An early morning phone call, an emergency room and a hen party!

My weekend started a little earlier than I had planned. My cell phone rang at 6:15 on Friday morning and it never rings that early, especially when it is my mother calling. She kept saying, "I'm okay, I'm okay" but you don't call someone that early just to chat! She is usually not out of bed that early. So, I'm starting to worry a little because she was crying a little bit, too, and she is not a crier! Finally, she told me that she had fallen and her left leg was really hurting. She had made it to the kitchen to get her cell phone, but she had held onto something the whole way. Anyway, she kept saying that since it was her left leg she thought she could drive and she was going to call her doctor when their office opened and try to get in. She had actually planned to call them anyway because her headaches were not much better from 2 weeks ago when she had gone. I told her that she wasn't going to try to drive any where that I would be down as soon as I got my stuff together and put in my absence from school in the computer. I got to her house (in Alma) a little after 8:00. She had replaced the front door lock a while back and I had not gotten a key to it. Sure enough it was locked. I can open her garage door from my car so that was my next move. Well, the door into the kitchen from the garage was also locked! I pulled out my phone to call her to see if she could get to the door to let me in when I remembered that the old front door key opened that door and I still had it on my keyring. By the time she answered her phone I had the door open. I went straight to the bedroom to check on her. She was trying to get up, but I told her not to. I got her little dog taken out and then went back to her. We got her to the den and into her recliner so she could stretch out her leg. At 9:00 we called the doctor's office and they said they would have the nurse call us. I had told the receptionist that she had fallen and was having trouble walking on her left leg and that her headaches were no better. She said okay. We waited until about 12:30, which was very difficult for me, and called back. She remembered that Mom had fallen and went to see where the chart was. When she came back to the phone she said it was in the doctor's area and just waiting for him to see it and tell the nurse what to do. So, we waited again. I had told Mom that we weren't going to wait too much longer without going to the ER. We needed to know what to do. She went back to bed for just a little while and then she said, "Let's just go." So I got her into the car and went in to get the rest of our stuff and the phone was ringing. It was Debbie from the doctor's office. She didn't know that Mom had fallen, the receptionist left that part off her note, and she also had been out during the morning! She apologized for us having to wait all day, but she said he would have told her to go to the ER for X-rays. I told her we were on our way. We got seated in the waiting room about 2:50pm and were headed home by 5:20! I was thrilled that it hadn't taken nearly as long as we were afraid it might and also that nothing was broken!! So then we headed to the pharmacy to get her medicine and to the house. She went straight to bed and only really got up long enough to put on her gown before taking her medicine and bedding down for the night. I sat up and read for a little while and then I crashed as well.

I heard her in the bathroom about 6:45, surprised that she had made it so well. We both went back to bed and dozed a little until about 9:00 I guess when we got up and started stirring. She was able to move a lot better and seemed to feel better, too. I made us some breakfast and then we were trying to decide what we needed from the store when Taylor called. Mike and I were supposed to keep Grace this weekend, but things changed a little. It worked out okay for Friday night, but I knew Taylor really wanted to go to Bikes, Blues and BBQ. She had been talking about it for a long time. She was not having much luck finding something to do with Grace. I told her she could always bring her to Alma, since Mom was feeling better. She perked up then and said as soon as she got showered and clothes gathered up she would be down. Grace is usually pretty good medicine for Mom! I decided to go on to Wal Mart so I wouldn't have to take Grace. When I got home, Mom said she wanted to try to shower so we headed to the bathroom. She did pretty well. As she was finishing up, the doorbell rang. When I got to the door, it was Shirley from Unique Florist. She has been a family friend for years. She had a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Mom, as you can see in this picture. Cathy had called her and ordered them from all the grandkids and greats! Thanks, Cathy!!

While I was on my way to Wal Mart, I called

in reinforcements! I called Courtney to see if she had plans or if she wanted to come up and play with Grace. She looooves to spend time with Grace! She had already done what she had planned for the day so she said she would come up about noon. She did and Grace was in rare form. Mom went to lay down for a while so we just let Grace entertain us. When Mom got up, we ordered pizza, Pizza Parlour of course, and Courtney went to pick up Granny Ima when she got the pizza. We were having a full-fledged hen party at this point! We were watching the Razorback fiasco and trying to get Grace to call the hogs. She did clap and holler a little bit, but not much pig sooie.

