How time does fly

Yesterday I had my "6 week" checkup. I can't believe it has been six weeks since my surgery.

I decided I wasn't going to go in to the appointment and gloss over how I was feeling and say I felt great and wonderful (I do feel pretty great, but do have some issues) . . . . which resulted in a CT scan to make sure that everything WAS fine. The CT scans that I had done in the hospital with a "no food by mouth" order and the one I did yesterday just walking in off the street were two different things, let me tell you. I found out my hospital CT scans were a "horse of a different color." Yesterday when the attendant handed me two very-tall-glasses of thick-white-gunk to drink I looked at him and said "you've GOT to be kidding?" Nope! No kidding here!

While I was drinking my two very-tall-glasses of thick-white-gunk a man across the waiting room was given his corresponding glasses of gunk to drink. He chug-a-lugged them like they were nothing. I couldn't let that pass without a comment. He said his days of "bar hopping" gave him the stomach to get the stuff down fast. WOW, what talent! I told him I'd never had a drink in my life, and I could tell he thought I was a bald-faced lier. At that moment I really admired his abilities! It took me ages to drink it all of my gunk.

To make a long story short . . . . before I could even drive home, I got the results of the scan, via cell-phone. . . . the Dr. said everything looks great! I am comforted to know that I have a regular healing body. Whew!

Another 6 weeks of restricted activity and I'm home free! But now I have my walking orders. Literally walking orders. I am to walk and walk and walk . . . . . no excuses anymore ;)

Our Memorial Day

Today we spent our Memorial Day at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Justin's band had a concert there and I have a season pass to the Baltimore Science Museum and since the locations of both were in walking distance of each other, it seemed like a great thing to do.

Chancy had to work, and it really seemed weird to only have one child to take to the museum. I have to keep reminding myself that it is STILL worth doing things even though there is only one child to do them with. I'm sure parents of only one child do stuff with them, right? In fact "only" children probably get to do more than all of my children have done put together!

My mother-in-law had never heard Justin's Army band play . . . . and didn't get the chance today either. Just an hour before his concert, the rains came and shut it down. This happens quite often at outside venues here in Maryland. The band makes a big effort to show up and set up, people show up to watch, it rains, and everyone goes home a little disappointed.

Oh well! We had fun! All in all, it was a nice day.

Flashback Friday

I was looking through old digital pictures and came across this one . . . . . . seeing it did you think the same thing that I did?

Halley and a young Adam Lambert?

I didn't watch much of American Idol . . . . so maybe the similarities aren't that great . . . but it made me pause and stare.

What goes around comes around . . . .

Okay, I know I haven't posted for over a week, and NOW . . . . three posts in a row . . . and could be four, I'll combine two.

Last night I was at book club and we got long winded and talked until 11:00 p.m. And what do you think happened? I got a call from from my oldest child still living at home asking . . . "Where are you mom?" "I'm worried about you." "When you coming home?"

Are the roles changing a little around here? Pretty funny!

Also, my mother-in-law is flying in tonight to stay with us for a little over a week for Chancy's graduation and I'm so looking forward to it . . . . she's a take charge type of woman and I need that right now in my life . . . . . At least for a little while :) We (mostly the boys) are busily getting ready for her arrival!

McKay just came and told me that no one will scroll down to read all of these posts . . . he's probably right :)

The daytime talkies . . .

During the day I don't usually watch a lot of TV. I have a few shows I watch in the evening, but my TV can go day after day without being turned on. Since I've been trying to "take it easy" and heal properly I've been watching daytime television. Surprise, Surprise, the shows that have appealed to me are the "talk" shows. I've been watching The Bonnie Hunt Show, Ellen, and a little of The View. Liberalism at it's finest, and a far cry from what I usually listen to. I feel so sorry for the Elisabeth Hasselbeck the "token" conservative person on The View. She can't get a word in edge wise and the other day I saw Barbara Walters actually put her hand over Elisabeth's mouth to shush her!! Elisabeth must have nerves of steel to put up with it.

Anyway, the other day Glenn Beck was on the show, which is why I stayed tuned in to listen. These ladies ambushed him. If you like Glenn Beck you may want to check out the following you-tube video. Poor Guy! But he'll probably get a lot of mileage out of this appearance . . . . The clip is kind of long, if you don't have time just watch the first 60 seconds . . . . what dribble!

Happy Birthday McKay!

He's official . . . . He's now a teenager!

Love you!

When you least expect it . . . .

I just have to tell you all that post-mother's day . . . Chancy gave me flowers! A very nice springy bunch I must say. The flowers I got from being in the hospital had just expired (they lasted a good long time!) and now I have more.



Kids, kids, kids . . . . they sure do keep you guessing! THANKS CHANCY!


P.S. I didn't take the picture . . . I'm too lazy to get the camera, take the picture, download etc. etc. but thought this was a pretty one!!

Spring is Sprunging

Every spring I look forward to getting my hands in the dirt and communing with the planet. There is something about dirt that is very therapeutic.

This year things are a bit different. Spring is Sprunging, and my hands have not been in the dirt! I'm missing it . . . I'm going to live without annuals (thank goodness for all the perennials I have!) and live without tomato plants and zucchini squash and cucumbers. Yes, I could enlist my boys to shop with me and dig in the dirt for me, but don't know how great THAT would go over! I was even going to make a huge batch of strawberry jam this year!! It'll all have to wait until next year.

I'll just beg vegies off of my mother and sister, enjoy the flowers in other people's yards and visit the Amish market for some good jam!

