A very good day!

Today started out like just about every other Sunday, Church and Sunday School in the morning, then home for dinner or at least some kind of food. Andrea called and said that they were going to go look at a house or two that they found on the internet. Then Alyssa called and invited us over for swimming and to visit with the grandchildren…an offer that is hard to turn down.

Now remember that the last time we were going to Alyssa and Dan’s was the very same day that Kathleen broke her arm. So it was almost a trip back into time. While we were still on the phone with Alyssa Andrea called back and said that the house that they looked at really would not work out for them.

Well off we went to Alyssa and Dan’s, Kathleen went into the water, I did not. I did not feel all that well, I thing that I did more physical work than I was ready for yesterday. I did take the older two for a short walk and wound up carrying Zander for a good portion of the “walk”. Later when I was resting in the chair Zander came and curled up on my lap and asked if I could spend the night. I thought that was cute and made my day.

Well, I did not realize it when we came over but Alyssa was having us over for dinner. She had chicken, rice and lentils…it was very good. Toni and Chucky were there as well and Aaron called just as we were serving dinner, so I was able to talk or see all of the kiddos today.

Well, I think that is about it for today, good night and have a great week!

Saturday!

Well today is Saturday so I emptied the dishwasher and then made myself breakfast, I made myself a couple eggs and sausages. Then I spent most of the rest of the morning weeding and pulling out baby prune trees that were growing in the rose garden.

I also pulled the ivy that was growing on the west side of the garage off. I like having the ivy on the ground as I do not have to mow that little strip between our garage and the neighbors driveway, but I have to keep it pulled off the garage at least once a year.

I also washed a couple loads of laundry, dried them, then folded them and put away. Of course I had to vacuum up Reggie fur. I did not do much more than that today, it was kind of a take it easy day.

I think that is about it for today, good night!

It is Friday!

Yep, it is Friday, and for many of you that means the weekend is here. For some of us it is always the weekend!

Today was a special day for us as Alyssa stopped by with the children. I think she just wanted the coupons that I had been saving for her. We had some of the banana bread that Andrea had made and also some rice checks. For dessert, I took the two oldest, Natalie and Zander, out to the raspberry patch and feasted on some of the fall crop.

It was good to see them, they have not been here for quite a while and Zander wanted to “borrow” some of our toys, but we keep them out for all of our grandchildren to play with when they visit. Well I do play with a couple of the toy Jeeps, but usually only with the grandchildren.

After they left Kathleen and I went to Costco, a place we had not been to in about three months. When one considers that we use to go there at least once a week it has been quite a long time for us. Of course, we made up for what we did not spend over those couple of months today.

By the time we got home we were both really tired. Luckily, we had bought some ravioli so I boiled up some and opened up a jar of sauce and we had dinner.

That is about all we did today. I did manage to vacuum the downstairs a couple times today and did a load of dishes, but they are still in the dishwasher. Well I will say good night…see you tomorrow!

A long day!

Well we are just getting home after a long day. This morning I got up early because Kathleen was moaning and groaning and I had already tried to get back to sleep for about an hour.

It was probably a good thing as I needed to water the plants, even thought the weather has cooled off we still have not had any appreciable amounts of rain in a couple of months.

I raked the leaves from the front yard this morning. After I finished and got back into the house and made lunch for myself, I looked outside and the front yard was full of leaves again. The leaves on the walnut trees are so dry that they are falling off a month or so early.

Kathleen had her second physical therapy appointment today, so that took up a couple hours from about 1400 until 1530. After that Kathleen wanted to stop off at Fabric Depot, so that took another hour and an half, and then we needed to stop off at Fred Meyer to get Kathleen’s pain medication prescription filled.

While we were waiting for that to happen, we did some shopping. When Kathleen stopped by to pick up her prescription, they could not find it, so we had to wait another twenty minutes for them to figure out where it was. They finally found it and by this time it was about 1830.

We went back home to let Reggie out because we were going to Andrea and John’s for dinner tonight. Andrea made some pot roast and decided to have us over. John did not get there until about 2000 and we had just started to eat.

We had a good visit and John and I went out to get some gasoline for his truck that was in his shop. Kathleen and Andrea stayed there as Kathleen was looking at a couple of Andrea’s books.

We were going to stop by Alyssa and Dan’s but it had gotten too late. So Alyssa we still have the coupons for you here.

Well, I am tired and I think that I will just say good night!

A First!

A first…Kathleen had her physical therapy yesterday and today is the first day after that she has been able to function. Of course having her hair appointment today probably helped a whole lot.

After her hair appointment we went to DEQ to get Kathleen’s Acura passed and re-tagged. It passed fine and after about ten minutes and $75.00 we were on our way again.

We stopped by GI Joes to get a small weight for Kathleen; she also found a jacket and another exercise device while there. Since we were just about next to the Craft Warehouse, we stopped there as well. Of course, she found a few things there to buy as well.

We were both getting tired so we decided to head for home, but made one last stop to get some gasoline. We were only gone about four hours, but neither one of us had much energy left.

