My World...

The past few weeks, I've been a little silent on here.  Mostly it's just because I've been so busy that I'm having trouble putting words together in some semblance of order.  So here's a bullet presentation:

• Betty's memorial service was on October 27th.  It was sad because she would have loved seeing so many family members in one place, and the only reason we were all there was because she had passed.  It was a beautiful service though!
• My mother managed to break one of her hearing aids, so we are back to shouting in her face for her to hear us.  (I sent the hearing aid off to VA services for repairs, but the company that does the repairs for our veterans is notoriously s-l-o-w!)
• Also, on the Mom front, her left leg is completely numb now and her right hip.  The effects of Parkinson's Disease combined with the diabetic neuropathy is robbing her of most all semblance of dignity.  It won't be much longer that she will have to stop coming to church or going out to eat with us.  As it is now, we have to plan our Sunday excursions around places that serve soups because she has to have mostly thin liquid foods.
• Daniel and Carolyn are moving their family out of the hotel today to a rental house for several months.  The insurance adjuster told them that it will be a minimum of 3 months until the contractors are able to have their house livable again.  I told them to plan on being in the rental at least 5-6 months.  Plan for the worst, be surprised if the best happens!
• David Riley and Eva spent the weekend with us while Rob was hunting and Jessica enjoyed a girls' weekend away.  It was quite interesting to have them for the whole weekend.
• Eva has discovered The Rescue Heroes, the toys and the videos.  She had the MOST fun all weekend playing with the toys after watching the videos and trying to make the toys "match" the videos!  DR was about the same age when we got all of them. 
• DR watched about the last 30 minutes of "Brigadoon" with me on Saturday and discovered that musicals can be fun and exciting to watch.  He really has the "musician" genes that run so strong in our family and he was listening to the music and identifying some of the instruments he heard.  Liz & Jessica used to do the same thing.
• Yesterday, I was watching "Conagher" (I LOVE movies that are based on Louis L'Amour's books!) and DR wandered in during the last 20 minutes.  There's a kissing scene.  DR is 11.  He was not a fan!
• DR told me that if someone wanted to make a true horror flick for boys his age, all they would have to do is excerpts of kissing scenes--"the boys would be screaming in abject terror"!  (I about busted a gut laughing at him!)
• My sewing room is full to overflowing with STUFF!  Every time I try to go in to do something, or fix something, I just turn around and walk out in disgust.  I really need to spend some extensive time getting the clutter under control so that it is a pleasure to be in there again.
• Eva has discovered the fun of circle skirts.  She loves twirling!  Yesterday, she was wearing a pink one that had silver glitter on it.  There's a trail of sparkles showing where she was!  I'm thinking I'm going to make her a few and sew sequins on them so she can sparkle without leaving a trail.
• DR brought home his 9 week report Thursday. He had all A's and B's, which surprised him because he had a rough start to the school year. (It's amazing what doing homework and then actually turning it in will do to improve your grades!)
• Eva has started to do some backseat driving.  She will tell us that the red light means we have to stop and green means go.  The red octagon sign means stop and look carefully.  The yellow triangle means go slow.  I remember going through this so many times with our girls and DR.  I'm glad they are aware of what goes on outside their little backseat world.
• My father-in-law is still in the nursing center.  His rehab is not going so well, mostly because he gets so tired so fast.  My mother-in-law, however, is much more rested and seems to be gaining some strength.
• My niece has been moved to a night shift at her factory, so I don't have Alexis and Layla very often now.  They are still coming on Wednesdays so that they can go to church with us.  They have absolutely fallen in love with church.
• Abby was honored on Thursday in an awards ceremony at the middle school for her bravery during the fire.  The Fire Chief awarded her the Citizen's Cross which is the highest award given to private citizens in our city and the Mayor proclaimed Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012 as Abby Hamman Day in the City of Mount Vernon.  We are all very proud of her!  DR said he kept telling the kids around him in the auditorium that she's his cousin!
• My right shoulder is still a little stiff and achy from my fall, but otherwise I seem to have made a full recovery.  All of the bruises finally faded.

Well, I need to get off of the computer and start cleaning up some of the sparkles Eva left behind and get the dishes washed. I'm hoping for a relatively quiet Monday.  Maybe I will actually get to start sorting the mess in the sewing room. (?)