Beach memories

OK this should have posted on 8/23/07 but didn't for some reason...I just realized it didn't...

Yes they are memories now but great ones! We left for the outer banks of NC last Wed. This was our long overdue vacation. I'm sorry to say its been over 3 years since the last one. This trip more than made up for the time in between. However I hope not to have to wait as long for the next one.

The weather was fantastic for most of our trip, with mostly sunny days in the 80's. We took a trip to Ocracoke Island. The Ferry ride over was great. Both Brandon and Nickie held up crackers to feed the seagulls. I was able to capture one picture of a gull coming down to Brandon's cracker. I think I'm putting that one on the wall.

We spent most of the day walking through the town and shopping. Both Nickie and Brandon enjoyed the stroll and the final outcome which of course was souvenir shopping. Nickie scarfed up on some wonderful beach jewelry. Brandon got some pirate stuff, can you say ARRRRRR! We ate at the Jolly Roger which is our favorite spot to eat on the island. Its an open air covered deck area at the marina. Every other year we have gone the heat made it nearly impossible to enjoy the meal... notice I said nearly. The food there is really good so not even the heat would keep us from eating there. This time though with the temperatures as they were and the constant ocean breezes it was truly divine. The Pelican pictures I posted are from the deck. It wasn't until I got home and could see the pictures up close did I notice that the Pelican had a hook stuck in him. It didn't seem to affect his flight in anyway, though. Despite the detail(when seen in full size) in that picture he truly was a good distance away from the deck so the hook would have been impossible to see with the naked eye.

We rented a 4x4 to make the drive out onto the point in Buxton. This is the only way we can get Nickie out on the sand as her wheelchair would just bog down in the sand and since even those beach wheelchairs cost a fortune this was the least expensive way to go.

Post Secret video

I've mentioned a couple times at least what a great site Post Secret is, now there is a video you have to see. What a difference he's made to thousands of people. Go check it out!

View from dining room window

Feeling BETTER!

Just a week ago, though I was trying to keep my spirits up, I was finding it hard to see the end to the nerve pain. Thank God its gone and I pray never to return. Bob is also feeling better though still on a liquid diet. He's all skinny now. That's fantastic, though I must admit I'm jealous as heck! I could stay on a liquid diet for a full year and not lose what he did in less than 2 weeks. I have been trying to eat more healthfully and Jackie and I started going to the Y last week. Something I've been thinking about doing since February.

Yes I know call me the queen of procrastination. That's me! Now that I finally got the motivation what do you think has happened? Nickie's nurse has quit. Yes, the story of my life. She didn't even have the nerve to tell me about it. I had to hear about it from the nursing agency giving me less than 2 weeks notice. I've said it a gazillion times I HATE nursing care! In general I hate nurses, with the exception of the nurse that will be taking the full time position beginning in August. She really has been a Godsend. Nickie loves her and she really seems to love Nickie as well. We've had only maybe 4 nurses in the course of our 15 years of experience that have been truly great people and nurses. You know the type that went into nursing to help people! Most are in it for the almighty dollar and let me tell you this isn't the business for that. OK, I'm stepping down off the soap box... for now!

I'd like to wish you all a happy 4Th of July! Don't forget to thank a veteran for your freedom! Say a prayer for them all! If I have any luck I hope to have some pics from our celebrations. We are going to our town's celebrations, I hear it is a ton of fun. The truth is we haven't attended a fireworks display in I can't tell you how many years. Let's just say Brandon has never gone to one and he will be 9 on the 17Th of this month. Its sad, I know, what a terrible mom! Well we will correct that tomorrow. Till next time

Pain, pain and more pain

Over the last couple of weeks Bob and I have been falling apart. First I started having pain in my left shoulder and arm and I'm sure in an attempt to have the bigger, badder pain, Bob begins complaining of severe abdominal pains. Well you all know how men are. Nothing is worse than a sick man. Am I right or am I RIGHT? Yeah I'm right! Or so I thought.

Last week I had moped around complaining of the pain in my left shoulder and arm feeling quite sure that I had a pinched nerve that was causing all my pain. I had decided that if the pain continued through the weekend I'd have to break down and see the Dr.

By Friday night Bob began to have severe stomach pains that kept him up all night and kept him doubled over in pain throughout the weekend. All weekend he moaned and groaned and made my moaning seem unimportant. As the weekend continued it was obvious he was going to need a Dr. as well. We scheduled an apt. with our old Dr. back in Richmond as we had to make the drive to pick Jackie up anyway.

What a mistake that was! Dr. "Doofus", I won't call him what I was originally thinking, didn't so much as take any blood or spend more than 2 minutes with either of us. His diagnosis for Bob was to take some magnesium citrate, a colon cleansing drug and don't call him in the morning. His answer to my pain was to take 3 Advil every 4 hours and he gave me a sample of some anti-inflammatory drug that didn't help in the least bit except to make my glucose level go through the roof. Thank you DR. Doofus.

