Austin was going to wait up for Santa this year!! You can see how that went. I think he lasted about 10 minutes.

Before I went to bed I took a picture of the "Believe" sign to put in the scrapbook. I love the word 'believe'. It's a word full of hope and promise. And wouldn't the world be a better place if we all took that word to heart about so many things. So, I challenge you all to work on believing this coming year. Believe in God, believe in yourself, believe in others, believe in miracles.

The last thing I did before going to bed was to snap this picture of the tree and presents because I knew that morning would be crazy and chaotic. Ohh, the hours of work that this represents! Every minute and dollar worth it!

We had to wait for "the big kids" to arrive before opening gifts on Christmas morning. Bless his heart, he ended up waiting for over an hour! Patrick, Emily and Sarah used to think it was cruel to make them wait for us to wash our faces on Christmas morning and here was this little guy having to wait for over an hour!  To help him pass the time I told him that he could give Tucker his present, here he is digging it out from behind the tree (we had to bury it so Tucker wouldn't get at it). And below is Tucker finally getting it open! Bacon flavored pig's ears!!

 

How did we live before we could watch a movie while traveling in the car? I don't have a clue!! Austin was thrilled with this gift!! (Mommy was too!)

A Bengal's 'Palmer" jersey was one of the top things on Austin's list this year. He hit the jackpot and got not only this black one from Patrick, but an orange one from Mom and Dad. Topped off with his new hat (I haven't seen the top of his head since he opened this) he's all decked out just in time to mourn the Bengal's loss Denver. Sad, sad, sad!

Here are Sarah and Bennie opening their invisible dog fence. Who knew that this would be the gift that made Sarah cry!!!

Patrick managed to surprise Amber with an ipod. (I want one too!!!!) This was Amber's second Christmas with us, gosh that seems impossible!

And below is the obligatory snapshot of Patrick crashing after breakfast! It never fails and I think I've gotten this picture every year.

I have to take a picture of the gift Austin gave me so I can post it here along with the story about it. Until then....Believe!

WISHING YOU ALL MAGIC

 

I hope that you all can get in touch with the child within that still believes in the magic of Santa Claus. May you all hear the jingling of that bell one more time. It is such a sweet sound and can lighten the weight of the world from our shoulders. I hear it still and I always will.

May you all feel peace this Christmas and remember that Jesus was God's perfect gift to us all.

I live at the intersection of Bethlehem Lane and Damascus Road in Mars Hill...we love Christmas here.

Now, you can each have a cookie...and if it were within my power I'd hug everyone in the world today.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Twenty five  years ago right this minute I was preparing for the birth of my first daughter, Emily. Her birth was to be induced the next morning and I was a nervous wreck wondering how I was ever going to handle two little ones under the age of two. It's all so silly to me now when I think of the anxiety I felt on that night. And believe me, I was in a panic.

Her birth turned out to be the easiest of all my children. From first contraction to her grand entrance was a grand total of 45 minutes. If  I'd gone into labor with her at home we would never have made it to the hospital. I am so grateful that she didn't make her appearance on the side of  I75 during rush hour.

I always do this; get nostalgic on the night before their birthdays. I can so easily remember the thoughts and feelings I was having as I anticipated each of one them. This was in the "old days" when Mommy's and Daddy's didn't have a clue if they were having a boy or a girl. But I so desperately wanted her to be a girl. I had visions of pink nightgowns and ribbons on everything. When she was born (weighing in at a whopping 9 pounds), I could barely see her for the tears in my eyes. This beautiful, beautiful baby girl...and she was MINE! She was breathing and healthy and wailing her lungs out! She had a head of dark hair and the prettiest complexion. She looked like a little Eskimo baby. I was in love with her from the start.  I always said she was my Christmas baby. When I saw the above picture it reminded me so much of her when she was little. If my scanner was working properly I would have used her picture, but this is as close as I can get to showing you what my little girl used to look like.

And now she is turning 25 and I marvel at where the time has gone. She can't possibly now be older than I was when I gave birth to her. She has grown up into a beautiful and gifted woman. I am so proud of her.

So, Emily, Happy Birthday! And God, thank you for sending her to me.

It would be no surprise to anyone that knows me that I'm a sentimental person. The sap that sickens some people defines me to some extent. I'll even go so far as to admit that I feel more than I think. I'm not saying this is a good thing or a bad thing, it's just the way I am. I'm an emotional sponge. I can walk into a room and whatever the prevailing mood is, becomes mine. I relive happy memories all of the time. I am often off on some nostalgic trip in my mind.

Tonight I watched the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie on television. My contact lenses are coated in salt because I had tears in my eyes for most of the movie. The movie was very sweet and sad. I love the Hallmark movies. But my favorite part of the Hallmark movies are the Hallmark commercials. I wish they had a DVD of all of the Hallmark commercials from the beginning, I'd buy it immediately. Although the movie tonight wasn't a Christmas movie, one of the commercials was. While watching that commercial I felt like I was transported back in time. Or maybe what I really mean is that I wish I could have been transported back in time. It featured a mother watching from the shadows as her small children were looking through their ornament collection. She stood silently watching as they pulled each one lovingly from the box and talked amongst themselves about why they were special. It is a moment that I remember living myself many times. It's funny, because at those times their childhood seemed endless. Although intellectually I knew that they would grow up and leave us, my mother's heart couldn't wrap itself around such a thought. And now, well now that they have grown up and some of them have left us I still can't wrap my heart around that.

