All Shoes Are Not Made Equal

Sorry this was posted late. I guess I didn't hit post when I had finished it and didn't get online today to notice it didn't post. I am just going to have it be my post for Tuesday as I have so much going on. This and next week are my super busy weeks with company, weddings, farewells and homecomings.

A few years back, I posted about a situation where "I may or may not have" worn two different shoes to our church Christmas program. Today, I had a situation that had me laughing until I cried during church services.....

Last week at Princess One's, I fell off a chair while putting in a new window blind I had gotten that was new in the box, for their kitchen, for $5 at a second hand store. I was excited to be able to do something for them but I had also given them little plastic chair guards and felt stickies to put on their kitchen chairs to keep them from scratching the floor.

The combo proved near deadly as I used a chair to install the blind. Princess One warned me to be careful as they now had the protectors on them so the first while, I was very careful. As I stepped back onto the chair from the sink / counter area, the chair decided to take a slide and down I came on top of the now sideways chair hitting my ankle VERY hard on the chair on my journey to the floor where the now VERY bruised ankle hit the floor hard!

The ankle hasn't swelled much but if the inside of my ankle touches the bedding, my other foot, etc, I wake or scream out in pain.The foot itself didn't hurt for a week until I was up all night hauling heavy stuff out of my house for a yard sale and then the arch of my foot inside will just have shooting pain at odd times and I am now limping with pain when I walk a week later. I think I may have had a small fracture and then caused a stress fracture on it.

This morning, I was so tired having been up until 3 cleaning up the yard sale and not having slept the night before and having a horrid migraine all Friday and not getting out of bed until after 5 that night, I was SUPER tired to get up for church and didn't hear the alarm blaring for 10 minutes before Princess Five came in to turn it off. I got up and got ready for church.

Princess Five was asked to give a "youth talk" at our church today so she wanted to look pretty but due to her accident, she can only get her hair into a loose pony with lots of "fly away" hairs so she hinted that she would like some help with her hair as she knew how tired I was with everything going on.

I offered to french braid her hair which put us a bit later than usual. Since I lead the hymns in church, I need to arrive early to put up the page numbers and make sure I am there to lead the opening hymn.

With my sore foot, walking was terribly painful this morning and so I grabbed the first two black shoes I could see and headed to church.

I was really limping going in and one shoe felt tighter than the other so on the way in, I looked down to see if I had the same shoe on both feet. It looked like I did so I headed in and started the meeting but every time I got up to lead, my hip hurt and I put my weight on one leg as my foot arch was hurting so much. During the middle of the meeting, I took off my shoes as my feet hurt so much. I then look down and see that I did have on two different shoes and not only different but there is an inch difference in height!!!

No wonder I was limping so much! Clearly, getting 5 hours sleep in three days isn't working for me~

I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face! I didn't want to be rude to the man speaking but I couldn't stop and my girls then saw my shoes and they started and for about five minutes, every time I tried to stop, it only got worse! After the meeting, I had a few people come up and ask what was so funny and I just pointed to my shoes..... They all laughed with me... Or at me..... either way, I was glad that I could make someone laugh as I got the best laugh I have had in probably a year!

Unlike this post about last time this happened, I can tell you that this story is true, no question there~ I really need some sleep!

Visit to the Dr. For Princess Five

Princess Five had a Dr. Visit today and of course we get there and there are kids running around grabbing coloring pages out of a shelf and coloring. 

Princess Five said she wanted to color while we waited so she goes to pick out something to color and what is the first thing I see? Yep, a rainbow! It is crazy how many times I hear songs about rainbows or see rainbows recently. I kind of think my mother not having her mind when she was alive is probably really seeing how stressed my life is now that  she has passed on and is doing her best to let me know she wishes she could help. This week is particularly stressful trying to get Princess Four's Visa filled out and ordering all the items she needs so they have time to arrive, Princess Five's arm still not being able to do much so she isn't much help and I have company next week. 

My apples are falling off the tree as I have no time to dry them. We are having a yard sale this weekend trying to help pay off some of the medical bills, getting a car for Princess Five that she can drive one handed, Missionary items and expenses and Princess Five has two trips with her choir and graduation that I would like to be able to send her on.  

Princess had fun coloring and we visited while we waited in the exam room but she was sad she didn't have her coloring page as it was a longer wait than usual. 

