Christmas in California, Part 1--Legoland

Let's see, does that title say "CHRISTMAS?"  And isn't it APRIL?  Yes, to both questions. And as I often do, I will start off making excuses. Soon after our California trip, we decided that it was time to get a new computer, so we bought a new laptop.  This, of course, is a major adjustment for us old folks, and I've been totally intimidated at the thought of putting my pictures on to the laptop and using that to do my blog posts.  So I kept putting off that whole process, until I finally decided that I was tired of having it hanging over my head (sort of like a paper that was due back in my student days).  So I decided that I would just go back to the old computer, which is still functioning, and catch up on the blog the old way.  And once I've caught up, I will try to learn how to do things on the laptop....maybe.

So, we drove out to California in December and had a great trip with no weather issues at all.  We left on the 16th, had 3 overnight stops, and arrived in Redlands on Saturday, the 19th.  It was great to see Matt, Cheryl, Josie and Evan again, and the weather was a nice treat, too.

On the first Monday of our visit, we went to Legoland. Some friends of Matt and Cheryl had given them free passes to get into the park and for a great parking spot. That was all much appreciated. I was thankful for the preferred parking spot, since I was still not doing great with walking after my foot surgery.  Because of that, I also swallowed my pride and we rented a wheel chair for getting around the park.

Legoland is a really fun place, and Josie and Evan were at perfect ages to enjoy it all.  And the big kids enjoyed it too!

There were lots of fun rides!

Horses to ride

Flying in planes

Cars to drive!

Where shall we go next?

Building with Legos

Pulling themselves up on the tower....

...and coming back down.

It was a very fun day, and we we topped it off with a stop at In 'n Out Burger on our way home.

More California fun to come.  Next up--Josie's 6th birthday!

November and Thanksgiving

I'll start out with a rather non-typical picture--at least if you're in Wisconsin in November.  We had some really nice warm weather, and I was really wanting to get out to enjoy it.  My wish would have been a walk on the lake front or in one of the area parks, but my foot was not allowing that yet.  So the best we could do was an outdoor lunch at First Watch on Nov. 3.

He really isn't as grumpy as he looks.

The sun was in his eyes.

On the 5th we had one of our outings with Roger and Sheryl.  They were lucky enough to get tickets for "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" so that was our event this time. We drove down to their house in the afternoon and had an early dinner there before heading downtown for the show. We opted for dinner in instead of out, due to the infamous foot situation---still hobbling in the boot that day.

This was great fun! Hope we can do it again sometime!

Another November event was Apple Pie Day at BCS on the 13th.  It was another grand success---I think they made about 4100 pies in about 13 hours. It's an amazing project.  I worked one shift and Bob went back for a second shift in the afternoon. (Blame the foot again.)

And of course Thanksgiving was the highlight of the month.  We were happy that all of the Midwest kids were able to come home. They all drove up on Thanksgiving morning. I decided to take the "easy" way out for dinner and ordered a complete turkey dinner from Metro Market. (Blame the foot again.) I did supplement with some additional veggie dishes, and made my own pies. It all turned out pretty well---I think the only thing in the dinner that got negative reviews was the cranberry relish.  

The 2 sons-in-law, ready to carve the turkey

and stirring the gravy.

The clean-up crew

I apologize for the quality of this next picture, but I had to provide evidence that Ben was here.  It's the only picture he is on.  Maybe he is camera-shy.

Jeremiah and 2 of his uncles

Thanksgiving Day was really pretty laid back---dinner, some football on TV, maybe a nap or two or three, Ben's puppy chow, garbage snack mix, etc. etc. Ben had to work again on Friday so he went back to Chicago in the evening.

Friday was the annual Cedarburg outing.  It was just the three of us this year, because JoAnne was still in Minneapolis, Neil had work to do for his class, and Hope stayed home with the guys. We also cut our shopping down considerably (blame the foot again).  Of course we had lunch at Cream and Crepe, and we hit the one shop right next door to the restaurant. Then we drove over to Amy's and got our chocolate and caramel apple fix and also checked out the toy store next door.  And then we headed home by way of West Bend so that we could pick up some food for Molly. Friday evening dinner was home made pizza--thanks to Abby and Neil. 

Saturday the Wissinks spent some time with the kids at an indoor play space. Good reports on that!  Jeremiah also talked Grandpa into doing a little yard work, since there was no snow covering the grass. 

In the afternoon we babysat for a few hours so that the rest of them could go see a movie.  While they were gone, Jeremiah started "wilting" a bit---spent most of the time on the couch with the iPad and was running a fever by the time they got home again.  Poor guy!  The Brassers joined us for dinner Saturday evening.

