Hospital homebound!

Yesterday began a new portion of my life. In fact, when I awakened yesterday morning I discovered that I wasn't able to get out of bed. Why wasn't I able to get out of bed? Well, because I was having horrible muscle spasms. Even my husband tried to help, but it was to no avail. So for the first time in all of teaching career, I called in sick the day of my absence. And my husband called in to his work as well. After all, if I couldn't get out of bed I obviously couldn't be left alone.

Thankfully, though, with my husband's help I managed to get into see my spinal doctor and progress has begun to be made toward having my back surgery. Apparently, the latest date for my surgery at this time will be May 5th,, but my doctor has a friend who is a neurosurgeon that may be doing the surgery before that. I'll know something more certain by tomorrow morning.

The oddest part about all of this is that just a few weeks ago I was joking with some of co-workers that I wouldn't mind being "hospital home bound" and now I am.

As we saw and talked to the doctor yesterday, he told me no more work for at least a week. Secretly I'm hoping that I can talk my husband into letting me go back to school this next Monday so that I can get things in order for my up coming absence that will follow the surgery as well as get things more in line for the one I'm currently experiencing. But we'll see. Perhaps even if he won't let me go to school while the children are there he'll let me go after school and get things straight then.

In the meantime though, I'm managing to find plenty of things to keep myself occupied. My mother-in-law has already called to check on me today as has my Momma. A good friend is bringing lunch to me today. I've found a few books to read and I've got papers to grade and forms to fill out...so I should be able to keep myself fairly busy. I worry about going stir crazy as this continues...especially after the surgery when things will be difficult the first couple of weeks, but so far so good.

So in the meantime if any of you have creative ideas to keep me from going insane while I'm stuck here at home, I'm all ears. Oh and before I forget, I'm still hopeful that my dear husband will let us go to "A wee bit of our town" on Friday night. Maybe if things go well, between now and then and I stay on the couch or in bed most of the next few days I suspect he'll say hope so.
I'll keep you posted! And in the meantime...please any activity ideas to keep me from going stir crazy are more than welcome.

Reba Concert and High Tea!

A few weeks ago I began noticing signs around town, and advertisements on the radio that Reba was going to be playing at Wild Adventures (an amusement park). And honestly, even though I truly, really wanted to go, I didn't think we could financially swing it. After all, we're planning a trip to France and I have medical bills out the waaazooo lately. So when my wonderful husband mentioned the Reba concert, I jumped at the opportunity hoping against hope that there would be some way that we would be able to go to the concert.

And you know what? We did! Not only did we manage to come up with enough money to go to see Reba, but we even splurged for season passes. Honestly these passes made the most sense because they will allow us to any concert at Wild Adventures for free. And we can take Annie, Gabe and Danny there this summer without much cost. Best of all in addition to the season passes, we get free parking, two free one day passes for visitors and discounts on reserved seats to special events if we decide to use the parks chairs rather than our own lawn chairs.

I have to admit, on Saturday I really began to doubt that we'd made a good decision as we stood in the line to get the season passes. My legs hurt, my back ached and I just wanted to go home. Then when we got to the location for the concert almost all of the lawn chair spaces were already taken. We had to walk across the entire area to the far side of the amphitheater. However, when the concert began I decided it all had been worth it. The location for our lawn chairs ended up being perfect. We could see the LED screen extremely well. Josh even got close enough to get some good pictures of Reba and the music was wonderful. I do believe this was my favorite concert ever! And I have to admit I knew almost every song that sang by heart. Of course one of the highlights of the concert was the encore "Fancy." Wow!

(Our pictures of the concert will be posted soon!!)

The other amazing part about the concert was listening to Josh talk in awe about all of the intelligent lights and other technical sound and lighting information.

In fact, we have already begun to make plans to go to another concert sometime soon. Oh, but before I let adventure to the Reba concert totally consume this post, let me also tell you about my outing with Kristen to have high Tea.

