Leanne's Birthday and St. Louis

We just got back from seeing the doctor in St. Louis again. He says it could be an isolated incident that we may never know what caused it but he suggested that Tim have a sleep deprived EEG in a couple of weeks. We brought all the records from the hospital and doctor to bring to a neurologist here so Tim can have that done. The dr. in St. Louis did tell him that he didn't see any reason he couldn't drive so thank heavens for that- I won't have to kill him and plead insanity for him telling me how to drive all the time. He did good on the way to St. Louis. And he did a good job driving home and I was more than happy to let him!
We had a great dinner and visit with Kate and Josh on Sunday night after we got to St. Louis. It was really good to get to be with them!

We took time this morning to visit the arch before going to the doctor. We didn't have time to go up in it. We spend time at a fly fishing store first...Let's just say that we are definately going to have to go back to St. Louis to sight see. There's lots of neat places there!


As we were traveing to St. Louis, we had flashbacks or at least I had flash backs of college days as we passed these exits. I really wanted to take Tim down into Cooter, but he didn't want to take time...I wondered if I could find the Cooter jail or post office of the home of "Peaches" Cooper, Jeanine's mom. I figured I could...Cooter's not that big!
We were treated to dinner by "Ms" Frances," Leanne' mother for Leanne's birthday last Saturday night. It was a really fun time. "Ms" Francies is 95 and sharp as a tack! She has the funniest stories to tell and they are all real! If I can be that way I won't mind living that long but if I can't, I don't think I want to stay around that long. It was a delightful evening being with Leanne and Ed and "Ms" Frances!

Tim Update and AWH National Council Meeting

Tim is undoubtly the worse patient I have ever seen! However, he is doing fine. Today, he and Joe are running around and Joe is loving being able to drive Tim around in the truck. We all got up this morning and went to eat breakfast together. Tim intends to go back to work on Monday. Joe is looking for things to take with him to China. His boss at Fed Ex tells him that in a month and a half he can put in for a transfer to China so he is planning on putting in a transfer for where ever it is in China that Luke Cooke lives and going there to be with him. I don't know if I really like that or not, but I may not have a choice because Luke is really encouraging him to come live with him.

Tim has an appointment with the same doctor in St. Louis on April 30. He thinks he'll get cleared to drive and fly again sooner if he just stays with the same one especially since he has talked to his nurse practicioner and they have decided that he was hyperventilating. I did notice that the oxygen was burning my nose which is unusual so I started breathing through my mouth to counter act that and was reading my book so I didn't realize for a while that Tim had turned the oxygen up and was snorting it like crazy. The strangest thing is he hardly ever puts on oxygen until he has been at 12, 500 for 30 minutes which is what the regualtions require but on that Sunday, he put it on before we even reached that altitude and then felt like he wasn't getting enough so he turned it up higher ( you turn the oxygen on to the same elevation at which you are flying so you get the right amount - that's why my nose was burning - I was getting too much oxygen!)

Before I left to go to Searcy for the AWH Spring Meeting, I asked him about 5 times if he was sure he would be ok and finally he said, "I wish you would go - I'm really tired of you being the REST NAZI!" So I took off to play with my friends! We presented a check to Dr. Burks in Chapel for over $100,000 and the luncheon was to honor Louise Ganus on her 85th birthday. We raised over $25,000 to add to the newly named Louise Ganus Endowed Scholarship Fund. All of her family was there and I was so glad to see them and so glad to see such a sweet Christian lady honored! Corinne Graham from Memphis also go a Worthy Woman Award which was very much deserved. Also Dot Beck from Searcy got one....I told her I wasn't so sure about hers (of course, I was kidding, but we have this long standing joke because she is the one who taught Tim to fish and took him and her son fishing before they could drive every afternoon after school and I telll her I'm not sure I'll ever forgive her for that...of course, I have and I love her to death!).

I spent the night with Beckie. I told her I get a little more jealous every time I come over there because Gene is looking more and more like Santa Claus and she gets to live with him. He is just looking beautiful! You need to post a picture of him on your blog, Beckie, so every one can see what I mean! He's got that beard, but more importantly, he's got that smile and cute little tinkle in his eye. I just want to sit on his lap and hug on him every time I see him! He will let me hug him but I've not been brave enough to try to sit on his lap yet....

I also got to see my nephew, Wil, Katie and Cristen Cozzens, and lots of old friends. That's the wonderful thing about AWH functions! I even saw Esther who went on the first trip to Ukraine with me! I haven't seen her is so long! It was wonderful seeing all those old friends that I seldom get to see and pick up right where we left off...I was tired when I got home and am still tired today...spent a little too much time on my feet yesterday so I'm laying on the couch today with my back flat....I'll be so glad when my back is completely healed and it doesn't hurt anymore!

