Using it as a weapon

As long as Biscuit has the cast all the way up past his elbow, he is dangerous.

He asked if he could sleep in our bed with me, so Jeff got sent upstairs to Biscuit's bed. Although Biscuit's mattress isn't quite as good as ours, he has a queen-sized bed, so at least Jeff had plenty of room.

Biscuit has always tossed and turned a lot in his sleep. And having a cast hasn't changed that at all.

We tried to make him as comfortable as we could. When he was turned toward the outside of the bed, it worked really well. We put an extra pillow down the side, and he could prop his arm up on it.

But when he turned over, I got smacked in the head!

He had no idea it even happened until I told him this morning. At first he laughed. Then he said, "I'm really sorry, mom, but really, you can't hold a person responsible for what he does in his sleep!"

Biscuit is broken

Biscuit was at camp Thursday playing Terminator, a game sort of like dodge ball. He said he and another kid had formed an alliance and were looking out for each other.

Biscuit saw someone getting ready to throw a ball at his friend, so he yelled for his friend to run. So his friend ran. Right into Biscuit, who fell down with all his weight on his right wrist.

It was about 5 p.m. Thursday when they called. One of the counselors said he had fallen and hurt his wrist. But she said they gave him an ice pack, and he seemed to be doing okay.

I left as soon as they called, and when I picked him up, I asked if he was okay, and he said, yes.

I took him home wrapped his wrist, put some ice on it and elevated it.

He just chilled for the rest of the evening. Then I gave him ibuprofen before bed.

About 1 a.m., Biscuit stomped on his floor, which is directly above our room. So Jeff went up to check on him. Biscuit said he couldn't sleep, so Jeff sat with him for a while until he went back to sleep.

Then about 3 a.m., I woke up with some little monster hovering over me in my bed!

After I called my heart down, I asked him what was wrong. He was hurting and couldn't get comfortable. That's when I started to worry that it was worse than a simple playground injury.

I gave him more ibuprofen and get him comfortable on my side of the bed. About 5, I went into the living room and slept for a while on the couch. It wasn't too terribly long after that when Biscuit came into the living room. He was awake for the day.

I talked to him about his hand, and we decided to take him to an urgent care center.

I hate to say that money crossed my mind, but it's a couple hundred dollars just for us to walk into the emergency room, and that's before they even treat him!

But the urgent care near us is part of our primary care doctors' group. So we pay the same co-pay as we do for regular doctors' appointments.

We had to wait for a while. Biscuit had picked out a book to bring, so we ended up reading almost a whole chapter book before we got called back.

They did x-rays and told us that it was broken. I need to ask again because the whole day was such a whirlwind, but I think they said he had a clean break on the small bone (ulna) and a big crack in the bigger bone (radius). So there are two bones in your wrist, and he broke both of them.

They splinted his arm, and since it was late afternoon by that point, they sent us to an orthopedic urgent care. Biscuit misheard and thought they said we were going to an "ortho-penis" doctor. So we had a good laugh about that.

Don't let him fool you, this was a put-on face.

Biscuit's spirits have been high the whole time. He's frustrated and in pain, but he's being brave.

When he finished eating breakfast this morning, he got up and took his plate and cup to the kitchen sink, just like always. I told him he didn't have to do that, but he said he still wanted to do everything he could do.

We got to the ortho-penis doctor and had to wait some more.

We finally got into an office, where of course, we had to wait some more.

They were able to see the x-rays on their computer, so it was good not to have to have them done twice.

The doctor said that there was some swelling, but not a lot. But, he said kids often don't swell until the second or third day.

So they put Biscuit in a half-cast to allow for any swelling that might happen.

I've never broken a bone, so all of this was new to me.

He had two strips of what looked like cotton batting. He wet them, and they almost instantly started to get harder. He ran one along the top of Biscuit's arm and one along the bottom. Then he used two stretchy bandages to hold everything together.

He also has a sling. They want him to keep it elevated as much as possible.

Biscuit has been really brave about the whole thing. Now we just have to wait until Monday to see what's next.

Biscuit at camp

This is the third summer for Biscuit at his summer camp. 

We tried a YMCA camp after kindergarten, and at the end of the summer, he turned his little 5-year-old face toward us and said, "Guys, I had fun a camp, but I didn't learn a thing."

So he asked if we could look at some other options.

The camp he's been going to for the past three years still has swimming every day and games and songs, but he gets three tennis lessons and three golf lessons each week.

My only worry has been him finding friends.

The first year was easy. There was a kid he already knew, so he had one instant friend.

Last year, it was a little harder. Biscuit goes to my parents' house for several weeks throughout the summer. But some of the camp kids go every week from beginning to end. So it's only natural that those kids would get to know each other better.

