Double Sizes

This morning I stopped at the Chevron to get a cup of coffee...since I was too lazy to get up and make coffee. Anyway, Jacob comes inside with me to get a snack for school. He chose Baked Cheetos. I am very surprised he picked something healthy...it was probably an accident. He asked me if they had a bigger bag of Cheetos. I told him no. He says, "But I like double sizes." I, trying to be the diplomatic mother says, "Honey if you eat double sizes all the time then you will end up doublesized like me." Jacob, or otherwise known as Ernest T. Bass, he says, "You are not doublesized...you just look like you are pregnant." I could have crawled under anything. If you ever need the truth about something, just ask a 6 year old. Write more later. Love to all.

Will it ever end?

How can someone be 30 years old and feel like they are 130? I had the horrible thought today that I may have another kidney stone. This is not a good feeling. Luckily, thank you God, it was not. I in turn have been told I have C-dif. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is basically that I have taken so much antibiotics since my two surgeries that the antibiotics have killed all the good bacteria in my body. So not only do I have to now take nasty Flagyl as well as this grainy junk called Granulex. Oh well, as most of you know if it can happen it will happen to me. Or as Becky would say, "Why do you even get up in the morning? I will survive, but good grief!!!!

Work Induced Dementia...

As many of you know, I work with adults. Most of them are senior adults. Therefore, it stands to reason that dementia could be contagious. I have been spoiled this week of getting to sleep a little bit late since the kids didn't have to go to school. So this morning, I am so asleep. I mean one of those where you did not even wake up in the middle of the night to pee. Stephen kept trying to wake me up. "honey you have to get up...honey it is 6:30, honey you are going to be late for work." I finally roll over, look him dead in the eyes with a straight face and yell, " it is Saturday morning." I have never seen the look he gave me. We have been together nine years, and I have never seen this look. I said, "what" He informs me it is not Saturday nor is it Friday, but Thursday. This really started my day off bad. So I come to terms with the fact not only do I have to get up and go to work, but I have to get up and go to work tomorrow. I find some clothes, they were pretty clean, and begin the process of making this face and body presentable. Okay so I get dressed, go get my cup of coffee to go. As I am getting into the car, I put my coffee mug on top of the car. Yep, you guessed it, Blue River Drive, the road that runs in front of my parents' house has coffee and bits and pieces of my mug all over it. This is real good sign that I need to go back to bed. I do make it to work in one piece. Not really sure how this happened. I did make it through the day without any further major catastrophes. We will try again tomorrow!

Boys....

Okay, what else is my 6 year old boy going to do? He is about to give his old momma a coronary. My mother and father, Aubie and PaPa, have been keeping him this week. Well my dad for as long as I can remember has always had to have his "beauty nap" in the afternoon. Well today was no different. He went to bed, and Aubie went to the couch. Jacob kept asking Aubie to get up and do something. Aubie told him that it would be a few minutes, but she would get up in a little bit. Well she fell asleep. My son, lovingly known as Ernest T. Bass or Opie, sneaks out the back door and goes to our house. It is not very far. The thing is the devil or some demon got in his head, and he put the rocking ottoman on the stone fireplace. He then stands on it, rocking back and forth mind you, and grabs his dad's Samurai sword. He somehow safely gets off the rocking ottaman and proceeds to carry out to Aubie's house. My mother almost fainted. What in this world possessed him to touch this sword? He has never done something like that!!!!!! Boys are so different from girls. I cam home today to find Jacob digging in the dirt for worms. I am just waiting for the day I pull a snake out of his pocket. More later! Love to all!

Why am I up at 2 AM?

I have worked all day, but yet I can't go to sleep. It does not help that Jimmy Earl is riding up and down our rode without mufflers on his truck. You know you work hard to get somewhere in life and to live a peaceful existence. Oh no - there was less noise when we lived in Alabaster. Every dog in the neighborhood is either in heat or chasing cars, trucks are up and down the road and Stephen is snoring so loud that I can't tell if it is a train at Honda or him!!!!

I guess another reason why I am up at 2 am is b/c I keep thinking about the events of the past two weeks. As many of you know, Jamie, my daughter, has always been very close to Stephen's parents. Well I am going to share some of the statements that were said by children:

1. Jamie had handled the whole disease process pretty well...until we got to the funeral home. She lost it. This is her first major loss. She told me, "I wish I could jump up in there with him and give him one more hug." I told her it was okay to touch him and hug him. She said, "No, he won't hug me back." My heart melted.
2. Jacob was so proud of himself when he learned his first memory verse at Upward Bound basketball. It was John 3:16. When he learned it, he got a star. But when he got home, he wanted to call PawPaw and tell him. So we did. I could just feel my father in law smiling through the phone. On Sunday, it was our time to go to the casket for the last time. Jacob was standing there and he was talking. I could not understand what he was saying. I leaned down, and he was saying John 3:16. My heart melted.

Some of you may think I have lost my mind and I have become so mushy and gushy. I am trying so hard to give all those hugs and listen to those small voices. One day, we will wish for just one more day. I am very blessed to have the family that I have and the friends. I hope that all who know me know that I am only a phone call away or an email. Love to all!

Starting Over

Evidently, if you do not post to your blog on a regular basis, blogger decides that they will make you start over. I am going to do better at this. Okay, for the Reader's Digest version of the Bass Family. The year 2006 has sucked for lack of a better word. It actually started in December 2005. We found out on December 12, 2005, also my daughter's 14th birthday, that my father in law, known as PawPaw, had stage four prostate cancer. He had surgery and supposedly was in "remission." We had a great Christmas, but about 6 weeks ago, he began having problems again. Most of you probably already know that we buried him on March 12, 2006. And most of you know about my ordeal with kidney stones. Now for the new news. I have learned more in the past month than I ever learned in college. During the last two weeks of Paw's life, we had great conversations. I was never considered Paw's "daughter in law", he always called me his daughter. During this whole time of dying, I have never seen the outpouring of love from a community, as I saw in Georgiana. Yes, they are a little backwards - stores close at 12 on Wednesday, they eat potted meat gravy and other such great things - but this community surrounded my family with the most awesome display of love. More so than that, I learned from my PawPaw that one thing and one thing only matters - Do you know Jesus? I learned after his death, that the day the hospice nurse came to admit him to their caseload that he introduced himself to the nurse. Then he said to her, "Do you know Jesus?" She replied, "Yes". He said, "Well that is great...is there anybody else at Alacare that I need to work on?" Paw Paw not only walked the walk but he talked the talk. He loved to have a good time and he loved a good joke. But above all he told everyone about Jesus. The last Sunday that I got to spend with him, he asked me to take care of his babies and Big Boy - aka Stephen. I told him I would do the best that I know how. He told me to look in the Bible for all of my answers. He also told me he was ready to go. He wanted to go see Jesus, his mother and daddy and then sit down at the gates and wait for his babies. I know that Paw is up there waiting - of course between fishing trips. We all have those people in our life that we look up to. I must say Billy Joe Bass is that person for me. But one word of advice - listen to those people while they are here on earth, because when they are gone, you have to rely on memories. More tomorrow - thanks for being such great friends.