Back Behind Bars !

On Tuesday, Ellen was taking her afternoon siesta on the couch in the living room. She was awakened by the "yap yap" of a small dog. Looking out the front window, she could see a larger dog run by, and then all was quiet. A little while later she again heard a little "yap" coming from the front entryway of the house. This time she decided to investigate. When she opened the door, nothing was there, but then she could see this tiny white fluff ball in the neighbor's driveway. Now, no one lives next door. The home is owned by a family from Mexico and it is used as a vacation home for their extended families when they come to El Paso to shop and visit. We had seen the little dog the day before with the family that is staying there this week. Poor little thing, she was outside in the 106 degree heat!! The little dog jumped up to Ellen and became her best friend for about the next hour!! We could not figure out how she had gotten out of the house. We tried putting her in the entryway and closing the gate.....but she could come right through the bars! Then Sharon noticed that the screen in the front window was torn and the window was open about 3 inches. She had chewed through the screen and squeezed through the window AND THE BARS!! After some manipulating, we were able to get her back in, but she immediately came out again!! John, the man who lives across the street came over to help. We got her back in and John was able to close the window a little more. The little cutie was back behind the bars -- this time for good!!

A Tribute To Our Older, Smarter Sisters!

You may be aware that this past week brought us the news that birth order affects intelligence favoring first-born children! According to the article, the younger sibling, being linguistically and cognitively less mature, degrades the firstborn's intellectual environment; therefore, the older sibling enriches the second-born's environment.

We thought it quite appropriate to honor our older sisters with our deep appreciation for enriching our environment. We thank you for all you did to help us grow up. We also wish to offer our apologies for "degrading your intellectual environment." (Hee, hee!) We both accept the fact that we were our own personalities. There was no way we could compete with our older, smarter sisters!

Here's to Carol, Ellen's sister, and here's to Janice, Sharon's sister. We are quite happy to have you as our older sisters at this stage in our lives.

Above is Carol on the left with Ellen on the right. Below is Sharon on the left with Janice on the right.

Thanks, big sisses! Thanks for putting up with us all these years!

A Little Bit of Heaven!

How would you like to wake up to this view each morning? It was stunning.


The sky was a little hazy in this picture, but the lake looked gorgeous.
Here is another view later in the day.
The view below was taken just before we left. The sky was beautifully clear. The golf course was getting a little manicure. Everything was so peaceful.

We really splurged and treated ourselves to room service for breakfast! When it arrived, we couldn't believe the amount that was served. We ordered a Denver omelet, and French Toast. Below is a picture of what we got! (Needless to say, we couldn't eat it all! We split the omelet and had a little of the French toast.)

So, you can tell that we were treated like queens. I am sorry that I didn't get pictures of the room, but we did manage to get pictures of gorgeous views. The balcony view from our room was just spectacular! We stayed at the Inn of the Mountain Gods. The picture below was taken in the lobby by some lady who just happened by and asked if she could take a picture of both of us. That was nice.

We had a wonderful time, shopping, and just relaxing. We didn't win any money, but we already felt like winners with Ellen's successful surgery and remarkable recovery.

Now we weren't prepared for what we found when we got back home. Below is the picture of a patio chair cover at Ellen's house. Can you believe that was done by HAIL? That is kind of scary. Remember the little tomato plant? We think that it won't recover, so we are saddened by that. At Sharon's house, the picture was just as bad. The moss rose was just beaten to a pulp. We were only gone for two and a half days.

Rest in peace, our poor baby tomato plant!
The best part about the whole trip for Sharon was to get to sleep in a REAL BED! Ellen tells me that I didn't move the whole night. It was the first night that I had slept in a bed since May 17th. ( I am NOT complaining. I would do it all over again in a minute. It is just that a bed is better than a couch.)

Last night, Sharon got to sleep in her own bed. I was looking forward to climbing into it. This morning, I rode my bicycle, (not my usual ten miles, but I did six)and my whirlpool tub welcomed me back. I can tell you that I was worried about Ellen the whole time. It felt funny putting her to bed and then driving to my house.

