I had a busy weekend! Our travel documents finally came on Friday so we spent a lot of time going through them :)

On Saturday we went shopping for last minute things for the trip, and Scott bought me a beautiful bouquet of pink lilies, and I didn't know why, but he said it's an early Mother's Day gift, because I'm Layla's mommy :) So that was really sweet! Later that night we went to this awards show thing that his friends put on, and I thought it would be stupid but it was better than I expected. There were about 200 people there, they collected donations for the food bank, and I saw friends from all walks of my life: a girl who used to be a secretary here at my office, a girl I knew in my first year of university, and even a girl I knew through some friends at my other college! (She kind of stole my boyfriend, but we're over that now lol!)

On Sunday, we priced all of our stuff for our garage sale, and it took most of the day! I also found out a BIG SECRET that I can't let anyone know until my parents find out on Friday :rolleyes: I am terrible at keeping secrets from my mom. I am one of two people who know, and I talked to my mom 3 more times yesterday after I found out and it was so hard not to mention it! But I'm sworn to secrecy... I'll let you guys know after Friday too ;)

Other than that, I'm getting caught up in a situation on another forum, and it's breaking my heart that I can't seem to talk sense into someone whose dog has the same disease as Layla :( She wants advice but won't TAKE advice, and it's frustrating to no end. Nobody will back me up either. I think there is sometimes a double standard based on who is posting. :( I think about it every day but I think I need to stop dwelling and push it out of my head.

We had a good weekend in Houston. It was so good to see my kids, and especially Emma and Abigail! It is hard traveling with my mom and Gary, they both require lots of attention and help. I'm glad to be home!

We went to Galveston Bay - not the island - we started to go to the island, but were just too tired. Brooke, Abi and I went shopping and had a good time together! The guys, Emma and Abi went fishing in the ponds next to the house and they caught some catfish and had a good time. There are 3 ponds close to their house and someone let a pet alligator go into one pond - just for a swim - and then couldn't catch him. Everyone in the neighborhood came out to look at the gator. We didn't realize till the next day that it was a pet.

It is 97 DEGREES here today and windy windy windy. It's just awful!

It sounds like a nice weekend Gayle! I could not imagine having a PET alligator!! :eek:

I am getting really really stressed. We are leaving in 2 weeks and last night wrote out a list of things we need to get done before we leave. The biggest stress is that Scott has said he will talk to the guy next door to ask if he can watch our house while we're gone... we need someone to cut the grass, water the gardens, and be the main contact for the house alarm. But he hasn't even asked yet. He hasn't mentioned it. He doesn't want to phone them. He knows the guy better than I know his wife so I feel weird being the one to ask. I wish he would just do it! Otherwise we have 2 weeks to make other plans.

We bought backpacks for this trip months ago. We researched and got the best ones we could get. Last night we realized they are too big to be carry-on for three of our flights in the UK :( Apparently sometimes they check and sometimes they don't. They fit in every dimension except height. Mine is 3 cm too tall and Scott's is 10 cm too tall... they have rigid backs for support, so they can't really be squished down. We ddin't want to check bags because that's extra time waiting in the airport when we could be doing other things. Ugh.

I know you are stressed Lindsay - I always get crazy when we get ready for a long trip. We've been taking a multi-week trip every summer for many many years nows. For some reason, it doesn't get much better. Right now, I'm stressing about our multi-week trip to Arkansas. Plus, I have jury duty next week and if I get picked, I just don't see how I will get it all done. I'm thinking we may have to delay our trip a few days. We are lucky, we can leave at any time.

I am also stressing about our yard and alarm system too. We don't know our neighbors very well either and we need to ask them to watch our house. I just can't ask them to water our yard, we have too much to water - and I know my grass is going to be fried when I get back and that really upsets me. I guess all I can do is hope for rain, but I don't think that will happen. I would like to shorten our trip, but Gary will be upset. Sigh. I can't win.

