Happy Tuesday! It’s a beautiful day. I wouldn’t want to stay outside in my swim trunks very long since it is 53 degrees, but a fellow could walk to the mailbox and back and be almost comfortable. The sun is shining and the birds are having a big breakfast and or brunch at the Backyard Buffet. 

Kate and I basically “have the day off” which means no doctor’s appointments today or other places we have to go. I could go to my Neighborhood Walmart and do some grocery shopping but I need to put together my list first. I’m seeing some things that I need to put on the list for sure. I’m making a pot of vegetable soup this morning and I don’t have any barley to put in it. I also used most of my Beef Broth. And of course, the milk is running low and I need some other everyday items. It shouldn’t take me very long except that it is Christmas season so people will be doing their early Christmas meal planning and shopping. Kate and I haven’t even thought about that since it will just be her and me. Maybe we’ll sleep late that day and I’ll make some pancakes for brunch. No need to get up early because I’ve have had permanent residency on Santa’s naughty list for decades now. LOL. 

Kate had her cardiac therapy again yesterday and did well. It was luring like crazy when we got there so I dropped her off and went and parked and waited for her to call me and then went back and picked her up. The place was an absolute zoo yesterday because of the rain, and because it was a Monday. Monday through Wednesday are the worst days to go to the hospital for anything. Parking is always at a minimum no matter which hospital you go to. Tomorrow morning she goes again and we are projected to have rain again. Yuks. 

Today seemed like a good day to make vegetable soup so I have a pot going. We’ll have it for our early supper. I fixed biscuits and eggs around 11:00 this morning so that will hold us until maybe 4:00 so so, maybe later. I really like to make vegetable soup and have learned how to do it pretty well. I had a great teacher (Kate) who also had a great teacher, (her mama). But it has gotten a lot easier these days as opposed to the day when my mother in law had to cook up meat and make her own broth. But, I have had to make some changes now that Kate has to really watch her sodium levels. I used to just use “Vegall” but now I uses strictly fresh or frozen vegetables, and low sodium V-8 juice and low sodium broth when I have it. It tastes just as good and I can add salt to my bowls if I want to. 

That’s it for today. I hope your day and your week is blessed. I hope you share the blessings a a new born Savior with everyone you know. Peace. 

 Wednesday, December 11th, the month is going by quickly. I suspect that 10 year old me would think that the month was creeping by and that Christmas is a loooooong way off. But 80 year old me thinks that the days seem to pass pretty quickly. Blame Santa Claus because it makes a difference whether you are waiting for Santa Claus or you ARE Santa Claus. 

We have started this week off in good stead. Ms. Kate is feeling so much better. I think she is about 99% over the bronchitis with only a little of the lingering cough remaining. And, she has officially started on the Cardiac Rehab program. She went Monday and again today and we go back again on Friday. It does give  some sore muscles but that is to be expected. She makes it through what they want her to do in the class pretty well. Monday she had a followup appointment with her cardiac NP and got a good report from them. I think we can measure her progress by the fact that she has no medical appointments for the rest of the month except for the rehab three days a week. We give God all glory for her progress. 

Did I tell you that I got into a cookie making mood? I made chocolate chip, Springerlies, and snickerdoodle cookies and then while I was at it I made a pumpkin pie. The pie is all gone by now of course so I have to think about what I want to do next. I’d really like to make a good Coconut Creme pie but I don’t think I’m quite ready to jump on that horse. But, I love a good coconut Creme pie. I have found that there are a lot of places that make them but some of them are wonderful and others are just; meh”!

My bird feeders are empty and I really need to get out there and fill them. I put in an order with Wild Birds Unlimited this morning for $170.00.  That was for only seven items. I can’t believe how much more it costs me to feed these guys, but then I can’t believe what it costs me to feed Kate and me these days either. If I would just put out the sun flower seeds it would provide them food, but they really flock to all of the different varieties that I buy. I also have to get hold of an electrician to replace the outlet on the back patio. I’ve studied how to do it but I just can get down to do it because it is so low and I would have to lay down on the concrete to do it. That ain’t happening. Until then. The birds will have to deal with the fact that they won’t have unfrozen water at times. 

That’s it for this Wednesday. Have a wonderful rest of your week. Peace. 

 When winter got here, it came in with a bang. Starting Saturday afternoon, we received 3 inches of the white stuff. But, I have to say it was really beautiful looking around here on Sunday morning. And it was a “convenient snow”, meaning it didn’t stick on the roads or sidewalks. By Sunday afternoon much of it had melted. But it is snowing (flurries) again right now. Our weather forecaster said that we officially received the three inches which is more than we received the entire winter season last year. But forecasters are all saying this will be a colder and wetter winter and to watch out for January. 

Nothing ever stays calm or routine health wise around here. Last Tuesday, Ms. Kate went for her introduction to her cardiac rehabilitation. That evening she started coming down with some kind of cold/flu-like symptoms. Well, it has continued to develop. It has developed into serious coughing spells that literally get her to the point that she can’t breathe. This morning we took her for her first actual rehab session and they sent her right back home and told her to call her doctor because they were hearing wheezing in her lungs and she still has a cough. She called Dr. Jackson’s office and now she has an appointment to see the NP at 3:10 today. I will not be surprised if they send her to Deaconess for admission with pneumonia. Hopefully though, they will be able to put her on some kind of antibiotic but she is allergic to so many of them. So, we will see what happens. There is a lot of crap going around the community. Church was half empty yesterday because of it. 

Can you believe it is December 2nd? This year will be gone in 29 days and it will be 2025. Christmas is going to be so weird this year. Christmas Day and New Years Day both fall in the middle of the week. Julie and Jim have to work the day before and the day after each of those days so they will not be coming over. It will just be Ms. Kate and I. We have the tree up but no decorations on it. It’s going to be a “bah- hum-bug” Christmas. Kate and I could maybe think of doing something on our own but with her health, planning ahead is not much of an option. But, I won’t grouse or complain. Life is what it is and we are both still so very blessed. 

That’s it for today. Have a wonderful week. Peace. 

 Happy Thanksgiving, 2024. It was 41 degrees when we got up and the temperature has now dropped to 37. The sky is overcast and grey, and the neighborhood is without water due to a water main break somewhere around us. It’s not exactly how we had hoped the day would start. 

Also, Ms. Kate is under the weather still today. She came down with a cold on Tuesday afternoon. She spent the day in yesterday and feels some better this morning. But, she will not be going with us to her sister’s house for lunch today. I don’t think she is contagious but she doesn’t want to share. 

Julie came over from New Albany last evening. Unfortunately she had a flat tire on the way. She called USAA Roadside Assistance and they found someone to come fix it for her in about an hour. So it has been an eventful couple of days. I guess tomorrow we will try to either find her a tire or hopefully just get it fixed. Probably not the kind of Black Friday shopping she was hoping for. 

Tomorrow we plan to cook our Thanksgiving turkey and all the fixin’s. It will just be the three of us so I anticipate many leftover. We’ll send some home with Julie so she can share with Jim who is home dog-sitting. That’s about it for today. Have a blessed day. Be thankful for all God has provided. Peace. 

 Monday, Nov 25th. Welcome to Thanksgiving week. I hope you had a wonderful weekend; — we did. We didn’t do much other normal home chores like laundry and some shopping. Last Friday we met with Brenda and celebrated her 70th birthday. Andy didn’t come because he is busy laying field tile on the farm. We went to church Sunday, then out to Nellie’s North for lunch. Came home and and tested out the recliners. I’m glad to say they still work quite well for napping. 

Today has been busy. Ms. Kate started her Cardiac Rehabilitation program today at Deaconess Gateway. Today was mostly get acquainted and they had her walk for six minutes. But they got her clinic schedule all set up and for the next three months we will be going to Gateway three days a week for her rehab. I guess it’s nice to have consistency in your life and this will be that. LOL

I have the yard crew here today to do fall clean up and trim-back of all of the flowerbeds etc. It may be that they will have to come back again tomorrow because it looks like it could rain. I guess we will see. It’s 2:00 pm and will be dark in another three hours, and there is no way they are going to be-able to get it all done. 

That’s it for today. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving if I don’t get back to you. Peace. 

 Good Wednesday morning to you. It is a chilly one and the breeze doesn’t do a thing to warm it up. But —- tomorrow morning will be worse, or so the weather dude says. The bottom is supposed to drop out of the temperature bucket tonight for the next couple of days. It’s about time for winter to show up I reckon. But, —- by the weekend the temperatures will come back up. The weather dude also used that dreaded “S” word but said there will be no accumulation. The sad part is that all of these flowers that are blooming are going to get a rude awakening in the next couple of days, although —- we may still not see our first “hard freeze” for another couple of weeks. 

Ms. Kari, the cleaning lady should be arriving any minute now. I’m going to have her help me move the patio plants in. Kate trimmed them up last evening and got them ready. But, we need to move some furniture around and move the recumbent bike out of the way so we can set the pots by the windows. It shouldn’t take very long but I do need her help. I moved the Pony Tail Palm tree in a couple of weeks ago. That’s the really heavy one. 

Our middle daughter, Heather, turns 54 years old today. That just doesn’t seem possible. I mean of course it is possible but we tend to live on our memories of days past and just seems to have gone from 1-54 in no time. Julie our oldest is 57 which means she is staring 60 in the face and Lisa is turning 53 in December. It is ludicrous to say “where does the time go” because no one knows where time goes. ——- But where does the time go? All I know for sure is that I have a lot fewer days ahead of me than I have behind me. 

Neighbor Dan, across the street had a knee replaced yesterday. I saw a post from him this morning on FB and he was looking good. I think maybe the pain medicine had not worn off yet. I think he is supposed to go to a therapy facility for a couple of weeks. That’s is unusual these days. My son-in-law Gary went home the same day as he had his knee replaced. 

Okay, gotta make a run for a couple of errands. Kari is here and I need to get out of the way. I pray you will have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Happy Tuesday, the 19th of November. I hope you are having a day that is as beautiful as what we are having here. It is 70 degrees and the sun is shining brightly. However, all of that is about to change within the next 24 hours. By the end of the week we are facing even the possibility of seeing a snow flake or two. And we will certainly see the coldest weather we have had so far with temps hanging around at 34 degrees at night and low 40’s during the day. Hello winter —- it is about time you showed up. 

I can’t believe that my roses and my azaleas, and zinnias and marigolds are all blooming. They will certainly get their noses trimmed this week. But — it has made for a wonderful fall and by Monday, we will see rising temperatures again. But — certainly not back into the 70’s again. 

We had a nice weekend. We went to Ft. Branch on Sunday and worshipped with the St. Lucas folks. Next time, we need to attend St. Paul’s. But that means going an hour and a half earlier! I must say that their new pastor for the parish is a good preacher. I don’t know how he is as a pastor; (yes, there is a difference between being a preacher and a pastor) but the folks seem to like him a lot. He seems like a nice guy and I hope he learns to love the parish like we did. 

Ms. Kate is still doing very well. She is getting around so much better and feeling stronger. We’re hoping that she won’t have to wear that life vest much longer. I’m not sure who will be the determiner of that or what she has to do to find out. I suspect it will at least require another echocardiogram to determine the output of her heart. But, the doctor’s appointments are getting farther in between. What would we do if we weren’t going to the doctor all of the time?? 

Our cleaning lady comes tomorrow and I’m going to ask her to help me bring the remainder of our patio plants for the winter. This week I cleaned up of of the John Deere mowers and have them in the garage for the winter. Now I need to wait for Jim to come over and put the snow blade on one of them. 

That’s it for today. Have a blessed week. Peace. 

 Can you believe it is already the middle of November. Before we know it, Thanksgiving will be here. 

Ms. Kate and I have been busy since I last wrote a blog entry. I told you that all of the girls were coming for a visit over Veteran’s Day. Well, prep for that took days. Kate was determined to get the Christmas card making finished before they came so we could put all of her stuff away. She tends to spread all over the house with her hobby when she is engaged. Unfortunately, the “put away place” is her office which is about a third of the size she needs. But —- somehow we managed to get it in there. Of course there is no prom to walk or move around —- but it’s in there. 

Friday, Lisa and Steph and Julie arrived — Lisa from North Carolina and Stephanie from Oklahoma and Julie from over in New Albany. Saturday Heather and John arrived from California and Jim drove over from New Albany with the dog. Julie, Jim and the dog stayed until Saturday afternoon and then drove back home. She has a test for her class coming up this week sand had to study. Saturday evening we went to Log Inn for supper and Sunday morning we all went to church. I was preaching on Sunday. 

After church we went up to Newburgh and had lunch at Turoni’s Pizza and then to Karen’s house for a visit. Monday, Lisa and Steph boarded their planes and returned home. Monday morning  Heather and John drove to Louisville for their flight home. Now the house is once again “old people quiet”. I miss them already. 

Heather’s hubby John was looking for something to do to help us while he was here and I had told him in advance I had a couple of “tech” issues I wanted him to take a look at. I have my basement area set up for surround sound with some really good Bose speakers but have never been able to get them to work with my television because I know zero about doing that kind of thing. Well, he took a look at my “receiver” and Heather said —- “You’re getting a new sound receiver for Christmas” and Steph said “and you’re getting a new DVD player from me.” I guess both were so old they were just worn out. So, off they went and bought new stuff. John spent most of Sunday afternoon hooking everything up and making sure it all was compatible. Last evening I spent the evening down in music surround sound heaven. LOL

The great news from us today though is that Kate had a office visit with the heart group yesterday and it was the best visit she has had in months. She has not gone back in to AFib, her strength is slowly coming back and she will start Cardiac Therapy on Monday. She is feeling really good for a change. So, I thank any and all of you you who have been lifting her up in prayer. Of course, I firmly believe the visit from the girls has a lot to do with that. 

So, —- my friends, you are caught up to date on us. I pray you will have a wonderful week full of God’s grace and peace. 

 I can’t believe it has been a week since my last post. Where does all of my time go. Well, actually I know where my time goes; we started out the week with only one appointment and ended up with something every day of the week except for Thursday and that was Halloween. 

Monday Ms. Kate had an appointment with her hematologist, Tuesday she had another cardioversion to get her heart back in rhythm, Wednesday she had to get an iron infusion, and Friday she had a hair appointment. Individually these things don’t take a lot of time but we tie up two to four hours out of the day every time. This coming week doesn’t have a lot of free days in it either. But advise —— don’t retire because you work your tail off. LOL. 

Next Friday the first two of the daughters come in and then a week from today the other two come in. We’ll have all four here for the Veteran’s Day weekend. We are thrilled and busy. We got a lot of stuff to put away. Kate has been working on getting her Christmas cards all made and finally finished up the last of them this week “in her spare time”. She made close to 100 again this year. I now have them on my desk and I need to sign them, address and stamp them all by Thanksgiving. But —- she has her stuff everywhere so we need to get it all put up so the family has someplace to sit while they are visiting. We’ll be busy today and tomorrow doing that because we have Stanley Steamer coming on Monday to clean our carpets. I’m mainly looking for them to “clean the path” that the walk in this house. I don’t know about you but we have rooms that we very seldom walk in, but the family room, and our bedroom, and the hallway between the two take a beating over the years. Just the normal walking, and the occasional animal accident  when the kids come over with their pups builds up despite routine vacuuming and spot cleaning. So, it is time to call in the professionals. 

Time for me to get busy. Have a glorious weekend and welcome to November!!!

Peace. 

 Happy Saturday. I hope you are having a blessed  weekend. It’s 60 degrees outside right now and there is a stiff breeze blowing which mans it is cool regardless of high bight the sun is shining. 

Yesterday, Ms. kate and I got our 2024 edition of the COVID-19 shots. This morning we both have sore arms form the vaccinations. We had our flu shots a couple of weeks ago, our COVID shots yesterday and in another couple of weeks I guess we will go have our RSV shots. Aren’t these all just kind of the same thing??? It seems to me they all treat the same thing. But, I guess we have to keep a money inflow to the pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Jackson seemed to think we should have all three though, so we’ll be good little pin cushions and take our medicines. 

I don’t know if I told you, but Kate and I did get to the polls and cast our ballots for the 2024 election. It took three trips. The first two times we just kind of drove by and looked at the line that more than a block long and decided not to wait. This week we saw that the line was “doable”, and took Ms. Kate’s rollater  so she would not have to stand too long. It took us an hour and a half to go through the line and cast our ballots. But, you know what??? It is totally worth the time to exercise a citizen’s right to have a say about who runs this country. Will our candidate win —— we won’t know for another two weeks. The pollsters and talking heads of the media say it is a truly close race. But, I hope that everyone at least prayed about their choice before casting their ballots. Of course, we only pray for what we want to happen so that means people on both sides prayed for success. What we need to be praying for is for what happens after the election is over. We need to be praying for an end to the rhetoric and hate, and divisiveness that is tearing our nation and our society apart. I pray for the winner to be in a constant relationship with God. I pray that we can get back to a point where it no longer dangerous or offensive to express an opinion about things. 

That is about all I have for this beautiful Saturday. It is now almost noon and I think I will go outside and do a little work in my flowerbeds and maybe even get on the JD and mulch up the few leaves that are in my yard. I hope you have a blessed weekend. Take time to give thanks to the Lord God for getting you through another week. Peace.  

 It’s Wednesday and I’m back again. This week has been my week to sit in doctor’s offices. Monday I had a dental appointment to have a new crown put on my tooth. I had gone a couple of weeks ago and the dentist had prepped the tooth and put a temporary crown on while the new one was being made. It finally came in and now I have a brand new tooth. Unfortunately it is still tender. Nothing that I can handle but I do have to take a Tylenol once in awhile. 

Yesterday I had to go for an electrocardiograph test. I haven’t had once since 2022 and I forgot that they aren’t very comfortable to have. I was surprised that I didn’t have a bruised chest this morning. They push so hard trying to get the pictures that they need. My doctor had ordered one because I told him that when I stand up, I have to stand there for a few seconds for the blood to get to the bottom of my feet. So, he sent me to get the test just to insure that my biggest problem was being 80 years old. I got my results on “My Chart” last evening but of course I have no idea whether it was good or bad but from what I saw there was only one result that was slightly out of “normal”, and no one said “You’re dead”, so I reckon it is all okay. I will see Dr. Jackson again in six months and I guess he will tell me about it. Bottom line is that I feel fine, just slower moving around. 

Ms. Kate and I made a deal Monday; I would do the laundry and she would make another apple pie. It worked out very well. I still have a half a pie left but I suspect it won’t see a Thursday. LOL

Kate put in an order from SAM’s club for pick up. She ordered our Halloween candy and a few other things, it will all be ready by 3:00 pm. While we are out we will try again to go do our early voting. We have tried the last two days and the lines have been a block long. Monday was the first time they opened multiple places and the turnout has been wonderful. 

