Every time I went through my front door last month I got to see my tulips and daffodils – it made my heart glad!!
We celebrated my birthday and Mother’s Day on May 8. It was a beautiful day and Tyler and Heidi were able to join us. I received some outdoor flower plants and stands, a laptop holder, and a portable cd player among other things. There were lots of wonderful cut flowers for both my mother and I, and lots of chocolate. What more could a woman want??!! 
In the continuing saga of Randy’s Meniere’s disease - he had been having episodes once a week for 3 weeks, and one just 2 weeks before that. He had one episode the morning of my birthday where I had to go pick him up from work. He was laying on the Conference Room floor and couldn’t even sit up because his balance was so bad. We had a couple of men help him out to the car where he layed down in the back seat. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to help him up our stairs to the bed, but we managed. After laying in bed for a few hours he felt better and we were finally able to go back to his work and pick up his truck. The doctor has given him a prescription for a patch that he wears behind his ear. The patch gives him medicine that helps with the nausea, but it also really dries out his mouth. In some ways it seems to be helping, but he’s still had a few more episodes (or near-episodes) since then.
I finished my two classes a few days early so that I wouldn’t have to think about it over my birthday/Mother’s Day weekend. So, that gave me 2 ½ weeks off from school. It was a nice break, and allowed me to concentrate on other things. I repaired 2 of the outdoor chairs (yes, the ones I just recovered last month – some sewing came loose, so I had to reinforce it with stronger thread!), repaired the umbrella that goes with our table outside (the material is really weathered, so I may actually have to replace it – we’ll see) , glued a broken toilet tank top and messed with the toilet’s flusher, but it’s still not working correctly, retiled
a
bathroom floor (actually watched Randy do it and gave him what help he needed!), cleaned out the garage, cleaned out the pantry and our wardrobe (I always switch our winter and summer clothes around), and planted tomato plants, radishes, and carrots – plus some flower seeds in our two planters on the back porch. I have now started classes again, and my Research class is going to be a doosey!
Also during my time off I gave my mother a perm and took her to a couple of stores to look for pants. We didn’t find any, but I later found a couple of pair for her at the Deseret Industries that were just what she wanted. All last week I had the stomach flu – but I never threw up, if you know what I mean… I lost 6 pounds, but it is wonderful to be feeling better. Both of my dogs got sick, also (I’m not sure if they had the same thing I did or not??!!) and I have had to put towels on all the couches and I’ve cleaned up several “skid marks” on the rug! I know, too much information.
I went to the dentist and I had 1 cavity – Yuk! So, I have to have that filled. I also saw the doctor about my knee and he said it was most likely bursitis - an inflammation of the fluid-filled sac (bursa) that lies between a tendon and skin, or between a tendon and bone – and can be caused by trauma. (If you look it up on Google images, the pictures there are WAY worse than mine!) Several months ago I had tripped over the gate that I occasionally put up to keep my dogs out of my mom’s room, and I had landed hard on both my knees on a tile floor.(Do I hear moaning??!!) He gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory drug that seems to be helping. So, I was off the treadmill for several weeks, but I’m slowly starting it up again.
One weekend Becky and Dave came by and visited for a short time. They were up for Jacob’s graduation from college. The following weekend Wendy, Jerry and Courtney came up for a visit. They had a couple of receptions to attend and family business on Jerry’s side. It’s always nice to see family.
The most exciting news of the mo
nth is that Dylan got his mission call! He has been called to the Cleveland, Ohio Mission and he reports to the Provo MTC on August 24. He was hoping to go someplace a little warmer, but he’s glad to be going anywhere, really. Jesse and Amanda are getting married sometime in August (they’re eloping) so we will have a reception here in our backyard for family members the Saturday before Dylan reports. Ingrid (and Kalvin, maybe Jeff?) is coming up for that, so we will have our entire family all together – it will be nice. Besides her police work, Heidi is working a few days a week at an outdoor plant nursery and she is loving it! She must be a chip off the old block. ;) Tyler has started school again. He ended up dropping his golf class because it was real frustrating and he felt he just didn’t have time for it because his other 2 classes are pretty demanding.
Well, a few days ago there was snow on the hill behind our house when we got up! The newspaper said there was 10 inches of new snow at some resorts and they are hoping to stay open until July 4th. Amazing!! I think the weather is finally starting to warm up, though, and I am ready.