S O S For Sharon's Plants!!

Oh, no, will you just look at my poor plants? We had to do a major resusitation project at Sharon's house. Poor Paul, God Bless Him! He was put in charge of watering the plants in Sharon's absence. He tried, but he is of the school that they should be drowned daily. God love him! Below are the Citronella (Citros) plants along with a moss rose. We will now go up there daily to talk to them.

This next picture shows my Hibiscus plants. We re-potted them in the hopes that they will forgive us for leaving them on their own.

This last picture is of our tomato plant at Ellen's house. Isn't it cute? It appears to like its new surroundings. If you notice the grass at both our houses, you will notice that it is very green. Mine is real; Ellen's is artificial turf! I wish I had artificial turf for my yard.

On Father's Day, Ellen and I went down to Sharon's house for a cook-out for Paul.

We grilled tenderloin steaks for him, and chicken breasts for us. We also grilled veggies which were DELICIOUS! (Sorry, Nichole, we didn't take any pictures!)

The steaks turned out very good, too. At least that is according to Paul. I can't tell you the last time that I, personally, cooked a steak.

If things go as planned, we can be found in the mountains of Ruidoso in the middle of this week. We are both excited about getting out of the city. Sharon is more excited about getting to sleep in a real bed for the first time since May 17th. (I am not complaining, mind you, but the couch in the office is getting a little hard!) So, Inn of the Mountain Gods, here we come!

Have a great week! Until next time . . . . . . . .

A Tribute To Our Fathers!

Hello to everyone, and Happy Father's Day to all of the Fathers! We decided that since we wrote a tribute to our moms, we shouldn't neglect to do so for our dads. Both of them have gone to Glory. Sharon's dad has been gone since 2003. Ellen's dad has been gone since 1989. Ellen's dad had Parkinson's disease. He was only forty something years old when diagnosed. He lived to be about 68 years of age when he passed away. Sharon's dad had a stroke to which he succumbed after a struggle for two years. He was 85 years old when he passed away. We will each write a little something about our dads.


This first picture you see is Ellen's dad and mom, and of course, Nichole and Joey! This picture was taken on one of our visits to St. Louis. Dad was the person who taught me to be kind to everyone. He always told my sister and me that it didn't matter what a person did for a living or who they were; each person we encountered was to be treated with respect and kindness. He truly taught us this by example. Dad was also the person in the neighborhood who knew how to do almost anything. When someone was going to undertake a project, they came to dad for advice and guidance. Most of the time he would end up "getting in on the action"! He LOVED to make things and fix things -- and he was a perfectionist when it came to his carpentry. Charlie was known as the one with a kind heart!!



Below is a picture of Sharon and her daddy. When I was a little girl, I was the one who went to the farm with him, not my brother. He taught me how to fix things, and is responsible for my 'fixin' abilities to this day. I drive around with a tool kit in my car. If it can be fixed, I just might be able to do it. He taught me how to drive a tractor, a truck, and how to change a flat tire. He was a farmer most of his life. He was born on August 04, 1918. Times were tough and got even tougher as he grew up. His daddy was a farmer before him. He was a deacon in the Baptist Church for many years. He also drove a little church bus to pick up the little ones who would otherwise not attend Sunday School.

As with our moms, we wonder if our dads have met each other in Heaven yet. We would like to think so. We know that they would like each other. Both loved building things, fixing things, taking part in their children's lives, and seeing that they got the things they needed. They set an example of hard work and integrity. Both loved the Lord, and both men loved their families. They were always there, and could be counted on for support in many ways.

Happy Father's Day to not only

our dads, but to yours as well!

Rob's Last Therapy Session!

Good evening! Today was Rob the Terrific's last day! He has been the best therapist for Ellen. The first one just wasn't right for her. Rob has been exceedingly impressed with Ellen and her work ethic. She has done so very well with him. Next week Charles will return to check on her progress. Ellen wants to do everything, and I have to try to keep her in check! She only uses the walker when we go somewhere very unfamiliar. The rest of the time she uses her cane.

