Good Morning!

I meant to update this yesterday because today's going to be a busy day. But, due to sheer laziness, I didn't get it done.

Bill started running a fever last Saturday afternoon with chills. He also was a little nauseous. Got some meds in him and finally got him to eat a bowl of soup. Then he started coughing. Changed from just Tylenol for the fever to Tylenol Sinus and by Sunday afternoon he was fine. Our weather was changing again and I think that had something to do with it.

The repairman finally came Wednesday morning and got the stove door back together. Only charged us $20 for gas which is good because the first time I opened the door, the gasket came off! I did use the oven and it worked fine, it's just the idea that after only 4 years, with about 1/2 that time not being used while we were in Florida, it's falling apart. I tried to buy just a door, but they don't sell them that way. So, there's another repairman in town and I'm going to call him. If he can't fix it I guess we'll be looking at another stove.

Today I'm going shopping with Emily and the girls. There's nothing I need, but it's school shopping for them. She found she doesn't need to buy as much as she thought she did so it will be a quicker trip. We're going to a mall in Mississippi. Em's been there before and I'm mainly going to have a day out. Brianna and her friend Madison asked if their boyfriends could go too but I told them no, so Bri said we're going to be power-shopping! They've already made plans to call them when we're 20 miles out so they can meet us at Em's when we get home! Ah to be 15 and in love!

Days when I leave Bill alone are still a little nerve-wracking for me. But, since it's Saturday Ron is off and will probably come to visit and Bill can hang out with him. I'm going to make sure he takes his morning meds and we'll be home before other "critical" meds are due. There's hot dogs and peanut butter for lunch but he has money so he could go buy something to eat if he wanted to. I'll just try not to worry too much!

All for this week, I've got to get a move on! Have a good week-end. If you're sending kids off to school this week, you can breathe a sigh of relief, you made it through another summer!

Happy Saturday! It's been a little trying for us today, but more on that later!

We've had a busy week, at least it seemed like it was busy to me. We took Kayden and Kiyann to their daddy's Sunday afternoon and made it home in time for church. The surprising thing was that Amanda had gone to church that morning and they were all going back that evening! They even went Wednesday night! Maybe things are looking up for them. She also got a callback for a job and starts training tomorrow night!

Tuesday, my birthday, Bill had to have some bloodwork done and we found a lab in Jonesboro instead of using our regular dr. The lab at the dr. can only run part of the tests and the others have to be sent to another lab and take 2 weeks to get the results. The lab we found could do all of the tests and have the results the next day. So, we headed out early in the morning since they were fasting labs. Bill said that the girls was really good. I wondered at her choice of vein since she used one in his forearm instead of his elbow, but what do I know! Then we went to breakfast and the mall to get my diamond ring checked. They found some loose prongs this time so it was sent off to be fixed. Bill had just said that it really seemed like a waste of time to get it checked twice a year, but the repair won't cost anything, so it's now worth it to keep the warranty in place. Then back to Ryan's to pick the kids up and bring them home. They stayed at our house all afternoon since mom was working and Joe was doing some yard work for someone. Bill then took me out for a birthday steak!

We got the results from Stephanie on Thursday and she said all of his numbers looked good and she didn't anticipate the dr. making any changes. She was pleased and said she would see us in 3 months.

It's been horribly hot and humid since Wednesday and we've had several thundershowers, nothing severe but heavy, heavy rain, and then gets even steamier. This pattern is supposed to last into the middle of next week, but it is August!

We finally go the right part in for the oven door. I downloaded a step-by-step guide to replacing the window. So, this afternoon we decided to do it. We got the door taken apart and then then fun began. The little gasket is supposed to be like double-sided tape, and we can get it on and the window on it but as soon as we put the door back together the glass slides back down. So, after working up a tremendous sweat, and getting very frustrated I called a repairman. He won't be able to come until Tuesday, but, since I haven't been able to use it since July 4th, what's a couple more days! Of course it's (the door) now laying in pieces on the dining room table. Ah life!

That's how our week has gone. So, we're going to have a quick lunch and watch the Cubs game this afternoon. Bill said he would take me out to eat tonight since I've had such a frustrating day! Hmmm, maybe I should be frustrated more often!

Another week and another month done! This has been a very good week for us, and profitable!