That’s about it for today. Our cleaning lady is here and I need to vacate the kitchen table so she can get her work done. Have a most blessed day. Peace. 

 Happy Tuesday afternoon. It is 54 degrees outside and is raining just enough to make it feel even colder. I don’t know where this little shower came from but we will welcome it. 

Today we did another doctor visit for Kate at the cardiac clinic and and yes ——- she is back in AFib. So, that means she will have to have another Cardioversion. Bless her heart. She gets a couple of days of feeling “not bad” and then something else pops up or pops up again. We try to keep the chins up because we now there are folks that are so much worse of than us. But — admittedly we do get a little tired. I can’t imagine trying to go through all that Kate has gone through these past two years without a strong faith and an almighty God to call upon. I don’t know how people do that.  I know I’m not that strong and neither is Kate. 

Kate is trying to get her Christmas cards made for this year. It keeps her busy. She is trying to get them all done in the next week and a half. All of our girls and a son-in-law are coming for the Veterans Day and we have all of her stuff all over the family room and dining room. So time is limited. She normally starts on this in the summer but her summer has been spent doing doctor and hospital stuff. 

That’s it for today. I pray you will have a blessed week. May God bring you peace. 

 Friday, October 11th. I can’t believe it has been a week since I last posted something. I am glad to report that this week has been a much better week for Ms, Kate. It has been a week of appointments though. Wednesday, she had a nephrology appointment. That is to check the functions of the kidneys. The nephrologist informed us that she is in Stage 4 Kidney failure. This was the first we had heard about a kidney failure at all and apparently she has been in stage four since June. So we were in a state of mind that said “what else?????” They tell her that her heart is operating at 30-35% and have her wearing a life vest defibrillator, and now she is in stage four kidney failure. 

Today she had her regular scheduled appointment with out family doctor and he spent a good deal of time talking to her about all of this. He said yes, —- her heart output is bad and yes the numbers indicate that she is in stage four kidney failure. However —- he says that the specialists who see her and advise on the results of stuff fail to consider the mitigating factors that can affect all of those numbers and systems like having four major surgeries this year and five or six hospital stays where doctors constantly change around  her medications. So yes —- her health is not good and she has several things going against her; —- but she is not in the crisis that the specialist doctors who walk in and see her for five minutes make it out to be. He has her starting heart repair therapy and we hope that will increase her heart output and she can take off the life vest. We left there today feeling much more positive about her whole situation. 

BTW, I had my annual physical today and the doctor said he couldn’t find a single thing he could fuss at me about and that I am in excellent shape for an 80 year old guy. Thank you very much God!!!

Yesterday, Kate and I went to the orchard ut in Posey County and picked up a half bushel of Golden Delicious apples. So, there will be a couple of apple pies baking in the oven before this weekend is out. 

That catches you up on our week. Congratulation to my former parish churches. Their new pastor starts this coming Sunday. May God guide him as he starts this new ministry. 

Peace. 

 Good morning and welcome to Friday. I wanted to give a short update on Ms. Kate. We hope to be going home today, and all indications are that we will. However, her Hospitalist said she want a Nephrologist to see her first and render an opinion. Kate’s kidneys aren’t functioning like they should. Now, part of that is reaction to her different medications so they have to figure out a good balance. That imbalance is partially what caused this hospitalization in the first place. So, we don’t want to go home and have to turn right around and come back. 

Yesterday they fitted her with a cardiac life vest. It is a portable defibrillator worn under her clothes and next to skin. In the event her heart should stop,  this device will shock it back into motion. It’s the same effect you see with the “paddles” you see on television. It gives her an alarm when it is going to happen and she has to lay down because it will literally knock her down. Hopefully it never goes off but she has to wear it 24/7 except in the shower. They will keep her wearing this for 3-6 months and then do another ECG to see if her heart is doing any better. 

But —- she is feeling so much better than she did when she came in here and hopefully it will all remain steady. I thank God for any and all progress she has made and I thank all of you who have lifted her up. 

I hope you have a blessed weekend. Continue to pray for all of the hurricane victims. My heart cries for each of them. Take time to give God praise for your abundance of blessings. 

Peace. 

 Welcome to October. Our October started out just crappy. Ms. Kate is once again in-the hospital with congestive heart failure. Each time seems to get a bit worse. She asked me to bring her in first thing Monday morning. She had gotten to the point of hardly being able to breathe, couldn’t lay down to sleep or even lean back in her recliner. She was and is totally worn out. So, we’ve been in here at Deaconess Midtown since then. They are working to get the fluid off of her but are also working on a couple of other heart issues with her. We hope she can go home tomorrow but I’m not overly hopeful about that. So, keep us in your prayers. 

Have a blessed day. 

 Rain, rain, and more rain to come. But I am not complaining one bit. As I look at all of the destruction the  that Hurricane Helene has caused, and over 40 deaths so far —- our rain is merely an inconvenience. I haven’t talked to any of the local farmers so I don’t know how they feel about it. I know a lot of the crops have been brought in but there are a lot still out in the fields too. Nobody will be driving a tractor out there for a few days. I hope none of them had destructive winds that flatten the corn and make it impossible to pick up. We have seen that happen. But our rain this morning isn’t a hard rain, just slow and steady. 

Yesterday I made a pot of veggie soup and Ms. Kate made a pineapple upside down cake. Between us made some darn good fixins. I had cake for breakfast. Not a bad way to start a rainy Saturday morning. I may decide to do some reading today. I have a Stephen King that I have only started on and I have another book that I picked up from the free book table at church. I really could take some of my books and put them on the table. Maybe someone else could use them. That’s one of the problems of retiring from a profession; one collects so many books and then what do you do with them? 

It’s very quiet around the house today. Kate is snoozing in her recliner, the rain is falling gently on the roof and I think I will follow Kate’s example. I hope you have a wonderful day. I would ask that you offer prayers up for all of the millions of people that are trying to recover from this latest storm damage. It isn’t over yet and there are several major dams in danger of breaking that will cause even ore destruction. Lift them up in prayer. Peace. 

 Happy Wednesday. We are back from our weekend trip to see cousins. We had really good visiting time and got to catch up with them and their lives. We drove over on Sunday morning to Giant City State park in southern Illinois. I highly recommend you visit the park  if you are close enough and have the time. There is so much to see. It is all park of the Shawnee National Forest and there are so many trail to walk and horse-back riding, picnicking, camping, and other nature things to do. My one nephew goes over there  every year to hunt morels but won’t say exactly where he hunts them. 

We got to the lodge at 1:00 pm, and had a wonderful family style chicken dinner. I was hoping for maybe 25 folks to show up but we only had 16 folks there. But we had a good visit and hope to make this an annual event. Most everyone left around 3:30 pm and Kate and I checked into our cabin that we had rented for the night. However, when we got over to where the cabin was located, I quickly realized there as no way Kate would ever be physically able to get down to the cabin. Well, actually, she might get down to it, but she would never be able to walk back up to the parking area the next morning. So I went back to the desk, explained the situation and they were very accommodating and gave us another cabin just across the parking lot. It was simple but it fit the bill. 

Monday we met with another cousin for lunch and a nice visit and then headed to Sainte Genevieve Missouri where we were supposed to stay for two nights. Unfortunately, Kate was already feeling bad so we stayed just one night and then headed back home yesterday morning. It seems to get harder and harder to plan trips anymore because of Kate’s health. But it is, what it is. I’m just glad when we can do what we can manage. 

I guess I better quit and grab my gloves and weed eater and go take care of some yard work. I hope you have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Happy Saturday morning. I pray your weekend has started off well. We’re doing a bit of busy-body work this morning. Two loads of laundry, empty dishwasher, fix a little something to eat, put stuff away that we should have already put away; —- you know —— just stuff. 

Tomorrow we are heading to southern Illinois and possibly Missouri for a long weekend. We are going to the Heumann family get together. I’m excited to see the cousins and become a bit more acquainted with them. I really don’t know so many of them and there aren’t that many. My parents moved to Indiana when they got married. All the rest of their family remained in southern Illinois. WhenI was a kid we would go over to see the grandparents maybe once every couple of month. We’d go on a Saturday afternoon after Dad got off work and then come home Sunday afternoon after lunch. Most of the time there we spent at my maternal grandmothers house and then drop by for a couple of hours at my paternal grandparents house. So, I never really got to know my cousins at all. I am so glad that we have connected through social media and are getting to know one another. Unfortunately I already lost a couple of them. It was my intent that we have a chance to get together somewhere beside a funeral home. 

Ms. Kate and I will be staying Sunday night in one of the Bluff Cabins in Giant City State Park. Then we plan to meet with another cousin from my maternal side for lunch and have a visit. From there, we plan to go to St. Genevieve, MO and spend a couples of days. I had made reservations at a bed and breakfast for Monday and Tuesday night but we cancelled those reservations because Kate has had a rough week health wise and we didn’t want to pay for something and not use it. So, if we do decide to stay, we will just find a place. I expect it won’t be hard to do. BUt, we need to play it by ear. 

That’s it for today. Have a most blessed weekend. Take time to go to your house of worship and give thanks for a week of blessings. Take time to pray for our nation too. We need all the help we can get. Peace. 

 Happy Wednesday afternoon. It’s 2:15 pm and I’m being lazy and not going out in the 91 degree heat and 47% humidity. I certainly have enough work to do out there but it can wait. Maybe I’ll go out after the sun gets a bit lower and do a couple of things. I have to go out to take the trash out and get the garbage cans down to the street. 

