My birthday was Friday and it started off with my two brothers calling me on their cell phones and all three of us had a nice conversation together while I traveled all the way to work. That was fun. It's rare when I get to chat with both of my brothers at the same time.

Then, at work, my friend Cheryl, brought me 2 dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme! YUMMMY! Her daughter, Jada, 6 years old, send me a polar bear stuff animal. Cute cute cute and they each brought me a birthday card.

Tricia, another work friend, brought me a bag of chocolate covered blueberries (my favorite) and a card. She said one day we were talking and I was telling her about these chocolate covered blueberries at Chocolage (a big candy store here) and when I walked away, she wrote it down so she would remember what I liked. That was so sweet. She also offered her and her sons' help in moving stuff out of our house. I will definitely take her up on that!

The two ladies that work in the office here, Karen and Cookie, gave me a picture frame and a card. All the cards that I got were so cute and made me laugh. Dee called and sang Happy birthday to me over the phone. Haven't seen her in a long time. I miss her. Karen and Ron from Canada called and sang Happy Birthday and sent me a package. I got it in the mail Saturday. I called them Sunday and opened it while they were on the phone. They sent me a cute shirt I am wearing today and a little mirror with a poem about friendship printed on it. That was so nice. Thanks to you all.

One of the ladies at work, did something ever so special that she made me cry. She gave me a card and a book. The book is called HUGS, Daily Inspirations for Women. On the inside front cover, she signed it, To Cindy, From Angele and Earlene. When I saw Angele's name, I just started crying. It was so thoughtful of Earlene to do that. She said Angele was talking to her and telling her I needed something special for my birthday. Angele is my friend who passed away on December 31, 2005. I still miss her so very much, but I know she is here looking over my shoulder and watching over my life as my guardian angel. Thank you Earlene, and Angele.

I also got a sweet card from my Mom and from a lady named Judy I haven't seen in many years, but she always remembers my birthday. Some people sent email and email cards. Thank you all.
Friday night, Tom took me to dinner. He was late getting home so we didn't get to go to the place I wanted to go, but that's ok. I enjoyed being out with him anyway. Saturday evening, my daughter and her husband, came over to the house and took Tom and me out to dinner. My and my stepson and his wife came along too. We went to a new place and it was pretty good.

The whole weekend was very nice. Thanks to every one who contributed to my birthday. I shows me just who many people love me. That gives me a great big warm fuzzy feeling. I love you guys!

As usual, I can't post any pictures. I wrote to the support folks at Blogger and they sent back a generic email that didn't answer my problem at all. Oh well, so much for that.

I have decided that I need to be grateful today for what I HAVE instead of bitching about what I don't have, so here goes:

1) I have a wonderful, supportive, tolerant husband that doesn't wipe his feet when he comes in the house. (sorry, had to add that last part)
2) I still have my Mother around and am able to talk to her every day if I want to. And she is probably going to come live with me and Tom pretty soon.
3) I only have 4 months and 19 days before I retire! Yahoo!
4) I have made some new and renewed some old friendships on this blog thingy.
5) Even though I can't post some photos I would like to share, I can still write and upload THAT to my blog.
6) We have two precious little dogs that live with us and they make me smile each in their own special way.
7) Just bought myself some new 'unmentionables' and love love love 'em. Very comfy.
8) I am getting stronger about letting my 27 year old some fall on his face, so he will grow up.
9) Tomorrow is my birthday and I will still be younger than my MID 50s. :)
10) My house is still standing even though it's a mess. At least it didn't burn down. AND they are going to replace ALL my floors instead of just some of the rooms. Now I don't have to worry about matching things up.

I guess that's about all I will say for today since I CAN'T POST ANY PHOTOS!!!!!!!!!! ARRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!

The first good news:
For those of you who I haven't talked to in person, my Mother is recovering nicely. She is at home now. The Cardiologist says he will most likely zap her with the paddles in another week. She is still in A-fib, but Doc doesn't seem to be real concerned about that as long as she is feeling ok and is taking her blood thinners. She is. And for those of you who have asked me about her, thank you so much for remembering and asking.

