Connie foot photo #11

When the nurse, Michele,  removed the bandage on the foot yesterday she and I did a double take.  It was different then I had seen it with white stuff showing, some redness, and the two areas larger then last time, yet healthier looking.  It was odd.  Connie informed us that her home health nurse had looked in it with a flashlight and reported it was tissue, but the "good kind of tissue", whatever that meant.  We left it for the Foot God.

He arrived with a Shadow, a man who smiled and stood behind him the entire time.  The Foot God did not introduce us and the shadow did not speak.  The Foot God sat down looked at the foot and asked, "Are you still on the IV antibiotic?  You have bone showing."  Apparently the white spot (to the right in photo) was bone.  The Foot God seemed unaffected by this and spoke into his intercom the room number we were in and immediately (as it has been all along) the door opened and nurse Kelly appeared as if standing at attention outside.  He told her to bring the rongeur to which she responded, "Really?  Cool!"  Then she disappeared.

I immediately jumped up and went to peruse the bone that was showing.  In came nurse Kelly with the rongeur, which the Foot God informed me was used to cut bone.  I had him spell it for me and have since learned it is a French word meaning "gnawer" and that it is an instrument used to "gouge out" bone.  I thought it looked a tad like the clippers I use to pick and cut my finger and toe nails.

We,  nurse Kelly, the Shadow, and myself, stood behind the Foot God and watched as he stuck the rongeur into the hole in Connie's foot and cut the bone.  It sounded a lot like the clipping of a thick toenail.  He pulled it out, stuck it back in, and clipped some more bone.  By this time I was feeling some squeamishness from the sound and the thought of it all, but since the Foot God had his hands full and would not be able to catch me if I fainted, I sucked it up and looked at Connie who was very nonchalant.

The wound, of course, began to bleed and while he was deciding if he should stick the rongeur back in again I told him to stop cutting more holes in the damn wound already.  He finds me fascinating, I'm sure.  He stopped cutting and nurse Kelly left, and I sat back down again relieved.  The Foot God then began writing down in Connie's chart that he would like to find an apligraf to put on the wound.  Again I had to bring out the phone and asked for some spelling help.  He told us it was a foreskin that was used to help heal the wound and that he thought it would be a good option.  Connie and I wondered aloud who's penis this foreskin was coming from, and at that the Foot God bid us farewell, Shadow trailing, until next week, and nurse Michele returned to dress the foot.

Apligraf, which I found via my handy Iphone there in the office at www.apligraf.com, is a living, cell based product that helps promote healing of  foot ulcers. "It contains two types of cells – an outer layer of protective skin cells, and an inner layer of cells contained within collagen. Both types of cells contain substances similiar to those found in human skin."  I read this aloud to nurse Michele, who had never heard of it, and to Connie so that we would be knowledgeable for the next appointment.

I'm just hoping this cutting isn't going to set the wound back as it has in the past.  I have found that I can not think about the cutting of the bone or I get the "heebie jeebies".  I am also steering my daughter away from the podiatry field and toward the orthodontic field instead.

Pi Day

Today is Pi Day.  3/14.  Pi, the number that expresses the ratio of a circle's circumference over its diameter, was first calculated in ancient times and was first celebrated in 1989 and is now celebrated around the world by math teachers and student.  Our school has celebrated Pi Day for the last few years by working math problems, building objects using the 3.14, and walking in circles.  This year the math teacher decided to celebrate it by having her Math Counts Club members bake pies.  The members then raffled off tickets to win the pies and will sell pieces of pie today at lunch.  The money will be donated to a local charity for purchases for school children.

Both of my children are in the Math Counts Club and thus were required to bake or bring in two pies each.  I have never baked a pie in my life that didn't come out of a frozen box.  I am more of a cake girl.  I rarely eat pie unless the filling is pumpkin, chocolate, or peanut butter.  The thought of cutting up pounds of apples to bake into a homemade crust that has to be rolled out with a rolling pin causes me to sweat.  I immediately got online and began to find delicious no bake pie recipes that called for ready made graham cracker crusts.  The less work the better.

Somehow my house ended up being the pie house on Sunday.  I had four kids making eight different pies in my small kitchen.  I made my girls look up recipes, write out a grocery list, and then we headed to the grocery store where I spent $50 on ingredients just for my girls' four pies.

Back at the house we decided to start with Darcy's chocolate cookie pie which we made simply by unwrapping cookie dough and plopping into a pie pan and baking.  While that was baking we started on Natalie's two pies which her mother had decided would be chocolate pies made out of pudding mix and whipped topping.  Easy to do.

Darcy's chocolate chip pie

Madison's first pie was an Oreo mud pie made with Oreos, chocolate mint cookie ice cream, Cool Whip, and chocolate syrup.  Layer it on the Oreo crust and you have a pie!  One that must be frozen however.

