ON OUR WAY TO ABU DHA-BAY
Since we have been planning this trip for eons now, we got our hopes up that all would go well. HA! on that one! Last week, Bill had to get a quick appointment for the dentist, having broken off a tooth the week before! That amounted to a new crown and $$$'s. He'll go to the Daub with a temporary crown and get the final one when we get back. Then yesterday (Thursday) I went to work feeling like crap. I had had this pain in my (as the hospital says) "belly" and kept thinking it would go away soon. NOT! So, about 8:30 in the evening, I told Bill he'd need to take me to the ER as the pain was getting worse. Thinking I had appendicitis, I was a nervous wreck. I made up my mind I was NOT going to miss this trip and was prepared to argue with any of the doctors about getting the surgery over with immediately so that I could travel by the next weekend more $$$'s. Well, it wasn't the appendix, but diverticulitis! Just one more thing to give you a headache about getting OLD. Damnit! Well, they put me on some really strong antibiotics for the very large infection they said I had after going through a CT scan, etc. In a colonoscopy last spring, everything was just fine with only a small amount of diverticuli detected. Now, again damnit, I have to have those damn things about every 3-6 years instead of the every ten years they first told me. So, now Bill is feeling the same way, but this is fairly normal for him after having a Sigmoid Colon resection a few years back. So, we are both on (you kids will love this one) a "soft" diet for three days, then going back gradually to regular food within a month! I mean, I feel like I should rush out and by Depends and baby food in jars! We already have our burial set up, and that's one of the questions they ask you up front..."do you have a living will and your final time arranged?? What the hell? Am I dying NOW?? What a shitty thing to happen right before we go on this great trip! Oh well, we'll work it out and still enjoy all the great food that Sydney and Stu are going to show us....no nuts, no seeds, no popcorn,.....and on and on. I told Sydney we'd just pick out all the nuts in the Chinese food and she can still cook her recipe that has nuts in it!
I doubt I will try to write much more than this before we go. I can't seem to get anything together to write about. Our lives are pretty boring, really, and my humor only lights up at work when I'm downing certain people and their management skills!! haha Yes, work has never changed and is only getting more ridiculous as each day passes. Everyday there is a new "rule" that is "from corporate" or so we're told. They now call the store to check up on the phone operator(s) to make sure they are saying "the right thing." Whatever happened to freedom of speech and your own style of greeting customers on the phone that is natural to you? Now, we have a FRAMED greeting to read from as if we are still in the first grade annual play! This does nothing to people but make them paranoid and uncooperative. Everyone is on edge in every department. Ahhh...but I digress....
I was saying I probably won't write anymore here until we return. I'm sure I'll have plenty to write about then!
So, in ending this boring post, I want to say how much Papa and Mimi enjoy everyone's blogs and to read all the interesting posts that everyone does. It's entertaining to see the different ways of expression that everyone has. I haven't read some for a while and others I don't have addresses for, but we love them all and check more than once a day to see any new posts that have been added while we are idle! Keep up all the good and funny things!
As we take this great trip, we thank God for all the good things He's allowed us and given us the opportunity to do. This is a season of Thanks and we thank all of you, especially our own kids, Marcia (Deven), Monica (David), Mary-Leah (Jeff) and Doug, for being such great children throughout our lives and for all the wonderful grandchildren they've give us. Now, I know we'll hear from Doug (since he has no children of his own that we know of) as he will want us to include Woodie and Ozzie in the "grandchildren" list, but that would mean we'd have to mention ALL the dogs in the family....oh well, OK....."Merry PETmas" to Pongo, Woodie, Ozzie, Georgie, Coco, Charlie, Shade and Sparky, our token "cone head." ha You always have to have that "one" in the group that is different, right? My mom used to say it was a poor family that couldn't claim an odd one in the family! And more important than pets we mention all the grandchildren, too, since they are the light of our lives: Sydney, Stu, Justine, Hayden, Maddison, Flower, Aubrey, Mitch, Hayley, Hannah, Harrison and Arlie and our sweet little guy in that land so far away, Kaden, the only great grandchild so far!! That's it! All your names on here, I hope! I know for sure I'll hear about it if I forgot someone! HAHA
Love you all!!! See you again on or about January 2, 2009!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!!