It was wonderful! Kristen and I drove to the White Rose about 2pm and amazingly were the only customers there. However the tea spectacular. We chose to have the morning glory tea. They also gave us finger sandwiches (ham and brie, chicken salad, pimento cheese and cucumber with a cream cheese and chive sauce) stacked three plates high, along with scones with cream to dip them in. And in the middle of each plate were strawberries and grapes. Finally on the bottom plate were mini eclairs and cream puffs. We had a blast and left feeling as if we'd just eaten another meal. Needless to say that will not be the last time that I have high tea. I just hope that other people around our town partake in this spectacular event. The restaurant definitely serves delicious enough food and desserts that I am confident they will easily stay in business. At least I hope they will.

Speaking of hopes, I'd be remiss if I did not close this email by talking about the best news I've received in months. And although it didn't happen this weekend, it's still quite worthy of being discussed before I head for bed this evening. As we were finishing supper tonight my dear husband told me that he had news. He continued on to tell me that his news is not a secret. So let me share. After going to church with me fairly steadily for a few months now (rather than the two of us going to separate churches which we did for many months), he's decided that he'd like to be Confirmed! I'm so excited I can hardly wait. I just know that my family will make the trip down for this joyous occasion. I'm not sure yet when the Bishop will be visiting, but I do know that his visit will be greatly anticipated around our home.

So with that spirit of anticipation let me wish all of you a good evening and a restful sleep. And I look forward to telling you all about our new adventures such as the Italian celebration that we will be attending at the Arts Center this Friday, after all it's the "Wee Bit (of our town)"

Spring Fling!

Yesterday, began the Spring Fling Celebration down here. Even though I've lived in this little town about three years now, I'd never been to a single Spring Fling event before. But something prompted me to desire to do so this year. Perhaps, it's the spring fever that has hit me causing me to be in a go out and join the festivities mood. So...when I read that there would be a free concert around the courthouse last night, I became determined that my dear husband and I would go.

So I spoke to my husband about it and suggested that we also take a picnic supper. Thankfully, he was all for it! Then yesterday morning, I suggested that he invite his parents to join us. They agreed and so the picnic grew. We had a spectacular time together, and I'm so happy that every one decided to participate. Honestly, the whole concert and spring fling event reminded me a lot of the main street activities that my home town often has. It's so nice to live in a town that is helping to create family friendly fun activities too. Perhaps I should say, it's a dream come true to live in a place that is willing to focus on free (or inexpensive) family fun that is interesting enough to involve many members of the community. The square last night was packed with families. As I'm sure you can imagine that couldn't have pleased me more.

Even more excitedly my husband began talking about wanting to figure out how to become more involved in activites like the spring fling concert. He wants to run the lights and sound for those events here in town. I'm sure that doesn't surprise anyone, it certainly didn't surprise me. And honestly, I couldn't think of a better person to run the lights and sound. Of course, I'm slightly biased, but nonetheless, the more involved he becomes in our community the better. Even if it's his childhood hometown, it's still important to be involved as an adult.

But enough about community involvement, let me get back to telling you all about the event from last night. The kick off for the Spring Fling began about 6 P.M. However, we opted not to go to the square (around the courthouse) until about 7 p.m.. The timing was perfect because I still had to go to the grocery, make and pack the picnic and take Rachel to the park before heading out for our nightly entertainment.

The best part about heading to the square at 7 was that the weather had finally begun to cool down. Josh's parents were waiting for us when we got there and I think they were a little hesitant about the picnic idea at first, but once we began pulling food out I could tell they really enjoyed it. Beth (my mother-in-law) even complimented me on my potato salad. Yay!!

The man performing in the concert was someone that Ronnie (my father-in-law) either knew or had heard of, and he did a spectacular job. I even recognized two or three songs that he sang. His name was T. Graham Brown. Apparently he grew up in a little town not far from here. So that made the concert even more interesting.

By the time the concert ended the weather had cooled down considerable. We'd eaten our full from our picnic supper, complete with a variety of sandwiches. I'd fixed egg salad, pimento cheese, and turkey sandwiches. We also had fresh fruit including watermelon, honeydew, pineapple, strawberries, grapes and cantaloupe. Then I'd pack tabouli and potato salad. Finally we brought with us bottles of iced tea and mini-cans of Dr. Pepper. Oh and for dessert snicker cheese cake and marble chocolate cheese cake. There were two slices of each so everyone got a slice. Josh decided he needed cotton candy too...and I have to admit I certainly enjoyed that as well.

