Tuesday, June 18, 2013

My First Pedicure


(I don't know what's gotten in to me----five posts in one day???)

As long as I have been posting pedicure photos, here's one from my first pedicure. I recognize my left foot. It's the one on the right. On the left is my daughter's right foot. So my left foot is on the right, and my daughter's right foot is on the left. Is that right?

During one of her earliest visits to us after we had moved to Hawaii, she was shocked to learn I had never gotten a pedicure. So one day she decided to take me to the nail place at the bottom of our hill in Kailua so we could get pedicures together. It was a real mother-daughter bonding time.

I would be remiss in not saying that I have to HAND it to my daughter for being so thoughtful, because she insisted she would be the one to FOOT the bill.

Funny Signs

These are a few of the funny signs we've seen in the various places we have lived and traveled:







I've always wanted to add this caption below that last picture:

    "It doesn't have to be."

Not-so-fun BVG Demographics

Within four days of each other, 50% of the BVG's were told at separate hospitals, "Your husband is having a heart attack." This is not a demographic we like to hear about. As it turned out, my husband and I were the fortunate ones. Cool and her husband would say, "We're fortunate too," and that would be true, but he now has two stents and we continue to be concerned for his health. The past two weeks have been exhausting, both physically and emotionally, but in the end, thanks be to God for answered prayer. And thanks, too, for the love and support of the BVG's who are here for each other in the bad times as well as the good times.

A week ago yesterday I was taken by the hospital's Heart Attack Coordinator to the front waiting room while my husband was rushed from the ER to the surgery room where his angiogram was performed. I had remained calm as my husband, who was experiencing a tightening in his chest and chest pain that was radiating up in to his throat and neck, was sent from his doctor's office to the emergency room at the hospital. Now, sitting alone in this waiting room, the reality of what was going on started to set in. I knew I needed to text my three children, all of whom live far away. Besides them, the only other people I considered contacting were the BVG's.

I have thought a lot about this during the past week. I have many friends and other family members I could have called, but the ones I trusted to pray for my husband were the BVG's. Their quick responses to my texts and their expressions of support meant the world to me.

How must this have affected Cool when she read my text? Four days before she was at work when she received word that her husband had a heart attack and was in the hospital. She had to leave work and drive to the hospital alone. The thing is, her husband had done the same thing! Yes, he drove himself to the hospital when he was having a heart attack. He walked in the ER and said he was having chest pains, and he got immediate attention. I know in my husband's case, I was amazed how quickly there were eight additional people in the ER working around my husband when his EKG indicated he was having a heart attack.

To make my long story short, it wasn't a heart attack at all. In fact, the cardiologist found that he has no heart disease and no blockages whatsoever. Did I say he was 'fortunate'? He is extremely blessed!! More tests were done on him that evening, and the following morning they had the diagnosis: Pericarditis, or inflammation of the sac around the heart. Pericarditis mimics a heart attack. He apparently got this from taking antibiotics for a sinus infection two months before. All he needed were some anti-inflammatory drugs to fix him up good as new. His relief came immediately after even just one tiny pill.

I wish that was all Cool's husband needed. He's at home, she's at work, they are both exhausted. My husband is at work, I'm at home, and we're recovering from our exhaustion. Cool's oldest child come from Oregon to be with her at the hospital and then again this past weekend to help celebrate Father's Day with his dad. My oldest came with her husband and eight-month-old son from California the day my husband got out of the hospital and stayed through Father's Day as well. We live just ten minutes apart and wished we could have gotten the two of them together for another BVGO (Bethel Valley Girl Offspring) Reunion, but that wasn't possible.

Now here's a happy thing: Elletu's daughter loaned me her high chair to use while my grandson was here, and now she says she is willing to sell it to me as long as I'll make her some garlic chicken salad. You better believe I'm going to make it for her! Now my grandchildren will use the same high chair used by Elletu's grandchildren!

So I shall end this post on a high note, with a FUN BVG demographic:

50% of the BVG's have grandchildren who used the same high chair.

UP

I grew UP in a family that was interested in words. Our favorite family game was Scrabble, and I was always UP for playing. My own children were brought UP on word games, and whenever we get together these days someone always brings UP playing Boggle. I opened UP my e-mail the other day and one of my brothers had sent me this forward about the word UP (see below, not UP above). I fixed it UP a bit, adding some of my own applications I came UP with. I hope you're UP to reading it:  

There is perhaps no other two-letter word that has more meanings and uses than the word UP. It is easy to think of the word UP meaning toward the sky, but consider this:

When we wake UP, we open UP our eyes.
After we get UP in the morning, we make UP the bed.
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?
Why do we speak UP?
Why do offices come UP for election?
Why is it UP to a secretary to write UP a report?
Why do we call UP our friends?
We take time to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver and warm UP the leftovers.
Before we serve a pie, we might whip UP some whipping cream.
We clean UP the kitchen and lock UP the house.
Sometimes we pay some guys to fix UP the old car.
Some people stir UP trouble.
After an argument, it is good to make UP.
A woman looks in a mirror to put on her make-up.
We line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
A drain must be opened UP when it is stopped UP.
A store is opened UP in the morning and then closed UP at night.
When a song is dragging, we have to pick UP the tempo.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about the word UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper use of the word UP,
Look it UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP about 1/4 of the page.
It adds UP to about 30 definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.
It will take UP a lot of your time, but don't give UP.
You may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out, we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains a lot, it often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for a while, things dry UP.
One could go on and on, but I'll wrap this UP.
Now it's UP to you to think UP more to add to this list.
Are you UP to it???
 




 

Texas Toes


Thirty toes in Texas, and ten of them belong to j, ten to j's daughter, and ten to j's granddaughter. I'm sitting here trying to figure out which of these toes are 65 years old. Good news, j-----I can't see the difference!

Friday, June 7, 2013

Give Feet a Chance!


With so much attention being paid to our hands, I think it's time to give feet a chance! In this photo, my foot sticks out like a sore toe. Not only is my foot the only one in a black flip-flop, but it's the only one with a sore toe and in fact the only one with a FAKE toenail. That's right, I needed a fake big toenail after my husband practically ripped it off during dance practice night shortly before our son's wedding. I still can't figure out why he had his big shoes on in the first place, because we lived in Hawaii at the time. We were always barefoot in our house, where the practice took place. We invited the family of our future daughter-in-law over for dinner, and then after dinner we cleared the furniture in our big family room and proceeded to practice dancing as we would be at the wedding reception. My husband and I aren't the world's best dancers so we needed a lot of practice, but that was shut down pretty fast after he slammed his big shoe-clad foot in to mine, tearing my big toenail back and causing lots of blood and pain. If I were a swearing woman I know I would have sworn, but I'm not so I didn't. I'll never forget the pain and then the anguish I had when I pictured me at the wedding in my open-toed shoes.

Pedicurist to the rescue! The next day a few of us, including my daughter, went to get our pre-wedding pedicures together, and I was fitted with a phony big toenail which was eventually painted just the way I liked it in Hawaii--flowers on the big toenail, oh yes, island-style. No one could tell the difference.

So those aren't BVG feet in the picture above. I'm not sure I could get my Sisters to pose their feet like that. Maybe I'll try sometime, but for now, from July 2007, from Hawaii, I present my foot with some of its friends.

And speaking of weddings, two years ago today my other son was married in New Orleans. There was no dance practice night before that wedding.