I searched for forty five minutes for the perfect picture to post above this entry. I couldn't find what I was looking for. And suddenly I realized that I would never find the perfect picture to go along with these particular thoughts. I would never find the perfect picture because what I was looking for was not a picture. It's a feeling. A beautiful and loving feeling that is so imprinted in my heart that only I know the exact nuances of light and shadow it contains. It's the anticipation I saw on my children's faces leading up to Christmas. It's the way they tried so hard to be very good the week before Christmas. It's the painstakingly way they would  pour over the JC Penney's toy catalog as they wrote  their letters to Santa. It's the way they so proudly shopped at Santa's workshop at school for their Dad and I and their siblings, and then try to keep the secret of what they'd bought (which they often failed to do). It's the impish giggling and excitement that they couldn't contain as they tried to fall asleep on Christmas Eve. And it was the absolute joy and abandon they demonstrated every single Christmas morning as they rushed to the living room on Christmas morning in their pj's. It was pure magic and I was filled with the happiness they felt. They were my Christmas. Christmas is love in it's purest form. I know that Christmas is not just Santa and toys for children. I know that it's to celebrate the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. I knew that then and so did they, just as we know that today. Jesus was the gift to the world  My children were and are God's gifts to me.

We have Austin now and as I've said many times he has been such a gift. He has given us another chance to experience Christmas through the eyes of a child. He brought the wonder and magic of Christmas back to our family and to see my grown children reliving the wonder of it all through him again is one of the most beautiful sights on this earth to me. Christmas' are different now though, our daughter, Emily lives in Florida and she is not here with us on Christmas. No one can take that place, it's hers alone and I dread again that empty spot.

My  mother asked me not long ago what I wanted for Christmas. What I wanted to say, but knew that she couldn't give me was one more Christmas past. I want to see Patrick, Emily, and Sarah as children again around our Christmas tree. I want to see them laughing and hugging one another. I want to hear them singing along with "Thistle Hair, The Christmas Bear" and see their eyes dance. I want to hear their young sweet voices as they show us, with excitement, what Santa brought them. I want to stand in the shadows and watch them be little again as they experience Christmas and each other.  I want to see that again. I have the memories of it though, and they are burned into my mind's eye and more importantly they are burned into my heart. Which is why I love Hallmark commercials. It's a chance to see it and feel it all over again.

So, Patrick, Emily and Sarah, please always know that you are dearer to me than I could ever tell you with words. Please know that you and your little brother, Austin ARE Christmas to me and you always will be.

Christmas is love. You are love.

 

Now, I ask you, is this not one of the cutest things you've ever seen in your life?  I swear this dog lives to please us. He would sit there with that bone on his nose forever (as long as it doesn't begin to slip) until we say "OKAY!". When we say "OKAY!", he flips it in the air and catches it. It's the cutest little trick. If I ever figure out how to put a video on here I'll show you how he does it. I just printed this picture tonight to do a scrapbook page of him and I thought the internet might like to see it too!

Moving right along from the cutest dog in the world to the cutest little boy in the world. I snapped this of Austin last week after Amber cut his hair and he was showing off his new sporty spike haircut. I have been telling little boys not to play ball in the house for ohhhh about 26 years now. This litter doesn't listen any better than the last one did!!! I often wonder what little boys hear in the heads as they swing those bats at imaginary balls. Heck I wonder what little boys hear in their heads any old time.

When the kids were little and I would ask one of the girls to go do something they would walk normally across the floor and do what I asked them to do with no gratuitous actions. When you ask a little boy to do the same thing they will fight off imaginary enemies on their way, or make imaginary jump shots, or pretend they are skiing down a slippery slope.  It's like they live in permanent parallel worlds and mother's are not allowed to know what goes on in "the other one".

Now a little bit about "the juice"!

There is seldom a day that goes by that I don't talk to someone that we've introduced this juice to that doesn't tell me a story that makes me so happy I want to cry! The one about the horse is my favorite one!

Our good friends Matt and Connie have been neighbors of ours for years. Matt trains thoroughbred racing horses. He has about 10 horses that he trains for other owners and then they have a couple of their own. Well, Connie gave Matt a case of MonaVie and told him to start giving it to the horse they they own. We had no idea how much to give a horse that size but somehow Connie and Matt decided on 66 cc's. So on a Monday, Matt started giving the horse 66 cc's of juice in the morning and 66 cc's of juice in the evening. On Thursday of that same week Connie decided that 66 cc's probably wasn't going to be enough to make a difference considering the size of the horse so she told Matt not to give the horse any more juice. He said he wouldn't. Very early the next morning when Matt got to the track and the girl that exercises the horse every morning brought him back in she said to Matt, "Matt, I don't know what you've done different to that horse, but whatever it is, DON'T STOP!". When he asked her why, she said, "That horse has never wanted to run as bad as he does now." Matt walked right to the phone and called Connie saying, "You know how you told me not to give that horse any more juice? Well, I'm not listening to you!". The following Tuesday they had that horse in a claiming race at Churchill Downs. The horse came in 3rd! Matt says he would have been 1st but he went wide at the turn to get around the other horses because he wanted to run so bad! Unfortunately, someone claimed the horse that night and he is no longer getting his juice. Matt is deciding which horse he's going to try on it next.

