Prayer Requests...

As far as me and my family---continue to pray for James ( I haven't talked to him since Christmas Eve), for my grandmother that she continues to enjoy the quality of life that many never achieve, for my mom that she also continues the healing process (broken hip in November) and begins to get back to her old self, for Patrick that when he gets to the end of this semester he has done well at school and the job at Meadowbrook UMC will begin to grow ( He has decided , I think, to focus on the area of Christian Education)..., and for Jim, that he and the drama team are successful in their effort to entertain those who attend their presentation on FEB. 15-16. It is called MISSION: POSSIBLE. It has a stewardship theme, and for those who remember, is a sequel to the mystery dinner theatre that the drama team put on in 2004 called "MURDER, MAYHEM, AND MARSHMALLOW SALAD." I would appreciate any prayers for me and for my new neurologist who I will be meeting with in 3 weeks.

Squeaky Clean Cell Phone :o(

Probably shouldn't admit this but I just washed my cell phone! Somehow or other it got mixed up in the laundry and the next thing I knew I was picking it up from inside the washing machine! Now I'm in the market for a phone but at the moment it doesn't have to be immediately because we are the owners of one "extra" phone and it works when I pulled out my SiM card and moved it into the old RAZOR phone that Jim had lost and then replaced with an iphone, and then a few weeks later he found his old RAZOR phone. Patrick had dropped his and thought it was broken, so he was using Jim's old one that I now have because Patrick's phone works now! Did you follow that? I'm not sure I did! LOL

I'm actually hoping that my new clean one that still has water in it will dry out and begin working again! Keep your fingers crossed!

Scrapbooking Retreat

I returned Sunday evening from a terrific weekend spent with fellow scrapbookers. We were staying and working at the Covered Bridge Inn in Weatherford, Texas...a wonderful spot specifically set up for scrapbooking with 5' tables for each of 20 people who were there. That's an aerial view of the place to the right here. This weekend there was actually 21 of us...Six of them were there with me and my friend, Michelle had 3 with her. Luckily we were able to fill up Michelle's extra spots and go this past weekend. The picture to the right here is of the bedroom that Michelle and I both slept in...and bumped our heads too! OUCH! You can't walk standing up next to the heads of the beds!

The food was delicious as it has been in the past. My favorite this weekend was the Poppy Seed Chicken. The desserts are the very best thing of all! This is the dining hall.

This is the crop room. It is furnished with rolling chairs, a big screen tv, many sizzex machines and other goodies such as every kind of punch you can imagine. There are windows on both sides of this section of the retreat.

All of the bedrooms are upstairs. This is the huge sitting room available to guests and not pictured here is the massage room. ( I highly recommend it!)

As of right now, Pat is booked up for most of 2008 and even some of 2009. We are hoping to schedule a time to go next in August... (C.D. how about this time -- do you want to go this weekend? should be Aug. 1-3 cost remains at $180. but includes more of the traditional "make N takes, door prizes, etc. from the scrapbook store owner who is sponsoring that particular weekend... I've seen some of her stuff...it's nice! Deposit of $100 is due to get your name on the list.)

At the end of this are some of my group who went , as well as a picture of Michelle...(they were all first timers--my third visit and Michelle's 4th or 5th, I think!)

And last of all are the two stacks of supplies that I took with me...I packed well but it was still a lot of stuff to take with me! Next time, I plan to try for less.

Scrappin' Weekend Ahead

I am getting packed up and ready for a scrapbooking weekend at the Covered Bridge Inn in Weatherford. It is my favorite place to go with friends who also like to record and remember the past and the present by scrapbooking. The Inn is owned and operated by my friend Pat F. -- a fellow teacher retiree and church member.



Part of the reason that I enjoy it so much is the chance to see so many other people's ideas for their scrapbooks and the pages that they come up with. I have learned all I know about the "how-to" of scrapbooking from watching others chronicle their life in this way.



This weekend my plan is to begin putting together the book for the latest cruise that we took to the Southern Caribbean and if I tire of that and want to try something different I'm also taking the pictures and other memorabilia from our trip to California in 2001.

