Saturday Sept 23rd
Hi Friends and Family,
We have had a couple of ordinary days. I think that is good. Sam took Phil to his therapies yesterday. Phil came home pretty tired and soooooooooooo hungry. He had a hankering for the Chung King Chinese food in a can. Go figure. So I told him that he should come to Fred Meyer with me and pick the one he thought would make him satisfied the most. So we did that and he chose the Beef and Vegetable. We haven’t bought that stuff for about 15 years :) (I think I saw some beef in there)! He ate a bunch of it and it was good to him, he finished the leftovers off for breakfast. He was really hungry again tonight. This hunger thing is good. He is maintaining his weight lately. I am thankful about that.
We took another walk around our neighborhood today. The good weather is helpful for the home therapy. I am not looking forward to the dark nights and gray days ahead. It will make going out for walks a lot harder. Sam put our treadmill downstairs last night. Maybe in time Phil can use that when his balance gets better. I am going to have Sam keep checking Craig’s list for one of those real good exercise bikes. They have Phil use one of those at PT and he has no trouble with it and balance.
I had a fun day today visiting with my two favorite Laura’s. I started the day walking with my daughter Laura (the little kids call her sissy Laura). We later went to Lows to get some trim for Josh. He is putting the new floor in their laundry room. We also took some time to check out the new Kohl’s store while we were in the neighborhood. They have some pretty good quality merchandise for Kmart prices. That makes girls happy! I saw another mother daughter team we know while we were there. Hi Holly and Laurel! Mother daughter teams are good; they tell the truth when picking out clothing. Then at 3:00 we had a White Chocolate M&M’s and Tea Party here with Auntie Laura my sister. Now that’s my kind of tea party.
Phil is sleeping a little better this week. That helps me sleep better too. His nose and mouth are still so cold all the time, his speech is still troubled and he has a slight twitch in his upper mouth area. Muscle relaxers seem to be helping with that some. Phil doesn’t notice it so that is good... Monday will be 3 months since the stroke. He has come a long way in that time. Tonight is 5 weeks since he has had trouble keeping his food down Praise the Lord for that healing. We are thankful people. God had blessed us so much. I can see Phil getting stronger and walking straighter each day. He is a little bored I think, he doesn’t say so but I can tell. He has never sat around so much in his life. Today he fixed the (sparkler) light switches. That didn’t take long. I can sleep better knowing that is safer. I know you firemen will be glad to know that is done! Phil’s parents will be back tomorrow night and will stay 2-3 days that will keep him occupied. I’m sure his dad will have some exciting new story to tell. He sure has some great stories. They are coming back from the Missionary Aviation Fellowship conference celebrating their move form California to Idaho . Ed and Joyce were there and I am sure a bunch of their fellow missionary cronies who they have known over the years were there too. Phil’s parents were missionaries in Honduras for something like 38 years. They were the real missionaries of those days. They went for many years without indoor plumbing, glass in the windows (they never did get that) and Mary was happy to have a ringer washer and a cloths line to do her laundry. Mary is a one in a million kind of woman, she has never complained and always has a song in her heart. She is a sweetheart. I don’t have that kind of gumption. I don’t know many women that do.
Please continue to pray for Matt and his work situation. Maybe God knows starting a job and school in the same week would be a bit hard on him. God has a Plan! Sam would also like to get a job closer to home he is still commuting to Salem 4 10 hour days a week. He would like to stay in the Sandy-Portland area. He has been looking for a different job with the state for 4 months now too. He would like to go back to school and get his masters in teaching. It has been helpful having him stay here with us as Phil recovers. It is interesting how things work out. His roommate got married in June so Sam moved back to Sandy and then Phil had his stroke a few weeks later. God knew what we needed and his timing was good. You know all of our kids were here with us when the fire department and ambulance came for Phil. God knew they all needed to be here for their dad. The 3 boys all went downstairs to make room for the guys working on him and they prayed for Phil while the paramedics worked on him. Laura stayed with her daddy and prayed over him. I was in some kind of shock. God knew ahead of time everything. He orchestrates our lives, most of the time we don’t even know it. What a blessed people we are.
It’s time to say goodnight. I slept 8-9 hours straight last night it felt so good, (that stinking alarm clock). Maybe good sleep again tonight!:)
Love Donna & Phil and Kids.
