This week

Bad news.  Larry learned that when you're holding a cat and you blow in his face, he will show you a gear you didn't know he had.  Ouch.  As a reward for his scratchin' off like a 1969 AMX on some hot July asphalt while Larry held him, Tabbie Hoffman got a pedicure.

Good news.  After just three weeks, we have grass in our backyard!

Pretty Gerbera daisies in the backyard

Gorgeous hibiscus on the front porch says "hi!"

Larry and I decorated the fence out front

This just cracked me up!  I bought the new happy, dancing bunny on the left and when I went to take a picture of him, Jude was standing there with his arms crossed looking at him like, "Dude, where'd YOU come from and how long you stayin'?"!  Larry swears he didn't do it.  He was just cleaning up and somehow when he put things back on the table, Jude got turned around.  Hilarious!

We're looking forward to a wonderful Easter Sunday!  Sunrise service at church and dinner and an egg hunt in the afternoon.  I hope you all have a beautiful day celebrating the greatest love story ever told!  The story of Jesus and His ultimate sacrifice and that amazing gift of love He gave each and every one of us.  Friday happened, true, but Sunday's coming!

St. Francis gets a makeover!

When my dear neighbor, Skip, passed away nearly seven years ago, his daughter, Shari, became my friend.  She was so thoughtful to share a few of Skip's belongings with me, things I could remember him by.  One of those things was a St. Francis of Assisi bird feeder.

Since St. Francis has been outside in the weather all this time, he was looking a little rough.  

Larry decided he needed a makeover!  We painted him this afternoon and I think he turned out great!

Here he is before, looking all sad and gray.

And here he is now, looking all spiffy and handsome!

 

 His bird seed is gonna bring all the birds to the yard.  :)

What we've been up to

We have been so busy here at the Schneider Condostead!  We are looking forward to May, when we're going to slow waaaaay down and smell the roses (or the daisies or the hibiscuses!).  

Larry restored my old baby chest of drawers.  My daddy cut it down from a chest that my grandparents had when he and Mama were expecting me, 47 years ago.  I used it right on up until about five years ago, when the drawers were just falling apart and I had to store it for Larry to fix.  I always knew he would be here to fix it!  And so he did.

Here's a before, all sanded down and ready to paint.  I wanted it painted exactly how my daddy painted it, white and trimmed in blue. 

And here's the after!  And it's back in use, in our bedroom.

We went to the Cherry Blossom Festival with Ami and Brian a couple of Sundays ago and had so much fun!  Although we have probably had our first and last experience with a food truck.  :)  

A photographer from The Macon Telegraph was there and he asked us if he could take our picture!  We said yes, thinking there was no way we'd ever make the paper.  But we did!  This was in last Monday's Telegraph.

Larry and Ginger Schneider of Warner Robins enjoy their food from the Texas Tacos food truck along Third Street Sunday. JASON VORHEES — jvorhees@macon.com 

Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2014/03/30/3021102/last-day-for-cherry-blossom-fest.html#storylink=cpy

I joked on Facebook that OF COURSE he'd have to use the one he took of me trying to eat my taco in one bite rather than one where I was eating a lime fry.  Ugh.  But still, we were excited to be in the newspaper!

That crowd?  Is why we've probably done our first and last food truck.  And two quesadillas, two tacos and two canned drinks for $29 is another reason.

We bought this beautiful handpainted gourd at the Cherry Blossom Festival and Larry hung it in a backyard tree.  I just love it and can't wait for a birdy to move in!

 
We went bowling at the base's bowling alley, too, and Larry totally mopped the floor up with me.  We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and fed our Family Promise families at church last night and he played basketball, volleyball, foosball and shot pool with the kids.  There is NO game Larry cannot play and he's so good at everything!






Larry was on spring break from school last week and he laid a walkway for us from the patio out to the shop...

 

Annnnnd you see all those little things on the ground?

