I posted earlier today but didn't get finished before I had to quit. It's not that I have a lot to do. It's just that it takes me a long time to do what I do.

Yesterday was Scott's birthday. I didn't get to spend a lot of the day with him but did get to spend some. He drove back from the lakehouse and stopped here for a while and then drove on to Louisville. He was going out to dinner with Brayden and he was hoping Jalen got to join them. He wanted them to make him a birthday present but I don't know if they did or not. I haven't heard from him today.

Shirley flew down to Lake Charles, LA, on early Friday morning and is coming home tonight. She visited her family and attended a great nephew's wedding. She gets home tonight at around eight, and Goldman and I are going to pick her up at the airport because Rose has a class she's teaching. We missed Shirley while she was away but were really glad she was here for Thanksgiving Day.

Karen is stopping by tomorrow to drop off our dish from Thanksgiving dinner. I hope she has time so we can sit and visit. She and Mark sure prepared a lovely table and dinner. Mark took time to take Rose and me out to visit and "pet" the chickens. One of them is named after me! The prettiest one!

Rose took pictures at their house that day and I'm sure she will post them soon. This blog is a good way of going back over the past. It's something like a diary. I did most of the Thanksgiving posts but Christmas is coming up real soon. Let's hear from you. Pete promised me on Saturday that he would send me a posting. I don't have it yet but that's a start.

It's been a while since my last post. I've been waiting for other people to update and have had a long wait. I'm back to feeling okay and have several things to update about. We had a terrific Thanksgiving celebration. Mark and Karen hosted the dinner and I believe everyone 'ate too much'. The meal was wonderful. The only regrettable thing about the day was that Scott and the boys didn't get there. Scott got to St. Louis later but didn't get to bring the boys. We all missed them. Karen sent a full plate here for Scott, and he had his Thanksgiving dinner while he visited with Rose, Shirley and me.

The Abbotts had their Thanksgiving celebration at Catrina and Robby's. Pete and Janet had a houseful of guests at their new home. Kelly and the boys went duck hunting Saturday morning. They celebrated Thursday at Gene's who is Janet's brother. Donald and Vita took their family to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. I had a nice note from Jana in the Kansas crowd but don't know what they were doing. Uncle Joe and family were probably still aglow from the award that Lisa was awarded in San Diego. I'm still waiting to hear from the Washington/Oregon/Arizona bunch. I hope all of you remember - this is the Family Gazette!!

My last bout of being very ill has passed. I went into the hospital for my regular IVIG and got to feeling much worse as I was leaving. My physician kept me a day longer. Rose and Shirley were attending a conference over in Columbia, Illinois so when I came home everyone was afraid to leave me alone. I didn't know I was so popular and well-liked. Rose and Shirley came home when they could but I was sorta doped up and I'm still not sure who all was here at different times. I got up Saturday morning and was going to the bathroom and who peeked around the corner at me? Brayden! I was surprised, to say the least. Scott had come all the way from Louisville and brought him knowing he'd be back in three days. They just wanted to surprise me.

I went back to the neurologist before Thanksgiving and had some more tests after my bout in the hospital and the episode with the seizures. The tests show I have low sodium and the doctor said I should eat lots of salt and lots of salty foods. It's amazing but I am so much better. Even my left leg which I was going to have either a stent or angioplasty this week is better. I had pain with it and the pain with my walking is gone though I haven't walked any distance. I am back to riding the exercycleon a daily basis though that never did hurt.

Joe sent some lovely photos of Lisa's award celebration in San Diego. Here is the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2010actfltoy/sets/72157622872077340/

Brother Joe sent this e-mail today. His daughter, Lisa (Lilley) has won the teacher of the year award for foreign language.

Congratulations, Lisa!

From: Jgfelin
To: MarthaBoaz
Sent: 11/25/2009 8:18:40 A.M. Central Standard Time
Subj: Re: California

Our trip to/from San Diego, California Nov 19-22 was wonderful. Airplanes and all!

Lisa won the Foreign Language National Teacher of the Year award. She will be traveling to a number of locations throughout the U.S., in 2010. The outgoing recipient showed a power point presentation of her activities and included visiting with many dignitaries, including the Ambassador from France.

While Lisa was attending the meetings Friday afternoon, Mary, Jack (Lisa's husband) and I took a couple of tours. Very interesting. Jack and I also went through the Aircraft Carrier Midway, now a museum. On our boat tour, we also saw the Aircraft Carried Ronald Reagan. It made the oldie look small.

Ironically, Granddaughter Lydia and her High School Media Class also won a number of awards the previous week, in Washington, D.C.

Thanksgiving this year will be at daughter Beth and family's home.

Glad to hear you are up and at them again. Being away from the inter-net leaves one wondering what everyone else is doing. It is always good to get back home!

Bro Joe

This is Ding with an update......

Shelly took Mom to the hospital Monday morning for her IV-IG.....Routine Maintenance as I call it. I came down and all three of us had lunch before departing. Aunt Rose was to pick Mom up on Tuesday. Mom got all checked out and they waited for an hour for a wheelchair. Finally Aunt Rose just went out to steal one. While she was gone, Mom had one of her "spells" and they wouldn't let her go. Auntie had a client, so I came by after work to get her. I got there and we were waiting for the doctor Mom had another one. They decided to keep her another day.

The next morning Shelly went to pick Mom up. Aunt Rose had eye surgery that morning to alleviate the after effects of cataract surgery....and it went swimmingly. She and Shirley had a conference starting Wednesday afternoon and going through Sunday in Columbia, IL. I ended up spending the night with Mom Wednesday to make certain all was good. She did fine Wednesday evening, hanging out with Goldman and having Cicero's for dinner. We had Starbuck's for breakfast.

