Mama's disappoint and delight, Mama’s new fledgling

Mama had a rough morning yesterday. She and Cori talked fairly early in the day and Cori told Mama that it was not immediately necessary that she be there with her at the birth. Mama took it pretty hard and thereby suffered a little wounding in the thought that her children no longer need her. I know that was not the intent of the conversation so I just bided my time. (Mama is usually pretty quick to recover from such thoughts.)

Sure enough, that afternoon Cori called Mama back and the two of them talked further about the timing of her arrival. With three children old enough to really know the significance of the event about to take place it will be kind of neat to let the birth and homecoming happen in as typical a setting as the home can provide – without distractions or additional persons to interrupt the mix.

I believe mommy and daddy need that moment with the children before the cooing and fawning over the new arrival by the adoring herds of matrons (Mama included) begins to steal the focus from the children already in the home. It may be better said that I think the very immediate family members need their moments with little Savanah before they have to share her with everyone else. (That should ware off after a couple days for everyone under ten years old.) Then Grammy and Papi can swoop in to stir the excitement in the home for a week or so.

With that in mind we have booked Mama a ticket to Florida next Thursday. I told you I would not be able to hold out too long giving Mama what she wants. (I’m getting better. I made it a whole 24 hours.) It seemed reasonable to get her there ahead of me and Victoria because the week we will be spending with Nate, Cori and the grandkids in August will not be enough for Mama. It never is. She keeps telling me I have plenty of vacation and that I should be using it up. She is probably right but I am always a bit overwhelmed when I come back and try to catch up.

I knew Mama was better yesterday morning when she called me to tell me that Sasha had brought a very young bird into the yard. She was carrying the recently hatched youngling in her mouth but had not injured it in the least – except for the slobbers. Mama had gotten it from the dog and flicked away all the ants that had begun to swarm it and did not know what to do with it.

I suggested she put it in the cage we had used for the parakeets – which is exactly what she did. That is where it was when I got home. In fact she had brought it into the house because she thought it was too hot outside for the bitty thing. Victoria and I argued the contrary – that it needs to be warm; very warm in order to survive. We all finally settled on putting it in the garage.

Mama had it on a towel and it did not look comfortable to her so she scooped up some of the dried grass from the recent cutting of the lawn and put that in the cage, whereupon the fledgling scooted over into the familiar medium. That really excited Mama and Victoria.

We are not sure what species of bird we have – perhaps a Mockingbird or perhaps a dove. Time will tell if the tiny thing actually survives.

Coming very soon, what to do for Mama, young house guests

I would not be surprised to get the call from Cori today that Savanah has arrived. She called yesterday to alert me that Mama was incredibly anxious to fly out to be there for the birth (which is imminent) but the timing is pretty difficult for me. It would mean that I have to immediately fly Mama round trip to Florida – which is pretty expensive – or I would have to fly her one way- which would require her to stay there until she comes back with us when we go down in August; almost a month.

The third option is the one that Mama really hates; that she waits until we all go down on the first of August – which means that she will not see the baby until she is a couple weeks old. That, for some reason, is a loathsome outcome for Mama. But it is where I would like to settle if I can. Time will tell but I will do my best to wait until the time is more appropriate to send Mama – probably sometime next week. You all know I do not hold out too long against anything Mama wants.

Yesterday, when I got home, Gracie, Luke and Joseph were at the house with Mama and Victoria. Erin has been pretty sick lately and the family is leaving for a vacation in Colorado on Friday so Victoria took the kids for the day so Erin could rest a bit and pack a lot. It was quite the happening place when I walked into the house.

Joseph is walking very well now and Luke is all over the place. It is going to be a difficult process for Erin and Sam to line out Joseph as he gets older. He takes his queues for action and interaction from his older brother; which is as it should be. The problem is that with Luke’s autism his behavior is not the behavior the parents would want immolated. 

Luke was all over the place, flipping light switches on and off, slamming doors and walking in on Victoria as she was dressing after her shower. The kids love the house because it is so spread out and Luke loves the fact that there are endless places to hide, so many doors to open and close, so many light switches to flip the opposite direction than where they are when he finds them. He especially likes the master bath since it seems to be hidden in the walls. After all, it takes two left turns to get there from the hallway. The master closet is even better but Mama set him straight on going in there.

He is not an impossible child but he does require a lot of engagement and by the time I got home Mama was short on engagement energy, Victoria needed to start getting ready for church and Luke was pretty sugared up. Meanwhile, Joseph was trailing in his brother’s shadow like a Mimi-me. It was stimulating to say the least.

