Long Time No Update

Not sure if anyone other than my sweet daughter is even paying attention to this site anymore but thought I would update it none the less. Perhaps I will e-mail a few who might be interested so they can begin to "check it out" again. Want to use the blog to communicate especially when we make our trip to Vietnam in March.

This Thursday is a very special day...it is Cindy's 31st birthday!!! My how time flies and my how she has grown into such a super young woman. I am SO PROUD of her in so many ways for so many things. Most of all I cherish our friendship and closeness. Thank you Cindy, thank you for sharing and letting me be such a part of your life!!! It is a closeness I never had with my mother...my what she missed!

On other topics, the days march on with very little progress in the condition of Gary's back injury. So much fun (NOT) when he tells everyone that he it happened first part of December when I convinced him to go to water aerobics with me. I think he could have just as well done it anyplace else if it had not been at water aerobics. He has been going to physical therapy in McMinnville twice a week for the past 8 weeks with very small improvement.

They say now that he has a "degenerative" condition in his spine that is pinching nerves and causing all the pain. We are waiting for a rehabilitation doctor to review to x-rays and MRIs of his back and then make a decision on what can be done. Personally I feel they will say that he really needs minor surgery to remove or "ream out" the bone spurs that have formed between his discs. I am hoping that as a short term move they can give him a spinal injection that would at least deal with the pain and improve his mobility. I have been told by other patients that the beneficial effect of those injections last up to 6 months.

We believe in proceeding in a positive mode (assuming his back will be good enough for us to go on the trip) and so we have been busy taking shots and oral vaccines to prepare us for the Vietnam trip. This morning we started an 8 day course of treatment to protect us from typhoid. Scary stuff but that is what adventure is all about and makes trips like this something that not everyone goes on.

I have been busy on E-Bay purchasing things to take along on the trip for the orphanages and such. Pencils, Kaliodoscopes, Crayons, Hair clips, Ribbons, a wide variety of stuff. Still want to get some surgical tape, bandaids and such to round it all out. It should be fun and the type of things that gives "warm fuzzies" helping others and seeing it in such a direct way.

With Gary pretty immobile I have been spending lots of time sewing... finished a cute apron for grandson, Matthew so he can "work" in the kitchen with his sisters.

A couple days before I did a neat machine embroidery of a bear family in a forest meadow for a quilt square for my "Thursday group". The theme this year is the "Lewis & Clark" trip...things they would have seen...flowers, animals, scenes, etc. We do a quilt each year and sell tickets, raffling it off on July 4th to raise money to fix up our Community Center. The center is so old that they still have the orignal wooden floor and old style roller skating shoes in the cloak room. There is a sign in the kitchen that says "No skating in the kitchen"...not a threat with the group in my "Thursday group".

Now working on decorative pillows and cedar chest cushion cover for Cindy's bedroom. Have almost convinced myself with this project that I may not be "cut out" for "quilting" things. I cannot really understand why quilters take perfectly good fabric and cut it up into small squares only to sew it back together. I will prevail but may rethink the "stack and whack" methods they so strongly "espouse". Have a couple more quilting classes I am taking in February that may help to add enough more "techniques" to keep me going.

Well my weight is still at a plateau. Down 140 lbs. but would like to shed another 30 or 40. Know it will eventually come but I am getting impatient. Now that I am getting back into my exercise routine (which had gone by the wayside while we were taking Gary hither and yon for doctors appointments) I should start burning more calories again.

Going to the "Bandster Splash" in February. It is in Seattle and is a convention of sorts for others either interested in or having a gastric band like I do. Lots of speakers, before and after slide shows, fashion shows, plastic surgeons, etc. Should be inspirational and fun hope it helps me "get my motor" started again.

Well tomorrow is water aerobics...just for me and then an appointment at a new dentist...so I guess I am done with this blog for now. I will try to start posting again...it will help me to keep up better with others as well as fill Cindy in a bit more.

Linda