My Heart Aches!

I haven't had much time lately to do any blogging. I try to drop in once in awhile to read some blogs but I haven't commented much. I seem to be overwhelmed with all that I have to do around here. I can't seem to make any progress, hard as I try, I seem to be stuck in time. It will be coming up on a year that Pete has died. Where did that year go? It passed me by and I didn't even notice. I just want to move on and I can't make any progress! Well I am trying not to worry about it, and I will continue to take one day at a time. The problem is that time passes quickly! I have had to family reunions

the last two weekends, so that that

took all my time to get anything

accomplished around here. At least I

got out of this house! The photo is of my dog Rocky. It's his birthday! He is 3 years old! Rocky and I shared a little supper and I sang him Happy Birthday! He gave me a sloppy kiss! See how pretty he smiled in the picture! Isn't life grand!! We are really tired now and we are going to bed. Good Night !

Finally a Grandaughter!

Our daughter Sheila is having another baby. A baby girl and I am excited about that. Her dad would have been so happy! Braxton will now have a little sister! Braxton is 3. Shelia's baby is due September 21st, one day after my birthday. In the photo that I posted Sheila is the blonde in the the pink shirt. The other young women is her sister. They are having a baby shower next Sunday for the both of them. It will be fun to buy little girl things for a change!

Hope all you fathers out there are having a Good Fathers Day!

Writers Block

I have been so busy lately that I don't have time to write anything. I don't really have anything of interest to talk about. I think I have led people to believe that I am always negative and can't find positive things to talk about in my life. I really am a positive person and have lots of things to be thankful for. Still I have many issues going on in my life at this time. Perhaps I have used you all to express the frustrations that seem to happen frequently right now in my life. I suppose simply because I don't have anyone else to express these things too. I am trying to discover who I am without my husband. All of my life stories involve my husband. I don't know if I have anything of interest to anyone without the issues that come with losing someone that you love. It's probably a good thing that I have been to busy to write!

Does Good Luck Follow You?

Some people seem to just be born lucky, and then there's people like me! I think that bad luck follows me around, nothing ever comes easy , and everything I seem to try to accomplish lately just turns into one big disaster. My computer was down again, my Norton antivirus expired, and just in one day, the minute the computer was turned on, it was infected with viruses. The computer had to spend a couple of days at the computer hospital, getting rid of the viruses.

You know that I picked out the monument, or headstone for my husbands grave. They are supposed to have it up by memorial weekend. I went to the cemetery to see if they had layed the slab for the monument last weekend. They layed the slab all right but in the wrong place! My hubby is buried next to his dad, then my spot, and a new neighbor will be next to me! They layed the slab on mine and my new neighbor's! It is no where near my husbands grave. I had to visit the monument place and tell them that they goofed up. I don't think they believed me at first, but I checked it 3 times last weekend to make sure I wasn't nuts! Ok, I am nut's, I will admit that! I did have the guy laughing when I said the slab seems to be for me and my neighbor. He didn't get what I meant by that, so I had to explain. The cemetery marked it now with red flags so they will have to move the slab and the mount the monument. They better have it done by memorial weekend or I am going to ask for some money back for their mistakes. My husbands estate has to go through probate and that is a whole other story. It depresses me to just think about it.

I have been busy getting my flower beds ready and bought a ton of flowers today, so I can plant some each night this week. I hope you are all having some luck in your life's.

Experiencing God

My husband Pete was the kind of man that kept his calm through trials. . . he was a very patient person. His heart was seen in the way he cared more about others than himself. Take for instance when he prayed, I asked him , " Pete, do you pray for yourself?" His response was that so many others were praying for him so he thought he should be praying for others. Pete came to know God better during his illness. In fact, rather than getting bitter with God about his illness, Pete got closer to God, accepting Jesus' eternal gift. This quiet man also possessed amazing inner strength and courage. In one of life's irony's during his first battle with cancer he prayed to God, I don't want my kids to ever have cancer--give it to me instead of them, he had four different battles with cancer and we have four kids.

