Well, I tried out the new editor and lost my entire post so I am back to doing it the old way..   At least this way I am reasonably sure my post will get posted…    Now, back to what I was saying, (If I can remember everything I said) 

The grownup and responsible thing won out….   We spent the afternoon working on the deck.  I guess it was a good thing cuz we got a lot finished…   The railing is all up now, the spindles are all up and one side of the stair railing is finished.  All that is left now is the other stair railing, the lattice that will cover the bottom of the deck and the caps for the posts.  We are talking about maybe spending the extra money and getting the caps that are copper on top…   What do you think?  Now we need to get the postholes dug for the other deck so we can call the inspector and get him out here to check those postholes at the same time he does the final inspection of our finished deck.   Those holes are a lot of work.  Hubby will have to go and rent the gas powered, 2 man auger again and dig them 42” deep…   Things would be so much easier around here if he got 2 days in a row off like most people.  As it is his next day off wont be until Friday. 

 Our hot tub deck!!   Woo Hoo!!  There will be a door put in the wall angled to the wall with the window...

My little grandbaby Annalise is jaundiced..  I am not sure how bad it is yet.  Her mama took her in to see the Dr this afternoon for a check up and I haven’t received my phone call yet.  I think they must have gone over to her hubby’s friend’s house to visit for a while.  The baby is doing real well otherwise.  She is finally eating better, (she is nursing) and she is getting her mama up every 2 hours…  She lost about 3 oz’s in the hospital but you could never tell it….

 Miranda holding Annalise at the picnic today..

The birthday party/picnic for my daughter was perfect…   Her boyfriend got down on one knee and proposed to her so she is now engaged.  The ring is just beautiful and my daughter is very happy.  All the things any parent wants for their kids..   Now I just have to figure out why the wedding date has been set for August 2008????   Oh well..

The Proposal...

 The ring...

It’s quiet right now…  Baby is watching the ‘toons and the kids haven’t gotten home from their cookout/sleepover yet…    Lily and family will be here soon..  That means more time for grandma to hug on the newest addition to our growing family.  Then I need to get to work making up a big batch of potato salad.  We are having a picnic/birthday party tomorrow for my daughter and her boyfriends father..   Baby and the little girlies will enjoy it because we are going to the park and they will get to play on the slides.  It will be an early picnic, around 9am otherwise Alex, my son, wouldn’t be able to go, since he has school in the afternoon.  Remember he is taking that auto mechanics class in addition to regular 11^th grade classes and those classes started 2 weeks before school starts for my kids..   Otherwise not much else is happening.   Hubby is at work, when he gets home he will probably do some more work on the deck.  He told me last night he needs another 20’ piece of decking for the top rail around the deck so we will have to go get that and bring it home first.   He does have tomorrow off work, the only thing on our agenda for tomorrow is the picnic, and then we can either work on the deck or go for a long ride on the Goldwing.  As much as I would like to get the deck finished I would also like to go and spend the day with hubby off riding somewhere rather than working.  Oh well, do we do the grownup responsible thing and finish the deck?  Or do we head off for parts unknown and enjoy the day???   I guess we will find out tomorrow    I don’t have any other words of wisdom today so I am going to end this entry…   Have a great day everyone  

I have a new granddaughter!  Annalise Gabrielle was born at 10:35pm last night right into the loving hands of her grandma (me).  She is 8#1oz and 19.5” long.  We haven’t decided if she is going to have light brown hair or be blonde…   She is such a sweetheart   Hubby got to the hospital just in time to witness the birth of our 5^th grandchild..   It is always so amazing to me to watch each new little person enter the world.  I can’t describe the joy and love I felt when she slid into my hands and I laid her on the tummy of my daughter, my precious Lily        Hubby and I stayed about 90 minutes more, just to make sure mom and baby were doing fine and then we headed home.  Me in the van and hubby on the Goldwing.  I would have much rather rode with him, the full moon last night was gorgeous and soooo bright and the air was so warm    A perfect night for a beautiful little baby girl to be born…..     I just called my daughter a little while ago and both her and baby are doing great and will be heading home tomorrow, or rather heading here and then going home later    

The top pic is the baby being born into my hands...  The 2nd pic is her being held by her mama,  and the 3rd pic is a pic of her just about 1 hr old

