Even my Suzie is cuter in a sunset.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Sunset
Sunset is my favorite time to take photos. I love when the sun nears the horizon and turns the world into a glowing place of beauty. I need to grab my tripod next time since the light is fading and it's hard to get a good exposure without the tripod. I really do think sunset it is a magical time of the day. I am always in awe of how gorgeous everything is with that warm, fuzzy sunset lighting. 
Monday, June 28, 2010
The reality I want to avoid...
My brother in law got a fabulous job across the country. Everything has fallen into place, every last detail, God clearly paved the way for all of this. In fact, when I first heard of the opportunity, I knew in my heart that he would get the job, and they would go. I had no idea the details would end up being so clear... or the blessings so abundant... but I knew. And tonight, suddenly, it seems very real. Five people that I love very dearly are moving a lot of states away (I refuse to even count how many states right now). And I couldn't be happier for the blessing on their family, that God is so faithful in all things, and for this awesome job... and I couldn't be sadder at the loss for all of us, for me!! Waahhhhh!!! Take me with you!
Don't worry, I will continue to work on my brave front. I will not bursting into tears every time I even think about it (though it will happen sometimes). I know this is the right thing, that God has a plan. But "loss is loss and grief is grief" (to quote a favorite author)... and there's no way around it, this is really tough. And it is coming up really fast.
Friday, June 25, 2010
From this vantage point...
As you know, I've been spending a lot of time here on the couch. A lot of time working from home. A lot of time just being here on the couch. It is a new vantage point for me, for the most part. I mean I do sit here occasionally to "watch" a movie (meaning I'm doing something else at the same time). But these past few weeks, I've spent a lot of time here on the couch, lots of times noticing my surroundings. And what do I see?
Hmmm. This siding has been warped since I moved in, and for years I've meant to fix it, but I don't actually sit and look at it ever, so it has never even made the to do list. But good heavens, now I've been looking at it for 3 weeks and really wondering why I've waited so long to fix it.
And look at this:
Ewww. How does the underside of vinyl siding get so gross? Clearly this should get cleaned! How I have never noticed this either?
And look at this dismal looking light? Sure, it's functional, but hello ugly.
And this door. It has needed a coat of paint since I moved in too (nearly 8 years ago)-- you can see the white primer under this topcoat from up close. But only in the last three weeks have I really wondered how I've let it go this long, and pondered what color to paint it. And considered some cute flowery curtains on the inside of the windows, just for effect.
Not to mention the unslighly cracked, sunken concrete patio that has driven me crazy for years. But it is one of those labor-intensive and money-intensive projects I just haven't been able to do yet. Some day though...
I think the moral of the story is that I am not a couch person. There are couch people who spend a lot of time there and never seem to find the motivation to get up, or notice their surroundings and the projects therein. Instead, I am a motivated projects kind of person who only spends time on the couch when necessary, and somehow this time on the couch is resulting in more projects to accomplish once I get up. Somehow I didn't see this coming.
Hmmm. This siding has been warped since I moved in, and for years I've meant to fix it, but I don't actually sit and look at it ever, so it has never even made the to do list. But good heavens, now I've been looking at it for 3 weeks and really wondering why I've waited so long to fix it.
And look at this:
Ewww. How does the underside of vinyl siding get so gross? Clearly this should get cleaned! How I have never noticed this either?
And look at this dismal looking light? Sure, it's functional, but hello ugly.
And this door. It has needed a coat of paint since I moved in too (nearly 8 years ago)-- you can see the white primer under this topcoat from up close. But only in the last three weeks have I really wondered how I've let it go this long, and pondered what color to paint it. And considered some cute flowery curtains on the inside of the windows, just for effect.
Not to mention the unslighly cracked, sunken concrete patio that has driven me crazy for years. But it is one of those labor-intensive and money-intensive projects I just haven't been able to do yet. Some day though...
I think the moral of the story is that I am not a couch person. There are couch people who spend a lot of time there and never seem to find the motivation to get up, or notice their surroundings and the projects therein. Instead, I am a motivated projects kind of person who only spends time on the couch when necessary, and somehow this time on the couch is resulting in more projects to accomplish once I get up. Somehow I didn't see this coming.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The Trivial Things...
A few things I'm thinking about...
1. My house smells like dog... I hate that. I work very hard to make sure that it doesn't smell like dog. And last night, when I walked in the front door, I smelled dog. Eww. Dog blankets are now in the wash. Hopefully that will do it.
2. Usually I wait until August to totally despair of the weeds in the garden. Today I went out to the vegetable garden (that I planted just before surgery) and nearly despaired. The weeds are well spread throughout the entire garden. They are now tall enough to hide the lettuce. This is going to be a project to reclaim the garden and find the plans that are supposed to be there.
