Last week I was looking
for some information amongst some old journals, and found a note Lydia wrote in
August of 2002, when we were getting ready to go to Colorado:
Vacation Plans
pack clothes
pack supplies
pack people
pack into car
pack car into
Colorado
pack into
campground
pack back home
Silly girl. She would’ve been 11 back then.
Last Tuesday, I brewed a pot of coffee... did the laundry... cleaned
the kitchen... filled the bird feeders... watered houseplants... brewed a fresh
pot of coffee... did some computer work (typed a journal, paid bills, etc.)...
filled the Thermos... and gathered up coffee mugs, Thermos, purse, coffee mugs,
Thermos, camera, coffee mugs, Thermos, jacket, coffee mugs, Thermos, sweater, coffee
mugs, Thermos, shoes, coffee mugs, and Thermos. (Don’t let me forget the coffee mugs and Thermos.)
We
were going to see Hester, Andrew, and Baby Keira that evening. We had to stop at the Urgent Care Center on
our way out of town and get printed proof of our flu shots; they’d forgotten to
print the papers for us the previous week. It had been one
week since we got our flu shots, so we were able to go in the room with the
baby and see her.
My goodness, a
picture simply cannot tell you how small a two-pound baby is. But she was doing pretty well, and was up to 2
pounds, 4 ounces. Her birth weight was 2
pounds, 2 ounces, and three days later she was down to 1 pound, 15 ounces,
which is fairly normal. She is
tolerating her milk pretty well, and they are gradually increasing her feedings.
Here are Andrew and
Hester in front of the tall, double ‘waterfall’ in the hospital lobby.
Hester’s hands
looked better, with swelling nearly gone; but her ankles were still awfully
swollen. She said they don’t hurt, and
she was walking just fine, though she tires quickly.
Andrew changed the
baby while we were there. I’ve never
seen such tiny diapers. He has such a
gentle touch, and he talked and crooned to his wee infant the entire time he
changed her. Sure pulled at our
heartstrings.
Monday,
Andrew had started working in Omaha at the office his company has there. He said it really wasn’t any different than
working at home. Sometimes it’s amazing
how, when things go wrong, other things ‘work together for good’ to help us
cope with the unexpected, isn’t that the truth?
We went with them
to the extended-stay suite they’ve gotten at the Marriott (NICU parents get
rooms at a discount), had some coffee, and visited with them before heading off
in search of some supper.
By then, most
restaurants had closed, so we went to the all-night Denny’s. I ordered a salad, but they didn’t have any,
because of an E. coli outbreak that has sickened people across several
states. Instead, I got some type of a
‘southern omelet’, which came with fried hash browns. Omelets are not what I consider ‘supper’, and
I never eat fried hash browns (or anything fried, for that matter); but
the omelet was tasty, and I even ate a few bites of hash browns (and then
griped about them for a few minutes).
Do all Denny’s
restaurants have a mucky pond out back from which they dredge the sludge with
which they make their coffee?? I eat out
seldom enough – and at Denny’s so rarely – that I forget just how bad their
coffee really is. Doesn’t seem to matter
which Denny’s, either; all Denny’s pond
slurry is evidently grown from the same bacillus.
I tried it black,
as I usually drink coffee, made a face, then poured a couple of little cups of
creamer into the coffee, along with a packet of sugar substitute. I tried another swig.
Blech, yuck, ugh;
that didn’t help. I don’t like pond
slurry plain, I don’t like pond
slurry creamed, and I don’t like pond slurry sugared.
The next time the
waitress came by, I asked for iced tea.
“Oh, is something
wrong with your coffee?” she asked, all concerned, looking at my nearly-full
coffee cup.
“It’s all right,” I
fibbed, “just a little stronger than I’m used to.” It isn’t her
fault, after all, if Denny’s uses microalgae and giant kelp in place of coffee
beans.
I drove home, since
Larry was nodding off over his meal before he was quite done. “That’s what happens when you go to a
restaurant that promises ‘comfort food’!” he told me. He goes to work before the sun comes up, so it
had been a long day for him.
Wednesday,
I was talking to Loren on the phone, and he mentioned a dilemma: Loren’s house is full. Norma’s house is full. How will they combine everything into one house?!
“Even the
walls are full!” said Loren. “We’ll have to pick and choose,” he said, “and
get rid of stuff that’s just ‘stuff’, keeping only important and special things.”
I told
them, “Whatever you do, don’t try to do it all yourselves! You have lots of children and grandchildren,
nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews, who will be delighted to
help.”