My sister-in-law has had hypertension for years. She has been on three blood pressure medicines for a long time and even on medication her blood pressure consistently ran 150's and 160's over the 90's. After one month of drinking the juice she was talking to me on the phone one day and mentioned that she'd been getting dizzy when she stands up. I told her to go right that second and take her blood pressure. Guess what it was? 118 over 67! It's been staying there too! She is going back to the doctor to begin getting off of some of her BP meds. I am so thrilled by that I can't even tell you. All of the medication she is on has horrible side affects and she's going to be able to get off of them!

I ran into a dentist the other day that I'd given a bottle of juice to and he was soo happy to see me. He said he was almost out of juice and he didn't want to run out. WhenI asked him what it had done for me top on his list was relief of pain in his shoulder, ankle and neck. Then he went on to tell me how he doesn't hit the wall at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. He said he has lots of energy and is sleeping much better. He thanked me for sharing it with him.

It is so thrilling to be able to introduce someone to something like MonaVie that is improving their lives. Some people feel these kinds of results immediately, within a matter of days. A few people seem to require two to three bottles of it. I wish everyone could feel it quickly. It's frustrating when they give up after one or two bottles when I know that if they'd just hang in there for another bottle or two they'd be sooo happy they did.

My business has really taken off and there are some very exciting things getting ready to happen with it. Life is fun! If I told you what this business is going to do for me financially in the next six months you wouldn't even believe me. But trust me, it is happening!

Here is a quote I found to leave you with

A rising tide raises all ships.

I don't know who said it, but I like it!  And  baby, my ship is rising!

Meet Superman!!!

I realize that this picture is a little blurry....I'm sure there will be more to follow.  This was taken yesterday while he was getting his spa (misting, with special salt water)  treatment

Austin has wanted a Hermit Crab for the longest time. His brother used to beg me for a snake, IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! I am not a fan of rodents or reptiles. I love dogs and cats, they are the kinds of pets that love you back.

When my first litter of kids were little they begged to have hamsters. Hamsters, as you know are rodents. I think there is nothing in the world that I loathe more than rodents. But, knowing how thrilled they would be to have them, I gave in. I not only gave in, I sat up one whole night once watching one of those hamsters give birth to about 16 hairless, pink, squirmy babies. (The hamster got pregnant when Patrick and his eighth grade sleep-over friends decided the nights entertainment would be sneaking his male hamster out of his cage and into the cage of little sister's female hamster. All unbeknownst to moi!).

So, as you can already tell, I'm a push-over. Austin has done the hamster thing as well. I can't remember how long the hamster lived but I know that it wasn't over six months. So, last weekend when we went to Petsmart to get a Furminator comb for Tucker, he started his campaign for another hamster. I was as bound and determined as he was that we were NOT coming home with a hamster. Then he wanted a chinchilla! NOT! Then he tried for a guinea pig! NOT! So by the time we were ready to pay for our purchases and leave, Austin looked like the saddest of little boys. Like I said, I'm a pushover! We looked around the store and I nixed: the bird, the chinchilla, the hamster, the guinea pig, and the most adorable kittens in the world. Eventually, we ended up in front of the hermit crabs. For the life of me I could not imagine why in the world he wanted one of those things, but want one he did. I decided that they couldn't be that much trouble and wanting to make him smile, I said he could get one. We came home with a "crab" house, crab food, crab water conditioner for drinking, crab water conditioner for bathing (yes, crabs bathe!), substrate for the bottom of the "crab"house, a special sponge and dish for crabs to drink out of, and a crab food bowl. But the most important thing we came home with was a very happy little boy! You would have thought I'd bought him his very own amusement park. We carefully set up Speedy's little "crab" house, fixed his food and water and settled him in Austin's room. Then we decided that we'd better read up on the care and feeding of hermit crabs. After printing many many pages of "instructions" from the web we thought we had all of our bases covered and would have a long life with Speedy.

Speedy immediately buried himself in the back corner of his little home and refused to come out. In our reading, we discovered that when brought to a new home that they will often do this. We decided to be patient and wait him out. About the middle of the week I began to worry about Speedy (Did I really just admit that I was worried about a crab?) I decided to do some more reading about the care and feeding of hermit crabs! I learned that we should have purchased a heating source for his "crab" house. Hmmm, could that be why Speedy wasn't moving?

On Friday night I stopped by Petsmart again and purchased the necessary heating pad. While I was there, the gods that help make little boys happy somehow planted the thought in my brain that I should take home another crab. And, so, I did.  When I got home with the heating pad and the new crab Austin was tickled to death. He and Patrick headed for his room to give Speedy some heat and a friend. While Austin was in the kitchen with me "fixing the crabs' supper", Patrick came downstairs carrying Speedy's shell upside down. Evidently when he picked him up, Speedy's dead and decaying body came crumbling ot of the shell. I quickly said a prayer of thanks to the "gods that help make little boys happy" that I'd brought home a new crab!

This one is named Superman. Austin loves him! He's bigger than Speedy was and he is happily moving about his "crab" house and eating his special crab food and gourmet (yes, that right, gourmet!) treats. His house is warm and clean and  he lets us (yes, that's right US!) hold him.

My Zodiac sign is Cancer the Crab. While watching him yesterday, I realized that I can relate to him on many levels. But if any of you think I'm going to spell them out here, well......DREAM ON! Let's just say that Superman and I have an understanding.

 

Our oldest daughter, Emily, was in town this weekend for a friend's wedding. She met Austin and I for lunch yesterday. It was so wonderful to see her and hear about her new job and what is going on in her life. She is such a smart, driven, and good person. I was so thrilled to just sit and look at her as I listened to all the goings on in her life. I miss her so much.