We have been getting conflicting stories from the physical therapist and the Dr. told her to wear her sling all the time. The therapist told her not to raise her arm up and past her midline as it could dislocate again. So, she has been wearing the sling almost all the time and not pushing the arm up other than passive motion that the therapists showed her. 

The Dr. comes in and grabs her arm and throws it in the air straight up and she screams out in pain. Tears streamed down and he told her she didn't have frozen shoulder and he helped break up any adhesion that was there. I wish he would have shared that he was going to do that and why before doing it as she had tears but after, she said it felt good like it needed to do that so I commented about the physical therapists comments and he said that was only for the first few weeks! 

Wish someone would have given us a printed paper with this type of information so she could have been working her arm a bit more! As long as I do the comfrey poultices regularly, she does better with motion and her shoulder feels tighter but when we forget or being out of town for days didn't help. 

He said 3-6 months for healing which is 3 less than he said last time so I told her to get to it and work that arm and I can rub oils in it and do passive motion to get it above her head and hopefully, she will be dancing in no time! 

She is still a kid at heart as she wanted to pick up her coloring page that she left in the waiting room. I took a picture as I don't think there will be many of those days left in my world!    

True Colors - Like a Rainbow Princess Four

With so much going on in my world, I have been getting stressed a bit. 
 
I have some friends coming to visit from New Zealand next week and may miss a few posts due to a family wedding for a niece the day after the company arrives, a home coming for a nephew the next day and a farewell for my aunt and uncle headed to London an hour after the farewell in another city. All of these events are hours from my home.

Princess Four wants to attend a temple of our faith in a distant city in the middle of that and we meet with the surgeon about Princess Five's arm today. 
 
The list of things Princess Four needs to get or get done is quite large and I shared with her that many of these things can't wait to be done as they have time constraints that make us have to get them done now. 

I asked her to make a list of all the items we need to purchase and then another list of all the things that need to be done, sent in, ordered etc. She ended up with two very full pages. 

This in itself stressed me out but hopefully after next week, things will calm down some. 

Today, we went to the bank and she applied for her first credit card and notified them that she will be leaving the country and her debit card will need to have access in Japan. 

After the bank, we headed to the eye Dr. as we need to order some extra glasses and contacts. She has large black glasses that I feel are masculine and really hide her beautiful blue eyes. I was talking about how I think they hide who she is and that she should wear contacts so people can see her eyes on her mission. 

Just then, the song "True Colors" came on the radio and "Don't be afraid, to let them see your true colors, Your beautiful like a rainbow." came on. The lyrics and irony weren't lost on us. If you haven't read my blog over the past six months, you wouldn't know that the rainbow is my mothers way of communicating since she has passed on. When things are stressful etc, we see a rainbow or a song about rainbows will play. Here is the first post about rainbows but there are others if you type "Rainbow" in the search box, you can read more on that.
 
Also, Princess Four has my mothers and my grandmothers beautiful blue eyes and my mother was the best missionary and most friendly person I have ever met so I know she was telling Princess Four to just be herself and not hide who she is and let people get to know her true self. 

We bought some shirts and tried on lots of glasses and will probably end up buying some glasses online as insurance will only pay for contacts or glasses and her prescription has changed enough that I want her to have new glasses if needed but we are going with contacts for the majority of days. 

We were really glad that the person helping us mentioned that there are allergy eye drops you can buy and put them in before putting your contacts in and we tried it today and Princess Four said it was amazing so we were super grateful for that. It was wonderful to find something that helped her be able to wear her contacts for more than an hour or two!

I pray that I can get everything I need to done in the next few days and maybe post for next week early, if not, please forgive the lack of posts as it truly is hectic in my world presently..... 

Great-Grandma Is The Baby Whisperer - Grand-Prince One

We went to visit Princess One and her family for the weekend. 
I will write more about that tomorrow but wanted to share this cute video with you and about how amazing my step-mother is with babies. 

When she arrived, the baby was a bit fussy. I don't know that it wasn't from having been passed around from person to person as there were lots of us that wanted to spend time with him. 

The only person that didn't come was Princess Three as she is interested in a certain boy and wanted to stay home for the weekend to support him. 
 
We missed seeing her but understand the lure of a cute guy so we forgave her missing the fun weekend but she was missed. We thought she would be coming on Sunday but the person she was to ride with bailed on her that morning so we were very sad we didn't get to see her. She has yet to meet Grand-Prince One. 
 
When my step mom (name is for clarification only as I love her like a mother) held the baby, she would talk to him. She would listen to him and give him her complete attention and EVERY time he would grin, talk to her and smile!!! 
 