This morning Ms. Kate and I went to out to our church. I needed to fill the new flag holder stands with sand. Kate and I bought some new ones because the old ones looked so bad. The new ones are made of plastic, (what isn’t these days) and you have to fill them for stability. The old one were a solid brass and were heavy as heck. But they were so old and so dull that Kate and I thought they dishonored the flags. So, with permission from the council, we bought new ones. They really look great. 

Tomorrow morning at 0830 I have a dental appointment to build a new molar on my left lower jaw. I broke a large piece of it off last week and this was as early as I could get in to my dentist. Fortunately there has been zero pain involved with the the tooth and I have been able to eat most anything. Although my right jaw is tired of doing all the work. It will be nice to have a full mouth of teeth again. 

This weekend, we are heading to Giant City State park in southern Illinois. I have put together a cousin’s reunion at lunch time at the lodge. There are so many of the extended generation that I don’t know and I only have five “first cousins” left on the Heumann side of the family. It’s important that we stay in contact.  On my mother’s side of the family, I only have three “first cousins left. The older you get, the more you lose. I’m the senior member on the Heumann side and I have a cousin , Jeanne, that is the oldest on my Mother’s side. 

That’s enough for today. Have a great day my friends. Peace

 Thursday, September 12th. It’s 2130 hours and I’m just dropping a note or two before I go to bed. We’ve had a pretty last couple of days. Yesterday our cleaning lady came so Ms. Kate and I decided to go to Nellies for breakfast. After that we decided to just go for a ride and check out the countryside and the status of the local crops. There is a Fish and Wildlife area not too far from us so we headed out that direction. We have traveled throughout that area many times when we were doing a lot of geocaching. Unfortunately we have gotten out of the habit of doing that anymore. It became more than we could do in so many ares. But, it was nice to just drive in what ever direction we wanted to. And we saw that some of the crops are already being brought in. 

Today I spent some time outside working on my azalea bushes. They had gotten so overgrown. It isn’t the right time of the year to trim them because the blooms for next year have already set. But, I went ahead and trimmed off all of the new growth. That shouldn’t hurt the plants at all. The bushes had grown enough to block a good amount of my dining room and kitchen windows. So now, I can see out the front again. There is so much to do out there still. It’s getting to be time to cut off the summer flowers and put down some mulch. The seasons are beginning to change. 

Ms. Kate is doing very well since her doctor changed a little of her medicine this week. Her heart rate has dropped to within a good rate and has stayed that way. We are both thrilled and hope we are on the right path. 

It is supposed to rain tonight and we really need it. That’s it for tonight. Have a blessed weekend if I don’t get back to you. Peace. 

 Happy Tuesday. It’s a cool morning and I love those kind. The sun is shining so the day is gonna be an okay day. 

The second pot of coffee is brewing. For some reason Ms. Kate has suddenly taken to drinking more than one cup of coffee, I think it is the new flavored creamer I bought her. But, once or twice a week we might go through two or maybe even three pots a day. I can drink coffee all day long and it doesn’t bother me in the least. Most folks I talk to say they cut off their coffee at noon or it keeps them awake. I’ve never had that problem. (I tell Kate it’s because I keep a clean conscience.) 

I worked outside yesterday for about three and a half hours. Spent all of it in the back yard working. There is so much to do. I need to get back out there today and work in another area. I also need to fill the bird baths. They are dry. And we aren’t looking for rain until at least Friday. I see the squirrels have knocked over the electric bird bath again. At least I’m assuming it was them. They get easier to tip when they are almost empty. I bought a new electrified bird bath but it didn’t come with a tall stand. So, I called Brenda and asked her if they would bring me a log from their woods that they are cleaning up. I wanted one two feet high by 18 inches in diameter to sit the new bird bath in. They brought it over Sunday afternoon and it is one heavy piece of wood. One side of it os level and the other side is not so I need to excavate around it a bit to make it level. I also have mounted the frame to the log in a semi permanent manner so the critters can’t drag it off. The stuff I go through to keep the Backyard Buffet up and running. I only plug in the bird baths after the weather gets to a point of freezing. I’m not running a year around spa for them. 

I broke off the back half of a molar last night. Luckily there is no pain involved because I can’t get in to my dentist until the 19th of the month. I don’t know if it is going to cost me a new crown or what. 

Today, I have to take Ms. Kate in for an ECG again. Her hearty rhythm has been running over 118 for a couple of weeks again. She says she feels okay but it is troubling just the same. So, the doctor wants to make sure she isn’t in AFIB again. Hopefully not because the next plan of attack was to be an ablation. We don’t want to start through all of that stuff again.

That’s it for today. Have a great week.  Peace. 

 Happy Thursday , September 5th.. It has been a lovely week so far. We started off with some really nice weather and no today we are back to heat and humidity. Tomorrow we are predicted to maybe have some rain and we certainly could use it. Although, as far as I’m concerned, the growing season is over. Yesterday I pulled up six of my nine tomato plants. The other three are hanging on by a thread. They have a couple of small green tomatoes on them and I want to give them a chance to mature and ripen. There are no blooms on the plants anymore so what I see is what I’ll get. 

Yesterday I filled bird feeders once again and cleaned up the bird baths. They were pretty rank. One was completely dry and the eater had some water in it but it was filthy with leaves and bird crap in it. The birds don’t seem to care how dirty the water may be. They drink it, bathe in it, poop in it and play in it. Obviously it doesn’t affect them nor can they taste it. 

Ms. kate and I went to get haircuts today. I go to her hairdresser. She does a good job and costs the same as if I went to a barber. And it keeps me from driving across town. She always books us back to back to it works out well. Unlike my garden, my hair seems to have entered the “growing season”. I had my hair cut three weeks ago and by the next week it was already touching my ears and I hate that.  

Ms. Kate is doing very, very well. Her medicine changes etc have really helped her. We’re actually getting to go places now. No doubt in my mind that God has made it all possible and all of the prayers for her during the last two years have worked. I getting ready to run to the pharmacy to pick up some medicine for her in a few moments. Maybe I’ll reward myself with a Dairy Queen on the way back home. 

I fixed breakfast this morning fr a champagne. Kate has gotten back to cooking most of the meals but I decided I wanted to make a couple of sausage patties and some scrambled eggs so I offered to do the cooking. Kate didn’t want sausage, (she’s not really a fan) but she like my scrambled eggs so she went with that. 

Time to get in traffic and head to the pharmacy before the close. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 A new week came and now that new week has come to a close. It has been a long extremely hot and uncomfortable week. We are 26 days without rain which is the longest stretch since 1988. The weather person did predict the possibility of some showers yet this evening and again tomorrow. Most peoples yards have gone dormant around here. I certainly didn’t mow mine. 

It has been entirely too hot to work outside. Yesterday the ambient temperature reached 101. That’s unusual for us. I think today’s high is going to be 98 but the feels like will be over 100 again. We’ve only gone out for the necessary things. Yesterday I did the grocery shopping at Walmart Neighborhood Market. That’s about the only place I go. I know where most stuff is and if I don’t, I just ask one of the employees that are filling “on-line” shopping baskets. They are usually in my way any way. This morning Kate had an appointment and after that we went to Haubstadt for a meat shopping trip at Dewigs. 

This is Labor Day weekend. There will be a massive amount of people out on the highways. Julie and Jim are coming over tomorrow evening and will go back hoe on Monday. Jim is going to install the kitchen light for me so I don’t have to crawl up on a ladder. I think they are also going to bring their dog’s ashes over here and we will transplant one of our saplings somewhere in the yard and bury her ashes there. We did that with their orders dogs ashes and that tree has grown beautifully. I have several Redbuds and a couple of nice Tulip Poplar trees that need to be culled out and either transplanted or thrown away. It will be the kids choice which they want to use.   

I think I told you that I ordered a Flugelhorn through Amazon. I heard a guy playing one at a concert recently and wanted to see if I could play one. So I ordered it and I finally got it this week after waiting almost six weeks. I didn’t know it was coming from India, but it did. I’ve played it a couple of times now and it does take some adjustment from the trumpet. But I like it, and will work on learning it better. I’m just an old dog learning aa new trick. I’ll probably never get real proficient on it but who knows. 

Amazon made another nice delivery at our place this week. We bought a new iRobot Roomba. The old one had quit and I bought new brushes and filters and stuff for it but it only worked a little and then it would quit with some error message . So I bought a new one. We have it hooked up and charged up and synced to Kate’s IPhone. Still haven’t run it because I guess it needs to “learn to map the house” and we haven’t had time to let it do that yet. Maybe yet today. 

That’s it for this Friday afternoon. Have a blessed holiday weekend. Peace. 

 Happy new week. It’s now noon and I went out and put the water bill payment in the mailbox. It is miserable out there. The heat hit me and I was instantly ready to go back inside. The new neighbors across the street have a few guys out there putting a new roof on their house. This would be a terrible day to be up on a roof. It looks like they are putting the new on on top of the old one. I’ve lived here in my house for 23 years and they have not put a new roof on in all of those years. I suspect that is the original roof. So, it won’t hurt to put a second layer on. But I still wouldn’t want to be up there. 

We had a good weekend around here. We didn’t do a lot. Friday Ms. Kate had a followup visit with her electro cardiologist and got a clean report from her. Has to go back in six months. And believe it or not, (because I can’t) we have no doctor’s visits for the next two weeks. (Knock on wood) It has been forever since we had that. And — she only has one doctor’s visit for the month of September scheduled. All praise to our mighty God for the healing that is going on in her body. 

