Category: At the Moment

I know.

I’m sorry. This is indeed my stomach zipper (i.e. stomach staples).

I know.

I can’t believe I posted a picture of my puckered, poochy belly on the Internet but you know? Such is life. And I will look back on this time period one of these days, shake my head and think, “Dang. Those are some wicked looking staples.”

Because they are, they really are.

They’re also incredibly uncomfortable.

I felt good today – then I went grocery shopping with Kevin. I spent 45 minutes walking around Wal-Mart trying to breathe deeply while consciously making an effort not to stab clueless people in the face as they stood before a row of beans and tried to decide, “pinto or black? I can’t decide!”

AARGH. I’m in pain people, get out of my way!

I over did it. I came home and crashed, literally. I curled up on the sofa, pulled a blanket over my head and pretty much passed out for 30 minutes before I felt strong enough to get up and join life once again. It’s AMAZING how much energy it takes just to do simple things – like shower. Or put on makeup. Or breathe.

Kevin has been great. He’s been taking care of me, the house and making sure we don’t starve. I’m eating, but barely. Part of me is simply not that hungry, part of me is scared to eat. Things are moving along, but HOLY SQUEEZE THE CRAP OUT OF ME BATMAN, it’s painful to pass anything. It feels like someone has a hold of my intestine and is jerking me around at their whim. NOT FUN.

I’ve been drinking a lot of juice, which has helped – I’m terrified of getting constipated but things seem to be working their way through at this point. I go in to see the doctor on Thursday to get my staples removed and I’ve made a list of questions to ask my doctor, because the man is not the talkative type and if I don’t ask, I won’t know. He’s certainly not going to supply any information.

I’m most curious to know exactly how much they cut out of me. From the way the doctor described the chunk of intestine he removed, it’s an impressive amount. I also want to know what in the world I can do (if anything) to prevent this nightmare from reoccurring.

In the meantime, I’m sitting around the house in my sweats and comfy socks (Yes mom, I WEAR them and they are spectacular!) waiting for my body to readjust to this rather rude interruption.

It’s nearly 8:00 p.m. and I’m ready for bed.

Ugh. Normal can’t get here fast enough.

I’m getting ready to write the last entry on Kevin’s CaringBride page. I’ll likely leave it live for another two months and then delete it off the web. I plan on converting his journey into a softback book as a keepsake. Hopefully, I’ll never have to use the CaringBridge page again. (Though it’s been an awesome tool).

We went to the bone doctor yesterday. They took fresh x-rays of Kevin’s pelvis and knee. Kevin said it was interesting because when they positioned him on the table (they had to remove his shorts because he was wearing cargo shorts and the metal would mess up the x-rays – he was pretty embarrassed about that), he made it a point of lying straight. However, the x-ray of his pelvis was clearly NOT straight. His right hip is higher than his left (which would also explain the fact that his belly button is off kilter – his entire pelvis has shifted position). The physical therapist said that that should work itself out as he heals and his bones and muscles heal.

And the bones are definitely healing. The doctor showed us where his fractures were and the white lines, that indicate new bone is growing, were indeed thicker and more pronounced when compared to his last series of x-rays.

His knee has healed. He no longer has to wear the leg brace (he hadn’t been wearing it for a few weeks anyway), so we don’t have to worry about that anymore. Kevin was concerned because he still can’t bend over enough to reach his feet (he has to twist his body into a pretzel to put his shoes and socks on – he hates asking me for help), but again, the doctor said that that would come with time. He just needed to be patient and continue stretching and exercising. The doctor said his pelvis will likely never be where it was before his accident, but over time, he should regain most of his mobility and flexibility back.

Kevin was also concerned about the continued swelling in his right leg. Some days are worse than others and his right leg swells to nearly twice it’s normal size. But since he sustained nerve damage in his right leg, the nurse told us that it takes a lot longer to heal than bone does. In fact, she said one inch of nerve usually takes about one month to heal and considering his entire leg was damaged, it could take up to a year or longer for that to completely heal, or at least heal as much as it’s going to. We were a bit discouraged to hear that part, but neither of us were surprised. He was involved in a pretty serious accident so OF COURSE it will take time for him to recover.

I think we’ve been so encouraged by his walking that we just thought he would continue to heal as quickly. But the doctor said no – generally speaking, the body heals quickly the first three months after an accident, and then the healing process slows down after that three months have passed. It’s like the body heals the most important parts first to get the body functional, and then concentrates on fine tuning the smaller areas later.

