You mean we missed Tea Tuesday? I always forget until the next day when I check posts here. I have tea every afternoon between 1p and 2:30p if I'm home, which seems to be often these cold days. However even in the summer if I'm working outside I instinctively stop at 1p for tea, then continue on working.

My peonies are peeking up through the soil too and the daffs are just waiting to pop open. Some have bloomed but are drooping over now after the cold winds. Like yours, my strawberries haven't bloomed yet. They seemed to be sleeping as well. There are only four plants, newly planted last Spring, but they produced fruit right up until late Fall.

I've heard that peonies don't like to be moved but I don't remember having much of a problem with that. Not to say I've moved many. Mine are really old, planted by my uncle many years ago.

I have been working on another mosaic. I also did some work out in the yard and garage. Finally the snow is gone in the dogs yard and I did manage to get all of the winter messes out there picked up.

I do not have much of anything coming up as far as flowers. The snow on the east side of the house is almost gone and I can see all of my stepping stones laid last fall. Happy to see them there. After winters brutal snow fiasco I need to clear up some of the clutter in the yard to make it easier for placing ladders should I have to do so again. Hopefully not. I will just move some of the smaller planters over to my new carport patio area.

Snow on the West side of the house is cleared back from the house a foot or so but plants are still flattened to the ground. Maybe I can see a few day lilies poking up.

I was drinking Chi Spice tea yesterday and drank down two pots of it. AFTER I drained the coffee pot.

The peonies I moved were really old, too, and each year they looked sorrier and sorrier. I didn't think I had anything to lose by moving them. They were planted too deep, too, but that might have just been natural earth movement.

It is black and thundering. I suppose something is on the way.

As much as I like snow, I'm ready for some warm sunny days. I'm sitting here with the thermostat on 65 and a sweat shirt on, but I'm still chilled. Time to crawl into the recliner under my throw and a cat on my lap. Not a very good TV night either.

I turned my tv off Nov. 6 and I've found it very peaceful here. I even forget to check the weather on line to see what's coming. I do have a police scanner and they're quicker with the weather alerts than the tv anyway.

I find i do not even think about watching Tv now. I do have the Amazon Prime to watch movies. I should do so and use it while i have it. I enjoy the peace and quiet.

I know! Sometimes I just stand in the middle of a room and listen to it!

We've had thunder, lightning, rain and hail today.

Monday I spent hours on the phone with my INS company trying to find out who could give me a referral to the doctor I had an appt with on Wed. after a few hours - the last person I talked to told me I could get it from my primary doctor. bravo. he is close by.

So I called their office and they said they'd send one to my 'Wed doctor'.

on Tues morning I canceled a doc appt I had later that day (my primary filled the need).

went to doc on Wed. He didn't really agree with the doctor I saw last month, so couldn't proceed then. He'd talk to other doc and get back to me. (that was a 45 min drive to his office)

I was so exhausted when I got home (even with my sister doing the driving) that I was down for the day...

This morning I got a call from doctors office I was at yesterday. He'd heard from last month's doctor. going to proceed. BUT, I need a referral from another doctor to go back to him for surgical procedure. That nice doctor's office had gone ahead and contacted my INS for the name of a close by doctor for THIS referral. He is located just next to my primary - so again, close by. I can drive myself - maybe a 15 min drive.

Then I called doc from last month to see when I need to go to him again. needed to check so I didn't have conflicting appts. His is next week. so I call new doc for referral - that's set for 1st wk in April. After I get that I can go back to doc I was at yesterday. So tomorrow I'll call to set an appt with him again...

and with my primary who I should have seen a month ago - I have 2 tests to have done before I see him...

today I slept til about 1.30 pm. was just getting moveable about 3.30. 5.30 I went down to the store for a few things and picked up dinner, tomorrow's lunch and dinner....

since I got home, I'm down again - except for nature calls...

Tomorrow I'll make those other 2 appts - and try to reschedule a friend to come by here on Sat or Sun instead of tomorrow. I think I'll still be too tired and I have a good number of things to do before she gets here.

I hired her to come help me. first things first - computer stuff - she's good at it.

then some misc things around here... the list is getting long. but, tomorrow I need to finish doing my dishes and stuff in kit - I had started cleaning out my fridge and I have stuff stacked on the counter, in the sink... on the stove. I thought I'd be able to get it done today but that didn't happen. yep, don't want her walking into that. I need it out of my way 'cause it's disturbing... and I have about 8 sheets of paper to read thru from yesterday's doc so that I know what it is he thinks he's gonna do with me.

And I need to spend some time on the phone with a computer tech about my new 'system'. yuck. I have a long list of questions and I'm sure I'll be talking to him once a week or so...

and I'll need to make a trip to my sister's to drop off my trash from this cleaning out business... and update my sister on all of these appts... I can drive myself to all but 1... or maybe 2.

if you didn't follow the above, don't worry about it - I don't think I did either!

so, how ya'll been doing? I'm tired...

