PTSD

Mom and I are having fun. 

 She does dishes, folds laundry, cooks meals, picks raspberries and goes on walks with me. 

She has an annoying habit of wanting to pay for everything. Bruce said one tank of gas and one meal and no more. 

We just stay inside in the evening and watch mysteries. Now we are watching Murdock Mysteries. Mom likes it. It happens in Toronto in the 1890s. We watched a cliff hanger tonight and will watch the rest on Monday. 

 Found out Reed Waite was a in a four wheeler accident. They did surgery on his spinal cord. Dr. Montalbano did the surgery, the same Dr that did Bruces. He remembered Bruce. I was in shock and couldn't function for a day, It brought back such turmoil, fear and uncertainty. I might know what PTSD feels like, reliving a traumatic experience.

Then we heard the news the family decided to unhook Reed as the MRI showed no brain function. What a shock, hope and then the worst, death. Went to the funeral on a rainy Saturday morning. The heavens were crying.

   We have temporally stopped work on the garden. Newt has a spot on his lungs and needs to rest. I had two teenagers come over on Saturday and worked them hard for two hours. They cut the rest of the blackberries back that Bruce wanted under control, moved some bark mulch, put a protective coating on the planter and we laid some ground cover down for the next section of pavers. 

  It won't be finished when the grandchildren are here this week. We will probably not get to wander out there in the rain anyway. Now I will have to clean inside. Mom helped me clear off one table. I'm just a pilot. I pile things here and there...

 Mom finished the binding on yet another quilt. The Star Trek quilt is ready to send to Luke and Taylor. Will get it in the mail this week. I have begun the blocks for the Star Wars quilt. Will put binding on another quilt so mom can work on it.

  I told Debbie I would sew some of Reeds shirts in a quilt for her. She said she would bring them over when she gets settled. Man, her life is going to going to change. 

Our lives aren't what we hoped they would be. 

  Bruce is able to stand on one leg and move the other leg back and forth about two inches. They are working on strengthening his knees as they give out when he tries to stand. He is able to stand for about five minutes now. He said he stood in four feet of water at the pool which means he can support about half his body weight now. 

We bought a new grill for the Fouth and so I recycled the old grill.

Visit With My Mom

We are just fine, my mom is here visiting so am busy with her and family.

We have been busy picking cherries and raspberries.

Mom is putting on the binding for me on a stack of quilts that need finishing. 

Bruce was able to stand by himself with no help on the fifth try today! Yea!

We are going out to eat tonight.

Life is good.

Father's Day

Summer time and the living is easy

I picked raspberries and ate them. Bruce says I need to pick more. I'll be glad when he can do it himself. He says he can pick half a gallon a day.

I feel like I've just been helping Newt all week. The back yard is beginning to look nice.

He wants to clean up the garage for Bruce so that will be the next project. That's fine with me if Bruce helps him. 

I mixed up some lemon poppyseed muffins for breakfast and forgot to put the oil in. So had to dump the mix back into the pan, throw away the gooey liners and then refill new ones. They tasted just fine, warm, sweet and tangy.

Will have to plant my sunflowers when the rain lets up.

Must go grocery shopping and walk the dog.

Fathers Day - Didn't do much for Bruce today. I bought him a nice short sleeve shirt and he ordered himself some new pants with zippers. The Velcro pops open when he is in therapy. So hopefully they will work and we will order him a couple more pairs. 

I did cook a roast, smashed some taters and a simple green salad. The men like the meat and taters. Trying not to do desserts.

The netting is up and we bought bark mulch for the re psycho center. (Recycle) Newt brought over plants, maters and peppers from his hothouse and we have a pot of onions. Ready for salsa!

A Garden for Bruce

   Our friend Newt came over and is going to build a net cage for Bruce's blueberries and a two foot tall raised bed for strawberries and he will put down paver stones so Bruce can get in the garden area and putter around all year. He said we could use his pickup to get the wood and supplies. 

  Ryan is coming over on Friday and will remove the shorter posts, then they will just build a two by four frame for the top and drape the net. He has some kind of removable tie clip so Bruce can open the net and and pick or trim. 

Our cleaning friend, Jessee came this morning and limped around and sat with ice for awhile but she got the job done. She has broken her foot.

  I finished my demo blocks for Thursday, a ha stag and an asterisk and a string top. I'll have to remove the paper from the back this evening. 

 

 I gave all three males a haircut last night. They are looking shaven and shorn.