He no longer has to take Coumadin (blood thinner). Thank God for that. I was never too happy about him being on that to begin with, but it was necessary given the injuries he sustained. They stopped prescribing the narcotic he was taking for pain and have prescribed a less powerful pain killer for him. Which is fine because Kevin usually only ends up taking two pain killers a day – one shortly after lunch and then again at bedtime. He says he’s not really in any pain anymore, he’s just really sore at the end of the day. Other than the pain killer, he’s not on any more drugs. He’s continuing to take calcium and vitamin D every day, just to build up his bone mass.

He now needs to concentrate on straightening his left knee out (it still wants to bend and that affects his walking), and to lie on hard surfaces to stretch his lower back out. This will help him walk straighter.

He still walks like a toddler (especially when he’s tired), but his gait is definitely getting better. We’re honestly just happy he’s walking at all. With God’s help, he’ll return to a normal walking pattern over time.

He doesn’t have to go back to the doctor until October. It’ll be interesting to see how much improvement he’s made by then.

The woman who hit Kevin was scheduled to appear in court on the 23rd. We haven’t been going to court (this was the third time the woman was supposed to be in court) but have been keeping track of what’s been happening through a court website. She was supposed to appear with her lawyer, but according to the website, she never showed up. (Probably because she couldn’t find a lawyer dumb enough to take her case).

A warrant has now been issued for her arrest.

This is both satisfying and frustrating. I mean, the only way they’re really going to catch her is if she breaks another law and they pull her over for that. It’s maddening to think she’s STILL out on the streets, living her life, probably driving around, and endangering those around her. She’s a menace and needs to have her license revoked and probably some jail time.

I’m not holding my breath.

Honestly, I could say so much more about this … person …, but I’ll just leave it at that.

Jazz got his PE grade in the mail yesterday – an A. (I didn’t expect anything less). I’m glad we received something, I was beginning to wonder if he was going to get credit for it.

He also got a mailing from his band director about the band program this year. The show sounds like it’s going to be AMAZING. I can not WAIT to view it on August 17th. I’m also looking forward to playing around with my Canon Rebel zoom lens that Kevin gave me for Christmas specifically so I could take some pictures of Jazz on the field. Since we can’t take video, this is an acceptable second option.

His schedule is going to be insane, which means OUR schedule will be insane. In addition to band camp, Tuesday night practices and (nearly every) Friday night football games, his band will be competing every weekend in October. It looks like we’ll be going to Tulsa, OK one weekend, Broken Arrow, OK another weekend and St. Louis two weekends in a row. (They might possibly be going to Columbia, MO the last weekend).

I can not wait!! I get pretty excited about marching season – if you couldn’t tell. 😀

I made a decision.

I’m going to pursue yet another dream of mine.

The first was to graduate from college.

I did that in 2003.

Next? Pursue a career as a law clerk and/or a paralegal.

I know. Call me crazy. But this is something I’ve wanted to do since … forever, but Kevin talked me out of it.

“You really want to work for a bunch of *bleeps*?” he asked.

Well ….. yeah.

I love to research. And that legal mumbo-jumbo is interesting to me.

Like I said, call me crazy.

(I had originally thought I would pursue nursing, but after researching it? I simply don’t have the stomach for it).

But here’s the deal: the kids? Don’t really need me anymore. Dude is driving. Jazz will be driving soon. They can take care of themselves. They will be living their own lives in a few (very few) years.

It’s time for me to focus on my career.

I’ve been researching what I need to do. Since I already have a Bachelor’s of Science in Professional Writing, all I really need to do to get started is take some classes. Then, I can get a clerical job in a law firm and work toward my certificate and become a full-fledged paralegal.

Easy, right? Well, no. But I’m up to the challenge.

And I’ve already taken the first step. I registered to take the first class at Ozarks Technical College. It’s an online class and they “meet” twice a week. The classes are only six weeks long and there are a total of six classes that I would need to take before I could really look for a clerical job.

I start September 15th. (I would have started sooner, but August 1st is when I will be BOMBARDED by emails from schools wanting me to update their websites and I know, from past experience, that August and September are the busiest months for me when it comes to my website work).

In between my website work and my classes, I’ll most likely get a part-time job somewhere, though I’m not sure where. Kevin is pretty adamant about me not working for a retail store (though Kohl’s has a “Now Hiring” banner up at their store and HELLO, discounts!!) because he doesn’t want me working nights and weekends, but honestly, I don’t see how I can get out of NOT working those hours and be part time. Part time people always get the crappy hours – that’s just how it works.

So, we’ll see. My options are wide open and … I love that.

