Paul's Update - 05/11/07

Dear Friends:

Thursday Paul got up early as usual. After he was bathed and dressed he had his coffee in the living room. After breakfast it was time to go to Physical Therapy. Cathy had him work on stomach crunches while he had his legs propped on an exercise ball. Once he had done several she managed to get him up on his KNEES!! He usually fights Dad when we try to do that. She had him lay on his stomach over the exercise ball and worked on balancing himself there. She had a box full of rice that had sharks teeth hidden in it. He was suppose to fish through the rice and find all the sharks teeth. He seemed to really enjoy that. After they were done on the floor exercises she had him to the exercise stepper. He peddled 262 steps and at one point was peddling at 91 steps per minute. After physical therapy was over Dad went to get Max from the daycare so that they could take a trip to visit Grandma Johnson in Mineral Virginia. Carolyn went along too. Since Carolyn's baby is due in June this would be the last opportunity she would have for a long time to visit with her grandmother. They had a good time. Grandma was feeling pretty good. She really enjoyed seeing Max. He really is fun! The evening was filled with activity to get ready for our trip to South Carolina. My niece Sarah is graduating from the University of South Carolina!! We are so proud of her!! Dad spent the evening packing up Paul's clothes and gathering his medicines for the trip. He stayed up until around 10:30 and even though he was very tired, he WALKED to bed. It is getting so that we use the wheelchair in the house very little. Friday morning started earlier than I am use to but Dad & Paul were up and ready to go by 7am. Dad, Paul & I went to pick up my sister Cathy in Woodbridge and my niece Lizzie to go with us for the weekend. We actually left around 7:20 to head to Cathy's house. We had to stop for Starbucks for Lizzie (along with Dad, Paul & me). It took us almost 10 hours to get to Columbia but we made lots of stops including a breakfast stop at Aunt Sarah's Pancake House. We arrived in Columbia around 6pm and went to Steve & Carol's house. They are longtime friends of Ann's and they were gracious enough to give us dinner! We share some fellowship time with them before heading to our hotel which is actually near the college campus. Paul had a good trip. He didn't sleep in the van but a couple of others did! We got to the hotel around 10pm and Paul sat up watching TV until around 11pm.

Have a great weekend

Lynne & Carl