This and That

• Well, my dad went home Saturday night and is in the hospital today. His HIP is killing him so they said to bring him to the ER so my sister called 911 for him. He is in so much pain. It is so sad how he has went downhill the last year. We have reservations in Gulf Sh0re$ in August but there is no way he will be able to go and I am not sure what we are going to do.
  *Update on my dad is that he is going to go to a REHAB part of a nursing home for a few weeks to try to get his strength back..He is not "thrilled" with the idea but he he really needs to get stronger. He will not get better laying in bed here as he needs someone to work with him. Please pray..this is a VERY hard decision and I hope he understands why we did it.


• My DAMN washing machine is still not fixed..it has been over a week since it stopped and a week since the repair person was here..what PI$$e$ me off is this is the 3rd or 4th time for the same problem. I am TRYING to get it under the lemon thing as I bought the extended warrenty on it but they need invoices as they have NO record of what the one company did to fix it and they have not returned any calls..and this is MY FAULT!!
  *I did get a call today from the one company and they are looking for the invoice so hopefully they will find one.
• Tyler went back to the Dr today for his hand/fingers..they did another x-ray and the DR did say he thinks he probally did break his finger near the growth plate but being so close to the growth plate would actually make it heal faster..it is still a little swollen and he can not move it 100% so now we go back in 6 weeks.
• Today was a PERFECT pool day..Diane came over this morning and we sat out for a while and she left and I floated/napped for a while and tonight me and the kids went in.
• Tyler is doing a Lego Robotics Day camp next week with a couple of friends..this is SO HIM and then the following week he is at CAMP for a week. He can not wait.
• We are 1/2 way through summer vacation and I hate this..it seems as soon as it is the 4th of July summer vacation is OVER:(
• Nicholas 6th grade teacher passed away today..she will be the teacher that Nicholas had that will make a difference in his life..she has not been "well" and his missed a lot this year but no one was expecting this. Nicholas had actually wrote her a letter a few months ago telling her how much he appreciated her and how she believed in him. She had a daughter that swam in high school and she sooo understood and encourage Nicholas..she will be MISSED as she was a SPECIAL teacher. Her house had flood damage and I am sure that played a part in her death..a person can only take so much..
• It is still so depressing here..They tore a house down around near us this weekend and the people were standing watching and it was HEARTBREAKING!!
• Never did I think FEMA would be at my house..You watch the news it is always someplace else..
• Hank is in Mexico and if he calls again to tell me about the GOOD food he is eating I am hanging up on him!
• I need to get back in the habit of going to the GYM..I did so much better with eating and felt better when I went..I need to quit eating crap too..when is it watermelon time?
• Love the tile and am so ready for the drywall to be done..My house is a mess no matter when I clean so why clean.
• Saturday night we went to Barbs for DRINKS...we actually stopped Bunc0 for the summer and are just getting together for DRINKS so this is what we are calling it..
  I was suppose to have the July DRINKS but there is a outdoor concert that night here so we are going to that instead..Personally I have not heard of them but some have and we always have fun so I got a ticket to go..thanks Denise;-)
• Suzanne is back in the MONDAY and we can not wait!!! It will be nice having them back here again:-) WoooHooo!!!!

My tile

They started my tile today in the basement and I have to say I LOVE IT!!! I was going for something that DIRT blended in with and I think I did well:-)

Nicholas on his Bday

Here are a few pictures of Nicholas on his Birthday..The smile was over me teasing him about a GIRL!!!

Happy 15th Birthday Nicholas

Today is Nicholas 15th Birthday..I can not believe he is that old already as he was just a little chubby cheeked little boy. The day I became his mom was the happiest day of my life (tied with the day I became Tylers mom:)
This picture is of Nicholas and his Best Friend ANDREW who is moving back in 11 short days from England..Andrew being back here will be the BEST present for Nicholas. Suzanne had this posted on her blog and I had PLANNED to do a picture thing on mine but I ran out of the time or the energy to do it..so THANKS SUZANNE;-)
Happy Birthday Nicholas

You are a GREAT kid!! A Great Brother to Tyler (most of the time), and GREAT Grandson and a GREAT SON. Not many kids your age would swim the amount of time you do, teach swim lessons and be a A student. I am so proud of you and proud to be your Mom.
I love you!!!

