Random Ramblings Through the Years: January 2018

2018 started out so great! What better then to have a grandbaby join our lives???!!! And she's such a sweetie! The rest of the year didn't go as great as we'd hoped, but at least we all made it through another year.

1-6-18 LaBeaume/Hicks xmas celebration

1-7-18 Baptism day

1-8-18 icy COLD Ivy Creek Greenway

1-9-18 Amicolola Falls

1-17-18 our snowy back yard

2018-1-25 through 2-22 Maui trip:

4 weeks in Maui!!!! Longest we've ever vacationed in one spot.

One of the 2 pieces of art I ended up buying from a local artist in Lahaina.

West coast

After a week by ourselves, friends Don and Becky Fischer flew in to stay with us for a week. Big Disney fanatics, I was surprised they accepted the invitation to join us, but glad they did.

waiting to go on our whale watching tour


With all our luggage in the car (moving from Kahana Villas Resort on the West side to Worldmark Kihei on the South side) we headed up Haleakala. Heard several pops and stopped to see what it was. The tupperware containers and chip bags were popping from the change in pressure.

stopping for a picnic along the Road to Hana

Enjoying the South side

South side sunset

snorkeling Maui

the ocean

snorkeling MM14

more snorkeling

snorkeling

another Maui sunset

more snorkeling

another whale watching tour

Hawaii rainbow

Kula gardens

hookipa beach turtles

Kameole 1 sunset

water spout off Kam 1

pawn shop anniversary ring when I thought my wedding rings were stolen.

someones sandcastle

Highlights and lowlights of this trip: The biggest highlight was sharing vacation time with good friends for a week. Biggest lowlight is apparently having my wedding ring stolen! Another lowlight is my glasses disappearing in the ocean and having to get new ones made at LensCrafters. Speaking of things disappearing---so did my hat! Definitely too many lowlights! Our trip ended with another highlight!---finding my assumed "stolen" ring!

2-26 to Lake Lanier

2-26-18 lake Lanier

2-27-18 Ivy Creek greenway picnic deck

2-27-18 we took a picnic of Arby's to the greenway and Ken saw it for the first time!

When we got back from Hawaii, the kids informed us that Josh was interviewing for a promotion that would take them to middle Georgia. He did get it, so they asked me to go down there with them to watch layla while they look for a house.

2-28-18 me babysitting Layla in a Warner Robins Hotel while Angie and Josh went house hunting.

Today was Josh's official start date for his new territory---although he's been making the trip down here weekly for about a month now. So he came down by himself a couple days ago and Angie and I joined him yesterday. Today he had an 8:30am meeting, then we all headed out. They were going to just head back to Suwanee, but decided to check out 2 more houses.

3-1-18 Chinaberry house --- I was wowed by this house! 4500sq ft. and has a pool and guest house.

Loved the porch of this one and the pool area, but it was way out in the boonies.

After weighing their options, they decided to put in an offer on the chinaberry house. It was finally accepted and after a couple months of inspections and negotiations, they finally got it.

3-7-18 Gibbs

Time to head back up to Knoxville and watch the pup and kitty while Tim and Faith went to Asheville for the weekend.

3-8-18 driving up to Knoxville

3-8-18 mountains as seen from the kids' exit

3-9-18 Cades Cove

Time to head up to St. Louis for a few days. Didn't expect it to be during a snow storm

3-12-18 Knoxville - St. Louis

3-12-18

3-15-18 haircut--one I actually like

I was excited to sign up for Social Security benefits! That is until I did!!! I actually did it online back in Georgia, but they sent me a message saying I had to bring my proof of birth to the Florissant office before it could be completed. Thus another reason for going back to St. Louis now. Hadn't needed them in quite some time, so it took a while to find all our papers. Some were here, some were there ... . But eventually I had my SR-240 Certificate of Child Born Abroad of American Parents. Until I got a passport (which was left in Georgia), that was the one and only proof of US citizenship that I had. So imagine my shock and aggravation when the worker at the office said she couldn't use it. I'd have to continue the fight back in Georgia

another beautiful St. Louis sunset

3-17-18 STL-Knoxville

3-18-18 wandering around Faurogut park

3-19-18 time for the kids to go back to work and us to go back to Buford

3-23-18 gainesville atl garden

3-27-18 model Layla

3-28-18 gainesville garden with Angie and Layla

3-28-18 Ken's new 5x8' trailer

4-1-18 Easter walk in the ivy creek greenway

4-1-18 Easter

4-3-18 Ivy Creek and Mill creek greenway

4-8-18 some of our pets

4-9-18 loading day for the kids

4-10-18 moving day

4-11-18 unloading day

Now for the next big hurdle in this short amount of time----a trip back to St. Louis for Josh's parents 50th wedding anniversary party that Angie and Josh threw for them. We made the trip another little vacation. Starting with a trip Amicalola Falls and a night in Knoxville with Tim and Faith.