I went out and watered my tomato’s and zinnias at dusk last evening. We are on our third week with no rain. That is extremely unusual. I think the least time was in 1988. The forecast says that we MIGHT get some showers this coming weekend. But, that means that we have hit the “no need to mow” season. I’m not mad about that. 

I still haven’t met the new neighbors across the street. And the neighbor next door to the north is still getting their stuff out of the house. They have a sale pending sign in the yard but I understand there is a lot of work to be done on the house before the sale can go through. But that’s just gossip so far. I wish them good luck with their sale. They are nice people. 

That’s it for today. Have a blessed week. Peace. 

 

 Happy “mid-week” to you. Yes, it’s Wednesday; “Hump Daaaaay!!” The wether is perfect and I’m going to go out and try to do some years wok here in a little bit. I went out yesterday and did some but unfortunately my work yesterday was cut short because I took a rather hard fall. I was trying to remove a “staub branch” from the ground by kicking it off. Well, I in doing so, I lost my balance and fell backwards, landed on the right side of my back and rolled down the small embankment out on to the driveway. I was lucky enough to not hit my head on the concrete but I had to lay there a few minutes and then try to get myself back up. I almost always carry my phone when I work outside just in case something like that happens, but this time I had not. So, I had to figure out how to get up without help and finally managed to. But — I’m okay. I’m stiff and sore but don’t have any bruises to show for my adventure. I went in the house and sat for a bit while my nerves settled down and then I took a couple of Tylenol and went back out and got on the JD and mowed the front yard. Last night it was tough to find a comfortable sleeping position. Today I’m getting around pretty well. 

I had an appointment to get my toenails trimmed this morning at 10:00. I just can’t do that job by myself and Kate’s beautify shop has a young lady that does that. She did a great job. I really don’t like all of the stuff they do at regular nail salons. Most of the ladies seem to not understand English and even though I try to explain that I don’t want the bottom of my feet touched, they doing it anyway and I am horribly ticklish. So it is not a pleasant experience at all. All I want done is to have the nails trimmed. Anyway, —- I made another appointment for eight weeks from now. 

I got a call from one of my old friends from the late ‘60’s today. He and his wife and a couple of more couples were enroute to Wisconsin for a reunion of the guys that I served with at Clark Air Base, Philippines from 1967-1969. I belong to a small specialized group of Air Force Security Policemen back then and we try to get together every couple of years for a long weekend somewhere. The group is getting smaller and smaller as we all grow older and the health deteriorates among many of us. At 80, I’m the oldest member, I think but several of the guys are in pretty bad shape and several have already passed. When we first started doing these we tried to do them in locations that had a lot of activities and places to go and see. Any more, we look for a hotel that provide enough rooms and is in an area that has some place “of interest” to drive and see if folks want to get out and explore. But mostly we just set and visit and compare medicine lists, and compare surgeries etc! LOL Kate’s health absolutely prohibited us from doing the trip this year, and last time too. 

That’s it for today. Tomorrow we actually have a day without appointments. But — Friday she has two appointments.  Peace, my friends. 

A glorious Saturday to you. It is another hot and miserable day. It is currently 12:30 pm and the temperature is 92 degrees with a “feels like” of 100 degrees. It’s another day to keep one’s butt in the house if at all possible. 

Yesterday was a good day. Ms. Kate and I went up to Nashville, Indiana because she was wanting to look for a new “whirly-gig” for the yard to replace the one that got smashed this spring by the tree. Unfortunately they didn’t have one at the place we had gone before. So, we went to a local place and had lunch before heading back to Evansville. On the way home we stopped at Gasthoff Village bakery in Washington, Indiana and picked up an Angel Food cake, some Snickerdoodle cookies, and some homemade Amish noodles. All in all ——- it was a great day. The drive was pleasant, and I am thrilled that Ms. Kate is doing so well that she wants to do day trips and start traveling again. 

I need to water my garden this evening at sundown. It has been three weeks since we have had a good rain and we’re not really looking at any rain for maybe another week. I think the time of year that we don’t have to mow for a couple of weeks has finally arrived. Next week though is projected to be a really nice weather week and I’m looking forward to it. I have a lot of yard work that needs to be done and the temperatures and humidity levels are supposed to be really favorable. Maybe I can actually get out there and do some pop it without it being during a heat advisory. 

Did I tell you that Ms. Kate and I paid off the mortgage to the house this week? I. Know, y’all have probably had your house paid of for years but for her and I, —- this is the first time we have ever done that. In our 58 years of marriage we have bought three different houses. However, we sold two of them long before they were paid off. The rest of our lives we spent living military housing. So this is an extremely big deal to us. We bought this I house in 2001 when I retired . I expected I would be 90 before it was paid off. So, congratulations to us.  

I think that is all for today, not very exciting is it. LOL. Have a blessed weekend. Peace. 

 August 14th, mid month already. Today would have been my mother’s 107th birthday. That’s a long time. She’s been gone since 2015. My dad died in 1996 I think. (Is it bad that I don’t know for sure?) This year he would have celebrated his 110th birthday. 

I have good thoughts and sad thoughts to share this morning. Let’s get the sad out of the way. Julie nd Jim are having to put one of their two dogs to sleep this morning. It just suddenly got very sick and they found out that it has a large tumor on its liver that is bleeding into it’s stomach. It was the younger of the two dogs and was “Jim’s dog”. It was a real sweetheart. I feel so sorry for the kids. They have been preparing themselves to put the older dog down because of his health but in no way were they thinking analyzing like this. 

Other sad news today is that our house cleaner had to take their son back to the ICU and he is on a ventilator. The son is I think 21 years old and is an invalid. He only weighs like 70 pounds and they have to literally do everything for him. Kari, his mom, is such a lovely person and we have become very good friends. Please keep the family in your prayers. 

Now for better news. Ms. Kate is doing wonderfully well. Her BP and heart rate seems to be under control. She is getting her energy back and has started making Christmas cards again. Today we have two follow-up appointments; one with her urologist and one with her cardiologist. But, it is is wonderful to see her up and moving around and looking and feeling “chipper” again. It’s like having the old Ms. Kate back again. 

Another happy news is that I have put together a Heumann cousin’s reunion. They all live over in southern Illinois. My sister lives up in the Springfield Illinois area and of course Ms. Kate and I live here in southern Indiana. But, although it is on a couple of hours drive over to see the cousins, we just never do. So, I told them we need to do this before we meet at the funeral home again. We did this maybe five years ago and since then we have lost my one remaining uncle, his wife, and their son and another cousin. I’m in contact with a couple of them via Facebook but that is all. So on September 22nd we’ll meet at Giant City State Park for lunch at the lodge and sit around and eat fried chicken and gab for awhile. I’m really excited about it. 

That’s it for today. I hope your day is full of joy and love. Peace. 

 Good morning and happy Saturday to you. It is a perfect weather morning. I think it is 65 degrees out there right now and the sun is shining with no breeze. I should be out pulling some weeds or mowing the front yard, Instead I’m siting at my kitchen table writing a blog entry and having another cup of coffee. See, I can make good decisions. LOL

It is only going up to the mid seventies today so anytime I go out will be a good time. There is a wren sitting on a feeder pole just outside of my kitchen and it is singing its little heart out. Yesterday I was out side doing some yard work and I had a hummingbird either singing to me or fussing at me for being there, I’m not sure which. I prefer to think it was saying thank you for filling up its feeder. Actually, it had already done that when as I was just finishing up filling it and putting my stuff away, it came up and hovered right in front of my face for a few seconds. It was pretty neat. 

Ms. Kate had her Cardioversion open Thursday morning. Unfortunately, she has not had the results that we had expected or at least hoped for. When we left, her BP was low as was her heart rate. They told her that could be expected but she was to call them yesterday morning and let them know what her rates were. Well, yesterday morning they were still very low so she called them. She was to to eliminate one of her medications until further notice. She is right back to having zero energy and unable to walk from the kitchen to the bathroom or the bed room without stopping at least once and she has to use her cane constantly. Theoretically she should have come out of the procedure feeling full of energy and somewhat lively. But —— that didn’t happen, so I guess we will see how taking her off of the Matoporal (SP?) will help the situation. She doesn’t seem to be any better this morning but se won’t be able to be able to talk to her doctor until Monday. That should be sufficient time to see what is happening. She has appointments with both her Urologist and Cardiologist on Wednesday. If things have not improved, I’m afraid they are going to try to set her up with a cordio-ablation and I do not want to see her have to go through yet another hospital stay or medical procedure. But, what ever it takes to keep her live and get her healthy. Please keep her (and me) in your prayers. 

I reckon that’s about all I have for today. Tomorrow is a day of worship and I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to  give thanks for another week full of blessings. You know, with all of the things we have going on with Ms. Kate, I am still fully grateful to God that she is beside me everyday. Take a few moments of your time to stop and worship the God who provides us life and love. Peace. 

 Happy Tuesday. It’s another hot one today with weather alerts for unhealthy air. We’re told that tomorrow it starts to get a lot better. With slightly lower temperatures and the humidity is supposed to drop. That’s a good thing because I have outside work to do. However, I’m not going out and doing yard work or anything else when the “feeels-like” temperature is over 100. 

