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Fun to Frantic in 10 Seconds




Go figure. If you read my last blog, you know that I’ve been visiting our daughter and family in AZ.




I must say, we were all having a blast-UNTIL the night before I left for home. My husband, Steve called at 6:45 and said, “I really hate to spoil your good time, really-but I came home and found that there was enough blood all over the patio that I’m thinking of calling out CSI.”



Sigh.



Let me start with the better part of my fun few days: I landed on time after a good flight at the Phoenix airport. Got my bags, boarded the shuttle to my daughter’s office, met her colleagues, had lunch with her and window shopped until her work day ended.



Surprised the boys at day care. Both were thrilled to see me and used me for “share” at show and tell.



We went home and waited for my son-in-law, got into our bathing suits and went to cool off from the 110 degree heat in the community pool. Afterwards, we made dinner. I had the boys to myself on Friday!



Being adventurous and having the loan of my daughter’s car-the boys and I went at 8 a.m. to the park outside a “splash pad” (another name for a very fancy and fun sprinkler for kids of all sizes!). We played, snacked and used the splash pad until 11:15, when it hit the 110 degree mark. Went back to their home, made lunch, read them a naptime story (I brought 4 new books with me) and then I rested while they slept.



When they woke up-we went for lemonade and fun at a local indoor play-yard for an hour and then it was back to their house to help get dinner on the table.
Saturday was to be our “pool day” and fireworks, courtesy of the community center.




We woke up very early Sunday, had bagels and brew as a start to our “Dora the Explorer” day. We walked through Montezuma’s Castle, bounced around “Out of Africa” (have I mentioned I’m REALLY loving my orthopedic form-fitting pillows for my damaged spine????) and then on to Sedona. We were supposed to hook up with a very close friend from middle and high school, but he hurt his back and then we got caught in the first monsoon storm of the season. We had a fun time though and had a great late lunch. Getting back in time to circumvent the storm and we were able to grill our dinner!





On Monday, our daughter, son-in-law and grandkids took me to Dr. Andrew Weil’s True Food Restaurant. FANTASTIC!!! If you are curious about the meal-go to my weekly spoiler for the “flipside” of this “What’s Cooking” that IS about food and copy/paste the link to my other site and read about the great time we had there.




We walked around Scottsdale, did another couple of hours at the waterpark and returned home to have our last meal together. Oh, did I mention that our littlest guy Aidan did manage to get 3 hits to his head, bang up is knee, 2 trips to the first aid station and almost a trip to the ER for stitches on one of those head bumps? Never mind-minor stuff.




Now we’re up to my husband’s call. Seems that our dearest Sunshine broke 2 of her toe nails down to the quick so bad that she nicked the arteries! Somehow she also burned the pads of the same foot. Steve called our brother-in-law’s brother-a vet who specializes in emergency pet care and sedated her enough to just sleep in his chair next to her until Adam came at dawn to help load her into the old PT and get to the vet.




The precious Dr. Meinert checked her out, cleaned the wound, got some past due blood tests, trimmed the rest of the nails, cleaned her ears out from some gook and then bottled up strong doses of antibiotics, told me what dosage of pain meds to administer and said to watch her like a hawk for the next few days.



I was having nightmares all Monday and could hardly wait to get home to our girl. She’s in a lot of pain, very wobbly and isn’t using her foot. I’m hand feeding her both food and ice chips and trying my best to guide her to her “spot” when needed.



Pepper is helping. He’s pretty much taken a sphinx pose in front of wherever she plops and stares at her, smells her, cries every now and then and sleeps close enough to listen to her breathe.



I used to wonder why things seem to “happen for a reason”-I’ve decided that really doesn’t help anything, so I just do what needs to be done.



Here’s to hoping that what needs to be done, results in another “bounce back” of being able to watch her chase Pepper around the room very, very soon.