Shirley came home for lunch that day, got Mom some soup and tended to one of her clients. Mom had a rough time of it for the next few days, having some minor seizures, but then taking Adavan to control them which really knocks her out. Mad Dog came over and took care of Mom on Thursday afternoon. I left work that day and had a delivery to a facility that is the same one that our friend Fat Jack is staying. After visiting with Jack, I brought back Subway and Mad Dog, Mom, and I ate together. The next morning I got up and went to work after being relieved of duties by Mad Dog. He went to work at 10 after being relieved by brother Mark, who came to Bemes after being relieved by Shelly, who brought sandwiches from the Bread Company for lunch. I came over after work and took over for Shelly.

Mom was supposed to go and help Scott out in Louisville this weekend, but couldn't make it....so he and Brayden came here. They got in late Friday night, and I tried to keep Mom up, but she was too exhausted. So it was a wonderful surprise to realize that Brayden and Scott were there when she woke up. It seems to have really helped her too....She seems over her round of seizures and getting back to good health and spirits. Uncle Pete called on Saturday and chatted a bit. Aunt Rose came by for awhile and Scott and Brayden went bowling.

Shelly and I came over with lunch as Scott and Brayden had a long drive back. Brayden didn't want to leave, which of course thrilled Granny. Aunt Rose and Shirley are due back this afternoon. We then have a short week, with Thanksgiving and all. Shelly and I are big fans of waiting in line all night for Black Friday, but have decided to take this year off. We are all gathering at Mark and Karen's. Karen has gathered lots of family to run in the Kirkwood Turkey Day run early that morning.....we should be quite the pack.....I will probably bring up the rear, just as I have most of my athletic career (I am good at it though!).

Mom hasn't gotten any return to sender mail from her Wanda Jean address, so we think it must be good. However, she hasn't gotten a reply either....

All for now,....

Ding

I haven't posted for a while and there's several things that need updating. I talked to Margaret today. Rose and I have been talking to her everyday, and Norman and Robbie have been taking turns staying with her cause they'd like someone to be with her in the hospital as much as possible, i.e., someone who is familiar with her seizures. Norm's the only one who's familiar with them and he has a bed in her room. When he has to go home and really rest and shower occasionally, Robbie fills in for him. Margaret is hooked up to wires and has a hat made out of gauze looking stuff atop her head. Rose and I went to see her Tuesday afternoon and she already was hating being confined to the bed. The doctors decreased her medicines gradually since Monday. Tomorrow is her fifth day, and they told her she'd have to stay 3 to 5 days when she first went in. So far the monitors have only registered a bit of brain waves which could have been from the hit on her head from an accodent she was in some years ago. Today and tonight they are not going to let her go to sleep, thinking this may bring on some seizures. Needless to say, she's ready to go home. I haven't heard Norm complain but I bet he's ready to stay home.

Other news, Scott and Brayden went to Florida last week for their annual Spring vacation. Jalen's mother did't let him go. They did a lot of swimming and playing football. I'm going back to Louisville on the 18th for several days and hope I have as good a time this time as I did last time.

I missed Pete's (aka John Leo Felin) call Saturday. He called yesterday to get Margaret's number. They were pretty much moved. It was no easy task after 28 years on the farm.

This will be a quick post. I wanted to update about Margaret's upcoming stay in the hospital. She has to go in Christian Northeast next Monday, the 9th, for a monitoring check on the spells she's been having. She will have to stay in the hospital from three to five days depending on how many seizures she has while she's there. A family member who is familiar with the seizures will need to stay with her as much as possible. Margaret says Norman is the only family member who has been with her when she has these spells. The spells are currently stopped by medication so a family member and the monitoring will help observe and count the frequency of the spells. Margaret thinks they may or may not take all her medication she takes now to control these spells away during her stay in the hospital. I think Norm is ready to spend a lot of time with her there in the hospital, and we're available when we can be.

Brother Joe sent this e-mail to Sue about his granddaughter Lydia.

"A Springfield, MO, television station crew came to Central High School 2 weeks ago and interviewed Lydia and a class mate of hers regarding the ACT. The show was aired yesterday. You can view it at http://ozarksfirst.com/content/video/?cid=202032"

Lydia gave a wonderful interview in it about preparing for her college entrance exams. Thanks for sharing, Joe!

I "lifted" this photo from Facebook.

Janet sent this e-mail to Sue. [Caitlin is Nancy and Rick's daughter and Nancy is Janet and Pete's daughter.]

Hi Sue. Do you remember how excited we all were 50 years ago to have a new baby girl? A really little baby girl--5 lbs. Kind of scary. Can't believe Nancy's 50. She looks 30 and has the energy of a 20 year old.

We just got an e-mail from Caitlin. She was in Paris last weekend, saw all the sights and loved the city. Thursday she goes to the Czech Republic for the weekend. They has regular college classes 4 days a week and do a lot of travel to other countries on the weekends. She is taking a full load of credits so sometimes does homework enroute. What an incredible experience. I thought this might be an interesting item for the blog. Love to all, Janet

I have several things to post but wanted to post the update about Wanda Jean today. She had a heart attack and has moved to Florida with a daughter. For those of you who don't know, she's the daughter of Mom's sister, Mildred (aka Aunt Mit) and our first cousin. Wanda previously lived in Gadsden, Alabama, and has moved to Florida. The only address I have in Florida is Wanda Philbrick, 2924 S.E. 19th St., Okeechobee, Fl. 34974-6318. I got my update from Pete wh had heard this from Donald who may have been in Europe when the heart attack happened. If anyone has any more current news about Wanda, we would all like to hear know it. Thanks.



I'll post the other current news either later today or tomorrow.