Family Updates

We’ve had quite a busy week. I apologize for not getting an update out about Aunt Mar before now. Our routine has been anything but normal and the details have been slow in coming. Last week I reported that the X-rays and CT scan on Aunt Mar showed nothing was broken. Not being satisfied with this the doctors ordered an MRI and a bone scan. The bone scan showed something that looked a bit suspicious and after comparing it with the other test results they decided that her pelvis really is fractured in the transverse process (close to where the pelvis joins the backbone). We didn’t get that news until late Wednesday. Thursday she was discharged to a nursing home, NHC Springfield, for rehab.

It was late Thursday when Aunt Mar got to NHC. Mom and I spent most of the evening getting her settled in. By Friday night her leg was in a lot of pain and the nursing home called us to say they were sending Aunt Mar to the ER at NorthCrest to look for a possible blood clot. The great thing is that the ultrasound found nothing to worry about and the pain has been attributed to muscle cramps.

Aunt Mar is still having some pain, but seems to be doing pretty well in spite of this. So far no one has said anything to make us think that she cannot recover from this. What we have heard is that healing is slow and painful so we trust she will be back home at some point in the future. Aunt Mar sure wants to get back home as quickly as possible. It was in the context of going back home that we asked her Saturday how her leg was feeling. She replied with a twinkle in her eye, “Getting better all the time!” She has a long way to go since she hasn’t been up to walk at all since she was admitted to the hospital last week.

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I have also been anxious to update you on something else for the last two weeks. The timing to do so simply hasn’t been right until now.

For the last year or so people at church have been discussing what can be done to expand the ministries we offer. One idea we’ve had is to hire a Children’s Minister. In all this time the talk has shifted from kicking ideas around to actually moving forward with a plan to hire someone part time. Two and a half weeks ago Bro. Bill spotted Vicki at our Wednesday evening meal and asked if she could spare some time to drop by the office the next day. When they met he asked her if she would consider serving our church in this capacity. The church staff and personnel team had talked about her and felt she would be a good fit for the job which is really a great compliment to Vicki. After much prayer she met with the staff and personnel team Wednesday evening and told them she was willing to be considered for the job. She will probably be asked to give a brief testimony at church in a week or two and then will be up for a church vote some time after that. Please pray for us and our church to have clear guidance from God over the next few weeks.

Joe

Living in Limbo

I write you having come through a very busy (and cold) weekend, and it is not over.

First of all, Aunt Mar fell Friday morning. Aunt Mar has been very fortunate over the last couple of years as she has fallen several times and managed not to break anything since the hip in 2005. I believe she is tougher than a Sherman tank. Friday morning she was standing in front if her bathroom sink when she fell backwards. Her left hip hit the doorknob behind her really hard. She was able to get back up but was in extreme pain. Mom called Vicki and they decided she needed to go to the hospital and that it would be wiser to move her by ambulance (but only after they had combed her hair).

Aunt Mar was transported to Skyline Medical Center where she spent a good deal of time in the ER. They admitted her and she has been there all weekend. The good news in all of this is that so far the X-rays and CT scan have not shown any broken bones. But she is still in a lot of pain. She is supposed to be evaluated by an orthopedic surgeon sometime today. She has only been up to walk one time during her stay and needs a lot of assistance to even reposition herself in the bed. Any movement is painful for her. We hope the surgeon will check out her back.

We all know when dealing with health crises like this that there are lots of questions and the answers are very slow in coming. It is pretty obvious that we cannot provide the care Aunt Mar needs if she returns home in her current condition. And while we know nothing in the hip area is broken we don’t know what is causing her pain. And then we wonder if she will recover or if this is now the new normal for her. Please pray for us as we learn more and we, as a family, make decisions that affect Aunt Mar and our family as a whole.

What made our weekend so interesting was that we had a couple of things on the schedule we could not drop. I had agreed to work sound for the Yates-Wix wedding at church which blocked off Friday night and most of Saturday for me. It was a very pretty wedding and went well.

Several weeks ago Vicki had purchased tickets for herself and Pauline to go to a special Gospel show at the Grand Ole Opry last night. She reports that it was a fabulous show which included the following artists: Ronnie Milsap, Sara Evans, Trace Adkins, Loretta Lynn, Dierks Bentley, Vince Gill, Charlie Daniels and Carrie Underwood. The show was recorded and CDs titled How Great Thou Art: Gospel Favorites from the Grand Ole Opry will hit stores on February 5. If you get Great American Country on your cable/satellite service you can watch the show February 9, 8:00-9:30 EST. Vicki and Pauline had a good time out on the town together.