After church that
night, we gave Aaron his birthday gift: a
Leatherman multi-tool. He’s 17 years
old, imagine that.
Note: To any of you
who had a bit of troubles figuring out MeWe… don’t worry, people still can’t
figure out Facebook, either. I posted pictures of Donna’s quilt that I finished
quilting yesterday on my Facebook page. My own page. Somebody
who requested to be Friends a few days ago, and whom I allowed, then proceeded
to write in the comment section under the pictures on my own page, “Pls
dont use my acount ok”.
Eh?
That ol’ larnin’
curve done passed her by, hmmm?
The
other day, a quilting friend was telling how she had spread quilt patches out
on her table, and then the wind came blowing through an open window and
displaced everything.
This
reminded me of the time Caleb flew his new remote-controlled helicopter around
the corner and into my sewing-room door, for the express purpose of entertaining
his mother. How was he to know that I’d just laid out a whole gob (definition: ‘oodles’) of eensy-weensy patches all over my
cutting table, in order to decide on color placement?
You
should have seen the look on his face when the copter blades sent fabric
a-sailing. It was worth collecting them all over
again, really. (But I did recommend that none of the relatives
buy him a whirlybird that dropped bombs,
for his next birthday.)
I
was once cutting miles and miles of netting Easter dresses, back in the day
when most of our nine children were still at home, and there were no spare
bedrooms to use for a sewing room. Ergo,
I had it spread out on the bed on a cardboard cutting mat. And then... I heard the thunder of small paws –
eight of them – in the hallway. I knew
what it was – it was two-year-old Black Kitty chasing her two-month-old son Tad
lickety-split, pell-mell down the hall, and they
were coming straight for the bedroom.
I
dashed around the bed to shut the door ---------- too late. In they flew, leaping up onto the bed. Imagine their delight when they found
themselves in a smörgåsbord of fun! In
unison, they sunk claws large and small into that netting, and then they rolled.
I’m
telling you, it took longer to extract those cats from the netting than it did
to make all five cancans.
Thursday afternoon,
Hannah had surgery to remove those the many polyps in her sinus passages.
It was a quarter
’til five when Bobby finally wrote to say that Hannah was out of surgery and in
the recovery room. The doctor told him everything
had gone well.
I was so relieved
to hear from him; I’d been waiting with all my might and main!
She had to stay
overnight, however, as she didn’t recover very quickly from the anesthesia, and
didn’t feel well. That made me feel a little better, actually, that she
was staying at the hospital. I’d worried about her coming home too
fast.
We hope this helps
her. The polyps are caused by allergies,
and when they start growing, they trap more allergens, and make the allergies
that much worse – and of course any allergic reaction can cause an asthma
attack, and usually does.
Hester wrote to say
that Baby Keira was up to 2 pounds, 5 ounces that day.
And then Loren
called to tell me that he and Norma had moved their wedding date up – to the next day! Granddaughters Katie and Rachel had gone
with Norma to Omaha on Tuesday to get her wedding dress... Loren and Norma had
gotten their marriage license Wednesday... his new camper was ready to go,
other than a few more clothes and some food... so why wait??
Larry and
I were going to be their witnesses (aka ‘best man and matron of honor’), and Larry’s
brother and sister-in-law Kenny and Annette would be there, too.
As if that wasn’t enough news for the day, Bobby wrote to
tell me that his younger brother Stephen and wife Melody, who is Jeremy’s
younger sister, had their first baby that evening ---- and he weighed 10
pounds, 1 ounce! Whew. That’s five times bigger than Andrew and
Hester’s baby. Five times bigger!
Meanwhile, I
started quilting my friend Sherri’s baby quilt.
She made it for her new granddaughter, who is also my great-great-niece.
I’d thought to do a
pantograph, possibly; but there was a bit of excess fullness in sashing and
borders.
I stood there and
looked at it for a few moments, debating what to do. Then I tucked some
of that fullness back under the top rod and ratcheted up the tension. I
grabbed my ruler and began stitching in the ditch, smoothing it down as I went.
Friday, Larry
worked in the morning, then came home about 1:00 p.m. and got ready for the wedding. Imagine, we were going to be best man and
matron of honor! Who would’ve
dreamed? Us, in our dodderage, part of a
wedding party again! 😄
The ceremony took
place in Robert’s office. Afterwards, as
we were visiting, he spotted his sister Susan out in the hallway, camera in
hand, not wanting to interrupt... Robert
waved an arm, and said, “Come in, come in! Just come right in and crash
the party! I can tell you want to!!” (He reminded me of my father, his grandpa,
talking like that. 😊)
Susan’s daughter
Danica, who’s 19, works at one of the old folks’ homes in Columbus, and she wanted
to show some of the people there a picture of her great-uncle getting
married.
