Wednesday, January 27, 2010

About Jackson's Mom + one other thing

So this morning Jackson (my Dh) called me to say that he'd talked to both of his brothers in the know about his mom.  She was sitting up and was coherent, had enough vision back that she could recognize her sons & daughter with her, she could recite the names of her grandchildren & their ages - though she was still in the ICU.  According to the MRI (of which she got to have 2 of yesterday because during the first time, the MRI techs discovered they'd left part of the machine back in Boise, ID - a 3 hour drive away), she definitely had a stroke, and she was discovered to have some serious heart problems too.  This morning she was to be flown to Kennewick, WA to a heart & stroke specialist (hospital) where she would have a pace maker installed, then she would be moved to a hospital in Walla Walla, WA; apparently Jackson's sister Pam lives not too far from there.

So she's doing much better, but she will still be hospitalized for an undetermined amount of time.  Thanks to those of you who are praying for her.  I called the Vernal LDS Temple yesterday and had her name put on the prayer roll; I think that I might take a few minutes to call a few of the other temples for the same reason.

Oh one other thing, last night when Jackson called his sister Cindy to tell her how their Mom was doing,  she told him that her daughter Alicia had just given birth to a baby boy about half an hour previously.  Just one other reason to keep January 26th in our minds.

=) Gayle

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Birthdays & other stuff

So yesterday was my hubby's birthday, and what a day it was... but more about that later!  He got his requested dinner:  "shake & bake" (the homemade kind) pork chops, rice, peas & carrots + German chocolate cake with Coconut Pecan frosting, yum yum!!  It's been a while since I made a German chocolate cake, but it turned out marvelously delicious (even with my sweetened chocolate substitutes) and it's even better today, though I think that I should have cooked the frosting a bit longer.

Now today is my Mom's birthday, she would have been 78.  I find that I really really miss her today, and well much more so over the past few weeks than I have in the last couple of years.  For those who didn't already know, Mom died over 5 years ago (Thanksgiving-time 2004).
Today is also the day Dh's nephew got married, so Happy Anniversary to Jon & Heather MacLee!

So for the other stuff:  well yesterday morning, Dh got a call from one of his siblings telling him that his Mom 'had one of her spells' and was being taken to the hospital in Baker City (MIL & Dh's 3 Db's live in eastern OR).  There were various other phone calls throughout the day but the news we received late last night is that the doctors think that Ila must have had a stroke but they are puzzled because she is blind and quite aggressive (she keeps ripping out her IV's and won't let the nurses help her); also that she kept asking where her Mom and sister were (both of whom are many years ago dead), and she didn't recognize any of her children.  There was a MRI scheduled for today to see if they could figure out what is going on. My theory is that she had a stroke.
*I just got off the phone with Dh, he said that he called his brother about an hour ago, she was having the MRI right then, and had earlier recognized [her daughter] Pam, so that is a bit of good news.
I would ask any of you who are LDS and have a temple near, would you please call to put "Ila Jackson and family" on the prayer roll? Thanks.

Now it's well past time for me to get some lunch, and feed Taw as well.  Cole has gone off to school an hour ago (his first day back since he became sick), and there's so much I need to do thi afternoon.

=) Gayle

Monday, January 18, 2010

Monday Jan 18

It's snowing a bit outside, really nothing too heavy, but just enough to make the roads & sidewalks slick.  It is nice to see a fresh coat of white over the dingy gray left from the last snow storm, though.

My brother Chris called last night to wish me a belated 'Happy Birthday,' which reminds me that this is my brother-in-law William's birthday today (he's 36), and a week from today will be my husband's birthday; he will be 34 (& I'm 35).  William & I joke sometimes about how we're the same age for a week.

So all of my boys are sick now, Cole seems to have caught the cold from Joseph.  However, I'm not surprised by that as Joseph refuses to cough directly into the crook of his elbow, instead he coughs over his elbow; I fully expect to get his cold soemtime this week as he coughed & sneezed all over me last night at dinner.  I just hope that if I get sick, it's after Thursday as I really want to go to my Quilting Guild on Thursday evening.