One day last summer, I got to camp and the assistant director pulled me aside. He said he was concerned about Biscuit because at lunchtime, he ended up sitting by himself. The assistant director went over and ate with him. He talked to him about making friends and said he'd be happy to introduce Biscuit to some of the other boys. I thought that was really sweet. And the next week, Biscuit did make a friend that he kept for the rest of his time there.

So this year, I was worried again. ('Cause I'm really, really good at the worrying!)

But it turns out, I was worrying for nothing (which is often the case).

The first week, Biscuit and this other boy thought they recognized each other. It turns out, they went to the same daycare. It's funny to me that they're both 9, and they had a reunion and talked about the old days.

The second week, one of the counselors called me to the side when I went to pick up Biscuit. She said that there was a first-year camper sitting by himself at lunch, and Biscuit and his daycare friend went over, sat with him, talked to him and offered him some advice about how to make friends.

I liked how he remembered how it felt to be the odd man out and decided to help another little boy.

That same week, he ran up on a kid who had been at the same camp the year before. Then this week, there's a boy who goes to his school.

I have to let him go out and live his life and make his own friends and make his own mistakes, too. But it sure is hard not to follow him around fixing everything for him.

Annual mountain trip

My family went on our annual long weekend trip to the mountains. We used to swap houses every year, but for the past three years, we've been going to the same house.

It has four bedrooms (master for my parents; two queen upstairs for me and Jeff, and my brother and sister-in-law; and one in the basement with twin beds for the kids) and three and a half bathrooms (full bath in the master, half-bath near the kitchen and living room, full bath upstairs and full bath in the basement). The big a-frame window is in the loft on the top floor. Our bedroom is up there. The wrap-around deck is on the main floor. And the bottom deck comes out from the basement. There are views from every window in the place.

The living room, dining room and kitchen are all open to each other. The half bath, storage closet and master bedroom are through the kitchen. We eat out one night and make all the other meals at the house. It is completely stocked with everything you could possibly need to cook with.

My parents' room has a door to a private deck.

This is mine and Jeff's room. We have a private balcony to the left of the bed.

This is my brother and sister-in-law's bedroom. That door leads to the bathroom that we share. Our room is across the hall. And they have a private balcony out from their room, too.

This is the kids' room. We move that rocking chair and set up a cot for Biscuit. There are two pull-out couches in different parts of the house, but he wants to be there with his cousins.

This is the basement. The pool table, foosball table and game table keep a bunch of us occupied all at the same time. Those sliding glass doors lead out to the lower deck.

We try to keep the kids entertained, so they won't spend too much time with their electronics. We play hide-and-seek. And I can tell you, you get a good workout when you're "it." You have to search three floors! 

And we play crazy games like "Pterodactyl." If you've never heard of it, don't worry. I hadn't either until last year. Our niece taught it to us. Everybody stands in a circle. Someone is picked to go first. Let's say it's my niece. She can decide whether she wants the game to go left or right. So let's say she turns to the person on her right. She then wraps her lips over her teeth and says, "Pterodactyl." If you show your teeth, you're out. If you ever want to reverse the direction, you turn to your neighbor, raise your arms like wings and make some kind of pre-historic bird caw — "Wockkkkk!" And then the game goes around the circle the other way. You keep playing until there's only one.

I never won because I would always laugh and show my teeth.

Now tell me the truth. When you read the part about wrapping your lips over your teeth and saying, "Pterodactyl," you tried it, didn't you?!

We spent a lot of time in these chairs. The porches are set up so that you can rock and be in the shade at all times of the day.

We cook out one night while we're there. And we usually drag some more chairs around and play guitar and sing in the evenings.

This is the view from the deck in the photo above. The house is more in the foothills than the actual mountains, but the view is pretty, and we don't have to travel those twisty, turny roads to get to the bigger mountains.

There's a '50s-style diner we go to every year. The food is really good, and the atmosphere is fun. Biscuit's burger and fries came in this '55 Cadillac.

And sometimes we get silly. And somehow, there was only photo proof this year of ME doing something silly.

This rooster sits on the edge of the deck. He's been there ever since we've been going.

I was hot. Very hot. But I had a snack and a drink. And I couldn't find hands enough to hold a snack, a drink and a fan. So I figured if they were just sticking out there anyway, they ought to be of use to me!

We always have a good time, and this year was no different.

Biscuit in pictures

Here are a few recent and random pictures:

Biscuit and his cousin ride in the back of the truck heading toward Grandmama and Papa's house while Jeff follows in my car.

Biscuit and Grandmama did a science experiment we used to do as kids. You mix food coloring into water then put a sprig of Queen Anne's lace in it. The stem will soak up whatever color the water is.

Making a wish at a shopping plaza near our house. The restaurant in the background is what Biscuit usually chooses for dinner after his piano/guitar lesson.

If we had any idea the pizza slices were this big, we would've told Biscuit to order just one.

