Friday Ramblings

You know what I love?

Watching my children sleep.

They are 22 and 18, but I will never, ever get tired of it.

I still get the chance to watch Brenna sleep and it never fails to stop me in my tracks when I do.

It's the most peaceful picture I can ever hope to remember.

No worries of the day,  no frustrations, just peaceful sleep.

And the smell. Oh, isn't it just the best? Sure, clean laundry and cucumber melon are great scents but kids sleeping? It out does all of the popular smells in my book.

Pillows, blankets, sweet dreams, warm skin and a slightly musty tang. It's enough to make me cry. 

I loved to sniff my kids when they were little when they first woke up and say, "mmmmm! You smell like pillows." sniff, sniff, sniff. "mmmm! And blankies!!" sniff, sniff, sniff (preferably the back of the neck or right below their ear.) "mmmmm!!!!" By then they would be giggling and I would be burrowing my nose further into their neck for just another whiff of childhood.

she looks sound asleep, right? yes. that is a Justin Bieber pillow case.

I took this photo in the morning, thinking that Brenna had not woken up for school yet.  So much for assumptions.

I heard her mutter, "What do you think you are doing?"

I was caught red handed, so the most obvious thing to do was to get a good whiff of a sleepy child. It's a nice way to begin the day.

Sleep:

"to take the rest afforded by a suspension of voluntary bodily functions and the natural suspension,complete or partial, of consciousness"

Unfortunately the partial suspension of consciousness was my fate early this morning. I had the strangest dream in which I had made gluten free pancakes and some little boy in my house did not care for them. So began a long, tortuous, non-ending dream of agonizing over teaspoons and measurements and flour and something about baking powder. It.was.exhausting.

To top it off, I was fully wakened by a quivering mess of a dog. Her shaking was so bad it had my bed moving.

Miss Party is not partial to strange noises. Air horns, smoke alarms, the signal for low batteries on a cell phone and fire works pretty much have her come unglued.

This morning we learned that low battery signals from smoke alarms have the same effect.  It's a lot of fun.

I'm counting my blessings in that we are warned of low batter events.

She's much more relaxed in the car. Maybe I should just put her in the car every night.

Moving on....

I had my last exam this week.

It was yet another cat scan with contrast. I do believe I will rent myself out for Halloween this year as a safety light for kids when they go trick or treating. I could make some really good money.

For this fun exam I had to slug down three bottles of water before the test. Then the "largest needle" was inserted intravenously. The "largest needle" is used because the dye goes in all at once. So nice to have that explained. It helps me not look at the "LARGEST needle" when they put it in. It does help that the person inserting that horrifically (geez. that's a hard word to spell) large needle does it very well. 

I was instructed to drink a lot of water for the next 24 hours so I can flush the dye out of my system. I don't know about you, but I needed some help wanting more water, so I enlisted the help of peanut M&M's. 

you should have heard my husband when he saw me taking a photo of an empty bag of M&M's.

I always want water when I eat these. Here is where I will give some advice.

As much as I think I neeeeeeeeeded a treat after having the LARGEST needle inserted into my vein, and I neeeeeeeeded some help to drink more water, I should have (should is a nasty word.) eaten only four or five M&M's. Much better to do this than to inhale the whole bag (which to me looked rather small) and then down more water.

It's kinda smart to heed advice when it has been learned the hard way by someone who does not usually eat peanut M&M's but really does love them .

Just say'in. 

ooh.

But I think I have made a new discovery in the form of Washi Tape.

I think the hospital used some just for me to make me feel better.

Okay, enough talk of hospitals and exams.

Let's ramble about horses.

And friends.

And hot days.

(I'm so sorry for those of you still suffering spring snow. I think there should not even be such an expression.)

Unforgettable. Isn't she a beauty?

I took B down to the stable to help her friend Janelle, give her horse  a bath, a good brushing and some treats in the form of an apple and a couple of tangerines.

Huh. 

Maybe I should take a lesson here regarding treats.

whatever.

I don't know about Brenna, but I thought it was so, so nice to brush a horse again.

apples. not peanut M&M's. check.

Hey, guess what? I found out the meaning of "Winner, Winner, Chicken 

Dinner" from my friend, Linda!

She says:

 The term "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner" is from right here in Vegas.. Years ago every Las Vegas casino had a 3 piece chicken dinner with potato and veggie for $1.79. A standard bet back then was $2.00, hence when you won a bet you had enough for a chicken dinner.

How cool is that?!

I'm off to buy a large box of kleenex to put in my suitcase for graduation this weekend.

Have a happy Friday!