My life is to make everything around me beautiful.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Not a Good Weekend, At All!

We went to California recently to visit with our daughter and attend a celebratory dinner for her marriage. She's a widow as you can read about here and recently remarried. She had a small dinner party of about 40 people at a restaurant near her. It was a pleasant evening of eating and chatting with her co-workers, friends and the new side of the family. The story will continue down the blog with photos of what happened.


But first, here's the most recent photo of Miss Caroline in her daycare class, a totally new adventure for her. She's been in daycare before for one week because she cried all the time and was unhappy so her mummy and daddy made other arrangements for her. But it's been a year now, so they bit the bullet and put her in. She seems to be enjoying it now and we believe she has a new little boyfriend sitting to her right. Can any eye candy be more darling than your great grandchild eating spaghetti? I think not. ;-)


Ooops, looks like I almost lost a string of spaghetti there. Fingers are required eating utensils for 2 year olds.


And this is a photo of our new great grandchild, Miss Caroline's sibling. I think it looks like a girl, don't you? It would serve her daddy right to have a house full of girls! LOL


This is our clematis finally taking off. If you've not been reading me long then you'll be interested to know we've tried planting 9 clematis' and only one has survived. I'm not planting any more, thinking I won't push my luck any further. But it is magnificent this year.


Pale lavender.


I love trying my photography skills out for th' blog with you bloggers as my audience/critics.


Our peony bush is just taking off this year also. We've had it for about 5 years and this is the first year we've had so many blooms on it. They bloomed while we were in California but I was able to get in a few good photos before they succumbed to their life cycle.


They are gorgeous.


Same blossom just a tad closer. Practicing my macros. ;-)


Another bloom.


Yet another bloom with one just starting to open up.


Love their color.


A close-up of a bud. I think this close-up turned out pretty well considering I'm a very inexperienced amateur photographer.


Full shot of the clematis up against the south side of the house.


Okay, now for the story. My daughter's house is two stories with a step-down to the main area of the first floor. You enter in a large entry and then step down from a hallway to the back family room, breakfast area and kitchen. Then to the right of the entry is a step-down to the living room, dining room and other entry into the kitchen. I fell twice while over there. The first time was in the back hallway. I was walking barefoot, a throw rug went flying out from under me on the slick wood floor, I went sliding towards the step-down head first into the family/breakfast room, sent the table toddling and landed on my knees. I immediately yelled, "I'm fine!" But it hurt. I was so embarrassed. The photo below has nothing to do with that fall.

The next day as we were preparing to go to the restaurant for the dinner, I realized I needed something from our bedroom upstairs. (All the bedrooms are on the second floor.) I slipped off my shoes and in my nylon stocking feet ran up, got what I wanted and as I was coming down the stairs, I slipped on the landing midway up and went sailing towards the half wall. This is the result. I yelled again, "I'm fine." But I really wasn't. I hurt for a long time. But we were heading out the door and I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. My son is a nurse, my grandson is a medical technician for a doctor so I felt like I could handle it. Everyone was standing in the entry watching this so hubs told me he thought I was going to go over the half wall. I landed on my knees and they bruised but nothing like my left arm. Both arms are sore, along with my neck. I drew lots of attention at the restaurant but I tried not to let anyone see the bruises. I was so embarrassed again. You'd think I could walk around a wood floor without flying through the air! Actually, my daughter's stairs have a double landing midway down and since we'd never been to the new house I wasn't familiar with it enough to know how to step. Sigh. What a mess it was. I had to sit in the back seat of our car coming back home because the back of my leg was hurting so bad. I hate flying so we drive to California, which is about an eleven hour drive.

But also in the Sierras, just after the California food inspection station we got caught in construction. We went 20 miles in two and a half hours! I think most of the people in that line probably wet their pants. They wouldn't let us stop at all and we couldn't get off because most of the places had no facilities. We got past the plethora of road workers and saw a porta-potti on the left and no construction workers were around so we quickly pulled over to the left lane, hubs went in and relieved himself. He was in there for about 4 minutes just getting rid of water! But we didn't get caught or impede the long line of traffic. Then we got back in the long, slow line and continued on. I waited until we got a few miles down the road and found a bathroom at Burger King. I'm not fond of porta-pottis. It was the worst trip we've ever had.


This is actually two days after the fall.


Gads, I didn't realize I had so many age spots! I'm brave showing you all this. That bruise is my upper arm. My arm is so swollen you can barely tell it's the inside of my elbow here.


