Family Posts

20Jul
3

Guns

My great uncle grew up on a ranch in the middle of nowhere in the 20s. Obviously the man owned guns; it’s just a way of life where he’s from.

After he died my parents started going through the house. They secured several firearms. One story that still makes me laugh:

Mom: “We found this revolver with no serial number, not registered. I didn’t know what to do with it. I mean it’s a gun. I certainly don’t want it.
Me: “So what did you do with it?”
Mom: “Well David (family friend) was there. I looked at him and said ‘David, do you want a gun?”
Me: “You gave him a gun?!?!”
Mom: “Yeah. What’s wrong with that?”
Me: “Um. A lot of things. Does he have a gun permit? The gun isn’t registered. I’m pretty sure that’s not legal.”
Mom: “Well he has other guns. I figured I don’t want this near me. Should I have done something else?”

Gotta love my mother. (For the record she made him bring it back and is going to get it registered.)

So then several weeks later they’ve completed round 1 of the house cleaning. Secured all 8 of the firearms. This had my mom really nervous: “Caro, what do I do with these? I mean, I need to dispose of them somehow, but I’m not driving them somewhere. Taking them in my car. Where would I even take them? The police station? Just throw them on a table and say ‘Here officers. I don’t want these.’”

But then they found my uncle’s homeowner’s policy. The one that had the itemized list of firearms. 10 firearms. As previously mentioned, various family members had only located 8. So there’s 2 weapons unaccounted for somewhere in the house. Um…..that could be a problem. Know what else could be a problem? 7 of the secured guns were loaded. 2 of them fully loaded.

So basically there’s 2 guns MIA in the house. Possibly loaded. How does one lose 2 guns? Especially when one of them is a .22 caliber rifle with a scope.

Happy hunting to us. Literally!

Posted by Caro in Family, Fears, Things to do
10Jun
0

At Least You Can Laugh

My sister has a VERY bad track record when it comes to hear health and well-being. She’s broken several bones in some seriously freak incidents, had a couple of surgeries (see previous point), and gets these weird mystery illnesses. She also is a klutz. So much so that our uncle made up a name for her – Katrinka – because that sounded like the name of someone who would fall a lot. (I would like to pause this post for a second to express complete shock and amusement that my spell-check actually likes the word “Katrinka”. wtf). Basically, when there is a minuscule chance something can go wrong, it does.

In keeping with this theme, she has recently had a minor surgery to remove an ovarian cyst that just wasn’t going away. Just a couple of weeks later this girl texts because she’s broken out in hives on her chest. OK? What do you want me to do about it? Texts keep pouring in. “Hives are moving up my chest and down my stomach.” “It’s on my neck now.” “I can’t breath and I’m freaking out.” Finally, “I’m going to the ER.”

So she goes. With a 4 year old.

After shots of adrenaline, benadryl, and steroids, I get a text complaining about the needles. Then another one, “My blood pressure is 72/40. Is that bad?” LOL yes, yes it is. Good thing you’re at the hospital.

So they release her, now armed with Prednisone, Benadryl, and an EpiPen. Next day she heads to the doctor for labs so she can find out what in the hell she is apparently very allergic to. Today the labs came back and I got this text:

My doctors called. My lab work came back negative & they’re like ‘so that’s good’. How is that good? We are no closer to finding out what I’m allergic to. And they’re like ‘u have to make an appt in August so until then keep a lot of Benadryl on you’. Ummmmm …? FAIL doctors office! LOL

And this is why I love my sister. Because her body hates her and even though none of the doctors can figure out why, she is able to laugh about it and entertain other people with her misfortunes.

Posted by Caro in Family, Health, Life
21May
1

Fire & Rain

Pandora just selected this song to go with my “Simon & Garfunkel” station.

Seems pretty appropriate actually; today marks one month since my uncle died. I’ve been thinking about him a lot lately. I wish I could have spent just one more Sunday with him, playing dominoes and eating delicious sandwiches. I always thought I’d see him again soon. Not so much.

Thanks James Taylor.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwugjyeSKx4[/youtube]

Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone
Suzanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can’t remember who to send it to

I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain
I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I’d see you again

Won’t you look down upon me, Jesus
You’ve got to help me make a stand
You’ve just got to see me through another day
My body’s aching and my time is at hand
And I won’t make it any other way

Oh, I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain
I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I’d see you again

Been walking my mind to an easy time my back turned towards the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it’ll turn your head around
There’s hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground

Oh, I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain
I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I’d see you, baby, one more time again, now

Thought I’d see you one more time again
There’s just a few things coming my way this time around, now
Thought I’d see you, thought I’d see you fire and rain, now

Posted by Caro in Family, Life, Music, Random, Videos
29Apr
0

Receipt

Reasons you shouldn’t clean out your wallet at work, even if you are on break:

I just found the (insanely expensive) parking receipt from the hospital from the day my great uncle died. Now I’m sad.

