An Interesting Day!

This was an interesting day. It started out just about like any other day, but Kathleen was having a cousin that she had not seen in 41 years and her husband come down for lunch and to share family history. So that meant I needed to sweep and mop the kitchen floor, clean the downstairs bathroom, vacuum the downstairs carpets, do a load of dishes and do two loads of laundry.

So, by the time they got here, about 1230, I was ready for a nap. It was interesting listening to the two cousins talk and get some of their family history sorted out. They left about 1645 and I was tired for an already long day, and hungry, as I did not eat too much for lunch.

I think that I dozed off for a while and got not quite a second wind, but at least I was not ready for bed. So we had some left over lunch and some corn on the cob from last night for supper and then some watermelon for dessert.

I think that Kathleen was pretty well spent as well. She had a good time and I think it was probably good for her to get reacquainted again.

Tomorrow is physical therapy day again; it has been since Monday so it should be interesting to see how Kathleen does.

I think that I will head for bed now, it has been a long day and I am ready for it to be over. I am just curious to see how sore my muscles are tomorrow.

Good night!

It actually rained this morning! I was awakened this morning to raindrops hitting the sky light in our bedroom, something that has not happened in a couple of months.

When I finally made my way downstairs there were actual puddles out in the road, of course the driveway was pretty much dry…it has to really rain for the rain drops to make their way past the fur branches and onto the driveway. It is so protected that frequently even it the rainy season the driveway is mostly dry. The only way part of the driveway gets wet is when it rains enough that the water run out to the street and it get wet that way.

Kathleen was doing much better today…she was still needing her pain medication on a regular basis, but she has had a day in between her physical therapy to recover from it.

We had our meeting with our financial advisors today and that went very well. Since we had to go to the other side of town there were a couple other stops that Kathleen wanted to make. We made most of them and because it was getting late, we left to avoid a lot of traffic.

I wanted to get home as I was meeting with the accountability group tonight. I try to make as many of the get togethers as possible because I enjoy them so much.

We went a little long tonight, normally we try to end it at 2100 and tonight it went until 2130. I am just getting settled in and thought that I would do a little blogging.

Well, there is not much more to write about, so I guess that I will say good night!

Bob

Today was physical therapy day for Kathleen, so this morning I did not get much done. Her appointment lasted from 1300 until 1530, because they are having her do more and then they have introduced a few more processes. She is also doing her therapy without her brace, so it takes me a while to get it off and then back on when she is done.

After her appointment today we were going to go to a couple stores and then home, but since it took so long we just went home and got something to eat.

About 1730 we went to the grocery store and got some groceries. It took us almost two hours to do the shopping and check out. Then it was head for home to put it all away.

Tomorrow is a “free” day, so we will probably do the shopping that we were planning to do today.

I vacuumed again today, I even did the stairs, and it was amazing how much Reggie fur and dirt the vacuum picked up. Each day I vacuum the same area and then do some different areas and I keep getting about the same amount of dog fur and silt…amazing!

Well, that is about all for today.

Bob

Wow, another weekend gone by, although for the last ten weeks the weekend is just a couple of days in the week.

We talked to Aaron tonight and they made it back from the camp out okay. Archie was glad to see him. He was sitting at the gate waiting for them when I went over there to feed him today. He was a little lonely I think.

Our Sunday School class had a very nice breakfast this morning before the church service. Because of the campout, normal Sunday School was canceled and there was only one service. The Omega, our class and the Prime Timers and maybe some others, but I do not know, decided to meet. Our class decided to have a breakfast, a short lesson and some prayer time.

This was also Dr. Carl Laney’s last service as interim pastor. Our new transitional pastor starts next week and will stay with us until we find a new full time senior pastor. It makes it rather nice in that we do not have to feel rushed into selecting someone just to fill the pulpit. I will miss Carl’s teaching; I have enjoyed his messages very much these last two months.

We had to stop by Fred Meyer and pick up Kathleen’s thyroid medicine, and while we were there, we picked up some groceries that we needed. When we got home, Kathleen made some chicken and rice, neither one of us ate a lot so we also had it for supper tonight.

We also talked to John this afternoon; he was excited about some new equipment that he just purchased for his shop. Andrea had sent me a couple of listings for some houses that they are interested in looking at and I e-mailed her back my thoughts.

Other than that, it was another good Sabbath rest. I have not done much of anything today except I did vacuum the floors downstairs again today. I do not think that I mentioned that we picked up a new inexpensive vacuum cleaner yesterday.

I vacuumed yesterday and got quite a lot of Reggie and a little dirt, and than when I vacuumed this afternoon I got about the same amount of dirt and Reggie fur. I did change the depth of the beater bar to the lowest position just to see what it would do and I was impressed. I was a little taken back by the amount of fur I collected today, it just makes me wonder how it would look if I did not vacuum for a whole week. I do not even want to think about that.

