Daughter Jill messaged me, inviting me to take a road trip with her and her sister, Bonnie. “And where might that be?” I inquired. “Missouri”, was her reply. Jill’s and Greg’s son Logan and his fiancé are living in Boonville, Missouri. Logan attends vet school in Columbia and his fiancé, Laney is a FFA teacher in a neighboring town. Meanwhile I am struggling in Wheaton as Kathie tries to accept the fact that the care center is her new home. …..
My wife Kathie has been in the nursing home now, beginning her fourth month. For me it has been a painful, excruciating experience. If Kathie read this she would snort and say, “How do you think I’m feeling buster?” And she would have a valid point. Her memory loss has touched my heart like no other experience in our marriage. When I visit her in the care center her first question is, “Can I come home with you tonight?” If…..
For the past thirty-seven years I have been living a dream. In sixth grade I remember classmates gathered around my writing assignment that my teacher had posted on the classroom’s bulletin board. It was a report about my favorite bird when one of my classmates said, “Mike, you are a good writer!” I’ve always enjoyed a little praise now and then. It’s good for the soul and good for one’s confidence. Thank you, classmate for making that comment as it…..
As you are probably already aware my wife Kathie is in the Wheaton Care Center. During my frequent visits to the Center, I have been introduced to the traveling nurses. Traveling nurses have no hospital or care center to call home. Instead, they sign on to various hospital or care centers to work a set number of days and then move on to a new work site. Over the past couple of weeks, I have copied their work style. No,…..
The “situation” began when my wife, Kathie, and I attended our granddaughter’s violin concert. Now I’m more of a guitar type enjoyer of music but thanks to our granddaughter her music won me over and now I consider the guitar and the violin equally enjoyable. We were early for the concert so there were many seats available. Finding comfortable seats, we settled in and waited for the concert to begin. We had twenty minutes to kill before the concert began…..
My wife Kathie has been in the nursing home for the past two months. She is struggling because she cannot understand why she can’t be home with me. This has led to bouts of anger which is painful for both of us. Then I got a brilliant idea! I wrote for the magazine Minnesota Out of Doors from 1985 to 1991. I wrote a children’s column where I featured our family. Our three children, Steve, Jill and Bonnie would go…..
With that blog title I’m thinking I know what you are thinking. You are getting ready to enjoy a wild west cattle drive.That would be wrong cowboy! 🙂If you are a television watcher, you probably have watched the commercial a thousand times. In fact, I can almost repeat it verbatim.Roundup is a nasty chemical used to kill all weeds as well as most farm crops. If the applier of the chemical is exposed to it without, rubber gloves, mask, rubber…..
When I was a student teacher back in l967 I was assigned to do my student teaching at the Wheaton High School in Wheaton, Minnesota. Little did I know at the time that Wheaton was going to become my life- long – home. The biggest shock would be that my future wife, Kathie, was in the building, finishing up her high school career! Okay, okay, none of this ‘robbing the cradle’ crap! I never even talked to her. I will…..
On my 75th birthday my daughter Jill gifted me with a home- made shirt with those words plastered on the front. Now four and a half years later my shirt is considered false advertising! 🙁 I had been bothered for the past ten years with a painful hip. Nobody could seem to diagnose the problem. I treated it as a sciatic nerve, after all that’s what Facebook said it was! Although nothing that I did to alleviate the nagging pain…..
I was looking through some files from my teaching years and stubbled across a couple yellowed sheets of paper. Looking more closely, I recognized it was part of our opening day of school at Wheaton High School many years ago. The faculty tried to make the first day of school fun, entertaining and educational all at the same time. We wanted to start the year out on a positive note for the students. That usually included a guest speaker, small…..