Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Hi!

I'll bet you are all wondering what I was drinking when I entered the last blog (6/15/08).... Actually, that WAS darling little Ann and Grandpa, but the other picture was showing you the results of so many wonderful, caring people trying to find out where the heck our water main was so they could install the new sprinkling system.

Well, after 7 feet deep and 7 feet wide, it was still no where to be found. Late that night, with night lights a glaring and all these wonderful men over here to lend support, they finally called it a night and said they'd begin the search again the next day. I felt so badly, they had worked so hard. I guess the guy that built these houses just threw in pipes anywhere he felt like it and what a tangled web he wove!

The days previous to this (beginning about Thurs. June 12th) we started living in
"Job's World" (yes, the Bible guy). First, our washing machine flooded the basement nearly out the laundry room, but not quite. Only a minor wipe up job, and Dennis figured he could fix it. Wrong, when the next person went to use the washing machine (and had no clue that we'd been having problems) it flooded again, a little worse, but hey, it's happened before. We decided we DID need a real live plumber, but if you've called one lately, they won't tell you how much it will cost to come out to your house....they'll tell you the price (when they are here!)
We have a friend who is a plumber and we called and offered to pay him, but he didn't have any of his tools with him and so he couldn't do anything and the soonest for him would be the following Monday morning (June 16th).

Well, we had our fantastic Eldredge family reunion on Saturday and Church on Sunday and we were leaving for Crandall's cabin Monday, but he thought he could come early and so we thought that was the plan. Apparently we weren't communicating very well on phone messages and we waited and waited and finally called at 10 am and he said he thought we were calling another plumber.....(I've got to quit talking so fast). Anyway, we asked him if he could come when we get home from the cabin and he agreed. So, now we are home, the washer is not fixed and our friend the plumber said he would try to get over later tonight....how much are we betting that I was talking too fast again? Hopefully, this will turn out to be a simple problem and we'll get to wear fresh underwear again!

At our wonderful family reunion, somehow I was enticed by one of our favorite cousins to let him rub my sore old feet. It started out feeling soooo good, but then my toes were hurting a little more and more and of course I hadn't told him that I have Osteoporosis and an Arthritis flareup, so he kept rubbing. To make a long story short after the reunion I could barely walk and four of my toes on one foot were as black as black, and two of my toes on the other one were black. We are assuming that they were broken or cracked, but the dr. says the only thing you can do is tape them to the next toe. I will leave this favorite cousin nameless, because it was totally my fault not to stop, it really did "hurt good" while he was rubbing, but trying to walk afterwards was a different story.

We made it through Father's Day and Anniversary with McNeill's and Hegemann's here to be with us. The two girls did most of the cooking and were so sweet to let me try to keep off my feet. It was fun, but we still had to pack and put groceries
together for the next morning. We did it and only had to go in to town for a few items that I forgot while we were at the cabin. We surely appreciated the Crandall's generosity...they are wonderful friends and between floods and digging up the yard, we really enjoyed being AWAY from home for a couple of days!

A few minor setbacks that seemed to break the camel's back were: all new brakes for the Civic, a goodly amount spent to regain our computer back, the floods, the
toes, I've had cankers and thrush in my mouth for a month and my mouth is so sore I can barely stand it, so, last night at the cabin I bit on some crackers and my
three-part bridge shattered and I was swallowing crackers and teeth. I now have
a gigantic 3 or 4 tooth hole in my mouth with previous fillings jutting up to cut my already shredded tongue. Hopefully, tomorrow after Dennis' chemo treatment I am going in to a dear friend (dentist) whom I called tonight and he was so kind to say he'll try to help me tomorrow! (what would we do without friends?????)

During the cabin time, Teri was so sick being pregnant, Michelle was having terrible stress and pain in her neck, Ed tried to wrestle all the kids at once and he pulled some muscles in his neck and back to the point of he could barely turn his head. (He and Michelle were both quite "stiff necked"). Actually, Dennis was probably the healthiest one of us up there!!! Pathetic!!

Enough with the negatives, I just wanted to remember why I was so stressed the night before Dennis has to start enduring those crumby chemo sessions and writing this like a journal will help me remember. You can skip on to anything you'd like, I know this is a bore! After putting out several hundred dollars, and after repairing my teeth, more like thousands of dollars, this past month, I feel like Satan is sitting on my shoulder laughing at all the problems we have encountered this past two months....and the devil can hang it because the only thing that really matters right now is that Dennis is successful with these treatments and can regain his health and we can hopefully have many more years together!

Todd and Ed gave Dennis and I each a beautiful blessing up at the cabin before we all headed for our various homes. The spirit was very strong and I could tell that
Steve was somewhere in that room with us, because his little kids were so quiet and kind and loving (they always are), but the spirit in them was very strong. Deanne is out of town right now and the Adams' kids are going to Idaho until Sunday when Deanne will go pick them up....we were hoping to be able to have them here with us, but I couldn't give them all that I'd like to give when I'm so
concerned about feeling well enough to take care of Dennis and Teri was kind enough to offer to watch them in Idaho. Michelle would have taken them in a heartbeat too, but she's headed out of town to play in a Volleyball tournament...
you go, Michelle! She is still an amazing athlete and she's turning "40" on Saturday.

We're so proud and grateful for all of our children and their spouses and all our little grandkids. These past few days (except for pain and trauma) were amazingly wonderful! Memories of those 11 little kids laughing, playing and helping each other were some of those "out of body experiences", because you
can't imagine that all 11 of them were so polite and spiritual and.......I could go on and on and I probably will, but it was a wonderful few days of memories that we will never forget! Thanks kids for being so good to your old grandparents, we
adore all of you!

Whew, this has been quite the novel! Believe it or not, I left quite a few things out.
My mind couldn't endure any more! (and neither could you)

There will be a BIG blog tomorrow night ALL about Dennis. Please continue to pray for him that he will continue to have these tender mercies from the Lord and that he will be comforted throughout this next year of treatments. The Lord hasn't let us down yet, and I know that He won't now. Thank you all.

A special thanks to our cousin, Annette, who took it upon herself to spread the word of "We believe in Miracles!" by making hundreds of bright neon colored
badges that screamed out...."WE BELIEVE IN MIRACLES!" and passing them out to everyone at our reunion, what a sweet thing to do...thank you again and again,
Annette, we love you!

Tomorrow.......