Laptop Issues

Well the reason there was no blog last week was because my laptop was at the computer repair shop - long story short I needed a new screen and some wiring......  So I have a little catching up to do.

 

A week ago Saturday I headed to Newton to see how my sis-in-law was doing recovering from her double knee surgery.  She was and is doing great!  We visited for a while, went to lunch and she gave me a couple of books to read and then off to Pella to see Dad.

 

When Dad and I had gone to Bloomfield a couple of weeks ago he had put his little cooler on the floor in the backseat of my car and I had forgotten about it until I tossed something into the backseat a couple of days after our trip and saw it.  So I wanted to get his cooler back to him and talk more about the tablet vs laptop issue for him to have email and Internet after his WebTV goes away.  And low and behold a laptop is the cheaper way to go for him - so sometime in the near future Dad will be the owner of his own laptop - and first computer of any kind :)

 

My elbow and hand are healing really well.  The scab is almost gone from my elbow.  I'm putting triple antibiotic ointment and/or Vitamin E oil on it almost daily to help with the healing and scaring.  My manager still hasn't looked at my elbow :)

 

Tuesday night I had a great visit with Casey (middle step), Haleigh and Lauren (granddaughters) and his fiancé, Kelley.  Casey and crew were making a Midwest sweep and Tuesday night was my night.  We got pizza and had a really good visit.  Lots of laughing about things when Casey was living at home.  Also some amazement at what was left of Casey's bedroom in the basement. 

 

Friday at work one of my buds who plays ball on Friday nights mentioned that he may not have anyone to watch his boys for him while he played.  I looked at him and said that if he would like, I could go to his game and watch them for him - all I had to do was go to WalMart.  So I headed to the Greater DSM Softball Complex on the NE side of town for an 8:00 pm game.  It was windy and by the time the game was over it was down right cold.  Well Brad's dad and stepmom showed up and they helped with the boys and somehow I got handed the scorebook.  So I kept score.  I used to do that all the time for Mike's ball teams and really liked doing it, so I had fun keeping score for Brad's co-ed team.  Maybe I'll get to do it again - and hopefully it won't be so cold :)

 

I have decided I need to get a new flat screen tv to replace the big box tv I have so Saturday I did a little tv shopping at Costco and Best Buy.  I don't have a Costco membership but I could go in as a visitor and look.  My computer guy really recommended them.  Mike and I had always thought the Visio brand was pretty good and I found a 47" one there that I may decide to get - if I can get someone I know with a Costco membership to go with me so I can buy it :)

 

Today one of the guys from church that likes NASCAR and has kind of the same tv package as I do - we were chatting how it was the Brickyard 400 and we couldn't watch it.  He's like we should go to Okoboji's for lunch and watch it there.  So when church got over I headed to Okoboji's for a table for five adults and room for one high chair - they have three kids.  We got to watch about half the race and then had to leave - but it was really nice seeing those cars go around and around and around :)

 

Only 70 days until I head to the KC race with another guy from church!

 

As you can see from the pix below - never a dull moment here.  Check out the kittens checking out my bathroom counter.  Yes, Rowdy has his head down in my sink in the first pic.



 

And of course Rowdy acting goofy while Sadie chills by Mom.

Elbow Update ~ And More

Something is "up" with my laptop.  Instead of being normal color, it's really blue tinted and I can't upload pictures to this post.  Oh well....

My elbow, hand, foot and leg are getting better.  I went to the doc for my first visit and he marked me with a black Sharpie to make sure the redness didn't go outside that line - that was one of the pix I wanted to upload.  At my follow up visit later last week he said that looked fine.  Well, when I fell, I landed on my left side and my pelvic area was a little tender - I figured I'd jarred myself when I fell.  If I had broken something I would have been in a lot more pain - the doc agreed but needed to see if there were any bruises or lumps.  So I get in the hospital gown, the nurse comes in and the doc tells me to turn my head to look at the wall and cough.  I looked at the nurse and just cracked up laughing thinking I'm female, what in the world are you asking me to do that for?  He did say he was checking for hernias.  So I apologized for laughing hysterically and got myself under control long enough for him to tell me to look at the wall and cough again as he checked my left groin area.  Well I lost it again and barely got a cough out.  He said I was ok.  I just thought that was too funny and if Mike would have been with me - he would have been on the floor rolling and laughing.

