Rooms With a View

WHY THAT FACE?

I have been trying to convince Charlie to join the Knights of Columbus for many years. Recently, at church, they made an announcement that they were accepting applications. Patrick told Charlie if he joined, Patrick would also join when he turns 18. So, he did it, he joined the Knights of Columbus. Last night was the Induction ceremony.

 

Charlie is in the back row in the blue shirt.

I actually scrapped yesterday...

If you want to see the photo better, just click on it.

Today is my great niece Grace's birthday! Happy Birthday Miss Grace. We love you.

Well, that is all for today! Have a great Wednesday.

WGU COMMERCIAL!

Charlie works at WGU and they have finally made a commercial that is currently airing. I wanted to share the video since it is quite funny and I am very proud of my cute and smart husband. Enjoy!

I AM A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD WIFE...

July 18th was my amazing husbands birthday and I have yet to post about it. I realize that I did not have a computer for the first week or so after the big day; still, I could have posted sooner. As they say, better late than never.

I did have a party for Charlie... here is how it started out....

My good friend Christi, her kids, and her brother Waller came along with Waller's daughter Joyce who was in town visiting. I made pizza and the kids swam while the adults drank Margaritas. Here are the few photos that I managed to take...

 

Christi, her kids, Waller and Joyce gave Charlie this HUGE Margarita glass. The girls painted it just for Charlie.

 

Charlie opening the present from the kids and me. (I will post about our creation later)

 

Reading my card.

 

Patrick and Al Jr. trying to keep the candles lit.

 

Listening to us sing.

 

Vinny, Anna Kate, Joyce, and Abigail singing.

 

Making a wish! Okay, he is actually blowing out the candles.

 

Al Jr. removing the candles with Abigail, Waller, and Christi in the background.

 

My beautiful friend Christi!

Happy birthday Charlie (even though he does not read this blog). Leave him a birthday comment and I will be sure he reads it!

HOME SWEET HOME

Tuesday morning came too quickly. I was not ready to go home yet and leave family behind. I was also not looking forward to the 16 hour train ride. Here are a few photos of our day which started at 6:00am.

 

 

 

 

 

Once on the train we took a few more photos...

 

 

The kids were fascinated by the cemeteries in New Orleans. Since the city is below sea level the graves are all above ground.

 

Patrick took this photo of a house being remodeled and the debris still left behind from Katrina. The words READ on the wall caught his attention.

The best photo of them all...

 

Charlie's childhood home. It is the light green one with the boarded up windows. If you click on the photo you can see it larger and you will notice the water line and mold still left from Katrina. We tried to see the house on the way in to the city but missed it. I am so happy that we were able to see it on our way out.

This is finally the last post on our trip. Thanks for taking the journey with me. You will be happy to know that we are not going anywhere else this summer so no more two week posts, just the everyday stuff.

Have a groovy Wednesday!

HOW TO GET A RELUNCTANT DAD INTO THE POOL.

On Friday night while Christi and her kids were over we were all having a great time in the pool. There were only two people not in the water; Al Jr. due to a bad back and Charlie. I put Al to work as the photographer of the evening so he had a job. Charlie, on the other hand, was not doing much of anything...

 

Eventually he made his way to the side of the pool...

 

My kids were not going to have their dad sitting on the side of the pool during a party. So, operation 'Get Dad Into the Pool' commenced...

 

First, the youngest who is the most innocent sneaks up to her dad.

 

Then, the oldest and biggest does a front flip landing as close as possible to the sitting dad making sure to make a big splash.

Meanwhile, the middle son has snuck out of the pool and is quietly approaching the sitting duck, I mean dad.

 

Part one is complete, dad is in the pool. 

 

Next, make sure that the dad is nice and wet. This way he has not excuse not to get all the way in.

 

Continue to splash the dad until he is nice and soaked.

 

Operation Get Dad Into the Pool is a success. Thank you Al for taking these amazing photos!

Thanks for stopping by!

OBSESSED? WHO ME?

Charlie and the kids think I am a little obsessed when it comes to cleaning the pool. I will admit, I do like it clean. I do not like dirt on the bottom or bugs floating on the top. If I wanted to swim in a lake, I would go swim in a lake. I want a nice clean pool that I can swim in without the risk of swallowing a bug.

To keep the pool the way I like it I usually have to vacuum it every morning which takes at least an hour. Then I use the net to scoop up whatever is on the top of the water. This takes about another hour. Once a month or sooner, I take the magic sponge to the sides. By the time I am finished cleaning the pool, I usually need a nap.

So, my lovely, caring, thoughtful husband surprised me with an automatic vacuum! They do make one that actually goes to the top of the water and scoops up the bugs and such but we would have had to get a second mortgage on our house to pay for it. The vacuum arrived while Charlie was in Atlanta and I thought about putting it together while he was gone but decided I had better wait. First thing Monday morning Charlie was outside putting it together. Here are a few photos...

