Bionic Mom

Finally, here's the pictures of my bionic toe joint....are you impressed? You should be! Even has fake cartilage in it because I didn't have any of my own when they got in there. For being a bionic toe, the thing sure does hurt! It's still very bruised and swollen, and even though they want me to try to wear a running shoe, there is just no way yet. The best thing is the aircast they gave me that you fill up with ice water and then just elevate the foot and wait for the water to get warm. It's a wonderful thing, since the swelling goes down and I can actually begin to bend my toe. They want me to learn to pick up a magic marker (HA HA!). There is no way at this point. I did go to the physical therapy for two weeks like I was supposed to do, but that was just electrical shock (very low voltage) to help to get rid of the bruising. It did work for that, but the incision is still very sore and bruised. The doctor says I had 90% range of motion on the operating table, but I don't believe her.....I really don't know, I was asleep!

I do wonder how come if I now have a fake joint, why the thing which has no nerve endings hurts so much....some day I may understand.

In other news, and this is a big announcement......I no longer work at the dance studio, and the girls no longer dance there. I resigned a couple of weeks ago, and Ginny just got so vindictive that she started picking on the girls, and we finally left this past week. We found a new studio that will do the office campus PE stuff for Cooper, allow them to student teach, and they don't compete or dance on Sundays. The other thing is that they don't show a bunch of skin on their costuming, and it doesn't cost near as much. The off campus stuff is a mess for this semester, so Cooper is doing a student assistant for her last year's english teacher, and I will still go pick her up. They will have the off campus paperwork sorted out for next semester, so then she will leave the hour earlier. They include private lessons in the tuition costs, and the teachers seem to be willing to work with the girls. They are the top dancers there, and Ms. Amy wants to keep them. Guess we will see.....Ms. Andee is coming here to the house to finish up tap solos for the girls for this year, and we will compete them independently, and the duet they've already done. Then at the new studio, they will also do another duet together, and new solos. It's been quite a mess, but we think we are getting everything sorted out, and are very grateful that the new studio will work with us. Dad is also looking into taking both the girls to outside conventions, and sending them to Mark Goodman's tap intensive in North Carolina. (That will be a good excuse to spend some time with TP.)

I am spending the days since school started resting my foot, and sorting out this dance mess....however, I am going to finish organizing the scrapbook room as soon as my foot wants to learn how to walk up stairs again, and am working on cleaning up the sewing room.

I must admit that I really don't miss all the time I spent up at the studio, and doing stuff at home for the studio.

The girls got their new glasses tonight, and then we went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. It was a welcome break.

We are preparing for yet another hurricane in the gulf this next week....I'll take the girls and go to the grocery store and get milk, bread, fruit and any medicine we need tomorrow, and then top up the gas in the van on Monday.

We had to get a new air conditioner motor on the van today, the other one froze up....can't imagine why it did that since it ran on high every time the van started.....I think it just get tired!

I will be soon starting the duet and solo costumes, but don't know what we will do for the new duet and solos. I will have to talk to Ms. Amy.

Dad is out mowing the lawn....it's in the 90's outside and humid! He will be sweaty when he comes in.

Must go hobble in and change the laundry, and do the ice on my foot....it goes numb when it swells to much....that makes it tinglely and then that makes it miserable.

Everyone remember to do something nice for someone else today. It will make your Heavenly Father proud!

Love you.

Mom

Bionic Mom

August 29, 2008

It's been quite some time since I wrote, but I have various reasons for my procrastination! Traveling, more traveling, working, and surgery....

Stairs, Stairs, and More Stairs

July 7, 2008

We have been hearing rumors all over town that Cooper and her mom enjoyed most of their time in NYC, but the dorm life was terrible.

Sources in the shower stall report that there was absolutely no room to even turn around, let alone bend over to wash your flip flop laden feet. And with no bath mats, the floor was constantly flooded. Do you know how much a person can drip on the floor just while trying to dry off from a shower? Windows had to be left open to let the steam out, and late night screams coming from dorm rooms verified that those windows also let in some rather unsavory mice! Thankfully, the drawer handles in room 4102 reported recently that no mice were to be found in that room. Good thing, as a certain mother would have no part of that activity in her room.