Friday, December 5, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
I have just spent about an hour trying to figure out how to get to the right place to add a new blog! I am so stupid...I called Kyle and asked him what to do. After he quit laughing and we hung up, I followed his directions and..... here goes one more time!
We are still getting anxious about our trip to the UAE. I am trying to be as organized as possible so we won't have a big hassle at customs! We both hate that, but since it will be closer to Christmas by that time, Bill usually causes a "stir" in the airport and one time when we were clearing customs, they just passed us on through, laughing with us saying Merry Christmas. However....this is a muslim country we'll be entering and I doubt Christmas means a whole hell of a lot to them! LOL He was thinking of wearing his Santa hat, but we're thinking about that the second time! We're afraid that he'll have enough of a problem with the diamond in his ear!! haha I have decided to send things to Sydney before we leave so that we can have the "larger" amounts of the things to use when we get there. If we just send it there, it will be there when we arrive and we can dump all those little "sample" things we'll carry on with us in case we have any delays without luggage! You know..a fresh change of underwear, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodrant, some Handi-Wipes to wipe off our faces, etc....anyone that has traveled knows to carry those precious things!! haha
We will fly from Phoenix to Minneapolis, then MN to London, England (Heathrow). We'll pick up an Etihad flight from London to Abu Dhabi. We will arrive around 8:30 p.m. If my organization goes as I have planned (but all of you know that I never have any plans that ever come together, but it's a thought), we'll only have one bag each to check through. The rest we'll carry on! I have my iPod to entertain us for the flights and I'll take my crossword puzzle book. Bill will select a book from Barnes/Noble to read while flying. Anyone have any good suggestions for him? We were talking about that and he can't decide.....
Our trip home sounds awful in that we'll be leaving The Daub at 2:35 A.M.!!! Poor Stu having to drive us to the airport at that time in the morning then having to go to work a few hours after that. Maybe we can just get a cab or something...shuttle?? I'm sure we'll not want to be leaving and, in fact, we are dreading leaving right now and we've not even arrived there yet!! haha We do get back at a decent hour though (about 5 p.m.) so that will give us some time to unpack and wind down before going to bed. We'll have that weekend off from work to get over the jet lag, so it might turn out to be OK....but jet lag is the hardest part of any trip.
We'll be in Abu Dhabi for Christmas and New Years. We are so excited to be spending our first Christmas that far away from the hustle and bustle of the "American Way." Of course, at our work, we are now heavily into the shoppers and bad attitudes of said shoppers, but it will be peaceful there and we can do our own thing and celebrate any way we want to. We might take a few Christmas decorations with us, but it might be fun to just be like the old pioneers had to do and string popcorn and cranberries (or whatever berries they have there) for the tree. Ahh...another problem...finding a Christmas tree in the muslim country! haha I mentioned to Bill that we should just start to send "branches of an artificial tree" in the mail and by the time decorating time comes, we'll have the whole tree!! He thought that was pretty insane....oh well, he's a man and putting up a tree is one of his most annoying things to do in life! All our kids can remember our "Annual Christmas Tree Fight"....those were the days. We'd go out to find that perfect tree...find a lot that seemed to have decent prices and stop to look. I can't tell you how many years I wondered about his true intelligence when he'd pick out the most crooked, ugly tree. He'd call me to look at it....well, being somewhat of a closet artist, my first look would tell it all...and he'd throw it back against the fence and say, "Well, f--- that one! YOU pick it out! Why did I come with you anyway? You never like anything I like!!" Yeah, well, Bill you are a retard when it comes to Christmas trees! Get a life, honey...you just ain't got it for trees! He used to think those mesquite trees with the nine inch thorns were "so pretty" when we lived in Texas! Except that one stick of those thorns could cause you to have to go to the doc and get a shot for the infection!!
