Seems God is placing me in certain situations to help people. Aunt Cindy needs rides to go pay her bills or go to the doctor’s appointment. She has never driven and doesn’t understand about the cost of gasoline or wear and tear on a vehicle or about paying for insurance. I thought about all the money she has “saved” not having to pay these expenses over her life time. Her next door neighbor has been helping her out by paying most of her bills online to save on gasoline expense of her car. This month she told Aunt Cindy she can not take her to pay the rest of her bills in town. So Aunt Cindy asked me. I had not planned on going anywhere tomorrow as I have to drive on Wednesday for Betty’s errands and Bible Study. Being disabled and on Social Security, my money does not stretch very far. I have to be careful on excessive gasoline consumption and more wear and tear on my 19 year old van.

My youngest daughter and her boyfriend, Cody, have been asked to move from where they have been living in his mom’s house basement by his future step-father. I first hand experienced the situation of how bad a mean alcoholic man whom is to be Cody’s 3rd step-dad acted and spoke. There is NO excuse for his 51 year old behavior. He acted like a 2 year old out in the front yard in front of their neighborhood yelling and screaming at Cody’s mom. I am concerned for my daughter and Cody’s safety. After growing up in an alcoholic family lifestyle, I know all to well how quickly an alcoholic who is mean can turn violent in a heartbeat. That was the situation awaiting to happen last night. I told my daughter and Cody to come and stay at my house. I do not mind helping my daughter or anyone get away who is in a bad situation with an alcoholic in a house. I pray Cody’s mom sees the light before her wedding day in July to this man is not good for her.

There are times in our lives that a friend is in need of our help. It felt good to learn something new while helping my friend, Connie. She taught me about using php files. I already knew how to work with HTMLs. This is an asset for working with php files. We spent valuable time teaching me about php and completing certain task she needed done. We did run into a small problem with a javascript, but we will figure out how to get it inserted tomorrow.

We both are tired and yet I feel satisfied over all. Thanks for letting me help you today Connie and dusting off the rust in my brain..lol.

I checked my blood sugar several times during the day. I was very pleased a few hours after lunch that my blood sugar reading was 98. After dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread, my blood sugar rose quickly. I am trying to get all white spaghetti noodles out of my house. I will be replacing in the future with whole wheat spaghetti noodles. More grocery stores are carrying whole wheat products like the spaghetti noodles. My grocery store carries Barilla brand whole wheat spaghetti.

2008 has been an incredible year of bad weather. The continuous flooding of the Mississippi River and the wildfires in California are affecting many people, animals and their homes. A friend of mine went with the Red Cross crew to Iowa last week. I am still awaiting to hear from her and her experience with the people left homeless in Iowa.

We had a very severe storm come out of nowhere last Wednesday, June 25. The wind gusted at over 60+ MPH for over 10 minutes. We were watching the local news and no warning or watches were being mentioned to take cover. I was not happy with our local TV channel after I saw the devastation that took place in my neighborhood.

Our gas grill had been flipped around in the yard like a tinker toy. Our heavy rolling trash can with lid that had been up against the back of my home was found almost two streets away floating in the high water. Two sections of our fence came down. Other damage was a huge maple tree fell across a boulevard. A large family size trampoline that had been in the backyard of a house 2 streets to the north of our street ended up in my neighbor’s yard tangled in a street sign that had been ripped out of the ground. All the neighbors that came out after the storm to access the damages agreed it looked like a tornado came through our area. It looked like a bomb had been dropped they said. I told them of small potted plants I had on the back patio next to the grill was NOT even touched, but the grill was lifted and tossed around. We are lucky that we only sustained minor damage. My neighbor to the left of me had more damage. Part of her new siding came off her new porch. The passenger side mirror of their car was taken off by the flying trampoline. One of her trees split in half.

I strongly feel that God’s wrath is being shown on our earth. We all need to be prepared for His coming.

Our Uncle Chuck died this past Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 5 AM of a heart attack. He did die peacefully in his sleep. It saddened me that he was only 64 years old. His father died when he was 64 years old too. A few years ago, I suggested that he get a complete physical because I noticed that his face was ash white in color after a big moving day for him and our aunt. He always was stubborn about going to the doctor.

May you rest in peace Uncle Chuck.

Had two doctor appointments on Monday. One was my regular medical doctor and the other was my chiropractor. Since my back has been hurting me so much over the past week, I was glad to be seeing my chiropractor for an adjustment. I felt somewhat better after the adjustment. I knew I needed to relax more to help the adjustment. However, I was feeling anxious about my next appointment to my medical doctor.

I knew he would not be happy about my blood sugar levels and my A1C level. I was shocked at how much weight I had gained in the last 4 months. I thought I had lost weight. We discussed the need for me to lose weight and watch what I am eating more to get my diabetes under control. My doctor stated that maybe the two prescription diabetic medications, Avandia and Amaryl, must not be working anymore for me. I would have to increase the number of units of Novolog insulin I take with each meal and also my night time insulin, Lantus till my blood sugar levels were more in the normal ranges. I told my doctor about being more tired. He told me that would be very normal with my blood sugar levels being so high.

I have been thinking about the major commitment of losing weight I needed to make. Last night, the infomercial for Michael Thurmond’s Six Week Body Makeover came on the TV. I have been overweight all my life it seems. As I listened to the different people give their testimony, I thought “that’s me” when they described trying different diets and having trouble taking off weight in certain areas. My metabolic rate definitely needed to be increased to help me lose weight. I like the idea of customizing for my body shape. I have watched him work with people in the past on Extreme Makeover on TV. I was amazed at their results. I have often wondered if I could do his program instead of diet pills. Will think about this for a few more days before deciding to order the program.

