General Conference...

Saturday, March 31st & Sunday, April 1st were General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I spent each of those mornings in Georgetown with Papa. Then I would hurry home to find Claude in the basement with the big television on the BYU-TV Channel ready to watch conference with me. 

This was an absolutely amazing General Conference for these reasons:

1. We sustained a new Prophet and President for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His name is Russell M. Nelson. His occupation prior to his full-time Church service which began many years ago was a cardiac surgeon. He was world renowned. He actually trained the surgeon that performed Papa's triple by-pass years ago. 
2. We sustained two new Apostles: Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares. We have been privileged to have each of the men attend our stake at various times and for various reasons. They are amazing leaders in the Church.
3. A new General Young Women's presidency was sustained.
4. During the Saturday evening Priesthood session the Priesthood was restructured so that we will now only have an Elder's Quorum in the ward instead of a High Priest Group and an Elder's Quorum. The High Priest Group will now be made up of the Stake Presidency and the High Council, the Stake Patriarch and the ward Bishoprics. All other Priesthood holders will be a part of their ward Elder's Quorum. 
5. Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching were discontinued. Instead we will have Ministering Brothers & Sisters. Included in this will be Young Women aged 14-18 as appropriate. 
6. And, as if that was not enough to take our breath away, seven new temples were announced. One will be in Russia. Absolutely amazing.

The talks were so cup filling for me. Here are a couple of thoughts that were important to me:

• God sanctifies your most difficult days.
• God walks with us along the covenant path.
• Success is going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.
• Meekness is something we become.
• We have today to live.
• Love is a foundation stone.

A solemn assembly was held Saturday during the first session to sustain Pres. Nelson and Elders Gong and Soares. During this, members are asked to stand and then raise their right hand to sustain the person. Even in our home, I was very moved when they asked all High Priests to stand and my dear hubby and stood and raised his right hand in a sustaining vote. Then I stood when they had the Relief Society sisters stand and we both stood when they asked all members to stand. I found this very moving. The Spirit was strong even in our little home with just the two of us.

It was an excellent conference and I am so very grateful Claude and I could watch it together.  

Miscellaneous March Items...

Found in the March 10, 2018 Georgetown NewsGraphic. These six young men are members of our Ward and all earned their Eagle Scout Rank the same night. Papa taught some of these young men when he was a Primary teacher. Just think this was a fun news item.

March birthday's and Facebook pictures posted for these members of our family:
Aubrey Anne Thompson on March 14th. This picture was taken when we attended a family reunion for Claude's family in Depot Bay, Oregon. We took Aubrey with us on that trip. Aubrey is our middlemost grandmonster. 

Andie Marx on March 17th. Our middle child. This was taken when she was in first grade. She now teaches first grade!

Nissa Tyler on March 26th. Our firstborn child. This was taken when she was in second grade. She now had grandmonsters of her own. Where does the time fly?

And this is Paul Thompson. Paul is having a staring contest with Claude. I love this picture. Paul turned 22 years old this year. Wow!!

Monday, March 19th, I came across this meme and sent it to Claude. It is such a true statement. We do have deer that enjoy our tomatoes. So, we have that going for us.

March 20th this was posted by a friend on Facebook. I loved the idea and posted it tagging my kids and older granddaughters. Since Easter happened to fall on April Fool's Day this is just a grand idea.

Andie took the idea and acted on it. This is Hayden's reaction to his Easter basket surprise! Gotta love it. Just gotta love it.

Thursday, March 22nd, I invited a sister I visit each month to come to my home for lunch. She has three kids that haven't reached school age so they were invited as well. After lunch, we went to the basement where the closet with the kids toys is located. On an old family truck sits some stuffed animals. The little ones found Wild Thing. This pink tiger was given to us by the Soressi's for our anniversary years ago when living in Maryland. I thought the batteries had completely worn out but apparently I was wrong. The kids loved this toy. Especially Duncan. He is a year old and had the most delightful laugh when Wild Thing sang Wild Thing and shook his head. So very cute.

Friday, March 23rd, Papa and I took a car ride. With bad weather and harsh cold, it is harder to find a day to get him out. Grateful we did this day because we haven't had another since with the weather and his fall.

