WOW!

Some days the good and the bad seem to happen. Started out this morning making a big breakfast for everyone. Mimi wanted pancakes so I had a little fun with them for her. Of course she thinks I'm weird. But hey, it makes for an interesting start for the day.



Next it was nap time. Got to rest up before lunch you know. With this heat it is just too hot to do anything. Mimi wanted to go ride Laramie but it was just to hot. (and it takes forever to load up all the saddles and tack).

This kind of weather is good for just one thing and I thing our little Diva "Rosie" here has figured it out.



In the next two pictures you will notice that the windshield of my Explorer has been damaged. Frank and Mimi were coming home for the horses last weekend and a buzzard flew up and caught them. Frank couldn't avoid it as there was another car coming towards them. Luckily it didn't come all the way in but Mimi did get covered in fine bits of glass.




On our menu for tonight was Fried Mullet that Frankie and a friend of his (Ricky) went out into the Gulf and caught. They usually bring in somewhere around 50 each time they go out so now Sissie and I have quit a freezer full. This is just a few I cleaned and got a pic of before they all got filleted. I personally love cleaning fish and with Mimi and Johnny's help we can knock it out pretty quickly. Of course Sissie is no help at all. I'm guessing her hands are too delicate to be touching fish. LOL!

So along with some Grits and Tomato Gravy, Cole Slaw, Fried Cabbage and some Hush Puppies we had a wonderful dinner tonight.


Now for the worst part of the day. Frank and Johnny were out messing around in the yards and the area between our houses and my moms when Johnny found this.....



A water Moccasin. This is a whopper of one. And the first one we have seen here in years. We see rattlers and coral snakes but believe it or not, we rarely see these and thank goodness for they can be aggressive. This one was found out in the area where Mimi keeps her aluminum cans. Frightening to think she could have been the one to find this. Anyway Johnny put a board on him and held him down while Frank ran and got the rifle. Johnny put him in this plastic bottle so we could show him to our neighbor. Sissie says he now has to wash and disinfect himself with Ajax before he can get in her bed. All in all pretty scary.



Not much planned for this week. We are going to Gainesville Wednesday shopping at Sam's Club and other than that just stay at home and enjoy the AC. Mimi will start working on some of her schoolwork also. Frank is now working four - 10 hour days so this gives him one more day at home (a three day weekend) and somebody for Johnny to bother other than us.

He has been doing pretty good this week. His blood sugar and blood pressure have seemed to leveled off. He and Frank have been trying to build a smoker for some of the fish Frankie keeps catching so they are busy until the hot part of the day and then in for a nap.

Well that is the update in our part of the South. Will post more later.

Lazy, Rainy Day

As has been the norm here in Florida lately, it is a rainy lazy day. We have been enjoying this rain for a week now. Tropical depression #5 didn't last long but has given us some nice rain. Makes for lazy days. Made Beef Stew and Homemade Yeast Rolls for dinner. (as cold as Sissie has the A.C. in this house on could almost imagine that it's winter time LOL)

Johnny is doing ok. He is still gaining weight slowly and and his Blood Sugar doesn't seem to be improving any.

The pictures today were taken last night. The baby is Kaitlyn, (Kaity-bug) she is my brother Johns' grandbaby. Hard to believe he is a grandfather. Just wish he were here to know her.


She is a very loving baby. She loves her Uncle Johnny. Chrissy (her mom) and Kaity-bug are staying in Chiefland right now while Craig (husband and dad) is out at Fort Hood in Texas training. He just came back from his 2nd tour in Iraq and will now be stationed in Texas. So we are enjoying having them home for a while.

Not much else going on. All is quiet here. Until tomorrow.

A Few Pics...

"Kasey" mom's dog. He sure loves to run and play.

Joyce's new grandbaby

It is only by the grace of god that Lindsey and the others survived this wreck!! Thank you Jesus

On the Menu Tonight...

Crispy, Southern Fried Mullet
Fried Cabbage
Creamy Grits topped with Tomato Gravy
Hot Hush Puppies
Sweet Iced Tea

and for desert

Fresh from the oven Peach and Blueberry Cobbler

Not often we do it up big but Frankie has been doing a lot of fishing lately and our freezers are filling to the brim. I am so glad that the fishing ban has been lifted out in the Gulf and that the oil spill has not affected our area here.