We all went to dinner at Wendy’s before church. During which time Gracie became very talkative. She told us that she had recently gone to visit daddy at work and I guess it was not what she expected. She explained that her daddy worked in a “little box” – complete with hand motions that looked similar to “Deep and Wide”. Of course she was referring to a cubicle – but her description was fairly accurate. Many employees that have similar work spaces refer to them exactly the same way she did.

What struck me as most impressive was when she congratulated Mama on the forethought of bringing an extra cup to split the frosty she had just brought to the table.  “That was a good idea, Mama Kim, to bring an extra cup so we can share”. I think Mama missed the remark as she was splitting the contents between the original and extra cup. Gracie ate the ice cream very slowly, licking it off the spoon in little bites because she did not want to get a “freeze brain.”

That remark Mama did not miss.

Overgrowth, eavesdropping on Mama, house guests

Victoria and Mama spent the day in Denton yesterday so by the time I got home they had just gotten home also. Mama was ready for her nap so Victoria and I went to her house (as we had planned) with the weed eater and a couple other implements and started hacking away at the incredible overgrowth of grass and weeds. We really should have looked at it long before now but to be honest, it was the last thing on our minds as we prepared for Alfredo and Daniella’s visit (while we were still hosting Brittany and Andrew )which was abruptly followed by our departure for Alaska – where we spent more than two weeks.

We were at her house for about an hour and a half but we did not really get much done even though I ran the weed eater continuously during that time. It will take more than we had with us to clear the two acres. So Mama and I will load her mower for the next run at the property. Meanwhile our own property suffers the same neglect – and the same overgrowth. Oh well, we will cut away at each as we are able which should take the rest of the summer to accomplish.

Mama and I have talked at some length about getting a smaller implement of some type to allow us greater flexibility and serviceability than the tractor with the brush hog we now have. Of course that would be an addition to our current implement inventory. The tractor with the brush hog and front loader is over twenty feet long which makes it difficult to use to mow within forest we have on our property – not impossible, just difficult.

However, a common riding lawn mower would be very time consuming to use since there are about seven acres to maintain. Getting sheep on the property would help in the portion where we plan to keep them but that is currently out of reach because I am not prepared to house them properly. We probably are not too far away from ready but I have not taken the time to prepare for them yet. So we are stuck with mechanical mowing. Like I said, by the end of summer we should have it done if it is only me and Mama providing the labor. When Grandpa is able to come back and help things will go much faster.

Speaking of Grandpa, I overheard that he is going to see the cardiologist this week during which time they will decide a path forward. It seems I only get the news as I eavesdrop on Mama as she is talking to someone about Grandpa. Last night it was Cori she was giving the update to. I was teasing Mama last night that maybe I should call Cori and have her fill me in.

Brianna is still sharing the house with us as she and Kaylen work to get and apartment. They have a reservation for one in Bridgeport but I assume it is not ready for occupancy as planned. They are planning to get married Friday so they can live together sooner than the planned October formal wedding – which, I understand, will still take place. I think that is a good plan.

We do not see much of Brianna. She leaves for work in the morning and does not come back to the house until after midnight each night. We have no problems with that. She is a big girl and she is fairly quiet in her comings and goings, but I think Mama is anxious to redirect the bedroom back to Grandma and Grandpa in hopes of influencing their return. Plus, Cori could have the baby any day now and Mama wants to be able to leave without leaving behind a female guest in our house while she is away.

It will all work out soon enough.

More repairs, Maggie and Walter, Grandpa

Yesterday morning – my first day back at work – one of the ladies that work for me told me she had had a “Tim Kline” week last week. On Sunday night the central A/C in her home stopped working. By Tuesday afternoon the entire unit had been replaced. The temperature last week averaged 95®F with nights not getting below 80®. Two nights without A/C was miserable. On that same Wednesday, the septic system backed up.

She called a septic repair company and a plumbing company and together the two companies dug outside, took up toilets inside, flooded the bathrooms twice each only to discover that a tee fitting near the septic tank was plugged. Once that was cleared and properly replaced everything was put back in place and she used a whole gallon of bleach to disinfect the house. She shivered in horror as she recalled cleaning the floors and walls.

Mama and I were laughing about it as I recounted the events to her. Then, that evening our central A/C began leaking water on the floor of the living room. It was only enough leakage to be annoying but it was definitely a problem, so I had Mama call the home warranty company and get the ball rolling on an inspection/repair. Hopefully she will get a call back today – which presents its own problem.

