Prayers and peaceful thoughts...

please, for my friends Monica and Kimberly. Both are having rough times right now (understatement of the century) and I know they would appreciate all the help they can get.

My heart aches for them...one I've met and love, one I haven't met and love. And their families, because when one member of a family is in crisis, it affects the whole family.

Thank you peeps!

In other news, I finished my 52 weeks album! YAY! It's fat and messy and I LOVE it! I shall post the remaining pages over on my SIStv gallery...the link should be over to the right. Such a huge project and I'm glad it's complete! As you may also know, or not, I am doing the 52 weeks project again, for a second year. And I plan to do the pages as I go instead of trying to do it all massively.

My boys began 5th and 3rd grades. I am a mom to a 5th and a 3rd grader. Umm. That seems weird to me. Sheesh! Oh, and get this, E and I have the same size feet. I kid you not. Barefoot, side by side, same size feet. I must take a photo before his feet surpass mine.

Virtual Vitamin C thoughts to my friend Jen K. who has succumbed to a summer cold. I do hate those and I am glad I haven't had one yet (knock on wood).

My friend Mike is the new sheriff in town, or at least switching cities, so really just a cop in a new town. He's been a cop for a long time. I just wanted to say that sheriff thing cuz they always say it on tv.

My sister's family in Texas came down with cryptospiridium from a lake they swam in before coming to visit Utah. Last year, Utah had 1900 confirmed cases of this parasite, mostly in public pools and so far this year, the public pools are clean. Yay!

My mum (I got that spelling from my UK friend Rhian and I love it, so I'm using it more) seems to be doing better. Surprising due to the severity of the heart attack she had. It's left us all with questions, but do we need the answers if everything seems to be ok? I haven't called or seen her as much as I should, mostly because of B's surgery and post-op care. I had a hard time getting the bandages to work this time, last time I was quite proud of my handiwork, but this time? Not so much.

Speaking of which, I have a bit of a crush on B's podiatrist. What will I do when B is completely healed and it's no more Dr S? I keep teasing that my toe hurts, I better go see Dr S, or my ankle hurts, I better go see Dr S. lol B just rolls his eyes and laughs. He says if Dr S doesn't know about my crush, he must be blind or an idiot, because apparently, I am subconsciously flirting with him. Ugh! It's all harmless, so don't get all your panties in a bunch. :D

Movies. We saw "The Bank Job"...excellent film people! Watch it! I am now enamored with Jason Statham (no clue if I spelled that right), the lead in that film. We also watched "Reign over Me"...yes, old news, I know. I really think Adam Sandler did an amazing job with this serious role. Not like Spanglish, which I think sucked. But this was a whole other side of him and I am impressed! And you gotta love Don Cheadle. That guy acts so well, that it doesn't even seem like he's acting! Like in "Crash". His delivery is flawless, and so seamless, it's amazing. He's either a total genius, or he's really good at playing off the other characters. Incidentally, both "The Bank Job" and "Reign over Me" have the same actress, her first name is Saffron, I don't know her last name though. Like that song..."I'm just mad about saffron, and saffron's mad about me. They call me mellow yellow. Quite rightly." Saffron. Now that's a cool name.

Crickets chirping, time for sleep. Gotta get my beauty rest for the a.m. visit with Dr S. ;)

Favorite Lyrics Part 8

Superman (It's Not Easy)
by Five for Fighting

I can't stand to fly
I'm not that naive
I'm just out to find
The better part of me

I'm more than a bird:I'm more than a plane
More than some pretty face beside a train
It's not easy to be me

Wish that I could cry
Fall upon my knees
Find a way to lie
About a home I'll never see

It may sound absurd:but don't be naive
Even Heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed:but won't you conceed
Even Heroes have the right to dream
It's not easy to be me

Up, up and away:away from me
It's all right:You can all sleep sound tonight
I'm not crazy:or anything:

I can't stand to fly
I'm not that naive
Men weren't meant to ride
With clouds between their knees

I'm only a man in a silly red sheet
Digging for kryptonite on this one way street
Only a man in a funny red sheet
Looking for special things inside of me

It's not easy to be me.
-----------------------

Why do I like this song, you ask? I think it's an important reminder that the people we look up to or idolize or try to emulate are just people dealing with their own shit. I've always held firm to the idea that, while I admire certain people, I wouldn't go so far as to call them heroes, because that's putting them on a pedestal they may not want to be on. There are so many expectations on people, especially celebrities or popular figures in the media, that I think we as the general public forget that they still have to poo and brush their teeth every day, just like the rest of us.

Puts it in perspective.

