Wednesday

Well today was a day that was filled with a roller coaster of emotions and thoughts. The day started out much the usual with a before 7 wake up, our quiet times and a lite breakfast. The temps were just great with a good breeze which actually made it feel cooler than it was and there was little humidity.

We spoke with Amy as Tyler and Ava were getting ready for the 8 hour drive to Pensacola for a visit with an old church friend and holistic dentist, Dr. Choi. Alfred confirmed our suspicions that Ava's sudden behavior changes were as a result of the mercury amalgam fillings she received with in a week time frame,she had 4 teeth filled. He made it know that it was a risky procedure to remove them and some special equipment was needed as well and that he wouldn't be able to come back to our area until the week-end; if we wanted them removed earlier he would do it at his clinic in Pensacola free of charge.

The trip there was just the 2 of them as Sam would have been a bear in his car seat for 8 hours so Tyler and Ava did the trip up and back. The procedure took longer than expected so it was rather late when they started home. The dentist who did these fillings did a sloppy job drilling very deeply and even her gums were stained by the mercury; no wonder she was acting strange. We feel for the kids who are thought to be autistic when the culprit could be this poisoning.

I spent the day keeping busy praying for a successful completion to the trip as well as for little Ava's complete recovery; then we got word that a dear sweet lady friend of ours from Cornerstone(our church in the mountains) passed on at the age of 48 from cancer. Sherry had been fighting this ovarian cancer off and on for over a year. She made her funeral arrangements on Tuesday and said she was ready to leave this life and join Jesus in Heaven and so she did on Wednesday morning. The funeral is scheduled for Thursday at Cornerstone. She was an exceptional lady, a friend and lover of Jesus, she will be sorely missed by all and especially her husband and her son who will have to return to Afghanistan in the Marine Corp later this week. There is a luncheon today at church so we are busy preparing food for the family and friends.

Well that's about it after being so filled with joy about Ava's fillings removed successfully and then saddened by the passing of Sherry. We are scheduled to leave here on Friday for a few days to Virginia to see family, LATER

Tuesday(continued)

For some reason blogger cut off half of the blog so I will try once again to remember what I had earlier posted. The mercury will bind with this substance and be expel through her stool even more so after the filings are removed.

After the 9:30 physical we headed for lunch at the Mustard Seed Cafe for a quick and tasty lunch then dropped off prescriptions for Nancy at Kerr Drugs in Sparta. While that was being filled we headed to Radio Shack for a new phone as the battery in ours is on the way out.

We just stayed around the phone and learned a holistic dentist in Pensacola, Fl is willing to remove the fillings tomorrow (Wed) evening at 4 PM so Tyler and Ava will drive about 8 hours tomorrow for that appointment. Amy will stay home with Samuel.

We learned a dear sweet lady from our church here has given up on her fight with cancer as she has just about wasted away to nothing. She is unable to keep any food or nutrients down. Today she picked out burial plots and made arrangements for her funeral and told everyone she is ready to meet JESUS in Heaven. She did get to see her son who came home last week from the war and is still in the Marines. Well not much else as we are consumed with the health of Ava and her prognosis for a recovery.

I just spoke with Dee who went to Washington, D.C. today with Paw Paw for a post operation check-up and it seems he hasn't been drinking enough fluids and was nearly admitted. We need to keep both him and Ava in our thoughts and daily prayers, LATER

Tuesday

What a day of roller coaster emotions, first last night about 10:30 PM , Amy called and was quite upset. We all learned that Ava was suffering from mercury poisoning from her amalgam fillings she received last week. At first we had no idea why her behavior became very much unlike Ava, we were just beside ourselves with trying to understand what happened so suddenly and so drastically. The only thing we could attribute it too was the visit to the dentist and when we found out he filled 4 teeth with silver fillings we decided to investigate. The side effects are horrible from the mercury used in those filligs and we were just taken back that a pediatric dentist would use that type of material in a young childs body. Its known that mercury has some very harmful effects on the human body and Ava was starting to display several of those especially in behavior and personality disorders. Luckily we found a holistic dentist who agreed with our finding and he is removing the filling tomorrow in Pennsacola, Florida. Tyler and Ava will leave early in the morning(Wed) for their 4:30 PM appointment. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Already the doctor has her on a detox regiment to expell the poison from her body by drinking a substance that will bind with the poison and then expelled through her ex

Monday

Well I made myself get up when I awakened around 6:30, although I wanted to roll over and snooze awhile longer. There was a nice gentle breeze and some cloud cover which held the temp's down into the middle 60's. After my quiet time and a bowl of oatmeal with some blueberries and a banana I headed out to check on the gardens.

