I'm the first one up this morning and wanted to tell some of my faithful readers to watch for Mark Lary and me at the Cardinal/Houston game this afternoon. Mark is picking me up at 11:30 St. Louis time and after we have lunch we're going to the ball game! We'll probably be the ones in red shirts. The Cards are on a real winning streak.

Rose just got up but Shirley nor Leslie has come down yet. My legs, especially my left one, are still bothering me, but I told Mark that I think I can walk the distance at the ball park. I've been doing the exercycle the past few days without any repercussions.

Sabrina and Dave and the boys are going to the lake this weekend, and although I really hate to miss that Scott is going to let us have Brayden and Jalen for the weekend. Rose and I are going to meet them half way to Louisville tomorrow and they're going to spend the night with Luke and Josie that night, and then we're going to do something fun the rest of the weekend. We don't know what yet.

More later.

Sorry I'm so far behind on updating on my doctor visits. After waiting for the vascular surgeon to call me for two days and my calling him and leaving messages for those two days, his nurse finally called me back late yesterday afternoon. I guess what she told me was good news. I don't have blockage in my left leg. The pain I'm suffering there must be from arthritis. (Is it spelled right, Brother Joe? He sent me an email and told me I should have spell check on for my last update!) I asked what the February procedure that the surgeon did was because he told Chris it was a stent and told Rose and me it was a balloon. The nurse said they were both the same thing. Rose and I thought they were different procdedures and that the doctor had told us they were different procedures. The nurse told me I should continue taking the blood thinner because of the blockage in my right leg.

When I had called for this appointment, the nurse had asked if I wanted an office visit or surgery appointment. The doctor didn't even know my left leg was bothering me. I asked the nurse what he was going to operate on. She said on my right leg and assumed the pain was so severe that I was ready for surgery. Surgery on my right leg will entail a two month recovery period and is not nearly that severe. At the time I made the appointment, no one asked me how severe the pain is. I'm going to discus this with my primary care doctor when I see her next time. Meanwhile, I hobble around and take pain pills and tried some Tylenol for arthritis this morning to see if that will let me stay awake. Pain pills make me sleep a lot.

So much for my troubles. Thursday evening Chris, Shelly and I had dinner at the Olive Garden. Chris is on a raw foods diet and the Olive Garden has an all-you-can eat-salad dinner that he wanted to take advantage of. They were entertaining and quite talkative about their trip out west. I nagged them about updating the blog and told them how if you wait too long you forget things you wanted to put in - amusing happenings among other things.

Last night Goldman and I went to the Casino and had dinner and played until very late. He was afraid he would be in trouble with Aunt Rose for our late evening, and when I tried to reassure him that it would be okay, he responded "You may noy be afraid of her but I am!"

Pete called this morning with his weekly call. Kelly and the boys were there and he and Janet were waiting for them to get up and cook breakfast. It was going to be warmer there than it's going to be here and if Janet felt up to it, they were going to a wedding. It was going to be an outdoor occasion. Hope you can make it, Janet.

I'm way behind on my postings but so is everyone else. It was a great kids' week. Our 18th annual one. Mike Lynch came for a few days. Chris was there for the second weekend and got to meet some of his Kansas relatives that he hadn't met before. Leslie from Springfield came up and cooked us one of her fabulous meals. Leslie, would you send me another recipe for that green stuff? It was a mover and every little bit was scarfed up. Sabrina and Debby took the copy of the recipe that you brought me.

One of my nice neighbor helped the guys get the waverunner from the shop and it is running great. Thank you, Dave Meisel. Mad Dog had to leave before our pork steak meal but came back over from his dad's and cooked them for us. Again, I think we ate every morsel. Groves came for both weekends. Scott's boys brought a friend, Christian, and between the three of them and Junior they kept the red thing (spinning thing they ride in behind the boat) in action as long as they could get someone to pull them.

I believe there were quite a few pictures taken. I'm waiting for someone to post them on the blog and also to add some updates about the happenings during the week. Attendance was down for a kids' week but jobs and kids and responsibilities tend to make things different as we get older.

