Back Again

I know it's been a while since I've written, but things have been kind of crazy around here.  Last week I went to a new cardiologist.  I liked him a lot, and he is right across the street from St. Mary's; my gynecologist is there as well as my oncologist, so it's pretty convenient.  And all of my information was already in the system so I didn't have to fill out all of that stuff.  He thought my heart sounded okay and might never need my aortic valve replaced.  It has been the same for four years now, a little more than half way blocked, but it hasn't changed at all.  He said they wouldn't even consider replacing it until it was under one centimeter opened, and mine is 1.4.  That was a relief.  When it was first diagnosed four years ago I was scared it was going to need to be replaced any day.

This past weekend we went to dinner with Bart and Pam and Jeff and Judith then back to Jeff's Friday evening.  On Saturday I went to garage sales then to a fancy aunt lunch for my sister Patty and niece Marisa.  It was at me sister, Lorie's house.  She sets a really pretty table and is good at entertaining.  I can tell she enjoys it.  Saturday evening we went to the Magic House; our investment company rented it out and told us to bring our kids/grand kids, family and friends with kids.  We brought Michael and Katie and Michael came back with us and spent the night.  Katie went home because she was going to camp on Sunday.  Rob brought Erin, and my sister Kay and her husband Bob brought their two grandsons, Luca and Noah.  It was fun, but Katie took the two little boys to another area and we couldn't find them for about an hour, which was kind of scary.

Sunday was Father's Day and Amy had us for dinner.  She had delicious steaks, hamburgers and hot dogs for the kids, pasta salad, green salad, fruit salad and corn on the cob.  I made a pound cake and brought fresh strawberries and whipped cream.  We were all well fed.  Then on Monday and Tuesday I had jury duty.  Both days I got picked for questioning, but did not make it to the juries, which was fine with me.  Nevertheless, I was there from 8 until almost 4 both days.  The most difficult part was getting in the court house.  It's kind of like getting into the airport; you have to go through security and take off shoes and all jewelry.  The first morning when I put my purse on the machine all of my lemon heads fell out into the rollers.  It was kind of embarrassing.  Then I forgot my watch and got up to the second floor when someone called me back.   The second day they found a little scissors in my purse--my embroidery scissors, so I had to take that outside and throw it away.  Then they found another one I didn't even know was in there and I had to throw that away as well.  Then when I went through for the third time they found a small pocket knife I didn't even know was in my purse.  I hope I don't have jury duty again for at least ten years.

Today I watched Abbey and Erin; I told Rob I would watch them one day a week this summer.  We went to the botanical garden this morning, and it was hot, hot, hot.  We went to the children's garden for about an hour, and then we went to the gift shop.  My daughters had given me a gift card for Mother's Day so I wanted to buy myself something.  I got a glass birdbath, and each of the girls got a stuffed animal type puppet.  They wanted to go the the lake and feed the Koi fish, but I told them we would go back next week and go there.  I didn't think about it being Wednesday when we went there, and Wednesday is free day.  We have a membership so we didn't need to get in for free but there were probably over a hundred people in line.  Luckily, someone asked if members had to wait in line and they let us go in another door and get tickets from a kiosk. 

As I said, it's been a busy week.  Now we are working on planning a bridal shower/dinner for my niece, Joanie, but I'll write about that later.