May, May, May

May is one of my favorite months in New England.

I've decided that May and October are the very best and most beautiful times to be here, so if you can swing a visit during those months, it is WORTH your WHILE!

Flowers, flowers everywhere, new growth on trees and bushes, and just enough rain to keep things fresh but not too hot or humid yet. Excellent.

I'm sure we did a million things this week. I wish I could remember just one!

While the rest of the country finishes up their school year, we still have about 5 weeks left. We didn't even have any snow days this year, and we are STILL in school until June 21st. Go figure.

I'm drawing a blank on excitement: I drive every day more than I thought was possible. The school, sports practice, orthodontist appointments.

I still go to the grocery store more than I'd like (note: I'd LIKE to go ONE time a week. It never seems to happen). I still spend more money there than I'd like.



Oh, here's a good thing: they've finally started digging the perimeter of our house foundation: jack-hammering up concrete, digging-digging-digging, and laying gravel and pipe so in the future, water has a place to go, easily flowing to the sump pump in the other corner of the lower level. It's loud. It's dusty. My house is still a shambles and I can't find anything...but we have been dry--! :)


I'll leave you with an image of the great cake that Grammie D made for Kara's birthday party a few weeks ago. I promise you, it totally looked like a dish of spaghetti! So much so, that the girls at the party were NOT too sure they wanted any or not! Very funny. but the noodles are frosting, the meatballs are frosting, and the reddish sauce on top is strawberry jam. It was awesome!

Have a great week, Kari

The Hair Donation

Hello!

Teresa (12) has had this idea for a long time that she wants to donate her hair. It's kind of a cool thing, where you grow out a ponytail and donate it to be made into a wig for cancer patients. She got the idea from her cousin Mandy, who had a new haircut last summer and she had just donated her hair.

It takes quite a few ponytails to make a wig, and it has to be tied together with rubber bands before you cut it, so they won't be all straggly.

Many places require a 10 inch minimum, but we found one with an 8-inch minimum. (Pantene Beautiful Lengths is the program, if you want to click for more info.)

The other part was, she didn't want a REALLY short haircut. So she grew it out a little longer. (She could keep a little more that way.)

You can click on these to enlarge them. Here are the "before" pictures.

Then me cutting the ponytail...

And the "final look" after we went to a friend of ours who cuts hair professionally.

Teresa donated 9 inches.

Now. Before you think she's "turned over a new leaf" with a BRAND new look or anything...she came home, we took these photos, and she immediately put it up in...what?? -- of course a ponytail, which she wears every day except maybe Sundays, when I can convince her to do something different with it! It's just a shorter ponytail.

Have a great week! Kari

Spring Break #2

Hello!

One small oddity of living in New England is the fact that the Public Schools have TWO spring breaks. One week in February (I guess that can be referred to as "Winter Break"), and one week in April.

Months ago, we planned to visit Florida this break. Here's a synopsis of the trip.

MILWAUKEE. "Wait," you say: "Isn't Milwaukee in Wisconsin, not Florida??!?" Well. If you research and study the Internet long enough, you can find yourself a flight from Boston to Ft. Myers, Florida, VIA MILWAUKEE, and save your family hundreds of dollars. Just ask Frank. He did it!

We had a full day "layover" in Milwaukee, and since none of us had been to Wisconsin before, we rented a car and explored.

JELLY BELLIES. We took the tour of the Jelly Belly factory, and of course they spit you out in the store, with a free sample counter to try the new flavors. Along the tour we saw amazing masterpieces of Jelly Belly artwork, from Queen Elizabeth, to the famous farmer & his wife.

And of course Ronald Reagan, who made Jelly Bellies popular in a BIG way, by eating them on his Presidential campaign. (Truly. I'm not making this up. Ronald Reagan made Jelly Bellies famous in the late 70's, and they dedicate a whole wall to him.)

HARLEY-DAVIDSON MUSEUM. There's a Harley museum in Milwaukee, believe that or not! I'm not even a big motorcycle fan, but the museum was pretty cool. They have a statue guy doing a wheelie in the front, and inside they have the history of motorcycles, including really old ones and motorcycles during war time, and a whole room of seats and engines they have used over time. You can get on them, and hear the different engines revving up.

I was very pleasantly interested and surprised.









OKEECHOBEE. Ok, we DID finally make it to Florida! If you look at a map of the state, there is a huge lake in the middle. That's Lake Okeechobee, and Frank's parents live right on the western edge of it. They have a lovely house that David (Frank's dad) practically built by himself, and the garden is chock full of yummy vegetables.















FISHING. The kids spent time fishing off of their dock in the backyard, in the canal behind their house.









Teresa caught not only fish, but a turtle too! Of course it was all catch-and-release. Kara and Teresa got pretty good at taking the hooks out quickly.











