Blemished Beamer

Joel was in a little fender this week. A lady ran into the back of him...so it wasn't his fault....but his baby is blemished. Don Lanteigne took him to a repair guy who can fix it AND give the whole car a new paint job. The insurance may right the car off - but Joel will still get a check to repair it, even if there is a little subsidy of money. The good news is no one was hurt, and the car is still drivable.

Lesson Learned: don't iron Aussie $$

As you will remember Mum and Dad, we have been trying to find a way to display Joel's Aussie $$ collection. I found a frame that will take all the bills - similar to the one you found for us at Castleton Square Mall, but larger so all the bills are displayed.

The $20 was a little crumpled - so I thought I'd give it a quick press before framing it. Ha!

Will a bank take back a maimed bill and trade it for a new one? If so - I'll mail it to Mum for an exchange. If not, I'll send some US$ and we'll trade at Valda's International Bank of Australia.

Eli is home.

I arrived at the hospital this morning for my 24 hour shift with Eli and to relieve Todd. Eli had all his IVs out, his catheter out and was sitting on the fold-out couch for parents to sleep on. You can see Eli's bed to the far left of the photo.

I was amazed at how good he looked. Todd said he ate a good breakfast. He is tolerating his pain meds orally. The doctor said there was no reason to keep him in the hospital - so he sent us all home. We had a hospital bed delivered at Todd's and the home health nurse visited.

He is doing so well. He doesn't seem to be in any pain and Todd said he was crawling around tonight and didn't really want to be in the bed. We will continue to give him some pain meds - especially at night.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! God has his hand on Eli.

Eli doing well.

Eli is such a trooper! He came through surgery very well - textbook according to Dr. Bellflower. He was very stable post-op so they decided to send him to the regular hospital surgical floor rather than the ICU. I stayed with him last night. He is comfortable and sleepy. We haven't seen a smile yet.......that will be the sign that he is OK with life again!

Todd will spend today and tonight with him - and I will go back in the morning. I have been in touch with Todd by phone and he reports he has eaten a few bites and had a few sips of juice. He had 2 IVs- both have come out in the last 24 hours - just his restlessness. Dr Bellflower visited and is happy with his progress. Changed his dressing and thinks his incision looks good.

Hopefully we will get to come home on Saturday.

More news as it is available.

Surgery date Nov 5th

Just an FYI that Eli's surgery has been scheduled for next Wednesday, Nov 5th at 1:45pm. We will be in the hospital 5-7 days, but I hope we are home by the end of the weekend. I will stay home with E a couple of days the following week, and then we hope to have home care for the rest of the week and the following week. Hopefully he will be strong enough to return to school the week of Nov 24th - which is Thanksgiving, so only a 3 day school week.

I am anticipating his recovery to be similar to the last back surgery - and he did so well. Hopefully this time will be the same!

More surgery for Eli

Here's Eli visiting with Granny and Pa at school the first week in September. While he is leaning right in his chair, you can see that his shoulders are square.

A couple of weeks later I noticed his right shoulder was really drooping. Todd brought it to my attention as well so we thought we'd better take him for a check up with Dr. Bellflower, the orthopedic surgeon.



To all of our shock and amazment (including Dr. Bellflower...perhaps mostly Dr. Bellflower), X-Ray shows that he has broken one of the rods in his back. Apparently there must have been one spot on his spinal column that did not fuse - while the bone above and below that spot did fuse, so there were 2 solid counter measures bending with each one of Eli's movements. The rod was like a stretched out paperclip that was bent back and forth, back and forth and finally snapped. The other rod looks like it could completley snap at any time.

So...back he goes for another surgery. This one won't be as big as the initial surgery - the incision will be 6-8". They will put "sleeves" on both rods at the breaking point and they put some kind of protein accelerator on the bone at the weak point to encourage the bone to fuse. He will be in the hospital 5-7 days. We will get a date for surgery on Monday.

Thankfully Eli doesn't seem bothered by the snapped titanium rod in his back! Apparently this is usually very painful, but he has not shown any signs of distress.

Bless his sweet little heart.

Fall beauty

There is no question that these Northern Hemisphere temperate climate Hoosiers are on to something in the fall. The changing leaves produce incredible bursts of colour that almost make one's heart stop. Too bad it represents nastiness ahead in the form of winter.

All of these shots are at the pond at the entrance to Ft. Ben State Park - where we had family portraits done in 1993. Just 0.8 mile from my home.




This will look familiar to Mum, Dad and perhaps Brad. The old Fort HQ is in the back ground - now converted to a restaurant and B&B.

