Thank you Mark so much for bringing this thread back up. Yes, we did just celebrate his 26th here at home. It was really a wonderful occasion. They are all doing well, employed and living in their own home now. What a difference a few months make! My grandkids come and spend a night or two every so often and I see my son every couple of weeks. It's just a long awaited dream come true to have them living within a 30 min drive! Thank you all for your well wishes. I'll be sure to pass them on to him. :)

Hi, I'm back. I have been MIA due to the wedding planning and bringing DH to Dr. appointments. I think I told you about his thyroid. After the CT scan we were told that everything looked ok, probably a goiter, but they wanted to do an ultrasound. We got a phone call from his Dr. saying come in so we could review his options. The ultrasound showed a huge mass in his thyroid, a nodule, but very large and it could start obstructing things. They also can not rule out cancer because of some other findings. He is having a biopsy in two weeks and then an appt. with a surgeon. Either way it has to come out. They just need to determine if part of his thryroid, or all of it will come out. Thyroid cancer is 100% curable so we feel good about the outcome. It has just been so upsetting and nervewracking. We did go to the Jimmy Buffett concert last night. It helped to take our mind off of things. It downpoured in the middle of the concert and ofcourse we had lawn seats so just go wet. What are you going to do? We still had a blast and he never disappoints. He performed for over 3 hours. It was a great time. QOD: My oldest DS started working when he was 15 for a Marina/Engine repair place. It lead to him going to school to because a certified marine technician and he is still currently employed by them. Prior to that he was always busy with scouts and band. He spent one summer coordinating and carrying out his Eagle project. He always seemed to keep busy. My youngest worked last summer when he was 14 for my brother's appliance business, but not this year (medical conditions forced DB not to work this summer). This summer he has been hanging out with his friends. He lifts weights and does power training for football conditioning. He has been starting to plan his Eagle project, but is basically dragging his feet and making me crazy. Next summer this boy will be working! My oldest DS informed us that he has been offered a job in Virginia at a marina and probably will be moving there the beginning of October, just after the wedding. :-( I understand it is a good opportunity for him and he has a better chance of buying a home there than he does up here, but it brakes my heart. Nobody in my entire family has ever moved away. We all live within an hour of one another, so this is very hard for me. Other than the Buffett concert last night, this week has basically s*cked! Love, Besh

