Weekend Update:

Thursday:
Mom could tell she was getting pneumonia again and was having a hard time breathing.  The nursing  home wouldn't let her go to the hospital.  Judy had to call them and insist they take her by ambulance.  After work, Dad and I went up.  Mom was very sick and could barely take in a deep  breath.  They ran several tests on her.  The admitting doctor said they found a lump in the right lobe  of her lung.  He said it could be bacterial or the possibility of lung cancer.  That's a scary thought as my sister, Judy has lung cancer.  (Fortunately it was not cancer)  The lump could also be causing her shortness of breath.  He did say she had a bad case of pneumonia along with the congestive heart failure.  Dad and I stayed until they assigned her a room.  Sure didn't take me long to fall asleep after I got home.
Friday:  
I worked from noon until five.  When Dwayne got home, we went to see Mom.  She wasn't not breathing well at all and her lungs sounded all crackly. She could only breathe sitting up and leaning on the bedside table.  Very disturbing, I was afraid she wouldn't make it through the night.  My cousins came to visit so Dwayne and I went to Apple Bees and then to Wal-Mart.  Dwayne was shocked at the total.  I told him I am every week.
We then went back to the hospital.  I planned on spending the night.  The later it got, the more tired I was.  Mom insisted I go on home and get some rest.  I don't know if I'm having a flare-up or what but I get extremely tired and have to rest.  Another night of falling asleep quick.
Saturday:
April and Cash came over for the day.  In the afternoon, we went to a friend, Carol Bailey's Mom Sivilla's 90th birthday.  The party was at Broadway Baptist Church.  It was good to see people I used to go to church with.
We then went to Kelsey's baby shower.  Kelsey and April have been friends since birth.  It's amazing they both have families now.  I had made Kelsey a quilt and she also got four others.  The baby won't lack for warmth.

We went on into Rolla to see Mom.  Cash wanted to walk around awhile.  This gave April a chance to have some one on one time with Grandma.  We  went down the hall to the floor to ceiling windows.  Cash loved watching the trucks on the interstate.  Of course the cars are trucks too.  He will argue with you over it.  I decided it was time to go back and Cash wasn't ready to go.  He pointed his little finger at me and said, no, no, no.  It really was cute.  I know it's not something we want him to be doing but it was cute at the time.
Luckily, Cash got to see Grandpa when he got home.   Dwayne took him for a ride in both trucks.  Grandpa spoils him tremendously.
April's car was having problems with the radiator and fan so she left it and took my car.  Works perfect as I now work at Weidinger's and go visit on Wednesdays.  She sent a message today she likes mine better than hers.  Too bad.  lol
After April left, I fell asleep on the couch.  Dwayne woke me up to go on to bed.  He fixed himself a sandwich for supper.
Sunday:
I didn't go to church as April's car wasn't running very good.  I spent the day cleaning as I've not kept up very good lately.  Dwayne did some outside work.  After supper, we watched TV and then an early night.
Monday:
Katie called around noon and the right side of Mom's lung collapsed.  They were going to take her into surgery and insert a tube.  Hard to concentrate at work with Mom not doing well.

I am grateful for family and friends. (and grandson  lol)

Mom and April's Birthday:

Saturday:
I've been working on a baby quilt for Kelsey, my friend Susan's daughter.  I've had nothing but problems.  My sewing machine quit working, Mom's quit working so finally I thought, just go by a cheap sewing machine so you quit having to rip out seams.  Wish I would have done that sooner.
I worked on the baby quilt all day.
April and Cash came over in the afternoon.  Cash was wound up.  We had alot of fun playing.
April was going to All Girls Prom at Vienna that night.  I can't believe she is now 30.  I am very proud of her.  She has turned into wonderful young woman and a great mother.
Cash squealed when Dwayne got home; he was so happy to see his grandpa.  Dwayne took him for a four wheeler ride up to Grandpa Great's and over to see Troy.  He almost fell asleep on the ride.
We then went down to Chad's for Dwayne to help him move shelves into his work van.  Cash got to sit with Grandpa on the gravel drive.  He thought he was something.  But when it comes to getting tired, Grandpa won't do.  He has to have Grandma.  I love rocking him to sleep.  I don't know why I look so bad (and mad, but I wasn't) in this picture.  Maybe it came from being extremely tired.

Sunday:

I had everything ready to make potato salad for Mom and April's birthday dinner.  Cash wanted Grandma so Dwayne made the salad for me.  He helps me so much anymore, I don't know what I'd do without him.

Unfortunately, Mom wasn't able to get out of the nursing home for dinner.  She had fluid building up around her heart again.  First time in 29 years Mom and April haven't shared a birthday dinner.

Several of us took Mom a cake and went to the nursing home for a small party.

April's 30th, Mom's 86th Birthday

Bittersweet times.  Mom was very accepting of not being able to come out for the day.  Probably more so than me.

When I got home, the company was all gone and Dwayne had cleaned the kitchen up for me.  What a guy!  I took a short nap and then we just watched TV the rest of the evening.

I am grateful for another year with Mom and for my family.

Mom's Birthday:

Happy Birthday to my Mom who is 86 years old today.

I'm so grateful to still have Mom with us.

Weekly Visit:

Picking flowers for Mommy

Trying to hide a flower in his shirt

So enjoy these visits.  I am grateful to be a grandmother.