For my next vacation I want to just go lay on a beach. But I know that won't happen with me. I always want to be seeing or doing something, and then I need a vacation when I get home from vacation. It doesn't help when you let me know it doesn't get better after years of planning these trips :p :rolleyes:

I just remembered we had planned to seed some of our lawn too, where we have bare spots in the back yard. I don't think that will get done until maybe fall now. At least if it doesn't rain here, the grass won't grow, but our gardens need to grow. I guess the neighbors will either have to cut grass or water the gardens. Watering the lawn wouldn't be too bad since we have underground sprinklers and they just need to turn them on! I feel so weird about asking them, I'm considering just asking my brother to come out on weekends to check on the place. But, that's kind of an unnecessary drive if our neighbors are home and can do it. It just feels awkward to ask!

My friend from London called my office today (she used to work here too) to talk to me about the trip. She said we shouldn't risk taking our new backpacks on the plane because they are so strict. But I don't know, we might anyway. Worst case is we'll have to pay 50 GBP (about $80) to put one bag in cargo. I think mine will probably pass as carry-on. It's a lot of money, but if we get through it saves us waiting at the airport for our luggage later. If it doesn't pass on the first flight, we'll check baggage early on the other flights (for 15 GBP).

We have so much other stuff going on too... we both need blood tests done for a doctors appointment when we get back, we need to get our garage sale set up this weekend, and hopefully sell most of our stuff! We need to plant the gardens (Scott told me not to plant one this year, but I really want to), we need to get hair cuts (mostly Scott, his head looks like a cotton ball haha), and we are leaving next weekend! How did this sneak up on us???

I can't believe your vacations are here already Gayle and Lindsay! Wasn't it just winter? Time flies so fast!

So, we are going to know your secret on Friday Linds? I'll be waiting!

I went to watch Mackenzie's softball game today, but left before Kassidy's soccer game. I really didn't want to sit there for 4 hours again. I brought Annie and Max with me, and they had so much fun. The kids immediately took them and played with them, so all the smaller beings had fun. Annie wanted to play, but Kass wanted to carry her because she is so petite and feminine. She finally put her down, and she decided to bark at a big dog. She stopped right away though, thank goodness.

I was going to finish setting up the deck, but will do that tomorrow. I have to wash it all down, and then bring whatever I want up from the basement. It's not a big deal. I find that if I split big jobs like that over a few days they are pretty easy.

I put out 2 plants. The coleus is not happy, but it's time they got some sun. We don't really plant here until Memorial Day. I'm only doing my two long planters, lots of coleus, mint plants, and maybe a hanging plant. I hate to plant things and then have them just die over the winter. The coleus and mint can come inside.

Had a bit of a scare this morning. Mom was sleeping a bit later this morning and I usually leave on the route at 6:45. At 6:30 I went in to unhook her from the dialysis machine and she wasn't feeling well. Mom just wanted to stay in bed for awhile. She had pain in her abdomen and I just knew it had to be peritonities again.

I always have her coffee cup, sweet n low, creamer and meds sitting on the table waiting for her. I left on my route and when I got home at 8:30 everything was the same as I left it on the kitchen table. I looked down the hall and saw that Mom was still in bed...lying in the same position as when I left. I really thought when I got to her that she would have passed.

She opened her eyes and said she didn't feel well at all. So after a phone call to the dialysis center...we were on our way. She indeed has the infection again. They gave her antibiotics and I brought 4 bags of antibiotics home to use for the next four days. We'll have to do a manual exchange around 1:30 so it can be in for at least 6 hours before the nighttime dialysis.

Mom is dozing and crying alot now.....it is really sad. She can't eat very well anymore, so it's a struggle getting healthy foods in her. She says things like she wished she felt better and I explain that she really isn't going to get better, that her heart is failing and so are her kidneys. I've explained it to her a few time the past couple weeks.

Spoke with Hospice again today. Explained to the older man on the phone that the young man they sent was a very nice young man, but we needed an older more experienced person to come. I told him that the young man told us she didn't qualify for Hospice because of the dialysis.....BUT...when I told him she has congestive heart failure....he said if she is diagnosed for Hospice with heart failure, she could still do the dialysis. So confusing, but someone with more experience and knowledge is suppose to call tomorrow morning and set up another appt. to come speak with us.

