Clean as a Whistle!

One of the things I think sets 'old' people apart is when you hear all about their medical treatments and doctor visits. I plan to write about a medical treatment but just this once and I promise not to put this in my Christmas letter.

Last year when I turned 50, my cousin, Gary, sent me an article about having a colonoscopy and benefits and peace of mind it provides.

I was going to get to it one day.

When I went to the doctor this year for my check up, it was highly recommended that I do it now.

It was all set up for Monday at 6:30am. I was mentally ready. They called a few days before and asked could it be moved to Tuesday at 6:30 am. I had to check to see if someone could take me then and when Carl and KimT said that they could, I called back and said "Tuesday at 6:30 is fine."

I have heard that the prep is the worst part. I agree. Clear liquids on Monday. I had banana popsicles for breakfast with jello for dessert. I drank apple juice and sprite. Not too bad. For lunch I had chicken bouillon with more jello and now I moved on to white grape juice. Then the fun started... 4 pills to begin the cleaning out process. Not too bad, I could still function.

I need to say here that my family is amazing. They didn't eat any food at home on Monday. The girls took food as they left and ate their lunch before they got home. Thank you.

AT 1:30 I began drinking Miralax. I had to drink 8- 8 ounce glasses. The wonderful nurse the day before told me to mix it with different stuff to make it go down easier. I had it mixed with white grape juice, tea, and apple juice. I had to drink a glass every 20-30 minutes. The first three glasses went down great! and then.... The girls thought it would be good to watch The Gilmore Girls to distract me. It worked for awhile. 5 more glasses to go and I felt like Dumbledore in 'Half-Blood Prince' "Please don't make me drink anymore!" I got the rest down with the aid of chilled white grape juice. By now, I am a dishrag, on the sofa with Carl holding my hand.

I drank sprite and water til about 11:00pm. I could have nothing by mouth after midnight. The alarm went off at 5:40am. I kissed the girls goodby at 6 and we drove to the clinic. I checked in and sat back to people watch. Carl and I were sitting in a room with two other couples. We joked about all going out to eat together afterward! I was called back at 6:50. I had the nicest nurse. She was so gentle and the IV didn't even leave a bruise. She got me all comfy and even told me how beautiful my toenails were. At 7:25, I was wheeled into the procedure room. It was chilly- the nurse told me that the day before the air wasn't working and it was hot back there. I don't do 'hot' well so I was thankful that I had been postponed for a day. At 7:50 the doctor was telling Carl and me- I was still in laa laa land so I have no memory- that all was fine. At 9am I was tucked back into my bed at home and sleeping well.

I talked to a few folks on Tuesday. As soon as I answered the phone they all said " Ellen, are you okay?" My answer was " Yeeeesssss, (hear that in a very floaty sounding voice) I feel great!" I realize now that my family was home soon after that and I gladly handed off my cel and the land line.

One of my friends, who shall be nameless, got ahold of her cel phone on her way home from her procedure and she called people. Her message was the same from the office of her sister in a hospital to the place where she volunteers - She was Clean as a Whistle! She didn't just call them once but several times always with the same message.

Another friend thought it would be good to have it done during the Olympics so he could be distracted. He missed more of the games for those two days than he saw!

I was talking to Andrew before my procedure and complaining. He gently let me know that before he had his last x-ray he went through what I was going to have to go through plus even more. Oh, my.

My friend, Zach, who I have asked you to pray for, because his cancer is in his abdomen, has had to have several colonoscopies and he is 25.

If you are 50, get it done. Call me and I'll bring you some white grape juice and watch tv with you and give you lots of sympathy. I can highly recommend the clinic that did mine, call me and I'll tell you the name and my doctor.

Thanks Gary, send me the email again in 10 years!

You are just borrowing life and so am I

I read this today in Tabletalk and it stayed with me all day. I am still trying to get my mind around it. John Calvin said "We and all the creatures do not, strictly speaking, live, but only borrow life from Him."

Wow!

Very Interesting

God and the USS Indianapolis Here is a wonderful testimony to God.

New blog and church

If you are in Conway and need a wonderful church here it is PCA Church in Conway. I'll be adding this to my blog roll so you and I can keep up with what's going on there. Keep up the great work Kevin and Annie. We are praying for you.

A new daughter for me

Here are pictures!

I asked John and Marisa if I could tell they engagement story and they said "Yes!"

They have talked of marriage for some time and John knew what kind of ring she liked. He had been looking and checking out places to buy her ring and then he found the perfect ring in June.

I am impressed with John's thinking about when to give Marisa the ring. He thought that the one day she would not be expecting it was on his birthday. His birthday was Friday.

He asked Kaitlin if she could be taking pictures of Marisa at KimT's house. He wanted to ask her to marry him in their backyard with cello music playing. It all came together perfectly.

Marisa didn't have a clue.

We talked about celebrating John's birthday at Bonefish on Friday night and dressing up for it. Kaitlin then asked Marisa if she could get some shots of her at KimT's house while she was all dressed up as we were on our way to Bonefish. John was going to meet us there for supper.

