Scottish Rite Check Up

Aaaahhhhh...Scottish Rite. Nothing quite like Scottish Rite. Fabulous hospital. Fabulous doctors. Nice, new cafe. Lovely art. And place whose very name renders all my strength and courage into gelatinous goo.

But they make us come. They make us have X-rays.



They make us wait. A.LOT.



We often get very bored...and sing louder than we should...(please note the bend-i-ness of that child's left leg in this next picture.)



Sometimes I even push Bean across the floor on the very-speedy-doctor's-stool...I ALWAYS make sure to look the other way in the doctor comes in...wouldn't want him to think that I, too, was bored. Bored enough to put my very grow-up feet on her hiney and SHOVE her with all my might across the room so she can feel like superman for a moment...(alas, I didn't get a picture.)



Eventually, they come in and tell us what we want to know...

That her left hip has rounded the corner...after 2 years and 7 months there is some growth there...WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!! And her mobility is great in that leg. It ALMOST moves normally...and you'd have to MAKE her do something to prove that it doesn't move normally for you to be able to see it.

That her right hip is still in the fracture stage and it's GOING to fracture pretty close to the same amount that the left did...it's heading toward that C status that means 50%...all I can really say about it is "PRAISE GOD for growth plates!!" Apparently it can't fracture much further than the growth plate, so I, for one, am glad she's young enough to still have them. The mobility in that hip isn't GREAT, but is well within normal ranges for the fracture stage...and I will say, so much better than it was in May.

Having spent the last 2 years and 7 months looking at her left hip...this right hip is breaking down FAST! It's hard to tell you exactly HOW close the two are in the digital X-ray that they wave in front of me...but between the growth on the left and the break down on the right, the femoral heads look to be within a couple of millimeters of one another in size. Now, a couple of millimeters is still quite a big difference when you are talking about break down or growth; but where the left femoral head looked like an orange rotting as it broke down (you know slowly diminishing)...this one looks more like someone took an electric sander to it. Sorry for the heebie jeebies that visual might have caused.

AND they made us give back the walker and the zoomy pink wheelchair. Now to be fair, we haven't used the walker in a couple of months. And the wheelchair only really gets used at Walmart and Costco. And, I really do have to say, they did offer to let us have it until they could order us one...so it's probably unfair to say that they MADE us give it back. But we don't have it anymore and we left it there...sooo... They do think she is stable enough to go without it most of the time...(sigh)...and this really is a good thing. A VERY good thing. If only I could get my irrational fears and "what ifs" to pipe down already.

So there it is. The event that I let wreck me on Sunday...the one that made me burst into tears turned out to be not such a big thing. My head knew it was gonna be okay...that we would deal with whatever came...my silly ole tear ducts just didn't get the message. Just keepin it real.

She's good. She's still broken...but her body is doin just exactly what they said it was gonna do...and we don't have to go to that wonderful (terribly stressful) place again for another six months...God willing and the crick don't rise.

See ya around...

The Trials of Womanhood...

Well technically, the trials of curly hair. Eh...I should have such trials!!!



See Bear...

Bear's hair has gone from luscious curls to straw in the last few weeks...

Bear's mom, can't stand it...



See Bear...

Bear doesn't understand why mom dragged her to the sink...hosed her head down...schmeared very smelly conditioner in her hair and put a bag on her head...



See Bear...

Bear wishes everyone would stop gigglin at her "hair-do" and that 15 minutes felt more like 2 minutes because she is bored bored bored of this beauty ritual...



See Bear...

Bear is happy that the timer beeped...

See Monkey Face...

Monkey Face is happy to see the camera AND has finally gotten control of her giggles.

Bear's mom hopes that Bear will look less like a scarecrow and more like Goldilocks momentarily...



hmmmmm...Demented Goldilocks...some girls have ALL the luck...

See ya around...

Blogging Trips...

(Saw this coming at me on the 20 Fwy in West Texas (I think)...took a bit of adrenaline and about 2 minutes to decide what I was seeing...it's being towed...but at first I thought it might be coming at me...as I was going about 80, it didn't take too long to realize I wasn't dashing head-long into an on-coming truck...taking the picture at that speed was something of an adventure...but I won't tell you cuz my mom reads here and she REALLY does not want to know.)

This has been the year of trips...

The first trip was not fun, but a trip nonetheless...that would be the hospital trip back in March. Now that one wasn't too hard to blog. We were in the middle of something big emotionally AND I, personally, was bored most of the time...well maybe not bored...but certainly with not much to do. Besides, I had people emailing me questions all the time and it's much easier to answer questions than come up with something out of nothing when you are stressed...


(Mt. Rainier out the window of my plane. This is one of the about 10 pictures that I took the entire trip...)

Then in June my GramMarie died and I traveled alone to Washington state. That was a trip too. And if I'm to be honest, it was fun...and heart wrenching...and nostalgic ...and too full of emotions, both good and bad to write anything WORTHY of the experience even now. In the midst, I didn't blog because I was busy. SO busy. Cataloging her life...scanning photos...singing songs...chattering with cousins and aunts, uncles, 2nd cousins, Greats of all kinds...remembering...


(The girls in their traveling clothes on our trip to Arizona. This was a rest stop in Texas somewhere. I'm pretty sure it was Texas because by New Mexico all the rest stops had "Beware of Rattlesnake" signs.)

Then there was the trip to Grandma's (my mommy) in July. It was a spur of the moment trip, if a 4 day road trip can be called "spur of the moment". And it was a HOOOT!!! We had a blast. Bubba got to come out and be with us and see some sites and just play in the pool. July in August in Arizona means submerged or air conditioning, there are no exceptions...

