Quite a week

First of all, I am a little late, but technically I have 20 minutes left here in Texas, so Happy Valentines Day. I hope you all had a good day. Cheryl and I actually went out for dinner and it was her idea! Those of you who know us know how unusual that is. About the only time we go out to eat is on Sunday after church. Even many of our wedding anniversaries we have stayed home. So when she suggested it, of course we went. Over the years I have pretty much stopped asking because 99% of the time she would rather stay home. Here are a couple more pictures of our grandson, Gavin that have a Valentine theme.

This week was a huge milestone in my Mother's life. She entered a nursing home. She is 94 years old and although she is in overall general good health, she has been getting much weaker and has required more and more care. She reached the point where she couldn't get in the shower and had trouble dressing herself. She lived most of the year with my older brother in upstate NY and it became too much to try to properly meet all her needs. She used to come down here from January to about May and then she would go spend a couple of months with a younger brother in Ohio and then go back to NY which she always considered home. A few years ago we discussed having her move here, but she always wanted to get back "home." She was too weak to come down this year. She is in her wheel chair most of the time and walks very little with her walker. With my lack of strength now, if she had fallen I would have had to call for help to get her up. I think my brother found her a terrific place. She has her own room, and was able to bring all her own furniture. Before she went to look at the place, she told me it was important that she could bring her lift chair, her nightstand, her Bible and Jimmy's picture (our grandson who lives with us. They really bonded last year). Well, she got her wish. She said she really likes her room very much, the entire staff is very nice. The only thing she seemed to be having some trouble with is the food, but then she barely eats anyway and we have had trouble getting her to eat properly for a couple of years. She even attends physical therapy there, so that is good. I pray she continues to adjust well to her new surroundings. I know all the relatives up there will visit regularly and she won't be forgotten.

Sunday afternoon I went to Corpus Christi with Cindy so I could watch Gavin while she presented at a conference. I was able to take him to a beach for the first time and we also spent a lot of time walking around the waterfront sightseeing. I took TONS of pictures with my new camera. Here are just a couple:

When we got back home, I was wiped out, like Gavin was on the waterfront. The day after our return, I wasn't even dressed when Cheryl got home from work. But it really was worth it. Two places I have always loved are the mountains and waterfront - ocean, gulf, or lake.

Health wise I am hanging in there. The IVIg infusion seems to have pretty much cleared up the sinus infection. Last Saturday night/Sunday morning I woke up in the middle of the night with my chest really hurting. I even got up and took an aspirin, just in case it was my heart. Well, as I kind of thought, it was a chest cold starting as I could rapidly feel it getting congested. I started coughing some and coughed into the afternoon. I was afraid it was going to ruin, or cause me to cancel the trip to Corpus Christi. However, by Sunday afternoon it wasn't getting worse and by Monday morning the cough was gone! Every once in a while I can feel it trying to make a comeback as my chest will feel heavy and I feel stuff rattling around, and then it is gone again. Kind of a mystery. But then again, everything with this leukemia/lymphoma seems to be a mystery. My only concern is that twice now I have had lung infections with no real symptoms. Once pneumonia and once E. Coli. that only showed up on staging CT scans. I just don't want to get paranoid about it.

Finally, Cindy found out about a beautiful baby contest on "Live with Regis and Kelly." First prize is $125,000 college scholarship. The only problem was, she read about it late and the deadline was Friday at 5 p.m. eastern time. So she came over and I took over 100 pictures of Gavin. It was difficult trying to choose which one to send in. Some were funny, most were adorable. Here is one fun one, one of the many cute ones, and then the one she submitted.

After we submitted it, I heard that last year there were over 50,000 submissions. Oh well, we had fun. Besides, I already know he is the World's Cutest Baby. I don't need the judges to tell me that.....but, it would be nice if they did.