Old Tried and True Friends

Throughout my life I have been blessed with some true friends. You know the kind: The ones you have fun with, cry with and just think will always be there and then you loose track of each other. But when you find each other again, it's just like no time has passed at all.

This week I heard from 2 of those old friends which made my week really sweet. The first person I heard from was Janet Howes, I met Janet in about 1978. I always admired her for having so many kids and still keeping it all together. Her kids grew up with my kids and were best friends for many years. We left Torrance within a month of each other. She moved to Las Vegas and I never knew it until one day I went to call her and the phone was dead. UGH. Until she called me I had no way of getting in touch with her and I'm sure glad she did.

The other friend is really "My Best Friend" for life. I have known Jenny Leticia Arellano De La Torre Fernandez for 54 years. That's right I met her when I was 4 years old. She knew me through all the crazy stages a kid goes through. She also experienced the verbal abuse Gloria was so good at handing out and through it all Jenny loved me. We've seen each other Fat and skinny. We were at each other's weddings. I was the only white girl in hers and she was the only Mexican in mine. What a team we were. She used to protect me against the black girls that always tried to gang up on me. She tried to make me stop cussing, which I know have, but I didn't then and she used to punch me in the arm each time I said a bad word. Anyway, she found me on Face book and I'm so glad she did. She had 3 of the sweetest kids you would ever want to know, I hope they still are. We are going to get together in a few weeks and have lunch and I'm looking forward to it.

My Work

I just got home from a wonderful experience in Salt Lake. I was invited to go with Beth to a "Directors Meeting" which was for the 15 largest family history Centers in the world, which we rank about 14th or 15th in size. Needless to say it was a humbling experience. We learned a lot and were given a bunch of mandates to accomplish before the end of the year.

I'm not really supposed to say much, but 2 things did stand out to me. 1) Everyone will start being able to order films online from their homes using a credit or debit card. This is hugh change for the Family History Centers. 2) We will soon have all our in house films and books listed in the Family History Library Catalog for everyone anywhere to access. Before this can be done, there has to be alot of behind the scenes work done and even before Beth gets back, I have started the ball rolling.

I finished with one client and back onto the other one. Busy, Busy, and sad, I still have to do the laundry and put clothes away, clean the toilets and cook some. I guess bring home a paycheck is not all it's cracked up to be.

Dinner with the Smith's and Eliasons

A month ago or so, we had a Ward Auction to help out the youth for their camps and things. Larry auctioned off a "Rober Favorite: Dinner for 4". Clay and Lynn Smith won it in the auction, so they came to dinner last night and brought Steve and Deb Eliason with them.

They are such good friends and such good company. The food was delicious and I made a new, killer dessert! I made a batch of my own Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I flattened them down before I cooked them. Then I took softened vanilla Ice cream and made 'chip wiches'. They were better than any I have ever had!!!! That is a new favorite dessert around here.

The menu also consisted of Marinated Flank Steak, Yummy Mashed Potatoes with chives and Caesar Salad. It was a very good dinner, even if I made some of it.

No Photo's- Boring Post

This weekend was the Southern California Jamboree. It's the biggest genealogy conference we have in California. It ran from Friday to Sunday. I drove out on Friday AM and home Friday PM so that Larry could take me out on a special date. It was a surprise so I didn't know until we went out that he had tickets to "The Lion King" at the Orange County Performing Arts Pavillion. We went to dinner before hand too. It was a lovely evening. Then as I was preparing to drive back to Burbank to spend the night with my roomate, he followed me to the Gas Station and paid for an pumped my gas so I would have a safe ride back. That was sweet. That is how Larry shows his love for me by 'doing the little things'. I'm starting to understand that just now. I drove back to Burbank, and woke up this moring to a full day of smoozing and networking and helping out. Then we had our So. Cal Chapter of APG meeting, where we picked up 5 new people. Then we went out to dinner and I had the best Filet mingon I ever had. Then I drove back home again. So, here I am Saturday night sleeping in my own bed. Life is good.

My Treasure

I have been working really hard the last few days and I had no energy to do it, I have been taking up to two naps a day for several days. But today, I woke up refreshed and what a different that makes. I took a nice long walk, ate well, drake water, planted petunias in our front flower planter, weeded the garden and ran the dishwasher, now I am washing clothes. But while I was eating my lunch today, I look over into the Dining room at my beautiful grandchilren, being raised in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and started crying with joy. They are all so good looking, not one of them is ugly. Imagine that. Anyway, I just wanted to pay tribute to my posterity, God Bless them all!

