Reunions & Greasy Beans

Margaret, Amy & Nikki                                            My Crazy Uncle Curt & Aunt Bessie

We got back home from our family reunion in southeastern Kentucky last night.  It always takes me a day or two to rest up from a long trip.  The reunion was wonderful!  The next generation has finally taken the reins and it is in very good hands. 

 

   My first cousin once removed, Nikki, is the chairman and she has done an absolutely superb job.  The slide show she did was wonderful and she burned me a copy of it.  I must admit I was surprised and touched when she dedicated the program to me, without whom, she says, the reunion would never have become a reality.  I believe that it was both her mother, Virginia, and I who got it off the ground, but I do appreciate being recognized a little bit.  I think we all do. 

 

   Nikki is very creative and fun-loving and that certainly made for a great day!  Sadly, our numbers were down from every other year.  Some had good reasons for not making it and others had only poor excuses but they must realize that they were all missed.  And boy, did they miss out!  It was a blast.  All the younger generation had more fun than ever before.  This was more what I had envisioned from the get-go and Nikki pulled it off.  Thanks also to her sisters Margaret and Amy for all their help.

 

   We were about two hours from home on Friday when I realized that I was in the throes of a full blown UTI (urinary tract infection).  I have a history of them but I am deathly allergic to ALL of the antibiotics that can be administered for them.  I take an herb called Uva Ursi as a preventative but still once in a great while, I do get a full blown infection though it has been several years since I have had one.  I used to get them ALL the time.  I generally take one capsule each night as a preventative measure and every time I am intimate with my husband as well.  When I have symptoms of an infection, however, I take three capsules at least three times a day for a solid week.  It really does work!!!!  The problem was that I had four bottles of the stuff at home and only a few capsules with me . . . so we stopped in Somerset, Kentucky and found a health food store (nope—you can’t get them at just any drugstore or WalMart along the way).  Once I got the bottle I started right in on them and by the next morning I was feeling so much better.  At least 50 women I have known have started taking them and they all swear by them as well.

 

   As far as the breast cancer treatment is going, I can honestly say that the tenderness and soreness has FINALLY let up a little bit.  I still get those crazy, stabbing pains like pinpricks across my chest from time to time and there is still numbness and some nerve pain but I feel that I am more comfortable more of the time than I was for so long.  It has been over four months now since the surgery.  Still, the Femara side effects continue; the hot flashes and night sweats (though they have lessened in intensity a bit), the pain in the joints and muscles and the never ending fatigue.  All that traveling wears me out as well, so I am taking my time at recovering from the trip.

 

   On our way out of Kentucky, we stopped at a vegetable stand.  I don’t know how they stay in business with prices about double of what they are elsewhere.  Anyway, I bought a couple of pounds of ‘little white greasy beans’.  They are a type of string bean with a shiny finish (thus the ‘greasy’ part).  They are pretty flat pods with white seeds and that is really what I wanted.  The ones I had been using didn’t germinate the last time I tried planting them.  These are just the tastiest beans to me and it has been several years since I had any.  Can you believe they were $2.50 per pound???  And they weren’t even fresh!  But I bought them anyway just to get the seeds.  I have searched in all sorts of catalogs and can’t find them anywhere else but Kentucky.  I sure do hope they grow . . .