just stuff and a recipe!

I thought maybe I'd share some of my favorite things(right now) with you. You know, like Oprah or something! :-)

This chalkboard-magnet board is in my kitchen. The frame is from an antique store, last summer I had my father cut some MDF board out and I first painted it with MAGNETIC PAINT (super cool stuff but not cheap) then I painted it with chalkboard paint. I plopped it in the frame and voila'! Of course I write extremely thought provocing or super cool quotes. NOT! It's usually something simple like what's on there right now. The sign above it is a fav too! I think I may have posted a pic of this last summer when I did it. If so, sorry for the repeat!

Our crepe myrtle is blooming and it's just gorgeous! So I lopped off some blooms and stuff them in this cheap pitcher. It's all sitting on a really awesome french wire tray and stand I got at Pier One at the summer clearance! YEAH!

My pergola that Matt and our friend Curt (www.wadecontractors.net) made after my father designed it. I know I've shown you before but now it's painted. Matt does have to replace that one piece of trim with wood instead of white, but oh well. I'm not in love with my chairs, I really like the other chairs (they are going to Goodwill) but when we figured out how much it would be to recover the seat to make them outdoor friendly, it was easier to just go buy these at Target. BUT I still think the others looked better :-)

Our fish, I LOVE these fish!

Okay, here's the recipe. It's from another blog so I'm going to give her credit of course. http://www.allthingsheartandhome.com/2009/06/23/spinach-artichoke-alfredo-dip/ I know everyone has a spinach/artichoke dip but this one is better! LOL I swear it is awesome. You do have to roast garlic cloves in your oven first (VERY important for the flavor) But I just open the whole garlic thingy (don't really know what that is called, you know the white thing with the roots sticking out) and pour a little EVOO on it and put the little foil wrapped bit of goodness in the oven. I didn't think I'd like roasted garlic because I'm not a garlic fan, you'll NEVER see me order scampi. BUT Cole and I were smearing the extra buttery roasted garlic cloves on Townhouse crackers....oh my gawd! YUMMMMY!

THIS is DIRECTLY from her site in her own words. It's a FABULOUS blog you must visit!

Artichoke & Spinach Dip Restaurant Style
4 cloves garlic
1 (10 ounce ) package frozen chopped spinach ~ thawed, drained…I pretty much squeeze all the moisture out !
1 (10 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 (app. 10 ounce) jar Alfredo style pasta sauce(I used red pepper alfredo sauce)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese- softened
*Preheat oven to 350*
*Place garlic in small baking dish wrapped in foil. Bake in oven for 20-30 minutes, until soft. Remove from heat. When cool enough to touch, squeeze softened garlic from skins. (It will be soft and a bit mushy) ***Don’t eliminate this step…it adds so much flavor.
*Mix all ingredients and put into a 8×8 inch baking dish (or something close to this!)
*Cover and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until cheeses are melted and bubbly! Serve warm with crackers or french bread slices…YUMALICIOUS!

a little bit blue

I've neglected my blog. Sorry! :-) If you are a frequent reader, you know I never go this long. I really enjoy writing the blog even if no-
one reads it! I'll tell you about the pics then share some other happenings...some of which made me not feel like blogging.
Earlier this week, my kids and I, my father (way more on him in a bit) and my sister and neice and nephew plus Callie's friend Bethany; went blueberry picking. I haven't done this since the twins were smaller and Peyton was still in a stroller. I don't know why because it is really one of my favorite summer-time things. You get busy and put "insignificant" things aside and then poof, summers over. Don't WASTE your summer. Get outside, smell the freshly mown grass, take the kids on a pic nic, just get OUT there! :-) Make memories!
Grace had on a Gymboree outfit that had been Peyton's...I LOVE that! It's like I can instantaneously see little Ms. P little again in my mind, it's the BEST feeling! We all got hot and sweaty and I'm sure a bit stinky but it was great. Grace and Mason should probably have been weighed in when we got there and weighed when we left because they had eaten a complete belly-full before we even had a pic nic lunch under a lovely old willow that over-looked a gorgeous spring fed pond.

That's Cole holding up some plump ripe berries he picked...he let me do his hair in a faux hawk that day but you can't see it! I LOVE Taylor Lautner's hair (he's Jacob in Twilight...go to http://www.twilighters.org/ to see it, he's so dern cute! AND this is NEW MOON hair not long wig Twilight hair, by the way).

