On pins and needles

I can't believe it has been this long since I blogged. I really have to do better at this. But on to more pressing matters....Mom's foot. It has been the source of much talk and concern over the past few days. This concern is directly related to the reason why I am just now getting the pictures put up. I'm happy to report that she is doing much better today. She doesn't give me a blank look nearly as often as she did over the weekend, so I take that as a good sign. Right after her surgery on Friday(for a hammer toe and bunion for those of you completely out of the loop) she was pretty out of it. I kept wanting to go poke her to make sure she was still alive but my inherent fear of her slap reflex could have been the death of her. I'm also sad to report that I didn't learn anything from her time coming out of anethesia. She has been under enough times now that I think even her subconscious is learning to protect her. DOH! She was in a lot of pain on Saturday and pretty nauseated on Sunday but today she is starting to show signs of getting back to normal. She sounds better and looks better. She's getting her appetite back also. Now the fun will begin of keeping her down. You can see how far out that pin is in the pictures. If she breaks it due to putting too much weight on it or hitting it, we are back to square one. We are trying to keep her in wide open spaces. The less confining her enviroment is, the better chance she'll have with that pin. If she behaves herself, I have promised her a trip to Wal-Mart in the electric shopping cart. It's the closest she'll be to her Harley for a while. I hope I can keep up with her in that store.

Drinking and driving don't mix

Well, in this case the driving was Mom and the drinking was bottled water which resulted in the pictures you see here as well as a dislocated shoulder on Mom and many bumps and bruises. We know that someone lost a couple of cases of bottled water on the ramp going from I-20 to I-55. We believe that there was one in the road still that Mom accidentally hit and from her description it got wedged between her front fender and tire resulting in loss of control. Fortunately, when she realized this, she bailed and wasn't hurt any worse. She watched her bike go end over end and land upside down on its tank probably about 30 yards from her. We are still waiting to hear if her bike was totaled or not. Of course, wonderboy Steve was called to the scene. He assessed the situation and immediately hopped on the bike, fired it up, and drove it into the back of his truck. He had to have some help when he got to the top of the ditch because as you can see, the forks and handlebars are a bit bent. The guys helped him turn it around and hold it straight while he drove it in. When I heard Steve start it, as I was walking away, I heard one of the police officers start to say, "That son of a...". I'm sure it was followed by "is going to drive that bike up here." He was right. Now we are just waiting on Mom to mend and we are all glad that she is OK. Motorcycles are replaceable, but mom aren't.

Spring Break

We decided to go to Florida for Spencer's spring break this year. We haven't been to any of the theme parks since he was six, so it was time to go again. He is tall enough to ride anything he wants now, but there were still a couple that he turned down. He rode all the roller coasters. It took a little convincing to get him to ride The Hulk, but after he tried it, he rode it three times. He was actually hoarse the next day from all the yelling and whooping on the rides. That's definitely a good sign. We had good weather all while we were there. It never rained and the warmest it got was the 80s. I couldn't believe how well everything turned out. The parks weren't even that busy. The longest we ever had to wait was 45 minutes for a ride one time. A couple of times we were able to walk right on a roller coaster toward the end of the day. That's the best. Spencer and I enjoyed acting goofy and hamming for the camera. Steve enjoyed taking the pictures and not having to ham for the camera. I'll share some more highlights of our trip later, but here are a few pictures for now.

What you talking 'bout, Willis?

I know I've talked about Spencer's reading not long ago on here. Yes, we're very proud of him. He warms the librarian in my heart. Blah, blah, blah... What I didn't tell you about is one of the fringe benefits of having a child who reads above his age level. His vocabulary exceeds his pronunciation skills. And being the mom that I am I have at least one "hee, hee, hee" moment a week. I can only think of two examples right now, but here goes. There's nothing funnier than to hear a child trying to sound so grown and failing miserably. He was talking about something (probably us) stifling him. (Hear stiff- ling) Takes the wind right out of his argument when he can't even pronounce the word right. Then this morning I was attempting to comb tangles out of his hair. I'm asking if he used shampoo when he washed his hair last night because it has a conditioner in it and he shouldn't have tangles. (This doesn't even cover the fact that it also means he didn't comb his hair after the shower.) He looks at me so indignantly and says, "Yes, Mom, but that Suave (hear swave) you bought doesn't have conditioner in it." I look at Steve and go,"Hee, hee, hee! He said Swave." What's the point of having children if you can't enjoy a few laughs at their expense? My mom did and still does. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right? Besides a laughing mother is a happy mother.

New family addition

It's been a hard winter for pets here. We've lost two of our dogs in a little over a month. First to go was Klondike. He was an inherited dog who died of old age. We figured he had to be at least 15. Then just last week our beloved Jake got run over. He was a rambler and a gambler and this time the cards weren't on his side. He was out on the highway near our house and didn't make it. That one was really tough for all of us since we have had him for 6 years. He actually defected from Mom and Dad's house when we built here and became our watchdog. We really miss him. He was an excellent protector and I didn't worry about anything when he was here.

So now it is time to start again. Jake was an Aussie/Heeler mix. We got our puppy from another friend who raises dogs and has gotten three from us. So this puppy is actually related to Jake and our two dogs we have now. His dad is a registered Aussie and the mom was one of our puppies. We hope he has got some good watchdog blood in him. He is definitely smart. He is already fetching. He is 14 weeks old and we call him Bauer. They were calling him Bear so we wanted something close to that. He is a real cutie. The other dogs are still trying to find their place. Pepsi has started playing with him but not Missy. I did manage to get a little video of the dogs playing though. Here's to the next generation.

The Quest

Recently, my DCs (that's dear cousins not darn cats) were down for a visit. Since one is an expert decorator and the other is an expert painter, it was time for some help redoing my bathroom. I'm thrilled with how it turned out. I had the red walls before, but they were repainted a red with a little more of a brown undertone instead of the color I called "caliente". The other walls were all beige before and now they are a lovely brown. I want to lick them because they look like a fudgsicle to me, (my expert painter cousin told me not to do that for at least three days though to let the paint set) but they are acutally Saddle Soap by Benjamin Moore. I had two round decorative mirrors over the sink which we replaced with a large rectangular mirror from Kirkland's and it was even on sale. It's much more user friendly when two of us are in there. We also repainted the light over the mirror to match the other walls. We added a decorative shower curtain and bathroom accoutrements from Target as well. (I love that store!) My problem now is finding a valance. I found one at Target that I thought would work, but when I hung it, it looked too plain. I'm having trouble finding one that ties in the two colors of the bathroom. The ones I have seen with those colors are either too fancy or too ugly. If I had a little bit of sewing ability, I would look for fabric. I'm afraid to even look though for fear I will find the perfect fabric and it will end up being my life long sorrow. So now I have a quest to find the perfect valance. I know it will show up someday, but until then we will just have to look at an empty rod on an absolutely lovely red wall.

Sweet child of mine

OK, this child of mine is quite confusing. He gets totally upset if someone laughs at him, but yet he wants me to make this video to put on our blog to see what kind of comments I would get. He's no Lionel Richie that's for sure. Not much for lyrics either since he's singing the song wrong. Not very good in the wardrobe department. I just took that coat out of the dryer and since it was warm, he felt the need to have it on his head. (Some things are just not meant to be understood.) Anyway, here it goes. I wonder how many of you can even figure out what song he is singing.