Since I came back I've been doing a lot of doctoring. On the way home with Ding on that Sunday evening I had an awful attack of pain in both my legs. We were on our way to the emergency room when Chris's car quit, so we called on Dave Smith who was there in a matter of minutes. Thanks again, Dave. The emergency room gave me pain pills, which relieved the pain, and sent me on my way. Shelly picked Chris and me up and dropped us at Rose's house. Rose was in Chicago so we could use her car next day since I had an appointment with one of my neurologists - the seizure one who was born in Springfield in the same hospital as Donald and I were. This doctor has me in an experimental drug for seizures along with lots of other people where I keep a diary of my seizures until Sept. 22 and then go back and add the drug to the medication I am already taking, or it could perhaps be a placebo, or they may switch it midway through the test where I take half the drug and placebo, or it might be the new drug all the way through. I won't know what I'm taking. Also, I can quit any time if I chose to. I really like this doctor, and he seems confident about my trying this. While I was there they took 5 vials of blood. I'm not easy to get blood from, and, having been limited to 16 ounces of fluid by my primary care physician for several days before, it was even more difficult. I looked like a pincushion when they finally finished with me. Then one of the vials showed I was anemic (which I wasn't the night before at the emergency room) so I had to get more blood testing done again yesterday between other doctor visits. Sure enough, I'm not anemic.

Shirley got back from Chicago on Monday and Rose got back on Tuesday. As soon as Rose got home we went to my primary care physician about my legs pain. The doctor assumed it was the recurring problem from last February and told me to make an appointment with the same vascular surgeon. When I called for the appointment, the nurse asked did I want an office visit or did I want to schedule surgery. Needless to say, I wanted an office visit. When Rose and I went for the office visit yesterday morning, the surgeon said the problem and pain in my legs may be from arthritis in my back. Rose and I were both so taken aback that there were several questions we were too stunned to ask. Can I live on pain pills? Is the blood thinner he has me on necessary? What did he do in that first surgery? If it's arthritis, was the first surgery necessary? He did send me yesterday afternoon to MoBap Hospital for a test with the vascular nurse for whole-system blood pressure testing. I think that's what it was for. The nurse told me she would have the results to the surgeon on Wed. He told me he would call me in a week. The nurse said if she were me she would call him on Thursday and I plan to do that.

That's all the doctoring news. I'll update with more regular news next time. Need more updates from around the reading area!!!

Sue and I go have our nails done occasionally. We are treated like royalty by young women whose English is much better than our Mandarin!

This week I'm in St. Louis for my second week back to work since maternity leave and I've really missed the girls. Ellie told me tonight that she wanted me to come home now and it made me said since my flight doesn't leave until tomorrow. I heard Kaitlyn screaming in the background and it made me feel even worse.

Last weekend we went to the Ozarks to visit Great Aunt Sue. Uncle Joe, Aunt Debbie, Sabrina, Martesia and JR were there along with Scott, Brayden and Jalen as well Chris. We had a great time. Saturday Ellie was on the go from 9:30am until sundown. She first wanted to go "water skating" which meant the waverunner so John took her for a ride. Then we spent a lot of time in the Lake. She was used to it this time and really enjoyed swimming by the dock with her life jacket. We even saw some ducks for her to feed and then she got to swim with them! She just couldn't wait to get on the boat - that is usually her favorite time of the trip! We didn't spend any time at the pool - we were too busy with all the other things to do. Saturday night she fell asleep sitting in the chair with Aunt Sue while she told her a story. It was so adorable to see Ellie so comfortable sitting there with my Aunt and dozing off to Aunt Sue telling a story about whatever popped into her head - even made me tear up a bit. Sunday got a little more playing in and Ellie was of course not ready to go. Both her and Kaitlyn were asleep before we got out of Aunt Sue's driveway! Kaitlyn slept the entire way home and Ellie woke up in time to watch a movie. I'll post some pictures when I get back home.

I almost forgot that while we were there, Ellie kept referring to Scott as Aunt Sue's daddy! He made breakfast each morning and although Ellie ate some bacon, she didn't eat near as much as she did when Goldman cooked bacon last time we were there in June! Ellie also got to sleep with Aunt Sue and despite the fact she was hesitant at first, I know she enjoyed it. She asked me before we went there if she could call her Granny and I said yes, of course but she never did. She must have just been preparing ahead of time :)

