Update on Odie, Linda & family

OK folks we are winding this week down and only one more day separating Linda and I from our holiday weekend in Siler City, NC. Yep, heading back to the Celebrity Dairy for some relaxation and loving on some young goats. I won't be needing that coat this time around

As you may remember from a previous post Linda's Aunt Frances lives near the dairy in an independent living facility so we will be picking her up to spend some time with us at the dairy to give her a change of scenery.

Feel like I need to catch you up on some of the stuff that has been going on in my neck of the woods for the last week. My Aunt Katie spent a few days in the hospital due to a severe reduction in her level of platelets in her blood. It was finally determined that she has an infection in her stomach that was causing the problem and meds have been started that should correct this situation.

During her stay in the hospital my Uncle Lester was looking after Polly her dog and putting her to bed in the house each night. When Aunt Katie came home a couple of days ago Uncle Lester visited her and indicated he would not be back after heading back to his home which is next to Aunt Katie's. Well, Polly was outside and waiting for Uncle Lester to come back and put her to bed so she spent the night sleeping on his porch, unknown to him, until the next morning expecting the routine to play out as usual.

Yesterday Uncle Lester went fishing which is his only real pleasure in life as he approaches his mid 90's. While fishing he accidently caught a hook through his finger. Not having anything to cut the hook with he backed it out of his finger, barb and all. He got home and cleaned it out with peroxide so hopefully there will not be any infection.

Linda had a memorable week as she reached her goals at the rehab facility and graduated out to continue a series of exercises at home until she is allowed to return to work. Seems like forever since May 31st when she had her surgery.

8:30 and close to my bedtime folks so I don't know how much activity I will have in the next few days as we take it easy at Celebrity Dairy but I will try to keep up to date on reading & commenting on blogs.

Wordless Wednesday

The ABC's of Genuine Happiness

Accept your reality

Be present. Be Bold.

Create something exciting.

Drink plenty of water. Dance

Exercise daily. Eat fresh foods

Feed your emotions. Face fear.

Go outside and observe nature. Give.

Hug often. Help others.

Ignite your passions.

Jump through your comfort zone.

Kiss passionately. Keep looking forward.

Laugh. Love. Learn to let go.

Meditate daily. Make goals

Never give up on what you want.

Own a pet. Observe beauty.

Pray, paint, play an instrument.

Quit a bad habit. Quite your mind.

Read. Relax. Reinvent yourself.

Smile. Sleep.

Take power naps. Talk Wisely

Unleash your strengths.

Vent. Visualize your dreams.

Walk. Write. Watch the sun set.

Xerox your smiling face.

Yell less. Yield to your thoughts.

Zap negativity

From Thehappyself.com

A great recipe for my blog family

Last week Linda and I visited my Aunt Katie and we had food to eat while we caught up on how everyone was doing with other Aunts & Cousins there. One of the dishes was a marinated vegetable salad that was truly awesome. The kind of dish that you eat until you get the last drop out of the bowl. You should try it very soon.

1 Cup vegetable oil--- 1 Cup Vinegar--- 1 1/2 Cups Sugar

Combine in a pot and heat until the sugar melts.

1 Can of French style green beans

1 Can of red kidney beans

1 Can of Shoe Peg corn

1 Can of small garden peas

1 Medium green pepper chopped

1 Medium onion (white or red) chopped

Drain the liquid from each can of vegetables and pour vegetables in a bowl. Pour the oil, vinegar & sugar mixture over the vegetables, cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 10 hours. It is the kind of recipe that is better the longer it stays in the marianade but I guarantee it won't last long before you have to make another one. Enjoy.

A couple of things

It is a beautiful day here in NC so Rocky & I were out walking and paid a visit to "grandma's" apple tree in her front yard. I was sampling some of the fruit and pick one that had imperfections or small areas starting to decay. I would clean the good part on my shirt and eat what I could and toss the rest across the ground with Rocky chasing after it. He would lick it and look at me like he was saying do it again. After I had my satisfaction of green apples and tossed the last one Rocky picked it up and decided it was his. He brought it all the way to the house and has eat quite a bit of it by now.

The other thing I wanted to let know about is that the City of Weldon has put a new statue in place letting everyone know that our Roanoke River and specifically this area is the Rock Fish Capital of the World. There is a lot of fishing tournaments that take place here so I guess there may be some truth to their claim.

It is mid afternoon on this saturday and we have put up squash in the freezer, been to town for groceries and had an early afternoon nap. A very good day so far. Hope you all have a great weekend.

The Fabulous Five

Let me introduce you to a rare photo of the "fabulous five" taken this week during a family gathering. From left to right are my Aunt Doris, Aunt Eleanor, Aunt Daisy Mae, Uncle Lester and Aunt Katie. Ranging in age from the youngest Aunt Doris at 82 to Aunt Katie at 102.

They are an amazing bunch and to be around them for a few minutes is a rewarding experience listening to them recount the details of long ago with crystal clarity. These are my dad's brother and sisters and I am still learning things about my dad that I never knew. I am truly blessed.

True Colors Swap

Recently one of my new friends, Jessica over at Duck Duck Cow invited me to participate in a "True Colors Swap" and we teamed up. She got my package the other day and I got hers today and it was like Christmas in my office. Before I get into explaining about the assortment be sure to pay her a visit and you will be glad you did. The first picture is of the contents minus the filler paper.

Next was a banner you can see that goes under the pictures over my desk. It is one of my favorite verses in the bible from Joshua.

