Home again, home again

Jiggety jig.

Well my brother went West, and Alan and I went East. I left him and his wife this morning for our trek home. He was heading West to spend a few days with his daughter, Lori.

I'm glad to be home, and I have to say that my brother is a very busy pastor and even though he was attending the Israeli conference this week (Friends of Israel) down at Grace Theological Seminary, he still had a full-slate as far as his pastoral duties were concerned. It seemed like he was always counseling someone, or a couple, or off to the hospital to visit someone who was sick. He was never still, and he was definitely in pain the whole week. Add to that the fact that Sue, his wife, has no feeling in her right side, so he has to do a lot of things for her as well.

I was amazed at how much Sue can do, though. She does so much with just one hand. She sits in her wheelchair, and cooks, does the dishes, and boy, don't interfere with her when she's in her kitchen. I tried to do the dishes and she almost, but not quite, became violent that I wouldn't let her do them. She said, she NEEDS to do the dishes, and she NEEDS to cook because there's so little she can do, and she NEEDS that little bit of independence. She has so little of it. Also, there is the problem of understanding her when she talks. But by the end of the week I was able to understand her pretty well. She is so sweet and never complains about anything. She just always smiles. And, she laughs a lot!

As I mentioned pain does things to a person's personality. Mark in general is very convivial, but this week he wasn't and I know it was due to the pain he was in. He's off to spend a few days away from the church and is in "hiding" so to speak so that he can get some much needed R&R.

I know he put out extra to get Alan to the conference sessions he (my brother) couldn't attend, and drove 45 minutes each way to get Alan there, then come back to the church, then head back out again, and bring Alan back to his home. I guess I could have driven him, but I wasn't attending the seminar, and my brother was. Mark had invited Alan, and I think Alan needed that "man" time with Mark and time to discuss what they had heard at the various sessions.

So, now we're back home. My house is still in tact, and as dirty as it was when I left it. I had tried to get at least the bathrooms cleaned up, but I neglected the kitchen floor. It really needs a scrubbing.

Tomorrow I shall go to the farmer's market and get a supply of fresh fruits and veggies.



Regarding broccoli: We did not have broccoli the whole week we were at my brother's -- he hates it, his wife, Sue, loves it. But when we went out to Bob Evans last night, both Sue and I had broccoli, so he (my brother) was surrounded by it. It have to say, Bob Evans does cook broccoli just right -- not over done, not raw.


So, folks, I'm back and will be posting more "old" pictures in the upcoming weeks (on Runnemede Remembered). Mark reminded me of several events from our childhood in Runnemede, which if I've written about them before, I'll reprise them (bring them to the front). And if I haven't told the tales we laughed over, I'll write them up.



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My brother

My brother is strange. There's no other way to put it. I love my brother very much, but he is strange. I guess he is emulating his father, who is also my father. The older he gets the more like my idiosyncratic father he becomes.



He is in pain today. His sciatic nerve is acting up. What is it with us Drexler kids? We all have this sciatic nerve problem. He's hobbling so badly today, poor guy. He even canceled a golf date he had for tomorrow. Believe me, I know how awful he is feeling. I pray it clears up.



We're in Indiana today visiting with him and his wife, Sue. Sue is so sweet, like my mom. Maybe that's why we all agree that my father liked her best. He could always hear Sue -- he could never hear us unless we shouted. But I think that was all a ploy to irritate us. He was such a curmudgeon. He definitely had "selective" hearing. He play that game with my mother, either. Just me and his grandchildren.



So, we're here in Indiana and Mark had to go over to the church to do something, even though Monday is supposed to be his day off. I wonder if he would be doing as much as he does if he didn't live 10 feet from the front door of the church. The parsonage is almost attached via the patio. I mean it's down the ramp and into the church. Maybe I should take a picture. Nah! Too much trouble.



So, we're just vegging (me and Sue), Alan is asleep in a recliner, worn out from the morning session of the Israel My Glory conference he attended. I checked his chest is going up and down so I know he's alive, I just can't seem to wake him up, so I'll let him sleep.



That's about it from my part of the world. I drove up here with no problems, and except for lack of sleep, I'm fine.



I'll try to report in again before we get back home.



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Another rainy day

For those of you in Texas, we here in the Ohio Valley have had rain for two days now. I'm told we've had almost 2 inches of rain in that time. Everything is so very green. And what is that I smell? Mold? I certainly hope not.

