Monday happenings & my new hitch cover

Monday morning is fast approaching... and there's no turning back now... I am to be at the nurses station at 6am at LB Memorial and ready to put on the fashionable gown/slippers and be escorted to have the IV started, head off to lala land and am first surgery of the day at 7:30am. The two procedures should last 3 hours and than recovery for a couple of hours. The vascular surgeons starts by making the 6inch abdominal incision and parting everything getting the space created to the front of the spine exposed, and than the Spinal Ortho goes to work, and than the vascular surgeon comes back and puts it all back in the right places and staples the incision shut. From recovery I'm assigned to my inpatient room for what should be a loooooooooooong week. I'm an expert at outpatient and it has been 20 yrs since last child delivered that I was admitted to stay. I am absolutely not looking forward to much of any part of this but the lingering in the hospital is absolutely what I dread probably the most. I am going to attach the picture that I took with my cell phone the other day at the pre-op of the hardware sample Dr. Fernando Ravessoud is going to implant.

On the left is the spacer that will "fuse" L5-S1 vertebrae together, the three wells you see on the top of it are where they will insert a putty substance of stem cell protein graft that will harden and stimulate the bone fusing from the bottom up of my own bone to strengthen the union. There are also two tiny screws holes on the top front that will be at an angle to attach to the bone from the front as well. While the two vertebrae have moved 8mm in opposite directions, when this spacer is put in the collapsed space, it won't line them up perfectly but it will move them slightly in the process, but they will no longer move and pinch down on the space between them.

On the right is a two part titanium/plastic disk replacement that will be directly above the spacer location at L4-L5. This is the first thing he will do in the procedure. The dark line in the middle of the clear vertebrae on top is the "keel" that will be dowled into the vertebrae above and below. The new disk will have some motion mobility to mimic a real disk and restore the height that has collapsed and by removing the torn damaged one.

Monday at 10am, Ashley who has been studying her butt off, taking classes for and reading reading reading patient and condition scenarios that might be tested on.. the time has come and the day is here. Three days after she will know whether she has accomplished the CA State Nursing Boards exam successfully. The timing of them on the same day is unfortunate, but was one that by the time I had my surgery date and than she returned from all of her travels (MN, HI, NY) it was too late for either one of us to realign.. But she can't change anything that happens Monday and so hopefully she will just focus on the task at hand and just concentrate on the test. She's work very long and hard..

On a sillier note:

About a year ago or more, I saw a suburban go by that had a hitch cover of flip flops and I thought that was pretty California cool idea.. and I'd like one... A few months ago I was at the swap meet with a friend and saw a guy who was selling them. But he didn't have the right sized attachment for my Explorer hitch.. so left dejected and thought I'd contact him at his Fullerton location. I forgot. But I called him a few days before last weekend and asked him if he's make sure to have what I needed on Saturday at the swap meet that I was going to be there. Below is what it is....... and good night.

the end of two people....

Today the news is full and overflowing about the loss of two individuals who for decades captured the spotlight. As a 60's baby I remember both of them in the shows they became famous on. I don't know whether they knew Jesus as there Savior, I hope they did and are now healed and know peace, but life has ended nonetheless, and if not, this life was for nothing.

Michael Jackson, became known on The Ed Sullivan show and Zoom for the Jackson Five is where I remember him at the best of what was probably his most innocent, he was talented, energetic and really stood out at a young age... And than it would seem that from that point on his life was a tragedy of parents who saw a way to make a living on the backs of there children, exploiting them and robbing them of normalcy, peace, security of the soul. And he was like a classic case study of watching what happens to an individual who is traumatized at a young age, who is unable to grow up as an adult and longs for what he didn't have. It was always another bizarre media report that just made your heart go out to him. Someone who's addiction and need for the limelight to support a career choice and yet the wishing it would go away and allow him to function as a person unknown. Sad really.. Money brought him some stuff, but it stole from him as well. His countless charges of bizarre behavior with kids surrounding him who he saw as his peers of purity and innocence he lost early. If it was true he will be judged now that his life has ended. If it was false and just another parents way of making a buck off of the strange relationship of his child with the superstar, fame proved a great thief in the life of Michael.

Farrah Fawcett best known as one of the trio on Charlies Angels the tv show which she only did for one year before walking away to do other things. She became the poster child for the feathered hair style. Her protrayal in the TV movie "The Burning Bed" was outstanding and showed her talent for acting. She was also a sculptor of some beautiful work. She had physical beautiful but that wasn't all that there was to her, although she flaunted it in some choices she made during her career. She had a career in which fame also showed the ugly side of what entertainment spotlight is relentless and costly. She was a mother who loved her son, but yet he struggled with his parents fame and drugs have him at rock bottom presently and jailed when his mother died. There was a recent documentary that she and Alana Stewart made with a home video camera about the fight against the anal cancer that was spreading throughout her body and the treatments she sought out in America and in Europe. The role of her life. It was very poignantly done and showed the good, bad and ever so difficult days and steps of cancer.. That fight has now ended in this life.

What will be the legacy of our lives as our loved ones look back? Did we seek only fame and fortune or to be a Jesus follower who was a sinner saved by grace and lived as blamelessly as possible above all.. the latter is what I want as my legacy.

just thinking outloud.. weather, health, goals, Lakers

It's been awhile since I put any time into this blog and there is really nothing outside of routine going on to share unless it comes to me as I'm writing.. and my routine is well, not others routines!

Yesterday we had an hour of sunshine and today we had some throughout the afternoon, which in CA we aren't used to being without in the stretch of the calendar that it's been gloomy. It's really even been beyond gloomy skies, we actually have dark cloud patterns that just run all day long, some drizzle, thunder/lightning at times, and the temp barely creeps above 70 degrees. I'm a fan of this weather, because it won't be long and the temp will soar and we will long for days like this for relief. I'd have to say that while summer in CA used to start in May and run hot and hard till end of September, it's like it has in many recent years swung to a later start and deeper into the Fall. I have friends who went to Seattle Saturday for their daughters graduation,she text that they have great weather there, really.. Seattle.. the normally rainy weather of the northwest location.. what's wrong with that picture..

Let me recap the physical situation(s);

1. The left hand is improving greatly since the distress I felt after surgery when the fingers were like cement and curled. But the tissue is coming out of the trauma post surgery and is becoming much less painful in using it or in the stretching of the fingers as it has been. Much relief on my part... I still go to P/T once a week for evaluation, a good massage and stretch to keep on track with where it is. But I've stopped wearing any one of the many braces the P/T has fashioned over the last month to keep the fingers in a straighter position during the day. It's amazing the moldable things she can create to tend to what is going on or needs to be treated. At night I do wear what is like a broken finger splint. During the day the middle/ring fingers droop less. I keep stretching them straight throughout the workday and use a heated corn bag and massage at night.. It's nearly behind me!

2. Last Thursday I had a nerve block for the upper area of the back, 8 injections in the neck. A few days of muscle soreness, some bruising. This area was aggravated weeks ago with a walk I spoke of before, where I dared walk all the way to the corner of my street and a little beyond, it was the return trip that was dreadful. The spasms, migraine was consistent after this.. It's feeling much better with more mobility in the head turning radius and no spasms. jury still out on the headache..

