Ranch Life II

I wish I could tell you the big story about my Sis, but I am saving it for my book She not only runs a 400 acre ranch, but works full-time as a corporate officer of her hubby’s company. Shes up at 5am feeding animals, takes a coffee break as the sun rises (soul-food) then gets on her corporate-wear and is at the desk by 7am. Upon roaring home in her Ford 350 4 X 4, she tosses the suit and dons her t-shirt with the arms cut out and feeds the animals again. Sheep can be almost as noisy as a herd of peacocks when hungry, btw. Since big cousin Josh is away at college now, the herd is only about 35.

My Sis has a heart of gold, and although she can be tough as nails cutting a deal, is a real softy for a critter in need. Last visit, she was caring for some old retired pack llamas, several lame horses, and some ancient cows in addition to a dozen or so healthy mules, horses and cows, plus the dozen or so dogs. When the ewes are lambing in winter, she searches the fields at night to see if one of those stupid sheep dropped her lamb and left it in the snow. I think I mentioned once that she then keeps them indoors in Pampers, bottle feeding them by hand until they are strong enough to live outside.

This visit, with a gleam in her eye and a toss of her short blond hair, she told us: “We have a surprise for you inside the house!” She told us to go to her bedroom closet REALLY slowly and quietly. We peeked in, and saw two of the biggest ears you could ever see attached to a little spotted body reclining on a dog bed. Meet Flower:

Flower is a fawn that those darn Pyreneezies separated from her mom, and would have become morning dog-fodder had Sis not rescued the little dear. She was only a few days old, and the doe would not take her back after smelling like dog and human. Sis bottle feeds her twice a day, and yes, changes her Pampers when she is in the house. She is very affectionate, friendly and inquisitive, she loves to catch every smell that wafts past her nose. Although tiny, with precious teeny-weeny hooves, she plays with the big house dogs. Her fur is soft and silky, and she likes having her ears rubbed. Lil Kinz enjoyed feeding her a couple times, but Flower prefers to drink from her adopted  Mom’s hand best.

Sis’s hubby just rolls his eyes at the latest addition to their animal farm. “So just where is that animal going to live when it is grown?” he asks. She smiles and rolls her eyes back.

(to be continued)

Where NOT to Wear Reef Beach Sandals

Whilst rafting down the Truckee River, that’s where.

On the last day of our wet-n-wild Tahoe Family Reunion Vacation Whirlwind, my brother’s family, me, Skeeter and the Kounouz rafted down the Truckee River. A high school pal named Jen started Mountain Air Sports when a teenager, it is now a fixture of summer recreation on the West Shore of Lake Tahoe. She also made freshman year very bearable for me; she was one of those kind upperclassmen who noticed you existed and talked to you in front of other juniors. I think I may have even taught her to sail at some point. She is still unbelievably beautiful, definitely one of the ‘Fifty is the New Thirty’ candidates. But like most Tahoe beauties, without knives, needles or Pilates; just a very healthy outdoors-based lifestyle. I stop by her office every time I am in Tahoe and we catch up as if we don’t live on different continents.

It was a blast, sometimes paddling with a stronger current than I remember, sometimes meandering slowly enough to see bugs and crawdads. The boys splashed and played, Lil Kinz stayed safely behind the protective wall of mom or Aunt Jessica for the boys were under penalty of severe something if they got mommy-hair wet.

It had just enough danger to make it a VERY boy-thrilling escapade.  At one point I pulled Project Boy into the raft in the nick of time to avoid being dissected by an underwater log. Just before ending, we were going through some ‘whiter’ water and careening toward a large rock on the bank. Three flatlander shabaab were drinking beer there, one on said rock. I yelled “Watch out! Attack raft!” and the one guy jumped off the rock just before we landed on top of it. His friends were howling at him, which made our boys howl in return.

But I was writing about my Reef’s, because I want to write about Tahoe when the PHOTOS are downloaded. My 24 year old niece (The Phd candidate who studied the effect of concentrated bovine gas on the environment. Yup. It’s what you thought, cow emissions) gave them to me through her mom my sis, and I have been grateful for cool, comfortable leather summer footwear that brings out some of the vestiges of my California past. So I wore them in Tahoe to try and pretend there is still some cool in me despite my lack of tan, muscle tone and the muffin I wear over the top of my jeans. Living in the Middle East has SO worn off on me, I just can’t wear a bathing suit or shorts without feeling there is way too much of me exposed.

