November Almost Over

I don’t know about anyone else but November seems to have flown by, at least the latter half. The first part, not so much as my sister would say.

In the fact the first half was the freakin pits as far as my family was concerned. Our son was undergoing cancer treatment, had some kind of reaction to a trial drug and wham, now he was undergoing open heart surgery to repair a leaky value…sweet Mama, what else could happen. However, he is doing great and we are very thankful for that too.

And our newest grandson is putting on weight and just keeps getting cuter by the day (well, minute if you insist) and Grandma is having a hard time staying away –want to hold him constantly. I also miss the Minnesota grandkids – at least they could and did play games with me (mind and board games).

Went for a brisk walk yesterday morning – had no idea it was that chilly until the wind kick up and then, well, then I realized I should have worn a bit more than just a sweatshirt and vest. Oh well, walk faster and you warm up quick. One thing I noticed and heard was the geese all flying, honking and looking for directions – guess it’s time to head south. What cracks me up is the flock above my head was no where near a V shape – they must have flunked that course.

Later hubby and I put up some outside decorations. Hey, it was a great day for this except for the wind, when that sucker blew you felt it and began to get the idea, colder weather is gonna hit and soon. Oh well, that is life in the North Country.

I suppose next week I shall hit the stores and begin the Christmas shopping (our daughter-in-law is already reminding us in no uncertain terms, she needs a wish list and she wants it ASAP). I have damn little idea of what to buy anyone so it’ll be one of those walk around and let something call to me…hey, this idea has worked for years and years.

Have a grand Sunday – it is football day, so get the snacks prepared, find a comfy seat and sit back and enjoy….oh ya, I doth like my football games!!

Home

Good Morning,

Yes, I am finally back home and came directly from the airport to see and hold my newest grandson. OMG the photos do not even begin to show how much hair this boy has -- its amazing.

Of course he is beautiful, handsome, adorable, snugglable and just flat out wonderful. Grandma is just gonna be spending lots of time with him now and later...he is just too cute.


However, I miss my Minnesota grandkids too -- only been a day but man, I got use to seeing their smiling faces at breakfast, doing homework and playing games with them too. Oh well, once Mom and Dad got home, I was pretty much chopped liver...naw, they love me but they missed their parents and that is only fair.

Our son is doing nicely. Had a cancer treatment on Monday, what a long, drawn out day that was and yes, I was there. That is one slow dripping IV process and then, he got the chills, so everything had to stop, he needed to warm up, get things back in sync and finally, resume the treatment. What normally takes 5 hours, took a bit longer and his butt was numb as was mine. If I understand all this crap, he has two more treatments, then he gets a break and 8 weeks after that he'll head back to Rochester aka Mayo Clinic for "tests," and then we shall hear "you are in total remission." Ya, we live for that day.

As for his open heart surgery, he is doing nicely in that department too. It's a slow process and small steps and he is learning to take things slow and easy (not an easy thing for him to accept). Most likely he'll start cardiac rehab soon too...whatever in hell that entails (walking, light weights, etc). Mostly tho he still tires easily and takes naps..so he joined (temporarily) the senior citizens happy hour each day and took a nice nap!!!

More later...have a lovely day and a fantastic Thanksgiving...we all have so much to be thankful for and we need to say thanks more often!!!

Santa Workshop

Here are my grandkids making "trains" at Santa's Workshop. Later we visited with Santa.

What was interesting was the parents were looking for us and neary put out an APB -NY Grandma missing!!! They didn't know about the workshop and had no idea I would be there -- silly parents.

Lovely weather here in Warroad. Our son is slowly getting around better but tires easily and actually looks forward to his afternoon naps (hey at my age, happy hour is a nap, so this works out nicely).

More later...have a great day and yes, by all means, keep smiling!!!

Soon

Great news!

Our son came through his heart surgery with flying colors and is now home. He cannot drive and tires easily but he is following the doctor's orders and taking things slow and easy. This involves going for short walks, 3 or 4 times a day and of course, no driving. Think he over did it a bit yesterday, long walk, got the kids ice skates sharpened, visited his office for an hour, walked about in a store and then we did lunch. Whew, even I was exhausted. Today he is definitely taking things a bit slower.