I've actually TRIED to blog the Arizona trip a couple of times...but there are just too many pictures AND it's been a little over a month ago and there's this other trip we are on RIGHT NOW...


(this is the first night in our hotel...My best friend (known on this blog as SP) made our shirts...which we have worn all over the place...that green garners us quite a bit of attention.)


That's right. Our third annual GIRLY trip. You know the one. Where my friend and her girls meet me and my girls in a central location in these United States and then come back to my house to explore the sites...

I'm living it, RIGHT NOW, TODAY! But as I'm looking over the pictures...there's just so much stuff. There are songs that we are singing...bugs that we are finding...food we are cooking/baking/eating...giggling that we are doing...

And you know how dumb giggling sounds after the fact? Here, I'll give you an example...In the car yesterday, Monkeyface was having an issue with her seat belt...and I'd just issued my standard GITCHER-BELT-ON-RIGHT-NOW-growly-momma-face when she said in her sweet-little-4yo-trying-to-be-macho voice "Buckle-up Buttercup!" The CAR fell apart, laughing.

Okay...so all that to say...BAH, I'm a terrible trip blogger. AND expect when things get a little dry in our school year for me to pull back some of these trip images COMPLETELY in the wrong order.

There, you've been warned. And I've blogged. HA! Two birds with one stone...


(Here are their faces...is Tibbie, Beanie, Bear, Gabby, Monkey Face, Coco and Topo...quite a crew, I'll tell ya...and yes, we are having a blast!!)

See ya around...

Baptism...

Beanie has been talking about getting baptized for a couple of years now. She was actually scheduled to attend the baptism "party" at our church last year, when our newest little cousin-type-person was born and her momma needed our help and we took off to Colordo.

So when the party came around this year...we were DEFINITELY going...

It was quite a party. For some reason, I didn't GET that there was a pool party to begin it. I should have gotten it. I should have worn my suit or asked Bubba to wear his because the little girls couldn't go in without us and so ended up scampering around in the grass, tackling their Daddy...I think they had fun anyway...actually I think Bubba had MORE fun...



I really took a bunch more pictures...but as ever...other people's children were involved so you don't get to see them...so sorry...

When it came right down to it, Bear decided that she also wanted to be baptized. We'd talked about it a bit before to be sure she knew what it was all about. I'm so thankful they got to share this. I share my baptism date with a best girl friend and it is such a wonderful memory to me.

Here they are waiting their turn by the side of the pool...



Bear ended up going first...here's Miss Bear...



And here is Beanie...



It was a blessed day and a great experience.

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we ...also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection...Romans 6:3-5

See ya around...

Critiquing my Bedroom...

You know...after 6 years in a place, things start really looking a little run down. They aren't what you fell in love with when you moved in.

Take my bedroom, for instance...


I mean seriously...When one of my children decorated my bedspread with sharpie marker, I never dreamed I'd be standing here over a year later still just using the under blanket...and what's with the pillow sticking out from under the bed...oh and that blue thing...that's a heating pad from several months ago when Beanie was alternating heat and ice...when did I stop putting this stuff away?



Just look at that night stand...SHOES? Shoes go in the closet...and SURELY I'm not reading all those books...I'm a homeschool mom...I have proof on this VERY blog that there are BOOKSHELVES in this house...and I'm not even going to mention the laundry on the dresser...



This would be Bubba's side...I had to be honest because my mother reads here and even without caption, she would know whose side was whose simply because she lived with me for many years. But the nice thing about Bubba's side, is that you can see the furniture...I guess I really do like my furniture. It was Bubba's pick though. I am not terribly good at choosing furniture for the "pretty"...I'm all about comfort and not above sitting on gold and green velor IF it's comfortable...but I digress.



Yeah, I really do like my furniture...the fluffy pretty part needs some work...but I think the room has good bones.

Still I wish I could do something about the pillows...they are SO lumpy...



See ya around...

In Case Daddy Shaves me Bald...

From 08.2009.Pics

The little girls and I stopped in to Sam Moon on our travels today, I'm looking for a bigger bag (didn't find one). In Sam Moon is this WHOLE wall of hair pieces and wigs and stuff that we looked at.

About 10 minutes later, we were out in the car and Bear said, "Momma, if Daddy accidentally shaves me bald, can we go to Sam Moon and get me a wig?" I said, "Bear, seriously, what are the chances that Daddy is gonna shave you bald." She said, "Just in case!!"

I laughed so hard that I'm afraid I could not confirm.

See ya around...

On the Occasion of my 15th Anniversary...

On a wonderful blog that I've found called Malphi, I discovered a poem that SHOULD have been my acceptance of Bubba's proposal a little over 15 years ago...bless his heart.

Yes, I'll Marry You by Pam Ayres



Yes, I'll marry you, my dear,
And here's the reason why;
So I can push you out of bed
When the baby starts to cry,
And if we hear a knocking
And it's creepy and it's late,
I hand you the torch you see,
And you investigate.



Yes I'll marry you, my dear,
You may not apprehend it,
But when the tumble-drier goes
It's you that has to mend it,
You have to face the neighbour
Should our labrador attack him,
And if a drunkard fondles me
It's you that has to whack him.



Yes, I'll marry you,
You're virile and you're lean,
My house is like a pigsty
You can help to keep it clean.
That sexy little dinner
Which you served by candlelight,
As I do chipolatas,
You can cook it every night!



It's you who has to work the drill
and put up curtain track,
And when I've got PMT it's you who gets the flak,
I do see great advantages,
But none of them for you,
And so before you see the light,
I do, I do, I do!



Happy 15 years, My Love...you've filled me with laughter and joy and love and a million other things that make me who I am and I will ever be grateful.

As for the rest of you...See ya around...