Metro card kiosks have reported that several purple shirt wearing girls were seen everyday for two weeks riding the subway back and forth to a prominent ballet school. However, that school was much different than the dancers expected. Up three flights of stairs, the benches in the lobby report a daily afternoon heat wave hit the dancers as they came out of classes for breaktime. Air conditioning is not as prevalent in NYC as here in Houston. This mom started meeting the dancers at the front door instead of enduring that heat! Yes, I am spoiled, and I intend to stay that way!

People on the streets of NYC tell us that Mom could be seen in the pharmacy buying individual cereal boxes every couple of days for breakfasts. You can only buy one sack of groceries at a time as that's all you can carry and survive the climb up four flights of 16 stairs to your fourth floor room each evening. If Mom has to walk up anymore stairs for a while, she is going on strike. Stairs and fractured feet don't mix well. Straps on the suitcases report that the trip up the stairs was definitely more trouble than the trip down at the end of two weeks.

Stair rails in two theaters report seeing Cooper and her mom attending Broadway shows. YES, more stairs! How did we always manage to have to sit in the top balcony? Audience members wrote in to tell us that Cooper was most impressed when Bert (of Mary Poppins fame) actually tap danced on the ceiling, and Mary Poppins flew out over the audience to leave the stage. It really was quite impressive. Later in the week, ticket agents have revealed that the twosome was seen scoping out Mario Lopez's dimples in Chorus Line, also on Broadway! Cooper was wishing she was standing in the kick line right beside him. (She has been in a Chorus Line competition dance this year.) Used ballet pointe shoes reported seeing this strange twosome at the Sleeping Beauty performance on two nights. It appears that autographed pointe shoes were a much desired souvenior, so they had to return on a second night to make the purchase. The shoes were not out for sale at the end of the show on the first evening. However, Mom's debit card informs us that the second night, the purchase was made, and now a shadow box will soon be hanging in a certain ballet dancers' bedroom. It seems the principal dancer, the purple fairy has much desired pointe shoes, although to me they just look dirty and worn out! As a side note, the Metropolitan Opera House is beautiful inside.

Cab drivers on Columbus circle report seeing this limping Mom enter a LDS Temple on the busy street corner. It seems she happened on the Manhattan Temple by chance while buying the tickets for the second night of Sleeping Beauty. Sitting just across the street from the Lincoln Center, it doesn't really look like a temple. The bottom floor is a meeting house, and the top floors are the temple. This mom, sources say, just barely made the 11 am session on the last Friday she was in town. What a joy it was to sit there and soak up that Spirit, while knowing outside was the bustling city of New York. The only problem was Dad wasn't there to wink at Mom during the session, and yes, I know that's corny! It's a tradition, and I like it!

Buckets of M & M's in Time Square tell us that Cooper and Mom were seen buying M & M's to match bedroom colors for Cooper and Cymbre. I know, talk about a luxury! This store is three floors high and has nothing but M & M stuff. However, the sales receipt informs us that some presents were bought for family members, and once Mom gets back from Nashville from the National Dance Competition, she hopes to get them in the mail before her foot surgery.

Cooper reports that dancing at the Joffrey Ballet school was fun, but there was so much enphasis on ballet that she really missed her tap. She did enjoy the character dance classes, and yoga caught her fancy as she worked on finding her inner chi! She says hers in hot pink, but I have my doubts. We have noticed improvement in her ballet technique, so I guess the whole trip was worth the money we spent to get her there.

Mom's sense of direction was put to the test while guiding the group around Time Square. Remember that Mom has NO Sense of direction, so for her to be the tour guide was somewhat ridiculous! However, since I was the only one who had been there before, I was elected by default. It is amazing to me how people can come up from the subway station and not pay attention to what is around them, so that they can find the right subway station when it's time to go home. There are about 7 different subway lines, and if you get on the wrong train, you have a BIG problem. And I have a question, why do they call it Times Square when in reality it is more of a triangle? Just curious. However, I did know that the Good Morning America studio was at the opposite end of the square from the subway station, so as long as I could see that studio, we did ok. Thankfully, the Broadway shows we went to without the group were just off 42nd street, and 45th street which are right there in Time Square.

