August 18th and before

Yes, to those of you who read my blog I am sorry I am so slow this week in posting.  Unfortunately my commitment to keep the Sabbath by not taking a nap has made it impossible for me to stay awake for very long at night.  But I am spending more time with the family.

Maggie had picked out a new dress when we went shopping on Saturday and so she wore that to church today.  She looked so cute.  We also put some fake pink locks in her hair that she thought was fun.  When we got to church she thought that it was pretty cool that I let her wear one of my missionary badges to primary.  Someone asked her if she was Sister Presser and she said no.  I said no she is Maggie missionary but she was not to happy with that.

Maggie in her new dress

Sunday at church they talked about missionary work again.  The ward goal must be to get more people to bring people to Christ.  I am constantly amazed at the people in the ward that I think are long time members that are actually converts of one or two years.  They had a girl speak that was that way yesterday.  She was converted two years ago and has now been called as a ward missionary.  She talked of the joy that the Gospel has brought into her life and her desire to share the message of the restoration with others.  I think sometimes if you have been raised in the church, particularly in Utah you fail to recognized the truly amazing things that the church teaches to make people happy.

The ward mission leader is a young person maybe about 24, Reed Johnson, that I have mentioned earlier in my posts because of his willingness to help Nathan go places several times.  He also came to my aid when he first got here and came and stayed with Nathan before we had bars and things to help him get to the bathroom by himself.  He talked about The 7 types of Salvation from the book "True to the Faith" which is a concept that I had not considered, that there were more than one type of salvation.

The High counselor talked also about missionary work but I was settling a dispute between the kids and did not get a true concept of what his talk was about.  He started out good and seemed to be interesting but then I got distracted.

Nathan decided that the kids were spending too much time just playing games on electronics and so he set the rule that what they did online on Sunday had to do with the church and the gospel.  While we were driving to church Maggie wanted to do something so I went to the church website and found the things for the children that are there.  The Bible Videos were tied to this spot and she recognized them and wanted to watch one.  Then when we got home she wanted to watch some on the computer so I sat down with her and we watched several video for about an hour.  Luckily Larry made this possible by fixing dinner for us all while I was doing it.  She and Sammy asked several questions again as we watched videos about Paul and Stephen that was stoned and the birth of Jesus.  She is getting a better understanding of who Jesus is from all of this and is is fun for me to spend the time with her.

After dinner Nathan helped David and Isaac work on some things for Scouts that they needed to pass off.  We need to find something more positive for Sammy because he wanted to go to the games several times and because he is autistic and that is his favorite thing to do he was not a happy camper.  Any ideas would be appreciated.   He did get out the legos and had a good time with those for quit a while.  His siblings joined in and it gave us all a needed break to do somethings ourselves.

Kirsten called and talked to me for a while during this time.  She has moved into an apartment by herself and she was telling me about some of the challenges that she was facing.

We fed the kids and took them home at about 5:50 p.m. so they were late as they are supposed to be home at 6:00 p.m. but Sara is very accommodating about that.

About the time that we got back to the apartment Erick called and we talked for about an hour or more about what was going on in our various lives.  Ryker would actually talk to me this time and told me about some of the things that he had been doing.  They have signed him up for an online preschool that he does a few days a week for a while and he is learning his letters and numbers and seems to enjoy it.  He would not sing the alphabet song for me though.

During the week we had some busy days.  On Monday Larry had an appointment with the VA but I guess that meant nothing because he waited 4 hours for treatment.  He went in about his foot that has been bothering him for about a month and found out that it has a bone infection in it on the left foot by the bunion area at the base of the big toe.  The podiatrist gave him a boot to wear to relieve the pressure and an antibiotic and put some different things on it and told him not to get it wet. Luckily he had bought some bigger band aids on the weekend and so he had those.  He amazes me because he has walked around on it and never complained about it so I was unaware how painful it was until he told me that the doctors said, "That must be pretty painful"  and he answered, "Only when I breath"  Meaning all the time.

Monday we also went to Weight Watchers and listened to get some motivation because it was a bad week the week before with all the food we were serving.  I was surprised that I actually lost 1.2 lbs though and Larry stayed the same.

Tuesday we spent our time in the office and I think I actually got caught up on the referrals and baptisms that I needed to work on. but nothing stands out right now.  I actually wanted to post about Larry's toe on Tuesday night but then something came up and it was not achieved.