For now though, it's time to put together a late lunch (and maybe a crockpot stew for dinner with some home-made dinner rolls or bread) then go do something productive as I just feel like having a nap while sitting here.

=) Gayle

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Life with the Jackson crowd

My hubby will get home today fter being gone for 3 days - his employers sent him (& another guy) to New Mexico with an "emergency" load of sand.  I'm so happy, I really hate it when he's gone overnight or longer; plus our children always act out more when he's gone.

Speaking of things that children do, this morning my oldest son came in my room demanding that he should get some "Adivel."  When I asked him why he thought he needed Advil, he said, "For my cough Mommy!"  I laughed & sent him on his way; then later on he came & told me that he was sure that he had a cancer and "You'd better give me that Adivel or I might die!"  (He's very dramatic.)  I just laughed at him again, and told him that he just has a cold and he'd be better in a few days.  In the meantime, the other 2 boys seem to have gotten the cold from their brother, and I have this feeling that I might be next to get sick... and I don't want it! Waaaaaahh!

I celebrated my 35th birthday on Jan 12; actually it wasn't much of a celebration because my older boys fought almost continually from the time they got home from school until dinner-time and my Dh showed up 2 hours after he called to say he was on his way home- I finally gave up on making my cake because if I was measuring something and one screeched, I would do the wrong measurement; I didn't make the ice cream either.  Truth be told, I wasn't feeling like celebrating anyways, and it wasn't because I was now 35 instead of 34, I just didn't want to -- plus I kept thinking about my 16th birthday & what a disaster that day was.
However, I got a lovely visit the day before (Jan 11) from the Relief Society Presidency, my friend Rinty in England mailed me a package with some lovely gifts, my sister Amelia called me that day, and I received a nice birthday card from my Dad & step-Mom the day after my birthday -- so it wasn't all a loss.

I think I'll go sew for awhile now.  May you all enjoy the remainder of your Saturday afternoon on this the 16th day of January!

=) Gayle

Saturday, January 2, 2010

How time flies when we're not paying attention!!

I can't believe that it's been a month already since I last posted on here, but it has.  It seemed like Christmas would never come and now not only is it past, but we're 2 days into the new year -- Hello 2010! -- not to mention a new decade.  Oh my, only 10 days to my burthday too, hmm... I never thought turnign 35 would come so quickly, it was just a few days ago (seems like) that I was turning 25 and getting married in March!

I suppose that if I hadn't needed a phone number for a fellow Quilt Guild member, I might not have come on Blogger for more days yet.  Oh well, at least I'm visiting once a month or so, which is more than I can say for my MySpace account (don't have anything on Facebook yet).

Part of my reason for not having visited here more often is because I have recently begun selling my hand-crafted goodies at a shop in downtown Vernal (Over The Picket Fence), and certain of those items are selling almost faster than I can make them.  One of the pictures I posted recently (a flag with hearts instead of stars) is one of the items I put up for sale.

I am extremely happy to report that we seem to have eradicated our mouse problem though for a couple of weeks there, I didn't think we were going to ever get rid of those stinky little beasties!

Perhaps I shouldn't say so, but I'm so happy to have Christmas over with this year, my boys [older] have been acting up so badly.  Monday they go back to school and I hope they settle down & behave much better for their teachers.

Well, my stomach aches (I think I may have gotten food poisoning from the Chinese buffet place Jackson & I ate lunch at earlier today while out on our "date"), so I think that I shall 'call' it a day & go lay down, besides my littlest guy is doing his lay-on-the-floor-while-playing-with-a-truck routine that he typically only does when he's very tired.  The other two boys having been sent to bed half an hour ago, and my dear hubby retired closer to an hour ago, he's not feeling so well of the belly either (it's kinda strange really, as I usually don't get food poisoning from places we eat at, or if I do, well never before today have I gotten sick before my husband). So...

Good night ya'll and may ye of you enjoy a good year during 2010!
=) Gayle