Typical Weekend

Saturday, April 17, 2010 – I went into work again today, just another 8 hour work day. Heidi went to a flea market in Florida and then spent time in the airport waiting for her flight to KCMO. While there she logged on to Facebook and joined a chat I had going with Kellee at the same time. (Told you she was a techno-chick!) I am not sure how all this networking stuff works, since Heidi and I have the same account and we were logged on at the same time and yet we could chat in three separate places at the same time! Who would have thunk we could do something like that?  I can hear one of you thinking, wait a minute Kent, you said you were at work – what were you doing on Facebook? Good question, that is something I would never do during a normal work day. Kellee and Kerry were going out to lunch with their G-pa T. and I wanted to see if he was back yet and if he was on Facebook I figured he would respond to a chat and I didn’t want to interrupt him with a phone call in case they were still meeting.  I also wanted to see if Kellee was going to be home tonight and if so we would fire up the grill again. I wanted to know if he was interested in a slab o’ meat.  With arrangements made, it was back to work for me and Kellee continued work on another new song.  I stopped and picked up the fixins’ for the meal and got home about 4:30.  

Since Kellee said he would not be ready to eat for a while, I decided to see if the mower would start, I put it away last fall and hadn’t touched it since. If if wouldn’t start, no mowing for me! I really should bring it in  to be looked at because the self-propelled function was not working as well as it had in previous years, it is now a MYself-propelled mower.  I gassed it up, checked the oil and it fired up on the first pull, dang it! I had no excuse, so I mowed. I am always torn about doing yard work. It seems to me I spent way too much time on it and in the grand scheme of things what difference does it really make? One hundred years from now, will it matter if I kept a well-trimmed, weed-free lawn? But I do it anyway, even though it is not my favorite thing to do. I know some people enjoy yard work and that is great, it is just not high on my list of what I like to do, in fact it doesn’t even make that list. !  Each year I complain to Heidi about it and get near the point of paying someone to do it, but I think I guess it is good exercise and we do it.  Enough talk about grass!  

After cutting grass – Kellee was in the basement working on his song. I went downstairs  to check email on our old computer. While down there Kellee said this, “It is probably a good thing the treatment starts soon, because I think my double vision is getting worse.” When I said “oh really,” he said, “well maybe the prism on my glasses never corrected it completely.” Note to self – I need to remember to mention this to Dr. S. on Monday!  

It was now time to fix our meal, here was the menu: Meat wrapped in bacon, roasted veggies – zucchini & Brussel sprouts and HyVee potato salad. Funny thing about Brussel sprouts, I grew some a couple of years ago and we never ate a one of them! Kellee was brave enough to try them. His comment was ”these thing have like layers.”  I am not sure if he liked them or not, but I thought they weren’t bad. We ate and there was much rejoicing! After the meal, Kellee went back to work on his song and I sleep-watched the Rob Bell dvd of  ”Everything is Spiritual.” (For the second night in a row.) I don’t know what it is, but I sit down to watch something and I usually can’t make it through the whole thing without resting my eyes, oh my gosh, I’m turning into my dad! (or my sisters.)  

Kellee in his basement studio

Revised Accommodations for Treatment Week #1

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 – Today Kellee called the Hope Lodge so we could find out if we would be able to stay there beginning next week when treatments begin. Turns out the Hope Lodge is about 7 days behind, which means we will NOT be able to stay at Hope Lodge for the first week of treatment.  However, they told Kellee it looks like at this time we should be able to have a room for the remaining weeks of treatment. This means we will be making other arrangements for the first week and it might be for three nights of the week. It sounds like Kellee might possibly want to come home next Wednesday after treatment (providing he feels up to it) to be home to lead worship at “The Mix” on Wednesday night. The Mix is the middle school ministry at TRC in Pella. We have places we can stay and we are workings on other plans now.

