Ahh the Romance!

Look at this Cathedral.  Isn't it spectacular?  I can't help it, I'm a hopeless romantic.  I tyvod the whole Royal Wedding, or at least I hope I did.  Lucky for me we have a TV at work and I am in the lobby for the first  hour and was able to watch it.  We only get one channel CNN,  but that was okay because that channel just happened to be carrying the wedding.  It was funny too, because very few people were in today, many took the day off to watch the coverage at home.  The few that were trickeling in stopped by to watch with me.  So why are we so fascinated by the royals?  What is it about them that captures our attention?

Maybe it is just the whole idea of 'royalty', the 'prince' and 'princess' thing.  Let's face it, what little girl doesn't dream of someday being swept off her feet by a handsome prince  I did.

Oh, and look at them.  Aren't they so cute?  I remember when then Lady Diana married Prince Charles.  I got up super early and watched the entire thing.  I had just gotten married myself and Michelle and William are only a few months apart in age.  That doesn't seem like so long ago...

Boy am I getting old!

In watching the coverage this morning they were interviewing some of the people in the crowd and they spoke with one woman who was camping out and asked her how long she had been there.  Her answer?  Three days!  Now, I like a good weddig as much as the next person, but three days.  Outside.  No thank you.  I'd rather watch from the comfort of my favorite chair if I had my druthers.  Now, make it a national holiday and maybe we can talk but somehow I think that my answer would still be the same. 

In other news, yesterday was WILD weather-wise around here!  We went to bed to severe thunderstorm warnings and th sound of rain on the rooftops and woke up to tornado warnings.  That is just not something that is the normal around these parts.  Sure we get more than our fair share of thunderstorms, but tornados are another thing entirely!   It was wicked.  There were road closings everywhere.  What was really surprising was that schools were open and on time.  Many people were up in arms about that!  The radio and TV news was warning everyone to stay inside if you didn't have to go out, and to delay travel if you could and yet the kids were trotting off to school. 

This is what it looked like.  Not too pleasant.  I was expecting someone to yell 'We have cows!' 

But we were lucky, no one was hurt that I know of.  Unlike the folks in Alabama.  We should all take a moment and say a prayer for those people, what a tragedy.  So much devestation and so many lives lost.  

Tomorrow the sun will shine and it is supposed to be a beautiful day!  I sure hope so, I know that I will enjoy it.  How about you? 

Bunny Tales

What a weekend!  It was so different than what I had expected it to be, but I guess that I need to get used to different.  Saturday Michelle and Shawn had planned on taking the kids to Rose Hill Manor for an Easter Egg Roll and various other activities and of course it was raining on Saturday.  Michelle called and found out that it was going to go on rain or shine, so they went anyway.  By the time they got over there it was down to a mere drizzle and then the sun came out and it turned into a nice day after all.   

While they were playing, Tim came home and invited me to lunch so we went downtown and had lunch together.  Just the two of us.  It was really nice.  We went to Firestone's in Frederick and sat upstairs, our table had a birdseye view of Market Street and the floor below.  Its fun to watch all the activity going on about you on a busy Saturday!  Tim was full of stories of readying for the opening of the restuarant and interviewing candidates and life in general.  It was just so nice to spend some time with him and catch up with my boy!  Love that kid.

Soon after we got home, Michelle and Shawn got home with the kids and the house came alive!  It's amazing the life that children will bring to a home.  Jim had picked up cookies for the kids to decorate and Bella and Aiden had a blast with those.  It was so much fun to see how the two of them approached the same task in such different ways; Aiden seemed to want to get as much icing and decors on each cookie as possible while Bella took her time and tried to make a pattern with the icing finishing with all the icing before adding any of the decors.  It was just funny. 

Here they are working on their creations.  Aiden's face is painted like a dog and Bella's a bunny.

Once they finished with the cookies it was on to dyeing eggs.  We had plenty of those for them to do, Jim had hard boiled 6 dozen for them and wanted to do more! 

They made all kinds of decorated eggs, striped, polka dotted, speckled, plaid, some had writing, some were two toned, but mostly they all looked like this.

Funny how that happens-huh?!

But, the kids had a great time.  All of the kids..

Even the big ones!

Then I made dinner and we all shared a nice meal together.  It was really nice.  I loved having them all there!  After dinner, Bell and Aiden had a surprise for Jim and I, they hid plastic eggs for us.  They instructed us to go in the backyard and look for them and they would give us clues - hot or cold.  Their hot or cold clues included them taking our hands and showing us where they were hidden sometimes, but that's okay, we wouldn't have found them otherwise.  (Buried under the sand.) 

Then Shawn and Aiden had to go home and Bella  had to get ready for bed.  Tim spent the night at our house and in the morning we woke to Bella hunting for eggs.  Then it was time for church.  Where she had another egg hunt.  After church, Michelle and Bella went to Shawn's familys for dinner and yet another egg hunt, Timmy went home and Jim and I had a quiet afternoon alone.  As I said, it was a different Easter for us.  It was good, but different. 

