Mom's having surgery again

We saw the surgeon and he agreed that she has a hernia and REALLY needs it repaired. So, she is having surgery on February 10, 2009. It is a contradiction of terms because all stomas are man-made hernias, so she now has a Oma-made hernia and a man-made hernia. The Oma- made hernia has to be fixed in such a way that it does not hurt the man-made hernia. Does this make sense to anyone??? She will spend at least one night in Hotel Boone Hospital and then she will get to come home if she is able to handle the pain and if there are no complications.

As for her recent fall...she is still hurting really badly and it hurts to sit, stand, move, lay, walk, etc. She goes to see the ortho surgeon again on Feb 4th, but we don't think he will let her have the shot that she needs because of the surgery the next week. We will have to see.

We are going to Kansas City for Brayden's 3rd birthday party on Saturday. We have a couple of places we want to go before we arrive at the party, so this will be the test to see if she can walk by the time we get there. Oma like riding in my van because I have "butt warmers" and this puts heat directly on her back. So, for several hours she will be in heaven with her tushie really warm. Maybe this will make the trip bearable for her. She can rest all day on Sunday.

None-ya!

Tonight at dinner Alayna said she learned a new saying in school today - None-ya. I asked (like an idiot) what does that mean? She said with a very straight face - "It means that it is none of your business, find something else to do." We all busted out laughing. I said this means that you must have been asking about something that didn't pertain to you. She said, "I don't know."

I guess we will be going to another doctor

Tonight I came home from work and mom was sitting in the chair and said that she was really hurting. I asked where since I figure she will be hurting everywhere since the fall. She said that her stoma is really hurting and is now looks like she is pregnant on one side. I told her that she needs to call her cancer doctor and make an appointment for tomorrow to be seen. She was not hurting before the fall, not that I think the fall had anything to do with this. May have jarred something. Otherwise, she is still very sore and having a hard time doing stuff since she can't stand, sit, lay, etc for very long.

Update on Mom

Mom had an appointment with the ortho surgeon today that she has seen for several years for her back. He said that he is very glad that she didn't break her hip since she could have done that very easily with the way she fell. Anyway, he said that he didn't see a break at this time but hairline breaks take a couple of weeks to show up. So, he gave her orders to take her pain pills and rest for the next two weeks. She is already bruised and VERY sore. She can't walk very much and it hurts to sit, lay, stand, etc. So, in other words she is not comfortable in any spot. Her recliner is the best spot she said but after about 10 minutes she starts to get uncomfortable. The pain pills are non-narcotics since she is allergic to narcotics just like Kristi is. This is a friend of Tylenol - just a tad stronger then Tylenol. She goes back to see him on Feb 4th , I think is the date.

Special on Flat Bread at Wal-Mart today!

Today about 11ish I got a call from mom on her cell phone "I need you to come and help me, I have fallen at Wal-Mart." I got out of her that she had fallen in the bread aisle and was laying on the floor. I quickly went and grabbed Tom - more like demanded "Let's go, mom has fallen." We made it to Wal-Mart (which seemed like it took forever to get there) and I jumped out and went into Wal-Mart to find her. I found her laying on the floor with pillows under part of her and covered with a blanket - all compliments of Wal-Mart. I asked her what happened and she said that she caught her toe on the cart and fell landing on her right side against the bread. She would not allow anyone at Wal-Mart to call 911 until I arrived. I told mom that we needed to call because I couldn't pick her up. So, we called for help and they carted her off to the hospital.

After several x-rays and exam they said that she didn't break anything but they noticed that 2 of her vertebrae are out of alignment - thus is probably why she is hurting so badly before this fall. They sent her home with some drugs and orders to go see her ortho surgeon to determine if this vertebrae is because of the fall or because of arthritis.

The management team at Wal-Mart was very nice and even called twice now to make sure that she is doing ok. They wouldn't leave her even after I arrived and were really nice to get the pillows and blanket to keep her warm until I arrived. I am very pleased with they way they handled this situation and now we will see how they handle paying the bill for the hospital.

