Something Lovely for All of Us

I just came in from running around all morning with Elcie. A little necessary shopping (toilet paper, etc.) but mostly having fun. Her sisters went to a Christian hip hop (no that's not an oxymoron) concert in the park last night, spent the night with a friend, and have been invited to another concert in Modesto about 45 miles north of here. They'll ride with some of the people from the sponsoring church. I know them from their summer children's programs so it's fine with me.

Meantime, they came home long enough to dash off to the local park which has free ride and zoo admission all day. They've all but outgrown the rides but still enjoy our little zoo and know each of the animals by name.

Elcie picked out a book on hieroglyphics marked down from $15 to $6. (less my Barnes & Noble discount). If she ever decides to study archeology or the related fields, she'll have a head start. She has some odd interests and, at the moment, Egyptology is one of them. I found an inexpensive cd by Chloe (one of the Celtic Woman group) with some lovely songs. Then we stopped at Goodwill and found 3 pretty short sleeve shirts, 2 video recordings, and a small, vibrating, stuffed shar pei with a bone in its mouth. Elcie fell in love and I didn't figure another $1.50 would break the bank completely.

I just looked at that last paragraph after I published it. We did not purchase a stuffed shar pei. I'm not into taxidermy. I meant the shar pei equivalent of a teddy bear.

Note to Anvilcloud:

(And to everyone else but I know Anvilcloud is a Celtic Woman fan as am I)

Chloe recorded this cd (Walking in the Air) when she was 14. I think she's 16 or 17 now. Some of it is classical; Brahms, Dvorak, Franck, Vivaldi, Bach, and some are also on the Celtic Woman cd's. At not quite $10 American for 15 tracks, it was a bargain and I've already copied it to MusicMatch. Definitely a keeper and I've discovered if I don't copy them straightaway, strange things might happen.

It's been a good day; the best I've had for a while. The happiest thing I can think of to say about the week just past is that it passed. Rebecca received a bus suspension (for singing, of all things) and a referral at school for playing with a soccer ball without her student i.d. I didn't know hers was lost and it's almost too late in the year to buy another one.

Actually, the week wasn't that horrible. Ray's health stays good (for Ray), the weather has turned quite warm, and the Giants moved into first place for one whole day. It's just that I've been lacking in energy and enthusiasm lately. I need to work on that and also counting my blessings.

Carol (my daughter for any who don't know) continues to struggle on. Either the cancer or the drugs (or both) have begun to affect her mental state and she's delusional much of the time. She begs to come home, she's convinced I can do something to end the pain and she cries when I tell her I can't. They have increased her anxiety medicine once again and tell me that most of the time she's okay and that what I hear on the phone from her comes when it's almost time for her medication and the last dosage has worn off. Visiting her makes it worse or so it seems. They suspect the cancer may have spread to the bones and all they can do is increase her meds as much as she can tolerate, and try to keep her as comfortable as they can.

It puts me between a rock and a hard place. I want to see her as much as possible but she seems to do better when I'm not there. And of course there's the guilt if I don't go. She needs some lighter garments with the change in weather so I'll get there in the next couple of days with a package for her. Perhaps that will help.

Anyhow, I came in this afternoon and decided to catch up with some of my online friends. I stopped by Vicki B. to see what she'd been up to lately and found some lovely water pictures. Water and the surrounding environs is the theme for April "Good Planet" and Vicki's A Mark On My Wall is the host blog. Here is the link to the Good Planet archives which has archives of the previous themes.

I included the link to Vicki's blog rather than the individual post. She has a couple of short posts right beneath the Good Planet post with some very cute animal pictures.

Thanks to all for the comments and encouragement. I noticed a couple of new names in the comment boxes. Tiffini, hi and I'll check out your web page very soon. Ginny, you're not new of course but you don't have a blog so if you're reading this hi and thanks for the vote.

I have some new pictures but this is getting long already and once again the "publishing may fail" warning keeps showing up so I'd better not push my luck.


Have a good what's left of your weekend everyone and take care.