Our Seventies

I was just thinking this morning how fast time flies by when we get into our seventies. I am 74 and each week just seems to fly by. We have another week left of February and then we will be into March.

When I was young, it seemed the weeks drug by. I couldn't grow up fast enough.

We have nothing planned for today. At least until Bob wakes up. He may want to go to Batlesville. We went to Cherryvale yesterday and met Tony and Gay at a little restaurant there called, aptly enough, the Cherryvale Cafe. The food was good. Their special was catfish, potato salad, coleslaw and a drink all for $5.99. It was good too.
We may meet there again. We try to do that once a month.

Tomorrow I preside at church. Leslie will be speaking. I worked on the second quarter schedule yesterday and have it nearly done. I have only to find one guest minister. I's like to get our Mission Center president, Charles, but he is usually booked months ahead.

So, I will give it a try and see where that takes me.

Friday Lunch

Today we will meet Tony and Gay in Cherryvale for lunch. It's been awhile since we've met them. We used to meet once a month but both couples have been so busy that has been impossible. I hope the new restaurant is nice and the food is good. We used to like to go to Just Us but they starting closing during the lunch hour.

I will do some cleaning today while Slinky can be outside. Yesterday was over 50 degrees and he spent the day outside. He loves that. About three o'clock, though, he wanted to come in. I ignored his barking. We were having Jeromy here for dinner and I did not want to have to walk around Slinky while I was cooking. He also wants to beg food from us while we're eating. After Jeromy left, I let him in and fed him. Then he did not want to go back outside to potty. He was afraid he would have to stay out. Sometime around 10:30, he had to go so he woke me up and I let him out. Then he woke me again at 4:30 and I let him out again. He is in now but refuses to eat his dog food this morning. Stubborn cuss!

Today is my sister's 77th birthday. I took her gift and card to her yesterday. We got two shampoo and sets for her. We wanted to encourage her to keep her hair nice. My brother-in-law asked me not to bake her a cake. He said he had just got her glucose down after a long time of it being high. I hope she has a nice birthday. He is going to take her out to eat and he bought her some sugar free candy. She loves candy.

Another Thursday

This evening, we are having our grandson over for dinner. It has been awhile. I forget in our busyness that he works here and his wife is in Topeka preparing to have their baby the first week in March. She is having a midwife deliver the baby. Marlene is a very tiny woman and I fear she may have trouble delivering. I wish she would go to a hospital and have a doctor deliver her. But there's no discussing the subject with her.

So until the weekends, Jeromy is here by himself. I sent out an e-mail to our congregation yesterday evening looking for clothing. etc. for a family that lost everything night before last in a fire. He answered that he had a couple of X large coats that he would donate so he is bringing them over after work. I then asked him to stay for dinner. It will be good to visit with him. He's a real sweetheart. He will be here sometime between 4:00 and 5:00.

Bob and I need to go to the market after awhile and buy some pork cutlets. I am going to have them for dinner with mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, green beans and apple brown betty and ice cream for dessert.

Bob's Arm

Yesterday afternoon Bob had me take a look at his arm/chest again. He has one particular place where it is sore. I did some gentle manipulation and discovered a small lump on his chest near his armpit. It's only about the size of the end of my little finger but it's definitely there. He was able to feel it too. I thought perhaps the doctor should see it. We will see her this morning at 10:30. Maybe they can do a needle biopsy on it since it is near the surface. If it should be malignant, maybe they can do a lumpectomy. Anyhow, we are going to see what she says.
He is bound and determined not to have surgery. We will see.

I will get my hair cut this morning and have breakfast with Juanita. It has been two weeks.

Thursday evening Bob has his PINCH meeting at 5:30. Friday we will have lunch with Tony and Gay at Cherryvale.

My sister's birthday is Friday. She will be 77. I am going to get her a gift certificate for her hair. My brother-in-law recently took her in for a haircut and perm and her hair looks 100% better. I will encourage her to keep it up with this gift.

Update: Bobs doctor said she thought the nodule had swollen because of the swelling he has on his arm, hand and chest. She has consulted with the surgeon and they agree they do not want to do anything invasive with his diabetes. In fact, she said if it did not grow larger or change in some way, she would see him in three months.

Tuesday With My Sister

This is the morning I spend some time with my sister so my brother-in-law can have a break and get away and have breakfast with his friends. Every Tuesday she is obsessed with something different. I guess it may be the nature of the disease. For the past few Tuesdays she has been "working" on her recorder work for church. I started this obcession without meaning to do so. I gave her a copy of our membership list. She had asked me if I had received a new list from our Mission Center and I told her I had.

I have not officially taken the job she still holds and given it to another. I have just been in touch with the World Church online and made the changes with them directly. I am trying not to upset her. She seems to get worse when she is upset in some way. We had to take the Congregational Financial Officer responsibility from her a year and a half ago and give it to Leslie because she could no longer get the work done. At that time, we had no recording changes, so I left the recorder job with her. So I have just dealt directly with the World Church Recorder ever since.

Now it appears, I will need to get someone else to take the recorder responsibility since she obsesses over it. That will be another trauma for her. I will put it off as long as possible. Mike will have a change of address soon as he and Laura move to Cherryvale so I will have to deal with that. The World Church wants to appoint someone else to that job. I have been putting it off as long as possible.

Strange Day

After church yesterday, we were invited to another Valentine banquet..this one catered in for the Trinity United Methodist Church. Some friends had paid for their meal and then couldn't attend. They gave us their meal. We had a good time. I came home and got my newsletters ready to go out today. Then in late afternoon, I began to feel bad. I developed a headache and general apathy. I never get headaches and I am seldom ill. I curled up with an afghan and watched "Nature" on TV with Missy while Bob went on to "Living the Questions" group at Karan and Bobby's house.

This morning I appear to be all right. But I feel kind of drained.

Today, if I am up to it, I will do some cleaning. Slinky has been in the kitchen most of the week. It's been so cold. So the floor is dirty. I have wiped at it from time to time but my cloth always comes back dirty so I know it is not clean. It's difficult to keep a clean house with animals in the house.

Nothing else is on the agenda today.

Busy Sunday Now

Yesterday Leslie, our daughter, came over and took us to Joplin with her. We walked all over the mall there and then she took us to lunch. She bought a red sweater to wear last evening. We had a good day.

We got our mail when we got home and we had another medical bill. I had forgotten Bob had not met his deductible for medicare this year so we now owe another $135.00 bill. What with the hot water tank to pay for next month too, we may have to pay half for two months on both. We got a check from our oldest son yesterday too and that will help a lot. (thanks so much!)

When we got home in mid afternoon, Bob took a nap. He was really tired and we still had our church's Valentine Dinner at The Railroad Inn to go to at 6:30. Sue did a really good job with it and the food was good. The fellowship was even better.

Leslie wants to have a big surprise party for Bob in May for his 80th birthday. She wants to have it at the church so we will have plenty of room to invite all our friends. His birthday is on May 25th, a Tuesday, and she wants to have it on the previous Sunday afternoon, on May 23rd. That's very sweet of her.

When we got home, we were ready for bed.

Bob's hand and arm are no better. I don't think anything is going to make that arm and hand go down. I just hope it doesn't get worse.

We have church today and I speak. I don't know where we will eat afterward. I am still full from last night.