More memorial day pics!

Just pics - no comments!

Memorial Day Weekend

Diana and I decided to go to Orem / Provo for Memorial Day and to celebrate Calixtas' birthday. I think Kristy decided to go with us at the last minute and we left half day earlier than planned. What a shock!

Each of Kristy's children took turns riding with us but Zeke was the only one slow enough to catch on camera, I guess because he was tied down.

Diana and I thought we could take care of their kids so we let Adam and Ciria take a night to themselves. Kari-Lyn is so cute to look at but is faster than a speeding bullet... After dumping salt all over the table when we sat at Wendys to eat she spilled her milk and before Diana got back with enough napkins Kari had become a little angel as one can see. I think she ate a couple chicken nuggets and a few french fries then spilled some more milk.and as we were leaving we found the ketchup on the window sill beside her. We left it and hurried out to the car. Then when we got home we started to watch a movie and Kari spilled some more milk on Cirias downstairs couch. As one can see during this whole time Zoë was a real angel but before the movie was over Kari had destroyed the ability to hear what was on the TV! Anyway as one can see

this is what was left of me at even tide.

And the next day we went to a park and had a picnic. Some play time .

and a birthday party for Calixta, Trouble of it was that I never did get to see her present from Nate.

But this is the delicious and beautiful Cake that Ciria made in her kitchen for Calixtas birthday before we went out to the birthday party park and even Dan was able to visit us there but we didn't get any pics.

Complaint...

I intend to tell all that I feel about my health today! Don’t be surprised at my feelings as I try not to complain very much but I feel very ornery at the moment.

When I first found that I had diabetes I felt “No big deal I will just act like I had nothing wrong with me.”, this was a big childish mistake as I was only twelve at the time. My problems have mostly risen from the fact that I never changed this attitude that “I am just going to act as if I were normal”. Since then I have gone totally blind in the left eye and legally blind in the other and this is the worst thing that could happen. I truly wish that I had paid attention to the doctors and to my mother as they were only concerned for my health.

I have put Diana through a living he__ as I would go through insulin reactions without knowing what I was doing or what was going on around me and I am sure I affected many others as well.

Each of the following incidents caused me pain and nausea without me even realizing it.
Ø Renal transplant
Ø Heart attack 7 in total
Ø Loss of both legs
Ø Loss of the ability to use left hand and arm for much beside balancing on
And the worst of all is the stroke which has left me without the capacity to think clearly about most things. This is the reason that I had to take a disability retirement. It is the reason that Diana has to do so much more than a normal wife should have to do, she has to act as if I were not even here with the exception of my little income.

And eve worse than the stroke is the poor way I treated my children so they don’t even want to have much to do with me now.

Diana asks me why I don't complain about the raw deal I was given in this life and my answer has always been that each of us were given the choice of what would happen to us and this is what I chose. So why have I done so many sinful things if I believe this so strongly? Answer: That is the sixty-four thousand dollar question.

So I have come to a point where I am incapable of doing much more than existing, well I told you at the start that I am in a foul mood today!

Grandchildren

To each of my grandchildren I want you to know:
1) Never ever doubt the love of your parents of whom your Heavenly Father is the MOST important. (I believe your earthly parents will teach you of this great being and so I will not take the time to try to tell you all you should know.)
2) As you get to be a teenager you will discover more and more exciting things that you will believe is a new discovery to you and your friends. This is great and you should be excited about it. Your parents were excited too. There is little that you will learn that is not already known by your earthly parents and our Heavenly Father knows ALL.
3) Don’t be as dumb as your grandpa while studying. I never tried until after I got married, then I thought it was important to understand what I was studying so remember it is not just for yourself but for your future spouse and children that you are studying now.
4) Friends are a good thing in your life and will mean more to you than you can believe. Friends will help you make many decisions in life and because of this you need to be very picky about who you choose as a friend. Try to choose members of the church as the biggest portion of your friends. ALWAYS REMEMBER that friends are not as important as your parents. My children forgot this sometimes.
5) Cars were so exciting to me and so I believe they will be to you also. They are not a toy that can be broken and forgotten as you have done with Christmas gifts a lot so far. They are a significant expenditure to you or to your parents and so should be treated as you would treat a good friend.
6) When dating:
Remember that dating is a time in your life when you should have fun, good wholesome fun that you can always look back upon with pride during the rest of your life. So don’t do something you cannot tell everyone including your Heavenly Father about. (He will know anyway.)
a) Wives will almost always be like their mothers. (Except your grandma who is like her mother in most ways except she wants the best for her children.)
b) Husbands will almost always be like their fathers. My sons are just like me, they love to be in front of the computer or electronic games.
So always get to know the parents of the one you choose for your eternal companion. And please find someone who is worthy to go through the temple of our Heavenly Father with you.
As time goes on I will think of other things I think you should know so keep your eyes open for future posts named Grandchildren.

