After being gone for almost a week, we returned to our campground in Kansas City. We had just spent six days with Mark's Mother. We had taken pictures with her smiling and feeling healthy. It's been a tough year for her, as she turned 90 and just lost her husband of 69 years.
We were very surprised when we got the phone call the next morning that she had been rushed to the emergency room, and then medi-flighted to Oklahoma City. When she arrived at St. Anthony hospital, she had no movement or feeling in her left arm or leg, and her speech was slurred. She had obviously had a stroke. So we hopped in the car to make the 5.5-hour trip right back to Oklahoma. We spent the next several days watching monitor readings like this one, and praying that the doctors could stop the A-fib that had caused the stroke.
During the next four days she endured a whole alphabet of medical tests--MRI, CT, EEG, ECG. Our view from her ICU room showed the downtown Oklahoma City sky-line. Thank goodness for small-town emergency rooms, as she had been given the clot-busting medicine when she arrived at the hospital in Beaver. This medicine must be administered within a few hours of a stroke. We would watch as her stroke symptoms began to disappear. Within a day, she was regaining her movement and ability to swallow.
Prayers were answered as she continued to improve. We spent four days at St. Anthony's hospital, as a long line of her children and grandchildren came to visit. The nurses smiled as they carried in more chairs to hold the 13 visitors that were there at one time, after she was moved to a regular room. By the time she was discharged, she was eating, and was able to walk, talk, and take care of herself. What a wonderful miracle! Even though we had just seen her, it was a good reminder that we never know how our plans can be changed in the blink of an eye. It was also a good reminder that prayers are answered.
After a couple days at the barn, we are heading back to Kansas City. It's a four-hour drive, and we decided to take an alternate path through the state of Kansas this time. We think it's appropriate that the yellow "sunflower state" sign is surrounded by yellow wildflowers as we cross the state line.
One of the reasons to take this route is to go through Fort Scott, Kansas. The town has a nicely preserved Main Street, with buildings dating back to the 1800's.
That's when the military fort--that gave this Kansas town its name--was built. Fort Scott was a military post, needed as a buffer between the Indian tribes and the western settlers of the 1800's. Its nicely restored white buildings now make up the Fort Scott National Historic Site.
They have a great visitor center, where we learned more about the political and human aspects of Kansas before the Civil War. This fort was actually auctioned off to private citizens when it was no longer needed in 1853.
We could walk through most of the buildings, including these fancy officer quarters. When they were auctioned, they became private residences, then a hotel, and then leased back to the army when military housing was needed during the Civil War.
Walking through the interior of the buildings, we saw a glimpse of the 1800's. This was the hospital ward, where doctors didn't yet know that washing their hands and knives would be a good idea before surgery. More soldiers died from the care they received here, rather than their initial injuries.
Our next stop in Kansas was the Louisburg Cider Mill. This time of year the mill isn't squeezing apples into juice, but this sweet nectar is still available for sale. We purchased a gallon of their quick-pasteurized juice and a dozen apple cider donuts before we left.
But of course, our main destination of the day is Kansas City, where our new granddaughter was sleeping when we arrived. At two weeks, Carter is still sleeping like she did all those months in the womb. What a precious little girl to come home to, as we returned to our motor home parked in a campground 20 miles south of the city. We were settled in for another week-long stay, but our plans would change . . .
After our Mother's Day weekend, we were on our way back towards Kansas City. But we took the long way, stopping for a couple days at Mark's brother's place near Tulsa. Lucky and Liz are great hosts, giving rides around their property that we refer to as "the barn." That's Mark's Mother in the front seat, enjoying a day at the barn. No, these aren't the scary critters mentioned in the title of this blog. You have to read to the end to understand that title.
We realized that we took lots of pictures of critters while we were there. This is the same place that we had parked the motor home last month. If you remember from the blog titled, "Solving the Mysteries," this was where we found our generator running when we came home. We determined that a resident raccoon started it, and today we got a picture of the perpetrator. He was eating the food coming out of the automatic deer feeder, looking very guilty with his permanent mask.
