Wednesday

Hello all! My sweet friend, Kim Wagner and I spent the day with Mom and Dad on Wednesday. Kim and I have been best friends since we were Juniors in high school! Let me tell you that we have gone through a LOT together!!! Kim is one of the kindest and sweetest persons you could ever hope to be blessed with as a friend!

Mom and Dad were up and having breakfast when we arrived! Mom seemed so much less stressed in getting Dad ready for therapy, since they come to the house now! I am so pleased to tell you that Dad's home therapy has begun! It is so nice for Mom not to have to deal with getting Dad to Burnet and for the therapists to come to the house! I did pluralize therapists! Somehow it was approved for Dad to have speech therapy AND physical therapy at home!!!

Dad's physical therapist, Susan, is a young blonde, so Dad is VERY cooperative with her and smiles a lot!!! He's still such a big flirt! Susan had Dad make a couple of trips around the house with the hemi-walker and then had him walk forwards, backwards and sideways back and forth at the hand-rail. After he was back in his wheelchair, she exercised his right arm, shoulder and hand. The hour with her went by quickly and then we had lunch.

Sweet Kim had gotten up at 6:00 and prepared lunch to bring to Mom, Dad and me! She made King Ranch chicken, corn and a beautiful salad. Oh, and she made peach short-cake for dessert! Mom was especially thrilled to not to have to cook and to taste someone else's cooking for a change!

Kim told Mom that they should move to Georgetown, where she lives, and she would cook for them a lot! Mom got this great smile on her face and said, "Okay!!!" I think she'd take her up on that in a heartbeat, but there's no way on God's green earth that she could get Daddy to move from their house! They've talked about it from time to time, but Dad makes this stern face and points to the ground as if to say, "I am staying right here!!!"

Time flew and Marge, the speech therapist arrived at 3:00. This was her second visit to the house. She took Dad to the computer and continued working with him on turning on the computer, calling up his emails, reading them and responding to them! So, if any of you would like to hear from Dad, just send him and email! Either Marge, Mom or one of us kids will help Dad to respond! If you email him, just a short message is best! I am also proud to say that Mom is now able to retrieve and respond to emails too! She doesn't get to the computer often, maybe once a week at best, but she loves to hear from her friends and family! You don't have to be concerned about the length of the email with her! She loves to read your news! Marge is keeping track of the communication machine that's on order. It should be arriving any time now! Hoe blessed we are that she will help Dad get it set u p and teach him how to use it!

Between therapies and after lunch, Kim and I helped Mom with folding and putting away some of her laundry. It was fun having girl-talk while our hands were busy. We also stripped the bed, washed the linens and hung them on the clothesline! Kim nor I had hung clothes on the line in YEARS! We laughed and laughed because we couldn't even remember how to hang sheets!!! She said she couldn't wait to tell her daughter Heather about our fun! She doubted Heather even knew what a clothesline was!!! Some of the sheets were close to dry by the time we finished since it was so hot and the wind was blowing! Think of the electricity we saved! After about an hour we went back out there and took them down! Ah, what a wonderful scent sheets have that are dried outside! It brought back so many memories of my childhood! "Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume." ~ Jean de Boufflers

The day flew by much too quickly, but we shared lots of laughs and hugs, so it was a very good day! Mom and Dad loved spending time with Kim, as she did them! What a treasure my friend is to me and my family! "Friends are kisses blown to us by angels!" ~ author unknown

Thursday, September 23 marks two special events, the first day of Autumn and the opening of the big antiques sale in Warrenton TX! Ollie and I set up two booths in a building there called Cole's and spend September 20 through October 3rd there! I probably won't be posting again until after the end of that show. I pray all is well with each of you and I look forward to "talking" to you in October! My love to all of you, Sandi

Dove Season!!!

A huge tradition with many of our bunch is Opening Day of dove season, September 1. Ollie and I went to Jean and Jimmie's ranch so he could hunt with Jimmie and with Jennifer's guys, David, Randy and Bradley. This year 9-year old Kelly joined them as did 3.5 year old Austin! They, like all the hunters, were decked out in their camo and Kelly had the 410 shotgun (well-supervised, I promise!)! While the hunters are out, Jean and I get a chance to relax and visit, watch a movie, or whatever suits us!

