When my grandkids were little and we were all going somewhere in the car, they always insisted that I sing the song ‘There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea’. You could feel the excitement and anticipation as the items I was singing about kept getting smaller and smaller . . . . . There’s a spick on the speck on the spot on the hair on the wart on the frog on the twig on the branch on…
It’s hard to believe it was thirty-five years ago today that Suzanne and I were married which joined our two families together. This journey has had way more than its fair share of ups and downs, but how did we get here? After my daughter’s death, my wife Cindy developed cancer and she too died. This left me in Cissna Park with two sons, working in my new second profession, farming with my in-laws. With few friends in the area,…
In researching this inconsequential number, I discovered the band Smashing Pumpkins had a song titled Thirty Three; There’s a business in South Carolina called Thirty Three Butterflies that designs dog bandanas and hair scrunchies; for just a little bit more, Thirty Three & Third is the seventh studio album by former Beatle, George Harrison; the number Thirty-three is drawn about twenty-five percent of the time in the Loto, and unfortunately Lounge Thirty-Three in Riverside CA has permanently closed. So what’s…
Suzanne’s follow-up visit to the UI Maxillofacial Prosthetics Clinic proved again to be a new challenge for her. On this visit, Dr. S added more material to the prosthesis, both in the back and in the roof of the mouth area. In the back, the device reaches all the way to the back of her throat. This will replace the palate that was removed during surgery and will help prevent food and drink from flowing into the nasal passages. In…
In college, I minored in Political Science, hard to believe that was 50 years ago. I have always enjoyed discussing current politics and how our government works (or doesn’t). Lately though, with all that is going on, the extreme divisions in our country, the inability for people to even discuss different points of view, and the turmoil overseas, it’s hard trying to keep up. That same problem exists even in my own household. No, not turmoil or inability to communicate,…
Life’s experiences cloud our expectations, but today I couldn’t have been more wrong; even Suzanne’s oncologist expectations for Monday were wrong. You see since May and the two following PATHway Follow-up visits, a nodule that appeared in Suzanne’s lung has consistently doubled in size. This consistent growth along with anyone’s life experience would tell you that you would expect this visit would be no different and the nodule would continue to grow. So, in keeping with her tradition of not…
Our travels this summer have taken us to six states finishing up with a big trip west. But first: Danville Baloon Fest where Suzanne’s classmate was one of the balloon pilots; Michigan wine county, blueberries, and Lake Michigan were calling; Also, three days at the State Fair Draft Horse show, an annual adventure for us. Then, since we had never traveled out west, two weeks trying to squeeze in as much as we could. Our plan, drive straight to Yellowstone…
Back when Suszanne owned the Du-All building in Cissna Park, we were landlords. We had three apartments above the Quilt Shop that had tenants most of the time. Some tenants were needy, some were easy to get along with, some were problematic, and some were just what a landlord wants, paid on time, and never heard from. We didn’t mind being landlords as it added cash flow to the business and utilized the property we had. This year, we (actually,…
Last evening, three women shared their health experiences in a community forum. The focus was on how they felt God had intervened in their care and helped them medically, physically, and mentally through these trying times. Suzanne was one of the presenters. Nervous that attendees would not be able to understand her, Her presentation gave her the chance to explain what she went through in her words. So today, it’s her turn. She wrote out her talk in case no…
I don’t know about where you live but here on our farm, it’s past being dry and moving quickly into a desert category. Watering the garden and flowers has become a full-time job. As a farmer, we usually talk about the inches of rain, even the tenths of an inch, but this year we brag about the hundredths of an inch we got. Showers seem to pop up all around us, in fact, someone three miles down the road got…