Monday, April 26

What a dreary day and quite cold with a high of only 51, windy and rainy too. Did get some cleaning done this morning before taking my mother to her doctors appointment. Doctor was pleased with her recovery and although her sugar levels were a little elevated he thought it was still manageable through exercise and diet. She seems stronger each day and appears to be settling into her routine at the Madison House. Dad is sharing a room with her and with the 24 hour care available Mom doesn't seem as stressed as when she was at home trying to handle everything all by herself. Tomorrow they plan to go bowling with the residents from the Madison House. Hoping they have an enjoyable time!
I'm planning to participate in the 4th annual Run/Walk for Thought sponsored by the Brain Injury Association. I've included the website just in case any one would care to join me. You don't have to collect donations, just a $25 entry fee includes snacks and a T-shirt with the rest of the money going towards brain injury programs and research. Mr. B doesn't seem to have any interest in joining me so I would welcome any company! http://www.biaoh.org

Thursday, April 22

Happy Earth Day! Today we had a Dr's appointment at OSU with Dr. Mysiw, Mr. B's rehabilitation doctor. We arrived for our appointment at 8:40 a.m. After a lengthy wait his Dr came in and asked how he was doing did some balance tests and asked how he felt he was doing. Of course Mr. B thinks he is A-OK. He did mention that he still hoped he would be able to drive. Dr. Mysiw promised to make some calls and see if he would be a candidate for prisms to help increase his vision on the left side. Should find out by Monday. It has been a good week as we have all our dandelions sprayed, the garden tilled and this afternoon we planted our peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, peas and green beans. Tired as I was, I took an Earth Day Walk through our woods. I got a good picture of the Eastern Wood Pewee that has a nest above our tractor. I also saw a red-head woodpecker, the first I've seen in a number of years. I couldn't see if the red-tail hawk was sitting in her nest but I did locate the Cooper's hawk's nest. Several deer were in the woods as I was walking and I spent time watching the turkey vultures coming in to roost in our sycamore tree. As graceful as they are soaring in the open sky, they are pretty comical when it comes to landing in a tree. The flowers are popping up everywhere, bring on the spring! Oh, and while we were planting the garden several of our barn swallows were chirping and circling over head. They were scouts and the rest of our colony will show up around the first of May.

Friday, April 16

Where did that beautiful sunny day go that we enjoyed yesterday? Glad we finished the mowing before the rains moved in. Of course with all the wind, we will probably have to pick up sticks all over again. Thought I would include some of Trish's pics of Luke at Easter. Can't believe how big he is getting! What a cutie!!

Thursday, April 15

Does everyone have their taxes mailed? Been busy today, gave 2 tours at the zoo to Arrowhead Elementary 3rd graders. Lots of fun, very energetic for the first 1/2 hour then spent the other 30 minutes asking when they were eating lunch. A perfect day at the zoo, not too many visitors and the weather was and still is gorgeous. Finished up the mowing when I got home so the place looks pretty good. We certainly have a nice looking crop of dandelions! Everything was really looking up until I got the mail. I received my Golden Buckeye Card today. Nothing like a dose of reality to bring you back to earth. Well maybe I can cash in on some free fries at McDonald's! Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather. I'm looking forward to our upcoming visit to Dover. I really miss seeing Luke and the rest of the family. Think I'll go pack just in case our new little granddaughter decides to come a little early.

Wednesday, April 8

These last 2 weeks have been very difficult. My parents' health is declining rather rapidly and some very unpopular decisions are being made. Our hope is that everything we do is in their best interest. Dad spent a week in respite care at the Madison House Courtyard (Alzheimer's Unit) in hopes that Mom would recover from what seemed to be utter exhaustion. Saturday after a visit to the ER we learned that much of her dizziness and fatigue was due to a UTI and an inner ear infection. She has been staying with us until today when she also checked in at the Madison House for a (hopefully) short stay. We had lunch there and Dad was able to join us and even went to Mom's room and took a nap in her bed. The plan is to replace the bed with a larger one so Dad can move over permanently and they can share a room. My parents have been married for 61 years and it has been difficult for them to be apart even with the confusion of Alzheimer's and dementia. We are not sure what the future holds but we are praying that we are making the best decisions possible.

Monday, March 22

This morning I woke up at 9 am. Guess that means I am still 2 hours behind since I usually wake up at 7. Of course it doesn't help that I stay up until midnight watching basketball. I had thought about trying to get tickets to the Dayton Regional for this week end but Mr. B isn't too keen about going and the cheapest tickets I could find were $129 x 2 for the 3 games. I think if it were Tennessee playing instead of Connecticut it would be a done deal but I guess I'll save my money and watch on tv. Maybe we'll go to a Capital softball game instead if the weather is nice. One of our former students is playing for them. I'm excited to get back to the zoo tomorrow. Think I'll check out all the babies, lion cubs, baby bonobo and even though I probably won't get to see the baby otters I will find out how they are doing. I felt pretty cold all day today so I hope it warms up a little for the rest of the week. I know, I know....we got pretty spoiled by all that sunshine in Hawaii.
Photos: '09 baby flamingos, '09 lion cubs, otters from'08, baby Beco who will be 1 this Saturday.

Thursday, March 17

After flying all night we got in to Atlanta this morning around 7 am. We had a 3 hour lay over so we had adequate time for breakfast before boarding the plane for our flight to Port Columbus. Our nephew picked us up when we arrived around noon. It was so nice of everyone to have some nice warm weather to greet us when we got back home. It isn't the 80 degrees we had become accustomed to but it is better than the weather we were having when we left. My plan is to get our outside Christmas lights taken down now that the weather is nice. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip.