Festival and Falls

Thursday evening, my girls and I joined 2 of my friends and their daughters to go to the Violet festival, a local annual event that has carnival rides, games, food and live music. Thursday was The River night (a local christian radio station) at the festival and they were featuring Mark Schults. Best of all, the concert was FREE!! I just love Mark Schults...and free stuff!

We got there around 7:00 and set up our lawn chairs to save our place for the concert then wondered around a while. We saw practically everyone from our church there. We bought some tickets and rode some rides. Here is a pic of the girls on the swings (mine are the one in the middle of the pic and the one 2 to the right of her):



Here is the big slide they went on:



And here is a not so great pic of Mark Schultz on the stage (keep in mind these were all taken with my camera phone, so you don't get the best quality!):



(And of course you all know to click the picture to see it bigger!)

While Mark was singing, my younger daughter said to me "he sounds just like the guy on the radio." To which of course I replied, "he is the guy on the radio." She then gave me a shocked expression, wide eyes, mouth open, the whole nine yards and said "Serious?" Too cute!!

As for tomorrow, my hubby and I decided to go ahead and take our trip to Niagara Falls since my granddad is doing so much better. We will be leaving tomorrow morning. We are all really excited. This is the first real family vacation we have taken since my now 5 year old was 7 months old. We are only staying 2 nights at the falls and heading back on Tuesday sometime. We will probably spend most of Tuesday touring and then spend the night somewhere on the way back and come the rest of the way home on Wednesday.

On A Lighter Note

Here's a joke for ya! (Rated PG-13)

The Wedding:

A lawyer married a woman who had previously divorced ten husbands. On their wedding night, she told her new husband, "Please be gentle; I'm still a virgin."

"What?" said the puzzled groom. "How can that be if you've been married ten times?"

"Well, husband #1 was a Sales Representative; he kept telling me how great it was going to be.

Husband #2 was in Software Services; he was never really sure how it was supposed to function, but he said he'd look into it and get back to me.

Husband #3 was from Field Services; he said everything checked out diagnostically but he just couldn't get the system up.

Husband #4 was in Telemarketing; even though he knew he had the order, he didn't know when he would be able to deliver.

Husband #5 was an Engineer; he understood the basic process but wanted three years to research, implement, and design a new state-of-the-art method.

Husband #6 was from Finance and Administration; he thought he knew how, but he wasn't sure whether it was his job or not.

Husband #7 was in Marketing; although he had a nice product, he was never sure how to position it.

Husband #8 was a psychiatrist; all he ever did was talk about it.

Husband #9 was a gynecologist; all he did was look at it.

Husband #10 was a stamp collector; all he ever did was...God, I miss him!

But now that I've married you, I'm really excited!"

"Good," said the lawyer, "but, why?"

"Duh; you're a lawyer. This time I know I'm gonna get screwed!"

An Update

As of this morning, my granddad was doing much better. He had the balloon pump removed yesterday and the ventilator and stomach tubes removed this morning. He was sitting up and saying he was hungry. That was a very good sign.

At 11:30, I picked my grandma up from the hospital and took her to lunch and home to get showered and changed and grab a few things. Then we were back to the hospital. When we got there we found out that while we were gone, he apparently felt the need to use the restroom and tried to get up out of his bed to go. Alone. Without calling for any help. He was cath'd. Not good. He fell.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Where the heck were the nurses? It wasn't as though he was moving at lightning speed and got up and fell out of bed before anyone could get to him. He was obviously moving rather slowly yet no one seemed to notice him getting himself out of bed!! He was checked out and the last I heard, he was ok, but had blood in his urine (my guess is that maybe he pulled the cath out when he fell and damaged something. OUCH!) When I was there, I scolded him and begged him to please not attempt to get up by himself again. I also told him he needs to quit scaring us like this!