3. I have 10 more days at the office before reporting for the major back surgery on Monday June 29.. I am dreading the process, but am assured and confident that the ortho and vascular surgeons are the most competent and skilled in our Region for what needs to be done. So should all go as planned, it will be 3-4 days in hospital (ugh) and than home to recover. It will require patience in recovering from the abdominal incision and not pushing the limits of to much to soon. Than whatever P/T will be required after six weeks of incision healing time. The fusion will be the vertebrae L5 S1, and disk replacement of L4 L5.

While I was going through the lesion in the left ankle for the last two years and that was needing to be removed, but since unable to do this type of procedure is documented as only considered experimental and not FDA approved. Leaving only one option was to surgically "toy" with the lesion to self heal it as best we could by irritating it with holes drilled into it. The result was better the second time around but was still causing pain. Being that I've been dealing with the back pain which keeps me from walking any long distance, it's not been stretched to the limit and so is good as far as I'm concerned. ha ha ..

I couldn't have imagined still being immersed in such debilitating pain and from so many other parts of the body as it has me (us) going through. Don't ask "what's next" is a statement people could say, but I don't have time in between to even consciously put time into a thought like that... I've not had anything as easy as "take this antibiotic for 10 days" and you will be good as new... PLEASE that would have been a dream scenario.

So in facebook chatting with a cousin in Texas recently, she's vacationed with us in Jacksonhole for family reunions years ago when our kids were young, and she was yet without kids.. She has recently begun to work out, and eating healthy.. And we've been discussing a possible meeting in the near future of this hike. I'M HOPEFUL... We have been talking about our two Jenny Lake hikes in between Jacksonhole and Yellowstone and while back in our younger days it was awesome.. There is a shuttle boat you take across the lake to the hiking trails on the other side of "Inspiration Point" and "Hidden Falls". On the second hike, a few of us decided that the line for the ferry was really long and that we'd take the 6.6 mile hiking trail around the lake and "meet" them on the other side, well actually it was a race.. I'm sure in my memory that while we were hiking our tails off when the boat of our exuberant relatives who were crossing the lake were jeering us... Someone else also remembers that we beat the boat, or that we weren't far behind them landing on dry ground. The hike from the boat dock up is about 2.5 hours to the Hidden Falls of 80 ft waterfall and than onto the narrow ledge that leads you to a "spot to overlook" the Yellowstone valley, Snake river is a 420 ft climb in a mile. It is not an easy hike but breathtaking and exhilarating for our large group of VanMeeterens who made it all the way, young and old. good times.

google "jenny lake" and read and than take this in some time on a must do vacation spot. This trip is what I will be posting a picture copy of on my bathroom mirror or refrigerator in inspiration to work hard after what will be a successful surgery in order to get the activity of my life back on track...

And than, let me end with a "woo hoo" for our LA Lakers who just finished winning the NBA Championship..
Have a good week ~

We the people...

California votes down the legalizing of same sex marriage (twice) with Prop 8, and then courts heard the appeal and voted to uphold the vote, but allow any same sex marriages that occured prior to stand. And yet the economy proceeds to take a dump leaving the state with a huge vacuum of potential tax revenue loss, due to the loss of jobs at 10% and spending that has dropped. Below are bits and pieces of what appeared in the LA TIMES last week.. this is what I suspect will be the pre-cursor to what will be the next push towards the voters as a way to bring the bankrupt state (from our governments reckless spending) into a economical boondoggle. The government like the media and entertainment will keep the liberal agenda in the forefront of "what they want to be normal" by producing movies that "normalize" the bizarre and immoral behavior and than the weak minded will relent and say "oh, live and let live" in order to add money to the coffers of what is going to be a tax burden given to the people in some way.

LA TIMES:

• The phones started ringing at the Timberholm Inn in Stowe, Vt., in April, as soon as lawmakers voted to override a gubernatorial veto and allow same-sex marriage in the state. "It doesn't go into effect till Sept. 1, but people are thinking ahead,"
  
• In the five years since legalizing same-sex marriage, Massachusetts has gained $111 million in spending from gay weddings, according to a new study published by UCLA's Williams Institute, which studies sexual-orientation law and public policy. "That's money buying flowers, hotels, caterers, hiring a band—all the things that go into a wedding," explains M. V. Lee Badgett, a coauthor of the study.
  Typically, same-sex couples spent about $7,400 per wedding, says Badgett, an economist who is also director of UMass Amherst's Center for Public Policy & Administration, and one in 10 couples spent more than $20,000. And then there were the wedding guests: "We estimated that each same-sex couple was associated with $1,600 in hotel-occupancy tax revenue," she says.

• Last year In California, chief economist with the San Francisco controller's office Ted Egan adds, the controller's office published an analysis estimating that same-sex weddings, officially legalized in California in June 2008, would bring in almost $20 million in spending over two years, and $1.7 million in additional taxes and fees. That revenue stream came to a halt in November, after California voters approved Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

In the past the California voters overwhelmingly voted yes for a prop 187.. Prop 187 was passed by the voters on Nov. 8, 1994 to deny public benefits to illegal aliens in California. The state of California goes into debt for the last 10 years annually $10 million dollars in providing schooling and medical care to the illegal immigrants. The courts overturned the WILL OF THE VOTERS again and again.. I believe that immigrants here ILLEGALLY should have to go through the process regardless of how uncomfortable a process it is.. and yes, nationwide 12 million illegals should be sent back to Mexico to do it correctly.. I as a taxpayer do not want to pay hard earned money in order to make others comfortable forever because it's "not nice" to send them back.. The government has avoided having to do anything that is "uncomfortable" for there careers but we sit in this mess because of it.

Christ preached compassion and love, but that the the laws of the land must be obeyed (give to Ceasar what is Ceasars)... we can't pick which ones suit us and only abide by those.

It was a miracle of sorts for sure...

Today we went to the early church service (9:00 am) cause my dad had given us two tickets to the Angels game that they gave away to employees of unsold tickets.. We parked by Rubio's and had lunch, having paid our $5 parking fee to park there near the Amtrak and walked a short distance to the entrance to our left field section 101 just behind the foul pole where if it landed near us it was a home run and slightly to the right was foul. Juan Rivera's home run landed here later in the game...

Prior to the game there were some kind of promotional "kids" involvement where they came onto the field during warm ups and got baseballs signed, one was the announcer for a couple of innings... it was exciting for them, for sure.. After a rousing singing of the Star Spangled Banner by a young woman Kelsie.. the game began.....

Now the game started off rather dismally for the Angels, beginning with pitch #1 that went for a double.. Santana was the pitcher and the first three innings were a slug fest for the Seattle Mariners and they racked up 6 runs.. It didn't pick up any and we as a crowd of spectators were wondering why NO ONE WAS VISITING THE MOUND or pulling the pitcher for a lackluster performance when the score swelled to 0-6... The Angels managed to have a home run from Napoli and gave us what appeared to be at least one run.. and not a skunked outcome.

