidding.

When mom and dad brought them home from the hospital I said, "Why did you bring home two babies, we only need one?"

I'm glad that I got to see Todd this week & wish him an early happy birthday. And yesterday I got to see Jodi when I was down to see Mom. I told Jodi, "Don't forget that tomorrow is Todd's birthday". I always do that to her. It's our yearly joke. I always wish her happy birthday afterwards.

So Happy Birthday to the both of you!!! We love you!!!



P.S. If you missed Jodi's post about mom being home from the hospital, click here. I added a couple of photos of Mom from yesterday as well.

Mom Home

Mom came home from Scripps Memorial Hospital today. She had her Aortic Valve replaced on Tuesday. We are really glad to have her home. It wasn't the same here at home without her. I missed her very much and I am really glad to have her home.

Jodi

Edited: Kim added the photos of Mom's first day home from the hospital

Flooding on our street....

This is our street in Hemet. We played in the water and our neighbor went to retrieve our boat that we were shooting our b.b. guns at.







Eric

Waiting

Yesterday was Mom's heart surgery. Here are a few photos of what we did to pass the time away while waiting patiently in the surgical waiting room at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla.

Mari spent most of the day watching movies,

on the floor,

in the corner of the room.

Brandon brought his computer for us to use.

Andrea did a lot of texting.

Dad and Julianna did a lot of visiting.

Eric did some napping (Dad did too).

And Jodi watched movies as well.

She opted for a chair instead of the floor.

Me, I played on the computer, talked a lot, talked some more and took a few photos.

We went down to the cafeteria a couple of times.

They had the best cream of broccoli soup.

I had it twice.

Brandon made goofy faces.

We watched some TV

Watched the wind blow.

Can you believe that San Diego had a tornado warning?

Watched it rain pigs and cows instead of cats and dogs (Julianna's saying).

Visited with one another.

Visited some more.

Found out that Todd and his girls went to the beach the day before.

In the rain.

Got drenched.

They loved every minute of it.

Found out that all of our prayers were answered when the doctor came in & said that Mom came out of surgery just fine. They only had to replace one heart valve.

We'd have to wait a few more hours before we could see her.

Finally got to see her in CCU hooked up to a lot of tubes and machines.

She was still asleep from the anesthesia.

She didn't look alive.

But she was breathing.

With the help of a ventilator.

And did I say that there were lots of tubes and machines?

A little scary.

I mean, a LOT scary.

Not everyone was brave enough.

The nurse wouldn't let me take a photo.

Party Pooper!

But in the end it was all worth it.

Got to talk to my mommy this morning, on the phone.

She sounded great.

And she was happy the nurse wouldn't let me take a photo while she was in recovery.

Party pooper!

Just kidding!

Jumping for joy that my Mommy is OK.

Thanks for your prayers!!!!!

Family Matters Most

We all have distractions in our life. Including our jobs, money, our home, our car, friends, what will we fix for dinner tonight, what's on TV, and so on, and so on. You get the picture.

But there are certain times when circumstances remind us of what is really most important. And what is most important to me, is family.

And the heart of my family is my Mom. She is utmost in my thoughts today. She is my distraction at the moment.

Mom is having surgery on her heart tomorrow. The doctors are replacing a defective heart valve. But before surgery she is having an angiogram. That is happening right now as I write this post. The angiogram will determine if they also have to do a bypass.

We are not anticipating any problems with either the angiogram or the heart surgery. But with any medical procedure or surgery, complications or problems can always arise. So before mom has surgery, we decided to have a little get together at Mom and Dad's house yesterday.


Todd and two of his daughters drove down from Utah for a few days. So I decided that I wanted to come down to visit with him and with Mom. So our course, we had to invite Andrea's family and Eric's family. So it turned into a little family reunion.

Except for the fact that Eric got sick and couldn't come down. He didn't want to expose mom to any germs. And Taylor is in Idaho attending school, and Zak is in Detroit Michigan on his mission. Boy, did we miss those three. Doesn't seem the same without them.

But somehow we managed to have fun without them.

Todd and his daughter Mari.
Jase, Cade & Julianna. Why do the kids in our family like to make funny faces for photos?

Danica, Jodi and Jeannette

Simon and Mom.

This is my favorite photo. Andrea, Mom, Jodi and me (Kim).

Nate being Nate.

Cade, Jodi and Andrea. Jodi and I fixed tacos for dinner. For dessert we had cheesecake, chocolate pie and banana cream pie (Jodi made all the dessert).

