Who's that handsome Fellow????

If you don't know who this is let me give you a guess. It is who this whole blog is about.
So here is the skinny on this new look. We recently got Dad to start using his electric razor by himself. Before Jeremiah kept teasing Dad that if he helped Dad out he would shave the whole thing off. Dad would usally respond with a look of 'yeah go right on ahead'. Well one evening Mom gave Dad his electic razor and left the bathroom to get some things done. Upon returning she found Dad with chunks missing from his mustache.
Mom responded with a "John what did you do" .
Dad responded with a "giggle giggle giggle".
Mom spent a good part of a half an hour shaving off the rest. When Jeremiah and I returned for running an errand, Dad was beaming with his new look. He had a good laugh as I, who don't remember ever seeing my father with out a mustache or a beard, couldn't stop staring at him. And all the kids responses. Michael has let Grandpa know that he does not like his new look. I think it is very becoming of him. And really shows off how much weight he has lost.

The Big 70

Yes that is right. Dad turn 70 today. The big event that happened today was my sister Carrie flew in from Philadelphia. We had a simple dinner of split pea soup and homemade rolls (Dad was very excited to get this meal). We are waiting to have the big party on Saturday, when more family will be here. I will post pictures of the big party.
People who where born the exact same day as Dad
Baseball player Billy Bryan (MLB)
American political figure, Andre Verne Marrou affiliated with the Libertarian Party.
2 day after Dad was born, Franco-German peace declaration signed.
I tried finding out more interesting things that happened the day Dad was born but this is all I could find. So I guess it is easliy declared that on December 4 1938 the most exciting thing that happened was my Dad was born. And on his 37 birthday he got the best gift he could ask for, a baby girl, my big sister Julia.
Happy Birthday to two very special people in my life.

More updates to come.

I am sorry for not posting much lately. I have a lot to put up but I just haven't found the time. I will as soon as things settle down a bit (if they ever settle down).

Cancel That

When I first started this blog Mom wanted me to make it private. But Mom has since decided to keep it open for all to view. So don't worry you will all be able to view this at anytime.
Thanks for all the input back. It was nice to hear so many people have look at this site.
Love ya all

Baking

For dinner I was making biscuits and gravy. Well I decided to have Dad help me make the biscuits. Once I had the dough made I helped Dad stand at the counter. Dad rolled out the dough and cut out all the biscuits. I thought he would want to stop once we finished the first cutting, but he helped me put all the biscuits on the pan and stayed at the counter until all the dough was used up. I actually did very little to help. Mom came home right before we finished. She was very excited to see Dad standing at the counter helping. She was very suprised to find out he had been there for about 10 min. As I helped Dad sit down he let out a sigh of exhaustion. I just kind of laughed and asked if he was tired. He was very proud of himself though. When Jeremiah got home he was happy to report of his hand in making dinner. I will have to find more things to have him help me make.
I am sorry I didn't get a picture. I was too nervous to leave him at the counter very long. Next time.

Talking or rather Singing

Please forgive the noise in the background. The speech therapist is using a technique that she found called MELODIC INTONATION THERAPY(MIT). She has never used it before but since Dad likes to sing so much she decided to try it. As you can see it takes Dad a lot of concentration to be able to do this. Dad is a lot better at saying 'Thank You' He has even got to the point where we just tell him to say Thank You and he does. Really big strides this week.

Going Private

Love Ones and Friends,
I will be making this blog private in the next week or so. If you are interested in being able to look at this blog still please make a comment and leave me your name and e-mail address so I can make sure I send you an invite to be able to still view the blog. If you don't want to leave your e-mail address just leave your name and I will either see if I have your e-mail address already or I will track you down and find it.
Thanks
Missy

Voting

Yesterday I took Dad to vote. I was really hoping to get a picture of him but I also had three of the kids with me and had my hands full. Dad was very excited to be able to do this. Since he can't read very well I was allowed to help him out. They had a little desk set up for those who couldn't stand at the voting boxes. So I read to him what he could vote for and who. He was very opinionated about some of the propositions and didn't care much about others (Like should so and so be kept as a judge). Those ones he had me skip over. After I finished voting myself, and we got load in the car, Dad let out a cheer. We both laughed and sang that we had finished voting and no longer had to worry about it. It was wonderful to see that Dad still has the ability to vote. I believe he was pretty happy about it too. We celebrated with a trip to McDonald's. But now Dad is grumbling about who won.

Projects.

We are still trying to get projects around the house done. Mom and Jeremiah spent Saturday working on Dad's bathroom. They got the second coat of paint on and started getting all the trim in place. Mom finally found the cover for the light fixture and got that put back up. Hopefully this project will be finished by next week. Dad enjoys watching all that is going on. He often wants us to roll him in to watch what Jeremiah is doing and to give his support and advise (even though we are not sure what he is saying).

Arm Splint

Dad has a arm splint he needs to wear through out the day. What it does is holds his fingers out and his wrist up so that his fist doesn't become clenched. The PT informed us if it ever becomes clenched, Dad, will never be able to straighten it out again. Before we were informed this little tid bit we were pretty laxed about having him wear it. We would try to get him to wear it for a half an hour at least 4 times a day. The PT said he had to start wearing it 1 hour on 1 hour off throught he entire day. Well this thing hurts. I have seen Dad cry about it a couple times because he was in so much pain. So Mom decided to work him up to it. Every couple days she would add about 5 min more. We are happy to say that yesterday we made it to an hour. So now he has it 1 hour on 1 hour off. He even leaves the parts that cover just his fingers on longer then the hour. We think it is more comfortable for him. We are just so happy to see this progress.

The Downs

This last week Dad seemed to be having an off week. He usually teases at meals, plays with Isabelle and is, for the most part, in a good mood. Well this last week I can't remember him teasing my once and he just seemed really down. We worried he was getting sick. I kept asking if he felt alright and he would always give me his "yeah yeah". On Sunday Mom realized that she forgot to put his anti-depression pill in his pill boxes for that last week. At dinner on Sunday he was very chipper, trying to get Jeremiah to eat the last of the food and giggling pretty hard at the stories I was telling about the kids. It was nice to have him back. It is just hard to realize how important those pills are for him right now. Hopefully in the future he will be able to get off the anti-depressant.

Grandpa's helper

Isabelle has become Grandpa's little helper. When I am moving him from room to room she is trailing right behind be to see what she can do. On most occasions she is the water girl. She carries Grandpa's water jug to wherever he needs it.
Isabelle also can do no wrong (most of the time) in Grandpa's eyes. He usally just chuckles at all the little things she does. As you see in the picture Grandpa loves to have her by him. It is nice that she is able to spend this time with him.

Simon

Today was a great day. My brother Paul called and talked to my Mom about Dad's speech. Since his stroke was on the right side it affected his speech greatly. But aparently music is on the left side of the brain. Paul had informed us that when he was younger my Dad and him were driving and the song You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon came on and my Dad informed Paul what a great song it was and that it was a good wholesome song. So in the past week Paul has heard this song twice, on the radio, and it got him thinking about this memory with my Dad. Paul asked us to see if we had it to play for him to see if it would help. Mom knew where the CD's were and we played it for Dad. You should have seen his face light up. He was lying in bed and he just laid his head back, with a sweet grin on his face, and started tapping his toes. He sang to the beat as well as he could. When the song finished he sighed with satisfaction. It was so great to see him feeling such joy. I plan on playing more CD's for him throughout the day. Thank you Paul so much for sharing your promptings with us.