Kellee has been working on a new song and he tried to put it online today, but our internet service was temporarily down this afternoon and he could not get it uploaded before he left for The Mix tonight. Then when he got home he was not able to upload the song, because I was working on re-configuring our wireless router. Some of you might be thinking, stop working on the router and let Kellee upload the song! Well, it is not that simple. It is a long a boring story so I won’t repeat all the details here. Heidi & I have been working on being able to connect to the Pella Corp. network for quite some time now. We especially wanted to get this figured out before treatments began so we would each be able to do most of our job while we were off site in Iowa City.  We have also not been able to connect from home which was frustrating.  It has been long and arduous process (weeks!) and today we finally got it all figured out.  The one last thing to do was reconfigure the wireless router (another part of the long story why we had to do this), but that is now done so hopefully later tonight when Kellee gets back he will put up the new song and you all can have a listen to it. I will include the links now, hoping by the time you are reading this, the song will have been uploaded. http://www.myspace.com/kelleevanhemertmusic (You may need to copy and paste into your browser.)

Before I worked on the computer issues I went through two gallons of Weed-B-Gon spot spraying the weeds in our lawn. In the past we have had our lawn sprayed by professionals but the cost was getting outrageous, so we stopped last year. But you can sure tell we aren’t putting product on, the yard looks pretty bad. But the grass is just not a top priority right now, we’ll live with it as is.

Kellee left again @ 9:00 tonight as he is starting a Bible Study with a couple of his buddies. He has been talking doing this for a while and is happy to see it starting. After tonight they plan to meet on the weekends when Kellee is home from treatments.

Kellee received in the mail a great big envelope from the University of Iowa Hospitals, we thought maybe it was the beginnings of the bills. Nope, it was some of the medical records we had requested for  Kellee’s personal files. We were hoping to get copies of the MRI to be able to share the images of the tumor; but there were no images included, even though we requested them. We will have to check into that more next week. But there were copies of reports and doctors notes, etc. Some of the information is very detailed and full of medical terms (go figure). Kellee mentioned he would bet my sister Cindy, who in a previous life (before semi-retirement) was a nurse, might find the information interesting reading and be able to understand a lot of the doctor-speak on the reports. We will have to see if she wants to read them, we wouldn’t make her translate all the terms for us.

As far as I know, Heidi is having a great time on vacation! So far she has managed to avoid getting sun-burned (at least mostly anyway). She is missing out on not only our magnolia tree, but also tulips are starting to bloom around town. Its beginning to look a lot like Tulip Time, everywhere you go…

Magnolia Tree in Bloom

Monday, April 12, 2010 – Kellee had an ultra-sound this morning and it appears there was nothing there!  At least nothing of concern. Once again the news was everything looks good at first glance, but the person who had to give it the final reading was in surgery and would read it later. Kellee was supposed to get a call in the afternoon with the official word. However, no call came – so we wait a bit more. We also have not received a call from ACS Hope Lodge to verify if we will be able to stay there next week. Application for admission is by physician referral only after a treatment plan has been developed. We filled out the paperwork last Thursday when we were there and they were going to turn it in for us.  Hopefully we will get a call before too much of the week goes by, so we will have time to make other arrangements, if needed. Please pray there will be an opening for us there! The full official name of the Hope Lodge in Iowa City  is – The Russell and Ann Gerdin American Cancer Society Hope Lodge.

Another prayer request would be for my work computer, I am hoping to be able to take my laptop from work and hook up to our network and to do most of my job while in Iowa City. However, I have been having difficulty being able to sign in and I will really need to be able to do so to work, otherwise there will be things I will not be able to accomplish. The latest fix tried today, did not work! Please pray IT can help me figure it out before the end of the week.

Today, my friend & hunting buddy John  came over and fixed Kory’s car, so it is ready to go up to Ames on Thursday. It was a pretty simple fix and I probably should have been able to figure it out. John definitely has a gift and he enjoys serving by helping people in this way. We really appreciate his assistance on our vehicles!