So, to explain my title - since she fell on several loaves of bread - they are flat now and I am sure Wal-Mart will have a special on them if anyone is interested. :)

Finally, Christmas is over

Whew...I finally scrapbooked the last pages for Christmas and boy and I glad it is over. I am really getting tired of looking at Christmas paper when I have all this other neat paper to scrapbook!! So, now I am going to start on other stuff. I think the first thing is our trip to Tulsa in July of 2007. I know, I am behind but working on it.

Glad that week is over...

I was so glad when 4:30 came yesterday. It started out as a bad day right after I got to work and didn't get much better. I had to pass out W-2, service awards, bonus checks, new policy, and shirt orders to 180 people. Of course, not everyone is happy with what they ordered or if they didn't get their bonus etc. I kept my tongue and took all the yelling and just kept watching the clock. Sometimes I wonder why I don't find a job that doesn't require working with people! I didn't get to take lunch yesterday because of all the the people looking for me and by the time to leave I was more than ready. I just chilled last night - in fact all of us did. Tom didn't have a good day either.

Mom sold her sewing machine last night to a real person! This girl was wanting to start quilting and mom really enjoyed showing her all the in's and out's of the sewing machine. They worked together for about 2 hours before the girl finally decided to buy the machine. I am glad that it was someone who is just starting out, that machine is designed for just that. Mom told her to call her if she had any questions about quiliting. Now mom has some cash to go get some more stuff for her machine. She has a list of things that she wants and now she can mark a couple off that list.

This week-end I am going to scrapbook and stay quiet to try to get ready for next week. Kristi and Alayna just left to stop at McDonalds for breakfast and then off to get their haircut. I am not sure what Tom has planned but I bet it will be either cutting wood or staying quiet. Mom is planning on quilting she said.

Time to make breakfast....what do you want for breakfast???

We have another chauffeur in the family

Today, Brian went to take his chauffeur's test today and passed without even cracking a book. He is now able to drive the company trucks. He can't drive the big truck yet, still has to get his class A CDL. He is working on that one. He is trying to get a better license then his mother who has a class B with air brakes and passenger endorsement. He will have a class A with air brake. So, maybe I will be one up on him with one more endorsement.

It was cold today and he still had to work outside, but not in the bucket. He said that he tries to think of other things to get his mind off the cold - then he can finish his job for the day.

Alayna is currently coming down the stairs singing and dancing. She is tying to be silly!! What fun it is to have a 5 year old in the house. She got a post card from Uncle Larry and Aunt Gail today and was so excited. She wants to go see the Elk that is in the picture because they are playing in the snow and she wants to play in the snow.

Kristi is off work tomorrow for vacation and Monday for MLK day. Tomorrow, she and Alayna are going to have a PJ day with a living room picnic. Sounds like fun, wish I could be here.

Baby, it's cold outside

Man...someone must have left the air conditioner on because we are in a deep freeze to say the least. It is 10 degrees outside with the windchill of -8 degrees right now and not any better for the next couple of days. Poor Brian was in a bucket truck today - in the bucket about 25 feet in the air repairing phone lines for most of the day today. He said that he was still cold 2 hours after he got home from work. As his mommy, I think I need to write a note to his boss saying that he can't go outside until it warms up - does anyone think this will work?

Scam

How do you explain what a scam is to a 77 year old who is totally computer illiterate? She wanted to put one of her sewing machines on craigslist because she does not use this machine at all. So, I posted it for her and off we went. Well, today I got a response from someone who wanted to buy the machine, but didn't want to pick it up - they didn't need it just trying to help someone else out. They needed the full name of the person selling the machine, the address to send the check and then they would send a check for MORE than the amount if I would just wire some money to a friend and I could keep $50 extra dollars for my time in doing this for them. I told them that I wasn't interested in their illegal scheme - try someone else and I was done with them (except for reporting them to craigslist). Anyway, I told mom about it and she doesn't understand why I think this is a scam. Why would someone want me to wire money to someone else? Why don't they just wire it in the first place? How do they know that I would actually wire the money and not keep it? These are just a few of the questions I had to answer about this. Thank God that I was the one who got the e-mail and that I could step in and stop any activity before it happened. So easy to scam older Americans because most are just not computer savvy.