The last one is me and my Dad. I'm sweaty and yucky but it doesn't matter, I still LUV the photo!
Let me tell you about my father a bit. First, I want you to get a mental image of Joe Pesci in your

head, you know the one from the movie where he's an attorney with Marissa Tormei. The one where he uses the words YUTS instead of youths. Okay now, that's a pretty good mental image of my Dad. He's like the guy that completely got his diploma from the "school of hard knocks". He likes silk Hawaiian print shirts and doesn't tone down his "waterfront" language too often. He knows how to, believe me...he just chooses not to. He's crusty and crochety but warm and loving rolled into one. Sometimes his morals and values rival Mother Theresa and the next minute he seems to have none. I received my immense love of all animals from him. (here's a little side-bar) One time a young black cat showed up at our door step. It had rickets and fleas and you name any other ailment. The worst thing was it had pulled it's leg out of a steel leg-hold trap and it was just a complete MESS. My father plucked it up and took it to the veterinarian (complaining the ENTIRE time). Almost a 1,000 dollars later (this was when I was about 13) we brought the cat home. He stayed about 2 days and POOF! dissappeared.
My father and I talk everyday and he stops by several times a week. Often with a load of goodies from the bakery. When Peyton was little she called him "Pop Pop Wayne Cake" because he brought her a favorite cheesecake like cake called "smear cake". My sister talks to him just as often. I'm telling you this because several weeks ago, we were in for a complete shock. My father had a heartattack and had 3 splints (I think that's what they are called) put in. He was in the hospital for 2 days and then checked himself out. He didnt' tell us for 2 weeks. Normally, in this situation, our local hospital will stabilize a patient and then ambulance or air lift them to another hospital. The only time they don't do that is if the patient has less than 90 minutes to live. They did my father's surgery as an emergency. The thought of all of this just KILLS me. He didn't want to worry us, he says. I was still spending vast amounts of my day on the bed in the family room and my sister lives about 50 minutes away. He thought it would be inconvienent for us. Most important of all, he didn't want us to know because he was afraid we'd treat him different. We wouldn't ask him to fix stuff for us (the MAN CAN FIX ANYTHING) or we'd constantly ask him how he was feeling. That's my Dad.

If I didn't love him so much, I could kill him for not telling us! :-)

Much more insignificantly, my back healing is slow going. Just when I was feeling good and the pain was more tolerable, I started resuming a bit more of my normal activites WHAM I feel like I'm back to square one. I am again spending a LOT of time resting. It's ticking me off and I really have to FIGHT not to get into a funk. So there you go. A bit of an excuse for not blogging! :-)

I'm gonna blog later today...

It's been about a month and a half. I promise I'll blog today. So many things to say...

Here's the buzz on the surgery... and my pergola

If you have spinal fusion surgery in your future, you may not want to read this or if you could care less...you may not want to read it either! LOL

First I'll tell you about my Pergola/Patio Sanctuary. You may recall, last year I had a stand at the Harford County Farm Fair. When I was asked to be at the fair and committed, I didn't know what misfortune was about to behold my back. So instead of buying a flimsy tent like thing, my husband, father and our friend Curt (from http://www.wadecontractors.net ~ he's about to get a new site that will be awesome btw) built this pergola in anticipation of extending our patio. We've been wanting one for a while so this worked out perfectly. It's still not finished, the structural part will be stained white, the lattice on the back will not and the decking will not either but the back wall will be. We really want to go with a loved-worn look with the entire thing, including the patio furniture. Those rockers were actually my husband's grandparents and we are going to strip them and paint them white with black seats. We also have a black wrought iron table on the patio area (just to the left in the photos) . My pot collection on the shelves will eventually be an all white on white theme (with various shades of white pots). The watering can was my mother in law's uncle's. I painted and crackled it several years back and painted a bumble bee (with legs full of pollen, if you click the picture you can enlarge it and see) an ant and several lady bugs. OHHHH and I wanted to show you my SAP BUCKET IDEA. In the last photo (you may have to click to enlarge) you can see an antique sap bucket that my husband put a pot of geraniums in (He planted all my flowers this year...he's such a good guy!). Well, the pot comes out and we fill the bucket with ice and it's a WINE CHILLER!!!! Cool huh? I occasionally have moments of brilliance even on my meds!

I'm showing you the Pergola/Patio Sanctuary because I would not have gotten through the past several weeks even semi sane if I couldn't have spent a large chunk of it outside. I have spent hours sleeping and reading on that white bench! (speaking of reading, some weeks I've gone through 5 books in 7 days!). The other thing that kept me sane was my friends and family stopping by constantly. More often than not, it felt like a party! Although it was like I was the lone drunk there! (Because of the medication, lol)

Here's some details of the surgery, so if you want to stop reading you can, although I won't get gory on you.

