Family Reunion

   Group photo at Riverside park

   Blessing baby Elodie, priesthood power!

  Baby William likes to push the buttons and knobs on grandpa's chair.

Matching Mt Emily tee shirts

The Bros are Back in Town

   Our sweet young neighbors brought over some hand picked huckleberries. I mixed them in with pancakes. They were delicious! Thank you Ely! 

  

The air conditioner/ heating unit was put in on Monday. The electricians will come on Tuesday to do the electrical hook up.

  In PT Bruce was standing in the stander. They have advanced to shifting weight on each foot. The next step is shifting weight from a foot placed in front of the other foot. They are prepping him for his first step at the parallel bars. That is exciting.

   Maur found a glass dome cover for the Shakespearian doll I have. It fits perfectly! It was Grandma Kevans and I wanted to keep the dust off her. Thank you Maur!

   Teija came over to work in the yard again. I coerced Andrew into helping. He gets up at the crack of noon...

    Duncan, Bruce and I are headed to Walla Walla for a Dr. checkup. We listen to the Lord of the Rings on Duncan's player.

    The Dr helped us resolve some concerns we have had. 

Wednesday Bruce has pool time. He has been walking on his knees. They put weight on his ankles and he is able to walk in the pool that way.

   Bruce had another day of OT. He is balancing on the big ball and getting strong abs.

We went to Catherine Creek to speak at girls camp. There were about 100 girls and leaders having a fun time doing skits and singing. I spoke first about setting goals, high school graduation, college, marriage, family and choosing an eternal partner to survive what the future will bring. Bruce spoke about making goals, standing firm and deciding now how you will choose so when the time comes your decision is already made. 

  We left right after as Bruce was tired.

 Thursday Bruce was able to rest. He was tired.

Friday Carol took me to lunch. We talked about the life changes that have happened to us and our friends this year, death of a spouse, divorce, moving away, aging of a spouse and Bruce. Man sometimes life is difficult.

    Saturday the brothers arrived. Three of the six brothers are here soon to be joined with the oldest bro next week. It is loud and busy with them, their spouses and 7 grandchildren.  I made meatball stew and it wasn't enough so Dan and his wife went to subway. Several poopy diapers, one melt down and the tired babies were ready to return to their rooms. And the grandchildren too...

    Baby William likes to push the buttons on grandpas wheelchair. 

  To life!

   

Rain Watching

      People are so kind to this motley crew!

  On Monday Bonnie brought over some cherry bread made from our cherries! Yes, yummy. I had a pedicure, nice mauve toenails. 

     Tuesday, Carma brought us some homemade sweet rolls which disappeared in no time. They did save me one. Carma took me to lunch at Golden Crown. It was fun to get out and talk and fix everyone's problems. 

   Alex came over and cleaned our recliner for the family reunion next week. Too many sweaty people sitting on it.

    Teija and fam is still coming over helping with the weeds, I mean yard. There is even a cleared spot to put flowers in. I think perennials will be nice and easy to take care of.

    Wednesday Rosala brought over clam chowder and bread. (No leftovers on that one) Debbie brought a delicious fruit salad and homemade banana bread. Thank you ladies!

  We will be getting the air/heating unit the first of next week. Yeah, that will be heaven.

    The electricians came over on Thursday to redo the breaker box. Apparently it was a recall because it started fires. We have been blessed with no fire. They said it was illegal to have it on the inside of the house. And the meter needed to be on the outside of the house too. So now we are legal and most important safe. I like safe.

  Oh you want to know how Bruce is doing. As one of the caretakers was wheeling him out of the bedroom, she accidentally hit his foot on the wall, well that man picked his foot up and moved it! Just like when he slammed on the brakes when I was too slow with a red light. We will have to begin a new therapy program called "gut reaction" or "scared stiff".

   He has pool on Wednesday this month. He was on his back and was able to draw his knees up to ninety degrees and then straighten them out. 

  In OT he was doing kneeling, kneeling straight up. 

  The muscles in the bottom of his feet have waken up. He can now curl his toes. They said that was odd as most motion recovered is from the waist down and curling his toes should be the last motion he gets. 

    My batik butterfly quilt kit arrived. I love looking at the fabrics. I will change the pattern up a bit and see what happens. 

     Our church has a women's meeting once a month for sharing talents and learning. I was on the food committee and we were assigned to do smoothies. Carma explained her family likes to make orange Julius as a smoothie. I suggested freezing old bananas and using them. If you are allergic to milk using apple juice is a good substitute.  We broke into twos and threes and made smoothies with the fruit that was brought in and no we did not do green smoothies. Ick

   The other classes were memory keepers, which was ideas for a summer journal like collecting post cards and putting them on a clip with activities of what happened written on them, envelope journals and paper bag journals. A couple of the ladies liked the recipe card journals. There was also a new sister there showing us how to do yoga. It was good to get out.

