Our Newest Miracle.....

Thanks to JJ who told me a way to load pictures 

around Blogger's present challenges....

I am able to post today....

For those of you that don't know....

the reason I was away to Florida 

was 

because my daughter Kimberly 

was due to have her baby.

We wanted to be there when she went into labor

and to be there for the birth of our newest grandson.

Kim was two days overdue.

We walked and walked the beaches 

to help to get her into labor.

Finally, early in the morning, my daughter telephoned us in our hotel room

to tell us to meet them at the hospital

because it was time!~!!

We were excited to be there and to help soothe her during her labor.

When it was time to push, we left the room for her and Nick 

to welcome our newest grandson into  the world.

All in all, her labor went well.

And she delivered a 7# 9 oz. boy!!!

But....

there were complications.

Scary ones.

Complications that a Grandma and Grandpa don't want to hear.

First, his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck when he was delivered.

They got it off quick...

and

my daughter said that she felt the baby having hiccups while being born.

Unfortunately, it was the worst time for him to get hiccups.

He aspirated meconium and ambiotic fluid in the birth process because of this.

So, he was born in respiratory distress...

Kim could only hold him a moment..and they whisked him away to the Special Nursery.

He needed to have oxygen and Xrays and it was discovered that he had aspiration pnuemonia.

As a first time mom and dad, his parents were scared.

We were scared.

He had to be put on antibiotics through IV's (which continually failed and he had to be poked several times to restart the IV's!)

Kim and Nick could not even touch him, as the extra stimulation caused him to breathe irratically.

For two whole days, all they could do was look through the nursery window.

It killed us.

Then, on the third day, two at a time, we could go and touch him....

but

we weren't allowed to hold him  yet.

It continued to kill us.

Finally, we could hold him for short periods of time...but he was all wired up to heart monitors, blood pressure monitors and IV lines.....

But, 

slowly.....

ever so slowly...

with many prayers from our friends and family....

he

got

better and better.

The Doctor said he was not deprived of oxygen long enough to cause mental or physical problems 

(whew!!) and that he just had to get rid of the pneumonia with the help of the IV antibiotics.

Finally, on day 6 he could come off IV's and eat.

They could finally feed him and have him in their room (Kim was discharged from O.B.but stayed in a room in the hospital to be by the baby)....

and on day 7, all the wires and IV's were gone and 

finally, last Thursday,

he 

got

to

go home!!!! 

We decided to stay in Florida until he was out of the woods

and Kim was a little more rested.....so we stayed for a day or two extra.

So, without any further delay....

here is our little angel:

This is Mama Kim beside Nicholas Ryan when he was still wired up in the Special Nursery.

They say newborns cannot smile and that it is "just gas"....I wonder...because when he heard his Mama's voice? That is what he did....

Alert and adorable....

The statistics...only that is not the complete last name..they don't put it all for confidentiality in the nursery.

I couldn't hold him and cuddle him enough when we were finally allowed to do so!

Look at that grip!

His cutie little foot with curved toes....

and heels that were full of lab draw pokes (poor little sweetheart!)

But, the GOOD NEWS is:

Kim called me today and the baby's check up with the Pediatrician

turned out perfect...

he is one healthy newborn now...growing and happy at home with  his parents...

We are so grateful.

It was the Mother's Day gift I wanted.

A special thanks to some of  you Bloggers out there who knew what was going on and wrote to give us support and encouragement during the ordeal...I really appreciated the prayers and hope  you gave us.

And now...this Michigan Grandma is already trying to plan when the next trip to Florida is going to be...

P.S. I will be working tomorrow on getting the April photos loaded so you can see the gorgeous pictures everyone entered into the contest..I will get them up for all of you to see as soon as I can!

S.O.S.!!!!!

Fellow Bloggers.....

I

Need

YOUR

help....

I am back home in Michigan after a long trip to Florida and back.

I tried to load pictures onto my blog when I was away (using my MAC) but they wouldn't load.

I figured it was my Mac.

But, it wasn't.

Now that I am home on my big computer, it still won't let me load photos onto a new blog post.

I believe it has to do with the "new" formatting that Blogger has.

Everytime I try to load a photo it says it is rejected.

Does ANYONE out there know how to fix this or how to send them an email?

I went to their blogger help site and many other people said they tried fixing it by changing it back to their old editor under settings and back.

I tried to do all the suggestions everybody else tried to no avail.

Of course I am upset.