Fall Day "leaf watching"

It is a gorgeous fall day in Indiana. Kevin took me on an impromptu road trip along the country roads of eastern Indiana. We had lunch in Oldenburg, close to Brookville, at The Pearl Street Pub and continued through winding roads enjoying the country side and beautiful colors of fall.

Day(s) of travel

Mum and Dad were safely deposited at the Indianapolis International Airport with baggage checked all the way to BNE.

At this moment in time they are almost landing in St. Louis. On to LA in a couple of hours, then leaving LAX at 2:30am my time. Landing in BNE 6am Saturday Aust. time - 4pm Friday my time.

Boggles the mind!

I am sad, it is always so bitter sweet - bitter because we have to say good-bye, sweet because we have created such wonderful memories!

Wednesday Oct 1

We enjoyed a day downtown at the Indiana State Museum. The temperatures dropped today - chilly for the tropical guests, but actually quite delightful for those of us who have to live through the next 5 months.

The museum opens onto the canal - which has memorials and many art and cultural interests along the way. This pendulum is facinating - with it making a full rotation turn every 40 hous or so.




The museum houses one of Indy's IMEX 3-D movie theaters - so we enjoyed a 40 minutes film on the Grand Canyon. Incredible photography....and of course the need for the 3-D glasses - below.........

Pa going for a drive with Joel

It's not as bad as it looks! Joel and Pa went to the Diary Queen to get soft-serve ice-cream blended with Heath Bars (chocolate wrapped caramel).

Today we enjoyed an authentic Mexican lunch at LaHacienda with Kevin and a relaxing day of doing some last minute American shopping and such.

Tonight the good-byes started with a good-bye between Eli and Granny and Pa and Todd and Mum and Dad.

I am off work the next 2 days - Mum and Dad leave at 6pm Thursday evening.

Family Portrait

After work today we had an updated family portrait taken. Kevin was the photographer and out of about 25 photos we unanimously decided on this one.

Mum and Dad were able to join me today for our monthly birthday celebration lunch at work. There were about 18 of us - no photos were taken - :) - celebrating September birthdays in my office. It was a nice opportunity for Mum and Dad to meet my work mates. I then took them on a quick tour of my office. Mum and Dad enjoyed an afternoon at Walmart.

Sunday Brunch

Maureen had a "Girl's Brunch" on Sunday. We had sausage egg casserole, Dice and Fried Potatoes, Fresh Fruit, cookies, cakes and mimosas (champagne & OJ). The girls are friends of Maureen's and Leisa's.

Saturday Sept 27

Today was a great day for me! A new ALDI opened a couple of weeks ago just around the corner from me, and at Granny's prompting, we checked it out this morning. I am sold! I will definatetly be stopping in there to shop - at least for some items.

We also had Eli for most of the day as Todd went into work. Trying not to count down...but only another 5.3 days to enjoy together :(

Yet another fabulous meal.....

Dinner with Vasili & family

Wednesday evening we were invited to dinner and a view! This is my friend Vasili's Indianapolis home. We stayed at his unit in Florida. Obviously he loves to be on the water. This is the view of the Indianapolis Sail Club, which is on Geist Reservoir. This is Indy's water supply - which is alive and well at present!

Enjoying a libation on the patio.

Vasilis has 4 daughters - here are the 3 youngest - Alexandra, Anna and Chloe. We had a delicious meal of grilled salmon and a huge Greek salad.

Granny and Eli

Granny and Eli got to spend a little time together.

Monday in Indiana

This evening Granny and Pa, Eli and I walked in our beautiful State Park - just 1 mile from my house. I went back to work today, Mum and Dad stayed home and did a little gardening and mowing and Granny cooked Cheese and Tuna for dinner!

Joel, the newest license holder (got his Driver's License last Thursday) is driving himself to choir practice tonight....bitter-sweet. Great that I don't have to run him around, but a little anxiety-producing about him being out on the open road!!

Brunch at the Kouts'

Today we enjoyed brunch at The Kouts'. Sara and Russell Kouts are Kevin's parents. From left to right....Sara, Joel, Jason and Hannah (Hannah is Kevin's daughter(21) and Jason is her boyfriend, then Russ, Bill, Valda and Leisa.

Brunch consisted of selected meats - sausage, ham, pork, corn casserole, quiches and stewed apples. We also enjoyed mimosas - orange juice and chamagne. A lovely day.