I don’t have much to write about today except that I don’t think I told you that I have begun a new adventure. I went to a local concert on Sunday evening and their was a trumpet player that did a solo on the flugelhorn. It was absolutely beautiful. The sound was so very mellow and smooth. A flugelhorn is basically a trumpet except the entire horn is flared. That makes it sound at a lower tone than a trumpet  with is basically a long tube that flares only for the last 5-6 inches. Hence, the trumpet sounds much higher and “brassier” (if that is a word) than say the flugelhorn or french horn. Anyway, I was intrigued and decided to get on Amazon and buy one. It should arrive some time next week. Perhaps I wasted $179.00 and perhaps I’ll be a very happy flugelhorn player. We shall see. A person has to take some chances and try new things even at 80 years of age. It keeps you young.  Even if I learn to play it —- so what? Maybe I’ll play a solo at church sometime. Or maybe I’ll just play for my birds. 

Our “big event” for this week is for Kate to have yet another cardioversion and try to shock her heart back into rhythm. Hopefully this one will be the last time she has to do that. She thinks her medicine change is having some positive affects but she needs the shock treatment in conjunction with the medicine change. If this one doesn’t do it, the next thing will be a cardio ablation. She really doesn’t want to have to do that. Nor do I want her to have to go through it. We went to church Sunday and she had to use her rollater to get around because she got week and out of breath. So, once again I’m asking for your prayers. God’s going to do what God’s going to do; His will be done. I just hope we’re all on the same page. 

That’s it for this Tuesday. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay in touch with the God who created you and fills your life with blessings every day. Peace. 

 And the days just keep rolling by. August 3rd already. It is supposed to be a “typical early August day” according to the weather reporter last night; hot (90 degrees) and humid, but not as bad as it has been the past week. We have had thunderstorm every day this week. Parts of the area got hit by an EF-1 tornado a couple of days ago. We had a lot of wind and torrential rain during that storm. I had a bunch of smaller limbs down in the yard. I got those cleaned up but since then we have had more wind and rain so I have to go clean up again. Yesterday I managed to get the front yard mowed and the week eating and some weeds pulled in between the rain showers. I will probably go out and mow the back yard today. I also need to fill all of the bird feeders. I have purposely not been feeding them because I was only attracting a large flock of starlings and squirrels. So, I was determined to let them clean it all out and leave before I refilled them. Plus, I didn’t want to put new food out just to have it soaked with rain. We are not anticipating any rain now for the next week. 

The doctor’s appointments just keep coming. This coming Thursday Kate has to go in for yet another Cardioversion. I think this will be her sixth and we really hope this one will “take” since they have front-loaded her with her new medication. They took her off of Coumadin and have put her on Eloquis. So, we are looking forward to this appointment with great expectations. If we can remember what “normal” is — it will be nice to return to it. 

We finished up the last three peaches we had. I had bought a half bushel last week. From that I got three pies and several days of “snacking” on peaches. Peaches are my all time favorite fruit, but I think I have gotten peached out buy now. But they have been delicious. Yesterday we had a cantaloupe that was the best one we have had this season. Today I will cut up a watermelon for snacking later. Summertime brings such a bounty of good fresh stuff to eat. We grow a lot of cantaloupes and melons in this area and they are so very good. 

My former parish had a trial sermon last week for a new pastor and they and he have come to an agreement. He will start in mid-October so I’m told. I am thrilled for the parish and I hope he is exactly what they need to lead these two churches for a long time. The folks up there are such great people and they deserve the best that God will send. I’m anxious to go up and hear him later this year. He is from a different denomination but if he is bringing God’s word, that shouldn’t matter. I wish them only the best. 

I guess that is it for today. I pray you will have a blessed weekend. Peace. 

 Tuesday, July 30th. Two more days and we will be into the 8th month of 2024. And I will have been “retired for seven whole month. I don’t feel like I think I’m supposed to feel when being retired and that’s probably because our first seven month have been on medical crisis after another and constant doctor’s appointment. My roll has significantly changed and I’m a full time “house-husband”. I don’t mind though. I’m just glad that Ms. Kate is doing so much better. She is getting her strength back and has begun jumping back into the things that she used to do. She has started going places again on a limited basis. Buying her the rollator was a smart move. Yesterday she had a dental appointment and she used it to get into the facility and it worked well. She uses it to go into church and sometimes when we go into a restaurant.

Today has been busy morning so far. We needed to change the sheets on the bed so I did that first thing this morning when I got up. I got them washed, dried and put back on the bed. Then we had a piece of peach pie for breakfast. I made one yesterday and it was delicious.  So, I made two more today. I’ll give one of them away to Dan and Minh across the street, assuming Minh will let him have it. She watches his diet like a hawk. She is thin as a rail and a Vietnamese lady. She makes delicious Vietnamese food but I think that is all she fixes for him. LOL, she has no idea how much he probably cheats when she isn’t with him. But —- I will take a pie over there and he can have that battle with her. Yeh, I’m starting trouble in the neighborhood. 

We are having storms today. The heat and the humidity are off the chart so it no wonder that thunderstorms are rolling through. I think we are supposed to have this for another couple of days on and off. 

Have you been watching the Olympics”. I don’t Kate has missed any of them. USA has som dynamic athletes and a couple of them are from this area. Lilly King, the swimmer id from the west side of Evansville and even went to Reitz High School, which the alma mater for Kate and I. Jackie Young, the basketball player is from Princeton and is a friend of many of my parishioners from the parish. 

My pies are done and it is time to get them out of the oven. Have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Happy Wednesday! It”s a bright Sumer morning. The temperature is 75 degrees but the “real feel” is 83. That’s quite a difference, which tells me it is already humid out there. 

We had a really good visit with Ms. Kate’s Cardiologist Nurse Practitioner yesterday. Despite the fact that she was almost 45 minutes late getting to us, it was a good visit and she is forgiven. She went over Kate’s records and is the first person to actually lay out a step by step plan of treatment for Kate. I think one of the best things that she said to Kate was; your heart is a mess but it is not a death sentence, you’re not dying. She then went into a long discussion of what we need to do and what their plan is for her. And —- it’s al “doable”. We still have a number of doctor’s appointments to attend to. One of the things she mentioned was Kate’s upcoming appointment with er cardiologist. She told Kate to be sure and not miss that because his next available appointment is in June of 2025!! Can you imagine that??? I’m glad that we have an excellent doctor and I’m also glad that Kate has a lot of confidence in him. But the NP said that she will be Kate’s primary heart contact when the doctor can’t get to her, an gave her her 24 hour number.

Wednesday’s job is going to be fill the bird feeders again. I guess it is “that time of the year again”, the years is full of blackbirds and starlings. I went by several yards yesterday and the were flocks of blackbirds in the yards. I think the grass is starting to “seed” and harvest in the fields is a ways off yet. Between the blackbirds and the squirrels, the sunflower feeders are almost empty as are several of the others. 

I also need to get out in the garden and do some weed removal. I don’t know why but my tomatoes are looking terrible. I don’t know if I over-watered them or under-watered them. But they look like they are about done for the season and it is way too early for that. Karen brought us some of the tomatoes from plants that I gave her and they are wonderful. So, obviously I have messed something up. 

That’s about it for today unless you want to go to Walmart with me. I have a list of things I need to get. Yuk!!

Have a wonderful day. Peace. 

 I did a thing! On Saturday I turned 80 years old. Yep, I completed 80 trips around the sun. It was a great birthday with family and friends. Julies and Jim and the pups, Brenda and Andy from Ft. Branch, and sister-in-law Karen came for dinner and a couple of brewskis. I did all of the cooking. I did a coastal shrimp boil with red potatoes, corn on the cob, smoked sausage, and of course shrimp. I have been wanting to do one for some time and I thought that my birthday would be the perfect opportunity. I also made a peach buckle and it turned out very well. Ms. Kate was my “co-pilot” with good instructions on when to add what to the boil. As most always happens, between the two of us it all turned out well, and we all ate a bit too much. 

Yesterday I played a trumpet solo at church. I found a sound called “Until Then” on You Tube sometime ago that was being played by Phil Collingsworth of the Collingsworth family and decided that some day I need to play that somewhere. So, since yesterday was the day after my 80th birthday, I decided to do it then. It took a lot of rehearsing to get it right because frankly, my lips and lungs are far from what they use to be, but I’m happy to say that my performance went off without a hitch. Folks seemed to enjoy it. Of course that means that I’m silly enough to think I need to start on another piece to play. Kate is fond of “In The Garden”, so I might start working on that. Maybe sometime in the fall I can do that one at church. I also like “Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone”. We’ll see if any of that actually happens. 

For my 2nd day of my 81st year, I’m doing laundry. Somehow —— it seems a bit anticlimactic! Have a wonderful week. Peace. 

 Well it has been another minute since my last entry of course. I don’t apologize for that; life does keep a person busy.

Ms. Kate is doing fairly well. She is snack in AFIB again. We think the medication change is helping some but time will tell. We have to take her in for another cardioversion on the 8th of August. They will take her in and shock her heart again to put it back in rhythm. The thought is that with the medicine change and the procedure, it should work this time. We pray it does. Until then, we just handle things one day at a time. 

We have been out and about some in the past few days. I don’t know if I told you but we bought a “rollater” for Kate so she can get around better. But so far we’ve only been place where I go in so she hasn’t used it. She could have used it at church Sunday but didn’t; I personally think it was an “image issue” for her. 