Just got in from the land of orange groves and double wide trailers. It was good, actually! I went to get granny first, and I made her cry because I gave her a rotary cutter and self healing mat... she quilts by hand and she's lost her rotary cutter and never had a self healing mat. Her hands shake now and she has trouble cutting in a straight line with fabric scissors, so I thought that would help, and she was really touched... now I just have to get her that Bunn coffee maker she's been talking about. She had a bunch of quilt blocks spread out all over the sofa so she could show me what she has been working on. She's always so happy for me to see her work, and I am so shocked that she insists in quilting by hand at her age... she thinks machine quilting isn't really quilting. I strongly disagree! I brought my Dyson to vacuum for her since her vacuum is so awful. I took the hose off the Dyson to get under her couch where the upright part was too thick to reach and heard a SLURP. The incredible suction of the Dyson pulled in an entire quilt block! And, I was nowhere near it with the wand, I still don't know how it happened. It happened so fast, I didn't even see it, just heard it. I had to open the dust bin up and retrieve it.... I apologized, but she wasn't upset at all... we both got a really good laugh out of it. It didn't even get dusty! Once I realized it didn't bother her, I laughed so hard I cried, and so did she... it took me a while to gain enough composure to retrieve the quilt block from the cleaner. I sucked up enough bobby pins and straight pins to start a factory... not to mention thread a fabric scraps.... I could make a whole quilt with what's in the dust bin. I also brought my new tiffany style lamp to show her and she really liked it. She gave me a card that was really sweet, and apologized that she didn't have any money to buy me a real present... I told her that was silly and love was all I needed (I buy myself enough "stuff")... she said,"Well, that's good because you got plenty of that" (meaning love). It was really sweet. Then we went to my uncle's and the food was ready.. they smoked chicken, grilled chicken, and BBQd chicken. The also had a salad, and baked beans with sausage. It was all REALLY good! My aunt made me a cake (just want I needed!).... it was a boxed yellow cake with store bought icing. I didn't get any salad and they were wondering why... my grandma told them I was dieting and that I love salads (which I have never said because it isn't true), so after eating the other stuff, I had a plate of salad (had to pick the tomatoes out, at least they had ranch dressing). They gave me a card and more mylar balloons (what is up with mylar ballons) and pictures of me as a kid all dressed in halloween costumes and such (remember they were the ones that raised me from 6 to 19). There was another aunt there, another grandma (not the one I was close with... the one I brought was the one I was close with) and my little cousin that I was raised with (she's 19).... we talked a while and ate and then granny stood up, which his her signal that she was ready to go home. I was too at that point.... the aunt was getting annoying (she just doesn't know when to shut up and "picks" on everyone... except me, because I haven't been back in their life long enough yet) and their spoiled black lab was begging for food and trying to lick my face the whole time. So, I took granny home and we talked a while at her place... I looked at her sewing machine and fixed the tension and wrote down the model number so I can download an print a manual for it.... she wants one and it didn't come with one when she bought it. She had trouble letting me go, she didn't want me to leave... she's so bored/lonely living out there, so I promised I'd call and be back soon and started home. It was a good day. The aunt gave me a tupperware cake carrier (turquoise!) to take the cake home in and told me to keep it... it was my little cousin's, exes and he never came to get it after they broke up. That is great because I can keep that one and give Larry my gray and white sterilite one! Oh yeah, and I popped those mylar balloons (my "car scissors" are so handy!) and threw them in the trash at the gas station on the way home. I didn't need them bouncing around in the car during the 50 minute drive home, and they would have just been one more thing to carry home. I tried to find some child to give them to, but there weren't any! I hope they don't go to the gas station later for some chewing tobacco and see them in the garbage (there's only one gas station in that town!). I'm throwing aunt's cake in the trash too because I just don't have room for it. They sent me home with lots of food and I will enjoy it for a few days... I don't have room for 3 cakes, but I'll make room for the chicken and baked beans, even if I have to throw the milk and eggs out! So, yes, a good day, I'm surprised and happy :) Larry is on his way over to try some of the Publix chocolate cake and see his nephew (Jasper the cat) and watch some Lucy :0) I guess I'd better vacuum the cat hair off the sofa (he hates cat hair) and dig a place on the couch for him to sit.... oh yeah, and wash a dish so he can try the cake.... I've been lazy with the housework lately! Thanks again everyone.... by the way, Larry said that isn't the Paula Dean recipe, but one of several he found on Google for the coconut cake. Oh yeah, the Publix cake tastes as great as it looks.... under that dark brown chocolate top layer is a lighter brown layer of mousse like frosting.... man it's good!

Thanks again guys... I took the Bernina in and they made and adjustment right on the spot and even gave me a free pack of needles and it worked fine there... of course the minute I try to use it at home, well... we'll see what happens. The lady told me not to threaten it or use bad words because the machine will misbehave even worse! I'll try to be good... I ended up not having to work the second job last night... another guy showed up because he misread the schedule and since he doesn't have a car and I do and only live 15 minutes away, I let him stay and I traded days with him :o) Lars, I know enough to know that Mr. Foxworthy's first name is Jeff and not John :-p Nice try though.... maybe you were on coffee break when you had your redneck training session... I bet you also missed the lesson on how to spit tobacco into an empty beer can and how to keep your double wide on the ground during a hurricane as well :o) Partymusic, I'm sorry nobody has done anything for you in the last 7 years... sometimes I wish we here on the CF could start our own neighborhood or compound or something so we could all be together and enjoy and celebrate and all that happy stuff :o) Ellen, I'm going for LPN... some hospitals aren't hiring them anymore, but it's a stepping stone to get to RN. The RN classes here are hard to get into and have long waiting lists and one is more readily accepted if they are already and LPN and do a bridge program... I have to take an admission test in January and I've already purchases a huge thick study guide so I can brush up on all the stuff I forgot since high school... at least there are things called Youtube tutorials now :o)