Now rumor has it that Cooper and Cymbre are packing their bags for Nashville. Dance studio sources tell us that they won't get to dance all their dances because some of them will be on Sunday, but the two dancers are excited none the less. They get to dance Happy Feet, which is one they haven't been able to dance all season. Lost bobby pins have been requested to make their presence known so that hair styles can stay in place for one more performance. And where is that blasted bottle of spray gel? Last we saw, it was hanging out with the hairspray, but both of them are on the most wanted list at the current time! Who knew they could be such good friends as to go on vacation together. You would have thought they were competitors for the same job! Cooper is hoping the guy that calls her "Coop's in the house" will be there to teach the master tap classes. He seems to remember her whenever she attends his class(which is once every 2-3 years), and last time requested her to come up and dance on stage with him. Cymbre's tap shoes are just waiting for the chance to also go to a master tap class!

Luggage racks on the top of the van reveal that they are just hoping they can hold all the dance stuff that has to travel to Nashville. Seven hat boxes, and 10 costumes is a bit much to expect them to hold, but Mom feels that they are up to the job. There are also 7 suitcases, but some of them may have to be in the van. The back seat of the van is thankful that we have a folding flat clothes rack, as it wasn't looking forward to being poked by the other racks poles all the way to Nashville. And Dad will be grateful once we get everything in the van and still have enough room for the passengers!

Well, I must try to attempt to get some sleep. I'll try to add some pictures from NYC and Nashville next time.

All of you remember to go and do something nice for someone today....it takes your mind off your troubles.

Love you bunches.

Mom

Where's A Bobby Pin When You Need It?

June 9, 2008

OK, I feel gyped today! Twice today I stopped at Sonic for a Diet Cherry Limeade, a must on these hot and steamy days here in Houston, and TWICE I didn't get the cherry in my drink! What is the deal? That's the best part of the drink, but you have to drink the whole thing in order to find out that they didn't give you a cherry. I got the limes, but no cherry. What a crock!

Tonight my foot is almost twice the size it's supposed to be, and I've been a pretty good girl to stay off it most of the day. I am so looking forward to July 2nd!

The little girls and I managed to get all the recital costumes packed today....they played run for parts and I packed them in the garment bags...17 garment bags, 6 hat boxes, and a table top tutu bag! At least we are ready for recital on Saturday. I don't know how we will change 17 costumes in the time we have, but somehow we always manage. The table top tutu, and the one that is 2 sizes to small for Cymbre (where she is the understudy) are going to be the challenging ones. The duets are just a lot of pieces and Cooper's hair feathers will drive a Saint crazy! I must pack the extra bobby pins.

And speaking of bobby pins, why do they always disappear after a bit of work! It seems to me that the bobby pins around this house are totally taking advantage of the situation. I mean really, they hold a bit of hair in place for a few hours, and then they just think they can go and disappear, never to be seen again in the drawer where they belong. I find them vacationing in the couch cushions, under Dad's desk near the crayon box (I think there may be something crazy going on there, but I am trying to subdue my curiosity, at least until my foot feels better), in the pencil drawer, and even on top of the DVD player. They have been known to find their way into the straight pin box in the sewing room, and on the floor in Dad's closet, behind the hamper in the bathrooms, and in dance shoes. My personal opinion, those dance shoes that smell would be the last place I would go on vacation. I even found one in Dad's tiger's hair the other day...took it out quick before Dad came home.

In my opinion, bobby pins don't have a very stressful job, so why do they always have to go on vacation. Can't they somehow contain themselves to the nice little bobby pins drawer in the bathrooms? It's a nice big drawer with plenty of room for them to invite their friends, the hair clippies over for some fun. That could be a really snappin' party! Heck, they could even invite the hairnets over, and everyone could have a great time getting all tangled up!

I may just have to ground all the vacationing trouble makers after I gather the energy to find them all....a nice few months in the bottom of the competition rolling drawers should do the trick...no more hair styles to hold, no more showers of hair spray....no more hair gel sprayed on their little backsides, and certainly no more public appearances! That will fix them, don't you think!

Maybe next season, I could have the best behaved bobby pins at the studio. Just think of it, the thrill of it all...to be able to find one of those little guys when I need one instead of having to search the entire house. Maybe they will just jump inside the baggies, and find themselves neatly back in the drawers, instead of on some high adventure causing trouble, and possibly getting sucked up in the vacumn.