So the following day I took Bob to the local Dr. and she did blood work and sent him to the ER for more testing. We hadn't been to this hospital before and were happily surprised to see no one waiting in the waiting room and he was taken into triage right away and back to the ER in moments. "Wow, maybe its a good thing to live in the country and have a small community hospital?". Bob said.
"yeah! Looks promising!", I said.
We went back to a room and the nurses quickly came in to start an IV and have Bob drink that tasty contrast to have a CT scan done. We were informed we had a 2 hour wait for the contrast to work its way through his system before the CT scan could be performed. We were thankful this little community hospital had a tiny TV screen we could watch for that 2 hour wait. Surprisingly the 2 hours went faster than I had imagined it would. They nurse came in to take him to his CT scan and promised to have him back in 10 minutes.
"Viola!, he's back!", said the nurse when she returned.
"Just as you promised!", I replied.
We patiently waited for the results of the scan. One hour passed, then two and our patience went out the window. The Nurse practitioner came in to say the specialist would be in to discuss the results. Fear set in. Why in the world do we need a specialist? Hesitantly the NP said they saw Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas). Soon every nurse, NP and DR came in to ask how much alcohol Bob drinks. He isn't a drinker. He may have some beer with an occasional dinner out, ie: all you can eat crab legs or on some special occasion. They made us both feel we were telling less than the truth. How rude!
After spending more than 6 hours in the ER the specialist shows up to tell us he normally would admit a patient in his condition but if we would go back to our PCP in the next 2 days he would release him. He suggested an ultrasound to rule out gall stones. We agreed to his terms and went home.
Two days later we saw the PCP who did more blood work and told Bob he needed to go on a clear liquid diet for 2 weeks.
"2 weeks?", Bob and I said in unison.
"2 weeks!", said Dr. R.
Dr. R then wrote a prescription for pain and we were on our way.

Thursday will be 1 week and I'm surprised at his will power to eat, ummmm. drink a clear liquid diet while the rest of us eat as usual. I'm coping with my shoulder pain and it does seem to be easing up a bit. I have no doubt that my reading Joel Osteen's book "Your Best Life Now" has helped me to get through this. Joel is a great motivational speaker. If you haven't seen him look for him on Sunday mornings. I highly recommend his book as well. Till next time!

Harpers Ferry, WV

Thanks to my sis-in-law, Linda and her email about this festival. We planned a spur of the moment camping trip to Harpers Ferry, WV. It was a beautiful town.


The area is rich in history. We didn't have enough time to see all there was to see and we will certainly return someday when we have more time to see it all. We will also have to make time to visit the Charles Town races just minutes from Harpers Ferry for some horse racing and some slot machine fun. Many years ago Linda and Ronnie introduced us to the horse races but we haven't been back and we have yet to try our hand at slot machines. Some day we will do just that.

At the festival we saw some amazing things! Here is a picture of some awesome masks made from leather. I couldn't afford any so this was the next best thing.

Braving the hot sunny day was my diva Nickie.

Nickie was intrigued by a man in a power chair that painted with a mouth stick. I wish I'd taken a picture of her intently watching him. I was just as amazed! His paintings were beautiful and reminded me a lot of my friend Theresa. She paints with a mouth stick also and was born with the same condition, Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita, Amyoplasia, as Nickie has. She does some amazing work. Those two make me feel even the more inadequate due to my lack of talent even with the full use of my hands and feet. That was the one thing I kept feeling walking around so much talent at that festival, how I lack talent for anything. I wish I could paint, draw, make something creative. Something I loved and did well. Something others would want to purchase! Alas, it isn't to be.
Here is a shot taken by master photographer known only as "Brandon",
That's Linda, Ronnie, me, Bob and of course Nickie.
Bob found this to add to our living room.

They call them rocks on fire! I couldn't resist purchasing one.
Well I'm off to plan our next camping tip!

Paco the singing dog!

While visiting Diane last Saturday I got to see in person, Paco the singing dog. Now you can see him too.

Do you see any resemblence?

Thursday I had to have some work done on my van in Richmond. Mom met me and picked me up so we could have lunch with her. Jackie, Brandon and I piled into her car and decided to see if my aunt would also like to go. We swung by her house and switched cars since Tia's car is a bit larger. We decided to go to the Spinnaker's restaurant at Chesterfield Town Square. We were greeted and promptly seated. Our waiter arrived and took our drink orders while we decided what we wanted to have for lunch.

Mom made a comment to Jackie about the fact that our waiter was handsome and how she should wink at him to let him know she liked him. Well if you know Jackie you know that isn't going to happen. She is entirely too shy for that sort of thing. I hadn't really looked at him so of course I had to make sure I paid attention on his return. I don't know how I could have NOT noticed it before, because except for the difference in hair color our waiter, Brian, looked almost like my son Shaun's identical twin. Well if he actually had a twin. I had to ask Brian if he minded if I took his picture to show to Shaun and Bob. Here they both are. You tell me what you think.

Mother's day

Happy first mother's day to Diane! Happy mother's day to all mothers. I was lucky to have all my loved ones with me today. Shaun and Alexis came and brought me one of those great Hallmark musical cards as well as a 2 pack DVD set of Grease one and two. I love those movies, especially the second one. I love the music in that one the best. Jackie bought me a 3 CD set of the 50's and 60's hits and a 3 CD set of the 80's hits. This should complete my collection since I recently bought a similar set of Cd's for the 70's. So now I have a really nice collection of the songs I love best. Brandon and Nickie worked together on a home made card and my loving hubby bought me the item I'd been wanting for a few weeks, a DVD recorder. Now I can transfer all our home videos to DVDs, YEAH!
On a slight twist of the traditional mother's day. My mom came and prepared dinner for all of us. A traditional Cuban feast, black beans and rice and pork. It was delicious and as usual we all ate too much. The food and the company was fantastic! I hope you all had as nice a day as I did!

Congratulations Diane!

On the birth of your beautiful baby girl, Annabelle Leigh! Born 5/5/07 8lbs 12.6 oz and 21 inches long. I can't wait to see her and hold her. Mom says she is doing well and getting into a routine. You can find her pics here.