The best is yet...

This past week we had to say goodbye to some good friends. Over the course of a few years and "small world" circumstances we met Will and Sarah and ended up sharing many fun times including welcoming two adorable little girls into the world.

Now at the age where the girls can finally play together it was even more sad to see them all move away. 

They are headed to Texas where the new Dr. & Mrs. (& Miss) will surely have some grand new adventures...everything is bigger in Texas you know!

Who knows where the next six months will take US, but we're counting on keeping the world "small" enough to stay in touch! 1 hour ...14 hours...what's the difference??

Just Keep Swimming...

Over the course of the last few months, a little girl we know has developed a love for the water beyond the bathtub!

She was big enough to "swim" last year, but this year's abilities prove it to be SO much more fun!

We started off the summer with Lydia...then she left us for France. 

But now that Daddy knows how much fun it is to take a break from work to go swimming...it's a weekly activity.

Samantha is also quite the attention-getter. She forces people to acknowledge her sometimes.  Her loud "HI!" and wave warrants a response and usually a smile.  She is also very fond of waving at the lifeguards...especially the boys. But don't worry, her Daddy is already working on his evil stare!  But, when he isn't warding off the enemy, he's enjoying finally being able to play with our underwater camera case!

It's lots of fun! Thanks to my Dad, we will have a lot of documented water memories from this year. Enjoy the video below!

Out with a BANG!

The other morning the house decided to rebel against us. Before all normal hours of waking, the cabinets decided to jump off the wall and crash onto the floor. David and I sprung out of bed faster than we've probably ever moved in our lives to find this:

Almost everything that could break, broke.  While I occupied Samantha on the porch David did the major clean up. Then we spent the rest of the day making some improvements, and I must admit, they are pretty nice. Samantha is helping you see the scale of the work we did below.

Did you notice all the new counter space? Isn't it beautiful?

 The David was motivated to eliminate other possibilities of things falling on us and did this!

Yes! Hanging pots and pans. A must!  Did I mention the new counter space?

 :o)

Every "Tail" Has a Beginning

It's pretty hot in Atlanta in the afternoons already this summer. One afternoon, after walking home from the park dragging a panting dog and pushing a sweaty little girl in a stroller we came inside to enjoy the air conditioning...  but sometimes it helps to get your hair off your neck. Thus, Samantha's first pony tail!

Poor Duncan could have used about 50 little pony tails...

Being Brief

 Much has happened since I posted about my Mom going swimming...

The BRIEF summary, Maria had a baby and so did I.

Samantha Jane Swafford is now 14 months old and quite the character.

Her cousin Lydia Dunlap is 19 months old, and very much a character as well.

David continues to work on his PhD with the finish date of DECEMBER 2013, and for the summer we are living in Rocky and Maria's house in Atlanta while they live in Metz, France.

Hopefully I will post a little this summer about things we do!

Swim Therapy

Swimming!  One of the things Mom used to love to do as a kid.  In preparation for today I have been asking her if she'd like to go swimming sometime and each time she seemed pretty interested.  So after we made plans I was confident that it would be a successful adventure.

David was kind enough to stay home from work today to help me out and I think he enjoyed the break too.  The weather was great at 10am, and the water was 80 degrees...if not warmer.  

As expected Mom mentioned being too cold when getting deeper and deeper in the water, but once she was all the way in she was fine.  I was expecting her to be nervous and just ask to get out of the water, but instead she did a lot of laughing and seemed to really enjoy herself.

Her walking was the same in the water...no improvement.  We tried to get her to float, or to kick her feet out behind herself, or try to "stand" "on her knees so that the water would come up over her shoulders so she wouldn't have to stand all the way up...she attempted each, but we didn't have much success.

All in all, it was pretty fun.  Mom enjoyed sitting outside the pool in the nice weather after we swam too.  We'll be doing this again!

Wii Therapy

There is all kinds of therapy you can do when you really think about it.  David thought of this one.

We played the Wii with Mom after her hip injury, but playing with a brain injury brings a whole new dynamic to the game.  We played Big Brain Academy which I really thought she wasn't ready for...BUT she did pretty well.  One of her best areas was math, and that was a big surprise from this art teacher.

From her point of view:

Another Year

58 years old!