Heather's two pies were key lime and required baking.  Darcy's other pie was a candy bar pie which required cooking on the stove.  By the time those were both completed my kitchen was a wreck.  With all the cooking, dancing, slinging of ingredients, cracking of eggs, and sloppiness of four teenagers my floor was so sticky that Elliot was stuck in one place.  Three of the girls disappeared and Madison and I cleaned up the kitchen so that she could finish her last pie, french silk.

When that pie was finished the kitchen had to be cleaned again, and I'm still mopping my floor this morning.  The pies got done and were packed off this morning for Pi Day.  The excitement was catchy this morning at school, but knowing how these pies were made I'm glad I won't have to eat any of them!

Home Improvement #2

Even though there are still some things left to do in the Steelers room my husband has moved on into the living room.  The plan there has been to replace the television and the entertainment center as well as the couches.  If he had his way he would do major construction and tear out the front of the house and push it forward toward the road, but I have convinced him we don't need all of that room let alone the hassle and upheaval of major construction.  I agreed to a new television instead.

He is the electronics man in the house.  He studies, plans for, researches, and purchases all electronic devices.  I just give some input when needed.  For example, after viewing the new television in the Steelers room I thought we needed something bigger then the one that is in that room.  Tom agreed.  He went out and purchased a 55 inch flat screen television and all the paraphernalia that must go with a purchase like that.  It sat in our garage for a week and made him crazy, worried that someone would see the box and steal it out of the open garage.  We had instructions not to open the garage unless it was absolutely necessary.  He threw a pool towel over the box that covered the edge just in case anyone driving by could see past my parked van in the driveway into the garage.

Last weekend I convinced him it was the time to replace the television so that I could use the garage without fear of being robbed.  Darcy was off to a friend's house and so Tom decided that 6:00 PM was the time to get started on electronic replacement despite no food being consumed by his helpers.  Madison and I mentioned how probably eating dinner at a lovely restaurant would be a thing to do before getting started, but he was sure we could at least "get the TV out of the box".

When we got the television for the Steelers room I wanted it hung on the wall.  Tom resisted this for some reason.  He gave me a quite a few mumblings about what to do with cords and wires and boxes and in the end I just said the hell with it and let him go off and find a TV stand.  After a week of viewing television in that room he said "we should have put the TV on the wall.  We can still do that if you want."  So starting out with the newest television he decided it should go on the wall for better viewing purposes.  I threw a wrench into the situation by wondering aloud which wall it should go on.

We spent quite some time between two walls.  We rearranged furniture and sat and pretended we were watching TV.  We weighed pros and cons.  Madison left the room.  We rearranged some more furniture and stood around wondering.  I finally went out to walk the dog, and when I returned Tom had made an executive decision.  The TV would go on the wall that the old TV had been against.  On to phase two.

Phase two involved a lot of measuring with me sitting on the couch trying to figure out how low or how high the TV should sit.  Madison came back into the room to help with the measuring and then the two got to work on the device that would hang on the wall and that the television would fit into.

Madison read the directions and Tom began putting this thing together.  He muttered about the cost of the thing and Madison told him to get over it as it was needed and he had already purchased it.  He wondered aloud if she knew how to read directions.  This went back and forth with more measuring.  I, of course, was a big help!

As was Elliot.

They eventually took the television out of the box and discussed where cables attached and technical things like that.  In the end it was decided we should go out to eat and return with full stomachs and clear heads.  This we did returning after ten o'clock at night.  The hanging of the television went on until after midnight.

Madison and I emptied the entertainment center and placed all the albums, CDs, knick knacks, VHS tapes, picture frames, and electronic components on the dining room table and chairs.  Who knew we had so much stuff.

The television was finally hung and hooked up to the cable box.  We finished the night off by watching television until two o'clock in the morning.  Next up is finding a piece of furniture to go under the television to house all the crap belongings that came out of the entertainment center.  For now we are making due with boxes.  I also want the cables hidden, but I've been told that is no big deal.  Uh huh...heard that one before...

Weekly slide photos

I've decided this week to just post adorable slide photos of myself from the year 1966.  I mean, how cute was I?

3 questions I'm pondering while suit shopping

1. Why don't the designers of cheaper two piece bathing suits (not bikinis) make the tops longer?  I have now spent three days of humiliating standing before three way mirrors in bad lighting trying on suits.  I have sucked in the stomach and stood up straight while holding my breath and looked decent in some suits.  I have slouched and let the boobs sag and the fat roll and looked god awful in most suits.  I have discovered that the best suits for me are ones with a higher neckline so that my what appear as enormous  ta tas aren't splayed out for the sun to burn to a crisp.  I have found that the bottom half should be a skorty type of pant to hide the thighs.  I have gone up one size or two sizes in tops just to hide my middle section, yet the tops all stop just below the belly button.  Don't designers realize that once a person gets into the water the top will ride up exposing my lily white dough rolls to the entire pool?  So far I am suit-less. 
2. Why are suits a fortune?  I know the answer to this, yet it really gets to me.  Women are screwed when it comes to bathing suits and bras.  Shops know we have to have these items and so they gouge us.  $40 for a top and $40 for the bottoms? Come on people I live in Florida where we wear these things year round. I need more then one suit, but at $80 a pop ON SALE I can't afford it. Hell, what am I complaining about? I can't even find a suit!
3. Why don't I have a personal assistant?  I shopped two days with friends.  The first day my friend trailed along pointing out suits she thought might work for me and knocked aside old ladies who were crushing us as they yanked and grabbed for bathing suits because it was 15% off senior day.  The second shopping day Kelly accompanied me and spent over an hour running back and forth from the dressing room getting me sizes and matching up tops to bottoms.  She also studied me each time I emerged from the dressing room to stand before the three way mirror and gave me helpful advice such as, "That is a terrible suit on you.  Get back in there and take it off."

