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December 13, 2007
May and June 2007
In May, Chad bought a pontoon boat that he kept at a friend’s dock on Lake of Egypt. We wore that thing out over the summer! We got very good at barbecue on a tiny little grill (pork steak is our favorite). Seth took his sweet time relearning to swim but by the end of the summer he was a fish. The other boys caught on much more quickly and literally spent HOURS in the water. If that were not enough, Chad (who will be forever 19) bought a huge water trampoline that added hours more fun.
Middle of May had Chad, Eli, Jake and me in Indianapolis for a car show. We have acquired an old Volkswagen ragtop that Chad wants to help Eli restore to be his first car. (it will actually go to the boy who puts the most work/interest into it). I will do a photo journal of the restoration because it will be very cool. (hey! Stop yawning!). Anyway, the car show was to look at cool restored cars and to maybe pick up some parts. Turned out to be not nearly as good as in years past. Oh well, there will be others.
After seeing what fun we were having with our EIGHT four wheelers (ATV’s), dad bought one of his own. To haul stuff to the barn you know, Doris. We promptly convinced him to bring it to one of our riding spots – Trail Of Tears (TOT). This place is beautiful and has lots of good trails from beginner all the way to nutcase level. The little guys zoom around on little bitty ones that sound like they are hamster powered. We cannot even begin to pry Seth off his. I am fairly certain he would sleep on it, if he was allowed.
June:
Back to Kentucky Chad and I went for the long awaited (annual) pig roast. This was an adult affair which is always welcome for Chad and I as couple time. His Aunt Linda’s property holds special memories for us as a new couple. Anyway, romance aside, the pig roast was just damn fun. We arrived late at night and slept in a bit but woke in time to go get the pig from the butcher. When we got there, the butcher informed us that he had just eaten lunch and was going to sit a spell. Okaaaaay. So we sat a spell and learned all the local gossip. I was a little surprised not to hear Dueling Banjos. Finally, his food was digested enough to invite us into the butcher shop – whew! Hold yer nose and don’t think about it too much (hey, ya want the head and hooves?). We hauled the poor pig home where it was roasted to perfection. I think we all ate so much no one could move. And then we did it all over again. And then we had ten more beers. Each. All of the cousins were in that weekend and so the jeeps got broken out for trail riding. Ever hear that redneck joke: What’s the last thing a redneck says before someone has to call 911? “Hold my beer”. Everyone at the party can now easily check that phrase off the list of things to be said, LOL. I would love to show you pictures but SOMEONE forgot to take any. Ah well, probably best left undocumented. Next year there will be evidence – hell someone has to do a photo documentary of the shenanigans called erecting a rain tent. (How many more support lines can fit on that there tarp?)
Later in the month, I went for the second year to The Bash on the Bluff with my good friend Michael. We hung out, floated down the Big Piney River and generally made mischief. There are a few pictures of it in my gallery from last year, nothing really new this year. Once again, I love my friend but I am truly glad we don’t live in the same state. We party way too hard – I am less and less willing to face that hangover that lasts a couple of days later.
P.S. Just so y’all know, I really don’t drink that much normally although reading the above, it sounds like I need some sort of program, hahahahaha.
At the end of June, I had the pleasure of meeting another one of Chad’s Aunts, his Aunt Tali. We went up to a little town North of us to take the boys horseback riding. I have plenty of experience with horses but it was all as a teenager and NONE in about 20 years. She has three beautiful horses. We rode “Gold” who is fairly young and was most displeased with having seven people taking turns riding him. Everyone had fun riding but the highlight of the day for the guys was probably swimming in their hot tub.
Next update will be either Sunday or Tuesday or both! Oh, the excitement!!!
Posted by DebC at 10:18 PM | Comments (1)
December 12, 2007
April 2007
As I last posted in April, Kim and family came up for a visit. It happened to be her birthday which gave us a chance to have family over. She is old now. She and I have had a bumpy sister relationship from the moment she was born (I tried to drown her in a bathtub). I am very pleased to say that for the last five years or so, she has become one of my closest friends. Sappiness over.
