Birthday Month

November is my Birthday Month and I have been plenty spoiled.   My husband has sent me fresh flowers every Friday.  The florist who delivers them laughs when she calls to ask whether I am home, and suggests we really should start meeting for coffee since we are getting to know each other so well.   Jack can't drive as a result of his stroke, and so it takes some effort for him to come up with ideas for me, especially since I want for nothing, so this has been an especially sweet gesture.  All of the flowers were beautiful, but the lilies lasted the longest and had a wonderful scent.

We are back from the family wedding at Walt Disney World, and what a wedding it was!  The young families loved it and visited all the parks.   Jack and I spent time with family, his siblings and nieces and grand nieces.  The weather was unseasonably cold, not much warmer than here in Michigan, although it returned to the 80's right after we flew home.

I saw my surgeon when we gt back.   He was duly impressed with my increased range of motion, but I still don't have much strength in my injured arm and he doesn't expect that I will unless we fix the torn muscle.  He recommended that I proceed with the surgery.   Oddly, I felt so good the day I saw him, that the news took me by surprise, although obviously it shouldn't have.  I told him I needed to think about it.    By the time I got home, I was in pain again and realized that I had been foolish, so I called his office.   I was told then that he won't be back in the office for a week and they will have to ask him then about scheduling it.  So the news is that it looks like I will have surgery -- he can't tell how much until he inserts a scope -- but the no-news is that I still don't know when.  I expect a call today or tomorrow to set that up.   My arm doesn't work like it should and my activity is definitely limited, but I don't feel bad enough to want the pain and 6 month recovery that the surgery will entail.   So this is not the result I hoped for, and I'll need to work on keeping my positive attitude, always a struggle since I am such a baby.

The papers for the sale of my Saginaw house will be signed tomorrow, the day before Thanksgiving, which is surely something to be thankful for.   I did a final walk though today, really a sweet little house.   I hope the new owners will be as happy there as I was.

Our five inches of snow have finally melted and we are back to the more normal temperatures in the 30's.  There are still a few frozen lumps in the yard of our new  house where the plows pushed the snow.  The leaves are still falling, and I haven't been able to hire anyone to do our yard clean up -- everyone is fully booked -- so Jack is working on it a little at a time.   I am not able to be much help with my shoulder injury, although it would be a huge job even for the two of us.   More snow and cold is predicted, of course, and if we aren't able to get the thick carpet of leaves up,  our spring clean-up might be a huge chore.  We knew when we bought it that this is a crazy house for us at our ages, too big and too much yard maintenance, but so far we love it.  I just need to schedule outside help earlier next year!