4-10-18 amicolola

4-18-17 to ST Louis

4-19-18 at Seamus McDanials

4-21-18 Hicks 50th anniversary party

4-22-18 labeaume get together

4-23-18 hanging out at Graybrooke

4-24-18 STL - atlanta

Time to go check out more places to move to when our apartment contract is up. We had been looking at houses to rent, but everything worth renting were gone before we could see them. So we decided to check on buying a house. Afterall, the kids said they would be there for at least 5 years! Anyway---we both really liked this one, so had a lawyer write up an offer and took it to the owner. A little negotiating and we all signed the contract. Now to wait until June to move in.

4-27-18 house hunting--107 New Hope Dr. Perry, ga.

4-30-18 grandpa snuggles

5-2-18 contract!

5-2-18 Perry - Buford

5-3-318 Ivy Creek Greenway---I'm sure going to miss this greenway!

5-6-18 gainesville atl botanical garden--gonna miss this place, too!

5-7-18 - Anna Ruby Falls, gonna miss the easy rides up into the N. Georgia mountains, too

5-7-18 - Anna Ruby Falls

5-8-18 one last walk in the greenway

5-9-18 loading day

5-9-18 heading to angie and Josh's until closing on our house in June

5-10-18 moving into the guest house

5-11-18 A-Day (back up to Lawrenceville)

5-12-18 ADay celebration weekend

5-12-18 ADay celebration weekend (pampering)

5-12-18 ADay celebration weekend

5-13-18 Mother's Day

5-16-18 my 62nd birthday---celebrating breakfast at Lane's Farm.

5-26-18 Layla at Lanes with us

5-29-18 Macon

We've been settled into Perry, Ga. for a good 2 or 3 weeks now---time to get to vacationing again! So when Angie asked if I wanted to go with her, Josh, and Layla to Savannah for a night, then up to Edisto Beach for the weekend, I excitedly said yes! Josh had a company meeting in Savannah Thursday night (tonight) and more meetings Friday, so Angie, Layla, and I were on our own to enjoy Savannah.

5-31-18 Savannah

6-1-18 Savannah

6-1-18 Savannah Wildlife Refuge

6-1-18 Edisto Wyndham

6-2-18 Edisto Beach

6-2-18 Edisto Beach--Layla's wasn't too sure

6-2-18 Edisto Beach

6-2-18 Edisto Beach-before a wicked storm hit

6-3-18 Botany Bay

6-3-18 Botany Bay---leggless lizard

6-3-18 Botany Bay

6-3-18 Wyndham Ocean vista Village

6-6-18 Massee Garden (another reciprocal garden)

6-6-18 Massee Garden

6-9-18 Josh's birthday dinner in Macon

6-9-18 Josh's birthday in their pool

I hate to say it, but Ken's ankle finally gave out. It had been popping terribly for a couple years now and causing him to not walk as much. While the kids and were gone to Edisto a few days ago, he was doing some yard work and it swelled up and curved under. So on Monday he made an appointment with an orthopedic Dr. and a week later he saw him. Not good news. The Dr. thinks it's charcot's foot caused by diabetes and said he needs to see a Dr. that specializes in the foot and ankle. So for now, he's in a boot and hobbling even more.

6-11-18 waiting now for an appointment with the specialist in Columbus, Ga.

We had planned to be in St. Louis right now. Time to hit the Dr.s again. But when Ken contacted the bank to see if they needed anything else before our closing on the 30th, they informed us that we were closing on the 14th! Wait. What???? Really!!!! So after some kibitzing back and forth with the bank, the lawyer, and the seller, we came to an agreement to close on the 21st and rent the house out to the seller until July 2nd. Turned out our loan rates were only good until the 21st. With rates now at 4.625 we didn't want to have to pay a higher rate just to move the closing date to the 30th. So, today was our closing day on our house in Perry.

6-21-18 closing day!

