Pukefest - Not for the faint of heart (or stomach)

I was just reading Mel's blog, and she was talking about how her daughter had a pukefest this past weekend. Just reading about someone else's trials and tribulations with the puke monster brought back all too vivid memories of my kids when they were little. Meg in particular. You know how they say if a child or a dog doesn't trust someone, you shouldn't either? Let me tell you, I know that for a fact. Meg was about 6 months old when I started dating my first husband. (No, that's not a typo. ) From day one, Meg hated him. I mean really hated him. So much so that whenever he came over or we went anywhere with him, Meg puked. I should have paid more attention. Anyway, I digress...

Anyway, fast forward to when Meg is in about 6th or 7th grade. Report card time came and she had a particularly good report card, so Steve asked her where she wanted to go for dinner. She named a popular Mexican restaurant (on the other side of town), so off we went. Meg has always been well known for her "tummy aches". To this day, any kind of stress (or milk product) will set off a reaction that you don't want to be in the room to witness.

We got the restaurant, placed our order and Meg disappeared to the bathroom. After about 10 minutes I was starting to get a little concerned so I went into the restroom to check on her. She was locked in a stall, I could see the feet dangling as she sat, so I asked her if she was okay. "I just have a little tummy ache". Okay. No problem. I told her dinner was going to be out in a few minutes and asked her if she wanted me to stay with her. No, she was fine, she'd be right there. So I went back to the table and she followed a couple minutes later. I asked her if she was okay. Oh yeah. Did her stomach still hurt? No. Fine. The food came and Steve and I jumped right in, I love Mexican food. I looked over and Meg is sitting there staring at her food. This is not my child. Again, I asked if she was okay. Yeah. Does your stomach hurt? A little. That should have set off red flags, but oh no, I never learn.

She finally managed to eat her dinner in between trips to the bathroom. I wanted to leave, but she wanted to eat because it was her celebration, she just had a "tummy ache". I asked her a couple times if she felt like she was going to throw up. No, just a tummy ache. Okay...

On the way home Steve decided to stop at his sister's house, but luckily (or not) she wasn't home, so we got on the interstate to get back to our house. I noticed Meg was really quiet, definitely not Meg-like, and when I looked in the back seat she was lying down. Uh oh. AGAIN I asked if she was okay. Um hm. No problem.

We got off the interstate and were about 6 blocks from our house when suddenly she shot straight up and said, "I'm going to throw up" and before I could yell, "Out the window!", she had vomited in her cupped hands. So she's sitting there with two handfuls of puke, choking and crying, and I'm trying not to gag because I can't even stand to hear someone throw up, Steve rolls the window down in the backseat and tells her to throw it out the window (hey, I'm just sayin'....) So she did. She just tossed her hands toward the open window while we were moving... Yeah, you can guess where all that landed. Right. Back. In. The. Car.

I don't even remember the rest of the ride home. I'm sure I was hanging my head out the window by the time we got there, though. Poor Steve had to clean the inside and the outside of the car, including the floor, seats, door, and the handle well on the back door. If it had been up to me, I'd have junked the thing as is. Yuck.

That was about 15 years ago and I haven't eaten at a Mexican restaurant with her since then without worrying all the way home about whether or not she going to yark. And if she says she has a tummy ache? I'm gone.

Soul2Soul - Tim McGraw and Faith Hill

Wow. That's all I can say for now. Just wow! That was the most amazing concert I've been to in a long time. I've got some pictures that came out pretty good too, I'll post them later. Just had to say..... Wow...

Nicknames and other funny creatures

I think nicknames are odd. Take for instance my name. How do you figure they got Mindi our of Melinda? Makes no sense to me. You would think I would be a Mel, or Lin, or, God forbid, Linda. But no, I'm a Mindi. Melissa is Missy, Melanie is Mel (which is probably why I'm not Mel, they were saving it for her). Marc... Well, he's another funny one. He's Buzzer. Which came about because Missy couldn't say she had a new brother, she said she had a new buzzer. So it stuck. He's been Buzz or Buzzer in the family since then. Well, I guess he's kind of outgrown it, but that's how I still think of him.

Then there's my dog Toby. His nickname is Toaster. What? How did I ever get Toaster out of Toby? Has he ever toasted me? Not that I'm aware of. He's never even made me breakfast in bed. He came to us as Toby, and I started calling him Tobster, which reminded me of Toaster, and there you have it. He's Toaster. He even comes to me when I call him that. Silly Dog.

My dog, Jojo, has even kind of evolved to Joey part of the time. His real name is Johan, the shelter was calling him Yoyo, which I thought wasn't very dignified for the old guy. I called him Jo or Jojo, and it's shortened itself to Joey on occasion.

