This Perfectly Imperfect Life

A week ago this past Friday, I stopped in Bog Lots with Mom.  I love browsing in that store! I don't always buy something, but I do more often than not. I think my original intention before we got there was to look for books (most are $2 & $3) but I'm easily distracted upon walking through those sliding glass doors!  I love Patriotic decor in our home from May through September 11th (some stays year round as it does in our northern home) and I immediately set out to get a closer look at what they had on display in the center of the store.  (Told ya, easily distracted!) Large glass candles for $8!  Now that caught my attention.  Sniffing candles is dangerous business for me - one bad sniff and I've got a migraine!  But that bright red one... "Apple Cobbler."  Hm...  I chose to live dangerously, pulled the lid off and took a tentative sniff. Instantly I was walking into my husband's family cabin again, in the summer, and greeted by the mu...

@DeptVetAffairs: "Let us not mourn for the men who have died fighting, but rather let us be glad that such heroes have lived." -General George S. Patton Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

I've been trying to get a photo of at least one of the Scottish cows on this local farm for what seems like eons. Today everything aligned when we caught a red light and I happened to have my (cell) camera in hand. (Hubbs was driving). Just after I took this, the cow switched to a skinny birch tree behind that large one and was finally able to scratch its' ears!

Them being Hubbs & I, last night. Another birthday of mine has come and gone! I wrote before falling asleep last night: Content and Blessed. Good outweighs the bad inside. I've come a long way, still have a ways to go. But I've made it through much!

Trying to get the hang of using the video camera on my BlackBerry and posting video's here since lately it seems all the rage to do garden walk video's!  The montage was actually supposed to appear at the tail end of the longer video but somehow I created a separate video instead.  I made a new video today which I'll post later or tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday.  I made these last week after combining the front garden with the one throughout the back yard.  (For the down low on all of that (why it happened, how it happened etc) click here for my post entitled When Two Become One).     Welcome to my humble and deeply loved wee back yard!  (The only yard I've ever had!!!)

This should be it.  (Click on photo for larger view).

Click on photos for a larger view. It's said that God always gives you what you need when you need it and unexpectedly on Tuesday, the opportunity to combine my front garden with my garden in the back yard presented itself and I threw myself into it, with help, and was so thankful for the distraction! (To see why, click here ). It's something I've been considering for a while now, but as you know I can't do the lifting & moving, but didn't want to bother Hubbs with it given how busy he's been with both jobs and his American Legion Post recently. (He's been tired, not to mention he's having problems with his left knee again and will likely need surgery so I don't want him wrestling the huge containers). When the landscapers offered to help me, I couldn't say no! The landscapers moved All of my containers from out front to around back, as well as the front arbor, and placed the 3 Very heavy Forsythia bushes for me where I wante...

Click on pics for larger view. Unfortunately what brings me back to this side of the river today, specifically to this view of the river, is the hospital again, today for my mom. (Visit my (Not So) Wordless Wednesday post on Diggin' Around for a full update about mom by clicking here ). In the top picture, centered at the horizon, is a tower mostly obscured by fog and rain. Very close to that tower is home. It is a beacon for me now when I'm here, as a patient or as a daughter for her mother. I'd be very happy never to see this view again and stay on that side of the river.

Mom's 72nd birthday was this past Friday. She's been having a rough time lately dealing with all she's been going through since her mini-stroke and she's still having speech & swallowing issues so she wasn't much in the mood for celebrating. So I got her a Boston Cream Pie cake (because it's her favorite and because it's soft enough for her to eat without a problem) and a pretty bouquet of flowers and we had cake for lunch on her birthday! She had her speech therapy evaluation 2 days before her birthday and is right now having a MBS, modified barium swallow - in a nutshell: xrays are taken as she eats & drinks so they can see why she's having a problem swallowing. We should hear by the end of this week exactly what the plan of action will be for her therapy and she'll begin next week. I'll tell you one thing, I am not used to Not being the patient! And I'm not used to mom not only being the patient, but acting elderly way ...

"There's Rosemary, that's for remembrance." -William Shakespeare, Hamlet. 13 years. It's amazing one can live so long after such heartbreak. But here I am. You're always in my heart B, Mama loves you...

Click on pics for larger view. 1) Arriving in Atlantic City on Saturday. 2) Inside The Golden Nugget Casino (where we watched The Kentucky Derby) 3) Sunday morning, ready to leave AC looking at Absecon Lighthouse 4) Bye bye AC!  (Looking from Route 30) 5) Favorite breakfast spot on the way home from AC 6) Tuckerton Lighthouse

My Dogwood has only just begun to bloom!