3. I spent about an hour out there today. Tying tomato plants to the supports, and weeding around them. I got less than half done, but it really does feel good to be out in my garden again. The house work is one thing, but not spending enough time working outside in the dirt is seriously detrimental to my health, or at least my mental health. Trying to ease back into it and make some progress without overdoing it. We'll see how that goes.
4. Yes, the house is a little out of control too. Just all the little things that I'm usually up and doing. Oh well. This too shall pass.
5. I am planning to be back at work next week. And that is a little overwhelming. Just the whole back to normal life on the job front... knowing I have to wake up, shower, get dressed (and not in work out shorts), and be at work all day... and then I'll come home exhausted and not be able to catch up on everything all at once... breath Reenie breathe.
6. I am not saying any of this to be ungrateful. I have felt soooo blessed and loved by my friends and family in the midst of all of this!! I can't even recount all the ways-- the dinners. My sister in law who cleaned my floors and the patio. Visits. Phone calls. Sweeping the floor. Out of town people that made a point to come see me. The ability to do a lot of my work from home these few weeks. My dad and sister bringing me Communion daily. All of it, I am soooooo blessed!!!! And I'm admittedly getting a little stir crazy and ready to be back in the full swing of my overly full life. Patience Reenie patience.
1. My house smells like dog... I hate that. I work very hard to make sure that it doesn't smell like dog. And last night, when I walked in the front door, I smelled dog. Eww. Dog blankets are now in the wash. Hopefully that will do it.
2. Usually I wait until August to totally despair of the weeds in the garden. Today I went out to the vegetable garden (that I planted just before surgery) and nearly despaired. The weeds are well spread throughout the entire garden. They are now tall enough to hide the lettuce. This is going to be a project to reclaim the garden and find the plans that are supposed to be there.
3. I spent about an hour out there today. Tying tomato plants to the supports, and weeding around them. I got less than half done, but it really does feel good to be out in my garden again. The house work is one thing, but not spending enough time working outside in the dirt is seriously detrimental to my health, or at least my mental health. Trying to ease back into it and make some progress without overdoing it. We'll see how that goes.
4. Yes, the house is a little out of control too. Just all the little things that I'm usually up and doing. Oh well. This too shall pass.
5. I am planning to be back at work next week. And that is a little overwhelming. Just the whole back to normal life on the job front... knowing I have to wake up, shower, get dressed (and not in work out shorts), and be at work all day... and then I'll come home exhausted and not be able to catch up on everything all at once... breath Reenie breathe.
6. I am not saying any of this to be ungrateful. I have felt soooo blessed and loved by my friends and family in the midst of all of this!! I can't even recount all the ways-- the dinners. My sister in law who cleaned my floors and the patio. Visits. Phone calls. Sweeping the floor. Out of town people that made a point to come see me. The ability to do a lot of my work from home these few weeks. My dad and sister bringing me Communion daily. All of it, I am soooooo blessed!!!! And I'm admittedly getting a little stir crazy and ready to be back in the full swing of my overly full life. Patience Reenie patience.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Hospital Goers
We are not a hospital-prone family. In fact, I think I can count on one hand the number of times family members have been to the ER. Keep in mind I have 8 brothers and 2 sisters. We grew up in the country, on a construction site, using large machinery and a lot of power tools. And some of those brothers do crazy things some times. But we are not hospital people in general. People get bumped and bruised, but people don't break bones and need the hospital. Let's see, from what I remember, Fiona got her finger slammed in the door so the tip came off at age 2- trip to the hospital, repair the finger, pink cast. Brendan cracked his wrist in middle school, hospital, cast. Garrett broke his leg at camp in middle school, hospital, cast. I think that's about it on the major stuff. And then in the last few weeks, with my whole ovarian cyst saga, and I was in the ER twice before surgery, then major surgery, and then a couple days recovery in the hospital. That's more hospital than most of our combined history (babies being born excluded from this total).
And then there was Monday... it started as a normal (post-surgery) day. I woke up, made coffee, sat down to work on the couch with my laptop. My dad brought me Communion and stayed to visit awhile. And then my mom called to say she'd penned up her free range chickens (that my dogs like to eat) and would I like to come for a visit. Um okay. I wasn't planning on it, but it does sound like a good idea, and the dogs do really wear out when they are there. So eventually I told the pups we were headed for Grandma's (an announcement that sends them into dancing, howling, leaping pleasure) and we set off.