Before everyone left Jodi and I took photos of everyone's family (except for mine. Oops, forgot).

Andrea's family minus Zak: Jamey, Andrea, Nate, Noah and Simon

Mari, Todd and Julianna. Did you notice Jodi & me in the mirror? I guess it's not good to take photos in front of a mirror.

Jase, Danica and Cade being silly.

Eric's family minus Eric and Taylor: Jase, Jeannette, Danica and Cade.

Kim's family: Oops, forgot to take a photo. In fact, I didn't take any photos of my family. I'm terrible at taking family photos. Hopefully Jodi did. And hopefully Jodi will post some of the photos that she took.

We had a good time eating, visiting and just being with family. The only downer came when the Chargers lost!!! Boo hoo!!! But the tacos made up for it. Not quite.

It was fun getting together with my family. I love them!!! They are the best. I know I am lucky to have such a fabulous family. And that we all like each other. I know there are some out in the world who aren't so lucky.

I love that my Mom considers my stepson Jesse as one of her grandchildren. She was thrilled that he was able to come down and visit as well. That is the kind of Mom I am lucky enough to have. She loves her family, whether they are blood or not. Family is family and that is all that matters.

I just hope that we get to have Mom around for many more years. This heart surgery should give us the extra time.

Jodi just called me to say that they were just now taking Mom in for the angiogram. They had to wait as an emergency patient came in that had to be done first. So we won't know anything for a couple of hours.

Keep Mom in your prayers that her angiogram today and her surgery tomorrow will go smoothly. I'll keep you posted.

Love,

A Double Happy Anniversary

I just found out that we have a double wedding anniversary today to celebrate.

It is Marti & Larry's wedding anniversary. Not sure how long they have been married, except that it has been a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooog time. I remember going to their wedding reception. I think it was back in the 70's. Good times!!!!

UPDATE: I just found out that Marti & Larry have been married for 31 years. Yipee!!!

And a little bird told me (you can find out all kinds of juicy stuff from Facebook) that it is also Katie & Seth's 3rd wedding anniversary. Katie is Marti & Larry's daughter. Katie and Seth are having their first baby in little over a month. They are having a girl. You can read all about it on Katie's blog.

Happy Anniversary to both couples. May your love continue to grow & blossom.

Kim's Top Ten

Isn't it the time of year for making lists? I'm not much of a list maker, but I want to change. So today, I'm going to share with you the Top Ten reasons why my Christmas decor is not put away.

This is as close as I've gotten to putting away my Christmas stuff so far.

Exhibit A: My family room table
I've managed to stack up all my Christmas plates, placemats and glasses. I did get my silverware put away. The mercury glass votive candle holders are packed away in the box. And I've taken down the hanging snowflakes from my chandelier. But the rest of my family room looks like Christmas! And my tree is still up.

Exhibit B: My living room dining table. Most of my living room Christmas decor has been moved to the table. I just need to get the boxes down from the attic & pack it away. And yup, my tree is still up in my living room as well.

My original goal was to have Christmas all packed up & put away this past weekend. But I failed. I'm not good at making goals and keeping them. I seem to get sidetracked too easily. That is why I never make New Years resolutions. I know I won't keep them. Did you make resolutions this time of year? If so, what are yours for the coming year?

I want to change. Really I do. But here are the reasons I didn't get it done. They are not in any order or importance, or what I liked the best. I put them in the order in which I was sidetracked.

1) We'll start with New Year's Eve. Who wants to put away Christmas decorations on New Year's Eve? Mike & I decided to go to the movies instead. You see, we rarely go to the movies as it costs money. Lucky for me, I have a friend who works at a movie theater & she occasionally gives us free tickets. Since it was the last day of December & the tickets were going to expire, we decided to see a movie.

I wanted to see Sherlock Holmes or It's Complicated. Mike wanted to see Avatar. I didn't. But since Sherlock Holmes & It's Complicated where special engagement movies we couldn't use our free tickets to see them. Avatar was the only movie we could see. So we went.

But I was wrong about Avatar. It was a great movie. I liked it. Definitely worth seeing. Now Mike wants to see it in Imax 3-D. Have you seen Avatar yet? Did you like it?

2) New Year's Day. Great day for taking down decorations. But instead, I decided to cook a ham dinner & invite Danica, Jase and Cade over for dinner. Eric and Jeannette had gone to Idaho to take Taylor up to school and left their other kids at home. So I invited them over for dinner.

