We are all familiar with the saying “There’s a first time for everything”. Many of those first’s are locked into our memories forever. First’s like: your first kiss, the first time you drove a stick shift, the birth of your first child, or the first child getting onto the bus for their first time. Yep, many of our firsts are first’s for the one we share it with as well. Doesn’t matter your age, first’s continue to be inevitable…
I was gently reminded by more than one person that it has been a while since I posted an update on Suzanne. Well, I could blame the weather; how about the time change; or maybe the full moon. Actually, it’s the fact that things are going pretty smoothly and our regular life has taken over. We operate on a three-week calendar now that the PATHway trial has started. On our last visit to Chicago, Suzanne had her ‘arch nemesis’ the…
The message at church this week was part two of a three-week series on “Dangerous Prayers”; The focus was, ‘Break Me’ – Praying to be broken. Knowing what it is to be broken, I found this discussion to be very interesting to see how others interpret it. The concept of asking that your spirit be broken enough to realize how much God is needed in your life was not new to me. After the service on our way to St…
If you’re old enough to remember The Jefferson’s on television, you probably know the main character was George Jefferson, a loud, wiry, funny guy who owned a successful dry cleaning business allowing him to “move on up, to the east side”. His wife’s name was Louise but he fondly called her Weezy. Well, since Wednesday, I’ve been fondly calling Suzanne, Weezy. As it turns out, after she had her Tracheostomy removed, air leaks out the trach hole as she breaths…
I heard that word today and have to admit it was a new one to me. In fact, there have been dozens of words in the past months that I never heard before; I didn’t have them in sixth-grade spelling; don’t remember them as part of my college education; have never seemed to have them come up in conversation in my 60+ years of life; yet, here we are. Our medical marathon started yesterday morning at 7 am when we…
There are many sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and sensations that bring JOY to our hearts. Hearing one of your children’s voices after an extended absence; the touch of a friend when you are going through troubling times; a light breeze on a warm evening; mom cooking in the kitchen. The list for each of us can go on for pages and pages and I would love to hear some of your JOY’s below. Like you, JOY for me comes in…
Our world is filled with acronyms, that list of long words that turn into what we know the item or company by. Organizations are also good at making their name based on the acronym. So let’s see how you do in the first-ever BAGS (Bruns Acronym Game Show) See if you can identify the following acronyms. Answers will be listed below AARP NPR BMW CVS ZIP Code TCBY GEICO PATHWay OK, the last one is a ringer. PATHWay is the…
You should have seen Suzanne today when Dr. A told her she was ahead of the curve; You should have seen her smile when he shared his excitement over the most recent CT Scans; You should have seen her eyes light up when he told her he was going to cap off her Trach and she could move on from just water. Remember that Dr. A is our ‘Douting Thomas’; our most conservative doctor; our ‘Eeyore’. So when Dr. A…
No, Suzanne isn’t scheduled for a tongue transplant, although that would be pretty cool. With a tongue transplant, she wouldn’t have to find me every time she needs an envelope sealed; I wouldn’t have to be around when she cooks dinner for her dad to see that it tastes right; and most important, She wouldn’t even be stuck on a liquid diet. Yea, I’m sure she would be in for that, but I digress. I don’t know about you, but…
I’ve always enjoyed history. As a young grade-schooler, the Civil War was my favorite. Our family would vacation in Kentucky and the tourist traps would be full of Civil War stuff just ripe for the pickings of a young one like me. In Middle School, I focused more on World War II. I remember playing army with my friends in the neighborhood and using my dad’s WWII artifacts as props; Flags of both sides flying from the porch, Wearing German…