Also Friday, March 23rd, I posted this picture on Facebook. It is a Blood Orange. I bought a bag of them in Walmart. They taste a little different than an orange orange. But they are very good. Comments on Facebook ranged from "Suddenly I'm not hungry" and "That's disgusting" to "I love Blood Oranges!" to my hubby's comment calling it "Vampire Citrus!". It is good to try something new every now and then.

That's all folks!!

Snow Just Won't Quit...

Last winter we had precious little snow. You could have swept it away with a brown. No shoveling. This winter it has not ever been really deep here in Sadieville but it has often started with a layer of ice or had layers of snow and then ice and then snow. Makes it a bit treacherous to drive in. And, I am getting to an age where walking on it is concerning as well. Really don't want anymore falls in my life.

On Tuesday, March 20th, I went into town for a strep test. I have allergies to pollens and the trees were budding out and I had been reacting to that I thought. Then I woke up that Tuesday morning with a sore throat and thought maybe it was something more than allergies. Since I can't be sick and be able to visit Papa, I determined I would ask for a quick strep test to be sure it was just allergies. Sure enough, it was just allergies. Yippee!! I do not enjoy anything about being sick. 

Off to visit Papa and then back home. Claude and I were planning to drive to Louisville to attend a session at the temple. But the little bits of ice started to fall as I was pulling in the driveway so we abandoned that plan and determined staying off the icy roads was a better idea. It wasn't long before Claude got alerts on his phone of wrecks on the Interstates and in Lexington and Georgetown. I do believe we made the correct call. 

Here are some pictures of the snowfall we received with a nice layer of ice under it. I posted these on Facebook with the comment that it was the last snow for this winter season. Someone else commented, "Are you sure?" and I responded, "The power of positive thinking."

Wouldn't you know it, Saturday the 24th we received snow again!! I posted a brief video of the snow falling in our back yard on Facebook with the comment, "So much for positive thinking!"

Now here we are after Easter with Derby Day coming up this Saturday. What is the forecast. Some snow on Friday and more on Saturday with an accumulation of 2" to 4". While this is something our friends who receive feet of snow will scoff at, I have come to feel we don't need to compare apples to oranges. I don't live where they do and this snow with ice under, in or on top of it, is much more concerning to drive on than snow that is plowed away and is only snow. I have lived in both areas and dealt with both and that is my unhumble opinion and I am sticking to it. 

To add concern, my Christmas present from Claude was a ticket to Time Out for Women. When they come to Cincinnati every other year I love to go. I drive up and back each of the two days they are here and just fill my cup with great music and profound words of wisdom. And...I get to do that drive on snow!! Ugh. 

Claude and I were wondering about all those ladies who purchase the big hats and the sleeveless spring dresses to go to the Derby. Louisville has the same forecast as Cincinnati. Wonder if they are all having coats made to match their dresses to accommodate. And, how will that look with snow boots to walk around in???  Ain't life grand!

Papa Fell Down & Broke His Crown...

Things were going so much better...and then...

Wednesday, March 28th, Claude and I blocked out the morning to go to the temple. We had lots to do in the afternoon and evening but we felt we could get a visit to the temple in the morning. We had set aside the previous Tuesday evening to go and we had ice and snow and determined we didn't need to be on the roads with ice out there. So we were really looking forward to this opportunity to get to the temple.

We made it all the way to the Waddy/Peytona Exit on I-64 when my phone rang. It was the nursing home. Seems Papa took a tumble in the bathroom and an ambulance was taking him to the Georgetown Hospital ER. Claude took the exit and we headed back to Georgetown. 

Now, irony of ironies, we are driving along and I'm trying to remain calm and think through all possibilities and how to handle them so I can hit the ground running when we get to the hospital. I looked out my passenger side window at the truck and trailer Claude was passing. What was this I was seeing? As we got alongside the trailer I realized they were transporting a burial vault to a cemetery. I just looked at it in amazement as Claude cruised on by. Then I turned to Claude, who had also noted what it was, and he simply said, "I wasn't going to say anything to you..." Goodness. If one believed in bad omens, that was about the worst. But we both chose to laugh at the irony in this when rushing to take care of an aging Papa.

Got to the emergency room and Claude dropped me off to run in while he parked the Jeep. This is what I found. Bless his heart. He was in agony. Any he couldn't find a position in which to be comfortable. They had a towel rolled up behind his head to support his head. But he was just aching like I haven't seen very often. He usually tries to be stoic and say, "Oh well." But not this time. He was telling us repeatedly he was in pain. 

