Summer Skating with Friends

He finally decided to skate instead of play video games the whole time. It took a little bribing but my grandson proved that he could indeed skate last week. The last time we went I wrote him this little poem.

Hating Skating
Written by my grandma

It’s great to be eight
Although I can’t skate
No matter how hard I try.

The floor is too hard
When I’m caught off-guard
It hurts so bad I could cry.

But I’m a tough guy
So I will just sigh
And get up and try again.

But not right away
Cause I’d rather play
Video games I can win.

I will have to come up with Hating Skating Part 2, since technically he can skate. Keep tuned in. I’m sure you can’t wait for the sequel. Ha! Ha! Anyway, the kids and I went with our friends to the skating rink on Wednesday. Here are a few more pictures. I’m hoping I will be able to get out there and skate with them next time! My knee is feeling much better and the swelling is down.

Medical Matters

I think it is time to update my blog for the following reasons: 1. My eldest daughter would probably appreciate moving her surgery picture on down so it is not the first thing you see when you open it. 2. I can’t do anything constructive that requires walking (more on that below). 3. It’s been a whole week since I last updated it! Time flies!

So, I’ve replaced the pre-surgery picture with a post-surgery picture. We were at a Chili’s not far from her house. Yes, that is an alcoholic beverage I was drinking (my favorite, Captain Morgan Spiced Rum and Diet Coke). She was on pain pills and drinking a diet coke. Her healing process is going well although she wasn’t able to return to work last week like she had hoped she would. Sitting for very long is too uncomfortable so lounging or lying down works better. She is on vacation for two weeks now so she will return to work after that. She’ll be visiting us the last week of her vacation. Yeah! Her post op checkup is scheduled for Tuesday.

Before I leave health issues, I’ll go back to my walking problem; I have injured my knee. It popped out of place last Thursday, the day before daughter’s surgery. This happens occasionally but it usually only hurts for a few minutes and then it’s back to normal. Not this time. At first, it was mildly irritated. The drive to Dallas was awful, especially since it is my right knee. It has been getting progressively worse since then and I finally went to the doctor on Thursday. He thinks I have torn the front cruciate ligaments and said I should see an orthopedic doctor. I have an appointment on Tuesday. I can barely walk now. It is too painful to put weight on my knee. My friend, Christy, brought me a walker this morning. When she offered it a couple of days ago, I just laughed it off. I am so grateful for it now. I am trying to behave by elevating it and resting but I hate being immobile! Such a waste of time! Anyway, please pray that I will heal quickly and that I will not need surgery.

And while I'm on the subject of medical stuff, my youngest daughter's cat, Milo, had it's vaccinations and check up yesterday. He is in good shape and is scheduled to be neutered on Wednesday. Eldest daughter's dog, Oscar, has allergies. He received a steroid shot this morning and will be given benedril for his itches.

I was going to write more stuff but I am sleepy from my pain pill. I'll do more catching up later!

Cute Doctor, Cute Hat

Eldest daughter’s laparoscopic surgery experience went well. She no longer has a gall bladder and except for a little soreness she is feeling pretty good. The highlight of her day was when the cute anesthesiologist came in to introduce himself (her description, not mine). After he left the room, she mentioned how nice looking he was. “Oh, yeah,” I agreed half-heartedly, “I really didn’t notice.” She was right, I thought. He is cute and I most be getting too old not to notice. “Good thing you’re wearing that attractive hat,” I teased. After a couple of hours in surgery and a short time in the recovery room, we returned to her home about six hours from when we left. She slept most of what was left of the day. Keeping the dogs from jumping on her when she lies down on the sofa or the bed has been a challenge but I think they are starting to understand that something’s up. Today we have been relaxing in front of the tube and catching up on stuff. She helped me shop online for a couple of ring tone downloads. Figuring out the perfect song for Hubby’s ring was fun. We laughed way too much for someone with a sore stomach! It was much easier and more humorous to pick out which ring tones were so wrong than to pick out just the right one. I finally settled on ‘Faithfully’ by Journey. ‘Mello Yellow’ came in second. Speaking of Hubby, he said that he had a good time at Vacation Bible School yesterday. I know the kids enjoyed him being there. He’s a good papaw!

Updating - A Week at VBS

The grandchildren had Vacation Bible School at our church this week. I volunteered to help out so I have been there all week, until today. Due to more gall bladder attacks and the intense pain that accompanies them, eldest daughter decided to go ahead and move her surgery up a week. So Hubby is filling in for me today and I am currently sitting at the Texas Surgery Center in Dallas, waiting. It is the first time a child of mine has been under the knife. I have a knot in my stomach but I don’t know if it is nervousness or if the fish oil capsules are giving me indigestion again. Since they tell me I have a couple of hours before I can go back with her, I thought I’d catch up on my blog.