So....

anyone out there have a solution or a shortcut to email someone on blogspot.com to help me????

P.S.

Go below to read the latest "prepublished" blog post..thank goodness I prepublished some before I got back and had this ongoing problem.

Thanks everyone...be patient...I will be back posting again as soon as I can get this solved!!!

Missed all of you!!!

Hooded Mergansers!

A few weeks ago, we took a ride into the woods to find streams and lakes where perhaps we

could see some ducks that were migrating through our area

to head south for Spring.

For the first time, EVER....

I was thrilled to get up pretty close to the

beautiful

HOODED MERGANSER.

Please click HERE for more info about them, they are gorgeous ducks.

See?:

(He seemed to have an "attitude" about my taking his photo!)

But his buddy was more social and let me take his photo:

(Don't you just love their little "helmet heads"?)

Here is a handsome couple.

I think the brown female is pretty too, with her tuft of feathers on her head:

(I found it interesting that the male has yellow eyes and the female had red eyes!)

Whenever we saw a male and female they were seperated and swimming together, away from the

single males:

They probably have already started little ones and claimed territory:

Unlike Mr. Attitude here...who puffed up his neck in warning to me.

Gheesh, I can't help it if he hasn't found a date for the prom yet!:

Although he is a fine male specimen....she couldn't go wrong mating with Mr. Handsome:

If only he didn't have that helmet head.....People may point and laugh....

But, it seems to have worked for SOME......

Of course, if you can't win the ladies with your helmet head....

you could always turn around

and show them

that gorgeous tail action....

Yep...that seemed to have worked, too--

Born to be wild.....

And it doesn't hurt at all...

to be this beautiful, even if you

ARE

still a single stud.

I mean, it worked on ME,

and

I'm human........

More Local Police Reports: A Double Treat!

Time again for LOCAL POLICE REPORTS, along with MY COMMENTS in bold italics.

Because there was only ONE weird report in each of these two days

of reporting,

I am giving you a double treat and showing you two separate police reports

this time.

So here we go!:

Okay...I didn't highlight the funny one from above.   But if you read the FIRST ONE, it reads:

"two small Pomeranians at large wearing sweaters".

THAT, my friends, is a henious crime!!!! 

I know that Paris Hilton has done it and a bunch of other skinny, young, drugged out stars...but you can't pull it off in the U.P. of Michigan, folks, even though it is dang cold.    No WONDER they ran away and are "at large". (By the way, there is no way those rats with thin hair could be at LARGE, but that is another debate!)  They ran away because they were humiliated to have sweaters on.  Even if they DID say "Go Pack Go" for the Green Bay Packers on the sweaters...it just isn't acceptable. Next thing you know, they would have made them wear those cheese head hats or the ones with the straws where you can drink beer directly from your hats! There has to be an end to this , people! I say arrest them and then call their owners and make them pay BIG fines for thinking that their anorexic, shaking-with-anxiety dogs are like their children! Enough!

Whew, thanks...I'm glad I got this off my chest.  And sorry to all of your Pomeranian owners out there....maybe I just don't get it why you like these dogs. No hate mail, please. I really do love dogs...almost all kinds.

***********************************************************************************

And now for the second Local Police Report:

***********************************************************************************
The "crime" in question is circled into the Police Report article above.  Loved the "turned out to be the moon rising", didn't you?  I just wanna know what the person (who called this in the police) was smoking?? Maybe (s)he had just RETURNED from the same party the minors were having on the beach and had imbibed????   I mean....WHO can't tell what the MOON is?  Was it the orange that through them off, or was it that the moon didn't look like a big slice of cheese????

Yes, folks.....

the excitement NEVER ends here..............

Don't you wish you were ME?????

Flickers and Duckers!

During the spring, we get visits from a lot of birds and ducks on our lake.

Sometimes they stay all summer

and

sometimes they are here just for a day or two and move on farther north...

On taking a walk by the lake a few weeks ago, there were ducks wayyyyy out on the lake.

So, unfortunately, I couldn't get the clearest picture of them, but I had to try!

I don't know what kind of ducks these were....

does anyone know?:

They were really cute, and I loved the black and white of them,

but

I don't have a clue what they were:

We watched, but they wouldn't come any closer.

Sigh.

Maybe next spring I can get closer shots if they come through our area again.

But, we were THRILLED to hear one of our favorite birds return to our area

two weeks ago.

My Flickers!

If you haven't seen one up close, they are magnificent birds!