Thursday was Stoke Support group at Warm Springs and Nathan and I like to go to that.  He decided that he wanted to try riding there on Via Trans and so I consented even though I knew it would take longer than going in his van.  They said that to get there at 11:00 a.m. we would have to be ready for 9:15 a.m.  They dropped us off at 9:30 a.m. at Warm Springs and we hung out for an hour and a half. Then they said that they would pick us up at between 5 minutes and two hours from when we called.  We waited about an hour.  My phone did not work there for some reason and so it was frustrating but Nathan and I had a good visit and I got some exercise in that I needed by walking around the buildings.  I know that they have to accommodate a lot of people here and I am spoiled but it is so frustrating to me that it takes 3 times longer than it would if we had taken the van.  But when Nathan is on his own he may need to use it at times. And it is a god send to people without transportation.

The Stroke Support Meeting was worth every inconvenience that I may have had that day. A Dr. Harris talked.  He works with the patients at Warm Springs often and he is one of the three neurosurgeons that specialize in stroke here in San Antonio.  He talked about the two types of strokes.  The bleeding stroke where the brain is suffocated by a rupture in a blood vessel from a sudden rise of blood pressure and the clot type that is caused by blood clots forming.  I thought that perhaps Nathan's might have been a bleeding stroke when I talked to him but he said that with a bleeding stroke they cannot give aspirin and other blood thinners because the person would bleed to death and Nathan is taking aspirin. 

I know that when Nathan had his stroke that they said that they could not give him the TPA that is so popular but he said that some strokes cannot have the TPA because they would bleed to death especially the bleeding strokes and that there is a very strict criteria of what must occur to be able to use it for a stroke.  He said that many people have the mistaken notion because of some of the advertizing that if you get that medicine that you can walk out of the hospital the same as before but that is not true.  He said that it can promote healing faster but you will still have to recover from the effects of the stroke.

He also talked about how a person can revert to  former stroke problems if they get too tired and they need to rest when they are having a hard time doing things.  He talked about how a person will maybe have to hear something several times before he remembers it after a stroke even though the things he knew before the stroke may be solidly in their memory.  I know Nathan has times when he feels foggy but not often.

He talked for an hour and I have barely touched on what he said but it was a very informative afternoon and they serve lunch so that makes it even better.

While we were eating lunch we a young black man in uniform came and sat by Nathan and he was telling him that he was were he is two years ago.  He said that he could not talk as plain as he was talking there and that he was in an electric wheelchair.  He looked normal except for the boot on his foot from a surgery he was recovering from in Warm Springs.  I couldn't believe what he was saying but he swore that he was as handicapped as Nathan but that over the last two years he has gradually improved.  It gave me great hope combined with the fact that Nathan is doing more and more for himself everyday and learning to control his body more and more.

When we got back we went to the office and I worked for about an hour and then Kirsten texted me and reminded me that I needed to email or fax some documents so that she could get in her apartment.  I panicked because it was almost time to go to Bingo night and pick up the kids.  I figured out how to print the document and we went to one of Nathan's banks to get it notorized and then they offered to fax it to them for us.  I was shocked that I was able to accomplish it in such a short time and definitely felt that I had divine help to get it done.

By the time we got done we were running late.  So Sara offered to bring the kids to the base to save us about a half hour.  I really appreciated that.  We got there and they had a yummy chicken dinner but a water main had broken in the ceiling so after they ate they did not play Bingo.  We went out to the playground and let the kids play for a while and then took them home.  Larry did not want to come with us so I left him at the office but I was so frustrated trying to coordinate everything with the kids that when I got home I told him we were not doing that again.  It is so hard to deal with 4 kids by yourself when you are a grandma.  On the positive side, Larry was pleased with all the work he got done.

I drank too much caffeine at Warm Springs while we were waiting and then I drank another drink at the Bingo dinner and by the time I got home I could not go to sleep and I was up until after midnight.  So I was tired when I got up and never really got over being tired.  I have done this before so I think that eventually I would learn that I cannot do that but I haven't seemed to get it into my head yet and I do it about once a month.

Friday we worked in the office and Larry had to go and pick up a new car for the mission and take one to be fixed to Benson Chevrolet.  I came home to feed Nathan and remember going back to the mission and being frustrated because I had so many phone calls that I could not get all the Baptism and Confirmation Records typed into the Convert Data Entry System to submit them so today on Monday I had several missionaries calling me to see if I had got their records because the Ward Clerks did not have record of the membership yet.

