Aunt Edna: RIP

Edna was my mother's younger sister. She was the daughter of Cleo and James White. She was Paul Bagley's wife, Billy and Judy's mom, Kimberly,Michael, Molly and Julie's grandmother. She was aunt to Barbara, Patti and me. She was a hoot. I can still see her at my niece's wedding dancing the stripper song with a feather in her hand. Edna was a registered nurse, graduating from Grant Hospital School of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio during a time when nurses wore caps and capes, scrubbed floors and actually cooked the patients meals. Her daughter and niece(me) and great niece(Rebekah) followed her career choice into nursing. She worked for Dr. Layton Schaffer as his office nurse for over 25 years and retired in his service. She and my mom shared holidays and we grew up with our cousins, sharing special meals, laughter and love. She really had a wicked sense of humor, anything and everything was fair game. I remember times when I laughed till I cried around her.

The last time I saw her was a year ago. She was smaller, older but she was still Aunt Edna. I started to cry and she said "I'm not dead yet, don't cry".

I believe that sometime this morning there was a party in heaven. Her sister Inalee, her husband Paul, her granddaughter Julie and her mom and dad were there to welcome her home. Good bye Aunt Edna you will be missed.

Baby Hart

About a week ago my son Joshua and daughter-in-law Sydni came to see me. Joshua said I have a present for you and as he was talking he kept fiddling with something in his hand. He then handed the object in his hand to me and I looked at it. It took a good 10 seconds or longer to me to process what I was looking at. It was the positive pregnancy test that they had taken. I was stunned then I bent over and cried. I was beyond thrilled. What a wonderful day. I was so honored that I was the first that they told. What was most amazing was that I was able to keep their secret until they wanted others to know. I will never forget when they came into the ER and had a pregnancy test done. I was not at the station when the results came in and no one else knew why they were there. When I came back in Heather had a lab result paper in her hand and her expression was like a deer in headlights. She had the paper clutched to her chest and she was just staring at me. I nodded to her to let he know that I knew and she started to laugh and hugged me. The big deal was to keep it quiet in the ER so that "Taunt" Jill wouldn't find out till the kids could tell her. A few days later Josh came by to see Jill and asked her if Grande Taunte Jill was the proper term. Apparently that meant 'big' aunt Jill and not great aunt. Took her a minute too, to figure out what he was trying to say. She thought that he was telling her that Ellie the dog was having puppies(Jill owns Ellie's mom) Now everyone knows and all are thrilled so when, years from now, Baby Hart reads his or her grandma's blog he/she will know that from the first there was an abundance of love.

Nutrasystem Day 1

No I am not going to blog each day about my diet. That would bore the crap out of me and anyone who reads this. I have another blog that I will put entries on that hopefully will keep me motivated. I hate being fat. I am just cumbersome and it irks me that I cannot move like I used to. I have short and long term goals that are measurable. I am going to have breakfast now and I will be happy!!!

