I haven't done a {Friday Photo Bliss} post in so long. I started doing these years ago so I could post recent snapshots that made me happy. I just haven't made the time or had the energy to do one before today, but it is back! I really wanted to update you on how things are going with our family.
The year started rough for our family with a six month forced house renovation due to a leak (no kitchen, downstair bath and floor though much of the downstairs), Paul's sister dying, and dealing with the emotional and physical damage caused by the horrific wreck where a drunk driver hit us and broke Isaac's femur, gave both of my boys concussions, killed Piper our dog, and totaled my car.
We had thought 2020 was rough, but 2021 told 2020 to hold its beer.
If someone had told me that I would go through a major house renovation, a pandemic, a Texas heavy freeze, the loss of Paul's sister due to that freeze, lose my dog, and have my kids almost killed by a drunk driver all within a few months I would have insisted I couldn't have made it though without a breakdown. But I survived!!! Thanks to my incredibly supportive family, friends and all of you guys that read my blog and sent so much love and support our way.
The drunk is still in jail (he can't afford his bail thank goodness) and will be in courtroom hopefully sometime this year or early next year. I hope they throw the book at him and give him a maximum sentence. Apparently he doesn't have any friends or family willing to pay the bondsman $4,000 to get him out. After three DWI's and almost killing the boys and me, NO ONE wants him out on the streets.
You know, I realized a few weeks ago that I haven't thought about him much lately.
I was so furious for so long, I imagined throwing the drunk loser in an active volcano (among other very violent fantasies I will keep hidden in my brain vault). I would look at sweet Isaac, hobbling around with a huge rod in his leg, and seethe because my boys had to deal with the after-effects of emotional distress, broken bones and concussions and know their sweet dog had to be shot to be put out of his misery at the scene of the crime. All because this unemployed couch-drunk decided to get completely wasted and get behind the wheel of a car. And he walked away from the wreck completely unscathed...
That wreck was so traumatic that neither of my boys has any memory of it. I remember every moment of it, but with time it is getting easier to deal with the memories. And I am not wasting my time and energy thinking of that worm who hit us. He took as much as he could from us that day back in February, we have moved on. I don't bear him ill will anymore, I just hope he learned something from hitting us other than "Cars are hard". ;-)
Thankfully my children have healed. Isaac's leg is doing great and he is back to normal. We will find out in 6 months or so whether we need to have the rod removed. If he grows too much now (he is 14 and just starting his growth spurt) it might be best to remove it. It has to be decided sooner rather than later because if we wait too long the chance of the femur re-breaking as they remove the rod increases. So it is just a wait-and-see situation. Worst case they leave it in, which really isn't a bad choice.
We also are in love with our rescued sweet mutt Hoover. Our renovations are over and our downstairs is GORGEOUS! I will post before/after images later.
Other than the rod in Isaac's leg, the one other thing we have to deal with is Luke feeling comfortable driving again. He was a student driver driving the car when the drunk idiot hit us. It has been difficult for him to feel any joy driving after going through all of that, but he has been slowly gaining his confidence back.
So life is good and I am just so appreciative that we are still here on this earth together. I almost lost my children that day in early February. We are so blessed that we all survived, I have run other ways through my head how it could have gone down that day and we didn't make it in most of them.
So what has been going on the last months with our bonus life?
Luke got his driving license!
The boys went to Civil Air Patrol encampment in San Antonio Texas. Luke staffed and Isaac did Basic.
I love this video! If you have kids that are 12 and up check out CAP, it is an incredible organization.
Luke went on a Friday so Isaac and I hung out in Boerne (great little town!) until I dropped Isaac off on the base Sunday.
Isaac and I had a great time hiking and exploring area caves like the "Cave that Has No Name". Which ironically is its name.
The boys had a blast during their week on base. They were tired but happy when Paul and I picked them up and both had lost about 5 pounds from all of the exercise and paltry encampment food.
They can't wait to go back.
These last weeks of summer we have just taken it easy. The boys did some catch-up school, but other than that we have just enjoyed hanging out at home. I wish I had taken more photos, but I have been trying to live in the moment more and not worry so much about documenting everything.
Isaac has been flying his Christmas drone and taking photos of us.
This was a sneak attack drone photo of my rear. My first thought when I saw this was Isaac had taken a photo of my mom before she lost weight.
But no, that is me.
I want to say that I have gained some weight these last months (and I am working on losing it), but that stupid drone has a wide angle lens and that is not a completely realistic photo of my bum. The camera added a few pounds I hope!!! And why are my feet so darn flat looking?
And don't let your kids (Isaac) near a photo editing app if they have a photo of your fanny because he will text you images like this. At least my feet are tiny.
The one good thing that came of this horrible edited photo of my back end is that I am now motivated to lose the extra 10 pounds I put on due to stress the last year. So more walking, fewer carbs, and some intermittent fasting. Maybe I just needed a photo of my badondadonk to encourage me to do the right thing, so thank you Isaac!
We bought this cute little used Mazda 3 hatchback for the "boys' car". Luke can drive it but it is actually my car because I love it. So I have two cars now which maybe is a lot for one person, but I do have a giant caboose so it takes two cars to carry it to town.
Luke LOVES this car and I noticed he is actually enjoying driving for the first time since the wreck. He is working at Paul's eye clinic, filling in this week as a prelim tech, so he is driving it back and forth with Paul. He is becoming more confident every day and actually asks to drive places now!
And Hoover. What can I say about this angel mutt? Oh boy. We love this dog so much. He is so laid back, walks without a leash, listens so well, and has no problems with people, other dogs, or cats. Hoover is a big 70 pound love muffin who just wants to hang out with us and be a good boy.
Except when the vet tries to clip his nails. I brought him in this week and they were able to cut one nail before he had a complete panic attack. They had three people holding him and he still managed to escape and find me in the waiting room. He ran out to me, wagging his tail because he was so happy he avoided the humiliating procedure, with a line of people chasing after him.
The vet gave me a bottle of anti-anxiety meds for him for his next pedicure visit.
This morning on my walk with Hoover I was thanking God for all of our blessings.
Life is good!
Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for all the actions/presets and professional design elements, storyboards, and textures.
