Maaaan, I want a Hungry Man!

Sunday night I agreed to work from 7pm-11pm for one of my coworkers...she had to be somewhere with her daughter, so she couldn't come in til 11. I was trying my best to get out of work right at 11, because I really needed to go to Walmart after work. Alyson is not only recovering from a cold, but is also in the beginning stages of teething, so I hadn't made it out earlier that day.

Anyway... so you know how when you REALLY need to get out of work on time, it never happens? That was the case. One of my patients who had come in with high blood pressure had a spike in her pressure AGAIN, like 200's/100's, so we had to send her to CCU around 10:45pm or so in order to be put on an IV med that we don't do out on our floor.

Needless to say, I got behind in my work and didn't get out of work til about 11:45pm. I debated whether or not to go to Walmart, but decided that I DEFINITELY had to, whether I liked it or not, or we'd be eating ketchup sandwiches and drinking water for a few days. (My SUV went into the shop to get the heater fixed (it either blows full blast or nothing at all), so I was going to have no mode of transportation as of Monday morning.)

While it's definitely nice to shop in Walmart when not many people are there, midnight must be when all the weirdos come out. Suddenly that song, "The freaks come out at night, the freaks come out at niiiiiight" was stuck in my head. I only passed about 10 other shoppers the whole time I was there, but they were a shady bunch. The first couple I saw had to be either drunk or high. They looked about 18 or so. I was debating between corn or broccoli, while they were debating which Hungry Man frozen dinner they wanted. "Maaaaaaaaaaaaan.... that f***in looks good," the guy said. To which the girl replied, "Yeah.... I f***in' want a Hungry Man." It took everything in me not to laugh as I walked away. So then I go in the next aisle, and they come in the opposite direction. I grabbed a loaf of italian bread and saw them stop and look at a display of discounted bread, while the guy says, "Yeeeeeah...let's get a loaf of breeead. Heh."

So then I saw about 2 other couples walking around half drunk looking... they must not have wanted their dates to end and figured walmart was the only place open, so why not walk around all night?

The one that took the cake was this girl that I had noticed just walking around, acting like she didn't even know what planet she was on. I had half my cart unloaded up at the checkout, and noticed her get in line behind me, then felt like I was being stared at. I looked up and she was just staring and WOULD NOT STOP! By this time of night, I was ready to say, "What?! Is there a problem? Are you upset that I have more than 2 items and this is the only checkout aisle open? WHAT?!" It didn't help that she was standing thisclose to my cart...I thought she wanted to get in it. (sigh)

So then once I had paid for my stuff, I was debating my exit strategy. I don't ever shop that late at night, so all I could think about were all those stories about people being grabbed in parking lots. I was sure that someone was going to be hiding on the other side of my car waiting to jump out and grab me. Or that the drunk couple was gonna be sitting next to my car eating Hungry Man's and bread. I was all ready to push the car alarm button on my keychain....lol. So I pretty much just threw everything in the trunk and hauled ass out of there. By the time I got home it was about 12:45am and I was dead tired. I thought, "Hmm... will it be ok to just leave all the groceries out til morning? I don't feel like putting them away. Chicken will be ok sitting out until 9, right?!" (Yes, I put them away....reluctantly.)

Needless to say, I don't think I will be shopping at Walmart at midnight anymore. Maybe 11pm at the latest....:-P

It's meeeeeee :-)

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

While I'd like to say that I've been off somewhere fabulous and exciting, relaxing on a tropical island for the past month and a half...I haven't. Nothing even close to that. I've relaxed a LITTLE BIT of that time, but mostly just on my couch.

(sigh) If only I had a dollar for every time I've said "I need to post on my blog" in the past month and a half. It's amazing how time flies.

Anyway...now, to play catch-up.

For starters, I shall talk about Alyson :-) She's doing GREAT. She is totally the love of my life (aside from my husband and my dogs...lol). She had her 4-month visit on October 31st, and she weighed 16.2 pounds and was 26 inches long! She's 90th percentile for everything! (Including head size...she's got a big noggin like her daddy...lol)

She's trying her best to sit up already... she lunges herself forward when she's sitting in her boppy, and she'll actually sit straight up for a few seconds, but then falls forward with her face in the couch. She's quick when she does it too... the other day, all I did was get up off the couch to pick up the pillows and put them back on the couch, and she had flung herself forward while I was turned around. I heard "ehhh, ehhh" then turned my head and she was sideways on the couch with her head hanging off of it, looking down at the floor..pretty much ready to do a somersault off the couch. BOY was that scary. Seems like I can't turn away for 2 seconds these days! Jeesh!

