Oh, The Weather Outside
We have had lovely weather for the period of time that we have been in AZ. We managed to miss a Colorado snowstorm which is cause for our celebration. There were the predictable posts on Facebook that include photos of snow in their yards and captions indicating the posters’ appreciation of the beauty of snow. Nope. I’m happy that they’re happy, but I find absolutely nothing redeeming about snow. It’s cold. It’s messy. It is difficult to shovel. If I want pretty, I go to my brother’s house and watch a sunset over the desert. But the temperatures the past few days have been highs in the 60s. Arizonans are wearing Uggs. I’m not kidding.

Double Trouble
I’ve said it a million times, but it’s a true story. When you own a home, it’s always something, and when you own two homes, it’s always something times two. Waa waa waa. First world problems, right? But Bill has spent much of his time here the past two weeks in fixing this or that. The door from our garage to our back yard has rotted because of the heavy monsoon rains. This creates gaps in the door which potentially leads to scorpions making their way into our garage. Therefore, IT MUST BE FIXED. Thanks to Bill being Bill, by time we leave, our door will be solid. Another issue that arose is that our outdoor grill won’t light, even using a match. Gas is not getting to the burners. That fix might need to wait until we return in December. In the meantime, I bought some charcoal and lighter fluid, and lit the coals the old-fashioned way. I have said it many times: I love lighting charcoal and drinking an ice-cold martini while waiting for the coals to turn to hot ash. And the smell of steak on a charcoal grill is heaven itself. It simply makes me happy. Even if I have to wear Uggs while cooking my steak…..

We All Scream For Ice Cream
There is a fro yo chain in the valley called Golden Spoon. They either opened one up not far from our house over the summer, or it was already opened and we simply didn’t know about it. It’s called Golden Spoon. It’s very near Mark and Maggie’s new house, and her grands talked Jen into taking them one day. It was love at first taste, and she talked Bill into going one night. I didn’t go because I was in the throes of my cold. However, I wasn’t dead, so I had them bring me back a cup of frozen deliciousness. Bill is hooked. He particularly likes that veterans get a 50% discount. I like that too, because now he always pays the bill…..

And the Winner Is….
We enjoyed watching the CMA Awards show last night, and were very excited that Keith Urban won Entertainer of the Year. We were particularly excited because he actually entertained us in July. Woo hoo.

Ciao.

In honor of my two favorite veterans…..

…..and everyone who has served our country in the military, please know that you have the appreciation of this blogger and of a grateful nation.

Happy Veterans’s Day!

This past week has not been the easiest in either Bill’s or my life. Leaving home without the cannula inserter caused no end of problems. Finally, Thursday afternoon, one of the nurses who will care for Bill when we are in AZ showed up on our doorstep with a cannula inserter in her hand and a smile on her face. Victory was ours, at long last.

The above paragraph doesn’t really sound like anything that would make me smile; however, when I walked into Total Wine and Liquor yesterday afternoon to stock up on, well, wine and liquor, here’s what greeted me as soon as I entered the door…..

Dark and brooding. Just like my mood, which immediately lifted. In my next life, I’m going to be the person who describes wine flavors.

Have a great weekend. Oh, and cheers!

Princess Forever
Facebook Users: You know how every so often Facebook will remind you of a photo you posted such and such years ago, tempting you to bore your Facebook friends once again with a repeat? It’s always tempting. Recently it reminded me of a photo I posted eight years ago or so of little Kaiya wearing a tiara as she prepared for a day of watching princess movies at Nana’s house. It reminded me that Kaiya has been a princess from the get-go, having also dressed up as a princess this year for Halloween. Grace Kelly, are you watching?……

Hats Off
I was able to get Cole to hold still long enough to shoot a photo of him wearing one of the stocking caps I’m selling on my Etsy page (see link above). Kaiya was much easier to photograph. The hats sell for $10 each, and they are made to order in the color(s) and size desired…..

Blob
The other day Cole asked me to make a dog out of Play Doh. He referenced a photo of a dog featured on the package. I gave it my all, but alas, this was the result…..

To be fair, the dog is supposed to be running. On the other hand, to be honest, I know the dog I created is crap. Remember this blog post? Cole didn’t appear to be impressed, and when I showed it to his mom, her reply was, “It looks like a rat.” No sir. A rat’s tail is skinnier.

Oh My Heart
I mentioned the other day that Addie and I went out for sushi. We had such a grand time, what with her filling me in on all of the details of her young and exciting life. Those were the days, though we didn’t really know it then. I will admit, however, that I wouldn’t want to live them over, though I would undoubtedly do a few things differently. And I was never as pretty as she…..

Ciao.

Yesterday started out like any other day. Little did we know that before the morning was over, Bill was going to be a superhero.

Monday we had our monthly appointment with the medical people who are supervising Bill’s participation in the research study. As instructed, we took all of the accoutrements to the study — the empty vials, the remaining unused vials, the cannula inserter, the pump, etc. The medical people did their thing and two hours later they sent us on our merry way, presumably returning anything that was important. Like, say, the cannula inserter.

We spent the remainder of the day packing our suitcases to leave for AZ, where I now sit writing this blog. We got to bed reasonably early, and set our alarm for 5:30. That would give us plenty of time to relax a bit in the morning over a cup of coffee. We would get Bill hooked up to the pump around 6:30. That was our best-laid plan, and you know what they say about that.

