Various and Sundry

W's doc appointment really didn't get us anywhere....This guy basically just said he needs more time to heal from the second surgery and he wouldn't suggest more surgery at this point. So we are still in the same boat we've been in for way too long...Wait and see. He sees the pain guy on the 7th, which will be another waste of time. Doesn't see the 2nd surgeon again until June. Sigh.

The pool is up and good and level. Still can't get in it, because the water is absolutely freezing. Another week maybe, once we can maintain good 80 degree days.

W's mom, sister and brother were in town for the day yesterday. I was at the station all day. While W and his brother did one thing, Grammy and L took Bubba shopping as a distraction. They were mainly in town to pick up all our baby furniture for M. Since they were taking Bubba's bed, which will convert back to a crib, they bought him a racecar bed. Not the Lightning McQueen one, but an awesome bed just the same. So they put it together and when Bubba came home, he had a big surprise...he loved it. I missed the unveiling, but they saved all the decals for me to do, which I'm not sure was a good thing. I got them all on, probably not very straight, but at least they are on. It takes up a lot more space and we have to rearrange his entire room, again. His dresser is currently in the spare bedroom. Not good. Eventually, we will get him a good dresser and a bookcase and be okay. Right now there is a small dresser, another kind of dresser and a bookcase topper thing, hard to explain. He has so many books (which is a good thing) they are spread out over the small dresser and topper.

We've got a softball rematch scheduled for the 8th. Should my team lose again, I don't think we'll ever hear the end of it around the office. I'm looking forward to it, I just don't wanna get so sore and hurt for a week again.

I've got a long road ahead of me the next few weeks. I got talked into working Sundays (this and next) at the station because the normal guy is out of town. What that means is my next day off is May 12. I am always so exhausted to begin with, and now I get to add more guilt over the fact that I'm spending MORE time away from W and Bubba on the weekends. I'm falling behind around the house with cleaning, and all the other chores. Ugh.

Let's top it all off by letting you know about the newest houseguests we have. No, not a cuddly kitten, or rambunctious puppy. Not even a furry ferret (which I would *love* to have someday.) No, we've apparantly become the new hangout for a band of hungry MICE! W found a chewed up poptart in the box this morning, along with a few fun poop deposits. So there I was scrambling around before coming to work at ten a.m. moving all the stuff around in the cupboards and trying to discover more damage. I thought we got off light, until I found a Ramen noodle package totally chewed into and munched on. And a bag of rice got a little munched. Also lots of poop. We had mice when we first moved in, almost 8 years ago, and apparantly they've found us again. I fixed up the blocker we've had in place under the sink, a towel wedged around the sink pipes that go underneath the house. Hopefully that's all it will take. Oh yeah, they totally avoided the fricking MOUSE POISON! Go figure. I took a bunch of pictures, of course, and will post them tomorrow from the office if I can.

All right, 50 laps to go in my favorite race, so I am off to pay attention. Have a good one y'all. I'll check in soon.

work work work

Hello all! I've been a bit quiet, I guess just because I've been busy. Lots of stuff getting done at home, in preparation for summer. W got a load of sand dumped into the back of his truck, and guess who was the lucky person who got to shovel it all out! And then rake it all somewhat level so that we could put the pool up. Yup, it was me. It was awesome exercise, so I didn't really complain that much.

We put the ginormous pool up this weekend (bought with leftover tax money) after more raking of sand and measuring this and that. And, of course, it still is totally uneven, thanks to the unlevel yard and apparantly, unlevel sand distribution. Did I mention, that you couldn't tell it was so unlevel until it was 3/4 full? SO. We then hurriedly helped our neighbor put their much smaller in size pool together, and are currently draining OUR pool into her pool. Then we get to attempt to FIX our pool. I must also mention and that A and I did a wonderful job leveling her pool. W came over after we got it up, and were putting the finishing touches on it, and was skeptical that the same strategy would fix ours, but later admitted that it might. We just have to wait now for ours to drain enough.

Also yesterday we spent the morning outside cleaning the vehicles a bit. Well, Bubba and I did my car, vacuuming the inside, and wiping down the dash and stuff. He was a great help, had so much fun, using a wipe on the doors and whatever. He's too cute. W put some treatment thing on my headlights because they were all dull and he was obsessing with them being fixed. Some kind of sandpaper/wipe on/wipe off treatment, and I must say, they look much better.

What else. G-ma went up to see my brother yesterday. I thought about taking Bubba along, but we decided to stick close and got all that stuff done at home instead.

I worked at the station Friday and Saturday nights, but didn't post. Friday I was catching up on blogs, and Saturday I was paying attention to the race for the most part, and playing Pogo as well.

Ok, that's about all that's going on. Still frustrated. Still broke. Two days until the neurosurgeon appointment. We are praying for some answers and I don't know....some way to get him fixed I suppose.

Before and after

We buzzed Bubba's hair off last nite. He was so excited for it, I couldn't resist. It had been getting really long, and I was tired of paying for a scissor cut, so we took the clippers to him. Here's the before and after, and all I wanna know is where did my little baby go?!?!!?!

Before:



After:

Birthday party

Bubba had his first invite to a party for R's daughter, C. (I work with R.) They held it at a place called Jammin' Jumpers. It's an old warehouse building, they've got like a third of it, and there are like five of thouse bounce house things set up. You know, the big, plastic things, that are constantly pumped full of air, that the kids get in and bounce around in? There were ladders to climb up, and then slides to comes down. The parents got to play, too, and lemme tell you, I think R's fiance had more fun than most of the kids. Bubba was all over C when we got there, it had been a while since they had played together. She favored him over all the other kids there, too, it was so sweet. She wouldn't let anyone else sit beside her when it was time for cake, she told them, "No, that seat is for Bubba!" Most of the pictures are blurry, because, of course, they weren't standing still very much. Cake was really good, she got a bunch of girly presents, and I don't think anyone left with more than some scratches and rug burn.

