Medical Mass Confusion

Does anyone else have problems understanding all the ins and outs and what-ifs involved in health insurance --especially for those of us who are on Social Security --whether because of retirement of a medical disability?

When I was diagnosed five years ago this past spring with cancer, I was unemployed and had NO health insurance whatsoever. So, when my physician -the surgeon-began to tell me what treatments I would have to have -chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, more chemotherapy after the surgery- I was very worried about how on earth I would ever be able to pay for all this stuff.

I was fortunate in that I was able to qualify for state medical assistance for all those things and it covered all the medical bills involved until eventually I was approved for Social Security Disability coverage.

With the Social Security came Medicare Part D benefitMedicare -Part A and Part B -Part D was not then in effect. But I was very naive about how the Social Security Medicare program works. I didn't know that Medicare only covers a portion of one's doctor visits, lab tests, hospital stays, etc. Plus, as I said, when I first became eligible for Medicare, Part D -for prescriptions -hadn't become a requirement.

I learned the hard way when in October of 2005 I had to be hospitalized and have more surgery because a few months later, the balance that wasn't covered by Medicare landed in my mailbox in the form of bills from the surgeon and the hospital.

I inquired of some family members and friends who were also on social security and had Medicare Part D prescription medicare about various companies offering supplemental insurance plans and fortunately, I found a company and plan that is very affordable, allows a lot of flexibility, covers all but small co-pays for doctor visits, hospital stays, lab tests, vison and dental care and also, it include a drug plan that is very good too.

I was lucky in that this was the first plan I inquired about for costs to me and signed up for it two years ago this past spring -just in time to be registered as required for a Prescription plan.

But, had I tried to find a plan totally on my own -reading about each and every company and their coverage -or what they don't cover too -their rates and so on, I would have been extremely confused, probably to the point of being overwhelmed by all the data available to read and study. Trying to disseminate all this stuff for each plan offered is not something for the faint of heart to try to do!

So, if you are retired or on disability, I would strongly recommend doing a Medicare Drug Assistance< comparison search by using this site -and read the blog that accompanies it as well. This is not information to sell you on a particular company offering insurance but rather is a means to get good viable information presented in an easier to understand manner.

Health insurance is certainly a necessity and especially so if you are older or have medical issues already. A tool to make understanding the insurance plans, coverage, costs and so forth allows us then to get the most affordable insurance with the best coverage available.

Make your health insurance decisions be smart ones!

Findings From the Past

If you've read my blog for any time now, you'll no doubt know that I really like history -especially the history of my community -the township, the little villages here and the people who once lived here, their families, the interconnections between families, where many of those folks with roots to this area are today. For the past 3-4 years, by researching through the historic newspaper section of Ancestry.com, I have been transcribing bits and pieces about this area and the people who called this home. I have no idea how many word documents I have saved now with article after article about happenings from here between 1913 and 1966-67 (that's where I left off the last time I was researching via the old newspaper, but suffice it to say, I have many, many pages of these bits and pieces of what once was.

I did have sort of a game plan, initially, that by transcribing these articles, someday, I would sort through them, organize them, and then do some type of book that might be of interest to anyone who, like me, enjoys reading trivial bits like that -history -but also I had figured I would do this "book" in a way that it would or could be useful to those who are doing family tree research -to give them perhaps more personal information about their ancestors from this region than just those old census records, which often are very difficult to read and sometimes, pretty dry too.

The past several months, I've been very lazy about this research project of mine. Matter of fact, I don't think I've done a transcription since February or March. I haven't even updated my own family tree very much in quite a long time either.

But after events of this week -in the past two days -I think I better get moving, do some more work on that and try to set some goals for at least completing the research.

What brought this on? Well, Sunday evening I received an e-mail from a lady who had found my blog by googling the word "Panakaka" -which is a Swedish dish -a baked custard type thing -that my Grandma used to make frequently and which I make fairly often. My kids and I love it -especially with blueberries or if I happen to get to an IKEA store and buy some lingonberries, which is what my Grandma always said were meant to be served with Panakaka.

As it turns out, this lady's ancestors had immigrated to this area where I live from Sweden back in the 1880's and she knows some folks from around here. What's more, this lady was also born in Jamestown, NY -where I lived for a little over a year during 2nd and 3rd grade and where I spent most of my summer vacations too through 1961!

I e-mailed her and thus began a correspondence with her. Then, she either forwarded our communication on to a cousin of hers who lives in Jamestown but is moving next week to South Carolina and that lady and I have been buring up the cyberspace this afternoon and evening with e-mails -questions and answers we both have about people and the area of our past, our roots.

One thing I thought was really cool was in a response to one of my notes, the lady still living in Jamestown asked about a surname I had mentioned and wanted to know if the Nagle family I knew had ever had a little store up on Newland Avenue and as it turns out, yes indeed, we were talking about the same family.

Now, this evening, I received a comment to one of my first posts -way back in September of 2006 -from a blogger who is on my favorites list, whose blog I read daily - Beth of Around the Funny Farm. Gee, it seems Beth's roots also revert back to here -to where I live -as she informed me that her grandfather was from Grassflat -which is the name of the little village where I live. She says he worked in the coal mines here and was one of a family of 11 children! What's more -about two months ago when Mandy and I had made a trip to Pittsburgh for an appointment I had with my surgeon there (a trip that went much better than the drive there last Friday because we didn't have any car problems -except that we got lost coming out of PIttsburgh that day) but anyway, on the way back home we had stopped at a little convenience store on the east side of Route 79 where the Grove City Outlet Mall is located to say hello to my ex-sister-in-law, who is the manager of that establishment. When Beth had read that in my post then, she had informed me that she lives about 10-15 minutes away from that store.

Well Beth -go stop over at that convenience store and talk to the manager there some day as she is also from Grassflat and her grandfather also grew up in Grassflat (so did my sister-in-law) and what's more, her grandfather was one of 18 children! (That included also a set of triplets!)

Back when I got my first computer in the summer of 1999, I was really interested then in just searching for information pertaining to my own family tree so I used to surf a lot of the family tree sites for people searching for ancestors that might be linked to my trees. And, within a few months, I had found a cousin of my Dad's who lives in Phoenix, AZ and who had a very concise tree, full of information about my great-grandfather and all of his children -except for my grandfather. The reason being my g-grandfather and his second wife had moved from eastern Pennsylvania, to this region where they had lived for a short period of time and then, they had migrated out to Montana but my Grandfather had stayed behind here in Pennsylvania. So, although I knew a little bit about my grandfather's full siblings as well as his half-siblings, I didn't know enough about them to ever be able to do a full tree on that side of my family unless I would win the lottery and be able to go to Montana and stay there a while to research those roots. That cousin sent me everything she had on that side of my family tree and in turn, I sent her all the data I had on my Dad's parents, their children, grandchildren, etc. -all information which that cousin would also have had a really hard time in tracking the data down for her tree too!