Keep your fingers crossed that we can get some help.

I feel like I am going to throw up. Scott called to confirm our hotel reservations tonight. We booked a hotel in Dublin for FEBRUARY instead of JUNE. We are out hundreds of dollars and there's nothing we can do about it. I can't believe we overlooked that for months. Now it's a week and a half before we leave and we need to scramble to find a new place to stay. I have been crying all night and I don't think I can sleep. This is so sickening. We are such idiots.

No, you are not idiots! Once I booked my plane ticket like that - instead of in the future, I booked it for the current time, but THOUGHT I booked it in the future so when I got read to take my trip, I had no ticket and had to rebook. It happens and it will be OK.

It would stress me out to the max too and I would feel like throwing up too, but in the grand scheme of things, it will be OK!!!

TAKE A DEEP BREATH!

It's a human mistake. Don't dwell on it just get another place and enjoy your vacation. Money comes and goes but this vacation is just a one time event you need to enjoy.

You need to sink into a hot tub and relax your muscles and especially your mind.

We might be able to get a good deal on Priceline... I got one last night that was $30 more than we wanted to spend (still, double what we spent originally!) so I let it go, thinking I could find something at a lower star rating, but I couldn't. I have to wait 24 hours to try bidding again. I am not paying full price lol.

Worst case scenario, my friend in London has a friend just outside Dublin we could stay with for free, as long as my friend goes with us. I don't want to impose so I will try to get the hotel tonight, but we'll see what happens. If it does happen that we need to stay with a friend of a friend, I will pay for her flight and everything for doing that for us.

I didn't sleep more than a couple of hours last night and my eyes are so puffy today :( I just want to crawl back into bed until 11:00 when I can try getting a hotel again. I think when we have accomodations in place, I will be better.

Thank goodness we called to confirm. Could you imagine if we showed up at the hotel and found out then that our booking was wrong?

It will all work out, Lindsey. Thank goodness you checked on your room!! You're going to have so much fun so don't get so stressed out that you make yourself sick or don't enjoy your trip.

Janet, I'm so sorry that your Mom's not well. I wish that I could be there to help you out but right now I'm dealing with so much here that it's not possible!! I've thought about calling you but it's just been too hectic.....maybe this week things will be better.

On Tuesday Dae Lynn, Dean, Jaci, and I went to a greenhouse that has such wonderful plants. It's probably about 45 minutes or so away but definitely worth the drive. We had such a good time but the heat and humidity was about to get to all of us!! It's so nice that we have this that we all share together and talk about. Jaci is getting so grown up but is yet enough of a kid that she still plays in the creek.........oh well, I guess that my other two girls are still a kid too because they all still play in the creek!!!!!

We had a storm come through last night that really cooled things off. We needed the rain because we've been pretty dry for it just being spring. I worked in my hosta beds yesterday afternoon after watching Dean all morning.

I've ordered a lot of different hostas (I've decided that I'm addicted to the little plants!!!!) and I need to move some of my older plants to a new bed and plant the new ones closer to the house where I can baby them. I so wish that I had a greenhouse but this just isn't the year to even ask for one with us helping Dae Lynn so much.

Last night we had church where I help in the nursery. I had four kids under 3. One wasn't used to being in there and cried.....then I had one that was a sympathy crier......and one that wanted to throw the toys!!! I was more than ready to come home!!

Dean had eaten some strawberries so I got a frantic call from Dae Lynn because he was broke out with hives!! I told her to give him Benedryl and by the time I got there after church he was all cleared up.

This morning I have Dean again and probably will until the afternoon because Dae Lynn is cleaning at the church and going to Damon's court appointment.

Busy.....busy......busy!!!!

Oh no, Diana, strawberry allergies aren't fun! One of my best friends growing up was allergic to strawberries, or anything strawberry flavored or scented (real AND artificial!) Not a lot of people knew about it so she didn't get to enjoy a lot of desserts and cakes and things when she was visiting other people. But it could be worse!

