Well, just a few hours!

The BCS is on in 6 hours. Go Bama!

And....hopefully by this time tomorrow I will be out of surgery.

Too much in two days...............

GOOD BYE, MY RED FRIENDS! FOR AWHILE, ANYWAY

I bit my fingernails as a child. Always embarrassed me, but it was a hard-to-break habit.  My mother used to put this pepper-flavored polish on my nails to stop the biting. Didn't work.   After I lost the dreaded habit, I was left with some very soft fingernails. Then the big discovery: nail tips. Voila!

I had worn them for years and then, lo and behold, I had grown a beautiful set of nails underneath the tips. So....bye bye to nail tips, hello natural nails. And overlays because they were so soft.

I've always been partial to red nails, especially if they were well-manicured and long. Being a musician, long wasn't an option. Okay. As an organist, mine could be a little longer. The fingering is so different than a pianist's, so they really were no problem.

Well, three months ago I did the number on the shoulder.The nice part was that I could finally grow the LONG nails I've always wanted. And they could be red. Or blue. Or fushia. But mostly red. And they were wonderful. Still are. Don't get in the way of my stitching and knitting. Or my cooking. Not a bit inconvenient.

I lost the red today. Since I can't have a color on my nails because of the surgery on Tuesday, I came home with a French manicure. Had them before, but I just love my red nails. I actually like a FM, but damn, I love those red puppies!

So for the next couple of weeks, I'll be a la naturelle. Not such a bad trade off. I'll have a fixed shoulder, which will make manicures less painful (it has been dreadful) and my red nails will return soon enough.

My favorite reds? OPI, of course!  I'm Not Really A Waitress.  OPI Red.  Friar, Friar Pants on Fire. I Don't Do Dishes........ My favorite was China Blossom, but the OPI guys don't make it any more. And Cheyenne Pepper was a favorite, now gone, too.

I do love me some red nails. Wonder if it has anything to do with my Crimson Tide? They are gonna roll all over Notre Dame next Monday night----which will be a great lead in into 9AM Tuesday morning!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We are now twelve hours away from a brand new year. Have a great one, all of you. And I'll see you next year (boy, is that an old one!).

Gonna finish some cleaning, cook the black-eyed peas. Then to settle down to some football and let time pass into a new beginning.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WHAT A THREE MONTHS!

Three months since my last post! What an interesting time!

As I said in September, I took a tumble and ended up with a broken shoulder. Major pain and so many things I couldn't -and still can't- do. Including play the piano or organ.

We had to wait until the bone healed for an MRI. Or so we thought. On December 5th, I had the MRI. All Xanaxed up (claustrophobic,major time), I thought it would be a breeze. Not so. The tech put the cuff on my shoulder and I ended up crying through the whole thing because it was SO painful. Even through two babies, gallbladder, root canals, etc., I've never had pain like that.

We went back the 9th for the result. The bone (great tuberosity)  is not healing and a tendon or two are torn. Can't pronounce that. Well, on Jan. 8th at 9 AM I'm going to surgery. Dr. Rodriguez is going to pin the bone in place (hey--I'm going to get screwed and not be awake to enjoy it!!!!! Sense of humor isn't broken!!!) and repair the rotator cuff. Jan. 8th was the first opening he had and I'll be able to enjoy watching my team in the BCS on the 7th.  ROLL TIDE!

What that means is that I'm going to have a lot more serious pain and 4-6 months of major rehab. I was fitted--yes, fitted-- for the sling a couple of weeks ago. Those of you who have had shoulder surgery know what it looks like. And we're back to showers, with DH drying me and dressing me. No cutting my food. Lots of books and movies. And I will be able to stitch and knit because there will be no movement of the shoulder.

I don't know how long it will be before I can drive. The idea is to keep the shoulder completely still except for rehab. I've been through something like this for 3 months, so I can go a little longer. Just on a larger size.

I've gone through stages. Even a major crying one. Now I'm in the off and on anger stage and just anxious to get it over with. I understand that I probably will wake up with a painkilling lifeline in for a few days. I have moments of feeling sorry for myself and then things fall back into place.

Thank God it's just a broken shoulder and surgery. Thank God I'm not one of those parents in Newtown, Connecticut that had to bury a child. Thank God that I'm safe and warm here and have everything I need. Everything happens for a reason. It could be so much worse. So now I'm still on an extended vacation, but I'm alive.

All prayers are appreciated, especially for poor David. He's going to be my major caregiver for quite awhile and that ain't an easy job. I've discovered that in the last three months. At least there will be more blogging. One-handed!

So you guys out there, pray for us. And for all those who are not so lucky. I'll check in again before the Big Day.

CRASH! BANG! FEELING SORRY FOR MYSELF TODAY

 Last Wednesday I was crossing the parking lot, going into church, when I tripped and fell. Mortification beyond belief. Off I went to hospital in an ambulance. This being LSU territory, the EMT told me that the highlight of his day was cutting off my Alabama shirt. And being on church property, I bit my tongue and told him to kiss my grits.

I fractured my shoulder! I'm off the organ bench for 8-12 weeks and hopefully won't need surgery: repair and/or rotator cuff. There is no cast-can't cast the shoulder-but a pretty blue sling and a ton of pillows on the bed to prop me up.

So today is my down day. Spent most of the afternoon in bed reading or sleeping. Luckily I can still stitch, but today wasn't a stitchy day. My bottom lip was touching my knee.

John and his family came over from Houston this weekend-checking on mom, I think. We went out to LSU Saturday morning-probably not the smartest thing for me to do. Then we came back to the house and watched football. I was so tuckered out that I slept through the first half of the Alabama game. Made it through the LSU-Auburn game, though.

Made some cools snaps. Here they are:

Breakfast on Saturday morning. John, David and Laura. David did the cooking and cleaning this weekend.

The kids have two dogs: Marley and Libby. They stay in a large crate when they visit us because Linzie isn't too social. Ann got in the crate Saturday and fell asleep against Marley.

Bradley, Ann and Grace at LSU, visiting Mike the Tiger. This is the iron one. The real one was sleeping in the shade.

We are a divided family. John graduated from LSU and Michael from Alabama. Here's Michael and Meghan and Michael is espressing his feelings for LSU. Yes, they are there!

Linzie kept her cool during the LSU game!

So that's life here right now. I've decided to get up in the morning with a whole new outlook. I'm glad-that of all things that could have happened-this was the easiest. If my head had hit the concrete I might have shattered the concrete!!

NEVER FORGET

WE MADE IT!

Thanks to so many prayers  and great help, we have come through Hurricane Isaac. Parts of Mississippi and Louisiana did not fare as well. They are still faced with terrible flooding and other problems associated with hurricanes. There is the possibility of a dam breaking in Mississippi and a levee in Plaquemines Parish (we don't have counties here) was deliberately breached to help with flooding.

Here at the old homestead we never lost electricity--over 600,000 homes in Louisiana did. We do have a messy backyard: several trees went down along with a lot of tree trash. That's  such a small price to pay for the safety we had.

I ventured out to the grocery yesterday and there wasn't too much damage on this end of town. In other parts of Baton Rouge there was some pretty bad damage. The electricity is out at my church, so I don't know about services on Sunday. Going to make a run to Hobby Lobby today.

Thank you all again for your prayers and kind thoughts. We made it okay.