At The Top Of My List Today

Is Blogging !

Thursday, when I left the valley, I first had to clean the snow off of my car! Someone needs to tell Old Man Winter that it is now supposed to be Spring time---
 E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E !

At some point when I got to the valley I had my air conditioning on because I was hot--- such a difference in a 3 and 1/2 hour drive!

Product to be bought-- 

I had to make three trips to get all the product for my May deliveries, in the car.

The packaging was already to go -

I have spent two days just getting the product inside the packaging, tying bows, attaching tags, etc.

 The study is filled with all kinds of treats-

This picture does not do this packaging justice but -

Circus theme-

Tag says, The Best Smiles Under The Bigtop

Treats are cotton candy and Barnam and Bailey animal crackers. The sticky note is just covering the client's name-

I love this packaging. The tag in the left corner says

B-I-N-G-O

Our Smiles Are Always Lucky !

I am into ruffles right now! 

The ruffles are made from crepe paper.

Now for the meat of the matter-

The matter being my life-

Randy and I had another challenging week this past week-

Word on the Street
 News about Amber-

While eating out last week in Pinetop, the waitress that Amber bailed on, concerning an apartment a year ago , came over to say hello. She told us up until last week she had not heard a peep about Amber since December
 B-U-T 
she had just heard the prior week, from a very reliable source, Amber is now in Silvercreek, with a new boyfriend.

Silvercreek is about 35 miles from Pinetop. There is a great golf course Randy likes to go to there. Randy told me it is a very rural area and it makes sense that it would be a place where Meth labs would be and heavy Meth users would be -

Out in the boon docks, away from people -

Getting news of her stirs up all kinds of emotions, as you can well imagine. 

Mr. Chandler got himself into trouble this week by texting a girl a bad name. The girl's parents called the police and a  policeman visited our home. Chandler had been picked up by Maria already so he was not at our house when the policeman arrived. Speaker phone conversations with Chandler, and dealing, dealing, dealing. Randy said the policeman was very nice to him, bla, bla, bla. Randy told the policeman why we had joint custody of Chandler and when Randy saw the policeman he thought it would be in reference to Amber since there is a warrant out for her arrest. The policeman told Randy there were several warrants out for Amber but he was not there in reference to Amber so he had not brought her up. Randy then told him the latest we had heard and that was that--

E-X-C-E-P-T

of course

for dealing

with grandson-

Chandler claims the girl texted him some bad names before he responded in like. Randy told him it did not matter- told him he should have gone directly to Maria and shown her or to us. He should not have responded to the girl. You know the parent talk he was given, I am sure.

Phone suspended for now-

X-box live taken away, for now-

We are all trying to raise this young man and all of us deal with the emotions of what has happened with our daughter.

She was just about Chandler's age when all the trouble started with her.

We know he is not Amber .

We know he is not Amber.

We know he is not Amber

B-U-T

we also are scared to death-

We know we can only do the best we can do

B-U-T

sometimes the results from the best we can do

are so disappointing

 and so hurtful

 that questioning what IS the best we can do

 becomes front and center-

Thankfully, my hairdresser ( Oh yes, love those hairdresser psycology chairs! Smile) and her husband ( who are quite young, conservative, well rounded people, whose parenting skills I respect ) walked through the events and what they thought. 

Interestingly, I had never questioned the parents calling the police. 

Thus ensued a conversation about technology with kids,

the difference in emergencies be it 9-1-1 or what to call police about--

In my day, my parents would have called the parents of the child to discuss the matter-

In my day-

however-

I would not have had the entire police force out after me for following a school bus to find out where a little girl lives that said grandson has a crush on - S-M-I-L-E

( this was a post that I posted about a year ago )

Y-E-S

times have changed

B-U-T

rules are the same

and the most important of those rules

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

I fall short of this rule

 sometimes,

we all do

 sometimes,

but as my hairdresser said,

the important thing is for Chandler to learn from this experience-

so I am hoping,

with the holding him accountable,

learning will take place -

I came down to the valley last Thursday so I could take my dad for his check up with the Orthopedic surgeon.

Break is healing nicely and he can start practicing golf in a couple of weeks-

report was good-

my dad was good-

H-U-G-E 

smiles would go here!

And the last major news involves our
 Aunt Mary Helen.

Mary Helen has always been my hero, in terms of how to take care of one's life stages.

She was a single woman, all of her life.

She joined the armed services and upon retirement she was a psychologist in the CA school system.

She was quite the self sufficient woman, investing in real estate and following the stock market. 

Right about the age of 70, she started looking at retirement communities that provided care from independent living through the nursing home stages of life.

She chose one in San Antonio, Texas.

She moved into independent living there and enjoyed her life up untill a couple of years ago. She called us and told us it was time to make the move to the assisted living portion of the facility. We traveled there, packed up her place, and helped settle her in her next home.

Two to three weeks ago it became apparent she would need to be moved to the third floor nursing home facility.

She was sent to the emergency room about a week ago. 

She was having trouble with her throat-

She was having trouble with swallowing-

The nurse told Randy the Dr. wanted

 to put her on a feeding tube-

Randy asked the nurse to have the Dr. call us-

Mary Helen had a DNR and we knew she would not want this-

Still - emotional to be the one to say NO-

Fortunately, the Dr., by himself changed his mind about the tube. He released Mary Helen into Hospice care. She was sent back to her home and was in Hospice care for about three days. Hospice was in touch with us regularly about her condition. She died yesterday around five o"clock, at the age of 92. We are so very grateful she was kept comfortable and did not linger. 

We will be traveling to San Antonio to take care of her funeral, and other necessary things. She wanted to be buried in the Military cemetary there so the funeral will be arranged for a week from this Tuesday. That will give us time to travel by road so we have the truck.

I am so grateful, when cleaning out her place two years ago, I had the foresight to save her Navy uniform. 

This is what she will be wearing when one more 

American Hero

 is burried.