I guess I can get used to this idea:)

Madre Day (revisited)

Okay, Okay, so Mother's day wasn't such a bad day! Although the first dozen people to say "happy mother's day" to me weren't even related to me, it had it's upsides. Here are some of them:

~the primary children's singing (which didn't make me puke)
~sacrament meeting wasn't sickly sweet
~a call from Lincoln
~a call from Halley
~a call from Justin
~a call from my mother (I should have called her!)
~I actually felt like cooking something that wasn't straight from the freezer!
~baked some brownies also!
~got a homemade mother's day card from McKay (did I guilt him into it?) He says not!
~watching the last episode of Celebrity Apprentice (I think it should have been Annie and Joan needs to be an inpatient in a mental hospital)
~letting McKay stay up to watch the aforementioned with me. He gets soooo interested in what I'm watching if it will get him some stay-up time :)

All in all, a pretty good day. Hope yours was also!

Madre Day (or my dirty laundry)

Mother's day, it can be the best of times, it can be the worst of times. The two bodies in this household will not realize it is mother's day until we get to church and we have to sit through an hour long immortilization of mothers. (to my mother . . . in no way does this post resemble you!)

I'm going to try hard not to puke as the primary children sing about how wonderful their mothers are and try hard not to roll my eyes when the speakers speak. Lincoln and I were talking about "made-up" holidays on the phone . . . . why do we need these? Why do Americans love them so much?

So yesterday was a prequel to mother's day . . . let me give you a sample. We start off the day with "child number one" moaning and groaning because he has a baseball game "on Saturday" of ALL days! He wouldn't be moaning and groaning if he had some other fun activity to go to. My question. . . . is baseball not fun? He was sick, too sick to go to baseball. What did mother of the year say? "Get your butt in gear and get dressed, we are going to that baseball game. I don't care if you sit in the dugout the whole game. There is no "I" in team." And so he sat in the dugout for most of the game.

When "child number one" got home we decided to give him a hair cut! About 20 minutes later he was stomping through the house "I hate this haircut" over and over and over again. I couldn't help but laugh, the damage was done, and unless he wanted to go shorter . . . you get what you get! "It'll grow" is all I could say.

Then last night, "child number two" decides to put our security system to the test by wrapping a rope around his bed and dangling it out the window to make a great escape. Forgetting how tender my stomach is, I decide instead of going outside (not knowing what I'd find there) I would storm up the stairs and land belly first (on his bed) in front of the gaping, rope filled window, and holler my lungs out! Whew! . . . he was busted. Being a gentlemen he decided that the best course of action was coming back in the house. I know a name a glorious name, it is the name of mother . . . . if he was calling me any other name I'm glad he kept it to himself.

So I'm off to get those renegades out of bed and to get my eyeball rolling muscles in shape. I'm going to need them today.

The Book Thief

I read a lot of books, but there are relatively very few of them that I would actually recommend to people to read. One of the guys that Lincoln is working with in Afghanistan found out that I am an avid reader and suggested that I read this book. When someone (who is also an avid reader) tells you that a book is good, it is best to sit up and listen and go get the book and read it.
This book is told with a twist . . . . I've never read anything quite like it . . . with maybe the exception of The Screwtape Letters, which I love also. Don't get me wrong, it isn't really like "Screwtape" in content, it just surprises you about who is telling the story. I love stories of WWII, and this is another of those, told from a different point of view.

From reading reviews on Amazon I realized that the book was based on fact. It is written by the son of survivors of the war and the stories that they told to him while he was a boy. Yes, the book has all the horrors of WWII but there is also beauty and love in the book. Unforgettable. As a sidenote . . . . if you chose to read the book I'm sorry to say you'll learn to swear a little bit in German!!! The swearing isn't overwhelming though!! The book is marketed as young adult fiction in the US but as adult fiction in other areas of the world.

Happy reading!

PS Lincoln requested a book report . . . . so here you are Linc!
PSS To my fellow book clubbers, as you can tell, I haven't been reading Dickens yet! This book is 500 plus pages long . . . .

Yesterday

I accomplished a milestone yesterday. I went to church! I debated on just going to sacrament meeting and calling it good, but hadn't gotten a substitute for my piano duties in the 3rd hour so stuck around. I started out really good and fresh, but by the 3rd hour felt I had overtaxed myself a bit. I always feel so good in the morning. There is nothing like a good sleep to renew and refresh yourself.

Today is my first day of piano teaching after having taken an entire month off. I have a big day today too. 6 students all in a row. Thank goodness I love everyone of them and so it should be a breeze. SHOULD BE! I'm a little apprehensive, but I've just got to dive in and do it! The doctor had said that most people go to work after three weeks. If I didn't work at home I don't know what I'd do. I think I'd take another week off! My stamina just isn't what is was.

My parents brought us lunch yesterday after church. HOW NICE! Dad also gave me one of his "old" monitors for our computer, which puts our "old one" to shame. It's sooooo nice! and big! but small! if you know what I mean . . . kind-of flat screeny. I used to keep up on computer mumbo jumbo but have fallen behind the times . . . . . thanks dad :)

I wonder . . . . . .

With Obama's recent warnings about our personal cleanliness and ways not to pass the swine flu around, I wonder what he'd think of this picture! Sorry! Just couldn't resist!

It's that time of year

My dad took some great pictures of McKay on the opening day of baseball season. Opening day is one that I can't say I'm sorry I missed. It always seems like a bunch of hubbub they could just do without . . . . I do enjoy sitting watching the games though. It gets me out of the house! Here are a few pics of my baseball star!

Looks like he either needs to cut his hair or tip his hat back!

He's played short-stop and pitcher this year.

Getting a good "swing" in!