I wanted to get hamburgers, fries and ice cream from a mom-and-pop joint one town over. Biscuit ordered one scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough. This is ONE SCOOP!

More birthday

I thought my early surprise party was all I would be doing for my birthday, but I was wrong.

This past weekend, I had two, count 'em, two more surprise parties.

Jeff told me to be ready at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. And since Jeff doesn't usually make plans, I was ready to go right on time.

We got into the Barracuda and started driving. And I started guessing.

"Are we going to the farmers' market?" I asked Jeff.

"Nope," he said.

"Are we going somewhere shopping?" I asked him.

"Nope," he said.

I asked Biscuit, "Do YOU know where we're going?"

And in Jeff's tone of voice, he said, "Nope."

That was no help!

Then we pulled into the parking lot of a movie theater.

"We're going to see a movie!" I said, but Jeff didn't agree or disagree.

He drove up and down a couple of aisles like he was looking for a parking space. Then he said, "Psych!" and drove back out onto the main street of the shopping center.

Then we pulled into a restaurant parking lot. I didn't get excited because I figured he's just say "Psych!" again and pull out.

But he didn't. He parked.

We walked in, and the hostess asked if she could help us. I said, "Three, please." But then Jeff walked away.

"Where did Dad go?" I asked Biscuit.

"I don't know," Biscuit said.

I looked back at the hostess and said, "Is something going on?"

Well, she is a very bad liar because her eyes started shifting around, and she just completely ignored the question.

A different hostess came up and said, "This way."

Meanwhile, Jeff was still missing.

I was behind the hostess, and Biscuit was behind me. We were walking into the dining room, and she just stopped. We stopped behind her and just stood there. I wondered if she forgot where she was taking us.

I noticed her looking to the side, and as soon as I looked, a bunch of people yelled, "SURPRISE!"

I was looking down the row of people and saw my family. "What are y'all doing here?" I asked. 

Then I kept going down the line and saw one of my friends who lives several states away. She had flown in just for the weekend. "What are YOU doing here?" I asked her. I was so surprised.

Two of my friends (let's call the H and J) had gotten in touch with my brother to plan the whole thing. And I had no idea.

We had a nice lunch, and it was really good to visit with everybody.

My black graveyard cake! My sister-in-law's friend made the yummy cake. And I'm pretty sure the idea for it was my brother's.

H and J came to our house after lunch to hang out for a while. It was nice to wind down a bit after the surprise lunch.

We already had plans for dinner with H and her husband. She had mentioned something about a surprise, but after lunch, I just thought she meant that J would be joining us.

But as we walked into the restaurant, a bunch of my other friends were waiting on a table. Surprise party No. 3!

My cake was lemon raspberry. It was especially sweet because H doesn't even like raspberry, and she paid for half the cake. She assumed (rightly so) that Biscuit wouldn't like lemon raspberry, either, so she got chocolate cupcakes for herself and Biscuit.

So I ended up with three surprise parties and four cakes - a homemade chocolate eclair cake from Mama, a red velvet cake from my boss/friend at work, the funny yet tasty graveyard cake and the beautiful lemon raspberry cake.

My boss/friend hung a banner, got a balloon and brought me a red velvet cake.

Mama laughed at me when I talked to her Sunday. I admitted to her that I cried after each party Saturday.

I'm really good in a crisis. The drama doesn't hit me until after everything settles down. And that's what happened Saturday. I just couldn't believe all these people went to such trouble for me.

"It only gets worse from here," Mama said. "You'll just cry over anything."

And once again, she was right.

A sign

On my way to take Biscuit to school, I kept seeing these big letters and monograms on people's front doors.

Our door is dark green, so I thought it might look nice for us to have something like that.

I went online looking for one thing and ended up with something completely different. There were so many different styles.

Here's what we got:

The white looks good against the green.

Biscuit and I were home one evening and decided to order pizza. The delivery rang the doorbell, and when I went to open the door, he had closed the outside door and was looking at our sign.

He opened the door again and we traded money for pizza. Then, he said, "I really like that sign on your door. Do you mind me asking where you got it?"

I told him the website, and he said, "I'm engaged to be married, and I think my soon-to-be wife would really like something like that."

I explained to him how you could personalize it, and he said, "Now, is 2003 when you bought your house?"

I told him that we did buy the house in 2003, but we also got married that year, so that's when we established our family.

I hope he buys one for them. It'll be a nice thing for him to give her as a wedding present.

Birthday party

We went down to my parents' house to get Biscuit last weekend, and while we were there, my family gave me a little surprise party.

My sister-in-law and I went to pick up pizza, and when we got back, I walked in the door to "SURPRISE!"

So I said what anyone would say, "Y'all people are crazy!"

It was a nice evening of family, food and fellowship.

And then there were presents.