The flooring man came out to the house yesterday and the good news is that they are going to take up the Designer Solarium flooring (which is the biggest part of the flooring in my home) because otherwise, he said, it will mold and mildew. Also the good news is that I will have less trouble finding a match to the old solarium, which was a concern that I had. It's fairly neutral though, so maybe it wouldn't have been to bad, but now I don't have to worry about that. I can just go select what I want and not have to match new to old. Yahoo!

The bad news is that, now, we will have to move everything out of the entire house, just like we are moving out completely, so that the floors can be laid. I will probably need another storage unit like the one we have so we can put everything in it. Right now, and I know we have all done this, we are living out of boxes that are stacked up around my house. I can't find anything, I don't want to look for stuff, I just want to move to another house, apartment or hotel until it's all over.

I know the insurance will pay for us to stay somewhere for a few days, but we are talking about 6 to 8 weeks before all this crap is done. Everytime I call anyone about anything to be done, all I hear is Hurricane Katrina this, or Hurricane Katrina that. Well? Like my husband said, most of the hurricane victims in New Orleans, don't have to live in their house, or make decisions, because it's just all gone anyway. I don't mean to sound heartless, because I have seen the devastation that Katrina caused and I feel so badly for those people, but most of them are waiting for demolition teams to bull doze everything out of the way before they can rebuild (or not). On the other hand, my house is still here and what needs to be done is comparatively minor. But I want it done NOW! Dadgumit!

I think I will call my insurance man and just find out exactly what the rules are about living somewhere else in the meantime. I wouldn't mind staying at a hotel for a few weeks. Someone will clean our room daily, make up our bed, etc. All I would have to do is lay up in bed and watch TV or read and if it's warm enough, I could float around in their pool. I think I could stand a little pampering after all of the crap that has gone on in the past few months. I want a hotel with a spa! LOL I don't want much do I?

Blogger is STILL not uploading pics. Now that's beginning to royally piss me off!

In the meantime, I just heard about something that I think I would really enjoy doing. Have you ever thought about renting a houseboat on a big lake? It just sounds so nice and relaxing. I would love it. I am going to check into that. So have a nice day and bye for now!

Well, it is! Spring is everywhere. The azaleas are blooming and the trees are budding. I looked this morning at my Althea bushes (some of which were given to me by Angele) and they are putting out new leaves. My Angel's Trumpets are beginning to show new leaves. I just love it.

That is one thing I will do when I retire. I will spend more time in the yard and have a flower garden. I have always wanted one like McDonald's has. They have such pretty flowers growing all year round, so I just need to look at what they have and make myself a flower bed like that.

Our home is, of course, chaotic. I just won't bore you with the details of the junk everywhere and the concrete floors we are walking on. But I have learned to wear shoes (this is for you Daisy) because those damn tack strips for carpets installation are a bitch on the bottoms of your feet when you step on them barefoot. I had to get several tiny holes in my feet before I said to myself "Hey stupid, put some shoes on! You won't get stuck in the feet anymore!". Maybe I am able to learn afterall. I am slow though! LOL

One thing for sure, I am getting a spring cleaning whether I want one or not!

And what the heck is wrong with blogspot? I can't upload any pictures for 3 days now! What's up with that?

Last week Tom and I spent trying to box up just about everything in our house to put into storage. I had said years ago, if we ever had to move again, I'd get a divorce and this is almost like moving without going anywhere. It's overwhelming. We are both packrats and boy does it show when we are trying to fit a 5 bedroom house into a 10 x 20 foot container.

I didn't realize how many catalogs and magazines I have collected, sales magazines, redbooks, good housekeeping, people, reader's digest, crafting magazines, etc. etc. etc. You name it, I had it. I have been throwing away a LOT of stuff, but Tom has a fit about some of it. I have an old cheap metal shelf that I got back in the 70s and it's wobbly and not very strong, and I am trying to throw it out and he keeps moving it to a different place. Everytime I get it toward the door to put it in the trash pile by the road, it gets moved again. Whatdyado? I am just before throwing one of MY hissy fits! Everybody better clear out when I throw a hissy! It's not pretty!

