Another Monday...And my teacher friends are counting the days!!

Here's Zoe's new "DO"!! She sure looks skinny now. Her mustache is a little wild in these photos 'cause it was wet from drinking water. This will be a lot easier for both me and her...she hates being brushed.

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When we got home from H-Town this afternoon, I had 3 more payments on eBay items. I have 5 who haven't paid out of 14 sales. I'm really surprised at people who bid on stuff then don't honor their committment to the seller. I guess I'm naive. When I've bid and won on eBay, I've paid immediately. Hopefully, the others will wake up and send their money. I did contact one "winner" and told her that I was assuming she wasn't going to complete the transaction since I've never had a response or payment from her. I offered it to the second highest bidder, but haven't heard anything as of yet. Maybe tomorrow will bring some better news.

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I must get packing! Everything's washed, some things need ironing (Jim's jeans), and we've pretty well figured out what we're taking. The average temperature is in the mid-50's during the day and in the low 40's at night. We won't be outside at night though, so that won't be much of a concern. I just hope the ship's warm on the inside!

Beautiful Day Here!

It's absolutely gorgeous today -- not a cloud in the sky and mild temperatures (70-75F).

The wedding was fabulous...it was held outside; just as the bride walked down the "aisle" it decided to start sprinkling, just enough so everyone had to scramble for their umbrellas (those with foresight) or had our hubby's go to the car & get our "bumbershoots"! And as soon as our hubby's got back with the umbrellas, it all stopped. Then a beautiful rainbow appeared!

The dinner was prime rib and baked chicken breast smothered with mushrooms & pepper sauce, seasoned red potato cubes, French cut green beans, Waldorf salad, and a variety of breads & rolls, butter. The wine and beer were free-flowing (waitstaff kept our glasses full!). The cakes were gorgeous and heavenly tasting. All the food and beverages were catered. Their food is always good; I've never been disappointed.

The music was wonderful, too. The DJ played all types of genres of music -- everyone danced until we closed the place down! I could tell the couples who've had dance lessons -- it was like watching "Dancing With the Stars" in person!!

A lot of the people attending the wedding go to church with us...we had bets on who wouldn't be at church today! Of course, there was one lady who had "the cure" = drink more of "the hair of the dog that bit you". But thank goodness, no one had to do that!
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Well, out of 12 people who bought my stitchery on eBay, only 4 have paid me.
I sent out my "blanket" email and it generated one more payment. Another lady emailed me & told me she'd cancelled her payment and would send it today... I haven't received it as of yet.

I keep telling myself that maybe some people are out of town, and can't/haven't checked their emails; I should give them another "a chance." I'll see what tomorrow brings before I notify eBay of non-payment.

The GOOD thing is that the payments I've received are for the high dollar items! That was SUCH a RELIEF for me!! I'll be mailing those 3 items in the morning.
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Zoe went to the Vet's office on Thursday for her tummy problems. He determined that she had a bacterial infection and put her on an Rx similar to Flagyl (which is for candida in humans). He also gave me a can of prescription dog food to mix with the Rx (liquid).
Well, when I opened the can at home, Cali went NUTS! She meowed incessantly and even jumped up on the countertop which she's NEVER done (and is a HUGE no-no!!). I had to really keep an eye on her to keep her from eating Zoe's medicated food. But Zoe's fine now and I gave the rest of the leftover can of food to Cali. So everyone's happy now.

Tomorrow is a trip into H-Town to take Zoe to our "old" groomer. I want to get her body shaved and the legs left long. I'll post a photo of the new "do" when I get her home tomorrow.

Wedding Bells...

We're attending a wedding and reception this evening for neighbors/friends of ours.
Linda is our homeowners association president and Ken was our H.O. treasurer. They live on the same street in our subdivision!! Linda has a landscaping company...and I guess you could say "Love Bloomed" on their street!!

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Well, I put all my completed cross-stitch on eBay for auction last week. 10 of the pieces sold, but now I've got a HUGE problem, and eBay and PayPal can't help me.

My original email address from years ago was listed in the auction listings, and same on the PayPal invoice. So I have $133 sitting in LIMBO with PayPal because I can't confirm the email address (it's dead and I have no access). All this in spite of the fact that I deleted that email address from my account 2 years ago!! GRRRRrrrrrrr!!!

They've told me the ONLY thing I can do is contact my buyers and have them cancel their PayPal payment to me. Then I have to send out a PayPal invoice to them requesting the new payment to my correct email address.

Bottom Line: A VERY EXPENSIVE lesson!!

More than likely, the buyers will decide to cancel the whole sale permanently -- too much trouble and/or they decide it was an impulse purchase & now don't want it. I probably won't ever get those high bids if I relist the items. One sold for $40, another for $34, and another for $23. The others went for anywhere from $10 to $16. On top of these losses, I had to pay commission, listing fees, transaction fees!! BIG OUCH!!

