An evening out with the girls

It was a merry group who went to a dinner theater in Newburgh.  

The play was crap, but the girls were fun.

Remembering our last goodbye

When we saw Bill last Sunday,  he and I talked in the movie parking lot for a few minutes.  As he left he said, "Bye, Perrski."  Perrski was a name he gave me in retaliation for nicknaming him Billski  20 years ago. It was a name he hadn't called me in years.  I just looked at him a few seconds.  He kinda nodded his head at me and smiled, like he was recalling the past. 

I just smiled back at him and replied, "I'll see you later, Billski."

Carly and fishing

Every since Carly's display of unbelievably  poor decision making skills in July, she has been monitored 24/7.  She has spent a lot of time fishing with Bill, and at first she did so quite grudgingly and with an attitude. However, as the summer went on and she came to realize that this was indeed her life and it wasn't going to change anytime soon, she finally took our advice and learned to fish.

Last weekend, on a 3 day trip to Kentucky Lake with Billski, she reeled in these beauties.  I told her it would be funny if she ended up on the Bass Pro tour someday.  From the look on her face, I don't think she has that in her future plans.  She and Bill are leaving for a week of fishing in Alabama next week. 

Next up -- Deer Hunting!  She's really in a state of denial that she has to go hunting.  But hunting she will go.  Even when she was helping to assemble the new 2 person deer tree stand that Billski bought for them to share -- who did she think was going to be up there in the tree with him? 

Forgot about this little purchase

Got this last month, so after 25 years of driving a mini van (or a 15 passenger van), I am done driving vans!  Every day I love it more ~~ I just don't pay attention to the gas mileage and I can effectively block that part out.   When Billski bought it for me I told him I would stay home more to save gas.  He just laughed and replied, "No you won't. Don't even say that."

Hmmm, seems he knows me rather well at times.

Daytona Beach Boardwalk

Daytona Beach

While the kids and I hung out at Daytona Beach today, Billski went off and had a first of his own. He went deep sea fishing. He enjoyed it so much he's going a couple of other days this week as well.

New Smyrna Beach, Florida

Today Wesley and Ryan saw the ocean for the first time. They loved it. We just stayed for a little while to avoid sunburns on the first day.

Just the way he thinks

Jacob was chosen to wrap my birthday gift from Billski. Somehow, the gift changed into a gift from Jacob.......and others as they came to his mind. Overall, the "wrapping" was obviously a skill he inherited from me.

Few things in our house constitute an emergency

like running out of coffee does. When Billski runs out of coffee, it is just not a pretty sight. Over the years, I have come up with the genius plan to ward off the coffeeless monster by keeping one snack size ziplock bag of coffee in the freezer. That gives me 24 hours to get to the store and buy more Folgers.

It's a good plan. It's worked many times over the years until Monday. Monday, instead of grabbing the bag of coffee, Billski grabbed a bag that his friend had given him and brewed it up -- and drank it. Or at least one sip of it. Then he quickly realized he had brewed up a big ol' pot of cajun spices.

Nuerosurgeon Visit

Billski and I went to Louisville Friday for my appointment and had this x-ray shown to me. The little arrow points to the three disks that are still bulged out. They are no longer pinching against my spinal cord so I don't have to wear the neck brace any more. They are however, still quite bulged out and "impeding the flow of the spinal fluid". Not sure exactly what that has to do with anything, but the doctor was quite candid in telling me that I was a good candidate to have surgery and have my spinal fused there. Did I want to go ahead and discuss that?

Since I feel great (relatively speaking), and have no sypmtoms from these disks, I quickly assured him I was NOT going to do that and thanked him for his time and hit the road.

Billski and I enjoyed the rest of the day in Louisville at Famous Dave's BBQ and Bass Pro Shop where he bought his birthday present. We spent the night and then met Teri and Shane for lunch at Joe's Crab Shack on Saturday, where Bill celebrated turning 52 with a big bucket of lobster and crab legs.

In the short time we were away from home, we managed to do quite a bit of eating and Christmas shopping before coming home and watching Rango with the kids and grandkids Saturday night.

