It's Been Awhile since my last post. Time just gets away from me. I have such good intentions. Art classes are going well. Taking a still life class in Tryon and still taking my usual Wed class at the community college. Studio is 99% complete - thanks to wonderful hubby and a neighbors son. I'm teaching 2 classes a week and have 6 students. They are really progressing well.

Another change in our lives. We've been asked to teach the Senior High Sunday School Class. How many young folks of that age will drag them selves out of bed on Sunday morn, after a late Saturday night.? We're not above bribery. We bring food.

NC and SC are totally out of gas. Every gas station we pass has white bags on pumps. Those that have gas have long lines. I didn't go to my art class in Tryon today. Just couldn't justify the gas usage, esp. when we don't know when we'll get more. Just doesn't make sense.

I wasn't overly impressed with the first few visits with kidney specialist. One of my art students works at trauma ICU in Spartanburg and recomended one of the specialists over there. My first visit with second opinion was Thursday. He spent a whole hour with me. The history and physical was the most thorough I can remember having. He certainly found things the other specialist didn't. He also stated that Tylenol was NOT the problem. That it would take huge amounts for that to occur. He felt that my fluid pills could be the problem. Funny how all these years, no other Dr even considered it. So now am on a weaning off process. He found an enlarged thryoid ( he's not worried about that yet). Also not to concerned with elevated parathyroid hormone yet. He listened to arteries in my abdomen --no one's ever done that before---and found abnormal sounds. He said it could mean an obstruction to blood flow to kidney and several things could cause it. At this point, he did more lab work and has requested my records from other specialist. So again it's wait and see. However, much more comfortable with this doctor.

FINAL GPS

MORE GPS

MORE GREENVILLE PICKENS

Obviously, this wasn't their first trip to the races.



Can you tell they were eating choc cake

GREENVILLE PICKENS SPEEDWAY

We had such a great time. Kiddles were able to run around and also see the races.
Doodle intertained her self pre-race
It took two soakings and two washes to get the red dirt out of their clothes.

POOL TIME

Our dear friend was off work Friday and her grandkids were over; she invited us over. Her grandchildren are like little fish and inspired Tommy to try some new things.
As you can see, Doodle likes to do her own thing.

Tom Tom can now swim the width of the pool. He has learned to pop his head up and get a breath of air.

CHICKEN WHISPERER

She really can ride the tricycle --- when she wants to!!!!!!!!
They love to catch and hold the chickens. They particularly like to go in the coop and catch the younger chickens. 3 of the older hens disppeared last week, no feathers scattered about, so what ever it was, carried them off. One farmer friend said if there were no feathers around it was probably a hawk. It doesn't seem like a hawk could carriy off full grown fat hens. We have seen foxes around Speckles pasture (not in past 2 years). One of the white younger was missing yesterday. It wasn't on the roost last night. This hen is Scarlet. She's the one that Happy split her breast open and didn't expect her to live. We gave her cat antibiotics twice a day. Needless to say she's a pet.

HOLLYWILD

This is a partial post of zoo. It would only let me upload 5 pix. More will come later. They really enjoyed feeding the baby goats.

In order to feed the Emus, we had to place the crackers on the ledge - apparently they have some powerful beaks.

These are European Fallow Deer. Very small, couldn't have been more that 30"at withers. There were over 200 and they followed the tour bus everywhere.

CHECKING THE BLUEBIRD NEST'S

We like to check the bluebird nests frequently to see how our bluebird population is doing. T&M found a nest in this one.

We'll try this again

Slip and Slide

It's actually hot in Union Mills. Poppy got out the Slip and Slide. Of course the first thing we had to do was run off Elvis. Tom Tom wore himself out. Doodle couldn't get past just walking down it. The concept of running and throwing herself on the ground was totally foreign to her. I think she did lay down in the puddle at the end.

NASCAR #16

One of our neighbors hauls a show car for Nascar Drive, Elliot Sadler, #16 for Stanley Tools. The car was in town this week, so Poppy called to see if we could bring T&M.

