A memorable weekend

I won’t forget this Memorial weekend anytime soon.   It began with Huhoney coming home from working up North for a week.  He got home around 6 pm Friday evening and we shared a nice dinner out, settled down in front of the t.v. and caught up on a bunch of shows that I recorded.  He was beat down.  Tired.  We decided to make it an early night and sleep in.  Yes, we slept in longer than I we ever do. 

9:15 am Saturday morning I am awakened by Huhoney leaning against the wall, “What’s the matter” I ask, “dizzy” in a slur….I jumped out of bed and ran to his side, “please don’t fall over on me honey, I can’t hold you up, you have to get to the bench” (5 feet away), he manages, Huhoney is disoriented, starts mumbling, his right arm is doing crazy things…he is sweating, mumbling incoherently and is very upset, I try to calm him, it is 9:20 I looked at the clock, pushed him into the bed and ran to our guest bedroom where my nephew and his wife were sleeping (thank goodness), “Kevin please get up and come to our room, uncle Bob is in trouble”, I run to our bedroom where Huhoney is in distress but still sitting up, his arm is moving wildly,  his eyes are glazed and he is scared.  I hold him to my chest and cry, he is also upset, I ask him if he is having chest pains, NOOOO in slurred speech but I can tell he is disoriented and upset, I can also tell that he is not having difficulty breathing,  by this time my nephew’s wife Carrie sits behind him and I run to my closet and throw on some clothes, Kevin is on the phone with 911.  I am calm but scared.  I have to remain calm.  Kevin, turned on the porch light and opened the front door.  I am holding him again and we are both crying, I told him not to worry, everything would be alright.  He was not having a heart attach but maybe a stroke.  I don’t know why I knew, but I did.

They arrive, 5 of them.  2 on the fire truck and 3 in the ambulance, 9:40.  The hospital is 7 minutes away and that is driving the speed limit.  The fire station is 2 blocks away.  What took them so long? 20 minutes is way too long.

I am calm.  I have to be.  He is in their hands now.  They take him away and I finish getting dressed. Sort of.  I quickly make 2 phone calls, to our 2 sons.  My daughter who is in NC is camping out and I am not sure if she has phone service.  I choose not to call and upset her.  She is her daddy’s girl.

I am in the ER now and it is 10 am.  He is stable.  Still can’t control his right arm and touch his nose.  It was determined NOT to give him a powerful drug that has some bad side effects in case of brain bleed.  The doctors are stumped, he has been such a healthy man.  Just had a physical. 

Test are done, no MRI because of the morphine pump he has implanted.   They need to find the source of the stroke.  about 11 am his right arm has more control.  By 11:30 he is able to touch his nose.  All great signs.  No paralysis.  He will not be going home today and will spend the night.  Huhoney is not happy about that.  Too bad I say.

Off you go…you have a room assigned.  I pull out the trusty ole camera that is always in my purse.  I remind him, ”this is for posterity you know” and start to laugh.  It is a good relief.  We needed to laugh after a good cry.

My son thinks I am crazy but I don’t care.  The hospital guy thinks I am crazy, but smiles for his picture.  I don’t care what anyone thinks.  I really don’t!

 

Here we are Huhoney, this will be home today, they said you will probably go home tomorrow…..

 

 

Brad our son was totally hands on and wanted to take care of his dad, he even did the nurses job and helped him into his bed.  They said it was a nicer bed.  Yeah right.  lol

 

 

I have to keep reminding him that this is for the best.  Huhoney hates feeling helpless and not in control.

 

 

then there are those silly moments when you can’t get a good picture.  Huhoney has a thing about closing his eyes with a flash…

 

 

once in a while I can catch a good one.  Ah how I love this guy!  The one on the left….

Visitors are always welcome.  Gene Hackman wished him good luck too. (hehehe) well not really but thought I would just throw it in anyway.   He once gave out his autograph to a girl at a truck stop on a paper plate cause she thought he was Gene. LOL

 

 

 

visitors are always uplifting… especially if they just want to hang out…and feed you peanuts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well day 1 went by and he didn’t get to go home… they wanted to know where the source of the stroke came from, duh….I should have been a doctor….his leg is swelling up. Nope this hasn’t happened before….are you sure? YES…this hasn’t happened before…bring in the ultra sound cart…

uh yep, there it is, a nice big clot in your leg.  This is day 2 at 7 pm folks.  This is also after 2 physical therapist ran him around the halls at 8 am in the  morning and they finally got the ultra sound guy to come in at 7 pm.  OK we better put him on blood thinners now.  Let’s give him a shot in his tummy.   Hmm this doesn’t look good.  So let’s give him another shot in his tummy on the other side.  Oh dear, let’s get another doctors opinion.  A specialist.  Can’t wait to see this guys bill!  Ummm now he has a very swollen sore leg and also a very sore bruised tummy.  No more shots for you big guy.  You are having a reaction…DUH!

