Health Update and Happy Mail

Added: 2026-06-07

[00:00:10]Hey, welcome to my journey. I thought we'd catch up today. Hadn't seen y'all in a couple weeks. So, I will tell you I have enjoyed I mean I miss you. Don't take it like that. But I've enjoyed not having to pick up the phone and start recording this that and the other. Um, I'm sure I'll get back to it. But anyway, for now I'm enjoying it. But I did thought maybe thought I did thought I did think I'd come on here and just catch you up because you've been following along. It's mostly with my help. You've been following along. So, I thought I'd let you know what all has happened. But, um, Oh, I'm seeing my neighbor. You never see her ever. I see the husband out mow in the yard every now and then. never see her. My cousin who knows everything on the block says she's a nurse and works at night. So I guess she's sleeping all day, but somebody delivered a package and she comes to the door. Got it.

[00:01:07]Listen, it ain't like Uncle Eddie.

[00:01:13]He was something else. These are decent people.

[00:01:20]But I went last Friday and got my strip.

[00:01:26]I gave you trial spinal cord stimulator put in and they didn't put you to sleep. They give you one little shot of sedation which did nothing. I don't know if it just maybe calms your muscles down or something but you have to be able to talk to them and tell them can you feel this? Where do you feel that? Blah blah blah. And um the IV was just to get fluids and an antibiotic shot. That's what it was for. and one little teensy wy little I don't even know what it did but it didn't hurt because he numbed two little spots that numbed something to where he went up my back in several spots all the way up my back and numbed both sides and so I didn't feel a thing he did the only time I felt it when when they said when they were turning it on do you feel this over here that whatever so they put it up your spine it's just a wire. I don't know if it's two wires. It has to be It has to be two wires because there's two leads. Unless it's one wire that splits off on two. I don't really know. I'll have to ask the surgeon more about it. Um but so it's in there. It's not secured except for a big bandage strapped all the way across your whole entire lower back about midback down.

[00:02:46]And there are leads coming out of your back. and he does stitch them in place and they're plugged into a battery pack which I had to wear in a belt um around my waist. I I got it out Wednesday so I couldn't take it off. I couldn't take a shower.

[00:03:03]Y'all know before I told you I don't like to get wet and I'm going to tell you when you can't take a shower it's gross.

[00:03:09]So I had to wear that 24/7 and I had limitations. No arms over the head, no bend being no stupid.

[00:03:18]um twisting and picking up anything over 5 lbs. So, I didn't get the baby.

[00:03:24]Um I got the baby before I had it done Friday, but I couldn't get the baby this week because I couldn't have got him Wednesday because I had it in before I went to the doctor. Even if they could have got back and got him in time before I went to the doctor, I still had it in.

[00:03:39]So, I couldn't have held him. And then I did have Jacob yesterday. I got it out Wednesday. I had Jacob Holly come up Wednesday. She said she wanted to spend some time seeing us cuz she had a meeting Thursday. I had another doctor's appointment Thursday. So I said, "As long as you're here by 1:30 so I can get out the door." But she had a meeting at church about their um Bible school, vacation Bible school.

[00:04:06]And so we spent the day um Wednesday, we went to the car wash. She needed to go to a car wash, vacuum out her car and wash it from the vacation they went on, which they had the best time. She sent the cutest pictures of Jacob. He was playing in the creek and oh my gosh on the roller coaster and all the things they did. He had a good vacation and he got to play with his cousins that are from Illinois. And so that was they had a real good time, real good week. But she told me this morning she said she thinks she left a load of clothes in the dryer cuz she started catching up on her laundry. She realized there was a lot of stuff missing. So, they're going to try to get a hold of them to see if they can mail it back to them. I hope they can.

[00:04:45]Holly said, "I will gladly pay shipping, just get my clothes back." She said, "A lot of Jacob's clothes." So, I hope they get it back cuz I'm sure it was a lot of his summer clothes, you know.

[00:04:57]And so um and then he come up yesterday to um stay with me while she went to meet and I didn't get the baby then either. Although I could have held him.

[00:05:11]They wouldn't be able to pick him up before I had to get to the doctor. So I couldn't do it then. Now I'm not doing it today because I'm just I'm tired from the week.

[00:05:21]Um, when I got it out, we just did it in the doctor's office. In in the doctor's office, Hold on. I got a one of them giant. We get them big old black ants around here crawling up my tripod.