Bill hasn't had any issues this week. He's been on his treadmill and is moving a little better. I have noticed that when he stands up he waits a minute before he starts to walk. I've been trying to get him to do that for a long time. He's always been one that starts to move as soon as he stands so he's finally realized that if he waits a minute his body responds better.

We made it through McKenna's birthday party. It was pretty hot, but they had a couple of canopies to sit under. Emily could have just done water balloons since they were the hit of the party. They did have fun on the slip-n-slide until it got too muddy. Kenna said the dog had fun sliding on it the next day!

Kiyann's party was Sunday evening and she was excited with all her presents. She especially liked the baby carriage we got her. She said we were just the best! Hers was a pool party and when everyone went out to swim we came home. It was really hot so we didn't want to sit out again.

I check through the medical paperwork and we had not received anything saying that our coverage had changed, so Monday morning I called Mayo Pharmacy. She said it looked like it had not been run through insurance at all. She ran it back through and everything went just fine. The total they had charge was $884 and we are getting a credit back to the card of $852, so that's not too bad. It was very easy to do and she was very apologetic. I did make sure when I ordered his meds yesterday that they ran the insurance while I was on the phone with them.

Our insurance for the house and cars was due yesterday and I had not been happy since we had to change it last year. Our homeowner's carrier told us last year, at the last minute, that to keep the homeowner's policy, we had to also had to have our auto policy with them. Since it was last minute, we had no choice, and our car insurance went way up. So, this year, even though I waited until almost the end, I started doing some shopping. We had had our auto policy with The Hartford for years and was very satisfied with their coverage but I didn't know if they insured in Arkansas. For some reason they don't want to insure here, could it be because of the New Madrid fault? Anyway, Hartford does and we got the homeowners, for $100 less than what we were paying, with better coverage, and the auto for $500 less a year! We saved almost the amount of the other policy for 6 months coverage! So Monday turned out to be a very profitable day and business got taken care of without much fuss!

Emily and Brianna are at a youth conference so we had McKenna Thursday and Friday while Bryan was working. She's no trouble now for the most part. She will be glad when Mom gets home though. She's a mommy's girl and always has been. We took her shopping to spend some of her birthday loot.

The part came in for my oven...and it was the wrong part again! We think we finally have ordered the right one this time. The parts diagram they have is not clear and they don't have a description of the part, so it's really hit and miss.

We're taking the kids to Ryan's again today. Mistie was taking them school shopping today since it's tax free week-end. Tomorrow I'm playing the piano at church while Nita takes a mini-vacation before school starts.

That's it for this week. It's going to get hot now, after July was the coolest on record. We've really liked the cooler weather and I'm not looking forward to the heat. Hope everyone has had a good week and will have a good week-end and coming week.

Another week down. This one seemed to go very fast!

Bill had another episode with his leg not wanting to work. This is not the leg affected by the stroke. But, it is the leg that had "something" go on after his LVAD implant. The drs. never did determine what happened then and he hasn't had any trouble with it since then except for now. I really think that he's just been sitting too much and it's going to sleep.

I also misspoke last week about K'zalee being our next to youngest great-grandchild. There are 2 younger than her, not 1. It's hard to keep them all straight! Brianna babysat for her most of the week and she, K'zalee not Brianna, adapted really well. She didn't cry much when Tina dropped her off, unless she was really tired, and most of the time she didn't want to go home!

It seems like we've really been running the roads. We made the trip to Millington, TN to get my ID renewed, Jackson, TN to get my car serviced, Paragould, AR to take the kids to Ryan, and a trip to Jonesboro, AR for a little shopping! I'll need another oil change before long if we keep that up!

Today is McKenna's 10th birthday party! Her birthday is tomorrow and Kiyann will be 7 tomorrow. They are both growing way too fast! I still have presents to wrap, although Kenna just wanted money this year. She's finally decided she likes shopping!

We did have an interesting afternoon Wednesday. I got a phone call, on the home phone from a lady here in town who said that she had gotten a call from our number to lower her mortgage! I know that there are apps for cell phones to clone numbers and I'm sure that's what has been done. So, I called AT&T and, although the woman was very nice, no-one had heard of this happening before! They had no suggestions except to change our number and since we've had this number for 25 years, that wasn't an option. But, she looked over all of our services and suggested some changes that would save us over $100 a month! So, yesterday a technician came and upgraded some things. So, even though my problem wasn't solved, saving money is a good thing!

