April 11th Applebee's Misery

Yesterday at Applebee's I had a burger.  I didn't eat dinner.  When I woke up this morning my first thought was, "I'm supposed to feel good when I wake up."  Then I realized I felt bad in a way I'd never felt before.  I just knew it was wrong.  I felt a little queasy, and my head hurt a bit, so I decided it was from the headache and I needed to eat a little bit.  We finished up, packed up and headed out on the road to Orlando, for our stay there with Bluegreen Getaways at The Fountains.  Thank you Applebee's, I now know what it is like to have food poisoning.(Revenge of the 12 minute meal!)

  When we got to Orlando that late afternoon, I crawled up on the bed and stayed there.  It was so comfy, and there was a throw to cover myself with.  I managed through the orientation meeting the next day.I was too ill to go to church.    Luckily, I was over it enough to enjoy Universal Studios on Monday.


My Favorite Bed!

 Jerry Drinks Butter Beer 

 Gringotts

The Weasley's solution to my problem.

  

April 10th Montgomery Craziness

We left Tupelo, Mississippi and drove to Montgomery, Alabama to see Jerry's 1st Cousin, once removed, Estrellis Lynette Schwertfeger Hood.  The family calls her Trellis, but she goes by Lynette.  Her father, is Jerry's Grandfather William Swertfeger's brother.  He didn't change the last name spelling the way William did, so he was Edgar Schwertfeger.   She is Alice's first cousin.

Anyway, we had met her several years ago when she came to visit Alice.  She was so bubbly, sweet and generous, we felt like we had known her all our life.  When we got to her apartment, her friend Benny and her "adopted grandson", Jason were there.  They were very friendly and we all had a good visit.  Then we went to lunch.  They wanted to go to Applebee's.  They said it was their favorite place.  The whole time Jason is chatting away with us, and he is also one of those people that you can make an instant bond with.  He takes care of elderly for a living, and makes the most beautiful jewelry I've ever seen.  Lynette had rings on every finger.  Benny had about 8 teeth, and has been her friend most of her life.  It was fun to see the bond they have.  Benny lives in the apartment complex across the street and they are both retirement places.

The reason they wanted to go to lunch at Applebee's was  because they have a special menu that if you order from it, they have to deliver it in 12 minutes or it is free.  They said, "We haven't paid for our meals here in a long time."  Applebee's even provides a little timer when you place your order.  Sure enough, we all ordered from that menu and 15 minutes later it came out of the kitchen.  They laughed!  They know the manager by name.  They said he probably tells the kitchen to get busy when they walk in.  Anyway, at first I was embarrassed.  Then I realized that just as Jason said, "She is a hoot and a holler."  It was all in fun.  Like a game.  After all, Applebee's makes the claim and provides the timer, right?  They are on fixed income and every little bit helps.  So our lunch cost $4.

Lynette is a member of the area's Gospel Music Writer's Association and has 2 awards as songwriter of the year.  After lunch, we were driving around so she could show us some sights and she said she had one that she just wrote that she couldn't stop singing.  I asked to hear it and she sang it for us in the car.  "Me and Jesus, we're going in glory, Everywhere, all around the world,.", etc.  It was a peppy one.  Her voice is low and perfect.  I loved it!  After our drive, we went back to her place and she got a folder out and sat and sang about 8 songs for us.  We looked at pictures for awhile and then we had worn her out.  We said our goodbyes and promised to see her again sometime.

This is part of the Natchez Trace in Alabama.

To the right, is Jerry and Lynette.  She took us to see Hank Williams' grave.  Very important to her!

 Hank Williams' grave.

  After this we drove on to Dothan, Alabama for the night,

April 9th Left For Florida

We visited with Alice this morning and left her comfortable.  We drove south and stopped at Mammoth Springs.  I've never seen such a large amount of water moving from underground.  It was very beautiful.  There were plenty of turtles sunning themselves on the banks, as well as swimming in the water.  We walked around it and went on our way. Our goal for today was Tupelo, Mississippi.  I've never been in the deep south, but have always wanted to see it.  It is very green, and warm.  There were lots of thunderstorms today, but we drove between two fronts all day and didn't see any rain.  The Red Bud trees are also very beautiful, like the one in the background here.  All along our drive we saw them here and there, standing out wherever they were.

Mean Old Jerry

The weekend of April 4th and 5th was the General Conference for the church.  It is held 2 times a year for a period of 2 days.  Saturday has three two-hour sessions and Sunday has two two-hour sessions.  You can attend them in person if you get tickets and go to Utah, or you can watch them where they are broadcast, whether in a church building or on your TV.  For two days it's a lot of sitting and watching TV, not our norm,  but it is part of our church attendance and something we wouldn't want to miss because we get to her the Prophet speak.  It is uplifting and a spiritual feast.

