OUR BUSY WEEK April 30-May 7

Jacque had made Easter Baskets and brought the ones for Suzette and Aric to the hospital.

The fun item out of Aric's Basket.

Aric's Easter Basket from his Aunt Jacque.

Suzette was released from the hospital late Friday afternoon, April 29th so on the 30th Marc & Aric and Mickey & I went to Suzette & Dave's home to see her and the items Dave had gotten set up for her.  

She came home with a hospital bed, a shower/bath chair and various other items to assist them .  Dave had dismantled their huge king size bed and removed it from the master bedroom and installed the hospital bed and ordered a new twin size bed for him.  He also  installed chrome arm grips on the commode, etc.  Dave & their friend, CD, were busy in the garage building a ramp down the 3 steps into the garage so we can wheel the wheelchair down, as needed, and also making it easier for Suzette to walk down to get into the car. 

On their way over Marc had taken Aric shopping!!!!

He bought him this nice new, shiny blue bike.

Set up and getting ready to go, except the water bottle and holder had not been put on when I took this picture.

He has also gotten this air pump, soccer ball and new tennis shoes.  It was a Blue day!!!

Suzette had a rough day and slept the entire time we were there.  None of us went over on Sunday and gave Dave & Suzette a day to themselves and adjusting to the new items.  On Monday I went and spent the day with her.  Mickey stayed home to get the lawns mowed and other yard work done.  She had a good day and we enjoyed it and each other. 

Marc is taking a vacation day EVERY Tuesday to go and stay with her as that is such a busy day for Mickey & I with our King's Kitchen ministry at the church.  What a blessing Marc always is to our family.  Suzette spent most of the day sleeping again, but they did have a few hours to spend visiting.

When I got up Tuesday morning I asked Mickey if they could manage at the Kitchen without my help that day and he said yes.  With Suzette's 8 day hospital stay and all the medical
 appointments, prior to that, I was totally exhausted and behind with everything at home.  I spent the day doing laundry, ironing and cleaning our very dirty home.  I totally enjoyed the day.  I cranked up my stereo with wonderful cd's by David Ingle's singing the WORD and blessed and envigerated my spirit while my body worked hard!!!  It was so nice to have a sparking, shiny house when my Bible Study gals arrived at 6:30.

Jacque had the day off Wednesday so she went and spent the day with Suzette.  Suzette was up and feeling good most of the day.  So glad these two sisters got some "alone" sister time with each other.

Thursday Mickey & I went and stayed with her and she actually felt good enough that we took her out for lunch, just to get her out and into some sunshine.  She was able to walk and we did not use the wheel chair :o)

This week was a flustrating week in the fact that Suzette was suppose to start back up on her remaining 7 radiation treatments, which were interrupted due to the hospital stay.  The clinic called and cancelled them Tuesday, again Wednesday, AGAIN Thursday and finally we got to take her in for the treatment and an appointment with the radialogist on Friday.  Dave actually came home and helped get her into the wheelchair and followed us and got her into the clinic and waited until they called her for her treatment and then he went back to work.  She was very apprehensive about going in the wheelchair for the first time and was having a really bad day pain wise.  Mickey & I handled getting her back home and into bed just fine.

It was Friday evening and we called our dear friends Don & Barbara to see if they were home and stopped by to see them.  We were going out to get something to eat and try and relax a little after a very exhausting and stressful 15 days and wanted to see if they wanted to join us.

Wonderful Don, who loves to cook and entertain us, ended up fixing a devine dinner of stir-fry chicken and rice, and a huge fresh loaded vegtable salad.  We stuffed ourselves, as usual, and still manged to enjoy the vanilla ice cream and chocolate cup cakes.  Since Don was doing all the cooking, Mickey was helping and setting the table and Barbara and I sat in the LR and visited!!  Barbara & I did do all the after dinner clean-up and loading the dishwasher :o)

I hope each of you are blessed with wonderful friends like these two are to us.  We left there about 8 p.m. fed both physically, but more importantly emotionally and Spiritually as the four of us joined hands and each prayed (as we always do)!  Thank you Don  Barbara for being "as close as family" and so very special!!!

Now to today:  Mickey & I had bought a new 26" TV the other night as our's was getting horizontal lines running across it and could tell it was going out.  It has a smaller screen than the one we had, which is a disappointment, but it is the biggest HDTV we could purchase that would fit into the entertainment center we have.  The picture is fantastic.

We called Marc and asked him to come over today and double check all the many cable connections that had to be attached for the video, DVD, etc. 

I enjoyed having having Marc & Aric here (Aric brought his new blue bike and rode it around the neighborhood) and I spent the entire day COOKING!!!  Something I've done little of lately.

Yesterday I had put a large crock-pot full of chicken on to cook before we left home.  Last night I just put the pot into our extra regrigerator in the garage so the fat would congel.

I skinned and de-boned the chicken and made my largest bowl full of chicken salad with everything but the kitchen sink in it!!!  Mayonnize, mustard, home made relish, onions, celery, walnuts, apples.  I had told Marc & Aric not to eat before they came so when they got here we had lunch.  I had also deviled 9 eggs so we had chicken salad sandwiches, pork n beans, deviled  eggs, potato chips, pop, coffee & cookies.  Yummy!!

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We ended up with these 4 deviled eggs, and 2 containers of the chicken salad left (one for the regrigerator for sandwiches this coming week and one to freeze for later)

Also have 1 plus quart of pure chicken broth for future meals.

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Baked these yummy 4 leg quarters for tonight, 2 with some dressing, a vegetable and a salad for tonight and two in the freezer for a quick dinner later this week. 

It's been a very good day!!!! And a beautiful spring day.