I called my daughter today to wish her happy birthday since today is her 35th birthday.  When she came to the phone she couldn’t hardly talk because she has strep-throat and the flu. 

While we were talking she told me that she had gone to the emergency room because her job (she works at Sonic) required that she have a doctors excuse to miss work.  This didn’t surprise me because about 10 years ago when I worked at McDonalds and had the flu they required that I have a doctors excuse.   I thought it was ridiculous because I never missed work.  I was there every day that they had me scheduled and fought them tooth and nail when they would try to start sending me home after only working for a couple of hours. 

What I want you all to think about is this.  A lot of our society eats fast food.  Even when I worked, I ate fast food for lunch just so that I could have a hot meal.  Not all job locations have a kitchen that allows you to heat up food.  I almost always cooked a homemade meal for supper.  It’s the flu and cold season and a lot of flu’s and cold that are passed around just because food establishments require people to either come in to work or bring in a doctors excuse.  Most people who work in food establishments don’t make very much money nor do they have health insurance available to them.  Most of them can’t afford to miss work much less pay for a visit to the doctor. 

We have health regulations that require an employee to report a fever or diarrhea to management.  That employee should be taken away from all food preparation or serving, in fact the employee should be sent home.   That doesn’t happen more times than it does.  Restaurants don’t have anyone looking over their shoulder for these types of violations.  Sure the health department comes in and does inspections, but if there aren’t any violations the health department usually doesn’t show up but twice a year.

So what is the solution?  We could boycott these establishments but the problem is that you aren’t aware that there is some one in the kitchen that is sick and fixing your food because the kitchen staff is always behind closed doors. 

What I have elected to do is based on personal experience.  I know how McDonalds operates therefore I make a conscious decision to not eat at their restaurants every.  I will no longer be eating at Sonic because now that I know from my daughter that they also require sick people to come to work I won’t be spending my money with them.  And during this time of year when the flu is at it’s peek, I’m making a conscious decision to avoid all restaurants.  

We had a great day today and a  very good visit with the kids.  It’s always great whenever we get to see the grandkids. 

I called Keith about 10 a.m. to see how long it would be before they got here and they were eating breakfast at McDonalds and were just about to leave Newport which is about a 45 minute drive from here.  I asked Keith to see if they had the McRib sandwiches over there because Hubby had been wanting one and the McDonalds here had quit serving them because it was a limited time thing.  Keith tried to talk the manager into making them some early and explained the situation with Hubby and his eating thing but they couldn’t do it because grill temps for lunch are different than breakfast temps.  Keith told him they would hang around and wait because since his step dad could eat and wanted a McRib sandwich by damn he was going to make sure that he got one.  Since Keith and the bunch hung around and waited for them to do the change over, McDonalds threw in an extra sandwich and fries and a drink in appreciation for him waiting. 

My daughter was in exceptionally fine form today.  I didn’t have to put her into a time out one single time.  In fact we had the best visit we have had in years.  We looked at picture that I had scanned and saved on my computer of her when she was little and we marveled at how much Katie looks just like her when she was that age.

I got Keith and Heath (grandson that is 6 weeks away from being 16) to take the toolbox off the truck.  I’m so short, I just can’t see the tailgate when I looked out the back window nor can I see it in the rear view mirror.  It has always been my big hang up about driving the truck.  Hubby wasn’t real happy about taking the tool box off (I think it’s a man thing) but he was pretty understanding about it and agreed that it needed to be done at least until he can get where he can drive again.

After they left we went down to Dennis and Margaret’s to watch the Superbowl.  Dennis was already to come up to the house and haul Hubby’s recliner down to their house so that he could be comfortable.  Hubby was comfortable enough sitting on their over-stuffed love seat.  We had all kinds of snack to eat during the game and at half time Margaret fixed chili-dogs for all of us.  It did Hubby some good to get out and socialize for a bit.

All in all it was a pretty good day…except, and can you believe this, I didn’t take one single picture.   Hubby is a little tired tonight, but he says it’s a good tired. 

It was bound to happen.  We thought that it wouldn’t, maybe it was just wishful thinking on our part.  Hubby started losing his hair today.  I think I’m more upset over this than he is.  He’s taken it all in stride in his usual fashion, me…not so much.  I guess for me it’s just one more glaring reminder that he’s a very sick man. 

My kids are coming tomorrow.  I called Keith and asked him to bring his hair clippers.  We’re going to shave Hubby’s head so that we don’t end up with his hair falling out all over the place. We’ll just help it along since it’s bound and determined to fall out.  He’s going to shave his beard and mustache off too.  I’ve always hated his beard and mustache but dang if I don’t hate that he’s having to shave it off because it’s going to fall out anyway.  He’s always been so proud of his beard and was always getting compliments on it.  It just makes me feel bad that he’s going to lose that. 

My daughter and her three kids are coming with Keith and his family, I think Kendall is going to sit this one out so that his sister can come.  I have mixed feeling about her coming.  I love my daughter but dang if she doesn’t wear a person out to be around her.  The best way to describe her is she is like a hyper active puppy.  She always talking (loudly) and has to be the center of attention.  There is nothing calm or serene about her.  In that regard she is nothing like her mother nor her father either now that I think about it.  If she didn’t look so much like her dad, we’d swear that they had switched babies on us in the hospital when she was born.  She’ll be 35 on the 26th of February but I bet if she gets to be too much for me, I can give her a time out and send her outside.  It’s probably a good thing that it’s going to be nearly 60F tomorrow.

We’re back!  We had a really good time.  Of course it wasn’t possible to have a family gathering without a little bit of drama, I’m going to put that in the bad section.  It’s nice to be home though.  I told Hubby when we were almost home I didn’t know which to kiss; my bed or my computer. 

