The Immortals

 

While I was talking to my dad the other night, updating him on our travel plans and on Eli's baseball season (click below for actual video highlights!) he said something about my brother that has stuck in my head.  My dad was wishing that he could see Eli play, but said that he felt guilty leaving my step-mom to care for my brother all by herself.  He said "Someday, this won't be a problem.  Either he'll get better, or he won't." 

 

Get better?  Wow, that never even occurred to me.  Do I have so little faith?  I've thought about it for the last several days, and I've come to the conclusion that I don't believe he'll get better.  Not ever.  How sad.

 

Baseball season is finally over.  Well, summer ball is.  Eli starts fall ball in August.  And Spencer starts football at the end of July.  I had better enjoy this brief respite while it lasts!!  Actually, I love it.  I love watching them play.  I don't know what I'd do with myself if I wasn't running one of my kids to one sport or another.  (Maybe blog more!)

 

I'm all healed up from my hysterectomy, and I feel pretty good.  I thought I was done with the Gyn for awhile, but I got a letter in the mail from him the other day with the results of my mammogram.  I have a lump and "changes" since the mammogram last year.  I get to visit yet another surgeon on the 30th.  I'm pretty stressed about this.  My mom had a radical mastectomy when she was 30 due to cancer.  I hate that word.  I also hate the phrases "more than likely" "probably" "most usually"  Doctors suck.

 

I hate my job.  I've spent the last several months trying to convince myself that I don't, but I do.  So then I spent several months telling myself that at least it was better than my last job.  But it's not.  It sucks just as bad.  Maybe worse. 

 

Yesterday I told one of the supervisors to bite my sack.  She thought I was kidding.  I wasn't.  I figured the fact that I said it with a totally straight face would be a clue, but evidently not.  See what kind of dumbasses they are??

 

Oh yeah, baseball videos.   These were from our digital camera, so there's no sound.  But they're still pretty cool.

 

BASE HIT 

Hey everyone!

 

Ben reminded me the other day that it's been a long time since I updated my blog.  (I reminded him that he could type too!)  So, I posted some new pictures , and here's an update for each of us...

 

Ben has been working his tail off, working loads of overtime and them coming home and working on the house.  We've decided in the past few months that we're selling, then refinancing, then selling again, and now we're on the fence...  Anyway, he's been getting some long overdue projects done, so it's all good whatever we decide to do.

 

Eli is currently on a class trip in Washington DC.  He won't get home until Friday.  He's playing summer ball, and shortly after it's over, fall ball will begin.  School let out a couple of weeks ago, and he received awards for baseball, basketball, and track.  He also managed to make "honorable mention" for his grades, after seriously slacking off in the second quarter of the year.  (He was seriously grounded until the grades came out mid-way through the third quarter!)

 

Spencer is also playing summer ball.  He's catcher this year, and is doing pretty well!  He's very excited because he's finally old enough to play football this year.  (Ack!)  He will go to Cub Scout Daycamp in a couple of weeks, and football camp at the end of July.

 

I had a hysterectomy on May 10th.  I'm feeling great - I actually have felt guilty for the past couple of weeks for not being at work.  I have to go back to work next Monday, the 11th.  I've also lost 50 pounds, which I'm pretty excited about.  We visited Ben's family in Ohio over Memorial Day weekend.  His entire family was very surprised to see me, and commented how great I looked so soon after having surgery.  Ben's sister and I were talking about my surgery, and I mentioned that it had been done vaginally, so I was recovering much more quickly than if I had had an abdominal surgery.  She got this very confused look on her face - and started laughing.  Evidently, Ben's mother had told everyone that I had bariatric surgery.  <snort>  I've also been doing some projects around the house, painting mostly, but we ripped up the carpet in Eli's room tonight so I can refinish the hardwood underneath.  That's the last room in the house with carpet. 

 

We're planning a vaction to NC in July to visit family and spend some time at the beach.  We are all pretty excited about that.  We went last year, too, but did not get to spend nearly enough time on the beach.  The boys have made us promise that this year we will spend at least one full day there, and they're pushing for two. 

 

Hope everyone is doing well!  Sorry it's been so long since we checked in.  I promise to try to do better!

I know we've all heard the warnings about carbon monoxide, but I wanted to share the experience I had this week.  I nearly lost my mother and my grandmother Tuesday evening after their house filled up with carbon monoxide. 

My mother went to bed about 4 o'clock because she had a headache.  About 6 o'clock, my grandmother started having chest pains, and realized she was too weak to get up and wake up my mother, and could not wake her up by hollering for her.  Luckily, she called my sister, who lives a couple of blocks away.  My sister got there and was able to wake up my mother, with great difficulty, and then called 911.  The fire department got there first, and thought they detected a gas odor.  After bringing in their monitoring equipment, they realized that the problem was carbon monoxide.  Normal, safe levels are 0-2.  The reading in my grandmother's house was over 700, and climbing.  They did not have carbon monoxide detectors.

The good news is, they got help in time.  My grandmother was very ill, and had to spend a couple of days in intensive care.  My mother was able to be released after a few hours on oxygen.  The firemen we talked to told us that if they had stayed in the house even another hour, they would have died.

Ben and I bought carbon monoxide detectors a couple of weeks ago, because it's a law in Illinois now to have them.  We made sure that CO2 detectors were installed in my grandmother's house the next day.  (They live across the river, in Indiana)

So, here's your public service message for the day!  If you don't have CO2 detectors, get one!  Have your furnace checked yearly, and make sure it's venting properly!  That was the problem at my grandmother's house – the furnace vents through the chimney, and the chimney became blocked.