Dad is out of town in Lima, Peru. He left on Sunday and will be back early in the morning. He just flew down for a meeting, and then right back.

Ginny is folding and stapling the recital program, and I am just letting her....that's a first in several years, but I just can't handle anything else this week.

We have to pull together father's day so Cymbre can do it after Cooper and I leave for NYC on Sunday. That's makes Cymbre feel special.

Have you ever noticed that when your foot hurts, you don't get anything done? You can't do anything because you can't wear shoes to do anything....and you can only do so many things barefoot.

The upstairs is still a BIG MESS as we took the whole place apart a week ago and started moving kids into different rooms, and painting, and organizing, and getting rid of things, and storing things, and totally messing up my scrapbooking room and using all the furniture from it in the girls bedrooms. Now I have no clue what I am doing in the scrapbooking room except leaving it until probably after Nationals in July. We are going to work on the dance room tomorrow, and start packing for Joffrey. I think I finally have everything bought. Have to make the shuttle bus reservations from the airport and back to the airport, but that will only take a minute. Dad is getting the laptop up and running so I can organize the dance company stuff while I am gone. He is simply a DREAM for doing it for me!

We certainly have been upsetting the animals around here the last few days.....there has been a terrible trumpeting noise from the laundry room as Dad tumbled the pachyderms in the dryer to get the dust off before boxing them all up for storage, and the Panda's are certainly not happy about their new digs in boxes either. However, the storage unit is a climate control deal, so actually they will be cooler there than here at the house. Maybe I should go live at the storage unit. A cool 72 degrees sounds really good to me when my kitchen even with the air conditioner set at 76 is still 82! And the humidity is 80%!

We bought new puffy pillows at Bed Bath and Beyond, and now I can't sleep! They are too puffy, and I have been laying on it trying to smash it down, but is still isn't working.....maybe I should go back to the cheap ones at Wal Mart. Dad wanted to try the more expensive ones at the other store. Maybe part of the problem is that Dad keeps leaving town, so I don't sleep then anyway.

Well, enough of this tonight. I am going to put my foot in the jacuzzi, then sleep on Dad's pillow, well maybe sleep on Dad's pillow. You would think after almost 30 years, I would have learned to sleep when he is gone! No Deal!

Each of you say a little prayer that Heavenly Father will use you to help someone this week. It really proves to be an interesting experience.

Remember that Dad and I love you all very much....and wish we were closer to spend some time with you.

Mom

At Least There Are Pictures!

June 3, 2008

We have been really busy cleaning the upstairs up. Dad decided to separate the two little girls (although they aren't little anymore, we still call them that) so they could each have their own room. We went to Target, and Bed Bath and Beyond and let them pick new bedspreads, then to Sherwin Williams for paint. Then home to really make a HUGH MESS in the upstairs just so Dad could leave town. I know, it doesn't make much sense especially since my foot is fractured, and it's recital time, and then Joffrey, but we are doing it.

Cooper is off to YW camp this week, so we did her room first, and she got most everything moved in and organized beffore she left, however, Cymbre and I have done some sprucing up and adding things.

OK, so the pictures aren't cooperating tonight, but at least you can see two centerpieces that I recently made for the kitchen counter and the dining room table.

Maybe I can get the photos to work better next time.

I made the one with the candle thing from Shyla's wedding to sit on the counter in the kitchen. The other one with the lilies sits on the dining room table.

The pink flower is Cymbre's easter lily that she kept alive all winter, and took this picture the night before the bloom was eaten by some mysterious night visitor. I think the racoons got it, and she was livid!

The little hedgehog guy is Cymbre's garden statue. She has a flower bed at the side of the garage now, and he sits in the center of it. I think he is really cute, and Cymbre faithfully waters and takes care of her garden. She still has the geraniums from Shyla and Russell's wedding, and they are blooming.

Well enough of this for tonight....since I can't get the pictures to do what I want them to do.

I'm going to go put my foot to bed with some pain medicine. I am looking forward to that surgery date of July 2nd as soon as I get back from NYC with Cooper.

Love you all.

Mom

The Black Cloud Is Back!

