A Year of Change

Looks like Jag and I might have the crud, super. I have green crud and Jag just doesn’t feel well. We’ll have to stay far away from Lori as if she misses this date it’ll probably be next year before they can get her in.

Yesterday was a rough day with lots to do and neither of us feeling too well. Snow is in the forecast for Thursday and Friday, super. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Jag has inter-murals so he needs to leave in 30 minutes and I’ll be leaving for Vail around 11am at the latest. I should be done up their at 4 meaning I’ll make it home around 6pm. Then tomorrow I’ll leave around 9am to drive 3 and a half hours to Aspen for a 1 to 4 event and then drive home hopefully arriving by 8 or so. Everyone is staying the night in Vail tonight but I’m driving home to help out around the house.

Not much else going on so time to go, hope everyone is well, take care and God Bless.

It wasn’t as pretty as usual but then we played a team that was undefeated. The game started off with a great tailgate full of food, in fact it’s still all in the back of the car! Thankfully it was cold enough last night so it’s all still good. The stadium was full of energy and the Bronco’s didn’t disappoint. We lead from start to finish although it was a sort of a close game. We never had any doubt though that we’d win.

We stopped on the way home with our friends for a nightcap (their doing) and before we knew it, it was after midnight! We rushed home and got straight to bed. It was basically the misses last hurrah before her surgery this coming Friday.

It’s 7am and everyone is still sleeping so time to get them all up and get moving. I think I’ll get some chili out of the car for breakfast!

Take care and God Bless

Tonight we play the Kansas City Chiefs and we should, and I said should, beat the hell out of them. But this is football which is unpredictable so you never know. We’re leaving around 4pm and will tailgate with a dozen or so people. As I said yesterday, Aime is making her chili which should hit the spot as it’s supposed to be really cold.

It’s about 7am and I managed to get some good sleep which I needed as my nose was stuffed up and I’m trying to fight off a cold. If I get sick, then Lori usually gets sick which means they would then cancel her surgery so I’m staying far far away from her. I’m also drinking lots of tea and taking Cold Snap trying to fight it off. I feel a little better this morning and at least my nose isn’t stuffed up. Hopefully it was just allergies.

Lori climbed up in the attic while Jag and I were at REI, and she carried down the tree. There’s no stopping her when she’s on a mission. The tree is up with lights on and most of the ornaments. Earlier in the morning I cleaned out the Suburban and Jag and I went to the car wash for an hour long detail of the inside of the car. There’s only so much I can do without all the equipment they have to remove all the kid gunk that gets built up from years of use. You wouldn’t believe the mess. Anyhow now the car looks brand new. I picked up some much needed winter gloves for Ty (we bought Jag some at Cabela’s a month ago) and some other stuff for both cars winter survival kits. Here in Colorado you should not go to the mountains without water, food, heat and other stuff in the winter. We had to get some new beeswax candles and a couple of water bottles.

I need to run so wish us luck tonight. It will be very very disappointing if we do not win big time tonight.

We have a big week in front of us. Lori has to get some prescriptions from the store today to start prepping for her big day. For 5 days she needs to wash herself with a special soap after she gets out of the shower and then get back in and rinse it off. She also can’t shave her legs 24 hours before the operation as they don’t want ANY open cuts, even the microscopic ones you get when shaving to avoid any chance of infection. This of course is a major concern for her, she asked yesterday if she could use Nair and I said no! Friends from Steamboat who will be at the game stopped by yesterday and she had a fusion surgery also. Lori wasn’t aware until a few days ago that she’d be wearing a collar for months so now we’re trying to figure out a scarf wardrobe to cover it up. Anyhow the headache is still there. I woke up at 2 and she was awake with her head. I think she falls asleep around 4 each morning so I’m letting her sleep. We’re praying this fixes her all up!

God Bless you and God Bless the Denver Bronco’s!

Yesterday the misses cleaned out the mud room. Now this might not seem like a big deal but you haven’t seen our mud room. I told her to take it easy and just hit the couch and watch a movie but she said she has a headache whether she’s on the couch or cleaning so she wanted to clean. There’s lots to do around here before she goes in next week. We’re trying to get it done as she probably won’t feel, or be able to, do much after she has her operation.

I just checked the weather report and wouldn’t you know it, it’s supposed to snow big time next Thursday and Friday. That means we’ll need to leave early Friday morning or maybe even  Thursday night to get up there.

So today we’ll be cleaning out the front room and getting the Christmas tree down from the garage attic. Today is also Denver’s Colorado Share where you donate canned foods, clothes and toys so we’ll drive a bunch of food downtown to help out.