Back to the Reefs. When we got out of the raft, I noticed my feet got amazingly dirty for being pooled in water for a few hours. When we got home, I got out a washcloth and scrubbed. No visible change. I then used hot water and serious soap. My feet remained dark reddish brown, and I realized the dye from my Reef sandals had come off on the bottoms of my feet! I took a long shower and attacked those feet with pumice until it hurt, thinking exfoliation would do the trick.

To no avail! Alas, perhaps one shade less dark, but the dye soaked into every crack and crevice from heel to toe of my not-recently pedicured feet. At dinner that night, my sis-in-law Jessica the Neat-nick Germophobe gasped in horror and unbelief, quickly bringing nail polish remover to save the day. Amazingly, not even acetone got it off! Later I scrubbed with the pumice stone for an hour, realizing I could NOT wear my cute white flip-flops on the plane with such disgusting feet. Nor could my feet match my Reefs. Goodness, I would be in Orange County! One does NOT have dark orange feet bottoms in Beach country! Even a thick coating of Bag Balm didn’t help. Ashamed, I donned my Nikes for the flight.

Jessica captured the horrific sight on camera. Are you ready for a visual of this podiatric mess? Stay tuned.

I can’t wait to tell you more about this trip, especially how a shared vacation with The Atheist and The Born Again went. And more about Jessica the Germophobe, my darling snarky sister-in-law. She makes me howl My brother and my husband rolled their eyes at us way often.

The ranch visit, too, was over-the-top fun. I hope to have some blogging time this leg of our California trip.

Sorry, spell check isn’t working. Jessica will go nuts, she is like MommaBean in that she edits things in her sleep just for fun. She was mortified over some of the spelling errors in the articles I wrote in Jordanian mags: “Don’t they even have a copy-editor??? I KNOW you can spell, sometimes they actually incorrectly edited what you must’ve originally submitted!!!” Oops. Busted. Jess, I cannot tell a lie, I can’t spell without spell check!! Like brother, like sister. Tee-hee.

My current hostess suggested a foot bath in diluted peroxide. If it worked for our hair in high school, it should work on my sorry feet.

Sigh. Enjoy your dusty Amman summer feet and DO NOT wear Reef sandals in the Dead Sea.

Historic Moment: Aunt Jane Comments!!

I almost DO NOT believe my eyes. My first EVER family comment, from my favorite family member and blog fodder provider: Aunt Jane. Here it is:

Read your blog, hope you are having a great visit with your sis. Any wildfires nearby?? Without you around to distract me I had to do some real work, cleaned my bedroom. Hubby will be glad to know that my hubby trimmed branches off of the garage roof. Have a great trip.

Heh-heh, love that gal; and I DO distract her. We talk for hours about everything, especially when there is family drama brewing. Sometimes, I am the creator of family drama.

Aunt Jane, cute you comment as Mona’s Mom. Congrats on the clean bedroom! My hubby laughs as he says your hubby waited until he was gone as my hubby wanted to trim MORE. Brotherly love is grand.

Yup, there are wildfires  near, but not so near to be a problem (there were last week, tho). Sis here is taking in  evacuated horses, a trailer of them will arrive shortly. I can’t believe it, flooding in Illinois, drought and wildfires in California.

I love you, Aunt Jane. You all have a great trip too.

Travelin’ Stories

After Hareega’s post about Southwest Airlines, I was thanking God I would never be passing through AZ on on the Greyhound of the Skies. I have now learned, after one Southwest experience, I am a spoiled international flier and there are reasons why cut-rate airlines are thus described.

We got to Chicago Midway Airport to discover we had not one, but two stops on the way to Reno: Nashville and Phoenix. My first thought was “Great, the kounouz can add another state to their repertoire” (up until our last trip to the US when we took Amtrak across America, they had been to more countries on the world than states the US). My second thought was “Hey, I can wave at Hareega from the tarmac, not even 30,000 ft!” (now that just shows how bizarre blogging is, that people you’ve never met can be the second thought in your head).

All good until we take off and the pilot says: “Good morning, folks! blah…blah…and it is a toasty day at our second destination, Phoenix is blazin’ recording 110 degrees, yup, a hundred and tween.” My heart stops, remembering what Hareega wrote about plane tires shredding on hot landing surfaces. So when we landed, I just kinda grabbed the hands of the closest kinzayn and prayed. Whew, all went well.

