We spent St. Patrick's Day at the hospital.  Here is the menu in the cafeteria.  You can see my reflection in the picture.

Table decorations with TX. daughter. We both wore some green. My grandma used to try to get my brother and me to wear orange because her parents were Scotch-Irish and came from Nothern Ireland. We always wore green instead because we didn't want to get pinched. I wonder if school kids still do that. Would it be considered harassment today?

The snow- covered trees and bushes looked so pretty with the lights shining on them. I was glad that the kids insisted on driving me to and from the hospital.

TX daughter wanted to show her family Indiana snow.  Most of our snow has melted now, but the weather-guessers are saying we might have more snow in the next couple of weeks.

My husband is getting better.  Today he is walking in the house without his walker.  We went to the coumadin clinic this morning.  He rode in a wheel chair from the front door of the hospital to the clinic, since it's a long walk.  We take his blood sugar and blood pressure twice a day, and try to remember all his meds.  Our middle daughter put them in one of those pill box organizers.  Our kids have been wonderful helpers.  His main complaint now is that his back hurts.

I haven't done much else, except take care of him, fix meals (trying to follow the diet the hospital suggested), and basic housework.

The cat is sitting on the arm of my computer chair chasing her tail.  Kind of makes it hard to type.  Do they still call it typing?

Most of our snow has melted........yay!

We have to go back to the coumadin clinic Thurs.  April 2 we go to the family Dr. then the next day to the cardiologist.  The 23rd of April we see the surgeon for a follow-up app't.  Lots of Dr. visits.  On top of all that, our daughter-in-law will have gall bladder surgery tomorrow.  It is supposed to be out-patient.  Oldest daughter has a cold, so can't come visit.  A grandson passed out in our kitchen yesterday afternoon and hit his head on the pantry door.  He may have had a slight concussion.  His glasses cut his face just above and to the side of his eye.  I'm afraid to ask what's next.  Hope it's nothing.

Anyway, God is good, and He loves us, and helps us in hard times.  Better pray for patience for me.  Thanks.

March 18, 2014

"It is already early Tuesday morning as I fly across the ocean towards France. I am bracing myself for the arrival into the Central African Republic as I realize from reports that I have gotten and read online that the country I have known and grown up in has changed incredibly over the past year and three months. The rebellion which started over 15 months ago has displaced over a million people and  hurt hundreds of thousand of people across the country. Many of my close friends have been hurt and been killed. Dozens of pastors and lay leaders have given their lives in this conflict and now tens of thousand known as Anti-Balaka have committed terrible crimes again humanity, and claimed to do so in the name of Christianity!

I ask myself what is it that God wants me to do in this conflict? Yes be a shining light of love to the people of the CAR but how can I do that most effectively? How do I show by example that we are loved and granted forgiveness by loving God? How to encourage forgiveness and reconciliation to the many thousands who have committed atrocities?

Six members of our staff are refugees in Cameroon because the Anti-Balaka have literally chased them out of the country and looted and destroyed their homes. How do we show love to these members of our staff and encourage our staff to find tangible ways to show love to these co-workers?

I will need wisdom that does not come from within myself to not be too harsh on anyone but recognize the struggle that all are going through in this country. Although there are some significant steps towards peace there is much that still needs to done in accepting all Central Africans and brothers in Christ and not separating our responses based on religion and tribe."

This is a report from the CEO of Water for Good, our friend, Jim Hocking.

And now for a report on my husband.  He's doing much, much better.  All tubes have been removed except for the PICC line.  He's eating, walking, etc.  He may get to come home tomorrow or the next day.  I'll let you know when I can.

They finally were able to remove the balloon from his heart, which means that now he can move his leg and they can get him up.  He sat in a chair for1 hour yesterday.  Today they plan to let/make him walk.  I'm getting to know my way around the hospital.  The nurses are taking wonderful care of him, and the children are taking wonderful care of me.  Thankful for friends (like you) who support and pray for us.  Hope y'all are doing well.  Maybe I'll have time to catch up on your lives soon?  Hope so.

Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts and responses to my post.  Surgery went well.  Now to get through post-op.  They said he'll be in ICU 2 or 3 days, then in a regular room 4 or 5 days.  It was a quadruple by-pass.  When we left to come home last night he was  beginning to wake up.  He has a nurse just for him, since the balloon is still in there.  The kids have been great, driving me back and forth, and staying with me.  I'll try to update you when I can, but it might be awhile.

I'm getting to know my way around the hospital.  Tom has a balloon in his chest helping him breathe.  It goes up through his upper leg where they went in to do the heart cath.  The bad part is that he cannot move that leg.  He also cannot sit up or the tube that goes to the balloon might crimp and mess everything up.   He can have the head of the bed raised only 30%.  He's been very patient, and a good patient.  The surgery will be about 8am Monday morning, and last 4 hours.  It will probably be a quadruple by-pass.   He'll be in surgical ICU for 2 days, and then about 4 days in a regular room.  Right now  he's in the cardiac ICU.  They are taking good care of him.  I plan to go tomorrow afternoon and spend the night so I can see him before they take him to surgery.  That way I won't have to get up in the middle of the night to get there on time.  Probably most of the kids will come later in the morning.  Meanwhile one of the daughters-in-law will be babysitting for her nephew while his dad has knee surgery.  This same d-i-l was scheduled for gall bladder surgeryTuesday, but she postponed it for 2 weeks.  It seems just like the snow.  Enough already!  It snowed Again today.  However it's warm enough that it didn't stick on the roads.  Now, to leave on a cheery note, here are a few pictures of our great grand-son.

Now I'm going to go change the clocks so I don't forget.

I knew my husband was more tired than usual and had less energy, but  being male,  he didn't want to go to the Dr.   This morning while our son was with him, he got very short of breath and his pulse was irregular, so they went to the Dr. who did an EKG and sent him to Emergency at our local hospital.  They sent him to Lutheran Hospital in Ft. Wayne, 1 hour from here.  At Lutheran they did a heart cath, and we were all expecting he'd need a stent or two, no big deal anymore.  Well, the Dr. came out and said he will need bypass surgery.  2 of his arteries are 100% blocked and the other is 80-95% blocked.  It's no wonder he was tired!  He'll have open heart surgery Mon. morning.  In the meantime he has a balloon in his heart so the heart itself doesn't have to work so hard.  The kids have been wonderful, driving me, staying with me at the hospital, organizing things.  I'm home for the night and will go back tomorrow.  I just wanted to let you, my Xanga friends know, so you can pray for him.  Thanks, and good night.

See that little hill in the background? That is called Mt. Wawassee. Is that pitiful or what? That's actually where people around here go to learn how to ski. It even has a ski lift. I've never seen it up close, just from the road. At my age I don't want to learn how to ski. After seeing the High Sierras, it seems ridiculous to call that a Mt. I'm not sure why it isn't still white. Everything else around here is.
This morning we were supposed to have snow showers in the morning. Instead it snowed all day.

March 2, 1958. Grace Community Church. Santa Barbara, Calif.

We were both 20. That was a long time ago. Sorry for the quality of the picture.
It was a small wedding. Just my mom and step-dad, and my brother, his mom and dad and aunt and uncle.
My folks were divorced, and my mom said she wouldn't come to the wedding if my dad came. My dad said he wouldn't pay for a wedding until we were both out of college. Santa Barbara was halfway between Long Beach, and San Luis Obispo, so that is where we were married. I had moved up to San Luis O. a week or so before to look for a job, and had rented a little trailer on campus. We paid $25. per mo. and that included utilities. I never did find a job, but helped my husband earn money by picking seeds for a nursery where they planted the seeds and then sold the plants to nurseries in So. Calif. and other places.
We knew a big wedding was out of the question, since he was still in school, and we had no money. I think we had $15. the day of the wedding. His parents had given us a 1953 Mercury as a wedding gift. Two weeks after the wedding our 2 mothers had a reception for us at our church in Seal Beach. That was nice, as I didn't have to plan anything. That particular year, Calif. had had a lot of rain, and the hills were green and beautiful. I am glad they are finally getting some rain this year, and hope it does not do too much damage. Well, I have rambled enough. Just mainly wanted to show you the picture.