One thing I can say that has been my major lifesaver lately (well, 2 things)... the Rainforest play mat, and the rainforest jumperoo. I think those 2 things are the only ways I can now take a shower. Aly wants my attention all the time, but when she's on the playmat or in the jumperoo, she plays for a good half hour, long enough for me to shower and get somewhat ready. I placed her jumperoo in the nursery to where I can be taking a shower and see her from the bathroom. :-)

One thing I'm not looking forward to... (yeah, I know I'm jumping all around...):

I'm not looking forward to having to move our baby girl up into her nursery. She's been in the bedroom with us in a bassinet our friends let us borrow, since the pack and play we have took up too much room in the bedroom. Anyway, the friend is pregnant and due in December, so we'll have to give the bassinet back within the next few weeks. Russ has been saying "She needs to go to her room" for months now, and I keep saying, "When we have to give the bassinet back, she'll go up to the nursery." I mean, the poor girl is rapidly outgrowing the bassinet, and obviously I don't want her sleeping with us until she's 5...lol. It just sucks to think about. I just wish her bedroom was downstairs with ours... she'd have been in her crib from the start if that was the case. I just like the reassurance of being able to peek in at her and see her and know everything's ok. :-/

Well, I'm gonna have to cut this short... ALy wants to eat. Here are some recent pics of her :-) They are from October... I'll have to upload the other ones so I can post them soon :-)

UPDATE... here are the latest pics of Alyson that I just uploaded :-)

Week in review

Long time no post :-)

Alot's been going on since I posted last... it's been a busy week and a half!

Russ's brother from Alaska came in last Monday, then the rest of their Texas relatives flew in on Wednesday-Friday, so the week was pretty busy. (In case you don't remember me saying, Russ's mother got married this past Saturday.)

This past week, every night has basically consisted of a bunch of people coming over to the house and partaking in some alcoholic beverages and/or hanging out in the hot tub. Friday night was the big 'rehearsal dinner' for Russ's mom, since she wasn't going to have anything big after the wedding itself. So this dinner Friday was more like the wedding reception, you could say.

The dinner was awesome... it was nice to see all Russ's relatives (well, MY relatives now, too) and meet the ones that didn't get to make it in for our wedding. The first hour was spent in a separate smaller banquet room for cocktails and appetizers. Russ and I went and got a glass of wine and were chatting it up with another couple when a lady came by and offered us stuffed mushrooms...and I LOVE stuffed mushrooms. They looked a little messy but I couldn't resist. As I bit into it, some of the butter from it ran RIGHT DOWN MY CLEAVAGE and a piece of mushroom fell on my dress. Guess I can't eat and stand up at the same time. LOL. Luckily, no one noticed as I slyly tried to wipe down my boobs with a cocktail napkin... but I was still a little paranoid that I would smell like a stuffed mushroom the rest of the night.

By the time cocktail hour was over, I had just gotten my third fill-up of wine and was beginning to feel pretty darn good. Thank goodness for dinner, because I was in desperate need of food in my stomach. Russ's uncle paid for the whole dinner, and went all out. There were three different stations for food... one was turkey and all the trimmings, another was the 'seafood buffet' and the third was a pasta station where you tell them how to make your pasta/what you want in it, etc... and they'll make it right in front of you. I filled my tummy with some yummy food and kept right on drinking.

Now, let me say that I HARDLY EVER DRINK. I mean, Russ and I still have bottles of alcohol left over from our wedding over 2 years ago. We have a fully stocked bar downstairs that rarely gets used. Why am I telling you that I hardly ever drink?? Because I only had 5 glasses of chardonnay and a small glass of champagne from the toast, and I was TRASHED! And these glasses of wine were over the course of 4 hours and a large dinner! What the heck?!