Now that the stress of buying the house was done, it was time to hit the road towards St. Louis. By way of Knoxville. We had Dr. appointments waiting for us in St. Louis---so we thought! About halfway to St. Louis, I got a call from my electro cardiologist's office telling me my appointment for Thurs. was cancelled since the Dr. was going to be gone all week. Really?!---Instead of confirming my reservation last week they couldn't have told me then??? At least Ken still had his appointment.

6-22-18 Lane's farm peaches

6-22-18 Lane's farm $2.49 senior breakfast

6-22-18 on to Knoxville

6-23-18 dinner out with the kids at Lakeshore marina

6-24-18 downtown Knoxville

6-24-18 ft. dickerson

6-24-17 quarry near Ft. dickerson

6-25-18 to St. Louis

6-26-18 st louis weather

6-26-18 Alton bridge sunset

6-27-18 cardinal game with Fischer tickets

6-28-18 Grants Farm to get my Senior National Parks pass

6-29-18 vines that are taking over the wires

6-30-18

7-1-18 shopping with Faith

7-1-18 knoxville - perry

7-1-18 knoxville - perry (going through Atlanta)

7-2-18 taking possession of the house

7-4-18 moving day---again

7-4-18 moving day, again

7-4-18 4th of july dinner

We kept waiting to hear from the orthopedic specialist in Columbus, Ga. Even tried to get ahold of them a couple times. And followed up with the orthopedist there in Perry. In the mean time, Ken was wearing the boot all the time for about 4 weeks now! And we had just moved into our new house in Perry a couple days ago.
I knew Ken had worn a sore on his ankle from the boot, but last time I had seen it (a couple days ago), it wasn't red and the wound was actually looking like it was either healing or had a little pus in it---couldn't tell which. When I saw it last night, I was shocked and horrified!!!! I knew it was badly infected now! Not a good thing, especially for someone with diabetes! So he promised me he'd have it looked at the next morning (today---Sunday). This started out as a little blister about 10 days ago.

7-8-18

7-9-18

7-11-18

7-12-18 to Macon hospital to get plaque cleaned out of his leg vessel

7-13-18 waiting to go home

But he still had to go back every day for 6 weeks to get an iv antibiotic. On good days, it only took about an hour. On bad days, over 3. The usual day was about 1 1/2 hours.

7-15-18 waiting at the Paulding hospital for his infusion

7-17-18 Dr.

7-17-17 Finally!!! When he was in the hospital, they must have contacted the Dr. and an appointment was set. A trip to Columbus, Ga., to meet with the specialist Ken was referred to back on June 11th! The Dr. looked at his wound and then said something that caught me off guard. He said there was a 75% chance of him loosing his foot and half his lower leg!!!! He did refer us to another Dr. (in Marietta some 2 1/2 hours away @ way). He said that guy was a wizard at fusing ankles and asked if Ken was interested in seeing him. I figured that was a no brainer! Who wouldn't want to try and save their leg?!


7-17-18 it's actually looking better here then a week ago!

Dr. assistant Derrick was very nice and talked with us for quite awhile. Then called Dr. Terrell. They said since his foot is warm and there's blood flow; they feel like he's a candidate for the rack. ----IF Ken gets his A1C down to 7. He seems committed. So we'll see.

7-19-18 waiting to see Dr. Terrell's PA

7-19-18 the first of over 30 visits to his office!

7-20-18 playing with our little buddy

7-21-18 our back yard

7-23-18 My introduction to tiny little black fire ants! Wicked critters and there are a ton of them here in Perry! Along with lots of gnats. Turns out theres a gnat line and we're on it.

7-24-18 Houston Lake sunset

7-24-18 new wheelchair

7-25-18 lake houston

7-25-18 starting a baby blanket for Layla. Becky crochetted the blanket, angie and I came up with a design.

7-30-18 Ken to the dentist. Dr. Terrell told him to get all his dental work done before he does surgery. So he had about 6 teeth pulled and a crown fixed (I think)

7-31-18 to Terrell. A cast with a window in it was put on his leg so I could redress it every 3 days.

7-31-18 Atl. botanical gardens -- at least I got to go to the gardens several times. Since we didn't know how long it would take us to go the 125 miles @ way, we'd leave really early and kill time at the gardens.

7-31-18 Atl. botanical gardens

8-4-18 the opening in the cast. We found out horse tape did a great job holding the window on. Found the farm store to be really interesting.

8-5-18 walking our neighborhood for sunset. Had great views overlooking a cotton field---until they started building more houses. The 5 by our house went up in 3 or 4 months, then the street down from us got filled in with 20 + houses before we moved.

8-5-18 progress on the needle point.