[00:05:39]Um, you just lean over the table and Lord, he was ripping the Well, he he didn't rip it. He was he was pulling off the bandaging and he got it didn't hurt until he got to a spot where the stitches were and it pulled those. I said, "Oh, okay. I feel that." And he said I told him I said, "What do you do with hairback men? Do you shave them?" He said, "Sometimes we try." I said, "What do you do when you're taking this off?" This is what he said. He goes, "I apologize a lot."

[00:06:11]I said, "I can't even imagine."

[00:06:15]Cuz I'm telling you, it took up here all the way down all the way across. Yeah.

[00:06:19]Because they want to make sure it didn't move. And that's why you're limited on your movements. You can't move. So, I got that out Wednesday. And then, oh, before I go on to that, Thursday was Thursday was my I think it was Thursday. It wasn't Friday cuz I had to go there Friday. So I think it was I don't know one of the days before Friday I went to the dermatologist and my pathology was back and this right here that mole that she took off it was nothing. She said it's something something wisdom. She says what we call it. So I hope I don't get dumb if she took off my wisdom mole. And then the patches it is psoriasis. So she's going to start me on a drug. I'm not going to tell you which one lesson YouTube thinks I'm trying to be a doctor and uh recommend a medicine, but it's a biologic and you take it. There's two starter doses and then it's every 12 weeks. It's in a shot. And so she said whenever I get it that it's got to go through the approval, which it said it was approved. I don't know how much it's going to cost and I guess they'll mail it to me. I don't know. And she said when I get it, just come in and see the nurse. The nurse will tell me how to do it. So, that sounds easy enough. I'm just ready for this to go away.

[00:07:43]They are um I can still feel them everywhere, but they're all turning into just dry scaly patches. A lot of the redness is going down. Instead of dark red, they're turning pink. Some of them are like real like on my wrist. Can you see? They're real light. and some of that the um skin the white skin flaky skin has come off. So I'm on the mend.

[00:08:11]But Dar's doctor was the surgeon. So they got me scheduled where I could get the the trial out Wednesday and see the surgeon Thursday. Let me tell you, I'm going to tell you what. I'm going to tell you what. That thing is a miracle.

[00:08:31]I'm not telling you to go get it. I'm telling you, I'm not a doctor. I'm telling you my experience. That little thing is a miracle. It took my lower back pain away. It You can set it on where it doesn't tingle. It It's like a inside tingle. You've ever had a tinge unit where it like tingles on your muscles? That's what this does. It's on the inside. It goes all the way from your like midback. It would go all the way down to my toes depending on how um strong I was set it. So, it was a combo with how she had me setting cuz you have to go in there, they have to test you, do you feel this? Where do you feel that? There's a whole thing you have to do. They don't just put it in you, hand you a remote, and tell you to go home.

[00:09:14]You have to go through all that. And the rep from the company's there when he's putting it in. Then the rep from the company's there helping you set it up.

[00:09:22]And then at my appointment to get it taken out, a rep from the company is there. She said she will be during the surgery that they are with you all the way. They are with you. The rep from the company. I thought that's pretty cool.

[00:09:39]Well, um, he come in and well, the first doctor asked me, "How'd it go?" I said, "Are you kidding me?" I said, "It took my pain away." And I it says you can't run it while you're driving. So I turned it off to drive down there. It wasn't long at all. Here comes that back pain back.

[00:09:58]Last night I was up. I didn't get up.

[00:10:01]Well, I woke up one night. I didn't wake up. I actually went back to bed. But I I was I'm so accustomed to waking up in the middle of the night hurting that my body's kind of used to it. So it just kind of wakes up. And so now, like last night, I was up for hours. My back was screaming. I'm like, "Oh my gosh.

[00:10:21]Not taking a shower, not being having movements, you know, your movements limited. Having that thinking around your waist 24/7 was a pain, but the pain relief was glorious. Oh my gosh. So, when the surgeon came in, he said, "How's it going?" I said, "Wonderful." I said, "When can we do it?" He just he just grinned. He said, "All right." He shook my hand. He said, "All right." Of course, he he told me, you know, the the um things that could go wrong. He said, you know, there's 1% or 2% of the answer, blah blah blah. He said, "These are things I'm going to tell you." He said, "I'm going to tell you things now. I'm going to tell you before the surgery.

[00:11:01]I'm going to tell you after the surgery.