Back then too, I came across a query one day from a lady researching her roots back to Grassflat and I recognized her name. She had graduated from high school four years ahead of me so I didn't really "know" her -I knew who she was -but I knew her sister very well because she was in my class and we had gone through most all of our school years together -with the exception of the roughly a year when I lived in Jamestown, NY and went to school there.

Ok, I e-mailed that lady and we began to write back and forth. During those early letters I learned that she had written a book -begun mainly as a family history for her siblings and the descendants of their very large family. This book chronicles how her grandparents met in Slovakia, their journey to the "new land" and how they came to settle here in this small community. It is also a telling of what it was like growing up here in a large family in the 40s and 50s, until she finished high school, moved to Cleveland, got married and had her own family.

The upshot of that early communication too has resulted in a very strong friendship developing between us -and sharing of many mutual concerns as she and I both were diagnosed with cancer too about a year apart. So far, both of us have now remained cancer-free too -so we celebrate that victory together as well these days. She and her husband make trips over here from Cleveland from time to time and we always try to get together either for lunch or maybe just coffee and dessert but try to make time to visit, reconnect in person then.

And, my friend's book -well, it may have started as a self-published family history type thing, but a few folks here and there heard about it and told her they would like to be able to purchase a copy of it -myself, included in that number -and primarily from word of mouth, she has had her book reprinted now four times and nine years since it was first published, she still gets inquiries and orders for a copy of it! So if anyone here is interested in a book about one family that used to live here, drop me an e-mail and I will give you her e-mail address and you can then contact her and get a copy. It really is a very nice book, well-written and a very enjoyable piece to read!

Now, going off in a little different direction tonight there is something else I wanted to mention to everyone reading my blog and that is about a fellow blogger who I know many of you read her blog (I've seen your names in her comments section) and who I have come to "know" as a great cyberspace friend but I'd like to ask those who aren't familiar with her blog to please pay her a visit and then, keep her and her father in your prayers because this Thursday, she will be having surgery to donate a kidney to her Dad, who has been dealing with dialysis and kidney failure for a long time now. This would be for Terri, of Terri Terri Quite Contrary. She writes a terrific blog and please let her know you will be keeping her in thought and prayer for a swift recovery from the surgery for both her and her dad! I'm sure she would appreciate any extra kind words coming her way and I KNOW you won't regret reading her blog too -if you don't already do that!

Send her lots and lots of blogger love, especially now, as she gets ready for this really brave step she is about to take.

And, one other thing -in the "small world" vein -I got an e-mail this evening too from yet another lady I met via the family tree research message board about 8-9 years back whose father was originally from this area and who still has many relatives in this region -most who I know too from the church I belong to. This lady and I have e-mailed back and forth for about 7-8 years now but never met. However, this Sunday, she and her husband will be in this area and they are going to stop by my house for a quick "get-to-know-each-other" visit. I'm very much looking forward to her visit too now.

So, here's to Terri -Good luck, many prayers for you and your dad coming your way from lots of friends in bloggerland -old readers and new ones alike -and also, here's to finding folks and making new friends simply because of what a small world it really is where we all reside!

Just one small example of how the internet -and blogs -bring so many people together, create new friendships every day and who knows, maybe someday, through the efforts we all put into blogging and getting acquainted, we will shrink the globe that much more and maybe even help to make our world a much more civilized, peaceable and loving place.

Excuses, Excuses

Yeah, I know -I'm late again -or maybe by now people are saying "As usual" when I don't get the Bushisms put up here on Sunday the way I had been trying to do.

This week, I have yet another excuse for my tardiness. I was majorly backlogged with blogs to read due to having been away from home Friday -taking my son to the airport in Pittsburgh and with the van breaking down on me on the way home, having to spend the night in Saltsburg, PA with Mandy's best friend and then, waiting till Saturday afternoon until my son-in-law and Mandy could get there with the truck and car dolly to tow the van back home! Phew! Needless to say, it there were around 170 plus posts coming up on my reader when I finally was able to try to get going with that routine.

But anyway, I'm here now so let's get started and see what special things the DUBYA has to say for this week now.

Monday, July 21, 2008 - 183 days left

"It's a myth to think I don't know what's going on. It's a myth to think that I'm not aware that there's opinions that don't agree with mine, because I'm fully aware of that."
--Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2005

Tuesday, July 22, 2008 - 182 days left

"I wish I wasn't the war president. Who in the heck wants to be a war president? I don't."
--Washington, D.C., 2004

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 - 181 days left

Congress publishes a report on 9/11, but information is omitted for reasons of national security.
--July 2003

Thursday, July 24, 2008 - 180 days left

Bush desecrates the American flag by autographing it for doting fans.
--Livonia, Michigan, July 24, 2003

Friday, July 25, 2008 - 179 days left

"These people don't have tanks. They don't have ships. They hide in caves. They send suiciders out."
--Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 2002

Saturday and Sunday, July 26/27, 2008 - 178 days left and 177 days left

"I need to be able to move the right people to the right place at the right time to protect you and I'm not going to accept a lousy bill out of the United Nations Senate."
--South Bend, Indiana, 2002

There they are now -guideposts for the coming week.

What To Wear - What to Wear?

David McMahon at Authorblog posts a "Weekend Wandering" question every Sunday in which he throws out a question and asks us to do a post on our blog about his topic of the day.

Today's question is this: Do you have an item of clothing that you haven't worn for more than a year?

And, my answer to that questiojn is I have a whole closet full of clothes I haven't worn in more than a year!

Actually, my closet if full of clothes that in many instances I haven't worn in oh, at least 5-6 years!

This isn't due to my being so fussy that if I have an item of clothing I won't wear if it is sort of no longer "vogue" or because I am tired of that item or that it has a tiny rip that needs fixed or anything along those lines.

My reason for having this entire closet, fully loaded, really, with clothes I haven't worn in a long, long time is because none of them fit me any more. Unfortunately it is not because they are too big for me cause if that were the case, I could always take them in then.

Nope, in my case it is because over the past five-six years, my once semi-svelte frame has expanded and done it in a "big" way too!

And you know, if something is too small for you, letting out seams isn't near as practical or easy to do as is taking a seam in.

Why then to I keep all these clothes, just taking up space?

