Middle of the Night Thoughts

I've had a couple of days of  rest to throw off a sore throat before it gets hold of me.  Mario's had it too, but he gets rid of such things more easily.  However, he is beginning to appreciate the finer points of good medical care AND medicine.  His blood pressure was "SKY HIGH" a couple of weeks ago, so now he is taking high blood pressure medicine.  He'd been having severe headaches for about two weeks before I MADE him see the dr.  And now both his primary care dr. and another dr. in his office are looking after him.  YES!  It had been over 4 years since he'd been to the dr., so no telling how long the high blood pressure was going on.  His mom had it, and Carrie has it also and has to take meds for it every day.  So there must be a gene for it?  Well, anyway, I don't think he'll be fighting the idea of going to the dr. for a yearly physical anymore.

I haven't said anything about Chuck recently.  We have been fighting a mighty battle with that evil force, (Satan, the Devil, Lucifer, whatever you call him), and we are winning.  Chuck had his best days this week from Tuesday to yesterday.  He had a seizure a couple of weeks ago while mowing grass for New Start Men's Mission, and they didn't want him back.  Said they didn't know what to do for him when he has a seizure!  I kinda laughed and said, "Well, I don't know anymore than you do, but I'd call the ambulance just like you did."  Mario and I are both committed to parenting/guiding him, and he is responding well to the help he is receiving from many directions, including medical support through the Community Outreach Clinic and counseling from Transitions.   He is still in the program at the soup kitchen which includes Bible study every Monday morning at 9AM.  He responds especially well to Chris, the young guy that runs that program.  The end result of participating, if all continues to go well, is a job.  So if you are praying for Chuck, please keep him on your list!  Transformation can be in an instant, and it can be in an undetermined time length.  I keep hearing the question in my conscience, "Am I who I say I am?"  By helping Chuck, I am certain of the answer to that.  Tonight he is staying with his sister Katrina.  She has a very cute little blond-headed daughter named Madison, and she and Chuck have lots of fun together.  I am hoping this relationship with Katrina will continue to grow and be a trusting one for both of them.

I hope to begin this week choosing who is giving what talk/meditation on TEC 270 in January.  Our buddy George McDonnell is co-directing with me, and Mario and Betty will be there too.  I will be able to do the planning and organizing of meetings beforehand, but actually being up and moving on the weekend for 3 days and two naps won't be possible for me.  So George and I will work hand in hand to make sure it is a great opportunity for everyone there to have a Christ-centered weekend (with a little fun on the side, of course!).  George and Mario can be just plain nuts together, and now there is Aiden, the chip-off-the-old-George-block.  He'll be in the room as a resource, and Jerry E. will also be around, so there will undoubtedly be some silliness in the midst of the spiritual work we are there to do. 

Well, that's all I can think of for now.  Back to bed.  It's cute how Chico sleeps right by me while I am on the computer.  As soon as I get up, he will wake up and follow me back to bed!

Carrie had a good story for me yesterday.  Seems that she is now letting Cora and Hannah go off in the store on their own for a few minutes while she is shopping.   Well, in ten minutes, Cora returned, dolled up from head to toe.  She'd found just the right hat, sunglasses, jewelry, and apparel to please herself as she told her mom she was just "playing dress-up" in the store.  So some girls are 12 going on 18, and some are 12 going on 8.  Cora is in that latter group, and I think we are all very happy about that!

Son Chris will be 30 in a week.  Hmmm.  Why can I so well remember the labor and delivery that got him here?  It took 19 hours from start to finish to get Carrie here, and all but 3 or 4 of them were HARD!  But with Chris, I worked all day, knew I was in labor, had a pain about once every hour throughout....I remember some boys were helping me take down the volleyball nets from PE class, and I stopped for a minute to let one of those little pains work itself through.  They were scrambling, thinking they needed to get someone or call the ambulance.  "No fellas, I'm fine.  Just getting ready to have this baby sometime in the next day or two."  I finished work, went home and put my feet up, then fixed dinner.  Along about 8:30PM, the pains starting coming fast and harder. and we were off to the hospital.  Chris was born less than 4 hours later, and the whole thing could be called easy compared to what it took to get Carrie out of there.    It is an amazing quality of the brain that one can remember details from 30 years ago, but not from yesterday afternoon.  Well, anyway, my baby boy is turning 30 on November 14.  O Joy.