Congrats!!

I'm sure there were lots of graduates this week but none means more to us than A!! Congrats baby on a job well done! We love you and are proud of you. This is my blurry pic of A getting her diploma. Well, the cover anyway. They with held the actual diplomas until they were sure the grads didn't pull any funny business. The ceremony was very nice and those who gave speeches did a nice job. At one point J was worried when the third person got up to make a speech and he asked if they were all going speak. He was worried about time.

The nice pic of A getting her diploma is below. I have no idea what blogger was doing with that but I didn't feel like fighting. Here is A's bf in the tie he borrowed from T. It's appropriate. Trust me.

Awww. Aren't they cute?

The "twins".

J trying on A's hat.

A decorated her own cake. I made a chocolate and a yellow and put them together and we were trying for burgundy frosting but that's a bit difficult. A cut the cap and diploma from fondant.

And here is the pic of A getting her diploma. Thanks for taking this, Mr. F.

On the way home this evening...

...this is what we saw. The two bright spots at the top of the hill is the sun shining down and glaring off the road.

Party time

We are getting close to the day of A's graduation and the party. My dad has been very busy getting the yard looking nice. The cover is off the pool and thankfully this year there were just some tadpoles on the cover and one bloated frog in the pool. Last year there were bloated mice in the water and it was very nasty. And there were always a lot of tadpoles. The water doesn't look too bad at all this year.

I've bought most of the food and drinks for the party though I'm sure I'm missing something. Mr. R is going to come and grill chicken. Woot! We are borrowing tents but praying that it doesn't rain.

I had a good report at my Dr. appointment today. We will continue the hand therapy for 2-4 more weeks and I see the doc again in 4 weeks. If the scars have not stretched out and swelling is still an issue he will try to inject it with something. I feel like it will heal well by itself. Oh, he doesn't think it's a stitch that's still in it, just some blood that will eventually get resorbed. My doc has 5 adopted children so we spent a lot of time talking about kids. His oldest is going to the day camp that J went to last year.

Diesel went outside and got greasy in the car stuff that T is working on. Since he still has fleas and got greasy A gave him a bath. I think she just wanted to bathe him. He wasn't thrilled with it but is none the worse for wear. I will put more flea stuff on him tomorrow.

T took a vacation day to work on the car that A drives. He just got back from getting more parts. Sigh...pray that he gets it going soon and stays safe while working on it. A drove T's truck to work and thoroughly enjoyed that.

I am enjoying this week and looking forward to graduation and the party but I will be glad when it's over. Then we have to settle into our summer routine, whatever that is.

Perfect

J got a Perfect Attendance certificate at school today. I don't think any of the rest of us ever had perfect attendance. How cool is that? And what am I going to do with this kid for summer vacation?!? Ahhhh!

Still having lots of fun with Diesel. He's a very active kitten and wants to play with everything. J has had a fun time with him and we all like to pick him up and cuddle or rough house with him.

My mom used to have a Grady Nutt tape and he told a story about sitting on rough cut benches at church and that the women didn't like them because they would "snag your knits." I have hung on to that saying and use it when I snag on something or think I might. Or when the cats claw us. Diesel has been doing a lot of that. J picked up on my "snag your knits" saying. Only when he says the long "a" sound it comes out more like a short "o" sound. And he doesn't always get the correct consonants either. So the other day Diesel jumped up on J's leg and J said, "Hey! You snog my knicks!" He's so funny. And yes, I've been saying "snog your knicks" ever since then.

Danger zone

T and A's bf, P, went to a pull a part type place yesterday to get a new to us transmission for Elvis. It's a place where you have to pull the parts off the junk vehicles yourself. Things were going fine until T dropped the transmission on his finger. When he got home he was taking a shower and kept trying to scrub the pretty colors off his finger. He finally realized it was bruising. We live in a danger zone.

Life

Another hand pic. I think it's doing really well. I had therapy again today and I've really worked at stretching it. It's not as swollen on the back of my wrist but it's still quite swollen on the inside. The therapist was duly impressed with how far I could bend it. The jury is still out on whether or not there is a stich still in it. It's about half and half with No and maybe.

Love this pic. T hates it but it's so cute. Diesel was just hanging there by himself because he wanted to chew on T's zipper pull.

T's aunt and uncle were here last night so we gave them our bed and we slept in A's room and she went upstairs. We had Diesel in A's room with us. He was very busy and played with everything all night long (that's a song, isn't it?). When the alarm finally went off this morning I opened my eyes and Diesel was swinging from the curtains. Literally.