Miranda is definitely back to her wild little self.  She is still pretty careful about bumping her toe, which is real good since it is still not completely healed…  But there is just no keeping her down now.  I just wish we could get back to the reliable potty training that she was doing when she first hurt her toe.  It seems like we have slid back about 4 steps in the process again.  I guess that is to be expected when she had to go back into a diaper for the last 2 weeks.  I just couldn’t get her to the potty in time with that big leg…   Oh well, she will get the hang of it eventually…

There is a big street dance tonight in our little rural community.  Once a year in the summer our little town has a street dance on Friday night and then a big parade and activities all day Saturday.  Usually this involves a big tractor pull, lots of food and craft booths.  The kids are looking forward to going tonight.  I am thinking hubby and I and baby will stay home this year and just let the 2 of them go.  Their older sister might go over too when she gets home from work tonight.  Maybe it will be a quiet night for us…  Hubby has to work all weekend and doesn’t get a day off til Monday… 

It is my daughter Caties’ 20^th birthday on Monday.  I can’t believe that my oldest 4 kids are all 20 and older…  When did all this happen??  I have a son that will be 17 in November, and a daughter that will be 15 in October, and then the baby who will be 3 in October still at home.  Ohhhh and I can’t forget their oldest sister who is 26 and moved back home last December…  We still have a pretty full house….  And it looks like it is going to be this way for a while….

Just a quick message to let my xanga friends know that I am off to the hospital to catch a baby    Yep....   I am the official catcher of my daughters 3rd little girl who has decided that today is the day to make her appearance    I will be back later with pics,  (you know us proud grandmas and our pictures)   :)

The “big leg” is off!     Finally Miranda is back to having 2 little legs    She was very good in the Dr’s office, I am just glad they had the cast on in 2 pieces so we didn’t have to go thru the cutting it off part.  I know she wouldn’t have let them do that.  We had to go and get her a pair of tennis shoes one size larger than what she wears to protect her toe.  The Dr said it is still healing and we need to take her back in 7-9days to have it looked at again but overall he is happy with how it looks.  It does look a lot better than it did the day she hurt it.  After we got home the first thing we did was get the bath water started.  After 2 weeks of nothing but sponge baths baby was ready….   Then the rest of the afternoon was spent watching what she calls the vampire daddy movie, (Van Helsing).   She just loves the vampire daddy and vampire mommy,  heck, she even likes the vampire babies    So we watched that and she finally took a nap.  

The first pic is Miranda holding her big foot after we got home and the 2nd pic is just a shot of her toe.  The yellow on her toe is a piece of guaze that needs to be soaked off.  You can still see the stitches around her toe. 

Hubby went outside to work a little more on our deck and she followed him outside, so right now she is in having her second bath of the day.  I went outside to find her playing barefoot in the sand…   That of course means sand all over her feet and her hurt toe in particular.  I am hoping to get her in her jammies and down to watch some ‘toons soon.

So that’s it for the news right now…   Baby just got out of the tub so I need to get her dressed…     Have a great night everyone

Tomorrow is the big day!  The cast comes off    I cant wait to see how baby’s little toe is doing, and she cant wait to get her “big leg” off    She is getting around really good in the cast now.  I even caught her running in it…   That about scared the life out of me.  I keep thinking “oh yeah, run and fall down and break your leg now that the cast is about to come off”   Oh well…  At least she isn’t moping around and is back to her happy little self.

Well, I went to my annual schoolbus meeting to get any new students I might have this year added to my bus route.  Last year I had 62 students on my bus route.  This year 2 of them graduated so I lost them and I GAINED 8 more!  That is wayyyyy too many kids on my bus. Needless to say the OTHER driver said she would take 3 of my students onto her bus.  Oh happy day! (Said with A LOT of sarcasm!)  I have been fighting with this other driver for a few years now about students.  She has maybe a total of 20 kids that ride her bus; she gets by with having less because she says her route is too long.  My route might be a few minutes shorter than hers, but I haul all the kids.  A lot of the kids on my bus are from her bus route originally.  Over the years she has managed to get more and more of them moved to my route for one reason or the other.  I told the bus secretary this morning that something has to give.  She said she will call me and we will go over my students along with the Director of Transportation.  Now both she and the DOT are both new this school year so it should be a fun year.  Neither of them have any idea what they are doing.  I just hope some changes get made and hopefully they will be changes that benefit me rather than make things harder.  I tell you, you haven’t done anything til you drive a 65 passenger schoolbus full of screaming fighting kids!!!   I am NOT looking forward to it!   