I learned that people going to Dallas are different than people going on vacation. On my Dallas flight, we had suits and laptops, all humans totally connected to electronic devises and speaking not another word on the flight. For a people person, that was just TOO weird. I was traveling alone, no kids to care for, and ready for a dose of Americanism; and I spent the whole time reading (well, I did enjoy eavesdropping on the high-powered business lady behind me hitting on a man thirty years her senior) .

BUT, going to Reno, it was a whole different story. Gamblers, hikers, waterskiiers, the whole plane was yacking away about where they had traveled and where they were going. High energy, great fun. The family next to us were US Embassy employees in an African country, so we chatted about the expat experience. The dad’s family had a vacation home in Tahoe, so both our families were going to enjoy history remakes for our kids. Their little girl was so cute, she said: “Goin’ ta Lake Taco!”

Arriving in Reno is always a trip. Getting a glimpse of Lake Tahoe is Slot machines available within twenty feet of the arrival gate. I hate gambling with a passion, and have seen it destroy so many lives and livelihoods. Lil Kinz remarked that some of the ladies in the posters didn’t wear enough clothes :P.

I was astounded that my favorite bands as a teen-ager were all headlining at the casinos.: Eddie Money, America, Boz Scaggs, Doobie Brothers, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Kansas. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. How they would’ve gagged thirty years ago if you told them they would be playing in casinos now. So sickenly establishment. But then i realized, this is what baby-bloomers (you know, late baby-boomers) want to hear, and they have the bucks to entice those old rockers out of retirement

Thanks to my cool sis, we were going to rent a Ford Explorer SUV. The kounouz were OVER The Moon excited. But at the rental counter, all they had left was an upgrade to Chevy Suburban. Hubby choked at the thought of the lower gas mileage (at $4.65/gal) but the kids went wild with excitement. When I saw this beautiful, humungous car, even I got excited. I thought: “Hey, it is MY turn to run other cars off the road!!!”

Since I am the one familiar to the territory, Skeeter let me drive. But I just couldn’t bear to drive like a royal chauffeur with those poh-lice lurking behind every billboard. The scenery is much like Jordan, desert and some scrubby shrubs. Once you get into Lassen National Forest, the beauty changes with the scenery. It was as if it was spring, wild flowers still blooming, squaw carpet and fresh green manzanita lining the roads until towering pines rise. Deer lined the highway at regular intervals, lifting heads to see who was passing through their domain. Breathtaking beautiful, soul food for an Ammani mom who likes cornfields, but LOVES mountains. I know Highway 89 is a precursor to heavenly delights.

Around a corner, we started down a two mile straight stretch through a canyon, the pavement undulating like a ribbon as far as I could see, the pine trees shadowing forward in variegated shades of dark green. The blazing orange sun (colored so due to the haze of many wildfires) lined up BETWEEN the pines, setting directly in front of us. Awesome. It was a Worship Moment, one of those times God pulls back the curtain between this world and eternity and adds just a touch of His glory to make it supernatural. Hallelujah.

Several hours later, we pulled up the gravel drive to Sis’s ranch. More than a dozen dogs bounded down the road to greet us, followed by Sis and her Hubby. Joyous, joyous reunion. Lots of hugs, lots of Great Pyrenees slobber. Can’t wait for more.

Extreme Tea Parties (PLUS PHOTOS!!!! :)

Yesterday we had a house full of cowpokes, cowgirls, and some urban cowgirls. It was the date of the annual Girl Cousin Tea Party, organized by the oldest family cousin, Mona. The twelve girls, between six and eighteen years old, gather from across the MidWest for an after noon of fun and bonding doing themed girly-things: dressing up, eating, playing games and doing a craft. “Tea Parties’ to an extreme! The best part is the photo of all the girls at the beginning.

Two years ago it was a Disney Princess Party. Four years ago, a Minnie Mouse party. This year, the theme was Cowgirls. It looked like something out of Pioneer Woman around here. The tables were draped in red clothes, with picnic napkins, a mini-bail of hay as a centerpiece surrounded by one of the girl’s horse collection. There was an Arabian, of course! The party favors were cowboy hats and bandannas. The girls were too cute in braided pony-tails, jeans and plaid shirts. Lil Kinz even had boots passed on from an older cousin.