Finally, after so many years of our "ACTFs" he finally convinced me that we should "try out" a fake tree! OK..so I went along with it. Guess he got me really drunk one night and convinced me, because he held me to my promise! Actually, I was a bit tired of cleaning up those real pine needles which, of course, turned into a full house cleaning as they seem to get in every room of your house even though it was ONLY in the livingroom! We got a fake one on sale after Christmas from Wal Hell. It came organized in this small square-ish box, but upon opening it, it burst out of its confines like one of those springs in a can surprises you used to take to parties to scare the crap out of unsuspecting folks! I knew we were doomed. The "trunk" was nothing more than a very uninteresting metal pole with holes in it. The base was cheap looking and good thing we had a tree skirt to hide it which my mom made for us years ago. Each descending branch was a different color on the end and color-coordinated to go in certain holes! Well, you know, it's just not mood-enlightening without your favorite beverage to "get into the swing of things" for the season. The next day, our tree almost looked upside down! I had pink in the blue holes, red in the green ones and the silver ones didn't even have a place on their directions! The branches were all scrunched together and even Charlie Brown's Tree looked better than this thing! I was so pissed at myself for allowing Bill to talk me into this horrible FAKE tree! No good scent, you had to adjust EVERY branch to make it look "real" and the damn thing stuck you something fierce if you touched them just right! AND...get this....it was losing its needles every time you touched it to put on the lights! If you stepped on them, they did not give in a bit like real ones do, they actually stuck into the sole of my houseslipper I was wearing! It was quite dangerous, I thought! What if a small child crawling on the floor got into these damn things? Hell, he'd look like a porcupine before he could get out from under the tree!
So, after that first fake Christmas tree, it was repacked in its box and put on the patio for storage. Just today, Bill moved it to a storage until we've rented to get some of this crap out of our small, Barbie doll apartment! I'm hoping Kyle will want to use it for his first Christmas in the Desert, but he'll probably read this and know how much I hate it and will buy himself a nice one!! You get what you pay for, so our $25 on sale tree was worth the lesson learned! And to think that that tree sold regular priced for $139 at Wal Hell...what a piece of crap! Made in China...well, you know how that goes!
As most of you know, I've never been known to be one for short stories, and I realize this is a long one - again! Well, you can always just quit reading when you get bored enough...ha I wouldn't blame you one bit!
Maybe one of these days if I keep posting, I"ll get to be as good as Sydney and Hayley! Mary-Leah, too! But I'm not the writer(s) they are, so you'll just have to bear with me when I want to rant and rave!
Bye for now and know we are working on getting this trip on schedule and having a great time in Abu Dhabi with Sydney and Stu and OUR PRECIOUS KADEN!! They have so much planned for us to do and we can't wait to go to the Grand Mosque and wear the burkas we have to wear to tour the place! We will post more later, but for sure, will let you all know about our trip which is only 22 more days!!! Yeah...!!!!!
From the warm desert to all of you out there....let the sun shine in!!! Dianne and Bill con amore
We are still getting anxious about our trip to the UAE. I am trying to be as organized as possible so we won't have a big hassle at customs! We both hate that, but since it will be closer to Christmas by that time, Bill usually causes a "stir" in the airport and one time when we were clearing customs, they just passed us on through, laughing with us saying Merry Christmas. However....this is a muslim country we'll be entering and I doubt Christmas means a whole hell of a lot to them! LOL He was thinking of wearing his Santa hat, but we're thinking about that the second time! We're afraid that he'll have enough of a problem with the diamond in his ear!! haha I have decided to send things to Sydney before we leave so that we can have the "larger" amounts of the things to use when we get there. If we just send it there, it will be there when we arrive and we can dump all those little "sample" things we'll carry on with us in case we have any delays without luggage! You know..a fresh change of underwear, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodrant, some Handi-Wipes to wipe off our faces, etc....anyone that has traveled knows to carry those precious things!! haha
We will fly from Phoenix to Minneapolis, then MN to London, England (Heathrow). We'll pick up an Etihad flight from London to Abu Dhabi. We will arrive around 8:30 p.m. If my organization goes as I have planned (but all of you know that I never have any plans that ever come together, but it's a thought), we'll only have one bag each to check through. The rest we'll carry on! I have my iPod to entertain us for the flights and I'll take my crossword puzzle book. Bill will select a book from Barnes/Noble to read while flying. Anyone have any good suggestions for him? We were talking about that and he can't decide.....