And, speaking of money, I was looking at an email that monitors Bill credit and saw that one of the credit cards had a really high balance. So, I check the card and saw that there was a charge for Mayo pharmacy for $833! That's about the cost of the immuno-suppressive meds that are supposed to be paid 100% by Medicare. We haven't gotten anything that I know of from Medicare or the pharmacy telling us of any changes, so my job for today and tomorrow, between birthday parties and church, is to go through paperwork to see if we have gotten something that Bill didn't show me. Then, Monday morning make some phone calls to see what's going on.

That's it for this time! Hope everyone had a good week and will have a good week-end!

We've had a lovely cool week and all of the rain has missed us...so far! I think we're supposed to get some rain today, but all of the heavy rain yesterday was south of us. It looked like we were going to get some at times, but we were lucky.

Bill has been more forgetful the last couple of days than he has been in a long time. I've hoping that it's just a matter of being dry. He did have a little episode Sunday morning when he stood up to go to church. His right leg didn't want to hold any weight. Between me and the arm of the couch he managed to stay upright, and then the leg was fine and he hasn't had any further episodes. So, I've been trying to push more fluids again.

We've had a full week with grandkids and news of grandkids. McKenna came down with something this week that has/had everyone baffled, severe headache, fever, chills, all of a sudden. Saw the dr. and made a trip to ER. Nothing showed up on any bloodwork, and then it was gone. She spent Wednesday afternoon with us. The fever had been gone for several hours and she only had a mild headache. She has been checked for ticks, especially since she just got back from camp, but the hospital only ran the basic tests (they were sure it was a urinary tract infection) so we don't know what else might have shown up. This is a kid that never has headaches and she was in tears it was hurting so bad. So, I think the diagnosis has been migraine.

Brianna help preach Wednesday in her youth service and Emily said that she did a fantastic job. She had never seen her prepare for something like she did this, and she even surprised the pastor because she went off script a little with some scriptures. He wanted to know why there wasn't a slide for the scripture, but Emily, who was running the computer, told him she didn't have one for that scripture. But Brianna said that God told her to go there. The pastor was good though, he apparently went in the direction Brianna had started to go and they ended with a great service.

We met our next to youngest great-grandchild this week, Miss K'zalee Haven. She is Bill's son Joe's granddaughter. Joe and Tina are moving back to this area and they have guardianship of her while her daddy is in the Marines for training. He and her mother aren't married and she doesn't want her anymore. But, she walked in here like she owned the place! She's a typical 2 year old, into everything, but she wasn't shy or scared of us, especially after a long day of house hunting. They were able to find something which is good, especially since Tina's transfer starts Monday. She and the baby and her "nanny/employee for Tina" will be here while Joe closes there house and works out the notice for his job. They will be about 45 minutes from us so we'll get to see them more. Bri is going to babysit for her this week because Christy, the nanny, who is also daddy's girlfriend/former girlfriend (I'm still not sure about that relationship) will be working for a few days at a sister store.

We took Kayden and Kiyann to Ryan's last night. They neither one really wanted to go, Kiyann especially. They don't really get along with Amanda, who doesn't let them do anything, while she also, apparently doesn't do anything for them either. She's also been talking badly about Mistie in front of them. Mistie called her while we were there and talked to her about it so hopefully it got straightened out. We took them all to McDonald's and Kiyann was fine until we started to leave. They were going to go with Dad when he delivered his papers last night.

Kayden also told us that he had a great time at church camp and that he got saved! I don't know anything about if he's going to be baptized or not, but he was excited. He also was very surprised to find out that his daddy had been baptized. He said he still cusses so that's a sin! What could I do but agree with him! Maybe he'll ask his daddy about it!

A school classmate lost her husband from cancer a couple of days ago and I've been very sad. This friend was very helpful to me when Bill was so bad after the transplant and I wish there was something I could do for her. But other than prayers, and letting her know I was only a phone call away, there's not much more I can do, especially as she lives in Pennsylvania. It has made me think again about how close that came to being me and knowing how I was feeling in those days.

That's all I can think of for this week. As you can see it was a full week! But, family is what makes all the bad times worthwhile. Hope you all have a good week ahead!

It's a beautiful, but warm, sunny morning! Our weather has been very nice this week, although it has been hot and humid. But that's normal. There have been some storms around us, but we got nothing.

