Tuesday, January 26, 2010

She Said Yes!

Matt & Amy, 1/26/10
And when we're old and they ask me,
How do you define success?
I'll say it's when you meet a woman, and you fall in love,
and you ask her and she says yes!

(Charlie Reid, The Proclaimers, "Let's Get Married")


Saturday, January 23, 2010

You're Not Well Yet

That's what my GP told me when I went in for a follow up visit yesterday. On Friday night of last week, 1/15, I went down with a cough and a fever. The next morning, my temp was 102 and I was still coughing. Carol called the cancer doc's office on a Saturday morning and they phoned an antibiotic Rx to our local pharmacy and we got me onto some antibiotics pronto. We have known two cancer patients to die recently (one in pretty good health) and they both died not from cancer, but from pneumonia.

The next few days were some rocky ones with sustained temps around 101 to 102 and peaks over 103. I was about like a sack of potatoes, but less fun. On Tuesday, we got in to see my GP. He diagnosed bronchitis and later said that was the worst breathing he had ever heard anybody do who wasn't in a hospital. He put me onto some steroids and nebulizer breathing treatments. He also sent me over to another place to get my chest x-rayed. The x-ray showed bronchitis from a probable viral infection, but no pneumonia.

On Wednesday, I was well enough to work some at home, and I went back to work on Thursday. Matt came down with the same thing shortly after I did, but also got onto some antibiotics and bounced backed quickly. Yesterday, Carol thought that it all looked like so much fun that she would give it a try, so I get to take care of her for a while.

Anyway, I am fever-free, better, and not coughing nearly so much, but as my GP said, not well yet. He meant for me to keep at the meds and breathing treatments, rest and let my body mend, and keep the fluids going. It's a deal.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Here's a candid shot of me watching the Tennessee - Va. Tech game on New Year's Eve. Photo by Carol. Note the name of the game on the box is "Worst Case Scenario."

Monday, January 4, 2010

Birdhouses

It is cold in Illinois in December. Here are some pictures of the great birdhouse project we did to have some time with the grandchildren while we were there for Christmas.













December 2009

Sometimes life is just too much fun to bother with blogging, and that's how it was with our lives between Thanksgiving and New Year's. Some of the events I enjoyed the most were:
  • Setting up the nativity set in the front yard with the grandkids and hanging the Christmas lights on the house on the day after Thanksgiving.
  • Celebrating Matt's 25th birthday on Nov. 29, and Carol's birthday on Dec. 5.
  • Going to see the opening night of the Rockette's Christmas performance (courtesy of my sister), with my sister, her husband and friends, Carol, our two youngest kids and their dates.
  • Going to our Sunday School class's Christmas fellowship, and hosting our 21st annual neighborhood Christmas party.
  • Going to our church's fantastic Christmas concert, with choir and orchestra, and sitting in a packed out sanctuary on the second night of the performance.
  • Traveling to Illinois with Carol, as we spent Christmas and a few days before with our kids and grandkids there.
  • Attending the Christmas Eve service at the church where our son Daniel serves as the pastor.
  • Stopping by Arkansas on the way home to see my brother, my sister, their spouses and some other family members.
  • Exchanging presents and celebrating a late Christmas with the Dallas-Fort Worth kids.
  • Celebrating New Year's Eve with friends and family as we watched Tennessee play Virginia Tech in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.
  • Too many other wonderful times at church, with family, friends, co-workers and clients to mention, and even driving around listening to Christmas carols with a Christmas ornament hanging from the rear view window of my truck.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the holidays. The pics are small, but worth clicking onto to get the big picture:

Setting up the Nativity Set with the grandkids, and others:










Birthday celebrations:













Alyssa and her Christmas slide. She was too little to manage sliding down on her bottom, and had to slide down head first on her tummy.






Christmas with Peoria grandkids:





With siblings and siblings-in-laws in Heber Springs, Arkansas: