Happy Birthday!

So how did he spend his day? Lunch at Smokey Bones followed by grocery shopping. Then he spent the afternoon swearing at the golf cart. Afraid I wasn't much help but the new cowl looks good. Maybe he'll get that last screw in tomorrow .

Let's Go to the Creek!

The afternoon of Mom's birthday party was hot. What better way to beat the heat then with a trip to the creek!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Somebody turned 86 recently and over the weekend we got together at my sister's house to celebrate. It's been a long time since I've seen Mom so relaxed and happy!

It was a warm day so Mom elected to have her picnic lunch inside. After lunch the kids and several of the adults left on a little adventure (more on that another day). So we moved Mom out on the front porch where the lake breeze was cooling.

I don't remember what I did but Mom gave me "the finger".

Waiting semi patiently for everyone to return.

Finally, PRESENTS! 

She was happy to get candy and new drapes.

She got them all on the first try!

The guys measured the big old maple - 21"+

Playing Catch-up

June has really flown by and I spent most of it trying to get caught up on things. Now I'll try and get caught up here on my blog.

Sprout graduated from Kindergarten and we attended her end of the year concert. The kids sang their hearts out and were great! The behavior of the audience was deplorable. People talked throughout the entire performance and some thought it appropriate to chant or scream out their kids names. Despite that we had a good time as you can see from the picture I took afterwards.

Bean, Twig, Sil and Sprout

We've also been hosting kids night on Tuesdays and last week we still had many berries that needed picking. Mike wasn't interested and Nikki was home sick but the other four picked enough that there were some left after they'd had their fill ;-)

Bean, Liz, Sprout

Alex and Liz

Twig was more interested in walking through.

Sprout seemed to enjoy her time in the garden the most.

Holiday Weekend

We had a nice and busy Memorial Day weekend. I worked in the garden Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I potted up several plants for my sister, we want her garden to look full and wonderful for the garden tour in three weeks!

Sunday we had a picnic here and my camera never made it outside. We visited, ate too much and the kids ended up in the neighbors pool. Angie took this picture of the giant ball that the girls brought. It took John and PJ a little over an hour to inflate with the small compressor that we have but the kids loved it.

 

On Monday I dug up more plants and then we headed into Phoenix for the parade. Sprout was marching with her Daisy Girl Scout group.

I really thought Twig would get bored but with so many cars, trucks and other vehicles to watch he was quite happy. He also had a friend to play with when the parade turned boring with a band ;-)

Yesterday we went to Mom's and did a little painting. Why does painting always take me sooo much longer than I think it will? I'll work on it more later in the week.

It's been hotter here than in Orlando the the last couple of days! Tomorrow it's not supposed to get out of the 60's. So today I'm relaxing and reading The Land of Painted Caves. Perhaps tomorrow I'll accomplish something.

Let's Party

Yesterday we saw everyone for the first time since we got home. Alex had his birthday party at the bowling alley. The kids seemed just as happy to see us as we were them, some just weren't as happy to see my camera ;-)

After the party we drove down and had a nice visit with Mom. Lots of chores there that I need to get to but today it was nice to just sit and visit.

Monthly Update

Somehow I've gotten out of the habit of blogging. So here is a brief update and hopefully I'll follow up with some more detailed posts.

In my last post I mentioned that I fell and hurt my foot. The most recent x-rays confirmed that it is indeed broken. The surgery repaired the first and second bones, the break is on the fourth bone. I can walk on it as long as I'm wearing the ugly black shoe but to go shopping or walk any distance I still need to use the crutches or wheelchair. The good news is that I seem to be healed from the surgery and I have almost no pain, even when walking. The doctor isn't sure that I'll be able to go back to work when school starts in September but being out of sick days I really need to be cleared to work then.

We went to Florida for a couple of weeks and finally got to see our new house. We John cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. The place is in much better shape than I was expecting. There are some repairs to be made and we probably have to have a new roof sooner rather than later but over all I'm am very pleased with it. It is two miles in from the front of the park and therefore quiet and the few neighbors we met seemed quite nice.

My garden is a huge mess and it's only been in the last week that I've done anything outside and that wasn't much. Despite the weeds and the flower stalks that need to be cut back the garden still delights me. I can sit on the end of the bed and watch the hummingbirds just outside the window. The smell of oriental lilies wafts through the house. John planted just a few vegetables and we're enjoying the first cucumbers of the season and hopefully we'll have tomatoes before too long.

Mom celebrated her 85th birthday last month! She's been doing well. She goes to PACE every Friday and some weeks she enjoys more than others. She spent the weekend at my sister's and we had her party there. We've haven't been able to get down to her house as often as we should but I do try and call her every day or two.

It's been quiet here. The boys have been here two or three days a week and I've worked on my genealogy. Not much else going on........

Good, Bad and Mixed News

Mom's first day at the senior day center went very well! Sis took her and she saw her new doctor and really liked him. He's working on changing at least one of her medications so that she won't have to use the nebulizer so much. She met a woman that was not only familiar with the housing tract that Mom lives in but knows the people that developed it. She rode home on the bus and that went well too.