As much as it blows my mind that I paid $24 to park for like 6 hours, $24 to be with him when he died seems like a bargain.

I think I’ll keep this in my wallet. Hopefully next time I see it I’ll smile rather than tear up. I <3 him

Posted by Caro in Discoveries, Family, Life, Money, Work
27Apr
1

Drumsticks

My sister and I told this story at my uncle’s memorial service yesterday. I’m not going to change it (I’m too lazy), so it’s in speech format. Whatever, you get the point :)

By far my favorite Angelo-related adventure!

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Posted by Caro in Family, Life
22Apr
1

A Quick Update

Life comes at you so fast and can take you in so many directions all at once. The past two weeks certainly have been no exception. I feel that all of these things deserve their own post, but I just wanted to give a quick update. My blogging will either speed up or fall off for a while. The last item on this update should provide a pretty good explanation. Anyway, these are the latest headlines:

  • Andrew and Rhianna got married. It was a beautiful ceremony and a super fun reception. It was also my first run at being a bridesmaid and it was a completely different experience than I had imagined.
  • My cousin got engaged. I’m totally stoked for him.
  • I went to the doctor (again) for my foot. After 2 MRIs and 2 appointments within 4 days, I finally have a clearer picture of what’s going on with Marla. There are 3 issues total in my one foot (ffffuuuu). It IS a tumor, but it’s not cancerous. Hopefully the painful cortisone shot I got will make this issue go away once and for all.
  • I took a small (but very eventful!) road trip last weekend with some wonderful ladies to attend Jess’s bridal shower. It was a lovely event. I won a prize too ;)
  • My great uncle went to the ER yesterday morning. He died today. It never really occurred to me prior to yesterday that when you say “great uncle” people kind of brush you off assuming this is a distant relative and it’s not a big deal. On the contrary, I was incredibly close to this man. My mom lost her father when she was 23. Angelo stepped in and became a second father to her, even walking her down the aisle at her wedding. I’m absolutely devastated.

There’s not really much else to say. It’s 4:45am and I can’t sleep. I can say this: I have the most amazing family and an incredible boyfriend. I know that while I’m crumbling into pieces I am loved and supported. We are a close knit group and this loss has brought us closer. For that I am grateful.

And now back to Boy Meets World. Because that seems to be the only thing on at this hour.

Posted by Caro in Family, Fears, Health, Life, TV, Things to do, Weddings
02Feb
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Posted by Caro in Baby, Family, Fears, Health, Random
19Jan
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Posted by Caro in Baby, Discoveries, Family, Life, cool, fun
19Jan
0

Chrismakkah update

So yeah it’s been over a month (I think) since my last post. I seriously suck!!! Prepare for a WAVE of posting :)

First things first: Chrismakkah and winter break

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my employers. I have been so spoiled my entire working life, and I think that if I were ever to leave my job(s) and go to a place that doesn’t give 2 weeks off at the end of the year I would die a little inside. But alas, I was able to relish in the 2 weeks of mandatory vacation time the end of last month. It’s usually a glorious time for me. This year wasn’t really relaxing, but not having to go to work, regardless of the stressors you encounter, is still glorious. So hallelujah lol.

My plan for break was to sleep in every day, eat well, go to the gym more days than not, catch up on ALL my TV shows, and read a book. The reality of what happened was sleep in about half the days, eat way too much crap, go to the gym once maybe?, catch up on one season of one TV show, and read 0 pages of a book. Not even any in a magazine! Yikes.

So what happened exactly? Yeah I’m not sure either.

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Posted by Caro in Family, Life, Random
15Dec
1

Winter Wonderland

This is the current state of the G-B household:

A couple of days after Thanksgiving J and I went to Target and came home with our very first Chrismakkah tree! It had been chillin, naked, in our living room ever since. We decided to decorate and realized that we still needed a string of white lights. In addition, a single string of blue lights wasn’t gonna cut it. Who knew blue lights were so popular? I had an easy time finding them around Thanksgiving, but had to go on a major hunt this week. The second set of blue lights are on a white string, which isn’t ideal, but it works well enough for this year. So on Sunday night Jeremy and I put on the Christmas Carole cable station, lit 3 Hanukkah candles, and did some major tree decorating:

xmas2

I absolutely love it!! When I get home from work I’ve been turning off all the lights in the house and turning on the tree. I love the tree lights + that fresh pine smell!

xmas1

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Posted by Caro in Family, Life, Shopping, fun
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