Happy Halloween Y'all!

The weather alerts kept me awake last night....every time I dozed off, my phone would make that awful loud obnoxious noise for an Emergency Alert...it rained and rained and rained causing flash flooding because of the soaking we got last week.  It is finally all moving off to the East now.  The little cold front that came through sure feels good, I have the windows up and the glass up on the doors...my fur babies are loving it. There is no wind today and the pollen got washed away so am risking it, it smells wonderful and clean. The trees surely shed a lot of their leaves and are floating in the river running out back. My fur babies are all snuggled in their little boxes, aren't they really cute?

They really appreciate the boxes under cover, up off the ground, clean blankets, dry food and a litter box close by (also up off the ground)! Spoiled you say, NOT, they just have me trained really well...ROFLMBO! No wonder all the strays come and stay! I have an Igloo out front that has cat beds inside that 2 share during the rainy and cold days too! There is always dry food and water out for them and I feed them wet food each morning and evening. The birds are fed twice a day too! The squirrels eat all day and hide the acorns on the ground. Each evening, I think the opossum and racoon eat what the cats leave of the dry food.  I've seen a few occasionally!
I made a few pages this week for birthdays...my BIL Jim celebrated on the 27th, the twins Lance & Lamar celebrated on the 28th and I got new photos of all the kiddos, so had to make some for them too and a RAK for my sister Penny's friend Joy, then my "cousin" (through marriage) took a trip to Maine and asked me to do a page for her and one of her and her daughter and a family portrait for my friend Jan.
So I am including all of them in this post so they will be in my printed book at the end of the year. I so enjoy making these pages and especially for other people. Makes me happy!

Thanks to all the lovely designers that I get freebies from to be able to do this...I thank you Kyra and Arlene at With A Russian Dutch Heart, Dawn at OklahomaDawn, Miriam at Miriam's Scraps, Neli at Lugar Encantado da Neli, DigidesignResort, Sweet Pea Designs, Fecnikek and Studio Manu for all these lovely pages and/or elements and especially to Miss Boots (Linda) at Random Thoughts for the wordart. I love all of you and am so very thankful for your generous hearts and awesome talent. You bring lots of joy to my life!
Well, I won't be seeing any of the trick or treaters tonight....they all go to the churches or the malls in the area for the trunk or treat offerings.  It is so much safer for the kids and mostly out of the weather and we really don't have any children to speak of in this neighborhood.  So, the fur babies and I will be all cozy and snuggled together watching TV or reading or maybe even sleeping since last night was interrupted so many times...LOL! I hope to catch a glimpse of Miss Edna and Pogo as they go by on their broom, providing the weather will allow them this far south! Y'all be safe out there and I will check back with you next week, keep on making all those memories to share, we love hearing about them and seeing the photos. Until next blog, many hugs sent your way.  Mat

Wholly Cow!

