Lovin' the Grandma Life

It's been a while since I have blogged but I have a great excuse! Here are some photos:

I've been busy with these two little adorable creatures for the past couple of weeks. While my daughter had a fairly easy time giving birth, she really shouldn't pick up her older child very much. Her dad and I have been helping her out a lot when her husband has to be working since he has his own IT business.

This is where you will find us in the morning:

You may not recognize this place but we're regulars at Starbucks. That is Sophia's camera smile. 

Baby Alex went to Starbucks at three days old and we take the kids out almost every day. My motto: Show no fear!

I've done a lot of lifting of Sophia in and out of the car seat, in and out of the high chair, and just picking her up for cuddles. Since she weighs about 30 lbs, my daughter should NOT pick her up. When she does, the bleeding comes back. Not unusual after only 18 days.

My cousin wanted to know why I only had photos with the kids so here is one that is JUST me from this morning. I decided I didn't want to look like an old grandma so I have contacts and make-up. Whoot! 

Know what? I still look tired. 

 

He Has Arrived!

The newest member of our family has arrived!  Alexander Cole was born Saturday morning at 5:02 after giving his mom a hard time for a few hours. He weighed in at 8 lbs 14 oz and 21 inches long. LONG legs and narrow feet!

Since my daughter had no problems with the delivery and Alex was doing fine they went home Sunday at about 1 PM. Today my daughter and I took both her kids to Target and the Starbucks at Target. Yes, three days old and he has already been to Starbucks. My daughter is my hero. While she can sometimes whine and do NOT show her a spider, she is tough as nails. She makes giving birth and the recovery afterwards look like a piece of cake! I am grateful to be such a big part of their lives. Being a grandma is awesome!

OK, OK no one wants to read stuff about the baby since we all know it's about the pictures!

                                        Grandma with no sleep for two days

                                             Close-up shot

                                               The happy family

                                              Grandpa on no sleep for two days

                                               Mommy and daughter

                            Alex, who does not like the collar on the shirt

                                                Just a few hours old. Love this photo

Eye and Granddaughter at Nineteen Months

I have been busy with another eye injection, no photos this time, and grandmotherly duties so no posting. My vision improved quite a bit from 20/200 (with my corrective lenses) to 20/40. Now that's progress! After this last injection I will most likely need one or two more to get my vision to the best it will be. While they are unpleasant at best, the results are undeniable. The specialist is hoping for 20/25. 

I will leave you with these photos from today!

 

Lightning Tucker

Central Florida, the lightning capital. It's a good thing I like a nice thunderstorm since we get them here every day in the Summer. So far this evening the lights have flickered and the internet went out. Damn. This lightning is close! Luckily my hubby got the internet back up and running. And, OK, the lights just dimmed again. Sure wish I could get one of those amazing shots of the lightning but that's not gonna happen with my little point and shoot camera.

Today has been just a normal day although there were two trips to Starbucks instead of one. And, no, they are not DAILY trips to Starbucks. Let's just say that we know everyone who works here at our local outlet. What can I say? This month is buy one drink in the morning, get a second cold drink for $2 in the afternoon. Come on! What a deal!! :)

My granddaughter has probably been to Starbucks more than most adults. 

My hubby was out all day since it was a nice vacation day for him. When he got home our dog, Tucker, was all over him! He loves his daddy. He really loves his daddy when there's food involved. Especially when there's smoked salmon on a bagel with cream cheese. I swear this dog eats better than most people. 

Tucker was standing next to hubby's chair while hubby was attempting to eat his bagel. He tried to avoid Tucker's sad doggy eyes. The "poor thing has not eaten all day" look. 

(OMG, holy fucking shit that one was right on top of us! )

OK, well, that was fun! Took us a while to get the internet back up and running after that little burst! I think this storm is past us now. I hope. And now, back to the story!

So, Tucker sat there looking like he was starving and of course he had JUST eaten. Brat. Hubby was attempting to ignore him. I walked out of the room for a minute and when I came back, this is what I saw:

Crazy dog had gotten up on the footstool, that is barely large enough for him to sit on, and is staring at his dad. Believe me, it was NOT the beer Tucker was hoping for!