Well, for one thing they are in an upstairs closet and I avoid the stairs as much as possible because I have a lot of difficulty going up and down stairs and I don't care to chance a fall and possible broken bones which would bugger up my system way more than it already is.

But besides that, I am also way to Scotch to get rid of these items simply because I am, in this instance, ever the optimist that some day I may actually begin to lose weight and they will once again fit me.

Yeah, in the words of comedienne, Judy Tenuto, "It could happen. It could happen."

And realisically, I would probably have to add "When donkeys fly" to that but who knows. I don't. And I'm not going to risk have to buy another whole new wardrobe when that great diet kicks in for me and I shed all this extra baggage too!

So now, I'm going back to my dream world of smaller sized clothing that's barely been worn, just waiting on me to shrink and dress up to the nines then!

"500 Miles"

Since about 8:00 p.m. last night, for some strange reason, that song -"500 Miles" has been running over and over through my mind. Guess you could say I got a massive case of "earworm" going on there, huh?

Although I used to know the lyrics to that song many moons ago, I don't remember them all now. I had thought of posting a you-tube video of Peter, Paul and Mary singing it, but for the life of me now, I can't figure out how to put a you-tube video into my blog so if anyone wants to tell me how to go about doing that -for possible future use -please feel free to do so. (Just keep the instructions extremely simple, plain English -no computerese, please -as I am a bit of a moron when it comes to translating computerese into English, ya know!)

Anyway, there is actually sort of a reason why that song kind of struck me last night and yes, thee is a story -probably a lengthy one too -that goes with it but I'll try to keep it as short and sweet as possible. (Cough, cough, I know!)

Anyway, here's the scoop!

Yesterday, my son was going to fly out of Pittsburgh Airport to Las Vegas where his Dad was to pick him up and his plan is that after spending 2, maybe 3 days visiting with the old man, he will then drive back home in an old pick-up truck his Dad has restored and according to my son, he is giving the boy the truck. (I know, my son isn't exactly a "boy" as he'll soon be 35 years old, but heck, he's still a boy to me, still "my baby boy" ya know.

The original plan too was that his girlfriend he's been seeing since early December was going to go with him. They had bought tickets -one-way -non-refundable and non-transferrable too and Mandy was supposed to drive them to Pittsburgh using one of his girlfriend's vehicles.

Well, this week, Kurtis has been having a terrible time -had a lot of issues this week with his bowels which in turn resulted in the poor little guy getting a really, really nasty diaper rash -extremely red, sore -yeah, you know that drill I'm describing. End result of that has been no one here has been sleeping very well because, well, because Kurtis has not been sleeping very well. And if he doesn't sleep, he figures we shouldn't either so he entertains us then with his own specific type of music -mostly screaming and wailing. And needless to say, Mandy has been very sleep deprived.

So Thursday night, I suggested to her that perhaps it would be easier if I drove them to the "Steel City" to catch that jet plane, ya know. She almost jumped for joy when I mentioned this.

However, Friday morning when Clate called to check in about what time to be ready to leave, etc., he sprung another surprise on us -it would just be him flying as the girlfriend had gotten ticked off at him late Thursday night and had decided then she was not going with him. Well, ok. So that ruled out taking one of her cars then too. It was decided that I would drive him down in my van - a 1996 Ford Windstar -with 144,000 plus miles on it. But the son-in-law said the minor problems the van had wouldn't be a hindrance -it would be ok. So, we were on with that plan then.

Friday morning -because I do so much enjoy the thrill of spontenaity, etc., I suggested to Mandy that Maya could go with us too. Sure, fine, she thought it would be ok -that Maya would enjoy the drive and probably provide me with enough entertainment too on the way home, with her singing all the little songs she knows now, that it would keep me awake and alert. Another good game plan too, we thought.

So, about noonish, Maya and I left to go pick up Uncle Clate and he then had to drop his girlfriend's car off at her house (Which he had been using this week since he had just sold his old caddie last weekend when he was home, ya see.) He arrived there a little ahead of me as I had to gas up and get a check cashed so I would have some cash coins with me for sodas and food maybe. When I pulled in to pick him up, he was standing by a big tree in her backyard and there, under said tree, were several clothing items, on hangers, waiting to be loaded into the van too.

As he was putting the stuff in the van, I quipped to him that it looked like the girlfriend had tossed him -and what items of his he had at her house for whatever reasons -out on his ear. He grinned at me and said, "Yeah, pretty much, that would be the case." So supposedly, this is the end of that relationship.

In the car then, on our way to Pittsburgh, he told me he figured I probably would have done the same thing as she had done to him -toss him out, that is -wouldn't I? And I said that if I had been the one ticked off at him, I would have done a few other things first -like USE that non-refundable, non-transferrable plane ticket and I definitely would have taken advantage of being able to travel -by an old but nicely running truck, cross-country -see the sights, ya know -and then, after I got home, I would have pitched his scrawny butt and his clothes out the door and told him not to let it hit him in the behind as he left too! But then I am very Scotch at times, can't stand the thought of losing that $300 investment in the plane ticket nor to give up the ride back home. Just would never have crossed my mind to cancel all that good stuff out just because of a stupid squabble.

So, we drove on to the "Burgh" -laughing, talking about all kinds of stuff, listening to Maya singing to us and just generally having a really fun trip. Got him there at the airport, safe and sound and only 5 minutes late for check-in but he was ok even at that. I just pulled up at the entrance, he hoppped out and grabbed his bag, gave Maya and I each a big hug and kiss and away he went.

As we started to pull away from the entry point, Maya started calling to him "I wanna go on de plane too!"

Next stop -McDonald's where Maya and I had a nice leisurely Happy Meal for her and a double-cheeseburger meal for me. I called a cousin of mine who lives down near Washington, PA while we sat in the van a little bit to give our food a chance to digest ya know -talked to her a little while and then away we went, heading back home.

I was coming out of Pittsburgh on Route 376, heading to Monroeville area where I figured I would pick up Route 286 and follow that back route home. I know my way on those roads fairly well as my Mom's oldest brother used to live in Monroeville and that's the route we always took to his house.

Aside from a couple of missed turns on 376 and circling around to get back on the right highway again, things were fine. I came to the intersection of 376 or route 22 and 286 and made my turn there heading towards Saltsburg, PA.

After driving on that road for several miles, I started to notice the car didn't seem to be running quite right - seemed to not have any power, no pick-up, kind of surging. The closer I got to Saltsburg, the more drastic the sounds and motions of the car became -making some strange noises too it was. I made it through Saltsburg but as I made the turn in the middle of town and started out of Saltsburg, I was afraid the van wasn't going to even make it up the first hill but thankfully it did. But I decided to find a place where I could pull over and call Mandy -and Bill -to try to figure out what was happening with the van.