Live and learn, I guess. ;-(

25 Beautiful Phrases

Give God what's right... not what's left.

Man's way leads to hopeless end... God's way leads to an endless hope.

A lot of kneeling will keep you in good standing.

He who kneels before God can stand before anyone.

In the sentence of life, the devil may be a comma, but never let him be the period.

Don't put a question mark where God puts a period.

Are you wrinkled with burden? Come to the church for a face-lift.

When praying, don't give God instructions... just report for duty.

Don't wait for six strong men to take you to church.

We don't change God's message... His message changes us.

The church is prayer-conditioned.

When God ordains, He sustains.

WARNING: Exposure to the Son may prevent burning.

Plan ahead... It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.

Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory position.

Suffering from truth decay? Brush up on your Bible.

Exercise daily... walk with the Lord.

Never give the devil a ride... he will always want to drive.

Nothing else ruins the truth like stretching it.

Compassion is difficult to give away because it keeps coming back.

He who angers you controls you.

Worry is the darkroom in which negatives develop.

Give Satan an inch and he'll be a ruler.

Be ye fishers of men... you catch them and He'll clean them.

God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called.

VA Wednesday

Jim was feeling better this morning. He took the 2 meds last night and got a good night's sleep.

Zoe's fine, too. She and I went outside this morning in the rain so she could tend to "business" and she got soaked! Looked like a drowned rat!

We drove into H-Town this morning and I returned some items at Target and Sam's Club. Then we drove to the VA Hospital for Jim's C-Pap machine "tune-up." We were there an hour early and they took him right in. We got home before the rush-hour traffic. Yay!!

Jim's abdomen is beginning to hurt again, so he's taken his second dosage, and is dozing in his recliner now. ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Keep him in your prayers that this subsides.
Love to all, LeAnne

Terrible Tuesday!!

We've been up since 6 a.m.! And got home at 5:15 p.m. Man, we're tired.

Jim didn't get any sleep last night, and very little the night before. I didn't realize the pain he's been in for the last 2 days. We went to the BSS breakfast fundraiser from 7:30 to 8:45 this morning. When we left, he told me he really felt pretty bad. So I called our doctor's office at 9 a.m. The nurse called back and said the Doctor wanted to see him before he went for his ultrasound at 10:30. We got to her office around 9:40 and she saw him immediately. She sent him over to the emergency room at the hospital. They did a CAT scan with contrast, an EKG, & blood work. Everything came back negative (no infection, inflammation, blockages, twists/turns in the colon), but an "incidental finding" of a small cyst on his liver showed up. The ER doctor assured us that's not unusual and it's NOT cancer. He gave Jim 2 Rx's & sent him to his gastroenterologist. We went to the gastro's office at 2 p.m. as a work-in. By the time she saw him, he was in terrible pain and sweating profusely. She gave him an Rx for spastic colon and has scheduled an upper GI and colonoscopy for June 5th at 9:30 a.m. She said she didn't want to do the procedure before our cruise.

Now he's worrying if he'll be alright for the cruise! And now that we've gotten home, I keep hearing little tiny sounds coming from one of the animals...and it's Zoe! Her abdomen is making all kinds of sounds JUST LIKE JIM's!! So he's sitting here worrying about her being at the Smith's house while we're gone. She seems fine...I'm trying to convince him that her tummy does this periodically, and she's acting normal: playing, eating, drinking. But I guess I'll take her to the vet for a check-up to allay his fears!

Jim just took his Rx for the spastic colon. He doesn't want to take the pain Rx if he absolutely doesn't have to (that 'ole "tough guy" syndrome!).

Jim's got a VA hosp. appt. tomorrow at 2 p.m. for his C-Pap machine check-up. I'm not sure if I'll go with him or not. Right now I'm tired...lack of sleep & too much worrying that he's causing me (Is he alright? Are we gonna' be able to go on this cruise? If not, will I get our $$ back with the travel ins. co.?? Is Zoe alright?) PHEW! ENOUGH ALREADY!

We'll see what tomorrow brings!

A "FIRST" (for Cali)

Zoe was walking around all evening "lost" -- she didn't want to play "fetch", she wouldn't lay down; just paced around the living room and would look at us. I couldn't understand why she wasn't napping in her little dog bed.

When I finally walked past her bed, to my utter amazement, Cali was sleeping in it!! She has NEVER in 3 years EVER done this. And probably never will again. I just wonder what her little kitty-mind was thinking..!

I had to take a picture of this. ;-)

Another Monday...

