Rachel's Mom - Ready to Pump Iron

Rachel's mom has been a tropper and a half. She landed in the hospital in mid-Januar (these pictures were 1/17) and as matriarch of the enormous Florian clan, found herself surrounded by her clucking brood.

Schaun's not a huge fan of hospitals in general, so he spent most of his time in the lobby reading and working on his computer, intermittently checking in throughout the day and managing neice and nephew traffic through the hospital. Rachel got a lot of Schaun's knit scarf done. When we were there, we asked her what she was going to do when she got home and she quickly replied, "I'm going to pump some iron because my muscles are all gone from being in this stupid bed for five days!" As she's been recovering, rehabilitating and finally landing back home, she's developed a pat response to all the phone calls. Before anyone even gets a word out she says, "Oh! I'm just fine. I'm fine. I'm doin' good. Yup. Just doin' some geneology."

We've been up to CT several times to visit and this last round brought a shock and a half. Mom was so happy to be out the rehabilitation center where she started pumping iron that she ACTUALLY said that Dad's food was "delicious!" Now that's something special. Rumor has it, she's even continuing her exercise / therapy program with Dad by walking the "rails to trails" route. Go mom!
Mom has a serious green thumb and a weakness for flowers. On this particular visit we had to "bring" her flowers by taking a picture of her hibiscus tree that she rescued and nursed back to health. The blooms only last one day so we didn't want her to miss it.