They are quite big birds.

They have this "eyebrow bib" of black on their chests, and I love their

freckled bodies:

And they have this MAGNIFICENT

spot of red on the back of their heads!:

These two were a couple...he was chasing her all over our trees!:

(That's okay with me....there's nothing MORE I'd like than Flicker babies!)

Wouldn't they make handsome parents?

And they make the most amazing sounds.  Once you hear one, you know what they are from then on:

Can you tell I am smitten with them?

O.K....okay.....

Just ONE MORE photo for today, then:

Flickers!!!! (sigh)
....I think they're dreamy...

how about you?

More Useless Tidbits!

Yes, it is time again for USELESS TIDBITS, along with MY COMMENTS in bold italics.

So,

here we go................................

1. Only 1/3 of the people that can twitch their ears can twitch only one at a time.

I  just know that tomorrow, at work.... you will take this survey. You will wander aimlessly through work cubicles and ask people if they can twitch their ears. 
And then, when you finally find someone who CAN....you will ask if they can twitch them both at the same time. 
And they will feel awful, because they THOUGHT they were special to be an ear twitcher, but failed to twitch two at the same time...
and then they will go home and sit in front of their mirrors and TRY to twitch them both at the same time.
And they will try and TRY and then be upset that they cannot do it. 
And then you will wonder why you didn't get that last promotion at work.

2. The volume of the Earth's moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific Ocean.

Just in case you wanted to empty them both and remeasure their volumes.
Who on earth figures this stuff out?
And why?
Do we care?
Well, maybe if I was a whale in the Pacific Ocean I might be a tad interested, but it isn't like I planned a trip to the moon because it has the same volume.






3. Ingrown toenails are hereditary.

So blame it on your relatives!!! Wonder if Athlete's feet are too?
Wonder if it is more common on your mom's side or your dad's? Another survey opportunity!
Send emails to all your relatives out of nowhere and ask them if they suffer from ingrown toenails. I dare you.
Because the family needs something more to gossip about, and why not make it YOU?

4. The largest city in the United States with a one syllable name is Flint, Michigan.

As a fellow Michigander, I can't tell you how proud that makes me. 
Seriously.
I have tears in my eyes.

5. On the cartoon show 'The Jetsons', Jane is 33 years old and her daughter Judy is 15.

So Jane was only 18 when she had Judy???? Wow!  Wonder if she was born out of wedlock?
Maybe George kinda liked the younger women, you know what I mean?

6. In Mel Brooks' 'Silent Movie,' mime Marcel Marceau is the only person who has a speaking role.

Ironic, I know.  I love Mel Brooks. His humor, his silly satire...everything but his hair.
But I can ignore that, because usually I am laughing too  hard.

7. Only humans and horses have hymens.

No. Comment.
Except for saying: "Except for Mr. Ed" (because obviously he is a MISTER).

8. The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language.

I know....you are going to look this up. Again. To see if it is correct.
Go ahead.
We'll wait.
And, if you find another one that beats it, you will have something to blog about,  right?



9. The state with the longest coastline in the US is Alaska.

And all your Californians and Floridians thought you had bragging rights, didn't you?
I would like to visit all three of these states to take photographs.  Anyone have a bed and breakfast you wanna give to me free to stay in when I come to visit you there? I guarantee I would put your picture in my blog for doing so!  O.K., Joan...quit begging so obviously, be subtle, be subtle!

10. We will have four consecutive full moons making two blue moons in 1999 (January 2 and 31, March 2 and 31.) The only other time it happened this century was in 1915 (January 1 and 31, March 1 and 31.)
You probably all knew this because of the recent blue moon that made the news, right?
And you know they really aren't BLUE, right?

****************************************************************************

And now, you can thank me the next time you are a hit at your next dinner party and pull all of these wonderful facts right out of your butt......

You're welcome.

A Note about the April Photo Contest....

The April Photo Contest

Entries

will be delayed on my blog 

for just a few days....

I am still on my way back from Florida

and my laptop is not cooperating 

as to loading them all to the blog.

Stay tuned, and I will post them as soon as I get back to Michigan, within the next week.

In the meantime, I prepublished posts for your enjoyment 

for the next few days, so keep reading my blog 

and 

I will get the April Photo Contest entries up for you as soon as I am able to do so.

Once again, thanks to EVERYBODY 

who entered...they are fabulous!!

When I post the April Contest Entries, I will also announce May's theme....

stay tuned!!!