He was hanging out among the pecan trees that circle the barn. As if the raccoons around here aren't fat enough, Denisa gave them watermelon rinds to munch on too.
Our favorite "critters" at the barn are Lucky and Liz's granddaughters, who came out to visit while we were there. We had a fresh load of sand to play with in the sand box.
The oldest niece is almost as tall as Denisa, but both can still fit in the go-cart.
The next critters were the little kittens. They have grown considerably since we saw them last time.
On our last visit, Denisa divided her time socializing each of the new kittens. But with five kitty-huggers, we each had one.
Mama cat didn't appreciate us moving her family around, as she was trying to transport them back to the play house.
One reason for making this trip was to deliver more critters to the barn. These horses were transported from the panhandle of Oklahoma, where grass is scarce. We couldn't get a picture with their heads up, because they were so excited with all the green grass to eat.
They made a pretty picture, running through their new home where they were blinded by all the green.
After 4.5 inches of rain the first night, there were lots of mud puddles. The horses haven't ever seen so much rain, and the sorrel enjoyed a mud bath.
After looking at big critters, we almost missed this little guy in the middle of the road. Even though they are smaller than the other critters we photographed, luna moths are some of the biggest moths in North American. By the tattered look of his wings, we are guessing he is close to the end of his normal seven-day life cycle.
They are normally only active at night. During the day these big eye-like markings on his wings are designed to confuse its predators.
This ugly critter actually belongs to the neighbor. But like the raccoon, he comes visiting because the food is plentiful at the barn. Also like the raccoon, this muscovy duck is hiding behind a mask.
We rescued this critter from the cattle guard, where he had fallen between the rails and couldn't get out. It looks like this box turtle had met with something that cracked his shell, but that didn't seem to slow him down once he was rescued.
We also saw this critter perched on top of the fort that serves as a zip-line platform. This "monkey" was being watched by his Mother, who was enjoying her first visit to the barn in a while.
You can't see the zip-line cable in the pictures, but it stretches for 100 yards among the pecan trees. Denisa will confirm that the trip seems pretty fast as that final tree trunk gets closer.
So far, the critters have been friendly. But on the last day we were inspecting the bridge where the rain had swollen the creek up over the ten-foot-bridge two nights before.
Lucky jumped a little when he spotted a water moccasin (aka cottonmouth snake) among the rocks close to the water. When the snake took cover under a rock, Mark used a (very short) stick to try to persuade the venomous snake to come back out in the open.
Lucky didn't get a very clear shot, but we felt pretty sure the snake was dead. Only the tail was now sticking out from under that big rock, and it wasn't moving any more.
Later that evening, Denisa decided to walk back down to the bridge. She wanted to confirm that the snake was dead, and Mark volunteered to go with her. We were careful walking among those big white rocks under the bridge, and we were disappointed to find no tail sticking out from under the rock pictured above. At that moment, Denisa looked to her side, and screamed something about the snake right beside her. We were so busy looking for a snake tail under a rock, that we totally missed the cottonmouth out in the open that was now between us. It's at that point that Denisa spun and started running up that steep, rocky incline. This is where the clutzy part of the blog title comes in.
That quick departure dislodged one of those rocks, causing her to fall flat on her face. She hit her chin, arm, shin, and other miscellaneous body parts on those white boulders. It hurt so bad that she laid prostrate on the ground just a few feet away from the venomous snake that started all this. Mark managed to get her up the rocky hill, then he ran for the gun. We didn't get close enough for a clear picture of the dark brown cottonmouth snake, but we can confirm that this one really was dead. While they were shooting this one, Denisa (now perched safely on top of the bridge) saw another cottonmouth swim down the narrow creek.
Denisa spent the rest of the evening with ice packs on her wounds, once again embarrassed to be such a clutz. But we had a great time at the barn, even though we're not big fans of some of the critters that live here.