Table Decor

The TABLE

Mona had fun surprises in store. The boys were involved as bandits, having created a drama where two of the girls were kidnapped and the ‘gold’ (chocolate coins, also a table decoration) stolen! This led to a neighborhood-wide scavenger hunt to reclaim the girls and gold. BUT, before that, they had to cross a path loaded with rattle-snakes, and they had to stomp the snakes to get across to their goal. The snakes were long skinny balloons :).

 

 

Stompin\

Then is was craft time. Aunt Jane is quite creative, and designed those tied-fringe pillows, decorated with horseshoes, cactus and cowboy boots. After lunch they decorated picture frames with cowboy themed foam stickers, and of course, lots of bling rhinestones. The cowpoke brothers stayed downstairs playing chess, until lunch. 

Lunch was an event that kept four sisters and sisters-in-law busy for hours. Cowgirl burgers, corn on the cob, cottage fries, deviled eggs and a huge horseshoe cake filled with strawberries and covered with whipped cream. Aunt Jane is the Cake Queen, so it looked like something out of Chez Hilda. Delish, too. Just to add a touch of elegance in the midst of wild-West-ness, the plates and glasses were etched glass.

THE Table

After every dish was done and every pillow completed, us moms fell on couches comatose. A very happy coma.

***SO……..Didja  notice there are PHOTOS in this post? Thanks to Tech Wiz Niece Mona, who patiently instructed me in this ridiculously easy step.

California Dreamin’

We’re off to California bukra, yahoo!!!

First stop, my sister’s 400 acre ranch bordering a national park, with ten Great Pyrenees dogs, hundreds of sheep, one old llama, cows, peacocks and marijuana growing neighbors. The local fauna includes bears and mountain lions, so in spite of the lofty mountain grandeur, we only go for walks in groups atop horses (and Uncle A carries a handgun).

Next, a partialfamily reunion in Lake Tahoe! My bro and fam are back safe at their home and decided they NEEDED a vacation after all that drama, yay God! We are going to take the kids to all the places we loved growing up: lots of hiking, swimming, picnicking, craw-dad catching, river-rafting. We will be staying with a family with five kids, very cool folks who don’t mind pandemonium (like Aunt Jane).

Then, Orange County!!! Newport Beach, here I come!! We’ll be staying with a fam with SIX kids, just like the Tahoe family and Aunt Jane. Heh-heh, the people who call us right-wing-bottom-feeders have another word that actually works: BREEDERS. We’ll be seeing lots of friends, going to Knott’s Berry Farm, body-surfing and swimming in pools. We’ll spend a fortune on sunscreen.

One thing that WON’T be happening is meeting MAI! But, I’d much rather see her married to Sam Qwaider. Convenient match-making prayer answers: I love it when TWO I am praying for tie the knot. May God richly bless this union.

I’m sure I’ll have access to a computer, just enough to keep my addiction fed but learn some self-control as I do. See you in August!!!

A FAMILY Love Story

While I’m on love stories, I have another one. The second weekend we were home, it was EVENT CENTRAL around here. Wow, we were planning, baking and making like nobodies bidness.

What happens when you marry a man who has seven siblings? There are parties ALL the time. You have to have a calendar to remember the birthdays of TWENTY nieces and nephews. It means you can never have an ‘intimate family gathering’, any event is always a semi-controlled mob scene. Sortof like in Jordan, I bet. Waajib, bas waajib helweh. Waajib zaki, bardo. Shu il food, ikteer food, kull il food hawalay buttenni (and but-ni, kamaan).

 Niece Mona had her high school/home school grad party (I’m still eating those home-made cap-n-scroll shaped mints). Sis-in-law Jane is the youngest of six kids, so this event pulled in 60 people alone who were blood relatives. This is the event where a friend was concerned about a Jordanian mom-in-law screeching AAAYEEEEEE AAAHH at the wedding. Jane made six different kinds of COOKIES just for dessert. I won’t even list what the buffet contained, it will send me to the freezer searchingfor the MooseTracks ice cream. (And since I am now officially dieting, I’m not gonna do the MooseTracks Freezer dive) 

Nephew Daniel had an 8th grade/Confirmation party. Bro-in-law Andreas likewise had at least five siblings. This party was a little quieter, as Aunt Maria runs a very tight ship (and all food is very healthy,  organic.  No soda. :O) and the fact that the siblings with lots of kids live in other states. BUT, polite Eagle-Scout-to-be nephew David provided some wild entertainment in getting a water-balloon (organic balloons, too) launcher set up for the kounouz kuzins. They weren’t paying attention where the balloons were coming down, heh-heh, and a wild-eyed neighbor came over livid about a near miss with his head. Oops.   

