Paul's Update - 10/07/07

Dear Friends:

Thursday morning Dad took Paul to see the Therapy Specialist at Fair Oaks. Dr. Greysolvsky wanted to followup on Paul’s progress since he has been seeing the Occupational & Speech therapists and also check on the effectiveness of Paul’s new brace. Since we will not be getting speech therapy for now the doctor would like to have him start seeing a Physical Therapist. The Occupational therapist made this recommendation since she works on standing & balance a lot. Physical Therapy would be a nice compliment to occupational therapy. After Dad got home he got a call from my brother Keith who was coming into town to run in the Army Ten Mile Run in Washington DC. He was to spend some time in the District for the afternoon with his buddies that came with him and then wanted someone to pick him up at the Metro Train Station to come to our home. After work I headed to the Metro station and picked him up. Since Thursday night is Bible Study night he was able to share that time with our group. We enjoyed having him with us. Paul decided to spend the bible study time in our sitting room and watched TV back there. After everyone left we were able to spend some quality time with Keith but he had to head back into town to stay at his hotel since he had a big sight seeing day planned with his buddies on Friday. Dad took him to the hotel while Paul & I stayed home.

Friday morning Dad had some errands to run. My mother & sister arrived in the afternoon around 4pm. Paul was having a very good day. He has been very good lately with letting Dad know when he has to go to the bathroom. Usually it is a guessing game and you have to watch for his signals pretty close but he is getting better. After we visited with Mom & Ann for a bit we prepared to go out to dinner with Bill & Ronda. Carolyn, Chris & Alysa also came with us. Chris has become so much fun. He is smiling and paying attention to people. Paul ordered shredded pork with cabbage. I don’t think he liked it much ... he had a lot left over. Dad’s fortune cookie was humorous ... it said something like “your home will have no turmoil” ... hmmmm.

Saturday Gradis showed up at 7:30. Since we had people sleeping in all the rooms of our house she had to be quiet and she stayed in Paul’s room with him watching TV for a while. Once everyone was up she proceeded to clean as she usually does. Once everyone was dressed and had breakfast we headed out to Costco to get some groceries. We needed to prepare for Max to be baptized on Sunday. We spent a bunch of money ... you can’t go to Costco and get out of there cheaply!! Paul stayed home with Gradis & Dad. We decided to opt out of El Agave for lunch since Uncle Keith had to go back to his hotel by 6:30pm and he was going out to dinner with his running buddies. We spent the afternoon visiting with the family. Aunt Cathy, Carolyn, Alysa & Chris came and spent the afternoon with us. Carolyn, Ann & I took a trip to Walmart to get an outfit for Max to be baptized in. Tabby hadn’t had time to do that and Carolyn LOVES shopping anyway ... we got a very cute sweater vest and pants outfit. We spent the evening visiting with the family. Paul was up until 11:30pm.

Sunday morning was busy. Dad, Paul, Gradis, Ann & I headed out for breakfast at 8am. We met Bill & Ronda there with Lew & Serenity. Paul was HUNGRY ... he ate his eggs, homefries & toast in record time. Lately he has been eating slow and Dad has had to help him a lot but not this morning! After we got home from breakfast I went to get Joanne from the nursing home and Dad, Gradis & Paul headed to Sunday school at 9:30am. Carolyn waited at the house for Tabby & Max to come so they could dress Max and take him to church for the baptism. All of the family was there (except Uncle Keith & Aunt Cathy) for the baptism. Uncle Keith ran the 10 miler in an hour and a half. He said it was HOT and he didn’t push it for fear that he would get heat exhaustion. Paul was able to stand with the family during the baptism. It was nice to be able to celebrate a happy time for our family! After the baptism we had a reception at the church with cake and coffee. The family headed to our house afterward. The football game was on and Dad started the grill so we could have hamburgers & hot dogs. We were able to sit outside on the deck for a bit ... it was a beautiful day. Paul didn’t sit outside but he visited with folks in the living room and watched the Redskins win the football game!! We have several very busy days ... but we have been so blessed to spend so much time with our family. We certainly have been blessed with a loving family and great friends. Our God has been GOOD to us!

Have a great day, Lynne & Carl