Almost There!

I am one busy Grandma! My daughter is now 34 weeks pregnant and feels somewhat like crap. And like she has, Oh I don't know, maybe a large growth on her abdomen. Seems like yesterday was the last day of shaving her legs until little Alex arrives since she felt as though she ran a marathon after doing it. 

Nope, I have NOT said, "I told you so!" to her yet. In January, when she announced that she was expecting, I did the math and pointed out that she will be at the end of the pregnancy during Florida's worst time of year. August and September. She was so happy about the pregnancy that she shrugged it off. Well, my dear, not shrugging it off now, are you? :)

Putting her shoes on is challenge enough, but putting shoes on while trying to contain a toddler makes juggling look easy. Juggling swords, that is. Yes, my granddaughter is a bit active. Perhaps even a "spirited" child. We wouldn't have it any other way but let's just say we are ALL hoping that Alex is a bit more chill than his sister.

I'll leave you with a photo showing the tired Mommy and her adorable daughter! 

        And, yeah, Mr.Tucker who seems to manage to be in every photo

Ooohh Politics!

Politics sucks. Thank God I don't have regular commercial television or I may end up putting a .38 into the screen. Since we only have Netflix, our own DVDs and shows we buy from Amazon and watch with our Roku, I get NO political commercials. None. I'd say, other than the obvious cost savings, this is another strong reason to ditch the dish or the cable.

This does not, however, stop me from seeing all kinds of political crap on Facebook. Why is it that otherwise nice, normal people turn to name calling when it comes to politics? Seriously, calling someone who is running for office "stupid" or any other synonyms for "stupid" brings into question not the intelligence of the candidate but the intelligence of the name caller. When a political debate cannot be answered by anything else but a derogatory name, there's is something wrong with the entire process. 

There is a lovely little group going around on FB  called "Dear Republicans, Fuck You!" Really? Is this what we have come down to? 

Also, these news, and I use that loosely, stories where MITT ROMNEY Blunders ....., come on, so those of you on the Left, Obama has never ever made a blunder? Never misspoke, or forgot the number of states or something? Really people, everyone makes "blunders" and when you are in the spotlight, be you Barak Obama or Mitt Romney, they get blown out of proportion. 

Yeah, yeah, I am sure that Obama has made more blunders. Oh and they are extremely BAD for the country. No? Oh NO! Romney has made more blunders that are far WORSE for the country. UGH. STOP IT!

How about we just look at the issues at hand. Oh and forget about the graphs and charts that SHOW (insert candidate's name here) is SO totally off base! Why, unemployment is up 10%, no wait it is 5%, NO NO it is DOWN 5%, or 10%. Lets get ALL of the information before throwing up (makes me want to) graphs and charts SHOWING just how STUPID the "other guy" is. This chart shows unemployment at THIS percent which includes, people who stopped looking for work, people who were forced into retirement, etc. etc. Charts can show anything.

So, I am NO fan of the political process these days and wish I felt I could vote FOR someone rather than against someone. 

Oh and NO home phone either so the political party of my choice cannot CALL me begging for money. I am seriously not part of "the rich." Nope. We are a normal middle class family just trying to live. 

Random Thoughts

I've had some random ideas floating around in my head so I figured I would just post them. 

- My daughter got a book from the library about procrastination. She has yet to start it and has renewed it twice now.

 - My husband always leaves the car seat pulled back, the air on HIGH and the radio station on a crappy station, LOUD. I am assaulted by loud music and the air conditioning blasting me IN THE FACE. From what I can tell, this is part of the male genome.

- My right eye seems maybe a bit better if I can get that blasted darkish spot out of the center of my vision. Oh yeah, macular degeneration. Damn.

- Sophia has had some difficult days lately from either a cold or some wicked teething. At least three of the four molars are in but I value my fingers enough not to check the last one. Be careful, she bites!

- Not to pick on my daughter but, since she is pregnant and suffering from pregnancy brain, I will. While I was making cocoa I asked her to put the sugar away for me. Later on I opened the refrigerator and discovered the sugar. Thankfully I did not ask her to put the milk away. Yeah. Pregnancy brain.