It was like having Christmas dinner all over again. We had spiral cut ham with glaze, cheese potatoes, yams, green bean casserole, corn and the family green Thanksgiving/Christmas jello salad. And no, the above photo is not of our dinner. I forgot to take any photos of dinner or our company. I was too busy cooking and eating to think about photography. Can you believe that I forgot to take photos? And I have two blogs? Food can do that to me.

3) After dinner I turned on the TV & what was on, Pride and Prejudice. Now I had just bought this DVD for myself, for Christmas. And I had just watched it the week before. For the first time in my life, no less. Can you believe I had never seen this movie before Christmas? Me neither.

Well I loved it so much the first time I saw it, I had to watch it again. The Christmas stuff could just wait. Mr Darcy couldn't.

4) Saturday: When Danica was over for dinner on New Years she asked if I wanted to go shopping with her the next morning. Shopping!!!! I'm in!!!!
So we went shopping for most of the day. Got a cute apron & placemats at Kohl's for Valentine's Day. They have cupcakes on them! Found some Valentine plates at Target, as well as some Christmas stuff on clearance. Good thing I hadn't packed away my Christmas stuff yet. Ate at Chipotle's for the first time. It was OK, don't think I'll go back.

5) Saturday night: Guess what was on TV tonight? The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers. I guess the Fellowship of the Rings had been on the night before, but I was too busy watching Pride and Prejudice.
Don't you just love The Lord of the Rings? And can you believe that I never saw the final installment? Lucky for me, it's on Sunday.

6) Sunday: Today was the day I was going to get everything put away. I even told Jesse that he couldn't have his girlfriend over as I was going to be in the family room putting everything away.

And what did I do instead? I took a nap. But what a nap it was. I slept for most of the day. Isn't Sunday the day of rest?


7) The Return of the King. I had to watch. I'd never seen it before. And I'm in love with Aragorn!Wow, that was such a long movie. Over 4 hours on TV. Luckily it started early enough that I wouldn't miss my next distraction.

8) More TV: Desperate Housewives & Brothers and Sisters. I had to see who died when the plane crashed onto Wisteria Lane. And I had to see if Kitty was going to live or die. So much drama!!!

I'm glad it was Carl (sorry Carl). I like Orson. Sad for Lynette. I still love this show.

I'm glad Kitty made it. I like her. And I love Robert aka: Rob Lowe. He has the most gorgeous eyes. So that pretty much took up my entire weekend.

But I thought this was a top ten list. Kim, you've only listed eight reasons why your Christmas decor didn't get done.

Well, here it is Wednesday, so I should have been able to at least get a little done on Monday & Tuesday after I got home from work. Right? WRONG!!! Here are my last 2 reasons why my Christmas decor is still up.

9) The Bachelor. Did you know that the new season started Monday night? Did you watch? Isn't Jake a hottie? Can any man be that good looking & be that nice?
And did you know it's going to be The Bachelor's most dramatic season ever? Don't they say that every year? I guess I'll just have to watch to decide for myself.

10) And my top reason for not getting my Christmas decor packed away......THE TUDORS. My new obsession. I bought myself the first two seasons for Christmas. Don't you buy yourself Christmas gifts? I already watched the first two seasons the week between Christmas and New Year's. I wanted season three, but it costs more and I didn't want to spend the money. Lucky for me, Danica got season 3 for Christmas. She is letting me borrow it.

Last night I watched the first 5 episodes of season 3. I liked the first two seasons better. But then, I am a fan of Anne Boleyn. She was feisty. Jonathan Rhys Meyers makes a great King Henry VIII on this series. He is definitely worth watching. Tonight I will probably watch the last 5 episodes.

If you are a fan of this time period, this is a great TV series. But I have to warn you, it can be a bit racy. It's on Showtime, so there is nudity and sex scenes. And did they say the "F" word back in that time? It would probably be considered "R" rated, but I'm the black sheep in my family, so I watch stuff like this. Since I don't have Showtime, I have to wait until next year to see season 4 when it comes out on DVD. Boo hoo!!! Did I tell you I was impatient too? I have too many weaknesses.

All I can say is that I'm glad I didn't live during that time period. It was brutal. They make it seem all romantic. Even though I'm sure it really wasn't all that romantic to live during that time.

Well there you have my top ten reasons for my Christmas decor still being up. I did promise Mike that I'd have it put away by Valentine's Day. Wish me luck!!!

Happy Birthday Cade!

Today is Cade's 17th birthday. Cade is Eric's youngest child. He is also Dorothy's grandson. That makes him my nephew.

Happy Birthday Cade!

Hope your birthday is a great one. We love you!!!