The innings just kind of droned on in the middle, they did pull Santana in the sixth, who slumped his shoulders and did the death walk to the dugout... and they put in Rodriguez.. We managed to put five runs on the board over the last few innings and bring the score to 6-8. I think there was one more pitcher and than they ended with Speier (sp?).. it was the bottom of the ninth and Seattle brought in a new pitcher for the Angels last at bat.. a walk, another walk, a single which scored one, and put runners at 2nd and 3rd, an intentional walk of Vladimar Guillero to load the bases, and than... a walked in run to tie the game.. and than Juan Rivera comes up with 2 outs and bases loaded and bam knocks a ground ball passed the shortstop out into left field and game over... Angels win 9-8..

WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT... we were certainly surprised at the turn around from a team that early in the game looked the they were little leaguers with no inspiration or idea of how to play aggressive defense or conjer up some offense. Thankfully Seattle started out hot and fizzled on offense at the right time.

My dad came over at about the 8th inning before he left for home to say hi... he had been working an upper section for four hours across on the other side of the stadium. He had left long before the game made its comeback.. That was his last day working at the stadium for awhile as they leave for MN in the morning and will be there for the summer.

no respect for the golden gopher in CA

okay if your from the midwest, you're aware that a pair of gopher feet will bring you a 50 cent reward from county Ag dept. As the ditches were full of them and the ditch mowers took a beating from them, it was an incentive program started to encourage help in ridding the county of the varmints.. (it might have been 25 cents as Gregs memory is fading over 30 years since his last collected bounty) .. Our nephew Philip uses his gun to pick them off and continue to collect... well we at one time in our CA. backyard had we kept our gopher feet from the number of gophers we hunted and put them in a box and turned them in ourselves and than started a CD at the bank ~ we would now be rich. But like stocks that get away, we never did.. but our yard has been free of them for a looooooong time due to the diligence of our Symens men in pursuing them.

Today our sons were doing the yard work together and found a gopher hole deep in the back of our yard. So Brian did the old trick taught to him by his father of sticking the water hose into the hole and turning it on... oops he left the 3rd garage door open and it was pretty quick that he had a gopher up and out of the hole and on the run... straight into this open garage.. with Brian in hot pursuit and grabbing a leveling rake at the entrance to this garage. As he ran he hooked the gopher and swung him out of the garage and onto the yard... whew... thankfully he didn't get beyond where Brian could grab him and to take up residence in our storage garage.. he than grabbed this hard tonged rake and raised it to knock the stunned gopher over the head, but in mid swing the gopher took off again and he swung the rake like a polo mallet (this coming from Shanes rendition) and in the swing ................. hit dead center ~ dividing the body of the lofted animal mid air and and as it floated over his head Shane was splattered wildly with all that was fluid within this animal and he said it was absolutely GROSS..

Now, I have a sick cell phone picture of the corpse, but to protect us from PETA you are going to be left with only words for legal reasons.. to protect the hunter from any litigation as to any harm that MIGHT have come to the decendant...

a Wednesday update...

Two days back at work after vacation and it is a bit harder than I thought to do a job with majority computer work and a hand that is pretty sore from surgery.. but I will be off for a long stretch soon and so didn't want to extend the time for this hand that is usuable with some caution. Tonight during the halftime of the Laker game, I went for a walk.. made it .30 of a mile painfree and than just made the corner and towards home realizing that it's not worth the effort until after the spine is repaired.

Shane finished school yesterday with his last class in math, and he started that day with an interview for a fulltime job at Expert Carpet Care.. he started the new job this morning at 7:45am and will have a week trial.. but he likes it already.. he will also keep his weekend job at the golf course. his motivation, he'd like to get a different car!

Ashley returned middle of last week from her 10 days after graduation in Minnesota. She enjoyed the time away to rest and with extended family time of the younger cousins. Ashley attended the LPN pinning ceremony of Katie, another Symens medical junkie... Ashley leaves in a few days at the end of this week for Hawaii with her cousin Trisha and than a few days after she returns she is going to New York for four days with Brianna while her mom promotes her new book. The life of a college grad.. she is taking a review class now for the state boards and will need make up classes with all of the traveling in the midst of it..

Brian is still unemployed, bartering for needed items with helping out friends etc.. he started the third year of summer slo pitch softball with his high school friends last night, mercy ruled the other team for a start right where they left off last year.. next week they will play a team of Valley guys who are Ashley's age and just started a team, should be an interesting match up...

Greg tonight painfully watched every minute of his Lakers (oops maybe that should have read painful for me) as they missed shots, didn't get the calls he felt they were entitled.. and groaned throught the ENTIRE first half... until the second half when they finally managed to hold onto a lead and keep it until the victory...

So that's the goings on around our house.

The end of a long week

I made several stops today to Sams Club, Vons, and Stater Bros to accumalate the groceries needed and to make sure that this weekend the bbq'ing options were good for several nights. The fridge is now overflowing with lean ground beef for burgers, ribeye steaks, ear corn, baking potatoes... and than Laker games a couple of nights for entertainment.

Hand status: This week has been a long one having started last week on Friday with the morning hand surgery.. simple procedure.. but than on Tuesday it was confirmed that it would take a little bit of work to get the tissue/tendons moving normally as they were the consistency of cement.. a side effect of surgery at times, and being diabetic an easily decided reason. So after four days of 24/7 wearing of the traction contraption (see last blog) and some daily physical therapy and massage, today it is much improved. I am given the lattitude to not have to wear it full time and to have longer breaks between, but the fingers do droop mid knuckle when it's off for long and so for now I can't go crazy with the break time.. The P/T Stephanie said to expect 3-4 weeks of tenderness in the hand muscles. Next Tuesday I will have the stitches removed. Turns out that she graduated from Azusa Pacific Masters program in 2001, and so we had a nice conversation about the school and how she as a seventh day adventist school grad (???) was impressed that it was a christian college with high standards but not the kind that had any legalism to it.

My appt on Thursday with the spinal surgeon Dr. Ravasoud wrapped up the "talk" and Veronica his assistant is now coordinating the details necessary for scheduling it. Right now the plan is to get the surgery setup for early June on a Monday of the 8th or 15th.. Next week I should know what worked out between the two doctors; as the vascular Dr Brian Acker is the other surgeon that will participate. While I dread the process for me and for Greg, I am expecting excellent results to be walking again whether short or long distances and absolutely without any of the pain I've been enduring. And with any luck the end of my bad streak medically.

the traction contraption

okay, so these pictures are seven days after the Friday surgery and by the time I arrived at the post op on Tuesday, I was concerned and had called in on Monday as to "why won't the two middle fingers open completely (or at all).. while the surgery was to keep them from "triggering" they now needed to be coaxed to the right position and mobility they were lacking. The receptionist not knowing what kind of bandaging had been done after surgery, just kind of shrugged it off to maybe that is the reason and at my appt he would look at it. When I was finely seen by him on Tuesday, he was also quite concerned as "this isn't normal or right" OF COURSE!... so he than tells me that "I must see Stephanie immediately and have you taken your pain meds today?" Because apparantly when you see Stephanie his physical therapist.. you need pain meds and now I'd agree. Since I hadn't taken them that day, I was wishing I had by the time I left. She fashioned the traction contraption in order to keep the fingers in the position they need to eventually again adhere to and she "forced them" into it on Tuesday. oh brother... And I agree to that pain meds beforehand is good after the first three appointments, although todays went better and it and there is great improvement.. So I am currently going to p/t everyday, and can anticipate only having to wear the contraption through the weekend fulltime and than when I return to work next Tuesday only wearing it a few hours a day. Wish me well as I get through these next couple of weeks..

