The big milestone birthday happened!! Todd turned 50 last weekend. We tried to celebrate him as much as we could. (It was a little tricky because of baseball -- we couldn't go anywhere / do anything big.) So, we had to do what we could between events to honor this "big" day!
At the end of last year, we bought a new couch. The old one was BEAT down. It took 4+ months for it to arrive. Once it came this spring, we had to rearrange a few things. One was getting rid of the end table that we had and moving the leather club chair to another room. This left a blank wall next to the fireplace. For months, I had been looking for a piece of furniture to go there. I've always wanted a barrister book case - like always. None of them felt right or had enough function to meet what Todd was looking for to go in that spot. (We needed a place to house all of the bill stuff / paperwork / etc that is always laying around our living room.)
After several months of searching, found this antique that seems to fit the bill. At any rate, it's really really unique! This piece is over 100 years old - dated around 1900 - 1910. A company called Globe Wernicke is well-known for making these modular / stacking book cases. They can be configured in different ways, but most use 4 - 6 units of the standard glass-front book shelf. Ours has 2 standard sized glass book cases, 1 smaller glass book case, the writing desk / organizer piece and - tucked into the base is a drawer. Our piece has 2 unique features. It's not one-of-a-kind, but doubt anyone we know has one like it!
Who knew that 1 - this piece existed, but 2 - that there is a guy about 45 minutes from us who has an entire basement garage full of these pieces and restores them! We picked up the piece and then went to have dinner nearby at a Cajun restaurant in Douglasville, GA that Todd had been to before.
It was definitely in-your-face! Ha! He may have been a little bit embarrassed? :) I was trying to watch his expression as he drove up to the house that night. It was dark... was he confused? What was in the yard? Then, I could see it on his face. He was like - "really?"
Below are better pictures in the daytime. And it stayed up ALL weekend. Friday night through Monday morning.
He had to walk by those signs every day -- multiple times a day -- when taking the dog out. Hope it served as a reminder about how special he is to us??!!
The next morning was his actual birthday. I made him carrot cake pancakes (with a nod to 50) stuck in the stack. THEN, it was off to baseball for he and Mercer. (Isabella and I usually go later so we don't have to sit through warm-ups. It's hard enough keeping her occupied for the duration of the game - let alone extra time!)
So, they're making a go of it. Every HOT weekend after weekend after weekend.
And, thus, this is where we spent Todd's "birthday weekend" -- at the baseball field. But.... he loves baseball and this is his happy place (unless the team is not making good plays).
He asked to go to his favorite Mexican restaurant after the 2nd baseball game -- after they had been out at the field for close to 6 hours!!
Our old neighborhood Mexican restaurant moved north of where we live, but we go on occasion. We feel pretty comfortable - even during the pandemic - sitting on their patio.
No sombrero this year though.
Later that night, he got LOTS of cake for his birthday this year. 5 of them. Each representing a decade of his life. Each a different flavor to try from a nearby bakery. Coconut - of course, Chocolate with Fudge icing, Red Velvet, Strawberry and Caramel. (They're the minis and it said it served 1 - 2 people each. Um....these "minis" we cut into 6 little slices each. 
Mercer and Todd would have 2 slices each, Isabella and I 1 slice each... so - that is 4 servings per mini cake. We still have cake left over a week later!!
Oh well - now we know! And we know which is the best/ liked most by all of us: strawberrry. mmmm.)
Before this big milestone -- a few updates: I don't need to have surgery. I start Physical Therapy. I am getting more movement and using the arm much more. Sometimes, I overdo it, so I have to ice it or take Aleeve. I was pretty protective those first few days... not really moving it at all! My mom came down to help out with the kids and to help with closing out of my classroom. She and Mercer helped me pack things up / wipe down the board, move things around in my room, etc. It was such a big help!
She also helped a lot by chauffeuring the kids (and me) to swim practice and basketball camp. Here are a couple of photos from camp. He and a buddy from school went, but they ended up on different "teams" / different groups. 
Mercer's group won a scrimmage and he & his teammates got to pick out an old jersey. (He thought that was pretty cool~) His friend won a basketball, so I'm glad they came away with something! 
They had food throughout (there was a concession area for additional fundraising). I'm glad they posted pictures for the parents. (There weren't any action shots, though, unfortunately). Overall, I think he enjoyed himself.
