We were greeters at church on Saturday night.  I am really liking church on Saturday night.   Anyway when we got home, someone in the neighborhood was shooting off firecrackers.  My poor sweet Ali, was shaking like crazy and her breathing was very heavy.  She was panting so hard that she had a puddle on the floor if she stood in one place more than a few minutes.  Even after they stopped she kept shaking.  I can not believe how scared she was.  I do know she has always been afraid of them but Saturday night was the worse I had ever seen her.  I went in the bedroom to read in my recliner and she came running and jumped in the chair with me, still shaking. 

   Yesterday, Susan, Tom and Matthew came to eat with us.  Will had put a London Broil on the grill with some BBQ sauce on very low heat.  He checked it with the thermometer and announced it was almost done.  He went to the library to pick up my books and said he would take the foil off the meat when he got back just to brown it up.  I was in the kitchen chopping veggies for dip and salad when I decided to call and ask Will to make another stop on his way home.  He said he would, I continued chopping.  I thought I could smell the meat much stronger than I had and I went out to check it.  It had turned into one solid brick of charcoal.  UGH!  I had stood not 6 feet away from the grill and let dinner burn up.  It was my idea he went to the library in the first place.  I felt terrible.  He just said " I will go and get some hot dogs and hamburgs as Susan and Tom will be here any minute."  We had a good time.  I got 2 pots of daisies for my garden, a regular one and one orange gerber daisies from Matthew.  I also got a  gift card to Red Lobster.  YUM  I do love that place!  I talked to both my son's but didn't get to see either of them.  So much for not living close!

   I was glad you were all so receptive to my last post.  I will elaborate a bit more on that.  First, I said I was a Christian and got saved in 1988, I actually was churched all my live, we were Lutheran and that does count as being Christian.......what I actually meant was I began a relationship with Christ in 1988 when I was saved.

   Someone asked how I broke my back, I feel off the cellar stairs.  I had changed the blinds my office and asked Will if he would take the old blinds down to the cellar.  When he didn't jump right up and do it, I got on my high horse and started down with the blinds.  I was on the second step from the top when I fell off the steps (there was a handrail on one side of the step only) .  The floor in the cellar was cement for the most part, only a small portion was still dirt.  The cement ended on the left side of the stairs and I feel off and hit my back where the concrete stopped and it compressed 2 vertebrae.  It was a stupid, freak accident but then when I think about it, most of the bones I have broken were in stupid freak accidents.  (Yes, I have broken a lot of bones over the years).

   I think I have written enough for now.......I will post again on Wed. which is my next day off (again, watching baby girl is hardly work) and I will tell you a little more about me and maybe some of you will share a bit about yourselves. 

  So it is Thursday, the first of at least 4 days off, possibly 5.  Todd does not start his new hours until May 19th so until then I will have 3 days a week.  Yes, this week, I only "worked" 2 days but that is because he took vacation days.  Today, he took Baby girl to the zoo!  She loves the zoo.  Syracuse has a pretty good one.

   Yesterday, she got Papa to read to her a story before he left for work.

   Wednesday of next week, Uncle Roy is scheduled for the surgery he canceled a few weeks ago.  I would ask if you would please lift him in prayer.  Myself, I think 88 is kinda old to have elective surgery but he informed it was not my choice to make. 

   I was going through some of the old pictures Uncle Roy has his family, my grandparents, my mother, etc.  Anyway, I came across a marriage certificate for my grandparents from Nov. 11, 1918.  The story has been passed down through the years that my great grandparents did not want my grandfather to marry my grandmother.  He said if they did not sign for him to marry her,he would join the army.  They signed, my grandparents were married and the war ended that same day!    Kind of a neat thing to find.  I also found my grandfather's confirmation certificate and his confirmation picture from when he was 14, certificate is written in German.

   The temps are warming back up again.  It was such a cold and wet April, much colder than March.  Still, living in central NY, we can not plant our garden for at least a few more weeks. 

   Still have not completed the projects I have on my list and my "honey do" list is as lengthy as ever.  We did get the new pool for the back yard last weekend.  I was glad we got it now as the one I saw at Walmart, same pool, was $100 more!  We won't put it up until closer to school being out.  Matt will be so glad as the pump died and the pool itself needed many more patches but we got it for nothing 2 years ago.  It served us well.  The new pool is 3 feet larger and I think 6 " deeper than the old one.

   Still coughing, but less every day, PTL! 

   I finally dragged myself  let Will take me to the Urgent Care yesterday morning for this cough.  Will describes it as violent and he assures me that I have no idea how bad it sounds to other people (or to him in the middle of the night, I am sure); but sitting in the waiting room yesterday morning, coughing, people were giving me the dirtiest of looks.  I kept saying to Will, what do they want, I am waiting to see the doctor but he kept repeating, I had no idea how bad it sounds to other people! 

   Long story short, they gave me codeine cough syrup, finally sleep.  I did still have some coughing fits but few compared to the last week.  The doctor said he thought it was not so much my allergies as I thought but what he called "the virus from hell".   He said a lot of people had the same symptoms even the ones that were not allergy sufferers. 

    The second good thing to come out of this is that I ended up having 2 more days off and Baby girl will not be back till Wed.  Hooray, a little longer to rest .   It goes without saying that I miss her but she doesn't need to get this.

   Matt came over yesterday afternoon.  His new interest is Indiana Jones and he was using a belt as a whip.  Papa decided he was going to make a whip for Matthew.  Matt was absolutely thrilled with it, of course, but I hope he does not get himself into trouble with it.   He and Papa went for a walk yesterday afternoon and Indiana Jones Matt kept whipping the mail boxes.  He asked Papa if he thought he could use the whip to swing across the ditch from the mailboxes.   Uh, NO!

   A friend asked for some decorating help/ideas for the house they just bought.  That was fun, looking at her pictures and giving her my thoughts on the space.  I hadn't done that since we left the north country.  Nice to know that going back to school for interior decorating just keeps paying off for me.