FOOTBALL AND PUMPKIN CARVING!!!

Of course it is Sunday, and my big thing was looking forward to the Steelers kicking Brett Favre's butt!! Hooray - it was awesome.

We have found out that thegrandson's elementary school has an outbreak of the H1N1 - and what does he do today - spike a temp of 100.8*. He is lethargic and has a bad headache as well. He will not be attending school tomorrow and possibly for a few more days. We are playing this one by ear. I have the runniest nose - and a headache...but what's new????

Since thedaughter managed to break her arm last year - after carving pumpkins, we took no chances and carried out the process on the kitchen table this year. All went quite well. Thegrandson is not allowed to play with knives yet...so he was relegated to "cleaning" out the pumpkin as you can see from these two pics.

The expressions he was making were hilarious. The upside is - he can't wait till his pumpkin seeds have finished baking, for his consumption.

The "spider" carving, is the same as last year. We lost the template, but I blew up last years picture and made a new template. It looks great. I have combined the pics of the pumpkins with and without a flash. Thedaughter carved the Spider and the Grim Reaper....I carved the ghost on a tombstone. I think we actually did a wonderful job this year, if I do say so myself.




Hopefully, thegrandson will be well enough to Trick or Treat on Saturday evening. Right now, he is plain miserable. He is such a tiny little guy, when he gets a "bug" he can't fight it off well. Now we start the worrying - I have mastered that art over many years.

Now....for more "pretty awful" Halloween costumes:

Poor attempt at humor - or atrocity!!!

Originality counts for something!

"W" never looked better! And I mean that!

(Cough, cough!) This is just plain sick!!

Gonna run for now...hoping the Colts get their butt kicked tonight also! Medication time - ahhhhhh drugs!!!

Have a wonderful evening and I will get back here tomorrow.....sometime.........

DON'T FORGET TO STOP BY: PAST THE VELVET ROPE (FRIDAY POSTINGS)

WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS!!!! Literally....

Yesterday, started out pretty much like any other - thedaughter was on her second day off in nine days, we were getting things accomplished....and then. She ate a chicken salad sandwich and a tooth which she was having problems, decided to flare up royally, sending her into excruciating pain. We immediately get on the phone and NO ONE takes her insurance, let alone emergency calls. I had reached the point of "not so nice" retorts to these people. Give me a break!! What is a person to do when in serious pain??? Even the walk-in dental clinics, like Sears, wouldn't take her insurance. I finally found one who would take her immediately and I had to pay $200 for the extraction. This tooth was rooted into her sinus cavity, and we hope we are out of the woods, but he did say that an infection or perforation could cause problems. Lovely. At least she came home with Vicodin and no tooth ache.

We had already made plans to carve the pumpkins for thegrandson last night, so after her friend left (who took her to the dentist), she laid the papers on the living room floor and marked the pumpkins and started on the smaller one first. It was being carved with a "spider", and just when she gets alllllllllmost done - the grandson dropped something, scared her, and she cut out a BIG chunk! Ruh roh! She was not a happy camper now.

Me, the ever vigilant peacemaker, told her to calm down - "I have toothpicks." I'm all for jerry rigging anything. The toothpicks worked, and as she got up off the floor, she slid on the papers laid out - and did a header - busting the pumpkin - and now ----after leaving the emergency room this morning - has a BROKEN ARM!!!!!!!

Damn, damn, damn!!! I gave her ice for her arm last night (she also sprained her ankle), as it was after 10 pm, I did ask if she wanted me to call 911 - she said "no." Since she was taking the Vicodin for the tooth problem, she at least had a little relief.

When she came down this morning, she was crying in pain, so after we got thegrandson off to school - off to the ER we go. We finally get the verdict of the fracture and are told to see an Orthopedic Surgeon. Guess what - not a single Ortho in this area takes her insurance either. (She has Ohio Medicaid - Caresource.) Now, there is another twist. three years ago, when she had an Orthopedic surgeon who took her insurance, she had to have 3 surgeries to remove the wrist joint. She had tumors in the bones that were "killing" the bones. After ten years of ER trips and being told it was a sprain - we went to Ohio State University hospital in Columbus to find the truth and have the proper surgical procedures to correct the problem. All in all, we made 25 trips to Columbus - but it was well worth the ride.

The end result was highly limited range of motion in her wrist, but she managed to adapt and relearn to type, so it never really interfered with her employment. Unfortunately this break is right above the joint removal. So, in all honesty, this is still a broken wrist as opposed to an arm. If surgery is needed, which I sincerely doubt, we will head back to Columbus - the doctor there deals ONLY with wrists, and we loved him.

Now, I have a headache, and want a nap...but can't see that happening right away. Thedaughter will definitely not be able to work for the next few days, and I guess I will be playing nursemaid. I need to train thegrandson better I guess.

Updates later...I must catch up on blogs and news now!!! Surprise, surprise!

***The X-ray above is not actually hers, just an example.

UPDATE: 7:45 pm - after utilizing some straight pins, thedaughter - with one hand put the pumpkin back together and thegrandson is very happy. Pic 1 with flash - pic 2 without flash.

Pumpkin picking day!!! And a lovely one at that...

Thegrandson loves to traipse through the "pumpkin patch" this time of year. It turned out to be a lovely day, albeit quite chilly. I am definitely not ready for cold weather - as it always trigger the arthritis which extends from head to toe.

Thedaughter had a day off work, so we figured out all the places and errands that needed to be accomplished - and made a plan. I am still in "conserve the gas" mode. I am managing to make it a month on a tank of gas, even though gas prices have come down - food prices and utilities have still gone UP!!

The place where we get our pumpkins (Ebbert"s Farms) is not really a farm, although they bring all their produce to one central location and set up a nice retail establishment. The pumpkins are basically laid out by size and one just prances through the fields till the ideal pumpkin is spotted. The grandson found a small one immediately (just his size), but his mother told him they would also get a larger one for the porch, and this did not upset the little guy at all.

We managed to finish all errands within approximately 3.5 hours and back home to rest. I have been getting dizzy and not so sure-footed (hypoglycemic), so I didn't help much in putting things away.






THEGRANDSON AND HIS TREASURE!

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Just an aside - Minnesota Cong. Michelle Bachmann has raised almost $100K FOR HER OPPONENT - because of her idiotic mentality. There are also over 30,000 signatures so far to have her censured. Small things like this make me very happy. Call me trite I don't care.

I'll probably be back tomorrow for more shits and giggles. TTFN.