Our trip home sounds awful in that we'll be leaving The Daub at 2:35 A.M.!!! Poor Stu having to drive us to the airport at that time in the morning then having to go to work a few hours after that. Maybe we can just get a cab or something...shuttle?? I'm sure we'll not want to be leaving and, in fact, we are dreading leaving right now and we've not even arrived there yet!! haha We do get back at a decent hour though (about 5 p.m.) so that will give us some time to unpack and wind down before going to bed. We'll have that weekend off from work to get over the jet lag, so it might turn out to be OK....but jet lag is the hardest part of any trip.
We'll be in Abu Dhabi for Christmas and New Years. We are so excited to be spending our first Christmas that far away from the hustle and bustle of the "American Way." Of course, at our work, we are now heavily into the shoppers and bad attitudes of said shoppers, but it will be peaceful there and we can do our own thing and celebrate any way we want to. We might take a few Christmas decorations with us, but it might be fun to just be like the old pioneers had to do and string popcorn and cranberries (or whatever berries they have there) for the tree. Ahh...another problem...finding a Christmas tree in the muslim country! haha I mentioned to Bill that we should just start to send "branches of an artificial tree" in the mail and by the time decorating time comes, we'll have the whole tree!! He thought that was pretty insane....oh well, he's a man and putting up a tree is one of his most annoying things to do in life! All our kids can remember our "Annual Christmas Tree Fight"....those were the days. We'd go out to find that perfect tree...find a lot that seemed to have decent prices and stop to look. I can't tell you how many years I wondered about his true intelligence when he'd pick out the most crooked, ugly tree. He'd call me to look at it....well, being somewhat of a closet artist, my first look would tell it all...and he'd throw it back against the fence and say, "Well, f--- that one! YOU pick it out! Why did I come with you anyway? You never like anything I like!!" Yeah, well, Bill you are a retard when it comes to Christmas trees! Get a life, honey...you just ain't got it for trees! He used to think those mesquite trees with the nine inch thorns were "so pretty" when we lived in Texas! Except that one stick of those thorns could cause you to have to go to the doc and get a shot for the infection!!
Finally, after so many years of our "ACTFs" he finally convinced me that we should "try out" a fake tree! OK..so I went along with it. Guess he got me really drunk one night and convinced me, because he held me to my promise! Actually, I was a bit tired of cleaning up those real pine needles which, of course, turned into a full house cleaning as they seem to get in every room of your house even though it was ONLY in the livingroom! We got a fake one on sale after Christmas from Wal Hell. It came organized in this small square-ish box, but upon opening it, it burst out of its confines like one of those springs in a can surprises you used to take to parties to scare the crap out of unsuspecting folks! I knew we were doomed. The "trunk" was nothing more than a very uninteresting metal pole with holes in it. The base was cheap looking and good thing we had a tree skirt to hide it which my mom made for us years ago. Each descending branch was a different color on the end and color-coordinated to go in certain holes! Well, you know, it's just not mood-enlightening without your favorite beverage to "get into the swing of things" for the season. The next day, our tree almost looked upside down! I had pink in the blue holes, red in the green ones and the silver ones didn't even have a place on their directions! The branches were all scrunched together and even Charlie Brown's Tree looked better than this thing! I was so pissed at myself for allowing Bill to talk me into this horrible FAKE tree! No good scent, you had to adjust EVERY branch to make it look "real" and the damn thing stuck you something fierce if you touched them just right! AND...get this....it was losing its needles every time you touched it to put on the lights! If you stepped on them, they did not give in a bit like real ones do, they actually stuck into the sole of my houseslipper I was wearing! It was quite dangerous, I thought! What if a small child crawling on the floor got into these damn things? Hell, he'd look like a porcupine before he could get out from under the tree!
So, after that first fake Christmas tree, it was repacked in its box and put on the patio for storage. Just today, Bill moved it to a storage until we've rented to get some of this crap out of our small, Barbie doll apartment! I'm hoping Kyle will want to use it for his first Christmas in the Desert, but he'll probably read this and know how much I hate it and will buy himself a nice one!! You get what you pay for, so our $25 on sale tree was worth the lesson learned! And to think that that tree sold regular priced for $139 at Wal Hell...what a piece of crap! Made in China...well, you know how that goes!