 Grass seed! :)

We bought some flowers at Lowe's and I planted purple petunias in a front yard bed and was SO happy to see that my Uncle J.B. (amaryllis) has a little bud!  It didn't bloom at all last year.  I have a pink impatien, orange Gerbera daisies and a gorgeous hibiscus to repot and put out on the patio and after Easter, we're going back for a big flower, veggie and herb trip to Lowe's.  :)  I've put a bloom booster around everything so we should have a beautiful yard this year!

We went up to Forsyth to Cash Liquidations and bought a beautiful lamp and sofa table.  We'd been trying to thrift a sofa table and hadn't been able to find one we liked and we even looked at some brand new ones, although I really didn't want a brand new one.  I wanted one that had been "loved" a little bit.  We rode up to Forsyth one afternoon and found one and a cool boho lamp, too!

This past weekend, we went back to the beach and had a wonderful time!  Saturday was gorgeous, warm, sunny, the water didn't turn our feet blue this time and we actually got to get out in the ocean and enjoy it.  I think Larry enjoyed it a little more than I did.  :)

Our friend, Lissa, told me on Facebook that we were eating life by the second, enjoying every bite.  That's a good way to put it!  We waited a very long time for this life and we are certainly not wasting a minute of it!!

Healing

I wanted to share the sweet cards I got while I was in the hospital and once I was home and recovering.  These cards meant so much to me.  They gave me hope that I absolutely would get better and I would be ME again.  Larry and I spent this weekend at the beach again and I can honestly say I AM BACK.  Breathing that ocean air, tasting that salty water, and hearing the waves crash all night as we slept was just the final little bit of healing I needed.  Beach healing.  That little bit of Epstein-Barr and cytomegalo that was hanging around evaporated as I laughed (and cried) as my beloved enjoyed his first dip in the ocean in nearly 40 years.

Tia Pike sent us a dozen delicious cupcakes with this card.  I teared up immediately when I read it.  This was so sweet and thoughtful!  Hopefully, this coming Sunday, we'll resume Sunday Cake!

I got this one in the mail from Brandy, Mike, Willow, Roan and Baby Laurel Mae.  I absolutely love Brandy's drawing of Tabbie Hoffman!  It looks just like him!!  And, yes, he DID miss me.  He was very clingy for a couple of days.  He wanted to be with his mama.

Here's a picture of us the day I got home.  Those ugly old bruises are all gone now.  And all that fluid is, too!

 

 I even got a sweet card from Willow! 

I got this one from the amazing guys (and girls) I work with!  I am truly blessed to work with folks that I consider my family.  They gave me this card and the envelope was literally stuffed with cash!  That really helped us out while we were living at the hospital. 

Pay no attention to the camera shadow.  :)  This one came from the Keenagers at church.  So sweet to think of me.
 

My sister and best friend, Ami, made this one for me.  She is so talented that everything she touches turns to a thing of beauty.  She can make the most beautiful cards and then take the most amazing pictures of them!  :)  I love you, sissy!

This is the inside.  Larry and I both love Kahlil Gibran and the thing about the bare feet made me cry.  And it made me that much more determined to get better and get my life back.  I didn't want to miss a second of this beautiful spring I waited so long for!
 

Our sweet couple buddies from church gave me this one.  Lisa and Darrell, Lisa and Bryan and Brother Andy and Melody.  Melody brought it to me.  Inside was a very generous gas card!  It was perfect timing, too, because Larry had just run home to check on Tabbie Hoffman and the house for the umpteenth time.  You know, since we were LIVING AT THE HOSPITAL OH MY GOD.
 

These cards helped me get better.  I will treasure them and the love that came with them always.  Thanks, y'all, from the very bottom of my heart. 

