Prom Time

My daughter went to her senior prom tonight. She looked so pretty! The day started with her hair appointment and then a trip to pick up her date's boutonniere (I guess they still call it a boutonniere). Then it was time to do nails. Last year she went with her friends to have them done at a salon. This year they did each other's nails and makeup. I think they really enjoyed the girly primping time together. I drove her to her date's house at twenty after four. Usually the girl gets picked up, but we live 30 minutes from her boyfriend and we were already in town. Besides, it is a big deal now for the parents to gather at one house and take pictures of the couple all gussied up for the prom. Several couples were gathering for pictures at a home near the boyfriend's house, so it was easier for me to drop my daughter off. When I was young, parents did not go from house to house taking pictures of the prom couples. Anyway, after pictures were taken, the couples go out to eat at nice restaurants. The prom starts around 7. When it's over, the kids go to afterprom parties that last all night. They are coed and invitations always say something like "parents are welcome to drop in at anytime to visit with the adult chaperones."
I have been through many junior and senior prom nights with my kids. I always worry because so many teenagers drink on prom and graduation nights. My daughter promised to call me when she got to the afterprom party. I won't be able to sleep till I get that phone call.

Sleepless in Tennessee

I can't sleep, so I'm reading blogs and rambling around on the internet. I came across this http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2007/feature-photography/works/
You might have to cut and paste, but it's worth looking at. Get the tissues ready. It's a prize winning photo exhibit of a single mom and her son as he loses his battle with cancer. If you click on the pictures, they will enlarge and an explanation can be viewed. The hardest picture to look at is when the son is taking his last steps and the cancerous tumor in his stomach is so large that he can't zip his pants. I believe he is also blind in that picture, due to a large tumor pressing on his eyes. I can't imagine what that mother must have gone through.

Changes

I have never liked changes, especially when they are forced upon me. It seems that I go through times when nothing new happens, maybe for years. And then, suddenly, in the blink of an eye things change. It's almost like when someone dies and you realize the world has lost another person, yet the world doesn't really notice. That person is here one day and gone the next. Or you find yourself driving your child to college and something inside knows it's the end of an era, things will never be the same. I have had too many changes lately, and my head feels like it's spinning. My son told me last week he will not be coming home this summer. He will be staying in Nashville to continue a research project. It seems as if he's really grown up and on his own for the first time. My oldest daughter will be going to college this fall and she has decided to live in the dorm, even though we live close enough for her to commute. I understand completely, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it, especially with her health problems. But, she has plenty of scholarship money to stay in the dorm and pay tuition, and I know it's for the best. My parents just informed me they will be moving into town as soon as they get things organized and packed. They have always, and by "always" I mean almost thirty years, lived just down the road from me. That has been a great comfort to me on many levels. When my husband died, I knew I could always go talk with my mom if I got lonely for adult talk. As they've gotten older, I feel like I'm close enough to help if anything comes up. I drive my mom to town off and on and I take them certain foods I fix because my mom no longer likes to bake. Mom is sick again and the dr. doesn't really know what it is. She goes in for tests next week. My dad says he wants her living closer to doctors and hospitals. He says the farm is too much for him now, he can't keep care of the land and it drives him crazy to see things growing up all around him. My father has always hated the city. I can't imagine he'll be happy living in town. Isn't it sad that age takes so much from us. My father says he has heard people say how wonderful it is to get older and wiser. He says there is absolutely nothing good about getting old. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to move. It will be hard to live where I live now without the kids. And, everytime I pass my parents long driveway I know I'll want to drive up it. I'm certainly not ready to move into town, but my youngest is still at home and I'm sure she would love to have a neighbor or two with children. decisions decisions......

Buzz and Lilly

I have always loved animals, especially dogs. When I was in my 20's and 30's I showed dogs in both obedience and conformation. I had several English Springer Spaniels, a corgi, and a crazy border collie. Now, I have two untrained Australian Shepherds and my daughter has a 5 month old corgi. We also have a cat that we adopted from the shelter. My unruly Australian Shepherds, Buzz and Lilly, are an embarrassment to me because for several years I taught obedience classes for a local kennel club! I keep promising myself that I will train Buzz and Lilly, but I never get around to it. One of these days, after I plant a couple of apple trees, paint my porch chairs, get my back door fixed, paint my bedroom, clean the attic,........

Easter Eggs

We dyed Easter Eggs today. It was just my youngest daughter and me, but we had fun. Years ago, my sisters and I would get all the kids together (usually at my house) on Good Friday to dye eggs. We had such fun and acted so silly. There was always more dye on little fingers than on eggs. Now, all my nieces and nephews are grown (or almost grown). My mom always joined us, and I'm sure she's missing those fun times too. My daughter made one orange egg today with the letters UT (University of Tennessee) on one side. We took a picture of it and emailed the picture to my son. He goes to Vanderbilt, but he's always been a huge UT fan. My oldest daughter is going to UT so we also emailed a picture of the orange UT egg to her. We spent the rest of the day eating jelly beans and chocolate.

music meme

Grammie has tagged me, and if I understand correctly, I must post my favorite seven songs. If I had to post the last seven songs listened to, it would be whatever was sung on American Idol. I can't even remember what the contestants sang this past week, so I'll list the last seven songs I listened to on my ipod. I think it's funny that I have an ipod, but my son gave me one last Christmas. I've actually enjoyed it, especially when I go for walks.
1. Crazy - Gnarles Barkley
2. Listen - Beyonce (Dreamgirls)
3. And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going - Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)
4. Defying Gravity (Wicked)
5. Georgia - Ray Charles
6. Your Song - Elton John (in honor of his 60th birthday)
7. Bless the Broken Road - Rascal Flats

Thanks Grammie!