His voice was very shaky and I could tell he was in extreme pain. He said that he hurt so bad from the hips down that he couldn't stand it. I told him I would make sure gma checked with the nurse to see if it was time for more pain meds. (gma was in the waiting room with the kids while I went back to see him). Please continue to pray for his recovery!

They are also going to be giving him a defibrillator as soon as possible. So, it looks as though he will most likely be in the hospital for a few more days.

Ok, so here is a dilemma that is burdening me right now. My family and I (as in my hubby, me and our kids) are scheduled to take our vacation to Niagara Falls this Sunday. The trip has been planned for a while now and guru has been granted permission to take next week off even though he hasn't technically earned it yet, since he's only been with the company since March. Since he is a consultant, he had to clear it with the company he is employed by as well as with the company that he is contracting with. Unfortunately, both of those bosses are on vacation this week so he can't just tell them that he can't take next week after all and we just reschedule our trip for later.

I am so torn about this. Do we go on our trip as planned? Or do we just stay in town and waste a week of my hubby's vacation time? (We would not be gone the whole week, we'd be back Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest). If we go, I'll feel guilty and be worried the whole time, but if we stay, I don't know when we'll get the opportunity again. I don't want to be selfish. If we need to cancel our trip and stay, I will. But we have all been looking forward to this trip for a long time. What would you all do if in this situation? I don't want people to think I'm a prick for leaving while my gpa is in the hospital. What do I do? I will have to let the hotel know by Saturday afternoon if I need to cancel our reservations.

Man, I'm depressed!

Please Send Up Prayers!

My grandfather went in for a heart catheterization today. His doctors have been trying to figure out what caused his problems last month where we almost lost him. Trinity wrote about it here.

It was scheduled for 2:15 this afternoon and he had to be at the hospital at 12:15. I met them there so I could be there with my grandma while he had this procedure done. I had all 3 of my kiddos with me and we decided after they took him back for the cath. that we would go down to the cafeteria and get some lunch. As we are finishing lunch we hear over the loud speaker "Code blue, cath lab, Code blue cath lab, Code blue cath lab". My grandma and I just looked at each other. She said "that scares me" I said "yeah. pray pray pray". I didn't want to say anything to her, but my heart started racing and I felt as though I was going to lose the lunch I just ate. I was very scared, to say the least. I immediately started praying "God please don't let it be him."

We decided to go back up to the waiting room and my grandma tried to find out from the lady at the reception desk (who I will refer to as R from now on) if it was him. She said she didn't know. We didn't know if she was just saying that or not. But we sat anyway. The kids were wanting us to play their games with them, but we were not in the mood for games. I told them sternly "not right now" and things like that, but I didn't want to say anything to scare them. Gma went back up to R to try to get more info from her. She kept saying she had a really bad feeling that it was him. She told R "if you know it's him, please just tell me." R said she thought it might just be him. But they were sending a chaplain down to talk to the family.

We sat nervously waiting. After a while, R came over and said that he was still in procedure and that it didn't sound like bad news. We felt a bit of relief but still a little nervous. A few minutes later, R came back and said she wanted to take 2 adults back to talk to the Dr. in a conference room. Fortunately a couple of my grandparents' friends came to sit with us and were there to keep an eye on my kids. I had a bad feeling because usually the Dr. will come out to the waiting room to talk to the family. As we walk back with R toward the conf. room I saw a man in a suit that looked like a chaplain standing right outside the door. My heart sank. We went in the room and sat down and the man in the suit introduced himself as, none other than, the chaplain.

The head surgeon came in to talk to us. He told us that it was indeed my gpa who they called code blue on, however they were able to resuscitate him and he was doing better. They found quite a large blockage and put in 2 stints as well as some balloon thing that will make it so his heart doesn't have to work so hard. They said he would be in critical condition for at least 48 hours. Around 6:15, my hubby came straight from work and took the kids home and I stuck around with gma to make sure he was going to be alright (and her). Trinity and G and my dad and my other grandma and her sister also came to visit. When we all (except gma) left around 9:15, he was stable. His blood pressure and heart rate were much better.