One week

Today is a week since I left the hospital.  I started feeling better, stronger and more like myself Wednesday.  I told Larry when he got home from class to get me out of this house and let's go do something in the sunshine!  So we went and bought a truck.  :)

Larry bought a Dodge Ram pickup when he was in Quitman and we only paid a couple thousand dollars for it.  It was just something for him to get back and forth in and it's a great little truck!  We just wanted something to take trips in (we're planning another weekend trip to the beach in a few weeks!) and not worry about getting broke down somewhere.  We paid my car off last week and jumped right back into debt just like that.  I'm still a lunatic about my credit score and since we paid the mortgage off, all we've had is the car.  It's crazy but when you pay something off and have no open credit (which is the ideal way to live for us!), your credit score goes down.  That makes no sense.  So anyway, to keep your score up, you gotta keep making payments on something.  So we got this new truck.  The guys at the dealership absolutely HATED me, I know, but I spent 16 years in the business and I don't pay sticker, I don't make down payments and I don't do insurance and fees.  I just ain't gonna do it.  We ended up getting the best deal!  $3,000 behind book (and I booked it out myself to make sure!) with a 2% interest rate.  You just cannot beat that.

We got a Suzuki Equator.  Four-wheel drive, midnight blue and gorgeous.  I never even knew Suzuki made trucks.  The Equator is built just like a Nissan Frontier and actually, Nissan built it.  I have a Nissan now and my last car was a Nissan.  I just LOVE Nissan.  :)

And we love our Suzuki!  And I really, really loved the pollen on the hood!  Wooo hoooo!!!  Finally.

I can't wait to take you to the beach!  :)

I tried to go back to work yesterday but the base doctor wouldn't allow me until I've had my follow-up with the infectious disease doctor (and that's Monday) and have something from him saying I'm not contagious.  I'm NOT contagious.  And I worked three nights with a high fever, body aches, chills, headaches, the whole nine yards, and as far as I know, none of my coworkers have come down with this.  Actually, though, it's rare to have the severe symptoms that I had anyway.  Usually, you get the virus, shed it and develop an immunity to it and never even know it.  Counterculture chick that I am had to be all weird and stuff.

So, I'm feeling better, I'm so happy and grateful to be alive and well, we have a beautiful weekend ahead of us and I'm ready to see where it takes us!!

Though the storms may come...

Whoa.  Did anybody happen to get the tag number of that truck that just hit me?

I have been sick.  Really, really sick.  It started on Larry's birthday, of all days!  I had such plans to make his day super special but I woke up with a low-grade fever, body aches and chills.  I just knew I had the flu.  Last year was the first year in four that I didn't get a flu shot.  I still sent him to class and I tried to decorate a little bit with balloons and streamers.  I took that day off work and stayed in bed.  The next day was worse but I went in to work anyway and didn't stay very long.  Stayed home again Wednesday.  I tried working Thursday and Friday and felt so bad that I still don't remember how I got through those eight hours each night.  That time is kind of a blur to me.  The fevers spiked higher, the chills got worse, the headaches were excruciating and I knew something was really wrong and not the flu.  On Sunday, we finally went to a Med Stop here in town, where they took blood and urine and found nothing, sent me home with a Z-Pak and bed rest for three days.  I followed up with my doctor on Tuesday, she made an appointment with my neurologist because of the headaches but by Thursday, the day of my appointment, I was throwing up and couldn't stop and my fever was spiking toward 103.  My neurologist cancelled my appointment and told me to go straight to the emergency room.  And that's what we did.

We went to the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon.  Truly the only place I trust.  Those people saved my mama and daddy's lives and I most definitely trusted them with mine.  I was worried about spending five or six hours in the ER but their policy is they see patients based on how sick they are, not when you get there.  So needless to say, as soon as they saw me, I was taken straight to triage.

We got a room and saw a doctor and I was admitted that night.  I was extremely dehydrated and have thin, flat veins anyway so getting an IV in me to start fluids was very painful.  I had no idea of the pain that was to come.  Oh my goodness, I don't mean to sound like a baby but they stuck me every day for blood and because my veins are so bad and "blow out" really easily, they had to start a new IV every day because the continuous fluids and antibiotics I was on were too much for my veins to handle.  I will be black and blue for weeks.  That was really my lowest, lowest time.  Night after night, them digging and digging trying to find a vein that would work.  

