Stupid Is As Sister Does: Lake Monroe

Some of you may have noticed ~~I don't think anyone noticed~~ that I've been MIA the past few days. I wish I could say it was because I took an impromptu vacation but unfortunately that wasn't the cause of my absence. You see, late last week my mother went to her general practitioner, complaining of a horrendous headache and sporadic numbness on the left side of her nose, lips, chin, and hand. Her doctor basically brushed off the symptoms as something unimportant and scheduled her for blood tests the following week.

When I spoke to Mom the following day and she described her symptoms and also told me she'd been having them for several days before seeing the doctor, I told her to go to the ER immediately, do not pass go, do not collect $200... just go! Her answer to me was, "I'm just not feeling up to going to the ER tonight. If I feel this bad tomorrow I'll go." Ugh. My mother is the most stubborn woman you could ever hope to meet and had I been able to reach through the phone I probably would have slapped her. And not on the numb side of her body.

Long story short, she did go to the ER on Sunday and was admitted. After a million test were done the diagnosis was that she'd had three TIAs (mini strokes) and one significant stroke in the frontal lobe behind her right eye. They also found evidence of past strokes too.

Luckily (???) the area of the brain this affected does not impair speech or affect motor skills. This is more the memory part of the brain.

After two days in the hospital we finally convinced her to have them give her a nicotine patch. My mom has been smoking since about the age of 12 and has no desire to quit. But guess what? She's doing it! I promised her that if she did it, I would. Gulp, gasp, waaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

So, mom is home now, under the very watchful and Hitleresque eye of my dad. Jill was sweet enough to come and pick me and the girls up on Tuesday so I could be with everyone. I only stayed two nights but it felt so good to be there, supporting my mom.

Jill and I did squeeze in some sister time and took a ride to Lake Monroe to hunt for gators. Wow, there were tons! Unfortunately, they were so far out in the lake that even at 16x zoom you can barely see the little boogers.

This guy was actually huge!

Click to enlarge

To fully appreciate the enormous size of this guy, I pointed out the location of his tail compared to his head. Wow. BIG.

We also took a quick trip to a new state park so the kids could play on the playground. This tree was absolutely amazing, but the angle I got of it you can't fully appreciate how enormous it is.

There's a protected springs area and oh my, it was just so beautiful it nearly took my breath away. Look at the color of that water, the beauty of the old oak reaching out over it.

Poopy Pants had a great time going down the slides with cousin Mikayla.

Did you notice Mikayla's hair sticking out all over the place? Sometimes static electricity is a blast!

Now don't be fooled into thinking our day was all peace and serenity, because get these four kids in the car at the same time and you're bound to leave it with your ears ringing.

Case in point.

I wish I could say that's as bad as it ever gets, but boy would I be lying!

So now I'm home, Strudel is back from our vet's uber cool kennel and she's looking so gorgeous from her mandatory $33 bath.