We don't look anything alike and our opinions have seldom matched up. I think there is no relationship more complex than the mother-daughter relationship. It's fraught with land mines. We've stepped into many of them and we both carry the scars to prove it. But being a daughter and having daughters I have learned that it's okay to be different from one another. We are not clones of our mothers, nor should we be. But the main thing that I have learned that my daughters don't know yet is that the love I feel for them is bigger than any differences we might have. It covers every disagreement, feeling of betrayal, and difference of opinion. I simply could not choose not to love them.

So, to my beautiful daughter Emily, thank you for having lunch with me. Thank you for sharing your news with me. Thank you for putting up with the mother you were dealt. I love you more than you could ever imagine.

A date with destiny?

   Saturday night I had a date.

The most adorable little boy in the world asked me out. I was thrilled! You see, the movie he'd been waiting for had finally hit Cinema Showcase and he was chomping at the bit to get there. His proposition was was if I would drive us there, he would pay for our tickets. My first reaction was to say, "I'll take you to the movie, but you don't have to pay for the tickets." Then, I realized that this could be a very good thing for him to do. For one thing he would be getting a lesson in the value of a dollar. For another thing, he would get to be the giver instead of the taker. He was very proud to pick up his wallet and I think he felt very powerful as we headed towards the cinema.

We walked into the theater and headed to the ticket counter. He had his little wallet in his hands and his little eight year old self said to the lady taking the money, "We want tickets for FLUSHED AWAY." The thirty-something woman behind the counter looked him straight in the eye and said, "Ok, let's see that will be one child and one senior, that comes to $11.75." He opened his wallet and began counting out his money. I was busy trying to decide if I had heard her right! My mouth had fallen open, and I heard myself saying in a voice I didn't even recognize as my own, "Surely I don't qualify for a senior citizen's discount!" I guess she could tell by the mournful tone of my voice that she had made a serious faux pas. "Oh, ma'am, I'm so sorry", she gushed as her face turned red. She then gave Austin the revised price of $13.75. He very correctly counted out two five dollar bills, three one dollar bills  and three quarters. She went on and on  about how perfectly he had counted the correct amount of money to give to her. It was too late, she could have declared him as the newest child math prodigy to the world at large and it was not going to make up for the fact that she had looked at me and deduced in some twisted corner of her demented mind that I was a senior citizen!!!! I just simply could not get over it. I know that I'm not a spring chicken. I realize that I'm closer to 50 than 40. I even realize that it's possible and maybe even expected that people could assume I'm Austin's grandmother rather than his mother. But I refuse to admit that I look like I would qualify for a discount that is only available to people over 62, or is it 65? See, I don't even know when it kicks in, because it's not something that is even within the realm of possibility for me yet. At least I didn't think so!

From the ticket counter we made our way to the concession stand and when Austin started to pay for our Cokes and popcorn I told him to put his wallet back in his pocket, "Granny is going to pay for the treats", I grumbled. He thanked me and we made our way into the semi-dark theater. After we got ourselves settled in our seats and were munching away on our popcorn I began to let the memory of the dumb ticket lady fade away. Then, out of nowhere, Austin turned to me and said, "Mommy, you shouldn't have said anything to that lady, I could have saved $2.00!

You know, there is something to be said for mothers who eat their young.

Busy, busy, busy!!

Wow, I knew I'd not posted an entry here for a while, but I didn't realize it had been since August! Life has been very busy around here. The MonaVie business is growing and is very exciting. Austin has gotten into the swing of second grade and the flowers that were so alive and vibrant in June are now looking as haggard as me.

It's hard to believe that summer is over and we're already hearing forcasts of snow flurries for this week. Where does time go? Every summer goes by faster than the last. Which reminds me; why in the world does winter drag by when the other seasons fly by in a whirl? I'll never understand how that works!

Today, I went with Austin's class to the Dinsmore Homestead. It was built in the 1800's and when the last family members moved out sometime in the 40's it was maintained by a servant of the family. The family's belongings were left in tact, it looks as if they've stepped out for a walk and will return any moment. It's fascinating and oh so wonderful for a lover of old things like me. The children got to see what children their age did for fun in the 1800's. They played games that the children would have played. Here is a picture of Austin playing with a "hoop and stick". He was really very good at it! Maybe he has an old soul like his mother!

 

The children also got to see what it was like to do the chores that the children of the 1800's might have had to do. He ground coffee beans, rolled out a pie crust, washed clothes on a washboard, made butter, and beat rugs. I thought it was funny how he found these chores to be so much "fun", and yet making his bed is the equivalent of child abuse.

In other news, Austin will be 8 years old on October 18th. I cannot believe it. Like I said before, time flies. His aunt and uncle left for Italy today so they requested we celebrate his birthday early this year. Here are some birthday pictures

Yeah, okay, so I didn't make his birthday cake...he WANTED this one!!!!

His birthday loot is burning a hole in his pocket. A trip to ToysRUs in in our future.

His party was on the day that the darn Patriots beat our Bengals. I told you all we were big Bengal fans! Now do you believe me?

Remember last year on his birthday how I invited my friend's cousin here to meet Patrick without asking him? Well, guess what....here we are a year later and they have seen each other almost every day since then!  Chalk one up for Mom!

 

I've gone nuts over a juice!!!

Anyone reading what I'm about to write about might think I've lost my mind. And, you'd be right, to a point. I have lost my mind about something I've been drinking for the past 10 days.

