Birthday Delights and Health Concerns

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes! It means a lot that each of you took some time out of your day to let me know that you were thinking of me. I appreciate each and every one of you!

Dennis decided to treat me to a night away for my birthday. It was our first overnight trip since late January. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on the road, so we just drove down to Glen Rose. First, though, I got my free birthday steak dinner from Mesquite Pit (take-out). I look forward to that every year! After supper, we loaded up and took the back roads to our destination. It was a really beautiful drive! Everything is still green and there were fields full of freshly baled hay everywhere. We enjoyed the drive! After we got settled into our room and chilled out awhile, Dennis took me to get a Blizzard at the DQ. We don’t do that very much anymore, with Dennis’ diabetes, so it was a very nice treat!

This morning, we leisurely got around and then went to get some breakfast from the only drive-in that we could find serving breakfast. (Due to COVID-19, the hotel wasn’t serving their usual breakfast buffet.) Then we went to the Creation Evidence Museum. It was really interesting. We had wanted to go through the Fossil Rim Wildlife Park, but they were already sold out of tickets by the time we decided to go. So we just headed back home, taking a different back-road route. Believe me, there are a lot of curvy roads between MW and GR!

On the drive home, we heard that a very dear friend of ours and several of their extended family members have COVID-19. So I spent most of the drive home trying to find out more information and let my kiddos know what was going on. It wasn’t easy, since cell reception on those lovely backroads is non-existent in most places…and spotty at best. I am hoping and praying that all of those affected have relatively light cases and complete recoveries! AND that no one else contracts it! (No names used to protect their privacy.)

After we got home, we got some good news from some other dear friends! It was a wonderful birthday surprise! I won't mention any details, so that they can make their own announcement, but I couldn't be happier for them.

I also had a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me when we got back to town. Thankfully, the man who was delivering them called me when he couldn’t get anyone to answer the door. I explained that we were out of town but would be back this afternoon. Even though the flower shop would be closed by then, he told me to call him when we got home and he’d meet me with the flowers at the shop. I love small towns!

Dennis made good progress on the house this week. The walls and ceilings are textured and painted! He also got the shelves installed in the (end) hall closet, so I was able to put away a good bit of stuff that has been stacked around the house. He got the ceiling lights put back up, so now we have light throughout the house again. (We've been relying on trouble lights in the LR and hall.) He bought and installed a new door bell. The old one was original equipment from when the house was built (and was UGLY!). The new one has 16 different tones to choose from. We went with a basic chime, but I may change it up on special occasions! Dennis will be starting on trim next week. Hopefully we can get the living room put back together very soon!

This has pretty much been my LR for the past several months, only now it has pretty walls and ceiling!

I went for my stress test this week. I won’t get the official results until next month when I see my doctor, but the nurse and nurse practitioner who administered the test both said I did great. I still have to go for my carotid ultrasound in early August. My doctor is expecting good results on that, too, from listening to my neck with his stethoscope. I had a pretty good heart workup about 3-4 years ago, and all was good at that time. With my family history, age and weight, though, it was time to check things out again…just to be on the safe side!

I go to my orthopedic doctor next week. It has been a LONG time since my last steroid shot in my left shoulder, and now my right shoulder has gotten much worse than my left. Since he hasn’t imaged it before, I suspect I’ll be going in for a MRI before he’ll give me a shot. I’ve been putting off going for months, but my arms are getting so useless, I don’t think I can put it off any longer. Getting old is SO much fun!

I guess that catches us up from my last post. Take care of yourselves! I really don’t want to hear about any more of my loved ones coming down with the virus!