Sunday was church for most of us, but Adam took Jeremiah to a Children's Urgent Care while we were at church.  And we're so glad that he took him in--he was diagnosed with strep.   So they could get the anti-biotics started right away and get him back in good health to go back to school on Tuesday. We had lunch at Panera after church, and Abby and Neil left after lunch. 

The Wissinks were staying until Monday, and Jeremiah was starting to perk up as the day wore on Sunday.  So Sunday evening we drove out to Caledonia for a drive-through light display.  We had never been to this one before and we thought it was very good. 

These next 4 pictures sort of follow a theme---Hope eating!

Mac and cheese

(She is her mother's daughter!)

Grandpa's pancakes

Grandma's Butterhorns

Expressing her enthusiasm for Panera!

Hope hanging out with her BFF

 Abby taught Hope about rides in the laundry basket.

The girls

I feel like Jeremiah really got cheated on the picture-taking this week-end.  Can't blame the foot for that---we'll blame the strep.  I did get one of him on Sunday after he started feeling better. 

I love how he has Abby's picture right next to him. :)

Next BIG event for all of us is a trip to California!  So stay tuned for pictures of our adventures out west---hopefully having some fun in the sun!

October

The first really major outing for me, post-surgery, was Waandersfest at Bay Pointe Inn on Gun Lake in Michigan.  This was October 12-15. I was really hoping that by that time I would be walking like a normal person in shoes, but that was not to be.  I was still hobbling around in my boot, but at least I was able to be there!  And it only cramped my still a bit.

The place where we stayed was very nice--not real big, very nice rooms and lovely grounds.  Apparently it's a very popular wedding venue, and I can see why. They also have a very nice restaurant where we had our breakfast every morning.  We also had dinner there one night--it was a bit pricey for dinner, but the food was wonderful.

We all had rooms overlooking the lake, which was nice.

On Tuesday we all went to the Gilmore Car Museum.  Some of the group had been there before on a previous Waandersfest, but I had not. Those who had been there before were all looking forward to posing for pictures on a huge couch that was part of a movie set, I think.  Unfortunately, they had that roped off now, and you were not allowed to sit on the big couch.  Very disappointing!  So we had to make do with some pictures by the old fire chief's car.

Fire Chief Lew

. Pat even modeled the fireman's hat!

On the grounds of the museum there was an old railroad car that had been turned into a diner.  So that is where we had lunch.  No pictures of that. 

On Tuesday night we had our dinner at the hotel restaurant.  This was a celebration of Carl and Cora Mae's birthdays, which were both that week.  She turned 85 on the 12th, and he turned 87 on the 15th.  After dinner we enjoyed birthday cake.
 

 The birthday couple

Not a great picture, but this is the lobby, which was

our hang-out space. There weren't a lot of other 

people staying there.

We watched a lot of baseball and cheered for the Cubs.

On Wednesday some of the ladies went shopping at the new outlet mall.  I didn't think I was up to shopping yet, so we stayed around the hotel for the morning. Then we met the rest of the people for lunch in Byron Center. After lunch we drove to Holland, because we couldn't be that close without going to see Jeremiah and Hope!
  

I wish that I had gotten a picture of Jeremiah's face when we picked him up at school.  He didn't know that we were going to be there.  His eyes got very big!!

After a little time at their house we headed back to Gun Lake and met the rest of the siblings at the Gun Lake Casino for dinner.  No pictures of that either. The food was fine, but the noise level and the smoke level in the casino were a bit annoying.  I really could not imagine sitting there for hours on end putting money into a machine.  Oh well, to each his own, I guess. 

Thursday was our last day and we stayed around and visited until check-out time and then headed for home.  Another enjoyable Waandersfest in the books!

We made another trip to Michigan for Hope's birthday, which is on the 24th.

 The Birthday Girl!!

The first activity, after breakfast, was opening presents. Hope had a very willing helper in Jeremiah, but it didn't take her long to get the hang of ripping the paper off the packages. 

Of course, I couldn't resist getting her a first baby doll.  And I think she liked it!

Sharing the doll's pacifier!

Off to do some shopping!

At first she wasn't sure about this rocking horse. 

She wanted it to go somewhere, I think.

She has since started doing some trick-riding on it.

We went to Crane's for lunch, which is a very popular place in the fall because of the apple orchards. That made for a long wait, and the rain kept us from doing any apple-picking.  But the lunch was delicious!  Then it was back home for naps.

Birthday dinner at Crazy Horse

And then home for birthday cupcakes

What is this??

Mmm, it tastes good!

It REALLY tastes good!!

We stayed at Diekemas on this trip, and I got a couple of nice pictures.  It was a gorgeous day on Sunday.