One thing that I learned when we were on our 16 day journey, is that you have to pack a lot. And when you pack that much, it is hard to get away quickly. We arrived in Yellowstone on Saturday, stayed Saturday and Sunday nights and headed for Idaho Falls on Monday morning. But we had to pack and it took a bit longer than expected (because we had so much stuff). Then we had to go shopping. I should have known that, but it didn't register. And we didn't see any places that we had to stop at, until we got to West Yellowstone. So we shopped. Aunt Janet had emailed me that Nancy had made reservations at a restaurant for 6:30 that evening. Our original plan was to stop between Yellowstone and Idaho Falls for a hike, but suddenly, we were running out of time. After we played some phone tag we got Aunt Janet live and found out the eating establishment was called the SandPiper. We got to our hotel on the Idaho Falls Greenbelt (which was beautiful) and we could not have picked a room closer to the Sandpiper. Our room was on the end of the hotel closest to the Sandpiper. And while we did not have time to go for a hike, we got to go on a great run around the greenbelt.

Shelly and I walked over to the Sandpiper and met Uncle Pete, Aunt Janet, Rick, and Nancy. I hadn't seen Rick or Nancy in 12 years, and Shelly had never met them, and of course you can never get enough of Uncle Pete and Aunt Janet. We had a wonderful meal and of all the things Uncle Pete could have brought, he brought his famous credit card. Oh, and it was my 40th birthday. It all comes full circle....Mom came out for Nancy's 40th, I came out for my 40th. It could not have been nicer. Afterwards we were stuffed, but Shelly and I googled desserts in Idaho Falls and came up with Scottie's. The burgers looked so greasy, we had to get one of those too. It was a good thing we went for the run.

We met at Nancy's the next morning for a wonderful breakfast. Afterwards Uncle Pete and Aunt Janet took us for a tour of all of the old stomping grounds that we used to stay at when we would come out for the summer. The old house, the lava flow, the canals,...it really meant a lot to be able to revisit such an exciting part of my youth and share it with Shelly. We then dropped off Aunt Janet at home, and Uncle Pete took us through Wolverine Pass and around Taylor Mountain to Bone and back. (at least that is where I think we went). Uncle Pete should have been a real estate agent. "You could probably get a ranch up here for 40, 50k these days, Shelly could ride her horse,..." She was sold until he mentioned the lack of electricity and plumbing.

We dropped off Uncle Pete and went back to the hotel to get ready for the BBQ they were having for us that night. Uncle Pete gave us great, simple directions and I blew them and went the wrong way. We realized it after a couple of miles and turned around. About this time I was calling Kelly in Boise to make plans for the next day. The phone was ringing and Ahead of me about 200 yards away a Tahoe was making a uturn, not looking where it was going and got nailed by a tractor trailor. That's when Kelly answered. "Kelly I am going to have to call you back". Shelly thingks that the tractor trailor is going to hit us too and she is screaming. She calms down and calls 911. She tells them what happened and she asked me where we are. "We are on Highway 20" "Where at on Hwy 20?" "It's the Arco Hwy." "Where at on the Arco Highway?". "I don't know. Tell them that if you were coming from Uncle Pete's to our hotel and turned the wrong way on Hwy 20 for two miles and turned around and came back a mile, that is where we are at". She wasn't amused. But the driver of the Tahoe ended up walking around and being OK. It was a miracle.

Anyway we got to Uncle Pete's for the BBQ and it was great. In addition to our previous crew the night before, we also had the privelege of meeting Merri's son James and Rick and Nancy's son Eric. Oliver and Eli got to play with Eldrich, James' bulldog. The food was wonderful, but who would have expected anything differently. The highlight was a zuchini cake Aunt Janet made for me. She revels in the fact that she could get me to eat zuchini when Mom couldn't get me to eat, well, anything green. We got to ride on Uncle Pete's segway too. But most of all, we got to swap stories and tell tales that people who haven't seen each other in years get to do. And we decided that we have to do this more....and we will. The only disappointing part was not being able to see Merri, but that just makes it a necessity to go out again real soon. I don't currently have Idaho Falls pics as I write this, but I will throw them on at the beginning of my next post....The journey to Boise and beyond....

More later...

Ding

Brother Joe sent this e-mail to Sue, and we thought it should go here:

It is always very rewarding when a dear reader comments and responds to our blog. You are always welcome. A dear reader recently inquired about Crown Store, in Webster County, MO, however the e-mail address did not cooperate and we were unable to answer directly. We may be able to provide sources of additional information, upon request. For now, the following is suggested:

If you will Google Crown School, Webster County, Missouri, then click on Webster County Missouri Schools, then click on Crown School you will find a map and a list of nearby points. e.g. Crown. MO. 0.1 mile, etc.

