Jack, Orange Season, and Typical Great-Grand Kids Update

I cut work short last week Monday around 10am hoping I could get Jack talked into going to the med center for an anti-biotic.  They will not give out a prescription without an office visit; totally understandable in my opinion.  No luck.  However, I did get him out of the house for a nice long drive.

Today being one week later he is back to eating just about everything he has been (sans nuts, seeds, etc.).  Tomorrow we start getting him way from the canned fruits and back to the raw veggies.  He still gets tired easily.  Wednesday he goes for his B12 shot.  Tuesday is date night and he suggested Outback as he’s in the mood for a steak.

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Certainly is Orange Season.  My main north-south route to work will have the south bound side shut down starting today, April 16^th, until July 24^th.  Not sure what they are going to be doing. 

We went to Grand Rapids, specifically to Yonkers at the newest mall there to look for something for the May wedding of my oldest niece.  Found that and more.  Hit Yonkers huge annual sale.  However, on the way up to Gr Rpds we hit two up-coming orange barrel construction sites - and they too start on April 16^th!  Obviously, the 16^th is the official Dept of Transportation start day.

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I had to share this email from Jack’s daughter in Troy, MI with my side of the family.  This is a typical update on Jack’s great-grandkids.  He has a total of eight, 3 and 5 from granddaughter and grandson respectively.

“We are getting ready to go over to Troy High to watch Nicholas play baseball and Brittany play soccer.  Last night we went to Nicholas' game and they won 4-2.  Nicholas hit a grandslam homerun which was amazing.  In the doubleheader today he went 3-4 and they beat Rochester 7-4.  We are going for the second game.  Lots of fun to watch them in High School.  I imagine Nicholas' college coach is encouraged by the great start that he is having this year.  Can you believe we will have another grandchild in college!! 

 Christina graduates on May 6, hopefully with a 4.0.  She is a board member of the SE Michigan Education chapter at MSU and project lead to re-do the classrooms, library, teacher's lounge and outside at an elementary school in Lansing.  She has written grants and gone to lots of business' to get donations for the school.  She has also lined up 180 volunteers for next week-end to complete the project.  Once we have before and after pictures I will send the link so you can see her work.

Jeffrey is going to go one more year to MSU and then will have to transfer as he needs to get a doctorate in his field and they don't have that program there. 

Next year Brittany and Tommy will be seniors.  Tommy was invited to WMU for a visit with football coaches and he liked it there.  He has also gone to U. of Toledo, Wayne State, Hillsdale and Grand Valley.  I think he has a visit with Central and a few other schools in the next couple weeks.  He is going to lots of camps this summer and is hopeful that he will get a scholarship. 

Brittany keeps saying that she doesn't want to play soccer in college but Troy is ranked third in the country behind a team from North Carolina and one from Illinois, so the girls are getting heavily recruited.  We'll see. 

Mitchell is still crazy busy with soccer and in May is going to play in Portland, Oregon for a National team. 

Max is on a travel baseball team and really excited.  He has not really been participating in anything so spends time picking on his little sister - he needs to get rid of some of his energy. 

Katie just turned 10 and busy with dreams of being an actress and singer!”

Jack Under the Weather

Wednesday night Jack moaned and groaned most of the night away talking in his sleep that his tummy hurt.

Before I left for work, he said that he was feeling better.  We weren’t sure if it was something he ate or a diverticulitis flare up.  To play it safe we switched to the low fiber/low residue diet.

By Saturday he said he was feeling a lot better.  We did the normal going out for breakfast after which he had a nap and then out for lunch and wander around Bed, Bath, and Beyond for a gift.  By 2pm he said he was ready for a nap.  I went out to saw the dead Crabapple apart and do some weeding.  When I came in at 4pm, he was still sound asleep. 

Today about 10 am, out of the blue, he got the chills.  He didn’t have a temperature, so that kinda means either slight infection or anemia has gotten worse since he is late on this monthly B12 shot.  Probably combinations of both as he said he has a very slight tummy ache. 

He has slept the better part of today.  In between he has had part of a lean beef sandwich with tea about noon, a bottle of Ensure around 3pm, yogurt at 4, and some canned pears at 5:30.  I’ve found if I get him to do sort of grazing during the day he eats better than sitting down to a normal lunch and dinner. 

Tomorrow we will try to get him into the doctor.  This could be somewhat of a challenge since he thinks I can call the doctor to get an antibiotic prescription.  I’ve tried to instill that they won’t give out an antibiotic without an office visit. 

We (mainly me) have been watching the Masters.  They too have had an early spring.  All of the Azaleas are past their blooming period.  It is so odd to see nothing but shades of green instead of a plethora of whites, pinks, and red with a backdrop of shades of green.