scrapbooking w/ memaw

as you probably know, wednesdays are typically my day to have the girls. raven loves to do creative activities, such as painting, drawing, writing, and "scrapbooking". she didn't call it scrapbooking until she heard mommy talking about going to the scrapbook store and scrapbooking w/ her friends and stuff -- but once she heard that, she's called it scrapbooking ever since.

for us (raven and memaw), it's really more of a combination book. we paint, draw, color, trace our hands, and paste pictures all in the same book. well, after mommy had gone to a scrapbook class and left raven at home (crying hysterically because she knew she was being left out of something really spectacular!), we had to make a special scrapbook page at my house.

we had to have everything, too -- colored paper, tape roller, stickers, pictures => the works. we sat down on the living room floor to start scrapbooking, and raven knows right off what she wants and doesn't want. i can make suggestions and help her, and she's fine w/ that. but if mommy joins in the activity, raven turns into a miniature hitler. mommy doesn't get to choose her own colors to color w/, part of the picture to color, or nothing! then if she does something, raven usually colors over it. it's really quite comical to watch, but terribly frustrating for mommy!

raven chose to use a picture of herself from clay cafe from thanksgiving weekend 2005. she was intently painting her ornament for the christmas tree. she chose the stickers and the colors on the page and even placed the things herself. the only thing i "helped" w/ was getting the borders on in a close-to-straight manner.

after finishing our scrapbook page, then we had to trace our hands on the other page. that's something that we do to entertain and fill time while waiting (places like church), but it has gotten to be quite a family tradition as we stamp our hands every new years day. she's explaining to me why a couple of my finger are really fat, but in reality -- she just got in a hurry.

also, as you can see, raven is "maked" (translates to "naked" in adult language). she's not at my house more than 10 minutes before she's "too hot" and starts removing clothing. since i'm wearing a t-shirt w/ a sweatshirt and sweatpants -- it's obviously not TOO hot in the house. it could be 40 degrees, though, and she would want to run around in her underwear. i'm ok w/ that because i'm memaw and those things just don't bother me.

we have a great time together and look forward to our days to do special things. these are times for "just us girls" to do our thing. it's a great opportunity for me to spend 1-on-1 time w/ the kids w/o the stress of doing something big! now that the weather is getting nicer, i'm sure we'll spend much more time outside, playing and walking and looking at the garden and more. lots of pictures in the making, i think!

night mares and charlie horses

this piece represents the time i spent in december and january dealing with a pinched nerve in my back. i continually had charlie horses, running from my waist to my toes on my right side.

the pain was unbearable most times, and there were times i would just lie in bed, curled up in pain, and cry. i couldn't get up on my own, couldn't take care of myself, couldn't sleep without pain. when i couldn't stand it any further, i would ask jerry to take me to the emergency room.

the only thing that helped was a shot of morphine and tordal. the real problem -- these "quick fixes" didn't last even 24 hours. after several trips to the emergency room, they basically told me to learn to deal w/ the pain on my own.

what? i couldn't walk, couldn't stand, couldn't sit, couldn't do anything except lay on my stomach on my bed -- and still hurt. yeah, deal w/ it! i was referred to a pain management specialist, but they couldn't get me in until february.

what??? i couldn't live like this for 2 more months! when we called and asked why it took so long, the reception said, "well, you have to understand that we only do pain here on tuesday and thursday." that was about the most assinine thing i had ever heard, and my response to her was, "well, that won't work, because i'm doing pain 24 hours a day!"

jerry got on the phone and found a pain management specialist in joplin and got an appointment for 3 days later. it didn't take them 5 minutes to diagnose the problem w/o ever looking at the mri report. they scheduled me an appointment for 2 days later to come back and have steriod shots into the spine.

the idea that i had to go back home (an hour in the car where every bump, curve, swerve, or stop was extremely painful) was almost more than i could take. by the time we got there, i was in such pain that i was just curled up and crying.

it was a scary thought, but the pain was just unbearable and i had no life at the time -- so we went w/ it. i went in for the first shot, watched the people before me go in, be gone about 20 minutes, and then walk back out. i warned the doctor and nurses ahead of time that i had a tendency to vasel-vagel (which is the fancy term for fainting or passing out), but they seemed unconcerned.