Bear

I wake and take Duke for a pee walk every morning at around 5:30 AM. We normally go over to the middle school next to us, Wy' East Middle School, where they have a track that I can go around while Duke runs around me all over in front of me , behind me and all over. I can do this only when there are no prople around as Duke always wants to go visit everyone and lick them. This morning we got out to the side of the apartment complex and some guy was running away from the area. Well he stopped long enough to tell me to get out of the area which I did not understand as he was talking so fast that everything sounded like a blab. Duke and I ignored the fright he seemed to have and went on a little way further until a police car came up and told us that there was a bear about 1 block east of us and that I should go home, which I did.

Duke still had to go to the bathroom and so I took him right next to the building. While I was waiting for him to go to the bathroom he started barking and I looked up to see a bear running across the soccer field in front of us. So I decided Duke didn't need to go that bad and went in to tell Diana.

This was the first time I have ever waken Diana early and she didn't get angry at me for waking her. She turned on the TV to watch for news and then went out into the back yard to see if she could see it. Diana didn't see the bear but she did see a pickup and a police car. She came back in to watch more news and we watched until just before the bear was darted. Because there was a commercial Diana went out in the back yard again and saw the bear running for all he was worth south. Apparently, according to the news, the bear was Darted and took off. They also said that he had been reported at around 5:00 AM and it was about 7:00 AM before the news reported him to be unconcious and in custody.

Family without Alex

Lil ole Keary, Andrew,
Calixta, Ciria, Kristy, Diana and Cathy.
I was asked to put this up as Diana is ashamed of her blog. I guess.

What an odd world

It is funny how things work in this world. Last weekend my legs were very itchy and Diana told me that I had welts of rash on both legs. I went to see the doctor on Monday and she said it was a “contact rash”, whatever that is. I have gone without putting on my legs/prosthesis for the whole week and they are almost cured.

So I asked the doctor, through email, if I could start wearing the prosthesis once again and got the reply last night about 8:30 PM and was told the rash would reappear if I did that. I am so grateful for the new chair Vallen and Cathy purchased for me.
Love to all Dad

Boy do I feel like a dumb guy.

I went today to pickup the wheelchair Cathy and Vallen bought me and while I was there I was shown a couple things that I was unaware that it can do.

After I got home I decided to show off to Diana what the capabilities of the wheelchair are and as I was twisting the seat around and around and the wire broke and now I have no new wheelchair. So I called All in One Mobility and they are talking to Diana to see if she can fix it. Otherwise they will have to come fix it next Monday. So far so good.

It's going to take about a week to get the part, and its going to cost me as I was the Dumbo who broke it and that is not covered under the warranty. Oh well, I never claimed to be a gret thinker, that's Dianas idea.

Happy birthday Cathy...