Though Kevin talks about getting a job, I’ve been discouraging him. I mean … why? The man has worked his ass off for twenty some-odd years to support me and the boys, now it’s my turn. I’m willing, I’m able and I’m ready to take on that role. I think he should just take it easy and try to work out some sort of deal where he works freelance and out of our home.

It really would be the perfect option for him. Since he’s an accountant, I’m pretty sure he could make that happen.

But again, we’ll see.

I just thank God, every day, that we’re in a position where we have options. Not a lot of people do at this point.

My brain is fried.

Wait … let’s try that again.

My brain is more fried than usual.

I have so much swirling in my head that it’s hard to keep it all straight. So … I’ll just start talking and leave it up to you to sort it out.

You’re welcome. 😀

I drove Kevin to his last physical therapy session today.

He told me later that he was going to miss these sessions. He really feels like they’ve helped him (and I concur) with his recovery process.

Plus, he’s the sole focus for an entire hour and he enjoys the attention.

Apparently, I’m not giving him enough attention at home.

Duly noted, my dear.

The PT really ran him through the wringer today. He had Kevin do all sorts of stretching and rolling exercises as well as walking up an incline and stairs. Though he aced most everything that was thrown at him, he did find a few positions that he wasn’t able to perform very well. He’ll be working on those a lot in the coming weeks.

We do not have any more physical therapy sessions scheduled. He’s supposed to go see his bone doctor July 27th and we’ll find out whether he recommends any more therapy. Kev’s PT said he was going to recommend that he continue the sessions to his doctor – he feels like there is still a lot of work to do and again, I have to concur. Even though Kevin has been making remarkable progress, there are still quite a few things that he can’t do comfortably, or at all.

Kevin called his bone doctor to find out if he needed to continue wearing the knee brace. The doctor is recommending that he continue wearing it until his next visit. So, we’ll be taking that knee brace on vacation with us.

Our air conditioner is acting wonky. It barely cools (though to be fair, it does fine as long as the temps don’t go over 90 degrees) and it’s not pulling the humidity out of the air.

So, it’s like breathing underwater in my house right now.

Not fun. And not comfortable.

We’ve already spent too much money on this heap o’ junk this summer, we’re loathe to spend more. Kevin thinks it needs to be cleaned out but he’s incapacitated and he can’t get to it. This of course, frustrates him to no end and he gets cranky, which in turn, makes me defensive and cranky and well … we end up walking on eggshells for a few days.

He needs to crawl under the house to check the pipe thing-a-ma-jig and check to see if the coils blah-blah-blah. I don’t know, he loses me after “coil.” And though I’ve offered to be his legs for him (even though I’d rather have my left arm cut off [and I say left because I’m a leftie] than crawl under the house, where it’s dark, damp and full of creepy, crawly things and *SHUDDER*), Kevin declined my offer. Actually, he snorted, rolled his eyes and THEN declined.

Hey! I can’t help being a GIRL. Dark, damp, creepy places give me the whillies, sue me.

Anyway, we’ll likely ride the rest of this season out (thank God for ceiling fans and box fans) and then concentrate on giving it a good overhaul later when Kevin can get around.

(Again, I offered to help!! Don’t you dare suggest that I didn’t. I’ve actually been forced to step out of my comfort zone several times these past months so … there).

We were on our way to lunch yesterday when I stopped next to the mailbox so Kevin could get the mail. And in that pile of mail, I received an envelope. (I never get mail).

Since I was driving, Kevin opened it for me.

It was a thank you card from one of the schools I volunteer for. Well, I actually maintain their school website for free (long story). They were writing to thank me (once again!) for taking care of their website and how proud they were of it and how often they hear from happy parents praising them for keeping it up-to-date.

*blush*

In addition to their kind words, they sent me two gift cards – one to Panera Bread and one to Barnes and Noble.

Only two of my favorite places on this planet!!

I thought that was so sweet that I had tears in my eyes. Even though I do their website as my way of giving back to the community and I in no way expect, or want, any payment from them in any way, I have to be honest – it was really nice to be acknowledged and thanked. It really meant a lot to me that they took the time to do that for me.

It’s nice to be singled out and thanked once in a while.

But only once in a while. Too much of that and I get embarrassed.

So, thank YOU for making my day. 🙂

The car, (which we’ve dubbed the BOYS’ car because our oldest son, Dude, could care less about it and hey, if he doesn’t care about it then we’ll just call it the EXTRA car instead of HIS car and allow BOTH boys to use it whenever they need to drive themselves somewhere), is dead.