FLORIDA KEYS. We could not go to Florida without visiting the Keys. After a few days we drove down to Key Largo, with warm temps and sunshine. They had just finished a busy couple of weeks of the traditional "spring break" around Easter weekend, so it was pretty quiet for us. One day, in fact, we had the boat almost to ourselves as we went...

SCUBA DIVING AND SNORKELING. Aaahhh, THIS is why people come to the Keys! We could not have asked for better days for these two activities. Sunshine, 80 degrees (not too hot yet), and the water was around 76 degrees. We use wetsuits regardless of the water temps; for whatever reason, we get cold in ANY water. But at least if you start at 76 degrees, you have a fighting chance to stay warm longer in a wetsuit.



Day 1 snorkel/scuba trip had absolutely calm waters. Fish, more fish, and more fish. Day 2 was a little choppier, but still only 1-2 foot waves. Heaven.

THROWING UP. Ok, lest you think that we only have bliss during our vacations. We still had puking. (I didn't take any photos of that, sorry to disappoint...) Poor Kara had her antibiotics without a meal one time (yes we are still working on the end of her lengthy prescription to fight off the Lyme Disease). Made her sick to her stomach.

And then I, too, was nauseous between dives on the second day. Please just let me die, I am thinking to myself. "Get back under the water," the divemaster tells me. "The seasickness will go away." Right. I SOOO did not believe him, but figured I could not possibly feel any worse than I did at that moment. He was right: as soon as I got down under again, it went away.

KAYAKING. The next morning we took turns kayaking around the bay of the resort where we stayed. Very pretty, very calm. The kids did pretty well.

All in all, it was a very nice escape!

(Now it's back to reality, and BOY is it hard to get back to work after a vacation!)

Have a good week! Kari

Number 3??

Hola!

"They Say" that adversity always comes in threes. I have the third one for you!

Let's re-cap; details are in previous blog posts.

#1: David's spinal surgery for scoliosis . OK, I admit, we planned that one. It was not a surprise. But it has been a big deal to work with David's surgery, hospital stay, and recovery.

#2: Torrential rains causing our basement flooding...twice. 10 inches in 3 days the first round, then 5 more inches in 2 days the second round. Everybody keeps saying "I've lived here 20 years and I've never seen water like this!" For approximately 3 weeks now, we have had varying (large) amounts of water in our basement.

Now for#3: Kara has been diagnosed with Lyme Disease. (Well...it's really not as bad as it sounds. Anything with "disease" at the end sounds frightfully bad.) It's a New England thing, passed along by infected deer ticks, for Pete's sake! These may be as big as a pinhead. You're supposed to check your kids for ticks all summer, especially if they've been playing in the woods where they may pick up ticks. Often there will be a bullseye rash: a ring with a dot as one symptom, or maybe flu-like symptoms. Or maybe they won't have those symptoms! It varies. Then it goes to their joints. I took her to the doctor with a swollen knee--no injury, no reason for the swelling. That was the cue, for the doctor. They did a blood test and it was positive for Lyme.

She has probably had it for weeks or even months, they say. The treatment is 28 days on an antibiotic. (Thank you, thank you for medicines, I say!!!)

So, if I may make a request, I would like that to be our #3. And that's all for awhile.

Here are some pictures of the flooding--you can click to enlarge. Our intersection 1/2 mile away is still closed (the one the kids are wading through).

We have a never-ending swimming area in the driveway...

Here are the yukky water-logged wallboards...

And what would we have done without the wet/dry vaccuum...

There is still water coming in the basement, but it's really slow now.

It's a beautiful Easter Morning! Maybe we'll focus a few minutes on that today. :) Kari

March Happened

Hello!

It has been a blurry month. I think I will not be sad to turn the page from "March" to "April."

I will do a 2-part-blog, starting with good news:

Part I: DAVID
David has made remarkable progress, from the actual surgery day to today, just 22 days after the surgery. In the hospital he surprised the nurses by getting up and around sooner than they predicted, reaching 'goals' of sitting up, standing up and then walking around the loop of the hospital floor, a day or two days before "average." Then he asked to walk up the stairs they had in the Physical Therapy room, two days before they expected him to be able to. This is also why they kind of "pushed him out" of the hospital a day early. He was doing very well.

Thankfully, he continues to do well. He has not had pain in his back, even though they opened up his spine and did a major, major surgery. Discomfort, yes. He has to shift after a time of sitting, and he is very careful when he is getting up or sitting or laying down. But not pain. He told me the other day that he has not taken any Tylenol for a week now.

He was in the hospital one week, then home one week, then last week he attended early morning seminary and he would come home after seminary. We started having tutors over here for his different school subjects last week, and he has been able to focus on catching up on some school work. His teachers send packets, DVD's they watched in class, and quizzes and tests with the tutor, so he can take them here. We are continuing that this week.

