Tripod

If you put two talkative people together in a car for the span of twelve hours, twice in a matter of days, will they run out of conversation? No. Will they miss a toll booth while talking bargains? Yes. Will they pay $10 instead of the $.80 toll? Yes. Is $10 vs. $.80 a bargain? No. But splitting gas money is. What's better than a bargain? Twenty four hours of good conversation. With a relaxing weekend squished in between those two drives.

I took Tripod (as my brother calls Logan with his crutches) for his 6 week follow up. It is about as we expected, thankfully. The bone is growing back where they cut into it. So they gave him the green light to start walking with his crutches (quadpod) and in a week he can ditch one. And once he can walk without a limp, he can become a bipod again. Kids can make a habit out of limping, so he needs at least one crutch for a while. He'll be in therapy twice a week for about a month and then it'll taper off from there. Hopefully he will be back to running around soon.

I actually was mistaken (surprise!) about what the surgery entailed. They did cut the bone and angle it back into the socket, but did not reshape the top of the femur. That will (hopefully) happen in the future on its own. From what I understand, they had anticipated that they would have to do it, but ultimately did not. And that is why the Spica did not make its appearance in our lives. They did, however, slow or even stop the growth on the Trochanteric Plate, if that means anything to you. It does? I thought it would. We'll be back for a checkup the week following my sisters wedding~ perfect timing!

Life is good. Now I need to go grocery shopping. Apparently Zane doesn't do that when I'm gone... That's a relief. He doesn't know a bargain when he sees one.

A tisket, a tasket, I finally bought a basket!

All my mommy life, I have had an ugly stack of assorted papers in a pile. On my countertop. With no real end in sight. Yesterday I had a brainstorm: I bought a basket. And put the papers in it. DUH. It looks fabulous. I like to sit there and look at it. Basically, that is all I dare to look at. If my eyes wonder any distance in any other direction, I find more clutter. I'm about to go crazy in the basket buying department. I'm organizing. One square foot at a time. If you have any other creative solutions, do tell. I'd hate to have only baskets in my house.

Despite my migraine, life is good. I have found the meaning to life. The Keurig. If you are a coffee drinker, GET ONE!! I used to be a half-hearted coffee drinker. Now I'm a full-fledged-my-blood-is-diluted-with-coffee type person. I hope the novelty wears off soon and I go back to half-hearted. It's cheaper that way.

*$35 later, the van is up and running.
*my wallet and brain did a happy dance. my heart did not.
*Guess we'll have more of a chance to save the dollahs for my Acadia.
*Logan's appointment is early next week.
*is it garage sale season yet?
*I bought a Keurig. In case you didn't know.
*I'm speckled in Gray. True story.
*Our neighborhood now has three new mailboxes. Trust me. You don't want to buy three new mailboxes. Money down the drain. On the flip side, I found out ZZTop is a good mailbox-putter-upper. I was wondering, that's why I took 'em down in the first place.
*Spring didn't sprung. Apparently.
*It's my fault, because I washed and stashed all the winter gear.
*I actually was enjoying winter till I saw my grass. I'm over it now.

WAKE UP!!! WIPE THAT DROOL!! Geez! I mean, I know this post is boring and all, but I need you to answer a question for me. I am trying my hand at gardening this year. Heh. Did I tell you that one time I killed a cactus? True story. Anywho. What kind of plants do you recommend me torturing and then finally killing this year? I need to start out small so that I don't crash and burn two seconds into it. I know me. It's very possible.

i've got to give credit where credit is due...

i thank the bank for the money, thank God for you! Or however that song goes.

But for realz. It bothers me that I put Jenny as second best, when really she tied with Leanne. So I'm rectifying that one. Leanne did make me laugh, really laugh, on a really crappy day. (think tranny problems*) Yet, Jenny was brilliant. So both deserve it. HHC. ~if you commented on that post, my email address is mindijo1 at live dot com. Sorry apout dat.

So. I love having a blog. Really love having a blog. I'll admit, I struggle sometime with different things: how far in depth I go, how honest I am, what I want to get into, what I don't... But I have always been happy when I decide to keep on blogging. People have been brought into my life that may not have been otherwise. But mostly, the happy stuff. The pure, unadulterated joy. Like when I got the St. Urho postcards. I am pretty sure they weren't from my sisters. Fess up. I have an educated guess about who sent them... They made my day, regardless. Those things. The little things. I know I've said it before: but thank you for making my blog worthwhile, people.

