We had a fun get together for Leslie's birthday this weekend.

Brenda made this cute cake for her!
Mom was a having a lot of pain in her neck this weekend. Heating pad and Tylenol seemed to help a little. She was really weak when I got there on Friday. I helped her up to get to the bathroom and her legs just wouldn't hold her up. We had to sit her down again for a few minutes, then try again. When I read over the notes from the home health ladies, they said she had been having some pretty rough days. They said they found her sitting on the kitchen floor one day, and laying on the floor by her bed another time. So hard to see her like this. I wish so much that she would come live with me. It breaks my heart every time I have to say goodbye to her. "Oh you have to go?" then she just looks really sad.
I was planning to stay till Sunday morning but had a little disaster and had to leave Saturday night.
Jenny and I decided we would each make about 35 popcorn balls each to give out to the fathers on Sunday. I thought I could just make them up to mums on Saturday then zoom home Sunday morning to make it to church after I got mom up and going for the day.
So I go to make the popcorn. I took the first batch out of the microwave and only about a third of the kernels had popped. So I put it in for a little longer time and this time it was burnt. AHHHHHH. I think mom's microwave is the original from about 1980! Anyway I realized that it wasn't going to work and I was going to have to go home to make the popcorn balls. I called the home health care center and asked if they would have someone come in Sunday morning to help mom and they said they would.
All the time I was doing this, mom was sound asleep on the couch. I hated to bother her because she seemed so peaceful, but after about two hours, I knew I better wake her up or she would never sleep at night. So I went and sat by her and gently touched her hand. She didn't wake up so I said 'mom'. She woke up and said she was having a good dream. I asked her about it and she said she was sitting by daddy out in the gazebo in the swing and he was holding her hand. She said she was singing " I found my thrill...on blueberry hill!"
I'm sure sorry I interrupted that dream!
Anyway, I made her some scrambled eggs and toast and we sat and visited for a while, then I helped her get up to bed. She said she would just watch tv till she could fall asleep. I didn't get on my way home till about 8:30, which gets me home about 10:00. I called Kelley on the way and told him what had happened with the popcorn and when I walked in the door, he had made all the popcorn we had. What a sweetie...he's so good to me.
I bought a few marigolds and planted them in the round bed. We are trying to minimize the places that need to be watered but I couldn't leave that place bare.
When we were all there, we walked around the yard to try to figure out what projects needed to be done. Wow, where do you start. Everywhere you look, things are falling apart.
I pulled weeds all afternoon Friday and you could hardly tell I had done anything. The rock garden is over grown with ferns and weeds, but there are a lot of perennials blooming too.

I love the way the beauty bush hangs over the driveway. And it smells so good!

Time to start irrigating again...actually all this rain has really saved us a lot of work. We were supposed to start in May. We got the schedule all worked out for the summer. I'm going to miss K.C.'s help this year.

So many limbs and pine needles along the ditch...it's going to be a mess when we irrigate. Boy we sure didn't realize all the work daddy did to keep the yard looking so beautiful. It's a full time job!

The raspberries didn't get trimmed this last year so they all over the place, and full of weeds. They were covered with blossoms and bees though, so I think we'll get a lot of fruit!

These arborvitae trees are just a big mess. Haven't been trimmed in years and are just plain ugly. They gotta go! This is one project we decided needs to happen this year.

Roof on gazebo needs some work...along with the roof on the old house, dream house, and moms house needs to have the rest of the shingles put on there. Then there's the greenhouse...the whole roof is caving in! It's hard to know what to do...should we fix it where we don't keep any flowers in there anymore?

The pond is so full of algae and this plant that the fish cant even breath. They come up to the top of the water and it looks like they are trying to get some air! It really needs to be emptied and cleaned out and patched. The drain is also clogged so the pump cant' circulate the water...that's probably why the fish cant breath! Also a 'must do' for this year.

Teina, Brenda, and Leslie and I sat and tried to talk about the future of mom's place...we all feel the same way about it...don't want to see it sold or tore down....but then what will happen? None of us can afford to buy the other's out of their share and who could live there? The house needs to be either totally remodeled or just torn down. The yard is a huge job...I mean you've got to love yard work to take that on....Teina and I both do, but how could we work it out?

We know we are going to have to make some big decisions soon...one's that we don't want to face. I love my sisters so much and pray that these decisions will not cause any bad feelings between us. I can't see it being a problem... but I'm still dreading the whole situation.
Gave me a lot to think about on my drive home.