3 word Sunday

HIGH POINTS WINNER

Nicholas had a swim meet this weekend. Hank took him today as I was in Cinti. but he won the High Points Trophy for his age group, 13/14 (he is 15 on WEDNESDAY). He was not "thrilled" with his times but he did ok for this time of the year..
*I am calling it "The $120 Trophy" as that is how much the ticket Hank got on the way to the meet today. This is why I HATE driving with him..he drives to fast and does not pay attention and heaven forbid if we drive past a golf course..he has to check out as many holes as he can!
**If you want to know what the 3 word Sunday is go back around 3 or 4 months ago and look for it..basically 3 words that describe your week.
***Sorry M..I could not get the words to go on the picture..Picnik.com was not working..hope this is OK. If not OPPS:(
****If you look at my dads shirt it could be another 3 word as I noticed it says "OLD GUYS RULE" . My dad LOVES shirts that say stupid things on them and they use to drive my mom NUTS:-)

Looks Whos Here:-)

My dad has been in the hospital for 2 weeks and was sent home Saturday. (Why I am not sure as he is not doing well at all). I went down Saturday night and spent the night BUT I can not stay the whole week with the kids and what they have going on so he had 3 options..
1. Short term stay in a nursing home

2. 24 in home care

3. My house
We had called the company we used with my mom and she was not sure when they could get someone out but even before my dad knew this he picked ME. Is he happy to be at "Camp Wang", NO..but does he know he needs to be here, YES. He can not get up from a chair, bed. tiolet without help and he is using a walker to SLOWLY get around with help.
So here he is in his smiling GLORY..I said to him..smile..smile more and act like you are HAPPY..this is what I got*. The one picture is the bump from when he fell over 2 weeks ago. He has 3 "bleeders" in his brain. We put Tylers bed in the living room so he will sleep there and I will sleep on the couch in the family room so I can hear him.
The 3 BAD things about here are
1. I have laminate and tile so it is hard for him to get up as his feet slip (found out the hard way)
2. We have basement stuff ALL over the house from the flood so it is AMESS here.
3. We have NO hospital as it has A LOT of damage from the flood.
We will be needing A LOT of prayers as I know we will make him NUTS:-)
*Sadie I told him to smile as I was sending this to you and that is when I got the smile I got from him.

Stuff

This week is BULLETS

• Took Tyler back to the Dr and he said NO BASEBALL for another week BUT Tyler said he said it was up to him and we went but he was not the catcher...Played 2nd and 3rd base and got hit in the chin/mouth and has a nice mark on his chin. (but he did knock in 3 runs and make it home on a steal:)
  
• Bought Fearless Fourteen and started reading it but have not had time to just SIT and read..sad thing is part of me wants to read it SLOW so it is not over really quick.
  
• My pool is still CLOUDY and I am pretty much OVER it..have NO idea why but have spend enough in chemicals this week
  
• I think we are going to TILE the basement instead of carpet, then if for some unknown reason we ever got water again (which I hope we NEVER do) it would be FINE! I did find a tile I like tonight and I did buy area rugs that I found on clearance so I bought them as I can always take them back if I find something I like better.
  
• My dad is "suppose" to get home from the hospital. He is walking with a walker and is still REALLY Swollen. He will not move in with either of us and he honestly should not be living alone.
  
• It is sooo sad driving around Columbus as everything is so dirty looking. The amount of stuff you see in peoples yards is so depressing. They are saying it will be YEARS before this is done. My heart breaks for Iowa and what they are going through. I will look at other places completly different after being in the middle of a flood and seeing friends lose everything.
  
  

2 more days:)

Well whats 5 post in 1 day...
I just checked and ONLY 2 more days till Janet Evanovich's NEW BOOK is released. YES, I will be buying it that day and reading it that day ALSO!!!
WoooHooo.