Connie foot photo #10

Once again the Foot God walked in, sat down, looked at the foot and declared, "It looks good."  When I explained that I wrote a weekly blog article regarding these visits and that his weekly comment of "It looks good" was kind of getting stale he gave me his cute little laugh and his face got a tad red.  I asked him for a better quote, but apparently nothing to come to mind.  Connie told him that he was lacking in the personable department and that he needed to take a page out of his nurse's book as she was quite generous of spirit.  The Foot God smiled.  "Generously spirited?"  He looked at me.  "There's your quote for your blog."

And we moved on.  Nothing new on the foot.  He is looking into doing a skin graft in the office if he finds someone with whom she can share a graft.  Other than that she still can only put 50% weight on it and continue with the wet to dry bandages.  She had a new spot forming to the left of the wound that the nurse and I were concerned about, but the Foot God pulled out some tools, hacked at the spot until it bled profusely and ordered the nurse to wrap it up and he would see her again in a week.  And then he was gone.

Charity

Each month my buddy Kelly volunteers to clean the six bathrooms at the church she attends.  They need clean bathrooms weekly and don't always have volunteers, and Kelly feels like giving back and thus she opts for a once a month chore.  Once she took my daughter who helped clean the bathrooms, but not out of the charitable goodness of her heart.

Yesterday was my turn.  I met Kelly at her workplace where she transferred a bucket of cleaning supplies, a broom, a mop, and four bags of food for the church food bank into my van.  She then got into the passenger front seat and proceeded to tell me how to drive ask questions concerning my driving.

"What are you doing?"
"Why are you doing that?"
"Why wouldn't you go out this way?"
"Where are you going?"
"Shouldn't you be over here?"

Despite my having lived in this county longer, I am obviously not familiar with the ways of driving to and from her church, which is almost directly across the street from my dermatologist's office.  Lucky for me I'm use to having a critic in the passenger seat, and I took with my usual grace and patience.

"Alright, CONNIE, I got it!"
"Thank you for pointing me toward this road that I drive every three months to my doctor's office."
"Is this where you want me to be, huh, CONNIE?"

We got to the church, unloaded and entered through the preschool door.  I felt quite righteous standing before the door waiting for admittance to volunteer to help the church, but when the preschool woman opened the door and looked at us standing in our ratty shirts clutching cleaning supplies, she held the door open and dismissed us with a look reserved for the janitorial staff.  A humbling experience.

The church was dark and Kelly led me into an area that I had been in once before when Kelly was baptized.  We started in the women's bathroom which was off to the side of the room.  It was a large room with two stalls, a sink and a big mirror that stretched across the entire wall.  While I was surveying the scene, Kelly immediately took out some supplies and began tackling the toilet stalls.  She was like a whirlwind of cleaning frenzy.  She cleaned the inside and outside of the toilets, she scrubbed the tiled walls around the toilet, and she washed down the stall walls and doors.  She was, quite frankly, unrecognizable.

I have known Kelly since the 2nd grade.  I have been in her bedroom as a child.  A room that probably should have been condemned with all of the moldy dishes hiding under her bed.  I have cleaned her Florida apartment where I found enough cat hair to donate that would have kept ten cats with cancer quite warm.  I have visited her beach house where I can honestly state that cleaning is not high on her lists of household chores.  So to see her attack a bathroom as Mr. Clean himself would no one can fault me for thinking, however briefly, that perhaps upon entry of the church a spirit had taken over her body.

While Kelly was cleaning I was still surveying the room.  I looked at myself in the large mirror and rearranged my hair and clothing.  I noticed that the sink had a chunk of porcelain missing, but that the sink and mirror and floor certainly did not appear dirty at all.  I turned around and hanging on the wall was a wooden shelf with two cubby holes and hooks for hanging coats.  Inside the cubby holes was a waded up piece of purple fabric that was frayed at the edges and a dark blue cotton capri pant size medium.  Above the shelf was a small lantern with a small rubber chicken sitting where the light should have been and two large yellow dead, rubber chickens with their legs tied together with string.  Not your normal everyday bathroom findings.  Of course I had to comment.

Me:  "What's up with the dead, rubber chickens?"
Kelly:  "I'm going to count how many times you say the same thing Darcy said when she came in to help me clean."

