Busy as a Beaver

Well, Alexa's graduation went fantastic. We had a great trip up there -- staying with Ashley & Jimmy on the way up. Alexa's party was also fun -- probably the last party at the park. Aaron bought Alexa a beautiful necklace as a graduation gift. Then we went with Dale & Janis back to Ashley's for her baby shower on May 17. Dale & Janis then followed us through the back roads of Arkansas, Oklahoma, & Texas to get to our place on Monday, the 18th. These four old folks were pretty achy by the time we arrived home 10 hours later. I wish we all lived closer together.

Well, Dale caught a couple bass at about 2 pounds, but I saw his huge one get away. Nana did fry fish for us one day -- she does the best at it. But Dale was having too much fun to just fish -- changing a flat tire in the 95 degree heat, cutting trees and brush for a burn pile, and working on fixing things around this place. Janis went nuts sorting cards for us. We now have them organized.

Janis won the Pegs and Jokers game we played one night. The last night they were here, as we were playing Mexican train, Dale stomped all of us with a score of about 28 while the rest of us were close to 200 points. He went out every time but once. Nana and I had a lot of fun with Dale and Janis visiting for the week.

We got a "pod" (a cargo container 20 feet long) to put Nana's mom's stuff in. Then last Saturday and on Memorial Day we carried trailer loads of "stuff" and put it in the pod.

Nana was mowing Memorial Day evening when she yelled "snake" at me. I "ran" (as fast as my sore muscles would move) to get the gun. We thought it was a huge water Moccasin and kept the dogs away from it, but after I shot it, I saw it was just a chicken snake.

Nana's breast biopsy surgery this morning went well. She's taking it very slow today. We find out Friday afternoon whether it was just calcium deposits or possibly cancerous. I've been praying that it's just calcium. More later on that.

We go to Nana's Johnson reunion this coming weekend.

Time Flies

Who said that things slow down with retirement? Nana and I have been so busy I can't keep up with what we've done. I'm afraid to retire myself because then we'll be moving at warp speed.

Got rid of 5 ducks this past week. Finally planted the okra, eggplant, peppers, beets, and zucchini. Have had to do a lot of watering because of the draught. Brought another truckload of stuff from Nana's mom's house. Nana repainted a cabinet and has been going though boxes of stuff. Meanwhile Nana has had a fight with diverticulitus. And so on.

Last week was the annual International Team Excellence Competition and I was a judge for the 10th time. This year the competition was in Houston, so I commuted (4 hrs. a day). I judged teams from Boeing C-17 Retrofitting, from a chemical company in India, and from CSX railroad operations. All three had amazing projects and it was hard to tell who had done the best. Nana went with me on Wednesday to hear a speaker on Innovation and a speaker on Workplace environment. Then we ate lunch at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant.

It was great having all the kids call for “Mother’s Day.” Nana is a special mother! We're fixing to leave for Alexa's graduation this coming week. Really looking forward to this!