The shoes, well it turns out, they’re mostly mine! I’m kind of a hoarder I guess as I have some that are 20 years old but they’re still in good shape and why would I throw them out? Lori says I should throw them out if I don’t wear them, hmm, that doesn’t make a lot of sense does it.

There’s a few runny noses around here. No one is really sick but we have to stay well as they won’t operate on Lori if she’s sick. Tomorrow night is the big Sunday Night Football game between the Broncos and the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs. I hope we crush them! Our tailgate theme is chili and champagne. Our friend is making her great chili and my distributor donated 3 bottles of french champagne to the cause. We have about 10 people coming.

I need to run as it’s time to get some more coffee. It’s snowing hard in the mountains. Hard to believe the pictures on the news of all the snow when we were just up there twice  this week and it was dry and sunny. If you don’t like the weather in Colorado, just wait 5 minutes!

Take care and God Bless.

We made it to Vail just in time for Lori’s appointment. The doctor was really a nice guy who is really qualified. He explained in detail what his job is and what we should expect. Looks like he’s the guy that makes the initial incesion to avoid the nerve we talked about yesterday. They’ll set a pen like X-ray thing on her neck and then he’ll make a cut hoping to get under the nerve. Best case is it’s on top but it’s hard to tell until a cut is made. It runs along a major blood vessel so if it’s not right there, he’ll follow the blood vessel until he finds it. He’ll then take the whole esophogus and all that stuff and move them to the side so Dr. Don can get to the spine. Then 3 hours later she should be done. For the first week she’ll eat thick runny cool things like yogurt and protein shakes but no stuff like hamburgers or hot food. Looks like no turkey and stuffing for her! Oh by the way, Dr. Don is this guys doctor! It’s good to go to the doctor that other doctor’s go to!

We ran in to a man at Ty’s school performance last night who had the same procedure done down here at Lutheran Hospital and apparently they DID hit the nerve as his voice hasn’t healed and was pretty raspy. He’s been out 6 weeks now and was supposed to be talking normal after 2 weeks! He also had a huge scar that freaked the misses out but I told her she could always wear makeup! Our doc yesterday did stick a tube with a camera down Lori’s nose and into her throat yesterday to check out the voice box and all the stuff down there. it was pretty cool as I watched the whole thing on a tv screen. Everything looked great but the misses is understandably a bit nervous. This is a big deal and a big operation but we’re in the best hands possible and we have to do it so we can get rid of the headache (hopefully, you never know for sure) and who knows what will happen to our insurance with you know who in office!

Last night Ty’s performance was all about America. All songs were patriotic including the Star Spangled Banner. This was probably the best performance ever and lots of parents told the teacher so. Funny but yesterday a school district in South Dakota decided to outlaw the kids from saying the Pledge of Allegiance in the mornings. There reasoning was they couldn’t find the 10 seconds each day to do so! What’s wrong with some people. Older vets at the school board meeting walked out in tears. Wonder what would have happened if they were too busy to defend those peoples freedoms?

Today I have to head downtown at 7:30 and then will be home around 10 with lots of work to do. I’m going to run now as it’s 6:20 and I’m running out of time. Hope everyone is well, God Bless.

Last night Ty had his basketball game and it was a nail bitter. In the end they lost by 1 point but the kid at the scorers table missed a couple of baskets by our team, but what are you going to do.

It looks like the surgery is a go from the insurance standpoint which is great news. The rest is up to me. This morning we’re headed back up to Vail for a pre-op appointment with the ENT specialist who will be assisting Dr. Corenman. At least I know I’ve got her the very best doctors anyone could get. Our appointment is at 10:30 so we’ll head up right after dropping the kids at school and hopefully be home by 1pm. Tonight Ty has his  musical performance at school. It’s always something and I’m looking forward to it but boy am I tired. It seems I’m just tired all the time these days. I need a rest but I’ll worry about that next year!

In fact now that I’ve mentioned it, I am pretty tired right now too so I’m going to run. Hope everyone is well, take care and wish us luck that we get it all together and things go well. I’m out of town next Tuesday and Wednesday so we’ve got lots to do. We need to get our Christmas stuff up this weekend and then have the big football game Sunday night. I should just start sleeping only 4 hours a night so I can get all my stuff done!

Take care, God Bless, here’s a comment from Annette,

Annette says:

Here’s a comment from Aunt Robi,

Robi says:

Today is the 11th day of 12th month in the 13th year. Next year we’ll have a day that’s 12/13/14 and then that’s it for 100 years or so. How’s that for some useless information!

