Looking back on my former posts, I saw that I haven't done a change of month post since January! I am really falling down on the job this year. Hopefully this post will make up for the ones I missed.
August has been a very hot month. Most of the days were in the high 90*s. This is reflected very concretely in my temperature blanket. As soon as I finish the last three rows (hopefully tonight) I will post a picture for you. The weather report on TV just called it rainforest like humidity and that's exactly what it feels like.
I was going to go get my car inspected today, but it was pouring. I got up early, got myself together and out the door, and then turned back because I couldn't even see the road. I made it about four blocks and gave up. So first thing tomorrow I am at the garage.
It did let up enough for me to get my hair cut today. I had about three inches taken off and it feels so much better.
We had a great Bible Study the month of August. We were studying the Fruit of the Spirit. An excellent study which we finished just this week. I think I learned a lot and I hope my ladies did also.
Joe had the opportunity to preach last Sunday and did a wonderful job.
For some reason I felt like watching Hallmark movies this month and began recording the ones I was interested in and watching one a day. It's really nice to start my morning with a good story as I feed Jack, eat my breakfast, and get myself ready for the day. When I take out the commercials, it comes down to about an hour and 20 minutes, so that's not bad.
This month my sweet Hadley turned one year old. It seems impossible, but there you go.
I got a chance to get together with my friend Donna at our favorite place East Coast Wings & Grill. It was fun to see her again.
Really, not a lot going on this month because of the heat. It gets to a point where you don't even want to leave the house, just sit in front of the air conditioner and veg. Even ate out a lot because it was too hot to cook. Hopefully next month will be a little cooler.
Since I have not been keeping up with my calendars, I decided to just wait until next year and begin again. Much easier that way.
And now my eyes are closing and I have to get some more sleep. Until later...
Tomorrow is September Morn.
Kathy
I am having a not so great evening and my attitude definitely needs to change. Yes, please send me to the beach. I think the heat is getting to me. It was still over 90*F (32*C) for the fourth day. After awhile it gets a little old.
Yesterday in spite of not feeling well, I went to the hospital to get my 24 hour Holter monitor. My cardiologist is very thorough. Even though the change in my medicine has helped me enormously, he wanted to make sure everything was good. The last time I wore one was about 12 years ago. It was large, hard to manage, and kept falling off of my belt and pulling on the 5 leads on my chest. Plus they used adhesive to attach it (which I'm allergic to) and when it came off, my skin came with it along with a bit of blood. To top it off, I had to take time off from work to return it to the hospital. How things change.
The monitor I got had two leads, not five. It is not a big box anymore, but a flash drive about 2 1/2 inches (6.35 cm) long. No adhesive, but a hypo-allergenic gel which sticks it to the skin. It didn't bother me at all. And I didn't have to go to the hospital to return it. I stuck it in a pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelope and went to the post office today to mail it back.
Like I said, I am doing much better on this new heart/blood pressure medication so I don't think they will see anything out of the ordinary.
I am still coughing, blowing my nose, and being absolutely miserable so I gave up and went to the doctor. I was so fortunate to be able to get in. It turns out it is all allergies. When did this happen? I haven't had bad allergies since I retired. I was even able to stop taking my medication. Now I am back on it along with a cough medicine and nasal spray. Guess what? I will live. It will take a few days for the allergy medicine to kick in and I will take it until the first frost, but I will be fine. What a relief.
Can you believe tomorrow is the end of August already? July seemed to drag and August just flew by. I will try to do an end of the month post tomorrow. Let's see if I remember.
I have to get up early and get to the garage by 7:30 a.m. to have my car inspected. I forgot all about it. My last car was inspected in November so I had that in my mind and am just going along when I came across the unpaid car registration. That's when I realized we just got the car last summer and so now everything gets done in August. Tomorrow is the last day I can legally drive the car. It's registered now, but has to be inspected. I plan on taking my breakfast, medicine, book to read and my 2019 calendar which I just bought. That way I can put next year's appointments in it and get started using the new one. Then in the afternoon I am going to get my hair cut. It will be a busy day.
With all of that in mind, I am going to end and get to bed. Hope you all have a great night.
Kathy
It's really hot today. How hot is it? 96*F (35.5*C) in real temperature, but feels like 105*F (40.5*C). Needless to say I am staying inside with the air conditioning on.
I had a really freaky accident on Sunday morning at church. We had stopped and gotten apple and lemon puff pastry tarts to take to church. It was just too hot to bake brownies. This was better. I sent Joe into the store to get them and stayed in the car because I was in a lot of pain. Feet, knees, hips, back, hands, shoulders.... I felt like I could hardly move. I hold off taking pain killers as long as I can because I don't like taking them. But I knew I had to lead singing for Joe and film the message and a number of other things. So when I got into church, I took a couple of aspirin out of my purse and grabbed my bottle of water.