I asked one of the guys from church if he could come over and help me hook up an antenna to my tv to see if I could get local channels.  My main tv in my bedroom is HD but not digital - and I know I can't use a digital converter.  Dad and I tried that a couple of summers ago - my stucco/cement house won't let the digital signal through.  So I thought if I could get the local channels with an antenna, then I might look into Roku with subscribing to Hulu and Netflicks to have more choices on tv.  Unfortunately the antenna didn't work - so I returned it to Best Buy.  I think my next step is getting a newer tv - don't faint Traci and Chrissy when you read this :)

The funny part was Jon brought his little girl and boy with him.  They had stopped at Dunkin Donuts and offered me a donut in the driveway which of course I took.  I was eating, walking up the stairs to my front door and talking when Hannah sweetly and matter-of-factly told me to, "Chew with my mouth closed."  I just cracked up.  Of course Rowdy and Sadie made themselves scarce so the kids couldn't see them - goobers.

I am a reading fanatic and found a biography on the actor James Garner and read it over the weekend.  I really like him and it was very interesting to learn about his early life before being an actor.  I don't read many biographies but gave this one a shot.

I got my small group leader going yesterday when I texted him "I have a date and not a date" after church this morning.  His immediate reply was "Who What?"  I told him it was a co-worker, a younger man.  He's like "HUH?"  He was a little late to church and I had to leave right after church to make my "date" so we didn't get to talk and I knew that would bother him.  So he called me as I was driving to the movie theater to find out what was going on.  I told him it was one of the guys from work that is a buddy - but my buddy had said "it's a date" when he replied to my text.  So that's why I got Rob going.  Rob said he had to make sure what all was going on with his "big sister".  I thought that was so nice of him - but don't tell him I wrote this.  Wait he reads my blog :P

This morning at 5:00 a.m. Rowdy decided he wanted to become a different species.  He got on top of my dresser that is a little ways from my bed.  I told him to "get down" for like the millionth time.  Well he decided to become a grey flying squirrel and leaped from the dresser, spread his legs and proceeded to land on top of me in bed.  It was like the Peanuts cartoon whenever Snoopy would leap onto someone and yell "Cowabunga".  Yowza.

Finally four peeps from my church and two from our sister church will head to Lima, Peru on the 18th for our first missions trip and return the 31st.  If you think about it - remember this group from Living Waters Fellowship in your prayers.

4th of July ~ Family ~ Going "Boom"

I don't think I posted the picture of the cats' Wubba last time.  Check out the picture below - that's Sadie's paw checking it out while I'm taking the picture.  I just laughed and laughed when I saw it because of buying Cruz her dog Wubba - of course this Wubba is cat-sized :)

 

It's been a challenging couple of months with scratching my eye and it swelling almost shut - to goofing up my left shoulder with mowing and bagging all that grass that had grown in my yard - to somehow either bruising a rib or stretching the muscles by my ribs that caused me horrific pain at times to even breathe a little breath - to the latest.  I missed the bottom step of two steps walking out of one of the buildings at work late Tuesday afternoon.  Flew through the air just a little to skid and land on cement.  I was more "bruised" egowise that the passing traffic saw what happened than my injuries - until I looked at my elbow.  Let's just say that the angles God has assigned to me were working overtime Tuesday afternoon to make sure I didn't get hurt any worse than I did.

 

It took over five minutes for someone to come to my building with the key to unlock the door of the closet where our first aid kit was located - I won't even go into that ordeal but to say I was dripping blood on the floor the whole time I was waiting.  The two pictures below are after I got home Tuesday night to really take care of my boo boos.  I know it looks like I got "goosed" from behind in the top picture - I was concentrating so hard on getting the picture of my elbow that when I realized how my face looked, I tried to look "happy" and that's what I got.  Times like this are when I wish Mike was here to help me with my boo boo and maybe baby me a little Tuesday night - but oh well.  I also have some abrasions on my left foot - found those out in the shower Wednesday morning when shower gel got into them - ouch, and a big bruise on my upper left leg.



Wednesday night our small group didn't meet but my small group leader and family were going to go to Yankee Doodle Pops on the capital grounds so I thought I'd go for my first time.  More of his family showed up, another couple with kids from our small group and our lead pastor's family arrived so we had quite the group - in the middle of 100,000 other people.  There was a reason Mike and I never went to this event - the crowd would have driven us crazy - but on my own it was ok.  We even had a surprise guest singer with the DSM Symphony - Iowa boy Simon Estes sang two songs and chatted for a while - that was way cool.  And then the fireworks were good too.

 

July 4th I headed to the zoo first thing in the morning.  I hadn't been there since Mike died - that was our last real outing as a couple before he could only go for rides in his truck.  We have loved the zoo forever, been members through the years and helped with many Night Eyes events.  I think we have a great zoo - yes it is small - but sometimes that's just fine.  You don't have to walk forever between exhibits or really hunt for the animals in the exhibits.  And they are continuing to do amazing things out there and bringing more animals in to the zoo.