At that point, I saw a Dollar General Store on the left side of the road and pulled into their parking lot and called home.

Sitting there, talking to Mandy on the cellphone, trying to explain to her what was happening with the car, I mentioned to her that though I'd never driven a car before that was having transmission problems, I was thinking it might be acting up along those lines. As I said that to her on the phone, a very nice looking young man was walking past us in the car and he stopped to tell me it looked like the van was leaking transmission fluid then.

Oh brother! My worst fears seemed to be confirmed then ya know. He talked to me and I relayed to Mandy and Bill what he was saying and then as he left to walk away, he turned to me saying, "If you need any help, I just live right next door here and I'll be out working around the house and cleaning my truck. Just come get me!"

The SIL told me to go buy as many quarts of transmission fluid as I could, and see if this guy would put the transmission fluid in for me -and show me how to put more in if the van acted up further down the road. So, that's what I did then -went and got this nice man, purchased 10 quarts of transmission fluid and a funnel and he put two quarts of fluid in for me and I took off again heading, hopefully, for home.

I don't know how far we got -cause I'm a terrible judge of distance -could have been a mile, or two-maybe even five -but I could hear the same sounds starting up again and then, when I tried to accelerate, the car sound like it was just revving up but the speedomoter wasn't moving -just staying in one place.

So, guess who found another place then to pull over? Yep, I did! Right in front (luckily) of the Conemaugh Township Borough Building who just happened to have this nice big, very convenient parking lot there -just waiting for goofy old grammies, with a four-year-old granddaughter in tow -to pull their very sick little van off the road and call home to tell Mandy and Bill of this revolting development!

One blessing that came up throughout this whole process was that Mandy's best friend, since kindergarten, her husband and 15-year-old son just happen to live in good old Saltsburg so Mandy called Missy and she then called me to tell me she and her son were on their way to pick Maya and I up -that we would be spending the night then at their house.

So -at least I knew we wouldn't be stranded there, out in the boondocks, in the dark, alone, ya know. Within about 10 minutes, Missy and Cody pulled up and we loaded my stuff -and Clate's into her suv and away we went to their house!

Now, let me tell you this too -Missy and her husband just moved into this house a year ago -it's the first time I've ever been to their NEW house and WOW! What a gorgeous place it is too! Drop-dead beautiful as houses go! So Maya and I spent the night there and today, Mandy, Bill and Kurtis came to pick us up and bring us home.

They did that by hooking up the car dolly to the back of Bill's truck, loaded Mandy's car onto the dolly and towed that down to save a little gas that way plus provide enough room for all five of us to be able to ride back home that way.

Bill unloaded Mandy's car at Missy's house and she, Kurtis and I rode in the car while Maya got the honor of sitting in her car seat up in the cab of Daddy's pickup truck and rode the whole way home with him then!

We didn't bring the van home to the house though, rather Bill took it straight to the garage where he works now, unloaded it there and put it up on the rack to try to see if he could get a better idea of what was really wrong with the car.

He's thinking right now it may just be a leaky seal though and if so, he'll fix that and then, see in the meantime if we can find another decent transmission -that won't necessitate me having to take out a small business loan, ya know -and then replace that part of the car later -if that's going to be feasbile, that is.

So there you go -the reason that started that song, running through my head for the past 24 plus hours now.

Not that I had drive 500 miles, not that I was 500 miles from my home, but boy, there were times last night when I felt like I was that far away from home. Might as well have been 500 miles if I hadn't decided to come home on the route I did take too. If I'd gone home by going up Rte 79 and across 80 then, I'd really have been sunk on a four-lane highway and no one, no way, to get rescued without involving a motel and towing fees and still having to have Mandy and Bill come pick us up too! Just providence there that made me decide to come home the back roads, I guess.

But even more things than that -providence again here -was that when we finally got to the garage this evening, when Bill unloaded the van from the dolly, guess what he discovered then?

Would you believe that one of the tires on the dolly had thrown off a big patch of tread? And not only that, Bill has no idea when that happened either. How lucky we were the it didn't all peel off and cause a major accident, that could have upended not just the dolly and my van but also the pickup truck with my son-in-law and sweet little granddaughter in there with him!

When I think of what could have happened there and think of the words to that song "500 Miles" it just makes me think of what a terrible journey we could have ended up being on today and that one would have seemed like it was 500 miles times who knows how much in grief, pain, misery.

Counting my blessings, yet again tonight, as well as thinking how fortunate I was to have met the nice young man in the Dollar General Store in Saltsburg -Terry is his name -and for his assistance in helping Maya and me through the first phase of our dilemma! He wouldn't accept a penny for helping me but I told him -after asking his name -that I would definitely give him a shout out on my blog when I got home so if anyone from Saltsburg is reading this and knows Terry, who lives in the little brown house by the Dollar General Store on the east side of Saltsburg on Route 286, please tell him for me that my granddaughter and I did finally arrive home, safe and sound, and that he is one very nice guy -my hero, for darned sure, ya know!

And, here's a look at Maya's and my other three heros of the day -Missy, her husband Matt, and son, Cody! After all, if they hadn't come and picked Maya and me up, we'd have had one really long, hot, sweaty and scary night alone in the van I'm afraid!




Maybe I should have titled this post "All's well that ends well!" You be the judge of that.

About Those "Golden Years!"

Although my age -technically -is not old enough to retire on Social Security, (won't be 65 for another year yet and I think they upped the age to 67 too -or didn't that go through?) I've been on Social Security via Disability for the past almost five years now.

Although there are times when I DO actually wish I could be out in the work force the fact I am unable to do that anymore does have a few benefits for me. I am able to be here every day and watch the kids if Mandy has to work or has an appointment -whatever, in that respect. For me, it is a chance to watch and enjoy these two of my grandchildren as they grow, develop better coordination skills, learn to talk and just enjoy those things I missed when my children were growing up. All because there was no alternative -as a single parent -I HAD to go to work. Child support doesn't go very far and in case anyone is thinking "Well, you could have stayed at home and let welfare support you" -don't even go there! A whole lot of folks have the delusional ideas that if one is on welfare, it is a big gravy train and you are on easy street. Not true, not true at all!

I know because when I was diagnosed with cancer five years ago, could not work at all but hadn't yet been declared disabled, in order to get medical assistance, I had to apply for cash assistance and if anyone is on "Easy Street" receiving a whopping big old $175 a month -to cover housing, utilities, car insurance and other "incidental" then that person is a heck of a lot better at managing finances than I ever was or will be!

But issues with welfare, economics, etc., is not my point of my post tonight.

