so darn purty

Mesa Verde

So somehow I miss Mesa Verde on here from our trip to Colorado way back when. So we'll go back in time a little. Not just Mesa Verde back in time, but for us as well. This day Elmer went to play golf, as he did/does on most days and the kids and I went out for an adventure. I've forgotten all my facts and statistics, but since we started at 6512 for Durango's elevation, we trekked up a couple thousand more feet in addition to that. So we were really up on the high Colorado plateau. Pretty awesome.

Little outlook on the way up to the plateau

Here the kids are at their first overlook before we head down there to check it all out.

Getting a little closer to the dwellings after scaling some rock ledges. But really not too bad, and I get pretty nervous about my kids and ledges.

I think our guide said something like 1000 people lived here at one point. Crazy.

You know what else is crazy? Me taking a picture of Lola, and thinking she might smile for it.

Can't you see how much fun they are having! True joy.

Climbing between "houses"

Desert cactus in bloom

Hair the color of the sky. Oh yeah, and snow capped peaks in the background.

Underground rooms

Take a look

There is nothing delicate about my flower, Azalea

With only 15 minutes until it's time to leave for Lola's MRI appointment, I decided to hop in the shower. Every mother knows that this time of bathing is sacred and usually scarred by screams from the beyond. Requests for food, or complaints about brothers who wont leave sisters alone. Or so and so called on the phone and even though I'm not supposed to answer your phone, I did, because I knew you wanted to talk to them, (even though you are in the shower and CAN'T).
Aparantly it's a lot to ask to be alone for a mere 5 minutes of cleansing. Especially when there is my babies' daddy working in the kitchen. Thankfully he was this time around.
Before I ran off to my room and my shower for my time, Azalea, hops past me on the broomstick saying "I'm a witch, I'm a witch!!" Fly on, little witch, I've got a deadline to meet. I carried on and let her go about her pre-Halloween routine.

My bathroom is is an interesting little addition off the back of our house. So is our bedroom. But the bathroom is even further tucked away, as it should be. But the combination of acoustics and duct work make it so that I can still hear most everything that goes on in the rest of the house, but no one can hear me or my responses to their many requests while I should be alone.  Hmmm. Is that really just my bathroom, or simply the life of a mother. We hear and see all, but seem to go completely unnoticed by all others, especially those who need or want us.

So, I heard the screams, but I ignored them. This is my time I told myself. My time. Only five minutes. But the cry, though muffled I could still hear it. Elmer was there, if it was anything serious, he could address the issue. I need to be out the door in 10 minutes to Lola's appointment, which they mistakenly scheduled us for 715PM, as opposed to the 715AM we were told at least 5 times, including in the reminder phone call. We had already showed up 12 hours prior to wait for said appointment, only to be sent home.

But then the screams sort of stopped. Or I zoned out washing the conditioner out of my hair. And Lola walks into the bathroom, "Mom, Azalea knocked out another tooth."

Of course she freaking did. Of course she knocked out another tooth, because that is what happens around here. But I confirmed that Elmer was on it and I shortened my 5 minute shower to 3 minutes and got out, just as Azalea walks in. Her face covered in blood and holding a bloodstained rag to her mouth. Tears streaming down her face and deep gasping breaths to regain composure but only the signs of the cries remain. Not the actual noises.
"What happened, baby?" I ask her in my wet, towel covered body trying not to flash and then further scar my children.
"I wost ma woowf" Of course Azalea is at the age of loosing teeth, but none were currently loose.
As it turns out the magical witch riding her broomstick, can't actually fly. She can fall though, and did. She plummotted from her Nimbus 2000 onto the couch and the stick got caught between her face and the couch.

Her brother, Tigo, walks in to the bathroom. Slightly more phased than the others by my almost nudity and drops the bloody tooth onto the counter. Except this doesn't look like the type of tooth you normally see kids stick under their pillow for the tooth fairy. This one, while small, as it came from a small childs mouth, was extremely long.  Not only did she knock the tooth out, but the ENTIRE ROOT came with it.  The root that is twice as long as the tooth that we see outside the gums. There was no break in the tooth. I don't know if this accounts for strong bones, weak gums, or a crazy fall from a crazy girl. There is nothing delicate about my flower, Azalea.

Elmer now comes into the bathroom and we are all there with moments until we are supposedly needing to be out the door for Lola's MRI that they won't reschedule for us for another 3 weeks and this broken foot won't wait that long.  Elmer gives her the look over. He checks to see if the bleeding has stopped, and the gushing has. Only a relative small amount of blood continues to flow from the gum. But wait, there's more.

Finally now with less blood we are able to see that there is a deep gash on the inside of her lip. She has a pretty significant cut, but mostly just on the inside, but large and painful, none the less. Here we come doctors office.
"Ok, Elmer. Are you taking Lola or Azalea?" Lola is easier, so....