Losing a Friend

Today I found out that one of my favorite people among the Parkinson's Community died over the weekend. Ray Farkas was a super person as evidently many others felt that way too. His daughter posted a blogspot in his name and asked for contributions of "stories" that involved her dad and his career and life. I posted this:

I'm so sorry to hear the news about Ray! I, too, am one of the lucky people who have two holes drilled in my head along with all the other hardware necessary for the Deep Brain Stimulation. It was about six months after I had my brain surgery that I read something that Ray had written on the DBS group site on Yahoo. He was "singing" the praises of his surgeon, Chris Kalhorn, but he was also writing about his connections to his friend, Dr. Manjit Sanghera, a neuro-physicist in Dallas. When I realized that he was referring to one of the doctors who had been a part of the team who changed my life, I sent him an email telling him a little bit of my life as a PWP (Person with Parkinsons) and congratulating him on his successful surgery.

How exciting to get a phone call from him later on inviting me to be interviewed for part of his new film, “It Ain’t Television, It’s Brain Surgery.” Such a unique man and he was just as you’ve all described…easily making all of us feel at ease while he sort of “primed the pump” and got us talking about our life since our surgeries. I must be on camera for less than 60 seconds but Ray always made me feel like an important contributor to the film.

The next summer I was in Washington, DC, with my husband and Ray came to the hotel where we were staying to meet my husband and visit for a short while. When he came bounding in with a huge smile on his face and a large box in hand, he loudly greeted us and said, “Here’s something for you and your first grade students! “ It was a game similar to the old game of OPERATION but this game was called BRAIN SURGEON. It’s a game for small children with a rather silly looking character that speaks electronically. He pushed on the lighted red nose of the clown and it began yelling out “encouragements" and “gently ribbing” the players of the game. I loved it! I think Ray said he had two games like it (given to him by clever friends) and so he thought I would enjoy sharing it with my kids at school. He was right and that game was a big favorite for the next three years in my classroom on rainy or cold days. I retired from teaching last year with 25 years behind me--the last four years possible only because I can proudly claim to be “a DBSer.” That wheelchair that I was often teaching from, pre-DBS, was rolled into the attic and I haven’t needed it since that life-changing operation. I’m happy to be a member of the hole-in-the-head gang and enjoy singing the praises of my doctors ,just as Ray enjoyed sharing his experiences with prospective patients and others who just can’t seem to get past that idea of having a couple of holes drilled in their head.

I enjoyed Ray’s sense of humor and his love of life. I hope that I can be a great “encourager” and “demonstrator” for other PWP just as Ray was to so many people. I will always remember Ray’s enthusiasm and his positive attitude. I was blessed by my encounters with Ray. May I be for others what Ray was for many…a positive, enthusiastic well wisher!

Now that I think about it, it probably seems a little bit unusual to be able to refer to someone as a friend that I've only actually seen and talked with about 4 times but that's just the way Ray was...he made you feel as if you were HIS friend and he was...you can read more about him and even look at some of his films online at http://www.offcentertv.com

To all old friends...thanks for being there when you are needed!

New Chairs!

Today we went shopping for two new chairs that Jim wanted to add to the living room set up that we now have. He has put his recliner out in the garage (and it looks like it will go home with Patrick). We ended up after we left the first store with a new area rug (8' x 10') to "define the seating area" as quoted by Jim. I think he's most likely been watching too much HG stuff on TV.

The store that we went to was in Irving (north of DFW airport). The name of it is THE DUMP. They are only open on Friday-Sunday and today was extra crowded because they were having a clearance sale. EVERYTHING MUST GO!
We couldn't find any matching chairs there so we grabbed the rug and paid for it (that was the major problem there ...we must have stood in line for an hour--and we were at the head of the line !)

Lunch at Schlotsky's and we stopped at Stacy's in Grapevine. You know the place where "if you're not shopping at Stacy's then you're burning money!" Nice store--we narrowed our choice down to three different recliners (smaller than the humongous version that I was expecting). Then we compared to the rug that we had out in the car and actually found one in the store--taking pictures and running across the store to compare to the chairs...Jim was reluctant to give up his first choice but it really didn't go with the rug. Our mind was made up by the salesman when he looked up the list from the warehouse and told us that they didn't have one of the chairs but they did have two of the other one. So, that's the one we have and tomorrow Patrick's truck will be put to use driving out to Grapevine and picking up the two chairs.

Remember the rug pictured above and just imagine Jim's favorite chair on it...ready? Here's the chair:

The colors match but the patterns are much too busy! He agreed that it was too much and so here is the picture of the chairs we are picking up tomorrow...