Monday

Well, the toilet plugged downstairs. I couldn't get it unplugged. I plunged it and let it sit overnight and tried again. We put in Drano. Nothing worked. I found water under the kitchen sink, also. So I have hired a plumber to come in to fix it all. They will probably need to remove the toilet or snake the main line. Tom says these days that his time is more valuable than doing these repairs himself. So I have hired a plumber and I wait for him to arrive.

"Afternoon", any time from 12:00 pm to 5:30 pm. We wait for the plumber. I would have had to be here anyway since it is Monday and the Tutor is coming. My mother in law is staying the week with us. I wanted her to meet the tutor as she will back me up on Friday when I am going on a field trip with Trevor, as the designated adult that needs to be here during tutoring.

Mean while everyone has to go upstairs to use the toilet. My mother in law is getting some great exercise. she has bad knees. Today, her knees have begun to ache. Her doctor would be proud of her for doing the stairs. By the end of the week, she will be in great shape. I think we will all be happy to get the downstairs toilet repaired, though.

We stare at Riley intently, each day. Trying to guess his blood levels. Tom is planning to attend Thursday's meeting with the doctor. May is next week. If we are still getting transfusions, then we will have to address bone marrow shortly. I got my notice that the national bone marrow registry received my sample kit and are processing the results. It takes six weeks to be officially added. I have no idea why it takes that long. When they did Trevor in the hospital it took 6 days. I was told 10 days is standard. Well, its done and in the process.

Tuesday next week is the day of the blood drive 11:00-4:00. I am hopeful we have 44 people registered. Last time I heard we still needed 15 more. This is the last week to preregister.

I have been gardening in this lovely weather. Clean up Canby was last week, when you get to put all your bulk items out for pick up free of charge. One of my neighbors threw out pretreated lumber from her raised beds, she removed from her yard. It was in great condition, so I dragged the wood home to my house and have been installing these 2 x6 10 foot lengths on edge as barriers for my planting beds and grass. It will look lovely when it is all done. I will stop removing grass also. Tom was commenting on the shrinking grass lawn every time I edged the yard. Getting rid of the grass is my eventual plan, but I am doing it in stages and I have to come up with the structural replacements as I go along. I can't just rip out and leave it bare.

I received a couple azaleas as gifts recently. They were on my kitchen window cill. I put them in the ground in the front yard. Hopefully they will survive. It is almost time to turn on my sprinkler system. I went looking for tomatoes today. Those are the next things that need to go in to the garden. The planting beds are turned and ready.

So I try nurturing my garden to burn energy while we sit at home waiting for Thursday. It feels great to get physical with the yard. Free is good too.