Sundays

Sunday's for the Bishop are harrowing days. He us usually up by 7 am, but sometimes the Stake wants an early morning meeting at which time he gets up at 5 am. Yesderday was just a 7 am day. He has no time to get away from Church until about 5 or 6 pm. So, he takes a lunch which usually consists of some nuts, a granola bar and an apple. No breakfast and then snacks all day. When he get's home he is very exhausted. So, today, I was feeling his pain and decided to surprise him with comfort food, his favorite, Mac and Cheese, salad, and mixed vegetables off the grill. I also decided to let him know how much I appreciate him and set up a nice table with candlelight. Some Sunday's the poor guy comes home to eat and then goes back out for a fireside, seminary graduation, court of honor or some other good activity. I don't know how he does it. 3 hours with my primary class is about all I can take.

CRASH and BURN

Computers! They are like husbands, you can't live without them and you can't live with them.

Many of you know I had trouble seeing the graphics while on the internet with my Explorer 8. It finally became so bad that I unplugged all the cords and took it to my computer guru, Shawn. UGH, he kept it for 3 days and wasn't able to fix the problem, so he wiped out my hard drive (D drive) and reinstalled Windows on that drive. He made that my new C drive. I still have my old C drive and now it is drive E. So, if I need data I can open up the E drive and get what I need.

The only problem is that I kept all my genealogy pictures on that D drive. Yep, they're gone, except we had them backed up on the Maxtor Drive. I think I am going to take Lisa's advice and start storing my photo's on Smug Mug. I will share the cost with her too. THat way anyone in our family can go and get all the old time photo's they want to have. At least that is my plan for right now.

Poor, Bishop, he is in trying to configure outlook for my email again. Let's just say, it's not going well.

How Does my garden grow?

This is my chives on the left and I think this is a red pepper plant.This is our new Lemon Tree with zuccini plants on the left
This is our green onions on the bottom and corn coming up at the top
Here we have a view of our lemon tree, squash, green beans and I'm not sure what else
Our Topsy Turvey Tomatoes, lots of flowers but no tomatoes yet.

A drive down Memory Lane

Today I had a speaking engagement in Torrance. I went in early so I could look around at how things had changed since we moved from there in 1986.

I got off on Artesia and drove past what used to be Gemco, now I don't think it is anything. That parking lot was where our car got broke into and the yellow blanket with deers on it that I have made for Marky got stolen- that's all they took! Then past the Church which looks good.

I went on to Haas Street and the street looks pretty much the same except...our old house seems so small! They have put brick up where the tree used to be and brick work on the column that used to go to the front door. I also noticed that an oriental man was living in Uncle Bob's house now.

I went around the corner to Van Ness and up to see Lincoln Elementary Lions. I was surprised to see the old dairy is still there (totally shut up). Lincoln was the same as I drove into the parking lot, but something looked crowded. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I think they have put building up where you used to walk onto the playground, now you can't see the playground from the parking lot anymore.

Next, I drove Artesia over to Crenshaw. Left on Crenshaw and down the street I got a red light ticket on. I forgot the refinery spanned across Crenshaw. Lot's of new businesses. The Ralph Grocery store is still there at Artesia and Crenshaw.

I turned right on Torrence Blvd and over to the Civic Center and Library. I was surprised at how many 'white' people were there. It was a good group of about 60 and I think they liked my talk. I talked of: Analyze and Organize: They key to further research. They had state of the art equipment and I didn't even have to use my own projector. I was impressed.

On the way home I went over to Hawthorne looking for a gas station to fill up at and found a 76 station. While I pumped gas, they had a live, flat screen TV playing on top of the pump. I was again impressed.

Bottom line: Torrance is still a pretty nice place. Just not nice enough for me to live in.

A Nasty experience

While I was walking yesterday, home from my physical therapy which is just down Lambert from my house, I had a very unpleasant experience and I want to share it so that if it ever happens to you, you might be more prepared than I was.

I was walking along, at a fast pace with a blue shirt on the said VOLUNTEER on the back of it. I got it when I helped with the first Brea 5K run. I was swinging my arms and oblivious to anything happening behind me. All of a sudden, a man, 25-35, longish dirty blond hair, came whizzing by me on the right (your are never supposed to pass on the right and I was walking smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk, looking forward) anyway I heard nothing because he was on an old fashioned bike, but he came by pretty fast and hit my right shoulder. It scared me so bad that I exclaimed "Jeeze!" and jumped to the left. As he rode by he yelled "Volunteer, huh, well I have a volunteer for you" then he turned around on this bike smiling at me and raised his hand and have me a very vulger middle finger sign which he kept up for the entire block until he turned the corner at which time he yelled, "bye for now" and disappeared.

