Whoa! I can hardly believe that it is June already. Sunday we will be bringing Bob home. He will be coming to a hospital bed, a wheel chair and a remodel job so that we can get him around. I owe one giant debt of gratitude to my boys( my boys are my sons and sons in law) and their friends and my daughter's friends, such as John Barnes, Derek Pratt, Jason Pratt,Fred Lines, and Monte, and Jordan and Charles and several others who may have been here helping while I was at the nursing facility with Bob. A GIANT BIG THANK YOU to you all . It is seeming like a huge challenge right now, but we are so happy to be bringing Bob home, and are hoping that a home atmosphere will speed his recovery. I may be calling on you all as I try to figure out all the ways to get Bob all of the therapy and care that he needs. I am just very grateful to be able to get to this point. Many prayers have been answered, and many more will go up in petition for Bob's recovery.

May 1. Ah May, not quite the MAGIC MONTH, in October we are looking forward to the weather change, but pretty close. Happy Birthday Monique. I am home with stomach flu, so that is not so great, but in the next week Mo has her birthday, I have mine on Cinco De Mayo, our grand daughter, Sidney is getting baptized, and the horses run in Kentucky for the Roses. The pagentry is so fun. We have not yet perfected our virgin Mint Julips, but we are working on it. This year I might try Sonic's Lime slushes with a bit of mint added, that is, if I can face food by then.
And whenever else can we put on a hat whether the sun shines or not? Happy May 1st to everyone!

Today is April 30. That means many things. It was the last day to pay my bills and get them in on time.Got that done! It was the last day for me to register my car without a penalty. Got that done! An it is the day before my oldest daughter's birthday. My husband, Bob has been in the hospital for 1 week. If you read my blog, you probably read my daughter Megan's blog and so you know that Bob had a stroke last week. His doctor has not been very encouraging as to his prognosis, but we remain hopeful, because of what we have seen rehabilitation accomplish in the past and because we have faith in what the Lord can do. This week has produced highs and lows in his progress. First, it was so hard watching as he had to have seven feeding tubes placed before they were able to get one into the right place. Yesterday they finally got it working. Sunday he was moved out of ICU into the neurological med area. Sunday and Monday seemed to stretch into eternity as Bob remained so sleepy he couldn't really be evaluated for rehab. Then Tuesday dawned and he seemed to suddenly awaken and be ready to take on every challenge. He was so awake, I asked him if he could say my name. He tried, but could not. I asked if he could say his name, Bob. He said "Bob". I jumped up and down and clapped. He responded by saying"Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob", maybe a dozen times. WOW! A few minutes later, his speech therapist came in. When I told her what had happened, she asked him if he could count to ten. She started counting and he joined her, going on to ten. Double WOW! That wasn't the end. He also was able to swallow a few items that he was tested with, so hopes began to soar thinking that Bob might not have to have that feeding tube after all. No such luck. His doctor was afraid that he would not get enough nutrition from his little tiny sips. But he also had a good physical therapy session that day. Yesterday Bob slipped back to his semi sleepy state, but he did start his feeding tube, after being taken to radiology to insert it for the eighth time. Today he was still sleepyish and somewhat congested and had diareah. He coughed so hard this evening that he coughed up his feeding tube. When they said they were going to put it back in, I had to leave. I felt so guilty walking away after I said good bye, when he had to stay, but for today I just couldn't watch him go through anything more. So April 30 may not be such a great day after all. Love you, Bob. Hope you'll forgive me.

It is Saturday, April 12. All is well. This morning we were up and out relatively early to work in the lawn. It is a beautiful day, maybe a little bit too windy but not too hot. I mowed the lawn on my nifty little "ride on", and then went on to weed eating the grass in the front by the entry way. The telephone man arrived to fix our out-of- service phone and internet. He eventually found a cut wire, most likely cut by the trucks that have been driving on our vacant lot to reach the park that they are building behind our house. It is the second time in a month that they have cut our wires. Monday I think that I will call the city. Mac is at the groomers having a bath. Bob and Tom are at Gigi's replacing a light over one of her paintings. The children(Brecken, Zo, Antonette, Kas, and Karsten ) are watching UNDER DOG. Ooops not any more. I was about to comment on how peaceful it was, but Not Now! Movie Over! Peace Broken!
If you are reading this, then you most likely know our daughter Elise, her husband Stephen, and family. They could use a few prayers at this time. Thank goodness they are well, but Stephen was restructured out of his job this week. He is graduating next week in some computer field, and has lots of great job experience, so I feel that he will find a great new job, but they would like to find it before they run out of the 3 week severance that his company gave. Not a lot of time to relocate Anyway Prayers Appreciated!.
Life is really a blessing and we are grateful for every day and every friend along the way. May all be right with you!
Betty