May 16, 2008

Well, today didn't prove to be a much better day than I've had since Dad left for his trip about 10 days ago. Why does everything bad have to happen when Dad is gone? Is there some kind of Dad traveling jeannie that comes out and goes crazy the moment he leaves for the airport? Why after almost 30 years of craziness when he is gone can't I get a tiny break? How come the bad things don't happen to him instead of the ones at home? I mean he has lost his clothes repeatedly, but that seems mild to some of the things that go on here at home while he is missing in action. I mean he is off collecting blue mints for the kids and rounding up games for Russell, and I am home finding out that I have 2 fractures in my foot that have been there for the past 6 months. No wonder the thing hurts constantly. Have you ever heard of anyone walking around on a fractured foot for 6 1/2 months? I must be some kind of lunatic, or my doctors are.

I finally found out that the first podiatrist I went to in November last year totally screwed up my foot. By not looking at the x-ray, and just sending me to physical therapy (where his technician burned the bottom of my foot) he just compounded my problem. I now have bad arthritis in the joint where my big toe connects to my foot, and a bone growing in a point because it wasn't set properly, and a hook growing on the top of my foot. The only cure is major foot surgery with two titanium grommet looking things put in my joint. They can get rid of the arthritis, but two grommets!!! Give me a break, I really have a mal-practice suit if I wanted to pursue it. Right now, because of having to go to NYC with Cooper in just a few weeks, we are trying to come up with something that will keep me on my foot but not in excruciating pain until I can come back home. I have a piece of foam glued to the bottom of my foot to see if it might be possible to make an orthopedic insert for my show. However, I think I am allergic to the glue the new doctor used to glue the foam to my foot as I itch something terrible. I have to take a double dose of Benadryl to relieve the itch enough to make it tolerable. Thank goodness I see the doctor again on Tuesday....this isn't doing anything for the pain either. Some days I just sit and cry it hurts so much. They have given me some Vicodin for the pain, but that turns me into a pathetic lump in the bed, so I can't take it all the time....besides I don't want to be dependent on that stuff...I have to be coherent at least some of the time. I am trying to stay off the dumb foot, but have to spend some time on it each day. Now that Dad is home, I can be down a bit more. I think my best option would be get the surgery, but the doctor says the recovery time is a minimun 3-4 weeks, and flying is not a good thing. I guess the pressure changes can be very painful when you've just had surgery. I can't believe it could be more painful than what I have been dealing with for 6 months though. Then there is physical therapy time, and hopefully there won't be any complications. I don't know if I would have to stay in the hospital, but will find out more next week. I haven't been to the dance studio since Tuesday, so things are getting backed up there too.

Other things that happened while Dad was gone....both girls hurt themselves at dance...Cooper pulled her hamstring but is feeling better, and Cymbre did something to her knee. She can't put any weight on it, and the doctor told us today no dance, and sent us for an x-ray. Depending on what shows on the x-ray, we may be doing an MRI on Monday. With competition this weekend, she is pretty upset about the no dance part, but Ms. Ginny told her to relax and get better. She will be a celebrity at competition tomorrow with her ice thing around her knee. We are using the Ice pack the surgeon put on Dad when he had his knee surgery. It keeps it constantly cold, and then she can at least move around a bit.

And the washing machine blew out it's transmission! Why do those machines always die in the middle of a load leaving the tub full of water. Noah could float the ark in the water that spills when you have to take clothes out of the washer and the tub is full.

This happened on Tuesday night, the same day the doctor told me about my foot. I am too cheap to pay for the repairman to come just to come, so I decided to try to take the agitator thing off and make sure there was nothing clogging it up to cause it not to spin. Well I couldn't figure out how to get it off, so I called Grandpa thinking he would be able to help. He just gave the phone to Grandma. Now she can do lots of things, but taking apart a washing machine is not one of them. So there I am, on pain medicine, having just got the girls home from the dance studio. I'm standing on one foot, with my other one up on Cymbre's stool so I don't have my weight on it, and I am trying to get the stupid thing off the washer. Dad of course, doesn't have a long extension to his socket set that has the right size socket, so I am trying to put several pieces of the different socket sets together to make it go to a 90 degree angle. I hear you laughing, so stop it. IT WASN'T FUNNY! I didn't have much luck even after waking Dad up in Norway, but then I decided to just spray some WD40 on the screw thing and let it sit for a few hours. When I woke up to go to the bathroom about 2 am, I finally got that dumb screw out, and took the agitator off. Nothing clogging it, but then I had to use chop sticks to get the screw lined back up with the hole, so I could tighten it back up. I cleaned up all the gross stuff from inside the agitator while I had it off.