I can't believe I haven't blogged since the 8th....so much has been going on here!  Great nephew born on the 7th, he and mom is lots of distress....the 8th my sister Kathy had to visit the ER with a severe case of bronchitis and on the 9th, yep, it was my turn to drive to and spend 5 hours at the ER....I could not breathe enough to even talk, had to show my drivers license so they could treat me...it was real scary! I gained 20 pounds overnight! I got a phone call from my friend Jan just as they were taking my BP (220/114) (I never have high blood pressure, they always complain that it is too low!) so she headed to ER to be with me. They took me immediately to trauma and put a nitro patch on my chest, and put a halter monitor on...did a chest x-ray, EKG, I kept telling them it was not my heart, but my bronchial system and lungs. Oh joy, the fun of trying to find a vein for blood and IV....(I'm hard to stick without all the extra fluid)...this only took 5 times...and lots of ugly bruises...they finally used a vein finder and put the IV in my upper inner left arm where they put the blood pressure cuff! After calming a little, the doctor and I discussed what had happened earlier in the week with the visit to my family doctor for the asthma attack and the medicines prescribed.  He started a breathing treatment for the next hour and a half, then did a CT scan of my legs for blood clots as my blood work indicated an elevation of something that might indicate I had one....! My blood pressure finally came back down to an acceptable reading so the ER doctor finally diagnosed a hypertensive episode from the excessive water gain and told me to dc the prednisone and was going to give me a prescription for a water pill, I told him I already take a mild one and would take it when I got home along with all my other daily meds.  Wow, what a trip and so stressful, thanks to Jan and Bill for being there with me.
After I got home and got my daily meds out, I discovered I was out of the water pills and had been for about a week or so...don't know how that happened that the empty bottle got thrown away before the refill was picked up, but....that explained the excessive water gain...I had a friend pick up the pills at the pharmacy for me and dropped them by (I was too exhausted to drive by then)...for 2 days I kept running to the bathroom and all through the nights too..LOL...but the 20 pounds went away, my afib went back in sync and all is right with me again.  The asthma got back under control without the prednisone and I am even off the inhalers again.  So I now have a new system for my refills...this will NOT happen again.
This Thursday evening it started raining and has been raining almost non-stop since...it finally stopped after a shower this morning. (Hurricane Patricia helped send some moisture up to us)  I still have lots of water on the driveway and in the back yard, I also need to sweep up the debris left at my front door from the excessive water....not sure how much our totals wound up but I know we got over 5 inches of rain in those 3 days....but nothing like the totals of 12-14 inches that fell just south of us...so much flooding that they closed Interstate 45 a couple of different times and a train was partially underwater there.  Feel so bad for those that were caught in it and having to spend the night in their cars...all the rescuers worked so hard! We are still experiencing some troubles there, and some minor flooding in low areas around here with some rescues still happening. All my outside fur babies stayed nice and high and dry in their little homes....but I worried about those that were caught with no where to go but up a tree to stay dry!  Poor babies!  We desperately needed some rain as the drought had gotten to the severe stage again, but we didn't need it all at once.  The cold front has pushed through and is pushing the rain eastward....and dropping our humidity and temperatures to more fall like.
Okay, on to more fun things...I did manage a little bit of scrapping time during all the high drama....LOL! Take a look at some of the pages I made!This one I created after little Wayne was born...don't they all look the same?

This is little miss Annabeth admiring herself in the mirror as she dressed up in her Cinderella outfit.  She reminds me of her mother (Amy) and her Mimi (Penny) at that age...look at her expression?  The wording is from Belle from a while back and Ginger fairly recent...the background, lace frame and flower are all from Miriam's Scraps.

This cute frame from Neli was just perfect for this adorable photo of Eliza.....Annabeth actually has this violet toy...LOL!

This pretty QP from Fecnikek is perfect for the photo of Hayden to wish her a happy 7th birthday on the 15th..she is growing so much and so pretty don't you think?

Then just yesterday, this photo was posted on Facebook and Maggie tagged me, so I just had to make a page to honor her triumphs...So proud of you Hayden, again in a page by Fecnikek.

I really must do some catch up on the other kiddos....just haven't had much time lately...and with the storms and lightning strikes...I haven't been able to be on the computer that much...and I have recently gotten in touch with some lost limbs of the family tree that has taken a little bit of time in research! Anyway, gotta get off here now and fix something to eat...finished 2 cups of coffee already! Race is from Talladega this week and the Cowboys are playing the Giants...so you know what I'm doing this afternoon right?  Y'all have a great Sunday and I will try to blog more often.  Keep making those memories to share! Hugs to all! Mat

New Arrival in the Family!

Meet my newest great nephew, Penny's grandson, Wayne Bryant Hawthorne! He was born at 38+ weeks yesterday afternoon weighing in at 8 pounds 7 ounces. Isn't he handsome? He and mama both had some scary moments before arrival as their heart rates were extremely elevated, thus he came into the world a couple of weeks early! He looks like his brother Calvin and sister Hayden.  Both mom & dad, Maggie & Lance are so happy he is here and all is well with him and mama too! Welcome to the family young man, you fill it with more love! I used a new soon-t-be-released kit from Miriam's Scraps called Vintage Baby and the wordart is by AJ's Digi.
I finally went to see the Doctor on  Monday and 2 injections, 2 inhalers and some pills, I got sent home with a scolding about open windows when the ragweed and tree pollen count is so high...bad asthma attack that I have not had in a few years.  Feeling somewhat better, but the prednisone makes me less hungry (good thing), very dry (also good makes me drink more water) water gain in my feet and legs and sleeplessness....NOT A GOOD THING! I've been used to getting 6-7 hours of uninterrupted sleep and now I'm lucky to get 3-4, but I am feeling better and I guess that is what counts most, right?
Okay, I got interrupted, my neighbor just stopped by with some pumpkin bread and short visit, so of course I had to stop and have a slice and a fresh cup of coffee with her.  So enjoyable too, the bread, the coffee and especially the gab session to catch up. Thanks Jan! Now back to what I was doing! Where has the morning gone? I can't believe I started this at 11:15 a.m. and now it is 2:30 p.m.  Time surely flies around here! ROFL!
I also got a cute photo from Amy of Annabeth dressed as Cinderella.  Hayden wore this a few years back and gathered up all the paraphernalia to give to Annabeth, well, of course she had to wear it right away so she could be a princess....here's the page I created of it, using a freebie Disney page I got online. The background is from me with an overlay from HG and the wordart is by Sunshine's Creationz! She reminds me of her mama in this photo and her grandma at that age too! LMBO!