And again, that photo really has nothing to do with this post. I couldn't find anything to go with the song lyrics. So you get an old school Fisher Price Little People playing hopscotch. Click on the image to go to the full size version, if you please.

Peace out blog peeps!

Toe, Part 2 (really long, but possibly interesting!)

So the Mr had his left big toe bones fused like he had done with his right big toe. Man, those people at the outpatient surgery center really need to get their act together and schedule better. Or maybe it was the surgeon, who is consistently way behind on appointments. Or the people that do his scheduling. Anyway. The surgery was scheduled for 2 pm, They told us to get there at 1 for paperwork, not realizing that the same excruciatingly detailed questionnaire had already been done the last time. So we sat in the lobby and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited. Finally got called back to the 'gown room' as I shall call it. This is where the anesthesiologist and surgeon come to discuss the procedure with the patient prior and go over any last minute questions, and also where the patient changes into a gown. This time we had the boys with us the whole time, and we waited and waited and waited and waited. We took goofy pics of B looking like a pregnant mom in her gown about to have a baby (again!), played emesis basin ball (I put one of those little pink puke trays in the corner, gave each of the boys a paper towel to ball up, and see who could make their ball stay in the tray). (I think I could be persuaded to sell that picture for the right price! lol)

Finally, when the little boys couldn't handle the waiting, we bid adieu to B and left to go eat. This was at 3:15 or so. I stopped the nurse in the hallway and asked about when he would go back (30-45 minutes, and how long the surgery would be (I swear she said an hour) so we calculated that we should be back at 4:30. So we went to eat and then went to Kmart to do some pics in the old school photo booth they have, as well as look at school supplies. We got back to the hospital at about 4:50-ish. He was just barely going into recovery part one. It's a good thing his dr is incredibly hot (at least I think so) or this scheduling thing would be a lot worse. ;) We met with the dr to go over the surgery and stuff.

We were literally the last people there. They had actually locked the lobby. Well, why not? It was 5:30. So the nurse took us back to the recovery part two area and set us up with some cold beverages and about 20 minutes later B came out, barfing. Bleh. The dr told me that the regular sedation they use for that procedure (as they used last time) didn't quite work, and B kept kicking and resisting, so they unexpectedly had to put him under a general instead. Hence the barfing.

All the while P is messing with this damn wheelchair, making this clanking sound that was irritating the hell out of me. E kept changing the channel on the tv and making weird sounds. I was snapping at them, P kept getting upset and crying and running into the other room. Ugh! Such a different experience from the last time! B is barfing and I'm trying to keep the boys from seeing that, only they won't mind and kept going around to watch, therefore getting nearly ill themselves. Kids!!!

So we finally get B in the car, and partway home, he says he's going to barf. I realized the puke tray we took from the place was in the trunk, and told him to just wait, I'd pull over. But he couldn't. So as B is barfing, P is screaming in HORROR and I'm screaming P's name over and over to chill. I pull over, get P out of the car and tell him to sit on the grass, open the trunk, dump all the crap out of B's plastic clothes bag, and run over with it. The 7-11 hot dog box B grabbed to catch the stuff wasn't up to the task. He let loose in the bag.

Ok, back on the road. B has his bag, P is calm. We pull into the driveway and B starts hurling again. Luckily P was asleep and woke up as we pulled in, I jumped out, pulled open his door, told him to hop out quick (which he actually did!) so we wouldn't have another screaming fit. Finally got B into the house.

Now let me tell you about the first time (right toe). Went to the surgery center, filled out the paperwork, promptly called back to the gown room, took goofy pics of B in gown looking pregnant, met with anesthesiologist and surgeon, they took him back, I drove home to get the boys from school, came back to the surgery center where we were promptly called back to the recovery part two room, sat for about 20 minutes, drove him home, and settled in.

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED??? I guess when you're having the same procedure twice, you have certain expectations for the second one. My advice: don't. Assume each thing will have its own problems or lack thereof, and go with the flow.

And once again, the photo has nothing to do with the post. :D
Peace out!

I SSOOO Need This

A hamburger phone a la Juno. The only glitch is that I don't have a land line. I wonder if the company would consider making a hamburger cell phone? I would be first in line for that bad boy. Oh yeah.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Ok, so I stopped in at Costco to drop off a roll of film to be processed. In line ahead of me is a lady with a baby, and apparently she and the employee knew each other. So the employee takes the baby and is all oogly-googly at the baby, and I since I was next in line, I commented on how absolutely adorable the baby was. She even had her little piggies painted purple! Aww! And she had the most beautiful eyes, and knuckle dimples! And thigh rolls! Aww!