One year and 6 days ago Mom had her traumatic-brain-injury-causing car accident.  Today we were glad to celebrate her birthday.  She was happy too, but mostly because she had a pretty delicious birthday cake sitting in front of her!

Mom was excited to get flowers from her good friend from Rochester, Josie!

Midnight Bliss Cake close-up!  YUM!

Bowling!

On Wednesday we were invited to go bowling with the Kings.  It was fun!  

We didn't know how difficult it might be because of Mom being in her wheelchair most of the time, but the King's are pros at finding ways to do things that most people would think impossible.  Below, Emily demonstrates how to use the ramp to bowl instead of having to throw the ball.

Then Mom tried it with David cheering her on!  She did very well and was able to play for half of the game before getting tired...

...and cold!  Even with all those blankets she was done for the day.  But that was ok because David and I got to finish bowling for everyone.

We had a good time and have already made plans to go back.  Grandma may even come next time!

Gift Therapy

Gift Therapy!  Bet you've never heard of this!  Well, that's because it's not actually real...

Mom got a gift in the mail today from her sisters-in-law.  The gift was from "The Nut House."   Now, we all know that this could imply different meanings, but after a moment of thinking it through we decided that their intentions were for her to have a delicious assortment of nuts and not imply that she's gone nuts!  ...although we thought the other option pretty funny.

The nuts came with packing peanuts too!  ...so clever.

Finally got it out of the box!

We decided to make Mom and honorary member of The Nut House.

They are delicious!  And really big!  I've never seen cashews as large as these.

Gift Therapy will continue this Thursday because it's Mom's birthday!

Everybody needs a friend.

Despite the look of disgust on the cat's face, I usually see these two this close together multiple times throughout the day.  The dog occasionally growls at the cat and the cat occasionally smacks the dog in the face, but these two secretly enjoy each other's company.

Spicy Chicken Goodness

We got to try the new Chickfila Spicy Chicken Sandwich one week early!  We made reservations online and showed up during our time slot.

Dad liked what was written on the sandwich bag.

The breading was the same as the normal chicken sandwich only a little darker because of the spice.  And, it came with a small bottle of water.

To me the taste was similar to the Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich.  I think this is the market they are trying to tap into.  Now all we need to do is a taste test!  It wasn't that spicy, just enough to give it some character.

David liked it.

This picture is for all the American's overseas.  Gotta love waffle fries!

So, the question remains... which sandwich is better?  The original or the spicy?  Well, the original is pretty good!  It will probably depend on your preference, but for me...I'd need to do a taste test so I could compare them at the same time.

Harry Therapy

During Mom's visit this weekend we were trying to think of things we could do.

  

We asked Mom what kinds of things she liked to do now, instead of drawing (since she doesn't like the way she draws now).  She came up with a few ideas, one of them being reading.  Interesting... since she didn't like to read much before.  So we tried it!

David went to get a Harry Potter book and Mom started reading!

  

She needed a little help ever now and then with pronouncing words like "Dursley" and "Privet" but she did pretty well.  After reading the first page we stopped her and asked her some questions to see if she was remembering what she read.  I think reading will be a good thing for us to do, although Harry Potter might be too long of a story for her.  We need a good book of short stories, for adults.

I was also thinking of something like a needlepoint project...but it would have to be one with large holes and a big dull needle.  Anybody know about anything about something like that?

Allergies this year.

Every year I end up writing about allergies and how awful spring is for me because of pollen.  This year I decided to spare you my usual rant.  Instead I'll tell you what I'm FINALLY doing about this lovely time of year.

Allergy shots.  Immunotherapy.  I've gone to an allergist, been scratch tested, and learned what all my allergies are!

(This is the grid they drew on my back and then all the red spots are where they poked me with allergens and I reacted...not much white space!)

I'm allergic to cats, dogs, mold, weed pollen, grass pollen, and tree pollen (basically all pollen).  It seems like my tree pollen allergies are the worst because trees pollinate in the spring.  Grass is a summer pollen, and weeds are a fall pollen, but I don't usually have allergic reactions those times of year.  I guess it just doesn't compare to the spring.  I have noticed a reaction to cats too, but it still isn't as bad as trees.

