Keanna takes Grammy to Sabbath School!!

Dear Family and Friends,

When Nan announced last night that she might like to try to go with Keanna to Sabbath School this morning at the Tracy SDA Church I was amazed and thrilled. Sure enough she woke at about 7 this morning to remind me, still snoozing, that we needed to get started so we would not be late. So I headed down to build a fire, we changed her dressings, gave her a lovenox shot, got her up and downstairs to warm up. After I showered we brought her back up so she could dress, this time she went to the closet to find the right clothes. So a nice new white blouse and black slacks, warm soxs and loafers and we loaded and went to Keanna's house. she was ready and came roaring out the door to see her Grammy. They talked all the way to Tracy and then we went in, Nan was greeted warmly by everyone and Sabbath School was great fun. Keanna liked the part where when a parent or grandparent calls the child comes running, she did it over and over with Grammy running to her and climbing up in the wheel chair to sit with her. Fun stuff. Kim did a very good job with teaching and leading out in the craft and snack time. Then back to the car and home for Keanna. She was so excited because this afternoon she and her mommy were going to drive to BART, take the train in to the city and witness the Chinese New Years parade with friends. It all turned out great and Keanna had a wonderful day with Annie her friend. They are home safe. Jo was there also but so were thousands of other people so they did not get to hook up this time. Nikki and Keanna were at the place where the parade began and Jo and friends were where the parade ended.
Nan and I snoozed after coming home in our recliners, had lunch, later in the afternoon I drove to Jean's in Brentwood. Her friend had supplied a part for our heater that once installed may make it work again. Then this evening I went to the cell phone company. Anyone who talks to me knows that my new cell phone is really bad, drops calls almost every time. So they kindly traded phones with me and I have a new one. I certainly hope it works better, could not be worse.
This evening I tackled trading heaters in our reef tank. I've had the new heater for awhile but have not been willing to make the switch because I did not understand how steve had the sump system designed. Well he told me what to do so I did it and while I was in the kitchen cleaning the parts I had removed before putting them back in the sump overflowed and I returned to the living room to find water everywhere, boy did the big towels come in handy. Well the new heater is now in and things seem to be working well, we will see. The other heater was going crazy, heating the tank up to 84 degrees when it should be 77 or 78. We've had some of these fish for years and we sure don't want to hurt them through neglect. I can feel the salt all over my body from all the contact with the salt water.
Nan has been battling some nausea today but arranged a wonderful supper, fried chicken, vege style, pastry layers in the oven with fresh asparagas, so yummy, all those cooking shows are paying off and I only had to make one trip to Safeway for some fancy bread crumbs. Then Nan settled into her chair and went to sleep. AFter a couple hours we woke to empty her colostomy bag and then slipped back into sleep again. I'm thinking we need to add some hydration but at this point the pump is set for about 80 ml an hour and I think that is too much, needs to be more like 40 or so for the night. Tomorrow we will ask the visiting nurse who is coming for blood work.
Nan has been amazing this week, in spite of not being that strong she has tried things and accomplished them over and over. She is walking pretty well now with strength and balance, her face still is a bit puffy and her right foot swells easily but gets better when she elevates it during the night. It is an amazing blessing to think back just one week to her being in the hospital and now here at home doing so much.
It was so good to see friends today at church. Nan enjoyed getting to see people she has not seen since the party or even before. We love our Tracy church family and especially appreciate Bob Miller who has been so faithful in managing the Nan's recovery fund. Even this week a check arrived from you, our friends, we used funds from the recovery account on friday to cover the health insurance monthly payment which is now over $1,100 a month. I can report that several checks came in the mail on friday which covered payroll and one check came today but covered several appraisal fees so we are now on our way to covering AMEX which pays the business expenses each month.
Nan and I are thankful tonight for this sabbath when we could be together instead of miles apart, when we could see Keanna worship and pray, when we could nap side by side with a small fire going, when we look outside and see a full moon tonight.
So good night or morning, thanks for everything, for making our lives possible and liveable and enjoyable even at times.

love

tim and nan