NORMAL, CRAZY WEEK ...

Hi Friends!

I haven't blogged for a while, but it's been a busy several days. On Friday we took Molly to Disney's California Adventure. The short story is we had a fantastic time, but we didn't get home until after 2 a.m. Annie again took tons of photos, which I'll get around to posting someday. Thank goodness we don't have anymore birthdays until July.

Also on Friday, Cameron received his class ring at school. He is thrilled about it, and he has been wearing it ever since. I'll try to get a picture of that tomorrow. And Bill and the boys hosted a pool party for our Bible study group Friday night. It was a barbeque pool party, and it sounded like fun!

I spent all of Saturday helping the Malone's. Brian, Jeff's brother and my deceased friend, Julia's husband, was getting remarried. So, first I helped Jeff get all the kids ready for the wedding. I curled Heather's hair, and she looked like a little princess! Then, after they left for the wedding -I went to the hospital and spent the day with Judi. She had a broken femur which was completely reconstructed with a rod and screws at the knee. She also damaged her kidney, broke a rib, and had collapsed her lungs. And of course, there were numerous bumps and abrasions as well. Anyway, she had a rough day on Saturday. Specifically, they had tried to take her off of oxygen, and she was just not breathing well. I ended up having them reconnect her. Also, they were doing much invasive testing. So, she needed a hand to hold, and when he returned, Jeff needed someone to talk to and help him make decisions. I was glad to do it after all they have done for me!

I slept in on Sunday, and Bill went to the dump as it was Free Dump Day. Bill and the kids went to church on Saturday, but I was too wiped out after Friday's fun and Saturday's stress! In the afternoon on Sunday I cleaned up the house. You can imagine what it looked like after my absence of two days. Then Cam, Molly, and I went to Smart and Final for groceries. We have a system now where every 2 weeks they help me with a "big shop!" They each push a cart for me, and they help me with the heavy items. We also went out for lunch at Carl's Jr (payment for teenagers is always in food!) and to Borders where Cameron was on a search for a movie he had been wanting. We were successful, and he was very happy to find his movie on sale for only $8. We later watched it -- Romeo + Juliet, it was Shakespeare's original version set in modern times. Think gangs, etc -- but they still talked in Old English. It was very cool.

Also on Sunday, they released Judi from the hospital. So, I went over and helped her get settled in. She is doing really well considering the extent of her injuries. They have a hospital bed set up for her downstairs, and she can walk small distances with a walker. I helped her wash her hair, which she hadn't been able to do for almost a week, and that really lifted her spirits. I saw the pictures of her car, which they had to pull her out of. I also saw the pictures of the house/tree she hit, and pictures of what her leg looked like after the accident. It was bent at a 90 degree angle and not at the knee. After seeing the pictures, I was just thankful that she is still alive!

Monday was a fairly typical day. The boys and I did our homeschooling. Annie stopped by on her way home from Anaheim with our usual Big Gulps. We made cookies and cards for Judi and visited her. We also took her kids over to our house after school, and they stayed for dinner.

One funny story from Monday -- after picking up Cameron and Molly from school, Cameron decided he'd like to stop at 7-11 for a snack. He always takes his wallet to school, and he had plenty of money -- so we stopped. After getting all of his food, etc. -- he realized he didn't have his wallet, and I didn't bring my purse. So, I had to leave Cam and Molly at 7-11 and go home to retrieve his wallet. They were pretty glad to see me when I returned.

Also Monday night we went to the dollar store in the evening, and we found many treasures! I always go for a few things and walk out with about 100, but it is still cheap entertainment! When Annie and I got home, Bill was snaking the drain in the laundry room. It was backed up, and we couldn't use the kitchen sink, dishwasher, or wash machine without it all overflowing!

He was not successful, so today we had Rescue Rooters over in the morning. $600 later and we're all fixed, but I'm not looking forward to doing all the laundry or cleaning up the garage tomorrow! As it was, we had to run the dishwasher 2 times tonight to catch up on dishes. Also today, we had the maids in for cleaning, and someone bought our mini-quad. We recently bought Isaac his own 50 motorcycle, so everyone had pretty much outgrown the quad!

I did get some homeschooling done, and then this afternoon -- I SOS'ed Annie to come watch the boys. I was having some problems of a female nature, and needed to go and see the gyno! Not fun! I will not go into details, but it is lupus-related and there is a treatment plan, and trust me -- you don't want to know more.

We still have the baby hamsters. Mama Fluffy is doing really well, and she is beginning to trust us around the babies. They are growing black fur and are very cute.

I will write more tomorrow...

Much Love,
Michele