I took that to mean that I was falling down on the job and so I took the chickens down, folded the purple fabric and capri pants, washed the shelf, and hung the chickens by their legs on the hooks reserved for coats.  Then I moved on to the sink and the mirror and the fake plant in the corner.  Done with that I turned around for instruction and found Kelly STILL working on the two toilets.  Hmmm....I left the women's bathroom and moved out of the room and down the hall to the men's room.

It was about the size of a small walk-in closet with a toilet and a sink.  I finished my sink/mirror job and went back to check on Kelly, assuming she would want to clean the toilet herself in the men's room.  She was just sweeping the women's room, and so I stood and watched her some, checking for signs of familiarity.

Kelly:  "What are you doing?  Where did you go?"
Me:  "Well, I was finished in here so I moved on to the men's room down the hall."
Kelly:  "There are still things to finish in this bathroom, you know."
Me:  "Uh huh.  Looks like you got this room under control so I'll just move back to the men's room."

I took the toilet cleaning stuff with me which consisted of a plastic curved handle and a container of white sponges with a thin layer of blue across the top.  I took out the sponge and examined the curved handle.  On the end of the handle was a pincher and so I tried pushing the plastic piece on the bottom of the sponge into the pincher.  It wouldn't click in and so I pressed a tad harder and then harder still.  Not getting anywhere I decided to survey the scene.  I moved my hand down on the handle and noticed that I was leaving a nice set of blue fingerprints all along the plastic handle.  I looked at my hand and realized that the thin, blue layer on the sponge was full of some type of cleaning solution that was now on my fingers.  I looked around for somewhere to put the handle and sponge and noticed that the handle had a button on it.  Pushing that button made the pincher open wide so that it could grip the plastic piece on the back of the sponge, creating a nice piece of toilet cleaning equipment.  Not quite as economical as my toilet brush at home, but I laid the thing in the toilet and proceeded to spend ten minutes washing the blue off of my fingers, which in turn dirtied up the sink I had just cleaned, and thus I had to start over.

Kelly:  "What are you doing?"
Me:  "Uh, cleaning the sink.  What are you doing?"
Kelly:  "Just checking to see what you were doing and emptying the trashcan in here."
Me:  "Are you done over there?"
Kelly:  "Almost.  I have to mop."

I finished cleaning the men's room, turned off the lights and joined Kelly for the next set of bathrooms which were at the front of the church.  Both of these bathrooms were quite large.  I opted for the men's room again, thinking it would be small like the last one.  It wasn't.  It was huge.  It had a large sink and a larger mirror that went all the way to the ceiling.  Around the corner from the sink was the tallest urinal I have ever seen in my life.  It came up to my chin and went all the way to the floor and was sitting on a small tiled area.  To the left of that was a stall that went the length of the wall and behind that was a toilet.  I surveyed the scene quite impressed with the layout and headed across the hall to survey the women's room.  Kelly was, of course, working on the toilets.

Kelly:  "What are you doing?"
Me:  "Uh, just checking out the bathroom."
Kelly:  "Well, I was going to have you clean the women's room, but you just went into the men's room."
Me:  "Uh, sorry."

I scurried back to the men's room, properly chastised, and got down to business.  I turned on my IPhone and went right to my new theme song, Good to be Me,  while I cleaned and sang along.  Unfortunately, I realized a tad too late, after belting out the refrain, that probably that wasn't quite the song one should have in the house of the lord.

Kelly:  "I wondered where that music was coming from."
Me:  "Oh, uh, well, yeah."
Kelly:  "Have you scrubbed the stall walls?  The handicap railing?"
Me:  "Jeez!  You act like I don't know what I'm doing."
Kelly:  "Did you clean wall behind the urinal?  I'm just saying..."

I waited until she left before hitting replay.  Then I grabbed some wipes and proceeded to backtrack to the stalls, the wall, and the handicap railing.  By the time I was finished with the men's room, Kelly was finishing up the women's room.  We met in the middle of the entryway, sweaty and huffing.  I thought we had two more bathrooms, but apparently Kelly had done those earlier in the week.  I sat on the stairs and waited for my next instruction, eyeing the boss with some suspicion.

Kelly:  "I'm miserably hot and sweaty and hunger as hell!"

My girl was back!  We picked up our supplies and the trash and headed out for some food and much needed margaritas.

Two month resolution check

It is time to check in on how well I'm doing on my New Year's Resolutions.  I score from 1-10 with 10 being the perfect score.  My goal this year is to actually make all of these things happen.  To achieve that perfect score (at least once)!

