Monday, May 12, 2014

An Anniversary Card Split Four Ways

My brothers David & Ray & I, my parents's Gloria and Ray Maurer.
    This past weekend my entire family met in Florida to celebrate my parents' 50th anniversary. My two brothers, their wives, my husband Dave and I and the 11 grandchildren. It was great! Spring is a nice time for the beach and we enjoyed it.
    Along with my parents' milestone, my brother Ray and his wife Katrina, have their 25th coming soon. My son Mitch and his wife Liz, celebrated their 2nd anniversary today, and of course there was Mother's Day. There were a lot of greeting cards getting passed around.
    The card for Mitch and Liz was sent with Dave down the hall to Trev, Wes, and Dexter's room for signatures. Dave, you may recall is on pain medication... The card came back with a very nice Mother's Day note to me from Trevor. Wes wrote a sweet Mother's Day note to Grandma. Upon discovering the comical error the boys decided to see if they could get Mitch to sign his own Anniversary card, which they did. He actually read the card and questioned them so they told him it doubled as a Mother's Day card for Grandma.
    When Mitch gave their anniversary card to Liz to sign I couldn't let it go on, and we all had a good laugh.
    The family enjoyed this story at our Mother's Day lunch the next day.  I ripped the card into pieces giving each person their note written on the greeting card for four. Never mind that one of my Mother's Day notes said "appy Anniversa" on the other side of it.

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and the Iron Skillet



    About two weeks after I returned from the beauty that is California I was diagnosed with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. It comes from a tick bite and the spots give it away before the fever just in case you're wondering!
    A few days after I was in ER for that and still moving pretty slowly, my husband was in the same ER with a shoulder injury from wrestling. He has a high pain tolerance and was writhing with this thing. They were about to send him home with a pain medication that we knew didn't work that well for him. So, I walked down the hall to the nurses station and explained. Turned out they were giving him one of the strongest they could.
    "Can the dosage be increased?" I asked..."No, he's at the highest."
    Thinking about this for a moment I asked the nurse, "Do you have...an iron skillet?"
    From down the hall we heard Dave, "I heard that!"
    It has taken about a month to recover from the spotted fever even thought the spots still linger. But Dave is still dealing with his issue, we ended up in a Florida ER this past weekend with it.
    The good news? One more ER visit this month and we'll get frequent flyer hats.
    The better news: I appreciate my health a lot these days, and having to rest a lot helped me get more of my writing contract done. It's nearing completion.
    I am grateful for much, ER and all!

Snowy Spring Break

    
   There are so many good little stories I want to share with you! I signed a little book contract back in March that I've been working on (yayy!) but it has kept me so busy, I feel really behind on my blog. So, here come a few of the best I've got lately. I hope you enjoy them.
    My last post was written after a beautiful day and a half at Yosemite at the start of spring break. The very next morning I woke up in my freezing cold 'heated' tent cabin after a night of what I thought was really loud rain.
    Preparing to meet my son Trevor for breakfast I slipped on my flip flops to head to the community restroom. When I cracked open my cabin door I was shocked to discover it was actually three inches of snow that had plopped on the canvas roof all night.       
    My husband Dave, and sons Wes and Dexter, arrived the next day and the same snowy scene reoccurred each morning at Yosemite. It was the most snow they had all winter long. Gorgeous, and of course after this winter I hated it with unparalleled passion.
    The photo here is in the valley where the snow mostly melted by mid-day. The location we would hike 12 miles a couple days later...not the case -- NOT melted. That hike took us through trails with 10 inches of snow for long stretches.
    I have to be honest with you. I cried. "What are we doing in the snow on spring break?!" Horrible.
Trevor gave me a consoling hug doing all he could to encourage me (and stop the tears, they're way too scary!).
    That was a day of polar opposites. Raging beautiful scenery and ugly, raging melt downs (Yes, a meltdown at 30 degrees -- I like to defy possibility). We left Yosemite two days early opting to drive three hours further west to the beach.
    The beach! Now we're talkin. Driving Highway 1 along the coast was like a fantasy I now liken to unicorns and purple penguins. Unbelievable.
    God is real, people. He sees my discouragement and wants to give me joy. I am so thankful!!
    
One of our stops along Hwy 1 - Dave on a carved tree stump chair...made for a giant.