As usual, a while has passed since I have checked in and written anything. I have gone to battle with, and beaten, several varieties of virus' and/or infections. But I still have one little viral enemy
that has refused to lie down and die. This one likes to sneak up and rob me of every ounce of energy that my warring body can produce, so, as soon as I finish some mundane, but necessary task, I just sit and concentrate on breathing for a while, and get not one fun or exciting thing accomplished. I did manage the energy to go shopping with Megan, Catcher, Elise, Antoinette, and Zo the other day. We found cute little dresses for the girls to wear for church, and adorable little "whale" pants for Catcher. I got back home just in time to pick up the Hoke's Pricilla and Pat, to take them to dinner with dad and I. I must have been about as much fun that night as barbeque without sauce. (We went to Joe's for dinner. I did manage to stay awake until about 8:15, when we dropped off the Hokes' to return home. I love Sister Hoke. She has been my visiting teaching companion for several years, until we were thrown out of our old ward. Actually we were moved to Pleasant 2nd Ward, where everyone has been just as nice as they can be.This is too weird. I started
this a few days ago, but got cut off and now as I am trying to add to it, it really seems dumb and makes no sense. Most of our children are here, just arrived for Easter, so I am going to go join them. Sorry this is so lame. Happy Easter.

Wet or Dry, Home is Home, no matter What Ward You Are In

Oh my, It has been a long time since I last posted. Sorry. Things just sometimes get too crazy to feel like I have time to sit and write. It has been an eventful week or two, or three. Bob and I took a trip to Alabama. Bob went with me to a long time wish of mine, to attend a Martha Pullen school in Huntsville, Alabama. I took classes from three teachers, all were excellent, and very different. My longest class was a four day class on making a jacket and skirt. It was so much fun. We spent our first day pintucking yards of silk, with no rules, just wiggles and squiggles, rivers and mountains. It was very liberating to pin tuck with such abandon. While I was sewing away, Bob was trying to figure out how to spend hours and hours with basically nothing to do, in a strange town he knew nothing about. Fortunaly we had a big screen TV in our room. But if his days were boring, well? The first nhight we spent there at 3:00 in the morning our alarm went off. Wll, I thought our alarm went off and I hit the snooze button, but the alarm just went off again, this time with voices telling us to hurry directly to the 1st floor ballroom immediately. Oops TORNADO WARNING! People rushed in in their terry robes and their sweats and filled the floor along the walls. Finally three ladies arrived in their lovely lace and pintucked gowns...of course they had just finished finishing their class project and had an excellant chance to show off their heirloom project NightGowns. We sat around for about an hour when we got th OK to go back to our rooms where we watched for an hour or more while dangerous storms fluttered around the area. That was the night that a record was set the most tornados hitting in one night. Something like 90 storms hit over a 5-6 state area. The next night, just at bed time, we had a fire alarm. A few minutes later, we were told that it was a false alarm. We were a little nervous about getting ready for bed the next night. But all went well for the rest of the trip, except for the plane that we were supposed to fly home on was hit by lightening on its way to Nashville, where we were meeting it. Thank goodness they had another nice healthy plane there to bring us home.Ah yes HOME! We were so happy to hit the dry Arizona dirt. What dry dirt? Oh, it hasn't been dry for a month? Yes, that is what global warming does to the dessert, rains on it . Yea rain! OK It is late and I am itching to win a political argument, cuz my side has not been faring very well. I just say that if we, Republicans are getting John McCain for Presidential candidate, we better have a VP like Mz Rice to add a little balance. No more of this. Sorry.
We were really excited to be home. Just not so much to learn that we were moved to a different ward. I will not pass judgement until tomorrow, just hate saying goodbye to so many dear friends, especially with no opportunity to say Good Bye. But to our dear new friends in 2nd ward I feel it only fair to pass along this old Scottish saying "The Bogle's will get you, if you don't watch out" Sorry, but the thought of so many of our family descending on one ward all at once kind of scares me, and I am quite comfortable with our particular brand of insanity. I just hope that the good folks of Pleasant 2nd Ward will not be too overwhelmed by us. We truly mean well.I do love being home, and baking Valentine cookies for thr grandkids, and holding ou new little Catcher again, It had been a long time. But good night now. Nice to visit with you again.