Recent Painting

I needed to do a female figurative painting for a show and I had recently come across a photo of Hallie when she was posing for Brasosport Art League in 1999. Needless to stay it was a challenge, cause the body was a puzzle.

Dont have pix yet

Well the kiddles are here in full force and doing very well. The trip was long but they were troupers.
We took them to church yesterday and they went to Childrens church, and all went very well. We remembered to take the back pack ( for crayons and book)
We finally got Doodle on a tricycle; she was just not interested in doing anything that had to pedal. For some reason the pedaling motion with legs is foreign to her.--who coined term "just stomp on it". It made sense to her. She made it to the end of the tear drop.
Tom Tom is riding his bike. He likes to slip back into the tractor, so that he can control the fast coast downhill.
The studio lookes great. The guys did a super job.
Will try to get some good pics today.

A Lot of Catching Up

I can't believe it's been 3 months since I've posted. Time really got away from me/us. The first of March I attended a portrait workshop by Clayton Beck, awesome, awesome. I was intimidated going in - some artist/instructors can be rather arrogant and undiplomatic. So I usually go and keep my mouth shut. There's always one person ( usually a guy) who is a know it all and starts out name dropping and brown nosing. Invariably they are the ones who make the biggest mess. We did live model portrait sketches - each one was 3 hours or less. I was getting a little concerned because he never came by my canvas. He finally walked up behind me and just stood there for about 3 minutes and said nothing. The he said "the only thing you need to do is soften the edges around the mouth", turned around and walked off. So I felt pretty good after that. I learned a lot and plan to attend some more of his workshops - don't think I want to go to China tho.

The family weekend was planned for Easter weekend and as fate would have it, Mom L took a rapid turned for the worse and died the Monday before Easter. We buried her Thursday, it's like she knew all the family would be here. Mouse, Poppy and I were with her until the end. D, T, T's mother and Dav were there also. Hospice was there and absolutely wonderful. It happened a little sooner that we thought it would, but it was such a blessing. She was so clueless and had gotten to the point of not being able to do anything for herself. The nursing home was outstanding and she was truly one of their pets.

The "annual" crawfish boil was great. In addition to the usual family, we invited friends. Tia and Bobbles bought 2 bags of crawfish form Louisiana. Our "daughter" from Atlanta made it and other "daughter", husband and 2 little ones came too. They camped out in the front yard. Such a wonderful ending to a sad week. Truly, there is nothing to compare to family and friends.

Workshop

Wednesday and Thursday I was fortunate enough to be able to attend an art workshop by one of the modern day masters - Clayton Beck. It was about portraits and was awesome. I'm always intimidated when I go to these things, but came away feeling pretty good. I really learned alot, but also realized I have a pretty good knowledge base. I just have to start painting from live models. We had to complete a head portrait in 3 hours, the first day. And do 3 in the second day. Tough, tough , tough. Every part of my body was in pain.

UPDATE ON KIDNEYS

Had my follow up visit with the kidney Dr today. Good news. All tests were negative. So in a nutshell I have Analgesic Nephropathy. Apparently this is becoming more and more prominent with long term use of acetomiophen, Ibuprophen and the NSAIDS (Celebrex, Vioxx,etc). As a rule, kidneys do not regenerate, but after the pains meds are stopped, the damage can sometimes be reversed/and hopefully stopped. My creatinine levels and ratios did improve over a couple of months ago. It's going to take a while to adust to new medication, even though it's straight narcotic, my pain relief is not as effective. I can't tell yet if it's the pain medication or my pain is worse and the Vicodin wouldn't have worked either. The nephrologist said the new medication was a fairly low dose and likely needed to be increased. So all in all, I'm very relieved that it's nothing worse and can at least be managed.

CATCHING UP

Week before last was a continuous string of Dr's visits and medical tests. It seemed Mama always had a new complaint - which really isn't new, but she thinks it is. In the past, she only needed glasses for reading and now she now has new glasses that she should wear all the time. I got her the Transitions lens so she wouldn't need to keep up with 2 pair of glasses. Well, it doesn't register that she needs to wear them all the time. She went to daycare yesterday, and came home, couldn't find her glasses. Hopefully, she left them at daycare. She's now wearing my old drug store reading glasses. Her pulse rate has come up, and her digoxin level is back to normal. Her blood sugar is beginning to fluctuate, but I'm not about to take away her Snickers at this point.

