Keeping busy with food prep and good times with family,

I must be crazy starting a post this late in the evening, but my days are really full, so I'm gonna just do it.  I put a lot more time into preparing food for Dick's breakfasts and lunches these days.  For many years he has taken care of those things himself, but now he has more to do in the mornings with checking his blood sugar and giving himself the insulin, and the foods he needs now do not as often come out of boxes and wrappers, but require some work!  We had an appointment with a dietician this morning and she was very pleased with the food he is eating and the way his blood sugar numbers have come down.  In fact, if anything, they're running too low, and his insulin has been reduced twice already!  

Now, I'm going back to last Friday evening.  At GBRV there was a game night.  Of course you know what game I wanted to play - Scrabble, of course!  I roped in three other ladies to join me.  One raucous group was playing Dutch Blitz, which cracked me up.  That was a game from my teen years! Then there was the intelligent group that was playing Monopoly.  And Dick decided to just shoot the breeze with one of the other men.  It was a really fun evening. 

On Saturday I met up with Lori and the boys at the Palmer Art Museum on campus.  There was a special event for Black History Month.  I had never been there before.  I was so impressed with the displays of blown glass! 

Hunter was hilarious, as usual.  When we got to the area that had African displays, he came by some carvings.  Reading the sign underneath one of the carvings, he said in his very loud voice, "Look Mamma!  A spirit spouse!"  His little friend Helena from his preschool class was there with her mother.  They were so cute, especially when they stood together watching a video display, each with a set of head phones. 

We had beautiful weather that day, and for the first time in months, Dick had the energy to work outside and clean up the flower beds, and then he went over to Anthony and Lori's to check on his trail cams.  

I took the picture below after 6:00 PM!!  Absolutely loving the longer days, which will be getting even longer in a couple of weeks.  Woohoo!!

Meanwhile, in Florida, the temperature was about the same as ours, but with wind!!!  How crazy is that?  Lisa hosted their very first track meet of the season at their school.  New school, new season, both coaching and hosting!  But by all the comments I saw, she and her staff did a fantastic job.  And of course, so did Sophie.  She's a freshman, so this was her first high school meet.  She came away with one first place and two seconds!  Do you think Calvary Christian might be happy to have these two at their school?

On Sunday we left after our service at GBRV and headed to Lancaster County.  On the way, we met up with Sam and the kids at a Cracker Barrel near Harrisburg for lunch.  We had so much fun trying to get the best score we could on those peg games.  But three left was the best any of us could do.  Of course, there were those signature rockers and checkers games on the porch!

From there we went to Pleasant View Retirement Community to visit Dick's parents.  Dear Dad Stauffer is getting weaker and weaker.  It's a lot of responsibility for Arlene, and we're so very thankful for her.  Dick's aunt Doris Brubaker was there visiting them also, and we really enjoyed catching up with her, complete with pictures of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.  

The quilt on their bed is a beautifully embroidered one, given to them by Arlene's siblings for Dad and Arlene's 25th wedding anniversary. 

From there we went to Chuck E. Cheese.  Destiny works there again!  She knew we were on our way and took our order for a pizza that she made for us.  Our favorite is Hawaiian with ham, pineapples, and green peppers.  It was absolutely delicious!   

We had fun hanging out with her for a while, then we hit the road for home.  

On Monday and Tuesday Hunter had a fever and couldn't go to school, so he was Grandma's boy.  Even though he didn't feel the greatest, he was still as sweet as pie.  And funny, of course!  I could tell that his attention span was shorter than usual, probably because of not feeling well.  

I had my second haircut since I'm going natural.  The gray/white is really showing on the sides now.  The front still has a lot of color left.  And the back is not going to be as white as the rest.  Apparently I still have a good bit of natural brown back there.  Oh well, I don't even care anymore.  

We had our Ash Wednesday service this evening.  There's an emphasis on giving something up for Lent, but I saw something interesting on Facebook that I think I'm going to try instead.  On each of the 40 days, find something that I no longer need and get rid of it one way or another.  I'll let you know how that goes!  I told Dick that I already got rid of something today - the half-full container of cottage cheese in the back of the fridge that had blue cottage cheese in it when I opened it to see if I could use it for a recipe, hahahaha!!  

Have a good rest of the week!