It’s a ’99 Chevy Cavalier and the thing simply won’t start. It cranks over, but it won’t catch. And when you turn the key, every single light on the dashboard lights up, flickers, dies and then alternates with the other lights so it’s like watching lights on a Christmas tree blink on and off. In addition, it makes a funny high-pitched buzzing noise.

This is how I discovered that something was wrong with it: via text from my oldest son.

I was at the library, on the other side of town, killing time while waiting for Kevin to finish his band practice, when I got a text from Dude. I had asked him to go pick Jazz up from band camp because I didn’t want to drive all the way across town to get him when Dude was closer and hello, the boy wasn’t doing anything anyway and it wouldn’t kill him to help his mama out.

I always POUND into the boys’ heads that when they are out driving (well, Jazz isn’t driving yet, but when he gets to that point), to pleasepleaseplease call or text me to let me know that they’ve arrived at their destination safely and/or arrived home safely. That way, my imagination doesn’t go into overdrive, I don’t freak myself out and go on a rampage and my head doesn’t explode.

And that’s what Dude did (because he’s a good kid, er, man).

“We’re home, but something is wrong with the car.”

That was the text I got. Thank God he had put in the “we’re home” part first or my heart would have stopped, I’m sure.

He said that when he got to the school parking lot, turned the car off so he could open the trunk so Jazz could put his saxophone in (you have to turn the car off and take key out of the ignition and pop the trunk using the remote [what kind of asinine design is that??] And if there’s some sort of trunk pop button in his car, none of us have found it yet), it wouldn’t start back up. He had to try three different times before it finally turned over.

Which is actually pretty weird because when Kevin and I went out the next morning, we couldn’t get it to start at all. So it’s sort of amazing that the boys were able to get it home before it conked all the way out. (Think God was watching over my babies? I do).

We have AAA. So, we called them yesterday and they came out and towed it to a garage for us.

We heard from the mechanic today.

The ignition is shot. They have to get the part from the dealer, reprogram the computer and then get a new set of keys for it.

And this is BEFORE labor.

Can you guess how much it’s going to cost?

A LOT.

Kevin and I debated on whether we wanted to spend that kind of money on this 11-year old car.

I thought we should just sell it for scraps.

Kevin wanted to pay the money. He loves that car. It’s cool. (And it is, I must admit).

So, we’re paying the bill and getting the heap of junk fixed. It’s supposed to be ready tomorrow, just in time for the boys to drive out to their cousins’ house. Which is about 30 minutes from our house.

“Do you trust the car to take them all the way out there?” I asked Kevin.

He shrugged. “Well, if it breaks down, I guess they’ll get some experience with dealing with an old car.”

I mean really, who HASN’T held their breath and prayed their car wouldn’t break down at some point in their life? Who are we to deprive the boys of that experience??

Vacation. It’s coming. As in next week. The big question is: cane or walker – walker or cane?

Or both?

The saga continues ….

I drove Kevin out to band practice last night. It was at the drummer’s house and his house is out in the boonies. We live on the south side of town, the drummer lives in a city on the outskirts of the NORTH side of town.

Which is fine, but that meant that I needed to find something to do while they played (because they practiced out in a garage with nothing but an industrial-sized fan blowing on them and I hadn’t brought any bug spray (mosquitoes LOVE to munch on me) and plus, I just didn’t feel comfortable sticking around and encroaching on his “man” time so …

I drove to a library and read while he practiced.

I grew up on the north side of town so driving through that area once again was a bitter sweet experience. I hadn’t been on that side of town in months (a year?) and I was quite shocked to see how everything had changed.

I hardly recognized it any more.

It was so NICE to just sit back and read – no obligations, no appointments, no interruptions … just me, a cool, quiet room and my book. It was heaven. I used to do that a lot when I was younger, in fact, I used to spend entire days just reading.

Though I only had a few hours, it was really nice to escape reality and just slip away somewhere.

Not that I wish to escape my reality, but I’m sure, if you’re a reader, you know what I mean.

When it was time to leave to pick Kevin up, I had to drive through a bunch of construction to get back onto the highway.

This dump truck got ahead of me and I couldn’t see where I was going – I ended up IN the construction area. A pickup truck, (someone with the city) got behind me and started honking his horn, he was trying to warn me that I was in the wrong lane.

Duh. I knew that! I just couldn’t get back into the right lane because there was so much traffic. I was more annoyed than scared – annoyed with myself, not with the guy on my tail honking his fool head off. He finally got even with me (he was driving on the shoulder) and I looked at him and mouthed … I KNOW, to let him know I knew what was going on and I was working on it.

