Sunday Morning Fun

The audio on this video is crazy funny. . Henry is on the bike and his friend is cheering from the side lines.
Enjoy!

Dumbass?

I knew the minute I saw this billboard what was coming. I asked Henry (age 8) to read it out loud... Of course he said "Keeping Dumbass Happy". I LOVE doing stuff like this!!!
Happy Friday!

Hobo Fashionista

We were coming home from the plant shop when I saw him/her. My dad drove around the block three times so I could get the perfect shot. I love living in the city!

Great Aunt Ruth And Hunchie

Unbelievable - I write a post about Hunchie and that she might be dying then throw in a tid bit about Great Aunt Ruth, her birthday and how she lives on and on AND then they BOTH die. And Great Aunt Ruth died first.

What follows is a timeline because frankly I can't think of a better way to tell it.

• 2-5-11 Sister,myself and the children celebrate GAR's birthday with sweets, homemade cards, and GAR's usual grouchiness. She also tells us she thought we had deserted her - totally ignoring the part about how we had been snowed in for 4 days!





I'm  making a fake scared face!





• 2-12-11 Sister called to tell me GAR wasn't feeling well so I headed to the nursing home. When I got there she wanted to go to the hospital.  I called for an ambulance and when it arrived I went and picked up Sister.  We beat them to the hospital.  After she got there and had seen a few doctors we were told she had some pneumonia in her right lung.  They gave her a breathing treatment and she seemed to be doing better.  Everyone knows that ER's can take forever, and you wait and wait and wait.  Sister and I decided to goof around and GAR didn't mind.  We played Gray's Anatomy and took pictures of each other.
• After we had taken the pictures and thought everything was going well a cardiologist came in.  He said she was in congestive heart failure and had suffered a massive heart attack. I want to make it very clear that we never would have taken such pictures had we known it was a grave situation! We were moved to a room with the intention of making her more comfortable and finalizing some decisions about her care. Sister and I took turns staying with her the rest of the evening and then I went to a costume party.  Sister swears that every time someone is possibly dying and we are in charge I go to a party.  I agree dispute this.

• 2-13-11 Afternoon: Again we took turns staying with her so she wouldn't be alone.  I was feeling really sure that she would be moved back to her nursing home on Monday and then she would pass away in about a week or two.  It has been that way for Sister and I.  So during my shift I kept sister updated through pictures.  Like the one of the mini mountain skin tag on GAR's arm.  When they came in to bring GAR a more comfortable mattress I ran down to the gift shop.  I was looking for supplies like magazines and candy.  While shopping my bagged bumped a statue of Jesus and knocked him over and his head broke off.  Sister said she thought it was a sign. And then she laughed her head off because she is totally inappropriate like that. 
• Late Evening:  Sister and I were @ the hospital @ 7pm to spend time with GAR together.  She was awake and could visit with us and she was able to tell us when she needed pain medicine.  I'm pretty sure neither of us thought she would pass away quick.  But she did.  We spent the night holding her hands and talking with her.  She died at 10pm. But not before we had called the nurse at 8:30 to tell her that I thought she had died - I was wrong.  I think it's a pretty easy mistake to make.  So when she did actually pass away Sister and I weren't sure; was she resting peacefully? had she fallen asleep? Sister kept taking the pulse ox reader off GAR's finger and putting it on her own to see if it was working - it was - the reason that it wasn't showing any reading for GAR is because she wasn't alive.  Still this wasn't enough evidence.  Finally I called for the nurse "Hello, may I help you?"  "Um yes I need someone to come to my Great Aunt's room please" "OK, what do you need?" "Um, we need someone to come check and see if she has a heart beat"   Then Sister and I both laughed like crazy because sometimes laughing is all you can do. 

10:30 - Sister and I were left alone with GAR's body (it's what they do). Actually the nurse just said "We are going to give you sometime now."  So there we were, having some time...  And then we started talking about how no one in the whole world ever saw GAR other than Sister and I, our children and the workers at the nursing home.  That led us to realize that if we didn't tell anyone in our family she had died no one would know.  That means we could just keep telling our husbands that we had to go take care of GAR and really we could hangout together, go to the movies, go shopping, just do anything we wanted!!!  And no one would be the wiser.  It's genius I know!!!  We are smart enough to know that we couldn't get away with it forever but at least for a month. 