This last picture shows how he measured the angle for Ellen's knee. Today it was 105 degrees. He just kept saying, "WOW." I think Ellen has even amazed herself.

Today's outing took us to Macy's and Bath and Body Works again. We just couldn't pass up a sale. We also stopped at Home Depot. Would you believe that we actually bought a tomato plant??? We couldn't either!

Sharon's husband, Paul, brought us dinner again on this Friday night. Joe ran by to say hello for a few minutes before he caught a plane for Austin. Just now we found ourselves falling asleep watching the Daytime Emmy Awards. Aren't we just so much fun?

It's Almost The Weekend!

Hello! Happy Flag Day! It seems like the days are just flying by. Soon it will be time for Sharon to go back home because Ellen will be able to do it all by herself. This day began as a windy day here in El Paso. After we got ourselves ready for the day, we planned our outing. This morning, we went first to the Credit Union, and then to Home Depot. Ellen walked up and down several of the aisles. She is checking into getting a new grill for the outside. We just looked today, and bought a few things necessary for our plants. By the time we finished that, we were really tired, so we headed home to make lunch, and then...... (You guessed it!) We just had to have our nap before the weekly beauty shop appointments. (A girl just has to look nice, don't you think?)

Around three o'clock, the doorbell rang. I guess it woke both of us up, but it was time we got up anyway. On the other side of the door was a beautiful floral arrangement from Heaven Scent. Oh, my, it is lovely as you can see. They were from some friends in town, and were a delightful surprise!
Next came the beauty shop. At least I remembered to take my camera this time. Mary gave Her Royal Blonde Beauty a haircut. Mary is a long time friend who has been our hairdresser for many years. (I won't say how long, Mary!)

If Mary looks familiar to some of you, you may recognize her from Nichole's wedding. She and her husband, Ken, came to the wedding in Lubbock in 2003. Mary did all of our hair for the wedding.
Next, came the manicure from Kim. Getting a manicure is just a nice thing to do for yourself, don't you think?

Our day ended with a nice dinner of wonton soup, egg roll, and chicken fried rice. The best part came when we watched the Spurs beat the Cavaliers. We both thought they were not going to pull it off, but they did. San Antonio Spurs--NBA Champions!!! Good night until next time. . . . . . . ...

Whew! What a Busy Day!

Hello, everybody! I am beginning to think that I should be the patient, and Ellen should be the caregiver. Today, I just pooped out! It's not like I didn't have a nap. I did. I missed Rob the Terrific's entire session with Ellen. Then tonight, after dinner, we watched a movie that we had rented. Actually, she watched the movie. I watched the other side of my eyelids! Isn't that awful? I am bad--very, very bad. Shame on me. I was no fun at all. I will try to do better, I promise.

This morning, after we got all dolled up, we went back to Target. Ellen had seen in their ad that they had a wine refrigerator on sale. After we did our shopping, we found a nice young man who helped us get the 28 bottle wine refrigerator. It was a little difficult, but he and another young lady managed to get it into my car, and off we went. We had one more stop to make, and that was at Office Depot to get some copy paper. Then we went home. By then it was time to make lunch, and ponder just how we were going to get the wine cooler out of my car. Well, we made it as you can see.
Here it is all loaded up. We didn't put everything in there, but if it looked like a wine bottle, we put it in there.
It is a very nice one, and I am thinking about going back to get one for me. Right now, it is time for me to climb into my own little bed away from home, and sleep some more. Oh, joy! Maybe tomorrow will be a better day, and I will have more energy. Until next time. . . .. . .

All The Way Up And Down Again! Whew!

Will you just look at her? There she is all the way up the stairs. She got there all by herself, but Rob the Terrific helped get her back down again. This was the last exercise of today's therapy. When Ellen got all the way back down the stairs, I was ready with the ice. Oh, my! Just look at her go!
Even Ellen was amazed that she could do this one step at a time. (Hope Rob doesn't mind that all I got of him was his backside! Hee, hee!)