As you probably know, I had a lumbar fusion on L3-4 with 2 types of instrumentation. The type of fusion I had uses titanium rods and something called pedicules instead of screws. They are like smaller rods that are inserted through holes in the vertebrae (I'm assuming these holes are drilled) and then have a cap like end put on. The pedicules hold the rods onto(into) the vertebrae and I have these rods on both sides of my spine in that lumbar area. Prior to using the instrumentation, they grind off bone from the vertebrae top and bottom and then they mix the ground bone with some type of polymer and a bone stimulating hormone to make a paste. The dried out and nasty old real disc was removed. The replacement disc

has a hole in the middle like a donut. So they slather some of the bone putty stuff they made in the middle, slide the new "disc" in between the vertebrae and than slather more bone putty all around it. The hope with a fusion is that the two vertebrae and the replacement disc and bone putty all FUSE into one big 'ole chunk. This would take care of my disc issue and the spondylosis (arthritis of the spine) of that area all at once because there is no more joint in the two vertebrae. Clear as mud huh?

My surgery was estimated at 4 hours but it took about 5 1/2 because after my neurosurgeon got in there, there was a scar tissue party going on. The scar tissue was apparently all over the place, winding it self around nerves and sending nerves places they shouldn't go and just causing a bunch of raucous! Prior to the surgery my big toe, across my foot and up my calf was numb and weak even after 100 episodes of physical therapy but there was hope it would get better. Now, because of the surgery I'm numb up to my left chubby buttock in a 4-5 inch strip. THAT should go away although the chances for below the knee have now diminished. Oh well. I just occasionally cut myself shaving! Well I'm not really shaving yet (Peyton and Callie do it for me) 'cause I can't bend yet. AND I only ended up with 27 staples and 2 incisions...not bad! :-) When I was moved to my room, I had this pump thingy that I could press every 8 minutes and it would dose me with something...I don't remember what it was. OHHH um I think it was delauted or something like that. Well, lucky for me my clock was broken in the room. Matt even replaced the batteries and it still didn't work. The nurses kept reminding me to watch the clock (duh, it's broken people) and hit the button every 8 minutes So needless to say I pumped the heck out of that pump because I never knew when it would work. I really think that's kinda a crappy method of pain relief because sometimes you'd doze off and when you'd wake up the pain would be like a greedy gnawing monster and you'd take forever to bash him away with your every 8 minute squirts of happy juice.

The day after my surgery was VERY memorable because Stephanie and Lisa came to visit me. I totally wish I had a picture of their faces for the entire time they sat with me. If I hadn't been on pain meds (real by than, not that STUPID pump thing) their looks probably would have scared the crap outta me. They both looked like they thought I was dying so I'm guessing I probably should have done my hair and makeup or tried some other method of beautifying myself! Actually, they've said they just didn't expect what they saw. Ummm. I didn't expect this surgery to be like that either. I thought it would only be a tad worse than the other two I had. I think the tip off should have been the fact that I'd be hospitalized for up to 5 days and that they recommended that I get a walker, a shower seat and a potty lift during my spine class. I walked out of that class thinking that recommendation was for the 70 year old patients not me. WRONG! LOL

All in all, everyday is slightly better than the one before. Well usually. Except rainy days do a NUMBER on me.

If you've made it this far, you deserve a medal. Or perhaps you must be really bored or at work where anything is better than what you should be doing, right?

I'm Back! Pun intended! Random thoughts and tangents ahead!

So I'll be adding to this blog post throughout the day because I can't sit at the computer very long and I'm also trying to edit photos for a few friends when I can as well. I also have SO much to tell you and get off my back (again, the bad pun). I've missed blogging and I hope my friends and family have updated and entertained you as well! LOL We'll get to that later.

Yesterday was the first REAL day I went out in public for Peyton's Authors Tea. I could never have missed that! She did so awesome and spoke about why friends are important. BOY, do I ever know that (family too) but I'll be back later about my friends. Anyway, we were so proud of her! I wasn't supposed to go out in public for a month because of potentially catching, meningitis, sepsis or a staph infection. Sounds fun, huh? It's actually a month tomorrow, but who's counting?

You might be wondering how I can look semi-tan considering I've basically been on bed-rest most of the time since the surgery. Your first thought is that I probably was in an accident in a rusty old cab that was flying down alley-ways during my exciting and exotic vacation in Bora Bora. Hence, the tan. Actually, in order to stave off extreme boredom, I've been spending oodles of my time laying/sleeping on a bench on my patio. Being outside is SO much better than being stuck inside although my husband was super-sweet enough to put a bed up in the family room for me as you probably saw a few posts back when Tina and Brandy dressed me up during one of my many medication induced hazes. If you haven't seen it, it's worth a look-see. They did it quickly while Stephie was on one of my MILLION Robyn errand runs that she has done. Stephie is my mother hen/nurse/best bud/complaint line/reading buddy/Target shopping twin, so they were afraid she'd beat them over the head with my body pillow while in fear for my safety.