Crown Store, Crown School, Friendship Baptist Church and cemetery are all very close.

Going southwestwardly out of Marshfield, on Hwy KK, you will cross James River and come to where KK turns right. Bell Ford Road, going eastwardly, (left) intersects KK at this point. Crown Store was at or near this intersection, on the south side of the road. The store remained open during WW II but I don't know when it closed. Crown School was consolidated and closed, probably in the late 1950's?

Also the following may be of interest: It may also be necessary to use Google?

A Directory of Towns, Villages, and Hamlets of Missouri

Our niece, Kaye, daughter of our late brother Bernie and his widow, Maudie, sent Sue the following birth announcement with photos:

Hi Aunt Sue,I was just reading the blog and thought I would just let you know that we have a new granddaughter!! Aubrey Bouchee ( her mothers maiden name) Peterson was born on June 24, 2009 at 5:14 am! She is 7 pounds and 9 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long!! We tried to get mom to wait until Dad's birthday but there was no stopping her. The doctors sent Danielle home at 4 am and said to wait because they didn't think the baby would be born until the due date (June 30th) Good thing Dad is cop and can go 120 on the freeway or he would have had to deliver his second child in the car. They were still home at 5:00am!! Everyone is healthy and home. Ethan is being a good big brother but wants to play and doesn't understand why she doesn't. I hope to send pictures with this email but I don't always get it right so let me know if you are picture -less when you get this! Love, Kaye

PS The pictures are of Aubrey and one with Dad (Nate) I will send one with the whole family but they are not very flattering of Danielle so far!












Kaye and her family live in Mesa, Arizona. It is always a joy to welcome a new member in our far-flung clan! Congratulations!

Chris and Shelly have left us in suspense on their way to Uncle Pete's house. Their update so far has been great. Waiting for the next post.

I'm at the lake sitting outside on a beautiful morning. This is the 18th kids week here - no children allowed - and will run till Friday. Needless to say, the 'kids' have turned into practically middle-aged. I still call them kids and they certainly take good care of me. On Friday I'm expecting lots of Kansas relatives and looking forward to that too.

Goldman, Mad Dog and I arrived last Thursday. Scott came from Louisville Friday evening. He said he would be here at 7:30; I looked at the clock when he pulled up--7:30. Groves and Dave Smith (Sabrina's husband) also arrived that evening. We called it my male harem. Three of them had to leave yesterday but Mad Dog and Goldman are still here. I've hardly moved off the lower level except to go to bed but plan to go to town today. Scott has lost over 40 pounds and refuses to buy himself some new pants so I'm going to buy him some. I've been calling him 'baggy britches' and 'droopy drawers' which is what Joe used to call me when I was a kid. He did say the food was so good down here that he was afraid he had gained back some that he had lost this weekend. He will be back with the boys this coming weekend.

The waverunner is in the shop but should be fixed any day now. One of my good neighbors helped us put it on the trailer and take it to the shop to avoid an extra cost. Another neighbor offered his waverunner cause he and his family are off to, of all places, Idaho, for the rest of the week. It's Dover, ID. I'm having the shop talk to Doug about what they're doing to the waverunner because he has already done some things and knows the most about it. He and Suzanne couldn't make it this weekend, but we've talked often. They really hate missing being here. It may be the first kids week they've had to miss.

Margaret called yesterday. They were still 'down in the valley' but had to go home today. She had talked to Donald and to Pauline yesterday. Everything was good with Pauline. Donald and Vita were going to Florida today with four of their five grandsons. Sounds like a great trip.

Reading over old blog entries, I think I used to be wittier than I am now. I'll try to regain my wit. I'm limited to 16 ounces of liquid a day (because of low blood sodium) and the boys watch me closely. I may be up through tomorrow with my coffee already.

Mad Dog and Goldman aren't up yet but it's about time I got them up. When everyone was all here, they played cards until 3 A.M. one night, and I'm not sure about the next night. It's time for breakfast.

Looking very forward to next weekend and loving it that I can be here all week. Mike Lynch is coming tomorrow for kids week and I hope more 'old' kids come too. Leslie (my wonderful Springfield beighbor) may come up for a day. Sam has to work and keep those damndogs (one word). I'm trying to talk Joe into coming up - at least for a day. Rose has to be in Chicago next weekend and can't come and hates that.

Going to sign off. NEED MORE POSTS.