1. To not text while driving - I started out the first few weeks rolling out of the gate on this one.  I did not text and used Madison if I needed to respond immediately.  Then somewhere toward the end of January someone needed a response, and I texted at a red light thinking that made it all right.  Then I decided it didn't.  So back I went being good.  I bet I only texted twice, maybe three times, while driving.  Three times too many of course...  Score:  7
2. To get some form of exercise daily (10 minutes at least) whether it is walking the dog or performing jumping jacks. - Again started out of the gate tearing up the ten minutes daily.  Then I missed a day and decided that the 20 minutes I had walked the day before made up for that loss and then I decided no that was cheating.  Sort of like in the texting.  Should seriously state the rules better in my resolutions I guess.  Score:  5
3. To finish my slide project and to get important photos on CD's to have for...prosperity? - Oh, yeah, baby worked on this one a little here and a little there.  Not sure one can count this every two months as the goal is to finish.  I finished the slides this week, which technically was in March, but who's counting?  But the slides aren't on CD's yet so I guess that leaves me off for a perfect score.  Moving on the photos soon.  Score:  9
4. To continue to work on toning down the potty mouth. - Last two weeks with this one and then it all went to hell...see...can't take me anywhere!  Score:  1 (for trying)

TOTAL:  22 out of 40  Hey, it's better than half!

Happy Birthday to the little brother

Since I've finished with the slides and converted them on to my computer my next step is to get them on to a CD or DVD.  This past week as I packed the box with birthday presents for my sister-in-law (yes, I know how late I am on her gifts) I thought how cool it would be to throw in my brother's present and a DVD of him in slides.  So I worked my butt off finishing the slides, but unfortunately then I realized I would need more time to get together a DVD.  So I just put together a little movie.  But I wanted a different song, but apparently it had to be in an mp3 format which it wasn't.  Anyway.... Happy Birthday Rusty!

Why I'm not a cleaning lady

I don't have much experience with tile floors.  Growing up we had carpet in all the bedrooms and living areas and linoleum in the bathrooms; one cleaned with a vacuum cleaner and the other with a wet mop.  Moving into this house I just carried on with my experience and used a mop on the tile floors that covered our bathroom floors.  As long as the floor was swept and shiny I was good.  When I tiled my kitchen and dining area a year ago I just continued the mopping routine, content with the shine.

One day while sitting in my bathroom I noticed the dark color of the grout between the tile.  I goggled tile floors and discovered that one should be cleaning the grout.  Who knew?  I went into my kitchen and stared at the dark color of my new grout.  Was that the original color?  I couldn't remember.  I moved around the room and noticed that in areas that didn't get much traffic the grout was a lighter color.  Hmmm...I put that in the back burner of my mind until a couple of weeks later I noticed, while wandering around my dining room, that the grout color fell into the lighter shade category.  Houston, we have a problem.

I goggled cleaning grout and read about several methods.  The ingredient that kept popping up was something called oxygen bleach.  Sprinkle it on the grout, scrub a dub with minimal muscle power, and mop.  Maintaining it could be easily done by mixing the oxygen bleach into water and using it when mopping the floor.  Sounded good, but I didn't have, let alone know, of oxygen bleach.  I tried the next suggestion which was the use of vinegar, something I've used to polish my floors since my cleaning lady (had one during both pregnancies) showed me this trick.  I got a toothbrush and some vinegar and scrubbed away.  Not much difference.

I tried the next suggestion which was applying a paste of baking soda and water.  I sat on the floor and patted the paste in between each tile.  It took forever, but after waiting 15 minutes and then rinsing the tile grout was lighter.  Unfortunately, this was very time consuming.  I could paste pat one tile in about 3 minutes and then I would have to mix up another batch of paste for the next tile.  All the getting up and down was a killer on the back, and then I had to scrub it before leaving it.  And the rinsing?  Pain in the ass.  The paste left a gritty residue that I had to rinse and rinse, which would have been easy if I had a drain in my kitchen where I could hose down the floor.  I thought I should try something different...and buy a mop.

I discussed the grout situation with a friend who also put in tile the same time that I did.  She was a previous tile owner and she suggested Oxi-clean as the solution to oxygen bleach.  After all, she surmised isn't that the same thing?  She had used the kind in the spray bottle and found it worked quite well.  I bought the bottle and sprayed several tiles.  I scrubbed and let the solution sit on the grout for about 15 minutes.  Then, using my new mop, I rinsed.  And rinsed.  And rinsed.  As I moved around the kitchen floor rinsing, the dog began attacking the mop and barking.  He ran after the mop, but the floor was so soapy and slippery with Oxi-clean solution and water that he slid across the floor and banged into the cabinets.  Then he jumped up as if the mop had attacked him and slid across the floor in the other direction.  I started after him to hustle him out of the kitchen and ended up flat on my butt as I too slipped in the soapy mess.  Again I could have used that drain in the kitchen.  By the time I got all of the Oxi-clean rinsed and dried off the floor I had spent over an hour on a fourth of the kitchen tile.

I went back to the Internet and tried to find another solution.  I goggled oxi-clean and found that it works on almost everything in the home including mildew, blood, mold, wine, juice, and baby formula.  You can clean jewelry, ice chests, wedding dresses and tennis shoes using oxi-clean.  Also...grout.  I should buy the granular Oxi-clean and make it into a paste and apply it to the grout and let it sit one hour or overnight and then rinse.