After 4 days in the hospital and lots of vials of blood (15 one time) (12 the next)… on the 4th day Wednesday, he was bring released after listening to instructions from his nurse Mel.  He decided he didn’t need an escort out of the hospital or a wheelchair either, so we made the great escape on our own.  They will miss him.  He loves to joke with the nurses and has a wonderful sense of humor in spite of all the craziness.

he was one very happy Huhoney  and will probably give me a hard time for posting all of this on my blog….oh well I say…POSTERITY, for the records when we are really old and (he) is grey(er) and argue about what really happened!  LOL POSTERITY.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

He was being a smart-al-ick in the above pic.

 

GET ME OUT OF HERE AND FAST BEFORE THEY CHANGE THEIR MINDS AGAIN!

 

 

This is a beautiful monument out side of the hospital on the grounds.  I have always loved this tree from the day it was erected.  When you drive by at night it is a reminder of the healing and life that is forever trying to be achieved at this hospital.

there are thousands of leaves on this tree and the tips of the branches have the fiber optic lights that change colors from red, to purple, green, orange, blue and white.  It is so beautiful and is a great reminder of how beautiful LIFE is!

“The Tree of Light and Life”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To all of our family and all of my special “Village” friends.  Thank you so much for your well wishes and prayers.  They were felt across the miles.  I was a little preoccupied this week and I apologize for not posting sooner and filling you in on Huhoney’s condition.  He is doing well and it won’t take long for him to be up and running again…well, walking fast…..

Much love and hugs and SMILES ACROSS THE MILES……lindalu

Lollipop’s dance recital

I know, you may want to skip over this post but I have to do it, just have to do it because one day….my children will thank me, maybe not today….because they don’t realize how much this means to me…but some day they will.

Lauren is precious….and she didn’t complain at all while her mommy pinned and sprayed and curled her blonde locks for her recital….

 

 

Owen had a bug, mommy thought it was food poisoning from some Wal-Mart chicken…it lasted 24 hours…and it was a really bad pukey kind of bug…

Big brother Ryan was his ole self, hanging out on the computer…he loves the computer….his very own computer and could stay there for hours on end if you let him.

 

 

 

outside the high school auditorium we got silly girl with her mommy.

 

 

 

 

other dancers were practicing in the hallway of the auditorium…

 

 

 

back stage was filled with anticipation…(Lauren 2nd from left,  top row)

 

 

 

much was going on back stage…everyone was ready and awaiting their cue and the beginning of the program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I couldn’t resist taking lots of pictures….all for posterity ya know and of course my book I am putting my posts into…

It’s a big deal this dance recital…the community comes together and the high schools stage becomes a showcase for all the youth to display their talents. 

Our little lollipop Lauren 2nd from the left…..4th from the left in the picture below….she is staring at her teacher…although she knew the steps LOL

Don’t we all like a little encouragement once in a while especially when we are on display in front of a lot of people we don’t know?

2nd from left, she shook her maraca's and left me wanting to see more! My heart was exploding and I was such a proud “Oma” of such a precious 3 yr old!

 

The finale was so fun.  Many of the daddy’s joined their little dancers on stage for a fun little Hawaiian dance.  They were all such good hams about it and shook their booties!

I forgot to ask my son why he wasn’t in this one…maybe he didn’t have a Hawaiian shirt LOL.

thank goodness Owen started feeling better by late Saturday afternoon.  There were some surprises outside.  Baby bunnies were born a couple of days before…

 

they were so tiny and didn’t have any hair on them yet.  Black, White, Tan and White, several different bunnies. 

 

 

 

But I think there are about 12 altogether from 2 mama bunnies and one papa.  It doesn’t take much I am told….hehehe

 

Huhoney has been very busy up at the Higgins Almosta Ranch, old barn wood was added to the chicken coop and Camille added her touch of cut out wooden flowers, the BBQ pit area was cleared and was almost  ready for the pad of cement that would be poured this week.  It is a big job.  Huhoney can’t do it alone anymore.  Not  this much cement anyway.

while he was there 2 weeks ago the playground was moved and made ready for the children.  New ground cover will be put under it to soften the area instead of lawn.  It makes mowing much easier.