I have so many friends and family to thank in the next few posts that it's going to drone on like so many Oscar acceptance speeches so be prepared. You'll just have to deal with it because my immense appreciation NEEDS to be known.
I'm going to share some info about my friends and family before I tell you a bit a bout the surgery.
In time of test, family is best. ~Burmese Proverb
I don't know where to begin here because the kindness, helpfulness and complete generosity of spirit from my family has not ended only because I'm feeling a bit better. They continue to amaze me everyday. Matt has been a complete steady force throughout. He makes me laugh, as always and has truly personified our vows, "In sickness and in health". He has done so much for me. Little things that mean a LOT: planting my flowers for me, making my plate, bringing me a zillion glasses of water and medications, gone to the grocery(I think he probably hates this but doesn't complain and cooked, cleaned and done all kinds of domestic things that were never on his list before! He has also done BIG things for me that mean a LOT too: put up a bed in the family room so that I wouldn't feel isolated, spruced up the patio area so I'd have a happy place to lay down outside and I could go on and on but I won't embarass him. I'll show you photos of that in a bit.
About the other family members, my mother-in-law, Ruth, my sister Brandy and both my Dad and Matt's Dad, Ron have been great. Poor Ruth has done more load of laundry than she has probably seen since her 3 kids were little! She's also been so awesome with taking the kids where they need to go, getting Peyton on the bus and being there when she gets off too. My favorite is having her ENFORE the chore list. I'd love to give her that job permanately but I'm sure she'd jump off a high cliff first! My sister, Brandy (in addition to giving you the first VERY important update on my blog) has listened to me complain, listen to me slur my words and pretend she knows what I'm saying, has made dinner, cleaned my shower, organized Peyton's room and all kinds of other needful things. My father was Matt's (and his Dad as well as the rest of the surgical waiting room) entertainment during my surgery. Believe me, getting up to be at the hospital at 5:30 am was probably NOT his favorite thing to do. He also "babysat" me one day when I still had to be supervised, he did LAUNDRY for me. I was sure the earth was going to stand still! He also brought me sweet goodies like always and also drove 45 minutes to the hospital one day to pick up a script because they can't phone in narcotics. My father-in-law Ron has also been so helpful and always has a kind word to say. I don't want to leave out Grace and Mason. It never fails to cheer me up when I call Brandy and Grace asks me how I'm feeling. Inevitably, she will then SCREAM, "MOMMY Aunt Robbie is feeling BETTER!" I also love listening to Mason's knock knock jokes even though they are always about Bolt! THANK YOU FAMILY! You are the BEST!
A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down. ~Arnold Glasow
About my friends. Again, I really don't know where to start. I'm going to start with Stephanie. As you know from her post, we met through my life-long friend Jeff. Stephanie has ALWAYS been there for me no matter WHAT it is. She's the best shopping buddy ever and we share a passion for fake Mexican food like Taco Bell and Chipoltle. Oh yeah, I have to tell you about the "fork me" episode. One day during my days of constant surveillance, I had Stephanie, Tina, Lisa and Brandy here all at the same time (I think...it's still fuzzy). Steph and Tina made chicken nachosYUM and again because I was DRUGGED I pointed to the nachos with my fork and asked Steph to "fork me". Umm. Okay. Enough of that...I can't list everything she has done and CONTINUES to do for me. From making my room and bathroom sparkling (her momma helped too, shes so sweet as well) to having my fridge stocked and LOVELY flowers for me when I got home from the hospital. SIDE BAR ALERT One of the gorgeous flowers Steph brought me was a super cool twisted and braided trunked, pink azalea TREE about a foot and a half tall. Matt planted it for me in a pot on the patio. My angel Cosmo believed it was a lovely stick that he should unplant and zoom around the yard with. We replanted it only to have him do the same thing the next day. It wasn't pretty. Steph, please know: I LOVE YOU!
I had written this next entire segment yesterday and when I puched publish, I realized my internet was down. great. Well it's back so here we go!
I don't know what I've done to deserve to be surrounded by the MOST wonderful people in my life. I truly am blessed to have these people. My other girlies that need some recognition: Lisa, Tina and Georgiann.
Lisa and I became friends through the happy accident of becoming neighbors by moving into our homes within a month of each other. She's a petite, toned little fire-ball of a chick with more energy than I have in my pinkie. Lucky for me she has showered some of that energy on me these past several weeks. Not a day goes by that she doesn't do something helpful, needed of just plain is there when I need her. She has made us dinner innumerable times and she definately short changes herself in the kitchen. She thinks she can't cook but she is WRONG! :-) Lisa, thanks for always being just several yards away! LOL
Tina came into my life when I started watching her little man Hayden when he was just a couple months old. He's now a big guy of 4 and has been in school for a year but I still feel so close to this goofy, happy little man. Tina is a pure ray of sunshine with an innocent heart who would do anything for anyone. Her happy face has made many of my post-surg days so much better plus she's a laundry master (have you noticed a laundry theme throughout this entire post?). The fact that she's a med surgical nurse has been cool, like having a private nurse at my disposal! AND I can't wait for her to whip my flabby body back into shape with her personal trainer like skills at the gym~! :-)
Georgiann and I have been friends since 10 grade, not many freindships survive 20 years! We have so many great memories! She doesn't hesitate to tell me to "LAY DOWN" while she uses her magic in my kitchen. I've yet to meet someone who is so wonderfully domestic while still holding down a high profile budgetingsomethingorother position. Can you say wonderwoman!