On the day of Kim’s birthday, Chad and his kids were at my house. His oldest son, Connor (8yo), was using one of our sleds to slide on a hill covered with pine needles. Chad had just finished mowing my field (Gads I love that man). I was in the house finishing Kim’s cake when the door bursts open and Connor hops through. I hear with my peripheral mom ear something about blood dripping on the porch. I go out to see Connor, crying, with a rip in his pants over his knee. And a *little* blood. I told him to take off his pants and let me see it. He pulled off his sock and blood starting splattering onto the porch. No problem. I forget now what Chad said but it freaked out Connor! So I put a napkin over it before anyone could see how bad it was to try to calm the situation down. I carefully pulled back the napkin and we all got a load of this four inch long gash so deep we can see muscle definition. Okay, now you have impressed the nurse (my kids will tell you that it takes a lot of blood to get my attention – I have NO sympathy). So we spent the next two hours in the emergency room of the tiny hospital next town over. Connor got 9 stitches on the outside and about five on the inside. I can’t seem to convince him to tell people it was a shark bite though. Turns out that he slid over the cut off end of a bramble in the field – who knew that sledding in April was bad? I would love to say that nobody sleds on non snowy hills but they have all summer, LOL. Oh and the ER bill was accidently doubled – Chad fought it hard and won. The end amount was exactly what my homeowner insurance maximum was for personal injury. YEAH!
All three of my boys were in baseball this year. Seth played T-ball and just loved it. I didn’t get to do T-ball with my older two. What a blast! There were baseball games four or five days of the week for two months straight. They had fun though and that is what counts. Next year will be a little easier because Eli, who is now 13, doesn’t want to play baseball anymore. Not a surprise.
At the end of April, we took the boys to Chad’s Aunt Linda and Uncle Reed’s place out in the far far deep deep woods of Kentucky. Paintsville to be exact. It is about two hours east of Lexington and takes us about 3 DVD movies to get there. This has to be one of my most favorite places in the United States. I fell in love with the Omer family the minute I met them six months earlier. Their property may as well be a nature preserve complete with the most awesome ATV trails. We hauled six of our eight ATV’s out there and had a blast. The boys were nonstop as you can see from the pictures.
Here are a few more pictures that defied category. Enough for today. Look for another installment on Thursday. I have realized that this may take a bit longer to get up to speed than I thought!
Posted by DebC at 1:09 AM | Comments (1)
December 9, 2007
Hey There Hi There Ho There
I’m as happy as can be! D E B… B I E… alright, I will stop. You are probably wondering what the hell I have been doing all these months since I said I was going to start posting regularly. You should be very afraid. I actually had to take notes to remind myself of everything I wanted to say. There will be laughter, tears and bloodshed (yes, really). And TONS of pictures.
The program that I use to display my web pictures (as well as my dad’s and my sister Kim’s) went kerflooey. Six months ago. Hee hee, see, I really don’t spend much time on the computer anymore. My dad threatened me with my life if I didn’t fix his website (no not really) so his gallery and my gallery are fixed. Kim, on the other hand, will be unveiling a HUGE surprise in a month or so.
So, I think I will attack this in month order. Each month will have picture links (highlighted in the post) to the gallery album involved. Hit your back button to get back to the blog. I will do a couple of months at a time so it isn’t so enormous. I know just what you are thinking. That Deb is an evil procrastinating wench. Fear not. I have plenty of alone time coming up in the next weeks – you will have to wait for the last installment to find out WHY!
Just so I can get this off the ground today, I will start with what I am doing work-wise because that doesn’t include pictures. As most of my three readers of this blog know, I had a job as a clinic nurse doing triage in a rural health clinic. I loved it. Did you notice the past tense? Some big changes happened that caused me to move on starting with the loss of my beloved nurse manager over an ethics situation (she was not at fault – she resigned in protest). I loved the convenience of working close to home, I loved the people I worked with, I loved the patients. I did not love the lack of money in my paycheck nor did I love answering 100 phone calls a day (yes, REALLY). I decided I needed a more meaty position. So I started looking for a new job back in May. I tried to get a job with the VA here in Marion and now am thankful not to be part of their horrible woes. I ran across a tiny little ad in the local newspaper put out by a company from Texas for a program that had not even opened yet. When I interviewed with them, they could not even show me the space where I would be working because it was being remodeled.
The Center for Senior Renewal is the name of the program and it got off the ground about two months ago. I was hired on as the only nurse and I have to tell you, I cannot believe they pay me what they do to do something so fun and so rewarding. It is a geriatric psychiatric outpatient counseling program for seniors who are facing depression and anxiety over aging, living situation, grief, loss, etc. We have two full groups going which is testimony to how well received the program was in the community. We have clients from nursing homes, assisted living and independent living – quite a mix. They are so much fun! Hugs are required, kisses with lipstick are optional. As for coworkers, there are two licensed counselors and a mental health tech/driver. Oh, almost forgot, the clinic is based out of St. Joseph’s Memorial Hospital in Murphysboro, Illinois. I will have to tell you about that hospital in another post sometime. It is fantastic.
Stay tuned for ANOTHER post on Tuesday – with pictures. I think there will probably be about four more posts rapid fire and then I will settle back into some sort of routine at-least-once-a-month posting.
Posted by DebC at 4:38 PM | Comments (3)