Out of the Mouths of My Babes - Times 3

#1

Me: "What would you like for your birthday dinner, Madison?"

Madison: "Spaghetti"

Me: "I can do that."

Darcy: "Mom, can we have it this time without the whool grain pasta?"

Me: "The what pasta?"

Darcy (speaking slowly): "W - h - oo -l Grain pasta"

Me: "How do you spell that?"

Darcy: "W-h-o-l-e .....Whool"

#2

I pick the kids up from school and start the drive home.

Me: "So, what things happened in school?"

Darcy: "We were working so hard today, but we could not get microscopic word to work."

Me: (thinking along the Montessori lines): "What is microscopic word?"

Darcy: "You know on the computer. We have it at home. Microscopic Word."

#3

We climb into the van after eating at a restaurant. Darcy is closest to the van door.

Me: "Darcy, can you close the door, please?"

Darcy: "Madison, close the door."

Me: "Darcy, I asked you to close the door. Madison is in the back."

Darcy: "I can't reach it."

Me: "Darcy, I know that isn't true. You closed the door on the way over to the restaurant."

Darcy (rubbing her stomach): "Yeah, but that was before my gutter got so full."

Out of the Mouths of my Babes

Me: "What are you doing?"

Darcy: "I'm doing my homework."

Me: "What are you working on?"

Darcy: "Vocabulary"

Me: "Where are you in the book?"

Darcy: "I'm working on the cinnamons and antonyms."

Spygate

I am not a Bill Belichick fan.

The coach of the New England Patriots is too smug, too pompous, and too big for his own britches. I disliked his attitude with Eric Mangini's employment with the Jets (Belichick didn't want his former assistant to go within the Patriots' division) and the childish way he behaved when the two met before and after playing each other. Now Belichick has been caught cheating, and we are learning this is not his first time.

The Patriots were caught videotaping a game against the Jets, filming from the sidelines, which is against the rules. Apparently, this is not the first videotaping of games.

There are many things wrong with the whole episode. Why in the world would you cheat against a former assistant who knows you've cheated before? Did Belichick consider himself immune to the rules re-enforced via a letter on videotaping? For me, there are more critical questions. Why didn't Belichick's former employees report him earlier? Why didn't the Packers organization report him when they caught him videotaping last year?

I'm tired of hearing and reading the excuse that "cheating goes on in football."

Because it shouldn't. You don't report cheating because that is the norm? Have you seen the ESPN report on the downfall of Floyd Landis and Barry Bonds?

Cheating should not be happening in sports. We should not be letting it happen. Those who know and do nothing? They're part of the problem too. 

Now the Patriots Super Bowls are in question. Tom Brady's reputation is tarnished. If we are going to put an asterisk on Barry Bonds and exclude him from the Hall of Fame, then we need to be asterisking these three Super Bowls and excluding Bill Belichick from the Hall of Fame.

The punishment he and the Patriots received was a slap. It was harsh, but it wasn't severe enough. Someone soon has got to step up to the plate and put an end to all the rule-breaking going on in sports, whether it's steroid use or videotaping the opposing team. We teach our kids sportsmanship at home. Who is going to continue to show them that when they get into the professional world?

As for the notion that everyone cheats, I don't believe it. You cannot convince me that Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning cheat. Maybe instead of the AFC and the NFC, we should have the Cheaters and the Non-cheaters. Those that want to cheat can be in a league of their own, and those players, coaches, and owners who feel cheating is all "part of the game" can be upfront about it. Wouldn't it be interesting to see which league fans would follow?

I'm disappointed. I'm angry. I doubt there will be changes.

As for Belichick and the Patriots? Did they show any regret? No, they went and beat the stuffing out of the San Diego Chargers the next week. So, what? Cheaters always win? Let's hope not.

Out of the Mouths of my Babes

Darcy: "I just don't get this division stuff."

Me: "Well, let's put it this way. Let's say you have 49 pieces of candy and there are five people that want some. How many pieces of candy would each person get?"

Darcy: (working the problem) "9 pieces?"

Me: "Yes, but there is a remainder. Each person gets 9 pieces of candy, but there four pieces are leftover."

Darcy: "For me!"

Look at that hair!

My niece, Brea, was born Wednesday, August 15, 2007. She was 20 inches long and weighed 6 lbs. 9 oz.

Her older cousins are very pumped their aunt produced a girl! 