We've had a decent week. It doesn't seem like much was happening, but it went very fast. We spent Monday and Tuesday helping get the children ready for church camp. I thought the little one would have her nose out of joint because they were all going except for her, but all she wanted was to make "marshmallow sandwiches" (s'mores) and to be an only child so she could have mama all to herself!

I had to renew my military ID so we made the 2 hour drive to the naval station in Tennessee yesterday. It was a good day for driving and we took the long way through the country. By the time we waited for my turn and had lunch on the way home, we were gone right at 6 hours. In that time we could have been at Mom's in Illinois!

Bill has been having problems with his tummy so I've started him back on his omeprazole. He only has to take it as needed, but he can't just take 1 pill and be done, he has to take it for 7-14 days. So, we've started that again and he's done better. When he doesn't want to eat, something's wrong!

We got a letter from Mayo yesterday with a prescription for some labwork. We're to take it to our regular clinic and have them draw the blood. It has to be done on a certain day so I'll have to get it on the calendar to make sure we don't forget about it.

I've had some very strange dreams this past week. I usually don't remember dreams, but every night this week they have been pretty crazy. I don't think our routine has changed as far as food and times eaten which usually contributes to it, so I don't know what has caused it.

While Brianna was a camp, as a camper, a couple of weeks ago, she was called into full-time ministry as a missionary. She had been talking about it for a little while. She's know that she wants to be a Christian counselor for a couple of years now, but recently she's also said she wants to help people all over the world. She had talked to her youth pastor about it before, and it was confirmed to her at camp. I'm very proud of the young woman she has become!

That's all for this week. I need to get busy since the laundry is calling my name! Also need to buy a few groceries. We're on stand-by for picking the kids up when they get home from camp. Emily and Bryan have a funeral to attend. This was a young father, only 48, who had cancer. He and his wife were clients of mine. I've talked to his wife and while she knows he's better off, she admitted that she's selfish and wants him with her. I know that I would feel the same way. So, extra prayers today for Karla and the girls to make it through the day.

Happy week-end!

Happy Independence Week-end! I hope everyone had a safe and relaxing day yesterday. We didn't do much, didn't go watch the fireworks, and stayed in for the most part to avoid getting burned by the fireworks down the street. The neighborhood starting with firecrackers in the morning and didn't stop until about midnight! I dread going out this morning and looking around the yard. I'm sure it's littered with trash that the revelers neglected to pick up. Their attitude is "why should I pick it up, it's not my yard"!

This seemed like a strange week, at least to me. The headache I woke up with Saturday morning lasted until Sunday night. I saw a lot of posts online from others with this same type of headache, so I'm wondering if there wasn't something going around. Or maybe the weather. It started raining in the night Saturday and rained all night and until about 2 Sunday afternoon. And it wasn't just rain, it was hard rain.

There was a carry-in dinner at church Sunday and I had managed to make some marinated tomatoes to take, but I definitely wasn't going to make it. Bill also decided that he wasn't going out in the rain. So, Monday I took the tomatoes to Brianna. She loves these tomatoes and I knew she would enjoy them.

We didn't do a lot this week-end. The weather cooled after the rain and has been really pleasant. Bill has walked around the block instead of using his treadmill, wanting to get the fresh air instead. Of course he only walks it once, which takes about 9 minutes, instead of the steady walking on the treadmill for an hour. But, at least he was walking!

We did a little shopping in Jonesboro Friday afternoon and had lunch out. Kayden is going to church camp for the first time this week and he didn't have a Bible, so we bought one for him and Kiyann. We know Brianna has a good Bible and McKenna says she has one, so now they all do.

The one problem we've had this week is that there's a problem with my oven. The handle on the door came loose and we had to take the door apart to tighten those screws. That wasn't a difficult chore, but when the 2 parts came apart, the piece of glass in the door window fell out. It didn't break but it took forever to get it back in so that it would stay. And, the gasket around the window split and won't stay seated. We checked with Sears and they said that the oven can be used but it will lose some heat so I need to adjust for that. They will have to order the gasket. This stove is only 4 years old. My old one lasted 50 years! It was in the house when we bought it and there was a cookbook with it from the 1950's! The stove does have a smaller side oven that I can use, but most of my baking pans won't fit. It is really narrow so I'm limited as to what I can use it for. Anyway, at least it's operational!

That's all for this week, just a normal one for a couple of old folks! I hope you all have a good week ahead!