Good Friday

I've always loved Easter. To me, it is the holiest of all Christian holidays.

Yesterday my daughter finished her radioactive iodine treatments for Grave's Disease. She is confined to her bedroom for the next 4 days. She is emitting beta particles (I think that's right) and that's not a good thing. She has to flush the toilet twice after she uses it. And she has to throw away her underwear a couple of times a day. She is on a special diet with absolutely no sodium. She is allowed to eat chicken, beef, or pork with no seasoning except pepper. She can have fresh vegetables or fruit (no canned stuff), 1 piece of bread and 1 cup of milk a day. She can drink tea, water, and KoolAid if it doesn't contain red dye 40. That's all she's allowed. She's basically living on bananas and baked potatoes with pepper. She says the diet is the hardest thing she's ever done.

Areas of the North are covered in snow. I remember a huge snow in April when I was in high school. We had no power for over 5 days. My mom cooked over a fire in the fireplace. There was plenty of food because we had to use stuff in the freezer before it ruined. In those days our freezer was filled with good things from the garden, as well as beef we raised and grain fed during the summer. All four of us kids slept in the floor near the fire and my parents slept on a couch. At the time, I didn't realize I was living something that would later become a precious memory.

I thought this was kind of interesting.


"At the end of Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” viewers are asked, “Are you ready to change the way you live”? Following this line of thinking, the movie’s web site suggests many ways that you can “reduce your impact at home,” including using less heating and air conditioning, buying expensive fluorescent light bulbs, using less hot water, using a clothesline rather than a dryer, carpooling, flying less and buying cost-inefficient hybrid cars.

Given that Gore calls the fight against global warming a “moral imperative” in the movie, you might reasonably think that he practices what his movie’s web site preaches. But you’d be wrong.

In the wake of the movie winning an Oscar last month, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research reported that Gore’s Nashville mansion consumed more than 20 times the electricity than the national average. Last August, the Gore mansion burned more than twice the electricity in a single month as the average American family uses in an entire year. Gore’s heated pool house alone uses more than $500 in electricity every month."

WOW! Twice the electricity in one month that the average family uses in one year!
I guess that explains why Gore asks are "YOU ready to change the way YOU live" instead of "are WE ready to change the way WE live."

American Idol fiasco

I just looked up the definition of "fiasco" and this is what I read -
"a multifaceted, extravagant, and sad failure." I think that sums up what's
happening on American Idol. Sanjaya is safe for another week, meaning we'll
be hearing his sad little voice again next week. At first I felt sort of embarrassed
for him. Then I saw his mohawk and I decided he, or someone advising him, is loving this "VOTE TO KEEP SANJAYA" movement. A couple of our local radio stations refer to Sanjaya as "Transjaya" and "Sangina" (*cough* *cough*). If Melinda Doolittle, Jordon Sparks, Blake Lewis, or Lakesha Jones go before Sanjaya, I may never watch TV again...or maybe just not watch American Idol next season. I can't believe I know the last names of all the contestants. sigh.

Let's try this again

After several months of dealing with family illnesses and upsets, I tried to find and republish my old blog. I can't find it. I lost it when I was attempting to change to Beta. I didn't really lose it because I know it's still there.... somewhere.
So, I've been dealing with my parent's health problems. My mom seems to be doing OK after several cancer scares, but low and behold, my Dad has prostate cancer. He also has skin cancer. He is depressed and I think he's pulling my mom down with him. My sister and I are trying to keep them in good spirits, but that's not always an easy task. Then, we discover that my 18 year old daughter has Graves Disease which involves an overactive thyroid. Her heart rate is well over 140 if she doesn't take beta blockers. She can eat all day and still not gain a pound. Her metabolism is racing and she has a hard time controlling her body temperature. The cure, well not a cure exactly, is a couple of doses of radioactive iodine which is absorbed by the thyroid gland. The iodine eventually kills most of the thyroid and my daughter will have to take a thyroid replacement hormone like levoxyl for the rest of her life. The doctors tell me this disease must have been in my daughter's biological family. Both of my daughters and my son are adopted and there are no records of their birth families. My youngest daughter is from China and she was found in a box on the orphanage steps.
I'm hoping the bad news is over and we can have a quiet summer. My dad's radiation treatments are over and he's back home. He had the treatments at Vanderbilt in Nashville. He and my Mom lived in some sort of rent-by-the-week apartment near the hospital. I think it was Extended Stay or something like that.
My son is in med school at Vanderbilt so he saw them lots while they were there. I think they enjoyed having him around to run errands.
I'm counting the days till summer.