Well, as you can see, it has been another extremely exciting day. Tomorrow, Kathleen has another physical therapy appointment, so we will see how that goes.

Have a good night and a great day tomorrow.

Bob

Wow, She really is CRAZY!

Okay, I was not sure if this would be too much for me to keep track of, but I decided to create a second blog for all my crafty stuff that I do. (mostly scrapbooking).

I did this so that I could add a link to my signature in various message boards I post on that would allow people to view my work without them having to sort through my family blog. Just thought you might be interested.
Go to
http://papercapers.blogspot.com/ to see for yourself.

I don't have much posted yet, but plan too add more before church tomorrow!
Thanks for looking,
Alyssa

Saturday night…the end of a very long week! This is one week that I am sure glad that it is over.

I must have picked up something earlier in the week because by Wednesday night I was starting to feel pretty poorly. Thursday I think that I was only awake a total of six hours the whole day. I got up, stayed up for about three hours, and then took a “nap” for six hours. I finally got up about six o’clock p.m., but I kept being chilled and kept dozing off. I finally had some jello, then went to bed, and slept until about eight the next morning.

Friday I did not do much of anything but lay around until I had to take Kathleen to her physically therapy appointment. We had to make a couple of stops after she got done like go by the credit union and deposit some checks, and Montivilla Sewing Center and then Fred Meyer to get some more of Kathleen’s pain medicine. By the time we were done, I was ready to go home and crash.

Kathleen made me some chicken noodle soup and shortly after I finished it I was ready to hit the sheets. I sleep pretty well last night and this morning I felt much better…just really drained.

When I got up I went out and watered the plants, it is the weekend and we are expecting another hot spell. After I finished that I went inside and made myself some eggs, veggie sausages and hash brown potatoes. When Kathleen got up she wanted some hash browns, so I made her some as well.

I could not sit still so I went out and pruned the roses, pulled some weeds and pruned some shrubs that were getting a little overgrown. I really wore myself out, I normally could have done that and not broken a sweat, but I guess that I am still not as well as I would like to think.

Aaron, Tami and the girls are at the church camp out and I had agreed to feed Archie, their Rottweiler/Labrador Retriever mix. Kathleen had said that she wanted to go and afterwards go to Wal-Mart and the Factory Outlets to exchange some things.

I was too tired after shopping that I did not feel like fixing dinner so we visited the “King” tonight and had it our way. When we got home, I crashed in one of our new chairs for about two and a half hours.

So here I sit, blogging, and now I think it is time for me to say good night.

Bob

Quick, I need some help!

Does anyone know what kind of glue to use to fix this. It is a little plate from Natalie's prized tea set. She is heartbroken and all I have is super glue. I think it is porcelain. Thanks for any advice.

Alyssa

PS Could you post answers to my blog, as I will be checking there more frequently.

Percocet VS OTC

This is some what a repeat of what I added to my CarePage today. I felt so lousy that I felt it was CarePagable but at the same time I wanted to leave it here, too.


Tuesday, Dr Woolley wrote me another prescription for Percocet but he also told me I could use over the counter pain relief but he preferred to have me use Celebrex and gave me some samples. I had taken Celebrex before and remembered there was a reason why I stopped but couldn’t, for the life of me, remember why I quit. I checked my computer for notes and couldn’t find any. I even called my GP’s office and had them check my records to see if there was any notation. I’ve been trying to leave a record of meds that I stop for a reason but they couldn’t find anything. In the meantime I took one. Later on I talked to another nurse and she said it was because I’m allergic to Sulfa and they’re related. She added Celebrex to the allergy list and wrote a note so I feel covered. Fortunately I only took one. It would have taken several days for Celebrex to work so that wouldn't have been such an easy transition either. Having another reaction of hives like I had with Sulfa would not be what I need – ever but especially not now.


I thought that I ‘should’ try the Celebrex or the OTC meds since I don’t want to have a permanent ‘need’ for narcotics. Of course I didn’t feel too bad going to bed but by the time I got up I ached from my ankles to my knees to my shoulders and down to my fingers. I tried a couple different combinations I got from the Dr and was miserable and whiny all day. Nothing eased the all-over achy pain at all, all day and night. Sleeping was terrible and I ended up sleeping in my chair about 3:30 this morning. Usually when I get this achy, I just get up and take a hot bath and adjust my Sleep Number until I can relax. Right now, I don’t feel safe taking a bath by myself and I couldn’t find a ‘good’ number so I moved to my chair.


I’m back on Percocet and feeling much better. I could feel getting just a bit numbed but I could function much better. My wrist is still bothering me quite a bit. I’ve been keeping it bound with either my brace for carpel tunnel or the sling brace tightened up as much as I could comfortably stand and that does help.


