Bringing You Up To Date

This post is composed of pictures that highlight moments from the last three months.

Rick, Katie and I drove over to Rick's parents in Florida to spend Christmas and New Year's. (Actually Rick drove and we rode.) We wanted to do a road trip just because we usually fly.

 Christmas Eve. Katie putting a smile on Rick's face.

Rick and Katie Christmas Eve

Katie's Christmas portrait

Katie and her Auntie Linda Christmas morning. Whatever they were talking about must have been fascinating.

Katie and her big Christmas present, a trampoline. Do you think she was excited?

One day, my mother-in-law Carol, Katie and I drove down to Weeki Wachee Springs to enjoy the state park. There were a so many peacocks running around the park.

Weeki Wachee Springs State Park is known for their mermaids. There is an underground theater where the mermaids put on a show about Ariel. It was such a cult classic, 1950's.

During the mermaid show, this big, ol' manatee came floating along.

Katie and her Great Aunt Naomi playing Yahtzee. Katie is unbelievably lucky in dice. She has no problem throwing straights, six-of-a-kinds, full houses.

On the drive home we stopped at Battleship Park in Mobile, Alabama. In the harbor they have the USS Alabama which was in service in the Pacific during WWII. It is now a museum of sorts. You can tour the battleship at your leisure. I took oodles of pictures, but I won't overtax you with those. Rick commented that it reminded him of the missile base, and it really did to me also. Apparently our armed forces only have a few paint colors from which to choose and all branches have the same interior decorator.

Katie at one of the front gun positions. As a side note, the men that manned the gun posts did not sit on metal, folding chairs. They were there because earlier a ceremony took place on the battleship. Did you know that the main deck is a popular wedding spot? Also, I was surprised how many Japanese and Japanese-Americans were touring the battleship.

Also at Battleship Park, there is a submarine, the USS Drum. We were also able to tour the inside of the sub, but I didn't take any pictures of the inside. I was too busy gawking.

This scrape on Katie's arm is not like any other scrape. It is the first of many injuries that she received while riding her bike without training wheels. Rick had been working with Katie on riding her bike without the little white wheels, and it seemed to be slow going. Then one day he hung onto her shirt as she pedaled up the driveway. By the time they got to the gate, she was pedaling and staying up by herself. On her trip back down to the house, she was flying. Typical Katie. You cannot get Katie to do anything new until she thinks she's ready, be it potty training, learning the alphabet, or riding a two-wheeled bike. And when she is ready, she takes to it like she has been doing it her whole life.

The plastic bubbles on Katie's head are the type that you make yourself by smushing some plastic liquid on the end of a straw and blowing. As for the ladder that is the one that goes up to her loft bed. Other than that, I cannot explain this picture

Katie making a cake.

There's the short, pictorial version of the last three months. Now let's see if I can keep up on this blog.

"Please Mayor Bloomberg, help me control my sugar intake!"

Just a quick rant and nowhere near as long as what is in my mind. Why does Mayor Bloomberg of New York City think he knows what is best for New Yorkers? Why does he have the attitude that New Yorkers are self destructive and he must protect New Yorkers from themselves? Who elected him dictator? It scares the crap out of me a government entity can ban a particular size of a legal beverage. (For those not familiar with the ban, New York City was very close to enacting a "law" that banned the selling of sugar drinks over 16 oz. in restaurants, movie theaters and other food services establishments.) A little too Big Brother for me. The  fact that Mayor Bloomberg didn't bring it to the New York's City Council but to the city's Board of Health which just so happens to be a panel whose members were each appointed by the mayor, is the only reason the ban got halted, not because it is flipping intrusive. The ban does not stop the consumption of large surgary beverages, it just makes necessary the purchase of two smaller sizes or in the case of coffee from places like McDonald's, the patron will have to add their own sugar. About the only ones deeply and financially affected by the ban are the food establishment owners. They will have to redo all of their menus, sign boards, internet sites and order new glasses. As I said the ban is stopped for now, but has it started a slippery slope? As my husband predicts, soon you will have to weigh-in when you enter McDonald's. If you are overweight you cannot order and get booted out of the restaurant. Laugh if you want, but you probably would have laughed at a large sugary drink ban a few years ago. As for the title of this post, there's something no one has ever said.

Homicide Update

For those who read my previous post regarding the murder of a 14 year old girl in Red Bluff, CA., the police have arrested a man in connection with her murder. It's the guy from the surveillance camera tape. I really hope they have concrete evidence that he is their guy. Click here for more information.

Cheerleader Friend Update

Here's a quick update about Katie's cheerleader friend that was in a horrible car accident. C.F., cheerleader friend, was put into a medically induced coma and then had some brain tissue removed, her broken femur repaired and a plate put into her head. There were other repairs that I won't get into. It is now a month since the accident and C.F. is still at Cooks Children's Hospital in Fort Worth. She is out of the coma and is in rehab. She has to wear a helmet 24/7 because she lost the front, top and sides of the forward half of her skull. The damage to the frontal lobe to her skull has also severely affected her short term memory. She can be introduced to someone, turn away and not remember you when she turns back. She cannot remember anything for more than a few seconds and this includes how to use utensils, etc. There is no estimate on how long she will be in rehab, but six months is a conservative estimate. She also has language difficulties in that she can talk, but regularly veers off into babble. She is in a wheelchair because of the repair to her femur--they added a steel rod--and it takes a while to heal. The journey through rehab and beyond will be a monumental task for C.F. and her mom, but if there is one woman who I know that could carry her daughter through this it is C.F.'s mom. That is how much her faith has impressed me even before the horrible accident.  After the rehab reaches its apex, who C.F. will be and what she can do is a big question mark at this time. Prayers, as always, are appreciated and needed. 

Baby Girl Gone

Hello again. It seems that I take to this blog when the unfathomable or tragic enters our life. Today's post is no exception.

Rick's best friend is Brad who lives in Northern California. Brad was the Best Man at our wedding. Last Tuesday Brad's 14 year-old niece Marysa, who also lives in Northern California, went missing from school. Thursday her body was found 1/2 mile from school. Brad's brother's family lives in a small town of 14,000. The niece was walking from one end of the campus to another and used the town's sidewalks rather than cutting across campus. The school's surveillance cameras have video of her walking down the sidewalk at 11:00 am. She never showed up for lunch with her friends. The numerous agencies investigating are not sharing a lot of information even to the parents, which is typical in a homicide investigation. The autopsy will be performed today.

Rick has been in contact with Brad and needless to say this has ripped the heart out of Marysa's family and the small town. As a parent, I cannot fathom the grief and pain the parents are feeling. How vast and deep it must be. I honestly don't know how one could ever recover. I try to put myself in their place, but some protective mechanism won't even let me go there. My mind just literally just cuts out and won't allow the pictures to form in my mind.

The police do have a person of interest from the video surveillance camera tape. Before Marysa appears on tape a man comes down the same sidewalk, turns around briefly and then turns into a student parking lot. He may be the person who killed her or may have witnessed something. He sure hasn't come forward which has me thinking the first. The authorities are not releasing how Marysa was clothed when found and their only comment was that she was obviously deceased when her body was found.

I pray for those investigating this case. I pray they have wisdom, patience, grace, compassion and dedication to find the person that killed Marysa.