So far I have discovered that the answer to cleaning grout is forming a paste of some type of bicarbonate and letting it work magic while I watch television.  I have purchased the granular Oxi-clean and have mixed it with water and mopped my kitchen floor to find it just leaves the same soapy film that the spray bottle stuff did.  I suppose some day when I'm seriously bored I will attempt the paste mixture.  Or not.  Lately I seem to be drawn to the carpeting section of all home stores...

Connie foot photo #9

I thought it looked better.  The nurse thought it looked better.  The Foot God came and announced it measured and looked better.  He and Connie discussed grafting it again, but until she gets the infection cleared up there is no point in grafting.  He will do this toward the end of her 6 weeks of antibiotics, but while she is still on it.  Connie wanted to know how much longer it would be of dealing with this foot and as usual he gave a month or more. 
I'm not sure what I will do without my weekly Foot God fix.  I told him perhaps I would need to come and visit him as I'm having some back pain like the one in the picture on the poster on the wall in the exam room.  He laughed.  I'm sure he is counting the days to get rid of us.  Or perhaps he isn't.  It certainly has taken quite some time to heal.....

Please don't tell me we have to do this all over again

Two years ago I wrote about my experience of shopping with Madison for her first cocktail dress for her first dance.  This year we are shopping for her 8th grade graduation dresses; one for the graduation and one for the dance.  At the same time Darcy is shopping for her first cocktail dress for her first dance.  And so the three of us met up with Madison's classmate and mother yesterday at the mall for a full day of dress shopping.

The three girls chose not to hang with us at the mall.  They took their phones and ran off to shop.  We three women headed straight for the only restaurant and began drinking.  The girls would text us photos of themselves in dresses or they would text us that they had found something to buy and needed money.  By the time we had eaten and drunk just enough to get us through a couple more hours of shopping the total so far was:

• Heather - 1 sweatshirt, 1 bathing suit, 1 pair of jeans, 1 skirt, 1 bag and Starbucks yummy
• Darcy - 1 sweatshirt, 1 bag and Starbucks yummy
• Madison - Starbucks yummy and soft pretzel

Now the two 8th graders are having their 8th grade pictures taken in three weeks in their graduation dresses.  Heather had already gotten hers, but Madison hadn't and so I reminded her that a pretzel and Starbucks weren't going to be in the picture with her.  Off the three girls went, only this time we went with them and sat outside the stores waiting for the picture texts.

By the time we got to the last store Darcy had both of her dresses and Heather had her party dress.  Madison still had nothing.  We went into the dressing room and Darcy and I brought Maddy dresses to try on.  Darcy got bored and decided to try on dresses herself while Heather and I took photos.  Behold:

At one point she had on a black sequined dress that had one sleeve that came up to the shoulder and left the opposite shoulder and arm bare.  I told her she didn't have the boobs for that dress and she responded, quite seriously, with:  "If I had my other bra on I could so pull off this dress!"

Madison finally tried on a few dresses suitable for graduation day, which is an outside event.  Behold:

We didn't buy any of them as the sales lady informed us that the store was closing an hour earlier than the rest of the mall.  As the dresses were over $75 I didn't want to make a rash decision and decided to just take the photos and view them at home.  Which turned out to be a good decision as we found we liked certain dresses better then we did in the store and vice versa.  Bottom line is that we have to do this all over again next week.  When I should be at the beach....

Learning off the net

While shifting through the lead "newsy" articles on Yahoo the other day to give me something to do while converting slides, I came across this Yahoo Health article titled, 4 Mistakes Everyone Makes When Fighting Ab Flab.  First of all, I didn't know that everyone was fighting ab flab.  I thought it was just me.  While the pounds slipped off of me this summer and got flushed down the toilet along with the rest of my illness, my abs seemed to stay the same  Floppy, jiggly, dough-boy proportions.  So this article naturally caught my eye.

1. Parking in front of the TV -  Watching TV for two or more hours a day weaken the abs and back muscles up to 10%!  It doesn't say how or why, but the article suggests scheduling your TV time around your gym time so that you can kill two birds with one stone. - Sounds great, but not possible.  I very rarely watch live TV anymore.  Why would anyone?  The DVR is the greatest invention ever, and I wish I had the rewind in my every day life.  My gym does not have my recordings on its fifty televisions so this is not going to help me.  Apparently going to the gym and then watching more then two hours of TV doesn't help in the fight against flab.  I wonder what five hours at the computer blogging are doing for my abs?  Obviously, I'm going to have to give up TV to get my abs in shape.  I'm thinking a week ought to do it.
2. Stressing out - We have a stress hormone called cortisol that raises when stressed and that increases the ab fat.  The article says we must learn to breathe. - Hmmm...learn to breathe?  In through the nose and out through the mouth.  Interesting concept.  I'll try it starting now since cortisol is obviously raging through my body 24/7.
3. Diving into that darn breadbasket -  Unless the bread is whole wheat and then you can have 3 ounces a day!  White fluffy rolls are a no no for the abs. - Okay, no more bread in a basket at my dinner table.  Funny, no mention of how eating at home instead of eating out might help.
4. Munching late-night -  Bodies do not burn as much overnight as during the day when we are active.  Stop eating two hours before going to bed. - Well, this seems easy enough.  After that last bowl of ice cream, cake, or cookies I'll just turn on the TV and watch it for two hours before I go to bed.  Oh, wait...

