a good day.

i got to take Helen to the doctor.......it started raining while there.....didn't see that one coming!  chatted with a nice lady in the waiting room.....her daughter wanted her to go with her to  upstate NY so she needed to come by the doctor's office for some samples.  she is also on night oxygen like me and she was thinking she'd just do without for her trip.  i hope that works out for her......said a prayer in care of her/this trip.  she was a very nice lady......

(they will order tests for helen and she'll have to wait a bit longer to find out what is what..........)

helen and i stopped at home depot, she waited in the car & i took the pair of dead coreopsis to the return counter.  that went quickly and we headed on to walmart.  helen wanted to do some shopping as did i.  i  returned the other two dead plants......coneflower plants got my money back and we headed to the home decor area.  helen wanted to get new bathroom rugs for her daughters bathroom and for her own bathroom as well.  she picked out some fluffy beige rugs for (her daughter) Candy and snow white rugs for herself.  she wanted some nail polish & polish remover......i noticed that she was struggling a bit walking and we agreed that she needed to sit for awhile.  she rested and i headed off to fill my own list......super glue, floor cleaner, stain remover, kitchen sponges, candy, deodorant........the good news is that i had free coupons for the glue, floor cleaner and the candy too.  that saved me a nice chunk of change....$12.00 yay!!!!!!!! 

(helen has never used a riding cart and i think she's never been encouraged or taught how to use one, i think if she knew how simple it was she would love it. gonna try to broach the subject with her next time we go to a store with carts.  i think she would love having that freedom.......and to be able to save her energy, as a heart patient she gets winded so easily......she thinks she would crash the cart, but i think she's way too smart not to be able to use this as a valuable energy saving tool.......so i will try to convince her to just try......it would give her a lot more freedom to get exactly what she wants vs. having to always rely on others to pick things out for her........she's in her 80's but that doesn't detract at all from her bright and lively mind at all!  i think she could........we'll see)

the checkout man helping helen was a real dork, not very nice........he said he had nothing to put her rugs in so oh well, she would have to do without.  she said "but it's raining, i don't want to have all my new things sloshed with rain"........he said there was nothing he could do.......he was being snotty to her.......oh man! she got a manager cause the man wouldn't even call the manager for her.........seriously a really mean snotty idiot........he wasn't some kid third day working, this was a man our age acting completely unkindly........the manager got something to wrap around her items and also got a young man to help us to our car.  yayyyyyy!  the young man kept calling us his "boss ladies".....i said we're no longer working and he said, "everyone is the boss of themselves, so to me you are absolutely BOSS LADIES!  ahhhhhhh. funny and sweet!

after that helen said she was up for going out to dinner.......so off we went.  i took her to FATZ Cafe.....hate the name, love the food.  they make Calabash Chicken, which means it's chicken soaked in buttermilk and then battered & turned into the most delectable soft fried chicken fingers  you've ever tasted!  delicioso!!!!!! we arrived just in time for their early bird specials.  they have several offerings to pick from.....the cost is $8.88 per plate.  we both got the calabash chicken fingers.  helen got hers with a baked potato and cole slaw, i got mine with steak fries and slaw.....yummmy!  we ate half of our meals to save room for dessert......and to have a ready made lunch for today! 

we decided to get the peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream.......it has a crunchy crust made from pecans, brown sugar and such which is yummy, but the peaches were off, odd, not good.  they looked like apples, but didn't taste like good fruit at all.  it was disappointing, our waitress said she would remove the fees for the dessert.  i told her i would eat everything but the fruit......no clue how they arrived at the way it turned out........peach cobbler is a wonderful warm comforting sweet treat when made well........this was not.  oh well.......helen drank coffee and wore a spare jacket i keep in the car to keep warm........when you're not moving in a restaurant it can get really chilly really fast.

we had a nice time, then travelled to her home.  we hung out for awhile chatting, the sun went down but we were both too tired to get up and turn on the lights.  that is sooooo trued of zapped people with very little energy left......

after awhile two of her grandchildren came down stairs......and we had a fine time with them.  Alijah is six and Amari is two.  Alijah was showing me some of his artwork.  There is a video game he really loves and he likes to draw pictures of all of the favorite characters in this game.  I don't have a clue what the game is, but not to worry, Alijah knows!!!!!!!  he told me about nightguard and benny and the parrot and foxy and more.........he also shared a lot about transforners and anamatronics........he is incredibly bright, pretty sure he is gifted.......his vocabulary and abilities far surpass most six year olds.

when i said i wasn't very good at drawing, he got paper and a pen, drew a line down the middle to represent his side and my side, then he proceeded to teach me how to make one of the characters.  step by step.......a budding young professor as well!!!!!!  at one point i am to draw the character's hand holding a wrench......i didn't notice that the character's thumb was in the picture, so i only drew in fingers........he noted it immediately and had me add the thumb.  he said that while my character looked older he thought that i drew like he did before he turned three.  it was the nicest insult of ever........yup, he basically called me a two year old!!!!!! wish you could have seen helen holding her sides trying not to laugh out loud!  it was hilarious!  he felt that with practice i could do well .......but i'd have to work for it!  an encourager and a diplomat too!  i love kids.......!!!!!!!!!!!! 

little Amari likes to communicate with a vast array of onomotopeia.  he is awesome!!!!!!!!  he was wearing this navy and white striped one piece shorts outfit, the hoodie on his young head had these green ridges like a dinosaur back in the day........Alijah was wearing sandals that sets off light filled sparks when he runs.......talk about cool kids!  so Amari is squeaking and jabbering away in this very distinctive toddler voice with the occasional "cwak kur" word .....he is holding a package of those little buttery rectangular crackers and offers me some quite politely with his squeaks and squawks........so i answer him imitating the noises he makes,  he stops dead in his tracks, cocks his head to listen, so i do it again......helen is covering her mouth again trying not to laugh out loud.......Alijah is looking at us both.......then Amari hugs me suddenly and gives me a huge grin, and stays close to me, apparently i speak Amari well enough to be accepted whole heartedly!  it was so sweet and unexpected.......kids are freaking awesome!  amari took my sandals to build some sort of art piece out of shoes, socks, small statues and crackers...........and Alijah continued with my art lessons and our discussion of his favorite past times.  he shared that he tolerates playing soccer, he said he does it only when he has to but he much prefers baseball, football, video games.......and art over soccer any time.  he still showed me his recent soccer trophy.......but he wanted me to know it's definitely not his favorite thing to do! 

these kids are intensely gorgeous.......not regular handsome, but crazy oh my word gorgeous, they could do commercial and print work definitely!  my son used to do this as a child and they could sell all sorts of products from clothing to who laid it.......kind of a supernatural level of attractiveness.  they could do baby gap and guess for kids ads in a heart beat.......

i stayed up way past my bedtime, but i slept really well........i even had a dream but i don't remember it at all.......so yes, yesterday was a gooooooooood day!  hugs, love y'all!