Are you reading this?

Hey all,

Just checking to see if you all can still read this blog. It seems someone said they couldn't log on anymore. Mom said Billy didn't know that Aunt Eva died last week and I had told her that Diane and I had both written in the Family Letter to tell you all.

I just changed some settings so we should get an email when we post something. Maybe that will help - let me know.

Lori

Memorial

The Memorial for Aunt Eva is going to be on November 15. Mom didn't know where yet or the exact time. She talked to Barb and said that Barb sounded good after her surgery.

Aunt Eva died

Aunt Eva had a heart-attack on Friday and died this morning. Bill called Mom this morning. They don't know if there will be a memorial service or not. Bill will call when they decide. Barbara is in the hospital for a double mastectomy, because her breast cancer returned. 

Mom is the last surviving member of the 11 kids in her family. And we don't have any Aunts anymore.

Scans are OK

We went to Omak on Tues. to get the results of the bone and abdominal scans. They didn't show any cancer spread, but did show lots of degenerative bone disease - i.e. arthritis, in the back. Since the doctor we saw is a urologist, he recommended going back to the back doctor for any more treatment. But since the back doctor sent Dad to the urologist for further evaluation, I don't think he has any more tricks up his sleeve. Right now Dad is taking 5 or 6 Advil per day to manage the back pain. It is only semi-successful.

Mom and I broke in the new range with a big batch of butternut squash soup. It's pretty cool, but may be a little complicated at first. The washer and dryer are being delivered today. 

If any of you get a chance to go over Blewett Pass, the larches are really yellow right now and just beautiful. Stevens was amazing also, but snowing on my way over. 

New appliances

Bob and I spent 5 exciting hours today at Fry's in Renton negotiating the purchase and delivery of new LG front loading washing machine and dryer for the orchard. They will be delivered on Thursday. Meanwhile, Kevin was busy wrapping up a deal at Lowe's in Wenatchee for a new Electrolux range. It should be installed tomorrow (Sunday). It even has a "turkey button" for roasting the perfect Thanksgiving bird. 

If anyone has need for the washing machine that is coming out of the house, speak now or it will be taken away when the new ones are delivered. It would also involve picking up the old one from the house soon. The dryer is not working and probably isn't worth saving.

Video session

When we were over at the orchard two weeks ago, Lola called. Her granddaughter, Sienna (an 8th grader) is doing a project in school about the 1940's. She wanted Dad to write or record something about Pearl Harbor. Bob got out his video camera and recorded an hour's worth of tape. He is trying to transcribe it to his computer so he can make DVD's but both of our computers are sick. We'll keep trying. There is some good stuff there and we'll get more.

What's up this week?

Hey to you all,

Jerry is home from the Hurricanes - Yeah!!!! He stopped in New York and visited Tawny on his way home from Texas (he took the long way).

Wanted to let you all know that Dad has an appointment tomorrow for a CAT scan. I will be taking them over to Omak tomorrow morning early - I guess it will take a few hours - he has to go and come back and drink things, then go back etc. I'm not exactly sure because Jerry took them for the appointment last week and didn't go in with them to talk to the Dr. so we don't have all the info. Anyway, Dad has been in lots of pain still in his back and they want to check to see if his prostate cancer has gone into the bone. He has another appointment next Tuesday to go over the results with the doctor. Advil seems to be helping. They did give him some pills for prostate cancer also.

Jerry and I are going to Enumclaw for the weekend for birthday parties for his family. We are leaving Friday afternoon and coming back Sunday. It's really pretty over here right now with the Fall colors. We went down for dinner tonight and they seemed pretty good. Keep the phone calls coming - they always tell us about what's going on with you all! Better yet, come over.

Love, Lori

Mom and Dad - 95 and 91

Thanks

I had tons of fun last weekend with all of you. Wonderful party! Wonderful family! Thanks to my parents for hosting and thanks to everyone else for helping it go off without a hitch. To those of you who couldn't make it, we miss you.

Three ladies and a gent.

Clover had a nice birthday party for her first birthday on friday. All who attended were greeted with big smiles from Clover who is never stingy with big grins. We ate pizza and homemade cupcakes. Emily and Grandma Sandy slaved away all day making sure the day went perfect, which it did. The sun was shining on the afternoon at Burfoot park as we sang Happy birthday to our now not so little Clover. We will see many of you this weekend at the orchard. We are all stoked to see everyone. Aloha for now. KAP, Em, Violet and Clover.

The Birthdays

I haven't done much planning yet for the birthdays. Jerry and I were thinking it might be good to do teriyaki skewers like we used to growing up and then we could also have veggies - shish-ka-bobs (who?). Let me know what you think. Also, salads. Suggestions for the cake? I am thinking it would be nice to invite some people that Mom and Dad know from the valley to drop in for cake after we barbeque. Don't know how many would come but we'll see.

So, how does 2:oopm eating sound? (that way Dad and Mom can take a nap) Then we could maybe plan on cake at 5:30 or so?

If someone wants to figure anything out you are welcome. I am open to ideas. We changed to a new program at work and my brain has been fried all week learning new stuff AGAIN!! Tawny is coming home on Monday (flying to NY on Sunday then here). So are Amber and Andrew.

Anyone is welcome to camp here at our house - we have soft grass and some mattresses. There's the 2 rooms at the Orchard too. and I can check out the Carlton Motel if anyone is interested in that. We will have to figure out something simple for breakfast, maybe you can bring your own cereal or something?