I pulled in to find Owen at the end of the driveway, it took a few minutes to understand what was going on, but he was waiting for the ambulance, Mama fell. I raced up there. Mama was laying on the last couple steps at the bottom of these outside concrete steps. Lisa, our neighbor, was with her. There was blood pooled on the steps above. Woah, this is serious!! I remember thinking the pools of blood should gross me out more, but I had apparently switched into Emergency Mode (which I am quite good at). Lisa had been there gardening with my mom, and suddenly my mom had lost her footing or something and tumbled down about 8 steep concrete steps and had passed out. Lisa ran in to get the phone and said my mom was conscious again by the time she got back out. Well, that's something.
In Emergency Mode, I realized there are now 4 dogs outside running around- including my parent's dog Rocky, who is a great watch dog, and thus not a great ambulance-is-on-the-way dog. I got my two and Rocky into the house, while Lisa grabbed Gus (the little rat dog) and threw him into the house. Of course Rocky managed to bolt out the door again to greet the ambulance, but we finally got him contained. The ambulance arrived, I led the EMT to my mom, explaining she'd been unconscious for only about 2 minutes but had clearly lost some blood and hadn't moved. They started working on her, bandaging her bleeding head, checking vitals, and figuring out how to move her. As they sat her up, she started vomiting. Not good. The firefighters arrived and the four of them strapped her to a backer board and got her to the ambulance. Everyone said commented how the kid at the end of the driveway was the best- pointing them in the right direction. Yay Owen!
My dad had left work, but once I was there I called him and he went right to the hospital to meet us there. I grabbed my purse and got to ride in the ambulance, lights and sirens the whole way. And that's when I was thinking that we really aren't hospital people. We don't really do this. In fact, we've never even had an ambulance out to the house before. And we've lived there for over 20 years. Hmmm.
As we drove, I asked about her blood pressure, if it had bottomed out because of the blood loss. Nope. Instead it was really really high. Their concern was bleeding in the brain with blood pressure that high. Not good at all. My dad was standing at the ambulance bay when we arrived and we were able to be in the room with her. As usual, being in the ER means a lot of hurry up and wait. The blood pressure was a major concern (it was really really high when we got there) as was checking for broken bones and internal bleeding. It looked like the gash all the way across the forehead was the cause of all the bleeding. After hours of waiting and tests and more vomiting... the CAT scans showed no fractures and no internal bleeding- praise Jesus!! More waiting, trying to get her to stop vomiting and comfortable, and yet more waiting. It turns out she is very bruised and sore, as you'd expect. And has a concussion, as you'd expect. And has stitches across her forehead, as the gash required. But they got the pain and blood pressure to a normal place and sent her home late that night.
You know you've been in the ER too much when you recognize the people there, that cute tech with the tattoo, the check in girl, a few nurses. And I'm pretty sure that in the last couple weeks we have now fulfilled our Cous's at the hospital quota for the next several years.
And coming through something like that just leaves me incredibly thankful. My mom could have landed wrong and died. Something could have gone horribly wrong. She could have been alone. There are so many "what ifs." But God sent the right people to be with her. And protected her fall. And continues to be faithful in all things. And maybe she'll finally recover from her bout of pneumonia now that she's required to take it easy again.
And then there was Monday... it started as a normal (post-surgery) day. I woke up, made coffee, sat down to work on the couch with my laptop. My dad brought me Communion and stayed to visit awhile. And then my mom called to say she'd penned up her free range chickens (that my dogs like to eat) and would I like to come for a visit. Um okay. I wasn't planning on it, but it does sound like a good idea, and the dogs do really wear out when they are there. So eventually I told the pups we were headed for Grandma's (an announcement that sends them into dancing, howling, leaping pleasure) and we set off.
I pulled in to find Owen at the end of the driveway, it took a few minutes to understand what was going on, but he was waiting for the ambulance, Mama fell. I raced up there. Mama was laying on the last couple steps at the bottom of these outside concrete steps. Lisa, our neighbor, was with her. There was blood pooled on the steps above. Woah, this is serious!! I remember thinking the pools of blood should gross me out more, but I had apparently switched into Emergency Mode (which I am quite good at). Lisa had been there gardening with my mom, and suddenly my mom had lost her footing or something and tumbled down about 8 steep concrete steps and had passed out. Lisa ran in to get the phone and said my mom was conscious again by the time she got back out. Well, that's something.
In Emergency Mode, I realized there are now 4 dogs outside running around- including my parent's dog Rocky, who is a great watch dog, and thus not a great ambulance-is-on-the-way dog. I got my two and Rocky into the house, while Lisa grabbed Gus (the little rat dog) and threw him into the house. Of course Rocky managed to bolt out the door again to greet the ambulance, but we finally got him contained. The ambulance arrived, I led the EMT to my mom, explaining she'd been unconscious for only about 2 minutes but had clearly lost some blood and hadn't moved. They started working on her, bandaging her bleeding head, checking vitals, and figuring out how to move her. As they sat her up, she started vomiting. Not good. The firefighters arrived and the four of them strapped her to a backer board and got her to the ambulance. Everyone said commented how the kid at the end of the driveway was the best- pointing them in the right direction. Yay Owen!