so i'm lying there on the table on my stomach, talking about this and that w/ the nurses and doctor. they were quite amused and shocked at the tattoo on my backside -- definitely something to talk about. they wanted to hear the story behind it and all, so that took up some time and got some good laughs.

there was a machine right over my back so the doctor can see the individual nerves to make sure he gets the shot exactly where it goes. first there was a little pressure and then the shot. it felt like there was a guitar string that ran from my waist to my toes, and he just twanged it hard enough to reach my knee. i let out a yelp and he asked where it hurt. i told him, and he said, "that's good. that means i have the right nerve." then he moved the needle to another near spot or something, but the guitar string twang went all the way to my toes.

oh man, that was painful! i was starting to feel really hot in that room (first sign that fainting is possible). the procedure was done and i was lying there a few minutes while they took blood pressure and checked things. then the nurse asked me to start to stand up by just putting my legs over the side of the bed and touching them to the floor.

i knew i was going down, so i said, "can i just lay here a minute?" at this point, it's usually the imagination that makes things worse. i was picturing what i had felt, what it must have done, whether it had helped, what if my life continued on as it had, etc. it was getting really, really hot in the room now. the doctor had already left the room to move on to the next patient since my procedure was over.

the nurse gave me a bit (felt like about 20 seconds to me!), and then said, "can you try standing up now?" i told her that i needed to just lay there a bit more. we went through this routine a couple more times before i tried to stand up, knowing that this wasn't going to work out very well.

i put my feet on the floor, as instructed, and kept my upper body on the bed. i stood in that position a few seconds and then looked across the bed at the nurse standing there and said, "i'm going to pass out now." i knew it for sure when the edges of my vision started to turn gray and the gray started quickly progressing toward the center.

at that point, they called some sort of code and people came running from everywhere. jerry, seated in the hallway, knew something was wrong, and it had to be w/ me because i was the only one back there! one of the nurses got a wheelchair under me just in time to sit me down as i passed out.

the most horrible thing about passing out like this is that when i wake up, i have a roaring sound in my head (worse if i have hit the floor!) and then there are usually a bunch of people in my face. i assured them all when i awoke that i was fine, but the charge nurse wanted to send me to the emergency room.

the doctor disregarded her suggestion and sent me to the recovery room. other people were there as they got out of knee surgery, shoulder surgery, etc -- and i'm there for fainting! not exactly something to brag about!!!

by this time, jerry is right there next to me and my mother has shown up at the hospital. i was fine and i felt fine, except really tired feeling -- typical from having the quick drop in blood pressure that allows the fainting. of course, my mother is worried that i'm in the recovery room instead of walking out on my own after the shot, but what can i say -- she's a mom!

the doctor decided that i needed a shot of something to up my blood pressure and speed up my heart rate -- so i got that shot. after being "monitored" for the next hour by a nurse that was totally pissed that the doctor didn't send me to the ER, i was allowed to leave for home.

as i got up to walk to the car, i was still sore from the charlie horses in my leg -- but i didn't have the pain that i had been having. the shot is supposed to have its best effect after 48 - 72 hours. that was right on, too, as it was about 2 days before i felt much better.

the worst part about this whole thing is that we didn't get to celebrate the holidays like we normally do -- no christmas tree, no cookies to decorate, no gingerbread houses, no christmas shopping, no gifts, no precious moments chapel and vietnamese lights trip, no shopping at the plaza and other kc favorites, no valuable family time w/ the kids.

it was horrible. christmas is my favorite time of the year, and i so love to do all those activities w/ my family. this year, we had none of those memories together. i couldn't hold riahna, i couldn't hold/hug/lift raven, i couldn't do all the things that are so important to me. i couldn't even spend time w/ my family at all b/c i was just in too much pain.

we had about 2 hours of christmas shopping on the 23rd and about 2 hours on the morning of the 24th. we got gift cards for some (which i hate because it's so unoriginal) and presents for the 5 grandchildren. i just told my children that we would have our christmas for them in a few days.

i don't think anyone truly knows how miserable i was during that time, but it did give me plenty of time to come up w/ a list of things i'm going to work on and/or accomplish this year. that time of "thinking" also gave me some new ideas and more inspiration for some ideas that i already had.