 

I've written here about my recent knee surgery, and how I can't sleep through the night without waking up at least 8 times a night and sometimes more. I haven't written about the tendonitis in my left elbow that is so painful on some days that I literally have not used that arm to do much. I haven't written about the fact that I have gastric reflux and am on a medication that costs $100 a month for it. I haven't written about how every single morning of my life I wake up with a headache, and how I'm so stiff and sore when I wake up in the morning that it hurts to get up out of  my bed.

 

The very first thing I do when I come downstairs in the morning is reach for the coffee pot and my bottle of Advil. I take 4 Advil (800 mg) three times a day every day. I've been doing this for so long I can't even remember when it started. My mother has arthritis, her sister has severe arthritis, and I just figured that it was something that I was just going to have to live with and that was the end of it.

 

Ten days ago, my daughter, Sarah Kate, told me about a juice that her mother-in-law was drinking. She was drinking 1 ounce in the morning and 1 ounce in the evening. After a week, she had remarkable improvement in joint pain. I was skeptical. I asked her what it was. She told me it was a juice that had Acai berry in it. Well, I'd never heard of the Acai berry. So, I looked it up of course. I figured it couldn't hurt to try it and so I got a bottle of it. Within 3 days of drinking 1 oz in the AM and 1 oz. in the PM I was sleeping all night long. On the 4th day I realized that my left elbow was absolutely pain free, and my knee that had been operated on was 95% better and my other knee (which always hurts) didn't have any pain at all. I was amazed! About the same time, it dawned on me that I had not reached for the Advil bottle that day (or any day since)! People, this is major!!!! I'm a nurse, I know it's not good to live on Advil the way I was, but I had to function and the only way to do that was to take the Advil! I also realized that I had not taken my Protonix in a couple of days. I hadn't taken it because I didn't have the heartburn to remind me to take it! I personally know of some amazing results that people I KNOW have experienced in a matter of days. I can't say enough how amazing this stuff is!

 

When I started drinking this juice, my husband laughed at me. He is forever the doubting Thomas. On Saturday afternoon he asked for a drink of my juice. I reluctantly (read selfishly) gave him an ounce of my now thought of "liquid gold". He has been drinking  1oz two times a day since Saturday. Yesterday afternoon he called me on the phone from work. This is what he said, "I wasn't going to tell you this but I can't help it; my shoulder (he's had a rotator cuff injury for 12 years) doesn't hurt at all! And, my toe (which has hurt him for at least 5 years) doesn't hurt at all". I laughed so hard!!! For him to admit that to me was nothing short of a miracle!

 

On top of the pain relief and gastric reflux relief that I've experienced, my energy level is at a point that I don't think I felt even when I was 21 years old.  This stuff is simply amazing. It's so amazing that I am now selling it (The product is MonaVie, and it's the Acai berry combined with 18 other fruits that are super concentrated in antioxidants). I'm not telling this here in an effort to sell bottles. I'm telling it here because to not tell others what I've experienced while taking this juice would be selfish. If you want some fine, leave a comment and I'll email you my website where you can buy some. I will not post it in this entry because I truly mean it when I say that I'm not telling this here to drum up business. This journal has been about what is going on in my life. This is a huge development in my life and I had to share it here.

It's Official

Austin is now, officially, a second grader. I wish all kids could love school as much as he does. He was so excited to be going back to school. He didn't even mind the obligatory back to school pictures that Mom makes him pose for. Just for the record, I didn't pick out his new shoes. HE DID! I wanted white, he wouldn't hear of it. I remember when Emily and Sarah were little, they were easy to buy shoes for - we agreed! Patrick on the other hand, always wanted the opposite of what I wanted him to have. Must be boys.

Anyway, I drove him to school and walked him to his new classroom. His teacher this year is the daughter-in-law of a good friend of ours. She told me last year that she had heard such good things about him from his teacher that she would do everything in her power to make sure he was in her class this year. She came through and he is thrilled. Before we went to her classroom he had to go get a hug from his first grade teacher, Ms. Brown. Ms. Brown graduated from high school with our youngest daughter, Sarah Kate. He loved her and just wanted to touch base I guess with the very familiar before venturing into the big world of second grade.

We went shopping after he got home yesterday afternoon for the school supplies on the list from school. It was a zoo in the school supplies aisle of every store we went to. We found everything except a simple package of pencil top erasers and 2 dry erase markers. Wouldn't you think that simple pencil erasers would be an easy thing to find? Not so. I bet I end up finding them at the grocery store.

Being the scrapbooking crazed Mom that I am, we had to take a picture of all the supplies spread out on the table for his "back to school page". To further demonstrate how eaten up I am with this scrapbooking thing; I made other purchases at the store where we bought the supplies, but I made sure to pay for them separately so that I could have a separate receipt for the school stuff for the scrapbook page! Even I realize how kind of ridiculous that sounds, but a person's not really crazy if they think they're crazy, right? Well, isn't that right? I don't care, I plead Momitis!

So, school is back in session. All is right with his world.

Grounding 101 (when you have an old Mommy)

I love the goofy face he's making here!