Congratulations to her parents, Julie and Mike, and her older brother, Michael, and older sister, Taylor.

Summer Vacation - Fill-in days

Fill-in days while Grammy recovered

While we waited for Connie to get the okay to head home, I tried to do things with the girls while staying at my friend's house. Before my friend left on her own summer vacation, she took us to Holiday World, which back in my day was Santa Claus Land. It's much bigger now and mostly a water park, but the old Land of my day still has cheesy rides where you can get nice and sweaty before hitting the water park.

The girls enjoyed Holiday World. The next day my friend and her family left for their vacation, allowing us to stay behind in their home. It was beyond kind.

The weather in Evansville had hit the 100-degree mark, and so I decided to head somewhere cool. What better place than Indiana's caves?

Indiana has 100 caves that have been discovered. We went to Marengo Cave and signed up for the double tour, which took us through a 70 minute walking tour of one part of the cave and then a 40 minute tour on another part of the cave.

Marengo Cave was discovered by a girl and her brother. She overheard some school children talking about a sinkhole near the cemetery. She decided to investigate it before the other kids. She and her brother found the hole and went down into what they realized was a cave. It took them 3 days to tell the owner, and within a week he had it opened to the public. Ah, American Enterprise.

The tour we took was 200 feet below the ground. It was 52 degrees. (I had to spend $40 on sweatshirts for the girls before we entered....more enterprise) It was beautiful, and I got quite a lot of lovely photos with my new digital camera. The girls were very interested in both tours and retained most of what they learned. After the trips, we went gem mining, where we found surprisingly two bags full of precious gems that we will do nothing with if the bags should even make it home with us.

We ate lunch at a place where my mother used to take us as kids in Leavenworth, Indiana. The restaurant overlooks a beautiful part of the Ohio River and we watched barges with loads of coal pass by. We ate a home-cooked meal and then headed down the road to explore Wyandotte Cave. 

This is the cave where my mother was a guide in the late 50s, early 60's. It was right before closing, so we only got to take the small cave tour, but there were only five of us, and the guide was a good one and quite funny. His uncle used to work with Connie, so he was excited to meet me or to at least have heard about Connie.

This cave was quite different from Marengo. It was full of cute little furry bats in all shapes and sizes. Most were quietly hanging from the ceiling watching us, but occasionally we had them flying over our heads.

We also saw cave spiders, cave grasshoppers, which were very opaque, and a salamander. It was very wet and slippery, and there were bridges we had to cross where we could look down, down, down farther into the cave.

Wyandotte was discovered by two men rescuing their dog. The dog fell into a hole, and the cave was found during the rescue. (I probably would have just gotten a new dog) I'm fascinated by the findings of these people. Imagine discovering something like this while out wandering!

The tour lasted about thirty minutes, and we headed back to Evansville. I'm thinking next year I'll just start off with Indiana caving (maybe venture into some Kentucky caves) and do some canoeing down Blue River before going to the farm for the reunion.

Hey, maybe on the way back to Florida, I'll even stop into Nashville!

Summer Vacation - The Storm

Days 15 - 27

Our itinerary for the rest of the trip was four days in Nashville, TN exploring the sites, three days in Evansville, IN visiting friends, and then on to my brother's house in the South Bend, IN area. Unfortunately, there was a change in plans.

My mother noticed before she left Florida that her foot had dropped. This is a condition where the motor nerve (anterior tibial nerve) that innervates the muscles that pull the foot toward the knee is injured or diseased, and the result is complete weakness of those muscles The defect causes the foot to mostly be limp, and the weak foot involuntarily flops away from the body to produce what is referred to as a "foot drop."

Connie got a brace to wear on her foot, had an MRI of her back done, and off she went on vacation. In Mt. Carmel, IN, she had some work done via a massage therapist and a chiropractor. Two days later, she was in such pain that she had to go to the ER for a shot of painkiller for some relief. She insisted on going to Nashville the following day with my SIL and her children.

We made it to Nashville, and I got to see the city of Nashville while following the back of the ambulance as it took Connie to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

No sooner had we arrived at our Wyndham, then Connie was on the ground crying. The ambulance was summoned, and at Vanderbilt, she was given more pain medication, another MRI, and sent home with a steroid pack. By the next morning, we were frantically packing our belongings and heading back into the car for Evansville because we knew the hospitals and the area.

