Nothing much exciting going on here. Besides working I've been canning tomatoes and peaches, and I've also put up some corn. It's been getting a little chili here, I've had to turn on the heat in the mornings. I've also had to pull out the hoodies. Although today it got pretty warm out and I heard it's supposed to warm up this weekend.

Update: on Perky

Linda called tonight to let us know what's been going on with Perky. They were in Iowa City with an ALS specialist. They're going to get her set up for a breathing machine, for now it's going to be used at night, and in the day if she gets really tired. They're also getting a machine to help her communicate, they're not sure if it'll be one you type on or a touch screen. In about 2 or 3 weeks she will be having a feeding tube put in, Perky has not wanted it so far but has recently changed her mind. The Dr. said she is maintaining her weight so she is getting enough nutrients. Linda said she gets tired very easy when they're out shopping. Perky is also having problems with her eyes. Her left eye has cateract and she'll be having laser surgery withing the next week. In her right eye they found scar tissue and wanted to do surgery to remove that. The Dr. said that it wont get worse so Linda and Perky are opting not to do that surgery at this time. Also in her right eye she has a leak and they will be repairing that. Linda also said that they're applying for help through the Veterans admin. and now she is automatically on medicare. Linda will call us later on when they start doing the surgeries.

Joeyleigh's kids

I got these pictures from Joeyleigh of the children. I think she was dressed up for homecoming. Her cute little date is number 3.

The other picture is Skye with her brother Dalton.
There's mother and daughter, and Skye with her homecoming dress on.

Re: Lisa

Lisa had her surgery yesterday, and everything turned out ok. I talked with her yesterday evening and she still sounded groggy, but didn't complain about any pain yet. I'm afraid to go see her because we've got an epidemic of the flu going around the school. I had to teach science class thur. and fri. because the teacher had the flu. The other aides had to take classes also due to too many teachers out with the flu along with many many students. Alex got up wednesday and was throwing up, I left him home. Thursday he got up with diarrhea, and vomiting so he stayed home the rest of the week. Mom ended up catching the flu along with John, I've been lucky so far just paranoid that I might get it.

Update: Lisa came home today around 2p.m. she called to let us know. She said she's headed to bed to get some rest, the hospital is the worst place to try to sleep.

My New Task

On my first week of work I found out that the office personal have volunteered me for a fund-raiser they're doing. They have decided to have the kids pictures taken with Santa Clause. Then they're talking about pictures for Mother's day, they better wait and see how I do on Santa pictures before booking me again.

Baptism

Alex got baptised today. The preachers wife let me come to the back where they change clothes to get my pictures. I ended up taking pictures of the other people getting baptised because they wasn't sure if the family members would come to the front of the church to get pictures.

Update on Perky

I called Linda today to find out what the Doctors at Chicago had to say. They tested her reflexes and they're fine. They gave her a prescription for the drowling. They said she may need a feeding tube soon because it's getting harder for her to eat, her breathing is ok for now so no machine is required yet. They're sending her to a Dr. in Iowa City that has been specially trained in ALS. Linda hopes they can get her in soon, she'll update us as soon as she can.

Back to Work

Well I guess my vacation is over. It was back to work today, the children don't go back until Sept. 2nd. Now that I'm back to work, I look forward to my first vacation on Thur. Fri and Monday. It's amazing to go back to work and then end up getting 3 days off right away. There's alot of paperwork at the beginning of the year, It takes forever to fill out the files for the new kids. When the paperwork is somewhat done we have to help the teachers get their rooms together, for some reason I get the job of hooking up the computers.

Brothers Being Silly

I took these pictures of my Uncles Kenneth and Bunny (nickname). Point is think about it Bunny giving Kenneth bunny ears.
I didn't get this picture in time, they told me to take a picture with their fingers up their nose. By the time I got my camera into position they got out of position. Although Kenneth is almost close to being caught. Isn't it amazing that no matter how old they get brothers can still act silly when they get together.

More Family

Courtney with her family
Jordan with his family.

Jackie and Linda and their whole gang.