 

The tube Charlie is trying to attach to the vacuum is for our manual vacuum. For some reason he thought he would just use this tube instead of the one that came with the new vacuum. It did not work.

 

Then he tried to attach the old hose to the new hose. Why? I have no idea.

 

I finally suggested that perhaps he read the directions.

 

He is now ready to try it out. First he had to take out the old tubing and put it away. It works so well. It took most of the day but the pool was very dirty. It even climbs up the walls and cleans them. The only thing it does not do is the stairs. So, before we use it, I will go in and sweep the stairs off with a little brush. We will start running the vacuum at night so that in the morning all I have to do is net and then I can swim and get some exercise!

I am so lucky to be married to someone so thoughtful! Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful holiday weekend. I will be back on Tuesday.

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

Let's start with the good news, shall we. Look what my sweet husband gave me for an early Mother's Day present....

 

 

Isn't she beautiful? He also gave me these on Tuesday...

 

He thought that this Sunday was Mother's Day.

Now for the bad news... I still have my Tysabri headache so I am signing off for today. I will be back on Monday with a real post. I hope you have a groovy weekend.

CHARLIE UPDATE AND NEW MS DRUG CLINICAL TRIAL

Charlie did not end up having a great day yesterday. He was unable to empty his bladder and by early evening he was in a great deal of pain. His doctor told us to go the ER. He got very sick on the drive there and then after a 2 hour wait they finally put in a catheter and drained more than a LITER of fluid from his bladder. He felt so much better after that! Today the pain from his surgery has been pretty bad. He is taking his pain meds and is able to get some rest. I do think he is getting a little tired of broth and jello. Tomorrow I promised to make him some Grits and he cannot wait!

Okay, enough about bladders. I received an email today asking me if I would post this information on my blog. This clinical trial is for a new oral medication for the treatment of MS. For those of you that do not know much about the therapies available for MS let me tell you that currently all of them are administered by a shot or an IV. An oral therapy would be so awesome. These therapies are not treatments; they are therapies for which the mail goal is to slow down the progress of the disease. There are no treatments or cures for MS and very little federal money is spent on research. I strongly urge you to support the MS Society in your area. I cannot post without a photo. Here is a photo of the very first scrapbook page I ever made. This is Patrick when he was about 7 months old. Great photo, scary page.

Here is the information for the clinical study...

Clinical Research Study Evaluating An Investigational Medication for Relapsing Forms of Multiple Sclerosis

Medical researchers are enrolling people in a worldwide clinical research study for people with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (RMS). This study will assess the safety and effectiveness of an investigational study medication versus placebo (an inactive substance which contains no active medication) in people ages 18-55 years old with RMS.

 

The investigational medication used in this study is called teriflunomide (ter-i-flün-ō-mïde). It is derived from leflunomide (le-flü-nō-mïde), also known as Arava®. Arava® is already approved in many countries for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, another autoimmune disease. 

 

The first step in determining eligibility for this study is to take the pre-screening questionnaire either online or on the phone. You will be asked a series of questions related to your health and be given additional information about study site locations.  Visit www.tower3.msstudies.com  or call 1-866-565-0245 todayto learn more about the study and see if you may qualify.

 

 

CHARLIE IS THE PROUD PARENT OF .....

A Direct Hernia which we have affectionately named Herndon. The surgery went great and now he is home feeling like crap. He is nauseated and yet he has very little pain from his beautiful 5 inch incision. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I cannot post without a photo. Lucky for you, I left my camera in the car when I was finally allowed to see him. Believe me, I missed some really great Kodak moments. I did take this photo after I pulled the car around to pick him up.

He looks pretty good don't you think?

12 YEARS AGO TODAY

12 years ago today, I became the luckiest woman in the world. I did not realize just how lucky I was until much later in our marriage. When I was diagnosed with MS our lives changed quite a bit. I still worked and Charlie stayed home with the kids. When I was finally forced to go on disability that is when our lives really changed. As my health has declined my amazing husband has stepped up to the plate and keeps our family, our home and our lives running just as smoothly as before. He cooks, he cleans, he drives the kids to and from school, he runs errands and he also works full time. When I am feeling icky, he waits on me and does whatever he can to make me feel better. I am so blessed to have this wonderful man in my life. I am thankful that my boys have him as a role model and I pray that my daughter will find herself a man as worthy as her father is.

 

No, this is not our wedding. I do not have any wedding photos scanned into my computer so I picked an old one of us just before we conceived Patrick.

Cannot leave you without a video... Here is Patrick's Choir singing O Holy Night.