Friday, May 28, 2021

May 26, 2021

 

One of my best friends has a child who requires a wheelchair.  He has a school bus who picks him up and I have heard many a story about cars racing around the bus while B is balance precariously on a lift halfway in and out of the bus.

However, knowing all that still does not help when no matter when I leave my house in the morning...I get snapped to a stop waiting for a lovely young lady in a wheelchair to get on her bus.  I am patient as I watch 15 minutes click off my car clock.  I know there is probably a reason she's not waiting for the bus in the morning.  I know there's a reason that it takes at least 15 minutes once she's on the bus for them to snap her into the bus to make sure she's safe.  I angrily watch cars that rev their engines or God Forbid, go around the bus.  But still...so frustrating.

May 25, 2021


 

May 24, 2021

 19 years plus ago...I saw this room for the first time.  This is the main lobby of Riley Hospital.  I was taken up the freight elevator in my wheelchair so that I could see Riley in the NICU.  Five minutes later, I was on my way back down the famous glass elevators so I could get back to my oxygen tank and University Hospital.  

FOREVER ago, they closed off this section of the building to turn it into a maternal/fetal center where babies will be born and mom can room in when needed.  Fabulous.  It looks really pretty.  They re-opened it today.


May 23, 2021

   This cute little bug a lug turned SIX today!!  We are hoping she and her family will come for a visit soon.
 
 

This cute little bug a lug looks about six in this picture.  HAHA  Nice hats.


Brother Joe sent me an idea for A's birthday.  They are giant building bars that make forts.  You can hang a sheet over them and clip the sheet on to make a fort.  What a wonderful idea.  A LOVED hers.


 

May 22, 2021

Another fun filled Saturday.  Riley went to work while I hung out with my mom and my dad worked outside.  Then she and I went to pick Riley up, went to the grocery store and picked up lunch.  We headed back to their house and mom and Riley made brownies.  It made me think of the first time mom made brownies at my house with a tiny toddler named Riley.  She was so excited about letting Riley lick the spoon with the batter.  Riley paid her back for that today with a little chocolate covered bop to the nose.


We went to mass tonight.  We've found that Saturday night mass is nice.  Many of Riley's old high school friends were there and they took a picture to send a friend who is in the navy.
 

Frisbee golf at Jason's.  My mom picked up a frisbee, threw it and hit the target on the first try.  On the next try, she couldn't remember how to even throw the frisbee.  Dementia is weird.






 

May 21, 2021

I was working hard in the store today.  For clarification, I try to be a person who works hard everyday.  More clarification...when I'm at work, I am assigned one of three jobs each day.  I am either:
A.  The store person - I am in the store all day  -  answering phones, ringing up clients, teaching safe sleep classes or car seat classes, filling out paperwork or managing the cash register.
B.  The runner - when needed, I will restock the store or meet a client with purchases, touch base with clients waiting in the hallway or ring up someone curbside who isn't allowed in the hospital. I usually get over 10,000 steps just at work on these days
C.  In charge of phones  - I sit in our basement office and answer phone calls either from people who want to order things or people.  

All of that was a lot to say that I was in the store when a delivery man walked in with his arms full of terribly dirty smoke alarms.  TERRIBLY DIRTY.  He came straight from the store and said he had pulled them off the shelves himself.  See the dirty purple top in the second picture.  A purple top, by the way, is a cleaning cloth from the container that has (yes, you guessed it) a purple top.  My hands were as dirty as the purple top.  Gah.  I had to clean 24 filthy smoke alarms that technically should have been delivered downstairs where the runner would have had to clean them.


That is my empty Jimmy John's paper with a tiny piece of cheese from my ham sandwich and tiny crumb of a barbecue chip.  Every now and then, I buy a JJ #1 the night before work, then I don't have to stress about packing my lunch.  Unless, of course, I want #15 sushi from the hospital cafeteria.

 

May 20, 2021

If the flower gardens fall under Riley's jurisdiction then the vegetables fall under Rick's.  The only thing that belongs to me are any vegetables in patio containers. Rick's been growing these bad boys since February.
 
 


 

May 19, 2021

 I told ya we've been working hard!!  Technically the flower gardens fall under Riley's jurisdiction.





May 18, 2021

 This looks really disgusting but it was actually quite tasty.  I had leftover carnita meat so I made a corn casserole, poked holes in it and poured mild enchilada sauce on it.  I added the carnita meat and topped that with Mexican cheese and baked it.  It was delicious.




May 17, 2021


 I can't even with this beautiful girl....

May 16, 2021

We all three spent the day working in the yard/garden/flower beds.  The apple tree in the top picture fell over a few years ago and was preventing the grass from growing around it.  Rick cut off most of the tree.  What is left would have been the original side branch that faced north.  We celebrated our hard work with a fire and some relaxing back yard sitting.
 



 

May 15, 2021

 Okay, so this was a day like we used to have!  Riley had to be at work from 9-11.  I picked her up and we headed home and got changed for a wedding.  It was at our church and Riley was hired to be an altar server while I was the wedding coordinator.  I didn't know the families although my dad knew of the groom's family and it was the same basic wedding that I've worked multiple times at church.  But maybe it was the lovely couple or the fact that it was relatively full...but in the picture below, you can see everyone holding their hand out.  Father asked everyone to hold their hand towards the couple to bless them and for whatever reason, I found it supremely touching in this case.  Maybe I'm getting sentimental in my old age.


From the wedding, we raced home and changed again...this time for a clown band event.  You may remember that the band was hired for the Mayberry movie.  Tonight was a red carpet crowd-raiser.  







May 14, 2021

 That is an Uber Eats delivery of McDonalds that was found on the porch this morning...somewhere, one of my neighbors is really sad.

 

 


 

 

 

 



Thursday, May 27, 2021

May 13, 2021

I have no idea why I took a picture of a team meeting.  I think C got a client in the store and his face was really close to the camera which made me laugh.
 
 
Clown band practice...



 

Thursday, May 13, 2021

May 12, 2021

 Got this great picture today of B with Riley and Claire's wagon!


We went to Popeye's to get dinner for Rick's bday.  We'll pick something up a little more exciting later this week since everyone was in a different direction last night.  Anyway, we made it home with a small amount of fries but 30 minutes later, they were still uneaten.  Turns out, everyone was being polite and holding off.


May 11, 2021

 

Someone had to get a cavity filled today.  She was feeling no pain at this point.

May 10, 2021

 Riley braided my hair last night so I decided to wear it to work that way.


 

It was SUPER foggy on my way to work.  In the right middle of the picture, you can barely see the outline of the exit sign as I crossed the river.



May 9, 2021

 Happy Mother's day to everyone, especially my mama.






May 8, 2021

 Soooo....Tillamook cheese and Tillamook ice cream are both delicious.  Riley asked if we could get some unsalted butter and taste it.  So we did.  An hour later, I got a text from my dad that he had also purchase some.  We like dairy in our family, my dad is especially fond of softened butter on crackers.


I got a $5 gift card to dunkin donuts in my employee appreciation for May.  We drove by to see if a high school friend of Riley's was working (he was not) but she wanted to try a drink that could replace her Starbuck obsession...it was AWFUL!!  AWFUL.
 

That cat always finds my black pants.  I realize if I would put them away, it wouldn't be an issue.


Much nicer out today than yesterday so chops on the grill and a fire pit!