She had on this cute little hat when she got out of the car. We talked her into putting it back on to model with Courtney. Isn't she just a little doll?

She was exhausted, but wouldn't give it up. At one point we thought she was going to crash in Granny Ima's lap. No such luck! She realized she was getting too still, so down she went!

They stayed with us until about 6:00 and it was a great afternoon. Mom had felt relatively good and certainly enjoyed watching Grace. She was surprised that she felt as good as she did. She could bend her leg better and even walk on it without holding on to something or someone. She crashed around 9 and then Grace and I sat in the recliner and rocked. She was asleep about 15 minutes after Mom went down. We actually went to bed around 10. We slept pretty well. Grace likes to be very close! She woke up about 7. I was hoping to sleep a little later, but no such luck. Mom was still in bed but was awake. She said she didn't sleep as well as she had the night before and she was hurting a little more. As we finished up breakfast, she went ahead and took a pain pill and it didn't take it long to start working. We got things moved around for her dog and her charger for her cell phone moved into her bedroom and I got her laundry caught up. She told me she wasn't rushing me off, but she was okay and for us to head on home so I could rest. We did leave there about 3. I brought Grace to the house so her papa could see her since we didn't keep her here over the weekend. She slept on the way home and has been going strong ever since!

I told Mom that if she wanted me to come down for the weekend, she didn't really have to go to such extremes. All she has to do is ask! Anyway, the weekend ended better than it started, but we are so grateful that nothing was broken and she is doing so much better already. We will keep praying for her strength to increase and the pain to be gone quickly.

I love you Mom!

Just experimenting with my camera since Grace is willing to pose on occasion now!

Style??

Okay, I don't know why the whole bottom part of the last post ran together, I really had separated it into several paragraphs! I guess I still have a lot to learn. Maybe you can read it anyway. Just wanted you to know that I didn't write that all as one paragraph. I went back several times to try to get it changed to no avail. What did I do wrong?

Grace and Uncle 'T'

Finally! I have to say that I really dislike dial-up internet service! Where we live it is the only thing available. I have been trying for the last 2 hours to get these pictures to upload.

On Mondays we get to keep Grace so I usually try to get home as quickly as possible from school. Mike usually watches her until I can get in. Yesterday when I topped the curve headed to the house, I saw Mike on the tractor. I was a little surprised and thought maybe for some reason we were not going to have her. When I got to the driveway, though, Tanner's truck was there. When I walked into the house, this is how I found them. I don't know how Grace could have been very comfortable or how she even got to that position, but apparently they were both comfortable. I snapped both of these pictures, with flash, and neither of them moved a muscle! Aren't they just adorable!! I am soooo glad that Grace is so crazy about her Uncle 'T' and that he is equally crazy about her.

I hadn't been home very long, just long enough to take these pictures, when I remembered that I had forgotten to pick up my medicine. So, since they were sleeping, I jumped back in the car and ran to Wal Mart to get my medicine and a few necessities. I was gone for about an hour and when I got back they were still asleep. Their positions had changed but they didn't move. I got my clothes changed and was on the computer when Grace started stirring a little. I went and picked her up and then she slept on my shoulder. I just love to hold her while she is sleeping!!

After a little while she woke up and began to play a little. By the time Mike came in off the tractor she was going strong again. We ate a bite of supper, homemade chili (thanks honey) and hot dogs and settled in to watch Dancing with the Stars. Grace watched some and danced around a little bit. She was calling all the ladies Hillary! I guess she thought they were all wearing wedding dresses like she had seen Hillary in on Friday! She was going strong when Taylor came to get her at about 10:15. As soon as they left I hit the shower and fell into bed. It had definitely been Monday all day at work trying to get ready for parent/teacher conferences.

Today was our longest day of conferences. We had to work until 7:00. Tomorrow we have to stay until 6:00. I only have to conference with 10 kids, so I have quite a bit of down time. This afternoon, instead of getting ready for 2 upcoming special ed. conferences or grading papers, I read for about 2 hours! It was relatively quiet and I enjoyed every minute of it. I actually have enjoyed all the conferences I have had thus far this year. Of my 10 huddle students that I conference with, only 3 of them are my resource students. I have not been able to tell parents very often that their kids are proficient in math and literacy or even one or the other! It felt good to tell parents that today.