Next week he may start back to school, partial days. We'll see.

He has had lots of attention, from people visiting, having both his grandmas here over the course of 2 weeks, and gifts and notes and phone calls and cards. We have felt very supported, between family, friends, and church members. That part has been wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Part II: WATER
An ongoing ugly process, vacuuming up water and pulling up the flooring and walls and insulation downstairs. Last weekend we had a POD delivered to the driveway, and had a move-the-boxes-and-bins-out-into-the-POD party. We had steady, intermittent help from church members and friends throughout the day--it worked out SO nicely, the timing. I am forever grateful for them for giving up a couple of hours on a Saturday to do a boring, lame job for us.

Now, it's raining again, third round in 2 weeks, second straight day, this round. Flood watches and warnings all over, and the water is coming into our basement again. Not nearly like it was! But it's there, pooling, in the garage. We'll watch to see if it starts again in the laundry room.


Now we make decisions, how much to do, how little, what to "finish" in the basement, this time around, and what to leave more "raw." How to re-arrange our use of the garage since the water threat is in some parts more than others.


This house is 60 years old. It needs to be bull-dozed and re-built! But we aren't in a position to do that--and would we want to, even if money was no object? Hmmm.

(Meanwhile, happy birthday to Frank, Kara, and myself this month!)

March happened. THAT is our update!

Kari

Nor-Easter

Hi--
Wow--it's been a very weird 36 hours.

They call these storms "Nor'Easters," a big storm in March that mixes snow and sleet and rain...

For us, it was RAIN-RAIN-RAIN! And lots of wind and a little sleet, and about 10 inches of water in 3 days. This is all after ten days ago, when we had a 2-day rain, so the ground was already pretty saturated.

Combine those and other weird factors, and we had...lots...of...water. Flooding in streets and parking lots, closed roads. And the drumroll, please... Water...In...The...Whitesell's...Garage...And...Basement. AAaarrgghh!

Sunday night at 8 p.m. I went into the garage (lower level, same level as the basement) and saw water on the floor. Uh-oh.

Further study of the situation showed other places in the garage where there was water. Increasing levels of water. Water coming in through tiny dots in the cinderblock along the whole wall of the garage.

These walls are lined with storage shelves, of course, so it was emptying all those shelves to then move the shelves away from walls, to examine just where could this water be coming in...oh, look, there's a little stream coming from that hole, from that part of the wall.

That plumber's putty works to a POINT. But water was still getting in. Lots of putty patches later, it was still making puddles, which were still growing.

So when OUR lame wet/dry vac proved to be ineffective, we called the neighbors and luckily they had a bigger, better one. Two sump pumps going, and a wet/dry vac sopping up water. That was the first 12 hours, rain still pouring outside.

Morning came, after 3 of us (Frank, myself, and Frank's mom, Diane--here to help David, of course, but by the way, can you also stay up all night vacuuming up water??) had staggered through 3 hours of sleeping, in shifts.

Frank says, "Well, maybe you can stay home from work today after all...now it's coming into the laundry room and boiler room in the basement."

You can see how this went! Sit down and rest a minute, knowing you will pay for it in gallons of water when you get back up. Move stuff to a different location because here's a new puddle and that's a cardboard box, YUK!

12 hours ago, at 9:30 p.m., after 3 days and like I said 10 inchdes of water, the rain stopped.

Of course the water is still coming into our basement! But it is slowing down a LITTLE. The sun is out and it will be 50 for the rest of the week. There is hope! Kari

Here's Your Hat

Hello!

Again, no fabulously entertaining post with award-winning photos...just another update on David's status!

Drumroll please...he's home now! Yes, hard to believe, and actually he came home LAST NIGHT. Yes. Friday night! Just 4 days after having his back opened up and worked on, leaving a 9-inch incision to heal. They pushed him right out the door.

Actually, all the doctors and nurses have been VERY nice. Answering questions, apologizing for waking him up all the time, willing to do anything we asked.

But David just met all their requirements, on being able to walk around, walking up stairs, getting off the stronger medication and onto pills, and starting to eat real food. So they said "you can go home!"

He had one set of final xrays, and I asked Frank to get a copy of it. I'll post more of that later.

But the coolest thing is, they took X-rays DURING the operation--! Every 10 minutes!

So they put it on a disk for us (I haven't seen it yet), so we'll see glimpses of the hardware as it went in--here's one bolt, here's another plus part of the rod, etc., etc.

Anyway. I can also hardly believe that he's JUST ON TYLENOL now. No, I'm not kidding. It is uncomfortable to be in a car, and he changes position and shifts in chairs and laying down, but with this discomfort, he just takes Tylenol equivalent.

Diane (Frank's mom) also came yesterday. David actually beat her home! Thank you for continued thoughts and prayers. It feels so much better to have him here.

More later, Kari