Eventful weekend, new adventure, lots to be thankful for!

I'm afraid this will not be a short post.  We had quite an eventful weekend, as some of you already know.  But first I want to go back to last Wednesday morning when I was so delighted to see sunshine!!  I truly felt like we had not had a sunny morning in ages, and I was so delighted to see this!

On Thursday my Valentines gift for Dick was delivered and I was so excited!  I had seen an ad on FB for this the previous Sunday and ordered it with our specific information on it.  And here it is!

Yes, 1966!  I was still 14 when I eavesdropped on a conversation between the director of Manheim Area Chorus (of which I was a member) and my dad (pastoral advisor for the chorus) one August evening.  I sat in the stairway so I could listen to what they were talking about.  I heard Merv, the director, say, "We're getting some new young guys this year.  Stauffer boys.  Dick and Bob Stauffer."  I sat there thinking, "Hmmm, I wonder what they look like by now?"  I remembered hearing about them in grade school from one of my classmates who went to church with them. 

So when I went to the first practice (which I'm assuming was Monday, September 12, because we always practiced on Monday evenings, and I'm sure we did not practice on Labor Day, the 5th), I was very aware that I would be seeing the new guys.  Of course I tried to act like I didn't even notice them sitting on the back bench as I walked front, chatting with some of my girlfriends.   Dick vividly remembers watching me walk front and wondering who SHE was, hahaha!  And the rest is history!  

Friday was Jeremy's 40th birthday!   His birth was such a happy event because the other two kids were old enough (Anthony was 3 1/2, Lisa was 6) to look forward to his birth and were able to hold him soon afterward.  He was born at home.  40 years ago.  Good grief!  We must be getting old!  Here's a collage I made for his birthday post.  I think he was about two weeks old on the one picture, and the other was taken the last time we were together for the weekend in DC in October.  

Unfortunately there were other things front and center this past Friday.  You may remember that I had started my January 29 post talking about Dick's ongoing struggle with getting over a cold and with tiredness since November.  He was prescribed another round of antibiotics at that time, and he did pretty much get rid of the cold and coughing within the next week or so.  

However, he still did not feel well.  He was so very tired all the time, he was losing weight without trying to, he had to urinate so often, needing to get up four times a night, his mouth was so terribly, terribly dry, and he fell a few times too.   The tiredness and frequent urination had us thinking that maybe prostate cancer was the culprit.  

So last Wednesday he sent messages to both our primary care physician and also his oncologist telling them that he really needed to get some answers.  

On Thursday he noticed that more blood work had been ordered, so in the afternoon he left work early and went to do the blood work.  They also wanted a urine sample.   

We went to choir practice that evening and we did pray for him during our prayer time at the beginning.  But for the first time ever, he was too tired to play bass guitar during our praise team practice, which we always have right after choir practice.  

That night Dick's phone rang around midnight!  He keeps his volume really loud.  I had just gone to sleep and was so annoyed that someone would try to call at that hour of the night!  He stopped the call and went right back to sleep.  I was thinking, "It's bad enough that he has to have his sleep interrupted so often to go to the bathroom, and now someone calls him in the middle of the night!!"  

The next morning before he went to work I remembered that phone call and asked to look at the number.  I noticed that is was a Danville number, which is where Geisinger is.  All our medical phone calls, even here is State College, show up as Danville numbers.  Hmmmm.  

Later in the morning I got a phone call from a Geisinger number and answered it, of course.  The caller told me that she was trying to reach Dick, but he was not answering his phone.  She said she has critical lab results that she needs to talk with him about.  She wondered if I could reach him.  So I called Bastian where he works and told him to check his phone and call Geisinger back.  When I heard from him later he was on his way to the ER!!!  They had told him that his blood sugar was extremely elevated and it was very important that he goes immediately.   We were like, what????

So I got myself looking decent (hadn't even showered yet) and headed there too.  Suddenly everything was beginning to make sense.  While we were thinking cancer, we had not even considered diabetes as the reason for some of his symptoms.  When he got to the ER his blood sugar was 730 (should be 100)!  And his A1C was 12 (should be 5 or 6).  When I started looking up blood sugar numbers I could not believe what I was finding.  We are so fortunate that nothing worse had happened while his blood sugar was so outrageously high!! 