[00:11:02]I'm going to tell the family members that are with you that if you have any numbness or weakness in your leg, you go straight to the emergency room cuz that's the fastest way we can get you into surgery and get it out." He said, "Because there is always the chance that it can press on your spinal cord and cause weakness, numbing, even paralyzation." I said, "I know there's risks to everything. It's a very, very low risk, but he has to tell you. I don't care what kind of surgery you have, there's a risk. So, you're either going to accept the risk or you're not. And I'm accepting the risk because the the way it made me feel, I'm ready for it 24/7 and not come back out." But he told me, he said if if he was if something did happen, there was an infection or anything, he said if I have to take it out, I can't put it back in. So, we're not we're not even talking about none of that. But these um plaques, he called them plaques cuz he told me he said, "What what's this?" You know, cuz he can see on my leg and everything cuz my shorts, he can see on my arms and stuff.

[00:12:04]I said, "Well, it is psoriasis." He said, "What's she going to do?" I said, "You going to put me on blah blah blah."

[00:12:09]He said, "Okay." He says, "You've got to let me know if you have any new ones come up because we cannot risk." And these are not the kind that are oozy. At first, I thought they were, but they're not. These are not oozy. They're not blistery. They're They just come up into a plaque. What he call the plaques. They come up into a plaque. It's just this uh pink raised area that eventually scabs over and flakes off and turns light pink and goes away. I guess that's how it works. But he said, "If you get any new ones," which I'm not. I'm not getting any new ones, these are just going away.

[00:12:44]He said, "You have to let me know. You have to let me know." So, I've got to get an MRI.

[00:12:50]And he said, the nurse told me, she said, "You, the other doctor, yes, um, Wednesday, he went ahead and put the order in for me cuz he knew it had to be done." He, she said, "They got to make sure there's enough room in your thoracic cavity," I think is what she said, for the wires and stuff to go through. So, they've got to make sure of that. And then there's um blood work that has to be done because he's got to make sure. Listen to this. I never knew this. He said, "Now, how much weight have you lost this year?" I said, "I don't really know this year." I said, "Overall, I know, but I'm not sure this year." He said, "Well," he said, "when you lose weight," he said, "you have a harder time healing than not." I said, "What?" He said, "When you're losing weight, you're in a calorie deficit and whatever." I don't understand it. Whatever it does, it messes with you and you have a hard time harder time healing than if you hadn't lost weight. Ain't that crazy? It's something to do with your calorie deficit. I guess maybe what your body does with the calories and the food. I don't know. So, he he's got some specific he's going to check for for that and make sure I think my blood's clotting properly and something else and something else. I'm going to do that this afternoon. I'm going to go ahead and get it knocked out of the way. Now, I asked the um he put me in there to the um scheduling lady. He said he has a specific scheduler who just schedules his surgeries and he goes to the surgery center. It's not at the hospital. They have the surgery center that I go to is theirs. I didn't know it. It's theirs.

[00:14:18]They own it and that's where he does these surgeries at that surgery center.

[00:14:22]She said, "It's going to save you a ton of money from the hospital, too." She said, "So, he's only there once a month." So, there's a month, there's a day this month, and there's a day in July. She said, "This month, I think it's going to be too quick because you got to get your MRI and your labs, which I'm doing today cuz like I said, I'm going to get them done, have that out from under me." And if I could get the MRI, I guess it would depend on how booked up he is. If I can get in that quick otherwise, she said, "You're looking at July." So, I don't want to name a date cuz I don't want to then something happen and it be August cuz I can't listen. Having been to the mountain, I can't come back down. I have been to the mountain of no pain in my lower back and now I've got to wait another month. I don't want to make wait too much. But here's the thing. Hold on.

[00:15:07]Let this truck go by.

[00:15:13]Too loud. Boy, we got a Charger right down the street here. He blows up this little road like a bat out of hail. When he he hits the road back here, you can hear him from here. Plum on down yonder.

[00:15:26]He just guns it. I'm like, dude. And he's passing a school when he's doing it. Anyway, but um it's a six week recovery and it's the same stuff for the five days with the trial. No bending, no twisting, no arms over the head, no lifting five pounds, no none of that for 6 weeks. So that's going to be 6 weeks of no baby. They can bring him to see me, but I doubt I could even hold him because he's the last time he was weighed, which was last month, I think, was 22 lbs. I don't know what he weighs now. If he ain't 25, I'd be surprised. There's no way. And he's wiggly, you know. There's no way I could have that my back and hold him and him do me like that. There's no way. And so Jacob, he come up last um um when he was up here Wednesday, I said, "Honey, I can't pick you up cuz I can't hardly pick him up now cuz he's so heavy." But he'll come to the door. His thing is he comes to the door and he knocks on it and then he runs over to the side and I I have to play the big part. Who's knocking on my door? I can't believe I'm in here trying to just have my morning watching my TV and somebody coming up in here knocking on my door like that. And then he runs around and goes, "Ah."