Well, I'm heading off to the spinal Ortho to consider the decision and scheduling of the back surgery....

down time is hard to take!

four days of post surgery healing and only one hand to use has been dull to say the least.. i've watched enough tv., to grow tired of that. reading isn't easy for me as it is when i have little time to give to it and than can immerse myself into a book.. i have perfected the two handed peck of typing but it requires a lot of backspacing to correct errors. i've managed to text message with one hand, so life goes on... Tuesday is postop appt, the initial bandages come off and than asking "when will the fingers straighten out", since they are currently still in the same curled position and are much more swollen.... i know i know have to wait for the healing to happen and time, ugh.

this afternoon i'm going to give cookie baking a try, with my kitchen aid it should go fine and the dough scoop.... or i'm at least hopeful. and than making goulash for dinner. that seems like a big day for someone on norcodone! woo hoo...

a one handed attempt

Yesterday was hand surgery day and so I write this with only my right hand as the left one is bandaged and sore.. alot of backspacing gonna be happening.

I watched a very inspring CMT broadcast of Extreme Makeover - Home Edition of a fellow UPs'er in Kentucky. It originally aired in Feb 2008. The Hughes family, there son Patrick Henry was born without any eyes and his limbs unable to extend fully. And yet his fathers love of music was given to his son as a shared experience, much like baseball for an able bodied bond of father son.. He taught him to play the piano while in his high chair and by the age of two was playing requests. He plays many instruments and writes music and can sing. His dad changed his position at UPS to a night shift when Patrick was born so that he could care for him during the day. So this has meant very little sleep in nineteen years. Patrick has excelled in music and is now at the Univ of Louisville in the marching band playing trumpet with the help of his dad being his mobility pushing the wheelchair for the band marching numbers.

Patrick is an uplifting positive individual who sees his blindness as an "ability" as he does not have prejudice towards what he sees in other people and gets to know others for who they really are deep inside and what they are capable of being. His perspectice is that sighted people have the "disability" to get beyond what they see first in a person. I know a lot of able bodied people who don't have a tenth of that kind of positive outlook in spite of there own "easy life" circumstances.. outstanding example . Patrick has a gift to give and in spite of his circumstances he sees the ability to acheive it.. very inspiring.

The home they built for the Hughes was fantastic, wheelchair friendly and with a separate apartment for independent living for Patrick. It was a gift for each of the 5 members of this loving musical family in many ways. Space being a big perk from the cramped home they were sharing. I enjoyed the reveal, as the family has taken in the first view of the new home, the shear surprise and excitement. And than the builder steps up with model for Patrick to be able to "feel" the new look of the exterior. He also reveals that they have not only paid off there mortgage, but collected $100,000 from a generous community to a humble family.

The show ended in the self sufficient apartment of patrick where he played them off the show on the piano of the country song "i believe"... which is so fitting for his life, and ours..... there all bawling, I'm bawling..

I have so much more to be grateful for and to live it out joyful that is for sure, no matter what my day to day circumstances are.

The vacation after the vacation....

Last week was "busy" to say the least.. all good stuff, but whewy.. busy nonetheless. I intentionally scheduled a second week of vacation to relax and do things fun.. well, it's been more like "content to be a couch potato" for three days. So tomorrow I do hope to pick something of interest to do that is away from home.. other than pick up some needed groceries!

Yesterday (Tuesday) I had a pre-op dr appt with the hand surgeon and had to get some blood work done and that took a good portion of the morning. Friday morning 2nd surgery on his schedule with a quick snip in the palm of the hand of the two tendons released and a bandaging and home I will go from the surgery center. And the desired effect is that the trigger finger of the ring and middle finger will no longer curl in and will straighten up with no pain. The two cortisone shots over the last two years were effective for a short time, BUT THERE IS NO WAY I will ever do that again.. Holy cow that was ever so painful... The dr had said after the first one, "generally no one comes back for this a second time", but time constraints at the time it needed to be done the second time was in order to walk on crutches before surgery a year ago. Now time to fix it.

So my two week vacation will be extended by an extra week plus the holiday weekend to let the hand start healing and it will be bandaged till the post op middle of next week. I will be typing with just the right hand for awhile and since I'm left handed in writing, won't be doing much of that but can accomnplish some with the right hand legibly. It will be a sucky period of time for "hair" but a baseball cap might be my friend cuz I can't see that slowing me down completely.. I'll come up with an ingenious way to make the hair dryer work in my favor somehow..

Today (Wednesday) Greg and I met with the vascular surgeon that works with the Orthopedic surgeon who would repair my vertebrae with a fusing and the two disk replacement both in the same area (L4_L5 & L5_S1). The ortho does the spine stuff and the vascular makes the path from the abdonimal incision through all the "stuff" inside moving it out of the way basically so that the ortho can do his thing and than the vascular comes back and puts in all back into the right places and closes the incision.... so we heard the "scary" stuff and what his role of about a week of being involved total, and asked our questions of the procedure and his record, his history, his qualifications, etc. So we have and will be talking about what we heard, and will make the decision soon but we are pretty confident in what we have been told and seen. The back pain is excrutiating and having done physical therapy, injections with no substantial relief beyond a few weeks, out of options except to just medicate heavily.... Hence the reason the left hand needs to be working, so that I can use a walker for whatever amount of time that is needed. (short I hope)

So like I said one more day of doing something outside my couch potato existence of relaxing watching movies or basketball playoffs, uploading pics to various accounts and blogging. And than back to that kind of activity for a few days.

#2 catch up: Friday Nurses Pinning and Party / Saturday Graduation

What the entire week was about was sharing in and experiencing the accomplishment and joy for and with Ashley as she was Pinned and Graduated from A.P.U. as a RN,BSN. She started her journey after High School graduation in 2003 by attending Cal State Univ of Long Beach for 2 1/2 years completing all her general ed, and accomplishing a minor in Psycology, with the intention of doing the nursing school there. But the nursing program was just clogged with applicants and a waiting list as long as your arm where they only train 70 students at a time.. She applied to A.P.U. for the fall of 2005, and than again for the spring of 2006 with the intention to "attend" APU in the spring as a student and made up all of the classes that were required to graduate from there school. She was accepted for the Fall of 2006 into the nursing program and with having taken all of the 16 units of sciences already at CSULB it put her ahead of the others in that any APU student nurses had to wait until entering the nursing program to take sciences not before. Ashley later said she was soooo glad she didn't have to do those classes during nursing classes..

So this graduation was the completion of a 5 year plan that was delayed an extra year with the "waiting" period in the middle. But she used it to get a minor in psychology.. Of these 6 years, Ashley worked 5.5 of them at Disneyland to pay for college with some intense hard work to keep her loans to a small and reasonable amount. Disneyland was not the kind of employer where you had any of the holidays, spring breaks, or summers with time off, you were working. And she perservered to carry the load and yet accomplish her schooling at the same time. Jan.2 was her last day and she had the last semester where extra requirements of time were needed to fulfill class work and 72 hours of preceptorship training.