I got everything prepared, and went up to the bedroom to complete the task. I went over to the drawer where we keep the cannula inserter, and lo, and behold! there was no cannula inserter. Panic set in, and with a sinking feeling in my stomach, I realized that the cannula inserter was missing in action, likely sitting on the counter in the doctor’s office where we had last seen it.

We have been told over and over that should we run into any problems, we were to call the Helpline number and would receive immediate assistance. And so, that’s exactly what we did.

Now, here’s the thing: We have never had a reason to call the Helpline prior to this, but I had a clear picture in my mind just what the Helpline Call Center looked like. It was in a fancy office building in some large city somewhere, maybe Omaha, NE, and in a very sterile room there were dozens of desks at which sat professional men and women wearing headsets answering calls about the clinical research study. Thank you for calling Neuroderm, how can I help?

Instead, at 6:30 on a Tuesday morning, after a couple of rings, what I heard was, hello?

Really? Hello?

Is this the Helpline? I asked. It was. One fellow, huffing and puffing because I caught him as he was at an aerobic class at the gym. His name is David, and he IS THE HELPLINE. 

I explained our problem, and he was as nice as could be. He continued to talk to me as he hurried up some stairs to his lonely desk. This led to that, and his best solution was that it was possible that there was an office in Phoenix where we could get another cannula inserter if the moon aligned with the sun and we had lived a good and charitable life.

Some people have inserted the needle themselves without an inserter, David said (he had finally caught his breath after the aerobic class). It’s not something we really recommend, however.

I know this is hard to believe, but I was in a state of panic. After all, we HAD to get him connected to the pump. The research study require participants to be connected to the pump every day.

If David can find us an inserter in Phoenix, I said to Bill, worse case scenario is that you could be connected to your pump by 2 o’clock this afternoon.

I glanced over at Bill, only then noticing that while I was talking to David, he had jabbed two needles into his legs without a single yelp. God bless his super hero heart.

Did it hurt?  I asked him. Um, yes, he admitted. That’s why he’s a super hero.

At any rate, we are settled into our house in AZ, and things can only go up from here. If, at any rate, the new inserter arrives via FedEx by tomorrow at 10 a.m. as planned. But we plan; God laughs. Fingers crossed.

As we sat at the restaurant at the airport with a double bloody mary sitting in front of me (never mind that it was only 8 o’clock in the morning), I told Bill that God threw us this curve ball to help me know that we will survive this Year-of-the-Research-Study because nothing can stop this man…..

The painter finished doing his good work about a week ago, so we are THAT MUCH closer to being finished with the remodel project. We await the arrival of our carpeting that will be installed in the bedrooms upstairs. Believe me, both Bill and I are more than ready to be finished. We are OVER living amidst construction.

Four-year-old Cole, however, is in no hurry for the work to be done. In particular, he is delighted by the fact that our bedroom furniture is not up against the wall, since the carpeting by the wall had to be removed to install baseboards. Cole likes this because it allows him to run in circles — one of his favorite activities — around a piece of furniture that previously was unavailable for this activity. It also offers unusual places for him to hide while playing one of his favorite games — hide and seek.

Saturday afternoon, Cole asked me if I would come upstairs with him so he could play. When I was a very little girl, my grandmother and grandfather lived in a medium-sized house in Columbus. This was before they had moved to the apartment above the bakery. I remember almost nothing about that house except for the fact that it had an upstairs, accessible via a door that was ALWAYS CLOSED. I don’t know why it was kept closed, but that fact made it all the more intriguing. On rare occasions, Grammie let us go upstairs to check things out. Seeings as I remember absolutely nothing about what the upstairs was like, I’m guessing there was no crazy lady living there, ala Jane Eyre. There was probably nothing much of interest.

But because of this, I’m always happy to let the kids play upstairs, where there is also no crazy lady. Well, except for me. Therefore, I was happy to accompany him. I sat and looked at Facebook while he ran around the furniture. And then I noticed he wasn’t running around the furniture.

Nana, I heard his little voice. I’m behind the bed. Come and find me and scare me.

Another one of his favorite games. He likes to hide behind things, and wait for me to find him and say BOO! He would play that game a thousand times if I was willing, which I’m not. Five hundred, maybe. And the fact that he told me where he was made it particularly easy.

So I quietly walked over to the bed, looked behind it to find him, and said Boo! He giggled like I had just done the funniest thing on earth. And we did it four or five more times, and he giggled each time like it was the first. Five down, and 995 more times to go.

But this game got me to thinking about my attitude about life. I very often feel overwhelmed and scared and worried. Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of feeling scared, I reacted to life exactly as Cole reacts? Cole doesn’t worry about anything beyond his sisters not letting him join in their iPad games. He didn’t give a single thought to the fact that there might be something dangerous behind the bed. Four-year-olds don’t typically worry much because they know they have a mom or a dad or a nana or a papa who won’t let anything happen to them. And if they do somehow get in trouble, someone will help them out. And so, for Cole, life is pretty darn simple and there is a lot to make him laugh.

I also have someone to take care of me, if I will only trust in God the way Cole trusts in me.

Cole, with someone else in whom he can trust — his dad Court.