Alphabe-Thursday, "D" as in Demon...

Welcome to Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Ms. Jenny over at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent."  For a list of this week's participants and information on how you can join in on the fun head over to Ms. Jenny's blog.

At least I hope when I get done typing this post I can find Ms. Jenny's blog.  This morning Blogger tells me I'm not following any blogs and my list of blogs is completely gone!  I have no idea how I'll ever find anyone again since all of that information was stored by Blogger on my Dashboard.  I'm hoping it's just a temporary glitch, but it's been all morning and now into the afternoon.  (Edit:  It's OK now!)

I was talking with my older son on the phone and telling him I had no idea what to do for the letter "D" on Alphabe-Thursday.  He suggested I write about DEMON.  DEMON was Keith's cat and one of the kittens that our original feral cat had under our deck.  This was when she was new to our yard.  Eventually, we trapped MaMa and had her fixed.  MaMa lived in our yard for nine years before running off when some workmen came into the yard.  I searched for her for five months, but we never saw her again.

MaMa originally had her kittens in our shed, but for some reason decided to move them under the deck when they were around four weeks old.  While we were out shopping there was a torrential rain storm and on the way home I became concerned because our yard sometimes floods when the rain can't run off fast enough.  I pulled into the driveway and when I got out of the car I heard the kittens crying.  Fortunately, my husband arrived home right after me.  The kittens had become trapped under the deck as the water rose.

My husband tried pulling up the boards on the deck, but he couldn't get them to budge.  Then we decided to remove the boards from the fence that ran alongside the deck.

We had some ivy that was growing under the deck and the kittens had managed to climb up into the ivy to keep their heads above water, but their heads were up against the floor of the deck and they were running out of breathing room.   My husband reached under the deck and pulled them out one by one.  He actually had to pull them under the water to get them out.

We dried them off and brought them inside.  There were three of them.

After the water receded MaMa came back looking for them, but we decided not to put them back outside.  We were afraid she'd put them back under there again, and she was not tame so bringing her inside wasn't an option.

We bottle fed them and then introduced them to cat food.  DEMON is the kitten on the left.  Keith ended up adopting DEMON and Imp.  Imp is the Calico kitten.  The gray kitten was adopted by someone else.

Here's DEMON with his litter mate.  They were a little bigger in this picture.

DEMON grew up to be a very large cat.  He was always looking for food.

Keith and DEMON...

Keith and Imp...

Sadly, Imp only lived a year.  She had feline leukemia.  We had never had them tested...just vaccinated in hopes they hadn't been exposed.  That was a mistake.  After Imp died Keith had DEMON checked and his test came back negative.  He was elated, but it didn't last for long.  Sadly, the test was wrong and DEMON also became sick with feline leukemia and died.

Now we don't bring any cats into our home unless they're checked for feline leukemia.  Since they were never outside after being rescued from under the deck we assume they contracted feline leukemia from MaMa even though she never became sick.

Keith now has two other rescued cats...Mittens and Katie.

"D" is also for DAD.

This is a picture of my DAD with his siblings taken in 2006.  They were all in their 80's and looked pretty darn good.  They're standing in front of the house they grew up in.  My DAD is on the right.  He died in September 2010.

Uncle Robbie is on the left.  He died last week after taking a bad fall.  The only one left now is Aunt Millie.  I'm really glad I have this picture.

Here they are a "few" years earlier with their DAD.  Yes, that's the same house. In this picture my DAD is the tallest one.  Uncle Robbie grew later on.

Now head over to Ms. Jenny's blog so you can visit some other Alphabe-Thursday posts.

You might know about this already, but...

...I only recently discovered this product.

Good bye Saran Wrap.  I'm using Glad Press 'n Seal from now on. 

I discovered this product by accident.  Reid was told to use it to cover the Central Venous Catheter when he showered.  It stuck right to his skin and then he used some waterproof adhesive tape around the edges.  We had it left over when the catheter was removed, and I started to use it in place of Saran Wrap.

It's so much better.  Easy to use and it sticks well to the bowl.  No more struggling to get the Saran Wrap apart.  (It was forever getting stuck together.)  That doesn't happen with this stuff. 

I'm now able to write the date on leftovers too.  I'm throwing out the leftover Saran Wrap. 

I thought I'd share my new find with you.  That's my tip for today. :)

Alphabe Thursday..."C" is for CARDS!