This is a macro photo shot I took from our rose garden very early this morning. I'll show you more of these later, but this one is exquisite, even if I do say so myself. ;-)
~*~

13 comments:

  1. Oh Connie, you took two tumbles! You must be so sore. I'm sorry. I hope you're feeling a bit better now, my friend.

    Your flowers are beautiful as is your darling great-granddaughter.

    xo
    Claudia

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  2. Poor Connie! You were pretty lucky not to have broken anything. I hope that the pain is at least bearable. Those are big bruises.

    I think you're a pretty good photographer. Your flowers are beautiful. I don't have a garden, just a balcony. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to put flowers in my planters. There's just always so much to do. I'm the same age you are. I'm trying to realize that I'm not in my forties anymore. It now takes me a week to do what I could do in a day.

    By the way, that sweet little girl is adorable!

    Take care of yourself and please don't run anywhere. Walk!

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  3. So sorry you had a bad drive and a bad "trip" ...literally! I hope nothing is broke since it is swollen. Backed up traffic from road construction or anything else is the worst...especially when you have to GO! Try to focus on the fun parts of your visit. ~Hugs, Patti

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  4. Oh my gosh! I am glad you did not break any bones! What a time you had there! The road trip reminds me of a trip when I was growing up and they were doing roadwork on Highway 70 going through the Rockies in Colorado. Took forever it seemed. It was so slow that people turned off their engines and got out to toss a football to move around and get rid of stiffness. Hope you are better fast!

    ~Linnea

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  5. You are so fortunate that you did not have more serious injuries...that looks bad enough! I hope your feeling better. I love the grandbaby to be pic...Yeah, it's a girl! You have a 50/50 chance anyway! Nice to meet you and visit your blog. I love meeting new bloggers. My brother lives in Nampa and is also Mormon...he loves it there. I'm a new follower too. Hope to see you again soon, Lori

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  6. Oh dear! My goodness those are not nice looking bruises! I do hope they are gone now and you are feeling better! I love the pictures of Miss Caroline! What a cutie! She is growing so fast. I love the pigtails. The flowers are gorgeous!

    heather

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  7. Oh I"m so happy you are ok after the falls. Now that I know your not seriously injured I can tell you how much I've enjoyed your photos. Beautiful flowers, adorable Caroline and Congratulations to your daughter! Peonies are my favorites.

    ~Emily
    The French Hutch

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  8. I saw that thumbnail and had to say, I immediately had a flashback to that lullaby in 'Lady and the Tramp' that goes...."Here comes a pink cloud for you..."

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  9. Wow, my heart goes out to you - falling is such a terrifying experience - glad to hear that you are on the mend. Your peony is absolutely gorgeous - almost looks like a huge chrysanthemum! By any chance, do you know the name of it, I would love to add it to my peony garden.

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  10. Goodness, you are just too pretty to have ugly ol' bruises like those! I'm so thankful that God was watching over you ~ it could have been so much worse. Bless your heart, I hope your sorenss is abating. I'm having a great software giveaway, so pop on over when you get a chance. BTW, I certainly think it's another precious lil girl, too!~! Just a feeling.....

    Love,
    Stephanie

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  11. I am so sorry to hear about your fall. So scary! Oh, I green over your peonies. I can't grow them here and they are absolutely gorgeous. If it weren't for Trader Joe's, I would never see them. How wonderful you have that wonderful bush to enjoy.

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  12. Hello, Connie! Just thought I'd check out another one of your blogs...my what a story you have here. I hope you are doing alright. I know how it goes with falls...I recently went on a trip visiting my daughter in Europe and I was tripping and stumbling all over the place. We did a lot of walking so I finally did start watching my step. Lol, while I was riding on a donkey/mule up a hill in Santorini it bumped my leg against a pole and I got a little raspberry...but that wasn't my fault! Love your entries and I also love clematis. I just planted three new ones this year and I think I finally figured out one secret....they like to be in the sun....and their bottom stalk protected from the weed wacker that my husband always uses. I've also had a few die on me....is there a weed wacker in your household? Love your stories and photos! smiles, Maria from Seattle

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  13. Oh Connie I am so sorry you has such a terrible experience, you poor thing, you deserve a little pampering my friend. Your flowers are lovely. We planted peonies this spring and I look forward to next years blooms. Thank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things blog hop Big Hugs xo

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Comments are so nice and I thank all of you that leave one for me.