These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

One of my favorite things is to get telephone calls from my grandkids. What a thrill to hear their little voices on the phone. Keegan can get so excited and talks so fast that often I need an interpreter to get the whole conversation.

The other day I got a call that just made my day. Norma's oldest daughter, Morgan recently turned 11. Wow! I can remember that first week of walking the floor with her as she adjusted to life in the big world. I came home from my initiation into grandmotherhood just exhausted. Well, for the girls birthdays this year I sent them cute swimsuits with matching swim shorts. In the middle of the afternoon, I got a call from Morgan! She was so excited because she had come home to a package from Grandma Peggy!! She told me all about the end of the school year and the parties she had been invited to. One happened to be a pool party and now she had a new swimsuit to wear! It was so fun to talk to her and hear her enthusiasm as she told me all about her plans. She was so happy to have shorts to wear over the swimsuit because she hates just wearing a swim suit by itself. How I know how that feels! Morgan is growing up!

The best part of the call for me was that it was just her. As far as I know, Mom was at work. What a thrill to have your grandchild call you all on her own and to visit with me one on one. We are trying to arrange a visit with just Morgan this summer. The other girls have been promised their own one on one with Grandma when they are old enough. What fun! Anyway, Happy Birthday Morgan. We love you!

Look What the Cat Dragged In

Oh how I wish I had a picture to go with this, but Reed was so efficient that I didn't get a picture in time. It happened a couple of weeks ago. Jackie and family were down for the weekend. Realize that when she comes, the whole house changes. I mean we are talking 2 boys that are about to turn 4 and 1. So obviously noise level, chaos and general bedlam increases. I am not complaining mind you, just trying to get you to picture this in your mind. Well, we have a cat. She is a small, mostly black, flat faced persian. By small, I mean she weighs in at a whopping 8 pounds. Now, add 2 boys and a dog and you begin to see what the cat feels like. Mushu (the cat) tolerates the boys, but she in not fond of children. I don't know if she was trying to bring a peace offering or was letting everyone know just how tough she was, but we walked outside and here she sits with a small rabbit. Now before you get all Bambi on me, you must know that for the sake of tender hearts I will not call them bunnies. But around here, these rabbits are destructive and not loved. They eat the tender new shoots on our trees and do major damage. Being rabbits, they constantly are repopulating around here. At this point in time we need a few evenings of spotlight hunting. I am hoping that the men will take the opportunity as everyone descends on us this weekend, to enjoy some time out in the back of the truck with their shotguns!! Anyway, here sits the cat with a little rabbit. Mushu, only weighing 8 pounds had brought home a rabbit that had to have weighed about 4 or 5 pounds. I don't know where she caught it, but I was impressed. Nice gift to find on your doorstep in the morning! In contrast, as Reed and I mowed down at the cabin, Riley, the 75 pound dog was trying to impress us with his mousing skills. He would chase and catch field mice as Reed was mowing down the grass and weeds. Gross, but funny to watch a 75 pound dog pounce and catch a mouse.

Coulda Woulda Shoulda

I have been really bad about updating this blog. Do you ever have times that you create blogs posts in your mind? Somehow mine are not getting from my mind onto the computer. So here it is 2:30am and my mind won't shut off, so I will start a series of blogs that I intended to post, but somehow never got around to doing it. Maybe then I can go to sleep! Realize that by the time you read this, you will have been through some of my posts since everything gets posted that way!

I've Been Tagged X2

Okay, okay. I have been tagged twice so I guess I better respond! Here goes the one for Megan: Ato Z
A: Attached or Single: Happily attached for 31 years!!
B: Best Friend: Reed
C: Cake or Pie: Oh, that is a toss up. Cake if it is chocolate and pie if it is chocolate chip!
D: Day of Week. All depends on the week, but mostly Saturday
E: Essential item: Make up. Gotta have it!
F: Favorite color: Pink, blue and lavender
G: Greatest Accomplishment: Being a mom - and all that that entails!
H: Hometown: Corvallis
I: Indulgences: Chocolate peanut butter ice cream. Shopping for me!
J: January or July: It's a toss up because I love snow, but probably July, I love the beach.
K: Kids: 4 of my own, plus a foster daughter
L: Life is incomplete without: what else - my family
M: Marriage date: March 19th ( yes Reed, not the 22nd or 25th)
N: Number of siblings: 5 all sisters
O: Oranges or Apples: definitely apples
P: Phobias: My head under the water
Q: Quotes: There are so many: "That is a movie too much" (for A Bridge to Far), Are you taking me out? (usually directed to my husband at various times throughout the month!), and "That is so gross" (again usually directed towards my husband!)
R: Reason to smile: Reed, grandkids, sunshine, I can lift my leg!
S: Season: Christmas and summer
T: Tag five friends: Do I have five friends? Jayme (Ha, see if you do it), Jodie, Jessica, Katie, and Ollie (no recipes!)
U: Unknown fact about me: I am really very shy! I have a healthy fear of the water
V: Very Favorite Store: Which ever one has the clothes I like!
W: Worst Habit: Ummm, I don't know!
X: Xray or Ultra sound: Probably ultra sound, but it's a toss up
Y: Your favorite food: Ice cream, specifically Tillamook chocolate peanut butter
Z: Zodiac: Capricorn

There you have it, more than you ever wanted to know about me.

The New Metal Me!!

I know that it has been a while since I have posted. I have had my surgery and am now recovering. It is a slow process, but I am coming along nicely. A HUGE thank you to my family for being such a big help and keeping me going.

