Happy Mother’s Day to Me!

We had Couples Shanghai Saturday night and in lieu of appetizers, Jane was fixing dinner.  The time was moved to 6:30 instead of  7:00 to allow us a bit more time,  but it was going to be close for us depending on how long church ran.  We never leave before the last song is finished but in this case, once they were “doing the dishes” from Communion, we left.  There was still final prayers and blessing, then a song, but we were really going to be cutting it close.  Turns out we arrived right at 6:30 and all was well.  Except neither of us won.  The scores were all really high!  

We had plans for dinner and a live performance at Main Street Crossing theater on Sunday for Mother’s Day so we slept in.  Fidelia showed up about 11:00 with a beautiful lemon meringue pie she made using the springform pans I had given her!  What a nice, and delicious, dessert!

We arrived early at the venue to give us time to have a sandwich before show time.  The show was advertised as an Elvis Presley legend singer doing 50s/60s rock and roll.  In reality, he did everyone’s famous songs.  Very entertaining reliving our youth!  We even danced to Can’t Help Falling in Love with You!  And I did a lot of “dancing in my seat.”  Maybe that’s where CeCe got it.  We received a video of her dancing in her seat during brunch.  She did the same thing during Disney’s Hoop Dee Doo Review. 

The singer mentioned he lived and worked in Branson so we asked if he knew John Seger, a Branson performer who we saw each year in the Rio Grande Valley.  He was quite an entertainer but died suddenly at an early age of a heart attack.  He did know him and said everyone was shocked when he died.  Small world.  This is January, 2017, the last time we saw John perform.  

Monday was kitchen and yard day.  The folks who did my front oval came to do the back corner now that the fence is done.  There was a lot of bull rock buried in that corner that they removed and used it to create a water pathway off our property to a utility easement.  I went to the nursery and we picked out perennials for plants.  That will finish the yard! 

The different color of the fence is the new “good neighbor” one against the one replaced along the back 2 years ago.  Same on the first photo where that portion was just replaced too.  Good neighbor fences aren’t always!

The kitchen folks are taking down the cabinet doors because they go away to be done.  Now they are taping and wiping the remaining stuff in preparation for painting.  I will be so glad to get everything put back by the end of the week!

The AC people who were to come Minsay came Tuesday.  That’s ok because it is working but the drain issue needs to be resolved, it is still emptying out the pipe from the soffit to the deck still!

The whole kitchen is now enveloped in plastic.  We have no access to anything!  

The AC has been working and draining so we have high hopes the trouble is over.  The plumbers all said it is clear, just get the water to the pipe drain, not the overflow pan.  

The first two coats of primer and first coat of paint should be on by tonight.  They will do the doors in the shop and bring them back next week.  But I will be able to get things put back Thursday evening,  Christine comes Friday to clean, she missed two weeks ago, so I absolutely need her.

Hoping for all three projects to receive a check mark as completed the beginning of next week.  Woohoo!

Banging My Head Against the Wall

Christine bailed on cleaning Friday due to the high water. I can’t say I blame her. It continued to rain into the weekend. There was damage all around us.  

Saturday was church and the Mexican restaurant. Ted saw Dr. C for his annual check up on Monday.  His lab work was fine.  When we asked about PSA (considering family history), Dr. C. said “Ted’s is better than mine.”

Ted has to have his colonoscopy and endoscopy at the hospital and not the clinic because of his age.  The first appointment he can do is the second week in August unless someone cancels in the next 6 weeks.  

We had the AC company come out for regular spring maintenance on the AC.  He talked Ted into a chemical clean of the compressor.  He said our drain that comes into the guest bath sink was not draining well and we may need a plumber. We have had trouble in the past so we had a plumber clean and snake it. 

But the soffit drain started dripping onto the deck.  

The plumber came back and Bill suggested we get a flexible line put under the sink for easy access if it clogs. 

 It still dripped outside.  We called the AC people again!  They came out and put chlorine tablets in the drain.  It continued to drip.  Finally the manager came out.  There was a soft start on the condenser knocked off (assume from the chemical clean) so they fixed that for free.  He made them access the coil upstairs and it was leaking and freezing up.  So we got a new coil the next day.  We had AC once again and thought all was good.  Nope!  Water was “streaming” out of the soffit drain.  Back on the phone and they sent the master plumber who also does HVAC.  He said the unit is working, the drain is not clogged but the path of condensation missed the pathway to the drain so it goes in the overflow pan and out the drain from the soffit.  So … someone will be here Monday to find out just what needs to be done with the pan and the paths to the drains.  I was getting really stressed about trusting it when we are gone 6 weeks.  Fingers crossed.

