Uncle John: Cleveland Police Department

My husband had an Uncle John. Uncle John was a Cleveland Police officer who was shot by a suspect who was trying to kill himself. If my understanding is correct, the father was trying to intervene with the suspect, the man in question somehow got knocked off the porch and started shooting at the officers. He had shot himself in the stomach before falling off the porch, shot Uncle John who then proceeded to strike him with a bullet all the while having been injured. K and I talked about Uncle John this morning. I couldn't tell her a whole lot since I never had the pleasure of meeting him. However, I could tell her that he was Grandma's brother and that he held on for nearly three weeks before he died. It is Policeman's Week. I thought that it might be a good thing to fill K in a bit about her family. It is good for her to know about how Daddy's uncle went out and protected people and died doing what was right. We thank Uncle John for his service. We're so glad that Hubs had him in his life, even though Hubs was just 4 at the time. An unusual thing I noticed in researching information about Uncle John was that many years later on the exact month and day he was injured, his great niece was born.

:cough, sneeze:

We've all been suffering with this late spring virus. K had the headache, Hubs has had the sore throat and I've had the instantly runny nose. A bonus today is that I seemed to have sprung a blemish on my nostril interior that makes the wiping oh so much fun. Oh, and it's darned attractive, too. We've all been sacking out early so that explains my blog absence. Have a great and healthy weekend!

Just call me Mom of the Week.

K- has a cold.  We all have the same cold.  It is enough to feel a little under the weather, but there is no fever and it is one of those where you lump it and move on.  Because there is a headache component, I gave K- a dose of Advil.  I also gave an Oscillococcinum, a blueberry acidophilus and her Claritin.  She skipped off telling me how 30 seconds after taking the allergy pill, it was making her feel better.

Atagirl.

We're at the bus stop, she's skipping along and talking to her friend.  I was pulling kids out of stepping into the street in front of cars and K- went down.  She fell over the lift in the sidewalk somehow, gouged her knee (no stitches needed, but flesh was definitely removed) and the poor child was bawling with tears flowing.  I could have offered to take her to school, but she didn't ask and I didn't want to make a hairy deal out of it.  The bus was coming, so I told her that we'd ask about a band aid.  No band aid, but there was a paper towel.  "We'll take it."  I farmed her off bleeding, teary and injured. 

I'm sure that she'll milk it all day long.

I was about the same age when I slid down our gravel driveway on my way to the bus stop.  Our driveway was on a hill, I hit a slick patch, went down and slid and when I came up, I discovered that I had gravel lodged into the tender underside "corner" of my wrist.  I trudged back up in tears, Mom dug the gravel out, gave me a paper towel and sent me back down the icy drive to get on the bus.  "You'll be fine," she said.

You know what?  I survived.  I am, however, permanently physically scarred.  :S

K- will survive it.  Still, I felt some twinges of guilt.  I also have a box of Hello Kitty band aids on the table to put into her back pack.  Everything is a little better when Hello Kitty is involved.

The unsolicited review: Merrell Wonder Glove

I've shared with you the plight of finding shoes that looked cute, but covered my feet and didn't flip nor flop. I've got a still-can-be-occasionally-angry 5th metatarsal to think of.  I told you how I saw these shoes, chased after a customer, looked them up straight away and ordered them a week ago.

The Merrell Wonder Glove Mary Janes arrived on Friday.  Here's my scoop for anyone who might care or is looking to find out more about these shoes:

1.  Initially, I wasn't certain that I bought the right size.  To try them on is good, but you actually have to walk in them to fully determine that.  My regular shoe size (6 1/2) worked just fine.
2.  They are worn comfy when you take them out of the box.  More specifically, there is nothing to break in.  Nothing rubs weird and they are all bendy on their own.
3.  It takes some getting used to, that whole walking and feeling everything under your feet thing.  There is no cushion on the inside and being devoid of arch support, I was concerned that my feet would be screaming at the end of a work day.  Y'all, my feet didn't hurt a bit.  Which brings me to this point:
4.  My foot hurt all of last week.  You know, the previously broken one.  Yesterday, it didn't hurt one bit.  No tweaks.  No twinges.  Happiness.
5.  Yes, they did cost more than any pair of shoes I've ever purchased for myself EVER.  They were not on sale.  Y'all, I paid full price.  I don't regret it.  You get what you pay for.  These are the toesy shoes that people run in, just not as hideous. 

My report?  You will pay money for these.  You will probably not find them on sale or with coupons at all.  That's okay.  Your feet will smile.

For the record, I wasn't asked or compensated to write this.  In my search, I wanted to know these things and I figured that someone else might want to know them, too.  If, however, Merrell would love me to test drive anymore for them, I certainly wouldn't turn them  down.  :)