I have always liked to be called Nana over Granny and that’s what Nate calls me and Natalie will no doubt follow suit, these are Bill’s Daughters 2 children. When Bill’s Son had his 2 little girls I just assumed it would be the same, but found out that his wife’s Mother had chosen to be called Nana herself which is no big deal so I had to figure something else for them to call me.

I certainly didn’t like the idea of little kids calling me by my name and I wanted something easy so I decided on Juju since my niece had called me Aunt Juju many years ago. I am of course closer to Jodi’s kids than Billy’s anyhow so no big deal. I thought when Eric had Ethan I would get to be Nana to him, but Eric still referred to me as Granny to Ethan because he couldn’t remember what everyone wanted to be called.

Eric had a Granny and a Papaw. Bill gets to be Pappy of course to every one unless Eric forgets and calls him Papaw to Ethan. Chris’s Mother wants to be called Mom Mom, well I know it gets all confused for Eric with everything he is going through so I told him Granny is fine and he really appreciated my change of heart. Even though I feel my age I simply never thought of myself as a Granny, but I’ll live with it.

I really enjoyed being called Mom and Mama, I don’t ever remember my Son calling me Mother. Mother to me is so formal, but we all choose how we want our children and their offspring to address us. Even when Eric referred to me to others he never said my Mother, it was always my Mom and when he was small of course it was my Mama and he called me Mama until he was a teenager then he thought it sounded to babyish.

Eric called this morning to let me know they are doing surgery this afternoon to embed the permanent pain pump which will go directly to his spine and will take a couple hours to do. He has been in the hospital to build up his platelets so they could do the surgery. He said the levels had been around 16,000 and now they have them built up to over 100,000 they feel it’s safe for the surgery.

Just since August he has had 3 consecutive days of Chemo and 3 weeks off each month and since he has maintained keeping weight on even though his gallbladder was bad they decided to add radiation so he has now had 2 doses, but instead of small consecutive doses they have hit him with 3 times the regular amount in 2 treatments if he hadn’t had the extra weight they wouldn’t have done that. No wonder all of his levels are so low.

Last month he told me that the Cancer was already in his bones and we had been under the impression from the other hospital that they hadn’t reached that far yet. That’s when I kind of lost it and got really depressed, but I’m working through all that now and learning to deal better with the situation. I’m sure all of the positive energy sent our way has really helped and I’m really grateful for all the thoughts and prayers.

Yesterday I had to get up earlier than usual because we had to have Bill at the Eye Center to be dilated and have pictures taken of his eyes and of course he needed a driver and of course it started sleeting which I hate to drive in, but we made it okay thank goodness the hospital isn’t that far away. He said the light really hurts his eyes when they are taking those photos and probably scared the other old people that were waiting their turn.

I told you about Bill’s Glaucoma and how high the pressure is in the one eye, now we have to wait till January to find out what we have to do next and if he has lost more vision. He’s very concerned that he wont be able to ride his Harley above anything else. Motorcycles and riding has always been his passion and has also started to become one of mine.

He then decided a couple hours later that we should go to the mall on the other end of town and that he was okay to drive so off we went. He has a Harley leather bomber jacket and swears that it has shrunk and we’ve been looking for another one a little bit larger, but he doesn’t want to pay 500 dollars for a new one. We were going to check Wilson’s leather at the mall, but they had closed down so we walked around for awhile.

He then decided that I should probably drive home and for him to let me drive told me that his eyes must really be bothering him. We decided to stop at Hoss’s for lunch when we were inside the mall and wouldn’t you know when we went outside the weather had turned even nastier. I hate driving in this type of weather, but I managed to get us back to our neck of the woods without mishap and lunch was great. He decided that he would drive us the rest of the way home.

We made a couple more stops and then headed home because they had a Winter advisory out and were closing schools early plus some other places were shutting down. The people around here drive like nuts so we didn’t want to get caught up in any fender benders. We were suppose to go watch Nate in his Christmas pageant at 7 o’clock, but they cancelled because of the advisory so we spent the evening watching movies together and talking.

We had a quality day together all things considered and I didn’t get anything done on the computer except to check out a few things and print out a very simple pineapple upside down cake recipe that he wants for his birthday on Sunday. I’ll be glad when the holidays are over so everything will get back to normal. All of the good energy that came my way must have helped because I’m not as depressed as before so thanks a lot.

Christmas is right around the corner and I know many families are strapped because of our economy. I hate thinking about all the children and families that will be without this year so we donate to the Red Cross and others that help so many. We have been lucky so far and the small company that Bill works for is still in business thus far.

Bill’s son and daughter told us what to get for their children. Billy wanted a Battat Easel for his two girls which we were okay with and it will help with their creativity. Billy is artistic so it’s only natural that he would like to develop any skills they might have. We could only order it online not at the store and it was originally 140 dollars, but at the time I ordered it was 40 dollars off, what a deal.

Jodi wanted the Lego Brick Street Customs for Nate because he loves to build things and since we had to order that online also and they were both from Target we got free shipping. So we took care of 3 grandchildren very quickly. Baby Natalie is getting money to open a savings account plus a Harley bear of course. We sent money to Eric and Chris plus money for Ethan’s highchair for Christmas.

So we are all set since the adults will be getting money. No more shopping to do. Bill put the Easel together last night and I took a couple of photos. I’m not a good photo taker however, but you can at least see what it looks like. It’s two sided with a chalkboard on one side and a white board on the other and it came with 5 colored bins underneath to hold supplies.

It’s a very sturdy piece of furniture and both little girls can do their drawing at the same time. We had to buy some supplies to get them started like colored and white chalk, dry erase markers for the white board, and a small roll of paper which we finally found at Walmart which fits on the roller on the inside and it pulls up through the top. I couldn’t find a roll of easel paper, but I thought the roll of banner paper was fine for right now.

We also had to get some non toxic paint markers for the paper so any other supplies needed their parents can get, they’re all set and ready to show their artistic side now. I need to figure out how to wrap it since it’s so big. I added a drawing that Billy made for his Father when he was in the 8th grade, if you could see it in person you could see all of the fine details.

I lived in Nevada for several years back in the 80′s and I loved it especially Reno because it was a smaller city than Las Vegas and the people were also a lot friendlier. It was a party all the time, but it was very sad to see all of the homeless people and it wasn’t very pleasant to see people lose everything they had. They have pawn shops all over the place and people would also actually sell their cars for more money to gamble with.

At the time it was a big adventure for me. I tried Las Vegas first, but couldn’t find a job. I joined the Culinary Union and got my health card, but it was back when the MGM had burned down and so many people were out of work. I would have loved to have stayed in one of those fancy las vegas suites, but couldn’t afford that. Instead I lived in one of the cheap motels for about a month before I was forced to find work in Reno.

The very day I got to Reno I found a job in a small casino called The Colonial on Arlington. I was waitressing there and they had a good reputation for their food so we had a good clientele among the casino workers and were always busy. I made very good money in Reno and had a ball for 3 years, but it got old and I returned to a more stable life where the streets rolled up after a certain time of night, I’ll never regret those years though.