The Gang

Mom's sister came in from Iowa and her brother from Colorado was also in. I had to make my way back to pennington to see everyone. While there we all went to Abingdon to visit another sister. Above is the picture of mom, shelby, perky and kenneth.
This picture has everyone in it except for shelby. You must notice perkys sweatshirt it's has Jeff Gordon on it, she just bought it today. It would have been nice to have the whole gang together in one picture but this is as close as we're gonna get for now.

Homecoming Day!

Today Alex got home from camp. They got in just befor 3:00p.m. He told me all the things he did. He said he had lots of fun and would go again next year. I didn't realize how lonely this house is without him. Chelsea don't spend much time at home, I think she spent one night here the whole week.

This is what to much fun at camp will do to someone. About 7:30p.m. I went to mom's house for our evening walk and 30min later this is what I found when I got home. He's laying on blankets at the bottom of his bed passed out. I couldn't find him at first, I kept yelling through the house telling him this isn't funny, not to be hiding from me. On my second trip into the bedroom I turned on the light and that's what I found.

News Re: Perky

Today we got the news about mom's sister Perky. She's been at the mayo clinic this week to find out what's going on, the news they got was that she has Lou Gehrig's disease. Linda wants to bring her to Virginia to visit her family, she thought about stopping here either before or after the visit in virginia. We need to pray for Perky, I know she has some hard days ahead, and her family.

Church Camp

My baby left for church camp this morning, bright and early. We were at the church at 6:00a.m. The bus didn't leave until 6:45a.m. It's a 5 1/2 hr drive to camp in Miamisburg OH.

He's on his way into the bus, they're loading up the kids so they can leave, he sit up front so I got his picture without having to go into the bus.

The buses are pulling away, the first one has all the kids and adult chaperones and the 2nd van has all the luggage.

This is the first time he's been away this long, he has spent the night at his grandma house once. This time he wont be back until friday, don't know what I'm gonna do with my self.

Batting Cages

Alex loves going to the batting cages. After we rode our bikes we went to play putt putt. Alex found the batting cages and he loves doing that.
We've even skipped riding and just went to the batting cages.

He also likes to ride on the go karts.

A Day of Fun

I decided to take Alex out to the park today so he could get experience riding his bike. He also needs to build up his confidence level. He did well, It's a mile around the track and I was sure he would only make it around once. He surprised me we did it 4 times around.

We had a picnic lunch, and he played on the playground for about a short while. He wanted to go play putt putt golf.

The grounds were set up with pirate ships. After we started playing and got to the pirate it started talking, Alex got surprised by that.

After a day out in the hot sun he came home and went straight into the pool.

Night Photography

Last night I decided to do some night photography. I used the guidelines the instructor gave during class. I didn't have the correct hookup then but I do now.
It was just after 10pm last night, I focused on that star and the dead tree in mamaws yard. I opened the camera up for 30 sec in the above picture. In the below picture I kept the same setting and opened the camera up for 1 min. You can see how much light was let in, I didn't think but I should have taken one without opening the camera so you could see how much darker it would have been.

This picture above is the same as the first 2 but the camera was held open for 2 minutes. So it got even lighter.

The next 2 pictures above I change focus on to the moon and I also changed settings on the camera. The first picture is at 1 min and the second pic is at 2 min.On these last 3 pictures I changed focus to lesser light but kept the same setting. My focus was on the light from the window of the trailor. First picture was 1 min, second picture was 2 min, and the third picture the camera was opened for 4 min. It's amazing to me, and I'm shocked I could do it.

Vacation Bible School

Alex went to bible school with Sandi and Tamra last week. This was on the last day when parents came to watch. Taylor was one of the youths that taught the motions to the children.
I got a couple pictures of him doing his thing. I know he was probably wishing they would get the camera off him.

There's alex in the back row and part of tamras head. Alex had fun he enjoyed attending.

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Hey Diane! Guess who this is.

The Good Stuff

Today the 3 of us took some garbage to the dump and decided to go out for lunch. We went to pizza plus. While waiting for our pizza the power went out for about 30sec. Then it started getting dark outside, and then strong winds came and then buckets of rain and lighting.

Tamra after she put pizza in her mouth, and Alex trying to eat his pizza with a never ending string of cheese.

When we left the resturant the rain had slowed down a little. In the meantime I couldn't get phone calls but you were able to leave me a voicemail, and I got notice of that. I even lost internet service, which meant no t.v. but I survived, and everythings back to normal.