Yesterday we went up to Sandy Pond and I managed to fall and land hard on my foot. Yeah - that foot. I knew right off that I had hurt it. The pain was on the other side, away from where I had surgery but I was still very worried that I had injured the surgery site.

I already had an appointment with the doctor for this morning. He poked and prodded at it and then took xrays. Then he took more xrays. I finally grew bone!! Yeah! I can now start walking - except - I hurt it yesterday. He does not see a break on the xray but a stress fracture wouldn't show up this quickly. Hopefully it's only bruised, I should know over the next week or so. Meanwhile I'm still on the crutches :(

Only I could hurt myself the day before the OK to start walking again.

Despite the crutches we're still planning on heading out later this week to see our new place in Florida. Hopefully that will go well. I'm dreading the drive but looking forward to seeing what we've got and what we'll need to do.

Irish Eyes

Things continue to plod along here and I continue to feel sorry for myself. I managed to quit smoking for a week and then had a melt down and started again. Gov. Patterson has insured that I will quit with the new tax passed yesterday.

We have jumped through several more hoops on the path to getting Mom accepted into PACE. Sis has had to do most of it. I did the funeral preplanning and ordered the headstone. Both were much harder than I thought they'd be, through the whole process I felt like I have been wishing Mom dead which is certainly not the case.

The school year is winding down. Twig had his moving up ceremony at preschool last week and Sprout had her preschool graduation later the same day. The other four are now on half days. The boys will finish on Wednesday and the girls on Friday. We had just Alex yesterday and took him out to lunch. It was nice having one to one time with him. Today we have the girls and they are a bit anxious about riding the bus out here. In the past they always just rode with me and I brought home with me after work. Unless something comes up we'll take them out to lunch today. It was sad for me to pick up all of my things from my bus yesterday.

It's been 10 weeks since my surgery now. The friend that lent me the wheelchair needed it back. I had an appointment with the doctor this Friday but they called and canceled it. With babysitting and other commitments it looks like I'll be going on July 6th. That will be twelve weeks and I have to believe that I'll have grown bone by then! I'm not going to bet everything on that though, so I'll be borrowing another chair from the VFW. Depending on how things go at the doctor and with Mom we hope to get down and see the new place in Florida next month even if I'm still on crutches.

I am getting out into the yard more and even puttering in the garden a little. I still can't manage the stairs on the crutches and have given up and go in and out on my butt instead. Embarrassing, but with the fear of falling gone I do feel like it gives me a little more freedom.

A Pretty Good Day

Twig had his adenoids out yesterday and is doing fine. We enjoyed having Sprout here for a night but she is quite happy to be back home.

My eight week appointment was this morning and it didn't go well but I didn't expect it to. The xray is still not showing new bone growth, maybe in another couple of weeks. I have tried to quit smoking and I'll continue to try. One bit of good news was that I can start walking with the crutches. I can still only put weight on the heel and not my full weight but this may allow me to get to sections of the garden that I haven't been able to.

We stopped down to Mom's after my appointment and her ramp is almost done. I was quite happy to try it out because I'm still having trouble with steps. She had someone else coming from the program we're hoping to get her into. It has been a long drawn out process but hopefully by the end of the month she'll be in and all set.

Some of the things we've had to do have been tough and it's good that my sister and I are splitting the chores and have each other to lean on. The ramp is done, she met with a lawyer and I've taken care of preplanning Mom's final arrangements. That was harder than I thought it would be and hard to talk to her about. There are still several things that need to be done before the end of the month but we are checking them off, the toughest one's are done and the end is in sight.

On the way home I got John to stop at a big box store and push me around. I have new respect for people that are always in wheel chairs. We'd get to the end of an aisle and have to turn around and go back because the way was blocked, there were aisles I couldn't get down at all because there were hoses all over. John was able to maneuver me over to a markdown rack where I picked up a new daylily. I picked up a couple of other things too. They were a great price - because they were unmarked so it will be interesting to see what they are next year!

Because I am still struggling with stairs I don't go outside as much as I should so when we got home today I stayed out for awhile. John picked up some vegetable plants and put them in yesterday and while I was looking them over one of the little snakes that are about came by.

Everything is so early this year! John has a bumper crop of strawberries and my flowers are all 2 to 4 weeks early. The lupine are about done but the penstemons and jupiters beard are pretty. This section of the garden was full of butterflies and dragonflies but they all seemed to be camera shy.

These delphiniums are right outside my bedroom window and a favorite of the hummingbirds. The delphiniums on this side are 5-6' tall but the ones on the other side of the walk are less than 2' and I have no idea why! The one that looks bright blue is actually a rich purple.

This gas plant really got big this year and I love the dainty flowers.

Most of my blanket flower is yellow with some red so I was pleased with this one. The ox-eyed daisies are just about done already! In another week or so they'll be replaced by shastas. I hope they last until the red beebalm gets going.

Right now I'm planning to get outside in the morning and get some weeds pulled and my new plants in the ground!