Ahem...

I digress. Anyway, so we're all just gabbing about this cute baby, and finally the mom (whom I suspect only stopped there to show off the baby) said her goodbyes and walked away.

And then, it was like a switch had been turned off in the employee. She was curt, bordering on rude with me. When just seconds before we were giggling at the baby's little fingers and stuff. It stunned me! I filled out the envelope according to her minimal instructions (name. phone number. check this box.) and she walked off. When she returned I asked how long for that to be ready. (one hour.) So I started to walk away and she says one last thing to me. (2:20.) I was like, "huh?" She'd already told me an hour. But whatev.

So anyway, it just irritated the hell out of me that she was all sugar when the girl and the baby were there. The second they left, she was all salt.

So tell me...what was with the attitude? Is it because I jumped into their baby-gushing? If that's the case, it's BS. Babies are cute. I can't change what's coded into my DNA and stop 'awww'-ing over babies. Or was this some rare glimpse into her non-employee, sugary sweet personality I shouldn't have seen? Or did she realize once the baby was gone, she had to deal with a line of customers?

Color me baffled. Human behavior fascinates me usually. But she just baffled me and made me sort of mad.

And on another note: thanks for all the sympathy and comments about my mum. I know in the grand scheme of life, things could have been much, much worse. I'll try to get back to everyone soon. :D

Peace out blog peeps!

(The photo really has nothing to do with the post, but that's my sweet niece and figured hey, this post needed some cuteness, right? lol)

Some kind of July (so far!)

I've been spending less time online lately, and some of you may know why. My mom had a pretty serious heart attack early (like 1 am) on June 30th. She was taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital, where she had a stent placed in her heavily clogged artery. We also later found out she had pneumonia (possibly walking pneumonia) but didn't find that out until she was discharged. So she was on the breathing tubes for that whole Monday. It's always hard to see someone in that condition. She seemed able to hear me and tried to speak, but for the most part she was really out of it. The next day she was awake and somewhat coherent. Tubes out. She knew we were there and she spoke in a whisper. The following day she was a little better, actually kind of grumpy and irritable about her shoulders hurting and her throat.

Thursday morning as we prepared to go visit we had a call from my dad, they were releasing her. We were all quite shocked by this, we'd all planned for a longer stay. And the oddest thing? She was in the ICU the entire time. She was released straight from the ICU! We were flabbergasted! We thought surely she'd have been moved to a regular room for a bit of recovery. But apparently she had improved so well, that they just sent her home. Color us perplexed! So we went to see her on Friday, the 4th and spent a few hours. She seemed fairly normal. Still had a cough from the pneumonia and she'd lost what little voice she had, so we really had to listen hard to hear her.

I spoke with her this morning (I've actually talked to her a bunch of times, mostly short 'how are you doing?' type calls so as not to stress her voice) but today we had an actual conversation. She seems to be bouncing back really well. We have trouble visiting due to her smoking (yes, even after this whole thing, but she seems to have cut back) and the smoke really messes us up. I get migraines and my little one gets a cough.

So after all that, doing my regular online things (reading blogs, looking at photos, etc) didn't seem quite so important. I took some time to read. Watched mindless TV. And grasped the reality that a)my mom's artery probably does look like the one I saw on that quit-smoking ad all those years ago; the one I couldn't watch after the first time because it made me sick to be looking at my mom's artery. b)this near miss didn't make her stop smoking. c)her smoking will probably what kills her. d)I don't think she will ever stop smoking and that makes me incredibly sad. Even now, I looked for that commercial to link here, and I watched a small portion and I nearly vomited, so I didn't link it.

Anyway...


This lovely image brought to you by the California wildfire smoke drifting into Utah, making our sunsets blood-red. While they are beautiful, it's still rather tragic. I myself have seen the benefit of the fires that raged in Yellowstone in 1988 (someone correct me if I have the year wrong), but I'm not sure California will benefit in quite the same way. Especially since they've had the fires two years in a row. It's just heartbreaking! Insignificant words from someone who can't really do anything to help, but still...

We went to the park the other day to play ball. Well, balls, really. Kicked soccer balls, tossed footballs, and played a little Frisbee. Can I just say that I LOVE Frisbee? I am so glad it was invented! It's like, almost the only sport I'm good at. I think I'm good at croquet too, but it's been a while since I played it. I took my Fisheye camera to the park that day and I can't wait to see what images I caught with it! Gotta take the roll of film to Costco to be developed. I LOVE that camera people! It's so much fun!

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'll try to update more often. I'm still trying not to vomit from that video. Bleh. Every time I think about it...

Ok, peace out!