The first aspirin went down with no problem. But the second pill got caught in my throat. It was awful. I started choking. I tried to get it up, but couldn't. I could feel it dissolving in my throat and it began burning. I went into the ladies room and was gagging and choking. Debbie came into the restroom and stayed with me trying to help me out. But there really wasn't much she could do except hand me a couple of paper towels. Finally I was able to breathe and stop gagging. By that time my face was red and my eyes were bloodshot. What a mess I looked! And the front of my blouse was stained, so I had to wash myself and go upstairs to the sanctuary with a wet front.
Needless to say I couldn't lead the singing. I couldn't even talk! Fortunately Rick our new Ministry Assistant offered to do it for me. (He did a good job too.)
I had some vanilla ice cream when I came home to soothe my throat. It helped some, but my throat is still sore.
By Sunday night I had no voice, a sore throat and my lungs kept filling up with mucus so I had to cough all the time. I was sick all day Monday. Today I am better. I had enough of a voice to teach my lesson to the Ladies Bible Study, but I'm not 100% yet. My throat is still sore and I'm still coughing but not as much as I was yesterday.
The strangest thing, though, was that about an hour after I took the aspirin, all my pain went away and I've been pretty good ever since. Go figure. I don't want to take any more aspirin that way again EVER!
Kathy
Can you believe it's the last Sunday of August already? Time sure flies by.
Today I have finished another magazine so wanted to do a Sunday Magazine post. Isn't this a cute picture?
It's taken from "Country Home" September 2000. The caption says:
"Break Time": Photograph by Greg Scheidemann
Max the dog holds down two jobs at The Apple Farm in northern California. Most of the day, he serves as official greeter for visitors to the 2,000 tree property. But when he has worked his wagging tail off and decides to take a siesta, he's still on duty serving as keeper of the crates outside the farm's packing shed.
Aww... Sweet Max.
A busy day today. Pastor is on his last vacation day of the year and Joe is speaking this morning. He has worked so hard on writing his sermon. I should know because I've typed it for him three times as he changed it to make it better. I think it is very good. He is speaking on lessons we learn from the church at Ephesus.
Of course today is my turn to bring the treat for Fellowship Time. I want to make brownies and they aren't even baked yet. I may end up just going to ShopRite on the way to church and picking something up. Hmm....
So I am going to run. Hopefully my mental block will break and I will be able to think up some interesting posts for you this week.
Until later...
Kathy
I am really not feeling well tonight. I think I ate something that didn't agree with me, but I don't know what. Joe just made me a cup of tea which I'm sipping on and hopefully will feel better.
In the meantime I thought I would show you some pictures I took of the sky tonight.
First, here's a picture I took the other day of the storm clouds rolling in.
It was much better today. Low temperatures and humidity. Such a pretty day. And here was tonight's sunset.
I took these from the bathroom window, so sorry about the screen in the way.
On to tomorrow. I hope I get a lot more done tomorrow than I did today. Mostly today I just slept. But we all need one of those days once in awhile.
Until later...
Kathy
Hope you are all having a wonderful day. It is another hot day here in Philly.
Last night I got a surprise facebook post from my granddaughter. Remember the Amish rag doll I got for Hadley when I was in Lancaster? I sent it to her for her first birthday.
I saw on the tag that her name was "Becky." A typical Amish name for a sweet little doll.
I mailed it to Tennessee along with a Happy First Birthday card that I wrote a note in. The side not in this picture says, "Love, Memaw and Papa Joe."
Hadley LOVED the doll.
Tori says she keeps picking up the doll to kiss and hug it. They decided to keep the name Becky.
I'm so glad she likes Becky. Now I've got to top that for Christmas!
Kathy
I found this column in an old magazine I was reading. I thought it was very interesting and wanted to share it with you.
WHEN SHOULD YOU THROW IT AWAY?
Most of us discard food we believe is unsafe to eat, but it's important that we understand what food expiration dates mean before we dump our food -- and our money -- down the drain.
ShelfLifeAdvice.com offers these guidelines.
Milk: If properly refrigerated, milk will remain safe, nutritious, and tasty for about a week after the sell by date.
Cottage cheese: Pasteurized cottage cheese lasts for 10-14 days after the date on the carton.
Mayonnaise: Unopened, refrigerated Kraft mayonnaise can be kept for 30 days after its expiration date or three to four months after opening.
Yogurt: Yogurt will remain good seven to 10 days after its sell by date.
Eggs: Refrigerated eggs should last at least three to four weeks after the sell by date.