Last but certainly not least are the neighbors/friends that made us delicious dinners and always called to see if we needed anything! My wonderful and giving chefs were: Julie, Cindy, Jen and Debbie! THANKS LADIES!

First Time Blogger Here!

This is Stephanie….Robyn’s long time friend by marriage. She got me by default when I married Jeff. She IS the best thing that came with him and I love her dearly! Although Robyn and I do have a few different interests, most of them parallel each other strongly. We both love animals, sharing smutty romance novels, Taco Bell, trips to Target together planned strategically around our afternoon naps, a few hours watching movies together and lots, lots more. However, one thing we do not have in common is blogging. I read a couple of blogs, including Robyn’s, but have never developed an interest in actually blogging. So, when Robyn asked me to guest blog a couple of weeks ago when she had her back surgery, I agreed, reluctantly, unbeknownst to her. I couldn’t say no to her. It was the least I could do. It’s THAT important to her. But, I admit I have been procrastinating hoping she wouldn’t notice that I have not blogged and that I would be off the hook. No such luck! She called me first thing Sunday morning and requested again that I blog for her. So I lay awake last night thinking about what I would write about and what kind of blogging faux pas I would inevitably come up with to offend one or two of her followers. Or I guess I should say “readers” as “followers” make us sound as if we belong to a cult lead by Robyn. See! That is exactly the type of faux pas I am talking about.

Robyn is doing great by the way. She has come a long way from almost two weeks ago when I saw her the day after her surgery. I have to admit, I was a little scared for her that first day. It was very hard to see her in so much pain with all kinds of “stuff” sticking out of her. I didn’t know that kind of stuff would make me as queezy as it did! I really didn’t expect it would be as “major” as it was. I was blow drying her hair the other day and saw her stitches. Yikes! Another bout of light headedness for me. But, day by day, she has gotten a little more mobile and is starting to get around more confidently. I don’t expect she will be back to herself any time real soon, but there is light at the end of the tunnel and that’s a good thing. Until then, I will keep doing her laundry, scrubbing her bath room and kitchen, stuffing her mouth with baked goods, lying on the couch watching movies and discussing our smutty romance novels. By the way, none of these are chores…..any time I get to spend with Robyn is time I enjoy!

Stephanie
(Fork me some of that!) You can blog about that when you come back Robyn!

This is what happens when Tina and Brandy are in charge of Robyn's post surgical care!!!

Hello Everyone!!!! Just wanted to send a little update to keep you all up to date on Robyn's post surgical progress....
Robyn is such a trooper, no surprise right??? Lower lumbar staples, back brace, four point walker, ice, hospital bed in the living room (thank you Matt) and some good pain meds...thank god!
Where else could I have a blast doing laundry while chatting with one of my best friends. Not to mention getting hooked on another vampire saga, like the Twilight series was not bad enough. Now I have True Blood to deal with:)
I haven't even mentioned the dogs yet. Macey girl is my sweetie, in fact she did not cause any trouble and maintained a low profile. Cosmo and Levi are a whole other ball game. Apparently they are not allowed in the yard at the same time due to the major destruction the two of them can cause together, as evidenced my the azalea tree that Cosmo used as a chew toy! Sorry Robyn, I tried to re-plant it but I'm not giving it much hope. My only hope was to bribe the "little angels" and by the time I was done two bags of doggie treats were gone. In fact, Levi my love, brought me the bag himself to continue with my plea for good behavior. I will be going to Target today for more because these loving, devoted boxers have got me all figured out.. Yes, I am a sucker for beautiful pouty brown eyed boxers with azalea bushes hanging out of there mouths:)
At the end of the day the most beautiful children came home from school ...My sweet Callie commented on my outfit. Cole entertained my four year old without complaint and Peyton could not wait to show me her new dance moves.
Robyn, Robyn, Robyn, always so endearing and grateful. Thank you for letting me be a part of you life!!!
Speedy recovery and lots of luv.........Tina
P.S. special shout out to Brandy who assisted with decorating and taking photos of Robyn!! And.....Stephanie who is doing all of the grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning while Brandy and I capture theses special moments....

