Saved another one :)

Dan was spraying weeds in the yard and came in to tell me he found a bird in the grass. We put on gloves and went out to check it out. It was a woodpecker that was just sitting there, we assume he must have flew into something and landed in the yard. I picked him up and cuddled him against my chest and just held him. His eyes were closed and he was shaking.
I sat on the front porch and just held him. Victoria was absolutely fascinated by the whole thing. She kept touching his tail. At one point he tried to fly and made it about 2 feet, scaring the heck out of Ms V.

We put him in the playset with a towel, my gloves and some food. He kept trying to climb up my arms but we had to go out.


Here are the dogs running around the back yard. They could smell something but could not find anything :)


When we came back from our errands he was gone. We have seen him several times since then flying around and eating from our bird feeder. :)
It was a good day :)
You just gotta wonder what it is about stray animals and us :) :)
We talk to Lexie's new owner every few days and she is doing GREAT!
We hope to get together next weekend for a play date :)

Best $18 spent and the Relay

I picked this up at a local consingment shop for $18:

The kids have played with it nonstop since we got it. Danny likes it as much if not more than Victoria :)

The official start of the Relay for Life at Bartram Trail High School on Saturday.

Dan had to work on the potty issues on the boat, so I took the kids with me.

Victoria keeping herself occupied, playing with things she found on the ground


Danny watching the ceremony and the musicians


The color guard at the opening ceremony

We then walked the first lap, the survivor lap. This is the first time I have had the kids walk the lap with me as they usually stay with Dan on the sideline. There were surprisingly few survivors at this walk. I am used to the big one in Fort Myers where I could really blend in. Here there were maybe 20-25 survivors so I really stood out. Walking the lap is just so amazing, people cheering you on and holding the kids hands just undid me. I cried the whole lap, luckily the kids had no idea.

We met nana for lunch and had her take a photo of us :)


Thanks to everyone that donated towards my walk!! :) :)

Tree Trimming

We had a storm go through with thunder and lightening and HAIL!

The kids could not believe that ice fell from the sky!
We heard afterward that the winds were clocked at 50-60 kns!!
We lost power for 6 hours too.

The day after the storm a tree service went around the neighborhood to see if anyone needed any work done. We decided to have him check out a few of the big trees in the back yard.

This was the first big tree he climbed, so cool to watch

You can see his feet hanging down from the really large limb

Hey - there is a man in your tree!!

We had to cut off this large branch that hung over the house

Watching all the action from the back porch, fascinating...

I ran up to Danny's school to pick him up early because I knew he would love to watch this!

The carnage around one of the big trees, turns out it had a huge hole inside that was full of water and ants. The hole went about 3 feet down the tree!


Tree trimming :) He was cutting down some really thick vines that had entangled two of the trees in the back


Danny helping, he busted his butte. The guys said he was great!


One of the tree guys cutting the big tree into smaller sections


A disc cut out of the tree for us, look at the size of that hole!!

We are so lucky this tree did not come down in the storm we had :(

I had my meeting with the hip specialist and he told me that there is only one option left for me at this point and it is a total hip replacement! 4-6 days in the hospital, then to rehab and then home. 6-8 weeks recovery. Maybe somewhat functioning by 4-6 months!! what the he**
The best part was this was just before my birthday, happy day :(
My gyn wants to do more tests to find out what is going on with my innards.
My Pcp and gyn want to find out if there are more problems and if they are from the chemo, so more tests, a bone density test next monday, bloodwork, ultrasound the week after, mammo the week after that and then I see them all again plus my oncologist.
Dan & I had a long talk and realized that it was just too much with a puppy in the house. The dogs were getting into it, Victoria was getting scared of her because she is so rambunctious, and she has almost knocked me off my feet several times.
But the best part is that when the tree guys were here we were talking to them about our predicament the owner without hesitating said he would take her!
Turns out to be the best thing for him and his family too! They have an older dog and the kids play with Lexi all the time! We talk every couple of days to check on her and are meeting at the dog park this weekend so the dogs can play and we can see her.
The night she left had to be one of the hardest and longest ever! It just broke my heart and I felt responsible because of my dam* hip :(
We were all sobbing as Glen led her to his truck, except for Ms V who was happily eating her dinner :)
Dan called Glen first thing the next morning to check on her :)
Can't wait to see her! Danny is very excited about seeing her new family :)
Fate is so mysterious, things work out the way they are meant to :)
Will keep you all updated :)

The rest of our boat trip

Danny was very sad to leave the marina when we got the paper and donuts delivered every morning!