Mom L seems to be downsliding, usually when we walk up to her there is some spark of recognition. She had no clue who I was and gave her canned answer she gives everybody. She still remembers John; said "that's my son". I guess the best I can come up with is she was just 'vacant' and just spoke some word-salad. We suspect she had a stroke; her left hand is completely balled up and can't be opened. However, she has figured out how to feed herself with her right hand. The staff tells her she manages to attend all their staff meetings.

Shiner is on the mend again, but moving much slower and doesn't stray too far from front door. All his handicap appliances have arrived and now that he is moving around,we need to figure out how to use them.

It must be the week for back pain. I guess I'm having sympathy pains for Booby. It's been my worst week ever. Pain pills just barely dulled it. I'm afraid I've narrowed it down to my dietary indiscretions. I made some home pimento cheese and had it several days in a row. Fresh strawberries popped up in the grocery store. When Doug and Tyrrell were here, I made a dessert with whipped cream. Now I'm on Slappy's Training Table and really watching what goes in my mouth and today is my best day so far.

Poppy is busy trying to make my studio habitable. It's not fun for him to work in the cold weather. We ordered a new space heater to try out in the studio - it was a dud -sent it back. I've got a buch of painting to catch up on; my pain sure got in the way of most of my activities.

Poppy and I finally got to break away and go to a movie yesterday. So nice. We saw Vantage Point and thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, these days, we're easily intertained.

So now I start to catch up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TRIP TO THE KIDNEY SPECIALIST

First of all, I was impressed with the Dr. He was very unassuming and thorough. He told me that my Creatinne levels were high for a woman - because women don't have much muscle mass. Based on my history, his first guess is that the kidney dysfunction is from long term use of Tylenol (acetominophen) in my pain meds and he will recommend that family physician prescribe straight narcotics.-I've been taking Vicodin for a long time and it contains Tylenol. He said that it's becoming more prevalent that Tylenol is a culprit in kidney dysfunction. However, I am scheduled for a kidney ultrasound Monday; plus 24 hour urine and lab work. If those results don't give him enough information, I will need a biopsy. I see him in 2 weeks so hopefully, I will have some clue as to what is going on.
Well, Shiner has torn his ACL. He got excited and tried to run on hard wood floors. Another learning experience - there is a whole cyber world out there for disabled dogs. I have now ordered a non-skid cream to rub on his feet; gripping pads to glue on is feet and if that fails, non skid boots. So he is now on crate-rest and pain pills. Lordy!! Lordy!!

GOOD REPORT ON EYES

I had a follow-up appt with eye specialist today and the result was good. No tears, the pull on retina is ok, the floater is becoming more transparent and the hemorrhage on the optic nerve has cleared. Still no lifting nor bending for 2 more weeks and I'm clear for a year unless I have more problems.
Mama received her passport and it only took 2 weeks. I was expecting quite a wait. I guess an 82 year old white female doesn't pose a significant risk to national security and she zipped right thru. She chipped her front tooth Friday, so yesterday was Dentist day. One side of tooth was repaired. Apparently she grinds her teeth at night and we have some more work to be done. So we'll budget that over the next few months.
This week is the week of Dr's appts. Tomorrow is my appt with the kidney specialist. I'm anxious to get this one behind me. Mama has follow up about her heart rate Friday. Can't remember if there is one Thurs or not.
We had some anxious moments Sunday. The wind blew a tree onto a power line and the large mountain to the south of us was on fire. Fire fighters from several counties fought it all night and they evacuated a five mile radius. One home was lost and one severly damamged. It's estimated that 400-500 acres were burned. If affected a large gated community that was being developed. No injuries - Thank God. They are monitoring hot spots at this point and the mountain is covered in a haze of smoke. There were 2 other major fires at same time. One at Black Mountain and one up near Marion , all from downed power lines. The wind is gone and it's going to rain today.