Resolutions

I didn't want to rush the process of trying to figure out what my New Year's resolutions would be this year. I actually sat down with pen in hand to try to figure out a list that would be attainable and practical. I wondered how long it would be before I managed to break any resolutions that I would make. I decided not to write anything until I had a handle on what was going to stick. My first resolution was of course to go on a low carb diet. That lasted less than ten seconds because as I was typing my list I was eating a cookie. I can multitask. I had the cookie firmly held between my lips while I was typing with both hands. In fact I had 4 more cookies waiting on the table next to my computer. The next resolution was to go to the gym on the days that I get off work. That resolution lasted less than 36 hours. The gym is on my way home and I have been paying them every month for two years. I haven't darkened their doorstep in over a year. I went to work on Wednesday night and on the way home in the morning I passed the gym and remembered that I was supposed to stop and walk for 30 minutes. I didn't want to turn around because the street was busy so I decided that I would walk the dog through my neighborhood a distance of exactly one mile. I got home, had to run to the potty(no bladder control) and while there stripped off my clothes and put on my jammies. THEN I remembered that I was supposed to walk. Well poop. Okay I felt I could still salvage this because I have an exercise ball that I bought over a year ago and have not inflated. I got it out to blow up and realized that I needed to look up something on the computer... like how much weight does this thing hold? I got sidetracked on the computer because I had crops to harvest on Farmville. It's a damn shame that you can't lose weight playing computer games. By the time I got around to looking up the weight limit on my exercise ball it was time to go to bed. I did lay on my back in bed and raise each leg 10 times. My next resolution was to clean house and keep it in order. Its been two weeks and I still have Christmas decorations lying around in partially sealed boxes PLUS I emptied the floor in my walk in closet to make room for the half-packed decorations so that I won't have to go to the Attic each year and drag them down. Now my bedroom looks like a bomb went off. I was so excited because in my closet I found another 2 HUGE containers of pictures that were tucked away. This is a good thing because I had promised to find all my pictures and get them in one place for one of LAST year's unwritten resolutions. I spent about an hour or two looking through the pictures and the mementos that I have saved. I went back to the computer to look up scrapbooks. I need a mess of scrapbooks to put cards and pictures that the kids made me. Oops I had to head on over to Cityville first to collect my rent and request gifts to complete game goals. With that finished I found the scrapbooks I wanted and made note of them so that I could order on my next payday. I got up to get a drink of water and noted that the sink was full. I did dishes and mopped the floor. Then I went to the laundry to get clothes out of the dryer and realized that I need clothes hangers. I went back to my bedroom and had to move some of the boxes out of the way to get into my closet and discovered a box full of my mom's recipes that she had saved. What a treasure trove. About 10 years ago I stored this box and made a fricking resolution to organize the contents and make a family cookbook. I got my coat hangers after looking through the recipe box and hung up clothes. I needed to take a nap for work so I went to bed and set my phone alarm for 2 hours. I raised each leg 10 times and went to sleep. In the middle of my nap I had to pee and got up and promptly fell over a box and peed on myself. I had to clean up and by that time I was awake. I got my shower, did my hair and reflected on the last 15 days of failed resolutions. I realized that I may have a problem with distractions. I am probably ADD. So I have made my only resolution this year. It is to list what I need to accomplish each day... the night before. I only list one or two items that are reachable and will cause me great guilt if I can't manage to accomplish them. I am talking easy stuff here. Like yesterday my to do list included stripping my bed and gathering all the bath towels. I did that AND I put them on to wash. That wasn't on my list so I get bonus points for going over and above. The other to do thing was to pull the rest of the stuff from my closet and put JUST the fragile boxes of Christmas decorations in place. DONE!!!!!! Yay!! Today as I type the things that are looming for me to do are to get dressed(with good hair) and visit a friend in the hospital and to put away another 4 boxes. I did make progress on a non-resolution. I ordered nutrasystem and I am going to give it a try...one day at a time.

Pictures from Christmas 2011

Late Christmas at the Higginbotham's

I guess if you do something 2 years in a row it becomes tradition. I like the new tradition that we started last year of doing everything in one evening. I still cook the same meal that I have for the past 30 years: Prime Rib with a side of heavy whipped cream and horseradish sauce, broccoli, potato, and yellow squash casseroles, Grandma Thelma's jello salad, and Brussels sprouts almond. I switched the pretzel salad with a desert called Fat Man's Delight(chocolate). The FMD was delicious but BOTH of my children wanted to know where the pretzel salad was and when I admitted that I traded it for the other desert I was informed that you can't mess with tradition. I won't do it again. I have been set straight. You can add but you can't take away. I wondered the past few days what drives me to go all out, to the point of personal exhaustion, on Christmas. I don't have an answer but that I just simply love this celebration. I love knowing what I have to buy at the store without a shopping list because I have made the menu for so many years I have it memorized. I love the sounds,the smells, the tastes and the spirit of the season. I love my family and I love the giving of gifts. I love getting them as well but the giving is so much better. I love the pagan tradition of the fir tree, the secular tradition of Santa Clause, and most of all the true reason for the celebration the acknowledgement of the birth of our Savior, Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph. Someday I will be too old and tired to spend days getting ready for Christmas and will want someone else to take over the responsibility. Someday. Not this year or next but someday. So again from my home to yours Merry Christmas and may the Child, born in the manger, live in your heart and bring blessings to you and yours through out the year.

A Look Back Over 60 Years

I gave myself a day to think about this because yesterday I was overwhelmed with the feeling of being old like my mom was. I am the baby of the family. I don't get old. I laid in bed last night and thought about the last 60 years or rather the ones that I remember. I was going to post 60 years in about 20 pictures but I couldn't find the ones that I wanted. I like the idea so I will do it but it won't be till the first of the year.

The first 10: I have vague memories of early childhood. I remember I used to bite the toes and fingers off my dolls and I cut my Barbie doll's hair. I would sit by our bookcases that were near a furnace vent, and it was so warm in the winter. Had my tonsils and adenoids removed. I was horse crazy. I played hide and seek with my collie dog Queenie. I wasn't a bad child, I was just active and into a lot of things. I was attached to my mom and had a hard time even spending the night at friends homes. I loved to read and by the time I was 10 I had read all the horse books I could find and had progressed to the Bond Series by Ian Fleming(I had to sneak them out of the library and back in when I was finished)I probably had ADD because I just wasn't that into school. I was a "dreamer, with a great imagination". In other words I lied and didn't pay attention in class. I remember telling my 1st grade teacher Mrs. Oliver that I was late for school because a bear chased me to Lee Leman's house and I had to hide. I had to repeat the first grade. I was chubby and it should have caused me problems but I lived in a make believe world inhabited by horses and I was pretty happy.