so, summer (my daughter -- the pollyanna in the family), if i had to find a "bright side" to this situation, it would be that i have a much deeper appreciation for living and much more inspiration to get some of the projects done that i've only be thinking about up to this point.

after 2 more shots to the spine (which were both uneventful as far as the vasel-vagel thing), i was well on my way to recovery. now we'll see how everything else goes! i certainly have a new understanding and respect for those people who have serious back injuries.

and to those people who offered such consoling words as "well, there will be another christmas next year . . . ". you have NO IDEA of what i missed this year. never again will riahna have a 1st christmas and never can i replace that time and the memories that i didn't get to make w/ my family.

yeah, there will be another christmas next year -- and i'll be doing the holidays up double time to make up for what i didn't get to do this year. jerry and family better just watch out!

for you, jerry -- that means that we'll be AT the plaza on thanksgiving when the lights come on just so we can say "ahhhhh" and then load up in the car and head toward the hotel! for you grown kids -- that means we'll be spoiling the little kids w/ as many activities as possible!!!

our first tulip sprout!

the last saturday of february was a beautiful day, and we decided to hurry up and get the bulbs planted that we had purchased at powell gardens last fall on our trip there. jerry was really going stir-crazy from so little activity since his shoulder surgery and being trapped in the house -- so this gave the perfect activity to go out and do! it didn't take long and it didn't take much effort!

the next time raven was out and trying to play in the flower pots, i told her that she couldn't dig in there anymore because we had planted flowers in there. from that day on, she checked each time she was out to see if there was a flower growing.

after 10 days, she came running back into the house yelling "memaw! memaw! you have a new flower growing!!!" then she had to take each person out there and show them the new flower. after that, each day she would go back out to check on the flower and see if there were any new ones. we can always count on raven for a "flower update" when she's here!

made me laugh

i parked next to this car on campus the other day, and i have to admit it made me laugh. of course, i guess you have to be the right age to have played this game. probably the same people who were on a long trip with their parents, laying in the back window waving at strangers, protected by "mom's seatbelt" while jumping on the seats, stopping at rest stops, and begging for more pit stops and more munchies!

of course, it's spring time and i feel the urge to travel coming on strong. the sense of wanderlust hits me hard in the springtime -- especially if the weather is warm and i can hear the traffic of the highway. only thing that makes that more tempting is the rumble of fat pipes chanting "blub, blub, blub, blub."

yeah, i feel that day coming on stronger and faster all the time.

in case you can't read the license plate, it says "SLGSUM1".

young up-and-coming artist

ok, now while this may not look as impressive as da vinci or raphael or rockwell -- this is the picture that raven, my 3 1/2 year old granddaughter, drew for me yesterday while staying the day with me.

wednesdays are typically my day to have the girls for the day. i was trying to check my email and do a couple of things on the computer, and raven wanted some paper. she got out a couple sheets from the printer, scootched up in my lap, and began drawing. trust me, i get very little done these days other than playing, coloring, scrapbooking w/ raven, rocking riahna, etc. it's tough work!

she quickly filled the front and back of 2 sheets, and then held this up to me and said, "look memaw. i drew this for you. this is you and this is your house." she did all of this w/o any coaching.

now i know i'm a grandparent and sometimes we're just sickening in how special we think our grandchildren are -- but i have to admit that i think this is just pretty darned good for a 3-year-old.

granted, memaw only has 1 arm and no torso -- but it's definitely an identifiable stick figure. of course, if i just had a head, 1 arm, and 2 legs -- that would certainly help me on when i step on the bathroom scales!

the house is a little cockeyed -- but again, it's a recognizable house structure. who knows, maybe raven just thinks things are a little cockeyed at my house anyway!

after all, it's always better to follow the rules at memaw's house than at home! maybe that's because it's so much easier since there are fewer of them? or maybe it's just because memaw thinks the kids are perfect on their own?

cat - 1, girls - 0

yeah, that's right. that was the score from last night, but we're up for a rematch on thursday night!

that's how our evening turned out last night. summer and i were going to give the cat her twice-yearly haircut (otherwise known as "shaving the cat"). it's usually quite an ordeal and if you've never experienced it -- you have NO idea of what it's like! if you've ever read the joke email about "how to give a cat a pill" -- you could multiply that by 10 and you've have an idea of what it's like to give a cat a hair cut.