So, today I'm doing laundry -- I'm washing all the bed spreads. Then, I'll get all of Alan's cloting washed and get him packed for the Isreal My Glory conference he's attending next week.

Yesterday, Alan and I went and had our hair cut. We're now using the same hair stylist. I style Alan's hair, she cuts. She styles and cuts my hair. Her name? Melissa. Melissa is a friend -- long time -- of my daughter, Cyndi's. They've been friends since they were little children, through church. Lissa's mom is my best friend. We homeschooled at the same time. Now, Melissa is doing hair -- has been for years -- but I've just switched to her for a couple of reasons. My former stylist is over in Ohio and I'm at the point where I now am not wanting to go over there to get my hair worked on. Melissa is just up the street, maybe 1/4 mile away. I could, if I had to, use the scooter to go to her shop. Also, Melissa knows our physical situation and is able to come to the house if necessary to cut our hair.

So, I went and had my hair cut and styled yesterday. Since it was a slow day for Lissa (she calls me Mrs. H and I call her Lissa) having had three people cancel on her, she wondered if I minded if she played around with my hair. I said, I really didn't care. At this point I don't care what my hair looks like just so it looks like I ran a comb through it. Well, she decided to straighten it using one of those straightening thingys. Wow! I've never in my 66 years had straight hair. My hair was so straight. I looked at it, swung it because it's long now, and it was a whole inch longer than when it's curly, and I have to say it took some getting used to.

Short story -- I didn't get used to it. Today when I washed it, I didn't straighten it again, I let it go natural, which is curly. The cut is a good one because the front is curly enough so that if I pull the back part into a pony tail or put it in a bun it looks like I have a short hair cut -- the way it had looked for about 30 years. This long hair is new for me. I think I've just about had it with the longer length, though.

My sister can have long hair and it looks great on her. I have long hair and it looks like I'm wearing an ill-fitting wig! What can I say?

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A little relief

This is about The Pain Clinic and what effect the "treatments" have had on me to date.

First of all the TENS unit. I didn't see any significant relief after using that for two weeks. But I did see bruises wherever I attached the electrodes for the stimulus. I didn't put the shocks on very high, just enough to get a buzz, so to speak, but I am bruised all over my legs near my knees anyway.

Second, the patches that were prescribed have been working very well. There has been amazing help in my back on the very few occasions I've had to use them since I started that treatment. And I've been using them on my knees. I've noticed a bit of improvement. Yesterday morning, for example, there was little pain in either knee, and I was able to get quite a bit accomplished around the house. I had put the patches on around 1 a.m. so they had all night to get into my nerve system and work.

I didn't put the patches on last night, deciding rather to put them on this morning. Of course, I could hardly walk when I got out of bed. If you haven't seen the movie "UP" you should. The little old man was feeling my pain, or vice versa. Anyway, I put the patches on this morning at 10 a.m. and now it's a little after 12 p.m. and they seem to be doing their thing. At least the left knee is pain-free and the right knee is bearing up pretty well.

So, I'm thankful for the relief I've gotten. I am going to see the doctor on August 11 and he will either keep me on the patches, or give me a cortisone shot, or dismiss me. Whatever he does I'll accept. I like my family physician better anyway. She, at least spends time with me and listens to me. Dr. Atluri seems too interested in getting info to and from his computer and seems to be only half there when I talk to him. I don't like that at all. When I hurt I want the full attention (and sympathy) of the doctor. I'm not making up the pain and I've lived with it for years. It's getting so much worse and short of amputation, there isn't much that can be done.

I know this is maudlin, but I needed to get it down in print so that when I look back on these times some day five years from now, I'll remember what it was like to be in pain which I thought was unbearable and which was (1) either the worst, or (2) the best of the amount of pain to be endured.

How did the Apostle Paul do it? Give thanks for everything (including pain?) for this is the will of God concerning me. I must remind myself constantly that I am His child and He has my best interest at heart. He (God) loves me and doesn't want me to suffer. So, I shall not suffer but be grateful for His love and protection over me.

Speaking of which (Protection) -- after praying through the night a couple of days ago, Cyndi and Shandon got home without any mishaps. They drove through the night from southeast Florida to N. KY, about a 16-hour drive. Thank you Lord for bringing them home safely. Amen.