I felt like I was in a scene from a comedy show, or something; it was surreal.

I was finally able to pull back into traffic and after several miles, I finally got my heart rate back down.

What a fool thing to do. I was never really in any danger but I was pretty embarrassed by my idiocy. I’m blaming the dump truck – if he hadn’t gotten ahead of me and pulled into the construction lane then I wouldn’t have either. (No. I don’t really blame the dump truck, that stupid stunt was all me).

I finally made it back to the drummer’s house. I pulled up in time to listen to the last few songs and I have to say, Kevin sounded pretty damn good for a guy in a wheelchair. 🙂 No seriously, I’m not just being biased (okay, maybe a little), but he really sounded good.

And the smile of pure delight on his face totally made the entire trip out there and nearly slamming my car into a construction zone worth it.

I think the entire jam session was like balm on his soul and I’m ONCE AGAIN, so very thankful to our wonderful Lord and Savior for protecting him that day and helping us reach this point.

He has a gig set up for the end of August – it’ll be interesting to see if he’s still in his chair when that time comes.

I’m taking Kevin up to the mall today. He’s itching to practice walking and the mall will give us some space for him to do so. He’s getting more confident with each step he takes.

His knee is no longer bothering him. He tightened up his knee brace and now, he says it doesn’t hurt at all when he walks.

He did really well in rehab yesterday. His range of motion is improving by leaps and bounds and I think staying off his knee and sticking to his wheelchair for a few days really helped him gain the strength he needed to push him over the hump.

I feel like he’s over that hump now.

His progress and growing strength is making him more and more confident and I just can’t tell you how nice it is to see glimpses of the old Kevin emerging from this accident-induced nightmare.

I’ve been reading my New York City guide and planning routes on HopStop.com. We only have about 2 1/2 days in New York, so we are really going to have to be selective on what we do while there. I’m a bit nervous about getting Kevin around in his wheelchair so I’d like to be as prepared as I can possibly be, given the circumstances.

We aren’t using the sliding board to transfer him from his wheelchair to other surfaces anymore. He’s able to stand, turn and make the transfers himself, so I won’t have to worry about taking that with us. I had entertained the thought of possibly NOT taking the wheelchair and only the walker, but unfortunately, he’s just not ready for that yet. Though he’s walking more and more and in fact, will likely be able to endure walking longer distances by the time we leave, New York is ALL ABOUT THE WALKING and I really don’t think he’ll be able to take that much walking so soon.

So, the wheelchair it is.

We’re planning on hanging out at Central Park (I checked the maps on Google, our hotel is two blocks to the south of Central Park, so we should be able to easily walk there) and there is a pretty major Nintendo store in Rockefeller Center the boys would love to go see.

I want to ride the Staten Island ferry so we can ride by the Statue of Liberty (we don’t plan on actually going IN) and though I would like to ride up to the observation deck in the Empire State Building, Dude has made it pretty clear that he’s not going up. (He’s afraid of heights).

And that’s all we have planned at this point. We’ll likely just do a lot of walking and exploring while we’re there and keep the concrete plans to a minimum. It really depends on how Kevin feels and how easy it is to get him around the city.

… every single drop of moisture in our bodies is beading on our sweaty skin and evaporating into thin air.

And speaking of air … the air is so thick and heavy in our house right now, I could spoon it up and serve it for dinner tonight.

(I just made that up. They don’t call me a writer for nothing. Who’s they?).

In layman’s terms?

Our air conditioner conked out.

And it’s 92 degrees outside right now.

Naturally.

I actually noticed something weird going on last night at about 4:00 in the morning.

I woke up in a puddle of my own sweat.

I got up to check the thermostat – 80 degrees. Uh oh.

Then I noticed a weird, grinding, high-pitched screech coming from somewhere outside. I slipped on my flip-flops and investigated – it was coming from our air conditioning unit. Double uh oh.

Kevin called our air/heat/plumbing guys (All Klear, if you’re in the area. They are awesome), and they came out to take a looksie.

The fuse box was completely melted and the capacitor was blown. But they were able to repair it and though it’s blowing now, it doesn’t feel like it’s very cold so I hope this doesn’t mean another problem. But then again, it IS hot outside and it takes a while for the house to cool down so …

I can NOT walk outside without getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. I don’t know what it is about my skin, I guess it’s particularly scrumptious, because they seem to zero in on me the moment I step foot out of any sort of structure. It’s so annoying.

I should just buy gallons of bug spray and bathe in it, as much of that stuff I spray on me every day.

