Something to think about...

One of my sisters is having in-law issues. There's always been "issues" in regards to her in-laws, but something new has cropped up - over the past year or so, her mother-in-law has been going blind.

At first, it seemed minor - the vision loss seemed to even slow at one point, and she could still see things as long as she had plenty of light and if print was large. She and her husband decided to sell their current home and move into a one-level condo to get rid of having stairs. Then her husband was laid off. So he had to find a new job. His new job is 3 hours away. So he leaves at the beginning of the week, stays there for work, and comes home on weekends. At first, this wasn't too horrible as mom-in-law's vision was still considered ok enough to drive during daylight, and she was still working at her own job.

Over the past couple months, her vision has rapidly deteriorated. She had to leave her job due to disability and was told by her ophthalmologist she could no longer drive. She's now trapped in her house with her husband gone most of the week and at the mercy of whoever can give her a ride to her appointments and the grocery store and Target and whatnot. And guess who's on the receiving end of those phone calls insisting for rides.... Yep, my sister, and her husband.

My sister works part-time on the days her hubby doesn't work to help make ends meet with her family which consists of her, her hubby, and three kids (demon spawn, age 6; angel child, age 3; and barfy baby, age 5 months). Her hubby works weird hours at a job he absolutely hates. Needless to say, it's not easy to pack up 3 kids in the mini van just to take grandma to Target on a whim. Nor is it easy to pack up 3 kids and take Grandma to a 3 hour long eye doctor appointment. Grandma puts my sis and her hubby on plenty of guilt trips whenever she calls. (I think they've earned enough frequent flyer miles to get a couple free trips! Woo Hoo!)

I know her mother-in-law is feeling very lonely and dependent now. She's always been a very independent person, so not only is she dealing with the emotions of losing her vision, but also the emotions of losing her independence. I know that's a big part of why she's constantly calling my sister and her hubby. So I was trying to come up with ideas of things that could occupy mother-in-law's time.... So here's where I'm stuck thinking. What CAN you do without vision?

I had to think awhile on that one. I came up with a very short list: listening to books on tape and listening to music. That's it! Anyone else have any ideas?

I'd go bananas if that was my life. I think I'd rather keep my vision and lose my hearing.... So I'm counting the blessing of having my sight tonight.

Do I or don't I?

Ok. I will. A photo of me from my vacation. I'm the one in the baseball cap. I look all dorky standing the way I am, but it was a little windy and I didn't want to fall out of the boat.

It's good to be back home...

...but sometimes (ok, pretty much ALL the time?), don't ya just wish vacation was longer?!?!? ;) I love this place we vacation dearly, so it's always hard to leave. Someday I want to live there again.

We had a great vacation. Lots of sleeping, eating, and fishing and some beer drinking thrown in for good measure as well. Frodo did lots of swimming as well.

We got there on Saturday evening and it was unbelieveably hot and humid. Then some storms moved thru that night and the next day it was barely 60, cloudy, and windy. We had a very nice *veg out* day which was good. The rest of the days were pretty much perfect weather - right around 80 and sunny.

We didn't catch enough keeper fish all at once to do a fish fry (which is fine with me because I'm not all that fond of cleaning fish, and I hate to eat fish even more), but all 4 adults there each caught a large northern. Nurse in Space caught a 25" one, Medicine Man caught a 29" one, I caught a 29", then the next day a 28", but my hubby won the biggest fish prize - he caught a 34½" northern. I've never seen such big fish come out of that lake except for the 60" musky my grandma caught in 1970 (it was longer than the state record, but weighed much less, so it wasn't considered for a record fish). We couldn't keep any of the large northern to have for fish fry as this particular lake has a special regulation saying you must immediately return any northern between 24" and 36" back to the water. (It's to help increase the fish population by natural spawning.) So we kept the fish out long enough to remove the hook, get a photo, then put it back in.

The rest of the fishing had quite a few small northern, some really nice largemouth bass, and lots of smaller largemouths as well, some rock bass, a few perch, lots of bluegills and pumpkinseeds, a few crappies (please pronounce as "crop-ee"...), and even one small walleye. Since we couldn't do the fish fry, we went out on Friday night for fish fry which I am told was the BEST FISH EVER. But since I don't like to eat fish, I had a BLT. I'll take everyone else's word for it.