Connie rode in the backseat of Juanita's car. Susan and the kids and I followed in Connie's car, frantically using Onstar to find help. Kelly called her doctor father, who called us and gave us the name of a neurosurgeon he recommended. He sent us to St. Mary's Hospital and said to spout his name, although he wasn't sure what good would come of it.

My friend Robin met us at the ER. Susan took the kids to her parents and Juanita drove home while Robin and I dealt with the ER. Connie had another MRI, which showed a cyst tangled in the nerves between the L4 and the L5 of her spine.

Connie chose to have the operation to remove the cyst as the pain was so bad she was unable to walk to the bathroom. Because she was on a blood thinner, she had to go off of that medication and wait five days before they could operate. She was in the hospital up until the operation. The girls and I stayed at Robin's house.

The operation went well. The cyst was utterly void of liquid and hard and gunky and completely tangled in and around the nerves. The doctor scraped out the cyst and straightened one of the nerves that had gone flat. The operation was three hours long, with a two-hour recovery. By the third hour, she was back in her room and on her feet walking the corridor of the hospital. She was released the next evening.

Connie was unable to ride in a car for a long period of time so the trip to my brother's house was cancelled. Susan and her two kids stayed with us in a hotel for the week. We tried to keep busy with various activities and outings such as bowling and the zoo.

My brother popped in for an overnight visit, and at the end of the week, Susan returned home, Connie went to Juanita's, and the girls and I went back to Robin's house.

Five days later, Connie returned to the doctor, had her stitches removed, and got the okay to head home to Florida. We left that day.

Not the vacation we were expecting, but we were together, and in the end, all turned out well.

Summer Vacation - Days 13 and 14

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Originally uploaded by tcboos

Days 13 and 14 - Dugger, IN

The girls and I left for the farm in the early afternoon. The drive through Indiana is always so beautiful this time of the year. Sometimes when I look over at the fields of corn and soybeans and then at a red barn and farmhouse in the distance, it makes me think of a postcard or a scene from a movie. There is something special about coming home to the place where you were born and raised. I enjoy Florida, and it is my home now, but Indiana will always hold a place in my heart, and I will always return. It is still "home," too.

We got to my Aunt Lorene's about an hour before the reunion wiener roast. I hadn't called to let her know I was coming, but she was waiting. She is 93 years old this December, and she was resting because she had just baked three pies from scratch, cooked baked beans, and made a cucumber salad. She still goes out in the mornings and gets her eggs from the hen house, and she always keeps a garden full of vegetables.

The wiener roast is held down at our pond on the farm. The farm has been in our family for over one hundred years. My father was born there, and he died there--a heart attack while working on the pump near the house. He loved the yearly reunions, so we continue the tradition.

The reunion is held at the same time every year - the third weekend in July. This year the third week fell early and caused a few empty spots in the family tree. Those of us that did make it tucked into our meals prepared by the younger generation. Madison loves an open fire, and she always volunteers to cook up all the wieners she sees. Not even a burn, earned when trying to remove a hot dog from her metal stick, deterred her. She put ice on it and let my cousin, an RN, take a look at it.

Shad: "Three things: It's a burn, put ice on it, you'll live."

Cousin Myra: "Well, thank god, you don't have to pay for that medical advice!"

We ate wieners, brats, and sausages, several different salads, baked beans, homemade pickles, and vegetables from everyone's gardens. We washed it down with sweet iced tea and beer. We finished the meal with homemade cupcakes, cakes, pies, brownies, and cookies, and of course, smores.

The adults sat and caught up on one other's lives. The children played hide n' seek, tossed balls around, and played badminton. As dusk crept in, they caught lightning bugs and put them in empty containers for night lights. When it became completely dark, a few of the cousins put on a fireworks show, and then we retired for the night.

The next morning my Aunt Lorene was up at 5:00 AM frying chicken for the reunion, making homemade noodles and peeling potatoes. She showered and dressed and was off to church by 9:00 AM when the rest of us were just getting started.

The reunion is held on the lawn of the farm. Usually, it is miserably hot, and this year my cousin had found some industrial fans that he set up near the chairs and food tent. We never turned them on. The weather was beautiful; cool with a breeze and so very comfortable. We ate, talked, played horseshoes, and ate some more. The girls and I filled our bellies up with Indiana corn and melon. The pond wasn't used for swimming this year, but a few people did wander down to fish.