The trampoline was moved and dug into the ground…the lawn removed from the playground was put under the trampoline.  A slide will allow the “Little Rascals” to slide under the tramp into a secret play area they call the cave.  They love it!  But my ? is…do you mow the lawn in the cave or just let it grow out of control???

It was a very short quick trip but always worth it.  When my daughter comes for a visit next month we will spend more time up North.  The kids love going to Mikes Almosta Ranch.  Wide open spaces just doesn’t compare to my crowded community where you can hear your neighbor sneeze.  EVEN though I have a pool.  There is just something about a little farm and children….

Huhoney is tired.  Very tired.  He works very hard even for his children to help them out whenever he can.  He will be home tomorrow for some much needed R&R.  Hmm probably not…because he will be busy making our home looking tip top and beautiful too.  I just don’t fit into Mr. Green Jeans pants!  My watering skills are just not the same LOL. Saturday is my Mikies BD.  I can’t believe my son will be 37.

The End.

Everything has a purpose…

I haven’t figured out what the purpose is yet of the doves.  At first I thought … oh isn’t the sound of the doves nice, it is so …so …cooooing and so cooooing……….well now I am not so sure I am a fan of the cooooing, especially when you are in bed, late at night or early in the morning and these lovely……….and I say that with sigh, lovely little doves decide to coo at each other.

They have made a nice little nest across the street in our neighbors eves of their house, I guess they don’t mind their cooing.  But lately…I have gotten a little tired of it.  Am I a bad person?

Just go coo some where else will ya!  I want to sleep in once in a while!

Huhoney actually laughed at me and asked me if I wanted to eat them…he said “don’t you remember when I would go DOVE hunting and bring home DOVES and you would bake them!  WHAT?? I baked these birds and we ate them????  I did not!  I can’t believe I did that……well maybe I can….it must have been in my other life….when I had boxed wine in my fridge…..that had a spout…and I drank it…

so for now….I just shoo them off of my roof and chase them up the street so they land on the neighbors roof and coooooo their little hearts out over there!

 

And NO…..I am not going to eat them!

I am off for the weekend to visit the “little rascals” and watch our sweet Lauren in her first dance recital…this should be fun…. lol have a great weekend everyone!

I had an idea….

For a long time I have wanted to do something different in my office.  I wanted it to look more like a cozy place to go and turn on a light and pull a book off the shelf to curl up with and read for a while, instead of reading in bed.  Ever since I had Huhoney build shadow boxes for my family pics I came up with an idea for the same thing but on a much bigger scale.  Getting rid of the traditional book case, (which will serve nicely in the guest bedroom) and do something different.  I love it….just love it!  The room isn’t quite finished, Huhoney will be making a few more of these beautiful boxes to go above the doors, I have lots of books to fill them.

It started out with bead board…

 

 

 

 

then painting the bead board in different colors to give the shadow boxes some depth and shade

 

 

  here are the boxes, nicely cut mitered and heavy duty.  Stained the same color as all the doors and casings in the house….

 

 

each box was secured to the back of the shadow boxes.  These boxes are very heavy so they also needed to be screwed together onto the wall.

 

I had the bead board angled differently on each shadow box…

 

 

 

before the project began there was a very plain wall, I just never found the right picture to hang in there.

 

 

 

 

 

The kitchen table served as a temporary place to stack some of my books.

 

 

 

I can’t believe how much work was involved…just for little ole me and my crazy ideas!  But I think Huhoney was having a good time…he loves to build things…he is so good at it..after all he built our house with his own 2 hands!  He is very handy to have around hehehehe.

I don’t think there is much I can do with my desk so it will just have to remain where it is..

 

 

don’t you just love the colors!  These are 9 ft ceilings in this room, so I had plenty of space to do a little extra with the top…oh Huhoney let’s add…….

 

 

a shelf above the book cases.  “OK” no problem! Don’t you just love how the books are displayed in a non-traditional way!

 

 

I happened across this table at an estate sale.  It was $50 and I thought I got it for a good price.  It was in perfect shape and had a place for all my snow globes.  I turned the door opening to the back so that the little ones won’t get into it….just a precaution!  I am looking for just the right lamp…I don’t  like this one…

 

 before and after……..

 

 

oh BTW every door and trim in this house was stained with my little ole hands!  It took me a month!

 

this is looking into the family room, just right of the new wall.  Shadow boxes will go above this area too…I will need a ladder for this one! hehe, Huhoney actually said, I think I can come up with something….I can’t wait to see!

Thank you Huhoney for making our home so beautiful, I know it is a lot of work and you do it because you love me…..

I love you too!