As most of you know, I've never been known to be one for short stories, and I realize this is a long one - again! Well, you can always just quit reading when you get bored enough...ha I wouldn't blame you one bit!
Maybe one of these days if I keep posting, I"ll get to be as good as Sydney and Hayley! Mary-Leah, too! But I'm not the writer(s) they are, so you'll just have to bear with me when I want to rant and rave!
Bye for now and know we are working on getting this trip on schedule and having a great time in Abu Dhabi with Sydney and Stu and OUR PRECIOUS KADEN!! They have so much planned for us to do and we can't wait to go to the Grand Mosque and wear the burkas we have to wear to tour the place! We will post more later, but for sure, will let you all know about our trip which is only 22 more days!!! Yeah...!!!!!
From the warm desert to all of you out there....let the sun shine in!!! Dianne and Bill con amore
Sunday, October 19, 2008
One day off
Hi there! Well, today was another day at Wal Hell. We "volunteered" to work on Saturdays since the nearer the holidays come, the busier we are at the store. Just call us "loyal employees"...LOL riiiight...
So, all we do every day is think about our trip in December to Abu Dhabi to see Sydney and Stu and, our little man, Kaden! Every day that passes gets us one more day closer and one more day for me to think of all the things I need to get to make the trip! I have my iPod nearly full now (except for the movies that Kyle is going to help me load). This iPod holds 20,000 songs so I doubt it will ever be really "full" but I have nearly a 1000 tunes loaded and have about 50+ more CD's to get copied on it! ha I think it will last us for the trip over and back! It's going to be about a 26 hr. flight over (including layovers) and about 21 back! Long time on a plane, but if they serve enough booze, we'll probably get through it OK! ha We are dubbing this trip as our 50th anniversary trip. However, we won't be married for 50 yrs. until 2013, but this year (in just a few weeks) we'll be married 45 years. We know we probably won't ever take another trip like this one, so we have decided to just call this our 50th anniv. trip! You just never know what might happen in this weird world, so to celebrate early for your 50th, makes sense to us!
Just wanted the following to know we read their blogs on a regular basis: Mary-Leah, Sydney, Hayley, Kyle and Kelly. We get many laughs from them and also some inside information on how they "really feel!" haha
For now, this is it. My humor is on "hold" as it's too late for me to "let myself go"....haha Maybe tomorrow??
Love all of you...keep up your blogs and try to write more often!....as I will try to do!
Mom & Dad/Mimi & Papa/Aunt & Uncle/Friend and Friend! byyeeeeee
So, all we do every day is think about our trip in December to Abu Dhabi to see Sydney and Stu and, our little man, Kaden! Every day that passes gets us one more day closer and one more day for me to think of all the things I need to get to make the trip! I have my iPod nearly full now (except for the movies that Kyle is going to help me load). This iPod holds 20,000 songs so I doubt it will ever be really "full" but I have nearly a 1000 tunes loaded and have about 50+ more CD's to get copied on it! ha I think it will last us for the trip over and back! It's going to be about a 26 hr. flight over (including layovers) and about 21 back! Long time on a plane, but if they serve enough booze, we'll probably get through it OK! ha We are dubbing this trip as our 50th anniversary trip. However, we won't be married for 50 yrs. until 2013, but this year (in just a few weeks) we'll be married 45 years. We know we probably won't ever take another trip like this one, so we have decided to just call this our 50th anniv. trip! You just never know what might happen in this weird world, so to celebrate early for your 50th, makes sense to us!
Just wanted the following to know we read their blogs on a regular basis: Mary-Leah, Sydney, Hayley, Kyle and Kelly. We get many laughs from them and also some inside information on how they "really feel!" haha
For now, this is it. My humor is on "hold" as it's too late for me to "let myself go"....haha Maybe tomorrow??
Love all of you...keep up your blogs and try to write more often!....as I will try to do!
