Sleep Study . . . Are you supposed to sleep?

This is for all of those who have ever experienced what they call a "sleep study". What, you might ask, is a "sleep study". It is something you do to help the doctor determine if you have sleep apnea or narcilepsy or any other sleep disorder.

First you go away from home to a center where the rooms look like "hotel" rooms -- well maybe a bit but do hotels have hidden cameras, microphones, and speakers where someone in another room can talk to you -- I don't think so. Once "settled" in your room -- meaning you put your PJ's (or whatever you are going to wear while you sleep), they come in and spend about 30 minutes attaching wires to you -- I think I had a total of 8 wires connected to various spots on my head, 4 wires to my face, 1 wire to my throat, 4 wires to my legs, and 3 wires to my chest. The wires are to measure various things via a computer located in another room. Pretty cute, huh?

Once you are all "hooked" up, they give you the box they hook the wires up to on a fancy neck strap so you can move around the room until it is bedtime. At that time the box lays beside your pillow as you "sleep". Hooked to that many wires on your head, I can truthfully tell you it was no picnic to "sleep". I must have, however, because they woke me up in the middle of the night to put on a breathing machine to see if I slept better. Let me just say that it was an interesting experience that I'm hoping I won't have to repeat any time soon.

If . . . then reasoning

This past week, Margaret sent me this e-mail "In “if . . . then” reasoning, you say to yourself, “If A is true, then B must be true.” She went on to say: "If (a) Jenny is a daughter you did not endure labor to have. Then (b): You will have married off and/or helped in wedding plans for five girls in less than five years. ('04,'05,'06, early '08, later '08)" Pretty impressive reasoning skills, I would say.

This past weekend we traveled to Waupaca, Wisconsin to witness the marriage of Jenny (who I have called my fifth daughter) and Jarred. It was a beautiful wedding ceremony and an enjoyable time of gathering. From the time that Debbie (Jenny's mother) called to tell me about the upcoming wedding until Saturday, I have helped Debbie work through and plan some of the events. (Like her, I have planned and orchestrated wedding plans from afar and sometimes the task seems undaunting and overwhelming.) We had many conversations as I tried to encourage and help in whatever way I could. Saturday was all about the final result. So many people were involved to make it a happy time for the couple, family and friends.

Congratulations to Jenny and Jarred and may God bless you as you begin your married life together.


P.S. Debbie you made it!!

A Bloom . . .

On one of the trips Laura and I took to Hawaii before Laura got married, she bought a Plumeria stem to plant when she got back to Minnesota. Once planted, she faithfully watered it and watched as nothing but a stick seemed to grow in the pot. We waited and watched and nothing seemed to happen. THEN . . . the stick began to grow taller and taller with lovely green leaves. Laura got married and moved to Hawaii but left the plant for me (the one who kills plants) to tend and care for. I brought it in for the winter and watered it but alas last winter all of the leaves fell off. I panicked and watched as the plant again became a stick in a pot. (Little did I know that it was suppose to do that during the winter as I found out online later.)

Spring came and brought warmer weather and I decided I would put the lovely green stick out of doors and see what would happen. After all, if it remained a green stick I would lose nothing and when it rained I wouldn't have to worry about watering the stick. WELL, as temperatures began to warm up and the stick caught the sunlight, leaves again appeared and the stick again took on life. As the summer wore on, I began to notice a change -- there was something more than leaves growing on the plant. WOW, did that mean I would have plumeria blooms for the first time? I watched and watched and watched and watched and it seemed to change but nothing looked to me like a bloom. I began to loose heart and the weather began to cool. Again I was forced to bring the plant in doors to keep it out of the cold.


In late September, what should appear before my eyes but a plumeria bloom. YEAH!! It lives!!! The picture isn't very good but you can see the pretty yellow bloom (and it smells good, too). Now my goal is to keep the stick alive until next spring to see if by chance we can get two blooms from the plant. Maybe even split the plant and make two plants as it suggests on the information that I got from the internet.

Instead of a Chicago trip with Junior Highers . . .

It was hang out with Oliver day!! Yeah!! What fun to have a special day with Oliver. I picked Oliver up at 7:45 in the morning to head over to Bonnie's Cafe for breakfast with Morfar and Pastor Saari and his wife, Priscilla. Bonnie came over and doted on Oliver as he ate a piece of toast and cheerios.

Then it was off to Mormor's house to play.
Kleo went outside and Oliver went to the door to find her. They played a rather cute game of peek-a-boo. Kleo watched Oliver and Oliver tried to figure out how to get Kleo back inside laughing the whole time.




Oliver had applesauce and more Cheerios, sneaking a few to Kleo on the side. He loves to make faces at Mormor as he sits in the highchair.





Then we decided to read a little. We found a book on synonyms (words that have similar meanings). First I read it to him and then he decided he was a big boy and could look at the pictures himself.




He also discovered the fun of having Mormor pick up 20 wiffle golf balls and put them in a bucket so that Oliver could dump them out and watch them roll all over the living room, down the hallway, out to the kitchen, and even some under the couch.

Thanks Oliver for a fun day at Mormors.

Time is ticking away . . . .

Oh boy, does that ever describe how it is with me. Last weekend we closed up the trailer for the season, not to return until April 15 (and that can't come soon enough). It was beautiful weekend to spend out of doors, raking the leaves, at least what was currently on the ground. Let me tell you, we will have a bunch more in the spring. As we set around the fire and looked up to see the stars, I realized that there were still quite a few leaves on the trees yet, thus you could see no stars.

We welcomed J and Mick back to our house while their newly refinished hardwood floors dried. It is exciting to see the progress and participate in helping them to make their home reflect them in colors and arrangement. Soon we will be celebrating with them the finished home.

This week was to be when I made my annual trek to Chicago with the junior high from Central Baptist Church. Having not been there with them for a year, I was looking forward to another great time of sight-seeing and visiting a ministry. Alas, at this time our junior high is very small and not enough signed up to go. Instead this will be the first MEA weekend that I have been home for many years. We will be taking the junior high to a movie on Friday night instead of Chicago.