Not a lot of news….   We have the spindles up on the deck now.  We still need to get the top railing done and get the stair railings up.  Then it will be time to start on the other deck…   Baby keeps calling the deck her castle    I guess she is the Princess of the house….

Ok,  baby and I are off to town.  I need to pick some bread up and meet with hubby for lunch.  No McD’s for a few more days, even though that is where she wants to go.  I am just sure baby couldn’t handle sitting in there and not be able to play in the play area.    Have a great day everyone and don’t forget to leave a smile

Ok, so somehow she managed to pop a couple ribs on her right side out.   She would be Sara of course.  I swear that girl spends more time at the chiro getting adjusted than I do.  So one more time she is back together, whatever she did this time he said must have been done a few weeks ago…   Hopefully this is it for her for a while.  Today is Alex’s’ first day back to school.  He wanted to take a class at one of the schools in town that offer Diesel mechanics.  That school starts 2 weeks before we start back so he gets to go 2 weeks earlier than Sara does.  Now I just need to get my self over to the school today and get them both registered and get their class schedules.  Then it is off to town to pick up Sara’s contacts and maybe stop by Sams’ Club to get a few things…   

This is the week of the big fair so the kids have been going to the concerts every night.  Makes it pretty quiet around here with only me, baby and hubby home.  We are planning on taking baby to the fair Saturday afternoon.  Some storms finally came thru last night/early morning and it has cooled off a lot.  The temp right now is only 77*, this time yesterday it was already heat index over 100*.  So I think if it stays like this baby shouldn’t have any problem with her cast getting to hot.  I know she will enjoy seeing the white tigers and the animals in the petting zoo.  Now that she has figured  out that it doesn’t hurt her “big leg” to get up and walk, I cant keep her down.  I have taken to calling her peg leg because I hear her thumping as she walks. 

Her big sister has taken her shopping a couple times in the last few days and she really enjoys getting out of the house.  Yesterday daddy didn’t get to come home for lunch so she went with big sis and stopped by McD’s (her favorite spot) and got daddy some lunch and took it to work.  Daddy called me to tell me she was sitting on the counter eating all his fries  

Hubby will be home in a few minutes for lunch so I better get something ready.  Then it is off to school and town.  Have a great day everyone

So yesterday I threw caution to the winds and took baby to town.  And yes, I lived to tell about it   Actually she did very well.  I had big brother Alex dust the stroller off and hubby had the day off so we all got into the van and went shopping.  Daddy took her to look for a new book while I went and did some grocery shopping.  She enjoyed the change of scenery and I enjoyed the relative peace and quiet. Of course we left with way more in our cart than I had originally intended on. 

We got home, got everything put away and baby back into the A/C to watch her 'toons, then hubby and I went into Menards to exchange 8 of the decking boards that were delivered badly scratched.  When we got home hubby and son Alex got the last of the decking laid down and have the stairs up.  Tonight they will get started on the railing around the deck.  It is finally coming together.

This morning Sara, 14yr old daughter, is complaining of pain around her rib area. So it looks like another trip into town.  I will be so glad when school starts back up.  Not because the kids will be back in school but because I will have less running around to do.  The only downside to school starting back up is I have to go back to work myself.  Someone has to drive the schoolbus....

Well,  better get this day started...   Have a good one everyone

I sit here during my first quiet moment of the last few days, silently contemplating changing my name…   No,  I don’t mean my given name,  I mean the name MOM, or rather Mama as baby calls me.   The name given to me by my wonderful children…   And at this point I don’t even mean ALL of my children, and there happens to be 7 of them, no, I mean the baby, Miranda…   Now normally I wouldn’t think of such a thing, but after 3 days I am tired….   Tired of lifting her in that 1 ton cast of hers to take her to the potty only to have her say,  “I don’t have to go now, Mama”   (said in that sweet and innocent little voice of hers)  and then struggling to lift her up and get her back to bed because she cant walk on that foot. Tired of watching Scooby Doo, or Richie Rich ALL day long cuz she wants Mama to sit with her….   Tired of forcing Motrin and Tylenol into her because she cries that her big leg, (which is what she calls her cast) hurts so bad, but she doesn’t want to take the medicine to make it feel better.  Tired of fighting to wash her hair and get the tangles combed out because it gets so terribly ratted up when all she does is lay around and rub her head back and forth over the pillows and sheets…  Just tired….   Not that I would give my job of mom up for anything in the world…  But gee whiz!!!   Enough is enough already!   And I still have 9 more days before the cast can come off….     Will I make it???  Stay tuned….