I had surgery on the 14th of April to replace my right knee. It is now a titanium knee with a special plastic insert instead of cartlidge. The surgery lasted about 2 hours and I was not put completely under. I was heavily sedated and given the amnesia drug so I don't remember much of anything. I was awake into the operating room and awake when I left. That way they were able to administer pain medication that kept me going until I was awake enough to swallow new pain medication. I have a about 6 inch incision on my knee and then a drain tube was on the side of my knee. An interesting thing they did was to take the blood that was draining from my knee and filter it and infuse it back to me. That meant I was getting my own blood and did not need a transfusion. Very interesting. After 24 hours that was removed. I don't have stitches or staples. I was glued back together. This will hopefully minimize the scar. By Tuesday they had me standing up and was able to use the bathroom on my own.
By Wednesday afternoon the Dr. told me I could go home if I wanted, but I didn't feel ready. So we stayed until Thursday morning. Since the nurses weren't ready to release me Wednesday afternoon, I am glad I stayed. It would have been late by the time they got everything ready for me and Thursday was exhausting enough. I have graduated from using a walker, to crutches to a cane. I walk around the house pretty much by myself. I am VERY slow.
I have twice weekly visits to the physical therapist. I will be in therapy until July, but as much as it hurts, I know it helps. I have had weekly visits to the family doctor to have my blood levels checked. I am on coumadin for about 1 month. My levels are currently doing really good, so I get to stretch that appointment out to 2 weeks. I got to go to Costco the other day with Reed and Jessica. I rode around on one of those carts, but I was so exhausted by the time that I got home that I immediately went to sleep!!
I worked really hard for 2 weeks just the raise my leg off the bed. Now they make me do leg raises everyday. I also was able to accomplish getting me leg to do a full revolution on the stationary bike. All this was accomplished with great pain. But as Jessica says to me (all the time)"no pain, no gain"!! I have threatened to get a little doll and make it a voodoo doll of Jess and start sticking it with pins. But since she has command of my legs, I don't think I would get far. But actually Jess has been wonderful. She takes care of the meals, the cleaning, the washing as well as supervising my exercises. She is quite accomplished at this after taking care of her grandfather 2 different times for knee replacement surgeries over the last 6 months. Her pay off finally came as she recieved her acceptance to grad school at PSU. We are so excited for her!!
I will try to get some pictures up later, but for now, this gives you an update on me!

Lovin' It

Here are the latest pictures. We have mostly moved in. I am still getting used to using a kitchen again. I find that I keep thinking that I need to conserve my dishes and use paper plates, cups and plastic silverware. I keep thinking of things to eat that are made in a crock pot or microwave, so I am slow to really USE the kitchen. Besides, last week I worked at the High School scheduling 260 parents for parent/teacher conferences. That might not seem like much, but when you think about each student having up to 7 different classes, that is quite a feat. But between sessions of conference, I have cleaned and tried to organize and get things put away. I absolutely love it so far. I love the openess that carries into the living room. I love the blending and coordinating of colors. I am just excited to be done.

I wish I could say the same for the upcoming surgery. I find that I am waking in the middle of the night. I don't know if it is pain or anxiety, but I am awake for a couple of hours. It is getting old. I also ran out of some medication that I have been on for years to help with PMS. Now granted I don't suffer from periods anymore, but I still have ovaries, so I still have problems. Well, insurance wouldn't refill my meds without me seeing the regular Dr. So after 2 weeks of no mood helpers, I find that I am an absolute bawl baby. I have cried over everything and anything. Thank goodness I have just started taking them again, but it may take a while to get back on track. It doesn't help that Jessica keeps laughing at me!!

Next week is Dr. appointments every day, plus they finish the remodel (hopefully) and we have the walk through. Just in time for surgery. Fun, fun, fun!!!D

Lessons to Learn

This whole remodel business has been a learning experience for me. One of the main things I learned is that things will go wrong. I realized that up front and we had our share of problems. Next, I learned that just when you think it will turn out okay, something else will come up. Nothing is perfect. Then I learned a huge lesson for me. Even though you know there are problems, stay away and let them solve them. I learned that I don't need to stress the things that are going on. They have to be fixed, let them do their job and don't worry about the fact that it went wrong. Just get it fixed. I think this applies to life as well. I need to quit worrying about what goes wrong and just move forward and get it fixed! Last was an interesting one for me. I guess that I am a pleaser. Or I don't want to rock the boat. Whatever! When I didn't like what they had done with the plugs above the cabinets (they showed)I was willing to live with it. I would try to decorate around it. Finally, Reed pointed out to me that we were paying good money for this and they should do it the way I wanted. I do not need to make do, just because I don't want to be a pain or because I don't want to get people mad at me. Hence, the kitchen is NOT done yet. We still are missing 2 cabinet doors, and a shelf. All the plugs are being moved. Those that are at the counter top level were too low. The backsplash hit all the covers, so they have to be moved. The ones above the cabinets have to be lowered, so they are not visible. Consequently, there are holes in my walls. All this need to be patched and repaired and painted. The hard part is that all the cabinets are in! At least I don't have to do it. It is their error, so they have to fix it.
I LOVE my counter tops! I find that I am always rubbing my hands across them. I love the color and an so excited to have it all done.
This weekend we were able to begin moving in. The refridgerator is in along with the stove and dishwasher. The stove and dishwasher are not completely in, but we are able to use them. We are celebrating with brownies tonight!!! I do have to clear everything off the counters tonight and cover them with paper again. Oh the joy of having workers in your home all the time!
Here are a couple of pictures to get you excited!