Chicago Adventure

What an adventure we have had the last few days! It started out very uneventfully and peaceful and restful last Friday when we went to Chicago. Got there in ok time and went to eat dinner at Lowery's Steak House which was really good (the desert, of course, was the best - banana cream coconut pie) and then we went back to our room and watched a movie. We spent Saturday morning sleeping late and then going to Starbucks playing on our computers and enjoying the coffee and pastries and atmosphere and then went back to the hotel and watched another movie and ordered pizza from the famous Gino's to our room. then we went to see "Shear Madness" - an interactive murder mystery theathre which was really fun. It was a very relaxing weekend. Then Sunday morning, Tim went to take his test....he was very concerned about the test before he went to take it, but when he got back to the hotel, he talked to the dr. who had provided all the cases and found out that they had added fake medical problems to several of the cases - one in particular which made it impossible to do in a dental office. He was so angry, I could see the smoke coming out of his ears! I thought he had calmed down and was ok until we got to about 12, 500 feet...it was very bumpy all the way up to there and then I realized that he was breathing very heavily and not making much since talking. He turned the oxygen up thinking he wasn't getting enough but instead, he has decided that what he did was hyperventilate. He could understand everything that was said to him, but he could not make any sense when he talked and his arms and hands were drawn up. I used my therapispts' voice to get him to calm down and then I realized that he had the radio buttom pushed down and was chanting dental terms over the radio, so I decided that I'd better talk to the air traffic controller. We did an emergency landing in Carbondale, Ill., but Tim ladnded the plane himself with the air traffic controller telling him what heading to fly and he even made a very smooth landing! The ambulance and firetruck and sherriff were waiting on us. Tim kept saying, "Just let me rest a minute and we can go on home." I made him go to the hospital to get checked out. In Carbondale, the CT scan showed a little spot that the doctor though was maybe blood on his brain so they airlifted him to St. Louis. I went by limo...no rental car companies were open that time on Sunday, which was just as good becuase I didin't have to find my way by myself.
God moves in mysterious ways. One of our elders, Terry Miller, was in St. Louis, so someone from home called him and he met him at the hospital. Joshua, Tim' nephew, lives in St. Louis and he and his wife went up there so there were all there before I got there. When they did the CT scan in St. Louis, they found nothing. John and Laura also drove over. Finally they put us in a room about 2:00 that night and then Kim and Kimberly from the office showed up and told them they were our daughters so they could get in to see us in the middle of the night. They are so crazy! Brenda Frederick and Leanne Bradock drove up from Memphis. I told them they were putting us in a room so just get a hotel and then come in the morning so that's what they did. Laura and John spent the night with Kate and Josh and after we got the results from several tests and knew there was no anurysm or blood leakage, they went back home. The doctor didmissed Tim Monday afternoon late after taking him down for an EEG himself which the doctor reported was so normal it was boring. We rode home with Leanne and Brenda. It was quite an intersting day and a half. Tim walked down to the nurses station after the doctor told him he could go home and told her if she wasn't in the room in 5 minutes to take out his IV that he was going to take it out himself and leave the hsopital. Didn't take her long to get down there. She was originally from Ripley,TN! Small world!
We also had some visitors on Monday from two of the area churches who were friends of our Sycamore View friends who had called them to go check on us. That was really sweet of them. One of them happened to be Judy Autry's sister-in-law with whom we went to Harding and to dental school with her first husband! Tim has talked to the doctor's nurse practicionr today and has about decided just to go back up to St Louis to see him again in a couple of weeks so there won't have to be a tranfering of records and starting all over. He thinks he'll get to fly sooner again that way...we'll see....Thanks for all the love and thoughts and prayers we got from all over this country! It has been amazing and we feel truly blessed!

a few more Easter photos

Grandpa and Paarker
Joe, Jon, and Jeremy all grown up
Susie and Gracie
Kim, Willie, and Jake Abrams-Baker

Another Fun Easter

aaPart of the Sunday crowd.
Jon and his new girl.
This is how I spent most of my Friday and Saturday afternoon. i even left out my yeary Wal-Mart run...needed to rest.
What would Easter be without all our friends and family we've spent it with for the last 32 years? I can't imagine!

Spring Sing

I'm in Searcy at Mike and Beth's. In fact, right now, I am sitting in a room full of college students waatching "Facing the Giants," I've seen the movie before but it's a good movie and worth seeing again. I'm even sitting on the couch with Jon James and his girlfriend and he didn't run me off. He's such a sweetie. So far, I've been having lots of fun with my friends. I felt the calll of the couch this afteroon and Beth and I missed the deveopment council dinner...we thought it started at 6:00 but it started at 5:30 so we at with Jesssica and Cliff. They came and got Jennifer's girls to spend the night with them tonight. Tomorrow we'll do the AWH Auction and Spring Sing. I'll post pictures when I get home and Tim downloads them for me. I got some cute ones of Jenn's kids. They are so smart and cute!

I talked to Tim a little while ago. They got his mother home this afternoon. She's doing well. We are grateful for that! More later.

Mama Updates

My mom had her gall bladder out last week and is doing well except for the expected pain and her plumbing is working quite right yet. Tim's mom had quaduple heart bypass surgery this morning. She came through it fine. Tim's dad is an emotional mess. He doesn't know what to do without Joan there. Tim plans to go back over there on Thursday so he will probably miss Spring Sing...I will be at Spring Sing however....the call of the couch at Beth's may be a little louder than normal on Saaturday afternoon depending on how my back is feeling but I intend to be there. I tried to talk Laura and John into coming but no luck... they'll just miss the fun!

They totaaled my car so hopefully my new one will be in soon!