I found something to beat boredom today. This is a neat website... this test will give you your approximate IQ:
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/games/play/243748/

I scored 126. I'm by no means a genius!
Jim took the test and scored 136!! He's REALLY good at the math questions!
The average IQ range is 100. Borderline mentally retarded is below 70.

Take the test and let me know what you've scored!! Good luck.

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Tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m., we'll be attending the Start-a-Smile Breakfast Fundraiser for the state school. My brother will be there with his choir group "Joyful Sounds."

Afterwards, we'll drive to H-Town for an ultrasound on his abdomen. He's been having pain for over a month now. He's worried and wants to know what's going on before our cruise.
Keep him in your prayers please. (We won't know results for several days to a week.)

Happy Mother's Day!!

First, I'd like to say Happy Mother's Day to all my lady-friends...whether you're moms or not.
Thursday night, Jim grilled CHS ribeye steaks for us. GOSH they're GOOD!! We'd been finished with dinner for about an hour when our neighbor Ed called and asked Jim to drive him to the emergency room 40-miles away. He was in terrible pain and thought he was passing a kidney stone. After they were at the hospital for about an hour, Jim called me and said Ed had told him to go on home (because of triage practices, the nurses told them Ed wouldn't be seen for another 2 hours, & Ed figured he could call his daughter who lives about an 1.25 hours away to pick him up). Jim got home about 10 p.m. He wasn't home an hour when Ed called and asked him to come back and get him. The hospital never found anything wrong with Ed, and released him in as much pain as he was in when he got there. I was asleep before Jim got back home (for the second time). The next morning, Jim was exhausted and couldn't figure out why since he slept late -- I reminded him that he'd driven 180 miles in about a 6-hour time span! Jim called Ed Friday to see how he was doing, and he wasn't much better. He came over this evening (Sunday) and gave Jim a thank you card with $40 gift certificate to the new seafood restaurant here in Brenham. That was a really thoughtful gesture.

Friday night we went to the home of our friends, Howard and Barbara (in CH) for appetizers, drinks & conversaton, then walked over to the restaurant for dinner. They live in a home that was built in 1856 (90% of the homes there were built around that time). It's really a dollhouse! The transoms above the bedroom doors upstairs are stained glass, the doors are very short, the upstairs ceilings are low, and the stairs are SO narrow. (It's amazing to think that 100-150 years ago, people were much smaller than nowadays!) We had an enjoyable evening. They moved here about 7-months ago from New Orleans. Howard is a railroad buff and he and Jim spent hours talking "train" stuff. Howard even brought out a map that's about 100-years-old showing a railroad line that actually ran through CH and B. -- it's no longer here, no tracks, nothing. So Jim's now on a quest to find out more about it. (He picked An-G and Doug's brains today -- An-G rembered hearing the train's whistle as a child, and Doug knew a lot about it, too; the railroad took some of his grandpa's land for the track/line, then sold it back to him for $1 when the railroad shut down. Very interesting information. I think Jim wants to go to the courthouse and look up some of the old maps on file.)

Saturday, Jim's family (Tom & Jean, Shirley & Angel, and Mom Rigsby) came for an early Mother's Day dinner. We visited for a couple of hours, then took Mom Rigsby for an early buffet dinner. This restaurant is a favorite of hers and she eats early, too. Tom and Jean drove up from Santa Fe to H-Town to pick up Mom R. and then retraced that route to take her home.

The latest family news: Shirley and Angel bought the house next door to them. They're going to move into it for about 3-6 months while they have their house remodeled. When they move back into their home, they're going to move Mrs. R. into the "new" house. Then the "boys" (as she refers to Tom and Jim) will be in charge of selling her house and car in H-Town. Since we've moved to CH/B, none of her children are close by in case she needs them quickly. Tom is probably the closest with about an hour's drive one-way. It probably takes Shirley an hour-and-a-half one-way, and it takes us about two hours one-way. Mrs. R. is excited and looking forward to the change. Her neighborhood is predominantly Hispanic now, and she only has a few neighbors "left" that she knows.

Sunday (Mother's Day) we spent at the kid's home. They prepared a delicious Mexican dinner: beef and chicken fajitas with ALL the trimmings, refried beans, 4 types of dips with chips, sweet tea. It's been a VERY LONG time since Jim and I have had fajitas and they were so good!!

They gave me Pampered Chef stuff for my MD gift: springform pan for making cheesecake, and a wire cooling rack, a turquoise and white turquoise bracelet, a pair of turquoise earrings, and then last week I got a necklace for an "early" gift (I didn't want to wait for it!).
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Two nights ago, I listed my finished cross-stitch and counted cross-stitch pieces on eBay. I got the idea from another eBay seller/friend. I had mentioned to her that I have a cedar chest full of things I'd done (some dating back to 1972), never framed, and don't know what to do with...many of the items are "country" and that's not "me" anymore. I looked on eBay and saw that the vintage items went like hotcakes. I've already got 4 items with bids and still have 6 days left until the auctions end! Then she suggested I sell my old needlework magazines and leaflet patterns -- and I listed those last night. I also came across some counted cross stitch fabric and listed those as well -- have a bid already for one of them! This is a new venture for me, and it's kind of fun! I have my childrens books listed on Amazon.com and have always done very well with that. My proceeds from my book sales have funded 3 cruises now.

