Chatty Crone

 Good morning and Welcome! Get ready to read. 

I can't believe it has been two years and yet sometimes it feels like a decade.

I miss blogging and I have tried to keep up. I needed a break because it was taking so much of my time and in that period of my life, I didn't have that much time to devote to it.

I want to blog without rules and pressure.  I invite you to do the same with me.

                                 What has happened in the last two years?

Grandson finished college in three years - a double major in Marketing and Finance.  He moved out of the house and took an apartment in downtown Atlanta about two blocks where he took his first real job!!!!! Sorry about bragging - I am - but I am super proud of him.  He worked very hard to get here. 

I took his photo at the start of every year of school since kindergarten - this is the first day of his last year of college. 

Graduation dinner - May 2022 

My son made it down for the celebration.

August 1, 2022 - His first day at work - and yes, they are to wear jeans.  

He is still going with the same gal - a long time now. We love her too.

Daughter still teaching school - 8 more years until she can retire. She is looking towards that - she has worked hard, but it is hard to be a teacher. I think she needs a new pup - but she is not ready yet.

My husband last November 2021 was diagnosed with Acute Heart Failure. I was told he would die.  His heart was working at 7%.  It was months and months of doctors and treatments.  He had to change his diet - no salt - which was traumatic for him.  He had a pacemaker and defibrillator put in. He lost 25 pounds - looks too skinny to me.  He doesn't think about eating! And his heart is doing better - a miracle. It is up to working at 47%.  A MIRACLE.

We had to put our BELOVED Disco to sleep - he also had heart failure.  He just couldn't breathe and was wheezing and coughing all the time.  It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do - my daughter is still broken up over it.  One of the hardest things we have ever had to do.

Because of my husband's illness we really couldn't keep up with the house we had since 1986.  We decided to take the plunge and move into an apartment.  My grandson moved to his place.   It was a good time to move.  We did it mostly by ourselves in a couple months - bag by bag. Seriously.  Most of the furniture we did give to someone.  I was giving almost everything away to my nieces and nephews - which really loved them, and I felt so much better.  We did have a junk removal at the end - my hubs fault - the dreaded basement.  

          CHATTY DOES NOT WANT TO EVER MOVE AGAIN! I have PTSD about it.

Now I have had a lot of people kind of comment - an apartment?  But yes, an apartment and it works quite well for us.  We are on the ground floor.  NO STEPS AT ALL.  Two patios by how the apartment sits.  Pool.  Nice clubhouse.  They pick up our garbage.  We have a car wash here.  We are near the trash compactor if needed and the mail.  I think we got the best apartment in the complex.  Lucky and blessed.  Only 3 miles from our old house so everything is pretty much the same. And we did get to buy some new things for the apartment.

Me, I am 8 years breast cancer free - thank you God.  MIRACLE.

Still going to the same Methodist Church.  Church is very important to me. I don't know if you have heard, but the Methodists are splitting between those who still hold fundamental beliefs in the words of Jesus (me) (Global Methodist or Wesley) and the very liberal- (keeping the Methodist name) they are the Methodists who think the word LOVE can change anything God said and twist it around to change God's true meaning.  My opinion.      I think there is a difference between love and following His word.

I was also quite bummed over the election.  Yes, I was for Trump.  I am just going to be very honest here and want you to know where I stand so you can decide what you feel about this blog and if you want to follow me.  We just need to have mutual respect and not talk politics.

That brings us to Covid - my husband lost his brother to Covid about one- and one-half years ago.  I lost one of the best friends I ever had.

Joanie - it has been a year now.  One of the hardest losses I have ever had.

Lastly, grandson's other grandfather - the man in yellow - May 2022 at graduation dinner - a couple days later and I don't know the whole story - but he was having a dental procedure - he did have heart trouble before - but during the surgery something happened, and they rushed him to the hospital.  He had everything done for him they could do.  Fast forward six months later - he is in a nursing home. His eyes are open, but he doesn't talk or follow directions.  It is like he is awake, but not.  If anyone would send up a prayer for Charlie that would be wonderful.

                                                 NEXT, WE DECIDED TO ALL GO TO HAWAII!

We had so much stress going on with all this - that right after we moved, we were all sitting down talking, and grandson suggested a trip.  We ALL had the last week of July free for the first time ever!  We also felt it might not again - because you never ever know about life.  Plus, grandson had a job starting soon and who knows what will be happening there.  

We had never, ever, ever done anything like this, and it was spontaneous.  We planned it in a couple weeks.  We went to Kona and Honolulu - both total opposites.  We had a wonderful time and I feel it rewired our life a bit.  It was nice to have positivity and it really has spun things around. 

Swimming with the sharks.

My family did, I went on the boat, but I did not go in the cage for physical reasons. The boat was rocky, and the cage was rocky.  My poor grandson came up so seasick. 

One of the worlds few blowholes. 

                                                      Best steak we ever had!

LAUA

        One of my favorite things - the breeze and the trees swaying. I think it is going to be like my Heaven - I hope.                                                                 

Magnum was being filmed while we were there, and I hoped this was his car - but it wasn't.

                                Our hotel had a sandwich shop right by the dolphins.

Lastly - our dinner cruise with a lobster - first time I ever had lobster.

I hope you got through my two-year hiatus.  

It won't be this long again. 

PS I still did not get it out as planned in September.  Another emergency.  My 47-year-old son got news he had appendiceal cancer - appendix mucinous neoplasm - 1% of all cancers and possibly fatal.  So, life changed again.  He came to Emory, here in GA, to see a appendix cancer specialist.  You HAVE to have someone who knows what they are doing.  He had surgery on September 15, and he and his wife stayed here.

Well, God gave us another MIRACLE - after 4 doctors saying it was cancer - it was totally cancer free - and they had a specialist check it.  They took out the appendix.  The mucus ball that was attached without bursting it.  Part of the colon.  And the margins.  NO CANCER.  Thank you God!

So, what have you been doing the last two years?