I have come to the conclusion that the term "Golden Years" -referring to retired people -is a misnomer. The only people who see "gold" with respect to older folks are those in the medical profession.

And even that isn't really what I'm going to tell you about tonight either. That's just my opinion about the way things go once your body doesn't function quite as good as it had for most of one's life and it seems every time you turn around you're going to this doctor or that one and then referred to yet another and the cycle goes on and on that way then.

I was diagnosed with colo-rectal cancer five years ago this past March having gone to my family doctor for a general check-up because of some pain issues I'd been having in my lower intestine. The GP referred me to a surgeon to have him check me out -requiring a colonoscopy -and that was how I met the first (of several) surgeons I've dealt with since then.

The day he did the colonoscopy, after I came back from the recovery room, he came in and talked to my younger daughter and me -giving me the diagnosis that the colonoscopy revealed I had a tumor in my colon and that it was malignant. He also gave me a run-down of what I would be doing over the next ten months with respect to treatment. Two days after that test, I reported to the oncologist where they set me up with what is called a "Pic" line -just an iv connecter placed in my arm which would be connected to a little portable pack that I would wear 24-7 for the next 6-7 weeks. And three days after I had the pic line installed, I was to report to Altoona General Hospital's Radiation Department where I would meet with the doctor there who is the head of the Radiology department and that doctor would have me coming over there five days a week for the next 6-7 weeks to receive radiation treatments to shrink the tumor and thus, make it more operable. The objective there was to shrink it and make it easier to remove so as to -hopefully -not have to have a colostomy but rather a resection of the colon.

So, right there, I'm up to four doctors seeing me -three of them being specialists too.

The radiation worked in that when I had surgery in June of 2003, they were able to remove the tumor by doing a colon resection -no colostomy needed. At least not at that time.

However, by the end of July, I had developed some other issues that was causing me lots of problems. Seems I had two discs in my lower spine that were herniated. Trying to get that corrected required a little over six months of physical therapy -the first three months of the therapy were really just to get me so I could walk -and sit -for more than five minutes at a clip. The pain from this problem was so severe that I was taking some heavy-duty pain pills which in turn were creating yet another problem -severe constipation -a condition no one likes any time but when you've just had major surgery on your intestines, consitipation is really a bad thing then. The combination of severe constipation, two herniated discs, major abdominal surgery on the colon and pain pills created a vicious cycle right there. Plus I also had to return for follow-up chemotherapy that August too -which added a few more issues into the mix -like nausea! Eventually, I learned too that the radiation had left some residue in my lower spine which also contributed to the pain levels then -and still does.

Because the therapy had done all it could do to get me able to walk reasonably well again but wasn't working with the rest of the pain issues, I got referred to -yes, another doctor -this time one for Pain Management. Now, I've added a fifth doctor to my list.

Finally got things to a point where I could handle the pain fairly well and I was then down to just routine check-ups, another coloscopy a year after the surgery, and then, in February of 2005, I landed in the hospital with loads of pain plus nausea and a nasty urinary tract infection that required some kind of "scope procedure" done by a local urologist. This revealed a blockage in my right urinary tract and that doctor could not do the type of surgery required to correct that issue at the local hospital so I was referred then to Pittsburgh to see a surgeon there who eventually -on Halloween of 2005 -did a resection type of surgery on my right urinary tract. Ok, now I'm up to seven doctors.

In the meantime, the surgeon who I really liked and who had done the colon resection had decided to leave this fair state of Pennsylvania -mainly due to the malpractice insurance costs in this state -and he moved to Wisconsin. So when it came time for me to have my next lovely colonoscopy check-up, I had to see yet another surgeon. Make that doctor number eight!

This doctor told Mandy and I after performing that test that he had found a mass in my lower intestine and that it was malignant, but could not be feasibly removed. That was the news the day of that test but a week later when I had to go see him and get the full lab results, I was informed that although I did have a mass in my colon that was inoperable, thankfully, it was not what he had intially thought -and was NOT malignant. A bonus, right? But he also told me that he wasn't going to do anything for at least six months and for me to come back then -unless I developed a blockage in the interim -and he would then consider doing a colostomy.

The thought of waiting six months, dealing with the amount of pain I was having then, plus not being too crazy about the test results -just didn't trust the lab reports there -and my GP ended up referring me then to PIttsburgh -again - to meet with doctor number nine -a surgeon who determined that I should have a colostomy immediately to alleviate much of the pain issues I was having.

After that, things rolled along fairly nicely but then, a couple of months after the colostomy, the doctor who was the oncologist also left the area so that meant I was -eventually -going to have to see yet another oncologist to keep tabs on the way my system was operating -or not. I didn't get around to meeting doctor number 10 until this past January. He had me get some routine tests -cat scan, blood work, etc., -and that's when they found out I now had a hernia too! That was doctor number ten!

So, I was then referred to yet another surgeon - a local one though -but after he checked me, reviewed my records, Doctor Number eleven felt I would be better off if I returned to Pittsburgh to see the doctor who had done the colostomy for him to determine if I really should have surgery to correct the hernia -and even possibly do a reversal of the colostomy too at the same time. Thankfully, since I really didn't want another trip to the operating room any time soon, that doctor said "No surgery -at least not at this time.

So this spring then, back to my regular family doctor for my regular routine check-ups and she did one of those "routine test" we women are supposed to have regularly -a Pap test -which came back with some questionable issues which in turn required a second Pap test and it showed what was determined to be more questionable things, possibly pre-cancerous tissues -so that got me referred then to Doctor #12 - an ob/gynocology doctor -and yesterday, I reported to him to have a lovely little exam in his office and a test done there -called a culposcopy (I think that is the correct spelling -that's what it sounds like anyway and it didn't make my spell checker flash at me so it must be the right spelling, I guess.)

For anyone who has never had one of these tests, it really isn't all that bad -there are some that I firmly believe are much worse -like any type of rectal exam! But what they do in this test is that is is basically like a pap test -an internal female exam -but in doing this one, the insert sterile cotton balls that have been soaked in white vinegar, then using that lovely spectrum (yeah, you women know what instrument I'm talking about there, don't you) the doctor looks up inside the inner depths with a special green light to see if the there are any color changes on these white vinegar-soaked cotton balls. And I don't remember now if he said if they turn a different color, it indicate cancer is present there or not but the upshot with respect to my female organs he says is that there is NO cancer there! Yippy skippy! I'm a happy camper over that news -although I was a little uncomfortable all evening yesterday -from the spectrum -and also, from having my legs in a strange position for a long period of time which makes the leg and hip joints and muscles a bit on the stiff and sore side for me for a little while.