I got so competely overwhelmed with it all, that I slept litterally ALL day Saturday. I just needed to check out and escape I guess. I have been trying to keep my chin up, but I am having a hard time with it today. I have finally realized that I am very depressed about it all and the fact that I can't take off any more time from work without getting called on the carpet about that. I keep telling myself 4 more months, 4 more months, 4 more months. But the crisis is now, not in 4 months!

We are living on concrete floors and that, along with the boxes everywhere and the furniture topsy turvy, makes me feel like I am living in a warehouse. It's dirty and dusty and just yuck!

I know I am whining, but I just feel the need to vent. Does anyone have any cheese to go with my whine?

We still have so much packing to do. We decided last night that if we dedicate 1 hour per night to packing up something, we will have it all done by the time the construction starts. They said that would be in about 2 weeks. Ceilings in two rooms, a wall between two rooms and all the floors in the house. One or more light fixtures, a/c vents, one cabinet is warped already, stove to be repaired or replaced. Makes me tired just thinking about it all.

I keep telling myself, "It'll be fine in the end. If it's not fine, it's not the end." You will keep reading it too.

Have a good day.

Everywhere a box box! Oh the Newsoms had a flood, eeeeiiiiii eeeeiiiiiii ohhhhh!

Corny I know, but if I don't laugh, I will cry. This is a mess! I know that "It'll be fine in the end. If it's not fine, it's not the end." Someone famous said that, but I have no idea who, but it sure fits the situation right now.

The crew (2 people, 1 guy, 1 girl) is here this morning to help pack up all the rooms that have to be cleared. This is an overwhelming task to be sure. We are taking a smoke, blog, snack break right now. All I want to do is walk away and go to a hotel somewhere, where it's neat, clean and orderly. I hate all this chaos!

If we don't finish today, they will be back on Monday they said. I have to go back to work before I get fired. I have had to miss so much. I know I don't have much more to go before retirement, but I need to be there even if I don't want to.

More later.

Here I am again. It's been a few days since I have blogged but I can tell you, they have been chocked full of fear, fun, excitement, shock and just about every other emotion that goes with all that's been going on.

First of all, last Thursday (the 9th) my Mom went to the doctor for a regular checkup. She wasn't feeling badly or anything, just went for her prescription refills, regular look-at-by-the-doctor visit. He sent her to the hospital immediately from there because her heart is in A-fib. That means one side of the heart is fibrolating (sp?) and the other side is beating. D-fib is when both sides are fibrolating and you have to be Zapped.

They started giving her blood thinners, so that in 3 weeks from then, they can zap her to shock her back into a correct rythm. I stayed with her all day Friday and the cardiologist said she was safe as far as having a heart attack. I asked him if he thought I could still go to Houston and he said absolutely. She would be fine and they would keep adjusting her meds to thin the blood.

Tom and I and our friend Brett, left Saturday morning to go to Houston. That trip was ok with the exception of leaving late, but that is normal for me and Tom.

Sunday morning, our housekeeper went to the house to clean it for us and she freaked! She called me in Houston and told me my house was full of water! A pipe had burst in the ceiling and water was falling from the attic and coming down walls, out of the cabinets onto pieces of furniture, soaking carpet in most every room of my house. OH MY GOD! I am 300 miles away, what do I do?

We called our son, Kirk, to go to the house to turn the water off. He went to the house and called us back and verified the chaos at our home. He turned the water and the power off to the house. We were worried about fire and electrical shorts.

I called our insurance and they sent a drying crew to our house within 4 hours. The worked for another 4 hours to pull out carpet, dry flooring, and move furniture out of rooms so more carpet could be pulled, etc. etc. etc. Kirk and Deirdre (his wife) stayed with the crew to help. Bless their hearts. I don't know what we would have done without their help.

The drying crew left blowers and dehumidifiers in the house overnight and said there was nothing else they could do until tomorrow (Monday).

So Tom, I and Brett went to the show we had planned to see. Cirque de Soleil, Delerium. It was awesome. I really enjoyed it, BUT we kept thinking about the house and Mom, so there was an underlying worry.