She's Back!!!!!!!!! :)

HI!, This is Callie Robyn's oldest daughter :) and she is letting me guest blog. So she called around nine thirty this morning and said I can come home!!!!!!! She thought that when my dad got there she was just going to get up and leave, boy was she wrong. She found out that before she could leave she had to practice getting out of a fake car, get in and out of a shower, get on and off the toilet (I am glad that I wasn't there for that one) :). She said that it was all stuff that wasn't embarrasing just kidding, I mean i would be embarrased too if it took me a long time just to get to the toilet and had to use a walker for everything. Recently my great grandmother passed away and she used a walker when she walked, and my dad was kidding around with her and when my mom was walking with the walker my dad said "nana was faster!" but he was just kidding :). My mom may not want to admit it but I knew that she like pressing the buttons on the hospital bed and how the romote was attached to the bed and the speaker was in the remote it was really cool if I should say so myself. So now my mom is home and doing awesome my dad and I put the extra day bed in the family room and sat it all up and right this second my mom is laying on the day bed in the middle of the family room reading her book. I wanted to thank my moms friends and my family for helping us soooooooooo much and we really appreciate it, and there is no way that we could ever thank them enough :). Bethany O'Malley helped me so much today with cleaning up the house she is like a saint she matched our socks and that is like the biggest job to do in the house. So Thank You everyone for helping us sooooo much I just can't tell you guys how much we appreciate it :). P.S my mom says THANK YOU EVERYONE so much and she hopes to get better soon :)

She's already out of the hospital and she just stopped at Kohl's on the way home!!!
I'm just kidding, Robyn's out of surgery and everything seemed to go great. The surgery took longer than the five hour guesstimated time but she's in recovery. Her wonderful doctor told the family that there was more scar tissue then he originally anticipated but I think that's from when she had her tramp stamp removed at the drive Thru cosmetic place in Vegas in 07. It was a life size picture of her first husband. ....
Just kidding.. If you know Robyn at all, you know she is too Saintly to ever be with anyone before her awesome husband Matt, or have a tattoo.
Last night I talked to her before bed and to make light of the situation, she told me if something went wrong and she hadn't made it, I was entitled to her recipe box. (She is an amazing cook)I really wanted Grandmom's button basket though. (Inside joke)I asked her what our sigh would be to let me know that she was with me in spirit. Robyn said "the first Robin you see every spring will be me." BlahBlahBlah. I would rather her flush the toilet and blink the lights a couple times.
Anyways, I'm soooo happy my big sis is gonna make it, although I really had my heart set on her pound cake recipe. Maybe I'll hit her up for it while she's still high on meds!
If anyone has any idea how Robyn got her back in such a mess in the first place, please let us know. We have been trying to jar our memories for weeks. What could have done such a number on her spine? I had a few ideas: Some of which are not appropriate for viewing eyes. hehe. I'm just kidding, remember she is Saintly and the best sister EVER!!!!!
I love you Robbie, come home quick. xoxoxox, Brandy
P.S. I wrote in orange 'cuz it's her favorite color!!!! And if you had smello vision, it would smell like creme brulee, another one of her favorites

I'll be BAAAAACK.

So that was my incredibly horrible imitation of the Gov. of California. But it was apropos! I'm leaving in a few hours for my fusion...Yes, I'm still up at 1:40 in the morning and we'll leave here at 4:30 but I figure, I'm going to sleep all day tomorrow! (Remember, the positives, we like the positives.)

OHHH and in other news, I bet my Mother's day present is more expensive than yours! Nannynannybooboo. Just kidding...but well, seriously thank God for insurance 'cause this back thingy is apparently well over 100K. And to think, I would have been happy with a couple homemade, crayon-colored cards!

While I'm gone, you'll have some fun with the guest bloggers I've lined up. Good times my friends. For sure!

I snapped this shot of my friend's little lady the other day...I just love it!

SO stay tuned...my first guest blogger starts tomorrow night! (I guess it's actually tonight) ...she's witty. she's clever. she sounds JUST like me on the phone! You'll have to tune in to see who it is. I know the suspense is KILLING you!

It's not a good party until...

Somebody gets a wig made out of COTTON CANDY!!!

Peytonism at end of post alert!!!

Yesterday we celebrated Callie and Cole's 13th Birthday with a SURPRISE birthday party at a local dairy farm that makes it's own ice cream. I had called a bunch of their friends (by getting their numbers off of the kids cell phones) and we had friends and family too. Ruth and Ron (Matt's parents) brought Callie and Cole to the party so we were able to surprise them (well Callie at least...Cole had an inkling even though I had lied my behind off when he confronted me). My sister Brandy took care of a TON of the party before hand: getting the cotton candy machine, ordering the cupcakes, getting really cool balloons that were like 3 feet tall that were a 1 and a 3 although they kept reading 31. Luckily the farm has live music on Sundays so it truly felt like a PARTY! The place gets INSANE busy on the weekend with the line snaking out of the door all the way to the parking lot and we found out that it was a mistake that they let us book a party on a weekend. OOPPSS. It was so fun because the kids could just run in the fields of tall grass, play frisbee and just goof off without being a problem.