The second 10:( Age 10 through 20). Wow I went from fat to thin. Got picked for our high school dance team the Wesketts, discovered boys, still had trouble studying. I performed in the 1969 Rose Bowl Parade. I got by and sometimes made the honor roll but it just wasn't important enough to give up my evenings and I was passing. I went to all three "senior" proms. I was a prom 'Ho". I just loved to get dressed up. I remember taking Latin for years and really enjoyed it(who the hell enjoys Latin??? I really think I was a closet nerd)I was active in our Presbyterian Church where my mom was the secretary. I didn't get my drivers licence till I was 19 because someone was always available to drive me around. I had my heart broken a few times and broke my share. I was still horse crazy. I lost my mother's parents during the second ten years. I got my first job at Taco Bell and worked at a Kingswood Kennel with Elva Alexander and rode her husband Bob's Saddle bred gaited horses. I did stable work at Thunderbird Acres in exchange for riding lessons. I had three serious boyfriends.


The third 10: (between 20 and 30) These went by more quickly. I graduated from nursing school, got engaged twice, (the first I refused a ring and got a ten speed engagement bike instead). I realized I made a mistake and traded all the china I had collected in for horse equipment and bought the first of my two Arabian horses. I realized that I needed Jesus in my life, got saved, and then proceeded to let the devil run my life for a time. I married a doctor and had my son Joshua and got a divorce. By this time I had my second horse. I had to sell both horses to survive. I lived in Gulf Breeze, Florida near the beach in English Cove Apartments. I married Stan and had Becky. During this third 10 years I moved to three different states, I flew on Life Flight in Pensacola, Florida, met Bob Hope( sorry but he was an ass)worked in 3 different Emergency departments and ran an ER at Humana Hospital in College Station, Texas. I lectured about child abuse and molestation...... and I gained weight.


The fourth 10: (Ages 30 through 40). Moved to Louisiana, discovered what a horror public school was in this state. Worked in Psych, Rehab, ER, was the manager of a Medical?Surgical Floor. Placed my daughter at Academy of Sacred Heart and fought to keep my son in school by enrolling him in a Christian School that turned out not so Christian. Discovered my son was an awesome dancer. Showed Gordon Setters or rather I tried to do so with the help of friends! Continued to gain weight. Worked more and more kept one job and had several part time jobs.

The fifth 10: (ages 40 through 50) Continued to work. Let my son move to New Orleans and dance professionally. Did not sleep well for years. Learned that a broken heart and worry will not kill you. Had my gallbladder removed. Had my knee operated for a torn meniscus. Lost 115 pounds and looked great! Watched my daughter bloom personally and in school. Got fired for the only time in my nursing career. ( have since learned that the heifer who fired me has been terminated from several jobs.... just proves what goes around comes around)Watch my son hit the bottom and rise like a phoenix from the ashes. Got our first computer. Continued to keep my weight down. Watch Becky get her high school diploma and start college. Watched my daughter grow in education and decide on nursing. My dad died. The Towers were destroyed 9/11/01 and I became a news junkie. I kept my weight off.

The sixth 10: (ages 50 through 60) My mother died and a piece of my heart. My fear of flying grew. I developed breast cancer and elected for a bilateral mastectomy with implant placement. Worked and continue to do so in a small ED. My daughter and my son both got married and brought Shane and Sydni into our family. Becky started on her masters and Joshua has a dancing school and moved it to 4 different locations. My brother in law Bob died and Joshua's half sister Chelsea was killed with in 24 hours of each other. I continue to work as much as I can. I am still broke. I gained and gained and gained weight. I am still the baby in the family but I am an old baby. My sister's and I "found" our oldest half sister(my dad's first child) JoAnne and reunited with her. I started to blog, became a computer junkie. I am a mixed political person. I have a few liberal ideas but believe only in a very small government. I can't stand the current president. I don't want to live in a socialist country.

What I have discovered is that we have become too politically correct. We don't allow our children to lose at anything because losing will make their little witty feelings hurt. We squash individualism. We don't discipline our kids and have a generation of children believe that they are OWED a check for doing nothing. God is being forced into a box where he cannot offend anyone. We have taken prayer out of school and allowed illegal immigrants to remain in our country untouched and in fact rewarded. Our president wants us all to be equal. He wants the rich to share with the poor. Those who have worked to take care of those who don't want to. I am afraid of what is going to happen in the next 10 years of my life. I will remain a news junkie and won't limit myself to one channel because I might get brainwashed. I will demand the people that feed me information be correct... and I will check. I will vote for anyone except Obama, he has nearly ruined this country. I want to live in a capitalistic country where work is rewarded. I am grateful to be part of the generation that invented the computer, put a man on the moon and invented cool whip. The next ten years will find me in prayer for my family, our nation and the world.