A new grand entrance

This house has 3 doors to the outside.  The 'front' door is never used by guests.  It opens into the living room but to get to the deck / door, a guest would have to tromp across the yard.  The sliding door to the back deck also would mean that guests would have to trek across yard to get there.  So, the door that everyone uses, comes in from the garage / parking area.  I call it the Servant's Entrance.

Since the person that comes and goes there the most is me, the name fits.

For a while I have been wanting to redo that entrance to the house and add a little deck area for a sitting area and have the steps come straight up from the garage, which will make navigating that area in the winter a  little easier.

Today it happened.

Ronnie and Roger Petersen (my 2nd cousins) came over from Luck and spent the day.  They are not quite finished, but you can see what a difference it makes.

Before the make over.

Now you can see the sitting area to the left in this picture, and a nice wide stairway into the house.
Once it is all stained the same, it will look very sharp!

It is fun to have Roger and Ronnie here.

They like their sweets so coffee is at 5 to 10am, lunch about noon (they bring their own) and then afternoon coffee is at 10 to 3pm.

I got up early today and made apple crisp and chocolate chip cookies so I would have good sweets for their coffee breaks.  

It is fun to visit and have them here, they do excellent work and they are so reasonable on price.

I love how it looks now and once it has railings and is all stained the same, it is going to look like a grand entrance, no longer just the servant's entrance.

Anders and school

Lora sent these photos a while ago, but wanted to get them in the blog book so will post them now.

Anders started school, PreK but still school.  He's getting to be such a young man.

Gotta have his blanket

Ready for school

Big smile for first day of school.

Busy Birds and Cardiology

For the past few days the bird feeders have been very busy.  

And I do not think I have seen the bird baths this busy all summer long.

Juvenile Chipping Sparrow

The last of the leaves

Female hairy woodpecker

Purple Finch

Dad had an appointment with the Cardiologist today.

Not much news, he has to start the Coumadin anticoagulant to help prevent the risk of stroke.

So, we continue with the home health care physical therapy and occupational therapy.

Next week Dad will have a sleep study test.

Depending on how all this goes, we might start talking about Iowa.

More voodoo

The Occupational Therapy folks have been using a massage technique for lymphedema to help reduce the swelling in Dad's arm.  They are also addressing the edema in other parts of his body, but the arm is getting the most interesting treatment.  This KTape lifts the skin and give the lymph (fluid) a pathway to move out of the limb.  This week they went after the swelling in his fingers too.

Looks like Dad is going as spider-man this Halloween.

It all seems like voodoo, but then it works, amazing.

Cold, windy, must be football season

On Thursday, I blasted over to Luck after I finished with my Bridge group to see Jack play football.

The teams are now 8 man so there are some rule changes.  It was not that obvious to me however.

The middle schoolers from Luck seemed much smaller than the Prairie Farm kids,

isn't that always the way?  The enemy team seems unfairly large.

So, a few photos from the game.

Unfortunately I do not know who any of the Luck kids are other than Jack, who is number 3.

Shotgun

It was very cold and windy and you can see the players were feeling it.

I hate to see our kids on the ground, I'm actually not a very good football fan when it is kids I know.

Jack is on his man.

Jack taking on a giant!

Quarterbacking is better, Jack in the shotgun

Gotta move Jack

Smaller but faster than the green and white

Heading down field

Stepping high

Putting on the brakes

Nice run Jack

Whoa, hang on to the ball Jack!

Cold and thirsty

Done for today.

The field at Luck is Rowe Field.  Garfield Rowe was a respected teacher / administrator.

It was fun to see Jack play, probably won't see him again this year.

I'm not very happy with my photos as I was cold, so was the camera and the light pretty murky.

Hopefully, I'll get another chance next year to get some better ones.

Highs and Lows

So, the news here is that Dad is doing okay but he sure has highs and lows in his energy level.  

Wednesday we went to see Dr. McClelland, his primary care doctor.  The Physical Therapy folks and the Occupational Therapy folks were concerned about Dad and the visiting nurse recommended we go see her as well.  On Tuesday Dad was pretty groggy most of the day, falling asleep almost in mid sentence.  He also seemed to have some swelling in his ankles and legs.  Dr. Mc changed his meds a little bit.  A little less of the drug that lowers his blood pressure, a little of the drug that helps him get rid of excess fluid and a little more of the steroid to help his airways open up.

Last night he seemed much better and this morning he was up at about 7am.

So, we hope this change to his drug line up gives him a little boost in energy.

We are lined up to see the Cardiologist, Dr. Alaoua, on Monday to find out about rhythm.

***

The weather changed overnight.  

Today, Thursday, we have wind, clouds, cold.

But....we still have tomatoes!

Picked these on 10.4.2012

Go Dad

This morning when I asked Dad how he was doing this morning, his reply "Well, I wouldn't brag about it".  Today he has two therapists coming, one Physical and one Occupational.  

As long as he shows progress, Medicare will pay for these folks to help us.

Go Dad.