Mitch Surprises Me

Mitch surprised me in early May, I knew he was coming but I did not know when.  He looked so good and he is tall!!!!.  He traveled from Asheville, N C up to Michigan and stayed with his grandparents for a bit and then traveled on through the northern part of the U S, even went through Glendive. 

He was driving a truck he bought for $500 and his Dad helped him fix it up and they put a camper roof on top!!  Really works well.

 

One of the first things I told him was that I was on this special diet to heal my digestive system and he said great, he was having too much heartburn anyway.

 

So he was my judge of what tasted good and he liked it all and said he didn't have any heartburn while he was here.  He said he would do any of the work I needed.  Wow, that was music to my ears.

 

So while he was here, he did an amazing job.  There were about 90 bags of trash and he decided to undo his truck, load it all in and haul it to Waste Management.  I was happy to pay the cost to get rid of it all.

 

There was a huge stack of branches from the winter storm and he chopped all that up and tucked it into my bins.  He worked on the watering system, changed burned out light bulbs.  Always lots of tasks around here for tall, strong guys.

 

And he finished bagging some waste I hadn't finished.  The yard looked super by the time he was done.  In the meantime he would go back and forth visiting his friends in Susanville and even drove down to see his girlfriend and haul a friend back and forth from Sacramento.

 

It was delightful and extremely helpful to have Mitch here!!

 

Later I captured a pix of Mitch and his girlfriend when they went to San Diego to visit Maria and Johnny and Matt and Destiny.  He started work for the Forest Service where he was last summer on May 18th...hope he can save that money to finish college!!!

"Ever Learning, Never Able to Come to a Knowledge of the Truth"

I am talking about what causes diarrhea or nearly so.  I have been plagued by sudden bursts of such for longer than I care to remember and it has gotten worse in my old age.

Over the years I have been treated for IBS, tested for Celiac Disease, and determined I cannot have Gluten in my life as well as sucrose, lactose, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, licorice, etc etc... but it seems there is always a new culprit I did not suspect.

This week I found a new website "End the Vicious Cycle" and learned that all those Gluten Free flours and mixes and pastas etc  are part of the problem, a big part of the problem!!!  Lactaid milk has other stuff in it that is a problem even though no lactose.  Potatoes, rice, corn, all flours etc have a certain kind of starch that the large intestines cannot handle.  It goes on and on.  I learned about the gluten, the fodmaps and now it is the starch and immune system...

So a new month of experimenting and I hope we finally can know all the culprits that plague my life!!!

I had to visit Dr Tonya again yesterday because after several bouts of diarrhea, a UTI follows and she wants to get to the bottom of that.  I hope this book has the answers, it made sense to her.  She is also testing me for Ecoli this time, too.  Hmmm.

I have given up so many foods and ice cream and gelato are just two but yesterday I made the Paleo Strawberry ice cream that Maria sent and it is quite good.  I tried the Pineapple Whip earlier and that is good, too.  So now it is a lot of new recipes but what will be the substitute for flour.

Last week I made Grandma's Oven Pancake with Pamela's GF Bread Mix flour and I had just made Swedish Pancakes with Pamela's GF Bread Mix flour and Almond Milk and both were really good and worked so well but now...I find that flour may be a big part of the problem.  And I will have to donate all those boxes of Quinoa Pasta to the Food Bank I guess.

 

I had also just made some cupcakes from the GF Cake mix and I suppose I will have to throw those out, too??

Cancer in the Family

Mitch called and will be on his way here after roundabout visiting of friends and stay here until he goes back down to Fresno area and the job place he was last year.  He will have his truck with him so we plan to get lots of cleaning up of the bags of trash and  of the garage done!!  Yea!!

 

I have always wondered if there was cancer in the family, seems like that is what Erica had possibly but today I found breast cancer which I had not heard of before.  My grandfather's sister Annette Sophie died of carcinoma of the right breast.  She was 56.  Her sister Alfreda Charlotte died at 39 of pneumonia.  However, in reading Alfreda's history in Family Search I found she had had a history of a heart condition.  I was surprised she was so young when she died but in reading her history she appeared to be an amazingly accomplished person.

 

I also read an additional note today.  Parley Williams, the brother that missed out when all the switching occurred with Freda, Mary Jane and the three Williams brothers ended up living about 25 years longer than his two married brothers Ezra and Joseph.  Joseph was married to Alreda and Ezra was married to Carl's younger sister Hilda. (Carl is the father of Alfreda and Annette).  Parley was reportedly in love with Alfreda and never married.  He is the one that was traded off to Mary Jane and then Mary Jane married Martin (my grandfather and brother of Annette and Alfreda). 