Not alot going on here...

We have just been trying to make it to the week-end. It was so hard to go back to working 5 days after being off for 12 days. I have completed a few more scrapbook pages and am trying very hard to get Christmas 2007 done so I can finish Christmas 2008 done.

Mom's back is hurting again. She doesn't want to get another shot since it is a crap shoot as to whether it will work. I told her that she does get SOME relief so she should be at least try it. I am not sure if she will listen or not. Otherwise, she doesn't plan on going out much this next week since it will be so cold. She does have a quilt meeting on Wednesday if it is not too cold.

Kristi has a quiet week at work this week and that helped her stay sane. Alayna did really well at school. By Friday she is really tired and is sleeping right now. We went to the movie this afternoon and she missed her nap.

Tom is just the same. He has been working on keeping us warm with fires in the fireplace. Sometimes we have to open windows because it is so hot in here. I am like my dad - I have to have it cold in the bedroom in order to sleep really well and Tom likes it hot. So, we have a window-war most of the night.

Even the cats are doing well.

Hope all of you have a nice week-end.

Wasn't Friday's weather nice?

I should have taken the day off, but I didn't realize that the temperature was going to be in the mid-60's in the afternoon. Tom and I left for lunch and didn't want to come back. We had to come home so the Geek Squad could fix our TV and I didn't want to go back. We really needed to cut some wood while it was warm - especially since it is going to be very cold this next week. I wish the weather would decide what it is going to do!!

Kristi's Cancer Update

The doctor called and said that both of the biopsies were "showing mild changes, and were still abnormal" which means that there wasn't much change from the biopsies that she had about 3 months ago. So, this means that Kristi has 6 more months of waiting before she will have another round of biopsies. It appears that she is stuck on this one rung of the ladder to the cancer room - I just wish she would turn around and go back down, but I don't think this is a possibility - just wishful thinking. Kristi will go back in June for the next round of testing.

Several pages down and several to go

I caught up Larry's family scrapbook and started updating the Christmas scrapbooks. I completed about 20 pages in 2 days, so I am off to a good start. I need to take some pictures of some of my better pages and post them since I have some that took me awhile to create. While I am scrapbooking I am watching DVD's and ended up going through 9 movies while scrapbooking. I want to get the Christmas book caught up so I can do some of the other pages that I am really interested in.

Back to Work Day

It was really hard getting back into the swing of work after 12 days off. I finally got to my list in the last few days and started having fun so I wasn't ready to go back yet. But, I did it and it was one heck of a day. Our second shift is now working with our first shift to make one really large first shift. This was a challenge because we were fully staffed on first shift and now having to make room for the 40 second shifters. Well, it worked with a few minor problems. Of course it is payroll week and this means a busy week for me to start with. I am getting ready to do one of my reports here tonight to help me out because this is a report that is just data entry and I can watch tv or listen to the satellite radio and work.

Funny Alayna

Tonight at dinner Alayna was telling us about her new teacher, Miss Blaire and said "she is literally afraid of me grandma, everytime she sees me she turns white." Kristi just started laughing because Miss Blaire is black. I am not sure why she is so afraid of Alayna, but it must be bad!!!

Anyone have an extra $500 laying around??

This afternoon at work, I was being a bad girl and munching (or gnawing) on a bit-o-honey bar and (you see where this is going don't you?) I noticed that the candy has a hard center...that is because it was my crown...my $500 crown that I got a couple of years ago. So, now I guess I have to go to the dentist (groan) to have it replaced and I am sure with the price of everything else it will cost me $1,000 now. We have a terrible dental plan at work so I will be paying for most of it. It does not hurt...yet. I may wait until it hurts before I go since I have to be sedated to go to the dentist which is a major feat that requires a driver and someone who can manhandle me because I won't know what I am doing. Tom likes to do this because he plays with my mind while I am drugged. The last time I had this done mom took me and we stopped at the grocery store after the procedure and I bought some really strange stuff that no one in our house likes - and I didn't buy just one item of each, I bought several. Then, when I "came to" I couldn't believe that I bought this stuff until I saw my checking account activity and then cringed!