I'm tired just reading that! You must have a huge calendar on the wall!

Good heavens Steph. I guess I am pretty healthy at almost 68. I have one doctor appointment a year. He tried to make it into two since I am alone now but I told him no one is enough just to get my prescription for thyroid renewed. Bam and I am out of there. I hope you get all of the above sorted out you lost me right off.

those were just the eye doctors! Thurs I called and made 3 more doc appts. 2 for the eyeball and 1 gnrl with my primary doc. I have to see him every 3 months. it's required under OBC to renew one of my meds. otherwise, I'd probably only see him 2x a yr.

next wk is the retinal doc, the following wk is the 'referral' doc and the wk after that is the laser doc pre op appt ... and after that the primary doc. then somewhere will be the laser surgery. ick. I also have to squeeze in 2 tests for primary doc before appt there.

They sure don't want me sitting home being bored, do they?

spent about 3 hrs on phone and online chat (last 45 min or so for the 'online' part) with Dell tech guy. my keyboard wouldn't work. had to push hard on keys and hold to get a letter/number to appear. can't type that way... he did a bunch to my computer and fixed the keyboard. several updates. and put a 'short cut' to him on my desk top for future help. i'm going to do that in 'parts'. a few things at a time. I called in about 1 thing and it took 3 hrs... I don't like being on phone / tied up that long. my dog didn't like it either...

my friend is coming over later today to reset up wifi, laptop and maybe cell phone. plus some other things here. things up high (clean ceiling fan, dust top of fridge) and down too low for me mostly. or too heavy - which doesn't take much anymore.

No wonder you are so exhausted Steph. Crazy schedule.

I hope all of your doctors and nurses wear name badges!

I thought I had too many doctors before I added the 3 eye docs (that doesn't count the one to get new glasses. but can't get those right now until this is all taken care of ). I 'shelved' 3 other doctors for now. no way would I even attempt to juggle them in the mix right now. first things first - that's my eye.

yes, I am exhausted and do forget which one told me what... think I should makes some notes this weekend 'cause my memory rejects this stuff! I'll probably be ok as long as I remember which one is the surgeon!

my sister has been driving me to most appts - and that's stressful too.

If things work out, I might see if my friend will just come once or twice a month for a few hrs to do things here. There's always things I can't reach and always more than I can keep up with.

Steph I do feel for you always having to wait for some one to help.

I worked quite awhile, hours, in the yard yesterday. Moving planters around cleaning stuff up. I did glance at the 3 foot long two inch high snow pile beside me in amazement. This was the pile I was standing on at roofs edge when I was pulling the snow off the roof. There is still a several foot deep pile beside the carport. That area is mostly in the shade. And a much smaller long pile on the west side of the house. It is going away pretty fast though.

shades - yes, it does frustrate me. I was out with the dog yesterday and while she was looking for birds to chase, I started leaning over and pulling up some weeds. been doing that this past week. I have a few piles out there and need to take a trash bag or my bucket out to put them in. but in many yrs past, I'd be out there doing a lot more. I hate that I can't. but 10 min pulling some weeds and I'm down for several hours. And I know that if I get up on a step ladder and fall and break a leg or hip, I'll be in much worse shape and need even more help - so I don't do it. I wouldn't even be able to take the dog out then!

OTOH, there are a lot worse things in life than not getting things done - lol!

I spent today off and on in the yard too. I feel like I got a lot accomplished, but if anyone else looked at it they'd say I have a long way to go. :)

I don't know where the time goes. Steph, I feel for you. It's so hard to accept not being able to do things you used to do. I got a new bird bath since the old one was leaking and I decided trying to waterproof it may not be in the best interest of the birds and squirrels. Anyway that old one is so heavy that I don't think I can move it myself. I struggled with it when I put it in probably 10 years or more ago. So I will have to wait until someone comes along and can move it for me. I have been putting seed in it and the birds and squirrels are enjoying that. I know a week has gone by since this thread started but reading about how cold some of you are makes me appreciate our warmer weather now. The coldest it's due to get this upcoming week, at night, is in the 40's! I hope we've turned the corner now. I have lots of spring flowers up. Some trees that had flowered were damaged with the couple of cold days we had. We are having rain today but nothing major. I spent the day cleaning up the kitchen, watering all the plants and repotting a jade plant. I hope you all have a good week.

Murraysmom. You could plant some succulents in the old bird bath and put the new one some where else. Would make a perfect planter.

I did think about putting some kind of plants or ground cover type thing in it. But when it rains hard wouldn't the succulents drown?? Water would accumulate and then slowly leak out. What do you think??

I'd keep it as a bird feeder. I doubt it's deep enough for enough soil. It would bake in the summer.

