The news from State College is pretty much more of the same. A warm day of sun here and there with days and days of cold rain between.
And lots of hulahooping going on inside the house. I've got several short videos below that show Austin practicing his skills. The first two are pretty dark, because they were taken right before his bedtime when I was babysitting him Saturday evening. But he was really on his game that night.
He practices and practices, but if that hoop doesn't cooperate like it should, or if things get in its way, watch out!! The pot boils over very suddenly as you can see at the end of this video.
Dick's dad is slowly, but surely experiencing progress at the rehab. Learning to swallow is a primary objective. They're also encouraging him to speak in a louder voice, because his vocal cords need more exercise. He and Arlene enjoy sitting in the lobby sometimes for a change of scenery. It sounds so much better than all that time in the ICU room a few weeks ago. But he is asking for prayer that his nights would not seem so long. That really pulls at my heart. Today I sent him an enlarged print of this family picture taken on New Years weekend. That will give him something to talk about with the rehab personnel.
Today is Dick's birthday. He's celebrating 61 years. We are also celebrating 15 years since he found out (on his birthday) that he would need a biopsy of a suspicious-looking mass in his hip. That was a very difficult evening as we ate out. All I could think was that maybe this was his last birthday. But, PRAISE GOD, here we were this evening, 15 years later, enjoying a wonderful meal at Damons. And he certainly doesn't act like he's 61, haha!
Dick heard from each one of our children today as well as most of our children-in-law. Probably the sweetest of all was the phone call we got from Sophie while we were at Damons this evening. He had his hands all messy from eating ribs, so I had to take his phone out of his shirt pocket. We missed the call, but called right back and Sophie sang Happy Birthday to him. We didn't realize till afterward that while we missed the original call she had sung Happy Birthday on his voice mail. It is SO PRECIOUS!! Does anyone know if there's any way of keeping a voice mail? I wish I could post it here for you all to hear.
We've been renewing our passion for Scrabble lately, because we both have Words with Friends on our phones. We have a game going almost all the time. Trouble is, Dick always beats me. We started playing Scrabble soon after we were married in 1971. I was playing Scrabble right before I went into labor all three times. We're just nuts about Scrabble! Now Ray and Thyda are getting into it, so the past few days I've had games going on with each of them as well as with Dick. It brightens these dreary days!
Jeremy flew to Amman, Jordan yesterday and will be there all week. Regency Furniture has some businesses over there too. Amazing! It's not even two years since Jeremy graduated from the Tampa Art Institute, and he's already gotten such a great job.
3 comments:
I loved the videos of Austin, even that little temper! I laugh at how he puts his hands behind him when he throws that hula hoop.
I'll add Dicks dad to my prayers tonight. Long nights are hard.
Happy birthday to Dick!
Actually, Mari, he wasn't throwing it. He still throws it sometimes, but mostly he holds it very still in front of himself and then gives it a quick spin toward himself. From there it does all kinds of cool things. And of course, he's also trying to work on spinning it around his waist.
Cute videos of Austin. Happy birthday to Dick. God has been so good to him in keeping him well.
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