All this happened on Sunday and then Hunchie died on Friday.  She really held on.  That's officially it for family members other than the immediate ones.  And I have decided not to ever blog about the state of their health in regards to how long they might live - considering GAR and Hunchie's outcomes after the last post. 

As always, thanks for letting me talk!

I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

I read a great blog post the other day and wanted to share it.  Read it here!  It's about discrimination.  It's so well written and it has gotten me really fired up.   I live around people who are so accepting of others and I don't see a lot of discrimination - I am so glad about this but I also recognize that this is the very thing that can sometimes make us to comfortable. I don't ever want to get to comfortable when it comes to injustice.  So thanks Bonsey for talking about it, putting it out there, and writing it so well. 

Also, she's pretty funny as evidenced by this sentence "Vicodin should come with a hard candy shell. I just love it so much! I think it should taste like Skittles. Instead, it has to win the prize for Worst Tasting Drug on the Market. If there were such a contest. Bastards."  I laughed out loud! I really like funny smart women. Check her out and enjoy!

Hunchie - Every family has one. Right?

I have this Great Aunt who my children call Hunchie (not to her face). It's because she has a huge hunch on her back. I'm not even sure why she has it. Maybe I don't want to know, I mean, what if it was some kind of hereditary thing. Which I'm sure it isn't but just to be on the safe side I'm not asking the details - I'm sticking to the threat my mom always said - "If you don't stand up straight your going to end up with a hump on your back!". Hunchie is dying. At lease we think she is. She is 94 and has survived more "she won't make it through the night" and "it could be any minute now" speeches from doctors and nurses than I can count. I'm tempted to say she's in a tight race with Zsa Zsa Gabor. And if you know anything about Zsa Zsa's situation then I know you too read way to much low brow celebrity trash like I do. Anyway, my dad calls Sister and I in December to tell us Hunchie has been taking to the hospital with some terrible infections. I googled the infections and assured my father that it was going to be a swift and merciful passing, that no one in her condition much less fairly healthy survives. At least not very likely to survive. And then she survived. January came and she was again rushed to the hospital and again they said "this was the end", "it would be any minute", but it wasn't. It's been almost three weeks and she's been moved to a nursing home. It might sound like I don't care that she is dying, but I do. She wasn't the kind of Aunt who hugged, or said sweet things, or really cared  about children.  She was every bit the stiff German that my grandmother had always described my great grandmother as - on my grandfathers side.  To put it bluntly she wasn't nice at all.  She wasn't mean, just indifferent.  She did care about herself. a lot, but that was it.  And she never had children so now at the end of her life it is only my father and Sister and I. And my step mom - but she doesn't really do the dieing thing so well.   I'm not sure where I was going with this post.  I know I feel guilty about the fact that I spend time wondering why all the women in my life who loved us so much died and the two (Great Aunt Ruth and Hunchie) who have pretty much loved only themselves just keep on trucking. 

And the hunch on her back, it's so weird.  My kids keep asking me if they'll be able to see the hunch in the casket. I don't even know how you lay a hunch-back on their back. Do they do that? Maybe they lay them on their side. I tell the kids we should focus on her having a peaceful passing.  I'm as curious as the kids are.

On another note my great Aunt Ruth - who belongs to Sister and I - turned 91 last week. We took the kids and some Oreo cakesters and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and homemade cards to her to celebrate.  She was as grouchy and pissed off as ever.  The kids noticed this skin tag on her arm that stands up straight, like a little mountain, on her arm.  I saw them staring, they couldn't look away.  I could hardly look away myself.  When we were leaving, Henry leaned in to hug her and he did the whole stiff arm hug thing - the kind where his fist where closed up tight and his arms where straight and they just kind of bumped her.  I knew exactly how he felt. Skin tags are funky.

I'll keep ya posted on Hunchie.

Family Yoga

This last week we were snowed in for four days! It was bliss! No school and lots of time laying around were great... and then the cabin fever (CF) set in. Our good friend owns a yoga studio in the neighborhood and hosted a family yoga for all those with CF. It was perfect.