And we were packing up to leave both of my in-laws told us that they'd been hesitant and not sure that attending this concert was going to be that much fun, but that they'd had a wonderful time. Ronnie (my father-in-law) even told us to let them know the next time we decided to do something like this and they'd join us! So I think we are all honestly looking forward to the next time we can go out like that again together.

You know, we've really begun to do more with my in-laws and I'm really happy that we have. The gardening together was fun last weekend. The concert this weekend...and who knows what weekends in the future will hold. Speaking of gardening though, it rained here this morning and so I didn't have to go out and water my plants today...but I did go out to check on the vegetables, herbs and flowers. All of them are looking nice. Granted a have a flower or two that has wilted from the cold etc....but the majority of them are perky and bright. The most exciting part though, about checking on our plants was discovering how many of the carrots and lettuce plants as well as radishes are already sending up sprouts! Wow!! I'm so excited and didn't expect to see sprouts quite this soon. Now we just have to pray that there's no more frost in our foreseeable future. ;-)

I also have to say that although it was nice to have the rain this morning, I know my husband was a little disappointed. He'd planned to do more yard work today, and we do need that too. He was going weed wack around the house. So perhaps tomorrow will work better for that. In fact, if tomorrow is bright and sunny day, I'm betting I'll be able to get him to plant the new rose bushes as well. I guess time will tell. :)

With all of that said, you'll have to excuse me because I'm off again. I've got rose bushes to purchase before I head out to tea this afternoon. And I'll be back soon to tell you all about our new adventures including participating in high tea for the first time as well as going to the Reba Concert. But in the meantime, I hope that every one's weekend plans are as enjoyable as ours whether you're simply having a lazy weekend or out doing the things you love best. Savor the moments. I know we certainly will!

Weekend Delights!

As I mentioned yesterday, I love this time of year. I like to think of springtime as an awakening period not only for the animals that physically hibernate, but also for those who cut back on extra social and overtly physical activities during the darker months of the year.

Now spring has sprung! Yes, we still have cold nights and several more chilly days to blunder through, but the worst is over. Flowers are blooming! Birds are singing! Spring sports are scurrying ahead full throttle. Even entertainment social activities are awakening and gushing forth into our lives with renewed fervor.

So as I find myself wrapped up in all this enthusiasm and invigoration my hopes and plans for the spring and summer continue to grow. And many of these desires are coming to life. My wonderful husband, niece and I will be going to France before the summer is over. My garden is planted and growing. The herbs that we're raising from seed in are sprouting. We have flowers in our first flower bed. Plans are being made to put on the house's siding. I've found the perfect place in our yard to hang a hammock. We've priced outdoor rooms with mosquito nets attached so that more of our summer entertaining can occur outdoors. And as I'm sure you can tell things are just falling into place.

Speaking of falling into place, this weekend my dear husband and I will be going to a major Country Artist's concert. I can hardly wait! The excitement that I have over seeing Reba is bursting at the seams. I truly didn't expect that we'd be able to go! But when I asked, my husband said, YES!! So we're going. And the season passes that we are purchasing for the park where the concert will be invaluable. We'll be able to go to many other concerts for free. When my niece and nephews visit we can take them to an amusement park for little to no cost. And yes, we will be able to take them whenever their hearts' desire and as many times as they desire too.

But on top of all of these exciting activities I've also discovered that the Art's Center is hosting " A wee bit of insert town name" next weekend and that the majority of the restaurants in town will be catering it. So I'm definitely hoping that we'll be making plans to attend this too!

Then there are the Broadway shows (I'm planning to buy season tickets for us) And my list of rapidly approaching exciting events is endless. In case you can't tell, I love this time of year. And honestly, y'all, crippled/crooked (b/c one hip is so much higher than the other) or not.. Struggling with whatever obstacles life seems to through our way (Josh's and mine) my spirit is rising. And I hope that you are able to enjoy the annual end of winter hibernations too. And as you do, pause just for a moment to absorb the beauty of this season. After all, Spring has sprung again!

The night with no pain medicine! Argh!

I believe that I left off by telling you all about our wonderful garden's prospects and offering to have tea with you. The offer for tea sincerely stands. I'm so excited that the White Rose is offering high tea that I am literally setting up Saturday tea times as quickly as I can.