Here's Bella in her Easter dress.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and celebrated the birth of our Saviour!

It's Spring Break!

For Isabella anyway.  I don't get any time off work, but between Jim and Michelle she is well taken care of.

Sunday after church we had a special treat in store for our girl.  She had been anxiously awaiting this day for a long time.  It was the culmination of a 6 year old's dreams, something that she was so excited about that it was almost palpable.  What did we do?  We took her to see the "Imagination Movers" live and in concert!

I know, you can hardly stand it right.  Don't hate me because I get to do all the fun stuff.  I am just a regular gal without connectons, but we did score some tickets! 

First we went to have lunch on the creek and we choose Five Guys because we thought it would be fast and had heard a lot about the place.  If you have never been to a Five Guys before let me warn you, make sure your arteries are cleaned out well before eating, because they're gonna get gunked up there.  That's for sure. 

That means that the food is good, but they put it in a paper bag and by the time you get to your seat the grease is already soaking through the bag.  I had a small cheeseburger with lots of veggies on it and it was very good.  Michelle got fried with her vegetable and cheese sandwich and that was the source of the grease.  She loved them though!  Bella had a hot dog and she ate it all, so that says a lot right there.

Anyway, on to the show.  If you don't know who the Imagination Movers are then you probably don't spend a lot of time watching Playhouse Disney.  Choo Choo Soul opened for them and they were very upbeat and fun.  Worked the crowd up well.  Genevieve is the hip-hop train conductor and DC is a dancer and beatboxer dressed as a railroad engineer.  They were a lot of fun and Genevieve wore a conductors uniform made from polyeste and told the kids that she proved you could look totally cool and rockin' with out showing any skin!  Loved that!

Here are Genevieve and DC.

Then it was on to the main attraction, what everyone in the packed house was there to see.  The stage lights dimmed, then the fog started to rise and then,  through the fog and the darkness, this is what we saw:

As one by one Smitty, Dave, Jeff and Scott took the stage.  And the crowd went wild!!

The sang their songs and danced and came down into the aisles to shake hands with the kids.  The children and parents and grandparents alike sang along with some of their songs.  They even brought a few special guests!

Here's Nina.  Warehouse Mouse and Timmy the were there too.  Yeah, the place was really rockin'!  The best part of it all though-

this smile tells the story!  Bella with her own little Warehouse Mouse to cuddle.  Oh, she even got 2 guitar picks too!  One from Dave and one Rich.  Cool-huh?

Since then, Jim has taken her to see the movie Hop, a Frederick Keys baseball game, fishing at the lake and to the Zoo to see the opening of their new reptile exhibit!  The last three things were all in one day.  He's doing his best to keep her busy. 

Michelle took the day off and they had a Momma and Bella day that was celebrated with Pedicures, a lunch date, baking brownies and getting to watch Aiden play in his baseball game. 

It's tough being a kid!

So, what have you been up to?

Fun Under the Big Top!

So true to form, Saturday it poured.  Again.  It came down in buckets!  Ruining our plans for an Easter Egg Hunt, so what were we to do?  Luckily the Circus was in town, so we went.

When I say 'in town', I use the term very loosley.  It was actually at the George Mason Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va.  which isn't in our town, but it was close enough to go.  Jim was at the golf course working in the morning, so Bella and I left from home and headed down to meet him.  Once there, we all went together.
Bella was very excited!  Jim had taken her to a smaller circus the year before, but this was the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus-the big show.  The Greatest Show On Earth, and it did not dissapoint!

We arrived a little early and were allowed onto the stadium floor to mingle iwth some of the performers.  That was pretty neat!  Bella got a red, clown nose and a tatoo on her hand, we saw an elephant paint a picture and some 'clowning' around before it was time to go to our seats. 

Our seats were very good and we just really enjoyed ourselves.   Bella was totally enthralled!  She kept saying 'Grandaddy, look!' 'GaGa, look!' At one point she told me that she wished she had more eyes, that way it would be easier for her to see everything.  Ha!  Jim and I had a blast too.  As a matter of fact, we are not sure who had more fun, Bella or us!  

What a fun day!

We were all pretty worn out by the time that we got home, especially Isabella. 

We left the house at noon and didn't get home until after 7:00 PM., it was a long day. 

So we all turned in pretty early for the night to look forward to another day of new adventures and fun on Sunday! 

Hopefully, the rain will stop soon!

Another Friday Already?

Sometimes I wonder where the days go, then other times I know exactly where they've gone to.  I try hard to plan my days, but I think that the problem is that I plan too much into them and just simply run out of time.  Work often gets in the way of my play time.  I hate it when that happens, although it is a necessary evil!  For some of us anyway.  Work does take up a lot of my time, but at least it gives me something to talk about and for the most part I do enjoy my work.  For that I am thankful.