My dad had left work, but once I was there I called him and he went right to the hospital to meet us there. I grabbed my purse and got to ride in the ambulance, lights and sirens the whole way. And that's when I was thinking that we really aren't hospital people. We don't really do this. In fact, we've never even had an ambulance out to the house before. And we've lived there for over 20 years. Hmmm.
As we drove, I asked about her blood pressure, if it had bottomed out because of the blood loss. Nope. Instead it was really really high. Their concern was bleeding in the brain with blood pressure that high. Not good at all. My dad was standing at the ambulance bay when we arrived and we were able to be in the room with her. As usual, being in the ER means a lot of hurry up and wait. The blood pressure was a major concern (it was really really high when we got there) as was checking for broken bones and internal bleeding. It looked like the gash all the way across the forehead was the cause of all the bleeding. After hours of waiting and tests and more vomiting... the CAT scans showed no fractures and no internal bleeding- praise Jesus!! More waiting, trying to get her to stop vomiting and comfortable, and yet more waiting. It turns out she is very bruised and sore, as you'd expect. And has a concussion, as you'd expect. And has stitches across her forehead, as the gash required. But they got the pain and blood pressure to a normal place and sent her home late that night.
You know you've been in the ER too much when you recognize the people there, that cute tech with the tattoo, the check in girl, a few nurses. And I'm pretty sure that in the last couple weeks we have now fulfilled our Cous's at the hospital quota for the next several years.
And coming through something like that just leaves me incredibly thankful. My mom could have landed wrong and died. Something could have gone horribly wrong. She could have been alone. There are so many "what ifs." But God sent the right people to be with her. And protected her fall. And continues to be faithful in all things. And maybe she'll finally recover from her bout of pneumonia now that she's required to take it easy again.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Updates
Good news of the day:
-- New baby at The Good Life! Welcome baby James!!
-- The pain is still lessening every day, although I always manage to find the limit and have to sit back down to rest.
-- Two sets of out of town friends are stopping to visit this weekend! Yay! Happy to see my buddies, both in town and out of town buddies!
-- My sister's house has been on the market for less than a week and they just got an offer! God is good. Still all the details to work out, so not a done deal, but hurray for movement in the right direction!
Stuff I should try to remember:
-- My usual power walk is a bad idea right now.
-- The fridge needs to be cleaned out.
-- Take off glasses before falling asleep... and turn off the light too, just for the heck of it.
Other tidbits:
-- I showered and was all excited, decided to put on "real clothes" as in something other than these large, workout shorts with the generous waistband and no elastic. Wore real shorts (loose and comfy) for all of 5 minutes and went back to the work out shorts. I just can't stand anything touching the incision right now. Oh well. Instead I put on make up and blow dried my hair for the first time in a week, and that feels "real" enough for me right now, even in work out shorts.
-- I just left the house for the first time since last Friday. Just needed milk. And to get out of the house for a few minutes. Driving was fine. Wandering through the store to find milk and tortillas was fine. Good thing it was a short errand though, apparently I still need to take it easy.
-- New baby at The Good Life! Welcome baby James!!
-- The pain is still lessening every day, although I always manage to find the limit and have to sit back down to rest.
-- Two sets of out of town friends are stopping to visit this weekend! Yay! Happy to see my buddies, both in town and out of town buddies!
-- My sister's house has been on the market for less than a week and they just got an offer! God is good. Still all the details to work out, so not a done deal, but hurray for movement in the right direction!
Stuff I should try to remember:
-- My usual power walk is a bad idea right now.
-- The fridge needs to be cleaned out.
-- Take off glasses before falling asleep... and turn off the light too, just for the heck of it.
Other tidbits:
-- I showered and was all excited, decided to put on "real clothes" as in something other than these large, workout shorts with the generous waistband and no elastic. Wore real shorts (loose and comfy) for all of 5 minutes and went back to the work out shorts. I just can't stand anything touching the incision right now. Oh well. Instead I put on make up and blow dried my hair for the first time in a week, and that feels "real" enough for me right now, even in work out shorts.
-- I just left the house for the first time since last Friday. Just needed milk. And to get out of the house for a few minutes. Driving was fine. Wandering through the store to find milk and tortillas was fine. Good thing it was a short errand though, apparently I still need to take it easy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)