[00:16:40]Okay. So, that's our thing. We We do it different every week, but I have to make up some story every time. That is our thing. Well, yesterday he brought his keys. I couldn't open the door. He said, "Hold on. I can get my keys." So, we got his keys and he pretended to unlock the door. And then he come in. But I told him Wednesday, I said, "I can't pick you up today." He said he knew. Mommy told him, but when he comes in, I grab him, pick him up. I can't pick him up like under his butt or nothing. I pick him up and I hold him like this and we walk over to my chair and we pl we plop down. That's the only way I can pick him up these days. And so when me and Holly went to the um oh yeah, we went to get a car wash and then we went to the thrift store while we were right there. She said after vacation she was on a no spend. I said, "Well, if you say something, I'll buy it." So we went into the Goodwill that's it's my senior citizen day Goodwill. It's right the other corner from the car wash. He just come out the back road. Right there it is.

[00:17:39]And uh so we were in there and I couldn't pick him up and put him in the buggy or nothing. But she was looking, me and him walked around, looked and he he found of all things bath bombs. The kid loves bath bombs. He always has. He loves bath bombs. So, I got him a brand new pack of bath bombs and Holly found a couple things and then she was over there looking at books. She said he needs new books. She said he's out of the board books now and he wants regular books. He needs more of a story. So, she picks them up and she had like 13 books and she said, "I have to show him because he's he's peculiar over his books. He likes books that he likes and he'll say he don't care for it. Well, everyone she showed him, "We'll take that. We'll take that one. We'll take that one." So, she said, "Now, I don't think you need 13 books. Let's pick through them." I said, "If that boy wants 13 books, that boy can have 13 books."

[00:18:44]So, she's like, "Of course." She she knew mama was going to get that boy what he wanted. And as she's walking by, she saw when she pulled it out and he saw it, it had a dog on it. It was something, Ed. It was like a a family dog. She said, "Oh my gosh." She said, "It's going to open up the whole conversation about why we can't have a pet." She said, "I've done told him on how many times why we're not getting a pet." So she said, "It'll probably open that conversation up again." So he got 14 books. 14 books and some bath bombs. He had a good day. She found a game cuz her and her husband and their friends, they all play games. They're into games. All kind of games. Just all kind of games. They get together for game night. So there's one, I can't even remember what it was called. Something with K. Never heard of it. If I seen it, it would have never crossed my mind that it was anything. And she spotted it was 99 cents. Only thing missing was some of the parts. I don't know how it plays.

[00:19:40]It's got little balls. It's got little stick things. I don't know. Well, Nathan found them on Amazon for 13 bucks for a whole brand new set of pieces that goes with that game. And it was a big big thing, like a big wooden thing.

[00:19:59]She said, "The game goes for 50 bucks."

[00:20:01]She said, "We've always wanted it for years." She said, "Probably 5 years we've been wanting it." She said, "But we were not going to pay 50 bucks for it." She found it for 99 cents, which was free to her cuz I bought it. and he found the um pieces that goes to it for 13 bucks, but it was free because he had an Amazon gift card.

[00:20:21]So, they got them a free $50 game. She was so excited. She could she couldn't wait to send it to Nathan to show him.

[00:20:26]And he immediately went on Amazon and found the parts immediately. So, their next game night, I guarantee you they'll be playing that. I guarantee you. But did I need anything? I did. I bought some more socks. You know them black socks and white socks I told you that fit so smooth and so soft and so big. I said they were 10 by 13. Then I bought some other ones at the other store. I said no. These are nine by nine nine to whatever 9 to 10. I don't know. I said but I swing the other ones were 10 to 13. And I could tell when I put them on they were different. Sure enough cuz they had the 10 to 13s. So I got me two more packs of those. So, I got me six more pair of black socks. I wear black socks around the house so you don't show the dirt on the bottom. I got to have my carpet clean. I got to have my carpet clean.

[00:21:17]Period. Period. It's gross. I should tell y'all that, but it is. It needs cleaning. David said, "Go ahead and um call him and tell them to come." I said, "Well, honey, I got to see when I'm going to have my surgery first because I can't help move furniture if I need to.