There was no damage except for 5 very beautiful caterpillars that were chowing down on my dill plant. I almost didn't noticed them except that part of my dill plant was missing and then I spotted them. They were green striped with black and yellow, very ornate but the number 9 1/2 took care of them as I picked them off and placed them on a flat surface.

I then headed down to the outside shed with a can of stain and proceeded to give it a coat. I finished up the upper side and then Nancy was ready for our morning hike to the top of the mountain. We finally got to speak with Norman and he actually looked much better than the last time we saw him. We took him a piece of my birthday cake and he seemed delighted. It was good to see him with a smile and in better health. His leg is healing and his color looked good and the idea that we thought of him seemed to perk him up as well. It was starting to heat up on top so we were ready to get back down to the cabin. Nancy headed in to make a salad for lunch and I painted until it was time to eat lunch.

After lunch I worked on finishing the lower side of the shed as Nancy took off on the golf cart to check on the mail. She stopped and talked with Linda and Russ(our Ohio neighbors) who are building a small cabin about half way into our lane. Linda is suffering from a brain tumor that has been operated on several times but she has a remarkable attitude and is determined to not let this infirmity get her down. Today was one of those days when she was having a hard time as she was trying to paint their bathroom so Nancy brought her back to our place and they sat on the front porch sipping iced tea. I had finished up painting the shed so we headed down to their place and we painted the bathroom for her; she was most appreciative. That was our good deed of the day.

We fixed cabbage out of the garden, 1/2 runners from our garden and Jetta's and parsley potato's for supper with sliced tomato's from the garden as well. Wow was that ever a yummy supper especially with some jalapenos in my spuds and fresh thyme on the 'maters. It finally clouded up and rained a nice soft rain for half an hour or so, did we ever need that rain as it dropped the temp's back into the low 60's, should be good sleeping tonight. Tomorrow I go for my yearly check-up and physical in Sparta so I have to fast until around 11 then we will have lunch at a really neat small town eatery called the Mustard Seed in town. We really enjoy eating there, LATER Here are a couple birthday pics from Saturday's get together!!!

Sunday

Well it was another sleep in morning to after 7 AM, yikes I must get away from this late morning habit. Anyhow after a busy, fun filled, eat too much, day on Saturday today Sunday was much subdued and laid back. After our quiet times and a bowl of oatmeal we got ready for worship at Cornerstone. The place was filled with great numbers and the music was inspiring as well as was the message. Afterwards we met up with 2 other families and headed to downtown Sparta at the River Rock Grille for lunch.

The food was very good and the place was packed with folks standing outside waiting to get seated. I had the chicken cordon bleu sandwich and Nancy had the grilled chicken breast and we shared a basket of deep fried potato chips. The meal was very tasty and reasonably priced. Afterwards we headed to Lowes to pick up some olive oil before heading back to the cabin. We stocked up for our company which now is not coming so we should have plenty of goodies for the next couple weeks.

After getting home we got ready for our daily hike to the top. There was a nice breeze but was still rather warm on top. We stopped and visited with Jetta for awhile before heading back to the cabin. Bobby called then Amy called so we spent the next better part of an hour catching up with them before we decided to take some birthday cake over our "mountain mom", Helen. I filled the golf cart up with gas and we took off after having a piece of the cake ourselves. We had a nice ride on the cart to her place then we visited for nearly an hour.

We were still full from lunch and the piece of carrot cake so we passed on supper and decided we would have a bowl of popcorn instead. I burned the past couple days of trash then hand watered the garden before we decided to head indoors and away from the pesty bugs. The temps dropped down to where its pleasant both inside and out. The katydids and tree frogs are so loud you can barely hear the T.V. Well we are going to call it a day and I'm watching the Yanks and Red Sox's play each other. I think it will be one of these two teams who will be in the Series this fall, my Ray's faltered again today and are about 11 games off the leaders, Oh Well!!! LATER

Saturday

Well the morning started out with a sleep in until nearly 7:30, wow I have to cut this out as I really like the early wake up 'cause you miss the best part of the day; birds singing, dew dripping, fresh fragrance of the flowers and of course the stillness and never before breathed air. Nancy was singing "happy birthday" as yelp I turned 65 today, wow where did the time go, but I do feel like a recycled teenager as one card reminded me. After my quiet time and a bowl of oatmeal I headed out to check on the gardens.