I guess by the time we were ready to leave, I was telling some of our close friends that my Nuvaring was due to come out Saturday...and God knows what else I told them. But at least most of them were three sheets to the wind too, so not everyone remembered. But OH, my husband remembered. He informed me the next morning of what I said/did the night before. I woke up arond 9am and he goes, "Hey honey... do you remember the ride home lastnight?"

Of course the answer was no. (Well, I remembered PARTS of the ride home. I remember singing and dancing in the car, that's about it.) But then my husband informed me that I tried to undress him in the car and made the car go in neutral a couple times. Then he said that as soon as we got in the house, I stripped off my clothes and went to bed. "But you left your black thigh-high hose on...that was pretty funny," my husband added. Then he said I went in the bathroom for about an hour.

"Was I naked in there?" I asked him.

"Yes. It was funny."

"Hey honey?" he then asked me.

"Yes?!"

"Do you remember telling everyone your 'ring was coming out?'"

"Ugh. Yes. I do."

(laughs) "Well they do too."

Evidentally my husband had gone to the hotel where his relatives were staying and they were all talking about how drunk everyone was the night before, and they mentioned me and what I had said. But my husband made me feel better when he said that lots of people had a little too much to drink.

At that point, I stil pretty much wanted to dig a hole and jump in it for the day. LOL.

I mean.... 5 glasses of wine. FIVE! Two during cocktail hour, then 3 while in the other room. I seriously remember EVERYTHING from the dinner... so why is the ride home always a blur?! I truly don't remember ANYTHING from the time we got home until I woke up the next morning. That SCARES ME! My husband said I staggered up the driveway and insisted getting the mail out of the mailbox, then about fell over our landscaping once I got back down the driveway. Ugh. At least I was with my husband. If I hadn't been within his sight all night, I would have sworn someone spiked my drink.

Now I know why I don't drink. All this past week, Russ's brother and his buddies have been over at our house in the hot tub drinking, and I haven't had ANYTHING to drink. I made my favorite drink, peach schnapps and cranberry, and took two sips and couldn't drink anymore. I just have no desire to, whatsoever. I guess I just have to have one good drunken episode per year. I think the last time I drank before this was my cousin's bachelorette party in August 06, right before I found out I was pregnant. So yeah, maybe that's why 5 glasses of wine did the trick.

Anyway...enough about me turning into an obnoxious embarrassing lush.

The rest of this week has been pretty busy, like I said. We had the wedding dinner Friday, the wedding Saturday. Russ's mom had a little reception afterwards, just drinks and appetizers. Later that night, about 20 of us had a reservation at JC Wine Cellars restaurant. Their food was AWESOME! Some of his out-of-town relatives got lost on the way (even though they were all following eachother, who knows...), so they showed up late. THe restaurant closed at 9pm, but they were nice enough to stay open late for us.

Sunday was football day. I dressed ALyson up in a pink and white Pittsburgh Steeler onesie! Unfortunately they lost.... better luck next week.) Later that evening, a bunch of us had dinner together...

Monday we had Alyson baptized. A few mutual friends of Russ and his brother had their son Adam baptized also. Alyson was SO DARN ADORABLE in her christening gown. Russ's mom had bought it for her awhile back. It had a matching cap, socks and shoes. His mom also bought her THE cutest little baby bracelet with a little cross on it, so she got to wear that during the baptism. After the baptism, we had a party at our house. There were about 25 people here. THank goodness we had the thing catered. (Russ's idea.) One of his buddies owns a restaurant so he and his brother catered the party for us. It made things SO much less stressful. They set everything up and tore everything back down, so we didn't even have much to clean up. THe party lasted until about 9pm, then all the guys took their wives/kids home and came back to our house for the 'afterhours party.' They all stayed out on the deck and in the hot tub until at least 3am. (It's been like this just about every night.)


Tuesday and today were pretty relaxing. I've just been spending time with Aly and cleaning up the house. Russ has been pretty busy lately, so he hasn't been getting home until late evening. He's already in bed, Aly's sleeping, and his brother, who's staying with us through the end of the week, is over their friend's house...so I'm taking the opportunity to use the peace and quiet for some blog much needed blog updating! I started this post a few nights ago, but never got back to it until now.

