MARCH 2000
I WANT TO LIVE

There are children raised in sorrow
On a scorched and barren plain
There are children raised beneath a golden sun
There are children of the water
Children of the sand
And they cry out through the universe
Their voices raised as one

I want to live I want to grow
I want to see I want to know
I want to share what I can give
I want to be I want to live

Have you gazed out on the ocean
Seen the breaching of a whale?
Have you watched the dolphins frolic in the foam
Have you heard the song the humpback hears
Five hundred miles away
Telling tales of ancient history of passages and home

I want to live I want to grow
I want to see I want to know
I want to share what I can give
I want to be I want to live

For the worker and the warrior
The lover and the liar
For the native and the wanderer in kind
For the maker and the user
And the mother and her son
I am looking for my family
And all of you are mine

We are standing all together now
Face to face and arm in arm
We are standing on the threshold of a dream
No more hunger no more killing
No more wasting life away
It is simply an idea and I know its time has come

I want to live I want to grow
I want to see I want to know
I want to share What I can give
I want to be I want to live....
I WANT TO LIVE!

WORDS AND MUSIC BY JOHN DENVER
FROM I WANT TO LIVE (1977)
MARCH 03, 2000
Well, if you really want the news go to the message board on the Newsletter Index page and read the ones marked UPDATES.  (2004 note- the message board is gone)
They will tell you that once again this March Danny is sicker than a dog in the ICU at Riley on a ventilator again! 
That's all the news so far...
and probably will be until he's out which I hope doesn't take in excess of a month this year!!  I seriously feel very weird sitting here at the computer and not getting up to give a mist treatment or check a feeding pump!  My little hurricane isn't home right now and it leaves a big empty spot in my house!!
Other news...My dad had surgery to remove part of one of his lungs last Monday.  I talked to him yesterday and he said he's ok.. but he can't stand up yet cause he gets too dizzy.  I sure hope he comes out of it alright and it really does help with the emphysema.  I guess we'll find out sooner or later.  He's in the step down unit at Marquette General for the time being.  He had asked me to call all the kids and let them know what happened.  I think they must have told him at the last minute cause he kept saying they were gonna do it "after the holidays", but didn't know when.  Since his stroke he's not too good at dialing the phone anymore so he has a nurse dial me then I spread the news.  Mike is the only one I can't get a hold of and I need to drop Aunt Bessie a note tonight.

Other stuff...Summer is looking forward to another music concert at another school and we don't have all the details yet.....hopefully we will soon.
Emmett Lee came to the hospital to bring Danny a new Inside Nascar magazine since his were inadvertently thrown out.  So I introduced him to whoever came in the room...Dr. Ackerman not one of them...So if he ever comes around again,  I think I'll have her paged so that she too may get to meet him!   It was quite a hot topic for the day as no one knows him and found it amusing to meet him.  I myself haven't seen him for years.  Much to my relief I felt Nothing when seeing him... I didn't want to get all furious and crazy like I used to get cause no ones seen me like that either!  So it went over pretty well and now the talk has pretty much died down already.  Now Summer is dying to see him since she's  forgotten what he looks like.  If I woulda had the money I woulda got a film and took a few pictures for her...Oh well, so far he plans on going to her upcoming concert if Mr. Samuels gets us enough information in time!  Then she can have  a new film and take her own pictures!
OH yeah!  Summer is officially grounded until report cards come out.  I had told her a couple of weeks ago if her midterm claimed "missing assignments" she would get grounded.  She always telling me "no homework" and dashing out the door with friends after school.  Well, Miss Summer, your social life just came to a screeching halt.  I am going to see if I can get into email contact with the teachers to see if she pulls herself out of the trouble she's in.  She MUST bring the grades up according to her midterm or her spot in the Magnet Option will be threatened!
Another point of interest is that the landlady was told by the board of health that the old shack out back must be demolished by April 12.  So Tim has offered to rent a bobcat and a huge dumpster and we'll do it ourselves as her estimates came to over 3,000$ for professionals to do it. And she's an elderly woman taking care of her diabled husband alone so we try to help out anyway we can. She'll pay him back what money he puts into it. But I wish Danny could be home to see.  What would he love more than to see Tim destroy that old shack!?!