 

I didn't think I'd need to take my digital camera with me - surely I wouldn't take THAT many pictures at the zoo would I?  Hmmmmmm 52 pictures later on my phone camera I walked out the gates of the zoo.  Just a small sampling of the animals below.

 

I'm not sure what happened to my favorite animal at the zoo - the Serval - but the two cats are no longer there :(  The little guy above has become my new favorite - his name is Scoots.  One time on a vacation Mike and I went to a zoo in the Caribbean and we saw an armadillo run laps around his exhibit and just chuckled - so I've liked armadillos ever since then.

 

After the zoo I checked my movie app on my cell phone and saw that I could probably make the 11:15 showing of "White House Down" so off to WDM I zoomed.  It was a really good movie - yes the White House gets taken like in "Olympus Has Fallen" but they are two totally different storylines.  The daughter in "White House Down" is the little girl from "We Bought A Zoo" and she was really good.

 

I didn't go to the fireworks Thursday night since I was going in really early Friday morning to flex my day and leave at 3:00.  But I wondered if someone down the street would light off their mini fireworks like they had the past couple of years - yep after going to bed and turning off the light I saw a few fireworks out my bedroom window - cool.

 

Friday after getting off work I headed to my vet to buy more "bland" cat food and medicine for the kittens.  Their little poo and tummies are still not in synch.  The vet assured me giving the medicine wouldn't be bad - it should be easy - the liquid medicine had a chicken flavor.  I have one little eye dropper bottle for Rowdy and another for Sadie - since Rowdy is over 9 pounds his dose must evidently need to be stronger.  Plus two diabetic syringes to give them their meds.  Let's just say "easy" is not the word I would describe when I've given them their meds (and I have to do this twice a day).  After getting a death grip on their little heads and dragging them back toward me several times as I try to squirt the liquid into their mouths - it ends up all over their faces and my hands.  But I know some gets inside them.  I know nothing is wrong internally (no parasites, etc.) just maybe started them off on too strong of cat food and we need to get their systems to make hard poo.

 

Saturday I headed to Pella to pick up Dad to head to Bloomfield.  My cousin that is 9 days younger than me that lives near Athens, GA had made her annual summer trek to Kirksville, MO to see her family.  And it worked out that my cousin that lives in Warrensburg, MO had come up to visit my Aunt that lives in Bloomfield for the 4th with one of her daughters.  So Jana brought Terri along from Kirksville and we all met up at the restaurant Dad, Bertie, Aunt Verta and Uncle Gerald and Aunt Elaine and I met at in May.  I don't know why the group picture wouldn't load to my blog but here's a picture of four of the six remaining Hills cousins.  Stan and Gary are the two that are missing.



 

It was a lot of fun to catch up and listen to Dad, Aunt Verta and Terri talk a lot about Grandma and Grandpa Hill and our family tree.  My great-grandma (Dad's grandma) was full-blood Seminole so I'm 1/8 Native American on that side.  Plus Grandpa's Mom was Cherokee or some other tribe.

 

On the way down Dad and I talked about how his WebTV is going to no longer be available for email or Internet come September.  Both of us have been doing some looking at tablets for him - me at Best Buy and him in Pella at Radio Shack.  For some reason I thought it took 2.5 hours to get to Bloomfield from Pella and we ended up being early.  Dad told me he thought my "clock" was messed up - I just looked at him and asked him why he didn't tell me that so I wouldn't have had to wake up so early :)  We killed some time at the Ottumwa WalMart looking at a Samsung Galaxy tablet so that was good.  I still shake my head thinking my Dad will be more techy than me with a tablet.....  :)

Today our lead pastor preached on the life of C. S. Lewis and it was really interesting.  He will preach on Spurgeon (his absolute favorite man of God), then a guest speaker will preach on Martin Luther and one of our deacons the last Sunday in July will preach on Calvin.  This month's sermons are "Four Old Dead Guys" or something like that. 

After church I had to run errands and ended up at Earl May looking at hibiscus plants - hadn't bought any this year.  Just couldn't justify $19.99 per plant when I used to get them for $10.00.  But a friend at work had given me her two Earl May bucks and all the tropical plants were 50% off - so check out my two new hibiscus plants that are just off the back patio next to the dog tribute stone a friend gave me last year after putting Butler down.  The red one has a little bit of yellow in the middle - can't remember the name of that type of hibiscus right off but thought it was pretty cool.  And the yellow one was really pretty too.