 Today was the last day for one of our home health helpers. She is moving to Tennessee. We will miss her and her spontaneous helpful personality. She would see something needed to be done and she would do it.

 The new gal will get more hours and the other helper will switch her time around so she has weekends for grandchildren. 

   Got to go to a potluck picnic in the park on Wednesday. The younger moms sat with the girls their age and us older ladies stayed together. Three of our quilting friends came. It was fun to talk to them.

I gave away some of my hats. I hope the children will play with them. 

  Bruce was able to do water angels in the pool on Wednesday. Like we make snow angels in the snow in winter.

   Saturday we will go buy wood to build a cage for the blueberries. The birds are eating them. It is wood and netting, we are hiring a friend to do the work, he is unemployed. His garden is gorgeous. They will put paving stones down for Bruces wheelchair and make a raised bed 2 feet high so Bruce can reach it. When he stands we will make it taller. 

  Ryan came over and trimmed the ever growing blackberries from the plum tree, he removed the short 4x4 posts and got two of the holes dug deeper. Bruce wants them in 2 feet deep.

  They have gripper bars in the women's shower room at the hospital. Bruce uses those and pulls himself out of the chair. He is able to stand for a couple of minutes. This week they upped the regime for him. They added a walker. Bruce was able to pull himself up and then he had to leer his hands to grip the walker. He said he was only able to stand for 30 min. He did it three times. He said he was exhausted, like he had just finished a race.

   

Hot, Tired, Feeling Grumpy and Weary

   Feeling much better today, headache gone, walked the dog, hung shiny ribbon on the cherry trees and blueberries to keep the birds out. 

  Bruce is back to bossing us around about watering his garden so he is feeling better. He wants the boys to spray the cherry trees so at noon thirty when they get up, I'm sure they will be excited to help.

  Duncan was up and took a hot shower so his back is better at least he was standing straighter.

  I got some big pots, half off at Rite aide and another cheaper looking one at Bi Mart. I put empty milk jugs in the bottom so wouldn't have to pay for a lot of dirt. I want to get a pretty rose for one and try to find garlic chives for the other. My attempt at an herb garden. Bruce can have the taller ones when Newt has them ready.

   We are grateful the Jensen twins, David and Daniel dug a couple of holes and planted Bruce's newest project. He got male and female elderberry bushes. I hope he doesn't think I'm going to be picking them...

 We hung shiny ribbons in the cherry trees to keep the birds out. Our dog stays out if we stay out. 

  Bruce is headed to swimming this morning so will sew. 

  I have my Pooh Bear blocks ready to stitch together and I am still plugging away at my strip quilt. 

  

  I bought two colorful tomato cages. I gave all ours away to the free market last year. I found them at Wal Mart.

Duncan is doing s membership at Mt Valley therapy. It is seven days free and then $45 a month, including a nutrition plan. He will go MWF when he takes Bruce. It will be good for him instead of sitting and playing a game during that time.

  They were launching rockets at Greenwood field when I walked by this morning. Saw Amy H. She and Lucy were going to ride bikes to Ace. Such energy

   I planted two tomato plants, three cucumbers, some celery and the lettuce is dead already.  I did find a purple rose with a fragrance to plant. That will nice. 

Must go change the sheets, get my heart rate up so I can make brownies.

   I get tired of taking caring of Bruce. I am grumpy. I keep thinking there are people worse off and it doesn't seem to help. Some days I just feel numb and Bruce is so happy it doesn't help. 

Carma took me yard saying on Saturday. It was hot and fun. I found a nice picnic basket, a lovely tin with flowers, a cobalt blue vase I don't know what I will do with it, it was just pretty and some vintage earrings. We went to Mc D's and got smoothies.

No ER visits this week.

Five Stitches in the Eyelid

   Went to tri cities with Nancy yesterday morn to have a recall fixed on the car. I asked Nancy to go with me and then had her drive both ways. I should have been more specific I wanted her to drive. We waited an hour for them to do the work and I showed Nancy some tricks for her iPad. She caught on real fast, she is young. We went to Red Robin for lunch, I paid for her lunch and she was okay with that, she left the tip. She took us to Jo Anne's and I found a couple of things to purchase, that is a fun store. She spent more than me and she had a coupon!  She is making a fleece blanket for their bed, I found some brown linen fabric for a summer skirt that will flow when I walk. I like to flow instead of plod. I can wear a pink or purple top with it, my granddaughters like pink and purple. 