Anyway... I don't think anything's planned for tomorrow as of yet, but who knows. We'll probably end up barbecuing or something. Friday we are having a cookout at Dean and Joelle's house. Weekend plans are still up in the air.

So that's about it. There are the updates...all I can think of for now, anyway.

Here are some baptism pics...

From L-R: Steve (Russ's mom's new hubby), Russ's brother Jon, Russ's mom Susan, Russ holding Alyson, Father Jack, me


From L-R: Joelle (godmother), Adam, Jon (godfather) holding Alyson


L-R: Grandma Jane, Joelle, my mom (still with the walker and the cast...) and dad, Jon, me, Father Jack, Russ and Alyson, Steve and Susan


Here's a pic of the cake we bought for Aly and Adam...


And last but not least... this is Alyson after we opened her baptism gifts. Mommy was having a little too much fun with the bows.

A little bit of everything.

9 days since a post... I'm slacking!

I've been pretty busy lately... I thought that since I'm not working full-time, I'd have more free time, but no. Seems like it's one thing after the other!

Russ and I had our 2nd anniversary this past Monday... it's so hard to believe it's been 2 years already. 2 years and a little baby! Russ had a pretty busy Monday work-wise (his secretary is out of town--she just got married) and so he's had to play catch-up with alot of stuff.... so we just went out to dinner Monday. Russ's mom and her fiance watched Alyson and brought her back later that night, so it gave Russ and I some time together. While at dinner, I said, "Yeah, last year at this time we were in Cancun...." And then Russ had to add, "Yeah, that's when we conceived Alyson!" (He swears that's where it happened, but I doubt it... I just let him think that, though.) Maybe next year we'll be somewhere tropical again for our anniversary...only without bringing home another 'little souvenir,' if you know what I mean!! I want to go to Aruba, or Punta Cana or something. Hell, I just want to go SOMEWHERE!

In other news... Russ's mom is getting married at the end of the month. She's SO excited about it. She's been by herself for over 20 years, so we're all very happy for her. When she's with her fiance, it's like she's a teenager again...she's all giggly and giddy, with a permagrin on her face...lol. Russ's brother is coming in from Alaska for the wedding, so since he'll be in town, we're getting Alyson baptised October 1st. A few friends of Russ and his brother's are coming in from DC, and are having their son baptised too... Russ's brother will be their son's godfather. So it's going to be a DOUBLE baptism! We still don't know who Aly's godparents will be. Well *I* know who I want to be the godparents, and it SHOULD technically be a given... but Russ doesn't agree with me. He's upset because they picked other godparents for their children... people who are NOT good role models whatsoever. Russ goes, "I wasn't good enough to be a godparent for them? They picked HIM, and he's a big a**hole!" *sigh* This is what I go through. In the end I'll win out though. *evil laugh*

So now, we have tons of stuff to do at the end of this month/beginning of next month. A rehearsal dinner, a wedding, and then a baptism a few days later. Now we're in the process of planning a party afterwards at our house. (Which, the party planning will mainly fall back on me, I'm sure.) We're figuring it'll be 20-25 people once it's all said and done. I think we're doing the cookout thing on our deck (burgers, hotdogs, MAYBE steaks or something), but Russ is kicking around the idea of having it catered. A friend of ours caters,and has offered numerous times to come cook the two of us dinner, (WHY have I not done that yet?!) so we might go that route. I just don't want to spend hundreds on a baptism party, when I'd be happy with cake, snacks and some alcoholic beverages...lol.

New subject. My beautiful little 'punkin', Alyson.

(I can't very well post without talking about Alyson!)

She's just so darn entertaining lately. It's been something new with her every week, whether it's a new sound or face she makes, or a new milestone she reaches. She just makes me SO happy and I swear my face hurts because I can't help but smile constantly when I'm around her. She's holding her head up pretty steady now, and CONSTANTLY wants to be sitting up looking around (hence it being such a necessity for me to buy that bumbo seat! What a godsend!) She'll bat at toys you hold in front of her, though her little arms still flail out all erratic sometimes... it's so cute. Oh, and she's made a new discovery over the past week or so. Her feet. When she's laying on her back, she's gotten into the habit of lifting her legs back toward her head, so I think that started it. Then, when she's leaning back in her boppy or sitting in her bumbo, I'll catch her lifting her legs up and staring intently at her feet with a puzzled look on her face. I take her socks off and put her foot in front of her face and say "Look at the tootsies!" and she'll smile and open up her mouth real big and coo. It's one of those 'melt mommy's heart' moments. She has a lot of those :-)