Let me know what you think!

Lori

This Weekend

Just want to give you all a heads up - Jerry and I are leaving tomorrow for a speeder trip in St. Maries Idaho. We will be back late Sunday night.

Dad has an appt with a back doctor in Wenatchee tomorrow morning and Heidi is going to take them in (they made the appt a couple of days ago so I couldn't plan for it). He has been in continual pain in his back since his fall. They took an x-ray finally in Twisp and then seemed vague about reading it or something (I wasn't there). It will be nice to have another opinion and see if there's anything that can help relieve him. It has really been hard for him because he doesn't usually experience pain. I have tried to get him to go to physical therapy to see if they can help and what they think but he doesn't want to "go all the way to Winthrop and back just for that".

Any way, give them a call this weekend if you can.

Lori

In the garden

We picked up Acacia & Emma from church camp at Mazama in July and spent the night at the orchard. Here are a couple of pictures of beauties at the "Duck Brand" and beauties in the garden.

Dinner in Carlton 8/8/08

the Coultas eyes

No, not the droopy lids, I'm referring to the high pressures. Today I had a hole made in my iris so the fluid can drain if the drainage channel gets closed off between the iris and the cornea due to the high pressure. It's called narrow-angle or angle-closure glaucoma, although I don't technically have glaucoma because I haven't had any vision loss. The procedure is called a laser iridotomy. It was pretty quick and almost painless. I get the other one done next week.

Hi everyone-
Thanks for the invite. I'm not much of a blogger, but it will be nice to check in and see how everyone is doing. Great idea!
Andrew

Dad & Sandy's 2007 Birthday. I am planning a birthday gathering (potluck) on Saturday August 30 for Dad and Mom's birthdays. It won't be extravegant - more info to come. Pass it on.

Thanksgiving 07

Testing out adding photos to the blog. This was the latest one I have, so I guess it's time to take more photos.

Clan emails

So, if you will all send me the emails that I should invite to this blog I will add them.

Dr. Appts

Mom and Dad had appts on Monday with Dr Eberhart, their heart Dr. We sent the pacemaker transmission over the phone in the morning before we left - pretty amazing, sounded like we were sending a fax with the same beeping sound. Of course, Dad was pretty anxious because he thought we might be LATE getting to Wenatchee. (The results of the pacemaker check will be given to them at a later date.) We also had an appt for the car (it has as many appts as they do) to get an oil change and check up. I had suggested that they do that in Twisp from now on because the place in Wenatchee doesn't offer a car to borrow while they work on theirs (I'm still working on that idea).

Dr Eberhart is a great doctor and person. He takes his time with them and respects them, which is so nice. They both had EKGs done (it was pretty crowded in there) and both results were good.

The medication they put Mom on last month is working great and she isn't having the fluttering. Yeah!!!!

Dad's aortic valve is getting less flexible but the only cure for that is valve replacement which he and the Dr. agreed probably wasn't a good idea. He will have an echocardiogram done in September, which will give the Doctors info on what medications he should avoid etc.

Dr E said he is just amazed at both of them. He said Mom seems like she's in her 70s (made her day!).

So, both M&D were in pretty good spirits at the beginning of the day. After appts and lunch (we missed you Sandy and Bill, maybe next time, it was short notice I know) and then Costco and Safeway they were both getting tired (me too). It was 100 degrees also so that drained us even more. By the time we got to Starbucks Dad decided to stay in the car (a first) and I delivered his latte to him.

All in all, a good day. They both seem in much better spirits than the last 2 weeks. Dad is feeling better after his last fall and isn't in as much pain which helps Mom too. They are getting excited to see Emily and family - that will be great!!

Also, the phone calls have helped too. They really enjoy hearing from you all.

phone calls

Hey, just wanted to let you know that it has been nice that you have called and talked to Mom and Dad - they have told me all about what's going on and they love doing that! It was so nice that Emily called them too. Mom said "Bob has called and left 3 messages - Diane must have told him to call (heehee)".

Anyway, it really does boost their spirits when they hear from you.

Set up

So, I'm not sure if you got an email inviting you to this blog or not. If you did, you can add your profile info and a photo - cool huh! Let me know if you get this. I haven't figured out the format yet but will work on it.

Hi to you all,

This is an experiment to see if we can have a way of communicating with each other. I was mainly thinking that I would like a way to let you know what's happening with Mom and Dad and talked to a work mate who has a mom with Alzheimer's and this is what they are using. We'll see.

As time goes by we can figure out how to set it up and what will make it easy to read etc. So far I have invited my siblings and spouses and wanted to ask you all what you think about adding our kids to the blog so they can contribute and keep up too.

I will see how this first one works and see what you all think and go from there. It's late and I'm off to bed but this is what's going on here:

I talked Mom and Dad into meeting me Saturday evening at Carlton for a Luau and music. It was good to get them out - we socialized with a few people - the bench got hard so we went home. I went down to the Orchard for dinner tonight and they both were in good spirits. Dad's back and hip seem to be feeling a lot better - he's moving better and getting up and down a little better. He even commented that the dinner Mom made was good so she was happy too.

Tomorrow morning I am going down before 8 to send Mom's heart info from her pacemaker, over the phone and then we will go to Wenatchee for heart appointments for them both - not looking forward to that! Also, Dad made an appt for the car too so we will be in Wenatchee all day I would imagine. I'll let you know how it goes.

Let me know what you think

Lori