Ups and Downs of this Last Week...

Last week I missed this picture and story.

We each find our own way through this quarantine period. Our Hayden is particularly well suited to this. The basement at the Marx home is his Man Cave. He can stay down there for hours and is very happy with his games and things. He comes up throughout the day for food and relief and eventually to sleep in his bedroom upstairs. But the basement is clearly his domain. One day last week he was upstairs and Bailey went downstairs for something. She very seldom frequents their basement. After all, it is a Man Cave. But there are also things stored there and she probably went to retrieve something needed in the kitchen. Her parents received this delightful picture as a text message! Yep, our girl somehow managed to lock herself in the basement and they could not get the lock to open. One the other side of the door is the kitchen and family room. Please try to picture Michael feverishly trying to get the door off it's hinges and then working with two screw drivers trying to get the lock to release. They managed to get our girl out of the basement. Irony of ironies, Hayden goes up and down many times a day and never has been locked in the basement. Bailey goes down one time and locks herself in. We all had a chuckle as they shared this story and Bailey sent me her picture. 

Monday, May 18, 2020
Today was filled with crocheting interspersed with clearing out more shelves in the house. We had one old metal shelf in the basement storage with sleeping bags, air mattresses and other bedding on it. I went through this shelf and cleared out all the old blankets I received from my parents. We repurposed some and some we tossed. I found three old green sleeping bags we have not used in 15+ years. We have two sleeping bags that are the satiny material. I kept those and found a good home for the three green ones. The shelf has a lot less on it now and that feels very, very good.

Tuesday, May 19, 2020
This was a rainy day. Flood watches were out for the county in which we live. A good day to stay inside and crochet. I received a text from my dear Friend, Laura. She was also cleaning things out in her home. She sent me this picture and asked if I wanted this yarn she did not need.

I sent Laura these pictures with the assurance I would love to have that yarn. In fact, as I was trying to pick the colors to go in each row of the afghan I had realized I didn't have any lighter blues and was wishing I had some but refused to go and purchase any. That just seemed ludicrous to make an afghan to get rid of yarn and then spend money on more yarn to make it. Laura's gift to me was just what I needed. What is that old saying, "One man's junk is another man's treasure" only in this case it is women. We would visit them on Friday and get the yarn. With all the rain I didn't want to drive in it to get this yarn. Plus I had a dental appointment coming up and knew I might need to rest a bit after. 

And I continued to crochet.

Wednesday, May 20, 2020
This was the day for my final visit to the implant surgeon, Dr. Mark King. We should have had this visit a month ago in April. However, due to the virus and the closing of all dental offices, it was postponed until May with the understanding that, if things did not get better, we would move the date again. While this prolonged the process it was a blessing to me as it gave the bone in my jaw time to heal more. When I fell I really shattered that bone and I was grateful for more time for it to heal. 

I spent my morning crocheting. During that time I received a telephone call from Julie, my sister-in-law. Her hubby, Cordell, is Claude's brother. I was so happy she called me. Julie was diagnosed and has been fighting pancreatic cancer for some months now. Cordell has Parkinson's so they have a lot to deal with. In addition, Bonnie, Claude's mother had called a night or two before and told us the doctors told Julie they can do nothing else for her. With the virus they are not letting family in to the hospitals to be with their relatives. They finally let Cordell in so he was with her. So to have her call was just a huge blessing. We talked for a long time and she sounded good. She even has the Ark Encounter on her bucket list and hopes to come this fall if circumstances allow to visit it. I was texting with our son Jake and told him about this welcome phone call. Jake's response: "Julie and Cordell are good, hard working people. I always felt we were blessed with a wonderful ensemble of aunts and uncles." 

Finally it was time to head into Georgetown. We would drop off the sleeping bags at their new home. Then we dropped off a bag of treats for Papa. As we drove past the park where we walk, we realized it was completely closed off and had obviously been completely covered with flood water from the creek. Then off to the doctors office. 

Doctor's appointments have really just opened back up again. It is different. We arrived in the Jeep and the receptionist saw us arrive. She came right out the door with a clipboard and waved. There were two other cars in the lot with people waiting in them so I was not really sure she was waving at me. I called into the office to let them know we were there. He assured me she was waving at me and was coming to the Jeep. I put on my mask and opened the Jeep window. She handed me a clipboard and told me to come in when it was filled out. I did this and found a waiting room with only three single straight back chairs spaced out along the wall. She took my temperature and that was okay. I followed her to the room for the surgeon to work on me. There I found this turtle.

I just love turtles. This one always makes me calm and assured things will be just fine. In came the doctor but it was not Dr. King. It was Dr. Lucy. She just graduated from University of Kentucky's School of Dentistry and was supposed to begin her work with Dr. King in July. They have just bumped that up a bit. She was cheerful and delightful and had the unhappy task of deadening my gums for the work they were to do. And deaden she did. My goodness. She started with gauze soaked in the deadening agent. This she left on my gum for a bit. Then she took a swab soaked in deadening agent and let it rest on my gums for a bit. Then the needle and she gave me about 50 shots to deaden me and then let that set for a bit. Then she came back and anywhere I could feel it at all she shot me some more. I am guessing it took at least 100 shots before she was sure I was okay. This should have been my clue that what they were doing would be uncomfortable in the best of circumstances. What they did was cut two little slits in my gums to expose the two implant posts that are in my mouth. Each had a tiny cap on it. They would take those caps off and test the strength of the implant post with regard to it adhering to the bone in the gum. The right one was 73 and the left was 81. I do not know what those numbers mean but I do know that Dr. Lucy and Dr. King, who did the work after the deadening, were both very, very happy with that strength. Dr. King even commented to Dr. Lucy that I was the patient he was telling her about and showing the shattered bone and how pleased they were with the healing. I may be a good patient to train other doctors! Who knew? After the testing of the strength they put the larger caps on the implant posts and pronounced me done. I have a dental cleaning appointment with Dr. Hollen on June 1st. Dr. King's office called Dr. Hollen and set it up so that she will clean my teeth that day and also make the impressions for the bridge of crowns to go on these posts. Dr. King's office wants me to come back when I am all done so they can see the work. I will happily do that for this amazing dental office. They have been so good to me and helping me get through this mess I made for myself.