THE "USE-BY" DATE
The "use-by" or "best if used-by" date indicates the last day that the item is at its best quality as far as taste, texture appearance, odor, and nutritional value. The decline after that is gradual. The use-by date refers to a product that has not yet been opened.
FOOD SAFETY WEB SITES
http://www.foodsafety.gov
http://www.fda.gov/Food
http://www.ehow.com/food-safety
http://www.homefoodsafety.org
http://www.fightbac.org
Doesn't everyone want a snow cone in this hot weather?
Stay cool!
Kathy
And that is just what I am going to do as soon as I finish this post. I thought I would quickly show you the progress I've made on my temperature blankets.
Today was our Crafters meeting at church. I first worked on my current temperature blanket. After four weeks or so I am finally completely caught up. Now it's just one row a day. I laid it out on the sofa at church to take a picture of it.
I think I might run out of the pink I'm using for 80* temperatures. It's supposed to be in the 80s for the rest of the month.
After knitting the one row for today, I brought out Joe's temperature blanket and spent the rest of the time weaving in and trimming the ends. It is finally done and ready to be washed and then used. I laid that out on the sofa too because it is so big.
It is so pretty, but I wish I had made it a bit smaller. It does tell a story though.
Now I must go to bed. I am so tired. See you later.
Kathy
And I am loving this summer in particular. What a good time I'm having.
Yesterday I woke up to a new vlog post from my favorite vlogger, Mrs. Erica. She had gone to her local Target and found all these wonderful things from Hearth & Hand on clearance. Her Target was being renovated so there were storage units in the parking lot, the outside had been painted, and the Dollar Spot was all moved around. A lot of the shelves were empty as things were being moved about. I guess that's why things were on clearance. She said we should look at our Targets too for these items.
I knew things on clearance would not last long, so yesterday afternoon I headed for Target to see what I could find. And when I got to Target ours was also being renovated. Storage units in the parking lot. Outside painted. Inside things moved around, empty shelves and almost no Dollar Spot.
I headed back to the Hearth & Hand section hoping it was still there. It was. But most of what Mrs. Erica showed was completely sold out. I did get some things though.
Remember these little square plates? I showed them to you a while back. I didn't get them because of the price. I use little square plates a lot. And these are so pretty with the three colors of pillow ticking stripe.
And look at the savings!
I also got the flour sack dish towel. But it is so huge that I think I am going to use it as a tablecloth for a small table. You can see the savings with this also.
The other things I wanted were just gone. *sigh* But at least I got these.
I also bought a new fragrance of Febreze: Bora Bora Waters. How nice it is! I love the scent. It's very summery and reminds me of the beach.
We also got some red lentil snacks that we LOVE and iced tea, milk and dishwasher tablets.
When my legs began to hurt I knew it was time to go. But I was so happy with what I got. I kept grabbing Joe's hand and saying, "They have it! I'm so happy!" It was a good day.
And hopefully tomorrow will be one. This is a very busy week for me. Something going every day.
Today was the Ladies Bible Study. Joe went with me and helped Rick who was mowing the grass in our yard.
We are still studying the Fruit of the Spirit and today we talked about Faithfulness. What a great study! It's so important to be faithful and trustworthy.
After the study we all went to Shop Rite and had lunch. Then we took Kathy home and then Debbie to her home. Joe had to go to Lowes to get something to fix one of the toilets at church. Rather than sit in the car and wait for him, I went inside and told him I would meet him in the home decorating department. I always love looking in there.
Today they had grills and outdoor furniture. I took lots of pictures to share with you. I would have loved to buy a new outdoor set, but that's just not possible this year. I did get some ideas though.
This would be way too big for my small yard. But I loved the pretty pot on the table and all the pillows on the chairs.
This is a cute little set. I like the wicker and the little table. And this would definitely fit the yard. But I think I want just a little bit more than this.
I liked this set also. And the pretty pot on the table. But a little too formal for my yard.
I loved these seahorse pillows. I was very tempted to buy them, but the last thing I need is another pillow.
And look at these lanterns. Now this is something I would buy.
There were more pillows. Lots and lots of really pretty pillows. *sigh*
Now this set I really liked. There was something unique about the barrel table.
Such an adorable patriotic wreath. I might have to go back and get that.
These shell lanterns would be perfect for a beach theme.
These chairs looked very comfortable. I can see this on a summer or even autumn evening sitting outside with the firepit going. *hmm...*
I saw Joe at the other end of the aisle and as I was walking up to meet him I saw this display of barbecue seasonings. I have never seen so many different seasonings in one place in my whole life!
And then it was back home. I hope you enjoyed coming along with me on our spontaneous shopping trip. What did I end up with you ask? A $2 bottle of wood glue to work on my one kitchen chair that needs some help. But I had fun looking at the other things.
Kathy
