My house is so damn loud! And yes, I love it that way....

What's Annette ranting about now you ask? Not a rant. I swear. Walk into my house almost any evening and you will hear LOUD stuff. Music, IPOD, piano, electric guitar, and cat yowling all at once. Oh, you might hear me singing too, but that can be frightening, so...let's talk about cool sounds, not geek sounds.

Steve's and I went to Vintage Stock tonight and he picked up a Ramone's CD. So that was going full blast for awhile. Then Jordan had some Avenue Q blasting and Steve moved downstairs to play some Green Day on his electric guitar. Fireball just thinks we're all nuts I think. I love all the racket.

Anyway, back to my story. Ummm Yessss I was going to tell a story. Steve has been under a LOT of pressure this week and actually been forgetting to breathe. Yes, it happens to all of us I think. He felt like his heart was having a seizure. So, we thought SEIZURE OF LIFE was a good title for a rock and roll song. John is working on the lyrics. It'll be interesting to see what he comes up with.

And, just 'cause i know you miss him, here he is --
Fireball, a.k.a. Lion-O a.k.a. Sofa King

Feb 15th - Dad gets to go HOME!!!

Finally after 17 days, Dad got to go home from rehab on Feb 15th. YAY! Steve and I went over to help out that day. Here are some pictures.

Dad sitting in his wheelchair, until given the go-ahead!

Dad and Steve reviewing Steve's script for the spring play

2nd floor elevator

Down on the first floor, ready to walk on out!

Getting set up in his chair, Dad gets love and kisses from Missy.

Annette cuts off those silly wristbands!

Steve ponders life as a pig. (Grandpa is part pig now for real, with his replacement "porcine" valve)

Mom supervises kitchen clean-up

Kelly's blog challenge

Here's this week's challenge:You have to move. You have two choices: 1. A farm house in the middle of the field. Your closest neighbors/grocery/etc are miles away. 2. A big city apartment in a high rise. Yep, you still have your kids. Which is it and why?

MY CHOICE:
Definitely the farm.

Here are my pros and cons listed in "an organized fashion"

CONS:

• Planning trips to the grocery store, library, etc. I'm only a few blocks from the store now, and the distance can be walked.
• Transportation delays. If a kid wants to have a friend over, or go over to a friend's house, it would be a major undertaking.
• Shopping woes. I guess I'd have to do a lot more on-line shopping.

PROS:

• Birdies, birdies and more birdies.
• I could have an Irish Setter like I want.
• Peace and quiet.
• Independence, self-reliance would be required.
• Starry nights.
• No impulse buying (except for the on-line kind!).

February Birds

Its SPRING (for some of the birds anyway). I've been spending time at a local park off the beaten path.

YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:

Today I got some HOPE that spring is around the corner. I saw the Yellow-rumped Warbler. I only got a picture of the female, but I have a picture of a male from last year. There were a few of them at the park today. I also added some other birds that I got pictures of this month.

Male:

Female:

Tufted Titmouse:

Northern Flicker:

Juvenile Red-Headed Woodpecker:

Brown Creeper:

A month of updates

Wooooah Nellie. Has it been a month since I posted? A lot has been happening and here's the run-down.

• Dad's surgery. If you did not know my dad had some major heart surgery last week. Very serious stuff. Fast forward to today and he sounds pretty good. He's on a ton of meds and today they are trying a new insulin dose since his blood sugar seems to be out of whack. BUT, he is up, walking the halls, enjoying visitors and his many piggie companions (yes, dad is a pig fanatic and he now has several new additions to the pig family, especially the pig valve now residing in his own heart!). "so far so good" was the mantra of the surgery waiting room, and I suspect will be our continued motto as dad recovers.
  
  A Day After Surgery Story: About 9 am the day after the surgery (he was still on the ventilator and couldn't talk) I started telling Dad about how nice it was weather-wise when he got to the hospital, and then told him about the white out snowstorm that happened during the day, and how the temperature dropped down to 10, blah-blah-blah. His response? Making the little circular motion with his right index finger to indicate "big whoop". :-) So, of course when I told mom about that, I said, well, we know his sense of humor is intact!
  
  Tuesday night, the night of his surgery, there was a code blue in the ICU that we heard while standing in the cafeteria line, and we all looked at each other saying "no, dad's not in ICU quite yet, so it can't be him". It wasn't. The brother of the guy was in the cafeteria line behind us and we found out later after we moved up to the ICU waiting room it was a 28 year old young man, never sick in his life, and died of bacterial pneumonia. It was very, very sad.
• In other family news, Steve's gerbil died sometime during the night Tuesday. We have just been discussing his age lately, and Tuesday night I was telling our family friend Kelly about him and how he was almost 5 years old which is ANCIENT for a gerbil. So, not unexpected. He is in a little wooden box in the garage and the boys are going to take care of him later.
• Training is going fine.
• Our little finch kingdom in the backyard is something to see! John wishes for a cardinal or a blue jay, but we don't seem to get any. The various finches though are really pretty.
• We are considering getting a dog.
• The superbowl was FUN! I don't remember having that much fun watching a superbowl for a long time.
• We watched Ratatouille yesterday afternoon, great movie. I loved it!

Pileated Woodpecker

Yup, I saw two, not one but TWO! My pictures aren't the best, but that doesn't lessen the thrill for me at all! We also saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk. He posed for a bit, then flew off. Some other birds shown below.