I had a candy buffet for Cole, that kid's teeth are surely gonna fall out by the time he's twenty! I think they had a really great time :-)

A LOT of the adults couldn't wait to use the cotton candy machine...I didn't know I had so many friends who were "CARNIES" at heart! The other funny thing is we had two boys (who shall remain nameless but their names MAY start with a N) who decided it was easier to use the VERY tall grass to relieve themselves of some fluids! LOL Ummm....boys will be boys?

It's Peytonism time! After the recital on Saturday, I was crypticly speaking to someone on the phone while Peyton was in the car. I THOUGHT I did an okay job of not really mentioning anything that would tip her off. When I got off of the phone, she started badgering me with questions about my phone conversation. I tried to throw her off but she just wasn't buying it. Finally, Matt starts to tell her. He explains that I'll just be out of the hospital when Callie and Cole have their real birthday, so we called a bunch of their friends from school, yadda yadda yadda and so on and so forth. She get's SO excited and animatedly asks us questions about the party, who's coming, where is it, etc. She exclaims that they are "JUST GOING TO LOVE IT!" Here's the ringer....then she's says

wait for it

wait for it

"Are Callie and Cole going to be there?"

Blonde people. I swear, she shoulda been blonde!

More B-day Pics

Here's a few more photos from the party. I have a LOT of photos of the kids from their school but I don't want to post them without permission.

RECITAL DAY!

Yesterday was my girls recital for dance. It's the day that they work up to for MONTHS. This year, because Matt and my Ruth, my m.i.l. have been taking the girls to dance wayyyy more than I have, it was extra fun to see the show. Callie was in 3 dances, tap (which is the costume she has on the the closeup, she danced to a medley of 80's songs), ballet and lyrical which is what she's doing in the stage photo. Peyton danced in Tap to Green Acres and Keith Urban's "somebody like you". The who show had a "channel surfing" theme so it was super cute! They both did so awesome and we were so very proud. Callie had to be exhausted last night because she danced in both shows yesterday.

I think Peyton likes nothing better than being on stage...well you probably already guessed that by her personality! Callie ROCKED and was so much more relaxed than she has been before! Way to go GIRLS!

Speechless...

On the Today show this morning, I saw a little blurb about this website, www.pimpthisbum.com and a bit of his story. The kids were talking and we were in the middle of the morning madness and I was still waiting for my coffee to take effect. When I had a minute, I quickly checked it out. It's truly enthralling. Totally grabs you and doesn't let you go. I'm not even going to tell you more about it, you MUST check it out because even by visiting the page, you are helping homeless people. Let's just say Tim over there is going to steal your heart and so are the guys that thought enough to make a difference in just one person's life. Amazing!

In other uplifting news: well for me anyway. When I went to my spine class, I learned that I'm not having the surgery where they go in through the front (tummy) or the one where they go in directly over the spine (called posterior). I'll have 2 incisions and I'm having 2 types of instrumentation. So after May 6th I officially only want to be referred to as Robo-Robyn. Really. Naw, just kidding. So between the titanium in my neck and whatever the heck these things in the lumbar are made of ( I know one is titanium but I don't know about the other) I should be setting off alarms at the court house and airport! When she told me, she made me so happy, it truly made my day. She (the nurse) couldn't really explain the procedure to me as much because she wasn't as familiar with the instrumentation as she is with others. But I did my research when I got home. It's pretty fascinating stuff. Although it'd be a bit more fascinating if it was happening to someone I didn't know! :-) I feel like I'm going to have to start talking like Arnold from the Terminator. I'll be baack.

LOVE this!

Here's just one shot from my friend's wedding the other week...I LOVE it. Weddings always make me happy!

Quick little Levi update: Remember yesterday I mentioned that we are constantly asking, "What's (insert Dog name here) eating!?". This morning I heard Cole ask Callie the infamous question and she oh so nonchalantly said, "squirrel". Before you freak, it's not real. We have two not so stuffed animals for them, one is a squirrel and the other is a weasel or something. We refer to them as "road-kill" because that's what they totally look like. We bought them at Petsmart and they come without any stuffing which is a GREAT thing if you have a dog that likes to take the stuffing out.

Today I am attending a "spine class", at my neurosurgeon's office. It's a pre-requisite to my anterior laminectomy lumbar fusion with instrumentation. Man I sound smart and medical when I say that, don't I? It's 2 weeks from today. I have to stop my MEGA DOSE of anti-inflammatory in a couple days. So my family is expecting me to be a MEGA WITCH, well even more than normal lately. I'm sure I won't dissapoint. :-)

Ohhhhh, in other exciting WHIMAGES blog news...I'm going to have guest bloggers while I'm out. That way you won't have to listen to me drone on and on about my back issues, my kids, my dogs, my photos and whatever else you come here to listen to me drone about. Should be fun, huh?

I like orange. ;-)

A day in the life of a death wish dog.