Just to let you know that I have had Internet problems for a month, I would try to read blogs and the Internet would lose connection. Friday I was able to get a new Internet modem, and I am up and running again. I have missed you all.

What Have I Been Doing?

I haven't had much time lately to post or read any blogs. You all know how hard it is to get caught up with reading once you get behind. I had a great trip to Minnesota. The concert was great, and Joe's solo performance was amazing. It was probably about 20 minutes long and the string section was the only other instruments that played with him. He is so talented and I had to say it brought tears to my eyes. He got a standing ovation! He was the only standing ovation, no one else got one and we were all so proud of him. I didn't get pictures because my camera batteries were dead, I had the camera with me but forgot to charge it, as I hadn't used it for awhile.

The picture that you see of the two dogs, is a photo of our first boxer Oscar and our chihuahua Pockets. As I was getting ready for church the Sunday before Easter Pockets started having trouble breathing, within 45 minutes he layed down and died. He was my son Andy's dog. I kept trying to call Andy, as I knew he was dying. Andy finally called me back and he came home to help me with his little dog Pockets. It was a sad day for us and especially for Andy. It just really freaked me out that day. So this is a little tribute for Pockets. He was 13 years old. Oscar the other dog in the photo died at age 3 of lymphoma. He got lymphoma the same time as Pete's last lymphoma came back in 2006.

I have been busy picking out the grave headstone and relieved now that it is done. They should have it up by memorial weekend, which will be nice. I have also been meeting with my banker doing some financial planning with Pete's 401k and Pension. The pension they are still trying to figure that out. I tell you nothing goes smoothly with this stuff. The pension is an old plan and Pete and a couple others are the only ones that have it. They don't have it anymore. They were grandfathered in on the Pension. I suppose they will be trying to get out of paying that!!

I have been doctoring once again. They had me on a higher dose of cholesterol medicine. Before I left for Minnesota I broke out with a rash all over! I stopped taking the medication, thinking that it was causing the rash. After I got back it wasn't going away so I found a day to see the doctor. They didn't think it was from the medicine, but they didn't know what it was from. They are keeping me off the med for awhile till the rash clears. Then I am supposed to take it again and if the rash comes back, we will know it is the medicine. They put me on prednisone and it made me sick. I don't do medicine very well. That is why I never go to the doctor, because once you go, it seems you just keep going. The rash isn't gone quite yet, but I won't take the prednisone. I'll try the med once again, when the rash gets a little better.

I have been very busy with work with some stressful things, so by the time I get home I am dead tired. Hope you have all been well. I hope to have sometime this weekend to catch up and read your blogs.

Oboe Joe

I would like to introduce you to my nephew Joe. He attends the University of Minnesota where he studies the oboe. He will graduate this year. Joe is a talented young musician. Has performed as a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies.



Joe is currently the Principal Oboe of the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. He also plays with the University of Minnesota Symphony Orchestra. He is a member of the West Bank Winds Woodwind Quintet. Joe has a private teaching studio and is co founder and oboe instructor of the 4th Street Music Collective. This is just to name a few of his amazing dedication to music. He has pursed this since he was young and remained dedicated to playing the oboe. He also has a great singing voice and plays the piano well. His love though is the oboe.



Joe has been auditioning at schools for undergraduate school. He auditioned at Julliard and Yale. There was one other but I forgot what school that was. We are all so very proud of Joe and his accomplishments. The good news is in, Joe was accepted to Yale! What a great accomplishment for him.



I taking a road trip with my youngest sister this weekend. I haven't left the state for at least ten years. We are heading up to Minneapolis to hear Joe perform as a soloist with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra on Sunday. I will get to see my oldest sister, Joe's mom. My younger sister's daughter and her only grandchild live in St. Paul so we will see them too. They are forecasting snow Friday night and Sat. around here, I will be so disappointed if the weather wrecks our plans. Check this out about Joe's upcoming guest solo.