6 Weeks Later

Today is 6 weeks - to the day - since the accident and heart attack and Roy took his first trip out - to Grace's Junior High soccer game!

I was not yet there right at the beginning of the game and all my friends were texting me from the game reporting that Grandpa Roy was there!  And Grace saw him walk up while she was warming up and she ran over, grabbed his chair and got him settled while Anna parked the car.  She is a good kid and a wonderful grand daughter!

What a wonderful, wonderful day!

Dream

Today at work we had an art show featuring the art of 4th thru 6th graders from a local school.  The school is from a low income area and my company's employee funded grants program gives grants to an art organization to provide art lessons to the students.

The students did a project where the top said "dream" and the bottom said what they wanted to be when they grew up.  And the picture portrayed what they wanted to be.

The two above were of a "designer" and "business".

I volunteered to take a group of the kids around and show them all the art.  It was really fun and a great distraction during the day.

Pinnacles National Monument

Last weekend, we gathered up a bunch of random friends and took a trip to Pinnacles National Monument.  Our trip planner, Mari, cancelled at the last minute to take care of a little boy whose mother was giving birth.  But we are resourceful and managed to handle the trip on our own.  We got to the ranger station and chose a 6 mile hike that took us thru a cave, by a little lake and up into the high peaks where the California condors nest.  It was a beautiful day - as you can see from the blue skies.

The terrain was very different then the normal Sierra hikes we take.  It looked like Arizona in places.  The hike was delightful until we took the trail that was labled as "narrow and steep" on the map.  I tried to get the group to take another route because I have a known fear of heights.  But they assured me that the government printed the maps and had to be wrong about the warning!  They were WRONG!  We got going on the trail and it was hair raising scary!!!  I just kept my head down and put one foot in front of the other but I did do a lot of whining and swearing!  Next time we will take a different route!

Lunch break at the top

Papa Chubbuck

G and Auntie Deb at the start of the hike

ST Park

Went hiking with the girls and Renee last week in ST Park.  We took all 5 dogs and did some geocaching.  That is when we ran into this cool blue scorpion.

Black oil cake

BEFORE

AFTER

I made this cake yesterday - it is called a black oil cake and I got the recipe when I was in high school.  It is an incredibly moist chocolate cake, but it is also VERY bizarre.  It says to cook it in a loaf pan but it ran over the sides and made a mess of the oven.  And then the middle of it fell.  It tastes delicious but it is UGLY!

5 weeks later

Leaving VMC

Within 10 minutes, he already had this mess at this spot on the couch!

Next up was video poker

Grandpa Roy was released from the rehab center on Feb 21st, 5 weeks to the day of his heart attack and accident.  He made an easy transition back home.

Jim is going to stay with them for a couple days just to help with the transition.  Yesterday that included picking up his 20 medications from the pharmacy and getting them all organized.  At one point even Drew was cutting meds in half!  Today it includes his first doctors appt at 11:30 am.

It was an extra special day because it was Anna's birthday!

What?!?!

My kids both informed me last nite that they want a

labraDOR

not a

labraDOODLE!

WHAT?!?!  What crazy kid turns down a cute puppy???

Chick!

My sweet daughter got me a cute wind up chick for my office.  Last nite after TNDC left, I found it taped to this wall hanging!  By this morning, it had fallen off the wall!

Puppy?

I may need one of these.  My brother's dog's daughter had puppies - this makes this puppy Gigi's granddaughter.  Gigi is the best dog in the world and I would love to get some of that doggy DNA!

My brother is checking to see if they have any yellow ones.  They are labradoodles.

Bow

Had fun yesterday shooting at the cabin....until we had to go find the arrows that missed the target.  We looked and looked and are still missing one arrow.

Eagle at PML

Yesterday Jim, Mr C and Big Dan were fishing at PML when an eagle swooped in to try to get their fish.  This video says it all!

Squeak

We looked at Murray laying on the floor yesterday morning and noticed that he had a sticker from a toy stuck to his giant paw that said "I squeak"! 

Valetines TNDC 2013

Mari got this valentine from one of her students

Tina got 24 balloons - Kody and Drew decorated

Valentine's Day TNDC - 2013 was full of love and silliness!  Highlights of the nite were:

* Mari going thru all the valentines from her students
* Toasting Doug who was one day post op from his hamstring surgery
* Watching VC High School do the Harlem Shake
* Drew and Shades offering $5k for the FJ Cruiser and getting turned down
* Waiting for news on Andee's friends baby
* Chocolate covered strawberries!

Toasting Deputy Doug- with soda!

VC vs Herman

Yesterday Grace played soccer against the school that she would have gone to if she went to the public school in the neighborhood.  So there were kids on the others team that she went to elementary school with and that were on her comp soccer team.  This is a pic of all the girls who played yesterday who had all been on the same comp team together.  It is really fun to watch them all play against each other.  FYI - We won - 2 to 0.  And the other team won their first game 9 to 0!  So far after 6 games,we are undefeated!

Grandpa Roy in Rehab

Last nite, we went to see Grandpa Roy and play some dominoes!  It has been a week since the kids had seen Roy and they were thrilled with the change.

When we got there, he was in his room, sitting in his wheel chair and we chatted for awhile.  Then we decided to head down to the recreation room to play dominoes.  He led the way down the hall and Grace offered to push his wheel chair.  I thought my heart would melt when he said to her “yea I could use a little push”  and when Grace started pushing he said “ah yea – that’s a good pace!”.

It took 4 us to read the directions on how to play Mexican Train and after one game, Roy was tired and went back to his room to lay down.  We all followed and Drew took the time to hang more pictures up around his room.  And Roy enjoyed asking Jim for a blanket….and Jim told him he better enjoy this because it wasn’t going to last for long!

AND the best news of all – he ate three meals yesterday!

Half in Half out

Jim sent me this picture this morning while I was at work.  When I left at 5:45 am, Ahi was snuggled deep under the covers.  Apparently she was getting too warm, because she ended up half in and half out of the covers!  That wiener makes us laugh!

Flowers

I got these flowers from Jim's Uncle Richard yesterday as a Thank You for the information I am sharing about Roy with the whole family.  I have been sending update emails just about ever day and everyone really appreciates it.  Flowers were not necessary but they sure are appreciated!

Soccer

The varsity soccer season is over.  It was a good season with lots of growth.  Looking forward to next year!

Fact of the day

With the announcement of Pope Benedict's retirement, it got Grace and I thinking about the names of other Popes.  That research led us to discover that Pope Benedict is the 266th Pope.  The first one was from the year 32!

Winter Ball 2013

Drew and his gal pal, Kayla went to the Winter Ball last nite.  These are some pics from the nite.  I have to say that they make a darling couple!

Father - Daughter Dance

Mimi and Uncle B went to a Father Daughter dance this weekend.  LOVE them both!

Fearless Foursome are back!

The Fearless Foursome soccer players are back together again....they are playing soccer together on their school team.  They played 4 games this weekend and won them all.  Grace played on the field and in the goal.  She looked just like Drew making saves.

Make your own pizza nite

BLT pizza

Freaky Mari

Make your own pizza TNDC has got to be one of our favorites.  It is a total mess and total chaos but its fun and you always end up with a super yummy pizza!