Florida in Review

We had a fabulous week in St.Petersburg, Florida. The weather was incredible - temps 75min - 90max degrees F with clear blue skies. This photo is on the Pier at Ft. DeSoto with the mouth of Tampa Bay in the background. The Skyway Bridge is in the background. This is as big as the gateway and allows the water traffic to enter Tampa Bay, a large port. We drove over the Skyway another day and visited the city of Sarasoto.

Below is St.Pete Beach and a couple of snappy looking tourists.

Ahhh......a hard day at the beach.

There was much seafood to be had. Above was A Bucket of Seafood from Crabby Bill's which we enjoyed after we shared a dozen oysters on the shell. The bucket had Alaskan king crab, shrimp, mussels and clams. This was a great birthday celebration!


Here is the water-side view of the condo - the pool is between the water and the units - to the right where the white umbrella is. The water temperature in the pool was 31 degrees C. all day! It was wonderful - like bath water. The sea water was calm and we were taken out on this boat with a couple from the units we met by the pool. A retired USAF Colonel and his wife. This view is us berthing into the slip after our boat ride. We enjoyed a libation by the pool each afternoon for Happy Hour.

We visited The Pier at St. Petersburg - a long fishing and boat pier with restaurants and shops. The pier is surrounded on 3 sides by Tampa Bay, which is an enormous body of water.


We ate well all week! Here we are enjoying another seafood meal of Lobster, crab and shrimp. We also had Grouper - a local delicacy of white, sweet fish andTalapia - an Atlantic fish

Saturday

Granny helped joel with his car on Saturday - he was taking Granny for a test run when Todd called him on his cell phone to tell him they had forgotten to tighten the wheel nuts!!!

Saturday evening we had Paul and Kathy for a wonderful Greek meal cooked by Chef Kevin. We started with spanakopita (spinach and feta in filo dough) with a tsaziki sauce (yogurt and cucumber) and had Exoheko (pork, tomato, carrot, celery and oregano in a sherry sauce with filo dough), lemon potatoes and greek green beans (with garlic, oregano, tomato and onion). We had fresh fruit cocktail for dessert.

Granny helped joel with his car on Saturday - he was taking Granny for a test run when Todd called him on his cell phone to tell him they had forgotten to tighten the wheel nuts!!!

Friday Report

A quiet Friday here. Dad was planning on a walking tour of the war memorials downtown, but aborted, due to a beautiful soaking rain. Today has been an inside day. I worked and had an infusion this afternoon, Mum, Dad, Kevin, Big Black and Shiva had a quiet day at home reading.

Thursday 9-11

Of course today is a day of remembrance in this country. There were remembrance services across the country.

Mum and Dad and Kevin and I had a nice relaxed day of driving around some historical Indy neighborhoods and discussing local history. We had lunch at Hoaglin's - a very nice gourmet sandwich kitchen on Massachusetts Ave, downtown Indianapolis. Photo below.


Wednesday I worked, but I dropped Mum and Dad off at Bob Evan's Restaurant for the Rise and Shine Breakfast Special. Then they walked across (a very busy) road and spent the morning shopping at Walmart.

Day 8 Con't....a visit to Eli's school

Granny and Pa visit Eli at school where he shows them a computer program he is working on. He drives the bus around the screen to pick up all the students and drop them off at school.

Eli took us on a tour of the school - which is the daily home of about 2,500 teenagers ages 14-17. He can navigate his way around and stops at all the security stations, nurse's office and main office and the mail room to give a high five to whoever is manning at the moment. One of his jobs is to deliver messages (accompanied by an aide) to these various offices.

Day 8 - Tuesday Sept 9

Eli's class mates visit with Granny and Pa at Lawrence Central High School - Life Skills Room.

Lunch with Mattie and Bud Sampson, Todd and Brenda Lanteigne at Red Robster. Caught up on children, grandchildren and in Bud and Mattie's case - 5 great-grandchildren.

Bud and Bill - matching profiles!

Accessory Day for Joel

This week is Homecoming at Heritage Christian School - a week to celebrate school spirit. Each day is a different "theme", and Monday was accessory day. Joel choose "scuba" as his accessory, and he tied for first place.

Sunday - a boat ride.

We had an afternoon on Lake Kesslerwood East. These are my friends Paul and Kathy Anderson (where I stayed after my knee surgery). They live on an 80 acre lake which is peaceful and a lovely place to entertain. Kathy took a basket of snack items and drinks: Joel drove the boat and swam.

Kathy and Paul's dogs, Willow and Smudge went along in the boat with us.

Joel the captain.

Dad and Paul having a beer.

Skipper!