Tuesday travels

Tonya has this week off, vacation, and the four of us drove up to Des Moines for lunch at the Machine Shed. Tonya had never been and we'd been talking about it for a while. It seems a silly thing to do but we had fun! And Larry picked up a router and router table for his wood shop at Woodsmith. (Sort of the equal of a majorly wonderful fabric shop!) Arrived back home, still full and tired.

I just finished the book Tree Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One
school at a time. I think this is a life changer for me. I've known for a while that educating girls especially changes a lot of things but I now believe that Mr Mortenson's way it the answer. The one that creates peace on our planet. Not only does he educated girls (boys too but girls are second class persons in many places) but he does it with respect. I highly recommend that you all read it!
You can find out more about Mr Mortenson's work here. You can read what happens when you educate girls at Girl Effect. This has become my charity of choice.

Doctor's reports

In case you didn't hear all the reports from the doctor's here goes. Tuesday, Orthopedics recheck of open wound--nearly closed and very shallow. I am to place apiece of bandage so as to hold the sides of the skin apart, I was concerned about an infection developing there but this bit of gauze seems to be working. Wednesday, Primary care, general update, renewal of meds etc. Did not renew Diabetes meds we're to resume if the blood sugars are above 300. He thought the memory thing might just be overload. Thursday, Oncology, the x-rays taken that day clearly show two lesions in the very bottom of the right (I think) lung. Dr Allen said they were not clinically significant because of their location. He did not want to begin chemo again since that weakens the immune system and Larry's immune system is what is holding the tumors back. Come back in three months. He did order a ct scan of his head in case there is a problem with his brain causing the memory deal. The California kids went to the oncology appointment with us, they wanted to meet the doctor and had some very good questions, Dr Allen is very good at taking time to answer questions. It's harder for them, I think, since they don't see Larry very often. We were all pleased with these results as we were expecting bad news!

Another Sunday?

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I blogged! I usually do better than that. We were in Columbia from Thursday until today for Scott's Master's graduation and I didn't seem to have time in the trailer to blog. Truth be told I was hardly IN the trailer there was so much going on. We met Scott's fiancees parents for the first time, he is fortunate in his future in-laws! Spent some time with Larry's Family. There was a terrible thunderstorm (the kind that sometimes bring tornadoes) on Friday evening, rained very hard for several hours and our daughter was driving down with her family during the worst of it. She saw a storm spotter stopped and taking photos of the clouds so she told her boys she had to "get out of here." This was only the final thing which went wrong for them that day but I'll let her tell it on her blog. Then we also dealt with some wedding details for August, I still have to finalize the rehearsal dinner and find a dress. (Or maybe I could just rent a tux? the guys did.)

The California Kids have been here this week as well and we always love having them. They have slept a lot as well--time zones reek havoc with sleep patterns! I always have that problem when we go to San Diego. They will be going home tomorrow and we will go back to missing them!

I spent a lot of time last week re-arranging rooms and cleaning up, am still not finished with that. The basement (and my sewing/research area) is a disaster until we clean the garage and move the second Cohrt cabinet into the laundry room. I often despair of making this house work for us but each time I re-arrange I either give away more stuff or I become brilliant and think of some way that makes it better.

The bunnies have left the nest so as soon as it dries out I will plant more beans and whatever else. I'm sure there will be weeds as well, it seems there always is.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there!

I have spent several hours outside the last two days, turning over the veggie beds (no more talking worms) and planting. I think I have finished the planting; petunias and seeds went in yesterday, tomatoes and seeds today. Pulled most of the weeds from the flower gardens and raked a few leaves in the "ditch." I'm planting the wildflower seeds I bought in Texas in the "ditch" hoping they will take the place of leaves for keeping the run-off from digging the ditch deeper. I also hope they eventually take over the hill there so we don't have to mow as it's quite steep and slippery (especially when there are a million tiny acorns on the ground!)

We've cleared out the extra room and will move the sofa in tonight or tomorrow and I will get it ready for the California Fines on Wednesday. I will use that room for hand work and Larry might use it some for watching ball games if I am busy in the basement. Brayden loses his "room" at Grannas but he really likes to play in the living room anyway--more space.

