I Want Spring Back

I know that the leaves are turning color and are starting to drop. This is my husband's favorite time of year. He loves to feel the cool crisp fall breeze on his face and hear the rustle of leaves blowing on the ground. Unfortunately, I don't feel the same. I freeze around this time, especially since my husband likes to keep the thermostat at 65 degrees. I don't like bare naked trees which they soon will be in a few weeks. Yes, the colors are pretty but spring has beautiful colors too with all the flowering trees and shrubs. I felt the urge to paint more spring flowers even though I will have to wait another 6 months or so to see the real thing.

Here is my latest: Iris Garden in my etsy store

A Welcome and Unwelcome Surprise

About 10:30 at night, we heard some tapping on our back french doors. I was sure it was friends of mine that were in town visiting my other laid up friend. I couldn't go over to see them so I thought they decided to drop in unannounced on me. I was in my exercise sweats and I immediately ran into my bedroom and quickly changed into something more respectable. My husband went ahead and opened the blinds and the door. It was my son, Nick! Apparently, his girl friend's mom had called that day and was missing her. The mom wanted her to come home so she sent the stepdad to the college to pick her up. Nick decided to hitch a ride. It was a nice surprise!

We had a good visit. Nick was telling us as he has in the past, that he would like to take his car to school. We really didn't want him to because of the expense but also because we have been having some problems with the car.

We got it for him 4 years ago, a 1998 black Mazda 626. It had only 60,000 miles on it at the time and it had been running great. Now it has 100,000 miles on it and has developed a slight leak. So every month, I have to check the radiator and refill the reservoir. A couple of weeks ago, I had driven it to my youngest son's violin lesson, about 60 miles away. On the way back, the engine light came on and it smelled like it was smoking. Of course, as usual my husband was in Nashville, TN on business. I stopped at a gas station and unlocked the hood. There was no anti-freeze in the reservoir so I had to buy some and refill it. It was a royal pain . I had just checked it a few days before and it had been OK. My husband came home and said that there must be another problem with the car if the engine light is coming on. He took it to town and had it checked. They said it was something to do with the catalytic converter.


If that wasn't enough. We drove it to Costco on Saturday and a new light came on, the over drive light. We came home and my husband went on the internet and looked up that problem. It seems to be related to the transmission and possibly it could burn the engine out. It looks like a whole new transmission may be needed. Also the boots? on the car are cracked and the axles may need to be replaced. This is looking like it's going to cost an arm and a leg to get the car back in working order. Not only that but it's due for a timing belt too.

I think we should cut our losses and just give it to somebody who might be interested in picking up a car cheap and then working on it. This is a most unwelcome surprise to our budget. We had not expected to buy another car so soon.

Luckily, the girlfriend talked her parents into taking her car back to school. So for now, my son has transportation.

Pick Me Ups for the Blues

I still am feeling the blues and haven't been able to shake it.

Here are a few things I have been doing to help me out of this funk:

• I have been reading lots of inspiring blogs, here's one called The Secret of Life, Spirituality with a Smile and that has helped.

• It may sound strange but I cleaned my house yesterday and that makes me feel good to have a nice organized home at least for a short time.

• My son's party won't be until the 4th but I am having some friends over to celebrate Andy's and their daughter's birthday too this weekend.

• I spent the morning baking a cake from scratch. It's a great cake and not too sweet. Here is the recipe from Recipes 4 Cakes.com:

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake:

1 1/2 cps Sugar
1/2 cp Margarine or Butter softened
1/4 cp Oil
1 tsp Vanilla
2 Eggs
2 1/2 cps All purpose flour
1/4 cp Unsweetened Cocoa
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 cp Buttermilk
2 cps Shredded Zucchini
1/2 to 1 cp Semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cp Chopped Nuts

In a bowl, combine sugar, margarine, oil, vanilla, and eggs. Beat well. Add flour, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon, and buttermilk. Blend well. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts. Pour into pan. Bake until knife comes out clean. Grease pan and bake for 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees.
You can put frosting on it but I just sprinkle powdered sugar on it and it tastes yummy!