There is not really any particular reason I chose this photo for this entry. I was just looking through some old pictures of Austin and came upon this one. He was 19 months old here and he was helping me plant flowers in the back yard on this day. I remember what a little clown he was that day. I thought he was adorable. I still think he's adorable. He's spoiled rotten. I hasten to add here, however, I didn't do all the spoiling myself. How could he not be spoiled? He's surrounded by adults who have delighted in most every thing he's ever done. There are days (and I never thought I'd ever say this!) when I would give just about anything to have him back at this age. Kids grow up way too fast. It boggles my mind to realize that my older kids are now 26, 24 and 23 years old. How in the world did that happen??? And, my gosh, how can I possibly be old enough to have kids that age? Oh, the tricks our minds play on us. Anyway, Austin will be 8 in October. It simply doesn't seem possible. We are going shopping later this afternoon to buy new school shoes and supplies for the first day of school on Monday. He will be a second grader. Like I said, it boggles the mind.

At the moment we are struggling through his first experience of being grounded. He's always been pretty easy to handle. On the few past occasions that he's been a little on the obstinate side I could simply begin counting to three and before I would get to two he would come out of his obstinant state and do whatever it was that I had asked him to do. I guess he's really starting to grow up now because  night before last (which is probably not the  very first time it's happened, maybe Mommy is just having selective memory) he dug in and asserted his little independant self.

 Patrick and Amber had gone to a cookout at Patrick's friends' house. When they got back here they wanted to finish watching a movie (dvd)  that they had been watching earlier. Austin decided at that exact moment that he wanted to play a game on the Playstation 2 in Patrick's room. I really think that it was more like he wanted to be in the same room as Patrick and Amber. Right before they had gotten home, I had told Austin that it was time for him to take a shower. I told him to come on and get in the shower and let Patrick and Amber watch the movie. This was his first "dig in". He insisted that he only wanted to play the game for a few minutes. I told him, "No, Patrick and Amber want to watch a movie and it's not your room. Come on and get in the shower now." He, of course, was tring to ignore me and keep playing the game. I had to raise my voice a little. He can't handle a raised voice. I wasn't yelling, I really wasn't, but I was aggravated that he was being obstinate. My tone of voice didn't hide the fact that I was aggravated. He stomped out of Patrick's room and went into his room. I once again asked him to get in the shower. (Why do little boys hate to take baths and showers?) By now he was really sulking and  I was tired and aggravated. Usually, at this point all I have to do is tell him to get in the shower and begin counting and by the time I reach two he's up and headed to the shower. NOT THIS TIME! He jumped to the floor on the other side of his bed and really dug in. This is not my first time around the block people. I could see the writing on the wall. This was defiance, plain and simple. He drew the line in the sand and I was forced to be the big, bad Mommy! If he could have heard the thoughts in my head at that moment he would have heard me saying, "Oh, Austin, please don't make me ground you. I don't want to do this, please don't make me do this. Please just be my little obedient Austin and get in the shower". He, however, didn't hear those thoughts. What he heard was, "I am going to count to three and if you're not on the way to the shower by the time I get to three, you're grounded". I don't know, maybe he was thinking it would be cool to be grounded. Maybe he thought that he would be grounded and he wouldn't have to take the shower after all and it would be worth the grounding. But what happened was, I began counting slowly. "One....(no movement)two...Austin, I mean it, I am going to ground you, please don't make me do that. (no movement)...three (still no movement). Then that old familar feeling that parents get after they realize that their bluffs been called set it. What is that thought? It's, "OH my gosh, I've grounded this kid and in the process have punished MYSELF!" So then, he gets up off the floorand stomps to the bathroom for his shower, crying all the way. He wasn't crying because he'd been grounded,m he was crying because I was mad at him. Through his tears he was telling me that I was mean and that I didn't love him and that he doesn't like to be yelled at. I reiterate here that I was not really yelling.Now, here is the thing that I don't understand. Once I reached the magic number of three and he'd become grounded, he got up and walked to the shower! No more arguing! Could someone please explain to my why?

 When he got out of the shower he wanted to know what he was grounded from. Without thinking I told him that he was not allowed to have any kids in to play and he was not allowed to play inside anyone's house for the rest of the week (Sunday). I think at the time I said he was not allowed to play with his friends until Monday. Now here is the thing people, These are the last few days of his summer vacation and I'm off this weekend! In hindsight, I wish I'd said that he would not be allowed to play any video games until Monday. So, now, I'm living with the decision I made. Well, ok, maybe not completely. We both kind of conveniently forgot the part about not playing with his friends at all. But he's not having friends in and he's not going in anyone's house (this is huge, because these kids are constantly playing in someone's house). He's begged me all morning to let him have someone in. I have held strong (stop laughing!). I plead old age. It's expected that we become forgetful as we age, right? Maybe I just think that I said he couldn't play with this friends at all. Yeah, that's it, I just thought it, I didn't really say it.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

PS:  Within an hour of posting this entry, Austin came into the house and said, "Mommy, I'm going down to Dylan's house." "Not inside", I said. To which he responded with the following zinger, "I know, I'm just going to be outside. Are you okay with that?" Am I okay with that? I swear this kid is a 30 year old in a 7 year old body.

Home from a wonderful vacation

My  neighbor came through with the buddy passes so Austin and I flew to Panama City a week ago Sunday. Austin was so excited to be flying (he doesn't remember his first flight as a baby).