I left the mission about 4:20 p.m. because Sara was bringing the kids early because she had a mandatory  meeting for her teaching position.  When the kids got there I tried to find clothes for them to wear for the evening because we were going to a Wedding Shower.  Sara had a friend tell her that it was a Bridal Shower so I wondered if we were even supposed to go but the girl, Ana Johnson, had invited us the Sunday before and said that we were all invited even the men when we were talking with Alonzo's. We had decided to go when Ana's mother called and said that all of us were to come.  I thought that we needed to dress up and I was very tired and when we went to look for clothes
Isaac was missing dress pants and Maggie did not have any shoes to wear with her dress that matched.  Nathan said he was going casual so we took the kids casual but not without me having a mini-meltdown over the clothes because for the last three weeks someone was always missing something for church.  It is important to me that the kids look good because I think it reflects on how we are taking care of them and I just did not want to take the kids to church again looking eclectic again.

We had a good time at the Shower.  It was very casual but they had good food and it was fun to talk to the members of the ward.  As I talked to everyone my tension melted and I began to feel better. But with Maggie along I ended up eating too many sweets that she took and didn't want to eat and I did not have the will power to throw away.

Saturday I got up early with Nathan and ate breakfast but we decided to let Larry and the kids sleep in.  After I ate I went in and laid down again and fell asleep until almost 10:00 a.m. so I think that I got mad so many times this week because I was tired.  We finally got up and ate and then Larry went shopping for food while Nathan and I took the kids shopping at Burlington Coat Factory.  The kids had fun but they were not so happy when Nathan told them that they had to leave the new clothes and the clothes they bought there when they went home so we would have some clothes and then Sara would not have to worry about packing them up each weekend.

We came home and ate lunch but it was almost 3:30 p.m. before we ate.  It took Larry as long to shop as it did for us to shop for clothes.  But the kids did not complain until they wanted a drink at McDonald's and I told them we would go home and get a drink.  But then we had to stop for gas and so they thought that we were trying to torture them.

After lunch we showed Larry the clothes that we had bought and had the kids hang them in Nathan's closet and then went swimming in the pool.  We had asked some people from the ward to come over for a pool party but they could not come at the last minute so we had our own pool party.  Larry had bought a Pizza we could cook and soda for the kids and then we had popcorn to pop.  Maggie said, "Grandpa sure is fun!"  After I complained so much on Thursday night Grandpa came to the pool with us even though he could not get his foot wet and I was glad when he had to take Sammy to the bathroom and did not come back and I had to take Maggie before he got back.  Apparently he let Sammy go to the hot tub for a while because Sammy loves that.

When we got home from the pool we actually ate again because the pizza was small and we were all still hungry.  I made spaghetti Christiansen kids style for them and Larry and I and Nathan had sauce on our.  Maggie ate a whole plate of noodles though and was really proud of herself for finishing her dinner.  After that we all went to bed early for Church the next day.

Elder Rogers and me

I already told you about Sunday but today was a hectic day.  Larry went to the mission office at 7:00 a.m. hoping to get some work done before the assistants arrived.  But he was there for three hours and could not get the internet going.  Most of the work we do is online so he was very frustrated and the Assistants had to go somewhere else to get their reports done. He had left me home to work on the blog and to get the referrals done here at home and then he was going to pick me up for Weight Watchers and we would go there and eat lunch with Nathan.  But with the Williams not there and with the Assistants gone he had to answer the phones three at a time while trying to get some help form AT&T.  So we didn't got to WW.

Elder Williams, Sister Williams, Elder Rogers, me and Elder Presser

Nathan decided that he needed to go to the bank about 9:00 a.m. so I took him down there in his van.  We took about a half an hour to get that done and I came home and Larry said that he didn't want to come and get me but then his mission phone rang and I texted him what they wanted and the next thing I knew he was here to get me because he needed his phone.  I didn't really want to go because I could work better here but I went with him.  I was glad I did because we hadn't been to the office 5 minutes and Elder Landon Rogers the last Assistant that just went home came in to see me with his family.  If you remember I missed him last time there when he first came.  It was so good to see him.  He is such a fun person and so helpful and funny.  We talked for quite a while with his Mom and brother and him.  We took pictures of him with us and the Williams's.  I was glad I went back after that.

Larry continued to work on the internet and the Williams's did also.  They could not work without it, but I discovered that I could enter the Baptisms and Confirmations being offline so I worked on that and I opened an order that we received today and put that away.  It took them until almost 5:20 before the internet was fixed.  Elder Williams went and bought another router and Larry called AT&T again and they finally sent out someone to work on it.  At first they thought it was on their side that it was not working but then the old router did not work.  They put in the new router and it started working but most of them were so tired from trying to fix it and not getting their work done that we finally went home about 6:30 p.m.