Claude took me home and I curled up on my love seat and crocheted the rest of the day away. 

Thursday, May 21, 2020
My poor gum was really, really sore. I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary. I could feel each of the spots where we a deadening shot had been given. The places where the posts were also ached. I determined my day would best be spent resting and crocheting so I took up residency on the love seat in the living room and crocheted the day away. 

Claude did grocery shopping in the morning.

In the afternoon I checked Facebook and learned that a dear friend's son died. This young man was only 23 years old. I sent the father a message and assured him Claude and I would love to help in any way we could. I also volunteered to play the piano or organ if that would be allowed. Zachery was only 23 years old. He just passed out and died as far as I could tell. He was married and had two little girls. This is heartbreaking. 

Friday, May 22, 2020
I spent the morning crocheting. My gum was better but still had some discomfort. Only a threat of rain. I suggested to Claude that we might try going to the Carter's to retrieve the blue yarn. He was happy with that idea. I popped a text to Laura to see if we could come later in the day. She said that would be fine.

I also popped a text to another friend, Velvett, and gave her Dr. King's contact information. She also fell and has damaged her front teeth. I wanted to know about Lillie, her granddaughter, who has leukemia. Velvett has been instructed by her cancer doctor that she should not go to the dentist until all this virus stuff settles down. She had breast cancer and is very compromised. The cancer is gone but she is very compromised from the treatments. She will save Dr. King's information for later. As for sweet Lillie. She passed away in her mother's arms after her valiant fight with cancer. Oh my is this one hard to deal with. 

Claude and I left for Georgetown about 3pm. We dropped a treat bag off for Papa. Then we got us each a soda at Burger King and pointed the Jeep to Frankfort. The Carter's welcomed us and we sat on their deck at social distancing standards with our masks on and had a lovely visit. This was just so refreshing and wonderful. I really like being home a lot more but visiting with friends is such a treasured experience now. 

After this we stopped at Zaxby's in Frankfort for dinner. Sat in their parking lot with the windows down and enjoyed our salads. Then off to Georgetown for a walk. The path was open now except for one spot that was still completely under water. We had to walk way around it at that point. But we got a nice walk in. Claude saw a tiny turtle on the walk and I took this picture. There really is a turtle there. Claude picked it up after I took the picture and put it on the grass.

Back to our home and I spent the evening crocheting.

Saturday, May 23, 2020
Time to leave the crocheting for a bit and do some cleaning. Watered the plants. Cleaned the four bathrooms. Dusted. Then sat on the front porch for a bit with Claude. I took these three pictures from and around the front porch. The first shows the storm clouds coming in again. The second and third are the peonies starting to blossom. The last one is the turtle rain gauge given to me by the Tyler's for Mother's Day. It is full of water from all the rain we have been having. 

Then down to the basement to work on a clean out project. I wanted and was ready to go through all my crafting supplies and pare them down to next to nothing. My idea was to go through and toss what could be tossed, combine what could be combined, and make a box of what could be given away. Monday, tomorrow, the Marx family is supposed to come over for a barbecue. I wanted to have this done so Bailey could go through what I was giving away in case she wanted any of it to work with while quarantined. I had crafting things in my sewing room and in the toy closet. While I was doing this it seemed to lead to cleaning out my sewing machine cabinet. It was great to get through all of this but it took all afternoon and I finished at 6:30pm when Claude called to say dinner was ready. Two bags of garbage later and I was a happy creature. All of the give away is now on the table in the family room for Bailey to look at. What she does not take I will ask a friend with seven children if her kids might like it for this summer at home to play with.  Whew! 

The evening was spent crocheting again. I'm getting there. This is going to be one great crocheted blanket. It is rows of 200 double crochets and I think I might call it my 'Afghan of Many Colors' as a play on Joseph's Coat of Many Colors. Each row is a different color of yarn. There is really no pattern to the choosing of colors. Just what I feel impressed to do next. I am happy to have the blue yarn that Laura gave me in the mix. Should be finished before a lot longer and then I will post a nice picture. 

Sunday, May 24, 2020
And here we are at Sunday...again. We have had our home church service this morning. This was followed by a quick drive to Hardee's at Love's Travel Plaza for a sandwich. We brought these back home and sat on the front porch to eat. We have really come to love sitting on our front porch in the shade enjoying any breeze that floats past. Such a blessing to have that porch time together.

This afternoon I will Blog, write the missionaries, take care of Papa's bills, shorten the sleeves in Andie's blouse, clean out patterns so I can see if there are any Andie wants to keep, wrap Father's Day so Michael and can take that home with him tomorrow, and try and come up with an Anniversary gift for the Marx who will celebrate that on June 1. Busy afternoon but good things to get done. My evening will be spent crocheting...who would have guessed!