We are really glad today is a holiday so we can catch our breath before starting the week tomorrow.

Joe

Inside Out Pajamas

Well, here we are halfway through January. We were having snow flurries when the kids went to bed last night. They sure were disappointed when school was running on time this morning. So much for wearing pajamas inside out to make it snow..

CHRISTMAS ‘07 IS NOW CHRISTMAS PAST. Part of our Christmas traditions include getting together with the Ashland City relatives for a holiday dinner. This year it was our turn to go to there. It did not work out for us to go until Saturday and it was a wonderful visit. Judging from the volume, the kids really enjoyed each other as did the adults. We were really late getting home that night. Now Amanda, who had unintentionally left her Christmas tree up, can take down her decorations and get ready for Baby Dee #3 who is due February 26.

GAMECUBE ON THE BRAIN. I guess I was this way when I was a kid and had my old Atari 2600, but it is simply amazing how well those boys know their games. Nate gets so excited and comes to tell me about all they’ve done and I’m left going, “Uh-huh, yeah.” The other morning I woke him up and he was a little put out with me for doing so. It seems I woke him out of “the bestest dream ever” where he was actually playing inside a video game that was a cross between Monkey Ball and Lego Star Wars.

SHOOTING ME THE LOOK. Sometimes it is so easy to get Ben’s goat. One way to do that is to start talking about the cute little patch of freckles on his nose. Here lately I’ve found something else that really makes him cut his eyes at me. You see, I’ve explained to him that you know a dog is healthy when his nose is cold. Now when he gives me a kiss before he gets on the school bus I’ll say, “Yep, you’re healthy!”

WHAT’S THAT NAME AGAIN? Over the course of time we have picked up the first and second seasons of The Waltons on DVD and Jenna has discovered these. What made me crack up was when she proudly announced to me that she was in the middle of watching The Watsons. So if you want to make her blush....

Joe

Starting the New Year Off

The holidays are over and it’s time to get back to business. It’s sort of sad when you pack away all the Christmas decorations for another year, but I know Thanksgiving will be here before we know it and we’ll be pulling it all back out again.

We had some really cold weather last week, at least for us. There was one day the temperature never got above 20°. Then there is today with a low of 56° and a high of 67°. Go figure.

WOWED AND AMAZED. Around our house I am the first one up, and the boys are usually up before Vicki and Jenna. Sometimes the boys get up so early I send them back to bed (anything before 6:30 is too early). When they do get up at a decent time I remind them they need to be quiet because others in the house are still sleeping. Even with this reminder I’ve had to confiscate their light sabers before so as to stop a loud duel at 7:00 or so. That’s why the other morning when Ben and Nate noticed Vicki awake in bed Ben said to her, “Oh good, We’re all up! You’re up, Jenna’s up and Daddy’s up.” Nate added, “Everybody in the whole world is up.”

Ben tuned to Nate to correct him. He explained how it is night time on the other half of the world and that people there were sleeping. Nate pondered this for a good long moment and then, with a sense of wonder in his voice, asked Ben, “How do you know everything?”

BASKETBALL SEASON. I think I’ve reported that Jenna and Ben are playing Upward Basketball again this year. Their season got under way Saturday. Ben is still young enough to play half court ball but Jenna has moved up to a full court game. This means Ben has morning games while Jenna plays in the afternoon.

Ben started the season in good form with six points to his credit. Each time he scored he looked over to see if I was watching. There was one time the ball got loose and he made a pretty good dive to the floor to get it. Once he had possession of the ball he hopped up and scored!

Jenna wasn’t quite ready for a full court game. As those of us with a fair complexion tend to do, she got so hot her face was all splotched. Her team only has six players so she really got a workout. She didn’t score but she got several rebounds.

EAGLE EYED DAD. Ben and I had arrived home from Scouts. He had gotten a snack and I noticed he was leaving all his trash in my truck as we were getting out. I called his attention to it. He cleaned it up with a good natured, “Aw, I was hoping you wouldn’t notice that.”

PICTURES ONLINE. I reported about a month ago that my next project was to start putting pictures online and that we had started an account with Shutterfly to accomplish this. The goal is to start at the first of this year and keep up with current pictures as well as work backwards with our old pictures. Right now I have several albums from our Christmas up. Just go to the home page for our blog and you’ll find links to our pictures there.

Joe