Mom & Dad/Mimi & Papa/Aunt & Uncle/Friend and Friend! byyeeeeee
Friday, October 10, 2008
Hello to anyone who has taken the time to read my drivel! haha
Today, we got all our passport information filled out, had our pictures taken and sent it to PA for processing. We were to do this last week, but never had the time so it had to wait until today! We have our tickets to Abu Dhabi, UAE, purchased and are getting really excited about the plans to get over there! We will have about a six hour layover in London which is fine and will give us some "stretch" time between flights. The total travel time will border on 25 hrs. and coming back about the same. We will be flying on Northwest Airlines to London, then will take a UAE airline, Etihad, to Abu Dhabi. We will be there with Sydney and Stu and our sweet Kaden for about three weeks. Gosh, I hope they can stand us for that amount of time! Well, I guess we could always go to a hotel somewhere!! haha
We have had so many great trips in our career, but I can't think of one that has us both equally as excited as this trip. You can go to Europe most anytime or to any other country as well, but to this "hottest spot" in the world is once in a lifetime. "Hottest spot" not meaning the weather either!! Although the weather is very hot but will be cooler when we are there. I think it might "cool down" to somewhere in the high 90's!! ha Anyway, we'll try to send out some postcards so you can see how pretty it is there!
Will write more later. If anyone reads this blog, let us know if it immediately puts you to sleep and I'll try to do better next time!!
Love to all....D and B
Today, we got all our passport information filled out, had our pictures taken and sent it to PA for processing. We were to do this last week, but never had the time so it had to wait until today! We have our tickets to Abu Dhabi, UAE, purchased and are getting really excited about the plans to get over there! We will have about a six hour layover in London which is fine and will give us some "stretch" time between flights. The total travel time will border on 25 hrs. and coming back about the same. We will be flying on Northwest Airlines to London, then will take a UAE airline, Etihad, to Abu Dhabi. We will be there with Sydney and Stu and our sweet Kaden for about three weeks. Gosh, I hope they can stand us for that amount of time! Well, I guess we could always go to a hotel somewhere!! haha
We have had so many great trips in our career, but I can't think of one that has us both equally as excited as this trip. You can go to Europe most anytime or to any other country as well, but to this "hottest spot" in the world is once in a lifetime. "Hottest spot" not meaning the weather either!! Although the weather is very hot but will be cooler when we are there. I think it might "cool down" to somewhere in the high 90's!! ha Anyway, we'll try to send out some postcards so you can see how pretty it is there!
Will write more later. If anyone reads this blog, let us know if it immediately puts you to sleep and I'll try to do better next time!!
Love to all....D and B
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Hello Again!
Hi there everyone! I am trying this out on my own even though Mary-Leah showed me how to do it, but it's been so long ago (Memorial Day) that I have completely forgotten what she did/said! It's just being so damned old that is the problem!!
The time has passed so quickly since Memorial Day. We had a pretty good summer. Took a few day road trips here and there. The highlight of the summer was flying up to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in August to see all the family who gathered there to welcome home Sydney (oldest granddaughter) and her husband, Stu, and their sweet, darling one year old baby, Kaden! He was the highlight of every gathering we had and surely entertained us at all times, even in his tears, as his little face can scrunch up into an almost completely un-visable face!! haha He definitely "ruled" us all and none of us could stop picking him up and kissing his face off! He told Mary-Leah (daughter #3) "I wa you" (translated I Love You)! He said it twice to her and never once to us...BUMMER!! haha But he did hug me one time and said, as he patted my shoulder, "Mimi"....that was all it took me to fall more in love!! We also went to CDA to attend our daughter's (daughter #2, Monica) annual "pig pickin.'" They cook a whole pig, this one about 200 pounds, for all night then we have a feast the next afternoon. It's always a lot of fun and this year was no exception. It's always nice to meet their friends, but this year Kemo and Candice and their family weren't there and everyone missed them a lot! They now live in England! I think they missed all of us as much as we all missed them.