This had turned into a longer post than I intended. I am enjoying posting on this blog more than I thought I would. I'm not sure that is necessarily a good thing! Anyway, I'm off to finish watching Dancing, then to the shower and then to bed before another long work day tomorrow!

'Til next time...

Fun times with Grace!

Well, I lost most of the previous post I was working on with wedding pictures, so I decided to try another one with pics of Miss Grace. Most of the pictures I had on the other one are on Granny's computer instead of mine and Taylor's camera instead of mine. Taylor is going to repost some of them for me and then I will blog about the wonderful wedding.



Anyway, Grace is always fun to tell about and show off. The first picture shown is when I decided to let her eat spaghetti all by herself. She was so very proud! It was a little messy, but she did manage to get most of it eaten.





The next one is just a cute picture of her one day when she was at the house. She is getting a little better about being still while we are snapping pictures. This one definitely shows off her beautiful blue eyes!
She loves her Uncle Tanner or T as she calls him. They played on this oversized bean bag for quite a while one evening when she was at the house. Good lookin' kiddos, aren't they?
Aunt Cathy and Megan were in for the wedding and the weekend. Taylor, Grace and I stayed at Mom's on Friday night and all day Saturday as well. We had a great day of relaxation and watching Grace entertain everyone. She always gets a prize from Atlanta when Aunt Cathy and Megan come to visit. Here she is putting on her new M&M costume. She looked adorable and there couldn't have been anything more appropriate to have come from them. I think Cathy lives on M&Ms!!!
Finally, Grace loved the dance floor at the wedding. She was on it even when no one else was. The lead singer in the band came out and danced with her during one of the songs. We had a hard time keeping Grace off the dance floor for the newlywed dance and the father/daughter dance. She just couldn't understand why she had to watch!
I have lots more pictures of Grace that I could share, but will save them for another time. When Taylor gets the wedding pictures re-posted, then I will tell more about the wedding! Just know that it was absolutely beautiful in a glorious setting! Congratulations to Hillary and Josh!!!

Weekend of celebration and relaxing...

Friday night was the wedding that our family has been waiting for. It took place at Mt. Magazine State Park, the highest point in Arkansas. It was an aboslutely beautiful place for a wedding. I had never been there before, but hopefully will get a chance to go back someday.

Mike, Taylor, Grace and I went to Granny's in Alma around noon. Mike took his chainsaws and cut a bunch of limbs off some of her trees. Taylor, Grace and I made a quick trip to Ft. Smith to find shoes for Taylor. We only had to make one stop, Shoe Carnival, and we both ended up buying the same pair of brown shoes. I hope they will be comfortable enough to wear to school!
When we got back to Alma it was time to start getting ready. We were leaving at 4:30 and traveling in a caravan with Johnny, Pat and Granny Ima and Rick, Marcia and Alex. Johnny had been there before so we were counting on him to get us there. We got there with time to spare!

From the minute we walked into the lodge everything looked gorgeous. Her accent color was apple green and she had green apples in huge vases all over the place. It was definitely unique and absolutely gorgeous. I don't have any pictures of the decorations on my camera or computer, but will post some when I have access to them. They also had a photo booth set up in the reception area. Everyone was encouraged to have their pictures made. It took six poses and they cut three off for a scrapbook for Hillary and Josh and we got to keep the other three. What a great idea!

I had several pictures posted earlier and some how lost over half of what I had been posting. I still don't know what happened. However, Taylor has posted some of the same ones I had so you can go here to see them. The picture below is of the view that Hillary and Josh had while they were saying their vows. There are several other pictures on this blog that one of the bridesmaids posted.

After the wedding, we headed back to Granny's. Cathy and Megan had driven in from Atlanta for the wedding and the spend Saturday with Grace! Taylor, Grace and I spent the night at Granny's, too. Mike decided to head on home, not into hen parties! He had cut lots of branches off trees for Granny on Friday before we went to the wedding. He finished what he was planning to do so he didn't have anything to do there on Saturday anyway. That left just us girls for the whole night and all day on Saturday. Monica, Cathy's best friend, came down on Saturday morning and then Stephanie, my surrogate daughter, came down Saturday afternoon when she got off work. Granny Ima came up, as well, so we literally had a house full of women. We ate Pizza Parlour pizza, some of the best around, and CocaCola cake. Cathy had gone to Van Buren to get some sugar cookies from Paul's Bakery, too. They are a must have whenever the Geren's are in town just like the pizza. Anyway, we just sat around and visited and watched Grace while we snacked all day. Taylor, Grace, Stephanie and I headed home around 7:00 last night. Cathy and Megan have the long drive ahead of them today, all the way to Atlanta. It was a very quick trip for them, but it was great that they were able to come in for the wedding and another fun day of watching Grace entertain.