[00:21:37]I won't be able to do nothing.

[00:21:39]I'm going be so surely they'll let me drive and I can go do my thrifting cuz I got to go do my thrifting. I mean, come on, man. I can't go 6 weeks without thrifting. Me and David went out um that Saturday, I believe it was. And I did fine. He drove and just walking in and out looking. I didn't do bending or stooping and and if there's anything around the house, I'm going to tell you what, he nursed me. He stayed out. He had to take off Thursday night so he'd be home Friday morning to take me. And he took Friday night off, too. Cuz I'm going to tell you what, I was in pain beyond pain.

[00:22:21]This side of my muscle was spasming just like just like that. Every time I'd move or take a breath, it was just So I called the woman from the company and told her, I said, "Something's got to give." I said, "You got to turn this tent the the power down, whatever, something." She said, "Well, cramps can be one of the um side effects of the actual procedure." She said, "Let me let your doctor know." She said, "Do you have any muscle relax?" I said, "Yeah, I took one in case that's what it was." I said did nothing cuz they give me some to help me sleep at night and u they don't do anything to my muscles. They just help me sleep. They don't keep me asleep cuz I'm still up in the middle of night hurting. But anyway, I'll take them. Help me go to sleep.

[00:23:10]So she called me back and she said, "He called you in some pain medication," which was just a little bitty n nothing, but it was better than anything. And the next day, I think after I had laid in the bed and relaxed it, it felt better.

[00:23:23]Now, it hurt probably for a good solid 3 days out of the five. Painful. It was painful, but it was a different pain than my low back pain. That was gone. This was just the procedure pain. So, but I I wouldn't I'd go back and do it again if I had to just to find out that it works. Um, I got them things on my ears and everywhere. Got them on my head.

[00:23:53]I noticed one on the back of my heel yesterday.

[00:23:58]But, um, so the the thing is you can't drive with it turned on in case it would like make you do some kind of I don't know. But listen, when I left the doctor Wednesday, when I got it out Wednesday, I typically go back home the way I come.

[00:24:19]But that day, I thought, no, I'm I'm going to head in and go home the back way, right where I have to turn at the ABC store.

[00:24:29]It's like a a fork. This way, that way, that way at the the duck plant, chicken plant. Used to be the duck duck plant.

[00:24:38]Well, I think they do Purdue chicken there now or something. But um right in the corner in the little V corner where there's a strip mall behind it. I saw stuff outside and it says something vintage treasures. I'm like, "What was what what what did I just see?" So I went down and I made a U-turn in a parking lot and come back up there and went in. I said, "When did y'all get here?" She said, "Mother's Day a year."

[00:25:05]I said, "Are you kidding me?

[00:25:08]Where I get my haircut is two buildings away at the other part of the fork in the road. Have not even noticed it. Of course, I didn't get my haircut there for probably a year because my girl had had a stroke. So, I wasn't there for the year. And the last time I went, I didn't notice it, I guess, cuz I wasn't looking for it, you know. But this I come up beside it this way. I went straight. So, I pulled up and I went in. Now, she's got beautiful stuff. It's beautifully decorated, but it's not my vibe. You know, I go more for that 70s hippie groovy kind of vibe. I wish my house was like the ones I see on um the reals and Instagram stuff like, but it ain't. But I got the things I like in it. I'm fine. So, I was walking around looking. I found one thing. It's a Regal Poly perk orange percolator.

[00:26:00]The one thing it's missing is the basket cover that goes so when it percolates the grinds don't come out. I have searched and searched and searched for one on eBay and Etsy and I can't find one. I ordered one off of Amazon and it's too big. I have found on Facebook, I mean on um eBay a whole basket set. This is a 4 to six cup that might work. I've just got the measure of the one I've got and if I fit, I'm just going to order it. Um because I cannot you can't buy parts for it because it's they're out. They're gone out of business. But it's beautiful. It's orange and it's got the little like starburst things on it. Oh, it's beautiful to me.

[00:26:47]It's beautiful. And so I went up there and I pulled out my card and she said, "Oh, honey, she don't take cards." I said, she said, "We do Cash App and Venmo." I said, "Well, I don't have those." She said, "Well, do you live far?" I said, "I I where's a bank around here? I'll go get it at the bank." No, no, don't don't make no special trip.