Wednesday morning we took off and headed back south towards home.
Doing hair with lego's


Proof that he DOES do windows :)


snack time, juice and pringles


This is one of the cuts we had to go through, the little white line on each side is where the shoals are!


The most exciting part of our trip was Danny losing his first tooth!!!

He was not happy as you can see in the pic. He asked us to put it back in :)

Our last day of vacation was spent in Cumberland Island, GA. We had been telling Danny all about the wild horses and he was so excited about seeing them.

Sorry this is from so far away, but there were several horses grazing right near where we were anchoring.

Both kids were just amazed they were right in front of us. We saw many different ones.

A beautiful sunset over Cumberland Island, GA


Sorry it is dark, this pic is of a couple of wild horses eating grass early in the morning on Thursday


one of the wild horses on the island right on the beach in front of us


having some tickle time with daddy


School is in session

he loves to be the teacher and doesn't realize he is learning at the same time :)

It looks like she is examining her cup, but in fact she is sound asleep!

I thought she was being awfully quiet :)

Sleeping with her toys still in hand


Vacation hangover


We were docked at the marina by 4:30, I had packed most everything while going down the river so we could get onto land. We had to pick up all the dogs by 6:30 or wait till tomorrow. Both kids wanted to go on the trip to get them.
The whole family was back home by 7:00.
It felt so nice to be home and in our own beds. :)

Happy Easter!!

After their Easter Egg hunt this morning they had to sit and look everything over!


Coloring Easter Eggs after Breakfast


the finished products!

we ate 4 at lunch! Each kid ate one :)

Dinner was at Nana's!!

Happy Easter Nana!!


Victoria snagging carrots out of the veggie dish


Dancing in Nana's living room


Nana reading one of Danny's new books


Our traditional Lamb cake


Hope Everyone had a great Easter!!
Danny got to stay at Nana's tonight as he does not have to be back at school till Wednesday!
I will post the rest of the pictures from vacation in the next day or so :)

A Great day in Savannah

Yesterday was a great day trip into Savannah. The weather was cold but sunny. As long as we stayed in the sun it was not bad.

the kids enjoying the swing at the marina


We took this trolley on a 90 minute tour around Savannah - so much fun!


Victoria really enjoyed the trolley ride :)


Paula Deen's Place


The statue of the Waving Girl, from a story of a woman who would go down to the riverfront and wave to the passing boats looking for her love to return from the sea


Is this an awesome advertisement or what?!?!


A huge EPA vessel docked at the river


A tugboat on the Savannah River, across the river is tugboat row. They wait there till they are needed


A good view of the old cotton buildings by the waterfront. Many have been renovated and have stores or restaurants on the bottom level


We walked through a candy making store - oh man the smells were great!
A fresh batch of taffy poured out on the slab


the candy maker stirring a pot of pecan praline

they had warm samples available and boy they were yummy!

Street construction by the waterfront, can't imagine how hard it is to work on the hill


Cutting through some of the old cotton sorting buildings on the river


Waiting on me - these old steps are steep and very close together


Another Danny shot - freezing our behinds off at the bus stop


We had dinner a short walk down the waterfront at a great restaurant called Tubbys. Good food and right across from the water.
Early to bed as we were leaving early the next morning after our complimentary paper and crispy creme donuts!!
Our plan is to get to Cumberland Island today and anchor for the night. We hope to see the infamous wild horses either tonight or tomorrow morning :)
It is supposed to warm up a little bit more each day.
Thank heavens the boat has heat :) :)