Back in April our nephew, Kyle Patton, moved to Arizona from Ohio. He lived with us for a few months, then got his own digs and new furniture, found a beautiful new "lady friend" (Amie Mace) and is now enjoying his life as a really good looking Scottsdale guy with a great girlfriend, so all is well with him. That doesn't mean all is well with us! My God, we miss him like crazy!! It was so fun to come home after work at Wal-Hell and have your drink prepared, a few snacks put out and the scrabble game on the table! One weekend night I stayed up talking to him until 4 a.m!! I haven't been up that long in years! I paid for it the next day, sleeping until about 3 p.m.....haha Kyle has been coming to see us for several years now and we have yet to figure out who any young person would want to visit US...the people who are older than dirt, but he still came and we loved it! His dad is my favorite brother, so we welcomed him with open arms..."mi casa es su casa"....I think I have lived amongst the Mexicans too long! ha
Bill is once again teaching special education at school this year. This will be his last year at this particular school as they are joining some schools together, so next year he may be in a different school. He loves teaching and works with some very nice teachers who think he's the nicest person in the whole school system! I think he is, too.... The "academics" are so weird and really freak me out at times. They all have so many problems, personally and professionally, and even the shrinks there are nutty looking! Scary place to me! haha None of you can repeat this, of course!
We have been planning a trip to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for December to visit Sydney, Stu and Kaden. All was going well until Bill got sick again. His doctor put him in the hospital last week for several days for tests, etc. This will be a huge bill, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that our insurance will cover enough of it so that we won't have to "dig" into what we have earmarked for that trip! We will know more tomorrow, Sept. 29, after talking with our banker! Anyway, we really want to make this trip as it's a trip of a lifetime so pray for us that it will work out. Sydney and Stu have a lot planned for us to do while there, but it will just be nice to be with them, alone, without other family around and that we can have Kaden to ourselves for the time we're there! Is that being selfish...? If so, that's too damned bad! haha
If you think about it for a minute or two, we are planning a trip to one of the "hottest" spots in the world....maybe we should go see that nutty shrink at school to make sure we are still sane! Nothing can stop us from going, except the lack of funds, but I'm sure everything will work out one way or another! Bill's doctor said (for now) that there isnt' any reason he could not go, but also stated that "after all December is a long way off".....OK..so what do you mean by that, Doc?
Our work is still work...frustrating, non-invigorating, and plain boring! Same old shit all the time! It's always fun to go each day, however, to see our less-than-qualified managers running around like chickens with their heads cut off... (have you ever seen a chicken without it's head, running here and there until death takes over and he finally flops on the ground while the absent head has already taken on a weird look in its eyes)...anyway, that sort of defines our group of managers! Everyday we have new "rules" in my area. Bill finds out that there are new rules for the greeters and he ignores them as I do and life goes on in Wal Hell. By the way, Kyle coined this term "Wal Hell" and it's the best definition of our biggest retailer in the world! haha Most people like to know that their company is the "biggest" or the "best" of whatever, but in this case, it's almost embarrassing to say you work for Wal Hell as there are so many people out there who hate it for not being "union" or have no benefits, etc., etc.....They actually do have good benefits, but thank the Lord above the union has been kept out. That would totally ruin it in about 20 minutes! So much for you union-ers out there...maybe I have offended some of you, but everyone has their own definition of what GOOD unions do and DON'T DO! Whatever..... : )
Of course I don't know how - yet - to put pictures on this, but I will keep trying! I love the pictures that everyone uses and enjoy looking at them over and over.
I can't say when I'll get more on here, but when I have time I will write more.
Love from the true Land of Sunshine! Dianne and Bill/Mimi and Papa/friend and friend
The time has passed so quickly since Memorial Day. We had a pretty good summer. Took a few day road trips here and there. The highlight of the summer was flying up to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in August to see all the family who gathered there to welcome home Sydney (oldest granddaughter) and her husband, Stu, and their sweet, darling one year old baby, Kaden! He was the highlight of every gathering we had and surely entertained us at all times, even in his tears, as his little face can scrunch up into an almost completely un-visable face!! haha He definitely "ruled" us all and none of us could stop picking him up and kissing his face off! He told Mary-Leah (daughter #3) "I wa you" (translated I Love You)! He said it twice to her and never once to us...BUMMER!! haha But he did hug me one time and said, as he patted my shoulder, "Mimi"....that was all it took me to fall more in love!! We also went to CDA to attend our daughter's (daughter #2, Monica) annual "pig pickin.'" They cook a whole pig, this one about 200 pounds, for all night then we have a feast the next afternoon. It's always a lot of fun and this year was no exception. It's always nice to meet their friends, but this year Kemo and Candice and their family weren't there and everyone missed them a lot! They now live in England! I think they missed all of us as much as we all missed them.