  The trip home we came upon the remnants of a fire in Umatilla. There was still smoke and I saw flames in one spot, it came down to the freeway and into the divider in some spots. Andrew says if the smoke is white the fire is over and if it is black it is still burning. So he did learn something when he was fighting fires last summer. I didn't know that.

 And guess who had got to cook dinner last night. I was tired and then had the beginnings of a headache. I knew if I said I was too tired to cook they would want pizza or we would go out and I didn't want either of those, we had beef left over from yesterday so I made beef and noodles. I had sour cream left over so threw that in with it, I didn't hear any complaints so it must not have been too bad.

 Duncan hurt his back so he is resting now. Hope he is better by tomorrow.

    Bruce said he was able to do marching steps in the pool on Wednesday so that is good.at one time he had his feet 10 inches from the bottom of the pool.

I got to take Bruce to therapy at 10:30 on Fridsy. Duncan is going to the chiropractor today in the afternoon. 

   Watched all the Greenwood students on their bikes this morning getting ready for the bike ride. They were so excited. 

   We are feeding the missionaries tonight.

Missionaries didn't get here til 8:00. They had a meeting in Meridian and were beat so took their pizza and left. That was easy. We gave them oranges for breakfast. We figure they don't buy it in the store so I try to have some on hand when they come over. 

  Took Bruce to the Farmers Market and he saw lots of people he knew. We bought some tamales for dinner tonight, some bread from Kneads and popcorn from a Sanchez. 

  Went to D&B and got spray and red ribbon for the cherry trees and dirt for planters. I found some nice tall ones for the back yard and dirt to go in them.

  Bruce and I went to see Alice through the Looking Glass. You can't change the past only learn from it and change the future. It was great. I loved the time puns.

I brought Bruce home and headed to Rite Aide for pots and Bi Mart for plants and another pot. I really liked how the Stangers back yard is. Now I need to find a rose bush and some sunflowers. 

   We are in the ER. Bruce scratched his face with the tree branches. He might need stitches. They are calling Dr. Petitt to come look at it. The eyelid is torn. Andrew and Bruce are watching a soccer game. 

   He was described as a 64 year old male with a head injury. He got five stitches in his right eyelid and it is black and swollen. Ice, we need ice.

It looks much better.

Father Son Bonding

   Bruce is doing better, he has 100 % of his right arm and 50% of his left. He does want to be stronger because he has seen the strength of other quads and wants to be able to do more. They have been standing him on one leg and moving the other footsore are and back about three inches. And then switching to the other leg, repeating the process. Ben says they are getting him ready to shuffle walk. 

   I made another chevron baby quilt. It has a fun pink polka dot border. I am in love with it if that is possible. My friend said it looks like Easter colors.

Andrew mowed the lawn. It looks good, now will have to trim the tall grass. I tied some silver ribbon to the cherry trees. It helps keep the birds out and is easier than the netting we put on before. 

I am working on my string quilt. I saw a border around each block and that looks fun only I have six sewn together so will border them and add more. Artistic element, ha ha

Couldn't get the dog to walk off the ramp this morning so I stayed in from our walk, it is cold outside and windy. 

Now it is raining.

  Andrew got off early from work to go to the father son campout Friday night. They are just staying for the meal and the beginning of the cookie fest. Duncan doesn't want to miss it. Hot dogs and hamburgers, and tater salad, what more could the male population want?

   I am going out with friends to Moys and then here for quiet time. It is too cold to go to the parade. Moys turned out to be really loud with another group of twenty in the same room. Glad for some down time.

   I listen/watch Murder She Wrote while I sew, it does get quiet. I like seeing all the old actors, Brian Keith, Yvonne de Carlo, (she got fat), Dean Jones. Bruce was lamenting the fact that his 36 inch waist has grown to 38 inches. I do not feel sorry for him. I'm going to buy him a pie.

I tried the new honey nut m&ms, they tasted burnt. Still like the peanut ones best.

   Some friends wanted me to go to the quilt retreat in Wallawa this year. They would provide caretakers for Bruce. At this point in time it just won't work. The care taking involves very private care and Bruce is not ready to bare himself to well meaning friends. And night is an issue, some one has to be in the same room with him or the living room to hear him if his leg falls off the bed or he drops his water bottle. So far I am the only one we allow in bed with him. Thank you dear friends, maybe in six months I can go to the Sept. Quilt retreat. Not sure I can be nice that long. I do like my alone, quiet time.