I feel there must be at least 36 reasons why I love and appreciate Cathy:
01. Cathy is one of Heavenly Fathers prettiest children.
02. She has always been a very content person.
03. Cathy was a great swimmer.
04. Cathy could beat up everyone in school.
05. She is a conscientious cousin.
06. Cathy was true to the gospel of Jesus Christ even during her deplorable teen years.
07. She has always been a very good employee to everyone she has worked for.
08. She is very loving and kind.
09. Cathy doesn’t break the speed limit unless she is trying to keep up with her mother. JKTLP
10. Cathy takes care of herself.
11. She has always been a great example to her siblings
12. She has unconditional love for each person she meets.
13. Cathy allows us to go to her home and destroy it during our vacation.
14. Cathy is a great housekeeper.
15. Cathy is a terrible cook, but she tries. (sometimes)
16. I’ll bet Cathy is better than most at scrap booking.
17. Cathy always remembers her family in her scrap booking.
18. She takes after her mother in most ways except cooking. Just teasing.
19. Cathy is an excellent parent, much better than I have been.
20. Cathy has always been excelled at all she has done in church.
21. Cathy never seems to get angry.
22. Cathy tries to be like our savior.
23. Cathy worked for a year while Vallen was a missionary and then went to school.
24. Cathy married a great guy. (her words and I think so too)
25. They have Summer Daye
26. They have Breck
27. Cathy started blogging.
28. She is our first
I am sure there are many more but I am getting tired and I guess Cathy is going to have to loose a few years.
I love you, Dad.

What an exciting day!

I woke at about 05:15, put my hat and coat on to take Duke for a walk and let him run free to get his exercise. I have to take him early and late when no one else is around or I loose control of him; he likes to go with people who can run after him or that he can chase right now as he is still a puppy. When we got home I could not find my keys, this was around 05:45 – 06:00 so I started going back to where we had gone looking very closely at the ground all the way. I found nothing and then I thought? Did I check to see if the door was actually locked, maybe I left the keys on the desk?

We went home again and found the door to be locked. WHAT NOW? Duke said let’s pray and so we knelt in prayer then started back to look once again. When we got back over to the school I saw a lady who was just getting to work, and I was prompted to call out and explain my situation, at some point during the first time we walked I dropped the water bottle without a lid on my lap and it looked very much as if I had wet myself again so this was quite hard to do. But since I was being prompted from Heavenly Father I did it.

Well this lady told her co-worker what I had said and he got a flashlight and came out with me and we walked the same path Duke and I had taken this morning. Well when we got out to the track he found the keys with his flashlight before we even went around said track. I need to start carrying a flashlight and maybe I could have found them without the embarrassing situation. I also started zipping up my coat pocket or putting the keys in my cargo pocket. We finally got back into the apartment at about 07:30.

I then took a shower and realized I needed to wash my shorts as they are all dirty. Then I had to wash my shirts for the same reason. Anyway by this time it was getting pretty late and I still had to go to Salmon Creek Kaiser so I stopped at Taco Cell, ours hasn’t gone much past the “B” Alex, on the way to Kaiser. When I get off the bus I have to go about another 3/4 mile each way. This is significant later.

When I got home I found we had received a check from RSL, the disability insurance company, so I charged the wheelchair batteries for half an hour and took the check to the bank. While at the bank I had kept some cash so I thought I would go to WinCo for some supper not thinking about my shortage of battery power. Well on the way home I found my chair not working very well, I had to put it free wheeling and get up and push it till I was exhausted then sit down and run it a while longer. Each time I turned it off and let it freewheel the battery would gain a little extra power, no idea how. I called Kristy at one point hoping she could bring Zachary and ask him to push me the rest of the way home. Well by the time I got a hold of Kristy I had gotten quite a ways home but I was terribly tired. At that point a very kind lady came along and asked if she could push me for a ways. Well with her help I got to Mill Plain Blvd and I was able to use the chairs power from there home. By the time I got home I had to help the chair get into the door.

It was now about 19:30 and I charged the battery while fixing me some supper the blood sugar was at 250 – 260 so I had not used up all my sugar with the exercise.

Why not?