Isabella started the swim team just before school ended. There were afternoon practices -- that turned into morning practices once school ended -- to crazy all-evening meets 1x / week. Isabella is on the same swim team that Mercer was on when he was about her age. It was so good for his swimming abilities. I think we saw great improvement in his season. Isabella is improving week-by-week as well. They started out putting her in a couple of events, then added an extra event each week. There are meets where she's in a lower event heat than the "top" heat.
She's having fun + she's improving her swimming skills. That's what matters!
At a "make-up" swim meet from the previous week, the most RANDOM thing happened to her: a bug flew into her eye and she swatted at it... securely lodging the thing into the corner of her eye where we learned later that it LATCHED onto her eye!
3 minutes before the meet was starting at 6, Isabella runs up to me and tells me that she has a bug in her eye. We try for a few minutes to get it out, but the meet is starting and my job is beginning, so I send her to the bathroom to flush it out / to look in the mirror.
From where I'm standing, I can see the side of the building where the bathroom is. 10 minutes... no Isabella. 15 minutes.... no Isabella. 20 minutes, I'm asking a kid in her group who's walking by me to go check on her. That kid is gone for awhile too. Later, she comes out of the rest room and says that there are a bunch of people in the bathroom trying to help her get it out. ??!! 
One thing that was tough: she was on a stool in the 1 sink / 1 mirror. There were people going to the rest room and we needed to pause the "removal" to let people come wash their hands. I tried to help her for awhile, but to no avail. She was refusing to let anyone flush her eye in the sink.
Someone brought in one of those squirt water bottles. We wondered if we could let her jump into the deep end of the pool outside of the swim meet... but she wasn't having it! After she was refusing to let me - or a pediatric nurse who was in the rest room help... I had to leave. A mom I knew came in and we traded positions for awhile. I went to turn some more numbers and talk to the coaches. We found someone to help with the numbers and finish my shift.
We went to the bigger urgent care center about 10 minutes down the road and signed in for our hour-long wait. She was fine... UNTIL... we got into the room and the nurses started taking over. She wanted to be in control of the situation!
"What are you doing with those long q-tips? How many are in there? Tell me what are you doing before you do it." Two nurses were working with her. One let her be more in control. The other tried negotiating with her... at points, they went out and came back in. Eventually the one that was trying to negotiate with her - left (maybe his shift ended?). Another nurse came in. "What are you doing with that bag of water (sterile saline)? No - don't hold it that high. The water is coming out too fast."
The 3rd nurse was not appealing to her. She told Isabella - "honey - we're the medical professionals. Don't tell us what to do!" The doctor sort of had the same mannerism as that 3rd nurse. She was annoyed that Isabella was fighting the numbing drops... she was fighting the eye flush.
She had to be "swaddled" using a folded bed sheet, but she worked her way out of it. Unfortunately, the only way to get it done was to sedate her. They didn't put her under all the way - just relaxed her a little bit. Unfortunately, she was still fighting with the sedation... just not as much.
They never used any hard tools - only soft tools + water. Gratefully, her eye was not scratched through this whole ordeal -- only swollen and definitely red / bloodshot for a few days afterwards. The medicated ointment for her eye helped to make sure there was no infection. So far, so good.
"Big Thing" 3 for this post: THE LIZARD had surgery! It swallowed a rock. (We all grew concerned because it had not been eating in several weeks.) The vet took an x-ray and saw it in the intestines.... then schedule surgery. They tried to go in with a camera and something to grab the rock but they couldn't get it, so they had to cut open her little belly and surgically remove it. Needless to say - we will no longer be buying the mats that have little rocks on them. (They're designed to help remove the skin that they shed every so often... give them something rough to rub up against.)
So, even though it was a fairly normal, low-key weekend, we tried to make it special for this BIG BIG milestone!
They had food throughout (there was a concession area for additional fundraising). I'm glad they posted pictures for the parents. (There weren't any action shots, though, unfortunately). Overall, I think he enjoyed himself.
The next week, Mercer had an afternoon baseball camp at a nearby high school. Isabella and I ran errands or went to different parks after the drop off / before the pick-up. There are no pictures from that camp.
[Pictures at left -- freestyle]
A couple of times, she's won a particular race in the 3rd heat / gets really excited. I don't think she understands the concept of 1st heat, 2nd heat, 3rd. (She even said maybe she wants to do swim instead of baseball?! but I told her this is a summer sport baseball is spring and fall, so she doesn't have to give up her baseball career yet.)