Yesterday I took Lori with me to the distributor and then to Nordstrom for the annual women’s and kids sale. She found a cute pair of rubber rain/snow boots on sale we couldn’t pass up. These days we don’t buy a single thing unless it’s practical and we need it and this fit the bill on both accounts so home they came.

Ty had basketball practice last night and Jag came along and helped out the entire time. The coach came up to me and said they decided they want Jag on the team and wanted to know if I could forge his birth certificate. Both boys had a fun time and had some much needed exercise.

Today we’re off to Vail to see the doctor. Our appointment is at 1 meaning we’ll probably be home by 5 or so. It was real cold yesterday afternoon and we’re expecting cold temps today in the mountains. Jag and I might head up to the ranch and see if we can find an elk this Saturday as it’s the last weekend of the season. I called a couple of guys up there to see if any elk are around. It’s a long drive if no animals are in the area.

We decided against going to Florida in December and all our friends, along with us too, are bummed. I just don’t think Lori will be up to it plus we really can’t afford to go. It’s not practical but since there’s a beach, it is needed! But one out of two doesn’t meet the criteria.

What did you do to prepare today, anything, anyone, hmmm? I keep forgetting to say Grandma Dixie and Pa Don do follow the principal of being prepared. In the basement they have stores of food and even scotch! Good for them, now how about the rest of you?

I’ll let it go for now but you’d be amazed at how many people have only enough food for a few days in their home. They’re not even prepared for a good snowstorm that’d keep them stuck at home for a long weekend. Oh well, you can’t make someone do something they don’t want to do, now can you.

Take care, and God Bless.

Happy Veterans Day to all you vets out there. I have lots of buddy’s who served and some who are still in. Hope you have a great day, there’s lots of places giving away free meals to vets today, chow down!

Well the Broncos won but Peyton Manning suffered a cheap hit with less than 2 minutes to go, hope he’s alright. 2 weeks from tomorrow Lori goes in, we can’t wait but we’ll have to as we have no choice. Next week I’m in Vail and Aspen for 2 days worth of wine events. I’m supposed to be gone for 4 days to go to Durango and Crested Butte but I can’t leave the misses alone that long.

Lots to do before she goes in as she won’t be doing much after her surgery. For 3 months she’s not supposed to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk. Guess she won’t be skiing this year!

Jag is downstairs with me now at 6:25 while Ty is still sleeping upstairs with Mom. I have to switch my appointments from tomorrow to today as we go to Vail Tuesday, not Monday as we first thought. I did manage to get the garage door fixed yesterday as I called the guy that installed the doors and he picked up a repair kit and fixed it for us cheap. That’s a load off as it could have been $600!

I deleted a whole bunch of stuff from the post yesterday. It basically was lots of examples of warnings of things going on around us that don’t bode well for the future but I gave you all a break. Let’s just say there are lots of things not going well in our country, people are getting desperate and it’s only going to get worse. While you should try to find the good in people it’s my job as the head of the family to be prepared for the worst case scenario. Sun Tzu , the famous philosopher from 320 BC once said, “those who prepare shall be assured victory long before the battle ever begins, he who doesn’t, will fail”. In other words, most battles are won long before they ever start! This is pretty obvious but many people ignore it, especially today in our instant gratification society. Now I don’t mean battle in the sense of the word but more in being prepared for all contingencies.

I’ll bet people in the Philippines wished they prepared. Tens of thousands have no food, water or medicine. I’ll bet they thought, “it would never happen to me”. So what did you do to prepare yesterday? It can be as simple as taking a walk to stay or get in shape, buying a few extra cans of food, calling up to refill your prescriptions a few weeks early to build up a supply, this is a big one, imagine not being able to get your medicine! The point is, do something, anything. Yesterday we re-seasoned some of our cast iron and reorganized some of our food supplies.

In short, look for the best, prepare for the worst, and take what comes.

Now get out there and have a great week and God Bless.

That’s what the weekends are around here, a big blur. It’s hard to tell where Saturday ends and Sunday starts. Anyhow yesterday we did some work around the house, I took Jag for a new workout jacket instead of a sweatshirt, Ty played at his friend Vinny’s and did some homework and Lori took the boys for a walk. I tweaked my back on the couch before I went to the gym, nothing serious, just a pulled muscle.

Anyhow, I hope you all had a great day Saturday and will have another one today, take care and God Bless.