Friday...January 2, 2009

Wow! Once you have to start writing the date, it starts to sink in that we are out of 2008 and into 2009. Hopefully this year will be a lot better for our family.

Anyway, yesterday for lunch I made polish sausage and sauerkraut which is something that mom and I love and Tom and Kristi hate. The jury was out on Alayna, but now I think she is going to Tom's side. I started lunch while Alayna was laying down for her early morning nap. When she came downstairs she said very loudly "Grandma, I smell something and it smells bad." Tom piped up and said "See, I am not the only one who thinks that stuff stinks!" I tried to get Alayna to eat some at lunch, but she wouldn't do it. I am sure if she would try it she would like sauerkraut. Last night we made homemade pizzas and I think this is the first time that I had "TOO MUCH" cheese on my pizza. I had a hard time eating it and I love a lot of cheese.

I got the scrapbook album caught up for Larry's family yesterday. I didn't' realize that I had so many completed pages for his family. There was Brayden's 1st and 2nd birthday parties, Beth's graduation, Scott graduation, and the BBQ at Arrow Rock right after Larry and Gail bought their camper. I only had to compete a few more pages and he is caught up for now. Time to get the camera back out for the arrival of the new baby in February/March. Beth, I sill like the name Roscoe Jorge Eiman if you are interested!!!

I got one of my reports done yesterday that I have to have completed before Monday. I have 2 more to do and one of them is going to be time consuming. I really need to get started on this. I can't believe that it is almost time for me to go back to work. At least in 2009 we will save some money on gas since Tom and I get to ride together everyday. They changed my hours to always work the same time as Tom instead of different hours each week. This will be nice - my own chauffeur everyday. Of course, the first few weeks are going to be terrible with all the changes that they have done at work to try to eliminate laying off anyone. I will need another vacation at the end of next week I am sure. Maybe it is time to go back to Denver for a long week-end.

The Eagles in Concert

I am so upset. I love the Eagles and when they put out their new album "Out of Eden" I was really excited. Now, they are traveling around in concert. I was even checking out airfare to other cites just to be able to see them in concert. Well, they are coming to our town and I got on-line to get tickets - $184/ticket...can you believe this? I just adbout bought only one ticket - for me but Tom and Kristi threatened to move me to the garage if I did so I didn't buy any tickets - yet!!! The other tickets are almost as expensive. I checked the cheapest tickets and they are BEHIND the stage. If I pay that much money, I want to see them. I really wanted to be able to see them sweat but not for that price! What is a girl to do??? I don't want to miss this opportunity to see them, but can pay my car payment and insurance for one month the price of 3 tickets.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone. We had a nice quite one just like last year, and the year before, and the year before that. We had planned on playing on the Wii, but Kristi did not feel good so we didn't get to play. I went to bed to watch TV about 8, and ended up asleep by 9:30. Kristi went to bed not long after I did and Alayna and Tom saw in the new year with Disney Movies. I am not sure when mom finally crashed since she is still not feeling well.

About 11:30, Brian showed up looking for Dr. Mom but she was asleep so Dr. Dad worked on him. It appears that his new knife is really sharp - so sharp that he cut his hand open. He probably needed a few stitches, but didn't want to spend the New Year in the Emergency Room - thought it would be a bad omen. He couldn't get it to stop bleeding, but Tom worked on him and Brian said that he is better today.

Today, I have been working in my scrapbook room. I went throught my completed pages and decided to complete the pages that pertained to my brother Larry and his family and put them in a scrapbook. I already had the graduation day for Beth and Scott and Brayden's birthdays and then some other events. Now, I am working on several other pages. Then, I plan on working on Christmas 2007 and then Christmas 2008. I am so far behind that I am not sure I will ever get caught up. It would help if I didn't have a 5 year old helper.

Today, I am baking a ham for lupper (lunch and Supper combined). Mom came over a little while ago and said that she really didn't feel good so I am not sure if she will eat or not. Tom is out working on one of the trees that he dropped a few weeks ago. We still have a few days off so he is going to try to cut a few more trees before it gets too bad.