Speaking of cards and well wishes there were several with goodies in them; gift cards, check, some funny and some very serious and even an e-card. I was dined the night before with family(Helen and Joe)and of course tonight with the ole' gang we ate; jalapeno poppers(Kimberly's specialty) that were excellent, conqueso and chip(Audine's), salsa and chips(Nancy's specialty) and then homemade peach ice cream(Eddie made) and a homemade birthday carrot cake. Yikes what a spread and we taught the gang a new card game; 5 Crowns(and we played it right). Eddie slaughtered us and I was the big loser in that game and then the guys put a real old fashion butt whupping on the gals in Sequence. That was a first in many a moon.

We did manage to get our hike in to the top of the mountain today as well as got the place edged and mowed. We had a couple sun showers which cooled things off a little but the temps were bearable except for all the menopausal gals with their hot flashes, anyhow a fun time was had by all and we broke up around 10 PM. Thanks again to all who sent me their birthday wishes, LATER

Friday

Well as you can tell I'm writing this post on Saturday morning after an exciting day on Friday. The morning started with heavy fog at times rolling in through the trees and hills. I actually slept in until nearly 8 AM as the stillness and the cool damp air made for great a snug sleep, yikes I can't do this everyday as I really love the early morning hours, oh well! After my quiet time and a hot mug of green tea I ate a bowl of oatmeal(boring) but spiced it up with some cinnamon, a fresh peach and a banana.

I checked on the gardens then headed out to the top as the fog made for a perfect morning to pick blueberries and to clean out some of the under growth of briar's and bushes that choke out the berry bushes at Ms. Helen's patch. Now this isn't our mountain mom but another lady who lives on top of the mountain, anyhow the fog kept the bugs from bothering me as I picked about a pint of berries and worked for about an hour before heading back down the mountain. I was on the golf cart so I picked up a load of large rocks that were in the road and deposited them in my rock pile at the lower yard. We had a lite shower but the gardens still needed some water so I hand watered until Nancy was ready for our daily hike to the top. We headed out with a jar of blackberry jelly for Norman and Ms. Helen. We never saw Norman but left in on his door and Ms. Helen was very appreciative. She said she had her quota of blue berries and the rest were mine to pick as I saw fit. We usually eat our fill and then freeze a quart or so depending on the berries.

After the hike we had our first large home grown tomato on a sandwich with onion, lettuce and mayo all from our garden. Wow was that ever tasty, yikes that's the best eatin' ever and good fer ya as well!! We knew we would be eatin early in the evening so we ate lite. Speaking of eatin' early we, that is Nancy, our mountain mom, Ms. Helen and her older brother Joe all headed out to the Scotsville area of Allegheny County which is about 10-15 miles west of Sparta for some fabulous barbecue at the Motley Place. Ms. Helen and I had 1/2 rack of ribs with sweet taters and fried okra and Nancy did the 1/2 chicken and Joe the pulled pork plate, Yikes was that ever good and we brought enough leftovers home for lunch on Saturday. Thanks to Ms Helen for the treat. We got place to her place with plenty of time to walk around her beautiful place inspecting the fruit trees, flowers and her crop of pines that were planted after she had her place clear cutted a few years ago. She loves to mow between her trees and keeps her place looking great as well as does her brother Joe who just lives over the next ridge. They are both so healthy and full of life at their ripe ages and you never hear a complaint from either. We just so much enjoy their company and have fun doing little odd jobs for her.

After we left her place we headed home and on the way in the road we saw our neighbor Dwayna walking out carrying a sack, so we inquired and she was on the verge of tears once again as her husband didn't come home on their anniversary. She was on foot with the intent of walking 5-6 miles up the parkway to a friends house so we gave her a ride, now this going on 8 PM and bears have been seen in the area recently. After dropping her off we ventured down another road we had never travelled before and came out next to one of my pickle ball friends(Ted Smith's) house. They saw us and waved so we stopped and he showed us his new 5th wheel home. Wow these home on wheels are amazing, anyhow we made it back just before dark and the fog was once again starting to settle in.

Nancy was on the computer and I got involved in the Yankees vs the Red Sox and the Yank's pulled it off and the Ray's won as well. Our son-in-law Tyler took grand daughter Ava to the Ray's game and sent us some pictures via mobile phone; she is growing up so fast. We haven't seen her or Samuel since May. LATER Nancy uploaded some pictures so I'm not sure what they are!!!