Monthly entry

There seems to be a (bad) pattern developing wherein I only seem to get this updated once a month.  Like most of us, I seem to let almost anything else become a priority, even sitting and playing "words with friends".  Sigh.  In any event, here's the update!

School ended for the girls in May.  Abby was out a full week before Memorial Day and spent the week before that holiday in Chicago with my mom and dad (they take the grandkids to a location of their choosing when they finish 6th grade).  The saw Blue Man Group and Jersey Boys, did Navy Pier, went to the museum and, of course, SHOPPED.  We had a couple quick visits with mom and dad before/after their trip -- due to the girls' finals' schedule, they came only a couple days before the departure and left for home the day after they got back to attend the wedding of friends.  Mom will be back for the performances of Aladdin that Abby will be in this summer.

Abby's also begun swim team.  The first meet is tomorrow.  She (like I think I would!) prefers the practicing to the competition.  Seems to be a family trait to prefer competition with one's own performance to that with others.  She also got her braces.  She'll only need to wear them for 12-15 months, but seems to be managing ok with them.  Definitely not her favorites, though I think she enjoys using them for an excuse to not eat much meat (not a favorite of hers!).  And, best news of all is that she managed to squeak by and gets promoted to 7th grade in the fall.

Maggie finished her freshman year of high school on the Tuesday before Memorial Day weekend.  Since Abby was out of town, we were able to do some fun things together -- out to lunch 2 days, massages and pedicures, and the annual doctor's visit (one of these things doesn't quite fit!).  She kept busy with friends Memorial Day week as she's started both summer running (6am) for cross country and work (counselor at the JCC summer camp) this week.  AND she's completed the driving portion of driver's ed so we need to go get her learner's permit.  Scary thought! (sorry about my thumb - I was trying to be surreptitious!).

Tom's been traveling with his new Shell role.  He spent most of last week in Boston at MIT and spent time previously in Washington DC.  Not quite as much travel (yet?) as when we were first married, but it's definitely a change.

As a family we hosted a garage sale this past weekend.  Although we still have quite a bit for the vets to pick up Friday, we managed to sell almost all the big items.  WHEW!!!!  Secret is to price to sell and make "deals".  Now we need to replace what we sold!  Maggie and Tom did the really heavy lifting of the furniture items (Tom keeps me somewhat on injured reserve due to the hip, though Maggie and I think I carried as much weight with all the other stuff I carried outside!).  Abby was in charge of putting the prices on items.  It was HOT but there was a nice breeze and, best for me and Abby was that we could leave at noon for violin rehearsal (recital coming up at the end of June).  Tom even provided delivery service for a couple people.  He was gone at one point when I was going to pick up the pizza, so the girls ended up bicycling over to pick it up.  Maggie rode my euro-bike with it's "tray" in the back so she could bungee cord the pizza to it.  Unfortunately, she took a bit of a spill on the way home (onto the grass) due to the fact that the bike is adjusted to my legs, not hers.  She wasn't hurt and laughed about it and the pizza came out fine.


As for me, I returned to the orthopedist Monday morning for the 6 week review of the synvisc injection.  I'm no longer in pain walking/standing, but don't have full range of motion.  Overall I'm pleased and ok with the current status.  If I can stay like this for 6 months, the doctor says it's worth doing another round of injection.  If not, he wants to try some arthroscopic clean up.  Ultimately the joint needs to be replaced.  In the meanwhile I'm keeping the muscles around it strong with the exercise I'm "allowed" to do -- yoga, swimming (not as pain-free as I'd anticipated, but I do a bit of it), elliptical, mat pilates, and now I'm "allowed" to add a bit of walking, perhaps once a week.  I go back in 3 months.  My other accomplishment is completing the year long commitment to reading the Bible chronologically that some members of my church undertook this year.  I was asked to create a blog for this journey and did that, almost as haphazardly as this one!  I've since purchased a new chronological study Bible and started reading it again from the beginning.  I think this will be my 5th time through the entire book, but am not sure about that!