To say I was mortified, scared, taken aback, and humiliated, is an understatement. It haunted me all day and gave me a very evil feeling. I was so surprised that all I could do was gape at they moron. I guess that was the best kind of response but it didn't feel like it.

Happy Mothers Day

I'm hijacking my Moms blog to day to say Happy Mothers Day to her.

She is an amazing Mother who works hard and has sacrificed so much to raise her children. She leads by example and has so much faith. No one knows how to work as hard as my Mom does.

Our whole family adores her and we hope she knows that today we celebrate her!

We love you.
Mom - Grandma - Friend.

NGS Conference in SLC

To say I have been having fun is an understatement! I am in my element. With the Family History Library to my North a half a block and the convention right across the street, I am pretty much blessed.

The conference was great. Sadly, I only made it to 1 lecture and about 3 times in the conference hall booths. I did something I haven't done before and I probably won't do it again. I volunteered for working in several booths, volunteered to do 2 consultations with people on their 'dead ends' in genealogy and volunteered to introduce several speakers. Will someone please remind my that I come to these things to learn and have fun!

My time was spent in the Library working on my clients family history. I don't think I have worked on my own or Larry's family history for over 3 years! Good news for my client! I was able to extend most of his lines back several generations, found 1 Revolutionary War ancestory, 3 Civil War ancestors and hit one dead end wall! Luckily I am tenacous and tomorrow, I am going to go back to the Library and spend an entire day on SMITH. No joke, this guy was born in 1884 in Des Moins Iowa, but I can't find him until 1930 with his wife and child in Louisiana!

I know SMITH is a bear to work on because Larry has 1 SMITH line in Toledo, OH. They come straight from England. Someday I will tackle going across the ocean, but for now, I am content to just make some money!

Recouperating

Well, I guess I am stupid. I have been doing everything I could possible do. Walking, bending and throwing a Surprise Birthday Party for my friend Barbara Renick. Today I am in pain. I tell you what a pain is and that is not being able to do what I want to do right now. So, my dear honey set up the jacuzzi and I went in tonight and I feel better. The pain in my right thigh and back, right where my incision is. That is no fun at all. So, I guess I will just try to take it easy now.

Pictures of surgery

This is an xray of my spine from the front view. This is a view from the side. I actually have 4 screws inside my body and now I carry a card that says to call the Orthopedic office in case I set off any alarms. It's a bit creepy, but I feel pretty good right now. Pain is about a 1. I am released to drive and walk and go to physical therapy, but I'm still going to take it easy for a few more weeks.

8 days after Surgery

Today was the first day I have felt normal again. My pain is gone in my legs and I actually got some work done today. I would love to put a photo up, but now everything has changed and I can't figure out how to do it.

6 days after surgery

Today, Larry had to do the Funeral for Ron Gottula. As the Bishop, he really needed to concentrate on things that were pertinent to the Gottula Family, so he asked a wonderdul sister in our Ward (Wilkinson's Daughter) Sherry Vaughn, to come and stay the day with me. 1st Sherry came with her essential oils and rubbed my leg with a lotion, and then my feet with lavendar and then I called the Dr. about the pain I was experienceing in my legs. He said this wasn't right. So he ordered me a steriod Z pak and Sherry put the heating pad on my sore leg and gave me 2 Asprin Free Excedrin, and one of her muscle relaxers. I laid back down to sleep some more, and when I awoke, I wasn't hurting in my legs anymore! Oh, my goodness that was hugh! I got up and ate some lunch then went back to bed. I slept the sleep of the dead for the first time since I had the surgery. Larry came home about 3:00 pm and Sherry went home. I am so eternally grateful to Sherry for her service to me. Now I have been up, taken a shower, a walk, eaten dinner and now I am doing some blogging. Today was a good day and maybe I am on the mend- finally. Dr. said that the Asprin Free Excedrin was OK to take as was any Aleve, and the over the counter drugs, but I will just stick with my Excedrin.

Surgery day 4 after surgery

Well, I was pretty prepared for surgery but not for the 'other' things that come from operations that i ALWAYS forget about.

I can't make up my mind to stand up or lay dow or sit down. Right now I'm sitting down,but don't know how much longer.

When I sleet, it it like twilight sleep. I am talking to all kinds of people about I don't know what and my husband swears I am just having full on conversations with myself.

