Loopy Again

I thought things were going well with my surgery until I started breaking out in hives on Saturday. The are around the incision site was all red and blistered. Dan looked at it and said I was covered in hives. My benadryl was expired so Dan ran out and got me some more. I also started applying hydrocortizone to the site. I called the doctor this morning and he said to continue with that. He said I must have an allergy to the adhesive bandage. How uncomfortable. I was supposed to teach today. Karen Shurtleff said she would take care of it. I hope I can sleep tonight without the aid of the benadryl.

Good news

I went to outpatient surgery today and had my basal cell carcinoma removed. My British Doctor played Allison Krause and sang and whistled while he cut my body. Pathology checked it out and said the Dr. cut out all of the cancer. I am still feeling no pain so I am happy. I might take a Vicodin before bed. The dressing covering the sight has blood under it. I hope it stays under the dressing or I am going to have a hard time wearing clothes.

When I got home I found a vase of flowers from Amanda and another vase of flowers from the rest of the kids. Neil had the task of going out and buying them. I have wonderful children.

Aunt Chuck has to have a breast biopsy next month. We are praying all goes well with her.

My new favorite book

I had to bottle some chicken because I didn't have room in my freezer. So while I was waiting for the chicken to pressure, I started reading a book called "The Kite Runner". It has to be one of the best books I have ever read. The author Khaled Hosseini has written some others which I will definitely be looking for.

I finished bottling 10 pints of chicken. I just need to wash my kitchen floor tonight and then I will go to bed. I am tired.

Poor Mackenzie has shingles Amanda said. She text ed me a picture of one on her chest. She said it was the size of a baseball and she wasn't kidding.

Just got home

It was our Temple weekend. We left Friday morning and worked the pm Friday shift in the temple. We got up (well I did) at 5am and made it out of the apartment by 6:15. I called the shift coordinator and let her know we needed to leave early on Saturday. Dan has meetings for Stake Conference and so we had a very easy schedule. We saw a training film at 7:15 and then I was done by 7:30. Sister Reid asked me to go to the Celestial Room until 8:00. Sister Goowin came and visited with me. I did Sealings at 8 until 8:45. Dan and I were Second Followers for the 9am session. We had about 25 patrons. We then worked the veil and we were done.

We were driving out of Nauvoo by 11:00. We stopped for lunch and then I dropped Dan off at the Stake Center at 2pm. I have to pick Pat Webb up for the Adult meeting . That starts at 6pm so I need to finish getting ready for the meeting. I unpacked the van and put everything away.

A very wet Thursday

I went to the Dr. for my follow-up appt. My labs came back just fine. But the lesion he removed was basal cell carcinoma. They made me an appt. to see a Plastic Surgeon to remove it. I have an appt. for next Friday. It will probably be a consult and then I will have to return again for the procedure. It is the kind of cancer that does not metastasize. I am glad about that. My Dr. was also pleased with my blood pressure and weight loss and had me make an appt. to come back in 3 months. He said if I continue with my progress he will probably take me off my meds. Yeah!!! He really could sense I didn't like being on meds. I love this Dr. He really listens.

It has been raining cats and dogs today. It was raining side ways. I got soaked. The sky is dark and the next county over from us is under a tornado watch. Welcome to spring in Illinois. Amanda loves this weather.

Sister Forest is picking me up for our book club tonight. We are having the meeting at Barb Johnson's house. The story was about a young German woman growing up during WW II. I have read lots about the Holocaust but not about what the innocent German people endured. She eventually joined the Church and lives in Utah I believe.

We leave for Nauvoo in the morning. We need to leave early on Saturday because Dan has organized a quartet to sing in Priesthood Meeting on Saturday afternoon. I will drop him off and then go pick up Pat Webb for the adult meeting at 6pm. We are getting a general authority for our Stake Conference.

I just found out today that our carpeting was not coming because they are having a shortage of yarn. I had our salesperson pick out something similar that was available. We should have it laid in another two weeks I hope and pray.

Inferno Red

We purchased a 2008 Inferno Red Grand Caravan last night. I got to drive it today because I took it back to be detailed. The only thing we wanted in the van was electric seat for Dan and stow and go for me. Dan will drive it to work. I don't care. I will have the Stratus everyday. Now I can't use the excuse of not leaving the house because I don't have heat in my car. Darn. I love staying home. I could stay at home and be very happy I think.

I went to ESL class and had three students in my group. We practiced dictation. I would say a sentence in English and they would write down what they hear. We then translated it into Spanish and I had them changing the words in the sentences. I really encouraged them to use other pronouns. They did really well overall. They just need to start speaking. They understand quite a bit. One of the students has been here seven years. The others a little less. I truly love teaching these people. They are so grateful.

I wish it would quit raining. Of course the longer it rains prevents me from working outside. Que lastima. I am still waiting on the call from the carpet people. It will be so nice to get the house in order.

Conference Sunday

I really enjoyed conference today. All of the speakers were great. President Monson's closing address was exceptional. He is going to be a very beloved prophet. It must be hard to step into someonelse's shoes. All prophets have their own style and we love them no matter what. We could see a lot of changes in the first presidency in the next ten years looking at the ages of some of the brethren. Although President Hinckley took us for a ride didn't he?

Marisa came by for a brief moment and left Bailey with me so she could go to lunch with Lacey. She is missing out on so much. I don't even think she realized it was General Conference weekend. I am so grateful for my membership in the true church. I often think of where I would be without the church. Everyone comes to a fork in the road in their lives. You only can go one way or the other. I know I took the right turn. It must be lonely out there not having the truth in your life. I am thankful for the faithful brethren who direct this church.

When we were in Utah last week I purchased a CD of music honoring the prophet Joseph. It is wonderful. What a job he had. Why do people dislike him so?

Car Shopping

Dan decided that the 1994 van needs to be replaced. We went out Friday looking for a replacement. We first looked at Nissan. Too small. We then spent the rest of the evening at Chrysler where I had made an appt. Dan fit in the PT Cruiser pretty good. We both liked the 2008 Grand Voyager. They have one with 18 miles that they are calling used. It has the stow n go which I love. It has airbags on all the sides besides the front which I like also.

Dan still wanted to look around and then he spotted a 2003 Mercedes Benz E 500. It looked like it had been well taken care of. It had 91, 000 miles. They wanted $19,000. which I thought was alot. He really likes the vehicle.

I told him I thought the mini van is better especially when we have grandchildren visit we can transport them. Even picking up people for church the van would make more sense.

General Conference was very good. They called a new apostle. Elder Christofferson (sp). Many of the brethren spoke about the family. Dan just left for Priesthood Meeting.

Death in the family

Our 1994 Dodge Minivan is near death. Her brakes and front end are going out. We bought her used in 2000 and she has served us well. Dan and I are looking at Dodge Magnums. I am still partial to a minivan. We will look again tomorrow. It is a pain in the neck sharing a vehicle. Dan has so many meetings.

Neil is going to give me a ride to my TOPS meeting tomorrow morning. I am being installed as the new secretary so I need to be there.

I had a lesion on my back biopsied today. I will get the results next Thursday.

We're back

We left last Thursday for Spencer's wedding. We left early Thursday morning and even had time to stop for breakfast on the way. The flight was uneventful and I even enjoyed the flight. Frontier was very comfortable. We all arrived pretty much the same time. It was so good to see all of my grandchildren and children of course. Tyler is growing like a weed. He is very clever and we enjoyed several games of Boggle. We even danced together at the wedding. Mackenzie is so pretty and looks so much like her mother. She is all girl and looked so pretty in pink at the wedding. Brett is well Brett. Brett is fearless and does things his way. He is very amusing to watch. Parker is very sweet. Hard to believe he will start school in the fall. He speaks his mind. Kaden is a mini version of Danny Lee. He never stops talking. He is very laid back and seems to go with the flow. Brinlee is a little princess. She is very cute a mini Sarah. She doesn't let her brothers take advantage of her. She lets herself be heard when they tease her. Those three reminded me of Spencer, Danny and Amanda at that age. Those boys loved to tease Amanda and she could hold her own.

We all stayed at the same hotel so we would eat together when possible. We also got to swim together when the pool wasn't full of others. Sunday was great because we go the pool to ourselves.

Dan and I drove down to Salt Lake City on Sunday morning. We got to go to the taping of the Spoken Word. That was so fun. We then went to Sacrament Meeting at the SL 19th ward. We met Danny and Sarah and the children for lunch and we went to the Church's History Museum. It was so cool. They took off for Washington and go home safely the next morning at 6:30 Salt Lake time. They had quite a bit of snow crossing Snoquamie Pass but other than that their trip was good.

We took off Monday morning and found ice all over the place. Our trip to SLC was slow. We saw people spinning out all over the place. We returned the Dodge Magnum (loved it by the way) and caught our flight to Denver. We had a little layover in Denver so we ate lunch. Neil got a text from Nick Letty who was sidetracked to Minneapolis from SLC. They were headed for Chicago but got stuck there because of fog. They kept canceling their flight to Chicago so Nick and Liz rented a car and drove to O'Hare to pick up their car. I hope they made it ok. The news said that Minneapolis got hit with 8 inches of snow.

Amanda said that I-80 was closed at Rock Springs so she and the children followed Daniel there and were going to spend the night. The roads were closed going to Riverton so hopefully they will get home today if the roads are open.

Marisa and Neil were with us so they picked their car up here and went to pick up their dog at Tom and Jane's.

I haven't heard from Spencer but he is on his honeymoon after all.

The wedding was beautiful. They had the ceremony at a greenhouse. The setting was gorgeous. The dinner was at a LDS chapel and then back to the greenhouse for the reception. Alena looked beautiful and Spencer looked handsome. They had a wedding cake and then the groom's cake was a Chicago Cub Cake. Spencer put on a Cub jersey and hat to cut the cake. Very funny.

Alena's parents were very nice. Dan seemed to get along very well with Alena's dad. There are many siblings and aunts and uncles and cousins who came to the wedding. Alena's uncle who is a Bishop (was being released the next day) performed the ceremony and did a lovely job. He said all the right things. Now we can all hope for a temple marriage in the future. It is up to them however.

I have lots of work to do today. I would like to take a walk on the trail today.