But as fun as those were, the best event was the remarriage of bro-in-law Peter and his wife Traci. Twelve years ago they were married in a civil ceremony (this doesn’t go over well in Catholic families, I learned then) and had a fairly rocky beginning. Very , very different people these two. Two babies back-to-back put them in re-act rather than pro-act mode. His work as a policeman was stressful. She was young. Things just got worse, and the winter I came home with the kids for the war they decided to seperate. 

Peter decided he could confide in me, since I was an ‘outsider’; and someone who could understand his pain from my own experience. I tried to counsel him well, encourage him, and point him to God again. He made that choice, began to go to our church, and really grew as a believer. His heart was broken, but his spirit was being strengthened. I still believe God brought us home for them, just to be able to invest in him at a crucial time (And for me to see how very very bad the American public school system is, from experience).

He was changing, Traci was in other ways. He was a tough-guy cop, but found his heart underneath the callouses. She had some things she needed to do for her own growth, they both had things to change; like we all do. She saw the changes in him, and was changing herself as she took steps toward growth. Aunt Jane had an open home to the girls as Peter and Traci worked through consequences. Peter was amazing me with his spiritual maturity, and with it he was drawing Traci home again.   

Two years ago, they were working with our pastor in counseling to lay a new foundation for marriage. Skeeter was astounded at the changes in his ‘little’ brother, and the gifts and talents emerging. It changed the way their relationship had always been, there was a new love and respect between them.  We actually sat together as families at church, Lil Kinz and their daughters would hold hands and skip to Sunday School together. Made me wanna cry.

When their mom died, Skeeter told me Peter mentioned there was going to be a reconfirming of their marriage vows in March. We were SO excited for them, but sad to miss it. Thanks to delays in selling houses and the purchase of their new family HOME, the ceremony was delayed until we got there. 

It was a simple and beautiful ceremony. The girls were flower-girl/ring bearers. The message, given by the man who had counseled them and probably knows them better than any of us, just allowed us to be a part of a sweet and intimate re-affirmation of the vows they had made in a civil court more than a decade ago. This time, they made them as a promise to the God who had given them the strength to salvage what was broken and work a miracle through their sacrificial obedience to His will.

They are a new couple, as much as new individual creations. The peace, joy and contentment was evident that day and remains so. The girls are so happy, God answered prayers lifted without much hope for an outcome like this!

Peter and Traci, we stand in awe of God’s power to resurrect that which was dead. We are amazed that you both choose a much harder path in reconciliation, and took it slowly enough to make sure a new foundation was laid. You two didn’t just choose to tolerate each other for the ’sake of the children’, but chose to give those sweet little ladies the best gift of all: a mommy and daddy who love and respect each other deeply. Most of all, we are humbled by how you chose to obey God’s word and pursue it when you both were dying inside, and allowed Him to bring beauty from ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

You will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified (Isaiah 61). Grow tall and spread wide. We love you!

Yet More Observations

1) Can’t find my fav soda, Diet Rite, anywhere. Boo-hoo

2) While searching for Diet Rite at a big wholesale place, got Post cereal 5 for $10 then TWO coupons for free half gallons of milk. Aunt Jane knows where all the deals are.

3) Project Boy in Jordan: “Mom, there’s nothing for breakfast”. Mom: “Honey, when we’re at Aunt Jane’s, there will be twenty-five different kinds of cereal to choose from. Eat your khubz and jam”. Project Boy after one week in America: “Mom, there’s nothing for breakfast”. Sigh.

4) Gourmet Hummous is ghastly bad.

5) Hometown Buffet on Sunday:

9:30am: Catholic ladies with pastel sweatshirts and sensible shoes come in after early Mass.

10:30am Lutheran and Methodists arrive in polo shirts and khaki trousers and crocs.

11:00am Baptists in dresses & ties and Evangelicals in skirts & more khakis and ALL their kids arrive (kids in Old Navy). Controlled, colorful smart-casual mayhem.

12:00pm White Assemblies of God breeze in with pastel suits and navy suits. Smart- business, mayhem exceeds control.

2:00pm Black Assemblies of God take the red carpet show with furs, satin, heels, matching hats, white suits with red shoes and hats, little boys in tuxedos and little girls in tulle and gloves. Out of control fun.

