Belated Happy Mother's Day

My most sincere heartfelt wishes to all the mothers in our family who have been a source of love, strength & inspiration to me. The Laffertys & Wideners must have the most awesome Moms anywhere!

I spent the week before at my folks. My mom had an echo cardiogram on the 7th as her doctor said she has mild congenital heart failure (along with a heart murmur) & he wanted to see to what extent. He also told her she has high blood sugar but fell short of calling it diabetes. This news had us all concerned & Julie asked if I could come. So off I went for a week of cleaning out cupboards (getting rid of all the high sodium & high sugar items), taking them to doctor's appts., shopping for healthy foods with the caregiver, etc. I've asked the caregiver to be there longer in order to cook their evening meal as it will now require more work. Mom got her lab results Sat. which showed her to be in the normal range so now we're wondering how careful she really needs to be. I guess only another visit to the doctor will tell.

The family all came up Sat. for a work day for Mom & Dad. The ladies weeded & planted a lot of flowers in their front & back yards. The guys installed a turbine in the garage to help keep it cooler in the summer (their washer/dryer are in there) and helped with some yard work. We also celebrated their 60th anniversary as most of us won't be here in Aug. to do so. It was a wonderful family weekend.

Richard ended up working many extra hours last week so it was a good week to be gone. He worked for one of the park aides who decided to clean the kiosk a couple of weeks ago and ended up in the hospital as a result. Mice had found a home in a back room & when the aide cleaned he stirred up the droppings giving him a very serious lung infection.  We're hoping they get professionals in to clean it soon.

Camping season starts today so our days will be busier than ever. Camp hosts don't normally work the kiosk & do camp checks but the person doing the schedule forgot so we're going to be working our fingers to the bone until we leave in a couple of weeks.

I broke a tooth over the weekend which will require a crown. This is not what we had planned on spending over $700 on just before our trip! It's going to be tight to get it done before we go. I would have thought our lives would be more relaxed now that we're retired but it seems like it's always something!

Chris finally found a job last week! He starts on the 21st at Raytheon. He is being hired at the highest salary for his position as all his experience is on equipment they use in the Raytheon plant. That's still $9/hr less than what he was making at Peterbilt but he will probably get a promotion and pay raise after his 60 day probation period.

Other than Katie being in a car accident with one of her grandmas in TN Sunday morning that's about all our news. She was the only one hurt as she wasn't wearing a seat belt. Fortunately it's just a minor sprain. Bet she wears one in the future!