There's nothing like the view from the cheap seats

Larry and I went to a Braves game yesterday!  We got our tickets over a month ago and were very excited!  They played the New York Mets and we just knew that would be a great game!  It wasn't.  Not even close.  It was actually a trip out behind the old woodshed.  The Braves were just NOT hitting and they lost the game 10-2.  We didn't mind, though.  We tomahawk-chopped, did the wave, sang the National Anthem and cheered our Bravos anyway.

 Larry's first time at Turner Field

We saw lots of cool stuff in the Clubhouse Store!  

We bought a commemorative Hank Aaron pennant and some pins.

We saw brave little sock monkeys!

And $150 jerseys!  

 And a huge tomahawk filled with tomahawks!

 We got to our seats just as the game was about to start.

 It was Breast Cancer Awareness Day and all these folks are survivors!

 All of those pink balloons against that blue sky was just beautiful!

 It was also Scout Day!  There were hundreds of Cub and Boy Scouts there.

 We watched pitcher Ervin Santana pitch his 1,500th strike out!

And we watched our 2nd baseman Phil Gosselin strike out.

We would have liked to have seen them win.  We would have liked to have seen them clobber the Mets and send them back to New York with their tails tucked between their legs.  But it wasn't to be.  And that's all right.  

They're not that bad, they're not that good

But all in all it's understood

We wanna dance, they wanna play 

We wouldn't have it any other way.

(The Cheap Seats, Alabama)

Lots of stuff!

My little lady procedure went well Monday.  Well, it worked, but it wasn't without complications.  When I was waking up in recovery, a nurse told me that I threw up while I was unconscious.  The anesthesiologist freaked all the way out because I was already under but they rolled me onto my side, suctioned it out and I was fine.  I had done the nothing-after-midnight thing but thirty minutes prior to my surgery, I was given a small cup of Alka Seltzer to settle my stomach.  Yeah, right.  That's what came up.  And even though they told me I was fine, I am absolutely convinced that some of that Alka Seltzer got in my lungs because I have been congested and coughing like crazy (croupy coughing!) ever since.  Tuesday and Wednesday, I looked and felt like death warmed over and today was the first day that I felt normal.  Ugh.  This gettin' old crap...

But the procedure worked.  I officially bled for 59 days.  I know!  Shut up!

And the hospital lost my panties.  My $14 Victoria's Secret panties.  I know!  Shut up!

I'm just glad that's over and we can get back to normal.  But what is normal, anyway??  If you've been following us on Facebook, you know that we're about to buy a new house!  About five miles away, in a lovely little quiet neighborhood, out of town but not too far from civilization.  Here's a pic!  It is the most adorable little house!  Beautifully landscaped, move-in ready with a gorgeous deck, hot tub, fire pit with gardenias, a magnolia tree AND a palm tree.  And TWO windows in the kitchen!  I am so in love with this house!  We hope to have everything done and be moving the week of Halloween.  We put a For Rent sign out Saturday and Sunday, we had rented our condo!  To a retired military couple who need a place for his disabled brother to live.  Perfect!
God is just working out every detail!!

We celebrated Rhiana's birthday Sunday afternoon and visited with her, Juan and the girls in Roswell.  Juan made the most delicious Spanish egg and potato dish for brunch and we had sausage and fruit, too.  I made a dozen pink lemonade cupcakes and we had a chocolate ganache cake.  We just had the best time!!  We had found the girls a bunk bed at a yard sale a few weeks ago and we took it to them.  They love it! 
 
Mama gave us a scare this week, too.  She went to the hospital with chest pains and had to have another heart cath last night.  She had another blockage that was opened with a stent and she went home today.  God has answered so many prayers this week for us!!  We are never deserving of any of it, but we are always, always grateful.

We're going to watch the Braves play the Mets in Atlanta Sunday and I'm really looking forward to that.  And a totally lazy, do-nothing day tomorrow.

