Thanksgiving 2013

Jerry & I went to Mom's for Thanksgiving dinner. Sadly, Marge just wasn't up to attending. We had talked it up the last couple weeks and her ALF had her dressed up and hair done but when Jerry went to pick her up she had nodded off and refused to go. We're learning you can't get agreement from her if you wake her up. He hung around a while hoping she would change her mind but, instead, we had our first Thanksgiving without her.

What a surprise when we got there. We were expecting cousins Lea and Sonja (with their husbands) but Aunt Mary and Uncle Larry were there too! Mom knew but didn't tell any of us. We had a nice meal and a nice visit. After dinner mom and I went to Michael's which is our Thanksgiving tradition. Every year I ask the Michael's staff how they feel about working Thanksgiving evening and they say they love it because if you work Thanksgiving night you get black Friday off.

Mom's beautiful fireplace and the garland we made for it last year

Me and Jerry

Cousin Lea and Don

Aunt Mary and Uncle Larry

Cousin Sonja and Tommy

The Thanksgiving table

More Aunts with a Couple Cousins Thrown In

This is one of the first sights I saw this morning - my wierd Aunt Hellen wearing rollers. Like that wasn't traumatic enough, she also wore them when we went to Denny's for breakfast!


I thought this was a lovely photo of Aunt Ola Fay in the lobby of the hotel where we stayed last night.

FINALLY Aunt Joyce and Uncle Bob arrived today. Now all the sisters are together. Whew. Joyce and Kunkel Bob closed their business to attend. Thank you.


Here is a photo of my mom and all her sisters arranged by age. You can figure out which direction that age thing goes as I am staying out of it if you guess wrong! LOL (L to R: Ola frim Arkansas, my mom Velear from Florida, Aunt Joyce from Arkansas, Aunt Mary from Florida, and Aunt Hellen from Washington/New Mexico)

Aunt Mary & Uncle Larry's daughter Elizabeth and her son Seth. They came down from Georgia for this special event.

Aunt Mary & Uncle Larry's oldest daughter Rhonda and her daughter Rachel. Rhonda came from Arkansas and Rachel from Tenessee.

Aunts

My mom, my cousin Leona (Lee) and I traveled to Beverly Hills today to see the Beverly Hillbillies, LOL. Actually it's Beverly Hills Florida and my Aunt Mary (mom's sister) and Uncle Larry will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on Monday. Hard to believe because they look like kids in the photo below. In fact, I believe their daughters may be older than them, LOL.

Mary & Larry, Dec 2008

Aunt Ola Faye, another of mom's sisters, who I hadn't seen in 15 years. It was fun catching up with her.

My mom with Aunt Hellen in the background. All these photos were taken in Aunt Mary's kitchen. Her kitchen is always so clean and perfect. How does that happen? I want one like that.

Lee checking out Hellen's grey. Everyone is amaized that Hellen has very little grey and is in her 60's (but you didn't hear her age from me). Lee is my mom's deceased sister's daughter but they were raised almost as siblings.

Finally Aunt Hellen, mom's youngest sister.

Tomorrow we should see another of mom's sisters, Aunt Joyce and her husband Uncle Bob. Also Aunt Mary's daughter and granddaughter should arrive before we leave for home. Mom's mother had 11 children (9 females/2 males) and those mentioned here are the remaining surviving siblings.

Diaper Dawg

If anyone reading this knows Mary Heckerman in Kodiak, please be sure to send her to my blog. I know that she misses Chloe the chihuahua since our move from Kodiak.

You might think that you are looking at a chihuahua rigged to pull a dog sled but what you are really seeing is my desperate attempt to save my floors from an incontinent chihuahua. After months of trying to shadow the dog and keeping her in a cage when I couldn't shadow her, I came up with the idea of diapering her. I went to Walgreens and bought newborn diapers with the thought that a chihuahua might be newborn size - 7 lbs, right? They were too small plus no place for her tail.

Second try. Went to a pet superstore and bought some sort of diaper pant (the denim contraption on her backend) and these liner things that are supposed to absorb urine. Bought size XS because she is a chihuahua. Pants were too small and the pads weren't up to the job. Saw doggie diapers but they were over $1 each and I was estimating needing 5 per day. Was concerned about impact on landfill.

Third try. Went back to Walgreens and bought the next size diapers up from newborn. Better fit but still had tail issue. Cut hole for tail but sorta compromised diaper. Plus, I either had to have the closure part on the belly of the dog where it was hard to get to or have the most absorbant part on the dogs back instead of her undercarriage. Still concerned with landfill and eventually diaper slipped off anyway.

Fourth try. Went to different brand pet superstore and bought the doggie diapers. They have absorbant part in the right spot and a hole for the tail. Whoopie! So excited. Foolishly bought a size XS. Could barely close them and they wouldn't stay on.

Fifth try. Back to store and bought size small, which fit, but eventually the diaper worked it's way off - especially if it got "heavy" from use. Concern for landfill waning.

Sixth try. Bought another diaper pant thing but in size small. The pant thing over the diaper seemed to be the ticket EXCEPT it was still sliding off her bum but more slowly.

Seventh solution. Rigged up velcros tabs to come off harness and attach to pant thing and then close the pant thing over the bottom of the velcro tabs.

SUCCESS! Sorry landfill.

Vickie