He was admitted to the hospital so they could work at getting things regulated.  He was already starting to feel better after he was hooked up to an IV and insulin.  By evening he was cracking jokes and enjoying conversations with his roommate, who also liked to talk.  

The worst part was not being allowed to have anything but ice chips all day long.  He was so hungry. They had said they wanted his blood sugar below 200 before he could eat.  How we rejoiced when at 8:30 PM his number was 160 and they brought him FOOD and a Power Ade Zero!!

On Saturday morning I went to Wegmans for groceries before going to the hospital.  I took a long, long time as I googled sugar-free everything.   I tried not to look at all the wonderful breads and goodies in their bakery.  

We found out that afternoon, when the doctor came by, that he would be staying another night.  Because of his high A1C, he would be needing to start out with insulin injections, and they needed time to teach him to do that.  We were really disappointed.  

Sam and the kids were planning to come up for the weekend, so they came by the hospital first and hung out for a while.  Then they went out for dinner.  When I left the hospital, Dick was eager to watch wresting on TV - Penn State vs Ohio State. 

Later in the evening when we were all at our house (all but Grandpa, of course) Bianca wanted to share her big piece of chocolate cake with me.  How could I refuse?  I do absolutely plan to eat pretty much the way Dick will have to eat from now on, but I know there will be times....   But she also had a little container of veggies and dip that they had brought along, and she wanted me to eat that with her too.  We were cracking up.  When we were eating the cake I had said that we were in chocolate heaven.  Then later she was saying that we were in veggie heaven.  Hahaha!

Sammy was sleepy and went to bed early.  He had been sick the past week.  He's always such a night owl.  So Bianca had some Daddy/daughter time.  Is that not the cutest picture?

On Sunday morning we all went to the service at GBRV.  My choir missed having Dick in it, but they did great anyway.  I was disappointed afterward that I didn't think to have Sam video the choir song for him.  I did get this picture. 

We did not go to Calvary's service afterward, but to the hospital instead.  Dick was feeling great and was very ready to go home.  The kids and I took lots of walks around the hospital on several different floors.  I took them one at a time while the other one played games on my phone.  Not a whole lot to do in an overcrowded hospital room.  

After a while the doctor came by and gave Dick the good news that he would be going home!

Sam and the kids left to go to our house then, taking my van.  (Dick's truck was in the parking lot too, since he had driven himself to the ER on Friday morning.)   There was no school Monday due to the Presidents Day holiday, so they were able stay an extra night. 

Dick and I had fun getting to know his roommate and wife better while we waited for Dick to be officially discharged.   We found out they they also go to Calvary to church.  They go to the 9 AM service, so we never see them.  It will be fun to look for them if we ever get there early enough to see the 9 AM people leaving.  

From the hospital we went right to the Walmart Pharmacy.  Whew!!  Talk about sticker shock!  We have high hopes that with careful eating Dick will not need to be on insulin more than a few months.  

And then we were finally home!  Dick was feeling so much better!  It was wonderful!  We had chili and all the fixin's for dinner.  (I had made a big pot of chili on Saturday evening.)  I was hoping Anthony and Lori and the boys could come over for dinner too, but Anthony had been sick with a sore throat for several days, and Lori had some shopping to do. 

We had "game night."  First we played many rounds of Memory.  Those children killed us!!  I could not believe their vivid memory and the way they could put together match after match!!  I decided I should start playing it all by myself just to improve my memory!  Or maybe Dick and I could do that in our spare time, lol!  

Then the kids and I played Life.  Sammy ended up filthy rich.  Bianca quit after a while because all she wanted was to fill up her car with babies, and she just never landed on the right spaces to make that happen.  She was absolutely in tears of despair when Sammy landed on a space that gave him twins - TWICE!!  Sounds like LIFE, right?

On Monday morning Dick went back to work!  I got up to help prepare him a suitable breakfast and lunch. Checking his blood sugar, recording the number,  and giving himself a shot of insulin is a new routine added to his mornings. 

Sammy wanted to play Monopoly with me.  What a crazy game.  We just could not succeed.  We kept landing on our own properties, thus no rental income.  Too many times I passed "go" earning my $200 salary, only to land on the income tax space, which meant $200 due. UGH!!  That also sounds like LIFE, right?