We mostly just hung out at the pool and totally enjoyed ourselves. I don't know when I've ever had a more relaxing vacation. My nephew took Austin to the beach one afternoon, once was enough, the green algae was bad and the rest of the time he was happy to be in the pool. (Mommy rejoiced!). We were usually in the pool by 8 am and pretty much stayed there until supper time. Pilar had a couple of neighbor kids that came to swim with Austin (he can't do ANYTHING alone!), so Pilar and I were able to sit around the pool talking, working Sudoku puzzles and eating. Even Austin learned how to do Sudoku and he worked on one just about every morning:

By the time we left he was swimming like a fish and we both had swimmer's ear to prove it. (I've never had an earache in my life, Man are they ever painful!) I called his pediatrician and he called in a prescription to the pharmacy down there (to the tune of $102 for 10 cc's! Highway robbery if you ask me!

I've never particularly wanted a pool in my back yard. Well, I do now! It was so wonderful to swim first thing in the morning. It was a blast for Austin and he was worn out by the end of the day. He was easy to get into bed very early (the first day he was asleep by 6pm!). He is at the perfect age for a pool. I don't know what kind, but somehow, someway there will be water in my backyard next summer. At the age Austin is we would get years of enjoyment out of it. I'll be checking out pools this winter!!

Pilar's friends have a 30 ft. cabin cruiser. They took Austin and I out in the Gulf on Friday afternoon (Pilar gets extremely sea sick so she opted out). We were hoping to see some Dolphins. We saw some off in the distance when we were going out through the bay, but on our return trip through the bay, there were some guys in a boat feeding them little fish (this is against the law), anyway, they had about 7 of them surrounding their boat. They were coming up out of the water like Flipper used to do, begging for food. Then, one by one, the guys starting jumping in the water to swim with them (we were in about 15 ft of the clearest water I've ever seen in my life), When the Dolphins saw our boat they came over to us to beg for food. We didn't feed them but they were right up next to the boat! I wanted to jump in with them so badly. If my knee had been 100% I would have done it in a heartbeat, but Kathy said it would have been too hard to get back in the boat with my knee because of the waves. It killed me to be so close to them, an opportunity I've always wanted, and have to pass it up. Before I die, I WILL swim with Dolphins. They were so friendly! It was awesome!

Steve put out some lines in the water and Austin was trying to pull in a 2 footer. Not sure what it was, but right before he got it in the boat, he let go of the bait. It was still exciting!

We got home on Sunday afternoon at 2:00. We were so worn out and slap happy by the time we were headed home that Austin was taking pictures of us on the plane.(The chlorine has taken out all the color from my hair, so here people, is the ugly truth: This is now the natural color of my hair! Scary!) He kept telling me to make faces as he snapped pictures:

I thought for sure that Austin's two fron teeth would have fallen out by the time we came home. But, NO! He protects them all the time! They are just dangling!!

Even Austin's bear, Max enjoyed the trip:

 

I still have more pictures to download, so I'll post some more soon.

It's back to work tomorrow! I miss work. I'm glad to be going back. My knee is not great, but I worked on it for about a month before the surgery when ithurt, so I can work on it now. The jury is still out on how successful this surgery was. The doctor said it would take 8 weeks for it to be perfect. Patrick is at about the 8 week mark now and his isn't perfect. I havemy doubts. I'm not ready to say that I'm glad I had it done. I hope in another month I can say that it was a complete success. In the meantime Iwill keep limping on.

My sister-in-law from Panama City Beach, Florida called me the other day and said she was going to come up here and get Austin and I to spend a week with her while I'm off work. The idea sounded appealing! I could use a week's vacation with nothing to do but lounge around her pool and read. Austin, of course, is all for the idea. I, however, didn't want her to make the 12 hour drive. She makes this trip very regularly and doesn't think a thing of it. To me it sounds like a lot of time and gasoline! I have neighbors who are pilots and other airport support personnel. Last night we were talking with one of our neighbors and he offered to give me two buddy passes to go. SWEET!  So, he's looking into flights today and hopefully, we'll be on our way in the next couple of days. Austin is thrilled to death! I flew with him to Florida when he was two weeks old to meet his big brother (away at college). He, of course, doesn't remember this.

He's busy planning our week. Funny, how his plans and mine are so different!! We will spend a day or two at the beach and the rest of the time we'll be living in bathing suits in Aunt Pilar's pool. We're hoping that my daughter, Emily, who lives in Jacksonville will be able to come visit us. She's very busy with work and a new puppy, but hopefully it will work out. We miss her.

A NOTE REGARDING THE LAST ENTRY:

When I re-read it, I realized that the picture of the dining room was mis-leading. That is the dining room in this house, not the old house (the country one). This picture contains the table and pie safe that my mother-in-law gave me. The dining room is the only room in this house that contains a country flavor. I love those pieces and could never part with them.

 

Austin was in my nephew and Godson's wedding the first week of July. This kid has been a ring bearer so many times he qualifies as a professional. Here are some picture of him from the wedding that I just can't help showing off:

I have been sitting and thinking a lot lately. I've been looking through old magazines (you wouldn't believe my archive of decorating magazines!), and catalogs. I have realized that my home doesn't feel like "me". I struggle with every new purchasing decision when it involves something for the house. Then, when I do purchase something, it just doesn't feel right somehow.

 

When I first married, I thought I was all about modern furniture and decorating. So, naturally we bought modern furniture and decorated our first home with lots of bamboo and glass. I wasn't comfortable with it at all. It was just not cozy. It wasn't homey, and I'm all about homey. I think I went with the modern stuff because my mother had always loved Early American. I was sick of Early American and wanted something totally different. It didn't take me long, however, to find out that "modern" wasn't me. At the time (late 70's) "country decorating" was all the rage. I immediately jumped in with both feet. My mother-in-law gave me a beautiful old pie safe and an old, round wooden kitchen table and chairs.I love old things, I think I have an old soul.  I stripped the bamboo wallpaper and put up navy blue and white pinstripes with a cute little duck border (I can see the eye rolling). I found anything old and claimed it. I painted and distressed, I sewed and made country craft things. Before long, my home had a very cozy, comfortable feel. I liked it. It was me.

