Saturday, July 11, 2009



I have always heard that having Grandchildren is even better than having children. I could never fathom that as any kind of truth, but here I am a grandparent and I do believe that this is the life for me!
Our little Kinsen was given a Lego castle for Christmas last year and then when we went to Disneyworld a few weeks ago, her parents purchased a Medieval village to go with the castle. While we were at Jason's for 4th of July, we put the castle and village together. We set the entire village up in the living room - with the castle up on a tall kitchen stool (to make a large hill) covered with a green (grass) blanket. Kinsen has spent the rest of the week pretending and playing with this castle/village. Jason says that Kinsen has been in her own little world with a fabulous imagination. Fondly, I remembered that when I was a little girl, I believed that I was a princess. I would sit in the upstairs bedroom window (my high tower) and imagine all kinds of "princes" running to rescue me! Wow, that was 45 years ago... I still remember that like it was yesterday!
Of course, after building a Medieval town/castle, we need to pull out the styrofoam swords and imagine that we are medieval knights!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

What did the Doc say?

I'm trying to be positive and find things that I can do now that the doctor said that I have been a bad girl! My foot is still swollen (although I think it looks alot better than it did at first) and he cannot cast the foot yet. It has been one week and he did not think that he will "cast" it anymore as it has already had over a week to heal. The bones are in place, so I don't need to worry about that.

The crutches are my problem. I simply cannot manuever them. I don't have enough strength in my arms and shoulders. The doctor took an x-ray of my right shoulder that is causing the most trouble...and he said I had alot of scar tissue which is the reason I have so much pain. I have to put my foot down when I use the crutches because I can't stand all the weight on the shoulder...That is a "no no". So, now I am confined to the chair (or bed) with my foot elevated until Thursday the 16th because there is no way that I can strengthen my shoulder fast enough to utilize crutches at this time. So, I guess I stay off my foot completely.

I don't know what I will do for 10 days... I know I will figure out ways to be productive. I did figure out how to change the sheets on the bed while sitting in the middle of the bed with my foot up!

I have been writing for the Upper Room devotional guide as well as the magazine "Alive", so I submitted two articles yesterday. Today I have been given the task to research some things for Steve's sermon on Sunday. I would much rather be helping the church minister to the Chuck Hefley family and the Jim Tappan family as both of these men just went to be with the Lord...However, I guess I need to take great delight in changing the sheets on the bed! Seems so trivial doesn't it!?

Sunday, July 5, 2009

My son says we're getting OLD

You ought to see the two of us "OLD" people try to keep up with the church, the house, our kids/grandkids and work - On Thursday and Friday we tried to help Stef/Dan move into their new home in Marion Indiana. What a hoot. I'm hopping around on one foot or crawling around on the floor on my hands and knees dragging my broken foot behind me. Stephen has no strength in his left side since his heart attack. So he was trying to help move furniture, or boxes, etc...and finally he began unwrapping dishes. By the time we got home in the evening we both were so exhausted that it was wise for us not to even talk to each other!

Yesterday was 4th of July, so we went to Jason's house for dinner and then off to Carmel for the fireworks. Well, I couldn't handle the crutches anymore after spending the first two days of my broken foot experience trying to move our other kids...so Stephen went to the church to get a wheel chair. (We went to Carmel for thier firework display - which by the way is exactly what I think a 4th of July should be like. There is a big white gazebo in the center of the park with a live full orchestra that begins playing music 2 hours before the fireworks begin. Sometimes a very accomplished singer would get up and sing with the orchestra songs like "God Bless America", or "You're a grand old flag", "The Star Spangled Banner", "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord...." All around the rest of the park you can buy giant tenderloins, elephant ears, funnel cakes, german brats, snow cones,.... Then there is all kinds of carnival things for the kids to do.)

So Steve put me in the wheelchair (and of course the youngest grandchild got to ride on Grandma's lap until the older one decided that it was her turn!) and we wandered all over the park for 1 1/2 hours, and Steve did pretty well for awhile, then he looked like he needed to go into the wheel chair! Jason took over pushing me and very smart-elicky said "Man, Kendra...we could never move from this area - look, we are already taking care of our aging parents"!

The horrible thing about this comment was that I didn't even care - I was so glad not to be using the crutches or walker, that it was just fine that he was pushing me around the park in a wheel chair. I was very surprised how kind everyone was and would move out of the way for us. Actually there was a lot of smiles on the faces of the people as they would see two grandchildren sitting on the lap of a grandma while eating elephant ears...in the rain...being pushed by a 6 foot 7 inch man followed by a 5 foot 2 inch wife keeping step (slowly) with the grandpa who was wearing his son's Notre Dame rain coat where the sleeves were far too long!