Whoa. Where did those rain clouds come from? One minute it was bright, sunny and 92, now it’s dark, gloomy and … 92. Oh well, two out of three ain’t bad.

One of our neighbors just came over. She was a walking advertisement for Sevin – the bug spray that supposedly kills Japanese Beetles.

Which, in our experience, does NOT kill Japanese Beetles.

She “suggested” that we try spraying our trees with the stuff, too, so that we could “all work together to keep the beetle infestation under control.”

When I told her that we set out bags last year and caught (read disposed of) probably thousands of them, she simply smiled and said, “Yes, I remember. We did the same thing. The only problem with that is that it attracts beetles from other neighborhoods into ours. Then, they lay their eggs in our yards, and in June, they hatch and we have a bigger problem.”

*Smile*

She has a garden. And it’s starting to bloom really pretty flowers, only four hours later, those damn beetles get wind of it and completely shred them.

She was just a bit annoyed by that and is apparently on a mission to rid the neighborhood of the suckers. We’ll certainly do our part, but honestly, there’s no winning the beetle battle.

(Anyone have any suggestions on how to get rid of Japanese Beetles?)

*I nearly laughed out loud when I noticed her doing the disapproving once over when she looked at me. Since our air has been out and it’s been so hot, and I’ve been running around all day, I look like one giant sweat stain. And you know what? I don’t give a rat’s @$$.

Jazz bugged and bugged me (pun intended), to buy him a drawstring backpack.

Apparently, these flimsy, goofy-looking things are all the rage with the high schoolers this year:

I don’t know man, they’re big enough to fit a bottle of water, a cell phone and maybe a snack or two and that’s it. But I suppose that’s all the kids need them for anyway.

I bought Jazz’s through Amazon and they have a variety of different colors if you too have a kid bugging you for one.

I am completely and totally addicted to these suckers right now:

Brookside Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranates. (You can buy a smaller bag at Wal-Mart for $3.15). The PERFECT blend of sweet and tangy and they’re like popcorn to me. I can’t eat just one.

Seriously. If I told you how many bags I’ve had these past several days …

It’s now raining and dime-sized hail is falling.

*sigh*

Welcome to Missouri.

Kevin had another rehab session today. The guy showed him some more exercises he could do to strengthen his legs. Basically, he stands and swings his legs from front to back and side-to-side – sort of like a ballerina. And yes, I told him that. *grin*

His legs and feet have been swelling something fierce. Then again, he’s not peeing very much, either. I’m a little concerned about it, but it looks like it’s a common side effect of being on Coumadin, a blood thinner. He’s always sort of swelled up by the end of the day, but it seems to be worse since his accident.

He’s standing more and more. He stands to turn on the ceiling fan, or to get something out of the top drawer of his file cabinets. He is LOVING being able to just stand again.

He’s getting stronger and stronger every day. His balance is quite good already and if he could just work past the stiffness and the stabbing (periodic) pains, he’ll be in great shape. I still can’t believe how fast this man is healing.

The home health care place is coming over to pick Kevin’s hospital bed up tomorrow. He refuses to sleep in it anymore. Though it’s ultimately up to him, I sort of think he needs to continue sleeping on it simply because it has the ability to elevate his legs so much, which helps with the swelling.

I guess we’ll just use pillows, but it won’t quite be the same.

Today is my dad’s birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!

And the ceiling fan is finally in.

It took a while. Not because Kevin had trouble putting the fan up, but because when he took our old light out, some of the ceiling crumbled with it. And then he discovered that the ceiling fan was too heavy for the area, so he had to crawl into the attic and reinforce it with a piece of 2×4.

He had to nail in some mesh to reinforce the section that had crumbled away, and then using some sheet rock putty (mud?), he filled it in. After that dried, he then sprayed some of the popcorn ceiling paint on (hush, we like our popcorn ceiling) and when that dried, he painted it to blend in with the rest of the ceiling.

(Tip: paint your ceiling with a semi-gloss finish. It really makes it shine and look nice!)

That took three days. After all of that was done, he was finally able to put in the ceiling fan – which he finished last night.

It looks a bit space-agey. We opted for the black fan blades and the base is a brushed nickel, which will tie nicely in with our faucet (which we don’t have installed … yet).

It’s also a remote controlled fan. Which is really cool and the boys had fun playing with that last night. (And when I say “boys”, I’m lumping Kevin in, too. *grin*)

We thought it might hang too low at first. But it’s not hanging any lower than the rest of the ceiling fans in the house so as long as our visitors aren’t taller than we are, we’ll be good. Otherwise, it might be like walking across a helicopter pad, with the blades going – they’ll have to duck or get their heads knocked off.

Nothing spoils a party more than getting part of your skull chopped off.

Anyway, we like it. And I’m looking forward to using the fan whenever I slave over the hot stove.

(*pause* ….. bwhahahaha … like that’s going to happen any time soon).

It’s been over one week since the counter top guy came out and made a template. Kevin called Lowe’s yesterday to find out what the dealio was.

They’re scheduled to come out next Wednesday at 10:00.

Do you realize what this means??

I will finally have counter tops in one week!!

I have been without a sink for one month now and OH MY GOSH, I’m so ready to have our counter tops AND our sink back. This whole kitchen remodel novelty thing has worn off and now I’m just sick to death of the whole thing. I want my kitchen back! (Which is something I never thought I’d say in my lifetime).

After the counter tops have been installed, Kevin and I will begin thinking about the back splash. We might have the tile guy come back out and do it for us, but we haven’t decided yet. That’s something Kevin and I can easily do so we might just save the money and do it.

Especially now since …………

~*~*~*~

Kevin is home, full time.

He had moved some stuff around at the office and accidentally severed his Internet connection. No matter what he tried, or how many hoops he jumped through, he couldn’t get the stupid thing back up.

He called his IT guy, he came out, scratched his head and couldn’t figure out what was going on. Kevin called his Internet service provider, they scratched their heads and couldn’t figure it out.

Short of buying all new equipment, which would have been costly and a waste of time, given they were scheduled to move out of the office, permanently, next week, Kevin and his boss decided to just close up shop one week early and start working from home.

So Kevin moved his file cabinets and his computer to his home office last night and now he’s helping his boss get his home office set up.

I have mixed feelings about Kevin working from home.

On one hand … he’s working from home!

On the other hand … he’s working from home!

I have a feeling this arrangement will be cool for exactly two weeks before he starts getting on my nerves (or I start getting on HIS nerves).

We’ve worked together before. In fact, that’s how we met. And though we had a good time working together and we got along just fine, we sort of drove each other crazy.

We’re both very … pig-headed when it comes to work. Kevin likes things to be done HIS way, I like things done MY way.

You can see the problem.

And I’ve always said (half jokingly, half serious) that I would never work with him again.

And here we are. Both at home. And though we both have things to do, I have a feeling …. it’s going to get old fast.

As far as job prospects …

I really hope Kevin takes a few months off. He deserves it. He needs it, quite frankly. We’re okay bills and money wise, but I know Kevin. He isn’t the sort of person who can just sit around and take it easy. He always has to have an agenda. He always has to have something to do. If he doesn’t, then he finds something to do and that almost always means trouble – and money.

Which we really can’t afford to throw away at this point. I mean, we budgeted for this kitchen, we budgeted for our family vacation, and we budgeted to replace the carpets in the living/dining room with hardwood, but that’s it. We can’t afford to take on any new projects until he/we get a job.

So, the prospect of Kevin having time on his hands makes me nervous.

In fact, we were at Panera Bread yesterday, and I saw this cute older couple at the table next to us talking to some friends they ran into. They were all RVers and they were catching up on their travel adventures.

I loved listening to them talk (yes, I’m a blatant eavesdropper – people interest me). And after they left l told Kevin that I would love to be like that couple some day. Just sort of traveling across the country at our leisure, taking every day in stride – you know, relaxed and carefree.

He laughed.

“I don’t think I could ever do that,” he said. “There’s too much to do.”

I sadly shook my head. “That’s too bad,” I said. “Life is meant to be enjoyed at some point.”

I think it gave him food for thought. I hope it did, at any rate.

Anyway, he’s home now. We’re both keeping our options open, but neither one of us plans on actively looking for jobs until we get back from our vacation in July. But of course, now that I’ve said that, something will come along.

And that’s okay. We’ll just ride the tide, wherever that happens to take us.

~*~*~*~

Isn’t it funny how something you haven’t actively been thinking about, something you put on the back burner of your mind, just sort of pops up out of nowhere and when you least expect it?

I’ve been thinking about Dude’s graduation trip on and off now for several months. He’ll graduate next May. And I wanted to do a last family hurrah before he got too busy with his new life, new schedule – whatever that happens to be.

We’ve had some pretty awesome family vacations. We went to Florida several years, camped in the Rockies, flew to Washington D.C. and have taken a cruise to the Western Caribbean. And though we’ve had had a blast and have taken some pretty fun memories from those trips, Dude has hated the flying parts.

