BABY NEWS & GIVE ME A HAND!

What a crazy last few days this has been.  I just don't know where the time goes.  I sat down about five times yesterday to do a post and kept getting interrupted.  I managed to download my pics and that was about it.  I'm starting off with lovely Layla.  She has a new winter sweater and she really needed it.  It was dipping into the 40's over the weekend.  Isn't this adorable?  I wouldn't mind having one like this myself!

Now I know you are all anxious to know about that little "gender revealing" party my son Kevin and Mary Clare were having last Friday.  I have a short video (I actually had to crop it to fit so you get the reveal but not the shots of everyone clapping and screaming).  And...you have to watch the video to find out if they are having a boy or girl!  Here goes:

I am so excited!  This was just so much fun.  We had a fun group of family and friends, maybe about 20 people.  We had pizza afterward.  I think Kevin and MC are still in a daze.  At least she can now start to decorate the nursery and I can plan the theme of the shower.  :)

 

Here I am with MC's mom, Peggy.  We will share Grandma Rights!

Backtracking, I had a pretty good rest of the week after my last post, at least as far as keeping my mind off my test results for the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.  Emily popped in Thursday morning to coax me (ha!) to go shopping!  She snapped me in all my glory getting ready.  You do know it takes a village to get Blondie out the door?

 

And my ever~growing~larger Grandog, Tulo, finds my morning routine fascinating.  I dog~sit a lot but he's so much fun.  He's clumsy as all get out...to see him chase Milo around the twists and turns and corners of my house, it's just too funny.  

So, Emily and I hit up Homegoods and she found some mercury glass pumpkins and gourds and I found that darling sweater for Layla.  She also had to return something to Old Navy and I found a pair of "Boyfriend" jeans I liked.  I was thrilled to bring them home and try them on only to find they were too big!  Yes, thrilled!  So I have to make a trip back and exchange them but I will be the happiest customer in the store!  The trips to the gym are paying off!

It wasn't the best of weekends at the lake, but they can't all be, can they.  The Husband surprised me with a three day weekend, he had Monday off.  The weather was not great at all.  Rainy and windy and cold.  I had bought a quart of paint to do those chairs I showed you in my last post and although the garage is heated, I didn't want to make The Husband pull the trailer with the fishing boat on it out to give me space.  I thought I would start emptying pots but the flowers still look so great.  So I watered them instead. :)  Then I thought I would start putting some things away in the shed...outdoor chairs and garden decorations...then I realized we really had to get larger things in there first so I nixed that idea.  I did pick some cattails!! 

 

Sunday was pretty much a miserable day.  A few weeks ago I had a visit from a long time lake friend, Sharon.  We actually bought the lakehouse from Sharon and Bob and that would be exactly 23 years ago this month.  Bob literally built the house himself while he, Sharon and the kids lived in a trailer on the property.  It was here that they raised their kids and had many good times.  The day we moved in they had a party and introduced us to all of their lake friends, all of whom we are still great friends with.  So, Sharon stopped by just before Labor Day with the news that Bob had inoperable cancer.  I'm not going to go into details, it isn't my place to discuss his health or their troubles.  From my standpoint, I had to summon all my courage to stop in and see him, and I put it off until Sunday.  Sharon had a very hard time keeping herself together and Bob, looking very frail compared to the big robust guy I've always known, he spent a lot of time staring out the window, shaking his head and saying, "I'm only 75, Blondie."  I have some pictures and then I thought it just wasn't right to put them on my blog, too dramatic.  My heart hurts.  I got into my car and looked out at the view you see above from their driveway.  And I took this picture with tears running down my face.  We can always pray for a miracle, can't we?

One thing about crappy weather is that you can always keep a fire going and snuggle inside once you get your "stuff" done.  I went to the grocery and got all the fixings for chicken noodle soup and we had that with bread, sitting in front of the fire that The Husband (Paul Bunyon), kept burning all day.  

And I was so excited to find the BH&G holiday magazine.  I love when this comes out, I just mark page after page of things I want to do that I never get around to!  And I found an Autumn magazine as well.  Now, I have not dug into these yet, I am saving them for my recuperation period after my surgery.

After days of texting Emily, "Will you be my hands?  I don't want to be handless!"  I went to my doctor yesterday and yes, the CTS is "marked", but I will have the surgery one hand at a time, the first one will be on October 6, that's about a week and 1/2 away.  Then I can have the other hand done as early as 2 weeks later.  I am so relieved, I really thought I was going to have to type my posts with a pencil poking out of my mouth!  Ha!  I can guarantee, they won't be long posts, and that's not just a threat!  And the housework?  Hmmmm...I'm wondering what The Husband looks like in an apron. 

And so now I am in the "I'm losing my mind" stage.  I never put the office back together as I want to paint it.  I'm halfway finished packing up and donating books in my den so I can start to redo that room.  I'm trying to transition my summer clothes to winter.  I need to reseed and fertilize the front lawn as well as plant some mums I bought last week at Home Depot.  Our oven died the other day, it looks like it may be the computer panel and although I love it dearly, The Husband thinks we've had it way too long.  So we have been ordering food in for a few days and I had to give my apples to Emily, no pie making happening here.  Oh, did I mention we are leaving for Vegas in three days?

Maybe this is a Godsend after all.  A way to get my mind off everything.  Sleep late, rent a cabana by the pool.  Eat good, rich food and decadent desserts (I think Las Vegas has some of the best food/chefs in the country).  I like to play 25 cent slots and video poker but that's about it.  And it's always great to go out and about and stroll through the hotels and casinos we can't afford! :)

We will be home Tuesday and I will be back in touch.  I can keep up to date with emails and comments on my post via my phone.  Oh, I wanted to thank you for all of those nice comments about keeping my blog the way it is.  I definitely plan on doing that.  If anything, I was thinking along the lines of shorter, more frequent posts...moving on to subjects I generally run out of time to write about.  We'll see, but I am truly flattered by what all of you had to say.  

Jane xx