• Finally, I am reading a book called The Dalai Lama A Policy of Kindness, An Anthology of Writings by and about the Dalai Lama. It talks about the Tibetan people and the Dalai Lama's struggles, his life, his views, his reverence for all living things . A very fascinating read and very enlightening. I hope to gain much from this great spiritual teacher.

180 Degrees

I don't know why this happens but every time I post about my son's improvement, something occurs and wipes out all the progress that has been made.

I just ordered the cake for his birthday party too and had to postpone it.

Last weekend, he was not feeling well. We had gone over to see my older son to celebrate his birthday at college. On the way home, I knew Andy was sick as his eyes were glazed over and he was coughing. That was on Saturday, today 4 days later, he is having massive D, terrible cramps and gas pains. Just about as bad as he was when he began his IBS flare-up back in June. He hasn't been in school all week.

It could be that he has the flu bug and that is wreaking havoc on him but I am not sure. He's been eating regular food the last 2-3 weeks without a problem and who knows, maybe that has finally caught up with him and his GI system just couldn't handle it anymore.

This is very discouraging but I will go back to the IBS diet and keep him on the probiotics, calcium and digestive enzymes.
His party for this weekend will have to be delayed until next week. Poor guy!

Another Original Watercolor Rose Painting

I have been trying to paint here and there but I am working on a fundraiser for church and so that is taking up quite a bit of time. Here is the latest painting that I have been able to do.

This is an original watercolor painting of a Single Pink Rose that I have done. Size is 9 X 12. Comes with backer board in a plastic sleeve and a certificate of authenticity. This painting was done with high quality professional paints on 140 # cold press watercolor paper. Inspired by the numerous roses growing in my backyard.

$49.97

Pizza is on the Menu!

My youngest son's birthday is coming up in another week and he wants to have a Halo party with his friends. Also he would like pizza and ice cream to be served at the party. A few months ago, this would have been impossible as those two items would have sent him to the bathroom in a hurry with stomach cramps and the big D.


Last week, I bought a large Hawaiian pizza from Costco and had that for dinner. Andy ate about 1/2 the pizza himself and nothing. No D, no gas, no cramps. It was amazing. Not to say that he never has moments where his stomach is not feeling well. He's still not 100% normal but he is pretty darn close to it.

I feel like it's a miracle. I went ahead and served up chicken enchiladas with low fat sour cream sauce and again Andy had no problems with it. I decided to take him off the digestive enzymes but he is still on calcium caltrate and Digestive Advantage IBS for maintenance. These two products have helped him out tremendously and I ,myself, have decided to go on probiotics because I have seen how much they have helped my son.

I am just elated that he is doing so well. It's going to be a great birthday party!

What We Really Need to Be Afraid Of

As a Mom, living in this day and age has not been easy. Yes, we have the modern conveniences that technology has brought us. We can microwave our dinners in 60 seconds, keep track of our kids activities by cell phones, keep up on the latest news and fads and shop at the drop of a hat via the internet but we also live in an age where we have to be concerned about identity theft, pedophiles lurking in our children's chat rooms, terrorists attacking our country and superbug infections that can kill us.

Since my oldest son had his spleen out, I have had great concern about his health and well being. Contrary to what some people may think, the spleen is not like having your appendix out. There are consequences to having no spleen, the main one being, a compromised immune system. My son is much more susceptible to bacterial infections now and it can overwhelm his system and kill him.

Yesterday, I just heard a classmate of my son's had contracted the deadly MRSA bacteria ( a staph bacteria that has multi resistance to many of the antibiotics out there) while he was in basic training to become a marine. He is now lying in a hospital fighting for his life. Doctors may have to amputate his leg or more to save him. My cousin's wife also had a bout with this flesh eating bacteria several years back and they had to remove a lot of skin and flesh to save her. More and more cases are starting to show up and it is frightening.

What is even more frightening is that the pharmaceutical companies are not producing new antibiotics to combat these superbugs. It takes several years of testing for an antibiotic to be FDA approved and right now there are very few in the pipeline.
The bottom line is the companies are not making much money from these drugs so there is no incentive to make them.

We are spending billions of dollars fighting the war on terror and yet we have an invisible threat in our own backyard that we virtually have no way to defend ourselves against. This is what we really need to be afraid of.