My brother's family gave me a box wrapped in newspaper with five smaller presents inside. They were numbered in the order I should open them.

The first one was a candy box. A familiar candy box. Back in April, I poured the candy from the box to a zip-top bag, wrapped it separately, then filled the box with change that equaled $5.

So I got the box back. 

Inside it was a small package covered completely in duct tape. Once I finally got the duct tape off, a bunch of pennies spilled out. They all said, "Count them."

And there were 50.

The next package was a bag of nickels. They all said, "Count them."

Do you sense a theme here?

The next package was dimes. The next was quarters.

The next package was a lot lighter. Mama said, "Maybe it's a bag of dollars."

"Yeah, right," I said. We don't spend that kind of money on presents for each other.

So I opened the last package and found a zip-top bag of dog food.

"I am NOT counting dog food," I said. "Plus, there's way more than 50 pieces in there."

And as I've heard my brother said a thousand times (I should get him a T-shirt!), "I'd do it if I was you."

I counted out 50 pieces of dog food and found a little yellow sticky note rolled up really tightly. I unrolled it, and to my surprise, it had a $50 bill inside.

"Whoa!" I said. "This is too much!"

I looked at my brother and he just shrugged. That was the end of my argument!

Did I mention that the box was completely sealed with duct tape, too?

I finally had to get some scissors.

Happy birthday to me!

Yesterday was my 50th birthday. I don't feel any older, and I think I've accomplished a lot in my half-century.

I was trying to think about how to celebrate, but everything seemed too expensive (a trip) or too time-consuming to plan with more work for me than I wanted to do (a party).

So I decided just to use some of my birthday money and buy myself a present.

And here it is.

My Daddy and brother play guitar, and when we visit or go on our annual trip together, we all sit around and sing while they play. Now, Biscuit is learning guitar, so I'm sure he'll be joining in the playing soon.

So I was trying to think if there was some instrument I could play to go along with them. The songs we sing are old hymns and old country songs. I thought about the instruments you hear in country and bluegrass bands. I don't like the mandolin, so that sent me toward the fiddle.

And then of course, I thought it was going to be too expensive. But I was really surprised to find that there are instrument companies who make very basic, beginner instruments. And they're quite affordable. This violin came with the case, two bows, rosin, a chin rest and a shoulder pad, and it was only $130.

Now don't get me wrong, $130 is a lot of money, but nowhere near what I thought I'd have to pay.

I also think it's good for Biscuit to see me learning something new and also struggling while I learn something new. The piano songs he's learning right now, I can sit down and just play them. And even though I've tried to explain to him that when I was at his level, I struggled just like he does. It's different for him to actually see that happening.

So I'm not ready for a concert yet, but maybe once I master "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," I'll post a video!

Gotta wear shades

Jeff loves sunglasses. All kinds of sunglasses.

The problem is, he wears prescription glasses. And if you've ever had to pay for prescription glasses, you'll know why he has one pair on prescription sunglasses!

So I think he lives vicariously through our boy.

Biscuit has at least 10 or 12 pairs of sunglasses. All different colors, all different styles. Baseball glasses, Barracuda glasses, playing outside glasses.

Wrap-around baseball sunglasses.

Vintage-inspired Barracuda sunglasses.

Red, white and blue patriotic sunglasses.

I finally had to come up with a place to hang them all.

Patriotic, mirrored with neon yellow arms, extra pair of baseball glasses, aviators, camo and red wayfarer-style sunglasses.

Pretty soon, I'll have to start planning a sunglasses intervention!

Happy Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July, everybody! And happy birthday to my mother-in-law, aka Grandma!

I grew up in the country ... the country, country ... as in, you can't see another house from ours or hear cars on the highway. And Biscuit loves it there.

He especially loves to be there on July Fourth because he gets to be in a parade.

The parade has been an annual event for forever. It's in this small unincorporated community and is made up mostly of farm equipment, horses, hay wagons as "floats" and maybe a few cars.

My brother rides his four-wheeler and lets Biscuit ride with him.

Biscuit loves American flag-related stuff all the time, but on the Fourth of July, he wants to be head-to-toe patriotic. He wore red shorts with a white T-shirt that had a smiley emoji wearing flag sunglasses. He also had flag sunglasses, as well as a flag hat. And last but not least, he carried a mini flag so he could wave it at all the people.

He said he had a good time and waved at everybody he could see.

Dressed and ready to go.

Riding down to get lined up.

Mama and Daddy sat near the end of the route so when Biscuit was done riding, he could stand and watch the rest of the parade come by. Where he's standing, it looks like he's the only one there.

Tangled tresses

The only drawback about riding around in the Barracuda is trying to comb out my hair afterwards. I keep telling Jeff to remind me to put a hat in the trunk, but clearly (see pictures below), we haven't remembered to do it yet.

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!