*apparently my vehicle decided it no longer needs to go above 40 mph. Which is neat and lots of fun. If it is the tranny, we are thinking new vehicle. Our reasons: it needs a tuneup, spark plugs & wires, shocks/struts and it is running a little rough. The rough part may resolve itself when the other things are done, but how do you know? Anywho. We've been tossing around the idea of getting a new vehicle for a while, just not yet. I mean, c'mon- we've owned three houses since we bought this van. It has served us well. Yet. The mileage isn't super high. It just comes down to how much it will cost to fix. If it is worth it to do to keep around for one more year, we will. Otherwise, we will put the repair costs into a new vehicle. Like you wanted to know that. Now you do. Anyone want to buy a minivan for cheap? Heh.

Another thing you probably don't want to know, but will: we have decided on a crossover. A GMC Acadia or Chevy Traverse. Seats 8, but gets up to 24 mpg. Reasonably priced. We own a hot cartop carrier for luggage for trips.
You are welcome.

Although, I do admit, I look pretty darn cool driving at 40 mph with the hazards on. Or even better: in the butch mobile where I can be seen performing all sorts of amazing tricks, (like rolling down the window to open the door from the outside) while bringing out my masculine side. Seriously, I had the dudes cleaning up the side of the road in stitches today. True story. It made me wonder a little bit if I had grown two heads or if the truck is worse than I thought. Well. At least I'm not trying to find a husband or anything like that. I'm almost positive I'd be sending out the wrong vibe. But, hey! Someones gotta keep the neighborhood from being to classy. Might as well be us.

For Jan: my sisters and I did not do anything out of the ordinary for St. Urho's day. Disappointment. I had the whole hip issue to deal with- don't know their excuse. But. The St. Urho trophy is still making it's rounds. Tara handed it off to my mom. My mom finally, after 30+ years of raising kids, has an empty nest. She deserved it. Although Tara said that me getting rid of the neighborhood mailboxes almost won me the honor... What? The only thing I was getting was bills!! Who needs them anyway? Maybe I like playing bumper cars with mailboxes. Don't knock it til you try it.

Knucks to that!
~Windy Mindi

oooops!

Before I make a liar out of myself: my email is actually mindijo1 at live dot com. Sorry 'pout dat!

winner,winner,mojakka dinner!

I mean, seery-ussly. One persin mate me laff until I coot hartly breed. And part of dat wus ar fone confersashun. She explante duh whole prossess in crate tetail. She reeely mate my tay. She triet soooo hart, it woot pee un-Urho-like fer me to nut pick her.

My frent ant I yust haff duh same humor. Kiitos fer duh laff!!

And. I reely, reely, reely atmire my udder frent fer her uccomplushmints. She's also rimarkapole. Efferyputty who tode me apout demselfs es ketting a prise. Email yer addy if I don't haff it. mindijo at live dot come. Tanks fer tellen me apout yerself!

Kiitos!!

Happy most important day of the year!!

I have a serious problem. My child came home with a picture that she colored at school. It was of a Leprechaun. A leprechaun. Are these people not teaching our impressionable youth about the oh-so-awesome St. Urho? It's an outrage, I tell ya! I am a taxpaying citizen, too! That's it. I'm going to the next school board meeting and demanding that our teachers be held accountable. No longer can I sit back and have our students taught such second-rate subjects. No siree.
Don't mess with me. And certainly don't mess with St. Urho.



Whew. Glad to get that off my chest. I'm holding a contest. I want to know what YOU did this past year to make St. Urho proud. Yes, there is a prize. A year's supply of grape kool-aid in the form of a Target (or Walmart for those of you in Z's old stopping grounds) gift card. So, do tell. What did you do?

Me? I stood at the supermarket for TWO WHOLE HOURS killing the fruit flies that were buzzing around the grapes. I would have stood there longer, had they not threatened to have me arrested. Some people don't understand a good deed...

i love this i love this i love this

Sometimes the world needs a little bit of hap-pay. This makes me happy.

Medium length shag with bangs

Yesterday was beautiful.
It rained. I love the rain. More than that, the sequence of events was perfection.

Drop kids off at school. Drop remaining two off with Em- we switch kids every other week. Heaven. Meet the amazing ZZtop and his hot new soul patch at the coffee shop. (Yeah, I'm going there! My husband is hot. And his soul patch just capitalizes on that. Oh, please. Why should I act like I don't know it? He has been known to cause a stir when he enters a room. I know this because I have seen him with my own two eyes. And. Because people tell me. So there. Plus, I am a card carrying member of the HHC. (hot husband club) It's real a club.) So. Back to my day. After the coffee, the bullseye store. New hair. Jimmy John's. Reflexology. Responsible parenting thing. Aka: pick up all my kids. Cardio kickboxing. Pasketti for supp. End day with a cup of tea with the man and his soul patch. Perfection.