At the Nurses Pinning Ceremony on Friday May 8, 2pm. The class theme for the year had been "blessed to be a blessing". There were 71 students graduating with a RN,BSN and than there were a total of 157 students graduating in total. The rest were those who are RN to BSN, SCAN (second career at nursing) and EENAP (I don't know what this stood for). This was the largest graduating class of nurses in school history and a extremely well respected program across the nation. The first class at APU was 25 students. We had in attendance in support of Ashley 16 family members of Symens, Van Essen, Loftus, Dykstra's.

The Pinning ceremony ended at about 4:10 and I had to send our sons home (as carpool buddies) a little beforehand in order to meet the Taco cart caterer at 4:45 to setup. The celebration party that was planned at our home to start at 5pm. We arrived at the same time the caterer did who was running a little late, but in plenty of time... We had invited 70 people who were important friends/family in Ashley's life and/or ours. As we have for all of the high school graduations and having just done Shanes last year... we set up tables and chairs in our backyard, served dinner/dessert and just enjoyed those who came.

Saturday May 9, was the big graduation day ceremony at 6pm.. but, our family first had a special wedding to attend in Temecula (1 hr 20min) southeast of us at 1:30pm.. Stephanie Hyink was marrying her high school sweetheart Joshua Pulido and we were honored to be invited. The Hyinks are old friends from Bethel church before they moved out to Temecula, and now we meet up each year at the river trip. While we had hoped to make it to the backyard reception at their home, we decided after a little bit of a late start to the ceremony, that by the time the wedding party arrived we would have to be leaving, and so we ABSOLUTELY needed to get Ashley to the school at 5pm. We were fortunate not to encounter any traffic and made it in good time back to Azusa. My parents, Marlys & Char had headed to the stadium at 3pm to save us seats for our group of 16 plus another family of 6 who are friends of Ashley's. We had great seats on the grass in the section behind the graduates and dead center of the stage.. For this we were grateful. We arrived at 4pm and the ceremony started right on time at 6pm and was over at 8:20pm.. We took tons of pictures and than headed to dinner in Cerritos at T.G.I.Fridays. and than some goodbyes to the Loftus and Dykstra families who were heading home in the morning.

Whew.... what a day and what a weekend.. and a joy to be a part of it with her.

This summer she will vacation, study and than take the NCLEX state boards, and with a passing score will than be given her date to report to San Antonio TX for officers training in the Army Nursing Corp.

I have posted all of the pictures (tons) at my flickr account and than choose SETS under the header title to go to individual "folders" of events organized. I added pictures from numerous cameras of family, Facebook entries, Enjoy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/symens

#1 catch up: day at the beach / Museum of Tolerance

Well graduation week was a whirlwind and so I will start with the beginning of the week and some fun time spent with our out of town family. Marlys (Gregs mom) and his sister Char flew in on Monday night, and so Tuesday we did a low key day of driving down to Huntington Beach for lunch on the pier at Ruby's... and we even saw quite a few dolphin, and a guy who used the width of the end of the pier scrambling to pull in a stingray he hooked... only to lose it at it surfaced towards the awaiting basket.. it was a pretty good sized one.. We than drove down PCH down through Laguna Beach and than did some errands on the way home. Ashley had to go to school and so she met us at home in her scrubs and so took a photo with the family.





Wednesday, we went to LA and the Museum of Tolerance. It was somewhere that I had not ever been but had it in my mind to go there the week after graduation if we didn't do it this day. Ashley was able to join the Marlys, Char and I in attending this. It was a very interesting place that is not merely all about the Holocaust, while this is a big part of it with the exhibits of artifacts, lifesize models you walked through of ghettos, gas chambers etc.. In the afternoon they have actual survivors who you can sit and listen to for about an hour each, who tell you first hand the situations they endured, what they saw, felt, smelled, fear, pain, sadness, terror... and yet someone else stepping up to "help" them escape death. You really have many exhibits that have you come face to face with your own prejudice in how you speak, your actions, and opinions of those of other ethnic culture and skin color in our lives today. It also gave you information of places in the world where "holocaust" has been happening 1/2 million Kurds in Iraq by Sadam Hussein, like Darfur currently is happening in the genocide, Africa and the tsutsi tribes (spelling?) and how it could happen again in the world when we become less than diligent in stepping in to defend the helpless who are terrorized by ideologies and discrminations where hatred is carried out. Where hatred breeds it is a dangerous igniter to attrocities. So it was a very compelling 5 hours spent and more was left to be seen, but it was so busy we had to bypass some exhibits and didn't get back to them. I've heard that the one in Washington or New York is a fantastic exhibit as well..

A New Deck has dawned!

Our construction remodel project started in March of 2001 and was completed in August 2001.. and the process gave us a temporary back porch stairs.. they were of just basic grade wood and pressure washing was there only saving grace... and while I don't currently have a starting picture of them, they are ones to forget.. I'm sure there in one of the kids HS graduation party pics... ha ha ...

Brians crew was laid off last week and so he and Greg purchased the redwood on Sunday for Brian and his sketched up changes for the new deck.... below is the picture story of finished back to start..

It's beautiful - the kids and the deckthe happy carpenter who did a fabulous job in two days of demo & construction

Brian gave me the honorary "last nail" in the last board

the clean up has begun.....
The new deck is now flush with the door jam whereas the "temporary" deck was 3-4 in. lower

pounding the braces into the cement with ammo that has no gunpowder (per Brian's explanation)

the new deck is 9 ft. wide vs. the temporary deck that was 4 ft. wide

this is the view from inside the slider door

At 8:00 pm I told him to quit but he said "I have lights" and worked til 9 pm

a man and his tools

this was a slab of cement that is directly behind the house from our remodel in 2001 where the kiddies put there signature and handprints. It was just below the contractors "temporary" porch and was uncovered.. long enough for a picture and than again placed under the new porch

Union break time

back to work - and such good looking workers!

you pull and I'll be pushing
the happy crew during a break
they need something to do.....the supervisor doing supervisor kind of work from the chair
a revolt against the self professed "supervisor"
his able bodied assistant who was studying in between each board
the craftsman at work
progress being made
day one - and first picture I captured

Saturdays are wonderful gut..

Yes, I am currently reading a book about Amish families and love some of the "terms" they use, like gut for good.. so now I've used it. There are others, but wouldn't work in this blog..

Last night Greg said "he only needed 10 minutes for an after dinner nap and advil" and than he'd be ready to go to Home Depot with me to get the flowers for a project I was doing today... well, when I went up to see if he was ready to go, it was so obvious he wasn't going anywhere as he was OUT completely! Had a bit of a headache.. So I headed to Home Depot on my own and got it all together pushing my flat cart fully loaded. And I must say that Home Depot didn't help by making me walk to the lumber section for a flat cart and than all the way back to the opposite side for the garden section which was barely lit.. I had a scrip card or I might have just left for Lowes.. I had taken pain meds ahead of time in anticipation and was looking forward to the heating pad by the time I was done, for sure.. but mission accomplished and I was now ready for Saturday.. When I got home, I anticipated help waiting for the unloading of my stuff, but house was dark and Rip Van Winkle was still slumbering.. ha ha but I'm no shrinking violet so took care of it. Soon he groggily came outside while I was filling the flower bed with potting mix and talking to Shane who had just returned from golf tournament. I still love the guy...