Tonight Kellee went to Systematic Theology class @ TRC and then the band, Sons & Heirs, is scheduled to practice after class.  (Have you been voting for S &H at Cornerstone?) The band is looking forward to Thursday and the Battle of the Bands at VEISHEA.  I went to the Barefoot Warriors men’s prayer and then came home to update the blog.

When Heidi left for her trip, one of the things she realized she would probably miss would be the blooming of our magnolia tree. As is usually the case in most things, she was right; today it was just starting to bloom nicely. It is not quite in full bloom, but getting close. It is so nice to see the grass getting green, leaves starting to show on trees, etc. Thank the Lord for Spring, the yearly reminder of  God’s goodness and how He brings life from death! To mark the occasion, Kellee agreed to let me take his picture by the tree to post so Heidi can see it from Florida and anyone else interested can also see the bloomin’ tree.

Kellee by the tree

Another God thing…Heidi’s Trip

Friday, April 9, 2010 – Today Heidi left with her mom for a one week vacation in Florida. They drove to Kansas City today, staying with Rosie & Charlie (Heidi’s aunt & uncle in KC) and they fly out tomorrow. Stroud’s in KCMO is on the menu for them tonight, What is Stroud’s you ask? Only the best pan-fried chicken on earth! Let me you I am more jealous of that than any other part of their trip! Their flight stops in St. Louis, where sister Tami will get on the plane and they are headed to Ft. Myers Beach, FL. Before I go any further, I know what some of you might be thinking…how can Heidi go on vacation at a time like this? Well, the three girls have been trying to plan a vacation for the last couple years and this trip was planned at Christmas and booked in January. So for this trip to have already been scheduled and it happens to fall right smack dab between when we find out the treatment plan and when treatment is scheduled to begin, is nothing short of a God thing! For the last month, Heidi has been talking about canceling out of the trip, even though Kellee told her she must go no matter what. So for her to go is a blessing. She gets to do one of her favorite things, sit on a beach and read. Besides the last month has been a bit stressful and she can use a break. She took her laptop so she can keep up on the blog, email and Facebook, and she even has a cell phone. Yes, she is one techno-savvy gal! I am not much of a beach kind of guy, because if I am out in the sun for very long at all, I burn like a roadside flare! Besides, I got to deer hunting in December and January, so I have already had my outing with the guys, so now it is Heidi’s turn. (Not to go out with the guys, but with the girls.)  Pray she has a restful and fun trip.

A couple other things from today; Kellee was able to get an ultra-sound of his private area scheduled for this coming Monday in Pella at the Harmeling Imaging Center. We are grateful we could avoid an extra trip to Iowa City. Even though the trip is only 1.5 hours, it is just long enough to be annoying.  Let me clarify one thing from yesterday’s post. I have been told some people were confused and thought our other sons needed to have ultra-sound tests as well. That is not the case. When I used the term “The Boys”  yesterday I was writing about a certain area of the anatomy where Kellee would need to have an ultra-sound, it is a slang term for a certain part of the male body. Most men would have picked up on that right away. Just so everyone knows, our other two sons, Kerry and Kory are NOT having any tests, they are all hunky-dunky!

Tonight Kellee and I grilled some burgers and pork loins for sandwiches. I am having a cookout tomorrow night for Kerry and some of his college buddies (Deer steaks) and I suggested to Kellee, I should probably practice grilling tonight so I would be ready for Saturday. We went to HyVee’s meat department. (Yes Kellee went out, wore a hat on his head.) They have started to carry a Dutch spiced beef hamburger mixed with Gouda cheese.  We picked up two of those burgers and they also had some BBQ spice rubbed loins, so we got some of those too! So we grilled them up. For a side we warmed up some twice baked potatoes G-ma had left for us. Even though I don’t eat beef, I had a couple bites of one of the burgers, not bad. We pigged out, it was good. We were so full we skipped dessert! We both then loosened our pants and dozed in front of the TV while we watched Everybody Loves Raymond.