The big thing this week is that Dad had a hernia repair on his left side. His right side had been done before (actually twice before). Apparently, most of the time we were on our mission he had this hernia issue, but he never - never - mentioned it. He had a physical about six weeks after we returned, came back home and said, "okay - I have an appointment for hernia surgery." He is so stoic and just keeps going even though he is physically uncomfortable. That was the first thing I knew about it.
Everything went really well. Good pain medication control, lots of constipation prevention, and lots of sleep. By Thursday her was up and around and by the end of the week, one would never know he'd had surgery. He has a phone consultation a week after the surgery and then it should be just about three weeks until he can return to normal 'heavy lifting' activities.
I did lots of little projects during his recovery.. I cut back the mums - Pumpkin and Anthem - which were planted alongside the east side of the house. Took two days. The fist day it started to sprinkle just as I began but the second day was warm (for November) and I was able to quicklu finish it up.
While cutting back I also discovered my favorite whacker lying on the ground amidst the mums. I was so excited to find it because it is the best weeding tool and I'd been looking for it and wairing for it to appear.
In between trips to throws the mums over the side of the canyon I also did some raking. The leaves were really wet by this time, and there were so man of them, that using the leaf blower was not feasible. Next year I will make sure there is no equipment or wood or plumbing supplies, or anything on the ground that will impede leaf blowing.
I also cleaned up the junk that was stacked against the house by the back door. Here is just a remnant of what was there.
I did wonder what was in the plastic tub. I could see that a bottom corner was busted. Fully intending to toss it all in the garbage bins, I opened it up to find ALL of my scout stuff - especially all the ropes and associated tools. I was so excited as I had been wondering where it all was - I had given it to Brother Theuer before I left and heard that he had returned it when he was released from being the 11-year-old scout leader.
The same day (Thursday) I was doing the mums, W&W&H showed up and said,"show us how to trim grapes." Actually, I have really never trimmed grapes - I just pick up the clippings and put them on the burn pile. So, I asked Ray to get up and show them. And here they are doing the trimming...Ray claimed he never bent over and just used his hands to operate his clippers.
They got it all done in this one session which was so great!!! We really appreciated their help. t/he the school bus came and Jude opted to help with the grapes. He is such a great guy!
The other kids opted to come inside for hot tubbing, tv, and popcorn.
Warren and Whitney also 'finished' the major part of their yard. They got all their plants into the ground (they hired Natalie Camille and Evan to help) and then Whitney spread all of the bark chips.
Another small but meaningful project was cutting one inch off the legs of the kitchen stool so that the drawers can open out over the stool. It seems a small incident but is actually a great thing. I did not do a professional carpenter's job (because no one would do it for me), but it is done.
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Friday there was no school, and Warren had suggested that we all go to a pottery place to decorate Christmas ornaments. I didn't really understand what was happening but went anyway. Dad stayed home and rested. It turned out to be a fun activity. The pottery place has all kinds of things that can be decorated - mugs, figurines, picture frames, ornaments - you name it, if it can be covered with glaze and fired, it was there. We all chose an ornament - there were one dimensional ones and 3-D ones too. I chose a snowflake, Abby chose a penguin, and so forth. Warren has to go back next week to pick up the finished products. Afterwards, Jessica and I and her kids went to Taco Bell for lunch. I got a Crunch Wrap Supreme - which I loved!
During the Christmas season, the Visitors Center at the Temple has evening Christmas Concerts. On Friday Warren and Whitney were doing Christmas Duets. We invited Val and Lori Glenn to go with us and we ate dinner in the temple cafeteria.
Actually, Ray didn't go at the last minute because moments before we were ready to leave, we received a call from Malcolm, who, while driving the company van was in an accident. Fortunately, it appeared to the policeman that both were at fault. So Ray took our van and met Malcolm at the towing yard, and there they transferred important stuff from his 'totaled' van to our van.
I picked up Lori and we drove to the Temple where we met Val and had dinner in the cafeteria. Then, a bit before 7:00 we went to the Visitors and met up with Evan and Camille - Camille was Holland sitting while W&W were performing. It was an enjoyable musical evening. Marge and Larry Heppler and Cari and Brian Fish had come too. It was fun to see them again after a long separation.
After the concert I took Evan and Camille to Carl's Junior and treated them to the Famous Star.
Saturday was the concert day for the Portland Choir and Orchestra - previously the Portland Mormon Choir and Orchestra, the The Ensign Orchestra and now, simply the Portland Choir and Orchestra. I went to the matinee with Ryan and his kids. First we had seats in row ! of the orchestra section; they were terrible seats. One could only see three violins in the First Violin Section. There was one good thing about that - the Concert Master, Ann Christianson, play as a soloist, "Winter" which was magnificent. It was cool that the kids could be so close for that. Then at intermission we moved up the Beaver Heaven and had seats where we could actually eed the brass section, the hand bells, and the choir.
And Sweet Tomatoes afterwards
Sunday was Sunday dinner and we watched the Christmas Devotional on BTU TV.
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