This last picture is to show you that on June 10th at 6:40 pm, the temperature outside was 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit! The temperature inside was 71.6 at the same time. Please keep in mind that this is supposed to be the beginning of summer in El Paso, TX. It was delightful outside, cool and rainy. REMARKABLE!
(By the way, it should read June 11th, but we haven't set it forward!)

We watched "Casino Royale" this afternoon. We both liked it very much, surprisingly! (At least it was a surprise to us!)

As I was previewing this post, I had a very interesting revelation. Look back at the second picture of Ellen coming down the stairs. I have always said that she was an angel on this Earth. That glow above her head proves me right! Do you see that HALO? ;=) Until next time . . . . . ..

A Little Catch-Up Column!

Happy Sunday to you, and we hope that wherever you are, it is where you want to be, and that you are doing whatever you want to be doing! I see that the last post was on Thursday, so I will see if I can catch you up with our comings and goings.

On Friday, Rob, the Terrific Therapist, came and worked with Ellen. He was scheduled to come just before noon, and I was put in charge of making a pizza. We make a wonderful Chicken Artichoke Pizza. This was the first time I had made it. Usually, it is a joint effort, so I wasn't too sure that I could do it just like Ellie. When Rob the Terrific, as he has become known, called to say that he would be running later than he anticipated, we decided to go ahead and have lunch.

Sure enough, he came around one o'clock. He had some new exercises for Ellen. He showed her how to get down her driveway to collect the mail or to get the paper. Off they went diagonally down the driveway. Diagonally--that is the key!
Also, on Friday, he took her up the stairs! I was watching with fear and trepidation in my heart, and he went right along with her one step at a time. When they got to the top, that dear sweet man told her that she had just done the easy part. The hard part was going to be coming back down. Sure enough, here they came. I was holding my breath until she got back all the way down. Whew!

After that, we were both exhausted, and took a little nap. Later in the afternoon, Sharon's husband, Paul, brought dinner from Johnny Carino's. We love to get their Chicken Marsala, and an order of the Spinach-stuffed Mushrooms. Yum, yum!

On Saturday, our little outing consisted of a trip to get blood work done for Sharon. Ellen went along and sat in the car. While she was waiting, an old friend happened by, and we all had a great time visiting with Priscilla Foster. We hadn't seen her a very long time. It was great to catch up with her and her family.

Today is Sunday, and so far we have done a little gardening. After that, we managed to get ourselves ready for the day, and now it is time for lunch! Before I forget, here is a picture of the celebrated knee. The incision continues to improve daily. We are putting Vitamin E on the site daily with the hope that the incision scarring will be lessened.
Oh, I almost forgot--we watched, "Because I Said So" yesterday. I know, it is a chick flick, but we loved it because it made us laugh. We have "Casino Royale" to watch today or tomorrow. Today is also Game 2 of the NBA finals. Until next time . . . . . . . .

Just Look At Her Now!

Good evening, everybody! Wow, what a day! It was a wonderful day for going to the beauty shop. We planned this day by taking early naps. At the appointed hour, I loaded Her Beautiful Blonde Majesty into the car, and off we went to the beauty shop to get beautified! We each had our hair and our nails done. Thank God for beauticians and manicurists! I had planned to take my camera and get a couple of candid shots. Could I remember to do that? NO!! Arggh. After we returned home, I at least got a shot of her new do.
Tonight, friends from school brought us our favorite dinner from Red Lobster, and a bottle of one of our favorite Chardonnays. Susan and Ada had told us to call in an order, and they would go pick it up. Isn't that sweet? It was a great way to end the day.

Actually, this really wonderful day ended when our San Antonio Spurs defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the NBA finals. Ahh--a perfect day! Go, Spurs!

Until next time . . . . . .....

Just A Little Note!

Today our little outing will be going to the beauty shop for the first time! Oh, boy, Oh, boy! Pictures to follow! (Hee, hee!)
Until next time. . . . . ...

You Won't Believe All Of The Things She Can Do Now!

