Springtime!

One good thing I have learned from being in this state of having a crippled body is having the time to observe the little things around me. I've always loved Springtime, but I've come to a new appreciation of the majesty of God's creations. We have our home nestled in the middle of the orchard and over the years it has become refuge to many species of birds. As I was looking out my bedroom window the other day I noticed a pair of mourning doves paying particular attention to an abandon nest left by robins last year. To my delight, they proceeded to set up housekeeping in that nest...and to my surprise, two little eggs have been produced! :) The momma dove has been very nurturing to those eggs, so I'm sure we will have some little babies in not too long.

Madie and I decided to celebrate the season and decorate some eggs together for Easter. We had tons of fun together laughing at each other and trying not to make huge messes while showing off our creativity. We ended the evening with Madie making us blueberry waffles. (Madie has been a wonderful buddy through all of this difficult "stuff".)

A road I wish had not been taken

Oh yes, this is me...and I do feel as rotten as I look! This has been an incredible journey over the past six weeks. I entered the hospital to get a revision on my left prosthetic knee on February 26th- unfortunately it didn't get done because of intense infection in my tissues that hadn't been detected until I got into surgery. Consequently IV antibiotics were started immediately. This is me in the hospital two weeks after my "initial" surgery. My kidneys were shutting down from an adverse reaction to the medications they had me on- don't I look like I'm ready for a party?! I am doing a little better now thanks to a blood transfusion. I am patiently waiting for the go ahead for surgery again, I hope in a month...this next time they will be putting my new knee in :)

A good laugh

Madie came home today with a baby that she had to "take care of" for her health class. This doll 'simulates' what it is like to have a real baby to take care of (not really). Whenever the baby cries this annoying cry, Madie has to quickly run over and plug in a key that is tied to her wrist into the baby's back and hold it there until it makes another annoying noise to let you know that it is pacified. The last time it took almost a half hour- Madie was thoroughly annoyed and I had to supress my laughter watching her face. She ground her teeth and said words like, "this is the most annoying, stupid piece of plastic!" The bad part is you have to hold it there because the computer in the doll will record that the baby was not "taken care of". I'm enjoying the fact that Madie will have to "get up" with the doll during the night, and she'll have to carry it on the bus tomorrow morning in it's carseat.

Happy New Year!

I'm not very good at this posting thing...it has been quite awhile since I have sent anything. I do want to share one of my sweetest blessings that took place late in November of "08". I had the privilege of flying over to Virginia to help Wendy with all the preparations in getting to deliver little Penny. It was a very busy time and Grandma quickly learned the routine "stuff" in taking care of Ally and Sam. The kids were patient with me as I learned the ropes...even when I got lost using the GPS trying to get to the mall with the kids. We got stuck in rush hour traffic going the wrong direction and I was a bit tense. Finally, after an hour of driving, Ally said "Sammy, I think Grandma is lost!" Sam replied, "I think we need to put her in jail with the bad guys!" (he was forever cracking me up with hilarious little things that only a 3 yr. old can come up with. You should hear him pray! It is hard to keep a straight face!) Needless to say, by the time I got back to Wendy's house I was almost in tears and I found out that the Mall was only about 8 minutes from their home- hmmm. Technology is a bit distressing for me :( I loved taking care of the kids and hanging out spending time with Wendy and Rey and helping Wendy prepare for the holidays. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I was surprised by beautiful flowers Nolan wired me for my birthday that same weekend. I loved my time there and I thoroughly LOVED with my grandkids. Welcome to our family sweet Penny!!!

Here we are in Washington DC enjoying the sights. The weather, for the most part, cooperated wonderfully and it wasn't too miserably humid. Our only disappointment was the American History museum was closed for renovation until this fall!