KimT was in on the plan from the beginning but Kaitlin so coolly asked KimT in front of Marisa if they could take pictures on Friday afternoon. KimT said that that was fine and if they weren't going to be home she would let us know.

On Friday, Sheryce and I met Kaitlin and Marisa for lunch at the mall. Sheryce is heading back to Covenant soon and she wanted to spend some time with my girls. John wanted to get dressed at home before heading to KimT's house so we knew we couldn't be at home all afternoon just in case we passed him on the road. So we shopped! I told Sheryce about the engagement so she would be in on the spending all afternoon at the mall and shopping. She threw herself into it with vigor! Every time we were together without Marisa, Sheryce would could down the time til Marisa was going to be engaged!

Sheryce had to leave us at 3:30 so she could head to work. We three headed to KimT to show her what all we bought plus take some pictures ;). Marisa wanted to show KimT the clothes first but we said that we needed to get dressed first. She went right along with us. After she was dressed I sent John a message that everyone was in place.

John had been home and dressed in a suit. He bought a dozen roses at Walmart and got lots of smiles and 'way to goes' as he walked through the store with the roses dressed in a suit. He met up with our friend, Eli and they both drove to KimT's. Eli set up his cello and was playing 'Be Thou My Vision' Marisa's favorite hymn. You can tell when Marisa heard the music in Kaitlin's pictures because the look on her face is 'huh'

KimT and I are inside her house during all of this looking out the window. John approached and Marisa started crying. Kaitlin was snapping pictures the whole time. He dropped to one knee and she really cried then.

BobT had champagne. He poured us all a glass.

KimT had her computer out and ready for Marisa to change her status on Facebook. Then the texts were sent and the phone calls made.

Kaitlin also change her Facebook status to Kaitlin is going to have a new sister. That led to to much hilarity. She got texts and messages asking if I was going to have a baby! HA! Double HA!

At 5 we met Carl, 2 of Marisa's cousins and 1 of her brothers for supper. We were a party of 10. We had a great supper and wished John 'Happy Birthday'.

We went back to KimT's after supper for a little more visiting. As we were leaving her house, she thanked us for including her in this big event.

It was a fun day! We will always remember the day John and Marisa got engaged.

I am working on being young. How about you?

We were recently invited to a birthday party for our friend, Ruth. Ruth is a very young 85. She is not old. Some folks are old at 20 and some are young at 100.

Here is the table that Ruth set. It was very elegant. The party was in the retirement community that Ruth lives in.

Here we are with the birthday girl. Isn't she beautiful?
Here is the table again with many of the guests. One of the guests was having a birthday party in the next week. Her daughter was throwing it for her. She was very mad for most of the party because her daughter had put on the birthday invitations that she would be 85 and the women didn't want anyone to know how old she was. That cracked me up. I mean I am thinking that once you reach a certain age I can't really tell how old you are, you are old. 85, 86 does it make a difference? Well, it did to that lady.
Here is Liz, the daughter of my friend, Ruth serving the guests.
Here is the darling card that Kaitlin made for Ruth. We had a great time at the party but we all learned a few things. When we are older, we hope we don't tell complete strangers about our aches and pains and things we have had removed. Also, we were a little unnerved when one of the ladies-she was in her 80's- talked about her young doctor as being single and 'Hot'. We were stunned. She was giving out his name to the other ladies!

I'm hoping that I am a young 85 year old. I have read that we need to grow old on the outside not on the inside.

what do lava, Elvis and August 16th have in common?

Today is Carl's sister's birthday. Happy Birthday Marian!

Marian welcomed me into the family over 30 years ago. At our wedding I carried my flowers on a Bible that Marian had given me, a tradition she continues today when new brides enter our wonderful clan.

Marian is practical. I carry a small notebook in my purse because Marian does. She is able to write down information that she needs or a new book to read or a recipe she wants to try.

Marian is a photography. She taught me how to document my pictures. When we were at a theme park or a restaurant with the family, Marian always took a picture of the sign or the ride so she could document it. I do that now.

Marian knows how to clean clothes. If you have a stain , she can get it out. I now use Lava soap on my hard to get out stains. It is magic. In fact, I pray for Marian when I do laundry. I do better when I attach my praying to some physical activity.

Marian loves Red, White and Blue. I love to buy her stuff in that vein. She is very patriotic.

One of the most fun birthdays I have ever spent was with Marian on her 50th. We went to many of the antique stores on highway 280 as we headed down to AUBURN to eat lunch with her children. It was so much fun. I just remember laughing the whole day long.

Marian, I hope you had a laughing good day today!

Today is also the day that Elvis died. Marian never really liked Elvis and then when he died on her birthday and the radio stations only play his songs for two weeks before, she really doesn't like him. If you or I are ever on Jeopardy, we will not miss that question.

Do you know who he was?

Les Paul died. He was 94. A hat tip to Alex and Willy for broadening my horizons and telling me about Les Paul.

I am looking today, Are you?