Up early Monday morning.....headed back to Baton Rouge. We walked into the house and all I could do was just stand there and look around the house. Everything had been moved, put somewhere else. Couldn't find where anything was, had no carpet, blowers going everywhere, loud, noisy and total chaos.

Tuesday morning....drying crew comes back, checks their equipment and finds one more room of wet carpet. That was the office. Another blower added, more noise.

Wednesday morning.....drying crew does their visit to check equipment again and finds the 5th room is wet in the closet area. I had already told them I thought that one would be wet because of where it is located and the proximity to the living room that was full of water. Well, they finally found it today. Now we have to move everything from in their to let them pull that carpet.

That's all I have energy for right now. Will post more later. Say prayers please!

Well, we have made it through the worse part of Tom's ordeal. He has finally gotten past most of the pain associated with this dental surgery and has had his first denture adjustment. He just called to tell me he can smile now without so much pain after seeing the dentist this morning. I am glad, because he was really having a hard time.

Before, when he smiled, the dentures dug into his gums and were causing ulsers and much pain. So he took the top one out yesterday and decided not to wear it until he could get it adjusted. He still hasn't smoked! Six days!!! I am happy for him, but I don't know if it will last. We shall see.

My toes are happier now too. They are feeling better and are healing well! Maybe if I would at least wear socks like these, my toes wouldn't get hurt so often, but I just hate having things on my feet when I am at home. Hate!

When you are a Southern Girl, you just generally learn to go barefoot. I never remember a summer when I wore shoes as a child and I guess it just stuck with me that now I hate wearing shoes. I don't even like slippers in the winter time. I would rather just put a blanket over my tootsies when they are cold, than put on slippers.

I do have some fleece booties with little rubber stars on the bottom to keep me from sliding around in them and I don't mind wearing them, but it has to be REALLY cold for even those!

I am back at work today and hating it. I have 5 months and 3 days till retirement and I just can't stand the waiting. It seems the closer I get, the slower the time goes.

This coming weekend, Tom and I and our friend, Brett, are going to Houston for the Cirque de Soleil Delirium show. I can hardly wait. Tom bought our tickets to this for my birthday that is later this month. We are leaving Saturday and coming back Monday. The show is Sunday night. I am sure it will be beautiful. All the Cirque de Soleil shows are awesome. If you have never been to one, and you get the opportunity (even though the tickets are pretty expensive) GO! You will NOT regret it one little bit.

If they will let us take pictures (which they usually don't) I will put some in my blog for when I get back. If not, you will just have to go see it yourself! Sometimes it's on TV too. It's pretty cool.

Well, that's about all I know for today. See y'all soon!

Hi everybody. Tom had all his teeth pulled (except for 5 to be used as an anchor on the bottom for the denture) Friday and is still pretty uncomfortable, but in general, is doing well.

Those of you who know my husband know that he is generally passive and a very likable person. Everyone who meets him seems to automatically like him. However, when he doesn't get his way about something that is important to him, he can (as I said the other day) through a big hissy fit.

At the oral surgeon's office, Tom wanted all his old teeth that the surgeon removed to be put in a ziplock bag for Tom to take home. I don't really know why, so don't ask. He has his reasons. He is just that way about HIS stuff including old nasty teeth. When the doctor said he could not give him is old teeth because of bio-hazard and OSHA rules, Tom pitched a BIG hissy fit. As a matter of fact you might have called that one a CONNIPTION.

Tom was trying to tell the doctor why he wanted the old teeth and of course he had a mouth full of new dentures and lots of gauze and (I know this is gross) blood. They call me back there saying he is giving them a hard time. So here he is in the middle of the doctor's office saying stuff that no one could understand and spitting bloody guaze everywhere. There was a nurse there trying to hold him up because he was drunk under the anesthesia (sp?) and also trying to catch the gauze as it was coming out of his mouth. I had to get hold of him myself and tell him we had to go home. The doctor was just standing there looking at us with disbelief and telling me he was sorry he could not give Tom his old teeth. I said I understood and got Tom outta there.

When he finally got in the car, he was so angry, he kept talking to me and I could not really understand him very well. Finally I told him he needed to be quiet so he would stop bleeding so much. He finally began to calm down. Then he got pretty quiet for the trip home. Boy what an ordeal!

