Susie's Surgery

Today Susie went in for her surgery on her pinky finger. She couldn't eat or drink all day. She had to be there about 1:30pm, and they didn't do surgery until about 3:00, and she wasn't ready to go home until about 5:00. Remember she hadn't eaten or drunk anything all day. But they did offer her a diet Dr. Pepper just before she left, and it tasted so good. And she wanted chicken fingers from What A Burger for her first meal. Anyway everything went well. They numbed her arm and gave her relaxing medication but did not put her under. They put in some wires to straighten the bone. She has an appt. with the doctor Fri. to decide how long she has to stay away from work. She is resting comfortably now, but is experiencing a little pain. She has meds to manage the pain so hopefully they will kick in, and she can have a nice night's sleep. She does have to keep her elbow elevated. I'm glad we were here to help her out. WE had some moments where we laughed until we cried so hopefully the endorphens(sp) will help her heal.

Susie Before the Surgery.

Notice the comfy chair. I got to join her with my own comfy chair. We are waiting for the doctor. Susie's ready.

Susie being psyched out before surgery. What will they do to my pinky?

After surgery stylish looks. It's been a rough day.

All of this just to get a "free" pair of great looking socks? Good family foot picture.

More stylish looks in the recovery room.

What???!!!! I just had surgery on my pinky? Is it still there? I feel great!!!????

Finally she gets to drink something. They actually offered her a diet Dr. Pepper. One of her favorite drinks.

"So Long, Farewell, Aufweidersein, Good - Bye." At last (about 3 1/2 hours later.) Time to go home!!!!!

MMMM Good. Finally she gets to eat her first meal after no eating or drinking for about 20 hours.

Yardwork for Susie's friend, Mrs. Thomas

Last Friday, Bob and I went over to Mrs. Thomas's house, and we were there for about 4 hours. Bob did yardwork that Mrs. Thomas wanted done. Lucy visited with her while waiting for a person to come to talk about starting a maid service. That person arrived 4 hours late. Susie joined us after school let out. We had a nice time in Mrs. Thomas's yard visiting there in the beautiful weather. Mrs. Thomas is the mother of one of Susie's long time school friends here. Her friend lives at Hilton Head so she appreciates Susie's looking after her mother. We're enjoying it too.

Here is Bob working in the backyard, raking the debris after having done some trimming of the bushes.

Visiting with Mrs. Thomas. Bob taking a break from working in the backyard.

Susie visiting with Mrs. Thomas.

Ouch!!! That Hurts!!!

Today Susie attended her inservice at school, and after some heavy work, the administration decided it was time to go to the gym and do some fun group activities. Well the first activity was to do a basketball type of relay race. While Susie was doing it for a second time and actually a third time, filling in for a pregnant teacher, someone zoomed past her traveling at a perpendicular path to hers and wham!!!! She knew right away her finger had to be broken, but she went to the Texas Med Clinic to get it examined and to get X-Rays. Yep!! She was right. It was broken. And they couldn't really do anything for her there because she has to go to an orthedpedic doctor to fix it. Luckily she has one. Go Figure. ANyway here are some of the pictures we took during our 3 hour stay at the clinic. They did call me from school to let me know what had happened, and I met her at the clinic. She actually drove to the clinic herself. What a trooper.

This may be a tricky question for some, but the question is, "Which hand has her broken finger?" Can you really tell?

Another tricky question, "Can you tell which finger it is? It's hard when more than one finger may look crooked and could be broken, but only one actually is.

Look at the picture below to get the answers to the two questions. You can see the first aid that was given to Susie at school. Ice pack and a wrap to try to imobilize her left pinky finger.

She was taken into the Trauma Room after about an hour of waiting.

Drama in the Trauma Room.

OUCH!!!!!

Doctor finally examines finger. Sends her to X-Ray.

X-Ray shows break. It is the bone between her knuckle and her first joint. It's the area where you would wear a ring.

Temporary Fix until she can go to the orthopedic doctor.

Temporarily fixed up and ready to go home after about 3 hours. Then it was a lot later when she was able to get her pain meds prescription filled at the local Walgreens.

It's about 10:30 pm, and she is resting comfortably. But tomorrow she'll probably be going to work. Don't worry I'll not be her right hand, but I'll try to be her left hand or her left pinky finger.

Valentine Lunch with Niece, Amy, and Husband, JR

On Valentine's Day we had lunch with Susie's daughter, Amy, and her husband, JR. Don't they make a nice couple? JR's mom joined us also.

Hail

One night last week, I think it was Tues., we heard a noise. It turned out to be rain, and not only rain, but hail about an inch in diameter. It hasn't rained much in San Antonio so the noise was unfamiliar at first. We took a picture of the hail to show everyone. The pictures are a little blurry, but I think you can get an idea about their sizes. Since our new van was not in a garage, we did get some hail damage, and we have an appt. to get the insurance appraisal. That was too bad. Oh well.

More About Susie's Camp Write a Lot

Susie's Camp Write a Lot was a huge success. The kids and teachers loved it. Her last challenge to the students was to write her a letter about their memories of camp. The letters were precious and entertaining. Here are some pictures.

