Shame on me.. Nothing posted since September 2020

 After we got home from Americus, Georgia things really fell apart for both of us.  

Starting in June Larry was told he had prostrate cancer. after many discussions we decided to go to Bruinswick, Georgia for treatment which was a success .

On Sept 28th I had a mamogram just retouine so we thought but no it was determined 2 days later after a biospy it was cancer.   Now on Oct 1 I was scheduled for a Pacemaker so we had to do some fast thinking and my Dr. Goldberg decided to place the pacemaker on the right side of my chest in case I had to have chemo.   With Gods blessings all went well and after that we had a lumpecity and did not to have any more treatment.

Our grandaughter Madie Paige Halstead got married to a wonderful man, Lance Williamson.  Larry performed thr ceremony.

Thanksgiving was great as we had all of our children and grands together for the first time in about 9 years.

Spent Christmas here in Virginia and were blessed with another great granddaughter on December 30.   Penolope Jules Martin.  Her older sister Charlie was so happy for a sister.

2021       

January  thru March was pretty uneventful but April started with a BANG.

I had another back surgery, Larry had complete shoulder replacement on the right side and had done amazing.

Tomorrow July 11 we are leaving for Indianapolis, Georgia and South Carolina.

Mem

 

OOPS

I didn't get to finish before it posted.

We won't be doing any CAV builds for Habitat in 2021 until HFHI gives us the go ahead which will probably be in the late Spring or early summer.  This is really putting a crunch in a lot of peoples plans for the Fall and Winter, however we are just taking it one day at a time.

More later.

OH THE THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED SINCE MARCH 2020

 When COVID 19 hit we were in Americus, Georgi and of course one of the hottest spots to begin with was Albany Georgia, 30 miles from Americus.

We were instructed by HFHI to close down all the current builds and send people home.

We left Americus, went to Jekell Island  to see Mary & David Vandeveld and then headed back to Virginia.

Basically since March 27 we were confined to home.  Larry did most of the trips into the grocery as he felt I was more at risk than he was since I have the heart issues.

It was very hard not to be able to see our children and grandchildren until May but we did zoom calls with both families from here in Virginia and Indiana.

Larry mostly but I did help some got lots of projects done here as we were never home long enough to do them.

In mid July we did go to Indiana to get the refrigerator in the MH fixed and then on to Indianapolis to see Ally's family and actually got to see Noah graduate and help with his OPEN HOUSE. We had to sit in the car and watch it on our phone and Ipad and then afterwards make family pictures.

After leaving there we went to Frankfort Ky and did some more of the Bourbon Trail.

Back in Virginia we have enjoyed visiting with Bry and family at their house on the weekends out by the pool.

Attended a bridal shower for Madison who is getting married in November.

In the meantime we have had some upsets with me being back in AFIB and am going to have a pacemaker and Larry has prostate cancer.    We will be traveling to Brunswick Ga. in mid October to see doctors there to determine his course of treatment.

Catching up from September 2019 until March 1, 2020

I really don't know where to start..

After we got home from our September trip to Georgia I had a new doctor check out my bad knee and he schedule surgery within two weeks.

He told Larry after surgery that it was one of the worst knees he had replace in years.
Therapy was a piece of cake compared to the pain I had been suffering for a lot of years .I had people come in three days a week for therapy at home for about a month and then I went to outpatient therapy for another month. The doctor said it will take about a year for it to be completely healed byt I am doing great and just take my time not to do too much because if I do I pay for it the next day.


We stayed at home for Thanksgiving enjoying it with Bryant and Julie, Madie & Lance (who are getting married in  November..   Taylor, and Anthony and their daughter, Charlie  went to his Grandmothers near Gettysburg.

We went to Indianapolis Indiana to spend Christmas with Ally, Doug and the Grands.
One of the best visits we had.  Got to go the Zoo for Christmas at the zoo and Doug was taking care of me and pushed me in a wheelchair all around because it had not been but 2 months since surgery and I couldn't walk that well.  Enjoyed church on Christmas Eve and then Christmas Day everyone stayed in their PJ's and enjoyed a BIG breakfast and then Soups, snacks, movies, etc.

Our wonderful friend Judy Switalski from Michigan came down on Thursday and stayed until Saturday morning.

Next day we got to see two basketball games that Noah was playing in.  On the first game he broke two school records.   Most points in one game was 46 and he scored 48   and  10 of them were 3 pointers.

We left on Sunday morning and spent the night  and arrived home on Sunday and spent the afternoon with friends celebrating Christmas.

January we finally got to celebrate Christmas with Bryant and family because they had gone to Georgia to Julie's Mom for Christmas.

January 14th we left and went to Goldsburg N.C. and taught  a 2 day safety course for Habitat.
After that we arrived in Americus, Georgia on January 19th .

It has been a different year for us in regards to Habitat .

In early January Larry was asked to help with houses in Plains Ga. which is Present Carters hometown while we were here doing Habitat for Humanity .
After some searching and praying we decided to tackle that project with the help of our CAV's .
This has allowed us to personally meet and have dinner with President and Mrs. Carter. Never in a million years did we think we would do this.   Of course my Mother and my Uncle Lamar are probably having a fit in Heaven as both of them were stanch Democrats but neither of them liked Carter as Georgia Governor and would not did not vote for him.

Another major change is that the U S Construction Dept. of Habitat has decided that there will be NO more 2 day in person safety classes.   This was a huge shock for all of us CAV safety trainers (11).
We have really run this program for about 8 years and all of a sudden they just say we don't need you anymore.

