All Good

Its been a while, but I had a few people tell me they want updates on our lives. You know I went back to work. It has been fun and challenging. I work with diabetics, giving them a pair of shoes and a medical foot inspection each year covered under their insurance. I have been doing a lot of driving and growing a new patient book. My job is to find every diabetic in a 40 mile radius and let them know we make house calls and can get them shoes to help them stay stable and as mobile as they can be.

I can't talk about my work more than that because it is medical and I would get in big trouble. Kind of like when I pick up my husband's meds, for what ever, at the pharmacy, but I can't get a year end summary for our taxes because that would be too much information.

Our premiums went up again this year. Every year the premium goes up 8%. Nothing changes on the the deductible. The first $5000 per person is still on us, and that is no typo. We are still paying for the rest of the uninsured as far as I can tell. $1200 a month and we pay all our medical bills. Old subject.

Riley had his one year check up at the end of June at OHSU. Still doing well with all his blood numbers. Slowly every thing seems to be climbing. Red cells, white cells, platelets were all good. His platelets were at 168,000. Red cells were 15.4. Strong Red cell numbers. White cells were at 5 or 6 which is where they should be for a healthy boy.

Riley giggled when the Doctor checked his kidneys and liver. Riley has always been tickilish when the doctor prods his stomach. the doctor ask how we all were and we asked how he was. Riley will be turning 18 in November. He will be getting too old for the children's hospital. the doctor said one more check up next summer about this time and then we get booted on with life. I don't know if I wont always be looking over my shoulder for that shadow though. I am always surupticiously viewing Riley's legs for strange spots or bruises.

Riley gave us a very decent report card at the end of his Junior year. As a result he will be taking classes at the local community college next year, as a Senior in high school. A nice test run for after graduating high school. We had to  renew Riley's driving permit as it expired before he wanted to take the driving  test. I hadn't been in any hurry to do the test as our car insurance would go up. He was quite content with just renewing the permit. As a matter of fact it was three months past expiration. We had both assumed it was a two year permit until a friend said no, it was one year. Riley pulled his permit out of his wallet and we laughed, he had been driving illegally for months. The next week we were at the DMV getting a renewal. We would have had to get one anyway as you can't take the test to drive without a permit.  

I will probably push him when he turns 18 in November, to get the drivers license.

Trevor did not give me a great report card. It is funny when all the teachers' comments were that they love having him in their class, but his homework was late or missing. I told Trevor without good grades there would be no drivers ed and no permit. Instead I bought him a new bike so he could get himself around as needed. he hates our hill, but he loves his new bike he picked out himself. I had promised him a bike last year but didn't get around to it, until now. I told him it was a early birthday present for this year. With Trevor he needed a bigger bike seat, one of those wide ones, and a heavier frame to take his weight.

Riley borrowed the bike the other day and said the seat was very uncomfortable the handle bars were too low, the gear box was backwards for him and the bike was too heavy. I told Trevor that was a good thing as Riley wouldn't be borrowing his brother's bike very often if he didn't like it that much.

Tom is still away on business. He was home for the 4th of July. Thank goodness for a metal roofed home. He tested many fireworks to find the perfect launch location. He went up to the reservation because they have the best deals. Bought a litteral pallet of fireworks. the pallet came with its own dolly. didn't need another dolly as we have one already, but the five foot stack was impressive.

Tom plans to be home again labor day weekend. I am hoping to have some of our projects done. it is getting quite exciting and nerve racking around here. he hired a friend who comes tomorrow with a crew to rip off the leaking siding and replace all the windows  and siding on the south side of the house. Our first big investment since the man cave.

Between the last two visits home. I stripped the finish and stained all the cabinets in his man cave. He picked a wall color he liked by long distance with photos and several false starts. The room was finished by the time he came home on the fourth of July. He wanted dark cabinets and had been threatening just to rip out the light colored ones we had as he really didn't like them. I wanted to give them a shot because we needed the storage. I also put more shelves in the cabinets to make them function better. He wanted an old tavern feel. I think the cabinets came out well. He liked the look and was very happy.

  

    This interlude, we have hired experienced contractors to make the repairs needed. it is really bad when it rains and the wind blows the water into your living room. Nothing like buying a neglected home for good projects.

We did try sealing the wall by painting it but the warped boards were beyond salvaging. When our friend came to get a sample piece to match the rest of the house, the board came off easily and below the window was dry rot. I am thrilled to know all that will be fixed. Once the wall is done we will be staining the back of the house to match the rest of the house. And all the windows will match and not leak.

We still have not decided about the back yard. Tom wants to put in a $15,000 retaining wall and build out the lawn. I don't really see the point as neither of us want to care for a yard. The blackberries poke up their heads and I spray them down as needed. I threw out some grass seed and the beautiful grasses billow in the wind. I am thinking if we are considering back yard expenses at that level we should run paths with a mini tractor and hill sculpture or do a deck. The cost would be similar. I would love a patio below, off the basement.

I am very excited to be getting this very important maintenance taken care of. Tom wants the laundry and kitchen tackled next, after the windows and siding and staining. We have come to a great way of communicating long distance. It is too hard to argue over the phone, so we throw our ideas to each other to consider over the phone. We dwell on each other's thoughts and come back agreeing.

Tom wants the gas brought in this fall. I am not as enamored by the idea as he is. We have a perfectly good furnace and water heater. This house, by the time we are done will be back in good health and harmony and pretty glamorous.

I need to shop range hoods if we are bringing in gas. We have a glass top with a down draft now, which wont work with the gas cook top we also have to install.

Trev worked at scout day camp as a staffer last week. He taught little cub scouts how to cast and fish. he said only a few boys each day got stuck. He also was on one end of the tug of war, at the end of the week , against packs of little boys. I can visualize it. I came to pick him up and help with take down. I timed it well as most of the work was done by the time I got there. Trevor was exhausted from the week and turned down a camping trip to sleep and recover all weekend.

I had Riley doing chores all week. I told him as long as he doesn't have a job or doing regular volunteer work he would be picking up the slack for Trevor and me as we worked. Riley was not happy but he saw my logic. mostly he didn't want to make me cranky.

We have been working hard at keeping up appearances. We have had visitors coming and going with the contractors checking on the bids. We have been staying on top of the every day messes of kitchen and laundry. I hired a friend's daughter to come right before Tom got home to give the house a deep scrub and vacuum so the place sparkled. My boys can't seem to get that thorough finished look I desire without my screaming and pulling out my hair. They just don't make the effort.  They can do the heavy labor and and the flipping of laundry and loading and unloading of dishes, but they can still drive me crazy with the jam on the counters or the dried pancake batter.

The clothes Washer has been leaking into its water drip tray, Not a good thing when we are going to be moving it upstairs, so today the Sears man came out to fix it. He had been on vacation so I did have to wait for two weeks for an appointment. It was a simple repair of a torn gasket. Luckily we have a warranty good until 2015. I bought the max warranty after our last repair cost me $350 .I was interested to hear that even though our local Sears closed, the repair service was in a different location and will still be local. I had been doing my laundry regardless of the pool of water in the tray below. I didn't want to drag my laundry to the laundry mat, which poor tom has to do every week. His apartment  building has no laundry facility.

I golfed last weekend in a very fun two day tournament. Exhausting playing that much golf. I bought a new golf outfit so at least I would look like a golfer, even if I didn't play like one. In honor of Tom I dressed all in Orange on the second day.

Well, it is getting late and the contractors come tomorrow for the first day of demolition. I am supposed to golf in the morning. I am tempted. Tom said to stay out of the way and just let his friends do the work. They know what they are doing. It is just so hard to stay hands off on such a fun project.