 

The story of how the Williams brothers did so well is also told in the history of Alfreda in Family Search.

Alfreda Charlotte:

 

 

Annette Sophie--called Nettie

 

In another history I read that Nettie married Warren Lindsay after breaking it off with another suiter.  Warren was a widower with six children.  The children of Alfreda reported that Nettie was so helpful after Alfreda died and she invited them over a lot for dinner as well as came to the home to help them.

 

 

This is the wedding picture of Joseph Williams and Alfreda Charlotte recently put on Family Search by Elisabeth Hovey.  It was reported the three brothers all shared one suit until Hilda who married Ezra said he needed a suit of his own and made him a fine one.

 

Wedding picture of Martin and Mary Jane.  Looks like he has his own suit.

 

 

A Good Day--I Get My Hair Cut

Another beautiful morning in Lake Almanor.  I am anxiously awaiting the blossoming of the blooms on the crab apple tree.  It is so skinny, not enough sun, not good earth, but the few blossoms are a gorgeous hue.  I see about six bloomed, should be fully out by tomorrow.

Had another wonderfully restful night on my new mattress.  So love it.  Just as I was settling in for a night of TV, Deloris, a friend from high school called.  She lives in Salinas and her husband died a couple? years ago.  It was so fun to have someone to chat with.  We talked for about an hour.  I do miss having friends to talk with.  She was telling me about Betty B's home on the coast of Washington.  Her husband has a crow's nest as his office as they are right on the ocean.  Evidently it is a really lovely home but too large to keep up in old age.  It is funny how high school and high school friends seem so " just yesterday".  Pictured below is Deloris, her sister Audrey, and Deloris's husband George (passed away).  In dated picture Deloris is third from right.  Called 'Sieve'.

Matt called to say he may be coming up and bring the chain saw.  It would be so good to get rid of my large pile of huge branches.

Had a couple calls with Kristi this week.  She is doing Family Search with the family and then she had Brynn call and say thank you for the birthday card.  Love keeping up on the pix of her family.  She is the only one I got pix from Frenchie's funeral and a very nice report.  I will post some of them as a memory.  She gave a beautiful message of love.

Better get dressed, today I get my hair cut, amazing how quickly the month goes by and I look really shaggy.

The Good, The Not So Good

Since I am working on my computer I can see whatever is happening in my backyard--today it was deer, about 15 at different times throughout the day.  I yell, "Sadie", and we run out the door and she chases them all away.  There was one today, though, who did not want to budge so I ran further out... I am not sure whether she would have butted Sadie or not, but I was not taking any chances.

Before I do more catch ups...I am just going to comment on what is going on with me.  For one I am sleeping so well and taking naps and I feel 100% better in that arena.   Who knew a mattress could make such a difference in your life.  Sadie and I both love our bed now.

Why do old people spend so much time talking about how they feel?  Because it is a big deal, you can't take your body, mind and soul for granted anymore.  They are either working right or they are not.

Walking, I need to do more, but it hurts, so I do less, and then I get further out of shape, it is so frustrating, and dancing, I try for a few minutes, but cannot last long--at least I keep up the yard work, a little at a time.

Today I had one of the worst "get rid of everything in her body" days I have had in a while.  So what did I eat I shouldn't, all was going well  for about four days, eating pretty much the same thing until I introduced red beets and lemonade with high fructose corn syrup...is that what did it, one of those, come to think of it I had had the lemonade for 3 days with no problem so was it the beets????  Or was it "you have had too many peanut butter cookies over the last week?" or or was it one too many egg salad sandwiches or too much popcorn???

Two times in the last year I have had a perfectly happy stomach.  The first time was when I got rid of the seven no nos, according to the Virgin Diet.  No sugar, soy, eggs, peanuts, corn, dairy, gluten.  I felt great and then added back the eggs, dairy and eventually occasional peanuts and a little corn.

Then I got rid of all most all carbs and definitely all sugar for six weeks and I definitely felt great on that...no indigestion problems.  The problem is, it was boring and I wanted sandwiches and occasional pancakes and over Easter...sugar  oh, and I added back popcorn because I found that great popcorn popper...