[00:27:07]You just come back and give it give it to me when you get it. I said, "Well, honey, I can't do that." She said, "Yeah, yeah." She held the TIG tag it up. She said, "You see how much it is?"

[00:27:16]I said, "Yeah." And I said, "Do you want me to take that?" She says, "No, I'll keep it." And then she put my percolator in the bag. She said, "Here, you go ahead and take this home." I said, "Are you sure?" She said, "Yeah." I said, "Well, I I got another doctor's appointment." Cuz I told her I had just left the doctors. That's how I found them. I said, "I have another doctor's appointment in the same spot tomorrow," which was Thursday. I said, "I will be back and pay you Thursday." So, by golly, when I got out of the doctor, I went straight there and paid for my perator. She said, "Well, thank you for coming back." I said, "Well, yeah, I was coming back. Could you believe that?

[00:27:47]Could you believe you?" I told her, I said, "You don't get service like this nowhere no more. You just don't. You just don't." So the the mother, she was sitting there, she's the mother of whoever owns it or something cuz she says, "My my kids, however she put it."

[00:28:05]She said, "I come in here a couple times a week and look around, everything like that." And when the woman was telling me, she says, "You just bring it back. I trust you." The woman said, "This store is in the Lord's hands." That's what she said. I said, "Well, apparently, you know." And so she was happy that I came back. I'm waiting.

[00:28:22]Could you imagine me leaving myself if I took a percolator and didn't go back and pay for it? H I'm going to have to answer for a lot of things, but it ain't going to be for stealing a percolator.

[00:28:38]I got flies.

[00:28:41]Um, now I went, where was I? Oh, I went to the thrift stores one of them days this week cuz I had to get out of the house. Had to get out of the house.

[00:28:58]And I ended up buying just a couple things. But the one thing I did find was a vintage Pyrex flameware double baller.

[00:29:09]Perfect condition. Only missing the lid for $4.

[00:29:16]I snatched it. I don't double boil nothing. And when I melt my chocolate, I melted in the microwave. But you know what? I had to have it. So, I went on eBay and I found a lid. So, I don't know when I'll get it because it said that person their their store, they were had on vacation mode. So, it'll be probably next week or something by the time I get it. But that's okay. But I had $4.

[00:29:37]Sometimes they know what they got and sometimes they don't know what they got.

[00:29:41]Cuz if I want to, I can resell it, make some money. But I don't. I want it. I want it. Listen, you know, I still ain't got around to selling nothing for my eBay. And here I am thinking about nothing.

[00:29:58]If I started up now, then I would have to put it on vacation for I don't know how long. Well, for 6 weeks if I can't pick up nothing to carry to the post office. So, what I'm going to do, I have decided.

[00:30:14]And Sebastian will be down for the summer. He's got to have a bed this weekend. I'm I'm gonna pack up all my my things that I want to sell. I'm sell my t-shirts. I'm what I originally said I was going to do because that is something I can do easily and lightweight. I can carry t-shirts to the post office or I can shove them in my mailbox if it's just one, you know, that sails. So, and then when I get all situated, my back ain't hurt, maybe I feel better than I have in a long time, then I can start on my other stuff. But I think that's what I'm going to do. And that way it will also clean up the room for um Sebastian to sleep. Not sure when he's coming. He's got a camp that he goes to every year after school. I don't think R.J. has heard from his mama yet when that is. But she does want him back a week before school starts, which we can understand because she wants to try to get him back in a routine cuz he don't have no routine down here in the summer. Boy does what he wants to do.

[00:31:11]Eats what he wants to eat, stays up however long he wants to stay up, plays his games, watches his videos. It don't matter. That's what you want to do, that's what you going to do. So, I can understand wanting to get him back into the swing of things.

[00:31:28]M Hold on. I'm going to cut this off and I'll be right back. Okay, I knew I wanted to show you something. Look at this. This is from Lynn.

[00:31:38]It came from Amazon. It's a popup bouquet. Look.

[00:31:44]Uh Amazon package was out here. I said, "What did I order? It couldn't have been a couple days ago. I don't remember."

[00:31:50]And it was flat. I'm like, "I don't remember ordering nothing, but we'll see." And opened it up. I'm like, "I didn't order this." So, I thought I got somebody's wrong mail. There was a little note in it from Lyn.

[00:32:00]Brighten my day. I don't know if I got them fanned out the way they're supposed to be or not to be honest with you. But anyway, they look pretty sitting in there on my bar. Oh, the wind's going to blow them. Let me set it down here so they don't blow away.