He was given two shots of morphine over the hours he was in the ER. He was taken for X-rays twice and a Cat Scan. No broken bones were found in any of this. Blood was drawn and it didn't work even though it flowed freely when the nurse took it. I guess it set up on the way to the lab or something. The nurse tried to draw blood again and couldn't find a vein. She was good at it too but Papa just had crummy veins at this point in his life. After a bit another nurse came in with the butterfly needle which is smaller and it worked. At least four vials of blood later they had his blood to go do the lab. 

Eventually they came and took the hard plastic board the ambulance put him on to take him to the ER. They were trying to be very careful in case he broke something in his neck or spine. No wonder Papa was in agony. He has deteriorating disks and bad arthritis in his spine. This really aggravated all of that. Even being off the board didn't give Papa the relief he needed.

Dr. Morgan decided after looking at his cleaned up wounds that he could glue the wounds on Papa's forehead and nose and not have to do stitches. This was a relief to me. Dr. Morgan asked if Papa was concerned about scars and Claude said, "They add character." Bottom line. Papa really isn't worried about scars at almost 90 years of age. 

Dr. Weckman had Papa admitted to Georgetown Hospital for one night. He wanted to be sure there was no internal bleeding in his head before returning him to the nursing home. 

Claude and I left after he was admitted. We hurried to Sadieville where I got my car and drove back to be with Papa until time to teach my Institute class. It was a good thing I was there. I had told the admitting nurse Papa has no teeth and needed his food blended. They brought him a dinner with a piece of ham, some elbow macaroni and steamed broccoli. I mashed up the broccoli and the macaroni with the fork and fed them to Papa. He also ate the banana they gave him. So at least he had all but the ham in his meal. I did get to visit with Dr. Weckman who was leaving the hospital as I was coming back. Grateful he came to visit with Papa and be sure how he was doing.

Thursday morning I just missed Dr. Weckman. But, Papa did okay through the night and they were ready to release him. They asked if I was taking him or should the ambulance. I told them to use the ambulance. He was in such a bad state of pain and needed help moving. Truly two big men could do that better than me. I met them at the nursing home and spent the remainder of the day with him. 

Friday I went in for half of the day. Papa was able to get up and walk to the dining room to eat. I would spend Saturday and Sunday morning with him. He was to have come to our home Sunday afternoon and eat with us and watch a session of general conference. I did not bring him. Just not sure about the pain he is in and my ability to handle him alone yet. 

I feel this will take Papa down a peg or two. The nursing home is doing some therapy on him to try and build him back up. He is walking down to the dining room for meals. But he is still really hurting. I expect that to last a while after such a bad tumble. But I think we have to watch to be sure there is something they may have missed that is causing the pain. 

Another Final For Miss B...

Andie, our middle child, had a doctor's appointment Monday, March 26th. She was to have an MRI. She is claustrophobic and being in the MRI nearly undoes her. So, they prescribe something to relax her and she can't drive while taking that. She needed someone to drive her around. That I was happy to do. 

Claude and I drove to the Marx home Sunday evening and spent the night as the doctor's appointment was at 8:10am. I got up early and took Andie to her appointment and then brought her home. She did fine and was very grateful for the help. 

While Andie went to sleep off this medication, Claude and I went to Subway and bought lunch for Bailey. This was possibly the last time the two of us would be able to have lunch with Bailey in elementary school. She asked a friend to sit with us at the table for guest of students. She loved the Subway lunch and had a great time. The little bun looking things on her head were part of her costume to be a bear. 

After lunch with Miss B we went back to the Marx home and picked up Andie. She had a nice nap. The three of us went back to the school to watch Bailey as Baloo the Bear in the Performing Arts Club's final performance for the school year. This would be Bailey's final PAC performance. They did a tribute to Walt Disney for 75 years of movies for kids. Bailey was in the Jungle Book tribute, hence Baloo the Bear. Here are a few pictures. Bailey is on the left end of the top row. She wears a big piece of furry brown fabric to which we sewed an oval cut out of a face towel to be the tummy. And, of course, a head band with bear ears which she wore all day long because Bailey loves that kind of thing. 

After the play, we took Andie home, fully awake after her medical experience. Claude and I made our way back to Sadieville where I got in my car and drove back to Georgetown to visit Papa. Claude had meetings in Sadieville.