A friend, upon
hearing this, remarked, “The ladies and gentlemen at the old folk’s home will
soon be a-winkin’ at each other.” hee
hee
North of Columbus
about 45 miles is the town of Norfolk. Umpteen people around these parts
pronounce it as ‘Norfork’. I, in the hopes of impressing on
my children the correct way of saying it, told them, “We don’t say we’re
going to visit someone at the ‘Old Forks’ Home’, now, do we??”
What I succeeded in
doing was to cause most of my children, from oldest to youngest, to call any
and every old folks’ home an ‘Old Forks’ Home’.
Those kids of mine.
(But they do
say ‘Norfolk’ instead of ‘Norfork’.)
(Usually.)
After the ceremony,
Larry and I drove out to Wal-Mart – best place in town for fresh fruits and
vegetables – and picked out Fuji apples, those new miniature Rockit apples,
pears, bananas, corn on the cob, grapefruit, oranges, Thompson grapes, purple
grapes, various flavors of smoothies, Martinelli’s apple juice, and Walker’s
shortbread cookies.
Larry says those
cookies are boring.
“Quit eating them,
then, and save them for me!” I
exclaim.
Then we went to the
household department and found a big basket – almost the size of a laundry
basket – made of blue and brown seagrass with a diamond design around the
sides.
I found a wedding
card I liked (hadn’t had time to get one, before!). But why is it that the card whose verse I
like the best is often the ugliest color in the rack?? All the pretty
ones said something goofy. Sooo... they
got a bright mustard-yellow card, since I decided the words were more important
than the color.
In the parking lot,
I opened the Jeep’s back hatch and began putting everything into the basket in
some semblance of order, much to Larry’s consternation.
“Someone might see
us!”
Silly boy.
“Grocery store
parking lots are where people put things into their vehicles,” I told him. “Would you believe that?!”
Since I wouldn’t
quit, he just helped me. 😆
Then we took the
basket to Loren and Norma. They were
just about ready to head off on a little excursion with Loren’s brand-new
camper, but they were thinking they might first get a good night’s sleep and then
start fresh in the morning. As you can well imagine, they were tired... but
very happy.
Home again, I spent
some time working on my friend’s baby quilt, and Saturday, I quilted a good
part of the day. I might’ve gotten done,
if I’d’ve had just a wee little bit more oomph; but I can’t stay up too late on
Saturday nights, or I’ll be falling asleep in Sunday School the next morning.
Baby Keira weighed
2 pounds, 8 ounces that day. She was
doing well enough that Andrew and Hester came to church Sunday morning. And Hester got her once-badly-swollen feet
into her good (high-heeled! 😲 ) church shoes. They headed back
to Omaha that afternoon.
Last night after
church, we talked with Loren and Norma on speaker phone. They were at a campground in Sterling,
Colorado. It was a windy day here, and most
of the way to Sterling, too, as they drove.
But it wasn’t windy there anymore, and it was a nice campground, only
costing $25, and they are having a lovely time, and Norma thinks the camper is very,
very nice. (It is.) They planned to continue on toward the
mountains today.
Today the wind is
blowing at 55-60 mph. Yesterday it was
blowing at 45 mph along a stretch of I80 between Aurora and Waco, and dust from
newly-plowed fields along the Interstate created zero visibility. There was a 20-car pileup, with one person
killed and 14 others injured. They
belatedly shut down the highway for a few hours.
Our neighbors have
gone to visit family in Texas, where they used to live, and Larry is caring for
their goats. There’s a billy goat, two
nannies, and two kids. When he went
there a little while ago, he discovered that the wind had torn a piece of
sheeting off one of their smaller barns.
So he came home, found the right kind of nails, and a baseboard to affix
to the bottom to hold things in place, and then repaired the damage. It should hold, now.
The goats all
observed the proceedings with great interest.
Maybe tomorrow, if
the wind doesn’t blow me away, I’ll take some pictures of them.
But right now, I
need to fold a load of clothes, and then head for the feathers.
Oh! Hester just posted a picture of Baby Keira,
who’s two weeks old today. She has made
it up to two pounds, ten ounces.
Precious, tiny baby.
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