Today we went to Posey County to the peach orchard and pick up three “half peck” boxes of peaches. We had gone last Saturday and picked up some and they are gone. She says she wants to make a “peach buckle” which I understand is much like a cobbler. Anything that is like a cobbler has my interest. This Saturday we are celebrating my 80th birthday with a small invite party. I asked Kate if we could do a “coastal shrimp-boil”. I told her I would even do the cooking. We will have Julie and Jim and Karen here and I have asked Brenda and Andy to join us. Brenda’s mom, Georgia Ann, share this day as a birthday and we always celebrated it. So, the thing is that a shrimp boil is all inclusive meaning that you don’t really need anything else beyond the main dish. But, Kate says she want maybe make a dessert. I had originally thought that we would make a freezer of ice cream but then we said that it would maybe not go well with seafood  and a few beers. We’ll see what happens. 

This Sunday I am playing a trumpet solo for church. I don’t know why I put stuff on my plate like this. So, I have been having to try to get my lip and lungs in condition enough to get through the song. This morning our organist came to the house and we collaborated on the song and it sounded good. With luck, it will all go well come Sunday. 

I spent a lot of time in the yard yesterday and this afternoon. I was getting rid of all of the random saplings that continually grow in my flowerbeds. It is a never ending battle. And I mowed my front yard and Dan’s front yard this afternoon. 

That’s it for today. Have a wonderful rest of your week. Peace. 

Good morning on this July 8th. It is 80 degree this morning which would be very pleasant were not the humidity about the same as the temperature. Yuk. I have to water my tomatoes this morning. We are maybe getting some rain this evening but probably not until tomorrow evening. I was out there this morning to do something for the neighbor and saw a couple of piles of deer poop by my plants. But, I didn’t see any nibbles from the plants. Bambi needs to stay out of my garden. 

My squash are done with. I guess I will go ahead and pull up those plants. Maybe I can think of something to plant in there yet. I also need to do some weeding in my raised beds. My zinnias are blooming as are my marigolds. That makes me happy as it is the first time I have raised either. But the weeds are covering up the zinnia blooms. My tomatoes are doing a good job of producing so I am declaring my gardening a success for 2024. The only thing that did not do well was my asparagus. It produced very little. But my sister-in-law said that her’s didn’t do well this year either. Maybe it was a bad year for asparagus. I don’t know. I’m not going to worry bout it. 

Kate had a bad weekend. I had hoped that when we came home from the hospital she would be a lot better on the new meds and she was —— for about a day and a half. I don’t know if it is the medicine change or what;  but she has been totally lethargic all weekend. She can’t keep her eyes open and yet she’s not sleeping either. But, she had a really good night’s sleep last night so I’m hopeful tat this is turning around. We have an appointment tomorrow with her FNP. We’ll see what she has to say. We were supposed to go on another vacation in mid-August for a reunion of my military buddies and their families. But, I have cancelled that because I just can’t trust traveling with Kate because I never know from one day to the next what her health status is going to be. I pray this is not defying he rest of our life. 

That’s it for today. Have a great week. Peace. 

 4th of July, 2024! I pray you are having a wonderful day. 

Yes it has been a a while since I last wrote. We have been back from our vacation now for a couple of weeks and one would hope that life would be smooth, but that doesn’t seem to happen around here very often any more. When we cm e home from the vacation, Ms. Kate was having complications with breathing and rapid heart beat even when she exerted the slightest effort. She didn’t want to call the doctor  and decided that she would hope it would just get better. It didn’t. On Wednesday of last week she finally called her cardiologist office and they set her up with an appointment but it wasn’t until August 14th; a disappointing answer. By Thursday morning she couldn’t handle it anymore and called them again and they told her to go to the emergency room. We figured that she was in AFIB again because she has gone through this twice and has had to be shocked back into rhythm each time. The Emergency room doctors confirmed our fears and admitted her. 

They began a battery of tests which lasted over several days and finally determined that they would put in a pacemaker on Monday morning. In the meantime, they had changed some medications and started some others and she began to improve. Monday morning came and a new diagnostic plan was put into place that they would not put in a pacemaker but would instead make some changes to her medication. Tat was shocking to us ass it was a radical diversion from their other diagnosis. But —- to be clear, none of us wanted her to have a pacemaker, but it seemed that every time a new “specialist” came in, there was a different answer; and the one thing that bothered us was that no one had consulted with her actual Cardiologist because he is not in the Deaconess System but in the Ascension System. We told the heart team that we absolutely wanted her cardiologist in on any discussion of her treatment. They made that happen and her Cardiologist team came to see her and assure us that they were all in agreement with the new plan. 

So, now, she is home, doing well on a new medication regimen and is doing better than she has done in a very long time. All praise to God for the miracles that He allows mankind to perform. 

I want to give a shout-out to the Deaconess Midtown Hospital and their staff. There are two Deaconess Hospital locations here in Evansville. Midtown is “the old one” and Kate has been associated with it literally all her life because she was born there. The “new” Deaconess Gateway is a ginormous medical complex and is also a really good hospital but the atmosphere there, while much more bright and shiny, is also much more aloof and seemingly less caring. So, “Thank you” Midtown Deaconess hospital for your excellent care of Ms. Kate. 

During this last event, Julie came over from Louisville and spent a couple of days with us and then Lisa came up from North Carolina and spent a couple of days with us too. It was wonderful to have them here with us. Had she not gone home Tuesday, Heather was prepared to fly from California to be with us too. No wonder I love my girls so much. 

May God bless you on this day of celebration of our freedom. Peace. 

 I’m here just twiddling my thumbs until it is time to take Kate to her hair appointment. She only is going for a wash and set and haircut. It takes about 45 minutes. While she is in there I will run to Walgreens and pick up her prescription then go back to the salon and wait. After that we plan to go to the new “Nellies North” restaurant that is on the way home and have some brunch. 

Today is an excessive heat day, I will keep my butt inside to the maximum extent possible. No way do either I or Kate need to be out working in the yard or much of anything else. We may run up to the farm market between Owensville and Princeton and get some corn and maybe some other veggies. Then I’d like to run into Princeton and drop off a Walmart bag full of bottle caps for recycle. It takes us about a year to collect enough to take up there. 99% of it is caps from Kate’s water bottles. She goes through a lot of bottles of Desani. It is amazing how much even bottled water has gone up. Not so long ago I was paying maybe $4.00 a case and now it is almost double that unless I can get it on sale. 

I’ve been working on my song that I’m playing at church on July 21st. It is called “Until Then”, by Stuart Hamelin. It is tough getting the lungs and lips reconditioned to do a song. But, I wanted to do one to celebrate turning 80 just to prove to myself that I can still do it. And, without trying to brag —- I think I do a good job. Although I’m a far cry from the trumpet player I once was. It brings back memories of when I was in high school. I had a five piece combo I called The Personalities” and we would play for weddings, bar mitzvas, and high school reunions. There would always seem to be “that old guy” that wanted to play my trumpet to show he “still had it” from his own glory days. And the only song they ever knew was “When the Saints Go Marching In”, and they were always terrible. I don’t want to “be that guy”, so I’m practicing. Maybe I will hang up my horn when I finish this one. 

Time to take my lady do and what we need to do. I pray you have a blessed day. Peace. 

 Good afternoon  on this 24th day of June, 2024. It’s a warm one for sure; nothing but sunshine and a generous amount of humidity out there but tomorrow is supposed to be worse before the rain comes in. Ms. Kate and I had to go to to the doctor’s office for her to have her INR blood test done. Then we stopped over at Schnuck’s grocery store so I could pick up a few things that we were out of. From there we decided to drive across the paring lot to Sonic for a quick bite of lunch. Sonic is a good little chain “car-hop” type of drive-in restaurant. 

So —- yes, we are home from vacation. All of the family members have made it safely back to their homes and life begins again. I spent two years planning this vacation and you know the hassles we went through at the last moment with the rental company declaring bankruptcy in January and changing the location we were to stay in. I must say though, —— the place we ended up in was just “over the top” in every way. It was a $2.4 million mansion; 8 bedrooms, nine baths, gigantic pool. I can’t imagine us ever staying in such a place again but it was a great “once in a life time” adventure. 

Most of the family was able to come. Josh and his family were not able to make it because great-grandson Jacob was graduating from High school. Grandson Jon is involved in Real Estate classes to get his license and could not make it and Granddaughter Lauren has a new position in her job and has no vacation time but other than that, the 17 of us had a wonderful time

We are all looking forward to 2026 and our next reunion. We plan to head back to Pigeon Forge, TN next time if I can find a home big enough. I’ve already begun research and while there are places big enough for all of us —- elevators are few and far between. 

So, that’s it for today. I hope you are finding a place in which to stay cool. Peace. 

 Good morning from Frankfort, KY.  It’s 0700 and I am on vacation; so why am I up??? Well, it’s because I’m sitting here surrounded by love. Ms. Kate and three out of four of my wonderful daughters are sitting here with conversations going 100mph! I’m in love. I’m not sure if Heather is up yet or maybe she is out on a 5K walk. She does that. 

After all of the worry and trouble that we went through getting into the our vacation place, I must say that this place is over the top fantastic. I have never been in a place like this opulent. We are walking ourselves silly getting from one end of the house to the other. It’s become a joke asking where is this person or where is that person. It doesn’t do any good to “holler’ for them because they couldn’t hear you anyway. 

Several of the family spent the afternoon and evening in the pool. It was a perfect day for it and is going to be a perfect day for it again today. I think the kids all have different things on their agenda for this week but I don’t know what they are. I personally don’t plan to do anything except sit here and listen to the the kids come and go and maybe read my new Stephen King novel. We have two of the great grandchildren boys here. One of them turned 14 today and we will have a birthday party for him this evening. 