 

I don't really know why I got away from it, but when we moved into this house in 1994 I decided to make a change. I went with a more traditional look. I've lived with it now for 12 years and I've never felt like I "got it right". There seem to be rules for this type of decorating and I don't understand them. Country was easy for me. It was natural. It was fun and I miss it.

 

I want to go back to country. Maybe not quite as country as it was at one time, but country. You know what they say; "You can take a girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl". I miss the neat clutter of country. Maybe because I'm such a clutterbug at heart. I've always been attracted tocountry prints and country fabrics. I think I'm tired of resisting them.

 

So, guess what? I'm on a new mission. I will be happily converting my "not quite there" traditional home back to the comfortable and cozy country place that I think I was destined to have all along.

 

Winning the lottery would be nice.

Pardon me while I whine!

I've spent three days in the oversized chair in my family room whining like a baby. My knee feels like someone took an axe to it. I was told to take the bandage off yesterday, so I did. I was surprised to see how much my knees don't match.

I've never thought that knees were very pretty, but in comparison, my left one is downright beautiful!  Not only is my knee grossly distorted, my whole leg is swollen! My meniscus had shredded, but on top of being shredded, it had flipped over as well. I also was the proud owner of an uneven patella (kneecap), which required shaving on the underside so that it will slide over the bones easier. This, I'm told, is due to age. Lovely! I spent most of yesterday being mad at myself for allowing someone to mutilate my knee. Sure, it hurt before, but I was certainly better off than I am now. My plan was to show Patrick up in the recovery game. He did great, I wanted to do even  better. My ego has been squashed. He wins.

This hurts, and it hurts constantly. I have plenty of narcotics to help with the pain, but I hate taking them. I don't like the feeling of being drugged and fuzzy. However, when I'm not "drugged and fuzzy", I'm a whining bitch. Which is why, I suppose, my family keeps asking me if I've taken any pain pills lately. I have my first physical therapy session this afternoon. I will be taking said narcotics before I go there. The therapy will take place at the hospital where I work. I will have to see these people after this is all over. I cannot be a whimp or a crab. Maybe I could wear a mask.

I've decided that I'm a rotten patient. I had gathered lots of books and magazines to read while I sat on my butt healing. I have Sudoku puzzle books, Scrapbooking magazines and lots of things to entertain myself. I actually imagined that I would enjoy just being lazy and reading and watching television. I'm going stark raving mad. I've wallowed that chair to death trying to find a comfortable position (there are none), there is nothing even remotely interesting on television and I can't focus on reading due to "narcotic brain". I can't sleep for more than 2 hours at a time. In short, I'm not a fun person lately.

If anyone has any suggestions for improving my disposition, my family would be eternally grateful.

 

Counting backward from 100...again

Today was my birthday. I don't like birthdays anymore. I have decided that this is the last one that I'm going to count. The numbers are getting ridiculous. There should be a law against time going by so fast. I can't possibly be as old as I've gotten to be. It hurts, I don't like it, I don't like it one little bit. And then there is this thing about feeling like my body is just falling apart...piece by piece.

I just must not be holding my mouth right or something. Sometimes I think that someone has a voodoo doll in my image and they entertain themselves by sticking needles in it every other year. I have had my share of surgeries in the past, some minor and some major, the ones that I can remember total 7 and that's NOT counting oral surgeries. That might not seem like many to some people, but to me, it's a lot. Especially when you consider that I admit a lot of elderly people to the hospital and one of the questions that I ask on the admission history is how many surgeries have you had in the past. I am always amazed by how many people in their 70's and 80's answer, "none". Of those that have had surgeries, the answer is usually 2 to 3. I swore that I'd never lie down on an OR table and count backward from 100 again. I've been reminded, once again, that one should never say never!

Friday afternoon I'm having arthroscopic surgery on my right knee. I have a torn meniscus and it's driving me crazy. I have had bad knees all of my adult life. I'm NOT an athlete. The only thing I can figure is that all of the hands and knees floor scrubbing I've done in my life has done the damage. For the past month my knee has been swollen and very painful. By the time I get home from work in the evenings, the right knee is 2 inches bigger around than the left one. I've limped and "ouched" for about a month and it's getting worse not better. I cannot bend my knee at all without pain and it gives out on me at very inconvenient times (not that there are convenient times, I suppose!). I went to the orthopod on Tuesday and he said the meniscus is torn. The pain is from the meniscal flap being caught between the bones of my tibia and femur. The only way to correct that is to cut the torn pieces away. Oh joy! He also suspects that my patella is rough and needs to be shaved.

The good news is that knee surgery has come a long way in recent years and they can now do this with just two small incisions instead of opening up the whole knee. I guess I should just be grateful for that. And I am, trust me.

The interesting thing is, Patrick just had this very same surgery on June 2. The discouraging thing is, his knee still hurts. I have had many people tell me the same thing. It's not very encouraging. But, I can't keep going with the knee like it is. So, I'm going to cross my fingers and hope this works.

(Crown courtesy of Austin!) You've gotta love a big brother that will wear a foam crown lovingly made for him by his little brother AND have his picture taken wearing it to make that little brother happy.