Pink pills and puzzles...

My mom just had her crazy foot surgery on Friday. She's a pretty special person so I don't mind taking care of her. I have been bringing her food, helping her move around, changing her bandages, and tomorrow I am even washing her hair. So, none of you guys have to worry. She's is doing just fine. She took my advice and has been taking the pills the doctor prescribed for her. They are these huge pink ones! They sometimes make her sick, but usually just a little dizzy and really tired. She's not in that much pain and even walks around on her heels. I spent the day today looking at her MRI's from before her surgery and it's crazy! I can see just where they nodules were and how big they were! I even showed mom today.

The last couple of days we have been spending in her bed watching old Oprah's, Rachel Ray, Charmed (just to humor me probably), and The Wizard of Oz (twice). However, when the kids came over yesterday, Hayden totally ruined our puzzle that we have been working on for a week. The whole right side was gone! I was a bit depressed, but knew I could reconstruct it. So, tonight Mom and I decided that we would do it together. I helped her walk down the stairs and get her situated. She was a little bit mortified because the kitchen was a mess and she even tried to clean up, but I forced her to sit down. That's just mom being mom and I love her for it. So before we started I had to clean the kitchen so she wouldn't freak out and then we got to work. It took us quite a while. It was a puzzle of the Las Vegas strip and it was 2000 pieces. We saved the hardest corner for last which was all black and huge! Mom ended up getting up and getting a flash light so we could see the distinct differences of color on each piece that we couldn't see without it. What a good idea mom. At 10:45 we put in the last piece, BUT it didn't fit! Mom, probably because she was all hopped up on those pink pills, started laughing hysterically! We finished the whole puzzle and our last piece didn't fit! The pieces were all a bit awkward and some of them looked like they fit perfectly, but didn't really so it was hard and we kept on joking that we were putting the whole puzzle together wrong because we weren't sure if each piece actually went there, but we never thought it would actually happen. I found the piece that didn't fit (it was way off where mom had put is btw) and exchanged the two. So, now we have a pretty puzzle of the strip on our kitchen table.

Friends come and go, but family lasts forever

A lesson that I have come to know all too well. The day after Halloween, Lisa and I drove up to Brentwood, her home town which is like 30 mins south of San Francisco. She hadn't been home all year and we both really needed a vacation. Life is really hectic and stressful. Sometimes you just need to walk away, another lesson I learned all too well in that one week.

Anyway, Lisa and I left Saturday morning at 9:30 and made it to Brentwood in 2 hours and 15 minutes. We both decided that I am driving on all of our road trips. The whole purpose for us going was to watch this one football game at her old JC. DVC vs. Butte. It was a pretty good game except for the fact that IT RAINED THE WHOLE TIME, until the game was over and we left anyway. Then it got all bright and shiny. Hi Todd! Hopefully some of you get that and if you don't it's from Bubbleboy. I was freexing! I not only had my sweatshirt with my hood on, but Lisa's blanket and I also had an umbrella so I wouldn't actually get wet. The bay area is a whole different kind of cold than Fresno is. We had a blast though. It was fun to meet her old Athletic Trainer and meet all of her friends. After the game we went out to dinner with a couple of her friends and then rented Made of Honor which was amazing and everyone should see it! The next day we went shopping at a new mall that opened up like 5 mins from her house. They got an American Eagle which is a big deal for a town that's as small as Brentwood is supposed to be. We both ended up spending a lot of money, but it was totally worth it. Then we went back to her house to watch the Cowboys game, which sucked. She is the biggest fan ever and gets really angry when they play like crap. Me, I am pretty sure I ended up falling asleep at least 2 times. Oh well. At the end of the day we didn't want to leave. I didn't want to go home to the drama that waited for me at school. Her mom cooked up this really greay meal and her cats had all gotten attached to me. I actually sort of miss them which is weird cause I am not a cat person. Not just them though, her whole family. Her niece reminds me of Sarah. She's pretty much just as tall, but she's only 5. It was pretty amazing, but she was so cute. I can't wait for more vacations.

On the other hand, I couldn't wait to get home cause Donny was there. I miss him so much when he is in Utah, but I am so proud of him for moving away and surviving on his own. He hung out with his friends a lot, but I didn't mind. It was great to look across the hall and know he was there. It was like he had never moved. I was definitely not ready for him to leave so, I invited myself with Kristi and Chris on a trip to take him back to Sacramento so he could fly back home. We had a lot of fun. Sacramento has a lot of weird memories for me, but it was still really fun. We ate at Joe's Crab Shack, which was amazing, THANK YOU CHRIS, and then headed for the candy store. It was so much fun. After lunch we went to a science planetarium place, I don't even know what it was called, but it was really cool. We got to learn a lot about the planets. Did you know that they have a globa and a map of venus and mars. They even have names for the craters and stuff. It was way cool. The other half of the place was all animals. Donny loved the porcupine and I love the bunny which I name Thumper. He was huge! We even stayed for the little show where the lady talked about different kinds of turtles. One almost peed on her! Then we took Donny to the airport. I was the only one who cried, but I couldn't help it. I love him. So, despite all the crap that happened that week at school it was still a good week. I lost a friend, but it's cool. I decided that family is way more important and they actually care about whether they like it or not, they just have to.

Halloween!

I love Halloween. I love the scary movies, the haunted houses, the scary ghost shows that are supposedly real, dressing up in a costume at the age of 21, and having a good excuse to eat a lot of candy. For Halloween I was a ninja turtle with Lisa. We made shirts that said the names of who we were on them and bought the little kid cotumes so we could use the shells, which we also jazzed up. They were super cute! She was supposed to be Donnie, but we weren't informed that Donnie was the purple one until we had already made the shirt. SO, she was a blue Donnie. I was Raphael, the super cool red one. This was in the car before I had my really cool headband on and you can't really see our shells, but we were all decked out. We had everything except the weapons. We got ready together and then went to my friend Sal's house. It was kind of lame so we decided to leave and hang out with Lisa's friend from home, Calvin. He was pretty cool. Us leaving caused a lot of unnecessary drama, but it was worth it. We ended up having a lot of fun. Ninja turtles was probably the best idea ever. Even though there weren't four of us which everyone talked about that night, and we didn't have weapons. Can't wait to see what we come up with next year.