I had a wonderful time with one of them last evening. The house has a Baby Grand piano in the living room and “Bug” runs his fingers up and down the keyboard  every time he walks through.. Last night he asked me if I would play a song with him and of course I said “yes”. Well, all he knew was the couple of notes from the “Halloween” movie but we tinkered with that for a bit. Then I asked him if he wanted to actually learn a tune and we taught him to play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” He has a natural talent and his parents need to follow up on that and see if it develops into something. I have offered them one of my pianos. All they have to do is come and get it. 

So that’s it for this vacation Monday. Have a blessed week. Peace. 

 No, I’m not dead, and no, I haven’t forgotten how to write.  And no, I haven’t quit blogging; —- I just haven’t taken the time to actually sit down and write something. It’s not that I have been overly busy, —- I well, just didn’t feel like doing it. So I thought today I might catch you up on my boring life. 

We’re still dealing with some wound care for Ms. Kate. It doesn’t amount to a lot. We are basically down to a “large band-aid” type of dressing. She still has a very minor amount of draining but it is enough to be a inconvenience. So we change it once a day. She still has had Home Health visits but I they are going to re-evaluate her need for that on Friday and I suspect they will release her. That is a good thing. 

Since I have last written, our roofing contractor has come and totally finished up the last thing that he needed to do. He has been paid and we can now put the storm totally behind us. I finally got the insurance settlement check back from the mortgage company so I could deposit it. It took them six weeks and countless calls from me to get them to endorse the check and send it back. That was the last thing I had to do with that; so, another stress is gone. 

Saturday we are heading to Frankfort, KY for our vacation. We actually check into the rental estate on Sunday. I think I told you all about the hassles and headaches we had with that project. But it has all worked out and the entire family is excited. Ms. Kate and I have stuff laid out to put in suitcases and I already have stuff in the car. I will relax as soon and I get through the Estate security gate and know that it really is happening. 

Between Ms. Kate’s multiple health issues, a wind storm laying a tree on our home, dealing with cleanup and repairs from the storm, dealing with incompetency at the mortgage company, and dealing with the vacation rental issues: ——- my stress level since February had been off the chart. When I get to the Rental Estate the first thing I am going to do is say a prayer of gratitude to God for keeping me fairly calm and sane through all of this and then I’m going to have a tall cold beer and sit beside the pool and relax, and listen to the glorious voices of my family as they chatter and laugh and share love.  

I will try not to wait so long until my next entry. Peace. 

 Happy June 1st. Do we realize that in 30 days this year will be half gone??? It’s kind of hard to believe. And so far, 2024 has been a year that has kept us pretty stressed out. I’m hoping most of our drama is pretty well over. That leads me up to an update on Ms. Kate for you. We are very pleased with her progress. I am still changing dressing every day but the “leakage” is very minimal. The dressing is hardly wet after 24 hours of being on. We see an end to the whole thing very soon. All praise to God that this process may be coming to an end. I’ll be the first to admit that I have not been very patient with it and have stressed and stressed over it all. Jesus addressed this kind of behavior on many occasions but —- letting go of a situation is so very hard isn’t it?

Kate’s health is just one of our stress items these days. I told you that my insurance company sent me a good settlement for the damage that we had form the April 1st storm and Kate and I endorsed the check and then had to send it to our mortgage company because they were also an addressee on the check. I needed to send the check to them so they could send me back a check addressed only to me & Kate. Well, it has been a month since I sent them the check and they still have not returned my money to me. They have continual asked for paperwork that I see no reason for them to need. I finally faxed them a 14 page document last week which is the entire USAA file on my case. So, we are still waiting on them to “review it” and send us our money. It is so frustrating. But again —- I need to stop stressing and let God handle it. 

But if that wasn’t enough —- we are leaving for vacation in two weeks and have contracted, and rented a beautiful really large home for all of the family to come in for a family reunion. We learned last week that that company we rented the house from has declared bankruptcy and they lost the place that we were supposed to rent. So, they sent us confirmation for a different home and have delayed our check-in date by one day. And —- it’s in a different city!!!!!! So, I have been dealing with all of this for about ten days now. Granted, if the “new place” actually comes to fruition —- it is a over they top fantastic place; —— but, all we can do is hope that we don’t show up at the door with 17 people and find out it was a scam. So, again —- turning it all over to God is tough!!  

That’s all I got!  Have a blessed weekend. Peace. 

 Another weekend of storms across America. We were spared and damage at our house but other parts of the tri-state were not so lucky. I haven’t listened to the news yet today but I know there were tornadoes south of us in Kentucky. We had a lot of thunder and lightning but the wind was minimal. So, I give thanks to the Lord this morning. 

The wether outlook for the week though is for beautiful the entire week. We can certainly use a break. People need time to clan up. I told you the other day about the saga of ours getting our settlement. It still has not been resolved, but I’m hoping this week. I’m so tired of all of the “rigamaro” of all of this. I detest having to deal with anything that has to do with money and that kind of stuff. This has been a nightmare. 

Saturday we gathered together some flowers and went out to the cemeteries to put flowers on graves as needed. The ones on my parents graves were still winter flowers and looked pretty bad. So we put new flowers on both and a flag on dad’s. We also went a put a flag on the grave of a long time friend that was killed in Vietnam. 

Once I get off of my rear end today, I’m going out and “deadhead” iris and peonies. I have been telling myself that for several days and it still hasn’t gotten done. I also need to tie up my tomato plants some more. They are really getting tall and I have a lot of tomatoes on that need he support. 

That’s it for today. Have a great week. Speak a word of gratitude today for the sacrifice of so many Americans that we have lost in the defense of our nation of the decades. Peace. 

 Another week has gone by and I’m wondering where it went. But —- here it is Wednesday and the week is half over. 

I started out my week with the most unpleasant of activities; —- prepping for my colonoscopy. That procedure happened Monday afternoon, so needless to say, I was not in a “writing mood” on Monday morning. I’m glad to report that the exam went very well and I’m good to go until my next lube and oil change in 3-5 years, should I live that long. 

Yesterday, was a busy day and Ms. Kate had an appointment so our day got wrapped around that, and I spent the morning dealing with the insurance company and mortgage company via phone. Pardon my language but: &^%%$#@@@!!!!  There, I feel better. Here’s my long story: On April 22nd, we got our insurance company’s settlement check for the storm damage repair. It was a good settlement. However, — and I may have already told you this saga, the check they sent me was made out to me, Ms. Kate, and the mortgage company, because they are still owners of the home until the mortgage is paid off. On May first I called the mortgage company and ask for the process to get their endorsement on the check so I could bank it and pay my contractor that did the repairs. They told me what all they needed, —- I promptly put the package together and sent it to the mortgage company. Allegedly the process should have taken no more than 10 days from the time I sent it to them until I received my money back from them. After waiting 15 days, I called them only to find out that they had not established a file on me, and had no record of having received my check and paperwork. Fortunately, I was talking to someone to was willing to work the issue. She immediately established a file on me and it instantly showed receipt of the check and my paperwork. She said that they will review it and send me my money with 3-6 business days. 

Monday evening I got an email from the mortgage company saying they had enclosed the letters that I had requested. Needless to say that being fresh off of the colonoscopy table, I was in no mood to deal with that, but yesterday morning I called them. The initial person that I talked to said they had no record of having received an anything from me. I bit my lip and asked for a different person. That agent said that they had reviewed the package but they had a question about it and that I needed to send them more information. He had no explanation for the email that I had received. By now, I was extremely frustrated so I called my USAA insurance folks (wonderful people to deal with, by the way) explained the situation and a very lovely lady said she would grab hold of the problem for me, would fax would them the entire file so I could get my money. So ——- now I will wait another week and see what happens. In the meantime, I will ask for forgiveness for all my evil thoughts about certain people and their bureaucratic practices. 

That catches you up to today. I hope you have a wonderful day! Peace. 

 There are good days and then there are better days. But today — was a day of a long awaited blessing. We had our appointment with Kate’s surgeon this morning and her doctor said she doesn’t have to come back to see him anymore. Needless to say we are thrilled. We still have to do some minor dressing but she is doing great. God is so good!!. This was the culmination of 15 months of pain and doctors and hospital stays and surgeries. We thank all of you that have included her in your prayers and are so grateful for your love and friendship. 

Peace. 

 A new week hs arrived. I hope you had a good weekend, and if you are a mother, I hope you were well acknowledged and appreciated.  Julie and the pups came over from New Albany on Saturday and spent the night with us. She fixed us supper of Naan bred pizza’s and then ordered Cold Stone delivered. Heather ordered and sent Kate some beautiful roses and lilies, and Lisa sent a box of candy & special popcorn treats. I fixed lunch yesterday after I got home from church. I broke out my Blackstone griddle and fixed Pork-steak and veggies on the griddle. Also heated up a Bob Evans mashed potato package. Lunch was good. 

I have my first tomato on my plants. I am very excited. As you know, I raised these babies from a seed. So, to see them actually fruit, is a great thing. The plants have a lot of blooms on them so I’m expecting a good crop. We have one special plant that is called a Holy Land tomato that our cleaning lady brought us from up in Amish Country. It has really grown too and I just had to tie it up because it need some support. It’s gonna be a good tomato year. LOL.

Good news about Ms. Kate. The open wound that we have been treating for three months is really finally closing up. I have been packing it some times twice a day and now I’m not sure the opening is big enough to get the head of the q-tip through without forcing it, and I won’t do that. And we celebrated yesterday that we actually went through a week with out having to go to the hospital. All praise to God, I think we are coming to a closure on this horrible chapter. 

Tat’s it for the start of the week. I pray you will have a week full of blessings. Peace.