mother's day memories

Our house has been the refuge this week for part of a family that has been left homeless by the flooding. It worked out well, because we couldn't have made it in and out through OUR road without that big truck that one of 'em drives. It never ceases to amaze me how Big Ernie works those details out in the most amazing ways without a bit of help from me. After work on Friday I could see that the funk I had wasn't improving so I headed to the urgent care again and left with a diagnosis of pneumonia. Plus laryngitis. Since it was getting a little crowded around here I packed up the dogs and some undies and went to spend Mother's day eve with BG at HER temporary home away from home, the BF's place out in the middle of nowhere. It's a peaceful and idyllic scene with goats prancing around the lot, keeping company with a donkey. Unfortunately, Oscar didn't realize that donkeys don't like to be chased and he almost got his little terrier ass kicked to high heaven. I don't even know how he managed to wiggle through that wire, but he did it once and didn't try again. BG and I celebrated our night with pizza, a movie and beer and I passed out early with Faith snoring next to me. Didn't even have the desire to paint my toenails.

After sleeping in, I talked to my brother and he covered church/Perkins duty so I could rest a bit more. Something kept telling me to "go home" and I rolled BG's not too willing butt out of the bed and we loaded up and headed for the lane. We had Mother's day breakfast of Sonic to go and headed out to visit Mom on her special day. She had also decided to sleep in and skip church so she was delighted to have the company. I stopped at the red rose bush by the porch to pick her a bloom, something that we've always done to celebrate a mother who is still alive. About that time my brother rolled in with Daddy in tow, fresh from Perkins with blueberries dripping off his chin. He had trouble getting out of the truck and walked into the porch post trying to get in the door. Hmmm. Bubba left and BG and I began to help mama with HER mother's day feast to go from, um..you know where. Just like she likes it, her favorite namesake waitress had hooked her up with an omelette and cheesy grits. Daddy took a little bit too long upstairs changing so I went to check on him only to discover his frail little old body wedged between the bed and dresser trying to put his socks on. Burning up with fever and breathing heavy like. So, here we all go to the ER, breakfast untouched. We got in quickly and were greeted by some of my very cool co-workers who listened to what we said and treated accordingly. It was all good until the SWAT team turned up in the trauma room across the hall with a homicide suspect who had slit his throat. I kid you not. I peeped through the door of daddy's room watching one of my lab homeies delivering red tag blood so that dude could be stabilized enough to fly. The whole process took about 30 minutes and he was airborne.

Turned out that Daddy has pneumonia too and he's about 23 years older so he got to stay the night at the hospital. And let me tell you right now, that was nothing short of a miracle. He got a breathing treatment and some IV antibiotics so he felt just enough better to proclaim that he was going home right.damn.now. We wrestled and argued for what seemed like eternity until Big Ernie tapped him on the head and the nurse hit him with some valium. To help him breathe, ahem. When BG and I left the hospital to take mama home, he was happily perched in the bed of our newest nursing floor, grubbing on catfish and greens with our personal nurse friends taking care of his ornery butt. We even brought him bananas and cereal for tomorrow's breakfast.

There is this seriously wicked looking fern growing on the edge of Gumby's porch that I've been lusting after since last year. As a Mother's day gift to myself, I sat there this morning watching the goats and the donkey and dug up some of them to bring home to my house. Just imagine all the memories that will grow along with them.

^j^