Extreme Makeover, Ma3stro Edition

Well, I couldn't be completely outdone by my daughter, so when Maestro decided that when HE had to put his hair up to brush his teeth, I thought I'd document his haircut too.

Sometimes, I'd get creative and try my version of the Legolas look ---

Babs gave his hair a try but I don't really think it's a good look for him ---

But Maestro got tired of looking for my headbands to keep the hair out of his eyes, so he went to his friend Nathan's house for a haircut. Here he is after the first cut ---

Maestro after the haircut. He likes it very much and we all think he looks great.

Adventures in Babysitting

Wow, has it been that long since I've blogged??!!! Sorry, faithful viewers. Been kinda busy. There's a lot I could blog about, and I confess that I figure EO should be the one to post, being the superior writer and photographer, but here are a few shots she would not have. While she & Herc were celebrating their 10th anniversary in Sedona (beautifully posted here) Poppy and I were babysitting. I originally planned to keep taking photos with timestamps and post each hour so Herc could see that the kids were safe. However, as a "new" parent of 3 small children, I didn't really have time for that...

We had a nice pre-lunch-and-nap pool time each day. Here's our pool train. That was a lot of fun. I can't believe how well the kids are doing in the pool. I'll admit there was concern about the kids' safety but they have been great. Dimples actually swam for the first time without his life jacket, BDE can swim across the length of the pool, and Baby has been much more careful than I expected. They follow our rules without complaining, like no peeing in the pool and no diving head first. Okay, I can't vouch for Baby and rule #1.

BDE & Baby played a little dress-up.

Maestro entertained the kids too ---

Poppy and the boys had fun with sidewalk chalk. They imitated the petroglyphs we saw from the boat. Then we saw how much chalk was on their bums and they needed to get in the pool to wash it off.

Poppy took BDE & Dimples to see Shrek 3 while Maestro & I hung out with Baby. Our friends Nathan and Barbara invited us over for dinner and the kids had a great time in the menagerie -- 2 dogs, 1 chicken, 3 birds, and 1 fish. N & B and their kids really made it a fun night for the kids and us.

Well, there you go! It went really well.



We plan on going on the boat again tomorrow, and then a fun weekend with Cissy home and the Fourth of July program at church.



PS Congratulations Juju & Bwin ---- It's a --wait, can I share this online yet????

Poppy Has Knee Surgery

This morning, (okay, yesterday morning by the clock) Poppy went in for arthroscopic knee surgery. His knee has been giving him a lot of trouble, especially the last 6 weeks or so. He found out he has gout (yikes) and arthritis, of course -- gotta love all that basketball -- but instead of doing an MRI and then going in for surgery, they decided to skip 1 step & go straight for the knife.

I don't want to stay up much longer to go into detail, but the day went pretty well. Everyone at the hospital treated us both very nicely. Cissy, Rosebud & I came to the conclusion that if there are only so many nice people to go around, the hospital is where they should be.

We arrived at 10:15 for pre-op. I took advantage of this occasion to try out our new camera. Here's the view from his room.

Poppy thought it was funny how they made sure that the correct knee would be worked on. Of course, they could've figured that it was the SHAVED knee.

Here he is in his lovely gown.

The surgery went well. They removed the damaged cartilage, so that should help a lot. However, the gout & arthritis will still be giving him problems, so this wasn't a cure-all. He was very worried that he would be really nauseated after the surgery, but here he is in recovery, chowing down. After the nurse went twice to get him a muffin, the next time she brought him 2. Smart lady.

We got home and here he is, maxin' & relaxin' on morphine & vicadin. When he woke up, the pain wasn't too bad, so they gave him half a dose of morphine. We told Cissy that they poured the other half dose down the drain and she couldn't believe it! Oh, such a waste!

We had our normal after-dinner sunset-watching time. I took a few shots to experiment with the new camera. We're really happy with it. I'm not a photographer, like SOME people I know, but it was a lot of fun and I think they turned out pretty well. I did't photoshop these at all, except to make the file size smaller. I was just able to get some good zoom for the hummingbird and I think the Texas Bird of Paradise came out beautifully.

Well, time for bed. Poppy will probably be in more pain tomorrow, but we'll see. Here's hopin'