Smiling Sunday

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Smile.

Really, as my Uncle would say, "That's the way it is." Smile through life because you can only choose your response, you can't control all that will come your way.

His birth name is Nelson but as a young man everyone called him Smiling Jack from a character from the funny pages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Advent ... ilin'_Jack). Jack stuck. When he started courting my aunt, my father's family changed it again to "JB" for his initials. My Grandfather was John, my dad was Jack so they needed a way to distinguish between the two Jacks. And it made it easy for my 6 other cousins who ended up with two Uncle Jacks!

I think it is because he smiles so much, everyone loves him.

So smile!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Today is a day of challenges so I shall try and smile through them.

Dd was too sick to see us last night. We will go today because her neighbourhood is in a boil water advisory and she needs to drink 3 quarts of water a day. Dh will take dsil to run errands and I'll stay with her.

I'm debating bringing our wheelchair with us so she can get out for a little, perhaps come here for a change of scenery. We'll see what she feels she can do.

I'd prefer to take her to an ER but obviously that's her call. She checks in by phone each day with the clinic giving them her stats (weight and girth). It has been a week and she has only got worse, not better.

I may search out a clinic for myself while I'm out and about. My tick bite is starting to get a bulls-eye look to it. Last thing I need is Lyme disease. I'm so tired of being sick. I cried and cried yesterday at the possibility. Dh thinks I'm overreacting and I was trying to make him understand how afraid I am to travel and now this has happened. I thought I was getting over the fear but one bite and I now want to cancel our cruise next year.

[Harriet]

Kathryn, I really think you would be okay, although documenting with a healthcare pro is never a bad idea. A deer tick has to be attached for 24, then feed for 36, then it transmits the disease in 2 percent of cases. At least that's how I read this article. I hope today is a day dd starts feeling better.

We are getting ready for a day at church in which dd is the only "regular" among our song leaders and pianist. I'm substituting again, and a friend is subbing for the pianist. The way I read the emails I've been getting, another musician also has a sub. Dear me. Hope we can hold it in the road.

[Nancy]

I am up have been for a while I fed the hens. I had my granola bar. Trying to get current on some football team news. Not following baseball this year.
Journaling done.
At 7:00 sun it is just getting light here.

[Harriet]

Well, dd and I, plus just one seasoned musician and 2 brand new, did okay. The minister had chosen two new songs as well and later said maybe this was not the day, but really it was fine. Dd and I switched mics and that helped (I am loud already). One of the tentative musicians chose to play tamborine only for a few songs, which bugged dd but I understood his hope that he would do too little rather than too much to accompany while everyone was learning.

Lots of excitement over this coming Sat's wedding of our minister's dd. The sad news in the community church and school not that far away did cast a bit of a pall over things, but it's okay. Most people just saying they're praying.

Dd is going to a movie with 4 from the youth group and then they will go directly to youth after that.

[Nancy]

I am getting some needle work done.
still getting used to this updated version on my tablet.
got it to display my books by putting in the correct email.
coffee maker is back. I guess I will get a replacement pot to have on hand and I will have a spare.

[Norma]

I need to share my heartbreak with my friends here. I am devastated and can't quit crying. A precious little boy in our life died last Friday. His name was Mikey and he would have been 5 years old next March 19. It was a terrible accident at his step-father's ranch in Arizona. He accidently ran over Mikey with his pickup. We are all completely devastated. You may remember that I posted last spring about his grand-father, our forever friend and like a son to us died of Cancer. This has all been such a tragedy. This whole family have been like our own. Mikey's Mom was 4 when we first met her. I just wanted to share with you. I am so very sad.

[Harriet]

((Norma and Mr. Guy)) God bless that family in such a heartbreaking time.

[helia]

Oh, Norma, that is very sad news. Unimaginable. I will pray for the family and you two as well. ((HUGS)) to you and Mr. Guy.
What is going on with dd, Kathryn? Is she very ill?