We stayed until Monday---isn't retirement great??  We stopped over at Rachel's for a bit before heading back to Wisconsin.

One more random October event and picture.  We had gotten a card saying that Bob could get a free cell phone, so we went to check that out.  There were two different phones shown on the card, but the Verizon store only had one of those phones, so he really only had one option. It's quite different from the "hand-me-down" phone he's been using, so there has been a bit of a learning curve. 

 

The slide-out keyboard is a new feature for him, and he is still adjusting to the changes. If I call him he rarely answers--I just wait for him to call me back. :) Maybe we need to bite the bullet and get him an iPhone---that would probably be easier, since he is used to the iPad. 

So, that about sums it up for October!  Next up--November and Thanksgiving!

Surgery Saga

Since sometime last fall I was bothered by a painful bump on the back of my heel, that made it hard for me to do much walking of any distance. I also was only able to wear shoes without a back.  I wish that I had bought stock in the Easy Spirit company, because I have many pairs of their shoes!  I saw a podiatrist in March, after deciding that my approach (of ignoring it and hoping it would go away) was not working. He gave me inserts for my shoes and prescribed physical therapy, which gave some relief, but did not completely take care of the problem. So after dealing with more painful walking, I decided to go back to see what the next recommendation would be.  He ordered an MRI, which is something I had dreaded and hoped to avoid for my whole life.  Since only my left leg had to go into the machine, it was not as bad as I was expecting.  Anyway, after seeing the results of that, the Dr. said that the only way to really take care of this problem would be surgery to remove the bone spur on the back of my heel bone. The surgery also involved repair of the Achilles tendon (technical term is debridement) because the bone spur had irritated it so much that it was "a mess" to quote the Dr.

So I had to decide if I wanted to just deal with this thing, or if I wanted to go through the surgery.  And if so, when to do it.  I had to do it either fairly soon (by this time it was late July/early August or wait until after we came back from our California trip in January. I decided that I did not want to just deal with the pain, and then decided to do the surgery sooner, rather than later.  The earliest date I could get was August 25, so that was what we went with.

The surgery was day surgery---in to the hospital at about 7 a.m., surgery at 9 or 9:30, and home again by about 4 p.m. And this is what my leg looked like after the surgery.

I had that bandage for the first two weeks, and during that time I could not put any weight on that foot at all.  That made moving around quite difficult and made for some creative ways of doing things---like even getting into the house. Obviously I didn't leave the house, except for Dr. appointments.  And during that time, this thing was my best friend. (Well, besides my wonderful care-giver, who waited on me hand and foot. :)

I got pretty good at scooting around on that thing, and continued to use it for a while after I graduated from the bandage to the boot. Some things were a bit tricky, like making sharp turns, as this video shows. And if this video actually shows up here, AND plays, it will be a major accomplishment for me.  Definitely a first!!!

 After two weeks the bandage came off, the stitches (staples, acatually) came out, and I graduated to the very stylish boot.  The picture doesn't show it, but when I first got it, it had about a four-inch wedge under the heel. That made for awkward walking, with one foot flat and the other with a four inch wedge.  Each week that wedge was lowered a bit, until after 4 weeks the boot was flat.

 Once I was walking with the boot, I also graduated from the scooter to just a regular old-person type walker. I still used the scooter at first when I left the house, but used the walker at home.

Once the boot was at the lowest level, I was also ready to start physical therapy. After about 2 weeks of therapy, I was ready to graduate into a shoe---but only for a couple hours a day.  That was gradually increased for 1-2 weeks until I could start wearing shoes pretty much all day. But if I was going to do a lot of walking (like for grocery shopping) I had to wear the boot.

I never thought I could be so excited about wearing a pair of tennis shoes!! Once I was wearing shoes, I could also drive again!!! Yippee!!!

During my recuperation I read lots of books, watched way too much TV (HGTV was another good friend), played games and did puzzles on the iPad, and when the weather was nice I sat out on the front porch.  That way I didn't feel like I was totally missing out on the beautiful fall weather.

So now it's been a little over 14 weeks since surgery, I am wearing shoes all the time and am pretty much resuming all normal activities.  I still am not able to do a great deal of walking--if I'm on the foot too much, it starts to hurt and also starts to swell a bit, and then I know I have to ice it and elevate it for a while.  And I  have my exercises that I have to continue to do to stretch the Achilles tendon and strengthen the ankle, etc. It's not anywhere near to being 100%, but I've been told that can take up to a year.  I do see improvement---not so much day-to-day, but week-to-week, so that is encouraging, I guess.

So.....that is way more medical stuff than anyone wants to read, but it will help me to remember just how this whole process went and how long it all took.

No more medical stuff in the next post.  I promise!