But back to the garden, well...we finished about half of the planting on Sunday and had to postpone the rest of the planting until the ants had relocated, which they did Sunday afternoon after prompting from my husband. So yesterday, after school and a faculty meeting I hit up Walmart for just a "few" more plants. ha ha! Needless to say I left with a tray full. So now we've added cilantro, chamomile, onion chives, mint, more squash and watermelon plants! I also finally got the radishes and Brussels sprouts in the ground. But we do have one little section that is sorely lacking for plants and I'm serious considering planting beans there...but we'll see.

Nonetheless, here is how the garden is progressing. This picture was taken Sunday afternoon, so you'll have to tune in next time to see the updated version after the new herbs, watermelon and squash joined the garden family.

Of course as I was gardening on my hands and knees, my mother-in-law stopped by and reminded me that I really shouldn't be doing things like that with my back in the shape it's in. But as I told her, they needed to get in the ground and I was the only one here to do it right then. So onward the planting progressed.

After fully filling the garden (or coming close to doing so) with the plants I'd procured I headed inside to work on supper and to brainstorm. See, after school yesterday I stopped by the pharmacy to pick up my new dose of pain medicine only to discover no one had called in an order for me! YIKES!

So I had several emotional breakdowns worrying about the impeding pain (which did come but not really fully until this morning) and I began to try to figure out how to ration out the remaining medicine that I still possessed until this morning. I know that sounds bad, but when a back is in the kind of shape mine is in right now, pain medicine and muscle relaxers along with perseverance are truly all that keeps a person going.

Persistence won out, and I decided there had to be another way to get my need for a prescription filled last night. I called the hospital. No luck! I tried the Doctor's office that was supposed to have placed the order. They were closed. So I went to a walk-in clinic. And truly they did prescribe some pain medicine, but just not what I needed to kill the pain that I was facing right then (or going to face this morning).

So with all previous options attempted and defeated, I decided rationing was the best way to function and so I headed to bed. I didn't take another pain pill all evening (except for the water downed kind from the walk in clinic) and I promptly placed myself on the couch, where I slept all evening.

Then this morning, when I awakened I knew...pain had arrived. Therefore I called the school and let them know I'd be late and as I slowly prepared to head to work, I began running over my list of ways to approach this situation. In the end, I decided going to the doctor's office that should have prescribed the medicine yesterday was the best bet, so I went.

Thankfully, they were nice at the doctor's office, but more thankfully my "saved" pain pill allowed me to get of the house, drive to the doctor and explain the situation I was in. They assured me that I would have new medicine today and sure enough by lunchtime I did. Whew!

What a relief. And you know, I hate relying upon anything like I have to rely upon my muscle relaxants (to stop muscle spasms) or pain pills (to stop out of this world agony)...but I'm thankful that they exist.

And I also know that my need for the medicine is truly pain related. So I'm looking forward to the day that my back gets fixed and my worst nightmare can become something other than facing an almost 24 hour period without medical relief.

On a much brighter note; however, I'm loving the weather and all of the activities this time of year. I'm hopeful that my dear husband and I are going to a concert this coming weekend. I'm certainly having high tea on Saturday. There's a theater production occurring at the Arts Center on Thursday evening that I may twist my husband's arm into attending with me. Picnic's are popping up throughout the community. There's one planned at the Arts Center and another schedule for Mother's Day by some people from church.

And finally, for the first time in my life, I find myself really beginning to connect to nature (gardening where my hands get dirty) without cringing and running to wash my hands. I keep thinking about a gorgeous rose bush that Walmart has, and I'm truly pondering rescuing it this evening.

Now, sitting in the quiet on my home on this lovely evening, I find myself daydreaming of lazy future memories with fireflies flickering...the stream beside us making gurgling and rushing sounds, and the stars shining brightly upon the most fabulous time of year.

So that leaves me wondering...what kind of thoughts does this time of year bring out in you, and what plans are you daydreaming about?

Flowerbeds and gardens galore!

This last week has been a nice one. I was phenomenally nervous about going back to school with my back still in a poor state of health, but I managed to make it through just fine. Having two days off from school due to doctors appts definitely made the work more manageable, because I could take down time on the days I needed it most. I've been contemplating taking a day here and there as needed for the rest of the year, but we'll see.