I’ve been looking forward to getting this brace off of my arm just long enough to get clean for a long time – I don’t like it especially at physical therapy where I am pulling my arm overhead at nose level and, whell, it isn’t pleasant. Tuesday I was told I can take it off to shower but we were too tired to mess with it – and it was a very busy day, being Cabinet Day, too. Yesterday was misery. Today, poor Bob has had some kind of virus.


He had a 100f temp, chills, sore stomach, no appetite and slept a lot – most of the day, in fact. The poor guy is such a ‘do-er’ that even when he couldn’t stay awake, he couldn’t stop feeling guilty about not being up and doing something; he thought he shouldn’t be sleeping so much. I think he finally acknowledged that he really was sick and it was out of his control when I was polishing off that last bit of Zurcher Stroganoff tonight and he didn’t even want a taste. He was so cold even when wrapped up in my favorite comforter. I had mentioned that I loved snuggling up in it so he explained that’s why they call them comforters – they are so comfortable to snuggle up in. He then snuggled and slept some more. By the time he went from the couch to bed tonight his temp was down to 98.5. He is on the mend.


I am so proud of myself. Bob has not been able to get signed in on his computer to update or change the blog for several days. He has been using my computer which is his least favorite thing to do. I had an idea that it had to do with the McAfee cookie control but I couldn’t figure out how to change it. I finally found the right place tonight and Viola’, she’s a-working again. It was such a frustration because there was no logical reason for the problem. My guess is that someone using his computer hit Reject when the little window popped up, not knowing that it meant the access to the updating was messed up in the process. So now, he will not only wake up feeling better, he will be able to Blog at his own computer. What more can he want. Maybe I’ll even get a shower before Physical Therapy tomorrow – if I can get to sleep soon.

Kathleen

Wednesday August 23, 2006

Another day…another? I got up about 0700 this morning, feeling pretty good, when I went outside with Reggie I felt this strange feeling on my head, something that I had not felt in quite some time…what could it be? It was moisture coming out of the sky, not rain just some Washington mist…you know that stuff that missed Washington and landed in Oregon.

I did not do much good the soft top of the Wrangler barely got wet, but at least it was something. I am not sure right now when the last time we had any precipitation of any kind, it was either early July or possibly even June. Way too long for Oregon, it is not that I am tired of the sunshine…no after living in Portland since 1972 sunshine is really nice to see. I just wish that we could see more of it throughout the rest of the year…like the other nine months!

Anyway, Kathleen and I were supposed to go see our financial advisors today, just to learn some new features of our account. Kathleen had her physical therapy appointment yesterday and usually the day after is a really hard day for her. So when I went to wake her up a little after 1000 I asked her how she was feeling…before she could answer I could tell by the look on her face that it was not so good.

She kept trying to convince me that she could make it, but I thought that it might be better for us to cancel and reschedule…so I called them up and did that. By 1100 she was on the couch and hardly got off it the rest of the day.

So I emptied the dishes that I washed last night before going to bed and then vacuumed both the upstairs and downstairs. I had not done the upstairs since before my surgery and it was getting a little hard to see the carpeting. I even vacuumed the stairs! I can tell that I am feeling better…I have more energy and I am not getting as tired as easily. I still am not getting a lot done…but I am getting some things done.

Andrea stopped by tonight around dinner time, she was scheduled to work but the scheduler was not suppose to schedule her, so she sent her home. With traffic being what it is she decided to pay old mom and dad a visit…it was better than sitting in traffic.

Linda also called tonight and talked for…well I will not say how long, but she and Kathleen must have swollen ears and sore jaws. Enough said!

It was good to talk to her, I have not talked to her in a long time, she and Kathleen talk somewhat regularly. I thought your voice sounded good and it was good to hear you laugh!

Well, it was not a very exciting day, but we are both one day closer to getting well and feeling better!

Talk again tomorrow!

Bob

Physical therapy day

I could not sleep this morning so about 0500 I gave up trying and got up and went downstairs so that I would not disturb Kathleen. When the sun came up I went outside with Reggie and checked up on the plants.

I checked my e-mail and then made some coffee and cereal for breakfast. When I finished that I read the paper and got myself cleaned up for Kathleen’s doctor’ appointment at 1045. Once I was ready to go I woke Kathleen up and helped her get ready.

We finally made it out the door about 1035 and raced to the doctor’s office. When we got there the took some new x-rays of her arm. The doctor was pleased with the progress and we could actually see some clouding at the break, which he said was the healing process.

Most importantly to Kathleen he said that she could take the brace off to shower. She has been going… not being able to shower for the last five weeks. I have tried helping her take baths, but we were always so careful trying to keep the brace dry. So if nothing else being able to take a shower should help her moral.

We had some time between the doctor’s appointment and the physical therapy appointment so we stopped by the store we bought the chair a week or so ago to see if they had another one. They did but they were asking about 35% more for it than what we paid for the last one.