so this was what we had planned for our evening last night. grandpa was going to watch the girls while summer and i shaved the cat. we started the movie for the grandpa and the girls, and then started prepping the area for the cat make-over. summer measured out the cat drugs (a little calmer-downer to keep her from killing us in the process) and then caught the cat. amazingly, summer managed to give the cat the medicine all by herself -- and that in itself is quite amazing (reference back to the email on "how to give the cat a pill"!).

the instructions on the cat "calmer-downer" says to give her 10 drops and wait 15-20 minutes and give her another 5 drops. so, summer shut the cat in my bathroom while we waited for the 15 minutes to pass, knowing that it would take time to measure out the next drop of medicine and also time to catch the cat -- even in a closed-in and fairly small area (10 x 14).

when we went back in there and opened the door -- the cat was gone! now, we know that she can open the door, but the door was shut when we got there and we know she isn't smart enough to open the door, walk out, and then close the door behind her. we were beginning to wonder, though, because we could not find her anywhere. there are just not a lot of places to hide in the bathroom, other than the covered litter box and she's much too stuck up to hide in there!

we looked and we looked, and then we started looking other places in my bedroom like in the closet, under the bed, behind the laundry hamper, and more. we double checked the bathroom, double checked the closets, and still couldn't find the cat.

that only left one place for her to be -- under the jacuzzi! after summer had shut her in the bathroom, the cat had opened one of the service doors to get under the jacuzzi and crawled under. the doors fall shut behind her unless opened all the way -- so we had no idea to look under there. after getting under there, she had crawled back to the furthest spot on the other side -- just out of reach of a broom handle or anything else!

all we could do was shine the flashlight under there as see her watching us -- and growling every time she thought we were going to try and touch her! summer tried calling her out, enticing her w/ food, going off and leaving the doors opened (like we weren't interested in what she was doing!), calling her some more . . . . but nothing worked.

jasmine stayed hidden under the jacuzzi until summer had left and the drugs had worn off. then she came out and plopped down in the middle of my bed just like she was the queen of the nile. she had won the battle and she was feeling rather smug about it. what she's doesn't know is that she hasn't won the war! she'll be getting a haircut on thursday and we now have child-proof latches on our grocery list to prevent the cat from getting under and/or hiding under the jacuzzi this time!

here is a picture of what jasmine looks like. this picture was taken in december, 1997, so summer has changed quite a bit and jasmine hasn't changed much in looks but her attitude has taken a fairly constant downhill turn since then. at that time, she thought she might be a princess. now she's fairly sure she's the queen and willing to teach anybody a lesson who might think otherwise! unfortunately, she is fully clawed and has a full mouth full of teeth -- so be forewarned!


i post this now so you can see how much difference there is when we get her shaved. she goes from looking like an elegant princess to more of a drowned rat. it's kind of like cat-grunge! amazingly, though, her attitude and personality are much more pleasant when she looks like a drowned rat! must support my theory that some people are nice because they have to be as they can't count on their looks to get them through life.

after we get the cat-grooming done -- i'll post another picture for all to see the difference. if there are any injuries to any of the workers, i'll post pictures of those, too. just so you know what a dangerous job this is!

paper anniversary

that's it -- we just had our "paper" anniversary. that means we've made it through 1 year and the traditional gift for that is paper. now, what can you give someone that's paper? that takes some thought. especially if i didn't want it to be "something scrapbook" because that has a very negative connotation to jerry.

so, h-m-m-m. something paper. i knew of something paper i wanted, but i wasn't sure that jerry wanted that. of course, i could always just get it "for us" because that was what i wanted.

with my back injury and his shoulder injury/surgery, we haven't been very good about getting each other presents. we didn't get each other birthday gifts, christmas gifts, valentine's day gifts, and now anniversary gifts. what next? we'll be buying our own gifts and just saying it's from the other person?

well, jerry knew the really neat thing i wanted that was paper, and after we got home from dinner on wednesday night (valentines day) we decided to go with it. of course, my piece of paper will have a matching piece of paper for him -- so that way we each fulfilled the requirement of getting the other one something paper.

what is it, you ask? if you know me well -- you'll already know. if you don't -- then you'll just have to wait and find out when it happens!

after all, there are some people who read this blog just to find out what we are doing in our lives instead of being a part of our lives. there's no need for them to know our business until after it's over. . . when it's too late for them to try and mess anything up or interfere in any way!

it's official!

it's official and here's the new logo! we've been talking over the last year of setting up a business to do picture restorations and more. on the back of the card, i've listed the services available and can easily discuss with people what options and price ranges are most beneficial for their individual situations.