Another exciting part of this last week is that my Momma came down to visit for her spring break! My dear husband and I so enjoyed her visit. We played the board game Life together, we watched a really strange movie, we hung out, ate wonderful meals and just bonded. Plus, Momma introduced us to a new restaurant, The White Rose. It had just re-opened so on one of my days home from school we ate lunch there! Wow! The sandwiches, soups and tarts were amazing! And even more impressively they actually offer high tea! I can hardly wait to go back. In fact, I actually mentioned to Josh today I'm planning on inviting a friend to go there next week with me.

Another major event that occurred over this week is that I *finally* got in to see the Orthopedic and Neurosurgeon in my own town. I'm impressed. He's obviously an amazing doctor and quite skilled at what he does. Even better, he has a wonderful bedside manner. So both Momma and I are pleased. He let us know that my re-herniation is HUGE. He continued on to say it was quite massive and large. I think he was trying to impress upon us how bad this new rupture is. So he checked me out thoroughly and told me about some new medicine. We're still hopeful my body can reabsorb some of this rupture, but aren't really confident that is going to happen.

Bottom line: I'll probably be having surgery within a few weeks. It's a much more complicated and difficult surgery than the one I had before, BUT I feel confident with this doctor and I'm ready to truly begin recovery. Recovery will take 6 weeks this time rather than 2...so we've got to hurry this horse up because I have plans to go out of the country later this summer. :)

But more about this weekend. On Friday, when I had lunch out with Momma we also invited my Mother-in-law to join us. As we talked she began mentioning a flower bed and that she'd like to help Josh and me put in. So I gave her the okay and we made plans to do so on Saturday. Wow!

You know I've never had my own flower bed with landscaping timbers and everything so I'm excited. It's beautiful. Beth let me help pick out the flowers and okay the arrangement for them. And I can hardly wait to see them grow and develop, but the best part is..they are already beautiful and we can already enjoy them. :)

Also on Saturday, Josh picked up the tiller that we'd reserved to plant this year's garden. We'd decided it needed to be a bit larger this year than last so we doubled the size. And we've added new vegetables too. :) We started planting it today.

Unfortunately, there's also an ant bed taking up the majority of one side of the garden right now so we're going to have to encourage the ants to move elsewhere before we can fully plant on that side, but even the start that we have now is exciting. I'm even contemplating trying watermelons....hmmmm...who knows.

Here's what we've planted so far. Basil, rosemary, oregano, lavender, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, squash, and cucumbers. Now we just have to get the radishes, remaining cucumber plants, Brussels sprouts, onions and cilantro in. Whew!

I can hardly wait to see what kind of harvest we reap. And I promise we'll keep you posted as our flowers grow and our plants develop.

But now, I'm off to make plans for tea. Join me won't you?

Spring break day 6 and seven!

After all the fun that we had at the Daryle Singletary concert, seemed to fall into the dust when I awakened Saturday morning only to realize that I hurt so badly, that I couldn't even walk. So I yelled for my dear husband who promptly helped me back to bed. Unfortunately, not only did I feel down and out, but my poor husband did too. He had a headache.

Poor Josh! Not only was his wife under the weather, but now he was too. So since he'd made it to the living room, I decided I needed to as well. And after I finally did make it to the livingroom (mid-morning) I promptly fell back asleep until mid-afternoon.

However, I did enjoy the quality time with my dear husband even though neither of us felt all that wonderful. Also it was nice that it was stormy outside, because that made it easier to not feel so bad about being stuck inside on a couch all day long...

Thankfully, on Sunday we both felt better. So after getting up and going to church we visited our usual Sunday lunch location, Subway! Then after lunch, we met my in-laws at Lowes.

My wonderful mother-in-law offered to buy us a new washing machine. And even better, my dear husband and spectacular father-in-law installed this new machine for us on Sunday.

And I have to say the new washing machine is really, really nice. It has more controls than our previous machine did and does a spectacular job washing our clothes quickly and efficiently!

You know...although I may not have had the most exciting break, it was still really, really nice.

Thanks for tuning in and listening to all of my spring break ramblings...

Spring Break day 5!

Friday, was actually one of my more exciting spring break days! Not only did I manage to accomplish most of my goals for the day, but I had fun to boot.

The day actually started off more slowly than most. When I awakened Friday morning, my dear husband was already gone. However, I was sleeping so deeply that I missed his departure.