Hi, Everybody! First things first---this morning, two of the steri-strips came off while Ellen was in the shower. You can tell just how well she is healing. Stunning!

Yesterday, a new therapist came. His name is Rob, and you can see right away how she likes the new guy! He is certainly a welcome change in this therapy program. (Hee, hee!) Not only is he cute, but as it turns out, he is the father of one of our little ones at Polk. He is such a nice man. He has a whole new approach to Ellen's therapy, and he, too, is amazed at her progress. This first picture shows the little exercycle that he brings with him.
After the cycle stuff, they worked on several different exercises on the stairs.

You can see how she is to stretch those muscles.
This last one shows how she steps up and then down trying to keep the feet as parallel as possible.

We were expecting Rob this morning at nine o'clock. (That is an early hour to get up, read the paper, eat breakfast, check on plants, read email, have Sharon get a bath, and then get Ellie in the shower.) We thought we had done such a good job doing all of that. At 8:40 this morning, the doorbell rang!!! You should have seen us scrambling! I was in the process of dressing, Ellen was trying to finish up, and neither of us were prepared for the DOORBELL to ring. I hollered through the door for him to wait just a minute. It turned out okay, BUT he certainly had two half-dressed little old ladies scrambling for a little bit. THEN, he tells us that he likes to be early! Thanks a lot, Rob!

Yesterday's little outing was to Target after we rented a couple of movies. Target was almost more than we could do. We both were exhausted after that little excursion. We had already decided not to go anywhere today. After that workout this morning, we were glad that we hadn't planned to do anything else today. She has only been home from the hospital for three weeks, now.

As it turned out, we ended up going to the Water House because one of the water bottles was leaking ---not nice. I went in , he gave us a new bottle, and guess what? It leaked, too. This time I went back by myself. He was nice enough about it, but it was a big pain, nonetheless!

Just thought I would check in with everybody. We hope you are having a good week. Until next time. . . . . . . . . .

Guess Where We Went This Morning????

Happy Monday to you all! Those of you who really know us, know the answer to the title question.(Hee, hee!) Of course, we went to the Mall! Just to prove it, I took my trusty Olympus Digital Camera to get a shot of her outside Macy's. They had a special at Lancome, and the semi-annual event at Bath and Body Works was going on. We got up early, did our usual thing, got ourselves ready, and it was only ten o'clock. (We are getting better, huh?) Off we went to the Mall.
We didn't stay long. We just took our time. I had already plotted the shortest distance we would have to go. I am sure that we were quite a sight--me running interference with my cane for a lady using a walker. (Even the little old guys from the Regency, a retirement home, were oogling us!) We just laughed and laughed.

This afternoon, a new therapist is supposed to show up. His name is Rob, and I shall be watching over his shoulder. We will let you know how that session goes. At this moment, she is in the passive motion machine at 92 degrees. That is great!

Until next time . . . . .

Naps Are Nice, Don't You Think?

Days seem to pass quickly. Lately, our morning routine after we have coffee, read the paper and eat breakfast, is to go to the backyard. The mornings have been glorious! Sharon waters all the plants while Ellen walks around the patio and exercises her knee a bit. Then we come in and go out the front door to check on all the plants in the entryway. If need be, each gets a little drink of water and we tell them how lovely they are looking!

Yesterday, Sharon got the "urge" to start cleaning my garage!! Well, one thing lead to another and then another. Before we knew it, the time was 10:30 and neither of us had a bath yet!! But the garage looks better!

After lunch we got in the car to go on a few errands. Ellen stayed in the car except when we went to Hollywood Video. With walker in hand we maneuvered the aisles and picked up a couple of movies to take home. It is amazing how just doing little things can use up all of one's energy! After getting home, it was TIME FOR A NAP!! These two hour naps can become addicting!!

Ellen is becoming more mobile every day and she has been practicing with her cane around the house. Sharon has been the BEST care giver ever! There are no words to express the gratitude for all she has done. Having someone to help at every turn during the day is a blessing. (That will be a blog entry in the future) For now, hope you all have a wonderful Sunday. Do something fun and make a memory!