The hotel thing all worked out :) We got a great price on a better hotel that's about 8 blocks closer to where we need to be! It's still a loss of $300, but oh well. We did look up hostels in the same area as this new hotel, and they were going to cost us about $60 per night for a bed, each. So that's $120 a night together, in a shared room. We used Priceline again, and bid $140 and got a 5-star hotel right across from St Stephen's Green :eek: I was so excited I almost cried! Instead of not getting sleep because of stress, we didn't get sleep because of excitement last night! :rolleyes:

So do you guys want to know the big secret? My parents are finding out tonight but I guess it's close enough that I can let it slip here... My brother and his girlfriend are having a baby in January! Only myself and her mom know. Well, and Scott because I can't keep a secret from him :rolleyes: Even the two little girls don't know yet! They got them shirts made last weekend that say "Biggest sister again" and "Big sister finally", and they made my mom one that says "#1 Grandma, 2012" lol! They are all getting their shirts tonight and figuring it out :) I am excited for them but I'm not sure how my mom or grandma will react! We'll see tonight.

I just want to say, I know $140 per night is still pretty expensive... but as we usually do we went to the website of the hotel and tried to book through them as well, and it was quoting about $340 per night for the most standard room. So a savings of $200 per night is not too shabby :D We are staying in budget hotels for the whole bus tour, and this will be the last three nights of the trip... it's something to look forward to the whole time!

I'm glad that you got your hotel situation figured out!!!! It sounds like you got a really good deal!!! I'm envious of your trip......I would love to travel but being married to a farm boy that likes to stay home kinda' cuts my chances of much travel!!! I hope you take lots of pictures so I can enjoy your vacation with you!!!

As far as Dean's hives......Dae Lynn mentioned before she gave them to him that it's not recommended to give strawberries to a child under two years old!!! So....no more strawberries for Dean until next year!!!! Hopefully it's something that he'll outgrow!!

How exciting.......a new baby!!! Your Mom's going to be thrilled with the surprise!!! One time when Amy was pregnant she made fortune cookies for us to announce her news......sadly she miscarried but I loved the way we were told!!!

We had a cold front come through last night and it's a little too cool to work in the yard for me. However, I have a very messy bedroom from Kera and I cleaning out the closet!!! So I'm going to work on that and get some groceries later. First.....I have to get OFF of the computer!!!

I hope Dean grows out of it! I didn't know you shouldn't give strawberries to children under two years old!

I am not sure if my mom will be thrilled, but we'll see! I'm sure she was hoping they'd be married first. My brother's girlfriend is still in college and they were talking about getting engaged and married when she graduates school because she'd have a good job (in social work) and they could actually afford it then. Right now they're living on just one salary, with the two little girls there too. So this baby is throwing a wrench in their plans for sure! My mom has had some reservations about her before too, and I think all of us have. But I hope things will change now that they will be having a baby together. I hope she doesn't threaten to leave him again.

Now Scott and I know we will have the youngest grandchildren on both sides :rolleyes: His sisters are having their families already, and now my brother is too! Our kids are going to be spoiled lol! Either that, or there will be so many grandchildren by then, ours will just be nothing new!

Well, it sounds like this baby probably wasn't planned and changing plans will be difficult. I hope the family takes this well because the girlfriend could be very sensitive to the family's reaction. Pregnancy makes you very emotional!! This is something that your brother and his girlfriend will have to figure out......Just plan on being happy about it.......after all it is a new neice or nephew!!!

I'm sure that when you have babies that they'll get a lot of attention no matter when they're born!!! And everyone will be thrilled for you!!!

You're right, and I think my mom will be more shocked than anything! It has been so hard for me to keep this from her, because I know that she's going to be either really happy or upset about it and I've talked to her almost every night. It's so hard for me not to warn her that something big is coming up! Yeah, I can't plan surprise parties or anything like that either :rolleyes: It's too hard to keep a secret like this!