Weekly slide photos

I thought this would be a nice addition so that I don't have to rack my brain for topics to write about and it would also help keep me on track with my NYR (New Year's Resolutions).  I try to convert slides every time I sit down at the computer, which lately hasn't been very often.  These are the slides I converted recently.  I'm up to 1969.  While I don't have Rusty's birth (think those got thrown out along with tons of others) I do have some of him at an early age.  Behold his cuteness...

 First Birthday

 Uh, are you sure there is money down there?

 Not sure that Stephanie knows how to pilot that swing

Pure popsicle enjoyment

Showing off

Connie foot photo #8

Last week the foot was swollen and red.  In the rehab hospital the doctor sent in an infectious disease doctor who ordered an MRI and swabbing of the foot and nose.  Swabbing came back with MRSA in both the wound and the nose and it is colonized, which means Connie is a carrier of MRSA.  Out came the masks, gloves, and gowns although most nurses and doctors ignored them.  The MRI showed a slight difference since the last MRI and so they are going with the assumption that the infection is in the bone.  That means 6 weeks of an IV antibiotic administered at home via traveling nurses.

She went into the Foot God's office yesterday.  The Foot God is on vacation and his associate came in and had a nice discussion about everything with her.  Most of the time in these wound cases the bone is degenerated so much and flattened that the MRI shows a false positive and is hard to determine.  He said from the looks of the wound it is unlikely that the infection is in the bone, but to be on the safe side continue the course.  The wound has filled in nicely and the wound vac is not needed anymore.

Connie returned home last night and is determined to get along by herself with some aide from others.  Hopefully, this time she can stay there until the foot is healed.  Stubborn should count for something, shouldn't it?

Week in photos

Monday: Glasses

These belong to my brother.  He left them in December at my mother's condo.  She kept asking me if they were mine or did I know "who these belong to?".  I didn't so Darcy took them home.  Found out they were Rusty's, but Darcy told him "too bad".  He issued threat to Darcy.  I put them in my car to take back to mother's condo.  I keep forgetting to take them out when I get there so here they rest...

Tuesday:  My dog's new favorite spot

For some reason Elliot has taken to lying down behind this curtain in my bedroom.  If he isn't here he is in my closet.  We find it quite hilarious!

Wednesday:  Miranda Cosgrove!! SCREAM!

The girls are looking at something outside the theater and obviously having a very serious discussion about it.  There was a flyer for the show in the glass case so perhaps that was the subject?  Or Jim who was buying a ticket?

Thursday:  Basketball game for Madison

 Waiting for a rebound.  This was a new site we were playing in so my pictures actually came out.

And she gets the rebound!

Friday:  Science project:  plant cell (okay, this was actually done on Thursday, but I didn't have a Friday photo...just play along)

Kelly came to stay with Darcy and help create this edible plant cell.  I found out later that it didn't have to edible my daughter just wanted it to be.  I'm not sure what everything is, but she labeled it.  I heard it was a hit at school in the stomach.

Saturday/Sunday:  Soccer Tournament

Madison in action.  Darcy and Madison were on the same recreation soccer team this year.  The league allowed Darcy to move up an age group.  The team never won a game the entire season, but it didn't stop them at all.  They had a blast!

 Darcy on Sunday coming over to ask me something.  She has been told she can not play this weekend because of her foot.  She spent Saturday on the bench with the team.  It made her crazy to miss the last game of the season.

Telling me why she is needed in the game.  Telling me she will wear her boot an extra day to make up for it.  Telling me she will come out of the game if her heel hurts.

Walking back after I told her she had to make her own decisions regarding her health.

Everyone on the bench watching as Darcy takes off her boot and puts on her cleats (which she just happened to bring with her to the game). Far right side to the left of the man in white...can see her taking off boot.

Darcy in the game.  We laughed that she was the secret weapon.  Put in a fresh pair of legs after halftime.  She made quite a few plays and got us down to the goal several times.  She began limping after 20 minutes and came out.

I should at least get mother of the month

For the past several years I have awakened my children by crawling into bed with them in the morning and kissing them into wakefulness.  They both enjoy the calm and the chance for some mommy snuggling, but once both girls entered the upper grade levels I made them also use an alarm.  I still came in and went through my routine, but they also had the alarm.

Darcy has continued the alarm use, but Madison dropped it two years ago.  She never heard the alarm.  She claims she never hears me.  For the most part I come in and kiss on her, she opens her eyes, and moves around and then promptly goes back to sleep once I exit the room.  Then I return five minutes later and wake her with a loud voice.  Five minutes after that I repeat, and then five minutes after that I'm ranting and raving.  She jumps out of bed and is ready in ten minutes and out the door as time is up.  It is annoying to me as a mother and annoying to her sister who sits in the car in the driveway waiting for Madison to get outside so they can reach school on time.

