Why I spent the afternoon steam cleaning the car

Crazy as Bed Bugs

So tonight my grandmother had chest pain and was rushed to the ER. She is there tonight for observation but we think she may have had a small heart attack and they want to watch her. Her last set of tests came out fine but her blood pressure has been very high.

I had to bring Pop to see her before I took him home to stay with the night nurse. I filmed this for fun before she was admitted for the night, before she realized a heart attack may have happened and before they cried they wanted to die together. Yes folks...I had another fun night in an ER...urghhhhhh!!!!!

Rainy Sunday

It's a rainy day here.

I thought getting out and getting to church would be good for us. It's not raining all that hard, just a nice on and off steady rain that we so desperately need. The homily at mass was all about death and how the deaths of your loved ones change who you are. "We were born to die" he said and from there on you can imagine how well I handled it.

Cooper was an angel in church so I guess I was supposed to hear the homily. He sat next to me and Rob and Sister Cyrill. (yes Laurie, you read that right..Sister is my new BFF, I even see her in Publix at least once a week with Hershall the happy bagger - who now by the way always gives Cooper a balloon). Anyway...Cooper danced with the bongo man and ate goldfish through mass...even I had some string cheese. Sister comment how good he was. It was nice. Besides all the death stuff..it was nice.

We came home and I made the best grilled salmon (if I do say so myself) and now I am relaxing watching the most annoying "Real Housewives" ever...the New York group. I know some family members who are the real housewives in the Bronx and they would take that show to a whole other level!

Yesterday I went to Nathan and Reese's soccer game and watched the kids back at Jake's house while he got some errands done. I was relieved to find Hope's wedding ring that had been missing since before her passing. Right in her purse where she left it. She had left me a note it was somewhere else and I looked and looked for months on and off but yesterday I felt the strong need just to look in her purse. Right in the first place, the inside front pocket, was Jake's family ring. I was happy to give it to him as soon as he came home.

Cooper is saying "ball, go, eat and a version of balloon (thanks Publix). But good Lord he never stops saying Pop Pop and "eek eek" over and over again! (He calls Phina a monkey..eek eek! because she does that everytime he sees her). He cried when I went to Grammie's house today to get her newspaper. I think he thought he'd see his Grammie.

All and all it has been a nice weekend.

Oh and Baxter is living among the dinosours now. He is so ready to go home..Cooper chased him all morning and I could tell by the look on his face he was like "Lady..I am over it. Take me home".

Finally Friday

Thought I'd share with you this picture I snapped this morning. Rob has been trying to escape being woken by Cooper and Baxter by sneaking into the spare room/office. Guess they found him!

Happy Friday :)

Houston: Grammie has landed

Grammie is off to Houston to visit Grant...oh yeah and Kimmy and Trey too. She is there to help Kimmy unpack from the big move! Baxter is already received more hugs in one morning that I think the dog would like but he doesn't seem to mind...Cooper of course is thrilled to have his little friend to play with.

Cooper reminds Baxter to say "ruff ruff" but then tells him to "shhhh". Too cute!

Lifelong friends

Tonight we went out with good friends to celebrate my birthday..my birthday do-over.

More than once I had a tear in my eye... I was having such a good time. It made the night even more special to turn and catch others wiping tears away as well. Here's to lifelong friendships!

You can see the kids all bonded as well :)

Feeling better

We are on the mend :)

Not such a Happy Birthday after all

So yesterday was not the best of days. As I mentioned, Cooper woke up throwing up on me and the day just got worse from there. His Dr wasn't able to see him so he were stuck having to go to the ER since he was having trouble breathing. He needed a breathing treatment and I didn't have a nebulizer at home ( I do now though!). So...off Cooper and Grammie and I went for a LONG day yesterday. If you have used any of the steroids or nebulizer on your kids, you know it makes them CRAZY...once given treatment, Cooper was bouncing off the walls!

The highlight of course was Cooper's gown they gave him to wear, his charm which he used on everyone in the hospital and of course the prescription I needed for the nebulizer and the meds for his upper respiratory infection.

