Stormy in Michigan.....

temp of 16º with a wind chill of 3º, snowy and blowing snow.   It's been colder but not this year.  Have the tree up and most of the decorations and about half the shopping done.  Just need to finish the shopping, wrap the presents, mail out Christmas cards, clean the house, bake lots of cookies and plan the Christmas evening buffet menu.  That won't be too hard, they always want the same things...........tradition I guess.  We will have 4 of our children with us this year.  The fifth one came up for Thanksgiving from Kentucky and we do need to share her with her family down there too.

Don't have the stocking hung by the chimney with care yet.........that's the last thing we do!  Only 2 stockings though, Mema(Grandma) and BumpaGrandpa)!  The other kids all have stockings at their own houses now.  Our youngest son has a blended family and we will be sadly missing the two oldest from that group but hope they have a Merry Christmas and we will catch up with them later.  We will probably have approximately 22 people in all here.  Good thing we have a big house!

Hubby gets to go back on first shift beginning next Mon. the 20th.  We are very excited and thank the Lord for that.  We don't know for how long, but hope it lasts a long, long time!

Merry Christmas to all my friends and a Happy New Year.  I know it's early, but just in case I don't get back here before then.  Love you all!

Well, my knee surgery is done.  It was on Oct. 19th and the orthopedic surgeon repaired a tear in the ligament, a tear in the meniscus and a tear in the cartilage.  Hopefully when I see him next on Dec. 3rd, it will as good as it can be.  Of course I did have a fall on it on Oct. 31.  I'm hoping I didn't do any damage to the repairs he made.  It is still sore and somewhat swollen and still is painful, but I know as we age we don't heal as fast or as well as when we were a few years younger. 

We were all gathered at Tom's Uncle Jim's apartment as the time was near for his passing into eternal life.  He had throat cancer that spread and he did pass away peacefully around 9:30PM.  I am so glad he is out of pain and suffering, yet Tom and I spent a lot of time with him, visiting and helping to care for him.  He didn't want to go to the Veterans Home so we promised him as long as it was possible for us and one of his sisters to care for him at his apartment we would do everything we could to keep him home.  Fortunately we were able to do so!  It was a very nice Military funeral as he spent several years in the U.S Air Force during the VietNam era.  Most of us did fine until the sister that cared for him was presented the flag and then we lost it.  But we are thankful he no longer has to suffer and he has gone to meet his Savior and his Mom, Dad and 3 brothers who passed away before him.

He was very generous to us.  He left us his 2003 Envoy, knowing that Tom's truck needs lots of repairs and his car isn't running the greatest either.  Some family members are upset with us for receiving this gift, but I think it was Uncle Jim's way of thanking us for all we did for him.  We didn't expect it but are extremely grateful for his generosity toward us.  God has granted him the peace he had been seeking for so long.  Thanks be to God!

Septemter 25, 2010

This is a photo of the newlyweds with all their children!  Everyone is so happy for them and the kids are all happy too!  I'm sure they will encounter some rough times ahead, but every family does, whether blended or not!  The kids range in age from the oldest 15, and the youngest just 2.  They will be very busy raising all of them............they have two teenage daughters, a middle school age son, an elementary school age son and daughter and the 'baby' who is just  2!  Boy am I glad it isn't me starting all over again with small ones.  I simply don't have the energy or the patience for it anymore!

It was an outdoor wedding and although it didn't rain on us, it was very chilly and all the bridesmaids and bride and both teenage daughters wore sundresses.  We were planning for nicer weather.  I nor the bride's Mom ever thought we would live to see the day either of them would marry!  We are all so happy for them and you can tell that they are happy just by looking at their faces.  I'm not sure my son will stop grinning yet this year!  Even the children are all happy.  I know they will have some problems ~ you can not blend a family without some encounters, no matter how much the 'Brady Bunch' made it look.  But my son came from a blended family and watched us make it work, so he has some expeience and is a step ahead of the game in that department. 

God was at this wedding and I told them they need to keep God at the center of their newoly blended family and they will be fine............no matter what happens!

Feeling down today............can't put my finger on it unless it is the fact that hubby has been working  a alot of overtime and there is never enough time for us to do anything fun.  Not like there is much we can do anyway.  My health issues don't allow us to do much that doesn't entail sitting down....................it gets old hat and mighty depressing after several months.  I'm hanging in ther although I don't know how much longer I can or why I even want to.  Life isn't a lot of fun when there isn't much you can do to participate in it!  I try and put a smile on my face and pretend that everything is fine even when it isn't.  I don't know how much longer I can do it, but I have to at least keep it up too get through my sons upcoming wedding on Sept. 25!  I am really happy for him and his bride and I am really looking forward to this.  I never thought I would live to see this day, but am awfully glad I did.  I wish his birth Dad was here to enjoy it with us.  Okay, I have to get off this subject or I will end up crying here and now and won't be able to see what else I am typing.   They are blending a family and I know from experience that it can be a difficult task at best.  I hope he has learned from our mistakes  and doesn't have to learn those lessons on his own!  They have 6 children between them and they need to love all of them the same and as if they were their very own.  She has 2, he has 3, and they have one together.  Amazingly enough they all get along and actually like each other, so that is half the battle and they are close enough in age to play and talk together and form special bonds that will last them a lifetime!!!!