H.A.T.E.D them. He does not like to fly.

So, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of something fun we could do that wouldn’t require flying.

And suddenly, I thought of something yesterday. I don’t even know what sparked it, I was doing something else and without warning a huge word flashed across my mind.

AMTRAK.

Of course! The train! Dude would love that. One, he wouldn’t have to fly. And two, he was OBSESSED with trains when he was little though has never ridden one (well, except for theme park trains).

I was pretty much on the Amtrak website all day yesterday. I checked out the routes and the prices and though it’s a bit more than I expected, I don’t think it would end up being more than the whole flying/cruise thing.

I still have a lot of research to do and granted, this wouldn’t happen until next year (though judging by how many “sold outs” I saw on the website, I’m going to have to book this trip early), but I ran a tentative schedule by Kevin.

We would drive up to St. Louis and take the train up to Chicago. From Chicago, we would hop another train to our destination. And there are plenty of destinations to choose from.

• Washington D.C. (we would all love to go back and I know Dude really likes it there).
• Denver (though this route goes all the way to California, we could just get off in Denver and stay in a cabin for a few days – do some hiking. We LOVED the Rocky Mountains).
• New York (We plan on going there this summer, but I have a feeling, we wouldn’t have a problem with going back).
• New Orleans
• Seattle
• Boston
• Texas

When I ran these destinations by Kevin, he mentioned he would like to go to Seattle (we’ll let Dude pick the final destination of course, this trip will be his part of his graduation gift from us, after all).

So, I ran the route. We’d be on the train two days TO Seattle and then on the train two MORE days BACK to Chicago. That’s a lot of days on the train. And I have no idea what there is to do on the train. I mean, I don’t have a problem sitting around, taking pictures of the passing scenery, reading, playing games, eating and napping for two days. But Kevin?

I don’t see it happening for him.

But it sure would be fun to travel through the Montana mountains and sticking around Seattle for a few days? How fun would that be??

Anyway, it’s an idea. I ran it by Dude and he really perked up at the idea. I knew he’d love it. I just hope I can make it happen for him.

I’m going to work really hard at making Dude’s senior year something special.

He’s such an awesome young man. He totally deserves it.

7:32 p.m.

Jazz is at a sleepover. Kevin left to go play at a gig tonight and that just leaves me and Dude. We took advantage of this time alone and went driving. We first went to Bed, Bath and Beyond so I could buy a new dish brush and a Yankee candle – cause mama LOVES Yankee candles. Then he drove us to Steak-N-Shake for dinner and I’m now, right this very minute, sucking on a vanilla shake.

My intestines will object later, I’m sure. But … meh. Such is life.

We had a really nice time. He got to practice driving in the dark and it was nice to just be me and him, without the distraction of crazy little brother and without the pressure of having to impress dad – it was just me – boring old mom.

We actually went in to eat at Steak-N-Shake. It wasn’t very crowded when we got there, but of course, the place filled up shortly after we ordered. That always happens – we go someplace, hardly any customers and then *POW* – we’re surrounded. It’s so strange and we all laugh about it now. It’s like, “Oh LOOK! There’s the blank family! They’re so cool! We have to stop and eat/shop there because we too want to be cool!”

Seriously.

Our conversation was a bit awkward at first. But I kept asking him questions and he soon relaxed a bit. I asked him if he was embarrassed to out in public with “MOM”, but he surprised me and said no. Of course, he was probably lying, but it still made me feel good. We talked a little about our upcoming New York trip in July. His eyes lit up and I think he’s really looking forward to going. I hinted that we were going to go someplace fun, someplace that he and Jazz would absolutely love and my very smart son said, “Nintendo World?”

*sigh* I can’t get anything by this boy.

Kevin called while we were eating, he had forgotten his song list and wanted us to drop back by the house and get it for him. So, Dude drove back to our house, I ran in and grabbed it. We then drove up to The New Key Largo to deliver the song list. Kevin was excited to see us and wanted us to see the place where he would be playing. Well, I’ve already seen it, of course, he wanted Dude to see it. So, Dude shut off his car and we went in.

I could tell by Kevin’s face that he was pretty proud to show Dude where they were going to play. And Dude made me proud when he shook hands with the other guys in the band, like the budding man he is.

Now. He’s back online, talking to his “friends.” Though I suppose I shouldn’t put that in quotation marks since he’s actually been talking to this same group of guys for a few years now.

And I’m sitting here, typing to you all because I’m lonely and I miss my guys.

Times like these? I crave a girlfriend.