I am very happy for my brother because he seems so excited for it! He was so excited to tell me too. He asked if I could keep a secret, and I couldn't even tell Scott. I said probably not, I tell Scott everything, so he might as well just wait and tell me later lol! So he said "Okay, you can tell Scott, but nobody else" and then he said "You are going to be an auntie!" :) I like that, because it feels like I'm a REAL aunt now. Scott's sisters and his mom always call me "Auntie Lindsey" around the kids, and little Tare actually went looking for me and calling "Auntie Lindsey!" the last time we were there and it warmed my heart! But Scott and I aren't married, and it's his side of the family, so it just doesn't feel the same to me I guess! The girls don't call me auntie either, even though I consider them my neices.

I know how you feel. I've been an aunt almost as long as I've been married from Glen's side of the family but it was so different when my brother had his first daughter!!! I was so excited and actually "felt" like an aunt then......plus she was named after me......Natasha Diane.

I've been an aunt since I was 16 months old. My nephew Bob is my sister's son.

Congratulations Aunt Lindsay! That's great news!

It's also good news about the hotel room!

Diana, that's so great that she was named after you! That must make you feel very special.

Janet, wow that must have been a big age gap! My dad is just a few years younger than his uncle and they are more like brothers.

Thanks Judy! Well, we just made $327 in our garage sale today, so it recoups the cost of that hotel we booked in the first place! The sting doesn't feel so bad now lol. We didn't even sell half our stuff, but everything big sold.. snowboard, golf clubs, wireless router, diamond necklace. Those are where we made the most money!

We have had a BUSY weekend!!! We worked at our Austin house for several hours both Sat. and Sun. On Saturday, we worked on the inside of the house and got everything sorted out - stuff that is to be donated and stuff that we will bring over to our house. Mostly the stuff coming to our house is mom's pictures and family memorabilia. I have a couple of chests of drawers in the garage that I plan to put most of her stuff in. It will make our garage a bit messy for a while, but eventually I'll get it unpacked and sorted out.

We put up a "moving sale" sign out by the road and were able to sell most of the furniture. We have a couch, coffee table and old painted dresser left and we will just send them to the salvation army, if no one buys them. Everything is listed in craigstlist too, so maybe someone will want them. LOL! The Craiglist Killer movie was on TV last night, so I made Gary go with me every time someone wanted to look at something. LOL!

Today we worked on the yard and garage, doing the same thing, sorting out what comes over here and what goes to goodwill. I'll be calling a local moving company called "Two Men and a Truck" to move the stuff over here. I'm calling the Salvation Army to come by and get the stuff to be donated. A woman who takes care of mentally ill men came by today and took about half the donation stuff. I'm glad that someone who really needs it, came by and took it.

That's great you were able to sell most of your stuff Gayle!

On Saturday while Scott was holding down the fort at our garage sale, I went to a few others with my family. I found a mandolin vegetable slicer for $1! I've been wanting to buy one for a long time. I took it home and made a salad with it that night. Well, I put carrots in the salad and you can't really use the guard with them until they're short, so I held them with my hand until they were short enough for the guard. Just my luck, I slipped, and sliced my thumb pretty badly :( It bled so much I almost got sick! I did have my cell phone on the counter beside me so I called Scott while I ran my thumb under cold water, and he came home immediately (he had just left to recycle cardboard boxes). We wrapped it up, and it stopped bleeding by yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon, I put in a garden, and somehow managed to rip it open again :( I'm being very careful with it now. It really flipping hurts! :(

I'm sitting here in the district court lobby waiting for jury selection. Dang I hope I don't get picked.

But on the bright side, I found a 5 hour parking spot - most are a 3 hour limit and I don't know how long I'll be here. It only cost $4.00. I feel pretty lucky, hope my luck holds!

Well good news maybe. The last time I was picked for jury duty, my assigned number was 5. When I wasn't picked, my number was 48. Both times they selected the jury from people with numbers 1-15. My number today is 60. Keep your fingers crossed.

Ugh! Almost 3:00. Been here over an hour and now we are waiting for 4jurors who you KNOW are not going to show up. They were supposed to be here by 2:00. Get real judge, they are not going to come. The lawyers have at least 60+ people to choose 12. I think that is realistic. Geesh! Come on!

Today I went and visited with mom in between routes. Then came home and mostly loafed....lol. Now I need to get started on some laundry....again.