I could show you twenty pictures of different people holding him only minutes before these last pictures and he is crying in most of the pictures with all of us, me included! 

She holds him and he is ALL smiles!!!!! Look at all these pictures. He was being so cute that I took over 50 pictures of her holding him as he just kept laughing, smiling and being super happy! 
 
I think because she held him and gave him attention and talked to him the first time she held him, he remembered her! He really just loved being held by her! You can see she is the one holding him in the pictures of him smiling each time! 
 
The entire rest of the weekend, I think I may have gotten one picture of him half smiling while someone else was holding him. Most of the time he is just quiet, sleeping or crying in the pictures. 
 
Truly, Great-Grandma is the baby whisperer. I love the video of her talking to him. It went on for a long time before I got the camera out! I wish I had started video taping earlier before everyone started talking and moving about as it was quiet and they were just having a conversation before that! 
 
Thanks for making the long drive to spend time with us Great-Grandma and Grandpa! We appreciate all you do for our family!  

Worlds Best Great-Grandpa - And Father

Truly, I have the worlds best father. He, like most fathers, has his moments of being amazing and being frustrating. 
 
As teens, I think every kid thinks their father is the strictest or least understanding but there are SO many memories I have of my father going out of his way to make life wonderful! 
 
My father has the ability to create fun out of anything. He would find scraps that would be garbage to others, and he would make it into something fun. Here is a post with a few activities he has brought or created to our campouts.

Every year when we go camping, he comes up with another thing to keep the kids busy. One year, he made a bungee out of springs. 

Another year, he brought wood scraps and made a swing. One year, he made an adult see-saw with wood scraps. 

He always brings the makings for zip lines and most years, he finds some other activity to create using odd items.  

You can imagine with a father that is so creative, we had some fun as children. I have several fun activities come to my mind. 

My dad created a custom blazer that was similar to a jeep with a hard top that you could sleep in the back on a large bed but still seat many children as we had 8 kids in our family. 

Then, at our annual Easter camping and other trips in the year, the top could come off and he had a roll bar where we could stand and hold on with no top. 

I remember us driving in the wild and coming across a heard of wild horses and we drove near the horses with the wind blowing in our hair feeling free racing with those horses. 

All my rich cousins had the newer cars / jeeps but they all wanted to come in our "home made" blazer as it was custom and more fun. 

My dad taught me that you don't have to have money to buy toys, you can just make your own. 

The other day, I was searching for a picture and came across this picture of my father bouncing in mid-air on a "Mickey Mouse" bounce toy. Imagine my joy when I came across one at a second hand store for $3. 
 
I took it when we visited my grandchildren and my father and his wife were also visiting. My father is such a good sport. Even at 80, he can still get on the ground and play with his great-grand-children and is willing to be silly for the kids. 
 
I just love the video near the top where he got down on the kitchen floor to play cars with one of his many great-grand children and kept her entertained while we got the food ready. 

I am so grateful he is still with us and going strong! I hope we have him for many more years as he is such an influence for good in my children's lives and now my grandchildren's lives.

Thank you dad for the years of fun! 

SUCH A LONG DAY - IT ISN'T OVER

I have a tooth that has bothered me for over 12 years. It has had four crowns and I will be getting another in a few weeks. I have been living with a metal temporary one for over a year now and my gums have been irritated since he put it on and receded tons as well as it not fitting and my teeth shifted.  He seems to think that perhaps the first crown was metal under the porcelain and caused irritation and then we went from there. Of course I am sensitive anyway as I have had reactions to several white fillings and several crowns. 

I went to the dentist today and had him prep my tooth for a crown. It was a VERY long day. When I got home I worked all night on cleaning the garage looking for bins of Princess One's stuff and lids for the buckets she wanted and her toys, her "wizard of oz" stuff and all sorts of things. We moved all the stuff in Princess Two's room out and put it in a yardsale pile and I pray I can sell it all. 

I went to my sisters and borrowed their suburban, then to a neighbors and borrowed their trailer and cleaned out my freezer so I could give it to her and had to clean the garage to get it out and on and on taking down the bunk beds etc. My house is such a nightmare! I really hope I can get it cleaned out by next weekend as I have one of my New Zealand host families coming to stay. 

I need to shower, wash laundry, clean off the SD cards and pack the trailer with all the stuff and be ready to leave by 2! It is 7:30 a.m. and I haven't slept and my mouth is throbbing and I have taken LOTS of pills today for my very sore tooth! 