Gettin' old ain't for sissies

**You men might want to skip this particular blog post!  :)

This has without a doubt been the best year of my life.  Larry and I are enjoying our normal, every day existence and I have welcomed the changes in my home, my routine and my heart.  Healthwise, though, it's been a nightmare for me.  Beginning in March when I got miserably sick with Epstein-Barr and CMV simultaneously and spent eight days in the hospital to what has now become an almost literal knock-down-drag-out with Mother Nature.  I am usually a very private person but it's my hope that my experience might help another woman or at least bring comfort to her if she's going through the same thing I am.  I am 47 and way too young for this mess!  I have begun my journey through "the change".  Menopause.  I am only 47!  I'm still getting pimples!  But it's true, a truth that I have accepted and even embraced.  I got my first period at NINE YEARS OLD.  NINE.  FOURTH GRADE.  I didn't even have boobs then.  And as far as I know, I was the first in my class.  So I'm ready to be free of it.  I embraced it, looked forward to it.  It's part of my journey as a woman.  It's cool.  Until this.  I have been bleeding for 54 days now.  I have been in constant contact with my doctor since somewhere around Day 30 and we tried medication to get it to stop.  It hasn't.  Not even close. And while this is not unheard of, it is not normal.  Larry and I have gone through two rounds of Clomid, to boost my ovulation to make it easier to get pregnant, since the two of us ain't getting no younger.  Well, that's on hold.  Obviously.  Anyway, I'm having a little outpatient surgery Monday to fix this li'l situation we got going on heah and get straightened out so we can get back to normal and do another round of Clomid.  Ask Larry how many times I've said, "I want my life back!".  A girl tends to whine a little when she's been bleeding for two months.  Who knew?

I had a sweet neighbor who passed away a year and a half ago in her sleep, peacefully, during a nap, right across the street from me.  Her name was Gladys and she used to tell me all the time, "this gettin' old shit ain't for sissies".  I never really understood what that meant until this happened to me.  It ain't for sissies.  You gotta be strong, you gotta be tough, you gotta face growing older head on and fight.  That's what I'm gonna do.  For Gladys.

I'd appreciate your prayers Monday.  For me, for Larry, for our baby. 

Welcome September!

We said goodbye to August and hello to September this weekend.  The first day of September was a hot one, highs in the upper 90's this afternoon and a good rainstorm tonight.  I'm really looking forward to fall this year!  My and Larry's first time at the fair, our first pumpkins and mums on the porch, our first jack-a-lanterns.  We're also hoping to fit a weekend camping trip in up at High Falls as well as the Country Living Fair with Ami and Brian at Stone Mountain toward the end of October.  

We hit some yard sales early Saturday morning and picked up this adorable little vintage Mersman table for five dollars!!  It was in great shape, just a few little dings and scratches that Larry buffed out when we got it home.  Then he rubbed some Old English on it and shined it right on up!  It looks brand new.  I just love it!!  

Saturday afternoon, we went down to Oglethorpe for a family reunion on my mama's side of the family and had the best time!!  I had cousins I hadn't seen in a long time (except on Facebook) and their spouses and babies I'd never met.  I didn't make a Sunday Cake this weekend because I made a birthday cake for the reunion.  We had several folks with birthdays in August, my mama included.  Hers was Saturday, the day of the reunion, and she's never been able to see so many members of her family ON her birthday so it was a great day.  I made The Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever. again and then Larry and I decorated it to kinda look like Banjo's house.  :)

Here's Larry with our baby great-niece, Katie.

 

And here's Katie with Aunt Ninner.  :)  I love my face in this picture!  I'm like, "somebody needs to come get this heah baby!"   

She wasn't hollering the whole time I held her.  Ha!  Sweet baby girl.

I took this picture of Larry standing out on the dock at Whitewater.  I love how it turned out.

And here's the whole Clark gang!  We had a wonderful time and I'm already looking forward to getting together again.

Today was Labor Day and we did just as little labor as possible.  I made us grilled roast beef and gouda sammiches and we just laid around and watched TV.  A great way to spend the first day of September!  I'm wondering if I get my fall decorations down from the attic this week if that will hurry October up.