BUT, I still had to call a repairman. They could come of Thursday, but I had to go get Dad, so I set it up for Friday morning. I just put the dirty clothes back in the hamper because my foot was in no condition to go stand at the laundramat. Then on Wednesday, the lady called to tell me they wanted to come on Thursday morning to fix the washer....I told them they had to come and fix it and go before noon as I had to go get Dad by 1pm. Well, they were there and gone by 9:30 telling me that it was the transmission, and that would cost almost as much as buying a new washer to fix. I told them I would have to talk to Dad, who was, of course on the plane, so I couldn't get him on the phone. But as soon as I got to him, we decided to just buy another washer.....so that meant going to look for one. Dad took me, and we went to three stores. We finally decided to get the one at Lowes, so poor Dad who was so tired after flying all night went and bought the washer and got things set up for delivery today. So tonight we are trying to get the laundry caught up since we will be gone all day tomorrow for competition.

With all of this drama this past week, and not much sleep, I am certainly not looking forward to Dad leaving for San Diego on Sunday.

AND the other thing this week is Cooper broke her toe shoes that are just two months old. She has such strong arches and muscles in her foot, she just breaks them....and she needs three pairs to go to Joffrey. I will need to take donations soon as they are $60 a pair.

Well, the pain medicine is starting to work, so I am going to snuggle up next to Dad and sleep I hope. He will probably start to snore!!

Say your prayers for Cymbre's knee to heal quickly...she is devastated that she can't dance.

Love you all.

Mom

What's With The Spray Starch Anyway?

April 28, 2008

I have managed to clean up the sewing room one more time.....this time I organized the competition mess a bit better so that it isn't falling all over when we stack it up. I even dusted under the stackable drawers! Simply amazing!

Dad has been sick and sounds like he is coughing up his lungs. The doctor put him on some medicine, but he still has trouble sleeping because he is coughing so much. He is exhausted. I've been a making him take a shower in the front bathroom so he can stand in the steam for a while. I hope he feels better before he leaves for Europe in a week or so.

Cymbre survived her dance company tryouts, but was upset because she forgot one of the combinations. I told her that they know what she can do, and not to worry about it. It's hard for them to remember three new things they learn in the morning, and then no time to really practice, and then try out in the afternoon. We put them through this each year so that they will know what to expect at a real audition. She will make the team, she is just upset that she couldn't remember everything. She wasn't the only one.

I have managed to reach the bottom of my mending basket....miracles will never cease! At the bottom I found all kinds of thread scraps....things I thought I had thrown away every time I clipped them while sewing. I wonder just why they migrated to the bottom of the mending pile. Were they plotting to take over the sewing room, and strike back at the full spools of thread hanging on the door of the sewing machine cabinet. Had the elastic upset them in some manner? Was the velcro unfriendly? Maybe they were just planning on getting together for some sort of vacation. Who would need a vacation if you weren't really doing anything anyway? Do they just think they don't have to be in the trash can just because they don't want to? Maybe they just take flight because the ceiling fan is running while I sew, and the mending basket is just where they land. I am convinced that they must have some plan to irritate me. I mean really, have you heard of a thread scrap convention going on? If so, who organized it, and why wasn't I invited. I have two drawers of thread, we would have made good attendees.

And another thing, why does the spray starch always stick to the legs of the ironing board? Have you ever tried to pry the stuff off the legs? It's next to impossible. If you try to scrap it off, the paint comes off with it. If you try to just wash it off, it gets all sticky. Maybe I will just leave it there to form layer upon layer as some sort of a badge for keeping my ironing done. I can always just buy a new ironing board when the buildup gets so thick I can't stand it anymore. I guess I could make some sort of a ironing board skirt that would attach around the ironing board, and then the starch would just get on it, and I would take it off and wash it. Sound like a bit much though, don't you think?
Someone needs to invent a starch dissolver to make the job much easier.

Well, I better get on with making all the dance company certificates that we need for the award banquet. I think Cymbre should be one for the cutest freckles. We draw them on her for every Little Bitty performance, and she looks so cute.

Have a good day.

Love you.

Mom