Welcome once again to Alphabe Thursday sponsored by Ms. Jenny over at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent."  Head over to Ms. Jenny's blog for a list of this week's participants and for information on how you can join in the fun.

This week we are studying the letter "C" as in CARDS.

Lots and lots of CARDS!

CARDS, letters, notes, children's drawings, a pop-up book...

All sent to my son while he was hospitalized in March for a stem cell transplant.  Ms. Jenny wrote about it on her blog and asked  people to send CARDS.  Other people added the information to their blogs and word spread.  Most of the cards you see here were sent because of Ms. Jenny's original request.

They came from all over the United States and even Europe!  Some were beautifully handmade, some contained inspirational notes or letters.  There were even a couple from people that knew someone that had had a sucessful stem cell transplant.  People wrote about their own sucessful cancer treatments or their loved ones.  A couple of children sent him drawings.  Many, many prayers were sent.

Reid was pretty sick at the time, but he opened and enjoyed every single one.

Thank you Ms. Jenny!!  Thank you to everyone for your warm thoughts and prayers.

He's had two clear scans so far and is starting to feel like his old self again!



"C" is also for Wilhemina CAROLINE Volz.  She was my grandmother and was always called CARRIE.  This is one of my favorite pictures.  I think she was probably in her 20's.

I told you last week that my mother's name was CAROLYN Elizabeth Morris.  She was nicknamed Betty, but her real name was CAROLYN.  This photo was taken in January 1938.  She would have been a Senior in High School then.  She looks so young.

And my sister's name is CAROL Sue.  She was born on December 23, 1943 in Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, NJ.  My mother said the nuns were going around the hospital singing CHRISTMAS CAROLS and so she named her CAROL Sue.  CAROL after the CHRISTMAS CAROLS, but I have no idea where the Sue came from.  My mother just liked those two name names.  You might remember Betty Jean from last week.

And this is my kindergarten CLASS with Miss CORNELL.  Do you see me?  I believe I showed this picture once before.  Hint:  I'm the smallest one in the class.

Thanks for visting.  Now head over to Ms. Jenny's blog for the list of this week's participants.

Loud scream for Tuesday's Show and Tail

Today I'm joining Angela over at West Virginia Treasures for Tuesday's Show and Tail.

Last week we had a beautiful, cool morning and I decided to go outside and sit on the deck steps with my coffee.  Scout (one of my formerly feral cats) was out along the back fence sniffing something.  She looked up and saw me, grabbed something in her mouth, and came running over.


That's when she dropped it and Jem (her litter mate) picked it up.

I very calmly screamed and ran for the camera.

Yes, I know it's a little snake, but when it comes to snakes size makes no difference to me.  (You can see the snake in the photo below along the left side of the stepping stone.)





                                      


Jem and Scout were very proud of their catch and sat and admired it.  In the photo below it's between Jem's paw and the garden hose.)

/Even though it's a snake I would have liked to have gotten it away from them, but there's no way I'm going to grab a snake with my bare hand.  I went inside for a few minutes and when I came back out the snake was gone.  We'll just have to use our imaginations here.  I like to think the snake happily slithered off to someone else's yard and lived happily ever after.

Now head over to Angela's blog to see other posts about animals, pets, etc.

Life goes on...

After my Mom's death in July 2001 I made numerous trips to NJ to visit Dad.  He lived in a suburb of NYC and continued to sell life insurance at Port Newark which is located next to Newark Airport.  On the morning of 9/11 I called Dad and told him to stay home.  It was not a good day for a man in his 80's to be driving near Newark Airport.  Fortunately, he had already made that decision himself.  It was such a scary day.  Scary and very, very sad.

People from the town I grew up in were killed in the World Trade Center.  No one I knew personally, but still it seemed to touch close to home.  There's now a memorial in the town park that honors those people.

I flew up in November 2001 and I remember how depressing it was to be there.  The grief was overwhelming since everyone either knew someone that was killed, or knew someone who knew someone.

I never wanted to see the World Trade Center site, but in November 2004 Keith went with me on a visit to NJ.  We took the train to Hoboken and then had to decide which train to take into NYC.  I had told Keith I didn't want to go near the World Trade Center site, but we inadvertently got on the train that went right into the World Trade Center subway station.  At the time I was really upset since this was exactly what I did not want to see.

We climbed the steps and the first thing we saw was the church across the street.  We decided to go over and get a closer look at the church and when I turned around I saw people pouring out onto the street from the same subway station we had just left.

