Photo of the day, Saturday

Today was a red letter day all around.

I went to my Saturday morning men's group and we had a lot of good discussion. Man, there is some junk going on that just doesn't make sense.

They delivered our car to our house today. Two guys came, Terry was driving our new Chevy Traverse (the link is a report on the vehicle) and Joe was driving the return truck, the one that took them home again. Crazy way to buy a car, but it seems to have worked out great. We love the car! The color is Black Cherry, very cool! This shot was taken at dusk so the red tones are really hard to see.

After lunch I drove Holly to the YMCA and we played a little one on one basketball. I was taking her pretty easy until she ran over my toes with her wheelchair. Just kidding. Actually a friend got us a 2 month visitor pass so that we can use the family locker room. Pretty cool concept, large locker room with hand dryers, lockers and about 10 individual/private bathrooms each with a shower, commode and sink and several of them were wheelchair accessible. It was awesome. So we figured out how to give Holly got a shower, and I even washed her back. She looked ecstatic as we wheeled out and I knew that we'd be back again.

Tonight we had our old Saturday night family small group over for a pizza party. Originally I was going to cook my own pizza recipe for them, but since Holly's laid up and I have plenty of other things to do, I opted for Little Caesar's Hot and Ready Program. Not as good, but everyone understood. We even had a call in from our friends in Iowa that were in the group but have since moved. I Love it when a plan comes together! Here are a few shots from the party.

We are so blessed with great family and great friends to help us and to celebrate life with us.
Have a great day!
Pat

Photo of the day, Thursday

First things first, Holly Update!

She had an appointment to have stitches removed, x-rays re-shot and we'd scheduled a meeting with our case manager. Here's what we got out of the session:

• Leg wounds look great, healing nicely. Stitches came out and didn't hurt me a bit. Holly winced a few times, but we talked her into being tougher.
• X-ray of the leg was great, you could actually see where the bone was building up, Awesome!
• X-ray of the collar bone, not so great, it's become very dislodged and we don't see how it can heal without some intervention. Intervention would mean in some circles, surgery with plates and screws to get it all back in alignment. Dr. has the last word, we'll have to wait until next Tuesday to hear back. We'll keep you posted.
• Case manager is an awesome assist for us and a pretty cool person, best of all she knows how to cut through the insurance issues and can explain what's going on to us non medical types. She really helped me figure out what to write in the insurance forms. Somehow she works for us, but gets paid by the insurance company, we're still trying to figure out why that makes financial sense to an insurance company.
• Nurse Sharon was awesome, great sense of humor, great practical advice, loved her.

Car saga continues. The tank that I thought would be best was a bit too pricey, so we're still looking, but we have time, we don't have the check from them for totaling the car yet and we really do need that for a decent down payment. Not for sure, but we're thinking Chevrolet Traverse, great crash rating, good mileage and lots of fun options. Once again, we'll keep you posted. (Hey, that's kind of funny considering this is called a post, never mind, it's a geek joke.)

Random thought; Caught Ian riding a bike down the ramp in the garage. At least he had his helmet on.

Tonight I was part of a ruse for a surprise birthday party. It was for the owner's wife and they have been so good to us that I just had to go. Holly understood and sent me on my way. It was a surprise, but the surprise was gone when the woman came home and could see "a man in a tuxedo" in the foyer. She was determined that she wasn't going to go in, but the daughters forcibly drug her into the house. The guy in the tux was a singer, actually a Frank Sinatra impersonator named Paul Salas and as soon as the door opened we cheered and the show started. For those in the know Paul nearly made the finals for the TV show, "America's Got Talent". It was a pretty good party, lots of food, a really cool house and lots of friendly people. Only trouble was, I had to tell our Holly story many times. Oh well, they only ask if they care and they did care.

Have a great day!

Pat

Photo of the day, Wednesday

Kind of a weird day today. Holly's PT came to the house and assessed the situation and we got good marks. Then Holly took a nap and I tried to get some work done. I was able to get a fair amount accomplished this afternoon and that's good because tomorrow I will work a bit, and then run Holly to a Doctor's appointment, stitches out, x-rays to check progress and a meeting with our nursing case manager.

Here's a shot of Ian showing off his really cool hair. His grades came today and so he's thinking life is good. The second half always gets harder.

Have a great day!

Pat

Photo of the day, Tuesday

She's Home! I went to Mary Free Bed and was trained on how to manage curbs, stairs, cars, wheelchair maintenance and general stuff. Then we talked about how I needed to help Holly. Mary Free Bed is a pretty cool place and it was fun to see how well she was doing, but it's really great to have her home again. We already did a minor tweak in her new bedroom and I think it's going to be OK. Ian and Holly are watching TV tonight, Spencer's upstairs studying for the state Geography Bee preliminary test and I am in puttering mode. You know, where you putter about doing stuff in a random fashion until you feel that you've made enough of an impact.



Today's photos are of Holly and the boys on our new ramp. Ian is chomping at the bit to try out the action on a skate board. Yep, it pretty much fills the garage, even my little car won't fit. The last shot shows Ian's impression of a troll.




They finally gave us the word on the car and it's been totalled. On the way home Holly and I talked about options for a new family car and we think we know what we want. We even drove through a Chevy/GM dealer's lot to get a better idea of size. I'll be calling Larry tomorrow to see what he thinks.

Have a great day!
Pat

Photo of the day, Monday

Praise God! Holly's coming home tomorrow! She has done so well with Therapy, always taking the hardest task and mastering it, that she's being released from Mary Free Bed tomorrow! Now, I guess I better get going on getting the house ready. Just kidding, a great friend barged in and helped get us started over the weekend and we are ready. Well, I guess they still need to construct a ramp in my garage. But they assure me that it will be ready by tomorrow afternoon. It's starting to move really fast again, I hope we can catch up someday.

Here's Holly in a much warmer setting than we have outside the house today. This is an older shot fro when I first created the sitting bench for her using the trunk of a tree that I felled with my bare hands and a pretty nifty chain saw. I even leveled out the bench with the chain saw.





I have heard that my Nephew Taylor has landed in his final destination in Iraq. I would love to have a bunch of us send him a letter, if you're up for the challenge email me and I'll send along the mailing address. I'd rather not blast that out.





That's enough for tonight, thanks for the prayers!
And have a great day!
Pat

Photo of the day, Sunday

Happy Sunday!

I met Holly's main Physical Therapist today. Cara is a pretty sensible task master. She loved all the detail that I provided to help her determine the equipment needed for when Holly comes home. Additionally, she was really impressed with the progress that Holly was able to get in just a few days. She's thinking that as soon as all the equipment is in place, ramps, wheel chair and that kind of stuff, it's time to go home. Maybe even as soon as Wednesday! That would be so awesome.

I had a nice visit with Holly today. The boys weren't too interested in going down so I went by myself and I was with her for another therapy session and as I mentioned, had a chance to meet Cara. I carried in the mail for her and we sat in one of the visiting rooms and we decided what to keep and what to throw. I was pretty sure, but it's good to have the finance person review before shredding.

We also began talking about a replacement vehicle. Holly's was the family car, my little Ford Focus is just a commuter car, the boys don't really like the car very much. Not sure where we're going to land, but we're sure it won't be smaller and it won't be foreign. We don't need it for her right away, but we do need it for the family. Good thing Uncle Larry is a car guy and can help us find a good safe car.

I have a Shout Out to Thom Edmundson. Thom is the husband of our friend Cindy and he has just cleared 12 weeks smoke free! Way to Go Thom!!!! I know how hard that is. Here's Thom and Cindy looking spiffy.

Have a great day!

Pat