Well, I left the house yesterday morning at 7:40 a.m., went to a professional conference about 2 hours away (it was interesting and inspiring), then drove about 2.5 hours after it was over to meet dh at a hotel in Detroit. The Detroit marathon/half-marathon was this morning. He pretty much made his goal of 1:40! His time was clocked at 1:40:08, about 7:38/mile, so he is happy. Not bad for a 50 year old. He even fell on the bridge to Canada - long story - and gashed one knee pretty badly and scraped his hands too. But he was immediately up and running, partly out of fear of being trampled because the pack was pretty tight at that point. He ran most of the race with this gash but said it didn't hurt. When he crossed the finish line, some official saw him, was not happy with the blood running down his leg, and yelled at him to go to the medical tent. Dh thinks it looked more gruesome than it really was. I would concur, but I'm also glad dh did as he was told and went and got it bandaged. Of his experience in the medical tent, dh said he was glad for the opportunity to learn more about this previously unknown (to him) aspect of races.

There was a last minute cancellation at a pricey but ultra-convenient hotel in Detroit, just blocks from the start/finish line, so dh and I were lucky to get a room in town. Otherwise, we were planning on driving in uber-early the day of the race. The race started at 7 a.m., so we would have had to have left home uber-early, like 5:45 a.m. And I would have had to have found somewhere to hang out for about 1.5 hours.

I drove straight home from Detroit and got home around 2:30 pm. Dh drove straight from Detroit to an ant-human trafficking rally on campus put on by several organizations, including the Christian group in which ds and dd19 are involved. There is an art exhibit associated with the rally which we will go see this evening. Dd19 has at least one piece in it and she was actively involved recruiting art contributions from other students.

Right now, I'm hanging out at home. I've started the dw and will take a look at laundry next. Though, I might take a wee nap and/or work on li$ts for the week and 2 thank you cards which are woefully late.

Someone needs to go fetch the ddogs from Tori's house. Dh said he would do that -- I'm not sure if he's coming home first or just going straight from campus.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Helia: dd has OHSS (google it.) She has permission to do one thing a day so today chose showering since she knew we were coming over and she smelled. She also has thrush and is on wicked antibiotics. Boil advisory started at 1 yesterday afternoon but they got neither a phone call, a knock on the door or a flyer and the first they knew about it was when I emailed this morning. Since dd only drinks tap water (she eschews bottled as environmentally unsound) she's now worried about all that she drank yesterday and wondering if she'll make herself even sicker. Plus they (actually dsil) have to rewash all the dishes since they need to be rinsed in bleach.

She hurts all over so even holding her foot hurt.

She was under a blanket so I couldn't see how swollen she is. Voice is strong. Weight is not up nor down, girth is. On the other hand, she isn't eating or moving so I wouldn't expect weight to be dropping.

Helia, ds did first aid duty at a race last weekend. The only time he was pressed into duty, he was on a break, biked up to a water station and it was there that someone called him over for help. So he had to send for help since he had nothing with him.

Church went well. I texted and then talked with dd before service and told her to text me if she needed us to take her to the clinic. Explained to the minister we might have to leave in the middle of the service. But the clinic didn't respond to dd so that's that.

I phoned after service and she still sounded very strong so I opted to continue with our lunch plans with the minister. We had an excellent time. Dh is getting very good at accepting ministers as friends!

After that we visited our senior friend who needs surgery so we heard about that, and made plans for Friday since she hasn't been out here yet.

Finally we drove over to dd's and stayed there about an hour.

Picked up milk on the way home and I got the mail so need to process that.

But first I need to change and check out my leg. The bite area is tingly (itchy/burny) so I should look at it again. Thanks Harriet for the details. It might (must?) have been attached at bedtime (if it got on me from my shoe) but it wasn't there the morning before. I would have noted it when pulling up my pants. I didn't note it first thing in the morning but did in the shower. We used alcohol on the wound. There wasn't any blood when we pulled it off. We think we got it all but may not have. We did save the tick, though.