This morning Greg left at 6:30am to work with our Church in Compton cleaning up 30 projected work sights with 1200 people.. He said it was a great day and the house that he worked at was probably the first one he's ever worked on that was in fairly good shape to start and they just repainted, landscaped, and it really looked good when they left. He painted trim above his head for four hours on a ladder, and so he comes home completely sore and wiped out.. justdogood.org is the website for more info on this 40 year vision for the city of Compton.

I left the house at 8am with garden tools, lots of flowers and a bucket to sit on.. An elderly friend of ours who had knee replacement surgery a month ago, but is still in some persistent pain. We brought her lunch last Sunday and I noticed that she had a lot of empty flower pots sitting on her porch.. So I called her this week and asked if I could come over and plant some flowers in them for spring and spruce up her yard? She reluctantly said okay, and today I potted about 12 large and medium containers with individual flowers, 1 gallon impatients and a geranium.. swept off her porch and hosed it all down while soaking the flower pots for a good start.. Looked nice and she really appreciated it, and the conversation while she sat on the patio was good as well. After a little rest and a drink of cold water, I headed off at 10:30 am..

Made a trip to Armstrong Nursery afterward, going there for a couple of strong wrought iron pieces for two vining plants that need some stability and some better thinking on appearance..I had seen them there before, but thought I'd find them cheaper elsewhere.. wrong, but instead of getting them, I came home with 4 sturdy vining sticks and about 6 plants for our yard. (I'm never done). Shane on my request this past week had stripped the driveway narrow flower bed of some old plants and corroding bark (eliminating this). Friday night I had also gotten 96 quarts of Miracle Gro potting mix and filled this flower bed and so it was ready for the 4 plants that I got at Armstrong.. Might add some little flowers or might not.. I also got a sunflower, and two rosemary trees for the front flower bed which is full sun all the time. The rosemary smells so good and can be used for cooking. So they are all now planted and the yard is pretty much as I want it and have no more time to dedicate to it prior to graduation. Well, okay except the vining project, but that should be just tedious hand work! And will also be pouring lots of water onto the pathetic grass to have it reasonably decent for the outdoor seating for dinner at party.. Someday I envision it to look alot different, but for now it's just as it is. I quit at 2:30pm..

After washing up, I took a seat in our room to "chill" turning on a old Sam Elliot movie, the movie wasn't all that great but who doesn't like Sam Elliot... Of course, I can't just "sit still" and so soon notice that our book shelf could use some straitening out and pull my chair over to it and clean it up.. amazing how sometimes you just get used to seeing something amiss, and don't notice it anymore.. While cleaning, came across an old book that I had tucked into it a homemade computer mothers day card from Ashley that was undated. It's handwritten note were such sweet words blessed me then and now as I re-read it.. I walked out to Gregs office and showed him my treasure.

Of course there are two projects that I should have dug into today, but this week while Greg is gone to Tulsa,OK.. I will make that my goal to get done. One is cleaning out our master closet (can't be that hard) and the linen closet in downstairs bathroom.. ugh this one I have been avoiding for some time.

Tonight Greg and I went out for and shared a Delicious Rib dinner at Lucilles Restuarant.. Made it home in time to watch the start of the Laker game and we are both wiped out and wishing we had a jacuzzi.. Greg added that as a good item for wish list just behind my wish for the new furniture.. ha ha ha ha ha ha

well, crank up the heating pad and go Lakers! Saturdays are wonderful gut

a legacy of faith...

It's been awhile since I sat down to write, but yet after today I decided to write about a woman whose funeral I attended this morning.

My good friend Sandra Mae has in the last two months buried first her dad Martin Phernambucq at age 87, and today it was her mother Phyllis at age 85.. They had been married just about 64 years.. That is a long time in a world of disposable everything. They had 2 sons (Steve and Stan) and than 2 daughters (Sandra and Sue).

They were the kind of parents whose legacy is that they loved well, trained well, and have shared their complete love of Jesus with their children who are all believing followers of Christ. Proud grandparents of 11 and great grandparents to 12.
And today they are in the loving arms of Jesus, no more constraints of this world, no more need for faith, no more of needing hope... they have only to experience love in the presence of Jesus and those who have gone before them..

Martin showed his sons how to be a Godly man, a love of his was fishing, the outdoors, camping and to his daughters how a true man will treat his wife.. He made sure there were enough working bikes/toys at his house for the grandkids and encouraged there visits. Treated them with respect and learned who each of them were and interacted well in order to speak of Jesus into there lives...

Phyllis was a generous woman with her witty personality, infectious smile, made creative crafts for boutiques in order to provide the "gift" money towards each of the kids and grandkids.. She was a garage sale treasure hunter.. loved the hunt and shared this with Sandy/Leah the treasure hunters of another couple of generations.. But Phyllis's gift was prayer warrior. And she didn't just give you a flippant "oh I'll pray for you", she did it with a perserverance. If she knew you, she was praying for you. She was inquisitive about you and asked questions and from this she knew what to pray for.. One of her grand daughters shared that this was something grandma was so good at doing, drawing from you in honest conversation about you and than be praying and checking in with you.

What an amazing family the Phernambucqs have been over the years. And yet through the celebration of there lives we are once again reminded that life doesn't need to be so complicated to be so genuinely treasured by those who we leave behind for a short time. They did all of this because they knew they needed Jesus and shared that with others.

God is so good.. and I am so glad to have gotten to know them through Sandy.

end of jury duty and beyond.... yea

Okay, so I survived three FULL days of jury duty for what was a mindless case of justice (for the state) verses a drunk driver.. Now I will just preface that if you read my previous blog you will already know that it started out as less than a fun first day. Now that the trial is over, I am free to speak of what a load of crap that "freedom" can put the system through at quite a price. And I'm sure that the interpretors/linguists who paraded in and out every 10 minutes switching off for the defendant weren't cheap. But they were annoying and distracting.

The defendant would be glad I was alternate #2 and only had to endure the trial and not vote!

The driver (who is no longer alleged) was pulled over by a motorcycle cop for non working tail-lights in the summer of 2008. In the prosecutions case, there were very view facts to confuse us with, only for the lawyers to keep going back and forth so that one could bring it up, the other to distort and than the rebuttal to remind us of the facts. He was unable to produce a CA drivers license, but he did have a CENTRAL AMERICAN ID card (that's not the same dufus). The officer noticed slurred speech, and that he smelled of alcohol, he changed his story from I haven't been drinking to I had one beer.. So he has him get out of the car, and while giving him commands to spread his feet (3 times), put his hands over his head (3 times) and he's just not following commands, the defendant pulled away a couple of times and than turned on the officer.. who took him down and made a slight bloody mess of his eyebrow on the sidewalk. We never saw the wound only that he had a bandaid to cover it.

Evidence: a) his alcohol level was .13%, 30 minutes after arrest. b) He was driving with a level over .08% limit c) resisting arrest charge; struggle was iffy as to whether he was reacting to the twist of arm or fighting (the reasonable doubt part)

Two days of hankering back and forth and the defense had one witness from the car of defendent who's story was unbelievable for what she saw/heard verses what is possible to see/hear from her vantage point and the place the officer and defendant were standing. She seemed to just be trying to save him..