And speaking of cruises...my neighbor, Darlene, called me on Friday and asked me if I'd found anyone to take care of Zoe yet. She told me she wanted to take her while we're on our cruise!! Her husband has just gone back to work (after several years of retirement) and Zoe will keep her company. I'm so relieved to know that she'll be alright -- not kept in a cage all day. I just hope Zoe won't bark all night long if they put her in her crate when they go to bed -- I don't know how they feel about a dog sleeping in their bed! ;-) I'm just so grateful that they even want to take her into their home. God has answered my prayers for my sweet little doggie!

Favorite boutique is calling it "quits" ...

Well, one of our favorite little home decor boutiques is closing for good. Their sale began this morning at 10 a.m. -- my neighbor, Betty, and I got there about 10:45 and there were a bunch of ladies already scooping up good deals. I called An-G and told her to "get down here!!" but her cleaning lady was there and she couldn't leave. So I bought $100 worth of stuff for her to donate to her church bazaar. I think she'll like all of it!! I "behaved" myself and only bought a few things: 2 lavender plants ($7), 2 decorative "rooster and hen" plates (15), a candle sconce/candlabra that goes into the top of a wine bottle ($2), a birdhouse (made out of old barn wood -- $3) and a candle in a jar ($2). The woman has some gorgeous floral arrangements....but I have no need for those.

Betty and I then went to JCPenney's and Wal*Mart. And we ate at Subway in Wal*Mart. Then we headed home with all our wares.

About 1.5 hours ago, we got a phone call from our neighbor Ed who lives behind us -- he didn't sound very good over the phone -- and he asked for Jim. He asked Jim to take him to the hospital emergency room in Cypress, said he was passing a kidney stone. Jim just called from the ER -- they're packed with patients (waiting in the halls), and it'll be 1.5 to 2 hours before they can even see Ed and give him anything. So Ed's told Jim to go home; if he needs anything he'll call his daughter who lives in Tomball. I don't know if the hospital ER doctor will admit Ed or not -- I doubt they will. I feel badly for him being left there, but that's what he wants. So Jim's on his way home now.

Other than that, tonight's been relatively quiet. Nighty-night!!

J&J's Jewelry Show

I hosted a jewelry showing for J&J's custom-made jewelry on Saturday.

Their jewelry is unique & one-of-a-kind. They make necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, keychains out of semi-precious stones (turquoise, coral, jade, pink quartz, etc.), and now some using wine corks. And J-r-sun also makes necklaces and rings out of elk and deer antlers, some inlaid with turquoise -- absolutely gorgeous!! He's even inlaid his parent's concrete barn floor with turquoise, too. Such creativity!

I was pleased that so many of my lady friends came, and everyone "ooohed" and "aaahed" over their creations, and are thrilled with their treasures. When I went to church on Sunday, everyone was wearing their pieces. We all looked like a fashion jewelry show!

J&J are wanting to do more home shows. They offer nice incentives to their hostesses. My hostess gift was the red beads & wine cork with "R"s -- he strung it right there in my kitchen. Then I got a percentage of my total sales to "spend" on jewelry -- so I was able to get 3 more necklaces (the multi-colored strand, the white turquoise, and the big turquoise & crystals). I'm excited to have more of their pieces in my collection.

My favorite piece is the crystal necklace with the huge "diamond" pendant. I call it my "Hope Diamond for my Hope Chest"!! LOL (I know.... real corny!!)

After the showing, we went out to eat seafood with Jim's brother Tom and his wife Jean, and the kids. We were celebrating our 34th wedding anniversary (a day early). After we ate, J&J left to go to the CHVolunteer Fire Dept. BBQ cook-off. They set up their jewelry and donated a percentage of the sales to the fire department.

The buzz at church the next morning was that their booth was so crowded that people couldn't get near them!! And lots of ladies were walking around wearing their DD jewelry! When I called my SIL Sunday night, he said they'd just about sold all their jewelry... and they had a LOT of merchandise! Some of the jewelry that was donated for the silent auction went for a lot of money, too -- which is great for our fire department which relies on donations to operate.

If you or anyone you know in the H-Town or surrounding area would be interested in hosting a showing, please feel free to contact them. I know they'd appreciate it greatly.

I'm really proud of their tenacity and creativity. They never cease to amaze me.