She and Victoria have a full day planned. Mama has to deliver food to the church this afternoon for a dinner being arranged for a funeral of one of our church member’s families; so that baking and cooking has to be done amid the distraction (hopefully) of a repair company working on the A/C. Then Victoria has a doctor’s appointment in Denton this afternoon. She is seeing the ENT that really helped her a year ago with her chronic ear problem. All that should be fun – and very warm since the temperature is expected to be neat 100®F.

Maggie has had some good reports on Walter. He is nursing well and sleeping well. She told Mama that he only gets up a couple times per night to eat which allows everyone the chance to sleep more than we all anticipated. As I understand it Walter will go to the doctor today to get circumcised – that should be a good time. At least he will be too young to remember.

Maggie is suffering from a pretty severe rash right now and she is very tender across her belly. She is hoping to talk to the doctor today while they are there with Walter. We are all hoping that the symptoms are not too abnormal and will quickly abate but some medical confirmation will be good. Otherwise we will see what needs to be done to help Maggie recover.

Meanwhile, back in West Virginia, Grandpa is getting around but every move expends enough effort that even to walk out to take the trash to the bin requires him to rest at the trash bin before getting enough breath to come back to the house. That is not good. Hence, the coming appointment to be evaluated for a pacemaker. I await information from Mama on that schedule.

Tonight we have made plans to go to Victoria’s house and weed eat some of the growth there – and there is a lot of growth. I do not know how much we will get done but it certainly is high time we gave it the effort so Victoria and Mama can have some clear pathways to walk when they do go over there.

That and the overgrowth at our property highlight the need for better equipment in order to keep up with the properties.

Some follow up notes

Grandpa was released from the hospital without any diagnosis of the problem that originally landed him there. He received several units of blood over a couple days and was greatly improved by that but all the tests that were run were inconclusive. He is scheduled for one more test in which the doctors will use a pill sized camera to get a view of the small intestines to see if they can pinpoint the source of the internal bleeding that caused his blood loss. Once that test is done they may okay him for travel.

One internalists and a cardiologist have reached the conclusion that the underlying issue with his blood pressure fluctuations may be related to improper heart function. The solution for that is a pace maker. That would explain some of the seemingly unrelated issues he has been having with blood pressure control and why the doctors have been unable to correct it. More on that s we get word from him and Grandma.

Cori is in better shape after the doctors gave her the medication to stop her contractions. It would not have bothered Blake is she had had the baby. He is anxious to be able to hug her in the front instead of sideways. He told her so just the other day. She is still having sporadic contractions and feels a good amount of abdominal pressure so she is having lots of trouble sleeping. It would be difficult to imagine that Savanah will stay in the womb too much longer but we are praying for as many weeks as we can get to close in on her due date.

Mama and I made it home safely Friday morning  – extremely worn out from the trip home. We got to the airport in Seattle at 6 pm Thursday evening and boarded a flight to Dallas just before midnight. That put our arrival time in Dallas just before 6 a.m. on Friday. The pastor was scheduled to pick us up at 6:30 – or there about. His wife texted Mama a little after 6 a.m.to tell us he had overslept and would be a little late. But it was not too much after the agreed time that he picked us up. We got to the house a little after 8 a.m. since we stopped for breakfast on the way home. It seemed the least we could offer him for getting up much earlier than is normal for him.

Mama and I unpacked only what was necessary and napped for a few hours before we got up to get busy on unpacking and start working on the neglected yard. We were back in bed by 9 pm and did not get up Saturday morning until just before noon. I cannot remember a time when we slept later than that but we each had taken a muscle relaxer before bed. That combined with the sleepless night as we traveled home did us in.

I got up and started working on the garage – rearranging boxes and clearing space to work. Mama actually went back to bed for a nap a little after 2 pm. I woke her at 5 pm. By that time I had finished grilling hamburgers and was anxious to get started on weed eating. As a consequence of all the sleep we had gotten we both had a rough night Saturday  night; but not nearly as rough as I had last night. Maybe we are readjusting our sleep patterns to what should be normal after being three hours off Texas time and in nearly constant day light for over two weeks. This too should pass.

All in all it was a great trip, a wonderful time with our granddaughter and her parents as we waited on her brother.