This is the part about mean old Jerry.  The evening before conference began, Alice was very unhappy.  It turns out she has been using a very old enema apparatus every day.  For who know how long.  She was upset about it and wanted some help.  We got her what she needed:  prune juice, a gentle laxative, some fiber to add to her juice; and we wrote out good directions for her about what to do (for when we had to leave). I went online and researched what was best to do and what kind of damage might be done by using the "syringe" as she calls it every day.  One of the things was that if you use plain tap water you can get an electrolyte imbalance and get confused or demented.  Well, that same evening she went into the bathroom and came out very upset and acting strangely.  She got weak, couldn't walk well, she sat on the sofa and pulled her britches down.  She did that a few times and we kept telling her not to.  She finally peed on the sofa.  We finally got her changed and into the bathroom.  She was out of it.  In about 40 minutes she was just fine.  She had used her "syringe" just before "the episode" as I like to call it, it turned out.  So, Jerry took it and got rid of it, telling her to do what we had outlined for her.  (Which worked just fine for her, by the way.)  The rest of the time we were there she kept asking him where it was.  He kept telling her he got rid of it, threw it away.  (He took it up to the grocery store and threw it in a trash can outside.)  She finally told him, "You are mean!"

Here's where General Conference comes in:  This was all going on during watching conference.  Back and forth.  She finally got so upset she called her neighbor Tom on the phone,  Then she realized she didn't want to actually tell him her problem.  She just muttered stuff under her breath and I heard her say, "You know how it is, they are just watching TV."  Yep, that's why we go there--to laze around and watch TV.

We talk to her every day on the phone and she is getting better.

I Spent a Month in Missouri One Week

April 2, 2015

We arrived in Marionville, Missouri to find Alice sitting in her chair on her back porch, surprised we were there already.  Her birthday being the day before, she had just turned 95.  She looks her age, and is acting her age.  Her eyesight is going, she cannot hear much, but she knows this place where she was born.  We don't need to worry she will trip on a rug, nothing has been moved (or been cleaned) in a long, long time.    She does just fine, She wouldn't have it any other way.  She would like to have us there all the time, but then she tires of having us around.  She is just waiting.  We love her very much, We want to take care of her, but she won't have any of it.  "What are you cleaning that for.  It's just going to get dirty again."  "Jerry, what were you doing in the basement for so long?"  "I don't need a bath,"  "I think the fire went out." (It's 80 degrees outside and 100 degrees inside.)

On March 30th, the day we left Brush Prairie to come here, Uncle Willard Meadows died.  He was 87, and had gone outside to cut up a tree with his chain saw.  He evidently suffered a heart attack.  He lived on his farm in Jenkins, Missouri.  His neighbor could hear the chain saw going, then heard it idle and then realized it had been idling for a long while.  He went over to check it out and found Willard.  His wife Margaret had passed a couple of years ago, he missed her very much.  He was like a man lost at sea.  Now he is anchored again.

April 3, 2015

Jerry's birthday!  He likes to celebrate with Alice when he can.  She baked him a cake more than a month ago and kept calling him about it.  It has been sitting in the cupboard, uncovered.  It's very hard and the strawberry frosting smells like strawberry barf.  He is not going to eat it.   We have been squirreling pieces of it outside into the pasture under the pretense we are eating it.  She can't see what we are doing or hear it.  We are evil brats.  But we want to live instead of get sick.

We stayed until April 9th leaving Alice so we could take care of some business in Florida and see some of our great country, too.

Faith in Every Footstep

 April 1, 2015


We drove to Florence, Nebraska and to Winter Quarters.  We went to the Visitors' Center to learn about what the Mormon Pioneers did as they wintered there.  The sacrifices were great, and the faith the kind that moves mountains.  The temple is built right there, adjacent to the cemetery that is across the road from the Visitors' Center.  It has the special, hallowed feeling that all cemeteries have, just more so.  The spirit there is incredibly moving.  The Church has put in some beautiful statues, inscribing scriptures in the cement, showing the importance of the people who lie in the graves.  We are so glad we went there.

Atwood,Colorado is Small

We drove to the area where the Swertfegers raised horses for the military.  It was perfect ranchland with some rolling hills.  At one time they had 5,000 horses.  Jerry's father was born there.  When he was 4, in 1908 they left and went to Missouri (in a covered wagon--no lie).

I think it was a good experience for Jerry to see this area

and feel the connection to the land his ancestors lived on.