[00:32:18]And then please don't blow. These don't blow. And you can um fold them back up and put them back in their sleeve.

[00:32:25]They're right there. And then Sherry, bless her heart, she was watching my, if y'all remember here a while back, I did my chicken marinade video. We have used all of them. Now they come in the most handiest handy handy handy handy situation ever because you can thaw it out. Pop it in the crock pot, pop pop it in the oven, pop it in Instant Pot. I hardly if I popped it in this pot, I hardly even thought it out just enough to break it up to get it down in the pot because it cooks perfectly fine even if it's still frozen. So, we've done eat all them all of them. But if you remember seeing that video, I made a mess of at least two of them. She said, she commented on it. She says, "Do you have any of them things that holds up your bags?" I said, "No, I don't." She said, "Cuz I know you were struggling."

[00:33:15]I said, "Yes, I was. I made a mess." She said, "Well, if you don't have them, I'd love to send you some." Well, lo and behold, like the next day, it was practically the next day, I get an Amazon package and I didn't know what it was cuz I didn't know how they were coming. I opened it up. I'm like, that's what it is. Let me show There's four of them. Let me show you how they work.

[00:33:38]I have seen them.

[00:33:43]So, thank you, Sherry. which I am going to be doing uh surgery meal prep like I did whenever I had my um knees done. I did prep for that and that came in so handy for David. He popped a casserole in the oven cuz he took care of I'm going tell you that's what I was telling y'all a while ago. He took I'm trying not to rattle but I can't help it.

[00:34:11]He took such good care of me.

[00:34:20]Oh, here we go.

[00:34:23]He nursed me and tended to me like nobody. I told him he was a good nurse.

[00:34:30]So, I got to get out of another bag.

[00:34:45]Okay. So, pop it up. This is like a little rubbery thing, so it's going to stick to your counter. And these depend on the side of your bag. And then you clip one side of the bag under there and one side of the bag over there and it holds it open for you. So, you're putting your chicken and your marinades or whatever it is you're putting in a bag, it's sitting there and it holds it open for you. I got four of them. So, I I can have four of them open at a time and not have that big old mess that I made last time because I plan on doing some casserles like I did last time. And I plan on um There we go. I plan on Let me set it here so I don't make it that doing some more marinated chicken.

[00:35:31]Matter of fact, I was up last night, couldn't sleep. So, I was sitting there looking through my own recipes, writing down writing down things I wanted to make.

[00:35:47]The freezer ones I make one for supper and freeze the other one. So, that's how it it comes about. I can make the whole recipe and have two in there, but for 6 weeks, we don't need two of the same thing. we can have one now and then one later. So, I've been working on making that list of things. And plus doing it as I go like that, it's not a whole day worth of cooking for the freezer. I used to do that back in the day. I used to just buy all my stuff, cook all day, and put a mess of stuff in the freezer. I remember I used to freeze anything and everything, especially with me and my first husband.

[00:36:25]Like I would want to make a cake, but the three of us couldn't eat a whole cake. So I would take pie pans and I would bake those cakes in pie pans and wrap them up and freeze them. And when we wanted to cake, I could just bring out that one little small cake and frost it. And that was just enough for us to have as a dessert.

[00:36:45]Try it. Mhm. It works good. But I would freeze or can anything and everything I could get my hands on. I was crazy. Now, this year I won't be doing any garden work. Zero z none because I won't be able to. So, I guess it's a good thing Holly decided to cut it back. Keep it very small because if she hadn't either she would be doing a lot, which she's working, she's she's the over the preschool department at her church. You know, she got that job.

[00:37:19]Well, now they've offered her a lead role, three days a week as a a lead teacher for the preschool um private school they have at church.

[00:37:30]So, she'll be working three days a week for that. So, Momo Day is going to move to Wednesday. Her father-in-law is going to keep him Monday and Friday, and I'm going to keep him Wednesday. So, she wouldn't have time to do it either. and she didn't know she was going to get the preschool job when she had the garden planted. That just came about out of the blue. She was shocked about that. But they they definitely said they wanted her in that if she wanted she could pick lead or assistant. She picked lead.

[00:38:00]She's good at that stuff. Listen, that is her childhood dream come true. That little child played school and store her entire childhood. She would play school and have all her baby dolls and animals.

[00:38:14]She would she would be here and they would all be in a semicircle in front of her. Every one of them would have papers and she would fill out every one of them's paper like they did it. It wasn't blank papers. She would write on them and she would do them and she would grade them and she would talk to them and she would play school. She played store. Oh, she played store to the nth degree. She's good at that kind of stuff. So, I I was very proud of her.