A few weeks ago I told my doctor I thought I needed a new wheelchair and she said that she would have to tell the people at permanent machines or something like that and they made an appointment for me for yesterday afternoon. Well yesterday afternoon Diana and I were there in the meeting with several people; let’s see a salesman from Care Medical, a person from physical therapy, a person who dealt with Medicare issues, a nurse, a doctor type, Diana and I were in the meeting trying to determine if I qualified for a new wheelchair. Well we started with me telling all of the repairs that had been going on with my wheelchair and the salesman from Care Medical saying he thought I needed a more durable wheelchair for all I do with my wheelchair. And we talked for 15 minutes or so to find that the Medicare probably would not pay for a new wheelchair as I was given a a pair of prosthesis which Medicare paid for and the Medicare ruling is that they will pay for only one type of mobility device per person.

When we first started talking I was light and jovial as I ever am and the first thing I did was to push the chair back a bit to show them the problem I was having with my left front wheel, this was a deadly error as the rest of the people felt I was being too cavalier with the wheelchair. The rest of the meeting went downhill from then on. As the meeting progressed I got to feeling more and more like crying as it seems to me that medicare and the people in congress think that a person who has problems has to quit living as he/she is no longer worth the effort of keeping him/her alive if that person cannot pay for it without the aid of the United States. And yet I worked for many years and probably paid in a good portion of what they are re-supplying me with. And I would still be paying into this horrible thing if it were not for the DIABETES which I did not ask for, on this earth.

I would not want a socialistic nor a communistic type of government but I think the people in congress need to be more realistic with their thoughts of how a person should live once disabled. Or maybe they think nothing drastic will ever happen to them. Beside this, Diana and I have always tried to be honest in all that we do so I did not cheat the insurance company and told them that I was receiving Social Security and for this we get our butts kicked every time. I don’t understand.

This is how I feel! http://bonehead.oddballs.com/BagLady.html Scroll down a little to start the video.

Last weekend

We had a wonderful trip to visit my parents this past weekend. As we traveled in the van for more than a few miles and I must say that it was a really nice trip as I didn’t have to be squeezed into a small area for a few hours and as we traveled for the first time without having to argue about the temperature. This car has individual heating for each side and for the back. In the past Diana would complain and say that she had to have the car adjusted for her comfort as she was driving and I thought that was only fair as I didn’t want to be involved in an accident but I was always either very cold or I was sweating. Also I was able to travel many miles without having leg cramps as the seats are higher and Diana was able to see better than she has in years as she was higher and she has some new glasses, thanks to Cathy.

While we were in Othello, we were able to go to a stake conference where we saw several people we had not seen in many a year. I don’t know the reason Alain Bifano was there but Veral and Michael gene Hansen were there as he is in the Othello Stake presidency. I saw a girl, Shawna Hebdon, now Scorup, I used to know while in college institute where we put on a roadshow and things like that.

While in Othello we saw several things that were quite pleasant to see. My father, after having the bone spurrs removed from his back looks about 10 years younger as you can see and below is a short video of Melissas son making Diana laugh harder than I have heard her laugh for many years, actually he made Diana laugh the night before when we didn't have the camera available so we are trying to recreate the situation here.

Cameron spins on his head.

http://www.videoegg.com/video/cztIuX

One Word Answers

I didn't always listen to the title.
This Moment: confused
Shoes: 10 1/2
Craving: new-body
The State of Your Home: confused
Annoyed By: diabetes
Noise In the Background: tv
Really Want To: cry
Thinking About: warm weather
Smelling: salts
Favorite Product In Office Supply Aisle: pens
Don't Ever Want To: die
Your Eye Color: blue
The Weather: cold-n-cloudy
Have Never Tried: kyaking
Think Everyone Should Try: relaxing
Last Vacation Destination: utah
The Last Thing You Had to Drink: drpepper
Your Bad Habit: laziness
What You're Going To Do Now: sit

The surprize

Diana and I went to Portland on Tuesday night 01/23/2007 and even though I told her I would walk she decided that we needed to take the wheelchair. Well in doing this I am surprized to still be alive for one and I am even more surprized that we found the place as Diana still had not recieved her new glasses and I believe we were the blind leading the blind and tumbling over one another as we went. She had the sunglakses but it was pitch black out there and she could see less than I as far as the road was concerned, though she could read the street signs better than I(after stopping at each street). But this is not the story I wanted to tell.


