Had a little ice cream cake with Nana last night. Tonight the big party, a sleep-over of 10 girls. Whee!!
Tonight, in lieu of cake, Charlotte decided to have the chocolate fountain.
We are the mundane
Supercategory to consolidate the family groups
Had a little ice cream cake with Nana last night. Tonight the big party, a sleep-over of 10 girls. Whee!!
Tonight, in lieu of cake, Charlotte decided to have the chocolate fountain.
Decided to keep the 60th a small celebration (unlike the 40th & 50th). Had dinner with some close friends last weekend. Note the beautiful orchid arrangement Dawn made (and small bouquets for each lady). Kenny, I do look much better when pictures are taken out of the sunshine, don’t I?
Dinner on my birthday was at Dawn’s. Reid was sick, so he went to bed early. Blake helped Mommy decorate…he especially loved the balloons and the Mickey Mouse cake.
Shannon put together a little book of “60 Things I’ve Learned from My Mom”. Some were pretty standard things a mother should teach a child i.e., “Patience”, “Work Ethic”, “Pride” etc. Some were things our mother taught us i.e., “Kill them with Kindness”, giving people the “Benefit of the Doubt” etc. Some things were applicable to just us i.e., “The Fall Family Lazy Gene – it does exist and I’ve taught her how to combat it”, “How much she loves Mickey Mouse cakes”, “How to pronounce things correctly – The ‘Mary’ test is a perfect example”, and of course “Family – Nothing matters more”.
It was a great birthday and would only have been better with all of you here. We got close on Christmas…we need to keep trying!
MARILYN, THE UTAH FALLS HOPE YOU HAVE A FANTASTIC SIXTIETH.
IT’S NOT ALWAYS EASY BEING THE SECOND SIBLING.
THE SECOND CHILD FOLLOWING SOMEONE AS CONFIDENT AS LARRY.
THE SECOND PRETTIEST CHILD (FOLLOWING GARY).
THE SECOND SMARTEST (FOLLOWING KENNY).
AND THE SECOND CLASSIEST (STEVE & RONNIE TIED FOR FIRST).
BUT MARILYN, YOU ARE SECOND TO NONE WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE AND DEVOTION TO THE FAMILY.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
KENNY, LISA, ELLIOT AND NATALIE
Missed out on a great opportunity today. PSU played Wisconsin in a Sunday afternoon hoops game covered by the Big Ten Network today (unfortunately, we played terribly and got beat). My standard routine for a basketball game is to TiVo it and come back and watch the game afterward.
Another standard routine of mine used to be to get up at half time and walk around the arena to stretch my legs. For most of this season I haven’t done that because walking up (the arena is sunken) the 30 some steps from my seat to the concourse was just exhausting. However, within the last two weeks I’ve resumed my half time exercise routine.
So after the game I come home and am watching the game replay. Just as the second half is about to start, the TV camera gradually zooms in on the fans behind the Wisconsin bench. They zoom all the way down to one fan who is standing by himself as the announcers talk about him. It was two time US Open champion Andy North who is a HUGE Wisconsin basketball fan and catches as many games as he can. The cameras zoom in so far that the only thing that fills the screen is Andy’s upper torso and the two empty blue seats behind him – my seats.
I was literally seconds from sitting back down. Blown opportunity to get some TV face time.
Just got an email from Lisa on an unrelated subject and she asked how I was feeling which made me realize it’s probably time for an update.
As I told her, I still have some minor issues but am getting better. Â Specifically, I have four issues, only one of which even concerns me in the slightest.
The first issue is my endurance. Â I basically have none and am easily winded. Â Once the weather turns nicer, I’ll start going for walks/runs and that should fix it.
The second is my strength (or lack there of). Â It’s really amazing how much strength I’ve lost. Â A week or so ago I decided to see how many push-ups I could do (actually, to be honest, I wanted to see if I could do ONE). Â I got in a push-up position and quickly realize that if I were to try to lower myself, I crash onto my face. Â So not only can’t I do a push-up, I can’t even do a lower-down. Â My doc suggested that I join a gym and start lifting weights. Â I’m not a big fan of gyms but I might have to take him up on his suggestion.