8-5-18 Ken's new ramp

8-14-18 Dr. Terrels again--every 10-14 days

8-14-18 Atl botanical gardens, again

8-15-18 fondly remembering my Prestige days as a candid photographer

8-18-18 finally in her crib

8-18-18 progress on the blanket

8-18-18 working on the blanket

8-21-18 lunch in Macon with the kids

8-21-18 recuring problem after hard rains. Angie finally fixed the flooding from the back yard when the house was on the market.

8-23-18 David and Jane down for a visit

8-23-18 looking for "yellow" objects for the photography club I found in Warner Robins to join.

8-24-18 mellow mushroom

8-24-18 getting the picc line removed---6 weeks of infusions over!

8-24-18 sunset

One of the reasons why David came out the last couple of days was to follow us back. I've never driven more then about 3 hours at a time, and that wasn't easy! I've tended to fall asleep at the wheel for as long as I've been driving! So I wasn't sure how this was going to go. But Ken was determined to go back to St. Louis and get his truck in the garage before the plates expired at the end of the month. Since he can't drive (or shouldn't---he keeps saying he can!) with the huge cast on, it was up to me. David offered to drive him back, but then he would be stranded in St. Louis.

8-25-18

8-25-18 so far so good

8-26-18 to the license bureau to renew car license. Sure is a hassle keeping Mo. as our main residence!

8-28-18 MOBOT

8-29-18 Cardinal Nation

8-29-18 Little Layla is 9 months old!

8-31-18 heading back to Knoxville, then Perry

9-5-18 off to Yellowstone---by way of Jackson Hole!

13 months of advance planning! Why so long? I booked a week at the Worldmark West Yellowstone. Like Kihei, you have to be online ready to book the resort right at 13 months out as soon as the reservation system comes on line. Thus, after trying a few days, I ended up with Thursday, Sept. 6th - Thursday, Sept. 13th, 2018.

As soon as I told Angie and Josh that I booked a 2 bedroom unit at the Worldmark in West Yellowstone, Josh said without hesitation that they were coming with us (which turned out to be "me"). Neither he, nor Angie had ever been there and Josh had always wanted to. So I was excited about another vacation with some of the kids. I had extended the invite to Tim and Faith, too, but they declined.

Ken ended up not wanting to make the trip, so we supplied him with a bunch of low carb stuff and left him at Angie and Josh's to tend to Micky.

9-5-18 on the way to the airport

9-6-18 from Jackson Hole - Yellowstone by way of the Grand Tetons and the only bear we saw

9-6-18 the Grand Tetons

9-6-18 from Jackson Hole - Yellowstone by way of the Grand Tetons

9-6-18 Worldmark West Yellowstone to our 2 bedroom condo

the WM pool---which I used most mornings while Layla napped before we headed into the park.

9-7-18 sunrise from our condo. I would get up with Layla, the kids would sleep in. When they got up, Layla would go down for a nap and I would go to the pool. Then we'd head into the park about 11.

9-7-18 near the west entrance

9-7-18 Mammoth basin

9-7-18 from Mammoth basin

9-7-18 lamar valley

9-8-18 heading north

9-8-18 Gibbon Falls

9-8-18 mud volcano

9-8-18 Hayden valley

9-8-18 canyon area

9-9-18 Norris Valley (where I fell down the steps and into the basin)

9-9-18 Norris Valley

9-9-18 dinner out that night

9-10-18 Midway Geyser basin

9-10-18 Old Faithful

9-11-18 some of my injuries from my fall in Norris basin

9-11-18 West Thumb

9-11-18 near West Thumb

9-11-18 Biscuit basin

9-10-18 Biscuit basin

9-12-18 through Idaho on our way back to Jackson Hole

9-13-18 Morman Row

9-13-182 pacifier day

9-13-18 Morman Row

9-13-18 flying back to Georgia

9-15-18 Finished!

9-17-18 to Dr. Terrell

9-17-18 to Dr. Terrell--showing ken the fixator

9-20-18 Molly dies

9-27-18 Art center in Perry

9-29-18 flowers at Lanes

5-3-18 cotton fields all over middle Georgia

Charcot's foot surgery day was finally upon us. Ken's adherence lunch meat, cheese, nuts and unsweet jello dropped his A1C from 10 - 5.8 in less then 5 months! The Dr. said he would probably be there over night and maybe another day. Ken was also suppose to be there by 5:30 am, so we booked a hotel room (Homewood suites--really nice suite and came with free evening "snack" which easily served as dinner). Homewood even offered a special price for hospital patient family members. Good thing, cause what we thought would be a 2 or 3 night stay ended up being 5 nights.