Hot and humid!

Well, here it is, one more hot and humid day here. We have had more hot, humid days this summer than we had all of last summer and we are expecting our hottest day of the year Friday with a temp of 93º and a heat index of 103º! Sounds like a day to stay indoors and read and out of the heat and humidity if at all possible. It will be for me! My poor hubby will have to go to work in a factory that is always at least 20 degrees hotter inside than it is outside. I'm glad I'm a woman and am not required to support a family financially as most men are!

Yesterday I had 3 grandchildren here, aging in age from 15 to 4. The 15 year old was here to help me with the other two...........her cousins. I took Elijah and Rebecca swimming to my daughters house for a while and they were so tired that Rebecca, who is the 4 year old, fell asleep on the way here and we only live like 6 minutes away! After her daddy came for them we had supper and she wanted to go outside and play on the swingset. We went out for a while but the skeeters were eating us up so we came back in. She was a little upset about having to come in so soon and I told her that if the mosquitoes were biting me that badly that they surely would start eating her up in a minute. She looked up at me, and in all seriousness said "No they won't Mema......their tummys are very little so by the time they are done eating you, they will be too full for me." I love the things little kids say.................still, we came in!

Doctors

When I went to my appointment with the Vascular Surgeon, I also found out that the cardiologist who has been treating me for the past 18 years did NOT retire as we were told.  He was with West Michigan Heart and they broke off into two different groups.  We were told he was staying with Metro Heart and Vascular.  Not so.  They then told us he was retiring.  Not so, either.  He decided to stay with West Michigan Heart.  I think that was a rather dirty trick to play on his patients and on the Doctor.  When we discovered this, we requested all our records and medical histories be sent to him at West Michigan Heart.  I mean after 18 years with one doctor, you develop a closeness with them and they with you.  They become almost like family and we really felt that this particular doctor had our best interest at heart.  This was not the feeling we got while remaining with Metro Heart and Vascular.  I have confidence that now we will get the best care possible and perhaps they can do something to help me that the other group could not.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

Another rescheduling!

I am pretty upset today.  I am still stewing over my heart doctor appointment on Monday.  I was scheduled for a angiogram and stenting of some major blockages on the 26th of this month and made sure with the doctor's assistant that all was in order.  Even had my blood work done.

Only to come home and find a letter in the mail explaining to me that the doctor won't be in the office at all that day and they had to reschedule until June 4th.  Okay, I know it's only a week and 2 days later than the original schedule date but this is the third time they have done this to me this year!  To them it is just another surgery/procedure, but to me it is a very important step to being able to get on with my life.  The blockage are in my legs and there is one in the main aorta just above where it splits to feed the legs and one to my right kidney that is almost totally blocked.  I had a 99% blockage in one of the bypasses from open heart surgery 8 years ago and they were able to stent that a couple of weeks ago and I am feeling better.  But at this point, with the other blockages, my kidney function is too low, and I am barely able to walk 100 yards without needing to sit down and rest because my calf's hurt so bad I could just cry!  And to top it all off, they are not sure if they can even take care of the blockages in the lower legs this time or if it will have to wait for a later date because they don't think my body will tolerate the contrast dye they have to use being I have an allergy to it!  I am so frustrated at the present time, and yet I do understand that the doctors have a very stressful job and perhaps need to have some time off, if that is the case.  After all, it is a holiday weekend.............Memorial Day.  Well, I guess later will have to work because it can't be done sooner.  I guess I will just have to accept the fact that it is what it is and go from there.

Amber's ongoing saga...............

she falls in and out of love a dozen times a month. And each time she is postive her heart will break. I am sympathetic, yet I am glad. For it means that she isn't getting too serious with one boy at her age and there is less worry about intimate relations going on. Although we have talked over and over about that and the consequences of what can happen and how it changes your life forever, especially should she become pregnant. I hope she remembers the things we talked about and the things she was taught when she lived with us. I would like to think that during the fomrative years she lived with us, some of what we tried to teach her has stuck with her and she will remember! Please God, watch over this young girl and keep her safe and give her reminders of how she was raised in a Christian home and how much we and You love her!

It has happened............

.........my second born grand daughter, Amber, whose picture appears above, has reached the age that she would rather spend time with her friends than come visit us and spend weekends with us. Use to be, we were her whole world. She lived for the weekends and was here every chance she could be. She spent every vacation with us, took many trip with us and always came on Christmas Day and stayed all of Christmas break with us. "To everything there is a season" and as sad as it seems............this season with her has ended. Oh, I am sure we will still see her, just not as much as we use too. She is our 'little girl' whom we had guardianship of for most of the first 5 years of her life, so in a way, she almost seems more like a child than a grandchild. It feels as if something has been ripped out of my heart..........and yet, I knew this day was coming. It's just that it arrived much sooner than I was prepared for and way sooner than I wanted it too! But it is inevitable..............life goes on, people grow up and change and the daily contact you once had vanishes into thin air.

I know this throuogh the deaths of my parents at a young age and my first husband at the young age of 34. But maybe it is something you are never prepared to lose.........even a small portion of that contact. Yet, Amber is not dead, she still walks this earth and I still get an occasioanl phone call from her and I guess that will have to be good enough..........until the next season arrives!