After discovering that I'd been sleeping more soundly than anticipated, Rachel and I decided that it was time to have eggs for breakfast and Abby opted to begin her daily explorations outside.

As we ate, Rachel and I watched more of the Gilmore girls and had a fabulous time doing so. After breakfast we decided that it was high time to begin planning the April supper menu. I usually do this most months, albeit often before the month begins. However, this time has been more difficult than most. Why? Well, since I live so far in the south the weather has already begun to heat up immensely and I for one always have a hard time finding the motivation to truly cook, on hot spring or summer nights.

Nonetheless after poring over ever cookbook in the house and vigorously searching the Internet, I did finally fill our monthly supper calendar.

Once this chore was completed; however, it was time to fill out the grocery list for the first half of the month. As you all know I did a good bit of my grocery shopping at Sam's, but there were a few things lacking.

And as I day dreamed of a summer full of little grocery shopping I re-inquired with my husband about renting a tiller. Thankfully, Josh remembered a small business here in town that does still rent tillers on Saturdays. So I gave them a buzz and attempted to rent one for Saturday. Unfortunately, it was already reserved for this Saturday, so I went ahead and put in a reservation for this next one!

I can hardly wait to plant our summer garden! Woo hooo!! I know it's going to be larger than last years. We got a lot out of our little garden last year, but also learned a tremendous amount about plant care, etc. I am looking forward to seeing what this year's garden will bring.

But before heading out to Walmart for the ice monthly shopping expedition, I decided to add gardening seeds and small plants to our list for the month. And Rachel and I decided it was time for ice cream. So off to Dairy Queen we went. We had an absolutely wonderful outing. Rachel got her usual of a small cup of vanilla ice cream and I got a Moo Latte Mocha. Yum!

After returning Rachel home, I headed off to buy even more groceries. Amazingly, this chore was completed in no time. And once I returned home Rachel aided me in putting up all of the new additions to the household.

So many chores down and taxes left to do. I'd completed my dear husband's and my taxes over a month ago, but was having issues printing them out. I actually even thought that I was going to have to redo them by hand. I began trying to do so. Whew! I am no tax whiz! And as the frustration mounted, I was ever so relieved to discover that there was a way to print the work I'd already done on taxes.

So I printed those out and debated cleaning out my office, but opted to put that off until the weekend. After all, there's still plenty of time for that. :)

The rest of the afternoon was nice and relaxing! Then about 5pm my wonderful husband called and asked me to meet him and go to the Daryle Singletary Concert. His business was the one doing the light and sound for it.

All I can say is wow! I had the most amazing time last night. My husband was in charge of lights. The concert was actually a benefit concert so the setting was quite intimate.

Honestly, as I was driving to the concert, I was looking forward to seeing my husband work. I knew I knew some of Daryle's songs...but didn't think I would know many. So what I was looking forward to most was simply watching my husband work and spending the time with him. And I definitely did enjoy that, but I also really enjoyed the concert.

It turned out that I knew a few more songs by Daryle than I'd thought I did. The band that opened for him the Lee Mullins Band was amazing! I really, really enjoyed them. The girls clogging before that were also fun to watch. I SO wish that I was able to do things like that right now. I really enjoyed the time that I did clog.

But probably one of the most touching moments of the night was watching Daryle talk to his family. His brother and cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents etc....were at the concert. In fact, he sang several songs with his cousins and brother. What a memory, right? And it really gave all of us a closer look at the personal side of one of these Country music "stars."

Not only was it incredibly moving listening to him talk to his family and relate to the child for whom the concert was given, but it was so interesting to see what a truly good person this man is.

Obviously, I had a blast. Granted we didn't get home until an ungodly hour from the concert because my husband and his co-workers had to break down all the equipment and transport it all back to their warehouse, but I wouldn't have taken love or money to have missed it.

Then, to make a wonderful night even better, when we got back into cell phone range, I got a voice mail from my mother in law, offering to buy a new washing machine for us. Our washer decided to break down last weekend, which appeared to be just another one of our long line of complications. However, it may actually end up not being that bad.

So assuming that we aren't bombarded by washing machines interviewing for the new position here at our home, tune in tomorrow for a new edition of Spring Break 08!