Castor Bean Plant

Well, it is the end of August. Just thought I'd show you how much this thing has grown since July 24. I love the leaf shape and size plus the bright reddish/pink color of the flower/seed pods. I also have a couple of new additions to my garden from thoughtful friends and relatives. Being laid up has its advantages :). I have been moving very slowly and carefully so haven't been able to do much but I do make it a point to walk through and sit in the garden every day. It has been very dry and many flowers that would usually be blooming through September are no longer blooming :(. I water only my basil and swiss chard. We don't dare water anything else in this dry spell since running the well dry would definitely be a problem for us right now.

Two Steps forward One Step back

Or should that be one step forward and two steps back?

FYI Sneezing Hurts! :)

I guess 2 good days (2 over due it days) = 4 bad days. Hope I have learned my lesson. I didn't think I was doing that much.

We are making small gains each day and are starting to get around slowly. I look forward to more speed as I tend to be slow normally so you can imagine how slow I am right now :). Dave is looking forward to diminished writing tasks as he must log daily all his meds (23 of them right now), everything he eats and drinks, his blood pressure, temperature, sugar glucose . Sleep is something we are deprived of since recliners are limited in comfortable positions. Other than that we are doing well.

TRANSPLANT DAY

Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

O most holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore You, I love You, and with a lively sorrow for my sins, I offer You this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to Your will. Grant, good Jesus, that I may live in You and for You. Protect me in the midst of danger; comfort me in my afflictions; give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, Your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death.

Almighty and everlasting God, look upon the Heart of Your well-beloved Son and upon the praise and satisfaction which He offers You in the name of sinners; and as they seek Your mercy, be pleased to grant them forgiveness in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You forever and ever.

Amen.

Count Down

3 days to transplant

Words from Max Lucado in Everyday Blessings

The teaching I ask you to accept is easy: the load I give you to carry is light. Matthew 11:30

Jesus says he is the solution for weariness of soul.
Go to him. Be honest with him. Admit you have soul secrets you've never dealt with. He already knows what they are. He's just waiting for you to ask him to help . . . . .
Go ahead. You'll be glad you did. Those near to you will be glad as well.

Count Down

5 days to transplant

A Defining Moment!!!

Okay, yesterday we had our pre-op appointments and testing. Once again they had to remind me of all the things that can go wrong. Some of you have asked me what those things are but my little pea brain can not retain such information. Get a load of this. Here it is, word for word:

The care provider has discussed with me the reasonably foreseeable risks of the treatment and that there may be undesirable results. The risks that are specifically related to this procedure include:
Infection, bleeding, risks of anesthesia, stroke, blood clots, heart attack, death, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, numbness of upper and lower extremities, hernia, bowel obstruction, injury to adjacent structures (colon, pancreas, duodenum, spleen), graft failure in the recipient, possibility of kidney failure in the future, conversion from laparoscopic to open nephrectomy.

YEOWZERS!!! DEATH... Helloooooo, folks if you want me to sign this thing you're gonna have to tone it down a bit. You know that old saying "what you don't know won't hurt you?" well let's go there instead :)!

Count Down

8 days to transplant

Count Down

9 days to transplant

Singin' Roun the Campfire

The Hostess with the mostess.

The choir had dinner and a campfire at Mary's :), since Elaine wouldn't let us go to her place this year for wine and pizza. Yeah, can you believe it? Her family from some far off land takes precedence over us!?! Good Grief what is this world coming to! Where's the love? Where's the support? Where's the loyalty? And after all our years of bonding! She says we can go in the fall. What excuse will she come up with then huh? :-))) Just playin' with you Elaine. We loved your place and look forward to our next visit...Hope you do too :).
Anyway, here we all are, gathered round just waiting for the roast to reach the perfect temperature.

Ahh, finally...we all line up for the specially prepared, tasty foods awaiting us. As usual we had great food: Pork loin cooked on the barbie; down home cookin' brown beans (yummy); toss salad; noodle salad; tomatoes and mozzarella cheese salad; home made ice cream; fancy watermelon cookies; exquisite strawberry cream puffs; fresh fruit; musical note cut out cookies; (can't believe I didn't get any pic's of these delicious treats) cheese and crackers; wine; beer and some other alcoholic beverages. Of course there were soft drinks for the kiddies :). Okay, what's with the tongs? They weren't broken when I packed them. uh oh, plastic parts in the salad . . . Steve looking for the missing plastic parts that broke off the tongs. Of course he is the last one to fill his plate so he really isn't going to save anyone from cracking a tooth, but he is up for the challenge of finding said pieces. If you look closely you can see the eagle eye has come up with one small piece. The other remains missing. We enjoyed our dinner and desserts.

It is getting dark and right on cue Mary Ann's brother comes to her rescue with firewood in hand prepared to get her campfire going. What a great guy!!! Here we are gathered round the camp fire talking about anything and everything: from how bee's make honey to depants'ing someone (I won't mention any names and trying to be extra loud for the benefit of Mary's neighbors) :-))). We were preparing to sing Kumbya . . . is that how you spell it? But wait . . . some of the kiddies don't know it? Say What??? You've got to be kidding!!! Oh Lordy . . . Kumbya! Let's move right along then to roasting marshmallows and somores. Chris, I'm going to get you in the pictures. Stepping aside isn't going to work :) . . . I can turn you know?

Chris the Hot Marshmallow Roaster . . . roasted the most perfect marshmallow's you've ever seen. Perfectly golden all the way around and take a look at those roasting sticks. I've never seen anything like them. They weren't long enough though :).

AND a couple of fun pic's. Well, some of these are a little blurry so don't click on them to blow them up :).

This guy is cut off!!! :)

The New Driveway

YES! The driveway is finally

done. We can't use it until Monday but who cares? We are so glad to have it done. It means less work for me with shaking out throw rugs, vacuuming, sweeping, etc. Less dust coming in through the screens. Remember, you can enlarge pictures by clicking on them.

Count Down

13 days to transplant