I talked to my youngest daughter on Friday, the day before the Graduation Party. She informed me that she had to go to work in the morning till 11 AM. Her dad tells me later in the day he had to work also in the morning. At first I thought both were joking, as they both had asked off from their jobs in advance. They both assured me they were not joking and had to work. Panic set in on me bad. I thought about all the lifting and carrying I needed to do for the party. Since it was being held at a building in a township park, it meant carrying everything down from upstairs in the house to down the stairs outside the house. I have been experiencing back and leg pain over this past week and praying it would ease up for this weekend. I already have appointments for the following week with my doctors.

My daughter was so apologetic about not being able to help me. I told her I understood. Then she told me that her future mother-in-law was suppose to make a certain dish for her party and needed me to cook all the hamburger meat with the seasonings and bring in a crock pot. Told my daughter not to worry I would handle everything. She told me she would pick up the cake and ice when she got off work on the way to the party. Her dad did help put some of the things in my van late that night.

The next morning, I got up very early and found Cody, my future son-in-law sitting on my front porch. Apparently, he was filling bad that everything got dumped on me to do and volunteered to come help me. My daughter dropped him off. He had worked till near 1 AM and I knew he was tired. I told him to lay down on the couch and sleep while I went to take a shower and start the hamburger meat to cook.

I was glad Cody was there to help me get all the rest of the things in my van and hold the crock pot from falling over. We arrived at the park building and proceeded to get the party decorated and tables arranged. Cody’s mom came and made quesodillas (not sure of the spelling). She had a neat machine that sealed the flour tortillas that had the seasoned meat, refried beans and cheese in them. She also made some with chicken in them.

Since my daughter was in Spanish class for 4 years with most of the same students, her theme for the party was Mexican. She and I had found great decorations, sombreros and a bull pinata. Some of her friends wore their class t-shirts that had a bull and espinal quatro el toro on them. They told me that it meant Spanish class 4 years, no bull. The pinata fit the theme perfectly. My daughter made a “Memory Table” of her baby picture, her childhood favorites, school art, band and color guard pictures, shirts and her graduation cap and gown. As I looked at her special table of memories that she had collected, I was surprised at some of the items that I had given her she still had.

A lot of friends came to her party even from out of town. They had a great time talking, playing with the pinata filled with candy and listening to music. I am pleased her party turned out so well. She was happy and hugging and thanking me.

By the time I got home, I was ready to get off my feet. I knew I had to take my blood sugar and my level would be high because I indulged in a piece of cake and most of the party foods were carbohydrates. My reading was 472. I immediately took a shot of Novolog of 10 units. My blood sugar levels have been constantly high lately and I think it is time to see my doctor.

Talking to with my youngest daughter yesterday about whether to rent or own her own home is an important decision in her life. I don’t want to see all the rent money in her lifetime goes to a landlord. With all the houses up for sale in our town, foreclosures and tax sale homes, there should be one that she and her fiancé can afford. I advised her to get free mortgage loan quotes from several mortgage companies and banks. To not commit to a loan till she got all of her information and thought out this long term serious commitment completely. She complimented me on my advice to her to save them lots of money including how to shorten the number of months or years on a loan. It feels wonderful to have her finally listening to me. My diabetes is doing so much better too not being stressed out around her. I thank the Lord for this.

Today, starts the first day of summer. Even though we have already had some very hot day of over 90’s, today was absolutely beautiful. We did have a very short sprinkle of rain today, it is still a very nice day. It is not too hot or cool. We have had some cooler air in the evenings with the cold front that came through.

As I watched the weather channel this morning, the weather people were talking about the drought of 2007 and now for 2008. It saddens me to hear it is affecting South Carolina. I have friends who live there and have gardens every year. Having a drought doesn’t allow their gardens to flourish. They rely on the vegetables they grow to stretch their food budget all year long. Last year’s drought hurt them severely.

The wild fires in California are still a problem and people losing their homes and belongings. Now the floods in Iowa and other states in the Mid West are so sad at the losses the families there have endured. A friend of mine in DOUA has gone to help in the Red Cross Team in Iowa. I admire her courage to go and help other people in need. This is her first trip with the team.

I am grateful for our beautiful first day of summer here in Ohio. May we all have a beautiful summer and the disasters lessen around the world. There has been so many already this year.

I have a hard time finding dress shoes or sandals that fit my feet. I wear a shoe size of 8 ½ wide. Merrell shoes has a wide variety of shoes for men, women and children. I am so pleased to find over 900 types of women’s shoes to choose from. I love the sandals selection they have to pick something from to wear this summer. I am enjoying selecting some new shoes for me.

My youngest daughter and I spent a good portion of the day together buying the rest of the food and party decoration for her graduation party which is on Saturday. We actually had time to go to lunch together at a very nice restaurant. I really enjoyed our time together.

Her driving has improved tremendously too. She is learning to slow down on her speeding and not take off so fast from a light. With the increasing gasoline prices, she is learning a valuable lesson on how to save money by changing some of driving habits. Told her to coast down hill on steeper street instead of pushing hard on the gasoline pedal. Also to make sure she checks the tire pressure every couple of weeks to insure the pressure is the same all the way around to save on gasoline consumption. She is finally listening to me and our relationship is getting better.

Having a non-stressful day and watching my blood sugar levels has been great for my diabetes.