His new teeth look very nice and he is finally over the anger part of this adventure. I think part of that is because he is doped up on demerol every 3 hours around the clock. So he is staying sort of drowsey. And that brings us to the broken toes.


I set my clock every 3 hours to wake up to give him his pain meds and redo his ice packs. Well, I don't wake up very easily and especially when I have only had about 2 1/2 hours of sleep between get ups. I am also not known for wearing shoes when at home....I should. I have broken toes more times than I can say. You would think I would learn.....I don't.

Anyway, I got up in the middle of the first night and while staggering around, brought Tom his meds and ice. When I brought it to the bed room, I wrapped my middle and 4th toes around one of the bed frame feet. I heard the crack and so did Tom. He said, "I heard that", and I am hopping around, yelling and saying some not-so-nice four letter words.

And now it's two days later, Tom is swollen and uncomfortable and I have a purple toe and the end of the other one had the skin ripped off it. We are a pair huh! But we are making it. So much for our exciting weekend.

Oh, one more thing. When we got home from the surgeon's office the other day, the men were here putting up our metal awning over the back porch (the one that was destroyed during Katrina). I am so glad to have a roof over my porch again. It's really nice. Next, they are going to do one on the front of the house. I have never had one there, so I am looking forward to it.

I hope all of you are having a great weekend. The weather here is beautiful like spring. Blue, blue skies, with very few or no clouds and light breezes. The temps are in the mid 70s. Beautiful! I love it.

I really don't have much to talk about today. I am feeling pretty good emotionally. Been talking to lots of friends. Lark called and chatted with me for about an hour Monday evening and I always really enjoy talking with her. She is such a neat lady and good friend. I have known her about 20 years and we have always remained friends. I wish she and her husband lived closer so we could visit more often. Of course they are only about 2 hours away......when I retire.

There is so much to do 'when I retire'. I want to do some gardening, since I never have really. I want to learn. I love flowers and would really enjoy seeing the results of my own dilly dallying in the dirt. I got a magazine in the mail the other day and it has lots of blooming plants in it and it tells you when and in what region you can plant them. After looking through this magazine for about an hour, I FINALLY found the page that showed what region I am in. It would seem they would make that little teeninsey itsy bitsy map a little bigger so you can see it without a magnifying glass. I figured it out anyway. I am in region 9. There are a LOT of their plants that will grow in this region. Cool.

Another thing 'when I retire' is to clean out my mess of a house. I will take a corner and do it and then move to the next corner. Maybe, eventually, I will get whole rooms cleaned out. That would be nice. I could be on the TV program Clean Sweep! Of course Tom would have a hissy fit if they started throwing away his stuff. I assume most of you know what a hissy fit looks like. If you don't, you should try to see one some day. It can be quite entertaining and a little scary too. I looks a little like this and it sounds something like when you step on a cat's tail. The screeching , the yelling! Wow, stay out of the way of a person having a hissy fit.


Tom and I are trying to figure out what to do on vacation this year. I won't have to take off from work (because I will be retired) but he will and we are trying to decide what time of the year to go. Usually we go to the beach every year, but we have just about decided to do another long drive and go to the western third of the United States. We would end up visiting Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregan, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and back home. If anyone out there that reads this blog has been to or lives in any of these states, and knows of some interesting things to do there, please email me or Comment and let me know. Also let me know the best time of the year to have the best weather, etc.

We could still end up in Toronto too, I just don't know yet. We have some really good friends in Toronto and I want to see them, but I also want to travel some. Tom and I travel very well together. We really enjoyed our trip to Canada a few years ago. We drove 4500 total miles and it tooks us two weeks. We did stay a few days in Toronto and then another few days in New Jersey though.

I have been doing some research and found an interesting website called www.roadsideamerica.com . It's got some off the beaten path types of attractions and sights to see.

Well, for someone that has nothing to talk about, I have been very long winded today. LOL More tomorrow I guess. Time to go outside and take a break in the beautiful weather we are having here. 79 and clear skies! Perfect.