What a long, stressful day! I'm sure there is more that I'm forgetting, but this is long enough already. Please just pray that he will make a full recovery and not have this problem anymore. Now that they know what caused it, pray they will be able to fix it.

Thanks Trin and G for the subs and diet Pepsi!

How well do you know me?

Take my quiz and find out. (I stole this from Trinity and Guru, BTW)

Take my Quiz! and then Check out the Scoreboard!

Help Me!

Ok, so who out there has a bed with a headboard and a footboard? (I know trinity and ghraper do, so please help me out here.) I cannot figure out how to get my bedskirt to look right. I've been getting by with it on there crooked but it really, REALLY annoys me! I had it on upside down so it wasn't quite as noticeable, but I bought a new bedskirt and tried putting it on correctly, but it looks like crap! Somebody help me! How do you get it to look right?

Here's a pic of how it looks at the foot of the bed right now:



On top of that, it doesn't come up all the way at the head of the bed:


So how do I fix this? Anyone have any ideas?

(BTW, I can't tuck it on the inside of the sideboards because of the support beams.)

Fun Day!

Well, my day at King's Island was, indeed, fun! We got a bit of a late start this morning because my friend's daughter woke up and cried at the sitter's last night where she was supposed to be staying the night, so she had to go and pick her up and then drop her off again this morning. Then, she couldn't find her sunglasses, so we had to stop at Target to get some new ones. Then we were off. We got on the road around 9 am (about an hour later that originally planned) and listened to Brian Regan's comedy CD on the way there.

We made really good time though, thanks to my friend's crazy driving. Seriously, she's a crackheaded driver! She changed lanes so many times zooming in and out of traffic. We got there, parked and were walking through the gate at 10:10 am, just 10 minutes after the park opened for the day!

There were really not that many people there! The longest we had to wait in line for any ride was about an hour. We rode, in no particular order, the Vortex, Face Off, the Racer (forward and backward), Drop Zone, Top Gun, Flight of Fear, Tomb Raider, and The Italian Job. Not to mention, the Zephyr, which is the big swings, Viking Fury, the big pirate ship looking thing that swings you back and forth, and the Scooby Doo Haunted Castle (I told you I was going to act like a kid). Oh, and of course, we went up on the Eiffel Tower to look around.

We even had time to eat a leisurely lunch and shop around at some of the shops. By 7 pm, we were both ready to head out. There were still a couple of rides we kind of wanted to ride, but one of them was not running and the other was at the opposite end of the park and we were both pretty beat, so we just decided to call it a day.

All in all I think it was a very successful day at the park. I've had times where I spent the entire day there, from open to close and only get to ride a few coasters. So this was good! And though it was extremely hot today, at least it didn't rain as the forecast had predicted for us!

Then I had to endure her crazy driving again on the way back home. Let me give you an example. There was this big 12 passenger van that was in front of us in the fast lane that kept slowing down next to all the semi's and doing the universal arm thing people do to try to get the truck drivers to pull on their horns. Well none of them wanted to play along and my friend is getting really ticked off because the guy is not going fast enough for her and she can't get around him. So she honks her own horn at them and a few miles later, they finally get over and let her pass. Then, inevitably, they got back over behind us and tailgated. So what does my friend do? She pulls up beside the next semi and slows down and does the arm thing and much to her satisfaction, the trucker plays along and pulls his horn. This makes her really happy and the Van then backed way off and we lost them in our dust. I must admit, it was pretty funny!

Well, I hope everyone else had a wonderful and hot day as I did! Tata for now.

Kid Free Tomorrow

Yea for me! Tomorrow, a friend and I are going to go to King's Island! I am really excited! I usually get to visit either K.I. or Cedar Point every summer (or both if it's a good summer!) I didn't go last year, though because of the baby. I just love roller coasters! The higher the better! I'm looking forward to some time without the kids where I get to go have fun and act like a kid myself! It's only about an hour and a half drive. Maybe less they way this particular friend drives. The best part is that we are getting the tickets at almost half off the regular price!

