Giants Doing Cartwheels

I don't like Creedence Clearwater Revival, but Rob does and Julius is hooked on this one particular song that he keeps playing over and over as we drive through the storm to get to Grandma's house and deliver her groceries.

Because We Don't Have Enough Problems

This post is brought to you by the Sarcasm Division of Wendy Enterprises...

Because we don't have enough to worry about, we arranged for one of our damaged limbs to land on our back fence. We love drama!

The Storm

We lost 4 limbs off one of our nicest trees. Now it looks hideous and we're thinking of just wacking the whole tree down. We have to save up for it... Unless I can possibly sweet talk my brother or some other kind soul into doing it for us.

Surgery #15 Tomorrow

We'll be at the hospital tomorrow with Julius. I'm going to post my usual updates here as the day goes on so everyone will know he's doing okay. Hopefully it will proceed smoothly as it has the last few times! I don't know what time he is going in yet. I have to call at noon today for them to give me his procedure times and will update it here.

Love Note

A love note from Julius.

I Have a Knife

Julius says he wants to bring a knife for a special occasion. Being the big downer Mom that I am, I veto that one pretty quick. Lets not take weapons to the summer festival.

Fishing Derby

We are at the fishing derby. Here are the kids with their first catch of the day.

Boys Will Be Boys

Julius walked by with his back all twisted around one hip sticking out sideways.

I said, "What are you doing?"

He said, "I'm trying to break my back."

"Why?"

He shrugged, "I don't know. It's a boy thing."

Who is that Masked Man?

Tristan has made a superhero mask out of a backward swimming mask. I guess I need to make him a real mask! Too bad I have zero talent in that department.

Cousin Maddix

Julius holds his new cousin Maddix. I am freaked out nervous!!

Busy Hubbub

Still in pre-op. We have the best spot in the house to get all the gossip but not if you want rest. Mom is having a hypoglycemia meltdown and is now armed with vomit bucket.

Environmentalists be damned -- it's a great day for plastics!

Waiting in Pre-Op

We're waiting in pre-op. They don't have an IV run because nobody could get one started. They stuck her in 4 or 5 different places and then one of the guys said it was her fault they couldn't get the IV started.

Optimism is low. This makes me appreciate Children's Hospital so much more.

Crazy Scissor Lady II

Crazy Scissor Lady is narcoleptic! She keeps falling asleep with her scissors right next to her eye!! I've watched her do it about five times already. Thank goodness we are at a hospital because if this keeps up she'll need the ER.

Crazy Scissor Lady

There is a crazy scissor lady in the waiting room with me. She keeps moving around trash cans and clipping things out with her scissors. I walked around and looked in the trash cans to see how busy she's been. Very busy. She cuts very slowly and methodically.

The nurse took my mom somewhere and won't give her back. She's a tiny little Asian woman. I bet I could take her unless she is secretly a ninja. In that case I'd have to get Crazy Scissor Lady's help.

Unfortunate

This is what you don't want to see when you've already commenced your business.

Parking Fiasco

They have free valet parking at the outpatient surgery. We didn't utilize that so I had to walk 12 miles back from the parking deck. I don't mind the walk except I didn't want mom to wait by herself.

Waiting and Waiting

Dear God,

At the end of my life can I please get all the time back that I have had to spend in various waiting rooms or other places I've had to wait due to other people's mismanagement? I promise to be good until then.

Also please help that old man in the yellow shirt that just yelled at me because he's obviously having a bad day. Or maybe a bad life.

And if you can't help him at least don't let him yell at me on the way back.

AMEN

Ghost Boy

Julius tries to hide behind me so I can't take his picture. We are in Little Rock taking Grandma to the doctor. They told us her appointment was at 11;45, but it's actually at 1;15.

So we drive an hour and a half now to sit for two hours. Argh!

I'm Your Huckleberry

The boys pick and eat huckleberries at Grandma's house.