That's the gist of my whole vacation. Really. I know it sounds sorta funny to hear me talk so much about fishing, but that's about all we did. We did have one poker night where grandma and grandpa joined in and took all our money. Note to self for next year - no poker with grandma and grandpa.

I'm so excited!

I'm leaving for my annual trip to northern Minnesota. This place is heaven for me - it's my church. I feel so calm and at peace when I am there.

My grandparents lived on this lake since before I was born until the house was sold the summer after I graduated from high school. I've spent nearly every summer of my life at this lake, and even lived there my freshman year of high school. It's clear. It's beautiful. And the fishing is good. And it's the most healing place I've ever known.

The sooner I go to sleep, the sooner I can get up and get on my way! Hooray!

I really didn't expect this to happen...

...this soon. I thought it would be when he was older - maybe 12 or something. I wasn't ready for it. No parenting book prepares your for this moment.

Frodo likes my my music. In particular, he really likes my Green Day CD. Since when do kids and parents share the same musical tastes?

Growing up, my mom listened to dorky music such as John Denver. On 8-track. (Oh, that new 8-track player was soooo cool! Look! You can just push a button to get *near* another song! How neat is that!) And being the oldest child, I had no siblings to hear music from, so I never realized my mom's music was dorky until I was about, oh.... 13.

I'm not one who's really into music a lot. Hubby is the one that has our hard drive FULL of music, and a 200 disc capacity CD "jukebox" for the stereo. I've probably purchased about 20 cds in my entire life, and about half of those are christmas music cds. My current collection in the *BRAND NEW CAR!* is "Home" by the Dixie Chicks, the Madagascar movie soundtrack, "American Idiot" by Green Day, and a 1930s blues cd by Bill Gaither, that I heard one day while in Half Price Books and decided I loved it. That's how my music tastes are - very eclectic. I'll listen to pretty much anything except opera.

I just never expected Frodo to want to borrow my cds. At least he's not asking to borrow my clothes....

I should send my hubby...

...away more often! I'm sorta enjoying myself! Shhh! Don't tell him though!

He left yesterday for an all week class about crash investigation. (In case you're wondering, it's not just some super weird hobby - hubby is a cop so this is for work. Which means he's having fun AND getting paid!) Last night I had a great night of sleep in my own bed. This morning, Frodo and I got up, went to his ballgame, stopped at the home improvement store for some driveway sealer, then came home for lunch. After lunch, I sealed the driveway. By myself thankyouverymuch. I'd much rather apply driveway sealer in 90 degree heat and high humidity than clean my house though.

Then our pal Jen came over and we hung out for awhile, played catch with Frodo in the yard, then went to the golden arches for supper. And Frodo has been bugging me to learn how to play drums for awhile, and after a sworn statement from him that this WOULDN'T go the same route as wanting to play the guitar, we headed to the music store for a set of sticks and a practice pad. (I'm not so stupid as to buy him a whole drum set already!)

As soon as we pulled in front of the house (I can't drive on the driveway yet) Frodo asked if he could go down the street to his other family's house* so his extra dad** could teach him how to play drums. He ran down the sidewalk hugging his sticks and practice pad. Our pal Jen had a quick smoke while Frodo couldn't see her then we walked down the street and spied on Frodo and his extra dad during the first drum lesson. Frodo seems hooked. :) And extra dad seems extra proud too.

Tomorrow our pal Jen, Frodo and I are going to a waterpark for some summertime fun. I promise to wear my sunscreen. I don't have this much fun when hubby is around! Hee hee.


*other family's house = my best friend for 15 years(Medicine Man), his wife(Nurse in Space), and their daughter(Princess) live down the street. Our kids are interchangeable in either family, lol. We all have refrigerator rights in each other's houses.

**extra dad = the guy who's been my best friend for 15 years, but isn't my husband (Medicine Man). I could never have married or even dated him. He's more like a brother to me. Since the kids are interchangeable in either family, so are the parents. We're just an extra set of parents for their daughter, and they are an extra set of parents for Frodo. It takes a village! ;) Our village just sounds sorta twisted, lol.

Today was just...

...one of those days where it seemed like I was a half step behind the rest of the universe, occasionally tripping on the backs of her shoes. I hope she doesn't get pissed at me. It's not that everything went wrong today. It's just that it wasn't *quite right*.