Mom and Dad:

This is the first year Mom and Dad have missed the Vienna parade.   Our family gets together on the southwest corner of the courthouse square.  Sure did miss this this year.

2014 Parade

Cash has changed alot in the past year.  They seem to grow up so fast.

I'm grateful for these memories with my parents.

Labor Day Weekend:

Friday:
I had a rough day helping Dad with Mom and was pretty much exhausted.  We always go out to eat on Friday nights, but Dwayne was tired as well so we just stayed home.
Saturday:
Fair Parade Day.  We always go to the the fair.  This year, we didn't go at all.  We don't have any small kids and the entertainment isn't so great.
But the parade, that's a different story.  We will always go to the parade.  As you can tell from the pictures below, we had a great time.

My nephew, Tyler and his little boy, Liam

Chad and Desmon

April and Cash came home with us for the afternoon.  We went to the Salebarn Cafe but it was packed and no place to sit so we went on over to the Vichy Wye Cafe.  They remodeled last year and it looks totally different from when I worked there in the seventies.  It had a sagging ceiling then and I don't know how they went this long without fixing it.  When I worked there, we had a pool table in the middle of the room.  If you weren't busy, you could play pool.  I got quite good at it.  Not so much anymore.  After a busy day, Cash was worn out.

We had a great afternoon with April and Cash.

Sunday:

I actually went to church.  Helped with Mom and then got called out about one a.m. to come up and help out.  Long night.

Monday:

I was tired from spending the night with Mom and I slept a good portion of the day.  We ran into town and got a sandwich and that was the extent of our Labor Day.

I'm grateful for times like these.

Weekly Visit:

Cash loves to line his toys up in a straight line.  He is such a neat kid.  He puts his toys up every night without being told.  We were reading books and he would get two at a time off the shelf and put them back and then get two more out.  He even puts his dirty clothes in the hamper.  Now if he'll continue this pattern throughout life.
Grandpa didn't get to come this time, as he's working nights.

Grateful for this time together.

Weekend of August 29/30th:

Friday:
We ate at Road Kill Grill just a few miles from our house.  They have good barbecue (and no road kill  lol).
Back home to watching TV.  Such exciting lives.
Saturday:
Dwayne spent the day shuffling canoes around for our float trip the next day.  I was at Mom and Dad's helping out.  Mom is not doing too well and filling up on fluid again.
Sunday:
We went on what my brother-in-law, David, calls "old hippie float trip".  lol  I love the river.  I have more respect for the water since my brother, Wayne drowned last year.  I'm way more cautious.
Chad and Todd a few of their friends also joined us.  (don't think David liked that too well......)
I can't believe I got to go the river two weeks in a row.  When the kids were small, we bought a boat.
We spent at least one day per weekend on the river.  Such fun memories.  Now we don't have a boat, so float trips is our only way of being on the river.
I found out on last year's float, it's much harder getting back in the canoe in the water.  It was so embarrassing!  Phil and Dwayne both had to pick me up and put me back in.  I felt like a huge beached whale.  This year I only swam when we were pulled up to a gravel bar.
The weather was cooler and it was a great day to be on the river.  Beautiful scenery.
The trip home was a little risky as we had all the canoes on our trailer (Chad, Todd's, etc.)  As the boys didn't have vehicles at our pull out point, we had to overload our vehicles.  Todd and Tim sat in the back of the truck.  I was so nervous going down the road.  And to think we used to ride in the back all the time.  David also drove a group to our house.
It was a very relaxing time spent visiting friend and enjoying God's nature.

I am grateful for good friends and time spent together.

Weekly Visit:

A couple weeks ago, I picked up Cash from Susie at Day Care as April had an appointment that evening.

Nothing doing but we had to go on our walk around town.  April and Mike live very close to the street.  They had been having problems with Cash darting out to the street.  I was afraid it was from me and Dwayne taking him on walks each time we visit.  I wouldn't let him walk across the street, I carried him until we got to a sidewalk.  He wasn't too happy about it but it was much safer.

We walked to the bank parking lot where he had fun playing with random rocks he found.  So many toys and rocks can be substitued for trucks and cars.

He happily walked back home and reached for me to carry him across the street.

I enjoyed my time with Cash as Grandpa usually hogs him.  lol

I am so grateful for this little boy in our lives.

Lennaman Reunion:

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Lennaman Reunion

When Dwayne's Grandma Rea was alive, I arranged a family reunion so we could all get together.

Somehow, I inherited this yearly event planning.

We started out at Meramac Springs every year.  This continued for several years.  After Rea, Dodie and Rita had all passed away, we didn't get together.

About five years ago, I decided the cousins still needed to get together.  We had the reunion over at the lake in Vichy.   Late August gets super hot; even with fans we were miserable.  This year we decided to have it at our house.  We had a good turnout and everyone enjoyed visiting and getting reacquainted.

Frankie's kids:

Carter, Graceson and Carly

Dwayne, David, Chad, Uncle Walter, Andy and Mark

Lennaman Cousins

                                                  Dwayne, Connie, April and Cash

Sunday, August 23rd, 2015

This year was a first for us.  We had a cousin float trip on the Gasconade River.  This was so much fun, we decided to do it again next year.

I am so grateful for my connection to the Lennaman's through my mother-in-law, Dodie.  She would so enjoy this tradition being carried on.