Happy Labor Day

.......or what's left of it.  I'm outside on the patio enjoying the end of the day bird watching and naturing listening.  It was wonderful until my neighbor starting cutting the grass then everything was over.  The hummingbirds, cardinals and doves flew away.  The only nice sound I hear now is the water flowing in the pond and crickets in the woods.   I hope everyone enjoyed a nice long, relaxing, peaceful week end.  I can happily say I am pleased to not be traveling today.

Humming birds in front yard

D took Friday off to extend his long week end.  This kind of planned my day too.  I ran some errands with him in the morning.  One of our stops included the pool place to have our water tested.  I ended up embarrassing him ( not the first time or the last ) by standing up for us when being treated rude.   We do a large amount of business with these people.  There are many pool supply places in BR.  You'd think they'd try a little harder to keep their customers happy.  Not so, but my easy going husband said, "I don't mind so you didn't need to say anything".  I told him next time I'll stay in the car because that will be easier than keeping my mouth shut!

After we had lunch later at home I went for my swim/exercises.  He bought us a solar blanket for the pool to extend our swim time farther into the fall and to be able to open earlier in the spring.  He decided he wanted to work on installing it and "may need my help".  Ok I'll do something outside while your working on that.  I had him take out our pool filter and place on a table so I wouldn't have to bend over and started cleaning it with the water hose.  By the time I was finished it was obvious he was going to need my help.  It was not a one man job.  Or a two man job for that matter.   

I started out helping from the outside of the pool but that wasn't cutting it I had to get inside and help out.  Nothing hard I just don't like being in the sun for that long.  I could feel the sun burning on my face and had him let me take a break at one point and get water and more sunscreen.  I made him put some on too because he was even starting to burn.  I got back in and by the time we finished it was 4:45 and I'd been out side since 2.  You could put a fork in me I was done!  

installing solar blanket

A friend of mine called and was in the area and wanted to stop by and borrow something shortly after I got out.  She came on by and her little girl was begging to "go swimming".  She kept saying it over and over.  Finally her mom gave in because she was going to jump in anyway.  She was excited to see "Mr. D"  ( he was still working on the solar blanket )  This little girl is so funny.  You can't keep up with her and she talks non stop.  I've never met a child as young as her talk in complete sentences and even paragraphs.  She can recite nursery rhymes in full and recognizes her numbers 1-10 and knows all the alphabet.  I'm not talking about just saying them.  I'm talking about recognizing out of order and telling you a word that starts with that letter.  She is definitely gifted at 20 months old.  I have to show her off to you.  Sweet sweet girl.

On Saturday morning I attended the funeral services of my friends sweet little angel I mentioned in previous post.  It was a sad time but a beautiful service.  My heart broke for entire family.   Especially mom and dad.  Another friend I rode with made us a pin to wear in honor of her and I can't stop wearing it.  I want to continue to remind myself to keep praying for this family in the days ahead with the struggles they will face.  

Later when I got home I got a call from my son and he was watching his daughter for the day while mom was shopping so we wanted to bring her by for a visit.  They spent most of the afternoon having a great time in the pool.  

My son and A

That evening we went to a tail gate party in the Country Club of LA.  My husbands friend invited us and even though I really was not up to it I just couldn't say no.  I say no way more  than yes.  It was the first LSU game and that's a BIG deal around here.  I know D was tired of making up excuses to his friend why we usually decline.  Everything was so nice.  He had so much food it was unbelievable.  He has an outdoor kitchen with a huge TV underneath the cover.  Huge beautiful trees all around his property.  Later when the game started I parked myself somewhere next to a friend with my cushion.  D came over and sat with us later and before you knew it the entire table that was empty when we first sat down was covered with desserts.  Oh my I thought, we are definitely sitting at the wrong place now.  I was determined to resist.  What I did was just try a small bite of everything D had to keep it small.

As we started to leave I started itching everywhere.  When we made it home I found three different whelps on my left arm and one on the top of my right foot.  As it got later they got bigger and itching worse.  I coated them with Cortaid and took Benedryl.  By the time I got up  Sunday morning they were worse.  Still annoying today.  I had the pharmacist look at them when I was picking up some RX's.  She said they looked like some sort of bug bite.  Doing what I was doing was about it.  Which was my daily regimen of antihistamine in am , Ranitidine at bedtime ( hives ) and added Benedryl every 6 hours along with the Cortaid cream every couple of hours.  The last two nights the Benedryl and the swollen bites kept me up.   

On Sunday my daughter, son in law and grandson came over.  They had lunch and visited for awhile.  My daughter is starting to show now and P is starting to talk about being a big brother.  Mom and dad asked what he would like to have and he said a SISTER!  Nonna is excited to hear this.  Just like we would, his sweet little soul will love a brother or a sister just the same. 

And finally today.  Labor Day.  Things finally slowed down.  We unlike others did absolutely nothing.  I was itching so much I wasn't up to much anyway.  We did some relaxing in the pool and watched some television.  I had a sugar free margarita relaxing on the patio at the end of day when I started writing this post.  

Tomorrow I have an appointment with my therapist then plan to do some grocery shopping. Of course it's Tuesday so I have the big "weigh in"  I don't know what to expect.  My weight has been up and down since last week.  I've continued to weigh everyday which is a bad idea.  I'm so glad my husband invested in the solar blanket.  I hope it does it's job.  If I hadn't been able to swim and water jog I wouldn't be burning any calories at all.  I really think my back is getting stronger so I'm happy to keep up this routine as long as I can.  Through most of August the water temp was consistently staying between 95-98.  The past 5 days is been hovering at 88-90.  A nice change.  Perfect temp if you ask me.  I just hope it's not a sigh it will start dropping quickly anytime soon.  If it does hopefully we've taken care of that.  

Just about the time we will need to close the pool we'll head to the beach for a week in October.    We can't wait.  We both love the beach so much.  There is also a couple of places we always look forward to going to.  

I had pictures of the finished installation of pool cover mounted and rolled up.  Also of my whelps and photos from the tail gate party.  Somehow in trying to install from an Android to my mac book everything was deleted from my camera roll.  Only instagram pictures were still on phone?  This was not my first time so I am clueless to what happened.  Last week I took about 50 pictures and moved to my computer with no problems.  Who knows.  This is why it is now late at night and I wrote everything earlier.  I spent a LONG time trying to figure out what happened to my pictures so I could add to post.  Maybe another time.  

I'll be back tomorrow.  Good night and God Bless.
Living with H.O.P.E, 
Theresa