My Family's Own Geologist

  Getting ready to fly to see grandchild #3 graduate from college. She majored in geology and like me, she loves rocks; but unlike me, she knows all about how they were formed and what is in them. I once gave her a huge piece of rose quartz.

When she was little....about two and a half years old....we'd take nature walks and gather stuff we found ....seed pods, leaves, rocks, etc.....put them in our paper bag to examine on the kitchen table when we got back to the house. She was so very curious about everything! Anyway, I'm going to enjoy seeing her graduate. She's one smart cookie! And someday she'll get my huge basketball size slice of a geode and my big jar of interesting rocks too.

And I learned a few hours ago that I can get the image of my boarding pass on my I-phone...so did so!!! However, I printed out a paper copy also .... just in case!

Some Spring Photos to Share

Here is the photo taken at my birthday party and a few others of my peony tree....that is what it's called..... and other photos of this year's flowers. It's so cold tonight I'm afraid they might freeze.....but hope not! It was so very warm early in March that my daffodils only lasted about two weeks from the time they started blooming. Daughter Valerie took pictures of them on St. Patrick's Day when I came home from the hospital. The miniature ones don't seem as hardy as the larger varieties. I have several types of large daffodils that were lovely this year....and the nice thing about them is the rabbits leave them alone! The tulips are ones from the church altar last year. I always order some in memory of loved ones. I'll add to those soon from this year's altar flowers.

I added a photo of my 80th birthday tatoo....yes, I said "tatoo".....it's a long story I won't bore you with just now. I've always wanted one.  

It's A Wonderful Life

  I had a wonderful 80th birthday. Daughter Val and Sparky may have found their 700th geocache, but I reached the age 80 years....or 960 months.....or 29,200 days! That's a helluva lot of living done so far!

My friends had a surprise luncheon party for me at Johnny Carino's....14 or so there with the helium balloons and cards and gifts and also received a nice kiss from a handsome dentist who just happened to be at the same restaurant. Okay, he sits back of me in our church choir and was there with his beautiful wife....but the kiss and hug were a nice surprise anyway. I'm blessed to have such wonderful loving friends. I also received a pound box of my favorite Lowery's dark chocolate maple creams and peanut clusters from "cousin inlaw" Julia. (We're not related but share cousins.....it's complicated.)

I got to visit via phone with my three beautiful daughters and also my U of GA granddaughter who is in North Carolina to present a paper before the National Society of Geologists or something like that. She is one smart cookie who loves rocks just like her grandma....except she knows so much more about them. We give rocks to one another as gifts. She'll get the giant halved geode gracing my fireplace hearth someday......heavy stuff.....to go with the big chunk of rose quartz I gave her years ago.

Earlier, before my friend Betty picked me up for dinner (I thought it was going to be  just the 2 of us), the florist delivered two gorgeous baskets of plants. Later, my neighbor boys, Oliver and Rob, brought me over some cheesecake, greetings and hugs; and we shared some Irish Mist whisky....but before that, cousin inlaw and I were given tickets to attend the Muncie Symphony's Saturday Nights program which was Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 in a minor (heavy demanding difficult Russian music)  and Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, which was originally named Eroica and written for Napoleon, the hero who liberated France from its monarchy, but Ludwig got pissed off at Napoleon Bonaparte when he named himself Emperor and so Ludwig renamed his symphony. Anyway, it was a glorious way to spend the first day of being 80 years old....can't believe I'm that old!

Tomorrow I'll have dinner out after church and then attend our local university's matinee performance of the musical comedy, "Lend Me A Tenor" with my friends Jane and John. And this will be just the start of a very busy week! Life is good. God is good and I am blessed.

In the Mood

  Today was one for baking and cooking stuff....in a domestic mood, I suppose. I fixed a wonderful corned beef brisket which I sliced thin...will have to freeze most of it but will use that great 49 cent head of cabbage from Aldi....couldn't believe the whole   lovely head for that price....will fix that in the broth later next week. Then decided to use up some of the dried cranberries, raisins, walnuts, etc. and did a double recipe for fat free, dairy free Amish baked oatmeal muffins. Used Almond milk ... low cal and better tasting than skim....and extra apple sauce instead of butter or margerine. It made 30...added some blueberries to some. Will bag and freeze them. I am so good! Mama would be so proud of me.

Triple A Surgery Can Be Scary!

I saw my vascular surgeon this Thursday morning and got the bad news that my arteries are much too small for doing the EVAR procedure to repair my abdominal aortic aneurysm. That means I'll have to be opened up (big time!) and undergo the more lengthy and dangerous surgery with a much longer 2 to 3 month recuperation time, higher mortality rate, etc. Well, the good side is that after healing, I won't have to keep going back regularly to make sure the stent stays in place and isn't moving around! Bummer! Women's arteries are just smaller than men's and the cardiologist who did the stents on my heart's blocked arteries said mine were VERY small. I'll not have a lot of fun this summer! But I am planning on the 2 graduation trips in May and June to Atlanta and  Philadelphia before I have to go through all this stuff!

After "googling" and reading about the mortality rates for people, especially women, over 75 years old undergoing elective AAA surgery, I'm not 100% sure I want to go through all this.....but on the other hand, if I don't, my aneurysm could burst and the chances for survival would be even worse! I'll no doubt go through it, but I would like to know more about my surgeon....like how many of these AAA surgeries he's done and his success rate, ha! Good that he is a specialist. Read that this condition is more prevalent among men. Maybe it's just that the symptoms for men are more apparent and easily diagnosed in male patients than in females. Hmmm.....Guess that makes me kinda special. And truly I'd rather have small arteries than a small mind anyway!