Goodbye October with a little bit of Halloween

 

My few Halloween touches will come down tomorrow. Always a dachshund and corgi family, this Halloween card from Zack years ago seemed to be the exact image of our dear Penelope who we lost not long after I started blogging in 2012. She comes out every October along with treasured hand-painted cards from daughter-in-law Wallace. 

Zack recently had a birthday and as always he requested his birthday pie, a peanut butter cream. I used to make a homemade graham cracker crust for it but lately just buy one from Keebler. This year it shattered but Zack still loved it.

He also asked for deviled eggs so I sent him some of those, using my old standby recipe from a Mary Emerling cookbook.

And from the freezer a tuna fish casserole I'd put away for him when I made one for our own supper one night.

Can you tell I'm a paprika kind of girl here? 

Here's another old Halloween card that comes out each year, one from our daughter Christy.

I meant to show a picture of a beautiful vase of flowers Christy brought us when she was here earlier.

I loved those gorgeous purples! And kept enjoying her flowers as time went by and I broke them up into little arrangements all over the house. Here's a little one I put in my bedroom.

And naturally I had to save the roses to dry.

In the morning I'll change that cute October page on the calendar my daughter gives me each Christmas. Even though I look forward to my favorite month of the year, November, I'll miss my cute pumpkin and bats on my bedside table. 

Down will also come the bat hanging in my kitchen, part of a Halloween card Christy sent us many years ago.

Can you spot him? 

Here's one new gift that will come out each autumn to be enjoyed, a Fresh Cut Paper bouquet from my sister Deb that arrived during supper of our 62nd wedding anniversary!

It was such a fun surprise and we have enjoyed it at every meal!

Halloween is a little tame at our house these years but I do take a childish pleasure in it. Maybe because I have so many memories of fun Halloweens growing up and then of those with our children when they were still at home. We even had two grandsons growing up next door to us at Valley View who visited us in their costumes.

I've enjoyed seeing pictures online of our two granddaughters in their costumes today, one as the Mouse Scout and her big sister as, of all things, a Starbucks drink created by their mother Wallace, including silky whipped cream on top!

I've needed these sweet tugs on my heart this week, in a time when hearts are so heavy with the news, in addition to having another daughter-in-law lose her father this week. She and her four sisters and their mother are grieving at this unexpected loss. 

So I'll take a little Halloween cuteness gladly and look forward to the holiday season coming up, every minute of it. And I'm very glad to report that I followed the advice of a blog friend and tried switching my browser to Chrome and like magic all my sign-in problems on my blogs were fixed! I can even comment on my own blogs now and imagine that I will be able to on others as well.

Please be well and safe! 

Love to all,

Dewena

An Anniversary and Family News

 Hello dear family and friends,

On September 19th at our annual exam we learned that RH's heartbeat was irregular. After seeing his cardiologist we were told that he was in full-blown AFIB and a cardioversion was scheduled for October 2nd, with possible open heart surgery if the cardioversion failed due to the other serious heart condition RH has been treated for during the last 20 years.

This possibility turned our world upside down but we were immediately wrapped in the prayers and support of our family. All four of our kids were here the day before to be with us, our daughter flying in and stopping by Whole Foods on her way to our house to bring dinner.

Next our three sons arrived, one from out of town.

This picture of our kids means the world to us! 

RH doesn't look sick here but he had been a very tired guy lately.

After our delicious supper we cleared the table for some distracting hands of Texas Hold 'Em, accompanied by some sweet and hilarious memories of childhood, and a round of admissions to mom and dad of stories we'd never before heard. Groundings were immediately issued.

Everyone left by nine so the old folks could get to bed. It had been an anxious night made much easier by the presence of our precious daughter and sons.

Early the next morning our daughter came to pick up her dad, two of our sons met them at the hospital, and our youngest son came to stay with me as it was better for me to stay home. It wasn't an easy decision but I had my guy's promise..."I'll be back."

Although ten people were in the operating room in case of emergency open heart surgery, our daughter got the call to go to the recovery room where the doctor reported a perfect one shock only needed to restart RH's heart.

Here's our daughter with her brothers when they got the news, happiness showing on their faces.

and,

RH kept his promise to me and indeed he came back!

It was simply amazing how soon they were able to bring our woozy guy home, mainly with instructions to guard against falling for the next 24 hours as the anesthesia wore off, and reasonable carefulness for the following week. He'd been put on Eliquis the week before but other than that his instructions were not to drive for 24 hours and to rest.

Of course we all pretty much spoiled him rotten but he seems no worse for that either. He's minded me pretty well since the kids left for home, in fact I have to say that the days since have been some of the happiest ever.

And, drum roll, today on Friday October 13, 2023 we're celebrating 62 years of marriage. (62 years ago was also a Friday the 13th.)

Although RH and I have been deeply saddened and horrified by the news this past week of the terror attacks on families in Israel, and our prayers remain with Israel, and much else seems trivial compared to that, I wanted to record here the precious gift our family received by RH being restored to us.

We are so grateful for the gift of life and our family.

 

  P.S. I'm not sure this post will publish as I can't seem to sign in to my blogs even though I've signed out and back in over and over. And I just tried publishing comments on other blogs and it won't let me, even when I try to anonymously. 

I can't even leave a comment here on an old post of mine! Help, does anyone have any advice?