I spent the day with A today. She is exempt from her finals so she is basically done with school. She went to therapy with me and then we shopped. She was talking about someone being curvy and described her as "volumptuous". I said, I think you mean voluptuous. Volumptuous-voluptuous. So close. So close that she wants me to take a poll and see how many people think volumptuous is a word. So, what do you think? Is "volumptuous" a word?

Historical figure day

Today was historical figure day at J's school. He was Ferdinand Magellan. He did a speech in front of the whole school and I was told that he did a great job. It hasn't even been two full years that he's been home.

Majesty

I am loving this song right now. I hope this link works. Some of my favorite words from this song are; "... Your grace has found me just as I am. Empty handed but alive in Your hands. .... Here I stand knowing that I'm Your desire (think about that-God desires to be with us. How exciting is that?!) .... Forever I am changed by Your love..."

Diesel

We are having such a fun time with Diesel. Everything is a toy when you're a kitten. Everything. We have to keep the chairs pushed in at the table or he's on it. We had to take the antique milk bottles down so he wouldn't break them. Toes are toys and legs are something to be climbed. All of our crocs shoes have bite marks in them. He obviously likes the way they feel when he bites them. Misty is not nearly as taken by him as we are. He is attracted to her tail and likes to "catch" it, which sets her off. She is perpetually mad at him. It's kind of funny. She did slap him good the other day. She snagged his nose, lip and paw with her claws. He was much more cautious, for a short time. He is like Dexter was when he was a baby in that they play hard until they just fall asleep. Here is Diesel sleeping on the steps. 

Oops. We interupted his nap with our picture taking.

J likes the kitten other than when Diesel hangs from his pant legs. He's afraid to wear shorts around the kitten.

Diesel had to get his booster shots yesterday. He meowed at them very loudly letting them know he wasn't happy about it. Then he hissed at the vet while she was checking him out. They warned me that he might be a little lethargic from the shot but he was acting just fine, playing and running like usual. He was playing in the clean laundry and was all wrapped up in a bra strap, batting at my hands when he just fell asleep mid-bat.

He stayed there alseep all evening and night, didn't eat anything and woke up this morning just fine. Go figure.

Still muddling...

...but with an improved attitude. Makes the day look brighter. I don't know if it's the weather, a hormone shift or what. Today is just better.

J got a hit last night. Woot! That's his first hit of the season. We practiced with him before the game and he asked if he got a run could we get ice cream. T and I said if he could get a hit, we could get ice cream. He got his hit and it was caught nearly as soon as he hit it but T said, "Way to go, J. You get ice cream!" Some of the other parents looked at us and we told them about our conversation before the game. Then J got walked and one of the other parents said, "Hey. That must be good for 2 ice creams." And later yet another kid tagged someone out and their mom said, "Way to go. You get ice cream!" We all turned around and looked at her and laughed.

I was also having an interesting text conversation with a sick friend (one of the "CO Ladies") during the game. She went to 4 different places for medical care, 2 were full and one couldn't help her. Finally got to an urgent care clinic where she got two shots, a breathing treatment and 4 dif meds. I think the text conversation was so interesting because she kept referring to her cough medicine as "codeine punch". That pretty much explains it. Thanks for cheering me up, K!

I'm a little bummed about my wrist. I had therapy today and it's still so sore and swollen. I mentioned to the therapist that the doc had said recovery time was about 6 weeks. The therapist said, ummm. Maybe if you'd only had one thing done but you had two things done and even with one thing 6 weeks was a pretty optimistic guess. Well. Burst my bubble. Next week we start strengthening exercises. I guess that's good.

We are still totally enjoying Diesel. He bit T on the butt in bed last night. How funny is that?!?

This is Diesel swinging from the camera strap.

Batting at the camera while J tried to take a pic.

 He's so stinking cute! Even if he did ruin a curtain already.

Muddling

We are muddling through some difficult days. T's sister is in the hospital with a nasty skin infection. Please keep her in your prayers. Along with some other things going on. Sigh...Lysa TerKuerst had some good words yesterday and today. Go to her blog and check them out. They really ministered to me. 

We are thoroughly enjoying this little guy, whom we are calling Diesel for now. J accidently calls him "gassel". Diesel/gassel. So close.  

