Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2008. Mattie was recovering in the hospital from his first limb salvaging surgery. That whole experience was a nightmare as the pediatric intensive care doctors were not listening to Mattie's surgeon regarding the dosage of pain medication. I remember doing a lot of screaming in order to get Mattie's pain under control. But during that time, Mattie had a craving for potato chips. Not just any chip, they had to be UTZ potato chips. I remember going all over the hospital, at various hours, from vending machine to vending machine in search of UTZ chips! You can see, they made Mattie happy, and if something made Mattie happy, I was going to get it! 

Quote of the day: Some things cannot be fixed. They can only be carried. ~ Megan Devine

My day started at 5:45am. I had to get up at that hour in order to get my usual tasks done so that I could get on the road at 10am, to drive to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). One of Mattie Miracle's Snack & Item Carts is located at NIH's clinical center, and I try to visit NIH, at least three times a year to personally drop off items. The rest of the time, I mail items directly from Amazon. Visiting NIH is not a simple task! It literally takes me an hour to drive there, and go through security. I have to be scanned and my car has to be fully inspected in order to get onto the campus. 

My NIH contact, who I have known for years, just retired. So today, I met a whole new set of people who were thrilled to get boxes of toiletry supplies. They told me how vital the Mattie Miracle Cart is and how everyone is looking forward to a candy and snack delivery in November! Specifically I was told...

"We appreciate you and everything you do in ways we can never fully or adequately express!"

When I got home, I moved onto laundry and I worked on the Foundation's October newsletter. I then took my mom out for tea. After I picked my dad up at his memory care center and got my parents settled, I decided to transplant all my hibiscuses inside for the winter. I chose today, because it was 85 degrees and glorious out. Typically I transplant things when it is much colder and I am miserable, as I hate the cold. Today was too beautiful to be stuck inside! Three hours later.... everything is now inside and cleaned up! 

My two big sunny hibiscuses in the white terracotta pots, got significantly trimmed and I dug up their root balls and transplanted them into two different plastic pots. It makes it a lot easier to carry the plastic pots inside! These are glorious plants, that I bought in 2024, in memory of my beautiful Australian Shepherd, Sunny.

I bought another hibiscus this spring. So I have three staged here.

These two hibiscus I bought in the spring of 2025. They are thriving and the geranium in the red pot, I bought in 2024. I trimmed it back today, but it grows like a tree!

This beauty is a Butterfly Ginger Lily! We bought this plant together in 2014 (YES I HAVE HAD IT 12 YEARS), at the Elizabethan Gardens in the Outer Banks of NC. When it blooms, its flower looks like a white butterfly, with an intoxicating fragrance. I seriously thought I killed this plant off over the winter. It wasn't doing well. This spring, I decided to place the pot outside in a different location.... in direct sunlight! As you can see, it responded!!!