Weather Watching

It's been an usually dry spring, but we have been expecting the rain to return. And one day it did.

By the bucketful!

Hard to see, but there was a lovely rainbow after a few minutes of downpour.

For the Birds

Just as we were dealing with Miri's accident, we still had things at home that had to be taken care of. The chicks have been growing quickly and they needed more room in their brooder. But they aren't quite ready to go outside yet (which is a good thing, because the pen still isn't fenced yet - that's the chore for next weekend).

We put them in the dog crate for a short time, as we worked to build a special fence across one of the doors of the chicken house.

Daddy was so thrilled to do this project. Can you tell?

And as if the regular chores weren't enough, the garbage disposal went on the fritz one night. Fortunately Daddy is a troubleshooting genius and knows all about hoses and pumps and fittings and stuff like that. He found the source of the problem (danged artichokes!) and had us back in shape over his lunch break. All in a day's work. 

Spring Break - A Whole New Meaning!

This is going to be a long post, and it will be be a bit graphic. Such is the nature of what happened to our little Miri on March 20. She started off her Spring Break in a very tough way.

She was playing Frisbee with her sister, and she happened to lose her balance and fall just the right (wrong!) way off the retaining wall in the back yard.

She broke her arm - very badly. Mommy was on her way home from work, and Daddy called 911 to get help from the paramedics. It was gruesome and unbearably painful.

After some very tearful statements in the yard before the paramedics arrived (more on this later), she was amazingly brave and strong in the ER. The pain medication helped immensely, of course.

As a family, last weekend we saw the newly released Cinderella movie (and despite mommy's princess avoidance thing, I actually recommend this live action version). There's a very strong message throughout the movie of "Have courage and be kind." I reminded Miri of this when she was dealing with this awful situation, and she would put on a little smile and nod her head and press on. She was amazing to handle this as she did. The staff was very impressed. She also maintained her manners (somehow), remembering her pleases and thankyous. I can't say that I would have done the same thing!

I think her Gramma Patty was giving her strength too - she was a very strong person and put up with a lot in hospitals and recovery. Miri surely got some of that toughness from her.

The x-ray of the arm. Even a non-medically trained eye can tell this is not right!

She had emergency surgery that night to insert 3 pins to hold her arm back together.

Can you imagine??

She and Mommy spent the night in the hospital. Daddy and Aleaha came to visit that night and stayed as late as possible. (Note the little brown stuffed animals on the bed - that was a beaver the hospital staff gave her, and when she emerged from surgery he was wearing a scrubs cap and had his right arm bandaged, just like hers. She was awed by that!)

She was asking in the ER what her hospital room would look like. She was afraid it would be too big. (Ha - it was not!) The ER nurse explained it would not be too big, and she would have a nice view. So we took a picture for the scrapbook.

The next day, as she began her recovery at home, the flowers and balloons and gifts started rolling in. We are so grateful to family and friends who have helped her get well again!

Her sister is a very important helper in all ways - fetching, entertaining, and generally watching out for her.

Thank heavens for the strong pain medication.

What a difference that makes!

And BearCat has been an important part of the recovery process too. He sleeps at her feet each night.

Doing a fancy stick-on nail project.

It turned out to be completely a flop and very impractical, but it was 10 minutes of fun.

They also worked together to stamp out some thank-you cards. Aleaha wrote on the inside and Miri stamped the outside.

Since the chores never end around here, she proved very good at helping to match socks...

...until the meds made her sleepy again.

She insisted on helping with the Lemon Snow Bars (baking is always a great way to take your mind off things - we've been making something every day).

So she had a little fun with that project.

She is doing lots of things with her left hand.

For the record, Mommy did not "make" her vacuum -- she insisted! She was frustrated at not being able to help, so we set her up for success with a lightweight vacuum cleaner.

It's been quite an ordeal for her. And as her family to support her, it's also been a little hard - although she is the one to get all the points for being tough. 

As she laid on the ground right after the fall, screaming, moaning, and crying huge tears of pain, she started to get a little scared. 

"I don't want to die, Mommy!" 

OMG, my baby! What an awful thing for a 5 year old to think about! I tried to keep myself calm and relay that to her too. "No, sweetie, you don't need to worry about that. It's going to be OK." And of course as her mother I was praying the whole time and worrying about infections and things I don't even know might go wrong that would take her away from us.

Having heard everyone say "she broke her arm," her mind went a little far on this idea: 

"I don't want my arm to break off, Mommy!"

"Heavens, no, honey, we aren't going to let that happen! The paramedics will help you and move you very slowly and carefully!"

She did still maintain her sense of person. Her specialness. Her way of communicating. In the ambulance on the way to the ER, she said,

"Mommy, do you know that this is my ART ARM? It's also the one I write with. And eat with. Mommy!!!! What will I do??"

"Yes, honey, I understand. But you won't need to worry, because I'm sure everyone will help you and you will figure things out, and it won't be forever."

In the ER, she took note of a remark one of the staff made about what she was enduring: 

"That boy said I had the most courage ever and I was the bravest kid he knew!"

Before surgery, realizing that she was going to be in the hospital overnight, she said,

"Mommy, I don't think we should leave Daddy and Aleaha home alone tonight."

A couple of days later, reflecting on everything:

"Mommy, I’m sorry if I freaked you out by saying I didn’t want to die. I was just really scared."

In the middle of the night, as we struggled to get her next med dose in her while the previous dose wore off: 

"Mommy, can I just say this one time? It hurts like hell!"

In a rough moment in recovery at home,

"I don't ever want any of my family to have to get a broken arm. It's really bad!"

