Thurs., June 16 - The Walking Wounded!

Look at these two guys ... aren't they a sight?!? We caused quite a stir at Panera Bread on Tuesday when George & I met Shirley & Ike Lucas for lunch. Ike had knee replacement surgery two weeks ago, so he is wearing a support stocking and walking with a cane. He is doing GREAT in his recovery, and if the guys had a race, Ike would definitely win. However, I have to say, George is doing SO MUCH BETTER walking with his cane and his leg brace that Paige recently had adjusted for him. He can even take quite a few steps unassisted, so we are THRILLED! Maybe next week we'll take some video of him walking. Of course, I need someone to take the video, or stand by George's side, because we don't want any accidents ... we've come too far! I've been making George walk everywhere we go ... no more wheelchair, except at therapy or where we have to walk long distances, and I think it has really helped his progress. Of course, he gets mad at me and thinks I nag him too much ... my new nickname is the drill sergeant. He tires pretty quickly when he's on his feet, and of course, he moves slow, but he's getting there. I do see light at the end of the tunnel. I think the fact that deer season is getting closer might have something to do with it. George is realistic and knows he won't be able to hunt without assistance this year, but I think him just being down there, even for a weekend or two, will do him a world of good. Heck, even the thought of cooler temps and being able to get outdoors around here will help. He is sooooooo bored watching tv all day long while I work. Mon-Wed-Fri's are a little better since he has therapy on those days, but Tues & Thurs are long days for him. I try to get him out in the evenings after work on those days ... even if it's a trip to Wal-Mart or Randalls, where he can ride around on those scooters for 30 minutes and be independent of me. He was pleasantly suprised today by some special callers ... T.W. Bevil (an old friend from the plumbing industry) and also Bill Peak, a cousin and fellow hunter ... both phoned him. Thanks guys, for checking in with him. I know he misses his male bonding time! Oh, and George wanted everyone to know that he helped me think of tonight's blog title; kudos to him!!

Sunday, July 12 - Birthday Boy!!

We have a birthday boy in the house today, and our family all went to Pappasitos to celebrate! Most of us feasted on the special ... fajitas and grilled shrimp ... it was soooo good! Then of course, we HAD to help George eat his dessert after the waitstaff serenaded him. George got some great gifts too: a new fancy electric shaver from me, Lindsay, & Dave, my mom bought him cologne, and David, Cheryl & the kids got him a new pair of shorts and a t-shirt to wear to therapy! He received a birthday "wake-up" call early this morning from his cousin and hunting buddy, Jack Peak, and then later today he got calls from his son, Ricky; daughter, Terri; as well as a call from Dan & Barb Zora in Austin. I think George felt pretty darn special today! We actually started celebrating his birthday yesterday along with Beverly Brewer (who, by the way, turned the BIG 6-0!) and her daughter, Heather (#34!), who also has a birthday today. Those three "crabs" have been celebrating birthdays together for as long as I can remember, but yesterday's birthday luau was the best one yet ... thanks to Bev's milestone!! She had a lot more candles on her cake than George and Heather did on theirs, but the "ol" girl still has lots of hot air and blew them all out! So, to George, Bev, Heather and Mike Ligon (who had a birthday last week) ... I hope all of your birthday wishes come true!!

Tuesday, July 7 - WHOOP!

Well ... it's a bittersweet "whoop!" We sold George's truck on Monday, which is a good thing for us financially, but George was sad to turn over the keys to its new owner. The only consolation is that it has found a good home with someone in "the family." Kevin is an Aggie, class of '92 (if I'm remembering correctly!) who lives in Austin, and traveled all the way to Katy (twice!) to find the truck he was looking for! My neighbor's daughter, Missy, lives in Austin and works with Kevin's wife. When Missy heard that Kevin was looking for a truck, she mentioned that we had a truck for sale, passed along the information, and the rest is history! This is just another example of one of those "god-things" that happen in our lives. Pieces just seem to fall exactly in the right place at the right time! So, thank you, Missy, for making the introduction, and Kevin, we wish you safe travels! And, maybe we will run into you in Aggieland!! As for George, I told him we are not giving up hope of him driving again. It is just taking him a little longer than expected to get on his feet, but when it does happen, we will get him a truck that will be easier for him to get in/out of and something not quite so BIG!

Monday, July 6 - Red, White and FLU!!

Hello everyone. We hope each of you had a fun-filled, safe 4th of July. George & I had our most boring ever, and it's all my fault! I got sick on Friday with flu-like symptoms ... congestion, fever, body aches ... so we did absolutely nothing. I didn't want anyone around us to catch what I had, so we stayed in and watched a lot of tv and ate whatever was on hand. No bar-b-que or fireworks for us; very disappointing holiday weekend. Lindsay was brave enough to come over and help with her dad Saturday morning, and she also transported me to the 24-hour clinic so I really hope and pray she doesn't come down with this stuff next. I'm sure she will be fine; her good heart will keep the bad germs away!! And, we want to give a "shout out" to Ike Lucas who is recouperating from knee replacement surgery. Maybe Ike and George can do their leg exercises together in the coming weeks! And speaking of George and his therapy, I do believe the "pep talks" he had the week before did some good. His therapy sessions went really well last week and he even asked me to help him get to the pulleys in the kitchen yesterday so he could do his arm exercises. Hopefully the new trend will continue!!