I call our pediatrician's office who have stitched Azalea's chin up during late hours before. But this time they say they won't take anything on the lip. In case she needs a surgeon, she has to go to the ER. Heck, no, I'm not going to the ER. So with 15 minutes to 7pm, Elmer drives off to take Lola to her MRI and Tigo and I race Azalea to the Urgent Care, which you guessed it, closes at 7pm. And we get there by 6:59pm. But they won't take her either.

"Sorry, ma'am. We are filled to capacity and aren't taking anymore patients."

So off to the next pediatric urgent care.  As we check in there, I tell them how it's her second tooth knocked out, and it happened while we were about to take her older sister to get an MRI for her broken foot.

She looked up at me for a minute, I think questioning if this was time to call child services. And said "What's going on in your house?" Tigo, oblivious to the intent of the question, pipes up and tells her that Lola had broken her foot in gymnastics. And then Azalea tells her that the first tooth happened when she got pushed by another kid when she was 3. For a moment I was having visions of not just medical bills but things I don't want to know about.

After weighing the different options of glueing her lip vs stitches in a very awkard location, we go for stitches after numbing her lip, cheek, gum with a nice vaso-constrictor. She sits through the first stitch nicely, but screams when she finds out there will be more.

Eventually, we are done. Child services are not called. Azalea is bandaged, and Lola has her MRI done. Apparently incorrectly. Stupid UNM. But that's another story.

And now I'm exhausted.  But at least we can move forward from this one.

Rare morning

It's a rare opportunity these days that Elmer and I get a morning together. Alone that is.

I suppose it could happen more often, but planning doesn't always allow or I'm just not gifted enough in that department.

Bringing the dogs along, still counts as alone.

When a hummingbird lands on your finger

So, it's really not as magical as it sounds. At least not in the setting that we were in. It just seemed staged because it happened so easily. Still pretty darn cool.

On top of Sandia Crest, more than 10,000 feet about sea level, 5,000 about Albuquerque things might come a little bit easier. Some things except getting there.

And catching your breathe from the views and altitude.

The sky is a little different color up here. A little bluer. A little cleaner.

Even though it's so much colder at the top of the mountain, the hummingbirds like to hang here before the weather turns. (btw, the weather has turned and these pics are from the end of august, not this week)

At the "station" at the top, where Mustang drivers meet to show of their engines, and Harley riders go to check out the view, and youth groups go to experience nature and families go to savour the last days of summer the hummingbirds gather by the hundreds and enjoy the sugary food to savour their small souls. And if you are patient. Which is hard for a young child. But if you wait and don't scream with joy when it is about to happen... you might be lucky enough for a fast little hummingbird to land on your finger and push your heart to the next level.

TinkerTown

A lifetime of tinkering can lead to some interesting things. On the east side of the Sandias, just off the Turquoise Trail is this quirky little place that has been created by a lifetime.

Walls built with used bottles.

Jerry Garcia esque reinvention.

a place to ponder with one of your best buds.

Sometimes I feel guilty walking through here quickly. Even if it can be a little creepy at times. But there is so much detail and wonder that when you press the button to "make it go" you never know what will go.

 The old school fortune teller told her that the next stop we'd take was up to the Sandia Crest to check on the hummingbirds before the migrated for the cooler weather.

My favorite

But not with out giving us a last mantra to feel good and carry on.

2011 Balloon Fiesta

The view heading down to the field

I promised the kids that I would take them to the balloon fiesta this year. I feel like I had told them that we would do a bunch of things and hadn't lived up to my end of the deal, so the Balloon Fiesta was a must.

It's kind of cold, but they aren't complaining

Though I don't think my kids have the concept down just now of how friggin' lucky they are to be able to do all the awesome stuff they do. Even doing awesome stuff when they aren't doing awesome stuff. That's how awesome it is. So a couple things could be going on here with this. I could really just like saying the word awesome. Or I could be trying to make myself think that it's awesome when it's really not. Or it really may be just plain awesome. I'll go with the first and last statement of awesomeness.

She's got the whole world waiting for her.

So we went on the last day of the fiesta. I realized I left my IPhone at home. Which I suppose it's normal to forget things when you have to wake up at 5am. And I did. I also forgot to charge the camera battery. But memories are in your heart, right? Whatever, I want mobile uploads and pictures. Anyhow, slightly limited, but you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.





Balloon babes

Elmer reluctantly got bribed with Azalea's snuggles to come with us.

Darth Vader balloon, if you didn't notice

The inside of the balloon before it went upright.

Spyder Pig about to launch

What a trooper on the crutches

Arizona trying to represent with their saguaro cactus balloons

At last the balloon bees kiss

Apparently not limited on pictures. Seems I took close to one million.

Also, I tried "adjusting" my blog format, and now it's stinky. I'll work on it more when I have patience. (could be a while before that happens)