Services offered include –
· Scan pictures, slides, journals, or documents to digital files
· Store file back up for emergencies
· Restore damaged or aged photos
· Provide photo cleanup on current photos
· Create slideshow presentations on CD or DVD
· Original farm photography
· Silhouette photography, painting, or drawing

Prices vary depending upon assignment. Contact me for an estimate on your job!

this all started since our experience w/ jerry's mother's 80th birthday party last year. at that time, what we found was a huge box of photos that she had taken (torn) out of her photo albums and was dropping into brown paper baggies that were labeled w/ her kids' names. this was over a hundred years of family history!

i was horrified when i saw that because i knew that once those pictures were handed out to the different siblings, no one would ever know who had what pictures. important pictures to someone might not be the important pictures to someone else. or, if there is more than one child in a picture, how do you decide which bag to drop that picture in? what if all the children want that picture?

I've scanned in his mother's complete collection of pictures. i've labeled and dated them, identified the people in each picture, repaired damaged pictures, and cut out people who weren't wanted in the pictures. this way, they can ALL have a copy of ALL the pictures. no one ever has to worry about a special picture not being available!

once people started seeing the changes i could make in a picture, they started requesting that i fix a picture that was important in their collection. we knew that there had to be a market for this type of service, but so far we just hadn't had the time to take care of getting it off the ground.

well, it's off the ground now. the logo is designed and copyrighted, my business cards are printed and getting out, postcards are printed to mail out to special people, and i donated 3 certificates to the KKOW radio auction for promotional purposes and advertising is set up for the next 60 days.

more and more people are hearing about the business and what i can do for their picture collection -- which means that more and more people are checking into their personal collections to see what they need to have done. more questions/inquiries means more answers and more curiousity means more business. it's SO exciting!!!

i'll be doing some major networking in the near future and attending a couple/few very large trade shows and business expos -- so that should also help the business get started. now we'll see what works out!

we all had input on the logo and the business card, but lucas is the one who did the actual hands-on creation of the logo and card. looks great, lucas!

stan herd -- the landscape artist -- emailed me!

i have attached a picture of the global flyer landscape art that stan herd, the landscape artist, did for display when the global flyer took off and landed from the world record flight in salina, ks.

this is a picture from the drawings of leonardo da vinci, who actually drew plans for a flying machine in the 1500s, to celebrate the long-desired need or urge for flight.

i had written about stan herd and his art way back on my personal blog at world record flight and kansas art . he recently saw that posting, and he sent me a personal email with this picture attached to it.

i was quite impressed that he took the time to thank me for writing about him and his art on my blog. since then, i've checked out his personal web site again, just to see what all he's doing and i've posted the notice to all my art groups to check him out, too.

hopefully, he'll be doing art for a long time to come and will continue to create many famous pieces that will make an impact on people worldwide. i'm so much more impressed with him after the email that he sent, just to see that he's still approachable and caring as a human being while still being a famous artist! impressive!!

time to start blogging again

that's right. you read it correctly. it's time to start blogging again. the reasons i had for NOT blogging no longer exist, so it's time to start posting. several things have been going on, although not ALL of them will be discussed here. those of you who KNOW me, really know what all those things are anyway.

the new year is off to a bang and we've got SO many things going on here. i've created a list of things to start working on for myself -- a list of goals that you'll soon be hearing about b/c you'll know whether i'm making any progress on any of them or not. hopefully, if i keep motivated, some of these things will start happening and start to fall in place very soon.

happy new year to everyone and i wish you all the prosperity, success, love, and happiness that you deserve. for those who are living "the good life" now, i hope you live it up and enjoy what you have. for those who are struggling and things are not looking so bright, remind yourself that "this, too, shall pass."

2007 is going to be a great year. check back to see how wonderful it is here and for all of us in the family. there are great things ahead for us and we intend to live them to the fullest!