Rachel's Adventures: Mother's Day Celebration

I ran into a podcast called Laughing with Cancer. This man Elvis has Leukemia and shares what he and his family are going through. He uses humor which can be a very good coping mechanism. I would know. I use it a lot. Go to the iTunes Store, then to podcasts. Put Laughing with Cancer in your search. There is no charge and you can listen or save it for later.

On Monday was a concert arranged by the Bakersfield Concert Association. This small brass combo (5 men), called Brass Precidio. They were quite good and used humor teasing each other. My friend Barbara gave me her pass because she would be out of town, so I asked my friend Valerie to go. We ended up joining two other friends Sherry and Margaret, meeting at a nice Italian restaurant called Uricchio's which is close to the Rabobank Theater where the performance was held. The weather was warm, balmy with a soft breeze. It was a very pleasant evening.

I had Carol , my art instructor to myself because my fellow student Wayne was helping someone with a big repair job. Carol was complementary on the amount of work I accomplished. I want the green around my butterfly to be even darker, so we mixed colors to see what worked. For my poppy, we went through the color circles we have made and changed the red to get the right tone. It was a variation on the standard palette. So this is what I have been working on this week. Way too much happening so I'll do my work on this Monday. You'll see it next week.

we also had our Red Hat dinner this week at La Costa de Mariscos. The Margarita was good and I had a fajita taco salad. Very tasty. The gals there were Jo, Dainette, Judi, Claudia, Stephanie, Pamela, Evelyn and myself. Great company as always. Everyone looked good and had a lot going on in their lives.

I went to the outpatient surgery center for cortisone injections in back between several vertebrae. I have chronic back pain since I slipped and broke my back over two years. That is a compression fracture. This doctor then told me I had four slipping disks above that. He felt that this procedure had a high chance of success and was worth trying it. It really wasn't too bad. I did get versed, but very light. I remember what was going on and things were explained to me. I felt virtually pain free the next day and didn't take any pain medication when I went to bed. I woke up a little sore, but not too bad. I didn't want to take a chance of having more pain when family would be here the next day, so I did take some. I will have another done three weeks later to hopefully to catch any spots missed the first.

I also had dinner with my friend Janet who had a birthday this week. We met at our old haunt Mexicali's, having Margaritas with tacos and taquitos with fresh guacamole. It was way more than we could eat. Both of us have eyes that are much bigger than our stomachs!

I had chemotherapy this week and nothing different occurred during this time. It was the day after the medical procedure, but it was fine.

The rest of the week was cleaning, gardening, shopping and my granddaughter Heather helping me to get ready for Mothers Day.

Mother's Day! What a great day for us mothers though we did the food preparation. Thomas did the barbecuing- chicken and tri-tip. Lots of different salads, baked beans and for dessert check collate cream pie and strawberry pie. It still was nice getting together and taking it easy. Weather was pleasant, in the mid-eighties. Good music, my water fountain going and the chimes lightly ringing with the slight breeze. It is all worth it! Great family gathering! Everyone so relaxed! Some of us having Mojitos that Benji made - so refreshing. My girls here are remembering their mother today who died five years ago. My daughter Ronda sent me flowers. They were going out to eat with her husband's parents in Illinois. My granddaughter-in-law is celebrating Mother's Day with my grandson Billy and her family including mothers Dainette and Sharran.
. Anyway, all of us are mother's in some way or another by what we do. We nuture and we are the ones who make our society civilized! So important for the next generation! My mother died the day after Mother's Day 24 years ago. It doesn't seem that long at all! It is periodically rough for me, but I am fortunate to have the family I have!