My friend has a 6 year old daughter that is tall for her age, just slightly shorter than my 8 year old daughter. We were momentarily considering taking her daughter and my oldest (who are both taller than 48 inches and could ride most of the rides there.) The problems I have with that are this: first, my daughter has never been to an amusement park and has obviously never ridden a roller coaster. Well, besides smaller carnival rides, but not nearly the same! So what if we get there, and she doesn't like them, or she's too scared to get on a ride, or goes on one and refuses to ride anymore? Then my whole day (and $) is shot! Second, she is a whiner! Really. I can't even walk around WalMart for 20 minutes without her complaining that she's tired and her feet hurt and blah blah blah! And third, after just coming off of VBS week at church and having my middle daughter practically refuse to let me out of her sight, and taking care of a clingy, and sick baby all weekend (he had a fever and was throwing up, no fun!) I just really REALLY need some time away from kids. I need some time for me! Is that so wrong?

I love my kids, don't get me wrong, but I've about had it this summer! With the girls out of school and having all 3 kids all day long all week long, my patience are wearing thin! The girls fight constantly, the younger one always cries...I mean about EVERYTHING! I've thought about tallying up every time she cries for one week or even one day, but I don't know if I have enough paper! On top of that, the baby needs constant supervision and attention!

So, all I'm saying is that it will be nice to get away from the chaos for a day. That's all. Then I will be ready to get back to my usual hectic life as normal. Well, as ready as one can be to do so.

BTW, thanks Trinity for keeping the girlies for me!

Chalk One Up For The Man

Husband and wife are getting all snugly in bed. The passion is heating up. But then the wife stops and says: "I don't feel like it, I just want you to hold me." The husband says, "WHAT??" The wife explains that he must not be in tune with her emotional needs as a Woman. The husband realizes that nothing is going to happen tonight and he might as well deal with it.

So the next day the husband takes her shopping at a big department store. He walks around and has her try on three very expensive outfits. She can't decide. He tells his wife to take all three of them. Then they go over and get matching shoes worth $200 each. And then they go to the Jewelry Department where she gets a set of diamond earrings. The wife is so excited. She thinks her husband has flipped out, but she does not care. She goes for the tennis bracelet. The husband says, "But you don't even play tennis, but OK if you like it then let's get it." The wife is jumping up and down so excited she cannot even believe what is going on. She says "I am ready to go, lets go to the cash register."

The husband says: "No - no - no, honey we're not going to buy all this stuff." The wife's face goes blank. "No honey - I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while." Her face gets really mad and she is about to explode and the Husband says, "You must not be in tune with my financial needs as a Man."


I just thought this was too funny not to share. And it kind of goes hand in hand with what I added to my sidebar (which BTW, I stole from Melissa) .

Would you feel comfortable....

Using this bathroom?


Outside


Inside

Amusing Things Grade School Students Have Written In Papers:

~The parts of speech are lungs and air.

~A census taker is man who goes from house to house increasing the population.

~(Define H2O and CO2.) H2O is hot water and CO2 is water.

~A city purifies its water supply by filtering the water then forcing it through an aviator.

~Most of the houses in France are made of plaster of Paris.

~The people who followed the Lord were called the 12 opossums.

~We do not raise silk worms in the United States, because we get our silk from rayon. He is a larger worm and gives more silk.

~One of the main causes of dust is janitors.

~A scout obeys all to whom obedience is due and respects all duly constipated authorities.

~The four seasons are salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.

~Oliver Cromwell had a large red nose, but under it were deeply religious feelings.

~Syntax is all the money collected at the church from sinners.

~In spring, the salmon swim upstream to spoon.

~Iron was discovered because someone smelt it.

~In the middle of the 18th century, all the morons moved to Utah.