Next is all the stuff laid out before I started unwrapping. She even had them numbered.

Number 1 was a couple of great popcorn buckets with a number of microwavable packages of popcorn inside. That will come in handy when I get the munchies.

What can be in #2?
#2 had a pack of Stride chewing gum. Very tasty stuff.

Next was #3 which was a little bigger.

A handy, dandy clip reading light to help me when I need some more light reading.

Here comes #4
Something everyone can surely use, a first aid kit I can have in my car.

We're up to #5
I don't know if you are like me but when I use a pen that writes bold my hand writing gets sloppy. #5 had two of the best writing pens I've had in some time. They are Gel pens and have a fine point and so appreciated.

OK gang, we're coming up on #6
A note pad for those times when I need to jot something down and will fit right into my pocket.

#7 is a little heavy, what can it be?

Oh my goodness, it's big, it's chocolate with peanuts. Don't get much better than that.

#8 is a large one for sure.

Now that is what I call a calculator. Even the visually impaired would have no trouble seeing the keys on this one and the screen flips up for visibility. Great for my desk.

Jessica knew I liked blue so she had some stuff in the box for color which I liked. The bag of beads will definitely be going to my wife who is currently making bracelets.

The last thing was tied into Fathers Day and this was really special folks. Inside this card was instructions to go over to Amazon and add $10 to my account for purchasing books to go into my Kindle. This one really made me smile.

So my friends that is how my first exposure to a swap with blog friends turned out and I couldn't be more pleased. Make sure you hop over to say hi to Jessica at Duck Duck Cow and have a blessed day.

Special Effects Wednesday

As you can clearly see Odie has been having way too much fun this morning. My good friend Annah over at Red Means Go introduced me to a couple of unique sites that you can play around with and create fascinating special effects with your photos.

The first site is here and as you can see below you can take a number of pictures and have them appear on a cube. There is also an animation feature that has the cube rotating.

For chuckles and grins you can even have your face appear on different denominations of currency.

For that Christmas spirit look you can use ornaments like below with Adele and her hubby. You know she was the one singing the Finish lullaby on a previous post.

On the one below this is fiery look of a painting Adele's MIL did for their wedding. You can go here to check out this site but I like the other site better.

Just another of the currency effect using Adele's wedding portrait, then me as a cartoon with a border of snowmen and then a normal picture framed with snowmen.

Hope you all are having a wonderful hump day. We had a great time at my Aunt Katie's last night with both of my sister and their hubbys there, a couple of cousins, and 2 more of my aunts, Doris & Eleanor. We had fun sitting around talking about things that used to make our lives so interesting growing up. We need to do that more often.

Tour of my area

Thought it was about time I showed you want the area is like where we live so Linda and I went out this afternoon and took some pictures. Where we live is actually a cluster of 3 towns. Halifax being the smallest, Weldon next in size and Roanoke Rapids the largest.

Very close to our property is this creek bridge. The creek is narrow but lots of people can be found there fishing.

Rocky anointing the swing set concrete on his rounds about the yard.

We are 2 miles from Interstate 95 and one of the convenience store try to be fancy with this lion out front.

OK the first town is Halifax or as they like to call it (Historic Halifax) where the Halifax Resolve, precursor to the Declaration of Independence was written. They have restored a number of homes from that era.

The old courthouse which is used primarily for voting and county offices.

On the road from Halifax to Weldon

Where the Roanoke River (Rockfish Capital of the world) come through Weldon. Many people like to put in their small boats to play with the rapids.

One guy carrying his to get above the rapids

Unique to Weldon is this underground walkway that comes out on the other side of the street. Never could see why it was necessary but unique to experience.

Downtown Weldon on a Sunday afternoon.

Coming out of Weldon heading for Roanoke Rapids largest of the 3 towns.

Entrance to one of the larger homes in Roanoke Rapids.

One of the newer developments in town

At a park off Roanoke Ave. is this statue of Samuel Patterson, not sure what he did to get this attention.

Decorative clock near the park.

In the park is this covered area where groups are scheduled to perform during the summer concert series.

Covered area and bleacher for towns people to sit.

Many homes in the Roanoke Rapids area are classified as mill house that were built to house employees for the huge textile industry that flourished many years ago. The house on the left is where Linda's daughter's first real boy friend lives. They have both moved on but I thought it was unique when Linda pointed it out who's home it was as I was just taking a random picture.

The big cemetary in Roanoke Rapids.

Some cute ducks taking a break from a decent sized pond we passed by.

Unusual looking thingy at the Dominion Power facility. One of their smaller places as they supply a large area with power.

The Roanoke Rapids Lake recreation area where lots of people go to cool off during the summer.

Playground equipment for the kids at the lake area.

Oh well, I saw this in the lake parking lot and had to take a picture of it.

Down the street in Roanoke Rapids

An old church in Roanoke Rapids with unique architecture.

Ideal Home Medical where Linda is employed.

Getting close to the end of our journey at one of our favorite places on a hot day to get a gift from God.

Of course, Mocha Frappies

The almost famous Roanoke Rapids Theater which started out as the Randy Parton Theater. A big stink happened and Randy left leaving Roanoke Rapids to figure out what to do with this 30 million dollar investment. It is still a heavy burden to the taxpayers of the city. I went there one time to see my heart throb Lori Morgan but haven't been back.

The Hilton Garden Inn was built next to the theater when thoughts were that it would bring people from states away. They are doing a pretty good business even if the theater isn't.

Hope you all have a great week filled with lots of joy, happiness and good health.