Today, I had my "routine" check-up -again -with the oncologist and he gave me a good report too -all the lab tests I had done last week came back fine and dandy -and clear of any cancer markers there too!

Isn't that just loverly!??? Well, yes, really it is because although I am not living my life in fear and panic that the cancer will come visit me again some day -in my opinion, it probably will but if so, I'll deal with that then, if and when that day comes my way.

But with meeting the new doctor yesterday and my visit today with the oncologist, I thought I'd tell you a little bit more here too -about both of these guys. The ob/gyn doctor and I were talking while he was examining me and I don't know how the conversation went in the direction of computer, the internet, etc., but I had occasion to tell him I have this blog and boy, it almost seemed like his ears really perked up over that bit of information. He asked what I write about here and I told him - just general things about me, my life, my family, my grandkids and especially the two little ones and the autism factor there. Before I left, he asked me if I was going to blog about him here and was I going to say he was a terrible individual, bad doctor, etc. I said I would only say bad things about him if he acted in any way like he was not a trustworthy physician but because I really liked him -very thorough, also very personable and my kind of doctor in that he has a sense of humor and put me at ease, made it much easier that way to deal with the tests he did yesterday, I have to say I think he's a pretty doggone good guy!

So if he's searched the net last night or today and happened to figure out which blog is mine and reads this, Cheers to to you my good man for making my visit to you yesterday as pleasant as possible, considering the circumstances that sent me there! No, I'm not going to identify him here though.

And today, my appointment with the oncologist revealed things about him that I wish I had know back in January and really, that I wish he'd been with the onology department here all along because you see, in our chat today, I learned he had cancer when he was in medical school and had done a good deal of his medical school studies and work while getting treatment plus, he had an ilieostomy done then too. Being able to talk to someone who knows first hand the quirky little things one has to learn to deal with when you have either a colostomy or ileostomy (basically the same procedure, just slightly different regions of the abdomen involved there) really builds one's comfort level with a physician! As he said - and yes, I agree completely with him on this, even though having surgery of this type and dealing with the ramifications it brings is not always pleasant, sometimes downright disagreeable, it is still a life-saving procedure and I am actually grateful that I had this done.

That doesn't mean I love it -I don't -but I accept it and appreciate it for the relief it has provided me in terms of alleviating a whole lot of pain issues over the past 21 months now!

And I hope you all realize I don't think these doctors -all twelve of them now -are all making windfall profits because my body is in a somewhat declingin -maybe deteriorating state these days with my comment about the Golden Years applying only to the doctors and pharmacies. I'm actually very glad each of them has been around to help me over the rough spots I've encountered in the past five years.

I may not be in the very best shape these days but as I always tell people now when they inquire about my health, how I'm doing now -"As long as Im still breathing and am able to move about even a little stiffly these days (thank you "Arthur" as a cousin of mine refers to the arthritis thing), I'm one happy little camper and hope they all enjoy the "Golden Years" on my contributions to the pot!

This is a long, drawn-out post -I know (my usual, huh) but it is something else too. It's actually my post for Faithful Fridays -hosted by B;essed1 at Daily Blessings Blog!

Because I am very, very thankful I have had the help of each of these doctors in my life!

Bad Little Good Girl

For sometime now, certain behaviors Maya has been displaying have been continuing and even building. And, they are -to say the least -quite annoying.

The school she attends runs from September to the beginning of June -four days a week, Tuesday thru Thursday. When the regular schools here let out in early June, her school takes about a four week break too. Then it resumes, right after the Fourth of July, runs for about three more weeks, or so with another break then in August before it restarts again in September and follows pretty much the normal school schedule.

From Day 1 last September until somewhere in April, Maya loved -absolutely LOVED going to school. She made friends there, began to develop a few more social skills and was learning all kinds of things from more words to add to her vocabulary, songs -which she entertains anyone and everyone who rides in a car with her now -along with some other necessary things too -such as potty training. I'm not going to go into a long, drawn out description of some of the events that have transpired with the potty training as I think I've pretty well covered most of those stories before but, when she started attending school, she was not potty trained -at all. Six weeks later, on her fourth birthday as a matter of fact, I got a phone call from her teacher telling me that Maya had something to tell me. (The fact that her teacher said Maya wanted to tell me something on the phone was quite a surprise because at that time, she would run and hide, or just repeat "No, No" if you asked her to speak to someone on the telephone. So you can imagine my shock when Maya came on the line and I asked her what she wanted to tell me and her response was "I pee in de potty, Gram!" Granted, her voice ws really small, very soft, shy sounding in that little sentence but let me just say, here and now, that was such a milestone -times two really -that I wept. Yes indeed, I did! Just hearing her speak on the phone and then to tell me she had actually used the potty at school was very big, very exciting news for me and for the entire family, for that matter.

After that breakthrough, she has had a few accidents from time to time of the "pee variety" but generally, she has done very well. Now, getting her to do anything else involving sitting on the potty -well, that's been a horse of a different color, entirely. She flatly refuses, gets really agitated and upset, even launches on occasion into a meltdown when we try to suggest that she use the potty for another purpose.

Back in April though, the teacher and aides decided to try to work on this deficiency, to push her a little harder to get her completely trained and it was shortly after those efforts began that she started telling us almost every evening at supper that she wasn't going to go to school the next day, that she didn't like school. Around that time the school had also made some other changes in her schedule and had been integrating her in with another class, a little older kids, a little more advanced too and those kids class time ended around 12:30 p.m. at which time Maya then went back to her original class group.

We're really not sure to this day which aspect may be the one that gave her the idea that she didn't like school -could have been the staff pushing her on the potty training stuff because she really does respond very poorly to those suggestions or it could have been the schedule changes too because the teacher reported she began to cry often after the other group was dismissed for the day and she had to stay for another two hours then. She kept asking them if it was time for her to go home too.

With the four week break we just had -of no school -we were concerned that when the classes picked up again now, she might really regress during that time and refuse or be really, really difficult and contrary about getting up, getting dressed and ready to go to school again.

Thankfully, it was only on July 8th -her first day back attending school -that she was fussy about going to school again, telling Mandy she didn't want to go, didn't want to get dressed, got really picky about what clothes she wanted to wear and as such, when the van arrived to pick her up, she was a bit on the crabby side, to say the least. However, "Mr. Fred" -the van driver -reported to Mandy when he brought her home that afternoon that shortly after getting into the van, she launched into her singing routines and sang the entire ride over to Clearfield that morning and also, on the return trip back home in the afternoon. He got to hear pretty much her entire repertoire that day. Since then, the whining about "not liking school" and telling us she isn't going to go to school the next day have pretty much disappeared.

