Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy Jig

We took a short family vacation for the last few days. Linus just turned 9 (why, WHY!!!!), my mother-in-law turned ... well ... a whole lot older than 9 ... a few days before and this was also part of her Hanukkah gift.

We rented a nice cabin at a state park about an hour from our home and stay for 3 days. We really enjoy the park and all the trails, hikes, and nature centers they have. We also like having a cabin vs. a lodge or hotel (they do offer that) because we have our own kitchen, multiple bedrooms, and a nice living room area all without renting multiple hotel rooms or having someone above or below us we have to worry about disturbing.

It was fun. The kids had a blast. My mother-in-law enjoyed uninterrupted time with the grand kids, and I cooked. Ha ha. No really, I was pretty much just Mom and that's why, when we got home, I took a 2 hour nap and, then 3 hours later went to bed at 8pm and was passed out by 8:30pm. I didn't wake up until 7am this morning. It felt so good to sleep.

I am going to be doing some new things in the kitchen this week that I can't wait to share with you and who knows what else will pop up on my radar that needs to be passed along.

Happy hump day everyone. Have a great rest of your week.

Crazy Few Days - Or, How I Fell Off a Mountain

OK, I didn't really fall off a mountain, it just sort of felt like it for about 2 seconds a few hours.

Let's see ... Wednesday I did my HodgePodge. Thursday was our wedding anniversary. I went grocery shopping and we cleaned house and got ready for tomorrow. We know how to live it up.

Friday was my birthday (shameless happy birthday to me). We did some work around the house, again in preparation for tomorrow, and I was getting ready to start the pasta salad for our special birthday supper of steak, armadillo eggs (if you don't know what those are, they have nothing to do with armadillo), pasta salad, and a tossed green salad. All of our favorite foods in on meal and almost all cooked on a grill. It doesn't get better than that.

I tossed water into the pot, turned it on high to boil, covered it, and then remembered I needed to tell my husband something. I traipsed outside to find him and suddenly I felt like I was not even in my skin, and then so much pain. You see, our home is about 3' from the ground and it has a nice tall set of stairs that lead up to it from our drive. My husband was working on the house and had moved those stairs about 18" from the house. Yeah, you see where this is going don't you? I had no clue they were moved. He swears he told us. He must have as my kids knew it. I took one step out and didn't touch a step and fell. I hit my right shin on the top step and landed my left leg directly on my ankle instead of my foot.

AGONY! It was like my brain couldn't even think because of the pain. I sat there begging no one to touch me (I hate to be touched when I am hurt, even small hurts). I finally was able to get myself composed and let hubby help me and he sat me on the steps. I had a huge balloon where my shin used to be and pretty much no ankle because it was now the size of my calf. I sat there a long time and he finally got me inside.

He said ER. I told him I was fine. (yeah, I would NEVER let him get away with that if he was hurt). I laid on the sofa a long time and he called my Mom. She said ER. I finally didn't stop hurting and caved. In we went.

4 painful x-rays later (why do you have to be in the one position that hurts the worst when you are hurt) and, praise God, nothing was broken. Oh, did I mention I can't have pain meds because of a reaction that I have to every one? Yeah, so Ibuprofen. Oh, fancy word for Advil.

That's what I did for my birthday. Aren't you green with envy? He did buy me a burrito on the way home since we had no supper, it was now 9:30pm, and we were hungry.

So, today he's doing the work he needed to do yesterday. I am laid up on the sofa with my foot on a pillow and a heating pad attached. We have construction for the wheelchair ramp tomorrow and I am very much not ready and have no ability to get ready.

Talk soon.