Bianca was getting antsy, and there was glorious sunshine outside, so we decided it was time for a walk around the neighborhood.  Wow!!!  What a perfectly beautiful day to be outside!  

This little playground is close to our house.  

After our walk Sam and the kids gathered all their things together and got on their way back to Duncannon.  

I made some delicious corn muffins to go with the chili I would be giving to Anthony and Lori for their dinner.  When Lori and I met at Hunter's school parking lot, we had about 15 minutes for some catching up, then I needed to be on my way to my piano student's home.  As I drove there I realized with GREAT JOY that this was the first Monday this winter that there was still daylight at 6:05 PM!!

On Tuesday we had a beautiful delivery - this arrangement from GBRV!  What a lovely addition to our kitchen table!

So we're on a new adventure here.  Dick's blood sugar is great so far.  Of course, we are aware that this is with the help of insulin, which we are hoping he will not need long term.   Tomorrow he has an appointment with our primary care physician, and she will be setting Dick up with a diabetes specialist.  I will leave my Bible study at Calvary early so that I can also be at the appointment.   

For anyone wondering, it IS a genetic issue for him, which we were told is the biggest factor.  His dad has lived with diabetes for many years, as did his dad's brother Clarence.  Apparently Clarence's son Dave (same age as Dick) also has it, and Dick's brother Bob is "pre-diabetic" and watching his very closely.  

Last evening son-in-law George called and gave us suggestions of websites to check out and phone calls to make.  One of his suggestions was to call Humana, our Medicare drug insurance.  So today it occurred to me that Dick might not have the time at work to make that call, so I voice texted him.  I soon got such a good laugh out of our conversation.  I guess Siri thinks I must have it in for someone, hahahaha!

Well, this is long enough!!  And I have other things to do besides sitting here writing.  Have a good rest of the week!

Fun weekend with some siblings and some grands

I'll begin this post with a picture I took on Friday.  I had been in the Harrisburg area that day, driving in all kinds of ugly weather.  In the late afternoon I made my way to Columbia to see Destiny.  The Google Maps app took me a different way than I was used to, and I wasn't happy about it until I got here.  I was crossing the Susquehanna River on Route 30 and the sun had come out.  What a beautiful view!  I really couldn't look at it because I had to keep my eyes on the car in front of me, but I held up my phone with one hand and took a few pictures without even looking.  Later I was pretty happy when I saw this shot!

I was at Destiny and Alex's apartment for a while that evening helping her with some things, but again forgot to take any pictures.  That night I slept at Dick and Nancy's house (my brother).  They were telling me about the straight line winds they had had there that morning.  It was quite scary, and I was certainly thankful that I had not driven in anything like that.  

In the morning I went to The Brickhouse Cafe in Manheim to eat breakfast with my sisters Doris and Mary Ellen.  I arrived first and sat at our table to wait for them.  The view from the table was absolutely magical!

I was amazed to think that this place was a little general store when I was a kid.  In 1960 the owner closed it and kept all the merchandise in it for many years!  Before he died in 2001 he sold the store and its contents, and the new owner operated it as a museum for a few years.  He ended up selling it and moving its contents elsewhere.  I'm not sure how long ago it was opened as a quaint little restaurant, but I had not ever been there before.   I loved it.  The food and the service was also great.  

Before long Mary Ellen and Doris arrived and we spent a couple of hours catching up with each other, sometimes with laughter and sometimes with tears.  There's just nothing like sister friends.  

While we were there I was noticing a woman who was eating at another table.  I knew that I knew her, probably from our boys' high school years, but I couldn't think of her name.  Later she came over to me and we both agreed that we had known each other.  We shared our names and we realized that not only did we know each other from our sons' high school years, but we also had been classmates at Manheim Central in the 60's!  She was Gail, the mother of Matt Nagy.  He played basketball and football with Anthony and Frank and was our team's quarterback.  He is now the head coach of the Chicago Bears, and all of Manheim is so proud of him!

When I left there I went to my favorite country store, Hilltop Acres, for a few groceries and then headed to Sam's apartment in Duncannon.  I hung out with Sam and the kids there for a while.  Silly kids!

Then we all headed to State College.  Bianca rode with her dad and Sammy with me.  

At our place we had all kinds of fun.  Sam set Bianca up with a painting kit they had brought along.  She painted a unicorn. 

