Blah Days and a Sunny Sunday!

I have had a couple of blah days. We all have them from time to time.

 They remind me of that saying -

"It's perfectly okay to have a Pity Party! Just do NOT invite any guests!"

While I have not had anything close to a pity party, Friday and Saturday were a bit blue.

Partly the weather, I'm sure. I love rainy days but even I was thinking 'Enough, already!'

Louis Dean proclaims loudly and often that he 'HATES PASTA!'
It's a running family joke that we tell him we are having PASTA!
Now, he loves spaghetti. Weird, right?? Isn't it the same thing as noodles and such?
Anyway, Friday evening I made a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup.
I would share the recipe but I made it up as I went along.
It was seriously good, though!

Good enough that Louis Dean at his whole bowl full!

I also made him a big batch of banana pudding.

I used to make it homemade but it was really more trouble that it was worth.

The instant mixes taste just as good as my homemade and are a lot easier and faster to make.

As I write this - there is one tiny bowl's worth of pudding left and I haven't had any!

I do believe Louis Dean's appetite is coming back!

Between the rains I walked around the back yard and spied some signs of spring.

This time last year, we were already knee deep in mulch and potting soil getting the yard in shape.

So far I have managed to clip one small rose bed. 

Perhaps next week I can get some serious yard work done.

This is Louis Dean on Saturday!

We switched places in the fact that he got dressed and I stayed in my pajamas.

He still stayed on the couch most of the day when he wasn't in the guest room.

He's been having some terrible asthma attacks.

I'm thinking the steroids are supposed to be helping that.

He's finished his Tamiflu and is still taking his antibiotics and steroids.

At least he felt like watching back to back Gunsmokes and lots of news.

What did I do Saturday?

I mostly stayed in bed and read.

Oh, I would get up and run the dishwasher and  a load of laundry.

I tidied up the clean rooms and sorted through a drawer of old papers.

I wasn't sick but I didn't feel like doing much of anything.

Normally, I keep a running list in my head of things to do and, normally, I am DOING  them.

Not Saturday. I was a little concerned about myself. I don't remember the last time I felt that lethargic. I could not WAIT to go to bed!

I think I tucked myself in at 8:30 and left Louis Dean to sleep in his recliner in the den.

He had come to me Friday and said he thought he was allergic to something in the guest room because he was fine in the den and then would get in bed and start coughing.

Silly man! I told him it was because he was lying down. He needs to stay in a reclined position - at least until he gets better. Even the doctor told him that.

So - there I was in bed blissfully asleep - when what does he do but come in and take off all the pillows I still had propped up on his side of the bed. He proceeded to pull the covers back and crawled into bed.......and then has a huge hacking, choking, strangling, spitting, spewing asthma attack. After he finally got settled down - he went back to the den - leaving me wide awake!

And I STAYED awake for over 3 more hours!

This morning I asked him what he was thinking???

He said, "I just thought I was so much better I would come in here and sleep with my beautiful wife." He gets points for his wording but not enough to clear the balance!

Fortunately, I woke up this morning feeling so much better - as in NO BLAHS!

I dressed, put on makeup and fixed my hair.

The list was once again running through my mind and I was knocking things out!

Not big things but stuff like having coffee, starting more laundry and doing some cleaning.

I knew Louis Dean wouldn't be up to going to church so I was happy when he suggested we watch Ed Young, Sr on Winning Walk. He had recorded several of them and we watched three of them back to back.

I am now convinced that I am not carrying the flu around with me so I went out in the world today.

I walked Centennial Park and it was nice to see so many families out there.

No one's in my photos but there were lots of people around so I walked the whole trail twice.

Then I stopped at McDonald's to get a small chocolate shake and went to visit Reaoma.

She loves chocolate shakes but this may be the last one I get for her.

Reaoma has a brain condition that is causing her body to shut down.

It started with her eyesight. And I believe she was falling often. She would laugh and say she tripped on a blade of grass. Next was her speech. It got slower and slower. Now I think she can only say 'yeah.' She will never get any better and it is heartbreaking.

Her daughter, Pam, sees that her mother is taken care of but she herself just had a major back surgery and will be recovering for awhile. I haven't visited Reaoma this past week because I was afraid I might have the flu germs on me and that would be fatal to her. She is on hospice as it is.

The milkshake was hard for her to swallow this evening even though I had let it melt down some.

She ate a good dinner. I like to arrive around suppertime so I can feed her.

The aid chopped up her salad for me and Reaoma ate just about all of it. There was mashed sweet potatoes, ham and jello and she ate a good amount. After dinner, I wheeled her up and down all the halls and all around the nursing home. When the aids came around, we talked and I told them about us being next door neighbors for 17 years. When Reaoma turned 40, she bought herself a bright red jeep! She loves the summer heat and sunshine and I told them how she would be outside in the hot sun painting her house - while wearing a yellow bikini! And, yes, she looked GOOD in it, too!

I  would take Amber and Benjamin down to visit them every August after she and Doug had moved to their land in Grapeland, Texas where they build a log house. Doug would take the kids fishing and boating and they would ride horses, shoot guns and climb trees. Doug taught Amber how to drive my van! He meant the world to my children and they loved him and he loved them.

Doug passed away in April of 2012 on the same day Amber was admitted to the hospital where she stayed for 51 days before the quads were born.

She mourned for Doug and mourned not being able to see him during that last year when he was so sick.

I am very grateful that I can be here for Reaoma. I had a friend - also a neighbor - who I loved and who had cancer. While I cooked and baked and visited and all.....when it was obvious to her that she was dying....and when she needed someone to talk to....I let her down. I have never got over that and I hope to never do that again.

I came home this evening and Louis Dean had been in the kitchen cooking pancakes.
That's a good sign he is getting better!
I went out in the front and cut back some things in the next flower bed. I intend to do the big rose bed tomorrow. Louis Dean had put the blower out there for me and I cleaned off the front porch while he went in the back yard and burned some papers.
I'm cleaning out drawers and closets and I have found more papers than I ever knew I had! My desk drawer was FULL and oh, so heavy! I threw all of it out except for the old eHarmony papers that I will keep forever! I smile every time I look at them!

Louis Dean just got out of a hot bath and I think we will watch a little something on TV.
NOT a Gunsmoke or the news!
And before I go to bed tonight, I am going to remind him that he must keep his head elevated - so that means he will be sleeping in the den!

He can save that 'beautiful wife' line for another day - when he isn't coughing and choking!!