THat brings me to I should take a sleeping aid to sleep - wrong, now, when I go into a deeper sleep I wake up wringing wet from head to toe.Today is the second day for a shower. If feels better but only for a little while.

Surgery

I apologize for not keeping up to date on my progress, but it was a little harder than I thought. What was I thinking? I don't know I'm not that brilliant.

For 2 days I pretty much slept, on all 4 sides of me (Front, back, right, left). They sent me home with Darvoset (those idiots) I'm alergic to all Opium and all it's derivitives! I told them that. So, dad was giving me Darvoset every time I needed a pain killer and that is why I stayed in bed for 2 days. They did give me a patch that you put behind your ear to keep you from getting sick, so I didn't get sick, I was just dizzy an thinking all the time "If I could just throw up". Now, I am on only a light pain killer called Tramadol. Between that and Asprin free Excedrine l life is pretty good although all together a bit sore. You would think I'm an old lady puttering around with my little walker and back brace.

Today, Larry made Guacomole and that tasted so wonderful that I ate it all with a spoon. I'm getting tired, so will sign off now, but you will hear from me later.

Day after Surgery

My sleep last night was fitful at best I have always had a hard time staying in one place. So about every 2 hours, a wonderful Male nurse would come in and help me turn over. I still had the catheter in my bladder, a drain in my side (right) to drain the bood out so my body wouldn't have to absorb it. Today is another matter altogether. It started at 6:00 when my phical
trainer showd up and got me out of bed to start walking. I finally got the catheter out, The tubes out I had a good clear breakfast, and casedeious for lunch. I am walking around the halls by myslef and it drives the Nurses nuts, but they are all so busy and I am so independent.

I received some really beautiful flowers. My room is startin to look like a forest! Daddy got me a dozen of the most beautiful flowers, and then tw0 different arrangements from Steve Bock and his wife Blyth whom I am helping with their genealogy. The other one was from Tim Wagner, he used to volunteer on the same shift with me, but he sarted Work (A job that Dad got for him.)

Right now I am waiting for the Dr. To arrive and take out the final stint in my arm, the drain in my side and then I hope he will send me HOME! "Toto, there is no place like home".

Marky took time out of his busy schedule (He was at USC for a class) and he drove all the way here to see me. I so much appreicate Mark and his family. I love all my children, but Mark was the only one who could come, I will be seeing all my children and grandchildren a little later on in the Week and then I have my Birthday Party to look forard to. All my kids will be here and that is enough for me! Enough for today, I'm tired now.

Surgery

March 22, 2010: Today I went in to surgery at 8:00 AM. I was asleep before the surgical room. They couldn't find a vein for the IV until after four tries. Surgery took 5 hours. Recovery room was for 2 hours. The doctor said that everything went perfect. There were two incisions for the surgery. A small one on my right side. It was through this that the doctor inserted an artificial peace of cartilage between my L4 and L5 vertebrae. I was then rolled onto my stomach while under anesthesia and the main 4 inch incision was made in the center of my back over the L4/L5 area. It was through this incision that the doctor cleaned out my spinal canal to correct a major restriction in the spinal cord. This restriction was causing pain to occur in my right leg for the last six months on an ever increasing basis. Following the cleaning, the doctor connected my L4 and L5 vertebrae with two screws and a rod all made out of titanium. This has put my spine back in alignment without restrictions in the spinal cord. The basic problem was that my L5 vertebrae was not in alignment and you could actually see the difference in x-rays when I stood straight and bent over that the vertebrae was moving. This action was causing the body to react and put down bone spurs to try to strengthen the area. Unfortunately, some of these were in the spinal canal area and caused the pinching or restriction of the cord. With the artificial cartilage inserted in the front and the screws and rod now in the back, my spine is now back in alignment and not loose anymore. The doctor is predicted that tomorrow the pain in my legs will be gone. He is also predicting that my back will feel like somebody hit me in the middle of my back with a baseball bat. I know he is right on that so I am hoping when my surgery pain is over, which could take several weeks, I will be pain free.

After surgery my pain level was an 8/10 when I woke up but now that I am back in my room and on pain medication it is 2. The physical therapist came and I took a small walk around the room with pain at level 2. The doctor just came in while I was writing this and tested my leg strength. It is already stronger than before the surgery suggesting the spinal cord and nerves were repaired well. He predicted that tomorrow may be a more painful day as the local anesthetics from the surgery wear down. We will take it one day at a time.

That's today's report as transcribed by my nurse Larry.