- I love my new clothesline thing, see it here, but now that our weather has reached the humidity levels of, say, underwater, the clothes don't always dry completely. Luckily the dryer actually DOES work, I just don't want to use it.

- We got our electric bill after all of our electricity saving measures have been in place about a month. Go us! July and less than $300! Amazing! 

- While we were eating breakfast the other day hubby listened then said, "Ahh the sound of saving money!" We could hear our solar attic fans humming along.

- A house in Florida can expect to require a new roof, air conditioning system, water heater and, if you have septic, a new drain field after about 15 years.  House was built in 1996. Air conditioner was new in about 2005, drain field was just installed. Wonder what's next?  

- There is something growing in one of the compost piles. Not sure what but it's fun to see what happens. 

- Tucker is honing his hunting skills on lizards. So far, he has not gotten the hang of the capturing part of the hunt. Chasing, yes, capturing, no. (Thank God)

- We've hired an amazing dog trainer who generally works with wild animals, I guess no longer actually wild, in zoos and such. Dog training is his side job but anyone who can teach a gorilla to accept a nasal swab quietly, without ripping off any appendages, is OK in my book.

- Said animal trainer has trained us pretty well.

 
  

Bloody Eyeball!

The continuing tales of Portia's naughty right eye and how it refuses to work properly. 

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? Like maybe some naughty bits may show on the blog? Too bad the eye naughty bits look more like this:

Yes folks, that's my lovely eyeball after being stabbed three times yesterday! So, here is what has happened.


I started out with central serous retinopathy which is fluid under the retina. It generally goes away on it's own. What you see with this problem is a dark area in your vision. Kind of grey and it obscures the central part. "Oh," you might say, "Sounds like macular degeneration!" Yes, it does, because they are on the same spectrum, in a way.  I've had this problem off and on for a long time and now it has become chronic. If both eyes end up this way I will not be able to drive. So, in steps Dr. Greek guy, the retina specialist. I think he may actually be in middle school but it could just be that I am so old he just appears to be that young. 


"We need to pump your veins full of this green stuff to turn you into the Incredible Hulk block off where the fluid is coming in under your retina." In the arm goes Incredible Hulk green stuff. "Ms. Portia, the side effects are, NO getting into sunlight or it may make you angry give you the nastiest sunburn you've ever had." Great, I cannot even stand under the super duper new light bulbs in my kitchen. How long do I have to do this? Three days!


Long story short, HA, it worked BUT, my vision still sucked. Great. We wait and then, "Oh no Ms. Portia, now there is blood under your retina." That is, apparently, a bad thing. Zip zap, there is a needle in my eyeball, then an even larger one! Numbing drops and the first injection of numbing meds worked OK. Not great. Eyeball looked terrible and I had a very uncomfortable half a day while it felt as though there were at least 10 eyelashes in my eye. I wait another few weeks. This injection is to stop the blood from flowing under the retina.


Good news when I went back, yesterday. The blood flow seems to be stopping and my vision in my right eye, with glasses, went from 20/200 to 20/60. A win if there ever was one. 


Generally there are three shots given, one a month for three months, to stop this. Seems my central serous retinopathy has moved down the spectrum to wet macular degeneration. Here is a chart:


|---central serous------wet macular degeneration------ totally fucked!---|

I have not reached the last part yet!

I get a lot of eye drops to numb my eyeball, more than last time since it still hurt a bit. Neglected to mention that anesthesia wears off of me VERY quickly. From tonsils when I was four to the c-section where my feeling was coming back when they were sewing me up to the dentist when I had a crown. Yes, anesthesia wears off FAST. 

In comes the smaller needle for the interior numbing, no problem. It's tiny. Next up, the horse injector goes into my eyeball. Better than last time, less pinching. Then the doctor says, "The eye pressure is too high I have to take out some fluid!" 

Let me just stop here a second. If you have ever watched Star Trek you will understand this. All I could hear was a Star Trek engineer be it Scotty through Tripp Tucker saying something about venting the plasma injectors. Just saying. 