Just a quick "hi"

I don't have a lot of time, but thought I should post something. I have been working with VBS this week at our church in the evenings and keeping busy during the days. I have housework to keep up on along with keeping the girls entertained and out from in front of the tv all day. We had some friends over this week for lunch and swimming.

Today, I had another doctor appointment (still have this horrific sore throat that just won't go away!) He's trying me on an anti-biotic to see if it helps.

Then I had to take my grandparents to their eye doctor appointments because they didn't want to drive after having their eyes dilated.

I dropped them off a little while ago and came home to do some laundry and dishes and feed the baby (and he's actually taking a nap! Of course he woke up when I tried to lay him down and wanted me to hold him, then went back to sleep, but he's asleep nontheless!).

Now I am waiting for them to call me and let me know they're done with their appointments and ready for me to come back and pick them up. Well, that's about all I have time to post for now, I'm going to go try to lay the baby back down and do another load of laundry and take a shower! Fun fun!

What a week this has been! And there are still 2 more weekdays to go!

Let me just say...YUM!

I mean, seriously! Have you tried any of these? WOW!! I have a new favorite blizzard! The banana cream pie blizzard is sooooo GOOD! I am addicted! If you haven't tried one, stop what you're doing right now and go out and get one! You shan't be disappointed! (yes, I said "shan't")

A Test For Memory Loss

The doctor was administering a test for memory loss to three old gentlemen. He asked, "What is 3 times 3?".

The first old man replied, "One Hundred and Fifty Six."

The doctor turned to the second old man. "What's three times three?"

The second old man said, "Tuesday."

The doctor then asked the same of the third man who answered, "Nine."

"And how did you arrive at that answer?", asked the doctor.

The third old man answered, "Easy...I just subtracted Tuesday from 156 and I got nine."


Is it bad that this joke kind of reminds me of my grandfather?

Still Sick!

This stinks! I hate it. When I woke up this morning my throat was still killing me. My eyes have been watery and itchy and my nose keeps running. Other than that, I had a pretty good day.

I got all caught up on the housework I missed doing yesterday...ok, so I didn't really miss it;). My hubby invited me and the kids up to eat lunch with him today, so we did that and then I went and visited my grandparents for a little while. My grandma called this morning to see how I was feeling and to ask us to stop by because it had been a few days since we've seen them (last Friday, I think). She said she needed her "fix" of the kiddos.

Then it was home to make dinner, do some laundry and dishes and other assorted chores. I actually got a lot more done today than I originally expected when I first got up. My sore throat eased up a bit throughout the day and I felt pretty decent. Of course it is starting to feel a bit more sore again tonight. Probaby from all the talking and, yes, some yelling at the kids today.

Sorry I don't have anything really interesting to blog about. I read all these really interesting and/or funny blogs and I just cannot compete! What can I say? I'm boring!

I hate being sick!!

I think it was Sunday evening that my throat started to hurt. By the time I woke up Monday, it was hurting pretty bad and I felt like crap. I am all congested and my whole body is sore.

So a good friend of mine calls me Monday morning and asks if I would watch her daughter for her at 10:30 am and then take her with us to the party that evening (at 7:30) where she will meet up with us. She decided at the last minute that she should go into work and make double time since she just got back from vacation and is now broke. I, of course being the good friend that I am, said yes.

It wasn't that bad, her daughter and my girls play well together (for the most part). I took the 3 girls down to the pool while my hubby stayed home with the baby. They had a blast swimming and didn't want to leave, but since they had no choice (I was ready to go!) they did anyway.

Then I had to go to the grocery store and pick up a side dish and a dessert to take to the party (and another side and dessert for my friend since she was coming to the party straight from work. <--see, I told you I'm a good friend!)

