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I just LOVE this purple sky we caught just before heading out to knock on doors and beg for candy.
We usually don’t buy a lot of candy because we’re out trick or treating most of the night, but we had gotten enough to take care of the late evening shift. My parents happened to be picking up a pop up camper for my brother in Arkansas and so they hung out with us for a few days while they were up this way. Suffice it to say that the kids flock to their house on Halloween night.
Check out this LAUNDRY BASKET full of candy! I handed it out by the heaping handful and couldn’t get rid of it all.
Logan’s birthday party was held in the afternoon and we invited them to join us for our neighborhood romp. They live out in the boonies, so it was perfect!
We found creative uses for all that candy from the laundry basket. Doesn’t Evan look like he’s in heaven?
We have a connection to this church since this is where Mama Jane attends and we always hit up their outdoor events in the fall. We got a little respite from the rain (though not enough to have the event at it’s regular location at their sports complex) so we went for it.
We bumped into The Young’s and hung out with them for most of the evening. Things have been busy for all of us (especially them) and they boys have really missed one another. Evan was off with Matt doing a moon bounce and Jake was waiting in line to climb a rock wall.
He must have stood there while waiting in line for a solid full minute with his hands like this. Too funny.
Evan’s first pony ride.
Lucas has been on ponies before, and even got to ride a horse, thanks to our dear friend, Leanne. He’s an old pro. 
Dinner time…winding down from all the excitement. LIstening to some Coffey Anderson and my former student, Robby.
Thank goodness, Mike spotted us. We were starting to worry we wouldn’t run into any Nason’s or Mama Jane! She snuck up behind Lucas and when he turned around to greet her he just couldn’t set his drink down fast enough to “hug her neck.”
In the event you haven’t heard of Coffey Anderson, here are a few links and videos to pique your interest: soul, pop, Christian…you name it. He’s having a good time and he’s talented for sure!
What a whirlwind!
For real…seeing this happen to Grandma Sue has entirely changed my relationship with bacteria.
Filed: “Things I Never Thought I’d Say.”
I’ve been pretty worried about my Grandma since I heard she was heading into the ER on Sunday in the early afternoon. I have been to visit with her twice this week and expect that I’ll head over there again in the next few days. Her problems started on Thursday from what I can understand. She began experiencing flu-like symptoms and a sore throat. Since one of her great grandchildren was recently diagnosed with strep throat, Grandma just shook it off. The following day her right eye was swollen shut. Still didn’t go to the doctor. She didn’t want to be any bother to anyone and really just thought it would likely go away.
It did not. Sunday morning, both eyes were swollen shut and she agreed to go to Urgent Care (which of course doesn’t open until 1 o’clock on Sundays). They immediately ushered her across the street to the ER. When I got there at 3:30 her face was twice its regular size and her skin was beginning to break down from the infection. Facial cellulitis we were told. They swabbed the fluid that had now begun to drain from her face. We were praying it wasn’t Staph.
Now we wish that was all it was.
At first they said it was a strep infection. We were baffled by this. Neither my mother nor myself had ever heard of or seen such a thing. Monday morning she was swollen even more in her face and further down into her chest and we were quite concerned. Infectuous disease doctors came in to observe her and later informed us that she’d be moving to ICU where they could better monitor her blood pressure and her other organs. Though her oxygen level was good, her breathing seemed very labored. She had a rough patch that night with her blood pressure, but with medication they got it under control. We were made to wear gowns and gloves when we visited with her in the ICU and at one time use of masks was mentioned.
I left to tend to things at home and work to return on Wednesday. It really seemed as though she looked much better. Really it was just the infection moving to a different place. She now has Staph on top of the Strep. She was in ICU all of today and moved into a regular room this evening since the infection is stable. Meaning, it’s not progressing any further. It’s also not retreating after four full days of nonstop antibiotics. Turns out the strep is Group 1, which means flesh eating bacteria. We have sat for days just watching this nasty stuff break down her face and neck. What was just on one eye on Sunday has moved to several spots on her face and now to her left eye. She is in terrible shape. And of course, she looks just raw. Thankfully she cannot see herself as her eyes are still swollen shut.
Through all of this she says her pain level is at a 5 on a scale of 1-10 and she has not complained. She said, “It takes too much energy to bitch.” She wants to store up her energy to get well and go home.