Nicholas is back from SWIM camp..had a GREAT time and is back at 6 AM practices so I am UP and blogging.

Gas prices and my dad Update.

This is the Gas sign while we were going to see my dad* yesterday..
I know a lot of people are spending more but I HATE sticking $ in a gas tank..
I sooo want a car with better gas milage..we should have NEVER bought the Kia!
We put $75 in the Van yesterday and it filled it 3/4.

*My dad is on the rehab floor at the hospital. We FINALLY got to Cinti to see him yesterday and he is SO DEPRESSED. He does not talk he just sits there. His feet and legs look like tree trunks as he is so swollen. He so misses my mom and he is in a depression. As of now I will be surprised if will be leaving at home again..He is not aloud up unless a nurse helps him..he is not eating and he honestly has lost his will to live. My parents were married 56 years when my mom died and he misses her. I am praying physical theraphy will help him.

Lets add a little more excitement into the WEEK

Tyler went to a going away party for a boy from his class..basically was there for a few minutes and was RUNNING fell down there steps..well since we do not have a HOSPITAL as it is FLOODED they sent us to Prompt. Med. When I was there a friend got ahold of another friend who is a Dr. and she got us into the orthopetic Dr.
I would have bet money it was broke but they said just really jammed. We go back tomorrow for another xray. He has a nice rug burn on his face also.
These were taken the day he fell. They SWELLED even more and are all black and blue..even his palm is all bruise. Baseball was cancelled last week and I do not think he will be able to play this week as he still is not moving them much.

Shaggy

We "watched" a dog for a few days after we found him. A van came down the street behind us and flooded out. A man THREW 2 dogs out towards my kids and said SORRY and walked up the street..a man ask him what he was doing and he said " I have a daughter in a wheel chair and you do not care". When I walked over we found the one dog but not the other so we kept him..Tyler named him SHAGGY:) I ask him if it was a Boy or a Girl dog and he said (and I QUOTE) "I think it is a boy as he answers to HERE BOY more then HERE GIRL"!!! OK, Yes I LAUGHED..sooo I said Tyler look under the dog and see if it has a boy part or a girl part..he looked at me like I had 2 heads and then said I AM NOT LOOKING..my neighbor picked him up and said its a BOY;)
Tyler LOVED this dog and I have to say the dog loved him..he even jumped into the pool to get to Ty. (Yes, we ALL miss Shaggy).
My FIRST responce to "Shaggy" was they are not getting him back as why did he just not TRY to carry the dogs with him...then I thought about it and realized the man paniced and through the dogs for someone to watch...why he drove into the water I have NO idea as he went into the deepest part.
Well we did leave a note on the car and said we had 1 dog and where we lived and 2 days later when I was not home a lady came for Shaggy..I would have LOVED to know what happen and what Shaggys real name was but HE will always be Shaggy to us.

Pictures

End of our street.

5 houses down..water broke basement windows out and they got 6 plus feet in basement!

This is the Van that threw SHAGGY out..

Tyler floating.

In front of our house right after water came in..got much worse!

House behind us.

Basement collapsed..outside hot tub ended up in basement!

Lunch at 12 and dinner at 7 everyday:-)

Well, I have FINALLY uploaded my pictures onto my laptop. I honestly have not had time to do anything that did not involve a mop, shop vac or cooking this week.
This week is getting more back to "normal" for us BUT there are so many that will never have normal again. We drove through a area last night and I was sitting in the car crying and said I am just as sad today as I was a week ago. I am not sad for me..we are sooo DAMN lucky and I am can not complain. Others have everything they have worked for in their yards and NO FLOOD insurance as 95% of us do not live in a flood zone. It is heartbreaking. There was a arcticle in yesterdays paper and the one teacher from school who lost 2 floors of stuff, husband said "it is not the flat screen TV or the big recliner..it is my kids baptism gowns, baby books and pictures". He said the youngest keeps asking for his Woody (Toy St0ry). We have not pitched a THING that has made me sad..When the water came up the street we got all the pictures and albums upstairs. I even took Hanks moms Chinese paper cutting things off the wall as they have meaning..Nicholas got his Xbox and the computer from down there and we unplugged everything.