Walter is here, Grandpa’s still there

Walter is here – at least, he is in the hospital with his mom and dad. Maggie delivered him this morning at 5:15 a.m. He weighed 9 pounds 14 ounces. No one can denigrate Maggie’s tolerance for pain on that front. She, like Mama years ago, gave birth to a three month old. Both mommy and baby are healthy and doing well. We are expecting them to come home tomorrow; the day before we leave. The timing could have been better but at least we did not miss the birth.

Cathryn, Mama and I went to downtown Juneau yesterday evening after the baby big sister got up from her four hour nap. New cruised the shopping district for about three hours and then went to Fred Myers for another hour so we could return an item Mama had bought and get some things for dinner. By the time we got home it was almost 8 pm. We were all worn out.

We put Curious George on the tablet that she knows how to operate and she nodded in front of the player for about thirty minutes before Grammy put her to bed. It will be another hour or more before she is awake as I write this note. Today we will go easy on her and only keep her out for two to three hours total.

I realized as I was sitting with Mama in the quiet of the evening that I had walked about three miles from the glacier to the house and she, Maggie and Cathryn had walked bout a half mile with me on a little trail around the observation deck adjacent to the glacier prior to my long walk home. We are still hoping to see bears and fish in the creeks at the observation area. So far we have been skunked.

We will go see the baby, or I should say, Cathryn and I will go with Mama to see the baby later this morning. Maggie woke Mama at 4 a.m. to tell her she was pushing. (Maggie is a play-by-play type of person. I know this because she called us as well as Cori to a update her progress every time she dilated further.) She called back when the baby was born. Mama was dressed and out the door within five minutes. Now she (Mama) is frustrating herself tying to post this morning’s events on Facebook.

Grandpa is improving in spite of the fact that there has been no mention of want the root of Grandpa’s health problem is. Mama was told that he received blood through the night – which is what I suggested to her should happen early yesterday – so he has shown marked improvement. Still they continue waiting in the hospital as the doctors try to pinpoint the cause.

I can understand the consternation on the part of the medical staff because this has been an ongoing issue with Grandpa for many years. I also understand the angst on Grandma’s part and the hesitancy on Grandpa’s part in getting the diagnosis set because Grandpa’s brother died of colon cancer and his father died of prostate cancer.  For Grandpa, it could be something more simple than that – like a very poor diet – but we will not know that for a few more days yet.

From Grandpa’s perspective, knowing the issue is more frightening than ignoring it.

Maggie, Grandpa, Victoria

I have not written for several days because nothing has been happening here. We have gotten the chance to take a lot of pictures and walk on a lot of trails but Maggie has not progressed toward delivery in any noticeable way – until this morning. Now it seems that Walter is wanting to get out and she is in the throes of earnest contractions as he prepares his escape; or entry depending on which way you look at it.

Earlier this morning we got a call from Grandma that she took Grandpa to the hospital in Ripley; weak and barely able to move; ashen in color. By the time I had walked the trail from Mendenhall Glacier to the house they had transported him to Charleston. Early indications are that he is having colon issues. That, in conjunction with the heart issues he has had make for an urgent situation.

Grandma has been marking his deteriorating progress for some weeks now. But we have to look back to see it. We are less than completely trusting of her assessments on most occasions because she sees most things in a very negative way – and Grandpa has always recovered fully after each weak spell in the recent past. The fact that she was able to get him to agree to go to Jackson General Hospital is a testament to his grave condition. Neither of them have a high opinion of the medical facility.

The only caveat to the transport to Charleston is that the ambulance broke down in route and as I write this blog he is lying in ambulance waiting to be transferred to a serviceable unit that can complete the transfer to the hospital in Charleston. Such is the story of Grandpa’s medical care. So for the moment we await news on both pressing medical issues – here in Alaska and there in West Virginia.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Victoria has been taking care of the property and animals in our absence. On Saturday she had a run in with a large rat snake that did not want to give up the nest he was eating the eggs from. It was obvious that he had at least one already inside him but he was the greedy sort and did not want to move away from the several he had claimed from the fretting chickens.

She would not touch the snake with her hands –as I would have – but insisted on worrying it with a hoe handle until she had frustrated it into leaving. It will not be long before she will have to repeat the process. At least until I get back home and relocate the reptile.

Sunday was a big day at our home church. It was our pastor’s fortieth anniversary at the church so they had a big celebration for him. That along with the proximity to the 4^th of July made for quite a time with special speakers, special slide presentations and remembrance of the holiday and the years of service at Immanuel Baptist Church.

Mama and I hated to miss it but we have important family events to attend to.