~ Palm Sunday ~

Although I do not attend church anymore, I do recall Palm Sundays of my youth. Singing in the church choir to what became some of my favorite Easter songs is now a cherished memory. And there were the Palms. At the end of the service everyone would go up to the front of the church and get his or her very own 'Palm tree branch'. I don't know if it really was a palm tree branch but it was different than anything we had around our house. I remember gingerly taking it home and trying to preserve it as long as I could before the leaves curled up and turned brown.

...so today I thought about that and so started off this blog with it.

A few comments about the wedding...the bride, my daughter was gorgeous! She made a long beaded necklace that she wore that draped down the back and she looked very elegant and vintage, exactly as she planned. The groom looked handsome in his tuxedo as well.

The day of the wedding it had been SNOWING in Dallas and thankfully stopped and cleared up for the most part by the time we got there. One of the bridesmaids did all the gals makeup including my own for which I was grateful.

The turn out was not what was hoped for but everyone who really mattered to the wedding couple were there. My daughter cried through some of her vows, which surprised me as I do not recall seeing her cry hardly ever in her life, so tears of joy were a bit of a surprise to me. And although others thought I would cry, I did not.
Expect the unexpected I guess.  :-)   It will take some getting used to her being married and going by a different name.  I am happy for them though and wish them all the best!

______

I had filed our income taxes early, in mid February which is very unusual for me, but since we were due to get a nice refund, I wanted to file right away. Much to my surprise, when I checked online for the refund, it indicated that there were some errors and we actually OWE some money. I use Turbo Tax and double checked it after getting this news and it seems correct to me. I have done our taxes for years and also worked at H&R Block one year so it isn't like I'm clueless about taxes.  I really don't know how I could have been off by as much as it indicated I was, so when I get the letter that I should get this week, I will scrutinize it and certainly challenge it if I think they are wrong.   If they are right, it will be disappointing as I was counting on it to help with bills!

My youngest is in town this weekend as she is in the next town pageant to officially give up her crown. I had been wishing for a Pizza Hut pan pizza for months and so we went to the local one on Friday night for what I thought would be a long over due, scrumptious, delightful pan pizza. 

There were only a few booths with people when we got there but I didn't think much of it.  In hind site others have probably been as disgusted as we were by the time we left and so it may just not have as many patrons as it otherwise would.  The first problem was it took forever to get our breadsticks!  We are talking about 45 minutes..and as I said it was NOT that busy in there.  There may have been some delivery service orders going but it doesn't excuse the fact that actual customers in the restaurant should be served timely!  About a half hour AFTER the breadsticks we finally got our pizza. Our server explained that the order got mixed up with a delivery order but the amount of time it took to get our pizza was unacceptable. 

The absolute worst part was that the pizza was not what I used to get on 4th street in Allentown - not anywhere NEAR that.  I thought all PH pizzas were the same ingredients, made the same way but this was not the wonderful tasting crust pan pizza I miss. And afterward it sat in my stomach like a rock.  Never going to go back there again and as much as I never thought I would say it, the new Domino's pizza is now my #1 favorite pizza.

~ Wedding on Sunday ~

This week I was trying to get back into the grove after putting Shelby to rest and being out of town for my oldest daughter's wedding, so I have not been here to blog, and I am making this short until later.

I wanted to at least post a picture of the happy couple! It was a beautiful wedding and here is a picture of the handsome couple! I am proud of myself that I did not get lost in Dallas trying to get there - mostly thanks to my youngest who zigged instead of zagged and phoned me so that I didn't make the same mistake! So I mapquested the spot where I would have otherwise gone on a road to who knows where. Anyone that has been in Dallas driving will understand there are major arteries all over the city to East, West, North and South! More later...

Said Goodbye...

Shelby St James July 2000 - March 19th 2010


You may remember Shelby was very sick last fall and it was determined among other things she had Diabetes. Her blood sugar level was over 500 nearly every time tested. She had lost weight and was only around 16 pounds.

Since then she had managed to gain back a few pounds, but her quality of life was going down hill. She has become blind, her arthritis has worsened, she has had (prior to the Diabetes) some anal tissue inflammation problems thought to be Cushings but was not..I forget the technical name for it.