I already received my first plastic canvas block in the mail from another member of our club.  I'm having a terrible time working on mine cause Danny wants all the attention right now.  I believe we have until the first week in April to get them done though so surly I can pull that off!
I have a bad cold and cannot get into the doctor until Tuesday (today's Friday)...so I'll have to keep gulping tons of cold medicine and stuff until then. It's the stuffed up ear I can't stand...I feel mostly deaf!!  It sorta seems like EVERYONE on God's green earth has a cold though!
Our tax check is in the bank and we haven't touched it no matter how broke we've been.  So soon we ought to be out shopping for my new computer.  THEN I'll finish scanning my baby pictures to finish my page.  I don't wanna do it now cause that would be just more stuff to lose if something goes wrong with all the hard drive switching around!  Been there done that and don't wanna go again!!

So far not much else is going on...just back and forth to the hospital...
So I better wait till i actually have some fresh news to put here to go on!!
MARCH 31,2000
Well, the end of March is here, so I figured the end of my March newsletter better get here.  Danny got out of the hospital on Saint Patrick's Day.  They had a big party in the atrium and I took alot of pictures, but haven't sent them in for developing yet.  Summer went to a band competition on March 18, where I let Emmett Lee be the "attending parent"...so he and his family took her out to eat and goof around afterwards.  The then went out to dinner at Jenny's (Emmett's wife's) parents house and she got to be with them till about 9:00 PM.  She had a really great time.  I was glad to finally meet his wife who seems to be a wonderful person, so it feels much better letting Summer go be with them.  He also has the cutest little 7 year old named Hannah who is like a Summer reincarnate.  I can't help but love her as it's like seeing Summer at 7 all over again.  You know I can't say too much about Emmett Lee...but he does make absolutely adorable kids!!  Danny also loves little Hannah...but 7 & 8 year olds are his favorite kind of kids to play with anyways.
Danny's medicine regimen has been pretty stiff since we got out of the hospital.  Our mist treatments are at one and a half strength every four hours and the prednisone is not below 40 mg yet.  He gets a tad wheezy on the rainy days, but otherwise seems to be OK.         
We commenced to tearing the shack down last weekend.  It was a sight!  I tried to video tape it to make Danny a new "truck" video, but the lighting came out bad in alot of it.  It took us an extra dumpster to load all the stuff into (at $425.00 for each one!) so we had to keep the back-hoe loader for an extra day because the dumpster couldn't be delivered until Monday.  It was alot of back breaking work, but now we have it done, cleaned up, fresh topsoil in the spot.  Our yard looks quite a bit bigger and I can plant some seeds in the dirt we put in.  I still have alot of glass fragments to clean up before the grass gets long and hides them!!  Everyone knows I don't believe in shoes in the summer times...guess I'll have to wear them till I get it all cleaned up.        
We took Danny to clinic Thursday.  He got permission to go back to school , but Spring break starts on Monday, so I guess he'll be home for another week anyways!  I let Summer go to Emmett Lee's for Spring break.  I hope she has a good time.  I also hope she doesn't expect me to let him have her all of Summer Vacation...Maybe a week or two (at different times!) but not the whole thing.  Maybe I could talk them into letting me have Hannah for a weekend...Danny would like that!
Anyway, I'm still stitching those lovely squares!  I've now gotten 3 in the mail...I feel guiltier for not having mine done with each additional one!!
Summer's report card came...and can you believe it...missing assignments...now when she comes back from Emmett's she is "super" grounded...meaning NO TV until mid terms come out...We don't care if there's an all new Buffy or what that stupid McMahn (sp?) family is doing in the wrestling world...she won't be seeing any of it until she doesn't have those little notes about missing assignments on her reports!!  We signed her up for a field trip to a museum in Columbus Ohio in May...It said we should provide her with lunch money and money for souvenirs...so I told her how much she got would also depend on what her midterm says or doesn't say!!
Danny has done two weeks of home school with Mrs. Larsen...Naturally he had to do spelling words...he's funny because he does a word association with that...I say Mrs. Larsen.. he says spelling! Well, I can't think of anything else to say right now...and now it's time to start an April page...so I'll sign off on this...the last day of March 2000....
I wish you all Peace, Love, Health, Hope, and Happiness...
Until next time        
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