So, the popper goes back out into the garage, no drinks with high fructose corn syrup, none of the strange sugars in processed foods, and I can forget the peanut butter, too.  And maybe I had better relook at which vegetables are really scary for me...and all ice cream products are definitely off the table.

I know everyone has something but this something sure keeps me homebound...luckily I like my home, even if I do get lonely...

I watched the movie "The Way" with Martin Sheen and Emelio Estevez--"El Camino de Santiago" A Pilgrimage hike, reminded me of John, dying so young, hiking across the country, it was dedicated to their Grandfather.

Brynn Turns Four!

I was so happy to get better acquainted with Brynn when I was in San Diego in January and she was at her Grandma Linda's house.

She can talk about everything and likes to play games with you.

Such a happy, fun child, I love little Brynn.

My Sister Marilyn

My sister Marilyn turned 84 on April 5 and this week she had her granddaughter Meagan, her husband and baby Maddie visiting them in Golden, CO.

Catching Up

I am huffing and puffing, I just went over to my neighbors fenced in yard and lifted Sadie out again.  I do not know how she is getting in but she acts like she can't get out, so I will have to put her on her leash.  I can't trust her.  I can hardly carry her, she is heavy.  Here she is doing her favorite thing, finding a sunny place to sit and peruse her little kingdom.

 

This is probably the first time since I started blogging that I have gotten so far behind in my writing.  Since I came back in late January I have been very busy cleaning up.  We had a huge wind storm and probably every inch of the yard was filled with broken branches, twigs and needles. 

 

Amazingly I was able to rake it all in piles but I had to call on Clark, the snowblower man, to put all the piles into his truck and haul them away.  It took him all day and two truck loads.  He came back another day and hauled away the big Sony TV I bought in 1997 when I was living at James' home.  It died shortly after I returned.  He also hauled away Mike's old TV that was in my bedroom.  I am keeping up the yard by doing just a little bit each day.  It is in great shape now.  I still have a lot of the branches I saved for cutting.  I need Matt to bring his chainsaw someday.  But amazingly everything is being kept up by me.

 

I replaced Mike's TV with a Samsung HD--only $200--in December.  Then I had to replace the Sony.  I took my time but had to order a stand and got a corner wooden one from Wayfair and then I eventually bought  a 46 inch from Walmart.  It looks good and I do enjoy the HD!!!

 

 

 

Then I got very interested in doing the new Family Search and was having so much trouble with the laptop I bought in 2009 I decided not to put any more money in it.  Instead I bought a desktop from Walmart.  I replaced the mouse and keyboard with Logitech and am very happy with the whole arrangement.

 

It has been a huge investment of time and brains though transferring data from one computer to the other.  I am still not finished.  I had upgraded my Microsoft Office and have been loving that.  It costs a lot of money with printer cartridges, updated equipment, etc but I am organized to where I think I can finish my projects.

 

The first project I did was to do a Mother's Day Remembrance for my Mom.  I did put it in plastic covers but the recipients will have to get their own notebooks to put it in if they want.  Here is my little office.  I try to keep it neat but it soon fills with all the different books, pictures, and files I am using until I can organize it again.

 

The last big purchase I did was to replace my mattress of 40+ years.  Thanks to a generous gift I was able to do this and pay off the other things I purchased besides.  It has been a very expensive year with the trees being felled and needing a new garage door and important things giving up and dying.  Hopefully this is the end of needing things.

I have been having such a restless time trying to sleep and I guess an advertisement made me think that my mattress could be a lot of the problem.  I first called Niagara as our bed is an adjustable bed from Niagara.  We bought it in the 70's when I was having so much problem with my back.  We bought it at the Del Mar Fair.  It was always a great place for us to listen to the pitch and take whatever great deal they were offering.  Anyway it has been a great bed but...anyway to have just one of the mattresses replaced would cost over $1000 from them.  I called Zaegles in Susanville and they have "adjustable friendly" mattresses.  The interesting thing is I replaced the two twins with one King and I love it.  The adjustable does work though I wish I had the metal restraints to hold the bottom of the mattress from slipping.  Who knows when I lost those. 

 

 

The first day Sadie and I napped for 1 1/2 hours and I did not move at all, it was so comfortable.  I have been sleeping wonderfully each night and today I napped for 3 hours as well!!! 

 

So hopefully I do not have to buy any other "biggies" and will be totally out of debt by the end of the year,  I hope.  I am not traveling, etc so should be able to do it.