In order to take the wheelchair to the dog training session, Diana had to lift the wheelchair four times, probably 75 lbs. after the battery and seat had been removed. The next day Diana forgot to take her cell phone so I could not easily reach her during the day and after work I thought she had gone to exercise when I did not hear from her till 6:30 PM. Then I started to get worried and it was about 8:00 Pm when she called me for my social security number and said that she was looking at a new van. I had told her that I wanted a Dodge Caravan or Chrysler Town and Country, guess what! She paid no attention to me (surprize surprize) but did her research and found the safest van on the road, A KIA Sedona. See the photos below. Diana only did each side but did not take pictures of the front and back. I guess she is ashamed of the name
No SÉ.
Diana found a car sticker priced at $31,665.00 and talked them down to $23,000.00 and in doing so she did her share of missionary work, as the manager was LDS and had not been to church for ten years, After Diana was finished at 10:30 PM he went home and called his mother and apologized for not beig more active. O algo asi.

Baffled

Duke is introduced to a new and baffling situation by Andrew as you will see in this video
http://www.videoegg.com/video/cUCUoP

Only Andrew would think of something so inertaining and fun!

Snowbound

Unfortunately Diana has broken her old glasses so now she walks around 24-7 with these binocs to see with until she receives her new glasses in the mail.

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Tuesday it snowed here and we have been snowbound since until yesterday.

Calixta we want you to know that even though we still love you very much, we have had to replace you with Duke as you seem to have replaced us with Nate. See Cirias comment to Dianas post of the 18th.

DUKE

We have become one of those strange pet owners who think only of the pet and of the pet as if it were a child.

Am I ever jealous as he has now gotten 1 more letter than I have. Mine are all bills!!! And to think they are even prejudiced in the invitation. I'll bet they wont allow me to bring an extra leg to munch on.

Stopping

I am doing very poorly at this blogging thing and as I do not want to hurt anyone else I guess I will quit writing these posts until I am sure I have something positive to say, and that doesn't seem to happen very often. Please re-read Zachary's birthday wish just before if you read it before and if you did not read it prior to my fixing it you can feel lucky.
I love you all.

Happy birthday Zachary Prows

I am so excited for this year to finish as you are now eleven and will be turning twelve at the end of this year. That means you will get the priesthood and be able to start looking down at people while serving the sacrament.

I know that you Zachary will go far in this world. You will be a faithful missionary and you will go on to be a Bishop some day because of your wonderful care for others, and that is what our Father in Heaven needs for the bishoprics. I believe that all bishops must care for others a great deal more than I have the capability of doing.

My wish for you Zac is that you find a pretty little girl that you can start dating. LOL No really I wish all that you are interested in if it is only a goose or the whole world!
Love you Zac.

Read Diana's blog

At least don't believe all that she writes. Especially if it is concerning me. I don't know how she can say that we are going to get a van. HUGH car payments and little reward. As I told her we can get a different type of wheelchair (power assist) where I would get more exercise and Duke could help by pulling if he will. This would eliminate the need for a new car and would make me healthier and stronger.
Anyway I love the fact that so many people are blogging and don't stop. Just eliminate the looking at Diana's blog. JK
I had to change the name which was don't read Diana's blog but I wrote this before I had done the research on the power assist wheelchair. First off I found this wheelchair setup to weigh 50 lbs. Secondly I found that this is an add on to the regular manual wheelchair. The manual wheelchair costs about $2,000.00 and the add on costs $6500.00 and a regular electric wheelchair can cost as little as $3,500.00 - $4,000.00 or as much as $15,000.00. The one I got in December 2001 was about 4,200.00.
Now the reason for all of this is that I keep having the little scooter batteries burn up on me (mostly my fault for leaving the key in place or for not charging the battery at least once a week, preferably once a day). Now the batteries cost about $300.00 each time we have to replace them and it is rather embarrassing. Now I am embarased about the beginning of this post.