It made me realize that life does go on.  I was glad that I got there.  There was comfort in seeing all the people hustling about making their way to work.  Things almost seemed normal again.

I remember on 9/11 getting the American flag out of the garage and proudly flying it in my front yard.  I did the same thing today.

I know there's excitement that Bin Laden is finally gone.  I'm very proud of those Navy Seals and all the service people they represent.  However, my excitement is somewhat tempered.  I'm glad he's gone, but I'm also wondering what will happen next.  Does anyone else feel the same way?

Royal Wedding Countdown...

Yes, I'm one of those.  I admit it.  I'm getting up a little before 3:00 AM CT just so I don't miss a thing. 

Yes, I know about all the Royal marriages that have failed, but I still want to be there.  Yes, it all costs a small fortune and seems kind of ridiculous in these economic times, but I still want to be there.  I just can't help myself.

Even I was a little worried about myself today.  I went over to the storage facility where I have some dolls stored and dug through boxes until I found my Prince Charles and Princess Diana wedding dolls.  Then I went to Party City to see if they had any Royal Wedding stuff, but they didn't.  I at least wanted a British flag, but no luck.

I came home and gave the Royal couple a place of honor on the bookshelf.  I felt Prince William's mother and father should both be present and that's why I put them up.  I stored them away after the marriage failed, but it was time to dust them off and bring them out again.

I was about to take a picture when I noticed someone standing next to Prince Charles.  I knew it wasn't Camilla.

It's actually some action figure that Reid added to the scene.  Yes, my family is poking fun at my Royal Wedding obsession which seems to have gained momentum in the last 24 hours.  I actually found myself humming God Save The Queen today.

It will all be over soon.  I just hope this one takes.

"B" as in Betty...

Welcome to Alphabe Thursday sponsored by Ms. Jenny over at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent."  For a list of this week's participants and information on how you can join in the fun head over to Ms. Jenny's blog.

This week we are studying the letter "B" as in BETTY.

BETTY is an old fashion name.  It's also my name.  According to one site it's of Dutch, English and Hebrew origin and means God's Promise. 

My name is BETTY...not Elizabeth.  All through school I had to argue with teachers who insisted my name had to be Elizabeth.  It wasn't.  My parents had a deal...Mom would name any girls and Dad would name any boys.  My mother decided to name me BETTY Jean and she insisted everyone call me BETTY Jean.  Sounds like I was born in the deep south, but I was actually born in Hackensack, NJ.

For the first ten years of my life I was called BETTY Jean.  Since then I've spent the last 55 years correcting anyone who calls me BETTY Jean.  It's just plain BETTY.  Come on...BETTY is bad enough without adding the Jean.  I've never liked my name.

According to the Social Security website between 1910 and 1996 the name BETTY was the second most popular girl's name from 1928 until 1934.  We never made it to number one and our numbers have been falling ever since.  I was born in 1945 and BETTY was number 11 that year.  The most recent year they show on their website is 1996 and BETTY had dropped to 919.  I was surprised it was even that high.  If you'd like to see how popular your name is check out the Social Security website.  You can search by a particular year or you can search over a period of years to see how the popularity of your name has changed over the years.  It's kind of fun, so give it a try.


Here are some BETTYs...

BETTY BOOP...animated cartoon character

BETTY Rubble...from the Flinstones

BETTY Cooper...from BETTY and Veronica comic book fame

BETTY CROCKER...who helped me learn to bake and cook

BETTY Grable...the actress and WW II pin up girl

BETTY Ford...the widow of President Gerald Ford

BETTY White...one of my all time favorites

Who can forget Betty White's Super Bowl commercial...

My mother's nickname was BETTY.  She was actually named Carolyn Elizabeth Morris, but the nickname BETTY does not come from Elizabeth.  When she was small her grandmother called her something in German that sounded like BEPSIE and from that people started calling her BETTY.  I love this old picture of her with her doll.  This was probably taken in 1921 or 22.

I don't love this picture.   Actually, this is a hundred times better than my latest driver's license picture, so that tells you something right there.  Don't you just love the hairdo?  I know I put this up on my blog once before, but it's so awful it's worth repeating.  (Mom, why did you let me go out in public that day?)  Yes, that's BETTY Jean in 1954.

Some of you might remember when I recently had a little extra time on my hands and googled my name.  I wrote about it in this post.

