Rainy,Rainy Day

Well, It was a raw and rainy day in Iowa today. So we hunkered down and enjoyed a winter like day. Too wet and cold to do much of anything. Butch did go into town and located a few supplies needed for the house. I stayed home and made a delicious Broccoli casserole that Butch will not even taste but I love. Thanks for the recipe Kay. I also worked on my last batch of super hot chili and toned it down to tolerable. I made a fresh batch without any seasoning at all and added the fiery stuff to it. It is now quite tasty. But then we were invited for Pizza so we went to Breadeaux with Keri and her daughter Emily and her friend Joe. I put the never ending chili back in the fridge and we will have it tomorrow. Leo is still knee deep in taxes and could not join us. He may rejoin the living sometime next week after some serious catching up on sleep.
I caught up on lots of computer stuff today but I may as well resign myself that it will never be exactly as I want it.

Tearful Elise

Of course the tears are long gone because this was last week when we were in Missouri but it is heartbreaking none the less.
http://youtu.be/qWYJkszPUIU

Bob Passed

Bob passed away yesterday and they had trouble getting a hold of me. Apparently it went straight to voicemail so I didn't get the message until this morning when I turned on the phone. So we went to Atlantic today. Bob told me he had his funeral all paid for. Wrong! All he had paid for was his cremation. He is $650 short just to get the bare essentials done like paying the medical examiner and paying the $13 for his death certificate. So I went to his bank to find out how much he had left in his account. $500. A memorial service is not planned at this time. I thought he had it all planned and paid for right down to the music. He sort of did but it wasn't all paid for. He had two options when he set it up and he went for the cheaper one. We are not legally libel for any of it but we will pay the difference so the funeral home isn't out that money It is very typical of Bob and his life and how he lived it.
In the last 3 months he purchased a lift chair for a thousand. The lift chair was donated to the nursing home due to our lifestyle and logistics, we thought that was best.
This message makes me look like a hard hearted witch and perhaps I am. I guess I will have to live with that.
I am sitting here with my finger on the button to post this message...or not. Oh well, I am pretty much an open book and now isn't any different. It is what it is and I feel exactly this way so I am owning up to it.

Some work photos

These were taken Tuesday as we were working on taking up carpet. As you can see the hardwood floors look pretty decent. They look even better in the bedroom area. Of course there are more pictures to come as days go by...

Grandpapa Butch and Elise

We've started

We took a stab at seeing what we have and thinking about how we are going to approach our remodeling job. Right now it looks like a mountain, of course. Butch took up some carpeting in the living room and we have hardwood floors underneath which may be salvageable. I cleaned up the little fridge. It was full of mold and mildew. After several hours it is clean and moved to the garage, plugged in and working. I have immediately doubled my refrigerator space. They ( Butch and Jason) also moved the apartment sized stove to the garage. Butch will have to wire it for 220 before I can use that but since we haven't got the MoHo in the back yard yet it really doesn't matter. The order of things is always perplexing.
Keri made Butch a pecan pie from the pecans we brought back from Texas. Pecan Bill stops in Oklahoma every year and buys 300 pounds of pecans so technically they are Oklahoma pecans. Kay and Pecan Bill are not going to be happy when they see this picture. They weren't the last time either. Just awful to see a beautiful pecan pie and know it is so far away.

Potty Training 101

I was getting caught up on computer/Internet stuff after a long dry spell when I ran across this facebook post by Laura. It really cracked me up!!

From Laura:
Ethan is such a little man. This was last weekend at Nana and Papa's. He was watching a potty training video on the world wide web!

In Jefferson Iowa

We are in Jefferson at Leo and Keri's place until we get our lot ready for the MoHo. We went to the house yesterday and putzed around. Butch trimmed some trees-always an issue with RV's- he also blew some leaves out of the garage and next to the house. I took down curtains and mini-blinds and we both worked on getting the windows open to air the place out. It is one of those deals where you do not quite know where to begin. I am sure it will all come together soon...one step at a time.

Visited Bob on Saturday

I went to see Bob. He made the decision to let nature take its course but he forgets now and then and wonders where his pureed food is and why they aren't bringing it. In other words the medical help he is getting(morphine) does not make for clear thinking. At this point clear thinking isn't necessary. It is a terrible thing to watch. Even 5 drops of morphine that he gets given by mouth is enough to make him choke if they are not careful in giving it. They were still able to get him up in a chair for a bit on Saturday. I doubt if that will be true for more than another day. Communicating is difficult. For one thing you do not know how much he understands and for another it is hard to understand what he says. He said I didn't have to come and there is nothing you can do. At least that is what I thought he said. I told him I came to hold his hand. He said,"okay".
It is just a matter of a few days. I hope I never see anyone else have their final days be like the ones he is having.
They will call me when the time is imminent. Please pray for his going to be less of a struggle.

While in Missouri

Baby Elise will soon be walking. She still has a walking aid here but you can certainly tell it will not be long. She is almost 11 months old now.