White Sox (booo)

No, really I'm glad for those poor South-siders! It's good that they finally get some joy in their lives! I have to say, tho', that I'm really hopeful that the Cards will overcome their post-season slump and get into the Series. If they do get in, I'll definitely be rooting for the Cards to win. Despite having lived in the Chicago-area for so many years, I’ve always loved the Cards (mainly because the town I grew up in was made up of Card fans being so much closer to St. Louis than to Chicago). I’m currently an avid Cub’s fan and have been for a long time. There's just something about their being perennial losers which makes me long for them to win. I know some day the Cubbies will win it all, so until that day comes, I’ll keep on cheering them on. Never will I switch to the Sox!

Update on Linda

I few months ago I spoke of my sister-in-law, Linda, and how she’d fractured her elbow. I thought I’d write an update for anyone who’s been praying for her. The initial recommendation was that she’d need to have surgery to repair the radial head (the point where the forearm meets the elbow). However, when she was seen by the orthopod, he said they could try to just leave it to heal by itself since the bones were aligned relatively correctly. He said if it didn’t work, they could then do the surgery.

Well, it turns out that she’s done fairly well, at least so far. She’s an extremely courageous and tough person and has gone these few months without even a splint on her arm. She’s gained increasing movement and is almost back to normal now, praise God.

Mother

My Mother has gone through some recent tough times with severe arthritis in her right knee. The specialist initially thought it was just tendonitis (extremely painful but should heal by itself) but they did a CT scan and this showed she also had the arthritis. Turns out she’s somewhat bow-legged and this has caused the arthritis to be much more severe than usual. The orthopod said that she’d need to have knee replacements (probably in both knees) in a year or so, but that she should try and hold off as long as possible. She’s struggled with a great deal of pain in that knee, however, and recently asked her doctor why she had to wait so long for a replacement if they already know that it’ll have to be done. Her doctor explained that knee replacement joints usually only last ten years so they try to put off doing it for as long as possible to avoid having to do it more than once.

I think it’s harder for Mother to except this because she’s already had one joint replacement when she fractured her elbow more than fifteen years ago. She’s had almost no problems with that elbow since so it makes it harder to accept that she’d have problems with the knee. I think, in some ways, that it would be better for her to have the surgery now when she’s relatively healthy, but it’s not my choice to make, obviously. Please pray for her.

Elsie

My niece, Elsie, gets cuter everyday. She’s gotten used to the fact that I generally carry candy in my pockets, on the off chance that I’ll meet up with the kids. Today, when I stopped by the town library, I was on my way into work so didn’t have any candy in my pockets. Elsie & her mum were at the library and she was too polite to ask me if I had any candy on me. When the librarian asked her if she liked her “Auntie Debbie”, I jokingly said, “Well, she likes the fact that I usually have candy in my pockets!” Elsie decided she had to check this out for herself, and came to give me a hug. I burst out laughing when the hug actually turned out to be a pat down of my pockets! What a scalawag she is!

Old Friends

Came across a dear friend, from years ago, on the web today, someone who was really special to me when I was a young woman. Her name is Ruth Ann and I used to baby-sit her kids when they were small (they lived in the house directly behind ours, so I could just go through the back fence). Ruth Ann was special because she was always kind to me and was a safe shoulder to cry on when I was confused and upset (as most teenagers are). Ruth Ann was probably my closest friend at that time in my life. She had two lovely boys, as well, and I really enjoyed spending time with them.

I've not heard from Ruth Ann in years. I am and always have been a poor correspondence, so when she wrote to me several years ago, I never got back to her, to my shame. I heard from mutual friends that she'd been inquiring about me, but didn't really have any way of reaching her until now. I am really excited about the possibility of seeing her again, sometime soon. She has been in my thoughts and prayers for a long time... One of the great things about finding her photo on the web was seeing her wonderful smile again; the kind of smile which made you grin when you saw it. She has this gorgeous, infectious laugh, as well. Seeing the picture brought all of this back and made me realize how much I've missed her.