A good doctor visit, good food, good friends and good times. All in all, quite a sucessful weekend.

The Bike Fairy

Billski has a tradition of buying kids their first bikes - and today was Keegan's day. Andi told him Baba was coming to take him to Wal-Mart and Keegan immediately got excited and told Andi he was getting a new bike today. And he did. And he loved it ~~ and he was one happy little kid.

To answer the question of

"Will it hurt if you drop a full tub of ice cream on your foot?" Yes, it does. Technically, I didn't drop the tub. I was reaching for one in the back of the freezer and the one I grabbed knocked the one in the front of the freezer off the shelf. I didn't even know it was falling until it had already landed.

Had it x-rayed Friday night and the ER doctor said he thinks it has a break right down by the big toe. So I have a lovely boot to wear and a nice prescription of Lortabs. I'm supposed to go see our friendly orthopaedic doctor Thursday, but I think if it was really broken, it would hurt worse. So I will wear the boot, take the pills and when it's done hurting, quit wearing the boot. I think that is a much better plan.

When Bill called Friday night on his lunch I told him I thought I may have broken my foot and he responded, "Oh, man, I just had 11 stitches put in my hand at work." He fell at work and when he reached down to catch himself, he landed palm down on a metal grate. Billski came home with his hand and thumb stitched and wrapped and a matching prescription for Lortab.

Frozen Shoulder Be Gone!

So for the past two years or so, I've had a frozen shoulder. Officially, it's called Adhesive Capulitis but the long and short of it is that my right arm would not swing backwards or go behind my back. The doctor thinks it originated when Sherie and I were putting up ceiling tiles in what was then her shop and is now my ice cream store. And it hurt like heck to do simple things like scrunch your arm up to put on a seat belt or pull up your pants -- both things I did quite frequently.

The doctor has been putting steroid shots in it every 3 months since I first hurt it. Enough of that since the pain was increasing we went to Step 2. Thursday afternoon Dr. Goris manipulated my arm while I was soundly sedated. As in -- broke off all the adhesions. The nurse said it sounded like a bowl of Rice Krispies with all the snaps, crackles and pops. But after it was done -- I could immediately move my arm places it hasn't been in years.

It's not even sore really. So I'm marking that into the success catagory. Following up with some physical therapy from my favorite local therapist and I'll be good to go.

Billski's foot is healing nicely, but the doctor thinks he will be off work till February 21st. That's a long vacation to be on when you can't do anything fun. He's cooking dinner every night and helping the kids keep the house clean. If he would take over schooling them..........nah, that's just a dream.

I'm ready for winter to be over. The few days we've had of good weather have been awesome days at the shop. I think summer is going to be very busy at Bits & Pieces!

So I turned 50 this week

Everyone acts like you are supposed to dread being 50. Black balloons and all that. Not me, buddy. I say bring it on! Just a few days before I turned 50, I was blessed to be able to watch my third grandchild be born. What a blessing.

I've already attended too many funerals for friends of mine who didn't make it to 50. Or for their children. Be sad to be 50? No way. I thank God for giving me the opportunity to make it this long and experience everything I have.

I celebrated by accompanying Billski to the hospital where he had surgery on his heel to remove a bone spur and a little tumor. Now we get to spend the next month or longer together while he recuperates. I see some overtime in my future at the shop. He's not really a good patient, but so far, he's been doing exactly what he's supposed to be as far as keeping his leg elevated, so maybe it will heal quickly and not give him much trouble.

I visited our friendly orthopaedic surgeon this morning. I like to keep a running bill with this guy so we never seem to go too long without seeing him. Seems he's on a retainer of sorts with my automatic monthly bill payment program. My right shoulder has been impinged for about 18 months and it's not getting any better at all, dispite multiple cortisone shots and home therapy. So he's going to put me to sleep and "Unimpinge" it, which I take to mean it's going to hurt like all get out, because when I asked if we could do it with me awake, he assured me that there was no way that was going to happen because I would be fighting him like mad. Something to look forward to there, followed by weeks of Pain and Torture from Andy, my favorite physical therapist.....watch out for dripping sarcasm.