So after very enchanting readings by the judge about law and interpreting law (yawn) and then the closing arguments, and than more readings by the judge as to the law (more yawning) the real jury goes to deliberate at 3pm day 3.. we the two alternates head up to the empty jury room on 4th floor to wait and yea.... watch Oprah, and about 15 minutes of the 4pm news and we're started to sense that WE ARE POSSIBLY going to have to come back the next day and we're bummed, BUT EUREKA we are called back to dept 2.. please please please don't just be calling the end of day and sending us home... But no there is a verdict - Hallelujah...

Results to three charges: two guilty verdicts related to driving while intoxicated, and with a level over .08% and a not guilty to resisting arrest.

As a funny comedian said tonight on the comedy station "you can't fix STUPID"

I'm curious as to what the sentencing will be for the defendant BUT not enough to stick around. Maybe I can google his name, but than again, maybe he's in the deportation process.. or he's just back to his old life of drinking and driving without a license...

what a day what a day..

I have been on call for jury duty this week and when I called into the jury duty phone number Tuesday night, hopefully assumed that I would be clear or I was overly optimistic. Why I thought that really had no basis, except that I am to busy at work to be away from the office.. But I was told to report at 8:30am Wednesday to the Bellflower court (how convenient .30 from home).. Now I have been known to enjoy serving on a jury trial, but the process from check in to actually getting into a courtroom is just tedious and monotonous. It can be somewhat obvious how difficult it is for some people to survive on their own out in the world when simple instructions are mind boggling for them and therefore you are the recipient of delay because of them. And than the paperwork they hand you to read upon arrival, they end up READING TO YOU in it's entirety.. (see comment one sentence prior). Perhaps this is to kill time while the courts are dilly dallying about details in pre trial motions... But I am not one for "down time" that is forced on me, nor sitting around waiting.. and tick tock tick tock it's torture.

So at 10am we are informed that perhaps 1/2 of us will be transferred to the Downey court to fill the need they have with jury trial pools.. come 11:20 am they announce that EVERYONE is going to go to the Downey courts EXCEPT for those who were dropped off or took public transit ~ they apparently were given there green one day completion notices and home they went. Why didn't I think of that, I could have ridden my bike or walked since it's close to my home.. but no, I had to drive so as to get some time in at the office afterward. We are now given a map to new courthouse and a lunch break (from doing absolutely nothing) and were to report at 1:00pm to Downey Courthouse. So home for lunch, grab a sweater and over to Downey to report like the obedient citizen I am.

Now when your supposed to be somewhere at 1:00pm I am generally of the opinion that you show up about twenty minutes earlier... well that's great except at security they inform me that the jury room doesn't open until 1:30pm here........... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! We all assemble, quick roll call, and than within 10 minutes they are calling out two courtrooms for two groups to report to.. second group I am called into and away we go...

In this courtroom they started jury selection yesterday (Tuesday) and there are 11 people still standing from that group, and it's still dragging on. Apparently they need ONE juror and two alternates out of our pool of fifteen people.. that seems easy enough.. but the questioning just goes on and on and on, cause 6-8 people have issues with the subject matter, or past jobs or we served on a felony trial (me) and need to answer really important questions.. Three people right off the bat are dismissed back to the jury assembly room cuz nobody wants them. One yokle was pretty impressed with his tawdry life and the similarity to the case and he was a sidebar more than once, and called into the hallway to explain his vague responses... Frustrating thing was he never took a jury seat cuz they both exercised a preemptive something something when he went to fill a seat left vacant.. Now really, couldn't they both have just decided that with the initial three they dismissed. Now I am JUROR #26 of 27 in line as they eventually get to filling a seat, eliminate someone, fill that seat, eliminate someone.. and so on.. as this process goes forward, I'm feeling at first like theres no way I will be put into this.. The lawyers like the twelve they have and swear them in ~ we are out of here, right, and than.... they need two alternates, and the process of the last six of us starts with dismissing etc, can you believe it, I get the last alternate seat mainly I think because #27 was not understanding the english questions nor very easily understood when he responded and so I was the last best hope they had.. BUT I'm thinking, please not me, take him, it would be good for him to participate in the justice system... AHHHHHHHHHHHHH.. next thing I know alternate #1 and I are standing with our right hands up to be sworn in... At 3:25 pm...

Now, I'm all for calling it a day for the jurors, let the lawyers finish up there pre trial stuff and start in the morning.. (so I can get to the office). BUT NO, we are given a TWENTY MINUTE break, and than witness #1 comes in and we start.... During the break I asked a "yesterday" juror picked "did they ever give you an indication as to how long this trial will last?" cause I'm thinking 1 maybe 2 days tops. His response was "4-6 days" WHAT??? OMG I can't believe that and my mind is racing as to how is this possible that the case based on these charges could go that long. Hopefully they are including the two days just to pick a dang jury in that estimate.

So I'm cut loose at 4:30 for the ten minute trek to parked car and am at the office in Cerritos at 5:05.. Where I hastily put in 2 hours on a project, speak to supv about what items I need to move forward and than out the door to head to church for phone calling for the next Alpha session.. Now lets see, Friday is good Friday services at 7:30pm with family dinner beforehand at 5pm.. I guess I will be at the office on Saturday instead.. geez..

Make that $15. a day jury check out to ..........

UPS medical review committee ~ decision is in

Today an envelope came from UPS, Glenlake Parkway, Atlanta, Ga.. it was with great anticipation that I opened it and read the two page letter..........

several paragraphs of blah blah blah about medical standards and than this;

"Upon receipt of your appeal, the Committee requested that a peer physician review all submitted documentation. The specialty reviewer is board certified in orthopedic surgery. Based on the peer physician's review of the information submitted, the proposed ACI of the ankle is considered experimental and/or investigational at this time. This procedure uses Carticel implantation cells provided by the Genzyme Corporation. Their official literature notes that Carticel implantation is to be used to repair symptomatic cartilage defects in the knee only. The rationale for its use in other joints is the lack of any long term, multi-center, randomized controls or long term multi-center, many patient observations, nor is it recommended by the FDA at this time for your condition.

After a thorough review of the information submitted and the opinion of the peer physician, the Committee finds that the proposed ACI ankle implantation is experimental and/or investigational and is not "medically necessary and appropriate" in accordance with the terms of the Plan, as interpreted by the Committee. Therefore, based on the records and the terms of the Plan, the Committee has denied your appeal."

The last paragraph was a regret for the unfavorable review, and that I do have the option to bring a civil action in federal court.....

So there you have it.. The lesion will remain in place, I will not be relieved of the pain level in activity and normal usage.. But I will just have to take that risk with returning to an active life and if necessary use pain meds.

Thank you for the years of prayer in this situation. I appreciate you. Now let's move on.......

Monday madness

Well, after being home a few days from the midwest, the drastic change in weather and the exhaustion of my body collided today and I was just not very energetic. Feeling more like a hollow shell trying to function. I got to the office after a morning of deciding on and ordering announcements (late) for Ashley's graduation, she was off campus for clinicals when Jostens came with the info and apparantly the nursing staff didn't pass it onto the students. By the time I asked her about it, I am now going to have to be ready to get them in the mail the same day we receive them in 2-3 weeks!