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Ho-hum

I don't know where today went. I got up at a reasonable hour -- before 10 a.m. I took my meds and waited for them to kick in. Well, that was a waste of time because even after they kicked in I still could barely walk. But hobble around I did.

I did the weekly "bleach" load of laundry and dried it in layers because I had a small spread in there and that tends to gobble up all the other clothes in the dryer and it ends up in a ball that has the outside dry and the inside wet. So, I tried a different trick this time. I dried the spread by itself, and it dried completely through. Then I dried the sheets alone. They dried all the way through and didn't ball up. Then I dried the rest of the whites that wouldn't end up in balls and all of that laundry is folded and ready to be put away. Today was the fourth load of laundry I've done since I got home from my sister's.

Then I cleaned up the kitchen (again). It seems I clean that place two or three times a day even though we don't particularly mess it up that often. I don't' know; one thing out of place and I need to clean the whole thing again.

The TastyKakes arrived today! Butterscotch are my favorite and peanut butter tandys are Alan's. So, for dessert tonight we had a TastyKake. At least I didn't' have to make anything for dessert.

What with the fresh veggies I'm getting at the various farmers markets we're eating like king and queen. The food is so very good. I bought a boatload of peaches in NC and we're really enjoying them. So far they're not ready to be sent to the jelly pot. The jelly pot is ready to receive them, though.

Interesting about the peaches I bought in NC. I was talking to one of the farmers yesterday and he told me he was trying to get peaches when he was in Alabama, but they wanted to charge him $6 just for the basket, and then another $20 on top of that for the peaches. Well, he knew no one up here would pay as much as he would need to ask to recoup his cost, so he didn't get any. I told him to go to NC. I bought a peck of peaches, 10 pounds of tomatoes, 1 dozen lemons (four of which turned on me before I got home), and 2 avocados for $18. I couldn't believe how little I had paid. So, he said he might head out to Cana, VA (just north of Mt. Airy) and get some peaches to resell to the folks that stop by his truck. He has to put a sign on them saying they're not from KY. KY peaches aren't in yet. But tomatoes are. Corn is. And boy oh boy is it good. No sugar added, little salt needed, no butter required, just good as it is. And cantaloupe? Well, Indiana melons have long been my favorites and we're pigging out right now on them.

So, the day went by. I made a delicious dinner with all those veggies I purchased yesterday and a couple of pork chops. And then I went back and watched "So you think you can dance". Mindless time waster. But sometimes I need mindless time wasting.

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What a great trip!

I went to North Carolina to visit my sister and then on the way back home went to visit my cousin Betty B. These are the few pictures I took. I just didn't think about picture taking. My sis and I talked too much or shopped too much. Well, I shopped, she went along for the ride!
This first picture is my dear cousin Betty, and I realize that these pictures are in the reverse order, but that can't be helped.

Betty and I didn't hook up until about five years ago, after a 35-year hiatus. We just lost touch, but I saw the announcement of the passing of her brother Dan (also my cousin, of course) and it listed her as a survivor and gave the town in which she lived. I was able through a round-about means to find her and from there it's been a wonderful time for me and her each time we reconnect.

I really want to go to Italy and I have tentatively planned that the year 2010 is the year. Well, Betty wants to go also, and so we're planning on going together along with Deb, if she can manage it. Alan isn't going to go (at this point) on this trip. Well, as you all know I have difficulty walking. And it gets worse as each day passes. I have relapses and can walk pretty well for a few hours at a time, but I never know when these "relapses" will occur. So, as I walked into her home the first thing she said to me was: "Girl, how are we going to go to Italy next year with you hobblin' like that." I had to laugh and said, "We're going, and that's all there is to it." Fortunately, I have several friends who have offered to accompany me and act as a "nurse".

Now, back to North Carolina. On Friday, Deb and I spent the entire day in the car or at people's homes or shopping. This is a picture of Levi, my niece's (Jennie is her name) son. What a remarkable young man. So bright, so well versed, so able to talk to adults and keep them interested in what he is saying. Give him a slide rule he has never seen before and he can figure it out. I was very impressed. Good job, Jen.