      I got a haircut on Saturday, mostly the bangs got trimmed. 

I found some pretty perennials to plant and got most of them in so the yard will have some color for the fam reunion. The ground was hard, the rain had only gone down about two inches. 

   Stayed home from church today. Bruce was having a bad day. Care taker was sick and couldn't get a sub. Bruce napped most of the morning and canceled one meeting and then went to an afternoon meeting. I ate ice cream.

     So glad the weather cooled down this week. And we love watching the rain.

     

 

Fourth of July

    What a hot week. With no air conditioning we are melting. 

Bruce said I could call T and T. They said they would stop by. I imagine they are swamped. (get it? Swamp coolers)

   Monday Bruce was having a bad day so did not do well in pool time. He said his legs finally came alive when he pushed against the side of the pool.

   Teija came over and worked in the garden for two hours. The cherries are all picked. Thank you the back yard looks great!

  Andrew got a call for fires and left at 2:30 am. I got up as we had to turn Bruce and started in on a list of things for Andrew to take. He told me to stop said he had spent the last three hours thinking of things to make sure he had everything. I am having a difficult time letting go of my youngest. 

    Tuesday Bruce's OT was cancelled. We gave Bruce's phone to Andrew to use so we can talk to him so we missed the OT call saying it was cancelled. We will go tomorrow morning and get a new phone for Bruce. Bruce had chills today, it is 85 in the house. I asked him if he wanted Tylenol. He took some and fell asleep with a blanket on him. I am sweltering.

   Teija and fam came over to help outside again. The back yard is looking like someone takes care of it! It only costs me a couple of Popsicles! Kim and her family joined in the fun. The rest of the yard is shaping up nicely. I have some flat rocks to lay around to help with weed control. I bought some otter pops to reward the volunteer help, they are on the juice aisle bottom shelf in a cardboard box. 

   Debbie and Rosala brought over dinner, sketti, French bread, jello with fresh raspberries, gooey brownies with nuts and caramel ice cream. Heaven, I'm in heaven.

   Bruce went up a level on the pedal bike he uses so he made it five minutes before giving out. He was able to do two slide board transfers with no problems. 

   Thursday Bruce is not doing so well, I got a urine sample bottle from the DR so we will see if it is a bladder infection. With the temperature, the heat and night spasms we are not getting much sleep around here and I tend to get irritable. There is not much left of Rosala's ice cream.

     It's official, another UTI. Drink more H2O. 

Friday no OT, holiday time. We stayed home. Bruce isn't feeling too well.

  At 10:30pm I get a call from the police dept. our dog has run away and is down at Spruce street store. They gave me a number to call. I get redressed and head to the store leash in hand. A young couple greets me with cigarette smoke, tattoos and piercings. Hali is excited to see me. The young girl says she knows her mama. They are quite nice. She said they had been sitting there for an hour, had posted pics all over Facebook and had gotten no results so called the police. They live on Y Ave. they are kind and concerned. I explain our dog, Hali is a PTSD syndrome dog and they understand. Hali is ready to go home.

   Saturday morning we went to a baptism. A firecracker of a personality, so the day was a match. I could feel the spirit when each priesthood member in the family helped. One older brother baptized her, they did it twice because a leg came up, another brother confirmed her and the dad gave a talk. These Isaccasons are passionate people.  

    Andrew came home safe and sound and better for the experience. It looks like he grew up inside and out and he was only gone less than a week.  Andrew really likes working the fires. He did hot spots. They carry a 3 gallon bladder of H 2 O on their back and walk over what has already been burned checking the spots that are still smoking. They get to touch with the back of their hands to see how hot it is and spray anything that is smoking. He said he had steak twice. They had MREs before the food crew arrived. They were up at 5am and down at 9:30pm. Is this getting him ready for his mission or what? He wants to go back. Andrew said he wanted to get up early today. Think he will do it? We are having his recliner cleaned today.

   Duncan grills for us. I purchased chips and a cheesecake. We are set. 

   We put Bruce to bed. Andrew and Duncan head for EOU to watch the fireworks. I read a book and try to comfort the dog. 

   Had two sobbing melt downs this week. This refiners fire is tough. Must be the heat, no sleep and wondering how long this will last. 

   Goodnight Neverland!

    

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