FAMILY WEEKEND We had a lot of family here for the weekend. Our daughter, Kathy, and her husband, Keith, our son, Mark, and his wife, Mary Kathryn, two granddaughters, Valerie and Vanessa Wilcox, and our two great grandsons, Christopher and Brent. It was a merry time. Keith tried out my new cordless string trimmer and used up both batteries. But the yard looks a lot better. He also changed the top filter in our AC system. He designed the house and I make him change the filter so he won't ever design a house with the filter located over the stairs. But he got it done without falling down the ladder.
With the two chefs in the kitchen we ate really well for all our meals. Ike and Sue came out for Sunday dinner and Sue brought two Sweet Stuff pies for additional dessert. We also had wedding cake and brownies that Lou made plus other stuff. I got my walk in Saturday morning with Mark and his dog, Dotty.
Vanessa came in early Thursday and told us about her experiences as a missionary in India working in the slum areas. It is monsoon season in India and she said they had rain every day. The hotels were not too bad and she enjoyed the experience. Her greatest fears were the van rides. They had a driver for all their trips and once they were within inches of a collision. The last few days were out in the country up in the mountains somewhere near Mumbai. She felt like they gave hope to the people they visited. Their church operates school for preschool kids who are required to learn English and Hindi before they can go to Kindergarten. There are about a thousand different languages that they speak in the different areas. What surprised her was seeing Muslim women in full burkas delivering their children to the Christian schools where they pray to Jesus at the start and end of each class. But the women need the schooling so that their children can go to school later.
All of them went to Abilene Saturday to visit Doug Hodel's studio to pick up the photo albums he had made of the wedding. He was the official photographer and really covered all aspects of the wedding. He even used some unusual effects by using black and white combined with color. For example he has one photo of Ashley in b&w looking into a mirror where her image is in color. Another of Mark dancing with Ashley is in b&w except the Boutonniere is in color. Keith purchased a large photo to put in his office of the gates to a spanish mission and Kathy bought the set of three photos of the Red Dress that she had admired. We all enjoyed looking at the two albums of wedding photos and reliving the experience.
Sunday Mark, Mary Kathryn, Valerie and Vanessa came to sit with me in church. We then went home to the feast that had been prepared.
We had one bummer experience. Mark was planning to visit his pasture Sunday afternoon to check on the tree digging and when he came back up from trying keys in the locks, he got out of the pickup and a wasp in the corner of the garage roof hit him on the neck. He is highly allergic to wasp stings. He ran to the house where MK applied baking soda and vinegar and we had a bottle of Benadryl. He took four teaspoons of that and MK drove him home. When he got home he reported that he felt like he had been burned from the back of his neck to his shoulders and was woozy. I thought I had been keeping that wasp nest sprayed but I failed to see that they had returned. They are gone now.
Lou's cancer report has a cloud. While the doctor could find no problems in his digital inspection, the CA125 blood test came back Wednesday at 320 with the ideal being less than 20. So they are having Lou go to Abilene Hendrick next Wednesday for a CT Scan. Hendrick just put in a new machine that takes 64 slices rather than the old 16 slice machine. Hopefully they will be able to determine if there are any new tumors forming. I am totally disappointed that the ginger didn't keep the test results down. Lou is feeling well and came through the weekend feeling better in her back that she expected. I am doing better. Today I used my arms successfully to raise a deer feeder that Keith had filled with corn and to fill the big metal bird feeder. I had to use a ladder to get it back up, but I feel good about being able to do those tasks. We both walked this morning. Lou gets to the front gate and I am still making my 2 miles.
With the two chefs in the kitchen we ate really well for all our meals. Ike and Sue came out for Sunday dinner and Sue brought two Sweet Stuff pies for additional dessert. We also had wedding cake and brownies that Lou made plus other stuff. I got my walk in Saturday morning with Mark and his dog, Dotty.
Vanessa came in early Thursday and told us about her experiences as a missionary in India working in the slum areas. It is monsoon season in India and she said they had rain every day. The hotels were not too bad and she enjoyed the experience. Her greatest fears were the van rides. They had a driver for all their trips and once they were within inches of a collision. The last few days were out in the country up in the mountains somewhere near Mumbai. She felt like they gave hope to the people they visited. Their church operates school for preschool kids who are required to learn English and Hindi before they can go to Kindergarten. There are about a thousand different languages that they speak in the different areas. What surprised her was seeing Muslim women in full burkas delivering their children to the Christian schools where they pray to Jesus at the start and end of each class. But the women need the schooling so that their children can go to school later.
All of them went to Abilene Saturday to visit Doug Hodel's studio to pick up the photo albums he had made of the wedding. He was the official photographer and really covered all aspects of the wedding. He even used some unusual effects by using black and white combined with color. For example he has one photo of Ashley in b&w looking into a mirror where her image is in color. Another of Mark dancing with Ashley is in b&w except the Boutonniere is in color. Keith purchased a large photo to put in his office of the gates to a spanish mission and Kathy bought the set of three photos of the Red Dress that she had admired. We all enjoyed looking at the two albums of wedding photos and reliving the experience.
Sunday Mark, Mary Kathryn, Valerie and Vanessa came to sit with me in church. We then went home to the feast that had been prepared.
We had one bummer experience. Mark was planning to visit his pasture Sunday afternoon to check on the tree digging and when he came back up from trying keys in the locks, he got out of the pickup and a wasp in the corner of the garage roof hit him on the neck. He is highly allergic to wasp stings. He ran to the house where MK applied baking soda and vinegar and we had a bottle of Benadryl. He took four teaspoons of that and MK drove him home. When he got home he reported that he felt like he had been burned from the back of his neck to his shoulders and was woozy. I thought I had been keeping that wasp nest sprayed but I failed to see that they had returned. They are gone now.
Lou's cancer report has a cloud. While the doctor could find no problems in his digital inspection, the CA125 blood test came back Wednesday at 320 with the ideal being less than 20. So they are having Lou go to Abilene Hendrick next Wednesday for a CT Scan. Hendrick just put in a new machine that takes 64 slices rather than the old 16 slice machine. Hopefully they will be able to determine if there are any new tumors forming. I am totally disappointed that the ginger didn't keep the test results down. Lou is feeling well and came through the weekend feeling better in her back that she expected. I am doing better. Today I used my arms successfully to raise a deer feeder that Keith had filled with corn and to fill the big metal bird feeder. I had to use a ladder to get it back up, but I feel good about being able to do those tasks. We both walked this morning. Lou gets to the front gate and I am still making my 2 miles.
posted by Dr. Rodenberger at 4:22 PM
1 Comments:
Charles, I tried to respond to your blog comment by email to Lou but it kicked back. We did talk about you as we went up and down I-20 and were tempted to drop in unannounced, but we were pushing for time and Fran said, "Hell, we couldn't find it if we did go." On the way back, I brilliantly headed us south out of Abilene, so we went to Lawn, Texas, and worked our way back via scenic but very twisty back roads. Got back on the highway at Clyde. All in all, though, we had a terrific time, and the meetings were worthwhile. A visit to Baird next time!
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