Oh the joys of being 50.

Catching Up

In a nutshell --- Andi and Big Guy gave me this lovely plaque to hang in the ice cream shop. It says:

Bits & Pieces

established in memory of my dad

Carroll Edmondson

who loved ice cream until the day he died. As you can imagine, the tears fell freely and I was so happy to hang it where

I will see it everyday. It made the decor perfect. It's hard to explain how much my

dad loved ice cream, but without a doubt, it was his favorite food EVER.

Andie & Zac came over for a little baby shower and went home with about 20 outfits for the still unnamed grandbaby coming our way. Don't worry. I didn't make pictures of all of them. Andie is doing well and everything looks great for the baby. We are so thankful for that.

I've found a baby calendar is SO much more easy to keep filled in than a book, so Zac was happy to get that.

But he really loved these cool rainboots.

I can imagine summertime pictures in this outfit.

Sophie is getting smarter every day and will horribly dismayed to learn that although she has major plans to go to kindergarten next year, she will miss the cut off date by 15 days, making her wait another full year. I won't be sorry, but she will probably have an attitude much like

Keegan -- who loves yogurt, but NOT when he has to wear a bib.

Sunday, Bill took the kids to Holiday World while I worked on things for the shop. We have an opening date coming up real soon, so it's crunch time around here. And I don't mean the stomach type!

Billski's big surgery day

How does a man get to be 50 years old and never have had an IV? Maybe he had one when he had his tonsils out 47 years ago, but if he did, he doesn't remember it. Billski's surgery went great and he already feels much better this evening, just getting all the fluid drained off of his knee. Now he gets to enjoy a pressure stocking for a few days and having the hair grow back in on his leg.

While he relaxes the next few days, he will be enjoying a basket full of goodies and movies the kids and I put together for him.

How we spent Father's Day

Billski is gone to a fishing tournament, which I think he does every Father's Day. Jacob is paying off a debt for an IPOD touch by texturing and painting the hallway bathroom. Despite his smile, he's really not that happy to be working all day.

The other kids are busily making Wet Burritos for Billski when he gets home. Sophie's temperature is down a bit, so she is up and about a bit.

I am missing my dad today, but am thankful that he's no longer in any pain. In the meantime, I'm thankful that my own children and grandchildren have great dads.

This sorta cracks me up

in a way that I shouldn't find things funny. Bill hurt his knee at work. We are going to the guy I am beginning to think of as our personal orthopedic surgeon this morning to see what needs to be done. That's not the part I find funny. Billski is in a lot of pain and I wish he wasn't.

But, the doctor at Toyota ordered an MRI on Billski's knee and when it came back, under the Impression part (where it list whether it's normal or not) there were 7 things listed that were wrong with Billski's knee.

7 things torn and/or wrong. Then, the report ends with...."Otherwise unremarkable." That cracked me up. What would it take to make this guy say, "Ouch?" MRI shows knee was chewed off by angry mother beaver at the junction of the posterior body and posterior horn. Beaver appears to have been the recipient of good dental hygiene. Otherwise, nothing remarkable.

Happy Anniversary, Billski

For my anniversary this year, my husband called and told me he bought me a clock. Not just any clock, but a clock I had picked out for a very specific reason. A clock that would help explain why my participation in our Gatlinburg trip had been minimal. A clock with monumental meaning that will be revealed later. A clock that frankly, I wouldn't have been surprised NOT to get -- but he went and bought it for me.

After he told me he bought it, I probably said something like, "Hey, my husband bought me a clock." to my mom about 30 times.

A trip to Alaska and a fantastic new clock - all in one week. What a guy I married. He's the best. I love you, Billski ;-)

Fishing with Ryan

After church today, Bill and I took Ryan out on the boat to go fishing. I am the only one who caught any documented fish - but Bill claims to have caught some before we got there ?!? Ryan caught several trees and luckily Billski was there to rescue his line every time. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water and I really enjoyed spending time with the fishermen of the family.