So far, I go to the allergist two times each week, and the give me one shot in each arm (cats, dogs, and mold allergens in one, and all outdoor allergens in the other).  The arm that gets the outdoor allergens has reacted more than the other arm.  It looks and feels like I got bit by a mosquito, and sometimes I get a headache.  This will continue for a few months with occasional increases in the strength/purity of the allergen used.  Then I'll go once a week, then once ever other week, etc.  The goal is to make myself immune to all these things I'm allergic to.  Let's hope it works!

At An Angle

This past Sunday we went to visit Mom  at Restore.  We sat on the front porch for a while because the weather was beautiful.  I pulled out my camera and handed it to Mom just to see if she would want to use it.  She was excited to take pictures of David in his orange shirt.  But, she didn't make much of an effort to keep the camera straight.  Instead, almost every picture was at an angle.  At least she got all of him within the frame.

  

We'll have to work on photography when she comes home. Until then, we'll just have pictures at an angle.

Double Bypass

This past Wednesday our family went to a Dave Bromberg Concert.  But, before the show, we went to eat at the Vortex.  Known for their award winning burgers, David just could not decide which one he wanted.  So he told the waiter he wanted his recommendation.  The waiter asked him some general questions about his likes and dislikes and then asked him how he would want his burger cooked.  Without telling David what he would be eating, the waiter went away and turned in our order.

Before long our food arrived and David finally got to see what he ordered.

This, ladies and gentlemen is the Double Bypass Burger, and hopefully the only double bypass David will ever have (and now I'm not referring to burgers).  Here is the description of what he ate, directly from the menu:

DOUBLE BYPASS BURGER

Twice as big as the Coronary Bypass! Topped with

two fried eggs, six slices of American cheese, and

eight slices of bacon, all served between the two

grilled cheese sandwiches that we use in place of

the regular hamburger buns.

Yes, he did eat the whole thing, and no, there was no free t-shirt.  He also made a decent attempt at the tater tots that were his side item.

Congratulations David...let's not do that again.

Drunk? ...or texting?

Yesterday, on our way to visit my Mom at Restore, David and I had a very interesting experience.  

We were driving down Highway 212 behind a car that was barely going the speed limit.  After a short while of following them I noticed that they were driving back and forth within the lane a lot more than usual.  I called David's attention to it and then the swerving got worse. The driver was crossing the lines and once came very close to running off the right side of the road.  They would quickly re-correct and straighten-out but it didn't last long!  While increasing our distance we tried to figure out what the deal was.  The conclusion we came to, other than the fact it was around 11am on a Sunday morning, was that this had to be a drunk driver.  I've never seen a drunk driver before, but I've also never seen anyone driving this poorly before so it had to be a drunk driver!

We got to a point where the driver was going to make a right turn and we'd be able to pass them.  As we passed we looked into their window.  We saw a young girl holding a cell phone, texting. 

I was amazed.  I don't text often in general, but after saying to myself multiple times while following her "They're going to kill themselves" I know that I never will text and drive.  Take some time a search the internet for "texting while driving" and see the images you come up with.   

Unfortunately I know all too well some of the consequences of getting into a car accident.  Although my Mom wasn't texting I guarantee that you don't want to end up dealing with all she's going through because of a car accident.  I can also guarantee that you don't want to have to take care of anyone else you know that has done that to themselves, so share with your friends about how stupid the idea of texting while driving is!

It may have made a funny comic, but it's really not funny.

Finding the artist within.

While cleaning out a room in my parent's house recently I found a bunch of blank canvases that my Mom had.  On one of them was a taped picture of this:

artist: Ron Burns

The picture had been painted for a Humane Society advertisement but the bright colors and cute face caught my eye.

I had recently gone to a place called Sips n Strokes with some friends and was completely inspired to recreate the experience at home after finding this picture.  After a few months of busy schedules I finally gathered some friends and we attempted to paint our animal friends.

I found a cat for Matthew and Jennifer and I attempted the dog.  We started with the backgrounds, had a break for dinner and went back to work on the rest.

We used techniques that we learned at our past visit to Sips n Strokes.

And before long we had some pretty neat looking paintings.

While the original was really cute, I couldn't help but add some of my own "Duncan details" to my painting.

And I we pleased to see my work appreciated.

It was fun!  We want to do it again!