Updates

As many of you know, I have been in Warroad, Minnesota watching grandkids as my son underwent cancer treatments at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Mn.

Well, he and his wife left here on Oct 25th and this was just gonna be a week , then home a few days, and back down to Rochester for more treatments, etc. Well, nobody can really say the new drug caused the heart issue but that drug certainly had a side affect none of us wanted to see, hear or witness him going through. As a result, is was discovered he had a leaking heart value, the mitral value. So heart surgery was scheduled.

My daughter-in-law decided she had had enough stress on her own and wanted her parents there and Dean wanted his Mommy. So we got in a car Sunday and drove 8+ hours to Rochester, Mn. Spend a little time with Dean and then, off we went to our hotel room. He was scheduled for surgery early Monday morning.

Let me tell you, you pray alot and you wait a lot and you just are exhausted, worried, scared and at the same time you know everything will be okay. You get hourly updates from the hospital staff but for some reason, our hourly updates seemed to get delayed or lost so for a few hours we were totally unaware of what in hell was happening. Then we were told he was being taken to ICU and we would be able to see him shortly. Oh he was out of it , but I did see him, touched him, squeezed his hand and that made me feel better.

Then we waited some more. It was some time before he began emerging from his fog and able to recognize us and as he could not talk, tube down his throat, he would attempt to write questions, etc. It's all over now, he is on the road to recovery and we headed back to Warroad and the grandkids today..another 8+ hour trip.

On the way back, Sheri would call and keep us updated, Dean was sitting up, off oxygen, another tube removed, he is now sitting up -- oh happy day, his is out of ICU and moving to the 5th floor -- wow. He is doing great and we are sure tomorrow, they will have him up and walking a bit.

More later, folks, I am exhausted and that bed really looks most inviting. Thanks for all your prayers and best wishes, they helped. God Bless and keep smiling, okay?

HOLY E-MAIL

One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the rascally behavior that was going on. So he called one of His angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time.

When he returned, he told God, 'Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not. God thought for a moment and said, 'Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion.' So God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a time.

When the angel returned he went to God and said, 'Yes, it's true. The Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good.' God was not pleased.

So He decided to e-mail the 5% that were good, because he wanted to encourage them, and give them a little something to help them keep going..

Do you know what the e-mail said?

Okay, I was just wondering, because I didn't get one either.

Pastor's Ass

The Pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won..The Pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again and it won again.The local paper read:PASTOR'S ASS OUT FRONT.

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the Pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.The next day the local paper headline read: BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR'S ASS.

This was too much for the Bishop so he ordered the Pastor to get rid of the donkey.The Pastor decided to give it to a Nun in a nearby convent.The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day:NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.

The Bishop fainted.He informed the Nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey so she sold it to a farmer for $10.

The next day the paper read: NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10..
This was too much for the Bishop so he ordered the Nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.

The next day the headlines read: NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE.

The Bishop was buried the next day.

The moral of the story is . . . being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery . . . even shorten your life.

So be yourself and enjoy life.

Stop worrying about everyone else's ass and you'll be a lot happier and live longer!

Have a nice day!

Junk Drawers

Okay, go ahead; tell me you don’t have a junk drawer in your kitchen…liar….we all have at least one.

And what is amazing is that when we finally decide to clean it, the stuff we realize we shoved in there should have been tossed a long time ago, right?

What is even worse is once everything is out, you wash the drawer and it looks clean now, right? Then you put stuff back in the drawer and I don’t know about you, but mine looks almost as full and messy as when I started – what in hell is that all about? I don’t recall “Junk Drawer 101,” being like this, did you?

Gotta tell ya, Minnesota is starting to get some cold weather. Hey, 25 degrees is cold in my book. And yes, we have had our first snow and it tried like hell to snow yesterday but it never happened, thank goodness. Again, the wind off the thousand Lakes makes it much cooler in my book but the folks here are of hearty stock and don’t see this as all that cold yet!

My son is really having a rough time with this treatment process. The new drug is causing all sorts of side affects and they are done with that sucker - -ya think? He was retaining fluids so they gave him something to stop that and that caused dehydration so that wasn’t a good plan. Then something else was tried and he was nausea and weak, I mean this is strong young man and he could not walk three steps without needing to sit down and rest…so he was being pushed about in a wheelchair!

He was hospitalized Sunday and Monday, they checked him and said he needed to stay in the hospital because he was experiencing a minor capillary leak syndrome…holy shit, what else can he experience? This morning his heart was racing so he was taken to ICU, on oxygen as a precautionary measure and everything is being monitored. It’s scary as hell hearing about all this and unable to do much however, he will get through this and he has a very strong, supportive and loving wife right by his side encouraging and keeping him fighting. Please pray for him and all those fighting cancer…this is one badass disease.

Yes, is it time for grandma to study so she can do homework later, I do need to keep my image up for the grandkids, and at this point, I am still smarter than a 1st and 3rd grader - -not by much, but a little.

On the home front, my newest grandson is doing great, Mommy and Daddy are enjoying him and as always I am anxious to see him too.

Keep smiling folks, we’re above ground and life is good!

Monday

Whew, what a weekend and in this neck of Minnesota that's 3-days of weekend fun. Ya, no school on Friday...ye gads!

Halloween was fun...the Grandma's did a great job...what the hell, we can brag too. I was a little puzzled when we "drove" kids almost house-to-house vs. having them walk and as it was not all that cold, this was even more of a puzzle to me. I am not saying kids did not walk door-to-door, they did but driving around town was also necessary. And we took them ONLY to places we knew they knew the kids. Then of course, we had to check all the candy and before long, a sugar high was seen, felt and heard...try getting them to bed when that is going on -- holy sheet!

The next day we headed over to the Black Bear for breakfast and my grandkids ate like this was their first meal in days...ye gads. Oh I was proud of them, made "happy plates." Then as it was Sunday, it was come home, play a few games and settle in for football. You wanna piss kids off, tell'em the TV is yours for the day..ye gads. Oh give me a break, they have a TV in their room, they can watch things up there. Why is it kids insist on having you in the same room to watch shows?

It has been a rough week and weekend for my son as the treatments put him thru the ringer. Then he was retaining fluid and needed help getting them out and was also experiencing some pain. Hopefully today's treatments will go smoother, better meds will be given to deal with pain, nausea and fluid retention. They really hope to head home today -- both are anxious to see their kids...they have NEVER been away from them for this long.

And on the home front (meaning there) my grandson, Clint, is now home too. Mommy is taking him for his blood work and other check ups this morning all by herself and a tad nervous. Of course Grandpa has seen and held him and again, everyone is doing this but me...oh well, when I get home, he's all mine for a little while. I'm sure his parents will want a break by then too.

So the sun is shining, the dog and I have had a short walk -- it was chilly and that little Shih Tzu take very small steps...I had to adjust my pace to accommodate the damn dog -- how sad is that?

Have a great day, and keep smiling...