*****EDIT**** I have to share this with you: Every morning when I walk Peyton to the bus stop, I have to but the terrible twosome away because even though I'm only gone 5 minutes, the mischief, mayhem and chaos that happens in those few short minutes is equal to Armageddon. Well, almost. This morning I was chatting on the phone and then ran a few minutes late, so against better judgement, I didn't put them away. I came home and Levi had gotten onto the counter and taken eggs out of Peyton's basket that were filled with playdoh. He ATE 3 EGGS FULL OF PLAYDOH. YUM!
I've been compiling a list of all the bad things Levi has done ( along with his sweet faced yet more than willing to join in companion, Cosmo). I've misplaced it. I have a sign in my kitchen that says "Those who are organized, are just too lazy to look for things." Ummm, yeah that sums me up right now. Well, I've always been disorganized but I normally LOOK for things. The medicines that keep me semi-functional (many people probably are begging to differ at this point...because of the muscle relaxants, my speech has gotten pretty sloppy, lol) just zap any energy out of my dilapidated body. Okay, stepping away from the tangent...about the list, I'm going by memory here, I know there are WAY more things but I'll add them later.

I keep ice-packs on my back a large part of the day. I've got the fancy-schmancy one (made of some type of space age NASA astronaut clay) all the way down to the old triple ziplock bag full of corn. As a side note, the clay one works like crap...it's super fun to squish but never really gets cold enough for my taste and doesn't stay cold. One of my favorites (other than the corn! LOL) was a bag of PEAZ. They are sold at CVS and look like a bag of silicon-ish cobalt blue peas. They got nice and cold, stayed cold and were a great size plus were cheap. One day, I was sitting on my foyer steps with the bag of PEAZ on my back waiting for a friend to come pick me up. As I left, I put the PEAZ on the banister railing and yelled to the big kids to please put the PEAZ back in the freezer. When I came back, I went to the freezer to get my PEAZ, simultaneously Peyton asked what Levi was eating. If you spend ANY amount of time in my house, you will hear "What is (insert Dog name here) eating?!!!" at any given moment. As I rushed to see, he quickly swallowed the remnants of his contraband. I searched for clues around the area and only found one small piece of clear heavy but pliable plastic. OH GOD! MY PEAZ! He ate the daggone PEAZ. I quickly called CVS and hastily explained my problem
and pleaded with the clerk to read the packaging to me. Luckily, they were non-toxic but who KNOWS what the things are made of. Because what goes in must come out, we (meaning the
twins because this Momma is DONE with doggie doody duty) found a very nice mound of PEAZ in the backyard. Oddly enough the individual PEAZ had swollen to like 5 times their initial size. Nice.

* Let's see...I think I already shared on here about the loaves of bread he ate that I had rising on the top of the dryer.
*Too many crayons to count. It sure helps the kids when they have doody duty!
*He likes to vomit up bits of toys in the nite. Those are fun to step on when you make the midnight run to the potty. Wet stuffed animal goo between your toes. Nice.
* 2 Nora Roberts paperbacks he used like chew-bones (not to mention the TWILIGHT movie companion he ruined a couple months back!) At least they were still readable, I just couldn't take them out in public.
*Another pack of sugar-free gum. Remember people, if the gum has xylitol in it, it can be DEADLY so don't buy it if you have a canine gum chewer like Mr. Levi.

These are all photos of the doggies today. Notice that Levi is the only one truly awake. He's plotting his next bit of mayhem. But he is a sweeeeeet boy. Macy, our princess, is wondering why I haven't covered her with the blanket. Coz can barely open his eyes enough to see what I'm doing. YES, he still has the doo dads, I promise they are on my list of things to have taken care of.


Look for my next post...I went to a friend's wedding and snapped a few shots....she looked lovely!

Me Me Me

The kids went back to school today. I love having them home but I love having them go back too! :-) Yesterday the girls and I went to the Hannah Montana movie. It really was SO good. I LIKE Miley Cyrus. I'm not afraid to say it. I think her parents are doing a great job with her so far and I've enjoyed watching her grow up on Hannah Montana. I think her parents do a really good job of trying to keep it "real" with her amid the chaos that must be the life of growing up in Hollywood. I even got teary eyed a couple times during the movie and I'm not a cryer and it wasn't because I was sitting in one spot too long (as the kid behind me can attest, I moved around in my seat more than a 5 year old with a movie-cup full bladder).

^----This one here is going to make her father and I crazy. Like shot gun at the door crazy. I don't have to pose her at all when shooting and these head tilt shots she gives me just come naturally to her. I'm really not sure it's always a great thing! The Me Me Me earrings are from a delightful Maryland artist I found on Etsy.com and completely suit little Ms. THANG to a T. I know I've told you about Etsy a million and 2 times but I promise it is THE PLACE TO SHOP for unique and ultra cool stuff especially for presents!