This morning after a vacation week and supposedly on call for jury duty, I was already wishing that JURY DUTY had called my number to report.. but when it came down to it, the phone message was only to call tonight after 7pm. And again, I will not have to report to jury duty for Tuesday.. why not, I actually enjoy jury duty and getting on a trial... I know bizarre, but I am a TRU TV court tv follower and actually DVR it..

I put a roast in the crock pot this morning as tonight will be the only night we are all together for dinner, which once was a rarity and has now become the rule.. I miss the regularity of being at the table together. Ashley is leaving Tue-Thur to Las Vegas and than to Havasu until Sunday. Tuesday night we are going to the Angels game with the boys, April and my mom.. my dad is working the game so he will be there somewhere.

Last week in the midwest I landed with the temp at 24 degrees.. and it crept up to 44 at it's best. I arrived back in OC on Friday night at 11pm and it was perhaps 55 degrees, and on Saturday it was a hot flash of mid 80's.... It would have melted the saturday 14 inch snow storm of the midwest in record time.. I know that I was melting.

It's currently halftime of the college basketball finals and if I last until the end of it without having crawled into bed I WOULD BE surprised... But with the score as it is, hard to imagine that I will be missing anything!

a week in the life ~

It's been a while since a blog has been worked through but yet there has been alot going on.. and not much time to write it out .. I had a weeks vacation and used it to go to MN and see my grandma Lorraine Cook who just turned 85 last week. Decided at the last minute and was able to get a good price on airfare/car ~ who would have thought. pictures will be posted on flickr soon.

I left Saturday March 28th at 6:45am from OC John Wayne to Minneapolis, a bit of a layover before the connection and onto the Omaha airport at 3:30 pm, where I rented a car. I drove quickly to the Worthington Auditorium where my mother in law was waiting for me to meet her for a review show "Gone Country IV" that started at 7:30pm.. My father in law was in Florida and so I was her "surprise date". I wasn't sure that I could make the short time frame between landing and performance time but I made it at 7:15pm! It was a nice show. And than we stopped at the Blue Line truck stop with the four others who had tickets to the performance. So by the time we arrived at my inlaws home it was after 11:30 pm... and I was feeling pretty good for having been up since 2am.

Sunday morning woke up at 8am having laid in one position all night from exhaustion, to find that the electicity was OFF from the phone call of sister in law asking if me if we had any.. I was barely awake and so did discover the answer was no, which in rural america also means no water. But before the city kid realized this connection, I had already brushed my teeth with the water left in the pipes, and so that was it. So church starts at 10:30am and I was sooooo very lucky that "yesterday's hair" and a little hair wax and finger combing looked okay.. But while we were having breakfast and reading the paper at 9:50 suddenly the electicity starting charging through the appliances and I was glad I had 10 minutes to try something with hair dryer/curling iron to the hair.. (so vain) After church all of the Symens family came together meeting at Godfathers pizza in Windom for noon dinner and than to the house for some visiting and celebrating niece Katie's 20th birthday. Char & Jack, and youngest son Jason came from Morgan, and Gales family, and Kim were there for my visit.. which was so nice.

Monday morning I left for Edgerton, where I planned to visit my grandma through Wednesday at the Edgebrook Care Center. I made a run through Leota, to the cemetery and took a picture of the headstone of my grandparents Case and Angeline VanEssen. It was extremely windy and cold and so there was no exploring for any other relative headstones, just back into the car. I arrived at the nursing home just after she returned to her room from noon dinner. She's very quiet and reserved, hears you and has just some basic responses. So I told her about my trip; where I landed, the type of car I rented, the play I saw, how the kids all were, what they were up to, what there plans for the future were and what they were doing to pursue them and than the classic stand by of the weather as it was windy, snowy, sunny in different amounts over the three days.. I read the town newspapers to her, stories from her country magazines, Took her to coffee/cookie time in dining hall, visited with some others in the home I knew. She was very alert on Monday & Wednesday, it was Tuesday that she did alot more sleeping. I was staying Monday night in Edgerton with a 2nd cousin Dean and his wife Ardeth Fransen. Tuesday/Wednesday nights I stayed in Luverne with a cousin Rhonda and her husband Dave Wynia who are always so gracious to do when we are in the area. Wednesday morning we met Uncle Alvin/Aunt Gladys in town for breakfast and that was nice. I spent about 15 hours over the three days at the home with grandma, it's a great care facility in a small town that does a tremendous job in what is a difficult situation.

Wednesday when it came time to say goodbye, I told her that I was going to be leaving and this time for home to CA., which brought tears that I told her were okay and not to hold them in. I assured her that I would stay until she was okay or fell asleep. The smart cookie than seemed to lock her eyes on me as if she stayed awake I wouldn't leave. She settled down , for which I was than wondering how long she could manage to hold out not having slept much during that day. I stayed a little while and than I stood up and kissed her goodbye and she lets out a wail of a cry "don't go".... oh Lord I sat back down and just started praying outloud with her for peace and calm over both of us in the separation, for the life that she had led and the love we both felt for each other, for the caretakers who would be with her daily that she would trust them and that they would be worthy of that trust. That she would always know she was in my heart. She told me "thank you". It was with that I stood up and kissed her cheek, told her I loved her and than had to walk away. As I was crying down the hall, her nurse Maryann DeGroot came out of a room and I asked her to check on her.. Maryann assured me it was harder on me, which is good I'm sure, but for the time she could remember, it would be hard on her. In Gods timing, Greg called me just as I was leaving the building, so that helped to work through some emotions before driving out of town.

By the time I left, I was surely needing a good stiff drink but headed back to the Wynia farm and instead went for a walk to use some adrenaline against the head wind blowing... Rhonda and I did some talking and than we enjoyed a great dinner and some table games over the two nights..

Thursday morning as I was leaving town, I drove out to the Luverne cemetery and took a picture of grandpa Cooks headstone. I than headed back towards Windom, stopping in Worthington's Walmart for a couple bouquets of flowers for Marlys from her son and I.. This has become a regular thing over the years.. When I returned home later that week, I found a dozen red roses from Greg in our room.. he knows what touches my heart and is so good to speak to it..

Gregs dad returned from Florida Thursday afternoon and the local family came for supper at the house that night. Friday morning was a quick packing up and than I left for the Omaha airport after meeting Gale and Patty in town for dinner. It is somewhat odd to drive for hours and to really pass about 100 cars total.. the roads were good, sunshine and 45 degrees, my flights were on time and I arrived home in OC airport at 11:00pm April 3.

The next day they began to receive 9-14 inches of snow in the MN/IA/NE path I would have had to travel and so that was good to hear that I got out of dodge just at the right time.

Saturday the routine began with alarm ringing at 5:30am for a quick shower and off to the two study groups, and home to finish getting ready for a 1pm bridal shower for Steph Hyink in Temecula which is an hour twenty minute drive. Ashley was to be back by 5:30 to leave for her 12 hour shift at hospital, but we got stuck in traffic and she was too late for that. Greg and I went to dinner and than to Valley Christian High for a baseball game of friends son.. Yep, I was ready for bed when we got home but it was sort of "early" by the clock... soooo well it worked out.

That is the week in my life ~