On another note…  it is HOT here!  Not just a little hot!  It is real hot!  Heat index of 108*  Our central air has been out all season as we wait on my brother, the heating/ac technician, to get us a quote on a new furnace /ac unit.  At least we have a room ac unit in our bedroom, the computer room and baby’s room…  Alex and Sara have bedrooms in the basement so they spend a lot of time down there in their rooms where it is cool too. 

I keep refilling Baron’s, (our almost 2 yr old German Shepherd male) water bowl.  He seems to prefer it outside under our big evergreen bush laying in the dirt.  I am thinking I will go outside pretty soon and turn the hose on for him so he can play in the water for awhile.  I have never seen a GS that likes the water as much as he does.  Whenever I turn the hose on it is a fight between him and baby to see who gets to soak up the water…   Generally he wins…

Hubby is back at work, but he does get tomorrow off so maybe a little more will get done on the deck…   So there….   I feel a little better….  Baby is napping right now so I think maybe I will take some quiet time and go lay in my bed and maybe watch a big people movie rather than the ‘toons    And just in case there is any doubt..  I love baby with all my heart, her smile makes me melt, her little arms hugging me close is worth any amount of tiredness on my part, and will I continue to jump when she calls me???    You bet!   Sometimes, ya just gotta  let it all out though….     thanks for dropping by and don’t forget to share a smile

It has been a rotten couple of days…  First of all we were SUPPOSED to have the hot tub deck done by today so we could get started on digging the postholes for our patio deck.  As of right now we are a day behind and tomorrow hubby goes back to work.    The reason we are behind is because baby was seriously hurt yesterday.   My son Alex and son in law, Stephen, were removing the old patio blocks from the spot that our new patio deck is going to be put.  Baby had snuck back outside without me catching her and suddenly I heard a bloodcurdling scream from Alex…   MOM!!!!     I threw the stuff in my hands down and came running.  He ran into the kitchen with baby in his arms and blood everywhere.  Alex is my big, strong 16 yr old son and baby is Miranda, our 2-½ yr old daughter.  Hubby came running in the door behind Alex, the scream was so loud he heard it over the noise of the drill he was using.  I saw blood all over and quickly realized it was her big toe, a patio block fell on it and the toe nail was just hanging and there were cuts all around her toe.  I wrapped it in a towel and headed to the car.  I got in and held baby, something I NEVER do in the car.  She always sits in her car seat.  She was screaming and crying and kicking her feet.     She had blood all over my shirt and pants and her dad’s face.  We got to the emergency room and the nurses tried to get it cleaned off.  Baby wouldn’t let anyone look at it, she just kept saying she wanted a band-aid and to go home.  In his wisdom hubby had grabbed a Dora band-aid before we left the house and he kept telling her the Dr’s were just looking for a bigger band-aid.  The Dr finally got a look at her toe and said he needed to call the Orthopedic Dr in to look at it.  We got an x-ray…  Yep…  It was broke, as well as cut all over and needing stitches.   Baby finally calmed down in my arms and fell asleep, I am sure just from pure exhaustion.  The Ortho Dr showed up, said it needed surgery, no way could they fix it with her awake so down to surgery we went.  They took her in and we waited for about 90 minutes…  Finally the Dr came in and said she was all sewed up and in a cast from the top of her foot to the top of her thigh.  She has to wear it for at least 2 weeks and then we go in and get it checked.  Her toenail is gone, but hopefully it will grow back and there won’t be any lasting damage.   When we saw her she was still very groggy,  but Hubby leaned over and put that Dora band-aid that we had carried all thru the hospital on the cast over her hurt toe    picked her up and we left…     She is on antibiotics, pain medication and bed rest…   So she has spent the day lying in our king sized bed watching the 'toons. 

 And guess what?  The satellite glitched, the 'toons went off and baby got off our big bed, walked to the door and was captured coming out into the hallway by her big sister!   I knew she wouldn’t stay down long    Soooo,  I wrote another book as my daughter Catie would say,,,  but really that was a very scary afternoon and evening for mom and dad and I never want to have another one of those!  I sure hope YOUR day has been better