My biggest problems at this time of my life is my mind not always being able to remember procedures I use in my projects and then I get so frustrated and stressed.  Also my body not being able to do the things I want to without so much fatigue or I just do not have the strength.  And not being able to eat anything and everything without paying the consequences!!  Old age is not fun.

But at least at the moment everything is "caught up" and Mary Anne and I are going to a movie tomorrow--so all is well.  Strangely, up here it is cheaper to go to the movies than to rent one from your Satellite company.

Now that my life is "caught up" I will be able to go back and finish blogging my birthday week events and catch up on the grand and great grands...
 

 

Kelsi turns 9!!!

 

The pictures say it all, Kelsi is a busy, happy, beautiful girl!!!  I used to love it when I was in RSF and little Kelsi would come and keep me company.  Such a fun girl.

 

Glendive Football Field

The new Dawson County High School football field which cost 1.3 million was featured in USA Today.  It was funded by the nephew of Carole's friend Carole Oakland.  The Oaklands own a farm on the east side of Glendive, close to the North Dakota border and evidently make millions by allowing the ND Oil companies to bury toxic waste on their land. 

 

The city needed to upgrade the track if they were going to host a special state track meet and the Oaklands volunteered to get it all ready and indeed they did.  It is beautiful.

 

I have many happy memories of that place.  It is just a block from my home in Glendive.  Carole said they do not have champion football teams like they did when I was in high school.  Coach Forest Wilson had Championship teams for many years.

New Ancestor Pictures

Recently loaded on to Family Search is the pictures of Carl Jonsson 1814 and Maria Pettersdotter 1816.  They are the parents of Fredrika Carlsdotter, wife of Carl August Anderson (my Dad's Grandfather). 

Since the temple work was originally done on them and documents are being found and submitted, there have been additionally children added who they evidently had before they were married?  Oh, if only everyone had kept journals!!!

John Gets a Puppy?

Hard to believe it has been 11 years since John passed away.  This is a picture from his 2nd Birthday but neither my sister Carole (who was there) or I can remember anything about this puppy, who brought it?, did we keep it? (I can't remember having a puppy in the UC house).  But this is a darling picture and a precious moment.  John was such an interesting and sparkly child.  Everything was fun for him.  I think at that age though trucks and such interested him more than animals.

Melissa turns 26?

Happy Birthday to Melissa on April 4th, 26???!!!  I missed it in here but sent her a birthday card!

Melissa is loving her new job at the Community college near her house.  She goes to work at 7:30 and is finished by 4:30 and knows exactly what her job is and works with lots of people and busy all the day.  So happy she is not working at home anymore!!!

She also thinks Asheville is such a great place to live, very much alive with lots of eating places and activities going on...and so beautiful.   So happy she is happy there!

Melissa is always fun to talk to and just calls to chat.  I was just looking on Instagram at her crazy cat making noises on the mirror with his paws while standing up like a person and I was laughing when she called, I told her that I think her cat needs something, not sure what, so funny.  Evidently it is his way of trying to get her attention?

She is also my go-to person for questions about my music, my computer, all that techy stuff she knows so well.

Maria and Johnny Anniversary

 

How time flies, Maria and Johnny are old married folks by now but they surely take cute pictures.  Johnny has a motorcycle and they have been driving to interesting places on the weekend, like the house behind them.

 I especially like the black and white below.

Happy Birthday to Matt!

Matt, my rock, my friend, my grandson, how I love it that Matt lives near and can  come see me sometimes.  Not a boy anymore, Matt is a man, and such a hard worker and so dependable.  We all count on Matt.  I loved that he took me back and forth and spent so much time with me on my birthday week and was always so kind to me.  Thanks, Matt for being so patient and Happy Birthday!

 

!!

 

Lea Turns 15

Such a beautiful girl, inside and out, Lea is really a treasure.  It is exciting to watch her grow up and become lovelier every day.  What does the future hold in store, where will she go, what will she do?   So many possibilities for lovely Lea.  Happy Birthday to Lea and how I wished I had looked like that at 15...wow.

 

Eden Turns One

How I love pictures of little Eden with her reddish hair, happy smile, cute little body.  She is a delight.

 

She is excited, evidently.

 

 Meagan says that Eden loves Keira so much she not only wants to sit by her, she wants to sit on her, so cute.

 

I especially love this picture, so relaxed and enjoying Life, the way we all should be.