On to the new hair. Insert bulgy-eye pic. Why would I put a bulgy eye pic up on my blog, you ask? Because this picture makes me look thin. Thin trumps EvErYtHiNg. And I am not photogenic, so I take what I can get.

Two hours later, after an hour of kickboxing. Just keepin' it real. And I wanted proof that I was still alive after the class. Because I wasn't sure. This haircut did something I thought might happen, but was unsure of the extent. It brought back the curl from my body wave. Holy Fazoli! It's going to be more maintenance than I had pictured. Unless I want to look like a mom. If you know me, you know I will be a mom, obviously. BUT. I am adamant about the fact that I don't want to look like one nor have my role as a mom define me. It's all good, tho. My hair is healthy again. And healthy is good.

Another hint...

This scared me a little: the closest thing that I could get to finding what I wanted was a picture of Ashlee Simpson. Yep. I wanted to look like Ashlee Simpson. What has this world come to?!

New hair?!

I'm overdo for a new 'do. I decided to be prepared and google what I wanted. This is the first three pictures that came up with the description that of what I want:

Can anyone guess what I googled?

I'll give the first person that correctly guesses a gift card.

Besides these obvious hints, I will tell you this: my google search contained five words.

For extra credit: which picture did I go with?

(Three posts in one day? Yikes. What happened? I've been a slacker blogger and then BOOM!)

time March(es) on

Despite what my drivers license may or may not say, it's creeping up on the time of year that we left our beloved New Mexico behind. That's right. Michigan hasn't completely sucked me in yet- although it did get our two vehicles. Traitors. It may have been in defeat. That, or fear of being ticketed for expired tabs. To be fair, they hung on until the very end. (February)

*sigh*

While it was really easy to leave behind the Days Inn that was our home for a month, there were so many people and things that weren't easy to leave behind. Just the other day I found myself daydreaming about remodeling our house there. Until I remembered that it isn't ours anymore. More often, my thoughts are about the people there.

*sigh*

As two of my favorite little peeps in the land of enchantment said:

"I miss you peeps and little peeps. I will always keep you in my heart. Always."

Slow leak of Peace

I feel like I'm a balloon with a slow leak. I don't quite want to let all my air out in one swoosh just to find the world exploding around me. It's too early to claim that we made it through. But, I kind of feel like we have. The stresses we've carried have almost completely evaporated from our shoulders. We still have the big hip appointment coming up, yet my mommy intuition says it's going to be okay. I've spent the first part of March with my feet up, coffee in hand. Just enjoying the bliss that comes with no major stresses in life. I even plowed my way through a book on Saturday. Peace. Really. I'm not going to take that feeling for granted for a looooong time.

Oh. And. Knock on wood. I'm just superstitious enough...

life is so good * i've got nothing to complain about

What's up and thank you!

The transition from brace to up on crutches was slightly less than smooth. We were a little out of our element here. Not having had surgery myself nor dealing with this situation left me not fully understanding what to expect. But we made it. A couple trips to the physical therapist to help with learning the ins and outs of it all and we are a little more adjusted to the situation. The brave little guy is not only up on crutches, he can also bend his leg at a 90 degree angle, go to the bathroom alone and dress himself. HUGE. (Yes, Z and I got a date night!)

Other good news? Logan and I have spent hours playing his new games together. A lot of qt- something good that I hadn't expected to get out of the situation.

He will, however, be going back to school. Apparently, the homebound program will only be continued if the doc says that it is required that he stays home. This isn't going to happen, I know that without even asking. Because the doc explained how we deal with school. Once the accommodations are made, he'll be heading back. This brings on mixed emotions. Logan is bummed- what kid wouldn't want to stay home? And I am, too. It was a great way for us to have extra time together. And I'm scared that he might be teased at school. Yet. It is also like pulling teeth to get him to do his homework. And. There is a lot to be said for the social setting your child experiences in public school. I think they need that. (Not starting a debate about homeschooling here. Your choice is your choice. I respect that.) Let's just hope it goes smoothly, especially for the little guy.

A big thank you to anyone who helped us out in any way during this situation: support, encouragement, kind words, bits of advice, child care, gifts, borrowed crutches, etc. It helped us out more than you will ever know. Thank you.