And recently she often has been pacing, whining and generally looking unhappy. She had become my shadow and always wanted to be on my lap...although that is not something I minded one bit, it was really not like her. I gave her much love and kisses!

She was bumping into things, missing a step and smacking her poor head on the floor and two days ago in the morning fell down a flight of stairs (I wasn't up yet and hubby didn't get to her in time). She got through it okay but it made us take a good hard look at her condition and face a harsh reality and wondered if we were just keeping her around for US. Her Diabetes was still not under control and we were up to 10ccs of Insulin twice a day.

So...I took her to the vet today, and while she was on my lap in the car shaking, I looked down lovingly and said "This is the last time you have to be scared to go the vet, Shelby." Hubby met me there so that he could say goodbye too. We gave her one last hug and kiss and now she is at peace romping with Reebok and Misty for sure..

Shelby, you will always be loved and never forgotten...

Spring Break...

After what seems like forever, my youngest is home from college for Spring Break. It is so nice having her home again and for a week anyway I can pretend she still lives here all the time.

It is no surprise that with college life and busy classes she doesn't get a chance to connect with home quite as often as of course I'd like. How often would I like to hear from her?...Oh I'd settle for a nightly check in...sort of like the Waltons..when you hear the last " Good Night...John Boy" ..you know all is well for another night.

But being a lot more realistic I look forward to the times we do have together and I am thrilled we have the Internet and Instant Message that I did not have in the days I was in college when the only way I could communicate with my folks was by a phone call or the even slower U.S. Mail.

Although work has picked up, I am not at the point of a sigh of relief yet and money is still extremely tight. But my youngest is here now and the other's wedding is next week so I am grateful for 'plastic', which gets me through these lean times when life happens and things cost money, and those things don't stop just because one is broke.

So..even though I am < gasp > charging it, we are going to see Remember Me today with Robert Pattinson. I don't know how it will affect me as one who has become a fan of the Twilight Series, I will have a hard time thinking that he is being a traitor to Bella with this blond girl in this movie, but I'll try to keep those thoughts out of my head. ;-)

I am not going to deny that I have 6-30-10 marked on my calendar for the next Twilight movie though. :)

Not going to clean much today even though I should. I'm going to get breakfast and brush the dogs since that is something that I haven't done in a long time. There is ALWAYS cleaning to be done.

Not sure...

...if it is so great that Harry Smith from popular early morning television had a live colonoscopy. Although it was done with good intentions to educate folks more about the procedure and its importance, I looked up his age. He is turning 59 this August which means he didn't exactly have his first one at age 50! And his colon was fine!

Instead of feeling urged on to run out and get mine just because I am 52, I am thinking more like..well I should be able to wait until I'm nearly 60..right?! :)

Balance...

So..what do you do when you order your dress online and when you get it you discover that you will trip on it for sure in your black 2 inch heels that you cleaned the dust off to try out?...and you most certainly do not want to end up on someones online video of you tripping and falling?

....and upon comparing the cost of getting the entire floor length dress taken up a few inches...vs...the alternative...?

You go out and buy honking huge platform high heels! That is what I did and hope that I can stay upright and balanced throughout my daughter's entire wedding which is in less than 2 weeks! Maybe I can pretend I'm balancing on those play stilts I used to have fun with as a kid.. I haven't worn heels in who knows how long and ones this high I have never owned...it will be an interesting day for sure! :)

Finally...

...looking like Spring outside. It is in the mid 60s and sunny and has been a beautiful day. I just played out back with the dogs for a little while and scooped up some poop too. Some of the weeds are getting so long that I can't see it all but I got most of it scooped up over the weekend when I went out with 2 empty bags. It had been quite a while and with 6 dogs, yes quickly filled 2 plastic grocery bags.

Unfortunately our beautiful tree that had lost its leaves early that last 2 years due to the drought is dead. There are areas of black throughout most of the branches and the bark has pulled away from the tree on one side. Probably going to leave it as is for a while unless it starts leaning toward the house.

On a brighter note, our oldest's wedding plans are coming together nicely and now that she has a DJ in place it will be a really wonderful event I think. Final details for the venue and music selections are going to be done by her and her fiance' this weekend. The next few weeks will probably fly by.



I am happy to say that things seem to be picking up with work and just in the nick of time. Hopefully will be back to being busy within the next few weeks. That would be wonderful!