Flowers and a Bird (Wordless Wednesday)

Memorial Day 2021 parade and cookout

Happy Tuesday, happy June, and the first official day of our Summer schedule! I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day. I really tried to keep reminding the kids of the reason for Memorial Day as we did different activities.  

Our first activity yesterday was going to our town's Memorial Day parade. They cancelled last years parade due to COVID, but they had it again this year. It was so nice to be out and do something normal. It was a shorter parade this year, as they had to wait until early last week to finalize that they would even be allowed to have one so a lot of groups didn't plan to walk in it. Even though it was short it was still pretty special. It was so nice to see people that we haven't seen in a long time and to honor the sacrifices that men and women have made in the past so that we can have parades and get togethers. 

Waiting for the parade to start. Rebecca went off and sat with her best friend across the street. 

Our town's new ladder track. It is bright orange and black as our high school is the Yellow Jackets! 

The wheels on this car were insane and tilted in.

My dad teased that I needed one of these dresses. 

Cousins, after the parade from oldest to youngest

My dad told them to put their arms around each other! LOL 

My dad and I 

In the afternoon, we headed over to my parents house for a cookout. My mom really didn't want to have one, but my dad did so we had one. My brother and my dad were in charge. Actually my brother ended up cooking the food on the grill and they turned out pretty tasty. 

The weather was perfect for playing outside as it was partly cloudy and in the low 70's. The kids had fun playing with their cousins and with Indy, my brother's dog. Lots of games of cornhole were played. I even played 2 games which tired me out!  

Today is the first day of our Summer schedule. Like last Summer I have my niece and nephew here daily as my mom has to work. I need to figure out a routine that will include time outside and some school work for the kiddos as well. Today we are just kind of playing it by ear, although it is almost 9AM and they are already wild or I am just sleepy (Bill has to be at work at 4AM this week, so I have been staying up late to get kids to bed, and then waking up when he is getting up to go to work and not really being able to go back to sleep. It is what it is and hopefully they will give him a regular schedule of being in at 7AM soon.) For now, I need to go figure out my nephews blood glucose levels and insulin for his breakfast. 

Did you have a cookout for Memorial Day? Any fun plans for this week? 

Bill's birthday, Heart Answers and End of the School Year

Happy Friday everyone! How is everyone's day going? Here it is rainy and cold (it is 63 degrees right now!). Our weather has been crazy even for Ohio. I saw this graphic on Facebook...Crazy weather changes. 

I didn't go to cardio rehab this morning as I am still dealing with that stupid head cold. It has decided to take up residence in my throat area with the draining. I didn't cough as much last night overnight, but didn't want to risk spreading germs at rehab today. And I just need to rest as it has been a rather busy week this week. 

Tuesday was Bill's 49th birthday. He had to work most of the day, so we celebrated Wednesday evening with homemade chicken enchiladas (his request) and a chocolate cake that Benjamin decorated with sprinkles. He said that it was a good day. We got him an infinity gauntlet bottle opener and a Ric Flair t-shirt. 

Wednesday morning I went to cardio rehab and then I had a follow up appointment with my cardiologist. I FINALLY got some concrete answers as to what they think is going on. He confirmed my (and many others) suspicions that my heart issue is a combination of the myocardial bridge that they found during my heart cath AND as a result of having COVID back in December. He said he thinks that COVID weakened my heart muscle and that the weakening was making my heart work harder and thus putting more pressure on the myocardial bridge. (Basically during every heart beat, more pressure was being placed on the bridge. With every beat, the artery in the bridge was being squeezed.) That was where the extreme fatigue and then the shortness of breath was coming in. Then the statins that I was put on for cholesterol just sent the irritation of the muscle over the top and that was when I started getting the severe chest pain and back pain along with everything else. The good news is that the combination of medication I am on right now seems to be working finally. Also he likes the way that my numbers look when I am doing the cardio rehab. He thinks that I *should* be able control this through diet and cardio exercise for the rest of my life. I will also be on heart medicines the rest of my life. If the myocardial bridge worsens or gets a blockage then I will have to have open-heart surgery (what they call unroofing surgery) that is only performed at a select number of hospitals in the country. 

What am I thinking about all of that? Well. I am glad to have some concrete answers to what happened and where we go from here. In all the scenarios I guess it is best case scenario. I am glad to have answers, but at the same time it is disheartening to be told that you have these issues. It is what it is and I will try my best to live the way that I am supposed to. It does make me feel old though I guess. 

Another thing that is making me feel old is that my kids are out of school for the Summer. Yesterday was there last day of school. I am now the mom of a high school freshman, a new middle schooler and a 4th grader. How did that happen?!?!?!

Rebecca said that she had a great day. They really didn't do anything special for the 8th graders which was kind of a bummer, but she said she was okay with that. 

Jacob had an awards ceremony and a clap out for his 5th grade graduation. Bill went to that, while I was picking up Rebecca from school. Jacob came home in tears that he would miss everyone and everything about his school. He is really nervous about starting middle school next fall.

Ben came home all smiles. He is looking forward to 4th grade, even though I told him that we would be doing reading and comprehension work this summer as he is still behind where he should be.

We took the kids out to eat at our local Mexican restaurant last night for dinner. It was the first time since COVID hit that we all went out to a sit-down place for dinner. The food was great and the company even better. It was a nice way to end the 2020-2021 school year. 

Today, I am supposed to be doing some housework, but I really don't want to do. I have almost no energy. I do need to get some projects done though. It is slow going, but slow going is better that not going. I think I will go make the kids help with cleaning out under the couch so we can put the new couch cover on it. 

Hope everyone is staying dry and having a good Friday! Anyone have any fun plans for the long weekend?   

S'mores by the campfire, van trouble, and a head cold

 Happy Monday evening everyone! Hope you all are having a wonderful day. Here it is HOT, HOT, HOT! It has been hot the last few days. So much so that Bill put in our window air conditioners upstairs so that we could actually sleep. LOL That is a good thing as we have been busy.

Friday night I took the kids out to my parent's house for a campfire and a sleepover. My sister and her girlfriend were in town, my brother and his fiance were there as well. My dad originally said to bring my tent over, but I didn't want to dig it out of the garage so he said just come sleepover in the living room. So that is what we did...we got to enjoy the evening outside and we got to sleep in the a/c! LOL 

The kids had a blast making s'mores and playing with their cousins.

My dad even brought out his telescope and they were able to see the moon and craters. That was neat. 

One bad thing about the night though was my van started acting up as I was heading to my parent's house. Bill came over after he got off of work and I had him drive it home so that he could see what was going on and could drive it to the shop in the morning before he headed into work. We are hoping it is an easy fix. 

Sunday my throat started hurting and today I am draining. I think Jacob gave me his cold that he has had. Oh well, it is what it is. I will deal. 

Today I had cardio rehab and they have me up to 10 minutes on the 4 machines. I am exhausted at the end but it is okay. It just means I am on the road to recovery. While I was waiting on Bill to come pick me up (as he had our one vehicle right now to take the boys to school) I went to the bathroom and the artwork on the wall just caught my eye. (The building that I have cardio rehab in at the hospital is a new building that just opened right before the pandemic hit. It is open and airy and they use a lot of floral and blues in the decorations.)

What's going on in your world? Anyone else have a head cold? Anything fun going on? Anyone else find decorations that they like in bathrooms and take photos of it? LOL