Dino Nuggets

 To celebrate this series properly, of course I had to buy these.  They're Dino-nuggets, and although I'm not really supposed to eat fried items, I had to make an exception with these.  I've actually never had a Dino Nugget before, so yeah, we'll call this a "bucket list" item!  We picked these up when we were doing some grocery shopping tonight, our usual stop after taekwondo.  Maddie, Nana and I were going up and down the aisles as we usually do, trying to remember what we needed.  We were there just to pick up drinks and lemons, and of course there were Dino Nuggets... so yeah, we got those too.  

Taekwondo went well of course.  Maddie was helping as guest instructor, and then after that class she was a student again, this time for leadership class.  They were doing high jump kicks, and working with the kamas again.  Maddie won't miss this class - she loves it.  She was working on form, and today she was instructing kids, although some weren't listening.  She came up with a little incentive to listen for one of the students though:  "Each time you fall for no apparent reason, you'll do five push-ups."  That student stopped falling, which suggests to me that previously the student was falling for no apparent reason!

So while we were over there at taekwondo, Mom was doing some gardening outside and some painting.  She reached down to move a tray of potted plants, and you can see what was underneath that.  This is right next to our house.  I think because it was moist and cooler in this area, this copperhead decided to take up residence here.  It snapped at Mom a few times, and of course she was startled.  Who wouldn't be, seeing something like that inches from your bare hands as you reach down.  There was a shovel nearby, and Mom dispatched it right away.  We let just about everything around our house live, except for poisonous snakes and joro spiders.  Those spiders, by the way, multiply so quickly and are everywhere.  They make these huge 3-D webs that you can see four or even five spiders in, all surrounding one monster.  We've been going out there with some spray and a broomstick, fighting the daily struggle.  I can't imagine what would happen if we just let them go - there are so many of them.  I know it's a losing battle, but we just can't stand webbing all over our house.

Anyway, today was a good day for Maddie at school.  She got a 100 on her geometry unit test, and she's gotten a few other good grades lately.  She was studying tonight, working on an advertisement that she's been developing for a few days now, one promoting a story she's written.  

While she was at school, of course I was at work, but also down in Buford revisiting my cardiologist, who I haven't seen since April.  He confirmed a few things:  that I need to reduce my medication by one pill (my blood pressure has been pretty low lately - this morning after the treadmill it was 88 over 60, and it generally hangs around the 90's or low 100's).  So we'll pull back on one pill - I still take seven others, so it's still a lot to take each day.  But we're weening off of these things.  The other thing that was confirmed was that I actually told him during the heart procedure the answer to who was singing a song on the radio that they couldn't remember the name of:  Eddie Vedder.  They were trying to remember that, and I told them the answer.  I remember Guns n' Roses too, "Sweet Child of Mine."  We were talking about the procedure, and he remembered that, and he remembered that things were "pretty tight" in my heart.  But now things are well, and I'm doing good.  Good news.

Tonight Maddie was doing homework, and meanwhile, we were watching a Disney parks behind-the-scenes video about the castles of all the parks.  When it was bedtime, I read to Maddie a few more pages of the ongoing Kingdom Keepers adventure, and after that we said our prayers.  I was pretty sleepy tonight, and we all got to bed early tonight.  We had several things to be really grateful for today, including a snake not biting Mom, and a good report from the doctor.  And some good grades for Maddie too.  And Dino Nuggets!