The highlight of Opening Day is the tailgate party at dusk. All the hunters and visitors gather in a pasture and back the trucks into a circle. We set up a table, open a couple of tailgates and spread out the food...it's a night of junk food, chips, dips, jalapeno wienies, sardines, smoked oysters, brownies and all kinds of unhealthy but tasty things!!! Fortunately we only eat like that at the taligate party!!!

Mom and Dad joined us too! They arrived early enough for Jimmie to take Dad (and Austin) for a ride around on the ranch on the Kabota! Jimmie took them to see the hunters and then to the tailgate party! They really enjoyed the ride! For they guys in our family, hunting is an opportunity for fellowship and camaraderie.

This is blog 3 of 3! It was a busy week with Mom and Dad and we loved every minute of it!

Yay for Caffeine!!!

Like I said, Dad was pretty perky during speech therapy! Usually, when we get home from Burnet, Dad heads straight for his chair in exhaustion! Well, not Thursday! I guess that caffeine from the Mocha Frappe' kicked in 'cause as soon as Dad got out of the suburban, he headed for his scooter!!! He got himself out of the wheelchair and onto the scooter and took off! We could hardly keep up with him! Mom went in the house to get her sun hat and Dad was out the gate and halfway to the garage before she caught up with him! First he wanted to go check out the back garage. After he was satisfied as to what was in there (Ollie and I are storing some furniture in there), he turned around and was well on the way to the front garage before we could get the door locked, catch up with him and get the front garage doors opened!!! The scooter Leslie and Kim Stephens bought him has given him a new sense of independence! Leslie and Kim live on the property next to Mom and Dad. Leslie plans on laying a pathway between their houses so Dad can come visit! Mom will have to be on her toes to know where he is!!! Maybe we should tie a bell on the scooter!!!

Caffeine still working, we all went back to the house, Dad got himself back into the wheelchair and went right to his office computer! The Internet was down, so we couldn't check emails, etc., like he wanted. By the way, Dad and Mom have a new email address. It is WHSmith@txwinet.com. Mom has been practicing opening and reading emails, so feel free to send them a message!!! They LOVE hearing from all their family and friends! Speaking of that, they also relish visitors! Call Mom before you go, but please go see them!

Keep reading, more to tell!

Dad's last day of therapy in Burnet was Sept. 2. Jean and I decided that we would go get him and take him! As Jean and I were headed to Mom and Dad's house, we stopped at McDonald's and picked up a quick breakfast and took breakfast burritos for Mom and Dad. While we were waiting for our order, I started reading about the Mocha Frappe'! Well, it sounded so good that I decided Jean and I had to try one! Let me just say that it is simply one of the best tasting things I ever put in my mouth! I had a feeling that Mom and Dad would think so too, so we bought one fro them! You should have seen Dad's face light up when he took his first sip!!! It was like, "WOW!" He drank the majority of it, even though he and Mom were supposed to be sharing it!!!

Off to therapy the three of us went. Dad was so perky! Marge spent the whole hour working with Dad's writing skills! She showed us the comparison of that day's writing versus the writing he had done when she first started working with him. His progress is remarkable! She would ask him to write things like, "Write her name" and point to Jean. He did that with ease! The fewer letters in a name or a work, the easier it is for him. He even spelled Sandi with the "i" when she asked him to write my name!!! He gets his e's and i's transposed sometimes, but that is very normal with his type of stroke patients. Towards the end of the hour, his brain gets fatigued and it shows in his spelling and handwriting.

Marge prepared three pages of speech related activities for Mom and the rest of us to work with Dad at home. Most of the time it's hard to get him to do the activities at home, but we keep encouraging him to do so!

Marge will begin home therapy with Dad next week! She would have started this Tuesday, but Mom and Dad are attending a funeral of one of Mom's cousins, Bill Goertz. in Rockne. I am not sure what the therapy schedule will be just yet, but I'll let you know!

Keep reading...Dad was on the go today!!! This is 1 of 3 blog additions!!!