At the Hospital Again

Mom stayed overnight at the hospital. They are giving her IV antibiotics and pain meds.

Hare Tristan

After a pee incident and me 40 miles from home I managed to find one dry underwear and a shirt belonging to Julius and now my kid looks like a hare krishna. Or maybe a buddhist.

Darn me for not being better prepared. You'd think I was a beginner. No, just an idiot.

Sliding

Chasing Squirrels

Tristan chases squirrels in the park over in Heber Springs. We had to drive over for work and I have no sitter today. It's hilarious watching him try to catch these squirrels.

Trippin' Narc Head

My mom is all dosed up with three different pain meds and she's hilarious. Kidney stone, 4mm. Probably they will send her home but we're waiting on the radiologist to be sure.

A 10 and Blood Everywhere

The nurse started an IV and hit a gusher, I guess. Blood squirting everywhere. She poured as much out on the floor and around the bed and all over my mom as she got in the blood draw.

They refuse to give her pain meds til she gets a CT scan. Sadistic bastards.

At the E.R.

At the E.R. with Mom.

Flag Bearers

Rob sent me this so I don't know the story, but it's live from Boy Scout Camp.

Visit My Friend?

My good pal Shannon has started a new blog about a new journey in her life.

If you have a minute, go check her out!

http://yeartothelife.blogspot.com/

Shucking Corn

Believe it or not Julius likes shucking corn. And so do I. There's just something about it... Pulling back moist green shucks to reveal perfect rows of yellow, juicy corn. It's one of life's really good things.

Boy Scout Day Camp

This picture was taken by Rob and sent to my phone. They are out at boy scout day camp this week. I have no idea what's going on here but I'm sure there's a whole heap of testosterone going around.

Grocery Madness

Okay, I might have gone slightly overboard on the stockpiling. Rob says we probably have enough deoderant by now. But it's hard to stop when I'm getting stuff so cheap and sometimes for free!

This week's savings:

Kroger: $94.65 take home, 40.22 spent out of pocket, SAVED: 54.43
Walgreens: $67.84 take home, 29.03 spent out of pocket, SAVED: 38.81

If you want to find out how I'm getting half price groceries (or better) email me!

Fun at the Creek

We love taking the kids to Mountain View to swim in Blanchard Springs. It's such a fabulous creek in the National Forest. It's about an hour drive, but well worth it.

Tristan is not an adept swimmer, but with a life jacket and Dad's help he manages to not take too much water onboard.



While Tristan is swimming, Julius diligently stalks fish.













Sand and rocks are also fun. Tristan takes a break to dig and roll in the sand.



Life is so good in the great outdoors!





The mighty crawdad hunter stalks his prey...





This is actually the catch of a lady who was there hunting crawdads. She had a pretty decent selection going and was kind enough to let Julius look at hers and she showed him a few crawdad catching tips. Julius caught one baby crawdad, but released it back into the wild so he could grow big and fat for a future crawdad hunter!

Here We Go

We're off to drive an hour to one of the best spring-fed creeks around. The boys are too excited to have their pictures taken.

I Don't Get It

Why do boys get really obnoxious when they are excited? Is it just my boy or is it all boys?

Saturday Morning

This is a snapshot of a typical Saturday morning at our house. Rob's gonna be mad when he sees this picture on the blog. And yet... I can't help myself. Heh.

Par-tay!

The baseball season has come to an end. It's pizza party time!

Oh My

My mom's neighbor has gone crazy and made this bizarre fence out of black plastic, wal-mart bags and aluminum foil. That loud whistling noise you hear is the sound of my mom's property value going down.

Whoa

Somebody's been on the computer too long.

Close By

Tristan and I sat and watched a deer from our car this morning. It was by the side of the road eating grass and didn't mind that we were there. We sat there at least a solid three minutes until it wandered off into the woods, grazing all the way.

Batters Up

Toddler in batter helmets. Recipe for disaster.