Sara left early in the morning before we got up. They always as so quiet when they leave. We got up read our scriptures, said prayer, ate breakfast, took showers and got ready for church and by then it was past 11:00 a.m. We left for the care center to see Nathan and to take him his shoes. When we got there at about 11:30 we realized that we had forgotten the shoes. Larry went back to get them.
We had asked Nathan to see if we could eat lunch with him and they said yes. So after a few minutes Nathan and I went down to the dining room and ate lunch a little early. It was a good lunch. Dressing, turkey, gravy, green beans, and pumpkin pie. Nathan said that he had to tell them no tea or coffee when he came and I had to tell them no tea that day. At first I thought it was juice but it wasn't juice. Everyone in Texas drinks ice tea so they thought I was weird when I ask for something else. We finished before Larry got back so we got his meal for him and took it to the room. He got back just as we were leaving the dining room. We got Nathan's shoes on him and by that time the taxi was there to take Nathan to church.
When we got to church the person driving the taxi said that we would have to call in for a pick up. So I initially texted Sara asking her if she was going to call about the pick up. I realized later that I was saying will you call but at the time when I did not get a call I called and ordered a pick up at 4:30 p.m. when Nathan said he wanted it. Later in church Nathan got a text saying that Sara had called an ordered a Taxi for 5 minutes after 4. I realized that we had two calls in for the same place and so I tried to call in and change it but until 3:30 p.m. my phone was not making the call. It was so frustrating. But I finally got through and cancelled the taxi for one of the times.
Nathan had lots of people from the ward come up and let them know how happy they were to see him. One couple even told them that they would be coming over for Family Home Evening if it was okay with him.
It was good that we took the later time because a girl in Nathan's ward spoke the last few minutes of the Combined 5th Sunday meeting bearing her testimony of the gospel. In that she mentioned that she had fallen out of a helicopter and had brain damage. She was now up doing things normally. Immediately after the meeting Nathan went up to talk to her. He seemed to be encouraged by the fact that she was now "normal" after a brain injury. She said it took her 3 years to recover.
We went back to the care center and began to try to Skype with Kirsten. For some reason it would not work on my computer so Nathan brought it up on his Ipad. We had a really good visit with Kirsten and Taylor. Nathan was talking well and we had a good time.
We had decide to stay for dinner with Nathan rather than go back and fix something so we did. Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and a bowl of potato soup with bacon. Nathan also got pears but we did not but when we went to pay the kitchen help just said not to worry about it. After that we decided we could not complain about the food.
Then we contacted some of the other brothers and sisters and Nikki replied back on Skype and we had a good talk with Lexie, Ashton, Abbie, and Myles for a while. In the meantime Nathan had got tired and so he did not talk as well as he did with Kirsten. We went home and finished up the nightly ritual of having to watch Bones at least once. Not a good Sunday activity.
Today we went to Weight Watchers after the regular rituals. It was a new meeting place so there was just us and one other person that stayed for the meeting. We both gained weight so we ate too much for Christmas or their scales are different. The talked about the new Simple Start program where you do not have to count points so Larry got really excited about that and decided that is what he wanted to do. Later in the afternoon he went and got the foods we needed to eat on that plan.
We went home to eat lunch so we would stay on plan.
By the time we got to the care center it was about 12:45 p.m. Larry decided that he wanted to go to the AAA office and get a map and stuff for our trip home so he left me to go with Nathan on a trip to the doctor. The mobile ambulance that was supposed to pick him up was late. They were supposed to come at 1:20 p.m. They did not come and finally I went to the nurses and asked if they knew if we were supposed to come and be in the lobby and if they were there. They called the company and they said that they were in transit. I went back to Nathan's room to wait.
While I was waiting Nathan was working on his blog. He had been working on it since we got there. I could tell he wanted to work on it so I just sat there and watched him as he typed out his blog one finger at a time. I wondered if anyone could possibly realize how much work he puts into the blog. I wonder if anyone knows how hard it is for him to keep going when everything is so hard to do. He works so hard everyday just to keep going.
The mobile ambulance finally came about 2:00 P.M. The driver was all apologies, said he had not received the call until 1:28 p.m. so I am assuming that he didn't get the call until the care center called. In the morning they had said that maybe Nathan would not get to go in his electric wheelchair. He was upset about that some but when the nurse called she told them they needed a wheelchair unit. I might be wrong but it appeared that initially who ever ordered the transportation did not bother to order a wheelchair transport. But when it came that is what it was.
We got to the VA a little late for his appointment. Maybe 5 minutes but they said he was okay. I was expecting maybe a 5 minute appointment because the last time this doctor had examined him in the VA he came in asked him a few questions and was gone before that time was up. But I forgot this is the VA outpatient. We went in and sat in the waiting room for a while. Then they took him back to a room and had him read some lines. Then they took him to a wheelchair accessible room to have him read some more lines. I kept asking if they needed the papers that the care center sent but they said when he sees the doctor. I finally figured out that this was not the doctor. Then they said that we would have to go to an area to wait to see the doctor. While we were there a man brought Nathan a piece of paper with his sons name and telephone number on it. He said that his son was in the Polytrauma center with Nathan. Finally he got in to see the doctor. I recognized him as the doctor I had seen before. I was surprised though that he recognized me as Nathan's mother.
The doctor said that Nathan's eyesight was doing very well and that it had not changed much in the last while meaning it had stablized. He said that his eyesight was 20/20 with his glasses and he really does not have much of a problem because he only wears his prescription glasses occasionally. Most of the time he wears the sunglasses that help to protect his eyes from the glare and I found out those are not prescription. He kept telling Nathan he was really impressed with his progress and actually I was too. He could talk so others can understand him and he took care of the whole visit himself. I would not have needed to be there but he told me he has glad I came. The doctor explained that Nathan is missing some vision in the upper right section of his vision but he said that the eyes are making good accommodation for it. After a few minutes more the doctor took us out to the waiting room again and it was empty. The nurse called the mobile ambulance and he was finished about 4:00 p.m. By the time they picked us up and got us back to the care center it was about 10 minutes to 5:00. I told Nathan I was going home to fix dinner and would be back later.
Because Maren had bought us a Bountiful Basket for Christmas and part of it was a Mexican basket we had about 10 tomatillas to use. Larry loves Chile Verde and I had found a recipe for pork chile verde online when I had googled how to cook tomatillas. I knew he would like it and he had gone and bought some pork so I could make it. I started to make it and everything was fine until I realized that Sara's food processor had not worked for me earlier. I put the food in and it still would not work. So I took it out and looked up the book for the food processor on line. I could not see that I had put it together incorrectly so I was frustrated when it still did not work. I saw a number on the booklet that you could call for service. I called and explained what I had done. The person had me test some different parts of the food processor and each time the engine worked. However when I put the lid on it did not push the lever down that was supposed to make the thing work. I figured out I could work it with a butter knife holding down the part that was not pushed far enough. But by the time I had figured this out and finished the Chile Verde it was 8:30 p.m. and Nathan gets tired at 8:00 p.m. so I texted him and told him why we did not come back. He saw it the next morning. He did say that the family from the ward came and played the game with him and they had a good time.
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