Once last year when Madison was doing one of her slow getting ready routines I backed out of the driveway and drove around the block.  When I returned to our house Madison was standing in the garage looking forlorn, crying, and was calling me on my cell phone.  I told her that it wasn't fair to the rest of us for her to put us through this stress each morning. She agreed she needed to get up earlier and promised she would work on it.

That lasted all of two days and we were right back to where we started.  At the beginning of this year I told her that 7:45 was the last time I would come into her room to wake her.  Any time after that and I would leave her behind to take Darcy to school.  I would return for her, but she would be tardy.  That scared her into action for a day and then once again she was back to her slow routine.  I stuck with the 7:45 AM wake up call, but would also shout loudly, "Let's go" ten minutes before I actually had to leave the house.  That usually got her up and moving. 

I hate being late for things.  My husband, on the other hand, is more laid back.  He always has been.  My mother refers to it as "Boos Time".  He will deny all of this, of course, but the man is always moving at a slower pace then me.  I am much like Madison in that I get up and can be ready in ten minutes or less.  I am not a person who puts on make-up or dresses to impress.  My mother wasn't like that and I followed in her footsteps.  My eldest is apparently taking that part of me and the slow part of her father and combining them into her own.  I spend the drive to school ranting and raving about all the things Madison didn't do that morning like eat breakfast, brush her teeth, wash her face, etc.  It isn't a good way to start the day.

Yesterday started out like every other day.  I snuggled with Darcy and Elliot who joined us on Darcy's bed.  Elliot and I moved into Madison's room where I kissed on her and Elliot took an article of clothing off her bedroom floor and took off running.  She was frowning while I kissed her, and I mentioned how much I missed the little cheerful Madison that use to stand in her crib hopping up and down when we came into the room screaming, "Hi Mommy!  Hi Daddy!  Elmo's up too!"  Madison did not respond, but rolled over while I opened her window blinds.  She is definitely not a morning person, unlike her younger sister who I say has a bit of Russ reincarnated into her...the most happy, sickening cheerful morning person ever.

I left and started making lunches.  Finished with that I went into Madison's room and told her to get up.  She moaned.  I dressed.  I entered her room again at 7:47 and yelled for her to get up and told her this was my last time coming back in and that I would leave without her.  She said, quite loudly and in her most oh-my-god-you-are-overreacting-mother voice, "Alright Mother!"  I left the room.

At 8:00 I went into her room to find her on her back, mouth opened, snoring and sound asleep.  I went into the kitchen and told Darcy that she should go in and wake her sister as I had said I wouldn't come in again.  Darcy claimed to have done just that three minutes later, but I have a feeling it was done in a quieter voice then normal.  Madison did not appear.

At 8:10 I was in the car honking for Darcy.  She couldn't believe that I was actually following through on my threat.  Now Darcy felt uncomfortable and probably wished she had done a better job of getting her sister up.  Despite her being a tad different in the caring department from her sister, she does love her and takes her side in most disagreements when going up against the adults.  I closed the garage door and took Darcy to school, leaving Madison behind.

I had to get out at school to take care of a matter in the office.  The teachers wanted to know where Madison was and upon learning I had followed through on my threat told me I was a good mother.  The office staff laughed and fist pumped me.  The head of the school I think was in shock that I had done this.  I told him I didn't relish going home to find the kid crying and upset over the whole thing, but next year she would be in high school, and I wouldn't always be there to help her be responsible.  (That sounded like my own mother coming out of my mouth, but in this she was right...shhh...don't tell her I said that.)

I then ran an errand that was scheduled for that morning, and I returned home to find my daughter in the same place I had left her.  She was still sound asleep.  It was 9:15.  My threat had always been to leave her until she awoke, but I had other things on my plate for the day and so I woke her quite gently and asked her if she felt okay.  She said she was fine and sat up.  I mentioned that she should get up as it was 9:15 and OH MY GOD, WHAT?  WHAT?  WHAT HAPPENED?"  She shot out of bed as if I had fired her from a cannon.  Then came the tears as I told her I had awakened her three times that morning and she still had not gotten up.  Then I left the room and went off to listen to the two messages I had on my answering machine.  Yes, she had slept through two phone calls.

In the car headed to school I calmly explained my rational.  She explained that she had no memory of me coming into her room at all.  I told her everything I had done that morning.  She cried some more.  I again explained my rational.  She cried some more.  I told her I loved her.  I went into the office with her where she picked up her tardy slip.  I kissed her while she cried some more and I sent her off to class.

This morning the girls are involved in an all day math competition.  The car pool ride was due to pick them both up at 8:00 sharp.  Madison was up at 7:00 and in the shower before my alarm even went off.  She was still the last one out the door, running around grabbing things that should have been laid out the night before, but I'm hoping this is progress.  Only time will tell...