We have another issue now too though with her and that is trying to get her to pick up her toys -which she normally has scattered all over the living room floor, with a few making their way to cover the dining room floor as well. Telling her to pick up her toys has really become just as much a battle lately as trying to get her to sit on the potty to "put poopie in there" has been all along! Asking her to pick up toys or telling her flat out to pick up toys will get a response of "NO!" or a whining "No" or "I can't do that" or "I don't wanna do that." Actually, just about anything we tell her lately is met with a "no" response. Seems to be the standard answer there to everything.

Yesterday, when my little great-niece, Lizzie, was here and I asked Maya to pick up some things she had just deliberately thrown on the floor, she gave me a "NO" with a lot of attitude in her voice too -very, very sassy, smart-mouthed, if you follow what I mean there. Most anything we say lately or ask her about, her response is going to be the exact opposite of what you want to hear from her. Argumentative is a good description of how she's been acting for quite some time now. At times, if I can think of something I know she really likes or wants to do, if I can ask her about it in a "reverse psychology" type manner, and even if she does answer the way we want then, that still doesn't mean she's going to do what you want without a major hassle anyway. I've been telling Mandy if she keeps up with this argument-style of talking, maybe by the time she gets in high school and if they have a debate team in the school then, she would be a great candidate for something like that.

When my kids were of the age to display a lot of obstinance like this, all I generally had to do was to tell them I was going to count to three and they KNEW if they didn't start moving by the time I hit the number two that if I had to say the word "Three" they were in for punishment. So they generally adhered pretty well to those rules but Maya -even though she has been able to count since she was 2 1/2 years old -does not respond at all to a counting to three threat.

ME: "PIck up your toys, Maya."
Maya: "No, no. I can't do that. You help me?"
ME: "WHo put the toys on the floor?"
Maya: "I did."
ME: "Did anyone else help you put the toys there?"
Maya: "No. I did it."
ME: "Then you can pick them up too."
Maya: "No, no, I can't!"

Sometimes, if I tell her I need her to pick toys up and hand them to me, I will help her that way, but she has to pick them up so Grammy doesn't have to walk around the living room and dining room all hunched over and bent and then, I have a lot of pain and difficulty standing up straight again. Sometimes, a threat that if Grammy or Mommy has to pick the toys up, they are going into the garbage will, once in a blue moon, get some results but she's already well entrenched in her quest to surpass Grammy at procrastinating about doing this task! And tonight was no exception in that respect either.

It took a good bit of telling her, over and over, that it was time to pick up the toys, put them away and threats that they would be going into the garbage if she didn't follow through, but finally -after almost two hours of this -she did get them all picked up then.

By that time, it was time for her -and for Kurtis -to get a bath and Daddy took them both in to put them in the tub and give them a good scrubbing so neither of them will look like a pair of scruffball orphans in the morning. After getting her bath, getting her pj's on and such, (also having had a little dose of melatonin in her night snack of pudding -same as Kurtis gets then) she was a little more docile, ready then to go to bed.

The normal bedtime routine then is that she goes to each of us to give a good night hug and kiss and when she came to me, Mandy told her she needed to apologize to Grammy for being so bad tonight about picking up her toys. "Tell Gram you're sorry you were bad tonight," were Mandy's instructions to her as she came to me, arms open to give me a big hug and a kiss. And she did say that to me but I couldn't understand her initially, so I asked her to repeat what she had said and then, she said it again "Sorry, being bad tonight, I 'polgize, Gram!" It even warranted her giving me another hug and this time, accompanied by two big kisses!

It was obvious she was tired and did want to go to her bed, but here again -kind of like the kids who keep asking for "Another story." or another "drink" she wanted to know if she could sleep with her mother. Mandy told her no, she had to go to her bed and then, the question became "You lay with me?" And so, that was close enough for Mandy's purposes to get her upstairs, into her bed and I haven't heard or seen hide nor hair from either of them since then -about 9 p.m.!

Once in her bed, she has one more routine there too that we have been trying to teach her and that is to say her prayers. She's doing quite well with that and says "Now I Lay Me" very nicely, along with another little evening prayer Mandy taught her before she launches into her "God Blesses" routine. Doing that, she manages to name just about everyone she knows now, along with several family members she was familiar with like my dear Aunt Mike (her great-great-aunt who passed away the end of April) and she "blesses" her along with Aunt Mike's daughter, Jane Ann, who is severely mentally and physically challenged and who Maya knows lives in the nursing home too. She also "blesses" Andre, Uncle Clayton's dog that died two years ago, Gracie, our 16 year old cat who died in April as well as her other Grandmother who died in June before Maya was born -and remembers too that they are all "in heaven" now as well.

And listening to her on the occasions I may be the one to put her to bed and hear her prayers, always reminds me of when my older daughter was learning her nightly prayers too. It was the summer when she had just turned three years old and she and my mother had spent about two months that summer here at the house, with my Mom's older sister and her husband while I worked in Phoenix for the entire month of July and then stayed in our apartment alone for the month of August that year. It was during those months that Carrie got to know the couple who lived next door to us -Mr and Mrs. Little -the people who had raised 13 children and by that time, had close to 60 grandchildren and who took all little children under their wings and into their hearts -and Carrie loved them. When she would say her prayers and do the "God Blesses" she would always say it as "And God Bless Misser and Misser Little" -no distinction in her pronuncation between Mister and Mrs. For years, that was how Mom and I referred to that couple -"Misser and Misser Little" and even when my son and Mandy came along and it was time for them to learn their evening prayers, they were then taught "God Bless Misser and Misser Little" too!

Maya of course has no knowledge of that couple but among the people she names in her "Blesses" are "Aunt Helen Ann," "Charmaine, Annie and Jeanne and Jim" -Aunt Helen being one of Misser and Misser Little's daughters and Charmaine, Annie, Jeanne being three of the grandchildren, Jim is Charmaine's husband and she also includes the Little's granddaughter, Aunt Lou Ann, her daughter Angie and Angie's children, Isaac, Lizzie and Gracie -two more generations of the Little family as well because they are Maya's great-aunt, and her cousins.

And that's what Grammie's bad little good girl does when she goes to bed at night and always after having shared a big hug, big kisses with all the family before retiring too!

Now, who says autistic kids are not able to show love and emotion? Not me!

The Difference in a Year

A year ago over the Fourth of July Weekend, Mandy and the two little ones and I went to a big picnic at a camp out in the boondocks about 6 miles or so from here. The son-in-law of the owner of the camp is my ex-sister-in-law's brother and since my niece, her husband and children had come over from their home in the Mercer area to go to this picnic, she invited the kids and I to go along.