J is really enjoying playing with him. Misty is not enjoying him but we are.

Cats

We love our cats around here.

We lost our Dexter cat on Wed. He fought hemobartinella long and hard but it compromised his immune system and we'd get one thing cleared up and another would start. He stopped eating and drinking this week and his poor little body gave up. We loved our Dexter and will miss him greatly. We're so glad he's no longer suffering. He lived 13 1/2 happy, healthy years and was only sick the last couple months.

Here is a "baby pic" of Dexty. He was a very active kitten and into everything. He attacked his toys the hard way, like over and under the chair wrungs or going the long way. He ruined some plants, lamp shades and curtains.

He climbed up between the storm window and regular windows.

The girls grew up with him. They loved Dexter too. (Sorry for the blurry pics of pics. I don't have a scanner.)

I had no idea what I was doing when I had him declawed in front. I thought I was trying to save my curtains, plants and lampshades. But Dexter didn't know he was declawed. He climbed trees and bird houses.

Gone but not forgotten. Dexter Webster--Oct. 11, 1997-May 4, 2011

And now, introducing the newest member of our family. Our still unnamed baby boy. He is precious. He is so sweet and cuddly and we are all head over heels for him.

Does he not have the coolest markings ever? Name suggestions? Leave a comment.

Another hand pic

It just looks so much better. I'm amazed. The therapist is wondering if there are still some stitches left in the cyst incision. He will re-evaluate on Friday. It's doing much better today as far as swelling. Woot!

Oh, I mentioned to J that there might still be some stitches left in it and he went weak-kneed. He said, "Dey sewed your skin togeder?! Ugh, I don't feel so good. I don't want to tink bout dat." He's such a male.

More bullets

• I like bullets. They're easy.
• My wrist was one centimeter larger (more swollen) than last week at PT. I have been instructed to keep it elevated and iced.
• It finally stopped raining. Again. Wonder how long it will last. And what's up with the cold?
• J just asked if he could watch "Dancing With the Stars". He likes "The Biggest Looser" too. He used to refer to it as "That Big Fat Momma Show".
• We were studying states earlier. I didn't want to just give him the answers so we were looking at an atlas. I had him look up the states and see if he could identify them by shape. He asked if we had an atlas. I said, "Umm, that's what you're looking at, son."
• He finally got Vermont. I asked him what that one was right next to it. He said, "New Hamsters?"
• Apparently he also asked in class today at school that if you fly over the states, can you see the labels of the names of the states?

What's going on

Well, I said I wouldn't post any more pics of my wrist until it looked better. I think it looks a lot better. Some of the writing is still there but the yellow stuff is gone and the incisions look a lot better. Yes?

We tried to replicate the Door county fish boil that we all loved so much last summer. I found a recipe and it was a bit salty and we didn't have the right fish. We tried two different kinds and one we liked and one we didn't. Darned if we know which is which though. But overall it was pretty good. We will definitely keep trying.

I can't cut things up right now so J volunteered to cut up the onion. Here he is with his onion safety goggles (aka sunglasses) to protect his eyes. He still ended up teary eyed but he never complained.

Here is a  pic of another tree that went down in the storms last week. I know it's dark but the tree is broken off towards the top left and angles towards the bottom right.

And here is some of the water. We have a wet weather creek beside and in front of the house. It was rushing so fast that it had white water in it.

A got back from her senior trip. T did not have a chance to work on her car at all while she was gone. Now she is catching a ride with E. There was a shirt in her car that had been chewed on and pooped on by mice. She also found a 2 1/2-3ft. long chicken snake wrapped around the wheel/tire. She screamed (as much as she could as she has laryngitis) and her daddy and boyfriend came running with their hoe (T) and fence post (bf). What the heck were they going to do with those? The snake then went up into the engine compartment. They started the car but we never saw the snake again. Whole body quiver.

I have mixed emotions about Osama bin Laden's death. I can't say I'm sad he's gone but I'm not celebrating it. And really I think people are celebrating what is hopefully the end of the evil he represented. You can not master mind the death of thousands of people and just go on about your business, living in your million dollar home and then using your wife as a shield at the end. I believe he was an evil man and have no problem with the fact that he's gone from this earth. Unfortunately there are probably several more to take his place.

There are more storms heading our way. I will be glad when we get out of this weather pattern. Of course, then we'll be complaining about the heat, humidity, and lack of rain.

And that's what's going on in our neck of the woods.