Post-Thanksgiving

For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, did you have a nice holiday? Ours was nice – pretty quiet. We had dinner at Amy and Rex’s house. It was very uncoordinated so we ate kind of late. But it was pretty good. I haven’t been feeling very good so I didn’t eat too much – nothing really tastes very good to me and the one thing that I was looking forward to (the gravy) didn’t turn out. I’ve never had problems making gravy from the turkey drippings before but it just didn’t turn out at all.  So, I ended up tossing it. We left all of the leftovers at Amy’s house and I kind of wish I’d brought home a little bit of turkey. We did bring home some lemon pie and a piece of apple and pumpkin pie for each of us.

Amy and I went shopping Thursday night. We opted to go to Hutchinson instead of Wichita or Salina thinking it would be less crowded. Not sure about that but Wal-mart was at least very organized. By the time we got parked (7:45) they were letting people in the door so we didn’t have to stand outside any. We went right to the places where we knew we wanted something (I was getting a Wii game for Isaiah) and stood in line. While I was in that line, Amy went to the toy section because she was there for something for Anna. Once I got the Wii, I went back to the pajamas and got each of them 2 pair and a rocking horse for Anna. We were literally back in the car by 8:35. People were generally (from where we were) pretty calm and not anything like what we saw on the news.

From there we went to Target and since they didn’t open the doors until 9:00, we had to wait outside for a while. The line to get in was pretty long and it was wicked chaos in there. They only had one line feeding the registers so it wound all the way through the store in and out of aisles so if you wanted something on one of those aisles, forget it. But, you could also shop the aisles as you passed down them. Hahaha! We ended up getting out of there around 10:30 and headed to Kohl’s.

Kohl’s didn’t open until midnight but we wanted to get in line because Amy was on a hunt for king-sized sheets and Kohl’s always has great sales – plus they had a set of pots/pans that she wanted and her SIL wanted as well (and her SIL doesn’t live anywhere close to a Kohl’s). We figured they probably wouldn’t have too many of them so we wanted to improve our chances (turns out they had 6 boxes – regular price $309, Kohl’s discount price $249 and Black Friday price $149).  I sat in the car for part of the wait as it was just too cold and uncomfortable for me. I went to Kwik Shop and got us a cup of coffee and they had little 50x60 throws for $5.99 so I bought one of those, which helped. I did stand in line the last 30 minutes so it didn’t look like I was line-jumping. We got the sheets, the pots/pans, and a few other things (I was only there for one particular toy for Anna, which I got) and we were out of the store by 12:40. Amy opened a credit card so she got to check out in the “express lane” (customer service) and got an additional 20% her purchase, so that amounted to a HUGE savings (over $750 off her ticket) so I let her pay for Anna’s toy (it was $39.99 on sale for $19.99 and then 20% off.

After that we went home and slept. I wanted to go to JCP for some shirts for Ron but I did that later in the morning. Their sale was on until 11:00 so we left the house about 9:30 just to make sure we had plenty of time. We ended up going back to Target because they sell the snack “Puffs” that Anna eats (they don’t have any wheat in them) and Amy can’t get them any place but Target or Toys R Us. While we were there, I bought a shower curtain, bath mat, and curtain liner. Because I spent more than $50 they gave me a $10 gift card for my next trip. I turned around and went back and bought Anna a Cabbage Patch Kid with it (which ended up costing only $11). Christmas for Anna and Isaiah is completely finished. I’m sending Jenny a check to go shopping for the other kids. Last year I spent almost $100 just on shipping so I told her I’d rather send her the money with a list of what I’d like to buy but she can use her judgment and get that or something else if they need it. Her parents will be there again this year so I imagine they’ll have plenty of toys. I know they all need clothes so she can take the money and buy them clothes with it.

Keith and Lindsay came up Friday and we had dinner again and watched some television. The rest of the weekend was just spent relaxing. We leave for Vegas on the 9^th. I’m looking forward to it. Even though the Parkinson’s is worse, Ron’s overall health seems to be better (kidney function is good, diabetes control is good, etc.) so I think he’ll actually be able to enjoy himself this trip. He doesn’t remember a lot from our last trip since he was in early kidney failure then. I wish we could stay longer (we’ll have 3 full days – flying out on the 9^th and then back the morning of the 13^th) but we’ll probably be ready to leave at that point. I’ve seen Hoover Dam so don’t need to see that again. It was a long bus ride out there so not interested. Not sure what else we’ll do. One of the people I’ve met through blogging lives near Vegas so she may come to our hotel for lunch one day to meet. That will be nice.

Other than that, I don't have too much to write about. My life has become pretty mundane - boring. Since I took over Ron's medicine again (after mistakenly trusting him) he is doing better. I've put away the things that he seems to forget he's already taken and takes again. Once that all got out of his system, he's much more alert and his balance is better. He is still far from stable but I don't worry so much during the day. I reiterate to him to not take shortcuts or chances and to make more than one trip if he needs to. The biggest worry on my mind right now is a cut on the bottom of his remaining foot. He stepped on glass on September 21 and when he walks, it still bleeds. I am afraid he has some glass in there that I didn't see when I was cleaning it up and I don't want him to lose that leg, too. But, if he goes to the doctor before we leave for Vegas, I'm afraid the doctor will cut it open and we'll be back in the cycle of events that ended up costing him the other leg to begin with. It's a never-ending battle.

Oh well - that's a whole new thing to just not think about for a while.