The third issue is one that I think that I have mentioned before. Â I have a numbness in my ring and pinky fingers on my right hand (it feels just like a permanent hit on the funny bone). Â At first I thought it might be carpal tunnel syndrome from sitting at my computer too much but a little internet research uncovered that carpal tunnel never affects those fingers, it’s the other three that are impacted. Â My doc gave it a fancy name, which I forget, but it’s basically a nerve in my elbow that’s getting squeezed or pinched. Â He said that what’s most likely is that all the sudden weight loss has caused things to shift around in my body and undoubtedly something is pinching the nerve. Â He said to give it a few months to see if I put the weight back on, which probably would fix it, or to see if things naturally shift again. Â If it doesn’t clear up on it’s own, he said he’d send me to a neuro guy who should be able to quickly fix it with minor surgery. It’s been a month and nothing’s yet happened (my weight is 175 so I’m keeping it down). Â I’ll give it another month or so before I make arrangements to have it checked out. Â Â
The fourth thing is the only one that I’m not sure what’s happening. Â There’s something fishy going on around my lower right rib cage. Â It’s like I have a muscle pull or something. Â Occasionally, I’ll make a sharp turn with my body, or rollover in bed, or take a sharp deep breath, and I’ll feel a slight stabbing pain. Actually, pain is probably too strong a word. It’s more like a discomfort. Â If it’s just a muscle pull like I think, it should heal up on it’s own so I’m just going to wait a while before I do anything about it. Â
Other than that, everything is fine. Â No more coughing at all which is the real good news. Â Everything else appears to be just a matter of time coupled with a little effort on my part.
We had an awesome trip to Chicago! Could only have been better if UncleLar had been there.
• All the cousins were together
• Some of us saw The Waco Bros. and ate “Slingers”.
• We skated at “The Bean”
• We went to Shedd Aquarium
• The kids & I went rock climbing
• And Lex returned to the scene of the crime, “The Assault of the Portal” and cursed the gate with his middle finger
Really had a good week. Â This is the first week where I’ve pretty much been able to do almost whatever I want without having any issues. I got winded on Monday scraping the snow and ice off of my car but didn’t break into a coughing fit despite the cold weather.
I spent most of the week at Tom’s house and was able to carry on conversations with him all week without them turning into a bunch of coughs – that was a first too.Â
I was out shopping this afternoon wandering around stores for about three hours without an issue – usually one trip around a store will wear me out but I walked all through Target, WalMart, and Best Buy without a problem.
I’m targeting New Year’s Eve as the rebirth of my social life. Â My favorite band, JR and Natalie, are playing at a local bar and I’m going to head there for the night (after my obligatory stop at the Tavern).
Â
My friend Tom Minsker took these shots. I Â spent the last few days babysitting him. He had a hip replacement on Monday and needed to have someone stay with him until he was self sufficient. I’ve heard stories about how quickly people recover from hip replacements and always thought they were slightly exaggerated but now that I’ve witnessed it, I am truly amazed.
Tom had his surgery midday Monday. I picked him up at the hospital Tuesday afternoon about 24 hours after his surgery. He was in a little discomfort Tuesday but had no trouble sleeping through the night (which is a surprise unto itself because he often has sleep issues). Wednesday, less than 48 hours after the surgery, he was walking around his house with the aid of walker. By Thursday, he had gotten rid of the walker and was just using a crutch. Today, he was walking around without the crutch (although he did use it when we went to the grocery store this evening). Just unbelieveable.
I probably could have left him by himself after the first night because he was 99% self sufficient then. The only thing that he had problems with was bending over far enough to put his support stockings on (he has to wear supports for four weeks to prevent blood clots). This afternoon he mastered that so I left him on his own (but I will check in with him daily).
so said my doctor at my checkup today. He assures me that the coughing fits are normal, nothing to worry about, and should go away soon. I had a series of breathing tests today that I evidently passed with flying colors. When he listened to my breathing he said things sounded much much improved from before. However, he added that it will take the lung about six months to recover even though I’ll feel fine in another month or so (he did add that I wall always have some scaring on the lung and to be sure to tell any other doctor who x-rays my chest about my surgery so the scars don’t alarm them).
As far as my general health was concerned the results of my blood work and heart stress test that I had done previously came back even better than could be expected. He made a couple of comments about how strong my heart was (specifically saying something about my right ventricle still being able to do x,y,z which is unusually for someone my age). That’s when he tossed in the “you’re going to live for a long time” comment. And, Marilyn, to address your comment on my other post – it appears my general health is fine so I must be doing something right.
On the other hand, I also had an appointment with the dermatologist. I was overdue for a checkup on my skin cancer (my dermatoligist retired and left town, so I had to find a new one) plus my whole body itches and I’ve been scratching like crazy. I got a clean bill of health on the skin cancer checkup but not so when it came to the itch. The dermatologist handed me a checklist of things I could do to address the itching and it turns out that I’m doing them all wrong.
Here’s the complete list:
– Don’t take hot showers – use comfortably cool water (I take showers as hot as I can stand).
– Keep showers brief – no more than ten minutes (I like long hot showers)
– Use unscented soap substitute like Dove, Oil of Olay, etc. NEVER use Ivory or perfumed deodorant soaps like Irish Spring, Coast, etc (I use Irish Spring).
– Use a bath oil (I don’t take baths).
– Pat skin dry. DO NOT rub briskly with a towel (I always rub myself down with a towel).
– Lubricate your skin with a moisturizer (I never use one),
– Consider a humidifier especially during winter months (nope – don’t have one).
Looks like I have some habits I’m going to have to change.