Oh yes, the kids were most happy to see their parents and I am currently chopped liver -- grandma was great while the parents were away but hey, they are home and they are glued to them like white on rice. Ya, it'll last a bit longer and then, grandma will once again be the person to hang with -- or so I think!!!

As it now stands, unless something changes, I shall head back to NY next week and then, I shall get to meet my newest grandson. Hell, stay here much longer and he'd be in pre-K!!! Yes, life is good.

Weather has been beautiful here in Warroad. Sunny, breezy and chilly but not that horrible cold one expects in this northern tundra.

Keep smiling...and again,thanks for all your prayers and support....deeply appreciated.

Some times you Just Don't Ask

Just when you think you have heard it all, out pops another idiot!!!!!!
How about this one for all of the teachers I am forwarding this to.
Have you ever heard of such ignorance?

How would you pronounce this child's name?

"Le-a"

Leah?? NO
Lee - A?? NOPE
Lay - a?? NO
Lei?? Guess Again.

This child attends a school in Detroit, MI. Her mother is irate because everyone is getting her name wrong.

It's pronounced "Ledasha" .

When the Mother was asked about the pronunciation of the name, she said, "the dash don't be silent."

SO, if you should happen to see something as ridiculous as this come across your desk, please remember to pronounce the dash.

If dey axes you why, just tell dem dat de dash don't be silent.

(And then we wonder why the whole damn country is falling apart...)

&&&&&&&&

A man went to church one day and afterward he stopped to shake the preacher's hand. He said, 'Preacher, I'll tell you, that was a damned fine sermon. Damned good!'

The preacher said, 'Thank you sir, but I'd rather you didn't use profanity.'

The man said, 'I was so damned impressed with that sermon I put five thousand dollars in the offering plate!'

The preacher said, 'No shit?'

Saint Mary’s Hospital

This was taken inside, looking out...said tubes connect various building through this hospital...it is truly amazing and a fantastic medical facility.


Saint Mary’s hospital opened on Sep 30, 1889. Its history however began six years earlier when, in 1883, the Sisters of Saint Francis were called upon to care for the sick and injured after Rochester, Mn. Suffered a devastating tornado. The Sisters opened their teaching academy to house the critical patients. Dr. William Worrall Mayo directed the medical care.

Today, Saint Mary’s Hospital is one of the largest private hospitals in the world. I gotta tell ya, this sucker is HUGE. Inside the building are 5 other buildings: Mary Brigh Building, Francis Building; Joseph Building; Domitilla Building and Generose Building and each of these have various floors, rooms and patient services. It’s just amazing and a maze of long corridors but well mapped out and although you walk a lot folks are there to assist if needed.

My son began his Rochester adventure at the Mayo Clinic in a clinical trail for follicular lymphoma and he and his wife left home on Oct 25th and figured to be back Nov 2nd. Well, it was during these trials and a leaky heart value was discovered and then, it was more tests and finally the decision to have heart surgery.

That took place on Monday, November 9th and here we are Wednesday, Nov 11th and he is slowly having tubes removed, sitting up, getting nourishment and with any luck, a few steps this afternoon. He is strong but this is gonna be a long healing process and at the moment, he has all ready been informed, for awhile, he can lift nothing heavier than 5 pounds. This will be his hardest test to mind the doctor’s and follow orders – he will just need to relearn to take things slower and give his body a chance to heal completely.

Yes, Mama was with him and glad she was because he wanted his Mommy too. He loves his wife and she has been there the entire time and attentive, supporting, caring and loving but no matter how old you get, if possible you still want Mommy! Mama got pretty tired tho – sorry but a long drive to Rochester (8 hours) and then a lot of sitting and waiting, and that just wears you out. So I am using today to rest and doing damn little.

I am anxious to see the grandkids and although this is “deer week,” and limited school days, they did attend yesterday and today, but it will be a 4-day weekend from this day on. BUT next week to make up for this time off, get this crap, they will go all FIVE days and the same hours – ouch!

Sun is shining, it’s 47 degrees and if the energy level ups just a little, I think a walk would be wonderful – I’m gonna talk myself into a walk, you can see that happening, can’t ya?

Take care, keep smiling and again, thanks for all your prayers and good thoughts.

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...