As the days went on and she began to make things and was even writing with her left hand, getting a bit angry at times if we tried to help her: 

“But I can DO it!”

While putting on a fresh tank top, something easily slipped over her huge cast, and liking one constructed like a camisole with adjustable shoulder straps:

“Mommy! Mommy! I like that one the best! The one with the little boob holders!” 

Ah yes. She's still in there, despite dealing with this. She's still our Miri!

Remembering Bill and Dave

Mommy was recently teaching a class in Palo Alto. While there, she had the chance to visit the offices of the founders of HP, which have been preserved as they were when they worked there. It's a bit like stepping back in time.

This is Bill Hewlett's office.

This is Dave Packard's office.

I was totally teary, standing in these rooms and feeling their awe. This will be my 20th year with HP. Although I didn't originally picture myself staying with the company that long (or living away from EO that long), there are some aspects that have been very positive. I have needed to focus on those aspects lately, not only for my own good but especially for my kids. Aleaha made a comment recently about my working and how she never wanted to study whatever I did and work at HP, because she saw me as always unhappy and down about work. It struck me that I need to help her see the good that one can do in working (I tried not to make it all about a paycheck, but someday she'll understand that part too).

I was sure to tell her how emotional it was to be there in this place and realize who they were and how much I have appreciated working in their company.

Whining

On those aforementioned business trips, Mommy sometimes is known to stop by a grocery store and buy cheap, practically undrinkable wine as a feeble attempt to keep her usual routine of a glass at the end of the day to wind down (yes, I fully admit this, even to my doctor). I came across this one, with its cool statement about sisters, and I nearly bought it, in honor of Kelly and Jodi.

But then I remembered that the super cheap hotel I was staying in didn't even have real glasses in the bathroom. I was not going to drink nice wine out of a paper cup.

So I drank super cheap wine instead. The kind that came in it's own plastic cup.

I probably didn't make the right choice.

Minivan Dreams

Mommy has had a few business trips lately, and that meant there would be a series of rental cars (for getting to and from PDX). The girls LOVE to ride in the rental cars, either as we pick it up the day before the trip or return it afterwards.

And this particular time they were particularly stoked, because it was a.... MINIVAN. Oh boy, were they in love with that!

Go figure. 

I can't wait to tell them this when they are 15. Ha!

Aleaha took a couple of selfies...

Goofballs.

Mommy looks like a soccer mom here, for sure.

Molting Horses

We are so glad to see the spring and see the end of the winter mud. It will still take a while for the horses to shed out. Each has a different mud personality.

Shorty likes to roll every day, regardless of what things look like in the paddock. He doesn't have very long hair, but the mud cakes on strongly, of course. So he has DingleBerries, and they haven't even begun to come off yet, sadly.  

Jake, fortunately, was not into rolling, so he didn't really get caked with mud. He's probably not wanting to roll in the gravel, because he's too bony and it wouldn't feel good. But he will happily roll in the grass of the arena and leave behind a red carpet of long hair.

Quigly also likes to roll, and with his long hair, he develops terrible mats. I call them Dragon Scales.

They are just about gone now, but when this picture was taken (about a week ago), he was getting really tired of them. I think they are annoying, as they pull at his skin.

Arby rolls in the spring, but not in the winter, so he didn't look so bad. 

Chicks!

After a year of waiting and planning and building the chicken house and pen, we finally were able to bring some chickies home!

In order to get the breeds we wanted, we had to go to 2 different places and do it over 2 weeks. So 8 came from one location and the other 6 arrived later. That's a little risky, because the older, bigger ones can have a tendency to beat up the smaller, younger ones. Fortunately, it looks like they are going to be OK.

The girls have been very good at helping take care of them. Naturally they love to pick them up, which we encourage as long as they are gentle and clean their hands right away afterwards. It does help to acclimate the birds to being handled, which is very helpful later on if you have to catch them for any reason.

(We are brooding them in an old galvanized water trough, which is inside the chicken house. We have the concreted wooden posts up around the outside of the house, but we haven't built the fence yet. That's probably next weekend's major chore, and then Daddy can built the custom-fit gate. Our biggest concern right now is keeping up with the daily feeding and watering, while making sure they stay warm and that Smokey doesn't get in the house with them.)

Sock Hop

In 2014, when it was time for the Sock Hop at school, Aleaha came home wondering why all the girls were wearing big skirts with poodles on them. It seems the PTA a few years back passed out patterns for circle skirts. So this year, armed with Pinterest, we were ready! We bought the felt fabric long in advance, and the girls made their choices for applique designs. Aleaha was not about to have a poodle involved - it had to be a horse. So we used Shorty as the template! And Miri wanted balloons. 

(It was also Crazy Sock Day, so Aleaha was wearing Mommy's very old toe socks, with funky stripes.) 

Aleaha took part in the Hula Hoop contest and was runner-up! Here she is in the final round, with 2 h oops!

Go Aleaha!

Flashback!

This is Aleaha, wearing a dress that Mommy wore in third grade. She chose to pair it with cowgirl boots. 

And this is Miri wearing a t-shirt that Mommy wore in kindergarten. Wow, that takes me back!

Projects and Springtime

Handsome boys, ready for some time out in the sunshine.

Digging holes for the chicken pen (more on this in future postings).

Happy goats and llama, mowing away.

Just being together.

Happy horses, getting their time to mow and soak up the sun.

While the big animals were out of the barnyard, Mommy & Daddy cleaned out Jake & Arby's stall. 

What a chore. It was awfully deep. 

They were very thankful for the chance to graze and roll and lie (lay?) in the sun.