Today is my handsome nephew, Jeff's 37th birthday so I must say Happy Birthday to him as well.  He is my sister Kathy's baby boy!  She sent me this photo of him and his gorgeous bride Tiff just yesterday! They live in Illinois so far away! Here he is in a QP by CT Arlene at With a Russian Dutch Heart's kit Fallicious!

 Well, enough gabbing for this time, must finish the clothes I have in the washer and the load in the dryer so I can stay caught up around here and the fur babies are demanding to be fed, can you believe it? I think they have internal clocks that never forget! Y'all have a great Wednesday and I will chat more the next time...just remember to keep making lots and lots of memories to share! Hugs to all! Mat

Happy Anniversary Kat N Jim!

Hello y'all!  Fall has finally arrived in Texas (at least for the weekend) Thursday morning we woke to temperatures below 70 for the first time in ages...It was 68, I turned off the AC and opened windows to put some fresh air in this shut up house...the fur babies loved it! So did I, got to clean out the space between the window and the screens of the dust, dirt and dead flies....and fur balls dust bunnies all got rounded up too YUCK! We woke to 64 on Friday morning and this morning it was 56....Whoopee!!!  But, all good things will begin to fade away as the temps will be on the rise again next week, one more day to enjoy the nice crispness!  Still no rain in sight, but I did get out and water my plants really well and gave them some miracle grow....just look how pretty they are:

 I think my cactus will have more blooms on it this year, it seems to be thriving well, may have to move it into the ground as it is really growing!

This is the hibiscus on my side of the duplex. It has really had lots of blooms and still have many more buds to open on it.

This is a close up of the blooms, they are striped and the prettiest shade of hot pink.

My Live Forevers are blooming too, all those (purple bush ends) will be new plants next year, just break them off and place them head down in the dirt over the winter.

 The mums are all doing real well too!

Still having problems with the grass returning after all the digging they did in December to put the piers in to level my house again....the planters help to hide it.

 My pansies all took root at the mailbox and seem to be thriving!

My Wandering Jew just keeps on growing and see all the pretty little blooms that are on it the early part of the day!
My bad with having the windows open and being outside too much...the Ragweed and Tree pollen count was astronomical and yep, you guessed it...ALLERGIES....attacking me and causing my asthma to wake up. I am wheezing like bagpipes without any instrument and coughing a lot. I haven't had an attack in years, so all my inhalers are outdated and it's the weekend....but I shut all the windows and taking my Claritin and trying to stay calm (not drinking anything really cold, no eggs, no bananas, no milk products, etc) until I can see the Dr. on Monday! It's a shame too as the weekend temperatures have been perfect....oh, well, it will return eventually and hopefully the Ragweed will recede some as well.
Today, my sister Kathy and her hubby Jim have been married for 45 years! I called to wish them Happy Anniversary and she says she is not feeling well again.  I feel for her, I know the COPD really bothers here this time of the year, but she was waiting for Jason, Christina and the grand kids to show up for dinner and that will cheer her a bit I am sure.  She sent me the cutest video of Jayson (who turned 4 last Sunday) singing to his mommy! They are growing so fast and not really babies anymore (Jade is 8, and Ruby is 6).  Got a couple of photos from Amy of Annabeth with Hayden that I will have to scrap this week...Hayden will be 7 on the 15th...I can't believe it! Calvin will be 2 next month and mama Maggie is 38 weeks along with Chase!  Amy's Annabeth was 2 last month and Eliza was born this past May. Nope, they don't stay little very long!!
Well, I think I need to go rest some more, y'all have a fantastic weekend of making memories to share and enjoy yourselves...will chat more with you a little later. Hugs, Mat