After resting for a little while, I heated up some leftovers for dinner. I think that I have just about finished all the leftovers in the fridge. Tomorrow night Andrea has invited us over for roast beef. It has been quite a while since we have been over there to see their place.

Well, I think that is all for tonight…good night!

I GOT THE CLAMP OFF MY POOR BROKEN ARM AND THE STRAP THAT WENT AROUND ME FOR THE PAST SIX WEEKS OFF TODAY!!! It is healing – maybe not as fast as they would like but really well considering that I am diabetic – usually well controlled. I’ve not been as good as I should in remembering to shoot myself with Byetta. It keeps me in great control but sometimes it hurt to think, much less remember to do what’s good for me.

Now to keep going to physical therapy twice a week, doing what I can to stretch myself at home and just be good. I am and I’m not looking forward to going to bed tonight without that clamp. I’m not going to fall apart but I do have to be really careful. No surgery, no pin, no MRI on the wrist or elbow – at least for now. YEA!!!!

Sometimes it has felt like forever then, well, I guess not so long.

Day of Appointments

Today was a full day, not rushed, but enough to do to keep us busy. Kathleen had a couple appointments today that pretty much took a big chunk out of the middle of the day.

She had a doctor’s appointment this morning at 1045, which went very well. The x-rays looked good and the doctor told her to take the brace off her upper arm. So now she feels very vulnerable. She is very protective of her arm right now, which is understandable.

Then this afternoon at 1300, she had her first physical therapy appointment without her brace. I think that it went pretty well for her. I think that the brace was somewhat limiting in her range of motion. She did not seem as sore afterwards, but we will still need to see what tomorrow brings.

Tomorrow she has her monthly hair appointment so that should make her feel better. Usually the day after her physical therapy appointments are the hardest days for her…I cannot wait!

We took a walk after dinner tonight, something we have not done on a regular basis since she broke her arm, I would like to make it a regular happening for us. We took Reggie with us tonight, the last few days his arthritis has been making it really hard for him to get around. So the walk was not only good for Kathleen and me, but Reggie as well.

Well, I think that is all for tonight.

Bob

Blog Protocol

I just had a question regarding responding to comments. If someone comments or asks a question on my blog, (or this blog) is it better to reply in the same post or to email that person directly. Do you check back to the comment section to see if I have responded there? Not sure of the best way to reply...is that clear as mud?

We're Back

Just wanted to let you know we are back and had a great time. I'm too tired to post pictures on my blog, but will try to work that in early this week.

Love,

Alyssa

Labor Day weekend

I did not write yesterday as I really did not do anything exciting except feed and play with Archie. I could not get Kathleen going yesterday, she never did get dressed.

Today was better, although I could not get her going this morning so I went to church myself, it was Pastor Mark’s first service and I was impressed. I finally got Kathleen showered and dressed around 1500 this afternoon. She wanted to go to Wal-Mart and Michael’s, but we only got as far as Wal-Mart and she needed to get home once again.

Today was almost pleasant weather-wise, it did not get as hot as they were predicting and that was a nice surprise. I think it only got to about 85 degrees instead of the 90+ that they were predicting. I will take 85 any day over 90+ weather.

As I have been walking around the back yard the last couple of days it is really crunchy, the hot wind we had a couple of days ago blew a lot of leaves down and it is just like the end of October, except the leaves are usually wet in October.

Well, nothing else exciting to write about today so I will say good night.

Where has the summer gone?

How can this be September already? What happened to June, July and August? This has been a very different summer for me, first my surgery and than Kathleen breaking her arm. I almost got to recover when I had to start taking care of Kathleen. I guess it was a good thing, as it did not allow me to get bored.

She is still having pain in her elbow and wrist, which has not been explained by anything shown in the x-rays. I think that the doctor said that if she was still having this pain this coming Tuesday that she would need to have an MRI. Therefore, she still might be in for a long recovery.

It was really windy here today; it was not the normal cooling wind, but rather a really hot wind coming out of the gorge from eastern Oregon and Washington. This is the weekend and once again the temperature is supposed to be in the 90’s. We have gone from the low 70’s on Wednesday to 90’s this weekend. It is a little hard on the body to adjust to such a swing in temperature, or at least for my body to make the adjustment.

After Kathleen’s physical therapy appointment today, we stopped by the local truck farm just down the street and picked up some corn that I shucked and boiled for dinner tonight. This is just the right time for corn; it is so sweet it is unbelievable!

Well this is another ordinary day in our lives, other than the physical therapy appointment we really did not do much of anything constructive. Tomorrow should be interesting; it is usually the day after physical therapy that Kathleen has the most pain.

Aaron, Tami and the girls are camping at the coast with Tami’s family so I get to take care of Archie again this weekend. It is mostly feeding changing his water and playing fetch with him for a while. He is still pretty much still a puppy…a bigggg puppy, but still just a pup. Reggie is an old dog compared to Archie, Reggie spends a lot of his day sleeping or resting…kind of like his owners!

Have a good night and a great long weekend!

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