My best wishes and congratulations go out to the bride and groom! Looking forward to many more pictures of the happy event!

Hope everyone has had a good weekend. Now for some football!!

Wonderful cool weather!

It has been so very nice not to have to use air conditioning the last few days. I love having the windows open and all the fresh air coming in. I hope we don't have to use the air conditioner again until spring gets here.


I sure enjoyed watching the Cowboys game last night. I will confess, though, that while The Closer was on we only checked on the game during commercials. I did stay with the game until the end even though I was very sleepy. Grace fell asleep in my lap a little before 10:00, Mike had fallen asleep on the loveseat and I was on the edge when Taylor came in to pick Grace up. After they were gone, we headed to the bedroom and watched the end of the game in there. It was all I could do to make it!


This morning when the alarm went off I turned it off and was going to just lay there for another minute! Right, I woke up about 20 minutes later and was behind all day!! I have duty on Tuesday mornings from 7:30 until 8:00 so by the time I got to school it was already time to head to duty. After duty, I went to the office to check my mailbox and found out that I had to go to a meeting during my only planning time today. I was not thrilled to say the least. I really had planned to get the paperwork ready for my conference that was scheduled during lunch today. Fortunately, I was able to get most of the paperwork completed during a video that was shown to the whole school before the kids were dismissed from their homebases. As it turned out, the parent didn't show up until after school anyway! Figures. Oh well, one down and one to go this week. I do have the paperwork ready for the one tomorrow!


I don't really have much else to say except that I am looking forward to this weekend. My cousin is getting married on Friday night and we are all excited about that. My sister and her daughter will be in from Atlanta for the wedding. Then on Saturday Taylor, Grace and I plan to spend as much of the day as we can with them at Mom's. Fun, fun, fun!!! I just hope Mom is feeling lots better by then.

Granny, Grace, and the aftermath of Ike!

What fun we had at Granny's this weekend!! Granny got to read and read with Grace. I'm not sure how many books they read, but they both enjoyed every minute of it. I just love seeing them have fun together!


That was the fun part of the weekend. Then it got a little crazy. First of all, on Saturday evening Granny began to have plumbing issues. With women this is quite an issue, especially when there are 3 of us! Then, during the storm last night several brances blew off the big tree in the back yard and one of them was dangerously close to ending up in Granny's bedroom! We heard the wind, but had no idea what was happening outside. Next, Mike called to check on us and so I shared our experiences and then asked what it was like up here. He said that the power had been off since about 3:00 in the morning. When we got back up here from Alma around 12:45 it was still off. Taylor took a shower and began getting ready for work, then I went ahead and showered before I came home. I got home about 3:00 after staying with Grace until the boys got home, and we still were without power. Mike was going crazy with no TV so we went and had a late lunch and then went to see Burn After Reading. It was a crazy movie, but the acting was good. When the movie was over I called Tanner to check on power and he said it was still out. Our neighbor had called the electric company again and they told him it might not be on until tomorrow! Not what we wanted to hear. Mike and I were getting ready to head back to Alma for the night and had already called Mom to tell her. When we turned onto our road we saw a truck from the electric company and Mike pulled over to see check the status of our power. At the same time, Tanner was calling me to tell me that the power was back on! We were soooo excited!! I love spending the night with Mom, but I was sure not looking forward to getting up early enough in the morning to get to work on time. It was a blessed sight to walk in and see lights on in the back of the house. We have been without power before, but I don't think it has ever been out this long. My sincere thanks go out to anyone and everyone who works for the utility companies after storms!

Taking the blogger plunge...

I have read and read and read blogs so much that I felt like I was missing out by not having my own, so here goes! Taylor, Grace and I are at Mom's for the weekend and we have been extremely lazy today so I decided this was as good a time as any to get started. I'm not sure I will have much to say that will be interesting to anyone but me, but it must be good therapy or there wouldn't be so many people blogging. Anyway, I'm going to give it a shot! It will take me a while to get everything figured out, that's where Taylor will come in very handy, but it should be fun learning. First Facebook and now blogging, what to think?