Walking around with the kids at VBS brought back fond memories of my teenage years and early adulthood. I thoroughly enjoyed watching and participating in the fun. The kids have all had a blast. We are so blessed to have such creative and talented people willing to put in the time to make such an event successful. I also feel especially blessed that Hubby substituted for me. I’ll let you know how his day goes. This is the first year the oldest granddaughter had the opportunity to participate as a helper instead of a student. She is doing a fantastic job. When I was able to slip away for a few minutes from my rotation group, I went to check out how the younger two were doing. If I stayed very long at all watching my grandson, I was rewarded with views of excited jumps of glee (especially when he watched diet coke and soda explode into the air). Singing and dancing were a big hit with all the kids as they learned new motion songs. Even the three year old got into it.

My eyes are drooping from lack of sleep last night. I didn’t arrive in Dallas until 1:30 this morning and was up around 6 am. I think I’m going to stop fighting it and try to doze a bit in the waiting room. I’ll try to add an update on the surgery later today.

One of the sugeons just came out and wanted to talk to the family of Wanda Gooding. My mother's name was Wanda Goodwin. Brought back more memories.

Happy Father's Day, Mr. Byrd

It’s a natural thing for dads to love their sons; a chosen thing for a step-dad.
There is no way to measure the value of what you brought to the life of a boy,
Even now a grown man.

But here are a few things that come to mind, of things for which I am grateful.
You taught him to fish, to hunt, to appreciate mountain streams and nature.
And to build a campfire.

You taught him to laugh and enjoy life even when times were difficult and sad.
To find joy in small things like the love and the faithfulness of an old dog,
Westerns and war movies.

You’ve shown its okay for men to wash not only the car but to help with the dishes.
That there is an art to changing oil, fixing flats, and looking under the hood.
And doing the yard work.

You were instrumental in creating fond memories of boating and water skiing.
Warm summer days on the Ohio River and on the island before the tourists came.
Roasting yummy hot dogs.

Thank you for helping to mold my husband into the wonderful man that he is.
And for being a fun-loving grandpa to our children and a beloved father-in-law to me.
And for loving your wife!

Have a Wonderful Father’s Day, Tever! We love and miss you!

PS And thanks for the endless trips you make to the airport to pick us up and drop us off.

Back Seat...Car Seat Driver

“You’re getting pretty good at red and green lights, Grandma,” my three year old granddaughter remarked in the car yesterday morning. “You think so?” I asked after laughing. “Yep, you are,” she replied. She finally has the stop and go thing down. She is the most impatient child at a red light. For quite some time now she has been telling me to ‘go’ because she gets tired of sitting at red lights (some of the red lights around here are very long). My standard reply is, of course, “I have to wait for the light to turn green.” I suppose she thinks now that she understands the concept, that I’m better at it, too. In my opinion, she’s way too young to be a back seat driver! It’s bad enough that Hubby sometimes thinks he’s a co-pilot. Of course, I will admit that I have the same little character defect.

Here are a few more of the things she’s said lately that I’ve been collecting to share.
“My flower grew smaller.” Translation: “My weed wilted.”
“Are you going to put it in the washing machine to dry it?”
“Ah,man!” Translation: “Amen.” At some point I realized she was using the two interchangeably.

In answer to eldest daughter’s question, “What’s in Angola?” here is a picture Hubby took from the staff house in Luanda. His words, “It’s not Brussels!” He will be glad to know that they finally chopped down the huge, dead tree behind our fence that was hit by lightening last year. Too bad we were gone when they did it! I think it would have been interesting to watch and I know the grandson would have been delighted to observe how it’s done. There is now a great path through the woods to the greenbelt. Unfortunately, they didn't cut down the leaning willow tree. Someday it's going to crash down the fences, the arbor and land in the neighbor's pool.

Balloons, Chocolates and Waffles

Before I get started on pleasantries, please allow me a moment to get something off my chest. Don’t you just love it when you are eating in a restaurant and they make some poor kid mop the floor around you? Somehow the aroma of the food just gets lost amongst the fumes of disinfecting floor cleaner. That happened to me today. I wonder if I’m the only one who feels guilty when one must walk on the newly mopped floor and thereby feel compelled to tip-toe so one doesn’t track it up too much! I still have work to do on those guilty feelings! Okay, I'm better and I'll proceed with a more positive attitude.

