Keeping Busy

It's amazing. Even without a job, I stay crazy busy. My grandmother had to return to have her burns dressed on both Thursday and Friday. And I take her back in tomorrow. My grandfather's foot continues to get better. He is up walking on it here and there. So, news is good on that front. On Thursday, I watched Desiree for a couple of hours in the afternoon. We played Supergirl and I flew her around on my legs while I was laying on the couch. She thought that was great fun. Friday I watched her from 9 until about 1. We picked more blackberries. This batch is what I call my Julie batch. They will be saved until Julie gets here (in case she comes not during the summer) for a batch of blackberry lemonade! While out picking blackberries, I got two phone calls! One from Tammy, and it was great to talk to her. The other from Movie Gallery in T-town, telling me I hadn't been in for a while, so they put a free rental on my account. See Julie, I even get those free rentals when I'm not living there ;). They just like me. Needless to say, I don't think I'll be using the free rental. Anyway, Desiree had some lunch and then we drove to Great-Grandma's house (my grandmother) so Grandma (my mom) could watch Great-Grandpa and Desiree (she came home from work to do so) while I took Great-Grandma to get her burns re-dressed. I told you I stay busy. Then, since we were close to Christina's house and she had gotten off of work by that point, we swung by to pick her up after my Grandma's appointment and brought her back here. My mom went back to work, then I took Christina to the bank, and then we went to Brad and Tarylyn's. Brad was at work, but the rest of us just hung out. So here are a couple of pictures.

Oh, I should also say that I watched a few movies with my family on Thursday night. Or was it Friday. I don't even remember anymore. But we watched The Great Debaters. That might have been the only one. Oh, the other thing I should say is that the Friday nurse that dressed Grandma's burns made my day! She looked at me as I was back there with Grandma and she said, "Now, are you the daughter?" And I said, "No, I'm the grand-daughter." And she said, "How old are you?" And I replied, "I'm 27." And she said, "27! You don't look 27." Now, this could be one of two things: very very bad, or very very good. You never know which way it's going to go... But I had to ask. "How old did you think I was?" And she said, "Honestly? I thought you were no older than 22." SCORE!!! Woohoo!!! I wanted to stand and do cheerleading cheers (not that I know any) right then and there! Take that you Houston County clerk lady who asked if I was Desiree's grandma! Hahahaha :).

Saturday morning I woke up early and my mom and I went to Costco and Fred Meyer, which is kind of like Super Wal-Mart, only the prices aren't as great. But they don't have a Super Wal-Mart here. Oh, so here's something funny... All week long, I told my mom about how Safeway had Fruity Pebbles on sale for 1.99. And all week long she told me she'd buy me Cocoa Pebbles, not Fruity Pebbles. I'm 27 years old (even if I do look 22 :)), and my mother still won't buy me Fruity Pebbles! It was a flashback to the days of yore. But my mommy loves me. She bought me both :). Hahahaha.... It was just a hilarious story about that. Also, you need to know this as well. I like Kraft American cheese (and I can also tolerate it's name brand "equivalent"). My mother, though she used to buy it for us, calls it fake cheese. So I had to buy some of that for my sandwiches. I just don't like "real" cheese on my sandwiches, including grilled cheese. Shopping with my mom is fun. I love my mom. We get lots of laughs. We bought another juicer at Fred Meyer (where some punk kid pulled the fire alarm in the middle of our shopping escapade, and that thing run for like 5 minutes, and it was awful!), and then when we got home, Mom and I juiced all the lemons and froze the juice so that we'd have the juice ready to go for the blackberry lemonade for the reunion!!! Right now, the lemons are cheaper, since it's the end of summer. But, without squeezing and freezing the juice, the lemons would go bad before November. So, that's what we did. Oh, I should also mention that on Thursday, Mom and I totally cleaned out the refrigerator. We dumped lots of stuff. Ick. Just for reference... in the pantry (it's gone as of last night) there were 2 cans of bean dip that expired in 2004, a can of chocolate sweet and condensed milk that expired in 1998, and some other treats. Yuck!

Anyway, Brad and Tarylyn brought the kids over yesterday and Brad cut the grass in the front yard. He's a good brother. Even if he's a dork ;). You'll see why in a moment. So, we took the kids down the hill to the park at the elementary school here. The kids had a blast. We adults sat and gabbed, of course. And somehow, Brad brings out the best in me (because that's all there is of me, right Brad??? :) :) :)... he won't read this, but hopefully Tarylyn will tell him I said that :)). So I was joking around telling him that "[I] can turn the world on with my smile. [I] can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile." These are the lyrics of the Mary Tyler Moore theme song. And of course, Brad laughed and shook his head (again). And then he pulled his Sharpie out of his pocket (what kind of a dork carries around a Sharpie?? A pencil or pen, okay. But a Sharpie!?!) (Actually, it's for his job, so that's cool, but I have to make fun of him, it's my job). He started writing something and hands it to me. So check out these pictures:
Here's proof Brad is a dork with a Sharpie:


Here's his present to me (with Mom and Tarylyn laughing about it in the background):


Here's how he tried to pull off the shot of the driftwood I gave him (he thinks he's so smart):


And finally, here he is admitting the truth :) :


And these are the pictures of the cute kids (and me!) at the park. They are so funny.

Of course, all kidding aside, Brad is an awesome brother. And he knows I'm totally playing with him. But seriously, I'm going to keep my "conceited" driftwood from the park. It's a great memory and will make a great story one day. And hopefully he keeps his "dork" rock too :).

We picked more blackberries yesterday on the way back up the hill after the park. We got 2 more quarts. Yay! I don't even know what we'll do with them all, but they are free! And it's hard to not pick them.

I learned a valuable lesson last night: Don't watch a suspenseful scary movie all by yourself on your mom's computer in your bedroom in the basement at midnight. It's spooky. I watched I am Legend last night, since Aunt Sue had brought it up (she comes back from her cruise today). It got finished around 1:15 this morning. And so I get everything turned off, and then I start hearing walking around upstairs and thumping. Now, I know that it was my night-owl grandmother and her dog the shadow who follows her everywhere. But still kind of creepy after watching a zombie movie. Those are the kinds of movies you watch with someone with whom you can snuggle up. Lesson learned.

Also, my mother continues to embarass me. Every time she introduces me to people, she tells them about how I have my master's degree in library and information studies and about how my name means "the aura around the sun" (I have since informed her that it also means praise). Does she really have to add all those details??? And then, like the other day when I went to her office, she said, "This is my daughter, isn't she beautiful?!" So then later she tells me about how everyone tells her I'm beautiful. I said, "Yeah Mom, because you kind of coax it out of them. What are they going to reply: 'Actually, she looks like an old hag.'???" Yeah, I didn't think so. Hahaha... Although I will say that it occurred to me the other day that it is wonderful to have a mother that is so proud of me. Not that I think I'm this great person who deserves pride, etc. But to know that my mother is proud of me, it's a blessing. Embarassing somewhat when she does that. But it's an important thing to know. Turns out someone told her that she has a beautiful daughter (without her bringing it up) and then asked if I was single because he has two single sons. Hahahaha... Hey Elka, maybe my mom will somehow be involved in finding my future husband, just like your mom was! Hahaha ;). So kidding ;).

Okay, well, let me get ready for church! But I wanted to update you all and tell you about my crazy life!