I will still be working with the CAV desk and Larry will continue to be in charge of Americus and hopefully some other builds.


Yesterday our  refrigerator in the motorhome went bad.   We moved everything over to the RV House here in the Campground and then we got 2 small apartment size refrigerator to use until we leave here in 4 weeks.

We have a small one at home which we will put in the MH until we go to Indianapolis in May and go to Shipshewana In. to have it replaced.

That's it for today but will continue later.

Sept. 25, 2019 and it is very nice.

We have had a few good days.  We got to Lafayette La. on Sunday afternoon and got all set up at the KOA campground in Scott, La
Monday we went by the Habitat Office to check out the room where we would be teaching.
Had a wonderful dinner with Cara & Jerry Gerdes and their two little boys....
Tuesday and Wednesday teaching habitat safety  class and had a great class.

Tomorrow we get to leave and head to Bainbridge, Georgia for my 57th High School Reunion.   Looking forward to see everyone.

It has been a HELL of a year 2019

The last time that I wrote on this Blog was in January.    There have been many things taking place since.

I went to see Dr. Young and he agreed to do another back surgery on my L3 that was pressing on a nerve.  I went for pre op testing and everything went south.

The next thing I know I am in AFIB and my ejection fraction is 35 so I am told I am in Heart  Failure.
When we meet with Dr. Goldberg, my cardiologist he suggest doing medication and a cardioversion which is shocking the heart. This lasted about lasted about 3 day and back into AFIB.Next step is to an ablation which is actually burning and sending the signals in another direction.   About 2 weeks after that I find myself being taken my the rescue squad to the hospital.   The scar tissue had not fully healed and I had an infection around the heart sack,
After two of the heart doctors conferred they deceided to do another cardioverison (shock), which at this time is still keeping me in rythm.

Now we move on to the next issue.  My left knee.   Had seen a knee surgeon recommended by Dr, Goldberg, Megan Swanson, which by the way I didn't like her manner to start with but kept going back to get the surgery scheduled for Oct 7th.   Did everything of the post op direction.  Was to see her on Sept 10 and she called on Sept 9 to tell me she would NOT do the surgery.
She thinks it is a back problem not knee
Now my Dr. Young tried to tell her my back was fine as they had just done an MRI on the Friday before she called and NO way was she changing her mind.
There was another knee surgeon sitting at the table with them at lunch and heard all this mess and he said I will see her.
I know several people he has operated on and been very happy with the outcone.    So we will see him on Oct. 8th.

We didn't get to do any habitat builds as planned but did get to go to North Fort Myers, Fl. for the 30th anniversary of the RV Care a vanners.The first part of that trip was great though as Kate one of our granddaughters was in a play, the Sound of Music.   She has asked us to come but we told her the doctor would not let me travel so we surprised her and showed up.   She was happy and the play was great. She played the oldest daughter, Liesl and we had no idea she could sign like that.   It was a good time.  

Most of our summer has been spent in Virginia but now we are teaching some Habitat Safety Classes in SC, NC and LA.  Nexy we go to Ga. for my 57 high school reunion and then back to Virginia for knee issues to be done with.

We did get to enjoy a little garden, spending time with Bry and family and getting know Miss Charlie a little better.   She has finally warned up to me but thinks Larry is great and says Papa the minute she sees him. We also have our house leased for 3 years to a wonderful couple and hope they stay longer.  We built and apartment in the original shop building.

A couple of weekend camping trips with ODC our club.

2017 and 2018

It is time for me to get back into blogging and when I can't remember things at least I can go look them up.

Jan 2017 thru December was a very  stress related for both of us.

After finishing up our HFH commitments we decided that we had to make a decision about my back and leg pain.
Long story short I had back surgery on July 24, 2017 which turned out to be the best thing I ever did.
Dr. Jacob Young in Charlottesville Va. got me out of my pain.
We went to Georgia in September for another high school reunion and then back to see Bill & Deb Dorris. Bill had fallen out of a tree stand and had an awful back injury.

From there we went to NC to teach a safety class and then home.   Went to Indy first weekNovember
for a few days and then came back for Thanksgiving with the family.  Lance, Madie's friend cooked for us.

First week of December found us in Americus again for   another round of safety training, down to Bainbridge for Ann and Maston's Christmas party and then back to Virginia for Christmas.   Taylor and Anthony announced on Christmas day that they are pregnant.

After my final checkup with Dr. Young in January we left for the trip South and HFH Builds.
Taught safety in Winston Salem NC, got to see Cathy Bullard Buck and her husband.

On to Layafette La for a 2 week build, then to Americus.

It was the year to get all the affiliates with HFH trained in safety so it was a busy time a I* am contacting affiliates informing them of classes.   I love what I am doing.

IN May we went to Indy for a kindergarten graduation for Sophia.

The most exciting thing was the birth of our first great grandchild, Annalise Charlotte (Charlie) Martin on July 26th. Got to hold her when she was less than 2 hours old.  

Spent most of the summer in Virginia, camping with our ODC group, had lots of company.
Judy and Jeff Rothwell,  Kim and Mike McNabb, Judy Switalski, and finally Don & Beth Hickman.

Went t Indy for Thanksgiving and got to see Noah play high school basketball.
Back to Americus the first of December for a week.
Home for Christmas and New Years and now I am having BACK issues again and not sure when we are leaving to go South.

We are scheduled to arrive in Americus, Ga by February 4th and be there until end of March, then for the 30th CAV reunion in Ft. Meyers, Fl and then home.

All this is subject to change after I see Dr. Young on this Friday after an MRI Thursday.