While all this was going on Anna, Ted and I were emptying the kitchen cabinets preparing for the cabinet painters to arrive Monday.  We agonized over a color.  There are 1000s of colors with the slightest shade difference and it is such a big decision.  I have the whole dining room filled with dishes.  There are a lot of things I am giving Anna and Fedelia for their South African resettlement program.   Several sets of glasses, a coffee service for 12 with lunch and dessert plates plus coffee cups, flan pan, trifle bowl, set of 3 spring form pans and probably other things when I am putting everything away at the end of the week.  

Because Ted and I unloaded most of the cabinets, we all decided to put together the fence to hide the transformer box in the SW corner of our back yard.  Uwe had stopped over so I let the four of them work on it and just stayed out of the way. 

 Christo is coming Monday to work on the last NW corner.  Not sure just what he has in mind.  It’s a small area so a bull rock water path and ground cover maybe.  

On Thursday our neighborhood lunch turned out great.  Fedelia joined us and Joy, a new house renter, came too.  Joy volunteers at Canopy Cancer Care and has taken a patient under her wing.  Vicki is a cancer patient getting radiation for one month and staying in a motel.  She joined us.  Originals, Gail and Jeanette, were there too.  It was amazing how the whole group clicked.  Recipes and info were exchanged and plans to go to an exercise dance class were in the making.  It was a fine time.  

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I Don’t Know If Anything Interesting Has Happened But Here Goes

Happy 59th Wedding Anniversary to Us

Ted’s trip home from Phoenix and being picked up was quite an adventure.  His plane boarded late, got stuck on the tarmac behind a plane that lost its wheel and finally arrived back here late.  He landed at Terminal E which does not have Arrival or Departure areas so he had to change terminals.  I was in the cell lot, the airport is one big construction zone, and I started out for C, arriving at Departures where he said he was but then he called and said he was at D Departures!  I had to exit the airport, make a U turn back into it to follow the signs to D.  But the lane ran out, blocked by concrete barriers.  I could see Ted up ahead but the guard didn’t want me to stop in the outer lane.  I did anyway!  As Ted got in the car, the guard was shaking his head,  I said “this hasn’t been fun” and pulled away!  By then it was dark and I had to drive home because Ted was in the passenger seat. 

Wednesday was our 59th anniversary. We celebrated at the cardiologist, Ted for a EKG as part of his Clearance to have his annual endoscopy, me for my last ablation.  What fun!  He worked at the gun club Thursday and Friday so Saturday we attended “date night and dinner” presented by his Bible Study group.  I finally met many of the men he gathers with every Monday.  The presentation was on marriage so it was a fitting evening.  

Ted had an Echo cardiogram the next week.  Then he was able to take his Clearance papers to Dr. W who is going to do a colonoscopy and endoscopy at the same time.  We are still waiting for them to tell us when.

Today I drove an hour in pouring rain, through standing and rushing water, attempting to go to a Newcomers breakfast!  It was in the south that floods and I eventually had to turn around and pray I made it home.  There were cars abandoned all over the place.  My trusty Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit handled it beautifully.  I received an email when I checked my phone.  The breakfast was cancelled!  

Good news from our friends Tom and Eileen.  He has been cleared of any cancer now.  He went through surgery, chemo, radiation and immunotherapy to a clear MRI.  So we are planning a New England tour in September to celebrate our 79th and 80th birthdays.  Of course we are now waiting for Ted’s colonoscopy, endoscopy and PSA results from his routine checkups to make the deposit.

On a sad note, we lost our good friend John, Irene’s husband, to pancreatic cancer just two weeks after diagnosis.  They were here in January for dinner and my last memory of him will always be of John and Ted sitting in our family room sharing a Guinness!  Rest in peace, John.  You were a good and faithful servant.  

Things are a bit busier in the next weeks.  But not anything to get excited about!

Our CeCe photos from school this week.  She is graduating to Transitional Kindergarten because her fall birthday keeps her out of Kindergarten for the 2024-25 regular school year so this is a step in between.  

Playing Doctor, getting her temp taken.

Writing her numbers left handed.

Drawing with right hand.

Back to the left.

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