Back in April our nephew, Kyle Patton, moved to Arizona from Ohio. He lived with us for a few months, then got his own digs and new furniture, found a beautiful new "lady friend" (Amie Mace) and is now enjoying his life as a really good looking Scottsdale guy with a great girlfriend, so all is well with him. That doesn't mean all is well with us! My God, we miss him like crazy!! It was so fun to come home after work at Wal-Hell and have your drink prepared, a few snacks put out and the scrabble game on the table! One weekend night I stayed up talking to him until 4 a.m!! I haven't been up that long in years! I paid for it the next day, sleeping until about 3 p.m.....haha Kyle has been coming to see us for several years now and we have yet to figure out who any young person would want to visit US...the people who are older than dirt, but he still came and we loved it! His dad is my favorite brother, so we welcomed him with open arms..."mi casa es su casa"....I think I have lived amongst the Mexicans too long! ha
Bill is once again teaching special education at school this year. This will be his last year at this particular school as they are joining some schools together, so next year he may be in a different school. He loves teaching and works with some very nice teachers who think he's the nicest person in the whole school system! I think he is, too.... The "academics" are so weird and really freak me out at times. They all have so many problems, personally and professionally, and even the shrinks there are nutty looking! Scary place to me! haha None of you can repeat this, of course!
We have been planning a trip to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for December to visit Sydney, Stu and Kaden. All was going well until Bill got sick again. His doctor put him in the hospital last week for several days for tests, etc. This will be a huge bill, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that our insurance will cover enough of it so that we won't have to "dig" into what we have earmarked for that trip! We will know more tomorrow, Sept. 29, after talking with our banker! Anyway, we really want to make this trip as it's a trip of a lifetime so pray for us that it will work out. Sydney and Stu have a lot planned for us to do while there, but it will just be nice to be with them, alone, without other family around and that we can have Kaden to ourselves for the time we're there! Is that being selfish...? If so, that's too damned bad! haha
If you think about it for a minute or two, we are planning a trip to one of the "hottest" spots in the world....maybe we should go see that nutty shrink at school to make sure we are still sane! Nothing can stop us from going, except the lack of funds, but I'm sure everything will work out one way or another! Bill's doctor said (for now) that there isnt' any reason he could not go, but also stated that "after all December is a long way off".....OK..so what do you mean by that, Doc?
Our work is still work...frustrating, non-invigorating, and plain boring! Same old shit all the time! It's always fun to go each day, however, to see our less-than-qualified managers running around like chickens with their heads cut off... (have you ever seen a chicken without it's head, running here and there until death takes over and he finally flops on the ground while the absent head has already taken on a weird look in its eyes)...anyway, that sort of defines our group of managers! Everyday we have new "rules" in my area. Bill finds out that there are new rules for the greeters and he ignores them as I do and life goes on in Wal Hell. By the way, Kyle coined this term "Wal Hell" and it's the best definition of our biggest retailer in the world! haha Most people like to know that their company is the "biggest" or the "best" of whatever, but in this case, it's almost embarrassing to say you work for Wal Hell as there are so many people out there who hate it for not being "union" or have no benefits, etc., etc.....They actually do have good benefits, but thank the Lord above the union has been kept out. That would totally ruin it in about 20 minutes! So much for you union-ers out there...maybe I have offended some of you, but everyone has their own definition of what GOOD unions do and DON'T DO! Whatever..... : )
Of course I don't know how - yet - to put pictures on this, but I will keep trying! I love the pictures that everyone uses and enjoy looking at them over and over.
I can't say when I'll get more on here, but when I have time I will write more.
Love from the true Land of Sunshine! Dianne and Bill/Mimi and Papa/friend and friend
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
New blog!
Memorial Day weekend 2008. Mary-Leah and Jeff are visiting. We've been eating out, visiting Lake Pleasant, and having a BBQ with the neighbors. Mary-Leah spent all day yesterday in bed, except for when she got up to barf (food poisoning? 24 hour flu?). Good times. We had salmon on the grill, macaroni salad, fruit and other good stuff at the BBQ. The "men" were well-oiled by 5 p.m. so it was no surprise when the cedar planks burst into flame on the grill. Flames aside, the dinner turned out well. More later.......
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