It hasn't been my best day.... Found some flooding while moving stuff, my roof is leaking around the vents but my roof wasn't done that long ago so I am not happy to see my ceiling falling in and baseboards pulling away from the wall, nails coming through the drywall etc. It truly has been a LONG year! Say a prayer that I can travel there and back safely with a trailer!  

I am not sure I will be posting on Monday. If not, please forgive me and enjoy your holiday.....

Teak Oil on Bathroom and Kitchen Cupboards and Cabinets - Easy Makeover

My home is over 35 years old. The cabinets in the kitchen and the medicine cabinets in the bathrooms are all of the golden oak solid wood variety that was popular then. 

I know the trend is to paint kitchen cabinets white, grey, or black presently for the sleek look but I LOVE natural wood. I have it on the banister for the stairs and much of my own furniture is from the old era of oak so I don't want to paint over wood. 

I hate how dirty my friends cabinets get where there is lots of use when they have painted them white. They also get dinged and you have to touch them up etc. 

I just wash the fronts from time to time when they get dirty and I haven't had any maintenance for years.

There were a few scratches on the sides which aren't really oak but the oak laminate siding. However, under the sink where I wash regularly due to cutting lots of fruits over the sink and it gets sticky etc, my frequent washing has taken some of the varnish off and they were looking quite worn. 

Also, in my bathroom where I wash the mirrors several times weekly, the varnish had also worn off. I wondered what I could do to update my cupboards without having to sand and refinish them and remembered that I used to use tung oil back years ago before moving into this house on the cupboards in my apartments. 

I sent Princess Four to the store to purchase me some Tung Oil as I was moving a bunk bed and it had tons of scratches on it. I remembered the Tung oil and figured it would work to get the scratches polished up better than the "Old English" light furniture polish would. 

Princess Four called from the store and told me that the Tung Oil was more than twice the Teak Oil and so I figured I would try the Teak Oil on the bed as I had such wonderful results on the garage door (click here for that post) and on my trailer a few years back. (click here for that post)

I used it on the bed and it worked wonders covering the scratches of many children's abuse. It was wonderful. However, it does get sticky if left on over where the varnish was still intact. So, using a soft cotton cloth, pour some teak oil on the cloth and wipe on the entire surface. Let it dry for about ten minutes and then take a dry cotton cloth and wipe it off so that it dries more quickly. 
 
Where I left it on over the old varnish took two days drying time and in areas that I put lots of it, it took even longer so don't forget to wipe away the excess after ten minutes. I would do a section, go back to the first area, then go to a new area, then go back to the second area and wipe the excess away etc.

MAKE SURE YOU ONLY DO IT IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA. I had my swamp cooler on vent and all my bathroom and kitchen vents going full for two days and at times, I can still smell it. I would suggest doing it before you leave on vacation so that it has plenty of time to dry before you come back and the smell will be dissipated. 

Hopefully you can clearly see in the many before and after pictures in this post how well it covered up the scratches and dings. I also made a video you can see the final product. I think they look like new and after thirty plus years and a household of 9 when we bought it and our 7 for years, they have turned out quite nice I think! 

Oh, in the one beneath the sink, I had started the tops but stopped so you could see how well the top looked verses the fronts and center between them look. Then, the picture below is the entire thing finished. 

I did the same thing with the last picture. It is one of the bathroom medicine chests where the varnish had worn off. You can see how it shines it up immediately in that picture.

There are two last warnings. In my bathroom when the kids were little, they wouldn't use the fan / vent because it made them cold so they would steam up the bathroom and it wore away the varnish on the grain on the upper cabinets. Then in the basement, near the whirlpool spa tub, the wood just above it also wore through the varnish on the grain so when I used the Teak Oil, it created a darker grain there due to mildew in the crevices so if you have a spot like that in your bathroom, I would do a light sand there before using the Teak Oil. 

The last of the two warnings is the make SURE that you do not store the container opened or with a cloth. DO NOT STORE THE CLOTH!!!! Once you are finished with it. I put it in an old sour cream container in water and take it to the outside garbage can. I personally know someone who burned down their business by leaving rags soaked in stain and varnish on the work tables over night and it started the building on fire destroying their business and another! 
 
ALWAYS soak the used towel in water and dispose of it outside not near the house!!!! CLOSE the container tightly so the fumes don't ignite!!!! It isn't worth a few pennies for someone's life or your home to be destroyed!