Sammy was showing his dad a new app he had gotten on his tablet - something about physics!!  He has an insatiable desire to learn!!  

While I had been at Sam's apartment earlier, Sammy had been showing me his big Merriam Webster dictionary.  He wanted to look up the word maleficent, the name of a movie.  So I showed him how to look for that long word in all the tiny print of that huge dictionary.  Then he showed me other resources at the back of the book, such as Roman Numerals, the periodic table, and a list of the books of the Bible.  We had fun with all of those things, and I know his brain was absorbing it all.   

I made homemade hamburgers with all the fixin's for our dinner followed by ice cream and cake for dessert.  Dick had gone to the spaghetti supper at GBRV the evening before and had brought some cake home. 

After that Bianca wanted me to bring out the beads.  This time she decided to make a necklace out of the sea animals. 

On Sunday morning Bianca went with us to our service at GBRV, and then we all went to the 10:45 service at Calvary.  Afterward we all went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch.  What a noisy crew we were!!  I think it probably took a bit of patience to be our server, but she was cheerful and patient from beginning to end.  God bless servers, is all I can say!  (My worst job ever.)  

One day this week my brother Dick posted something to our sibling Facebook page that was so funny, considering that all his siblings are female. 

The struggle is real!  My hair is so terribly thin and now it's getting lighter and lighter as I'm letting my white roots grow out.  And I can't figure out the best way to style it.  And I've been having the worst time with eating well, so I've gained about five pounds, which feels like at least ten.  UGH!!

So here's the latest selfie.  Of course I cropped my lower portions out of it, lol!

Well, that's all for this time!  Have a good rest of the week!

Slower week, but some really good stuff

This has been a really uneventful week for us.  I hardly took any pictures.  Here's one I took on Friday evening.  Did you ever make a chocolate cake in a coffee cup in the microwave?  Occasionally I have done that when I was in the mood for chocolate.  But this time I decided to see if I could find a recipe for a carrot cake in a coffee cup.  And I did!  I even had cream cheese on hand to make the topping.  The cake itself was a bit dry, but that topping made it all better!  Next time I'll make more topping. 

I took screen shots of the recipe, so here it is in case this picture gets you in the mood for a quick carrot cupcake!

On Sunday Dick and I had the whole day with no grandchildren, which is rare indeed. We went to our service at GBRV, then to Calvary's 10:15 service.  We napped after lunch, then decided to go to the 4:10 showing of Just Mercy.  Have any of you seen it yet?  Words fail me to describe how profoundly good it was.  It's the true story of an African American Harvard Law graduate who felt called to go to Alabama to fight for the rights of men who were unjustly on death row.  It took place in the early 60's.    I could hardly hold in my sobs many times.  It was two hours and seventeen minutes long, but Dick stayed awake the whole time, so you know it was riveting.  He so easily falls asleep when he sits down.  When the movie was over, almost everyone in the theatre stayed seated through all the credits and beyond.  It felt like there was just too much to ponder to even move. 

Here we are, waiting for the movie to start. 

Dick watched the Super Bowl when we got home.  I kind of watched, but I was also reading.   Last week I had seen an interview on TV with a Holocaust survivor.  His daughters were with him, one of whom has written a book of his experiences.  I ordered the book, Together, a Journey for Survival.   I haven't finished it yet, so maybe I'll tell you more about it next time.  

On Tuesday I did another rare thing!  I had lunch with girlfriends from GBRV - Connie, Vicky, and Peg.   We all live or work pretty much along the same road, so Peg picked us all up on our way to Maria's Italian Restaurant in Bellefonte.  We had a delicious lunch and a lot of fun and story-telling.  In fact, so much fun that none of us thought to take a picture!  So that evening I made this collage, using pictures from a Christmas lunch at Peg's house.  Pictures are the best way to remember things by, right?

Here's a cute picture that Anthony posted last evening.  I laughed when I saw the word Hunter was spelling, because it was raining when I picked him up from school yesterday, and as we walked to the car he stayed really close to me so he could be under my umbrella.

And here's something that made me crack up when I saw it today!!!

Tomorrow morning is the first session of the women's Bible study at Calvary.  I'm really looking forward to it. 

Well, that's all for this week!