SO he pulls out another needle and basically sucks out some fluid from my eyeball. Gross. Afterwards he asked the gal there to see what my eye pressure was. Now, earlier, when I arrived it was about 19, the last time it was about 14 or 15. Normal goes through 21. My eye pressure? 5

Yes, just plain old 5. I was seriously afraid my eyeball looked like a raisin.

Afterwards I could tell that the last procedure, the venting of the plasma coils or what have you, was a little more than my eyeball wanted to take. Even a trip to Starbucks on the way home did nothing to make the eye feel better. Swollen and sore. Oh and red. Ick. 

What took about 8 hours last time is taking more like 36 this time for the black dot that is the hole in my eyeball to go away. Oh no, you cannot see it from the outside, it is the black dot on the edge of my vision. Fun.  


So this is the story of Portia's naughty eyeball with no naughty bits showing at all. Sorry.

 

Isn't Ennui an Interesting Word?

Hubby, son and I went to see Snow White and the Huntsman. Eh, I should have known it would be just OK since it stars I-have-only-one-emotion Kristen Stewart. Oh and that one emotion? Ennui. Is ennui an emotion? A state of being? A fancy way of saying "boredom?" Anyway, she actually showed a bit more emotion in this movie. It is worthy of rental but save your $10 and wait for it.

Other than that, my day was pretty much the same old thing. Which is not really bad. A day spent with my girls is never a bad day. Sophia is learning so much every damned day! Why, she recently learned to say "NO!" Isn't that special? What's funny is she will say, "No, no, no" while about to do something that she is not supposed to do. Nice of her to give us a head's up.

Today we went to Joann for fabric. Daughter is making some Boppy covers that are more boyish than the ones she has now. After Joann we went to Barnes & Noble for some coffee, decaff of course. As soon as Sophia sees the B&N store she starts saying, "Yumm!" I think she's been to the book store more than most adults have ever been. She gets her own little cup of whipped cream.

My girls came over after Sophia's nap so her mommy and I could have cocoa and chit chat and so she can see her Grandpa and uncle. I think she just MAY be the highlight of Grandpa's day. 

So that's pretty much it for my day today. Lots of family and an OK movie. What more can a girl want? 

Oh, Dung!

Yesterday was my blogging whine fest so today, no more whining. Nope, not gonna do it. Whining is for whiners and that is not me. At least, not very often anyway.

OK everyone already knows I am weird. If not, then you should. I need to backtrack a little before I tell this story. My mutt, Tucker, eats a completely home made diet. His usual food consists of ground turkey (cooked), brown rice, kale (cooked in with the turkey), shredded carrots (also cooked with the turkey) and blueberries. He also gets some beef, raw,  when we are making beef or leftover cooked chicken. NO pork and the only fish he gets is salmon or sardines. This is a good diet for him but leaves out something with a lot of calcium. We give him RAW chicken leg quarters about twice a week for that. Yup, we buy the inexpensive leg quarters in the 10 pound bag and hand him one, raw, and outside. Raw bones are actually good for dogs and they have been eating them in the wild since they evolved from wolves. A chicken neck is a little small for him, since he's a good-sized dog, so he's graduated to leg quarters. 

Back to the story and where my weirdness comes in. Since he is new to eating raw chicken this large, I tend to monitor his poop to be sure he's "going" and there's no blood or what have you. So, yes, the dog poops, I walk over and look at it. No this is not a Cheech and Chong sketch, so I do not taste it or anything but I do make sure that what comes out the back is in good shape with nothing alarming.

This morning he pooped, and yesterday was a leg quarter day, so I walked over and looked. Phew, no problems. Later on in the day I walked by where he pooped (we have a large yard) and saw something moving. Yes, folks, there was a smallish black beetle rolling a piece of poop along! It seems we here in Florida have dung beetles! Hey, lucky for me I have a dog who drops a considerable amount of dung outside!

Talk about a homeschooling moment but, sadly, my homeschooled kids are all grown up and no one else was home. Tucker was unimpressed. I wished I had my camera.