Mid-Week - A Maid and A Cookout

My Nana had knee replacement surgery one week before we left for Ohio. Since we planned to stay at her house, I knew it'd be a 'working' vacation. When we arrived Wednesday afternoon, I saw just how painful her situation was. Her knee was wrapped in a white bandage that covered a plastic ice pad. A long blue tube connected the ice pad to a cooler filled with ice that had to be refilled a couple of times a day. Any time she needed to move, the cooler had to be unplugged and the tubes disengaged from her knee. Then someone had to stand behind her recliner and hold the chair steady as she eased her leg down to the floor and stood up. She's using a wheeled walker to get around...but negotiating doorways and furniture means squeezing through tight spaces. Her legs have significant bruising - some of which moved and changed color a bit over the four days we were there. Thankfully, her pain seemed to decrease some over the week. She took fewer pills and seemed to move around with a little more agility than she had at first.

Still, I worried every minute that Daniel was going to run smack into her leg stretched out there on the foot rest. He didn't....but there was many a close call.

After stashing our stuff in the basement spare bedroom (near a bathroom, but away from the rest of the house so I wouldn't wake everyone up twenty times a night), we went to see how we could help. Seemed like the biggest needs were laundry, dishes, and company. And that's how we spent Wednesday and Thursday. We did run down to my other Grandma's (two miles down the road) for a few hours on Thursday, but mostly we stuck close and took care of Nana. Pain pills, ice, laundry, food, bathroom breaks, dishes, water.... and a little Chanda Pierce and Tim Hawkins to bring on some laughs.

It wasn't long before she started teasing me about being the maid.

Thursday evening brought with it the much anticipated cookout/sleepover at Randy's Campground. Randy is my uncle and his 'campground' is a tent he puts up and lets the kids sleep in. He has a huge yard with a nice swing set, a campfire area, and lots of room for games. Time at his house is a highlight of every trip we make to Ohio. It's top priority!

Randy and his three year old helpers setting up the tent.



Ahh....much better! Get Ashley to pull us both! (I love how Brenna's flying high in the upper left corner of the picture.)


We had a great time eating, visiting and playing. I didn't get to stay long enough to hang out at the campfire this year. The previous three days were quickly catching up to me and I had to ask Michael to take me back to Nana's. Brenna and Daniel both spent the night, though, and had a blast. This was Daniel's first stay with Randy and Tina and rumor has it, he put a certain fourteen year old cousin to sleep before he finally conked out himself. It turned out to be too cold to stay in the tent - and possibly too wet as well. They slept inside and enjoyed all the attention of three doting cousins. My kids LOVE Randy and Tina's. (And so do I!)

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Sometime during the weekend, I was teasing my brother-in-law, Chris, about creating a facebook album that only had crazy pictures of him. He said he would just untag himself or unfriend me. At the time, I didn't even know we had this gem from the corn hole game at Randy's. : )

Though far fewer people will see it here, he can't do anything about it. : ) Love ya Chris!