On one of the pregnancy (and new mommy)message boards I visit, a June mommy mentioned a sale Target was having on the Rainforest Jumperoo (which I had been wanting to get for Aly eventually.) The jumperoo is normally $80 but was on sale for $60, and if you bought it online and used a certain promotion code, you got free shipping and an extra $5 off. I ended up getting the Jumperoo for $57 brand new! Sadly this sale isn't going on anymore, or I'd pass on the info. I checked the website and it's back up to $79.99.

Anyway, I COULD NOT wait to get Aly in that thing... so I sat Aly in her bumbo seat so she could watch me, and put the jumperoo together right after it came to the house. I was SO excited!! She just kept looking at everything with this puzzled look on her face while I put it together. However... by the time mommy got it together, Aly was a little tired. Mommy had taken a little too long.

I figured, "What the heck" and picked Aly up out of the bumbo and placed her down in the jumperoo. This is what happened.



Yes, she FELL ASLEEP right when I put her in the seat. She looked so tiny in it, and her little legs didn't even come CLOSE to the floor. She was just hanging there, fast asleep, with her face resting on the seat. I had to laugh, though I was a little disappointed that we couldn't have more fun with it that day. (Ha... "we"... yes, I enjoy it too!)

I carried (well, 'pulled') the jumperoo upstairs and put it in the nursery, figuring it'd be awhile (like a month!) before we'd use it again. But a few days ago, Aly was fussing and I was bored, so I took her upstairs and put her little butt in it. And guess what? SHE. LOVED. IT. She was smiling and cooing, and batting at the little toys, even though that darn jumperoo dwarfed the poor girl. I kept turning the seat around so she could see all the toys. She especially loved staring at the lights on it. So at least I can get SOME use out of it for now, even if she can't touch the ground yet :-)

Here are a few more pics....

This is one I took on her playmat. Yes, she's asleep. Again. She had played on it for about a half hour and I think she wore herself out kicking the inflatable ball and batting at all the toys :-)



And last but not least...



This picture cracks me up. She does this everytime I have the flash on my camera. Her eyes get all huge. She looks like she's been caught doing something she shouldn't. LOL.

Well that's it for now. It's getting late, but I'm not that tired yet, unfortunately. This is bad, because these are the times I end up just checking out stores online, and usually end up buying something out of sheer boredom. I'm the same way with infomercials. If it's late and I can't sleep, I'll flip through the channels and watch an infomercial, then be convinced for that half hour that I really could use a juicer... or a swivel sweeper... or a steam iron... or a roomba... or some other crazy thing. And we won't even get started with the exercise infomercials. If I could lose weight just by BUYING exercise dvd's, I'd weigh, like, 10 pounds. LOL.

Well, nighty night! Take care :-)

A little weekend update...

Work went well the other night, I guess. I didn't want to be there, but what could I do. I didn't cry ALL DAY, until about 9:30pm, when I knew I had to start getting ready for work. I walked out in the living room and figured I'd sit and watch some of the football game with Russ. Aly started fussing, so I picked her up. As SOON as I did that, my eyes started welling up with tears!!! I mean, it was only ONE night to have to work, and 8 hours, but I still hated to leave my baby :-( I tried to hide the fact that I was crying, but I know Russ still noticed. I could tell out of the corner of my eye that he was looking at me.

A little later, I went back and put some makeup on and put my scrubs on. I walked back out in the living room and I couldn't even LOOK at Aly, or I'd start crying. I didn't really have to leave for work until about 10:40, but 10:30 rolled around and I said, "I have to go or I'm just going to start crying." Russ goes, "Aren't you going to give her a kiss goodbye?" I kissed her on the head and there the tears came again. Luckily I got it together before going into the hospital!! I don't feel bad though... everyone I talk to said they cried their first day back to work when they had to leave their babies too. It just sucks!! I asked Russ, "Do I REALLY have to go?!?!" LOL.