Dogs name & history

I really appreciate all the suggestions. He is very princely and we could have named him that and it was a front runner until Alex reminded us of Duke and he is a duke. Rosco would have been good but we were told that one syllable word would be best and he was originally named Buzz for Buzz Lightyear and we originally wanted to keep the name similar so we started to call him Buddy, not a one syllable word, and even now I keep saying buDUKE. Finally we appreciated each suggestion, even Sebastian, I thought that would be a good name for him and was reminded that a one syllable word would be best. If we had known that, then Isaiah would never have flown.

Duke was originally the pet of a lady who lived in a van and kept driving around on stolen gas, for which she was sent to jail. Duke obviously got put in the dog pound and every time we see a dog pound truck I hear him growl. JK Anyway the pound adopted him out as he is such a sweet dog and when the original owner got out of jail she wanted him back. The adoptive people were concerned and were told that the original owner had rights to Duke but the pound asked for Duke back and kept him for a week and kept adding charges to the bill which the original owner could pay as she had been stealing gas so she signed over the rights. Then when the people who got Duke found that he kept knocking their little boy down they decided to sell him for part of the cost of nuetering him.

We went out last night to the first meeting of trying to train Duke to be a full fledged SERVICE Dog, the lady there has a service dog named Kisha so the one syllable thing was blown. I have to get a doctors say so that I need a service dog and then we will get a cape that identifies Duke as a service dog in training. Then I will be able to take him whereeer I go. to the store to the restaurant to the john and everywhere.

ANYWAY I AM EXCITED ABOUT THIS WHOLE THING NOW. When Diana first suggested it I wan't sure but now I am excited.

By the way Cathy, how many posts do you have in total? I have 122 so I want to go to a restaurant where they give a real doggy bag! LOL

Dog's name.

Well we have chosen the name Duke! It was a toss up between Isaiah and Duke when we got Isaiah and as we were getting the dog for Andrew we let him choose the name and he chose Isaiah for Isaiah Thomas so we still had the name Duke to use which we have now used.

By the way, Diana has finally started her blog at the link on the side.

Our dog your name?

We got a new dog to help grandpa Keary in doing things. And we would like you to help us in choosing a name.

And as usual

Diana got home gave me a hug and a kiss, ate then sat on the couch to watch TV and directly fell asleep.

I don't know what yous guys do to her but she is always so tired when she comes home that she falls asleep.

Actually I do know; she loves her children so much and she always wants to help all she can whether it be one of her children or anyone else. Each of you should feel honored in that you act much like your mother. I know there are differences and you should feel great that you are much like she who bore you.

Strange goings on around here.

I went to bed at around 21:00 last night and woke at 06:30 exactly and noticed that Diana was not in the bathroom as she usally is so I went to her bedromm door and called Diana, Diana, then I yelled Diana, Diana, DIAAANNAA, and then realized that I had been left for another woman. What a terrible feeling, Calixta should be ashamed for doing this to her own father I’ll bet that Diana would not have done this for any of the rest of her kids! Oh, that is because we had other kids at home or because we were trying to drag ourselves out of the financial hole we keep trying to avoid but seldom do.

This year we decided on, no presents for one another, which I broke by writing her a letter of appreciation and putting it on a certificate sheet with gold diamond shapes around the edges. Ah shucks I guess I will be sent straight to the depths of h___ for doing this, or one of many other things.

President Lee Info!

I am just trying to give you all a few pics of the front pages of the Samuel Lee Family history and Genealogy along with some pics of some of my forefathers, however they are related to me. I would be able to figure it all out but my father and his way of doing genealogy is different. He has it all in his genealogy books but instead of putting it on a cd he has put it all on floppies and has not given me instructions as to which family is whose parents and I have as yet to figure it all out.
........................................................................................President Lee and his wife below.