I sure hope that makes some sense. If not, let me know and I'll bring it up when I visit my drug dealer next week. I'm just thinking that going to bed tonight, sleeping, then getting up tomorrow will give me a new day to work with and it will be just fine.

This guy...

...sure is accident prone when he's on two wheels. Or eating a pretzel.

I have a couple little *life rules*

One is to treat others as I would like to be treated.

Another is to never hit anyone or anything in anger.

Another is to never drink when I'm depressed.

And lastly, to never buy meat from a guy in a van that just happens to pull into my driveway when I'm outside playing with my kid.

Ok. Maybe I stretched that last one a bit. A fellow in a van with out of state plates pulls into my driveway this afternoon. He tells me he's "just finishing up the route" and he happens to have some "extra steaks in back" he'll sell to me "real cheap" - "Usually $7-12 each, but I'll sell them to you for $2.50."

Does he really get people to buy those steaks very often? Or to even buy that line very often? And if he's coming in from out of state, does he really expect me to think those steaks are even edible after being in the back of his van in July?

Can I have some of what she has?

I'm talking about my sister-in-law (SIL). AS much as that woman goes, you'd think she had pure caffeine running through her veins. I could use a little of that.

After work on Friday, I got into my *BRAND NEW CAR!!* and drove *up north* to spend the holiday weekend with my mom, my FIL (ask me about that one later if I haven't told you about it), my SIL, her hubby, their daughter, and Frodo. Hubby was working all weekend the lucky goof.

Considering it was a holiday weekend, I surprisingly had a nice drive up. I got there about 1045pm. The *BRAND NEW CAR!!* was awesome on the drive. It felt good. It still smells good. I'm smitten.

Saturday morning we were up, and after breakfast, we were off to pick up a boat, get two boats in the water, and did some boating and swimming. (No fishing though. Darn.) SIL thought it would be cool to get an innertube that tows behind the boat, so she bought one. Frodo and his cousin enjoyed it as long as we went s-l-o-w. Then it was time to get boats back out of the water, then dinner, then some fireworks in the driveway. ;)

Sunday we were up and off to the shops in town. I didn't get as much time to look as I'd like as the crowds were just too much and SIL was getting bent outta shape. Then we went go-karting. Then back home for late lunch/early supper. After that we played a dominos game. Then finally to bed.

Today we were up and off to a flea market. Once again, I didn't get as much time to look as I'd like because the crowds were just too much and SIL got bent outta shape. ;) We came back, and SIL wanted to go biking on the bike trail. I respectfully declined so I could have a couple hours of just vegging and visiting with my mom. Then we did dinner and Frodo and I were off to go home.

I think I'm not going up north on a holiday weekend ever again. It was too busy. And I think next time I go up north, I'm gonna just go off and do my own thing and leave SIL to go do her own thing. If she wants to try and fit a whole week's worth of fun in one weekend, she can go right ahead. Next time, I'm going to stay out of it.

Be part of the curve!

Whee!!!

Remember that "running" idea I had?

Well, it's off now. I can't handle it. I tried it. My b00bs are too big. :( When I run, my breathing is affected by their mass, even though I wear a kick ass sports bra. I wear this kick ass sports bra every day though because I can't wear regular bras anymore. I have to special order the ones I get, and now I'm queen of the uniboob. At least they don't hang down to my waist and they don't bobble like jello molds with every step I take. This cool bra keeps me snug. Unless I'm running.

That's probably TMI for some of you. Sorry.

So I've finally taken the leap - I called my doctor's office. We had talked once before about me getting breast reduction surgery, and he told me that when I was ready, to call him back and he would refer me to a plastic surgeon. (I kept waiting because I was chicken about going under anesthesia.) I called him back this week. Now I have a consult with the plastic surgeon on August 15th. I'm hoping my insurance will pay for it. I've done lots of reading up on it lately and it seems lots of insurance companies will pay for it if the amount of *stuff* they take out weighs over a certain amount. That shouldn't be a problem for me. ;)

I'm not sure if I'll post before and after photos like Crazy Chick did. We'll see about that when the time comes.

And to think - someday I might actually be able to wear a normal bra again! And I might be able to buy a shirt or dress in a size that fits all of me instead of just the size that fits my b00bs! And I won't have to buy a special $100 swimsuit! Wow..... The possibilities are mind boggling.