Several relatives were missing this year, so it wasn't quite the reunion of the past, but we did have a few new additions and my sister, Bonnie and her husband, made it this year as well. A nice weekend.

The calm before the storm, as it turned out...

Summer Vacation - Days 10-12

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Originally uploaded by tcboos

Days 10, 11, and 12 - Leaving SC for Illinois

Our plan was to leave McClellanville by noon. That didn't happen. It is too nice here and we hated to leave. I have decided that I shall have a breakdown in a few months and have to recuperate right here in the guest house in the woods. It is without a doubt the nicest place.

I spent the evening and morning cleaning the guest house. That is what happens when you stay the longest. You are left cleaning up everyone else's mess! Madison and Darcy were very helpful vacuuming and folding laundry. Mandy helped me load up the car. We don't need the luggage carrier as Tom is home in Florida and so we put the third seat to make storage room.

We had lunch together at the dining table overlooking the bayou. We looked for the alligator that had been spotted the night before, but he was not to be seen, off sleeping under the cool water. James brought out his guitar and we sang and sang and sang. Mandy started each song, yelling, "Give me a G!" and we were off and singing. When we would finish a song, Macie would say, "More! More!" and off we would go. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful, wonderful, visit.

The only downside was that Connie had awakened with an orange hand. Her right hand was completely a yellowish orange on the palm and between her fingers. She was sure it was medically related as she is sucking down 14 different medications for her ailments, which are plenty. Her feet have bothered her off and on; she has good days and bad. James got on the computer and did some research, concluding that she had too much iron in her body.

Connie called her doctor (Stephanie, this you can relate to....remember last year?) and they said no, no, couldn't be the new iron medication she was on. They didn't seem to be too concerned.

We cried and waved goodbye to Joyce, James, Mandy, Evie, and Macie as they waved back from their porch. We had directions from James and we thought it would be funny to turn the wrong way out of their driveway, but we were too sad so we just honked and honked waving to the neighbor as well. We were off to Connie's friend Juanita's house in Mt. Carmel, Illinois, about 30 minutes from Evansville, IN.

Later that night in our hotel outside of Knoxville, TN Connie took off her shoes and both her feet were orange. I lay in bed while she showered wondering what I should do the next day; take her to a clinic, a hospital, call her doctor again, etc. When she came out of the shower and began putting on her lotion we discovered that the Vaseline lotion also included SELF TANNING in its ingredients.

Connie had been pouring the lotion into her right hand and rubbing her aching feet with it 24/7. Thus the mystery of the orange limbs was solved.

We spent the night where we picked up a huge black beetle that Connie found outside the Holiday Inn Express. We took it for my niece Gabby who is a bug lover. We thought it was dead, but it was still alive so we put it into a coffee cup with a lid and gave him some grass to munch. He rode up front in the cup holder until we stopped off in Evansville for 4 dozen Donut Bank donuts and some coffee and then the bug rode in the cup holder in Darcy's seat.

We arrived at Juanita's in time for some swimming and a dinner of Illinois sweet corn, green beans, tomatoes and cucumbers, and chicken. The weather was hot and everything a lush green. Mt. Carmel is a small town that reminds me of the past. If you blink you miss the town. Everyone walks everywhere and no one locks his/her doors.

The next morning I had my nails done in a hole in the wall beauty shop where I got all the Mt. Carmel gossip and quite a lot of scoop on Juanita. We went back to Juanita's friend's house where we swam all day in a beautiful pool surrounded by flowers. Juanita's great-granddaughter, Maya, joined us for the day and night. She is almost 5 and smart as a whip. She and the girls got along fine and played all day together. We toured Mt. Carmel by car and ate more corn and bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. We ended each evening with several hours of cards. So far I think that I am ahead in the money.

Later in the evening, Connie went out to her car to bring in the bug. Only there was no bug. He had climbed up the cup, pinched and pinched through the sippy hole until he made it bigger and slipped out. He was loose somewhere in the car. Madison and Darcy searched (Maya refused to help as she hates bugs) and found him crawling under the driver's seat. We captured him again, put him into a Ziploc container, fed him lettuce and researched his species on the computer.

Our discovery led us to the following facts: He is a scarab beetle. He eats dead animals and dung. He is probably thinking, "What the hell is this lettuce crap? Why have these people brought me from Tennessee to Illinois?"

We will have to pick him up some road kill tomorrow, I guess.

We've named him Arab the Scarab.