We are on break and they didn't ask me any questions so hopefully I am safe. The lawyers are behind closed doors choosing the jury. I am ready to go home.

Come on! It is 5:30! It's time to get this over with. My butt is sore from sitting on this bench. I'm going to be in bad traffic all the way home now and that does not make me happy! Please choose a jury and let us go home!

How is your mom feeling today?

Doesn't the court system suck!! They have no regard for any ones time. I hope you don't get picked and you get to go home soon.

Hope your mom is doing better and you are able to get some rest.

Mom is still in the hospital and feeling a bit better. When we took her to the hospital, didn't know if she would make it out of the ambulance, she was so bad. Her potassium was dangerously low. They were able to get it back to normal but this morning it dropped down to critical. As of this afternoon..she is feeling better. Not sure when she'll be released. It's pretty rough going right now....trying to call as many home health aides as I can to gather as much info as I can, so its all pretty time consuming. Thanks for asking and for the prayers. Need to get to bed now and get some rest. Love ya all!

Janet, I'm so sorry to hear your mom is having so much trouble. It is very very hard, I know.

YAY! I didn't get picked for the jury! I'm soooo happy BECAUSE it was a child sexual abuse case with the father as the abuser. Man O Man! I did NOT want to hear all that evidence. We got out at 5:45 and I was so glad to be out of that courtroom!

That one would have been horrible to have to listen to.glad you didn't get picked.

Janet, I'm so glad Mom is doing better!

Gayle, I was on a jury where the daughter was accusing the dad of sexual abuse and the dad was accusing the daughter of lying. I had worked in the middle school this child went to, years before. I was so glad when one of the witnesses turned out to be a teacher I had worked with. I was excused from the jury and the extra juror took my place. I was sick to my stomach thinking about how I would vote on the jury.

There was no real way to tell who was innocent and who was guilty in this case. I knew the population of kids in that area, and knew the daughter could easily have been lying. When I worked there, a girl ripped her own shirt, and ran out of the library crying, claiming that the library teacher had molested her. He did no such thing, but had to be moved to another school for "safety issues." The girl did it just to be cruel. These kids were horribly brought up!

I am so glad you got off this case! It is terrible to hear these things, true or not.

I am sitting here listening to water dripping into a pot from the gap around the sky light on my roof! It has been raining very heavily for the past few days, and I noticed the leak yesterday. It was small, but has gotten more consistent today. I called the office, but it will be raining through the weekend, so I can't see how it can be fixed.

The homeowners' association probably will tell me that they are not responsible and I will have to pay for repairs. It seems that whenever anything happens, they are not responsible! We are all so annoyed at them!

Then Jessie called me this morning to "remind" me of Mackenzie's chorus tonight. Her memory is not good. I think it is a combination of the meds she takes and the MS. It could just be the meds, but I never argue with her about what she thinks she told me, or thinks she did. It breaks my heart, but I don't want her to kinow any of this. She does very well with the kids, with her life, and so on. Sometimes, a little delusion can be better. I know Mackenzie works around it, and I'm sure Steve does. We never discuss it either, although Mackenzie is a little bit open with me about how she manages her Mom.

So, I guess I'm going to a concert tonight. I said to Jessie that I would be there unless there is too much of a downpour. Her answer was something about, why, can't your car go through the rain? Yes, my car can drive through rain, but the roads are dark and dangerous, there is flooding in my area, etc. Sometimes it gets disheartening to be overlooked, no matter what the reason.

Oh my gosh that is terrible! I remember when I was in school, there were a couple of girls that were two years younger than me, in Grade 6, and they accused their teacher of molesting them. There was a huge uproar and they were going to go to court, he was close to losing his job, and eventually they finally admitted they lied. They were just angry about grades or something. :eek:

Do you have anything outlining what the homeowners' association IS responsible for?? If not, you should demand it. When I lived in my condo they would cover anything structural, roofing, piping outside the unit, heat, etc. When I paid my monthly fees I knew exactly where that money would be going!

I'm sorry you're having problems dealing with Jessie's memory loss. It probably is best to just not let her know. I hope it stops raining and you can make it to the concert!