Johnny's sugar is still running high. it was 419 at 5:oo pm today. Not sure why it has all of a sudden started running like this, but we have noticed an increase in his eating and snacking this last week. This last grocery trip we severely limited his snack buying also. His next dr. appt is in about 4 weeks unless things tend to keep getting worse.

His stats for this morning are:

W - 192.8
BP - 121/77
BS - 277

The Results Are In...

The dr. is definitely not happy with the way things are going right now. I am going to be brutely honest here. His sugar was 319 this morning and his weight is continuing to go up. He has not been taking the best care of himself lately. He has been eating a lot of sweets and snack food. Unfortunately he has also been drinking and last Saturday he pulled a bad one by getting terribly drunk. I know, I know, we are all thinking the same thing. But Sissie is really trying to keep a tight rein on him, but that is an almost impossible thing to do when he sets his mind to something. He was upset and a little angry about something and just let it get the best of him. Of course he has been on his best behavior since. Not sure what the effect on his health this will have but I sure hope it isn't a setback.

He will continue to take the Glipezide for now, but if his sugar doesn't return to normal he will have to go on insulin. He has 4 weeks to change it around.

So all in all, not the best dr. appt. ever but hoping the next one will be better.

Johnny....

is at the doctor's office as we speak. An update will follow.

In the meantime please enjoy this:

We Are Still Here

Yes we are still here. Life is really getting much better. Everyone is doing fine. Mom went home. (When I told Dad he needed to start letting mom have her SS check to help out with her little needs and stuff, he packed her up and took her home. Had we only known that was the key. Don't mess with Daddy's money. LOL!) Sissie and I were kind of wishing she would stay. We know they aren't eating right over there and we can't get them to come to dinner every night. Although she is happy to be home and seems to be doing very well there this time. Of course we miss Kasey. He sure kept things hopping around here.

Johnny is doing fairly well. He and Sissie are having a few issues that I am sure will resolve themselves. (I hope, tension can get thick around here.) His weight is going up again and Sissie is concerned. He has a dr. appt for Wednesday.

I am guessing that everyone has heard the good news already....




I'M FINALLY GOING TO BE A GRANDMOTHER!!!! It has been five long years and now it is happening! Frankie and Shelby found out they were pregnant last week and are both so excited. Of course everyone is mixed on whether it will be a boy or girl but otherwise we are happy about it. (except Sissie who wants to move out before it gets here because she claims to not like babies but we all know different!)

Mimi is having a good summer. She is currently spending the night with one of her friends tonight. We will resume homeschool sometime later this month.

Tonight I am going to end this with...

PRODUCTS THAT FAILED

1.Pepsi A.M. and Crystal Pepsi

In the late 1980s, Pepsi came up with the brilliant plan to cater to the breakfast cola drinker, under the assumption that because Pepsi contained caffeine, it must be a natural substitute for coffee. Well, you know what they say about assumptions -- but needless to say, Pepsi AM was not successful, and neither was Pepsi's later foray into clear cola, Crystal Pepsi. Apparently, when it comes to cola, the consumers know what they want -- they want it brown, and they want to drink it all day long.




2. Ben-Gay Aspirin

Ben-Gay cream is great for topically relieving aches and pains. But the idea of swallowing Ben-Gay? Not so appealing. That was the problem the company faced when they tried to launch an aspirin. Their first brand extension, Ultra-Strength Ben-Gay, was essentially the same product as the original and was very successful. The aspirin? Not so much.



3. Maxwell House Ready-to-Drink Coffee

The way Maxwell House described its ready-to-drink coffee sounded appealing enough -- it was "a convenient new way to enjoy the rich taste of Maxwell House Coffee." Just one problem -- the coffee could not be microwaved in its original container, virtually canceling out any "convenience" it may have offered. If you can pour the "ready-to-drink" coffee into a mug and microwave it, you can certainly pour yourself a mug of coffee from a coffeemaker. And that's just what consumers continued to do.



4. Colgate Kitchen Entrees

The Brand Failures blog explains: In what must be one of the most bizarre brand extensions ever Colgate decided to use its name on a range of food products called Colgate's Kitchen Entrees. Needless to say, the products did not take off and never left U.S. soil. The idea must have been that consumers would eat their Colgate meal, then brush their teeth with Colgate toothpaste. The trouble was that for most people the name Colgate does not exactly get their taste buds tingling.