"123, 123 that's how elementary it's gonna be, it's so easy, like taking candy from a baby" June 5-8 we were in Valpo for the boys VBS show and time with Silas and Paul. On the 21st Luke got his Trailblazer from Feldmans and the end of June we had hazy days of 200+ air quality due to the wild fires in Canada. July 4th we watched the fireworks from AF's riverfront patio with Luke. On the 9th I went to the viewing of I-496 movie at the Armory on South Washington. It was about the neighborhoods between St. Joseph and Main where I spent my early 12 years that were torn down for the highway. The Alvarado reunion was Saturday the 15th and the following Saturday Luke ran the Ele's Place Race at Jackson National Life and finished 41st. I went to 2 concerts at Sharp Park in July the only ones this summer. August began with Jane going to Dr. Mesko about her arthritic hip and he decided not to do surgery yet and gave her pills for inflammation. Late Friday night Jane started throwing up so we thought she had the flu but it continued until we took her to the doctor Tuesday and she told us to take her to emergency. So we went to Sparrow Okemos ER which was closest to their office and only had to wait 15 minutes and an hour later they did a cat scan. No flu but a gallstone the size of an ess blocking her intestine. They nasogastric intubated her to get the fluids from her stomach and got her a room at Sparrow Hospital. She had to go by ambulance and was in her room after 8 at night. I went to see her the next morning the 9th as they had to fit her in for emergency surgery and thought it would be in the early afternoon, at 12 they said they were ready to come get her and her surgery was from 1 to 3 with Dr. Hagen. On Friday Phil was coming to town as our vacation at Grand Haven began Saturday at 3 and we told the boys to go and we would join them when the doctor released mom from the hospital. Jane was in for 7 days so on Wednesday morning we headed to The Blue Yonder and stayed until Saturday morning with Phil doing the cooking and mom taking it easy. On Thursday night the 24th strong winds from a storm front split the electric pole by the church and we ended up losing power from 8:30 pm until Sunday the 27th at 7:30 pm. So we had a lot of Culver's, Eastside Fish Fry, and Acapulco for food. September didn't get any better as on Saturday the 9th Addie's called to inform Jane her mother had passed. We had been with her on Friday with Andersen and I knew she was closer to her time but we had a very good visit and she was more aware than she'd been the last month. The music lady from Sparrow Hospice was there and played her harp and we sang with her some special songs. On Monday to Petra's surprise we were at Tiffany's to plan Herminia's funeral at 9:15 as she set it up without telling us. Unfortunately Andrew and her acted very disrespectfully to the reason we were there and embarrassed the family. There was no showing at Petra's desire to make it quick and simple and Jane had to make her change her plans to not have Simon and Luke as pallbearers and we added Anthony to replace 3 cousins Petra had contacted but who hadn't replied. Thursday the 14th was the service at Cristo Rey and we by Petra's planning sat on opposite sides of the aisle and she would not be using the limousine provided. We found out she had also asked for no eulogies as she knew Andersen and Andrew would want to at the end of the mass. We went to St. Joseph Cemetary for the burial and I asked Fr. Vincent after the internment why and if those who had prepared eulogies could have an opportunity to do theirs and he said yes at the luncheon. With a smaller amount of people at he church basement Father announced those who had something to share about Herminia could but before he could finish Petra interrupted him and said the food was ready to serve. Finally after dinner Andrew got up and started sharing his off the top of his head words and then Andersen was next and all the time either of them were honoring Herminia, Petra was talking out loud to people and pretending to clean up the tables. On Friday we had dinner with our boys before they left to go back home. We had Crack Chicken and had Art's Pizza Thursday night. On the 25th I went to Regency West to visit Don Negus who had been there since January and sick since last December in hospitals and is still at Regency to this day but hopefully he will be out in January. October 1st new back porch by Tom Mullins of Clarity Home Solutions and on the 4th to 20th he replaced the stairs. We went to Valpo the 13 to15th and went to the Power Rangers movie with the boys. On the 22nd Jane had Sue over for her birthday dinner and also invited Andersen over as she has had her and her boys over 3 times during the summer. On the 30th we sold the 06 Malibu to Padnos for $380 for recycling. November 2 we went see Peg at Sparrow as they moved her surgery on her spine up because of her pain, we also saw her 3 more times. On the 18th Lukas ran in the Silver Bells 5K and I had more precancer on my face treatment from Dr. Messenger on the 20th. We left Thanksgiving morning for Phil's and got to Newark about noon and had turkey dinner and they are going to have a baby girl in June. On Friday we went downtown for the lighting of the courthouse and left Sunday morning. December 2nd we got our new 60" TV installed in the backroom. We ordered a fireplace insert from Lowes but twice they sent the wrong one so we finally bought a floor model that was a fireplace for the same price on the 15th. On the 6th Jane and I had Signify Health evaluation at home and got $75 Target gift cards. On the 11th Jane got her covid, flu and rsv shots and I got the covid only. We went to see Peg at Dobie Road rehab as she was transferred there and went again on the19th. She got out before Christmas and is staying with Lori but still is not able to walk or stand on her own. Christmas Eve we went to Valpo and stayed until Wednesday. Jane literally had bags of presents for the boys and we had a great time. Lukas went to Pete's wedding in Detroit today New Years Eve and will be staying the night there. I hope never to wait so long to do my blog as Trump is still the front runner for the Republican presidential race and Biden will be too old to do a good job. The Ukraine, Russia war is still going on and Israel and Hamas war is showing only signs of escalating into a global conflict. Looking to 2024 with optimism will be hard so I pray people will come to their senses and stop all this divisiveness and really try to unite for peace on Earth!