Now, the connections with my niece's uncle and my kids and I go back even further because when I was growing up, my ex-sil's grandparents -and of course, her mother, aunts and uncles, lived in the house next door to me so I spent a lot of time over there as a kid. Then, when "Grammy and Pap" (as my kids always called the parents of the kids there) decided to downsize and purchased a mobile home, my ex-sil's parents bought the homestead and raised their seven children there. There were 13 children in my ex-sil's mother's family -11 girls and 2 boys -who my kids have always referred to as aunt or uncle -easier to keep track of who one is talking about at times when there are that many people involved to begin with -and then, when you add in 66 grandchildren and now, I wouldn't even begin to fathom a guess as to how many great and great-great and probably even some great-great-great grandkids there are from that initial family. Anyway, suffice it to say even without my ex-sil being part of that clan, I was always very close to them for almost all my life.

Last year, when we went out to the picnic there, my niece and her daughter were here at the house for a while and we took a couple of pictures of Maya and her first cousin, Lizzie.

This afternoon, my niece, Angie, her husband Davy and their daughters -Lizzie, age 4 1/2 and Gracie, a new addition who is seven months old now -stopped by for a little visit after having been out to Black Moshannon State Park for a family reunion on Angie's Dad's side of her family. And before they left today, we got some pictures of Maya and Lizzie, clowning around, showing off a hat Mandy had bought for Lizzie a little while back. Maya has one like it in Lilac and Lizzie's hat is a pretty aqua shade and both hats have "Sassy" embroidered on them. Really appropriate for either of the girls because they both are quite the little "Sassy" numbers.

But I thought it would be neat to post the pictures taken of the two cousins about a year ago along with the pictures I took of the two girls today. Just for the sake of comparison you know.

That's Lizzie on the left and Maya, of course, on the right. Maya is four days older than Lizzie.
And here's the girls again - Maya on the left, Lizzie in front of the door, waiting to go to the picnic last year.
Here's Lizzie and Maya sitting on the arm of the sofa, showing off their "Sassy" hats.

Here they are again -clowning around while I was trying to snap a picture.
And another shot of the two girls. I tried to get a picture of them standing, side-by-side and holding hands but that didn't work because Maya wouldn't (or couldn't) stand still. She was dancing around and around -should have clicked on the video but I didn't even think of that at the time. (Senile grammie syndrome strikes again, ya know.)

Although the girls are pretty close in size -Maya is maybe a tiny bit taller. Lizzie is not quite as slim as Maya but she's not chubby - just nicely filled out. But this year, the girls were a bit more matched in maturity levels than they were last year at this time. Another way that shows us just how much progress Maya has made over the past ten months since she started attending school over by Clearfield. She is still a little behind Lizzie in some areas -particularly listening and following instructions when told to "Clean up" her toys. I got on Maya about opening a little plastic box with various cards in it and spilling them all over the floor and then, just walking away from them, leaving the mess there for someone else to deal with. She did her normal routine of ignoring my requests, my instructions, to pick them up, telling me "No, no. I can't do that." And before I knew it, there was Lizzie, picking up the cards and putting them back in the box where they'd been! When Maya saw Lizzie doing that, she did come over and pick up one or two of the cards, but she'd never have done that otherwise! (Angie told us too before she left that Lizzie had come and told her that Maya is bad because she won't pick up her toys when she's told to do that! There's a good example of the "one-way" type of thinking Maya tends to have as compared to a non-autistic child of the same age.)

And, some good news about the other little person in the house too - Kurtis! He's been starting lately now to try to talk and has said a couple of words "on command" and repeated them somewhat appropriately too. On Friday afternoon, Mandy and Kurtis had stopped up at the restaurant here (Jim and Charmaine's) and when they were leaving, she was trying to get him to wave bye-bye and also, to say his newest thing -"See ya!" And he did it! In front of Charmaine, her sister, Jeanne, and Shirley, the waitress, he repeated those words and waved -or attempted anyway, to wave "bye bye" to them!

Today, while Angie and her family were here, my son Clayton, stopped in to visit a bit. When he went to leave, we started telling Kurtis to say "See ya" to Uncle Clate and once again, he repeated these two words -and quite clearly too! Needless to say, Uncle Clate was very surprised -and very pleased too on hearing him repeat that. Clate says it is the first time he's heard Kurtis say anything that he understood what the boy was trying to say, that's how clear it came through today!

So you see, it's a whole lot of baby steps, over and over and over again -like eight, almost nine months of speech therapy that now has his vocabulary up to saying "Circle" - "Yay, yay" and "See ya!" He's also getting better too at letting us know some of what his wants are -or aren't. However, mostly that comes down to pitching whatever it is he DOESN'T want on the floor. Ok, looks like a little more work is needed on that aspect, huh?

Just wait till his speech therapist, occupational therapist and behavior therapists show up this week to work with him. Boy, will they have a surprise and a darned good one too!

And now, after a full day with these two kids -they've both been out like little lights since shortly before 9 p.m. -I think I'm gonna join 'em and go to bed very shortly here too!

And, you can be sure seeing the changes from one year to the next with Maya and Lizzie, hearing Kurtis using his newest bit of vocabulary too, I'm gonna be saying more than a few "Thank yous" when I lay my head on my pillow tonight!

Moving Down The Line

We're definitely on the downhill side of things now -under 200 days left -actually, 27 weeks plus one day. So think positively please.

Monday, July 24, 2008 - 190 days left

"Justice ought to be fair."
--Washington, D.C. 2004

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 189 days left

"One thing is clear, is relations between America and Russia are good, and they're important that they be good."
--Stelna, Russia, July 15, 2006

Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 188 days left

"Our country puts $1 billion a year up to help feed the hungry. And we're by far the most generous nation in the world when it comes to that, and I'm proud to report that. This isn't a contest of who's the most generous. I'm just telling you as an aside. We're generous. We shouldn't be bragging about it. But we are. We're very generous.

Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 187 days left

"See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s**t, and it's over."
--Private comment to British Prime Minister Tony Blair in St. Petersburg, Russia --July 17, 2006.

Friday, July 18, 2008 - 186 days left

"No more public scatology."
--In a personal note to future Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, July 18, 1997

Saturday and Sunday, July 19/20, 2008 - 185 days left and 184 days left

"Had we to do it over again, we would look at the consequences of catastropic success, being so successful so fast that an enemy that should have surrendered or been done in escaped and lifed to fight another day."
--Time Magazine, 2004

And there you have them - the Bushism witticisms for the week to come. A guiding star to lead us. NOT!