Please pray for a recovery. It will be a long healing process if she makes it out of this, but we’re not quite ready to let her go.
We were also in one of the local papers! It’s always exciting when someone notices something cool that you’ve done! I’m very excited about what this does for the credibility of my program and the work that I’m doing there. A really cool thing about this is that the reporter was just scouring the web and ran across something that was out there and called the school board to see if we could do a last minute interview. The principal and I had asked the media representative to look into some press coverage, but that wasn’t how it all shook down.
more about "Ah, some recognition!", posted with vodpod
For those of you who choose not to be moved by my tireless efforts at a political, emotional and personal statement about life, love, family and good weather may be appeased by the few photos below. Everyone else, please see the slideshow on my Vodpod to the right or check the February 10th post. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Oh, and the story about the :45 second intro that got cut:
This slide show is shorter than the original (see last post for the explanation of that) and I had to find a short segment of a song to fit. One of my favorite songs of all time is the Leonard Cohen song, “Hallelujah” as sung by Jeff Buckley, the incredible talent that drowned in the Mississippi River here in Memphis the first summer I lived here. At the start of our Zoo trip, while waiting by the tigers for Matt to return from the car,, I discovered the plaque memorializing him that I had never seen before that day in all our years of visiting. The first :45 seconds were originally the start of that favorite song of his. It fit, but , I guess it wasn’t meant to share. My original post about the song is now stripped of its video because WordPress didn’t support transferring the video links from TypePad, but I’ll give them again in case your interest is piqued. It’s truly a gorgeous song and I promise I have found two of the best performances of it around, though it’s totally subjective and I highly recommend you spend some time looking at Kate Voegele and k.d. lang’s renditions just so you can make an informed decision for yourself.
Jeff Buckley’s live (just discovered tonight while looking up the links again!)
And a little commentary about the lyrics.
Now, go look at my slideshow and check out my zoo pictures! I’m so proud!
Legislation in Missouri to ban teachers from having students on their social networking accounts.
Being an old woman at the time (33) that I initially signed up for MySpace a year and a half ago, I was opposed to the whole concept. I had been bashing it for YEARS. I signed up because a beloved student of mine had died tragically and all my students, as well as most of the students at the school, were paying tribute on a MySpace page that was created expressly for that. I was the only teacher at two separate church services to mourn him in the community. I felt very connected to these kids. Later, the only way I could comment was to join. I held out–denied the "friend" requests for a while. Then I decided to give it a try. I could always back out.
Well, I absolutely LOVE it. I have grown so close to my students. They often call me "Mama" instead of Mrs. It's not because of the site-that's just one of the tools I use. So many others have talked about the tool being used as a weapon (which I daresay email can be used for ill as well) and I couldn't agree more. The issue here is that, just like everything else in life, one should not ASSUME. The media isn't fooling me…just because we hear about more inappropriate relationships now, it doesn't mean that it's all because of social networking and technology in general. It happens. It's disgusting. Perhaps the parents might get an account themselves as many of my student's parents have done. Frankly, I am offended that, on one hand, parents are sending their children to me with no home training, expecting me to discipline them because they are too busy trying to be their own child's "friend," but then get upset with me because I use my classroom and a social networking site to help them raise the youth of tomorrow. Meet them where they are. That's MySpace and Facebook.
I literally stumbled upon this site today. I was finally getting around to trying the website and I am thus far, very impressed.
I first heard of Watts through a friend of mine from junior high. We got back in touch this year through MySpace after managing to miss two or three years most recently. I remember staying up until all hours playing chess in seventh grade. We have shared many, many memories throughout the years.
Perhaps this is another.
Matt enjoyed it too and I was glad to be able to talk to him about art, pop-culture and make him laugh.
We’re taking a lot of trips this month and have been busy packing, driving, enjoying family times and resting for another round. I’ll get back to current family event postings on here as soon as I can. I’m also painting the kitchen/hearth room, I am reorganizing the main linen closet, the upstairs toy room and just about every corner in the house all at once. Summer is a challenging time to complete home projects, but somehow it always comes together in the end.
Wednesday is Open Swim, lots of folks are out of town, but we’ll still swim no matter. Thursday is painting and errand day and Friday morning, we’re off to Destin.