The Bad:
Hubby and Ma both lost their voices.  Hubby lost his the day after Christmas and it still isn’t back.  Ma lost hers on the 28th.  I called and got her into her doctors office New Years Eve and when we left Saturday it had started coming back.  This was major for a woman who’s motto is "Help I’m talking and I can’t shut up".  It was pretty quite while she and Hubby had no voice.

Hubby’s youngest brother decided to just up and quit his job and move up to his cabin.  The bad part is that he was living with Ma and it’s kind of crappy that he’d move out when she needs him to be there more than any other time.

The Good:
Hubby’s oldest daughter has started trying to build a relationship with him.  She’s bound and determined that her son will get to know his grandfather even though she didn’t get to know her dad while she was growing up.  She invited us to dinner Friday night before we left on Saturday.  This was a MAJOR step because she’s always let her mother, even though she’s in her 30′s, dictate whether or not she see’s her dad.  She has a husband that is helping her get some backbone where her mother is concerned.

While we were visiting Ma, I did all the cooking, cleaning, and laundry for her.  I’m hoping that’s why she was feeling good (other than loosing her voice) while we were there. 

The Really Ugly:
On the morning of Keith and Kendall’s birthday, Keith called me to tell me that Priscilla had lost the baby.  She was 7 weeks along.  Pretty much a sucky way to spend your birthday.  Ironically it was 2 years to the day when she had the ectopic pregnancy and lost that baby when the fallopian tube burst.  I was too far away to get there to comfort them and did the best I could do by phone.  I’m extremely grateful that he had his brother and sister there.

That’s a short synopsis of my last 10 days.  Tomorrow I’ll have a picture of what we woke up to one morning.

Yesterday was absolutely wonderful.  It’s been way too long since I’ve had all of my kids together at one place in almost seven years and even longer since I’ve had them all together for Christmas.  Hubby and I were talking about it on the way home and it’s been at least 10 years since we’ve had a Christmas with all of them.

Here is the only picture that was taken of the whole group minus Hubby because he is the one taking the picture. 

And remember how Garret wasn’t going to sit on Santa’s lap?  Well, since Santa came to his house to see him, he crawled right up on Santa’s lap and told Santa what he wanted for Christmas which was "what’s over there" and pointed to the gifts already under the tree. 

The one thing that I have been able to teach my Grand kids, starting when they were old enough to talk in sentences is that no matter what I don’t want them to forget that Nana loves them.  Every visit with them I’ll ask them what it is I’ve told them to never forget.  Heath and Elrod are the only two that without fail always answer that I’ll always love them.  So, my son Keith had taken a picture of Heath, Dalton, Katie and Garret together.  He took it to Walmart and had it printed, then framed it and gave it to me as a Christmas present.  He knows that pictures mean more to me than anything else he could have given me.  But what had me in tears was when I read the gift tag it said:  "To Nana From: Heath, Dalton, Katie and Garret" and underneath that was written "Nana will always love us" and Heath had made the gift tag.  He may be 6′ tall and 15 years old and have a smart mouth, but the fact that he remembers that Nana will always love all of them just made me tear up.

And one of the best parts of the day?  The JackASS stayed at home because "he’s passing a kidney stone"…except that he had Kendall take him over to a friends house instead.  Hey, it was the best Christmas present he could have ever given me.  No drama and no tension since he wasn’t there!

We’re headed out to Jonesboro this morning.  We’ll be spending the day with all three of my kids having our Christmas celebration.   I’ve tried really hard to not get too excited about it because I’ve been dreading the thought that something would fall through and it wouldn’t get to happen.  That whole Murphy’s Law thing ya know.

But things have held in place and for the first time in at least 10 years I’ll have all three of the kids together with me.  I don’t think that I could have asked for any better a Christmas than this unless it would be to have Elrod and Sydney there too.  Then I might have to pinch myself to see if it was real because surely to goodness I’d have died and gone to heaven.

Friday evening when I was just about out of my snarly and cranky mood my son Keith called.  He was wanting to know about the rolls that I always made when the kids were growing up.  It is funny how something that was only semi homemade made such an impression with all 3 of my kids.  I told him what brand of frozen rolls I used and how I made the what we called Monkey bread.  His questions was do I use dinner rolls or Texas dinner rolls.  I don’t think they made the Texas dinner rolls way back in the day so I told him to get the regular dinner rolls.  I reminded him once more to thoroughly grease the pan and to make sure that he used butter or stick margarine melted to pour over the top because tub spread has too much water in it. Those are the two most important tricks to making Monkey bread like I make.

After that part of the conversation he asked me if I was sitting down.  Any time some one starts a discussion with that phrase your mind automatically thinks "oh carp, what now".  I asked what was up.  He asked me if Kendall (his brother) or Heather (his sister) hadn’t already told me.  I some what had an idea where this conversation was going, but honestly they hadn’t told me anything, I told him I didn’t have a clue as what he was referring to.  Then he told me that it looks like that he and Priscilla were going to have another baby since she was about 3 weeks late.  Not exactly official, but odds are in favor of it being a pregnancy.

Normally I would be ecstatic, but with Priscilla having had the miscarriage almost two years ago because of an ectopic pregnancy, I’m a little concerned for her.  Plus after the first three I quit getting so excited that there was a new baby on the way.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be excited when the baby does get here.  I just am getting too old to wear myself out with the excitement and anticipation of a new baby. 

This will be the 7th on my side of the family, Hubby has 4 on his side, and this one will make 11 grandchildren total for us.  I wonder if I can start lobbying for them to use the girls name that I’ve had picked out for some time now?