So, what else have I been up to all week?  Well, let me tell you.  I think that I mentioned that my doctor had recomended physical therapy for me, so I had set out to find a therapist that I could work with.  The therapy that was prescribed was massage therapy because she thought that I could gain the most benefit from that type of therapy because her theory is that I am not going to 'get better' as wih an injury, but that I might get relief from the pain and pephaps gain better range of motion.  So with prescription and a list of therapists in hand, I picked up the telephone and began dialing the phone.  An hour later I had spoken to many doctors offices and was now on the last page of my list, when finally I had an appointment set up for Tuesday of this week. The task at hand was not nearly as easy as I had anticipated!  So after work on Tuesday I don a pair of sweat pants, a T shirt and some sneakers and head on over to the office of, for privacy sake I'll call them PTI.  First,, I am introduced to the therapist, a seemingly nice enough woman who evaluates me and my aches and pains, etc.  From there she tells me what her plan of treatment is going to be for the day.   It started with electronic stimulis and heat and ended with - well- she called it a massage I called it a beating!  She actually told me to hang onto the table at one point.  Lucky for me she was being gentle.  Usually she uses a stool so that she can gain better traction, but being that it was my first time she decided to go easy on me.  Ha!  I am still sore and find it hard to believe that I am not bruised from the experience.  I went home feeling sick, tired, and totally worn out.  This is the most amazing part though, I went back on Thursday! 
But this time I had a different therapist.  A man this time and he was as different from she as night is from day.  The whole experience was different and I left feeling better, more energetic, better able to move and dare I say it-less fatigued.  I think I will stick with him if I can.

Spring Break begins for Bella.  She is off school all of next week and looking forward to some Spring-like weather.  We have had our fair share of rain around here and unfortunately we are expecting more.  Michelle had plans for tomorrow that were all outdoor but it looks like they will be cancelled due to the weather as we are expecting several inches of rain to fall-again.  (The ground is so water logged there is no place left for it to go!)  So plans will have to be changed to accomodate the weather but I think she won't mind.  Grandaddy has something special in mind.  I'll let you know if it pans out.  Usually during the break, Bella gets to spend a lot of time with her Grandad, but this year because it is so late, Jim is working at the golf course more than usual and their time together is very limited.  Bella was very disappointed to hear that, but not more that Jim.  They have a special bond and really enjoy their time together and their special outings.  It doesn't matter what they do, sometimes she will just help him with yard work.  But it's their time and that's enough.   

She's a lucky little girl!

Anyway, that's about all for now. 

I'm going cropping tonight!  Believe it or not!  Can't wait to see my girls.  Have a great weekend.

Kareb

Finally Friday

Is it terrible to say that I am looking forward to the weekend just so that I can sleep in?  Well if so, then I'm sorry. But, I can't wait to sleep in!  It's been a long week and I am anxious for it to be over.

Got a call on Monday at work from my doctors office at Kennedy Kreiger saying that the doctor wanted me to come again for another check up.  I asked when, she said tomorrow morning.  So, in gale force winds and the driving rain I headed back down to Baltimore to see my doctor on a Tuesday.  She usually only sees patients on Friday's so this was unusual.  I met a new doctor who wanted to examine me, he looked like a Ken doll.  Blond, perfect hair, perfectly coiffed.  Preppy clothes, beautify styled and perfectly creased.  Even  his lab coat was stylish!  When he smiled, the light tinkled on the shine on his teeth.  You know the type?  So totally not my type!  But an interesting specimen non the less.  Anyway, had to go through the whole routine again with him, from beginning to end.  What brought me here, when did symptoms first begin, what is affected, how does this interfere with your life, etc., etc., etc.?   Then the one that bothers me: are you depressed?
That bothers me for a number of reasons.  1) Can a person not be ill or have a disease independent from being depressed?  2) Why is it so often assumed that when a person (read: woman) has ongoing, often unexplained symptoms that she is depressed and that is the diagnosis? 
When I said that I wasn't depressed by my diagnossis he seemed surprised.  He said that he would think that it would be depressing and that it was understandable that I would be depressed.  Was he trying to talk me into it?  I said that I thought that anytime someone deals with chronic pain that it is dificult and can be depressing but that I thought my attitude in general was good and it helped me to deal with the pain a little better.  Did I want a break from it?  Yes.  Could I do without it?  Of course.  But given my choices, this doesn't seem that bad.  When I look at what is going on in the world today, war, tsunamis, earthquakes, pain and devestation, children with unimaginable illnesses, families without hope, I know that I am in a good place.  I am so Blessed.  I have so much to be thankful for and I have a God who truly loves me, who I can put my faith in wholy.  I don't always know how He answers our prayers, but I know that He does.  I know that He knows what our lifes story will be, and it is like a glorious book laid out before Him as we walk throuh it page by page, chapter by chapter, just as He has ordained for us.  And I am on one of those pages as he had planned.  And I am so grateful, so blessed and ever so loved.
Happy Friday.
Enjoy your weekend.

Count your Blessings!