You would think I couldn't possibly give Ben a nickname, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong. I actually call him Benny Hana for some sort of oriental food I think I heard of once. He's so funny.

Ruger is Ruger, Heidi is Heidi Ho, and Buttercup is either Princess or Buttercup. I'd shorten it to B'Cup, but I don't want people to think I'm yelling for my bra out the back door...

Oh, and dare I forget my neice, Sarah, who is known far and wide as G-skillet or Gina. Meg was Miss Magoo when she was younger and Matt was Baldy Bugs, which really was quite apt considering he had no hair until he was 2. What about it? Any funny nickanames in your family?

Our Flowers

Steve's gargoyle that he got for his birthday. He said he wanted a gargoyle, I got him a gargoyle. Those things are stupidly expensive though. He got a little one!

Our yard has way too much shade - we have like 20 trees in the yard and that makes for a lot of shade. Flowers don't do too well, partly because of shade and partly because I have a notorious brown thumb. This year, though, Meg planted a lot of flowers and they look pretty good. I have to share.

This is under the cedar tree by the street. Don't they look nice? The only flowers that really didn't make it were the Gerber daisies that Meg planted on the west side of the house. They're still there, but looking pretty sad. :-(

These roses were here when we moved in. We lost one plant this year, which Meg replaced. Steve just mulched them, so that looks like crap, but the flowers are beautiful!

Toby, Toby, Toby (and maybe some Ben)

Toby, obviously wanting Ben to get OFF the bed that he loves. Silly dogs!

This is Toby in front of his favorite Dog bed. Excuse the other mess, it's my office, i.e., the room that holds the vacuum!

Genealogy revisited

I guess the post about Viking ancestors got me thinking about genealogy again, so I was off to Forest Lawn to get some pictures yesterday. It was a beautiful day for taking pictures. I had wanted to get some pictures of Bob's family plot, and we were talking about it the other night, so that got me going. I took a ton of pictures and then wound up in Lullaby Land looking for the grave of a baby from church. I never did find that grave, but I took a bunch of others that I'll add to Find A Grave for future reference.

I was doing our family stuff the other night on Find A Grave and I had just added my grandfather's brother who, fortunately, is buried here in Nebraska so I had a picture of the headstone, when much to my surprise it was already there! The headstone only has the year of birth and death for he and his wife, and since I had the exact dates I wanted to e-mail the person who had originally entered it with that information so they could update it, and I was shocked to find out it was my very own friend, Cherry Blossom Girl! I knew she did a lot of picture taking and entering information on Find A Grave, but I never imagined she would have done some of my own family! Of course Vossler has nothing to do with Erikson or Kurtz, so she didn't know, but what a coincidence. She's got it all updated for me. What a gal!

I took a picture yesterday of my ex's brother's grave. I feel so sorry for him. He died way back in 1973, but the family never mentions him. In the entire time I was associated with the family they never mentioned his name and never visited the cemetery. Even yesterday, when most graves still had flowers left over from Memorial Day, his was bare and neglected looking. Poor kid. I tell you, that's one freaking weird family IMHO. And I can say that with confidence, being a part of it for too long! Heh.

I'm glad I did my picture taking yesterday, the wind is blowing like crazy today! We're in a wind advisory until 10 p.m. tonight, with wind gusts to 50 mph, lovely. At least I think they took out our chance of severe storms, so we don't have to worry about that tonight. Mel and I are going to see Tim McGraw and Faith Hill tonight. I can't WAIT! We have 2nd row tickets. I think the way the diagram for the Qwest Center showed it, the stage is shaped like a T and we have 2nd for on the bottom part of the T. It's their second show, last night about 15,000 went and tonight they're expecting 17,000. Hm. Maybe I shouldn't think about that, you know, me and crowds... At least we're on the main floor and don't have to trudge around the top tiers. Can't complain about the stairs, they have an escalator, but still I hate looking for seats. I hope these are aisle seats... Anyway, wouldn't you know it, I can't find the battery charger for my stupid camera. Ugh. I know there's some charge left in the one I have, but I don't know how much.

I ordered myself some Disney Crocs yesterday. I'm so excited. I love Crocs! They're like walking on marshmallows and when my feet are really hurting, they're the only thing I can wear. Speaking of my stupid feet, I suppose I'm going to have to have that huge bump removed from under my big toe. I've put it off forever, but it's getting hard to walk on now, so I guess I'll check with the rheumatologist this year when I have my blood work done. Whoopee. The good thing is we'll meet our deductible that way, we usually do, but it usually doesn't take until July! (Isn't that sad?)

I got some pictures of Toby yesterday, I'll have to get those posted here too. No time like the present, but I'll do another post for them.