We've been in Kansas City, watching our new little granddaughter during her first week of life. At the ripe old age of ten days, the new little family went on their first road trip.
Jordan was the maid of honor at a wedding in St. Louis. Since she was spending her first Mother's Day at the wedding and with her mother, we headed to the Oklahoma panhandle to spend the day with our Mothers. It meant a 13-hour round-trip drive to make the trip to Beaver and back, where both of our Mothers live. Both of Denisa's sisters came as well, so we took a picture of Mother and her three daughters after church on Sunday. She's wearing a corsage, like she has every Mother's Day since her first baby was born.
We also spent Saturday together, shopping and eating out. We were joined by our niece Shaila and her son Phoenix. Denisa loves spending time with these little people. She had to take a picture of her ride for the day--her niece's red porsche. She even got to drive it on the way home. It's almost as sweet a ride as our motor home.
Meanwhile, Mark was hanging out with his Mother and brothers. None of them wanted to take this picture, but Denisa insisted.
On Sunday evening, the ranch was blessed with a nice rain shower. We can see for miles from here, and the big sky was certainly interesting that night.
The little white cross on the fence made a dramatic picture.
As the sun set over the ranch, we are glad we made the trip. We are blessed to get to enjoy the weekend with our Mothers, who are 88- and 90-years-old. It's even better to get to honor our Mothers with siblings that feel the same way.
After our first grandchild was born, we left the hospital around midnight. We weren't sure if we would be able to sleep. We also weren't sure if we would have a motor home to go home to. As we watched the weather reporting from the hospital waiting room, we had seen the wall of storms marching through our campground. They reported several tornadoes on the ground, and we didn't know what to expect. We certainly would have closed in the motor home slides if we would have known about the 60-80 mph winds in this storm. So we were relieved when the motor home appeared unscathed from the storms. We were most interested that our little granddaughter had made it through the storm so beautifully.
The next days were filled with taking turns holding Carter Lynn, while she slept most of the time.
She arrived weighing a hefty 6 pounds and 9 ounces, and 18 inches long. She is all swaddled up into a pretty pink package. We took this picture to document one of the few times she was lying in her crib without someone holding her.
Just 36 hours after she was born, the new little family was discharged from the hospital.
We had beautiful weather, and Carter got to spend some time outside with her adoring fans.
Our son Blake arrived from Oklahoma City. Not only is Carter the first grandchild for both sets of grandparents, but that also makes her a first niece as well. While Uncle Blake held Carter, her sleep-deprived Father looked on.
We all hung out together during the day, cooking and helping with jobs around the house. And of course, we were all taking turns holding Carter. Occasionally, we even let her Mother hold her. She's an awesome Mom!
How many people does it take to go on a first walk? Obviously eight adults, one guard dog, and one baby snuggled in the carrier with her mother.
With the motor home parked just 20 miles away from their home, we were able to see her every day for the first nine days of her life. We did some baby-sitting so her sleep-deprived parents could take an occasional nap or run errands.
But mostly we just held her and marveled at the miracle of her perfectly-formed tiny fingers and face.
We hadn't been in Kansas City while the dogwoods were blooming. Who knew that the little tree in their front yard could be so beautiful in the spring?
This gray-haired Grandma is enjoying lots of baby-time. Carter's head-full of black hair reminds us of her Daddy's when he was the same age.
We're learning that a smile very often means that her diaper will soon need to be changed.
We also found that even if all her grandparents and uncles are playing Rock Band at top volume, Carter can sleep if someone holds her.
But when the party is over and Mom and Dad want to go to sleep, Carter is wide awake.
We also are learning that one little girl can certainly change the lives of all those around her. She is definitely in charge of the schedule, as we all fall madly in love with her. We love the fact that we are retired and have a home on wheels that allows us to live just down the road for now! We can visit and still go home to our own bed at night while we learn to spoil our first granddaughter.