Not much in the way of stitching going on, I've been tired from gardening and shopping the last few evenings. Tonight we're having Mom's day here with the available children, surf and turf. Yum-m-m-m!

This will be a busy week for us, Larry has appointments with various MD's on Tues, Wed, and Thurs, the new sofa and freezer are being delivered on Tues. the California kids arrive on Wed. night-late. After appointments on Thur we're taking the trailer and heading for Columbia as Scott walks for his Masters Degree Friday night. We have some wedding related things to do while we're there as well.

Talking worms

I have been doing a little bit of gardening the last few days and today I went out to turn my veggie boxes in the hope that they will dry out some day soon. I had turned over the first two and was halfway through the third (I only have 3 at the moment) when I heard "chirp, chirp, chirp" a very panicked sound. Now I'd been admiring all the worms I'd been turning over with the dirt as when I first dug here we had no worms at all. In my strange thought pattern when doing repetitive tasks I thought of the movie "Seven Years in Tibet" and the segment where Brad Pitt's character is trying to dig footings and the laborers are complaining that he is killing worms. This got me thinking about the Dali Lama (whom I would really like to meet) and how he heard chickens asking to be set free. Just at that point it's "Cheep, cheep, cheep." After I looked for birds and discovered the sound coming from beneath my feet I swear for a moment I thought the worms were talking to me! When reason returned I discovered a rabbits nest with four tiny babies! I stopped digging. I haven't seen the Mama back out there so I don't know if they will live but at least I didn't dig them up. Howerver, I did tell Tanya that I would NOT be bottle feeding baby rabbits! Hope you have all enjoyed a good laugh!

Monday at the VA

We spent the biggest part of today at the VA seeing Doctors having tests etc. Larry right leg became swollen and red. Around the tiny open wound and from the foot to his knee. I didn't like the looks of it so I took him to Urgent care. Trips to Urgent Care are always long, wait-filled days and this one was no exception. We arrived at the hospital at 9:30am and returned home about 4:30 in between we saw the Urgent Care triage nurse, Blue clinic's triage nurse, had blood work, had an ultrasound, stopped at the Anti-coagulation clinic to check on Coumidin levels (too low) went to Compensation and Pension, Finally saw the Dr at 3pm, then went to Prostetics for compression sock, the Pharmacy Techs to set up Keflex, back to anti-coagulation to change meds(due to Keflex) then back to Comp and Pen for a review of his 100% status, then back to Pharmacy to collect his script. All that for a diagnosis of Cellulitis-he got a shot, the meds, and sock and is to keep his leg up alot. He has appointments next week on Tuesday, Wednsday and Thursday so it'll be checked over then, probably all three times. He continues to have memory like swiss cheese, once this cellulitis is under control then they investigate this recent loss of memory. I'll just keep talking to doctors until one of them does some investigation, it's possible that he's had some "mini" strokes or maybe he's just so preoccupied things don't register.

Needless to say, I accomplished nothing on my agenda for today. The rest of the week I have to play catch up and we are going to Nebraska furniture mart in the morning if Larry feels up to it. Then I will have to clear out the extra room. I do manage to keep busy!

I'm really looking forward to having all my children together on the 15th for Scott's Master's graduation!

Flower buying day

Today was the plant sale on the Independence Square. I usually go so I thought I'd get my tomato plants there. Wrong. Well, I got two Amish paste tomatos, one luffa plant and a lavender to replace one that died last year. Not much. So then I went to Kmart and got my pursilane for the pots in front. THEN, I went to Farrands garden center and oh boy did I get plants. Tomatoes, 4 each of Rutgers and Brandywine, more loofas, non-stop begonias for the pots and plants for the teacup on the deck plus four gallon containers of shade lovers for the front garden, as I am tired of all the bare spots. That will do my plant purchases for this year! I could buy more, of course, but I won't. Well maybe a couple of little pots. Now I will have to plant them but I have to wait for it to dry out.

Today is my oldest son's birthday--he's thirty-two, ohboy he's getting old! Which makes me ancient! Happy Birthday Steve!