Still raining here. I've been spinning my wheels for 4 days. I got 2 new DNA matches and spent a lot of time tracing them. Success on both counts but so time consuming. And that's why I don't email everyone on my match list! At GEDMatch I have more people than I can keep track of that are 4th cousins or nearer. That's near enough that it's not so hard to find the common ancestor. Both of the ones for this weekend were from family of siblings of my ancestor that I hadn't filled in. I even solved a missing person mystery that's been in the back of my mind since Aug of 2014! She was married 4 times so I couldn't keep up with her last name. Both of these people live in New York; one on each side of my family. Isn't that odd that in the same weekend I'd get people from both sides and they both live in NY?

YES Bird feeder would be great.

Imhappy that is interesting how you found those family members both in NY on different sides of the family. Do you contact them or are these people gone already?

murrysmom - yeah, this getting older business it for the birds... add to it a few limitations and zappo! I feel like an invalid. So used to doing things myself for so many yrs.

anyway, out here, they make and sell those shallow 'pots' (like the bottom drain tray to regular pots) for cacti and rock 'gardens'. I have one (nothing in it now tho). they're rounded on the inside /sides up to the upper rim. shaped like the top of a bird bath!

we don't get much rain until the monsoons. and I don't remember what happens then... maybe mine were never out where a lot of the rain could hit it.

the top of a bird bath would work nicely! with a leak, it'd have auto drainage...

This is how it worked this time. I hadn't checked any matches for several months. Last week a guy that I've "known" for a couple of years did the test and came back matching me but not my aunt. So I knew he was from my mother's side. I had made a tree using possible parents for my great grandfather. On paper it was pretty darn good but I didn't have any document to connect them. Getting his DNA match gives me hope that someday I can find something that says, yes, you have the right ancestors. But anyway, since he emailed that news and then asked if another name was in my list I went to check and while I was there saw that my match list was huge and they were 4th cousin matches. Close enough to work with! So I emailed 2 of them and they both answered right away. One I was able to connect and the other didn't have her tree back far enough for me to work with. Our "in common" ancestor is very dead! We use GEDMatch and FTDNA to match. It seems like the people who really want to trace their family upload their DNA there and they answer emails. ancestry.com not so much.

I was "talking" to another cousin about my good luck and she said check hers at ancestry to see if any of my new matches were there. Of the first page of 50, 22 had no tree, 4 had 2 generations, 4 were locked. So that's 30 out of 50 that we can't even look at. We could contact them but I suspect they won't answer. If you have done a DNA test but you don't have a tree, your tree is locked or you have you and your parents......?? What can we do with that?

After you get your test results back your work is just beginning. That's when you have to look at both trees and go backwards until you find the same person in each tree. The match I had from the guy I already knew was easy because we had discussed it at great length for 2 years. We both had an extended tree so it was "easy" to go backwards and find a family name we knew. We had done that already. Getting the DNA match was proof that I was on the right track.

The new guy I really had to work at finding the match there. His surname was my maiden name so I knew there had to be an ancestor in common. It took me all day but I got it. I had to build my tree out more on that branch but once I got the first lead it was pretty easy, just time consuming to add another 100 people to my tree. Findagrave had almost everyone linked and when I saw that name I was looking for I knew I was almost done.

It isn't always that easy. It's hard. Experience does matter. Practice pays off. The gal who didn't have her tree built out far enough to show 4th cousins will have to work on her tree before I can find anything. Building to 5th or 6th would be even better. You need everyone; all the siblings, all the spouses, all the kids and their kids.

Imhappy, that is so interesting to me that you have connected all these dots!! I am familiar with FindAGrave and used to fulfill requests to take pictures of headstones in cemeteries around here. I enjoyed doing that but it can get to be quite time consuming and I had other things going on and haven't continued that. FindAGrave is fascinating just to poke around in. My brother-in-law has extensive family tree work that he has done and I have helped him on the FindAGrave end of things. He is in his late 70's and even though I gave him the link to FindAGrave, it was a bit more than he could negotiate.

Very cool that you have tracked down all these people.

And now findagrave web site is going to be all "updated" to look pretty and fit on tablets and phones. The new site is awful. The top 1/2 of the page has some information followed by bill boards of advertising followed below the fold with more information. It will be a PITA. Needless to say I'm there copying off the pages as they are now and saving them. And needless to say, my days of supplying pictures is over.

"You need everyone; all the siblings, all the spouses, all the kids and their kids." Holy crapola there are so many people in my family I would never even consider trying to do this. I do have the family going back several generations on my Mothers side. Going forward..................... I would rather use my gun on myself than deal with it. Good luck to the person years from now trying to sort it out. Just my one half sister had 6 kids and one is gone now. But the rest have made up for it and have 5 or more kids each and their kids are having kids. I would die to have to be around all those stinkin babies and kids.

You know how it's the last post that you see when you are looking at the threads...............Ha, ha, ha! Yours made me look to see what the heck we were talking about. LOL