McMama is one of Kaitlin's favorite blogs- after mine of course :) I don't have McMama on my blog roll because I love to hear Kaitlin read me what means a lot to her. When Kaitlin read me this blog entry I had to post it.

Enjoy and keep looking.

Could you wear a uniform?

If the government handed put uniforms for us to wear, I'd be happy. Picking put clothes is just a bother to me. I have the pants I like to wear that I order from Lands' End and I get my tops from there or Old Navy or sometimes Coldwater Creek. I like pink, blue and white. I have ventured out this year with a yellow top!

What I love is sunglasses! And the wilder the better. Marisa and Kaitlin keep me supplied in them. They even borrow my sunglasses sometimes! John started me on this path. He gave me some wild ones for my birthday last year. Here is my sunglass wardrobe.

Aren't they fun?

Where did the years go?

There have been many times in my life as a parent when I realized that I was crossing a threshold into a new dimension with my children.

One of the scariest is when they are learning how to drive. Nothing puts you on your knees more than sending a child out in the car by themselves EXCEPT riding in the car with a child driving. Carl has nerves of steel and he did the initial on the road with each of ours after they had been around the church parking lot a million times with me.

All our children had the opportunity to attend some form of driving school. Andrew attended in Pine Bluff while Kaitlin and John attended in LR. Kaitlin and John attended Thompson's Driving School. I cannot praise the instruction they received high enough. I learned so much too as they would come home and share what they had learned. I didn't know that you should not drive with your cruise control on in the rain so that you don't hydroplane or that your visor should only be all the way up or out enough to block the sun because if not, in a wreck it can cause great damage to your head.

The threshold I crossed this week was on Wednesday evening. John, Marisa, Kaitlin and I went up to Fayetteville for the day. Kaitlin was taking senior pictures. As we were heading home with John driving, the weather grew angry- wind, rain and then there was the hail. I have never been in a car in a hail storm. LOUD does not describe it. John never lost his cool, he was never flustered, he was steady and calm as all Hell hail was breaking loose all around us. I never had the feeling to take over the driving because I realized that I had complete confidence in John. Wow. When did this baby grow up and where did this man come from? I was sitting in the back seat and I fell asleep because I knew John was capable of getting us home.

And he did.

My friend Ralph

Kaitlin was hired to take pictures at the Celebration of Ralph's Life. Ralph was the precious man who sat behind us in church. Ralph was healed from this life's woe's and joined Jesus in early July.

Here is the church full of their friends.

The flowers at the front of the church were beautiful. As Ralph's son began to speak the sun hit right on the flowers and lit them up. It was amazing.
Ralph and Elizabeth love hearing Michael sing. Elizabeth called me shortly after Ralph died to ask me to call Michael to see if he could sing at the celebration. When Michael met with Elizabeth to discuss what he should sing for the celebration, she had a song in mind but could remember the name. She started singing the part she could remember, Michael knew it and joined in. I will never forget that moment. As they were singing, Elizabeth reached out to hold Michael's hand. They were singing 'When we all get to Heaven'. Tears streaming down all our faces. Just beautiful.

I hope some day you get the opportunity to hear Michael sing. After the service was over, Elizabeth came over to Michael and told him that Ralph loved hearing him sing and that she wished Ralph could have heard him today. Without missing a beat Michael said that what he (Michael) did that day pales in comparison to what Ralph was hearing in heaven.

My girls with Elizabeth
Kaitlin was following Elizabeth after the service and caught this shot of E with one of her sons walking to the dinner that had been prepared by Elizabeth's small group.

An Excellent Wife

Andrew had his first kidney stone in January 2005 while he was a student at AUBURN. When the pain hit him, he nor I had any idea what it was. After a few visit to a few doctors and the ER, Andrew had been poked enough for him so he just dealt with them. I tried, no I asked, no begged and pleaded is more like it, with Andrew to get further checked out, but it wasn't high on his to-do list.

Enter the lovely, beautiful, kind, sweet, and amazing Taylor. She encouraged Andrew to go to the doctor and just get some pain meds to help him deal with the pain. Andrew picked the urologist whose name he could pronounce and went. That was about 4 weeks ago.

He went in for an xray that the doctor ordered. Andrew was sent from the xray back to the doctor and then on to the hospital for pre-op. A stone was blocking a kidney. He had lithotripsy the next day and twice again in the next two weeks. It was a BIG stone.

Andrew said that he didn't know how bad he felt until he started feeling better.

How hard is it for a mama to be 12 hours away from a hurting child? VERY.

You know how you pray for the spouse that your child will marry? I prayed for Taylor for 24 years before I met her. I prayed she would love Jesus and Andrew and our family.

I am standing in Awe of how God answered my prayers. Taylor texted me and called me during each surgery. She texted pictures of him in his hospital bed so I could 'see' him. I could not have been better informed. What a blessing!

Two years ago today I was in AUBURN with lots of you and Andrew and Taylor as they got married. I know that Proverbs 12:4 says that an excellent wife is the crown of her husband well I say an excellent daughter-in-law is a precious jewel held close to a mama-in-laws heart.

I love you Taylor and I am so very thankful for you.