Home Again, Home Again...

And we are home again. A full week back home. A quiet week. 

Monday, February 24th, was finish up the laundry, get back at home PT, start blogging about our trip, etc. 

We came home to a very small amount of snow on the driveway and front door area. The problem, once again, was we got snow, then ice, then the temperatures stayed below freezing and in the teens while we were gone. Since the front of our home does not get direct sun this time of year, the slow melting caused ice to form over the drain along the roof. We have the lovely stuff to keep the leaves from getting in them. It also allows the snow to stay a bit and then freeze into ice as it thaws during the day and refreezes at night. I went to the kitchen to make myself some popcorn and saw my hubby on a ladder with a pick getting that ice to break up and fall into the flower bed below. Bless his heart!!

Tuesday, February 25th, I finished up blogging about our trip. Yeah me!! I awoke not feeling great so it was a good day to finish the blog and rest.

Wednesday, February 26th, I had my final day of office PT. I was amazed at how well my arm did while we traveled this time. It was markedly improved from when we did our Route 66 trip in October. I commented to Claude several time that I felt like we were at the end of office PT. When I finished all my exercises at Scott County Physical Therapy, Tina came over to do the stretching of the arm and shoulder. She asked about how my arm did on our trip. I assured her it was really good on the trip. After Tina stretched my arm and shoulder, she measured me and assured me it was okay for me to stop office PT. What I really need now is to strengthen the arm and shoulder and I can do that by continuing home PT. That was it. My movement is probably as good as it will get with this new shoulder made as it is. The strengthening and getting it used to doing all it did before I will do at home. Wow!! This is about the anniversary of my fall in Pompeii. What a year it has been. This shoulder had really ruled our lives in a lot of ways. So grateful for Scott County Physical Therapy. So grateful for home PT to support their effort. And, especially grateful for Claude and his unfailing support and help to get through repairing my right shoulder. I am blessed.

Thursday, February 27th, I again awoke feeling weak, feverish, and generally awful. Like I was coming down with the flu. I stayed inside and down all day long. Grateful we have food for our table. Grateful for this little home we have made and the peace and comfort I feel in it. Grateful for a hubby that loves and cares for me and understands with this older body just needs to rest.

Friday, February 28th, another day of not feeling well. I got the Relief Society newsletter for March disbursed and in the scrapbook. I also finished the snowflakes for the Relief Society Christmas gifts to the sisters this December. That was the sum total of my accomplishments this day.

Saturday, March 1st, we started a new month. Wow, how fast time flies as you get older. I felt better and was very grateful for that. I spent some time looking at our Greece trip, starting the grid for it and making a list of questions and things to do to be ready. We took the easy route for dinner and hit Taco Bell for a box of tacos. This has become a fun dinner to do every now and then. 

Sunday, March 2nd, we attended sacrament meeting. Oh, how grateful I am to take the sacrament. Claude had his very early morning Zoom Stake Council Meeting. We came home from church and he took a long nap, woke up and felt like he need more sleep so he took his second nap. Yeah Claude. It was a good, quiet Sunday afternoon. 

I want to talk about communicating with grandkids and great grandkids. First, let me share my memory of this communication when I was a child. It was done by personal visit or by letter. Pictures were taken with a camera using a roll of 24 or 36 pictures. You waited until you finished taking the roll of film before they were developed. You put the roll of film in to be developed which took several days. You picked up the negatives and pictures. Then you picked the negatives you might want copies of for grandparents, parents, whoever. Those negatives you took back and left for developing. A few more days later, you picked them up. Then you wrote a letter after labeling the back of each picture. You put the letters for that person in the envelope with the letter and they went in the U.S. Mail for several more days to get to your loved one. Quite a process as I briefly describe it here. But we felt very efficient and grateful we could send a picture every now and then to relatives far away. 

Phone calls were also only done on Sunday evening because you were charged by the minute for each and every long distance call. We would limit our time on the phone to 30 minutes. That is all we could afford with our budget. I might only call my parents once a month. Now you call at the drop of a hat and think nothing of the expense. Back in the day, we were very grateful for a phone to hear a voice many miles away for even a few minutes. 

Fast forward to today. Claude and I have 5 grandmonsters and 6 great grandmonsters. Over the last week or so, I have connected with four of these kids with this lovely digital technology we enjoy today. 

This is Emelia. She had a Daddy-Daughter Dance to attend. Her father works evenings and could not take her. His really good friend stepped up and took Emelia for him. This reminded me of a Daddy Daughter Dance we had at church. I was probably 10 years old. My younger sisters, Junie, would also attend this dance. She was probably 8 years old. We each needed a date and, of course, we only had one father. Junie went with Papa. I went with Uncle Harold, Papa's oldest brother. I loved Uncle Harold and had a wonderful time with him. I remember all the girls had to make creative name tags for this Daddy Date. Junie made drew snow shovels on heavy paper and put their names on the blades. I took a Styrofoam ball, cut it in half so it was like a snowball. I put ribbon coming down from the back with our names on it. When I found Emelia was going with Drew's friend, my heart was happy. Katelyn sent us this picture and brief video clip of Emelia going on her Daddy-Daughter Date.

Our Bailey loves Harry Potter. We started keeping her at our home after Thanksgiving and having a Harry Potter Fest. I found out a Harry Potter store was being built in Chicago. I also learned about a road trip to see the filming locations for Harry Potter. I sent the picture to Bailey about the road trip suggesting she might want it for her bucket list. Her reply was, "YES!"

Raelyn called us while we were on our Florida Keys road trip. She wanted us to say good-night prayers with her. We did and were so grateful she included us in this opportunity. We talked briefly as it was her bedtime. We told her we would be coming home across a road called Alligator Alley. She really wanted a picture. I send her these two pictures of the alligator we saw. Her response, "Wow". 

Our Hayden is going to DePaul University study film directing. He loves the movies. Every year when in high school, he and Andie, his mom (our daughter), would buy a ticket to see all the Oscar nominated movies. Hayden would print a list of the Oscar nominations and we would all vote on the movies we thought would win. Now, Hayden is at college but he still found an Oscar nominated movie ticket. All the movies would be shown over two Saturdays. Hayden works at a movie theater and was able to get the ticket for free and attend these two Saturdays watching all these movies. Hayden sent all of us Oscar ballots generated by ESPN. This morning, I got this report of the picks I made. Hayden titled the text, I am still the King! He will always be the King of predicting the Oscars. 

Connecting with these important young people in my life means the world to me. It is moments taken to connect and feel family across many miles. I am grateful for this good use of the digital world.