It was just so hard getting back into the swing of things again, dealing with staying up all night. That was the first night I've had to stay up in about 3 months (well, the first night that didn't involve me staying up due to a baby!)...it was ROUGH! But being that I only had an 8-hour night, it wasn't too bad. It was go-go-go all night, so that kept me awake.

The only good thing that happened as a result of me going back to work was that I got to go to Walmart buttcrack-of-dawn early, right after work. YAY! I missed that. I DESPISE going to Walmart in the afternoon, and that's what I've had to do while I was off. It takes twice as long in the store during the day, because of there being SO MANY PEOPLE. It never fails, everything I want to look at, there is someone standing in front of it taking their good ol time. Either that, or I get behind someone in one of those motorized chairs and can't get around them. OR...I practically get run into and/or over by about 10 people who think they are in a shopping cart version of a Nascar race. Ugh. I'll stop here. I could go on a rant about Walmart.

This past weekend WAS alot better than last weekend, I must say. Saturday, Russ and I took the baby over to my parents' house and we had steaks on the grill...yummy! I feel bad though... my mom's just kinda bummed. She's trying to keep her chin up about things, but I can tell she feels bad. She told my dad she feels like a burden to him...I felt so bad when he told me that. I'm going to go over there again tomorrow with the baby and help her with housework and whatever else she might need. I told her, "Gee mom, this is like role reversal. A few months ago after I had the baby, you were over MY house doing MY cleaning, watering MY flowers, and everything else." She was so good to me, and I'm glad I can repay her. Hmm.. maybe I'll make them dinner tomorrow. Sounds like a plan :-)

Well, I'm gonna try to get some sleep now...my eyes are burning. Before I go, here is a new slideshow of my little princess. She's getting soooo big, not to mention she's looking more and more like her daddy everyday!(And he LOVES that! In fact, my Grandma Jane (she's in the slideshow) has nicknamed Alyson "Russelina" because she looks so much like Russ! LOL) Aly's already 13 pounds, incase I didn't say that before in here. She'll be 12 weeks on Thursday... boy does time fly!

Have a great Monday :-)

Getting better...

Much better news this time around :-)

Well, my mom got home yesterday around 1pm and is doing great. She's getting around with a walker instead of crutches, and is doing so well with it. Not to mention, she's hardly having any pain! I took Alyson over there yesterday to cheer her grandma up :-) My dad's friend's wife made a big lasagna and this ABSOLUTELY YUMMY cheesecake dessert (fat free and calorie free! Yeah right...) so we all ate that. My aunt Becky and cousin Brenda came over too, with Bren's daughter Olivia. Olivia and Aly were playing together..it was so cute! (As much as Aly can actually 'play'... it was more like Aly sitting there staring at Olivia, while Olivia was smiling and bonking Aly on the head...lol)

In other news... tonight is my first night back at work. (sniffle sniffle...) I hate to leave Alyson, even though she'll more than likely be sleeping or ready for bed when I leave. She sleeps through the night, and doesn't usually wake up until 7 or 8AM, so the only thing Russ might have to do is feed her once. I really hate to do nightturns anymore, but right now they're the only things that work for me and the whole 'babysitting situation.' It just sucks because this is going to be the first night in awhile where I'm going to HAVE to be up all night. Ugh. Wish me luck, that I don't fall asleep at work. Oh well... at least it's only 1 night and it's only 8 hours. Then I don't go back until next Thursday. (I like this whole PRN work status alot better than being full time! I'm only doing 1 day a week for now.)

Well, I better go start dinner, then try to get a shower. Aly hasn't let me do that yet today...she's been SO AWAKE and just wants to eat and coo and look at things, then eat and coo and look at more things. :-)

Have a great day!

*sigh*

If I hadn't looked up in the sky to make sure, I would have SWORN it was a full moon this past weekend. This weekend wasn't the best.