[00:38:37]Very proud of her. So ain't nobody gonna have time to tend to a whole bunch of garden stuff. So it's a good thing she did skip back. It's a good thing because I will not be able to can a single solitary thing because 6 weeks if I go in July that takes me up into August. If I can't lift over 5 lbs, I sure can't lift canning jars and twist and bend and carry on to can. So it all kind of worked out. But I mean, if we did have the big garden, we'd figure something out. I don't know what we figured out, but we figured something out. But I still have stuff in the freezer. Listen, I ain't been wanting to cook. I told y'all I didn't want to film. I ain't been wanting to cook. You already see the stuff we've been eating. Just whatever I can throw together. I don't even know what I'm going to have today. I don't even know.

[00:39:26]I ain't made a meal plan since I left, y'all. Ain't not a single solitary meal plan. I've just been going by the seat of my pants. And some days it it's like just the simplest thing I can find in the freezer to throw in the microwave or whatever. Listen, Jacob come yesterday and he told Holly he wanted some muffins. And she said, "Well, I bet mama mama mama will make you some muffins."

[00:39:49]He says, "No, I want the other kind in the bag. He likes those intims little muffins, little bites." I said, "Well, if I know that they had them on sale this week at Publix, so I don't get one free cuz I made a Publix order just to see if I get free." Still waiting on my son's barbecue sauce. I ain't got it yet. But I went and uh I said, "I have got it." So, so she left. I said, "You want to go to the store and get some muffins?" He said, "Yeah." So, we went to the cookie store cuz that's what he calls it. Public is a cookie store cuz if you're a child, you get a free cookie. So, he got in the the buggy.

[00:40:22]Thank goodness he could climb in it cuz I don't know if I could have picked him up that far. The the buggy, this the car buggy, you know. We went over there, he got his cookie, and then we went around, got his snacks, and when he checked out, I pushed him up. He said, "No, it's the the older man that has worked there for probably as long as they've been there.

[00:40:40]Just a a sweet older man, but he wears jewelry and all this and that, you know, and he you can tell he's from up north just from his accent. Nicest man." He said, "Hold on, back up. Back up. You don't pass Uncle John like that. He said, "Hold on. Hold your hand out here." So he held his hand out. He got him a sticker. So he got him a sticker.

[00:40:59]And then he was bagging up my groceries.

[00:41:01]I don't have much. He said, "All right.

[00:41:03]Now, when I get these groceries bagged up, I'm going to ask you a question.

[00:41:05]It's a real important question. And depending on how you answer it, there might be something else in it for you."

[00:41:12]Jacob's sitting there. He's looking cuz he don't know what's what's going to ask. I said, "Oh, if you answer it right, you're going to get something."

[00:41:19]He's grinning. And so the minute got he said, "Okay, I'm going to ask you the question. Are you ready?" He said, "Yeah." He said, "Have you been good today?" Chick said, "Yes." He said, "Well, here you go." So he got a coloring page and some crayons. So he got a cookie, coloring page, crayons, and a sticker. So that's what you get at Publix. Listen, our Lowe's is scheduled to open up June 18th, which is 2 minutes from the house. 3 minutes is McDonald's, which is across the parking lot from Lowe's. So 2 minutes to the grocery store. I saw a video online on Facebook. Oh my gosh.

[00:41:56]No wonder they're expensive. They've got everything in that store. It is fancy.

[00:42:01]I cannot wait to go in and explore that thing. I cannot wait. Now, obviously, if it's too expensive, I won't buy all my groceries in there. But you know what?

[00:42:08]When I have a last minute thing I need, 2 minutes is closer than 10 minutes down the food line. Just boom. I mean, it's just it's it's right there. Just right there. So, I can't wait. Now, they did put in the Jersey Mike's, which I don't really care for Jersey Mike. We're Subway people. We like Subway subs, which I could go for those right now. I bet if I went in and asked David, did he feel like Subway? I bet he'd say, "Yeah, I bet he would. I might do that."

[00:42:35]But I I don't go till this afternoon to get my blood. Listen, I might stop by thrift store today. I don't know. But anyway, well, that's probably all I know today. But I did just want to catch y'all up. And uh now I listen, I might do a thrift haul this week. I don't know. We'll see.

[00:42:52]We'll see. So see you when I see you.