1:00pm is my favorite time to be at Hometown, so I can enjoy church people-watching .

6) Lil Kinz’ fav new shirt: “Will trade brother for pony”

7) The shirt Spikekid was NOT allowed to buy “Annoying Sister For Sale”.

The shirt I got Spikekid and dared him to wear: “My Mom Rocks”. It was on 75% off at Kohls, the only style at 75% off. Are there that few rockin’ moms in Illinois?

9) Did I tell you Spikekid is now within an inch of my height? I can still beat him arm-wrestling though.

Live Blogging From … Heaven

We are house-sitting for friends right now in a breathtakingly beautiful place.  A lovely home with a pool, surrounded by wild wooded hills untouched by humanity; so far removed our cell-phones don’t even work! Deer roam as commonly as cars. Foxes, opossums and raccoons emerge from the thick forest to see whats up. I woke up this morning to see the sunshine streaming through the tree-tops off the master balcony, the light reflecting every imaginable shade of green on the leaves. What a way to wake-up, overwhelmed by the handiwork of the Master. His workmanship, untouched by human landscape architects, is a far superior picture. I took my coffee into the screened porch with my Bible, and worshipped.

We had Uncle Luke, Aunt Jane and the Kounouz Kuzins over for BBQ and a swim last night. Heh-heh, you’d think we need a break from one another. Tonight, tho, Aunt Julie and her three girls arrive for the yearly summer pilgrimmage; perhaps eleven kids could put us over the top, so the house-sitting op seems a good thing for teh first week. The kids were SO cute, ages 6-18, noisily playing and making memories that will last a lifetime. Hubby and his bro (they are #1 & #2 in the fam, very close brothers) male-communed in silence over the Weber, Aunt Jane and I talked about the Middle East and I told her all about what I had learned from bloggers this year.

Poison ivy is the only reminder we live in a fallen world. It is everywhere in the woods and will hinder forest crashing play-time. I think we’ll just bundle them up in long everything and risk it.

Oh yea, another reminder: our friends discovered that down the street is a registered sex offender. Horrified they were.  Predators in our midst, like the coyotes I heard howling last night, remind me that evil is alive and well, and often plots destruction when we least expect it. An enemy bent on stealing the innocence of trusting children for his (or her, sometimes) own selfish gratification. Lord Almighty, protect our children I pray, from the  enemy that prowls like a lion, seeking who he many devour, even in a place that looks like paradise.

Foray into the American Medical System

It wasn’t bad at all! Waiting three hours in emergency in Jordan, same in America. The hospital staff were professional and kind, just like Jordan (except Lil Kinz is just another blonde-haired kid here, no ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’).

One difference: the staff ask the child how the accident happened, not the parent. Ask Little Kinz a question like that, her Drama Queen emerges and you get a five minute dissertation on what color flip-flops she was wearing. After going through it three times, I interrupted her and told it in three sentences; especially to include she wasn’t climbing on a tractor, but the tire of a tractor. The nurse or doctor would smile and go right back to her rambling story, which got longer with each telling.

My sis-in-law whispered: “They are trying to determine if she was physically abused”. Gulp.  That’s right. I know that from my training in speaking with sexual abuse victims. Thank God she had none of her usual bruises from falling off the bike or running into trees.

We saw the emergency room doctor for a total of 6.3 seconds. After xrays, he popped his head in and said: “Yup. It’s broken.” And that was that. A nurse applied a splint, provided a list of orthopedic specialists for casting, gave us her xrays on a CD (shu cool) and we were on our own.

To my surprise, we got an appointment with a hand/upper arm orthopedic specialist the next day. Now, it did take some homework to find which Drs were covered by our insurance. They told us to come thirty minutes early, so there would be time to read and sign NINE pages of explanations and disclaimers. 

We had 6.3 MINUTES with this Dr. He was very kind, and even offered to look at History Buff’s xrays and check his progress since he is still walking funny a week after his cast came off.  Remember ‘Men In Black’?  He is lurching along much like the cockroach alien in the human suit.

History Buff and Spikekid were VERY jealous they only got plain white casts in Jordan, and Lil Kinz gets a HOT PINK one. Of course, the main difference between Jordan and the US will be in the billing: I’m sure it will cost 10x as much here.

Three kids in casts in eight months. Sigh. Thank God it’s only broken bones.

e