So being the tight wad that I am I asked the clerk about it and he said the boss said the from now on that was the new price of them. We went back and looked at both chairs and decided that we liked them enough to pay the extra money for it. But just before we told the clerk that we wanted it, he said that since we bought one at the lower price the boss said that we could have this last one for the old price. So now we have two rather comfortable chairs in the living room.


Bu the time we got home and the chair moved into the living room it was just about time to rush to the physical therapy appointment.. We were a little late for the appointment, but we made it. Kathleen was doing much better for most of the appointment until it came time for the stretching portion. That is always the most painful for her, the pain is not in the break, but rather in the forearm and wrists.

After that appointment she wanted to go back to the doctor’s to have her wrist x-rayed, so we did and the x-ray did not show anything, but the doctor said that if in two weeks it was not better they would run some other tests.

We had just gotten home and Aaron and the girls showed up. Aaron and Chucky were supposed to haul the cabinets up to Kathleen’s craft room when Chucky got off work. So while we were waiting I told Aaron that I could help move some of the cabinets upstairs with him.

I thought that we were just going to be taking them upstairs, but Kathleen had talked to Aaron earlier and she wanted them mounted. So we mounted the upper cabinets and before we knew it Tami and Toni showed up.

The gals had talked and decided to have dinner at our place, so tonight Aaron, Tami and the girls along with Toni and Chucky made taco salad for us for dinner. They also brought corn on the cob and watermelon. After dinner Aaron and Chucky brought the cabinet bottoms up to Kathleen’s craft room, so now our front porch is almost cleaned off.

So this is just about the end of a busy day.

Have a good night!

Bob

Funny comment of the day

So, I was telling my friend Anne about my blog and she teased me by saying...
"oh, now you're a blogger, hu? Most of the blogs I have seen are from liberal lesbian types."
To which I replied "My dad has a blog and he is neither liberal nor is he a lesbian!"

Alyssa

Container Container and Hope

I think we do so much running around on PT (Physical Therapy) days because we are actually up, dressed and gone. That is so exciting that we just go until we drop. Then we don't (I don't, at least) move for a day or two until next time. I was hoping to actually go to sleep earlier tonight – not tomorrow - but it's too late for that. Why do those pills - even with coffee - make it impossible to stay awake during the day and don't bother me that way at night?????

I'm hoping I don’t ache so much in the morning so PT will be easier. I do and do not look forward to it. I'm hoping Dr Woolley will be impressed and that my humerus is happily healing and not twisting around in there. (A lame attempt at bone humor but it is my real desire.)

The Container Container in the kitchen isn't missed although it took most of the day for me to realize it was gone. Sometimes when you are raising elephants you get used to walking around them.

I understand Aaron and Chucky are going to get cupboards moved from their resting place on the front porch up to the upstairs tomorrow/today. I can't believe it is actually going to happen - amazing and wonderful. Then to get everything put away, hauled upstairs from my downstairs studio and more put away and gotten rid of. Then, deep breath, move the piano in there and get a bed of some sort for that room. This was all supposed to have started happening before Bob's surgery but life and schedules change and we go with Plan B - or C.

Welcome to the first addition of the Bob Roush Family and Friends blog!

Welcome to the first addition of the Bob Roush Family and Friends blog. I have decided that since most of my posts lately have simply been a daily journal rather than a care or progress report after my surgery I would change the venue to a more generic blog.

After getting up this morning, I went outside and watered the plants, even though it is not that hot it still has not rained in a loooong time! When I finished I made some coffee, ham and eggs and toast then read the paper.

Waiting for Kathleen to get up and ready I decided to take a large plastic box full of Tupperware and other plastic containers downstairs. It was larger than I really wanted to handle myself, but I took about half of the containers out of it and it was not so bad. I also did three loads of laundry, washed, folded and put away.

I heated up some leftovers for lunch and after a while I went outside and raked the front yard. Since it has been so dry, many leaves have fallen off the walnut trees and the lawn was a mess.

Well it looks like we will not be doing any of the running around that we have planned to do for the last few days, as it is 1830 and Kathleen is still not dressed. Either she needs to take pain medication or she has just taken it and is too groggy to do anything.

Well, I hear the drier telling me that the last load is done and I need to take it out, fold it and put away.

Let me know what you think of the new format.

Bob

Blog Questions

I am a total novice when it comes to blogs. I am amazed that I was able to set mine up. My question is this...can I email my friends to look at my personal blog, or is it linked to yours?

Is anybody out there?

I got myself signed up when I saw the new blog location and am looking forward to reading more posts!

Love,

Alyssa

In looking for another venue in which to post our activities; I cam upon this blog page Saturday but I wanted a couple days to think about it. Right now, I am looking of other opinions...What do you think?

Bob