I was going to cheat and just buy some pasta salad from the deli, but I decided it looked really gross and I could buy some pasta, frozen veggies and dressing for about the same price and it would be better. So that's what I did. If you know me, you know that this isn't something I would usually do, since I HATE cooking and especially being sick and not feeling like doing anything. The pasta salad actually turned out really good I think. It tasted just like how my mom used to make it and I always loved her pasta salad!

Then after the fireworks party, my family and I headed home and went to bed. By this time, I was running a fever. I had chills and was shivering uncontrollably. I was under my heavy comforter and still could not get warm. I finally drifted off to sleep only to awake in the middle of the night covered in sweat! So I threw off the covers and felt instanly frozen again. I just could not find a happy medium!

So this morning, I wake up and my throat is absolutely killing me! It hurt to swallow, hurt to talk, and again with the body aches. I decided to call the doctor and see if he could check me for strep. (I have a tendency to get strep throat once or twice a year). I definately don't want to let that go since it can lead to scarlet fever if left untreated.

So off to the doctor's I went. Strep test done, strep test negative. That is great, but what about this horrific sore throat? He thinks it is viral and will have to "run it's course". ARGH!!! I hate it when they say that. It makes me feel like an idiot for even making a trip to the doctor's in the first place. I should have just saved my $20 copay and not gone! O well, at least I know it's not strep.

So, here I am, still sick. I didn't get any house work done today besides making dinner and cleaning up after that. Well at least now I'll have something to keep me busy when I'm feeling better. (Like I wouldn't already be busy even without extra housework with little mister clingy boy and 2 whiney little girls!)

Red, White And Boom!

Last night, the family and I ventured out to Columbus' annual Red White and Boom celebration. Usually we pass on this endeavor due to the popularity of it (read huge crowds, loads of traffic, etc.). However, I really wanted to go to it this year since I hadn't been since I was a kid.

It wasn't all that bad. Whether or not we go again next year is still up in the air, but overall, I'm glad we went. First we ate dinner at The Spaghetti Warehouse, then we headed out to find a place to watch the fireworks.

We ended up being a little bit farther away from them than we would have liked, we didn't see some of the lower ones, but not a terrible spot. And bonus: parking was free! There were plenty of other people there as well. Not so many that we were crowded, but enough that we figured it should be a decent spot to watch from. We unfolded our lawn chairs and spread out a blanket, then the girls and my hubby started playing catch with a baseball.

So as they start passing the ball back and forth, this weird long haired, drunk guy and his family show up and the guy just stands there, like 4 feet from my hubby watching them. Meanwhile, his own family is several feet away playing their own game of badmitten or something. So why is this guy just standing there, holding his beer "disguised" in a plastic Coke cup from the likes of Arby's, watching my family instead of playing with or watching his own family? Weird!

So then the guy sees the girls start getting disinterested in playing and asks to borrow one of their mitts to catch with my hubby. Of course, guru thought it would be rude to say no and let him borrow one of our (my) mitts. I was not really happy about that and the girls were kind of upset that they couldn't play catch anymore and that this guy was using one of the mitts that they use.

When they were done playing, we get the mitt back and of course it is all sweaty! I'm pretty p.o.'d that guru let Mr. W.T. McDrunkandirty use my mitt and get it all yucky! O well, that is terrible that I was thinking bad things about this guy judging him by the way he looked (and the fact that he was drunk!).

Well, I guess I now have a reason to use my Lysol (Disinfects!) Sanitizing Wipes, unlike Lizlee. Hehe!

My Personality

Stolen from Trinity....The world's shortest personality test. Here are my results:

You are pure, moral, and adaptable. You tend to blend into your surroundings. Shy on the outside, you're outspoken to your friends. You believe that you live a virtuous life... And you tend to judge others with a harsh eye. As a result, people tend to crave your approval.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Such A Boy!

"Oh, mom, I'm so sleepy!"


"Ooh, check out that chick in the bikini!"


He's start'n early!

There He Goes!

We just took these pics of our little guy this evening. What do ya think?






(Excuse my enormous rear here!)