Saturday was pretty uneventful... but SUNDAY was the bad day. For starters, my husband and I were supposed to go out on the boat but Alyson decided to have one of the fussiest days ever. (I think it was a delayed reaction from the 4 shots she had to get at the pediatrician's on Friday. He said she might get fussy.) I didn't even have time to take a SHOWER Sunday, let alone go boating. So I was kinda upset about that, and also because Russ had a work party at the marina for his employees later on that same day... I couldn't even make it to THAT. As a result, I was ticked, Russ was ticked.... blah blah blah. He called me later in the evening basically giving me a 'thanks for not showing up, that was rude and inconsiderate' comment on the phone, and then I proceeded to tell him rather sarcastically, 'thanks for not sticking around the house this morning and watching Aly so I could at least take a shower' along with 'i don't get any help from you'. Our conversation ended with him saying, "I'm staying on the boat tonight" and me saying "whatever." So then we hung up without even saying our usual 'I love you's'....and I cried. I thought of all this good stuff that I SHOULD have said to him (You know, you never think of these things until after...) and then he called back apologizing and saying he'd be home soon...and this time we said the I love you's.

Not even a half hour later, he called and said, "Um, honey... I'm gonna be here awhile." I asked why, and he said, "Some drunk motherf****r backed right into the back of my boat when they tried to leave the dock." Russ did manage to get their info even though the people were so drunk they could hardly walk or talk...they ran their mouths to Russ and ended up leaving. Russ had to call the cops and file a report, and then the cops went to go find the people because luckily some witnesses knew where the people normally dock their boat. (They don't usually dock at the same marina we do.) Russ said they did a decent amount of damage to the back of the boat. I haven't heard any updates as of yet... I haven't thought to ask Russ, due to having even MORE on my mind.

The 'more on my mind' being the fact that at 9:45pm Sunday (2 hours after Russ's bad news phonecall to me), my dad called and said, "I'm at the emergency room... your mom fell down the attic steps and broke her ankle in 3 places." ARGH! (Mind you, I still had no shower at this time, and had acquired a whole day's baby spit up on my clothes and hair.) I took THE fastest shower ever, and Russ and I left for the hospital around 10:30, once his mom got to our house to watch the baby. All I could imagine was that my mom was in the ER in excruciating pain, more than likely moaning and groaning and/or screaming. I mean, those attic steps are killers. They come down practically at a 90 degree angle, and I've always hated going up and down them.

So we got to the ER and she had already been admitted and was upstairs in a room. We got up there, and to my surprise, she was sitting in the bed just smiling and answering the nurse's questions as if nothing was wrong! If I hadn't picked up her sheet and looked at her leg, I'd have sworn she was perfectly fine. They had put a splint under her foot and wrapped her right lower leg in an ace bandage just for overnight, and she was to get surgery Monday morning. What surprised the heck out of me was that immediately after she fell, up to the time we got to her hospital room, she had NEVER HAD ANY PAIN WHATSOEVER! Was God smiling down on her, or WHAT!
She said that she just couldn't bear weight on it, and it 'felt tingly', so that's why she went to the ER. I guess what led up to this was that she and my dad had planned on taking my grandma to a music concert... my mom was coming down from the attic carrying blankets and chair cushions to take into the stadium. She went to grip the grab bar my dad put next to the steps, and just missed it and took a tumble. She said when she landed, her right leg 'seemed like it was bent funny.' (She cracks me up with her, uh, vivid descriptions.)

So this morning around 11am, she had surgery (an open reduction of the fractures), and had pins, screws, etc put in her leg. Everything went really well, and she received Demerol in recovery to help with pain, which she said was pretty bad right after surgery. Once she got up to her room around 2pm, the pain was completely gone, and was still gone when we left around 5pm! She looked so good for just having surgery. I'm just so happy things went great and that she's taking things well. She hasn't had to be in the hospital except for when she gave birth to me, and she's never broken any bones until now, so that's why it's still so crazy to see her laying in a hospital bed.... :-(

Tomorrow (Tuesday) she gets fitted for crutches and learns how to walk on them. When the surgeon came out to the OR waiting room and talked with my dad, he initially said he thinks my mom will be in the hospital until at least Wednesday, because "she'll be in alot of pain, so we'll be monitoring her... and she'll need to walk around on crutches." But seeing how well my mom is doing and that she's not having much pain, maybe she'll get to come home tomorrow if everything looks ok. We'll see :-) For now, I'll keep praying.

So that's all the bad news from the weekend. When it rains it pours, eh?