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!!!

Harvey the Llama?!

Meet Harvey the Llama! Isn't he handsome?!! Well, not as handsome as my Dad!!! Yes, eleven years ago he was named y cousins Barbara and Richard Schmidt in honor of my Dad!!! This was so thought-provoking...Harvey the Llama's job, which he takes very seriously, is to guard the goats and sheep from coyotes and other predators! I thought it was so parallel to our Heavenly Father and our earthly fathers who watch over their flocks!

I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and my sheep know me. ~ John 10:14

Ollie and I met up with Mom and Dad yesterday at 9:00 and headed to Boerne to visit Mom's niece Barbara (or Bobbie, as Mom calls her) and her husband, Richard. Barbara is the daughter of Mom's oldest brother Mike, or Mitchell, as many called him. Barbara and Richard live about 15 minutes outside Boerne in the beautiful hill country and raise the gorgeous male goats you see in the picture and entrust them to Harvey's care. Richard treated us to a tour of their ranch and shared a few stories of his growing up there. Barbara proudly showed us their home, shared stories with us from the old family pictures and memorabilia on her walls, and fed us a nice lunch. We enjoyed our visit with them so much!

We got back to Mom and Dad's about 4:00 and left with Dad is his chair, no doubt! I encourage Dad to say "Bye" and "I love you!" to me before I left. He smiled a radiant smile, looked me in the eye and told me he loves me! That made my heart soar! ...but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles... ~ Isaiah 40:31

This may be Dad's last week for speech therapy. We are so disappointed about that, but Medicare has caps on the number of visits he can have, unless he is showing MARKED improvement. Marge, the therapist, does believe that there is enough progress for therapy to continue and she is filing all the paperwork and working diligently attempting to get Medicare to approve it. We are so blessed to have her working with Dad!

Wednesday is Opening Day of Dove Season! We are hoping that Mom and Dad will join us at Jean and Jimmie's Ranch for the annual tailgate party that evening after dusk! I'll take some pictures, if they come, and share them with you!

My love to all of you! Sandi

Good Work at Speech Therapy!

I took Daddy to Speech Therapy Thursday morning. I was so impressed with the work Dad and the Speech Therapist, Marge, did on Thursday! Dad spent most of the time working at the computer! Marge had some incomplete sentences in Microsoft Word and asked Dad to finish them. They were...

1. Today is

2. Yesterday was

3. Tomorrow will be

4. I like to drink

5. I like to eat

6. My wife's name is

7. My oldest daughter is

8. My 2nd oldest daughter is

9. My 3rd daughter is

10. My son's name is

It was clear that Dad would know what he wanted to type...he'd start to type the word but he could not spell it without Marge writing it down. Dad would then look at what she had written and then he would type it. She said that it is a common type of post-stroke syndrome that doesn't allow him to take a thought and be able to write it or type it like he wants to. Marge made Dad us the cap's lock when appropriate, made him spell everything correctly and end each sentence with a period. If he made an error, she would have him arrow or backspace to it and correct it. When he was answering what he liked to drink, we discussed it and asked him things he'd like to put there. Once he had listed three things he very emphatically typed the period! He was ready to move on! The three of us had a good laugh about that! Typing was a very slow process, but he was able to do it!

Marge is working with Dad on saying "Ah" for yes and "Oh" for no. He is in such a habit of shaking his head that it takes a lot of reminding. It will just take consistency in changing the habit.

The hour went by very quickly and the last thing Marge had Daddy do was to sing "Happy Birthday!" That song is one that therapists like to use because of the clear sounds of the H, P, B, D and the vowels. The therapists at Reliant tried to get Dad to sing it, but he wouldn't - he thought it was silly! He'll do it for Marge, though! And, you know what, he sounds pretty darn good! I got teary eyed listening to him! Those are the most "words" I've heard him "speak" since September!

Dad and I went straight home for lunch! If our mouths are empty, we're hungry!!! Mom had made us pinto beans and corn bread! I delayed Dad's nap a little bit by showing him and Mom some of the results of the new project I'm working on. We also started listening to a CD that Jimmie had made for us from an old cassette tape...it was a taped conversation between Mom and her oldest brother, Mike, who shortly thereafter passed away. Jean, Mom and Whitney had gone to visit him in San Antonio years ago and Mom and Uncle Mike talked about memories of their childhood! After Dad had listened to the "tape" for about 30 minutes, he slowly started backing himself out of the room! Of course, he was headed for his chair and his nap! Mom's eyelids were so heavy that she could barely stay awake, so I left as soon as it was finished so she could also have a nap!

It was such a good day and we enjoyed each other so much! "A happy family is but an earlier heaven!" ~ John Bowring

Amen!

Tomorrow

I am going to take Dad to speech therapy tomorrow. I have been staying away because I've had a sore throat and wanted to be sure it was allergies and not something contagious. I will bog after my visit with Mom and Dad! Love to all of you!