"Ace" returns

Growing up, I seemed to be very accident prone, and many times you would find me on the couch, icing and elevating a sprained ankle. Because of my frequent mishaps, one of my brother-in-law's aptly gave me the nickname "Ace", as he hardly ever saw me without an ace bandage strapped around some part of my body. Well, it seemed as though those days were long in the past, until yesterday, when I was walking down our back porch stairs, twisted my ankle, and fell. For the first few minutes, everything hurt. Thankfully Josh and Jonathan were right there, and Josh ran to the garage to get Luis. It's always awful when someone falls, and always so much worse when they are pregnant. Luis came running, and sent Josh across the driveway to get Uncle David. Luis, who was just in the process of working on a small engine, was covered in grease on his hands. He ran inside to wash, so he could better help me get up. Laying on the ground, in severe pain, I suddenly decided I didn't want a bruised ego as well, and I managed to pull myself up onto the stairs before David arrived. Long story short, I had a bad night, with lots of pain and little sleep, and when morning came and I couldn't walk at all, I thought a trip to the hospital was the best thing. Thankfully the ER in the new Hampton hospital (which I must say is quite nice, compared to the old facility), was empty, and I had no wait whatsoever. My nurse was a former co-worker at the health department, and the x-ray tech and MD were great! Turned out only to be a bad sprain, thankfully. I am off my feet for the next couple of days, and tremendously thankful for a husband who knows how to give baths, cook, and do laundry. Josh even heated up pancakes for he and his brother this morning. What a great crew I have! I am hobbling around on crutches, but thankful that everything else seems to be alright. Grateful that the baby seems fine, and hoping to be back to my old self soon!

This article was published in our local paper...too funny!

Love is in the Air and Covered With Hair

It was our yearly outing at Riverbanks Zoo to celebrate our son's birthday, and nothing brings out a child's inquisitive nature quite like a trip to the zoo in the spring time.
"Daddy, what are those two monkeys doing?" my son asked me.
"I'm not sure, son. Want some ice cream?" I replied. I had a pretty good idea what they were doing, and it seemed like a good time to go grab some ice cream.
"Daddy, what are those two bears doing?"
"Nothing, son. How about that ice cream?" They should really run background checks on those bears before they put them out on display for the kids like that.
Apparently the warm days of early spring are a special time for zoo inmates, a time for each animal to do its part to increase the facility's population. Love fills the March air, whether you paid to see it or not.
Almost every animal we visited last Thursday seemed to be in love - the lions, the tigers, even the goats - but I guess there's not much else to do behind bars in between the 9 a.m. feeding and the 4 p.m. show. Even birds of a feather were flocking together, as were a couple of college kids we saw in the Botanical Gardens.
The monkeys' idea of romance involved alternately chasing each other and picking fleas off one another. Apparently nothing kills the mood quicker than a flea on your girlfriend.
Speaking of ruining the mood, I couldn't spend too much time around the elephant exhibit or the rhino cage without developing an inferiority complex.
Despite the cold, the rock penguins were feeling a bit frisky. Are those the penguins that present a pebble to their prospective lover? Hardly seems like a fair deal to me to get by with a cheap rock when men have to cough up diamonds for their mates.
I visited the Galapagos turtle exhibit for a spell, but the springtime entertainment was progressing too slowly for my taste and, besides, I didn't have all day to watch what appeared to be two large rocks kissing.
The hyenas were having fun, judging by all the laughter.
Even the vultures and the alligators appeared to be in the spring spirit. I guess even ugly critters need love, too.
The giraffes were fun to watch, but giraffe love is also a slow process. When I left they were still just necking.
But the animals that exhibited the most human-like mating rituals had to be the gorillas. One gorilla sat on one side of the exhibit, with arms crossed and bottom lip poking out in an angry manner, while the other sat clear across the exhibit pouting in a similar manner.
They were clearly a married couple.
I think the only animals we saw the entire time that didn't seem to be involved in mating activity were the boa constrictors and the pythons. Either they had just eaten too much to move, or they were suffering from a reptile dysfunction.
Maybe it was all that spring fever in the air, but I got to feeling a bit romantic myself as I put my arm around the Mrs. on our way home from Columbia.
"I've got a pebble in my pocket with your name on it, baby," I said smoothly.
"No thanks. How about that ice cream?"

Grapes

Just in case you are wondering, "What's with all the grapes??", I thought I'd explain. Luis's name (Parra) means grapevine, so there you go. I have decided that when we actually get around to building our house, I am going to incorporate the grapes/grapevine theme into our decorating.

Milestones

Some of the greatest milestones come in the tiniest of packages...like Josh's itsy bitsy tooth that came out today. It's his first tooth to fall out, and I think you can tell by the smile, he's pretty excited! I know I'm a little bias...but what a CUTIE!!

The Dog (aka Buddy, Paco, etc) came...and went....

We lived with Buddy for two weeks, and that's as much as we could stand. I'm sure Buddy is a great dog, and will be a great pet...to someone else. He successfully chewed through two collars, one leash, two plastic cups, a water dish, and almost destroyed our garden. Buddy needs to be on a sheep farm...somewhere in England. It's no secret that I was against the dog from the get go. Miraculously, it only took two weeks for my husband and both children to get on board. By the second weekend, Luis was pacing the yard, trying to figure out where we could send the beast, and the boys were being held hostage in the front porch, as we couldn't seem to find a device to restrain the dog effectively. Yesterday, the boys actually told me that they "hated that dog". Luis walked down to the neighbor's house, who was thrilled to take him off our hands. Good bye Buddy...and good riddance!