We are still doing food for our area:) We "tried" to quit lunches but the look on a few faces we have kept it up. We have said they are not as "dirty" as they use to be when they walked up the street but they are still TIRED. We do lunch at 12 AND dinner at 7 each day. The neighbor 2 doors down did not have a basement so we use her yard and garage and have around 10 coolers of soda, water and gatoraide set up. A table of snack ideas all day and tables and chairs for a break. My excessive shopping has come in REALLY HANDY as I never have 1 of something it is always 6 plus items so that is good. My diet is not doing real well as I am not use to homemade desserts in my face at every meal but today is a new day and I am back to tracking again.
I am doing a different post of Shaggy as I found a few pictures Tyler took of him. I will say I do kinda miss him:) I know Tyler does A LOT!!

Update

Well I got my internet back tonight. I honestly have not had much time to even think about it so it was OK. This has been the HARDEST week I have had since my mom found out she had cancer...My dad is in the hospital and I was on my way Saturday when I drove through water around 30 mins from here that I know I should have never driven through. I ended up turning around (yes, driving back through it) as I was afraid it would be even higher that night. This was by far the best decision I have made in a LONG time as we were home when the water came through out sundivision. I have NEVER seen anything like it was one minute it was down the street and the next it was past our house.We got around 6 inches or so of CLEAR water that came through the walls around 1130 at night. WE ARE SO LUCKY as we have neighbors and friends who ended up with 6/8 FEET of MUD water in their houses. It is the most depressing thing to drive past houses that you drive past ALL the time and see what they are going through. We can not complain about when we have as we are SO LUCKY. We have the carpet up and tomorrow is the drywall. We have pitched A LOT of stuff but we had to much STUFF in the first place. I got ALL my pictures and photo albums up the night so I lost NOTHING that can not be replaced!
My neighbor is WONDERFUL as Hank was in China and I had help till he got back. There are a few of us that are making sure others are eating and we do Lunch at 12 and Dinner at 7 each night. Last night I think we feed around 60 PLUS people. TOnight was not as many so we took food in our car and drove around and found people who had not eaten yet at 830/900 at night. I said our area looks like a war zone.
I would say 99% have no flood insurance as they like me do not live in a flood plain and it is not offered.
Please pray for Columbus..I am fine but I have friends who have lost everything.

local flooding.....

I am posting this for Diana as she does not have Internet access at the moment due to flooding in the area. The city was hit hard and there are areas that are completely ruined. Her basement suffered water damage but nothing that can't be repaired. She has spent the last few days helping those who are facing the reality of the destruction of a flood. She and her neighbors have rallied together to feed and help those who need it the most. Please keep all of these people in your thoughts and prayers that they may start to rebuild their lives in this difficult time.

This photo{from the local paper's website} is the neighborhood across the road from Diana.

Thanks Suz;-)

Well in one of my MANY trips to the pool today I stopped my Suzannes to put her trash out to the curb and check out the NEW KITCHEN. I LOVE it!! It even looks nicer then it does in the pictures but Tyler did ask me why you got a blue fridge (protective covering:)

Well Tyler being TYLER he opened the fridge and what was left..3 cans of slim fast cappuccino delight..I am not a coffee person and REALLY hate buying a pack of them if I do not like them so I looked around and no one was looking so one just HAPPEN to fall into my purse:) When I got home a Kohls ad with a 20% coupon was in there also since the one I got was only a 15% off. I can hardly wait till tomorrow when I put the can back to the house....HUMM maybe a bigger purse and a birdbath might "fall" in:)

BTW

I think I might actually like the flavor..just took a sip as I did not want to waste it:)
Mail on shelves in Familyroom (Kohls ad in my CAR)
I will replace it BEFORE you come back..just wanted to "fess" up incase a neighbor saw me leaving with a can in hand:)