The two youngest grandchildren had the opportunity to be dazzled by a balloon artist this evening. They wanted me to take a picture for Papaw. The three-year old has a heart hat on her head and is holding a pretend sword. The ever-so-serious warrior has a helmet and a sword (complete with belt and sheath). I tried to get him to pose with the sword out but one picture is his absolute limit!

Speaking of Papaw; he left Brussels and made it safely to Angola. He will be leaving there Wednesday evening and should arrive home Thursday afternoon, bearing gifts I’m told. I’m looking forward to the Belgium chocolates he bought. I guess I’ll delay my sugar-free diet for a little while. Here are two more pictures he sent to me. Although he hasn’t improved much in the self-picture department (smile, dude!) the building behind him is across the street from his hotel and he was trying to capture the beautiful architecture. The other picture is of authentic Belgium waffles. Don’t they look yummy!

Doing the Happy Dance!

Friday at 5:30 pm I was doing the happy dance. I have the entire weekend to myself. Kids are gone. Hubby’s gone. I adore the kids and love my husband very much but I’m feeling exhilarated that I can do whatever I choose without a time limit and without a tinge of guilt. So I went to a meeting for two hours then went to Starbucks and chatted with some friends until almost midnight. I have to admit that I didn’t want to go home to an empty house.

Our first week of summer vacation was not exciting but it was relaxing. The kids each had their first sleep-over on the first day they were out of school. My eldest granddaughter went to a friend’s house and the friend’s little brother, who is the same age as my grandson, came here. It worked out well and the kids had fun. The following day was kind of a “kick-back and do nothing” sort of day. On Thursday, we went to the church for a couple of hours and later went to the pool. Thursday evening the two older kids had their Taekwondo awards ceremony. They both advanced to Sr. Blue Belt rank. Yea! Friday morning, we made pancakes, my grandson’s favorite breakfast. After breakfast and a quick straightening up of the kitchen, we went outside to work in the yard. The plan was to weed out the patch of ground that used to be a fern garden. We want to replace it with a play area but the weeds have taken over and the ferns refuse to go away no matter how many times you pull them up. No sooner had we taken out all the yard equipment and put on our gardening gloves, it started to rain. I only lasted a couple of minutes so after a brief time in the shed, we started pulling weeds. The girls quickly became bored with that; however, my grandson was a big help. I decided they have been watching too many infomercials when they started describing this cool piece of yard equipment they had seen that would make the job so much easier. It kept raining off and on and I finally gave up and went inside. After lunch, I took a two hour nap with the toddler. I had not meant to go to sleep but just to lie there long enough for her to doze off. The other two occupied themselves with TV and video games. Next week I’ll make a better effort to stimulate more activity.

Here are a couple of pictures Hubby sent from Belgium. They are, he tells me, of the famous statue of the little boy peeing. I’m trying to remember if I already knew there was such a famous statue. They actually dress this statue in different outfits. In the one with all the tourists in front of it, he's wearing a tux. I’m going to Garden Ridge with a friend in a little while. They have water fountains on sale. I wonder if there’s a replica. I also wonder if I would have the courage to display such a thing in my yard. The kids don’t need encouragement, if you know what I mean!

Bring on Summer!

Three and a half hours left of school, but who’s counting? The kids were excited to go today. It will be a fun day full of movies, games and general goofing off. The fifth grader has a pool party from 11:30am until 1:30pm, then, we are on our own to find something to do for two and a half months. I think we will be okay in that area. I just hope my energy level stays up.

Hubby left for Brussels on Sunday. I don’t think he’s been there before but I know for sure that he hasn’t been to his next stop, Angola. Yep, Africa! His words, “I haven’t been on that Continent before.” My words, “Don’t they have a lot of civil strife going on there?” Oh, well. I put him in God’s hands. He’ll be home on the 12th with two more countries to add to the places he’s traveled.

The cub scouts had a family skating party yesterday evening. My grandson eagerly put on his skates and promptly fell down. That was the end of his skating for the evening. He enjoyed the game room though. The eldest granddaughter took a friend so she had a blast. The three year old skated around for a little while in her Dora skates and then she was finished. She had fun just running around. It was a new experience for her. The last songs were the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance. Since we were allowed to go on the rink with our shoes on, everyone joined in, including me. The three year old was too cute! It was fun. I took my camera but forgot and left it in the car so I have no pictures. We didn’t get home until 9:30 pm so it was a late night for the kids. Me, too, actually! But, hey, bring on the summer!

First and Fifth Grade Teachers