Monday, June 29 - Pep Talks

Hope everyone had as good of a weekend as I did! Thanks to Vicky, a family friend from Abilene, and Lindsay & Dave, I spent the last few days in Rockport with my bunko group ... and we had such a great time shopping, eating/drinking, playing games, watching movies, and getting some sun. Vicky and the kids took good care of George and Brady for me, and I am very appreciative!! George & I have had a rough couple of weeks so the few days apart did us some good. Progress in his recovery is definitely slowing, and we are both frustrated. I know George feels like I am losing my patience with him, and I admit that I am because I feel like he is giving up and not working hard enough to regain his independence. It has now been 7 months since his stroke and we were told right from the beginning that 75% of your recovery occurs during the first six months, and the window for improvement will close after a year. George does work hard in his out-patient therapy sessions 3 times a week, but I can't seem to get him motivated to do much on his own here at the house the other 4 days of the week. He just doesn't get how hard it is for me to now have the responsiblity of handling EVERYTHING in our lives plus caring for him AND working full-time. I want him to try doing more on his own, but I know he hates when I "nag" him, so I was happy that Butch Scherer, a long-time friend of George's that also attends our church, came by last week and gave him a pep talk. Butch even took the time to walk the hallways with George! When we arrived at therapy today, we also had a little "pow-wow" with Derrell and Paige, George's therapists. Along with reiterating to George how important it is that he do his exercises every day, they encouraged us to try and find a stroke recovery group that might help us deal with the emotional "trauma" that both George & I have suffered with this life-changing ordeal. Another of their suggestions was to have George visit with a nueropychologist who is trained to detect brain dysfunction in cognitive skills due to brain injuries. Of course, I welcome these suggestions, but it's just something else to add to my "to do" list which is already a mile long! Oh well, the old saying goes that God doesn't give you more than you can handle, but to that I must say, he has more faith in me than I have in myself right now! Anyway, George ended up having a pretty good day at therapy after the therapists' pep talk. He and Paige worked on sitting and standing and "making turns" on his own. He was doing so well that Pagie let George wiggle and wobble until he caught his balance. I was proud of him; he did good! Here's a quick little video clip that I took of that action:

So, just keep us in your prayers ... along with rain before everything dries up completely!!

Sunday, June 21 ... Happy Father's Day!

I hope all of you fathers had a great weekend celebrating with your loved ones! I know George had fun with both of his sons, son-in-law and two grandsons down at the deer lease. Ricky, Kurt & Donnie picked him up Friday morning and headed to Gonzales, and then Paul & Greg joined them after work on Friday. The boys filled up the deer feeders while George supervised and rode around the pasture in the four-wheeler with them. From what I understand, the deer weren't the only things being fed well. I heard that George's grandson, Kurt, made some finger-licking good ribs Friday night, and some great breakfast tacos were on the menu for Saturday morning. I also heard that Donnie, grandson #2, took extra-good care of his Papaw, even for the night-time bathroom runs which by the way is really good practice for this soon-to-be new dad! Paul & Greg were willing to stay Saturday night at the lease with George as well, but he wanted to come back home! I guess it is just too hot and dry right now to enjoy the great outdoors ... or he just missed me nagging him to do his exercises and use his right hand ... ha! Anyway, he had a great time and is looking forward to future trips in the fall!

Lindsay & Dave are still in Indiana (hurry home, we miss you guys!), so we joined my brother and his family for Father's Day brunch in Richmond. However, before we left, George opened a Father's Day gift from "Brady" (the new shirt and pair of shorts that he is wearing in this picture), a card from Lindsay & Dave that arrived yesterday, and he also got a phone call from Lindsay just as we were leaving the house. Terri must have called shortly thereafter, but we were already gone, but George did get her sweet message when we got back home. This evening, we took a ride out to Houston's National Cemetary and visited my Dad's grave. It's been nearly 8 years since he passed away, but I still miss him like it was yesterday! As a tribute to my dad, and to all of you great dad's out there, here's one of my favorite quotes by Anne Geddes ... "Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad." Happy Father's Day!!

P.S. to Butch Scherer: Thank you soo much for stopping by on Saturday; George was really sorry he missed you!

Wed., June 17 ... Male Bonding

Question: What's a guy to do when his wife leaves him on the third Wednesday of every month to go play bunko with her girlfriends?!? Answer: Have a little male bonding time of his own!! Since our kids are still up in Indiana processing hail storm claims, I was just wondering what I was going to do with George this week so I could get my monthly night out. Mike Ligon and Rick Krustchinsky must have been reading my mind over the weekend because they called and said that they would pick up dinner and come watch the Astros game with George Wednesday night. Wasn't that soo nice?!? I know I've told you all a hundred times (or possibly more) but we have THE GREATEST FRIENDS IN THE WORLD! The guys used to go on these "man dates" (as Lindsay calls them) nearly every month while we girls play bunko, so George has missed his male bonding time since his stroke. I know he enjoyed the seafood from Capt. Tom's boat, but he really enjoyed the company (even though the Astros lost) ... thanks again, guys!!