Some pics:

Softball and it's aftermath

Softball was awesome. Rather than a whole blow by blow of the evening, I'll mention the high points. Got there early and warmed up, thinking it would keep me from hurting afterwards. (hahahahahah.) Did lots of stretching and easy throwing, before pitching batting practice. Once everyone showed up I did MORE pitching, then took some pitches myself for practice. I got ahold of one good ball in practice, and nailed the unfortunate person who was pitching to me in the leg. He has a bruise, the size of the entire softball. But let's just say if he hadn't swiveled around, he probably wouldn't be having any kids in the future. That was the best ball I hit all night.

We finally got things started, and we were quite impressive our first at bat. Also our first round in the field was good, too. It went back and forth, and in the end we lost, but there were technical issues, and yadda yadda yadda.

The guy I nailed with my hit also fell face first while running to first base. He's not a very athletic fellow, and is a bit on the heavy side. He has a few cuts on his face, along with another bruise from where he got hit with another ball. The receptionist also fell on her way to first base, but was fine....a little road rash. We were playing on artificial turf, picture indoor/outdoor carpeting, and that's about what the fields were like. Very aweseome. Oh yeah, my boss, the one with one bad knee, now has two bad knees. He had a designated runner, after not being able to run well the first time at bat, and his next at bat he smacked a ball great, to the wall. I was coaching the kid around the bases and once he made it safely to third, I turn around and there Boss is on the ground at home plate. He was pretty much done after that. He did some pitching and base coaching, but not much else.

Basically, we had an absolute blast, and I can't wait to do it again. However, I will totally need to prepare better because OMG I was hurting so bad. Didn't feel so bad on Wednesday, but come Thursday, I wanted someone to shoot me. My legs were killing me, it hurt to walk, sit, stand up, EVERYTHING! Today is the best I've felt since. We were joking about maybe getting a little too old for this kind of activity, but maybe we are.

I have more posts on the way, including some pictures!

Briefly

Easter was great, Bubba got spoiled rotten. We woke up to his excited voice, "Mama, Daddy, there's a WAGON in my room!!" Wagon was stuffed with candy, toys, etc.

W has been miserable lately. We almost went to the ER last nite because he could barely walk. He has NOT been overdoing it at all, and it sucks ass. He's the lowest I've ever seen him and I don't know how to help him.

Nephew A is recovering from yet another surgery. They've removed the second graft. His cornea is covered with stuff, don't know if that is good or bad. No word on long term stuff, yet again.

Shortly, I will be heading off to play softball with a bunch of people from the office. On almost professional field. Let's hope I don't get hurt.

New Pictures!!!

Okay, so I finally remembered to bring the camera to work and get the pictures off. Some only go back as far as early February, what was I waiting for? Anyway, enjoy:

This is Bubba with my fat cat, Jack. I just love the look on his face in this one, he looks like an angel.




Behold the cuteness.




Making cookies on St. Patrick's Day with Daddy.



He fell down and skinned his knees yesterday with Nanny.

Another Monday

Hello. I swear I've been meaning to post more often, but I'm either too busy at work, too tired or something else that keeps me from coming by. I'll try harder.

The biggest news coming out of the last week is that I am finally getting to go to a race. Next month, at Darlington. The group of folks I go to see in Charlotte all the time, well, not all the time, I haven't been in forever, but anyway, can't use their tickets. My dad goes with them every year to a few different races. So they told him to give them to me and mom! So yay! I am so excited! It's a night race, too, so it's gonna be awesome. W will have Bubba duties, and he's not too upset about not being able to go. The drive, the seats, all would work against his back and he wouldn't enjoy himself at all.

Nephew A is still improving, but they have discovered significant scarring, we just won't know the long term issues associated with it for a while yet. He had two surgeries last week and boy am I hoping he's done with them soon. Poor little thing.

We had a good productive weekend for a change. I only had a remote to work, no Busch race, so it was nice to be home. W cut the grass, I weed whacked edges and what not, and boy my arms are a bit upset with me. I've done it before, but not the whole thing all at once like I did this time. Naturally we did this all while Bubba was napping so we weren't distracted. Bubba woke up in time to have a quick go round on the tractor with W. He played outside most of the rest of the day, with the neighbor girls while we kinda had some adult conversation time. I had a pork roast in the crock all day, and finally got Bubba inside so we could all eat. He actually took two bites of pork!! He wasn't brave enough for the sauerkraut, though.

Still haven't lost any more weight, and I've been torturing myself on that damn machine at least four nights a week, at 15 minutes a pop. I'm a sweaty, huffing and puffing mess by the time I'm done, is it too much to ask for to get a little results? Ugh. I have been eating better, too, and have turned down many many treats and still, nothing. Keeping at it, even though I'm frustrated.

Umm..oh yeah, news on the back issue. W's caseworker called, with news that he is to go see someone else later this month, for yet another opinion. Something about the new surgeon reporting certain findings before surgery, but no follow up about them after. They want to get to the bottom of it all. My fear: they are looking for a doctor to say, "He's fine, send him back to work." I hope so much that I am wrong. He's seen this doc before, too, way back when we needed a 'second' opinion before the first surgery. I don't know...W is getting pretty down about all of it, and has given up hope of ever being normal enough to do anything productive. I don't know how to help him feel better. Because, honestly, I'm about to give up hope, too.

Bah, gotta get back to work. It's been a slow Monday, so far, but Boss1 just got in, so I'm sure that will change.