January 2, 2014

Oops!  Almost Slept Away New Year's Day!

January 2, 2014

New Year's Day and I didn't do a posting to my blog!  That is no way to start the new year.  How did that happen?  I slept the day away!  After days and days of fun, food, and family, the last of the family headed home January 1 about 11:00 a.m.  By 12:00, I was sleeping soundly in my recliner, snug, warm, and weary.

Vickey and I had stayed up until after 3:00 a.m. New's Year Day morning as she finished piecing the top for a quilt for Bob.  I was so impressed with the work she did on it.  She was very neat in the matching of the seams.  I helped with the ironing and pinning but she did some of that and the sewing.  I am so proud of her! 

By 7:30 New Year's morning, I was back up and went to get donuts for breakfast.  After Bob loaded the car and they left, I decided that I had been having too many short nights recently and was ready for "a long winter's nap."  With my sound processor off, I would never have heard a clatter on the lawn. 

About 4:00 I woke up, sat up in the recliner and just sat, and sat, until almost 6:00.  I was so tired. I wouldn't trade anything for this Christmas together.  We had such a good time.  Everyone got along.  Everyone stayed well.  I never heard any complaining.  It was a wonderful family gathering.  My boys all made time to spend with their grandmothers and enjoyed the visits.  Many years, we will have to share the kids with their wives' families, but I will treasure this one for a long time!

About the only limitations I had from my weak arm, involved the kitchen.  I did ask for help with the 23 1/2 pound turkey and with chopping onions, and celery, etc., and with peeling apples.  Just about all of the other chores, I was able to do.  Some of the fabric cutting with the rotary cutter hurt my wrist on that arm.  Progress continues!

Last night, even after that nap, I fell asleep in the recliner about 11:00 and woke at 5:00 this morning.  I considered going to the gym for the first time in about a year, but moved to my bed from the recliner and promptly went back to sleep until 7:30.  At that time I woke my husband who should have been up much earlier, and made his coffee while he got ready to leave for work.  Shortly after he left, he texted me to say his car stalled and he had called AAA to come tow it to the repair place.  He said he had hot coffee and his Kindle so he was fine.

My mom was scheduled for laser surgery on a vein in her leg this morning, so I got ready to go and managed to get the ornaments off the tree in the sewing room before I went to pick her up to go to her doctor for the out patient surgery.  I had my Kindle with me and read while she was in surgery. 

All the medical procedures I have had this past year are amazing developments in the medical field.  I often have thought during this past year about how far medicine has come.  But just today brought that back to the front of my mind.  I posted on Facebook this morning that the operating rooms were really busy today.  My mom was having this vein surgery.  My sister-in-law was having surgery for severe arthritis in her left hand - mostly her thumb.  A young man who spent a summer or two serving here in Brownsville at our church as a missionary, was having surgery for a brain tumor (in the Dallas area I think).  And a Facebook friend I met a year or so ago (we share a love of birding) was having hip replacement surgery.  As the day went on I found that a friend from high school days is friends with a family whose son was getting a heart transplant today.  Unbelievable!  The field of medicine is expanding in so many directions.  Wow!  In my grandparents' days, none of these surgeries were possible.  My grandmother would have been a candidate for several of them.  Our lives can be made so much easier with these advancements.  I am so thankful for my Cochlear Implant.  I am thankful that my broken elbow could be improved and maybe returned to near normal. 

For the first time, I have apparently let the battery on my remote control for the sound processor run down.  It does not need to be charged every day.  In fact once or twice a week is enough, but with everything that has been going on around here, I failed to keep it charged.  That caused a couple of problems today.  I would have changed settings if I  could have, but at least it was on a good average setting - not too loud or too soft.  It is charging as I type.

Mom did great in her surgery.  My sister who lives in the Ft. Worth area flew in tonight to stay with Mom for a few days.  It doesn't look like she needs it for the vein surgery recovery, but she will be delighted with the company.  After I took Mom home, I went to the office and did the billing for the office, preparing statements for our customers.  After work I took my husband to get his repaired car and then went to the airport to pick up my sister.  While waiting for her, I enjoyed the beautiful sunset.  Texas gets some amazing sunsets, but maybe this one was appreciated more since we had experienced several days of gray, rainy skies.

The sky was so beautiful!  What a treat to enjoy the beauty while I waited.  Her plane arrived and we called Mom and my husband and they each met us for supper.  It was fun to relax over supper and hear my sister talk about her new grand daughter that was born a few days ago.  I am afraid we will get fewer visits from my sister as she heads to see that new baby as often as she can.

A belated Happy New Year to my blog readers around the world.  At this time, there have been over 19,100 page views of my blog.  I hope you continue to enjoy my updates.