Here we have Deb and Cody (I hope I spelled that correctly), Jen's daughter. Another bright, intelligent, and so well-versed in the Bible. I was amazed when she just picked up the scriptures and started reading something that was so indicative of the times in which we are living today. We were talking about something going on in the world, and she just went to the Bible and went through it and read it and then brought it into today's world. Amazing.

Deb and I went out to Jen's place for a short visit and I have to say that I was amazed by Jen's children and how well they interacted with the adults. Most teens would have disappeared when a doddering elderly lady came for a visit with their mom. But I have to admit that I spent more time with these two young people than I did my niece. Which was okay because I thoroughly enjoyed talking with them.

This is Cody alone. She always sits like this, no matter where she sits -- very erect. She told me her papa told her to sit like that when she was little, and she always has (according to my sister). Her dad said she wouldn't get back problems like he has if she would sit up straight. So, she does. No slouching for this one. Levi? Well, that's another story. He sits like a typical teenager. You have to love that.

Oops, I end with Betty, again. And y'all will just have to get over the fact that I downloaded her picture twice. It doesn't have anything to do with having a better time with her than my sis, which isn't the case, because I had a great time with my sis, and a longer time with her. Don't know why I did this, but I did. Bett still looks the same, just a little older. Anyone seeing her now and knowing her when she was in her late 20s would certainly recognize her. She hasn't gained a pound, I don't believe, in fact, she's probably down a few.

I realize what I did with the extra picture of Betty. I thought I had downloaded a picture of Jen, but I hadn't. So I'm going to try to download a picture of her and see what happens. Well after 10 minutes of trying to download another picture, I can't get Blogspot to connect to the picture downloading thingy, so you just won't get to see my beautiful niece. Sorry 'bout that.

So that's it (almost) for this edition of The Fat Lady Singeth. Family pictures are for family, but I hope you others (you know who you are) were able to enjoy a little of my family trip.

I certainly enjoyed the trip and am thankful that Alan let me go and that he was able to manage without me for a few days. The bad part for him was that he had to give himself his own shots. Yuck. I would never be able to push a needle into my body. I recall in college we had to type our own blood, using one of those finger piercers. I nearly flunked the course because I couldn't inflict that pain on myself. I finally got a friend to do it for me. And regarding Alan, I left him with plenty of food and casseroles and extra coffee in the fridge which he could just zap.

So, it's 9:30 on Tuesday morning and I'm off to do the things that I need to do, like laundry.

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I missed you

Isn't it great to be gone for 6 days and return home and the first words you hear are "I missed you, honey." I nearly dropped dead from shock when my dear husband called me honey, and then added before that he missed me. I missed him, too. Really I did. I wouldn't have called him every day if I hadn't. The first time I typed this I typed "dead husband" instead of "dear husband." I couldn't stop laughing, and Alan laughed as well.

While I was gone he got into a little bit of trouble. I called on Saturday and the first thing he said to me was that he had painted the garage floor. I told him that was nice because I knew exactly what had happened. He knocked over a can of paint -- paint which I've been after him to get rid of for several years -- and the only way to get it all up was, after pushing it into a dustpan for an hour with a brush, was to spread it out to thin it. I guess it didn't occur to him that it was water based paint and he could have borrowed a hose from someone and washed it out of the garage into the sewer down at the end of the street. Maybe the neighbors wouldn't have liked that.

So, the floor, or rather part of the floor of our garage is a beautiful shade of taupe to match the stairwell in our home. Me-o-my!

The TastyKakes still haven't arrived. That was the second thing Alan told me. Well, they didn't send them out until today because they didn't want them sitting in a hot truck or warehouse over the weekend. They'll be here on Wednesday. I'm tracking them. Alan doesn't know how to do that.

Let's see, what else.

Well, I had an absolutely marvelous time with my sister, Deb, and then my cousin, Betty. Pictures to follow. I spent a most wonderful afternoon with my niece Jen and her children. What amazing children she has. I can't recall a time when I've enjoyed spending time with teenagers more than I did with her two. Sorry we missed her hubby. We left just before he got home. We did wait, but it was getting late, so we went back to my sister's. We needed to get dinner ready for the men of her house.

I'll post more about my trip and other things when I get some rest. I drove home from Bristol, Tennssee today and it took me longer than I expected. No traffic problems, though, and I thank God for that. Not even a slow down in or near Knoxville, which was a pleasant surprise, and no construction delays along the way, so all-in-all, it was a good trip.