Nearly as large as a crow, the Pileated Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in most of North America. Its loud ringing calls and huge, rectangular excavations in dead trees announce its presence in forests across the continent.

Pileated Woodpecker, used to be rare,

but these guys are making a comeback

and I suspect moving their range northward,

as many other birds are doing.

Pileated Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker
Red-Bellied Woodpecker

American Tree Sparrow

(a winter only sparrow)

Sharp-shinned hawk

(similar to Cooper's Hawk)

Sharp-shinned hawk

Black-capped Chickadee

Hiking Kansas City - Return of a Legendary Book....

IT REALLY HAPPENED! The co-authors finally after 6 years published a new version of my all time favorite book "Hiking Kansas City". I have such fond memories of taking the kids on little day trips when they were younger, even in a stroller! The previous 2 versions of this book helped me plan, envision, dream and have giant adventures on a small scale. My previous versions have many little notes inside, records of hikes with one or both of my own children, and sometimes we added to the mix with childhood friends or family members. The first hike I took using this book as a guide was the October when Jordan went to kindergarten, and Steven and I took one of the hikes in the book. I still remember it like yesterday.

This 2007 version jumped off the shelf at Borders right into my eager hand! As I paged through this quote in the back caught my eye. It speaks my language.

Afoot and light-hearted,
I take to the open road,
Healthy, free,
the world before me,
The long brown path before me,
leading wherever I choose.
...Walt Whitman

Terrified

In January it will be the 10 year anniversary of a head-on collision I was in that totaled my lovely little Ford Escort 4-door, green of course. That was the last new car I bought. Saturday night we had a bit of freezing drizzle with threat of ice. We had a dinner party to attend a couple of miles out in the country. Not too far. The roads were salted and it wasn’t horrible or anything, but as the time approached I found myself becoming almost paralyzed with fear. Really terrified. I just can’t believe that after all this time I still have this terror. On the drive home from the dinner party I ask John if he’d mind terribly if I just put my Ipod on and closed my eyes. He was okay with that and it really helped. I peeked a couple of times but the music was really good to keep me from panicking. When we got into town I was able to relax.

I guess as much as I try to have my mantra be “fear is the mind killer” it doesn’t always work that way. I guess I should be glad that I actually got into the car……

We had snow that I drove in Thursday with not a bit of trouble. Of course it was daylight and I have a stick which is great for snow.

Here are some lyrics to a Steve Green song that I have liked for a long time. The only place I’ve seen it though is on his Christmas album featuring the Salvation Army band on the cover of the album.

Rest, the Lord is near
Refuse to fear
Enjoy his life

Trust, His mighty power
Fills every hour
Of all your days

There is no need for needless worry
With such a Savior, you have no cause
To every doubt

His precious Word
Still reassures
In every trial

Call Him
If you grow frightened
Call Him
With loving care

He’ll lift the burden and you’ll
Rest, the Lord is near
Refuse to fear
Enjoy His life

Just some pictures

I haven't updated for about 3 weeks. Here are some snapshots.

Desiree and Hunter

Jordan, Mom T, David, Dad T., Steve

Jordan, Dad and Mom B., Steve

Desiree and Chris

Cameron and Brett

David and Steven

Dad T, Shannon, Erin, Mom T, Jim, Brett, Cameron, Kevin, Desiree and John

Jordan at NHS induction

Jordan and NHS induction

Baby Mykala with parents

Baby Mykala with grandparents

Reflecting on Poverty

From our Just Faith week 6, after our reading assignment from "Amazing Grace" by Kozol. Here are the questions, and a part of my answers.

Question 1: What are your early memories of poor people, or of being poor yourself?
-Poor people and addicted people coming into the Salvation Army for assistance, money, a meal, a bus ticket somewhere.
-Visiting a lady in a one room house.
-Working in the thrift store.
-Was I poor? Not really. We did live in a trailer while dad was in the Air Force but after they joined the Salvation Army our homes were provided and they were in decent blue collar neighborhoods. I always felt like I wasn't "cool enough" in school since I didn't have the name brand clothes or a nice hairstyle, but I wasn't ever hungry or cold.

Question 2: What did people close to you say to you about poverty, about poor people?
-Being raised as the child of Salvation Army ministers, the poor in town were just a part of our lives. Our job was helping others. "Heart to God, Hand to Man" is the S.A. slogan. A lot of government programs (WIC, cheese, etc.) were run from the church.
-Being poor was never a cause for distancing myself from another.

Question 3: What experiences as an adult have you had of poverty in the world?
-My own experience was a year or two of absolute poverty. I didn't think of it that way at the time, but there were many occasions that water/electricity was shut off. One place I didn't have any heat at all. I have had to haul water from the pizza joint across the street from my apartment in order to flush toilets when the water was shut off. I've used a bunson burner to keep warm. I have subsisted on macaroni and cheese box dinners for weeks at a time. I've rode the bus because I couldn't afford a car.
-As far as poverty in the world, until Just Faith I really hadn't given it a thought. Since then, studying a lot, reading, and watching educational video as part of the program I have learned. In addition I've had the chance to actually spend time with the poor, not just handing out food but really talking and finding out what they think, what they think should be done to improve things. When we visited the Catholic Worker House on Linwood and got to eat dinner with some of the people coming for a meal, it was very moving, but also a learning experience. Some of my assumptions were very wrong.

Annie Get Your Gun

Here he is, the one the only, STEVE!

This is a small sample of 15 pictures from the musical.

Click to make larger if you choose. Enjoy!