Except....
[ pictures at left -- they had not practiced diving yet, so.... jump in and swim the breaststroke! ]
Swim meets are crazy - there are 80-something events... a new event happening every minute or two. Hundreds of kids. Dozens of coaches. Dozens of volunteers on the deck. Parents on the pool deck too at each event to cheer on their children. Each parent is REQUIRED to volunteer or else their child doesn't swim. I had the "easy" job of turning numbers. This is an important job so that swimmers know what event is currently taking place and they know when to start lining up / coming to the pool deck for their event.
I asked a coach to go check on her and let me know what's going on. She was gone for awhile too, but came back to report that it would not come out and Isabella was scared. She grabbed another parent for me to take over my job and I was finally able to go in and help. She was getting frantic. There were tons of people crowded around her in the bathroom. It cleared so I could help.
[pictures at left --- I like this series of 3. Shows her swimming, touching the wall, then her looking over as she realizes she touched 1st! -- it's the 3rd heat, but she still got a 1st place ribbon.]
I went back to her. She was calmer. Between the two of us - one holding the eye open, one pulling on the bug, we determined that it was not coming out. Mostly, she was calm, but every now-and-then, she said it was biting her or stinging her. :(
She agreed to le me take her to urgent care.
We went to one pediatric urgent care facility. It was calm - there was no wait. But the nurse came out to the waiting room, looked at it and said they couldn't help us... sent us to the bigger one. (No wonder they were empty!)
[Pictures at left - final series - back stroke.]
At right -- she was soooo drowsy AFTER the ordeal and seeing double. Here, she's playing with the popsicle trying to find out why there are two. And she was trying to poke me in the eye to figure out which eyeball was real... mine of the other ones she saw?
With sedation, instead of 3 of us (2 nurses + me) trying to hold her down while the doc worked... it only took 2 of us after sedation. It was exhausting for her... the nurses... and me! They washed, then swabbed, then washed again to make sure there was nothing left of the bug. I'm stunned that thing held on and it didn't fall apart during the tugging on it / during the swabbing / during the washing. The doctor put it in a jar. It looks like it may have only lost 1 of the wings, but the head, abdomen, thorax were intact.
She "called" it earlier in the evening saying that it was biting her or stinging her. She said earlier that she thought it was a flying ant or a sweat bee. It absolutely could be either one! Who knows?! should we send to an entomologist??!! ha.
That is "Big Thing" 2 for this post: the bug-in-the-eye night!
"Big Thing" 3 for this post: THE LIZARD had surgery! It swallowed a rock. (We all grew concerned because it had not been eating in several weeks.) The vet took an x-ray and saw it in the intestines.... then schedule surgery. They tried to go in with a camera and something to grab the rock but they couldn't get it, so they had to cut open her little belly and surgically remove it. Needless to say - we will no longer be buying the mats that have little rocks on them. (They're designed to help remove the skin that they shed every so often... give them something rough to rub up against.)
The week after surgery, she shed, but Todd and Isabella could not give her a "sauna" to remove the extra dead skin because of the stitches. Oy!
Unfortunately, the week after surgery - she still hadn't eaten. We had to take her back for an "assisted" feed. The next week - the same... they also removed part of her stitches. THANKFULLY, she finally started eating again.
Whew - what an expensive month it's been so far!!! (I think the lizard's surgery + follow-up visits are more expensive than what my bill is for my shoulder -- as reported by the rep at the insurance company) Isabella counted out money from her piggy bank - $14.87 - and gave it to the vet in a zippy bag. They thought that was ADORABLE. It just shaved a little bit off the price, but it was priceless.
Just saying... a new lizard is about 80 dollars... just saying~
And - big thing #4 - Juneteenth is now an official holiday! We've known about it for a number of years because there's been events on the square. (Unfortunately it poured this Juneteenth and dampened the celebrations / the festivities, but... in the end what is important... is it is recognized by the federal government!)
On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free. Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto plantations and across cities in the south reading small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation spreading the news of freedom in Confederate States. Only through the Thirteenth Amendment did emancipation end slavery throughout the United States.
But not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as "Juneteenth," by the newly freed people in Texas.
The info above came from the National Museum of African American History & Culture. (Which is a new-ish building that is on our list of places to visit!!)
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