Every day Susie welcomed and dismissed the campers using the bullhorn, static and all.

Of course Bob was able to tie in his magic using the magic of editing your writing. He was one of the many highlights of Camp Write a Lot.

Another highlight was mail call. Susie provided S'mores bars for each classroom. The boxes were wrapped for each teacher'sclass. If you've ever been to a camp, you know you have to perform for mail so the teachers had to perform for the mail. Performing for mail, are two teachers and one of the vice principals (who got ropped into participating.)

Susie the TV Star

At Susie's school they televise morning opening and announcements. One day she gave announcements about a reading challenge and also read the Bluebonnet award winning book for all to see and hear. This is a picture of her reading the book on TV at school.

Camp Write a Lot with Susie

Today Susie presented her Camp Write a Lot to get 4th graders ready for the writing portion of TAKS which is their standardized test. We had a lot of fun.

Before school started, I started out by opening up the "windows" of the tent to get ready for the day. There were some pre kinders in the library waiting to go to their rooms so I decided to perform for them. I did crazy things in the tent while I was opening up the windows. I played peek a boo with them. I tried to fish inside the tent. I put on the plastic innertube and pretended to swim inside the tent. I pretended to take fish off the innertube and put them over our fire to cook them, and then I tossed them out to the kids. Anyway it was fun for me and for them.

Anyway back to Susie. She was a camp director giving directions over the bullhorn, fishing for tips for good writing, telling scary stories around the campfire, singing camp songs for writing, and handing out mail (smores for the kids), but she made the teachers perform for the mail for their students. The kids really liked that.

Here are some pictures of her. Notice her camp wardrobe. We went shopping at Goodwill for her camp clothes.

Here she is using the bullhorn to welcome the students and give directions. She made sure she had the horn turned up high so the camp static noise made it sound authentic. Inside the tent is a desk where she was writing while the students filed into the library.

I helped Susie fish. I was behind the stand, and I handed her the fish with the steps and pointers for getting ideas for writing.

She read a scary story in the dark with a flashlight to highlight her face for an eerie effect. Afterwards she challenged the students to write their own scary stories. It'll be fun to hear some of their stories tomorrow. To her right, notice the makeshift fire using UT pom poms.

San Antonio, Texas

Bob and I arrived in San Antonio on Thursday, Feb. 5th. We went directly to Susie's (my sister) school, and she put us to work right away. After school she had to go to her second job, and Bob and I went to the house to get settled in for the next few months.

San Antonio's weather is also great. Winter here is like spring for us in Iowa. I am definitely NOT complaining.

Friday, I went to school with Susie again and helped her in her library, mostly shelving books for her. Bob went out looking for a temporary job so he can keep busy doing something. Substitute teaching may be out of the picture because you have to apply way in advance, and they are no longer taking applications.

Sat. Susie and I did errands and visited an elderly friend of Susie's. She's the mother of one of Susie's good friends. Susie keeps an eye on her on the weekends to help out. We had dinner with Amy and JR that night. It was fun to visit with them. We'll be seeing more of them. Oh I should have taken a picture. OK. Another time.

Today after church and after lunch we went to visit Susie's elderly friend again. She is wanting Bob to spruce up her yard, trimming, etc. to make it look better. So Bob plans to do that.

I'll mostly be helping Susie at school as needed. Of course there's always something to do. She's getting ready for a "Writing Camp" and I've helped her a little to get ready for that. It's a fun way for the 4th grade students to get ready for the writing portion of TAKS (Texas's standarized testing.) I'll try to take some pictures of her tomorrow to show how she's decorated her library as a camp with a huge tent and other props. It should be fun for her and for the kids.

We are enjoying our visit with Susie so far. She's a great person and lots of fun. I'm so lucky to have such great sisters and brother (of course.)

More Magic in Alabama

Sister, Kathy, Bob, and I went to Buddy's daughter's school to visit her classroom and to visit her son's classroom. Will (her son's name) was presenting a project his group had been working on and parents/family members were invited to see the projects. Here is Will showing his game he created to tie into their main topic, Bubbleology.

Then Bob visited Buddy's daughter's (Jeannie's) 3rd grade class to show them some magic. As usual he was well received.

Kathy and Jeannie enjoying the show.

Then we visited Buddy's grandchildren at Jeannie's house for Bob to do some magic fun with Chris, Will, and cousin, Casey.

Buddy and Jeannie enjoying the show.

Super Bowl Party in Alabama

I went to my very first Super Bowl Party here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. My sister's son and family were attending the party with their friends and they invited us. So we had some fun watching the game, the commercials, eating and visiting.











From left to right. Niece, Jessica, great nephew, Dexter, niece in-law,Karen, and sister,Kathy.
























At right is nephew, Joe. Next to him is one of his good long time friends.














Summer playing basketball instead of watching football.



















The kids decided to watch a video instead of watching the football game.

Jessica and Dexter

We got to see Jessica (my niece) and her son, Dexter, when we visited my sister, Kathy, in Tuscaloosa, AL.

Dexter riding a ceramic pig. His great aunt Patsy will especially love this picture since she loves pigs so much.

Jessica, Summer, and Dexter playing outside at a Super Bowl Party.