Now head on over to Ms. Jenny's blog for this week's addition of Alphabe Thursday.  Don't worry about me if I'm not around on Friday.  I have a prior engagement and I'll be very busy.

Now I'm off to polish my tiara, bake crumpets, and find a good alarm clock.  Cheerio...

PS...Last week I had trouble and couldn't post pictures with blogger for Alphabe Thursday.  I discovered that if I sign out and then sign back in again the problem clears up.  Wish I had thought of that last week.  I'm passing this information along in case anyone else is having trouble too.

Greatest invention since sliced bread...

I'm so excited.  Look at what the Easter Bunny brought...

Yes, our very own portable air conditioner.  I've wanted one of these since Hurricane Ike.  We bought a generator in 2009 and now we have the A/C to go with it.  (Don't look at the mess.  We had to move things around to get it near the window to vent.)

We've been having A/C trouble and the temperature has already been in the 90's this year.  Factor in the humidity and it can get miserable pretty quickly.  All the freon leaked out of our central air because there's a leak in the pipe that runs through the wall and up into the attic.  We had to decide if we wanted them to break through the sheetrock or just run a new pipe up the outside of the house.  We're having them do it the quickest and easiest way...the pipe on the outside.  It looks like they might get it done today.

Much to our surprise Lowe's was open yesterday, so we ran up in the afternoon and bought this portable unit.  It's enough to cool the kitchen and den.  I love it!  It works great.

These little babies will be flying off the shelves if a hurricane heads in this direction.  For once we're ready ahead of time.  The plywood is cut, the generator is on standby, and we've got our portable A/C!

Thank you Easter Bunny!

A hectic week updated...

On Thursday morning we received an E-mail saying that Reid had definitely qualified for the clinical trial and should be at the hospital by 1:00.  A few minutes before we were to leave Reid received a phone call telling him not to leave until he called the clinical trial nurse and spoke to her first because she was waiting to hear back from the sponsor.  He waited fifteen minutes and called.  She then said not to come until she called him.

Meanwhile, he still hadn't been told anything about another appointment with the doctor, but since we had now been told he had qualified for the trial we were hoping that meant the scan was OK.  We still wondered why it seemed important for him to see a doctor on Wednesday, but again we were hoping all was OK.  Now with the delay we had our doubts again.  We had been told that the trial had to begin on Thursday in order to be in compliance and now everything seemed to be on hold.  We didn't know what was going on.  Talk about an emotional roller coaster ride!

We decided to go down to the hospital and talk with a patient advocate and perhaps she could find out what was happening.  She spoke with the clinical trial nurse and then told us he was definitely in the trial, but because Reid was the first patient at MD Anderson to qualify for this trial some additional information was needed.  We were told that the trial didn't have to begin on Thursday and one or two days later would be OK and we should go home and wait for a call on Friday.

Friday morning Reid received a call around ten telling him to be down there at twelve.  Jim was off work, so we both went with him.  The clinical trial nurse explained to us that everything was ready as far as the sponsor and MD Anderson were concerned but a third party who I guess oversees the trial wanted some earlier scans first.  She said his latest scan had been fine and the doctor's appointment was just to go over everything again.  The trial is supposed to begin seven days after Reid signed the consent form, but because of the additional scans that the third party wanted it was OK to start a day late.  So, Reid saw the doctor, a fasting blood sample was taken, and the drug/placebo was finally started a little before four.  We were home by 6:30, let out the dog and fed the cats, and then headed to Cheddar's for something to eat.  Reid hadn't had anything all day and by then was pretty hungry.

This week we've all been on an emotional roller coaster ride and hopefully things will settle down a little now.  He will be receiving the drug/placebo every 21 days which will require a doctor's visit the day before and then a fasting blood sample each time.  There will be numerous scans done during the trial and once a person has had cancer these scans can be a little nerve wracking, but this will be our "new normal" as they like to say.  Hopefully, all will go well.

I've been blown away by the moral support and prayers we've received once again this week.  Thank you so much!

On Monday he has his regular appointment with his stem cell doctor.  He still has the central venous catheter and is hoping on Monday they will tell him it can be removed. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter day tomorrow.  I thought I'd share some older Easter doll pictures with you.  These are mostly Vogue Ginny Dolls...modern reproductions and vintage dolls from the 1950's.  I know some of you have seen them before, but I haven't had time to play lately so I'll share these again.  Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Happy Easter!