I'M STILL HERE

Gee, I haven't blogged in awhile. It was a wild & crazy summer. Dean was sick a lot. Pneumonia in April, then shingles in July, then foot fungus (yuck), then pink-eye in August. Now it's October. He's healed from everything except he still big purple spots where the shingles were, and one leg keeps swelling, and he has post-somethingorother neurological pain in his foot. And so it goes......

Brian came back from China, and is going again next month. In fact he will be gone for most of November his birthday month (40!!!!). But will be home for the holidays. What an education he is getting!

We went on our trip although we did not make it quite all the way. We went to OHIO to see John & Rachael (our oldest son), and the campus where John is getting his Masters in Fine Arts. 9th oldest public institution in the nation, and just a gorgeous town, and campus. They are in the foothills of the Appalachians, and so it's just so beautiful there.

Then went to N. Carolina to see youngest son James, whose wife is in the army at Ft. Bragg. Lexi, our grand daughter got sick same day we got there and we thought we'd have to stay in a hotel, but it was her appendix, and her 10th Birthday!!!!! She will never for it, and we got to stay and enjoy the the kiddos cause she was not contagious!! Shortly after we left Trixy was in a car accident, and rolled their van with Lexi and R. J. in it. Trixy was the most hurt, but they are all ok. And now we found out Trixy is being deployed in December to Afghanistan!!! :-( It will be hard for all of them.

Then we went to visit our Tampa friends Grady & Lyanne, and also some relatives in Spring Hill, Florida. We had a great time there-----but the weather was hot and muggy!!! Can't believe we lived there for 10 years. We did have a good time tho.

Then we went to visit my brother Rick & wife Deb in Gulfport, Mississippi. That was really fun. We even went to the casino one night. Didn't win or lose, just had fun. We were supposed to go on to Shreveport, but my niece and her daughter weren't feeling well, and we were EXHAUSTED as it was almost 20 days for us on the road! We did do it slow, staying in a hotel between each stop, even the short 8 hour ones, so we could just rest and lay down! Dean get better on the way, and we just had a great time-----except the last 2 days of driving home when were a little "snarly" at each other!

When we got home we were met by Sherri and the grandkids with birthday presents for me, and lots of hugs and kisses. That was the BEST!!!

So, now we are home, and guess who got sick? ME! Just sore throat cold thing, but glad it didn't happen on the trip. Now, I'm moving things around to paint albeit slowly. Finally going to get rid of this "foam green" that I loved when we moved in 10 years ago!!!

So that's it for now........Good Night Gracie......