10-5-18 Ken's fixator surgery day

10-5-18 after surgery

5-6-18 day after surgery and gift from Angie

10-7-18 2nd day after surgery

10-8-18 getting his Groshung picc for another 6 weeks of antibiotic iv infusions

10-8-10 cleaning up his leg

10-8-18 doing better

10-9-18 finally getting released, but took all day to get things squared away with the Perry hospital for his iv infusions. Finally let us go about 10pm

10-11-18 got home in time to weather out Hurricane Michael

10-13-18 Georgia National Fair in Perry

10-14-18 grandpa and Layla

10-16-18 to Dr. Terrell for 1st follow up post surgery

10-16-18 to Dr. Terrell for 1st follow up post surgery--getting the forms with the turn schedule for the turn buckles to lengthen his leg and straighten his ankle

10-16-18 to Dr. Terrell and another trip to the Atl botanical gardens

10-19-18 our entertaining granddaughter

10-24-18 walk in our neighborhood

10-26-18 followup with Dr. Terrell

10-26-18 followup with Dr. Terrell--getting the pads replaced with clean ones.

10-28-18 Hay House in Macon

10-29-18 our little cutie

10-31-18 carol and Chester in town

10-31-18pumpkin display at Paulding hospital where Ken gets his infusions

10-31-18 Halloween

10-31-18 Halloween--layla trick or treating in downtown Perry

11-6-18 to Terrell

11-6-18 Dr Terrell

11-11-18 Sloten auction--I went up with Angie while she picked up something she won online

11-11-18 Sloten auction--I went up with Angie while she picked up something she won online---I love all the flowers planted in the mediums of the highways in Georgia

11-12-18 Veterans day at Golden Corral in Warner Robins. Loved going here---but just like Rusty's and Lane's, we managed to close these guys down for good, too!

11-12-18 my favorite veteran

11-20-18 another follow up with Terrell

11-20-18 and another trip to the ATL botanical gardens

11-22-18 Thanksgiving

11-24-18 restoration santa

11-25-18 professional family photos

11-26-18 duchesne violations

11-28 new haircut

11-29-18 look who's 1??!!!

11-29-18 look who's 1??!!! breakfast at Lane's

12-1-18 thanking everyone for her presents

12-1-18

12-2-18 brunch at the Pear restaurant in Perry

12-2-18 the kids being goofy

12-4-18 Terrell appointment then to lunch in Locust Grove

12-6-18 Groshung gone

12-6-18 Groshung gone---removed in a Macon hospital

12-16-19 carollers

12-18-18 Terrell appointment again

12-18-18 Terrell appointment again--chart for more turns

12-18-18 Terrell appointment again--Jeromy fixing the rack

12-18-18 Terrell appointmen - then on to Knoxville

12-19-18 Ken sleeping in the "basement"

Angie and Josh were heading to St. Louis today, so we continued on our way, too.

12-21-18 Laylas first doughnut bite

12-21-18 starting to clean out the house-- several loads to Goodwill

12-22-18 open house at Hicks

12-23-18 duchesne house fixing violations in the cold!

12-24-18 xmas eve LaBeaume party

12-25-18 xmas at Hicks

12-26-18 more stuff to Goodwill---Ken was nervous, but I hadn't even made a dent in the mess!

12-26-18 somewhat clean family room

12-26-18 cleaned kitchen

12-27-18 the basement mess!

12-28-18 dominoes with David and Jane

12-29-18 STL - Knoxville

12-30-18 Foothills parkway

12-30-18 auld lang syne by Tim

12-31-18 knoxville-dr. terrells office-perry (the shirt he got today from the Dr.)

12-31-18 continueing on our drive to Perry

It was definitely a different year. Lots of traveling, but mostly to Marietta for Ken's Orthopedic appointments. Plus we had a few trips to St.Louis---even started trying to clean it out a bit. We did get a trip into Maui before his ankle finally gave way (had been clicking terribly for a couple years) and had a great time. I also got to go to Yellowstone with Angie and family and had a great time. Ken was still getting around pretty good--even with the fixator on, but not wanting to really vacation. Now we wait to see how Ken's healing progresses

Random Ramblings Through the Years

Monday, January 8, 2018

2018 MOve to Perry and Ken's ankle gives out

2018-1-25 through 2-22 Maui trip:

Oregon----1980-1993

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