Broccoli wars are going strong. Is there no one out there who likes broccoli? You don't have to love it, just like it. I'm sorry I'm not rich enough to provide T-shirts like the competition, nor do I have the mobility to get to a store to get them made up (if I had the money), so you get nothing for admitting that you like broccoli, just my undying gratitude for admitting to the "heinous crime" as my niece, Lori puts it.

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Going out of town for a visit

I'm leaving in a couple of days for a longer visit with my sister. It may be four days it may be six days, I'm not sure yet. I guess it depends on when we get tired of each other's company!

Alan isn't going with me. He's going to be staying home alone, and I will leave him a list of recipes and food he can have out of the fridge and pantry. I don't want to come home and find out that all the food I ordered for the next two weeks (tomorrow is my personal shopper's day to shop for me) is all gone. I know the veggies are safe!

So, I'm getting ready for that trip and I'm getting ready for my monthly scrap booking event down at the Clubhouse tonight. Therefore, I'm really busy. Alan has ordered me to NOT do anything on Tuesday when my cleaner/personal shopper does her thing. He wants me to sit in my chair all day and do crosswords or read. Yeah, right. He thinks if I do that I'll be in better "health" to drive down to Mt. Airy, NC. If I don't move around, though, I'll atrophy, which isn't good.

Right now the back is being taken care of perfectly. I had a bad ache last night. Slathered on a patch (slather is my new favorite word!) and in 15 minutes I was pain free. Wow! The left knee is doing good. The right knee is the right knee and it's shot, so I'm still limping, but I can get around with a cane rather than the walker if I want to. Since my walker has a shelf as part of it, I find I use it to carry things from one room to the other, etc.

As I said, I'm really busy right now, and won't be writing much more. Every time I announce no more writing, I think of things I need to post right away. No notes that get lost for me. Oh, no. I tried that -- writing lists of things I wanted to write about -- but that only helped me with titles, not content. So I have to get things off my chest right away or they are lost in my memory bank until who knows when.

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How cool is this?

Laying in bed and watching a great, one-hour fire-works display put on by your own small American town, a day late, but a dry day. It was so nice and I didn't realize that laying in bed I would be able to see the whole thing out our window. It was, well, great! And the last banger was just like something from Riverfest. I loved it. Did I mention that it was GREAT?

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Slides

I know you younguns' don't have a clue as to what slides are but here goes.

Today my husband and I were discussing pictures and duplicating them, etc. The subject came up because he wants to scan into the computer, pictures of antique cars he's collected over the years. I reminded him that the reason we bought the scanner was so that HE could scan in the slides and make them into pictures. But his technology brain has died and no longer works like it once did. So, that leaves it up to me.

What are slides? Slides are teeny, tiny pictures that go into a projector and you flash these pictures on a wall or screen made for showing the slides upon, thus enlarging them. Not at all like today's easy-to-look-at pictures on the computer. So I understand why he wants them on his computer. It's so easy to file them into categories now days and you have a thumbnail to pull up to view. Let's put it this way, slides are hard copies of pictures, sort of. Pictures are those things that are made from slides or negatives. Well, they used to be made from negatives.

I was thinking about that last night. It is so much cheaper now to make and print a picture than it used to be. No film to buy, just a reusable memory card for the camera. Then you download them to a CD or your computer, and tell the computer to print the picture and you don't have to wait weeks for the picture to be returned from the picture processing plant. So nice! Even when I was growing up pictures in black and white (we didn't have color yet) cost me 15 cents a piece. A roll of film held anywhere between 12 and 36 pictures. I opted for the 12-picture roll because I could afford it after saving for a couple of weeks. I would have to save up $1.80, a lot of money when your allowance was 25 cents a week!

Anyway, I looked at the number of slides Alan wants copied, and I told him I would die before I ever finished scanning them in. There has to be at least 10,000 slides and at one slide a minute, then cropping time, it will take me through eternity to get it done.

So I told him to write on my tombstone: She didn't finish her work on earth -- getting the slides scanned!

Here I am panicking about pictures that I don't remember taking or seeing -- we rarely viewed all the slides we took. It was too much trouble to get out the slide projector, the containers to put the slides into so the projector would receive them, and then get out the screen to view the pictures upon. We had a mini-viewer which was 3 inches by 3 inches, lit from behind so you could view the picture. Sort of like what you see in your view screen on your digital camera.

Will I ever get the slides scanned in? I don't know. I would like to get our wedding and honeymoon slides scanned in, and the slides of my children when they were little. But I don't even know where to find them.

You see, none of the 50 boxes of slides is labeled!!!! Not one. And the only way I'm going to find out where the slides I want are is to go through each box one by one. Each box has a minimum of 100 slides and a maximum of 500.

So, joking aside, I think I need some heavy prayer to get this project completed. And I'm serious about this. It would make Alan very happy to have the slides duplicated.

Me, too! I guess it's sort of like my friend, Stacia's free range chickens so she can get eggs. We're still waiting for the eggs.


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I really didn't forget

I spent a day, well a half-day, with Amy, Matthew, and Rachel on Wednesday. They came over in the morning and the children played with toys while Amy and I talked. I love talking with Amy. We have a lot in common -- besides my son, Phil -- and right now I'm feeling her angst and pain with Phil being out of work. How I wish I could employ him for the rest of his working life, but, of course, I can't. I don't have a business that would support him and his family. In fact, I don't have a business, so that wouldn't work.

But back to Wednesday. The children played very well. Matthew flitted like a hummingbird from toy to toy to the back porch to the sofa to the toys to the chairs where his mom and I were sitting. He had no potty accidents (yeah!) and he was all in all a good kid. He's just more active than I or any of my children have ever been. I'm just not used to that.

Rachel sat down for a while and colored some pages in one of the many coloring books I have for the children. She is really good at staying in the lines and has a good sense of color. She made me a couple more pages for my "grandchildren's art work" albums.

I made lunch a little after noon -- grilled cheese sandwiches with chips. Matthew wanted more chips right away. Bribery!!!! I love it. I told him if he ate one of his little sandwiches he could have more chips. He shoved the whole quarter of the big sandwich in his mouth and was chewed it up and swallowed it, and was ready for more chips. We went through this three more times. But he ate the whole sandwich. So did Rachel, but she didn't have to be bribed with more chips.

About 1 o'clock it was time to leave for the theater. We went to see "UP". I didn't know it wasn't for four-year-olds, and I sat next to Rachel and she seemed absorbed for most of the time. After the movie was over, their play date with Memom and Pop-pop was over and they went their way and we went ours.

All in all, I'm glad I had the chance to spend some time with Matthew and Rachel. It's usually Rosie who comes to visit me, which is great, but I do need to get to meet more often with the other children as well. Thanks Amy for letting me have a date with the grands!

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Another birthday

Adam is in the middle. He is surrounded by his cousin, Strephan, and his brother, Jonah. This was taken Christmas 2007.

Well, two more birthdays, actually. My oldest daughter, Becky, had a birthday on June 30 and I didn't mention it last post. It wasn't that I forgot it, I didn't. She got her gift via US Mail via Target. She'll like that. The orders are that she MUST spend it on herself, not her children, not her husband, not her house. Herself.

And today is the "another" birthday. It's Adam's birthday today. (picture posted)

Adam has always been quiet and introspective, at least that's how I see him. But I have also seem him vibrant, alive, and noisy. When he was little he would frown a lot, then smile at you. And he has such a nice smile.

People tell me he looks like his grandfather, Alan. I think he looks like his grandfather, Ray. Doesn't matter, he's cute not matter whom he resembles. He's got such pretty eyes. And when he grins the smile reaches all the way to his eyes.

Today he's in Florida enjoying another day at the beach. All his birthday gifts from his family were taken with them and hidden until he could enjoy them today, but I think he actually got to unwrap them yesterday because it was raining, and a rainy day at the beach isn't too much fun. So unwrapping lots of toys must have been a blast for my dear Adam.

How old is he? Well......I'm not sure, but I think he's 9 years old. I know he was a baby when I had a stroke back in 2001 -- almost one year old. I know this because when I had that stroke I didn't recall that Cyndi had birthed another child, name Adam. But when I did remember, I was glad because I really do like Adam a lot.

He hugs me goodbye without being prompted to do that. I wonder how long that action will last. Hopefully the rest of my life. He knows to hug gently because of the fibromyalgia, but that's okay. A hug is a hug, and gentle ones are the best for me.

Happy birthday Adam (and past-due to Becky).

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