Larry is and has always been my rock, my hero.  He stayed up all night, keeping cold cloths on my head, taking my temperature, giving me Tylenol and Motrin round the clock when we were fighting this thing at home.  They pulled a bed in for him in my room once we got to the hospital and he was there, bringing me soup and sweet tea from downstairs, flowers from the park and constantly loving and encouraging me.  He never left my side.  And Jesus never left ours.  

There was an old Chris Tomlin song we sang at church the Sunday before this started, the Sunday Larry was baptized.  How Can I Keep From Singing.  All I could remember of that song was a little bit of the chorus but I sang that song, I sang every bit I could remember every time they stuck me, every time my fever raged, every time my head pounded, every time I saw sadness and helplessness in my Larry's eyes.  

I know I am loved by the King and it makes my heart wanna sing.




When I felt a little better, Larry got on our laptop and found it on YouTube for me.  I know the whole song now.  :)  And you better believe I'm singing it!

Turned out, the only thing I tested positive for is a nasty little heifer called cytomegalo virus.  It's from the mono and Epstein-Barr family.  Herpes.  And Lord only knows how I got it.  They say you usually pick it up from babies and small children and since there's a pretty long incubation period, it could have very well been when I held that baby at the drug rehab place in Macon at Christmas.  Or it could have just been somebody sneezing on my food in a restaurant.  Who knows??  And how I lived lo' these many years avoiding it, we'll never know.

I came home Friday.  I'm still weak as a kitten and still have a little nausea, especially around certain smells.  My plan is to get my strength back, get my appetite back and get back to work this week!

When something like this happens, you definitely find out who loves you.  I just want to thank all of you who left me messages on Facebook, the ones who called and texted us, and even those of you who didn't and just prayed.  I felt those prayers covering me and I am so grateful for each and every one of them. Thank you so much to those of you who came to see me, even though you didn't know if I was contagious, if you could catch that mess, too, you came.  Mama and Daddy (thanks so much for the Easter goodies!), Ami and Brian (thanks for the balloon and beautiful spring flowers!), Bob Berlin, John Lash, our church family, Lisa Skinner, Brother Andy Cook, Melody Cook (thanks, y'all, so much for the gas card!), Russ McTier, April Eidson (who brought us a ton of delicious Cracker Barrel veggies Wednesday night for supper!), my 561st Wingmen and friends, Mike Cole and Pam, Judi Cruse (who brought me some yummy lotion!) and Andrea Padgett who came to see me and Andrea delivered a gift and sweet card signed by everybody and stuffed with cash!  Thanks to Tia Pike for the delicious cupcakes from The Blue Cupcake.  She had them delivered Saturday so that we wouldn't miss our Sunday Cake.  So sweet and thoughtful!

Lisa Skinner cooked a feast for us last night for supper and brought it to us.  Roast beef and potatoes, green beans, salad and pumpkin pie bars.  It was all so delicious!!  Thanks, girl, for your friendship and your love.  It really means a lot to me.

They say the lifespan of this thing is 2-3 weeks.  Tomorrow will be three weeks.  I'd say she's outstayed her welcome, wouldn't you?  I've got a spring to enjoy!

Sunday Cake

I baked this week's Sunday Cake on Monday since we were late getting home Sunday night.  Larry wanted a cheesecake and since I'd never made one before, I just found an easy, classic recipe online.

1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 Tbsp. sugar

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

4 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

4 eggs

 

HEAT oven to 325°F
MIX graham crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar and butter; press into bottom of 9-inch springform pan.
BEAT cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla with mixer until blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.
BAKE 55 min. or until center is almost set. Loosen cake from rim of pan; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate 4 hours.  

You will notice that nowhere in the recipe does it say anything about placing the pan in water or putting water in the oven with the pan or anything remotely about water, right??  

My perfect beautiful cheesecake cracked wide open as soon as I lifted it out of the oven.  I joked about it on Facebook and THEN I learned about the water part.  And the temperature part.  I followed the recipe to the letter and had it said a word about water, I would have done that.  Grrrrr.

It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world but it sure is good!  And half gone already.  :)