The hard part of the day was being in a hospital. It was not the one that Hope passed away in but the one where my dad did and with Hope's passing just 2 months ago...I felt like I had post traumatic stress. Every beep and common noise of the hospital set me off emotionally.When they made me ride with Cooper in a wheelchair to get Xrays (they were thinking pneumonia) all I could see was Hope in the chair and me pushing her ....I begged them not to make me ride in it but "hospital policy" almost caused me to fall into sobs right there in the ER. I pulled it together but I was not really happy. I used every mindful activity I could so that moment and the image of her would pass. It eventually worked.

Grammie was not surprised that I whipped out the cell phone video/camera to entertain ourselves while waiting....so of course I have to share :)

Even though the actual birthday sucked, I do have plans this weekend. Friday I have plans with Jake and the boys, the Griffens and Jennifer Price to have a bday dinner with us so I think I will declare Friday my bday do-over!

Happy 36 to me :)

So I had to just jump on here quickly to say that Meredith and Laurie have outdone themselves with the birthday blogs to me....too funny... and just wait ladies...I have some good stuff on you too! So check out A Daily Dose in Life and Myrtle's Mayhem.

Cooper is really sick and I started my day with him throwing up on me so...Happy Bday to me! There really is no other place I'd rather be today to be honest.

Thanks for all for the well wishes :)

Launch of Discovery

We've had a nice day visiting with family and watching the shuttle take off. It was a beautiful launch where you could see the reflection of the sun setting in smoke of Discovery. Cooper is getting a cold and has a runny nose...let's hope it goes away soon.

Hope-Full Saturday

Cooper and I spent the morning with Jake and the boys at their soccer games and got to visit with Jake's aunt Nancy whom both Hope and I ADORED and spent so much time with. She even met us in Chicago when Hope and I took our famous Oprah trip there. Nacy is so dear and it was so nice to spend time with her.

I love spending time with the boys and don't seem to miss Hope as much when I am around them. Jake was the coach for both teams so you can spot him in the pics getting in on some of the action. We had a great day...Reese was very playful and Cooper hugged Nathan every chance he could get...he so loves those boys!

Last night we had dinner with my mom's cousin Arlene and also had such a nice visit with her. We are getting ready for Nana and Papa to come over and to watch the shuttle Sunday night!

Gifts!

Monday is my birthday and my sister just sent me this totally cool camera strap I had to share! Those of you who I know would love to have one (Mere, Aimee!) ..I am not sharing with you where this came from....you are next on the list to get ones as gifts! So fun :) Thanks Kimmy!

Like Father like Son

While digging through old pics today, Rob and I were struck with how Cooper and Rob share so many similarities. This is a pic we snapped of Cooper the other day and this is Rob at 20 years old. Rob's shorts crack me up!

Spring Forward

We have had such a great weekend enjoying the outdoors! Sat we went to the craft fair....here are some of my favorite shots. Cooper looked for birds and ran around the park like a crazy man.

I included the dog pick below because most of you know my annoyance at dogs dressed up/pushed in strollers at these craft fairs. Why does it annoy me so? (hey it's my blog...I can pontificate here)....because there are children starving around the world, our foster care system filled with kids who need homes, yet we as a society think it's cool to spend money to dress up dogs and push them around in strollers. I know, I know I should lighten up but these people just creep me out. I don't get it...at...all. When I said something about the owner being part of the red hat society...she corrected me to tell me the dogs where ladies of the red hat society, not her. Oh..ok lady.

Cooper and I went to the beach today for a picnic lunch and just had an all around nice day. Chasing birds and the random jogger continues to be a favorite activity as well as digging in the sand and flinging it on me and our blanket. It was crowded today .... beach season has begun.

We figured out how to hang the skim board in the bathroom, it's up and not coming down anytime soon! Hope you are enjoying your weekend wherever you are.

Time flies

Is this my little 5 lb 9 ounce baby boy? I swear one day he was a baby and the next...he was a little boy.

Bathroom re-model

We are still finishing up the final touches of paint trim and decorations, but Cooper was very surprised when he saw his new bathroom this morning looking more put together than it has in days. When I was at Aimee's a few weeks ago and saw that we had the same shower curtain and she had a cute surf theme...I was inspired. Mom and I have been painting the tan walls blue, replacing the large wall mirror with one more to scale, shopping for our surf theme and trying to find the right organizer for the wall. We even bought a small surf/skim board to hang on the other main wall ...we haven't figured out how to hang it up yet but I'll let you know when we do.

Hello!