August 13, 2005

A heron? we saw at Lake Edgar Brown Ina Sue & I both taught Sunday School on Sunday morning.  (She filled in for the ladies class)  Starla Diem kindly kept Carolina while we did our duties.  Wendell preached a challenging sermon on "Loving God with your Whole Heart" and pointed out that it involves committment more then the emotional feelings often associated with love.  We came home and quickly fried up some Canadian bacon for dinner.  I tried to replicate Kay K.'s recipe for  potatoes with ranch & bacon sauce.  Also green beans and some of my freshly made dilly rolls.  Took a nap until about 4:30 when we got up and ready for the evening.  We spent a really nice evening with our neighbors, Duane Banges along with Douglas Heatwoles & Hendrick.  Lynette fixed us a delicious meal of lasagna, green beans, salad & bars.
Volleyball after chorus in the new gym Ina Sue's back has been bothering her really badly this weekend so on Monday morning I took her in to Dr. Shealy's for an adjustment.  Since we basically only have one vehicle right now, I took off work for an hour or two and served as a chauffeur.  While she was in the doctor's office Carolina Sue & I walked over to Lake Edgar Brown and watched the ducks and other fowl.  I took them home then and went back into work for a busy day.  In the evening Ina Sue still didn't feel quite up to chorus so we left her at home recuperating and went ourselves.  After the chorus practice I stayed for an hour and played a little volleyball in the new gym.  Nice!  Some others from church were busy assembling the new desks.  When I got home I started on the laundry.  Had most everything done and folded by 2:30am....
It takes a village.... to assemble a desk :) Ina Sue was still having difficulty with her back on Tuesday.  I told her to just take it very easy and focus on taking care of Carolina Sue.  She finished ironing her dresses (which I didn't really know how to do)  and washed up some of the floors.  For supper we had a dish of lasagna that Lynette Bange had very kindly given us from Sunday night.
The place Ina Sue has dreamed of... Ina Sue had another appointment Wednesday morning with Dr. Shealy for a final adjustment.  She had to leave before 8:00 for that so I finished getting Carolina Sue ready and dropped her off with Lynette for babysitting.  Then I drove the old bomb (our pickup) in to work.  In the afternoon I stopped by the house on my way to Hampton and swapped out the pickup for the minivan.  Ina Sue was feeling quite a bit improved and spent part of the afternoon making up 20 pints of fruit slush for the freezer.  In the evening we met Bob & Mary Liverman (one of our previous employees) in Aiken for supper at Outback.  Bob & Mary have sold their house here in Barnwell and are planning to move to Charlotte, NC.  We had a really nice time visiting with them again.   This evening had been announced as the official moving day for the school.  We had previously made our plans so we couldn't help out but we did stop in on our way home and checked out all that had been done.  It really is starting to look like a very nice school building.
The operating room (Ina on the table...) Thursday was very full with me trying to get everything caught up so that we could take off on Friday.  Ina Sue did all her regular Friday cleaning today then finished off by scrubbing our front porch.  The floor had a lot of nasty black mildew on it.  It looks much better now.  I had to work a bit late and didn't get home until after 9:00.
The eye flap being lifted off her eye... Friday was the long awaited day.  Ina Sue has been saving up her fun fund for quite a few months in order to get LASIC done on her eyes.  She has very sensitive eyes and contacts really make her tired.  We are hoping that this will be a real boost for her.  We left Govan around 8:00 and went by Dads first to drop Carolina Sue off with Mother Strite.  Then on to Atlanta.  We got to Atlanta in time to get a quick bite at Blimpies before arriving at the LASIC Vision Institute right in time for her 1:00 appointment.  We filled out the necessary paperwork then waited and waited.  She didn't actually get in for her surgery until about 4:30.  By the time she went in I had already watched about seven or so operations.  The operations were done in a room just off of the reception area.  It had plate glass windows where you could see what was going on.  Neatest of all was the big TV screen where a camera was focused right on the eye being operated on.  You could see every step of the procedure.  Neat eh?
All done with high hopes for perfect vision. The entire procedure couldn't have taken longer then 10 minutes.  They did make her take her hair down because they said that her bun would interfere with the positioning.  After watching her and others' operations, I told her I thought I could do it if I just had the right equipment.  The doctor looked pretty young and carefree.  Ina Sue said he whistled through her surgery....  They told us that he normally does about 30 operations in a day's time.  When Ina Sue came out her vision was still a bit fuzzy from the drops and numbing but she could already see better than before.  We left and drove straight to our hotel (just down the street) where she was supposed to nap for at least two hours.   I went out and got us supper from Taco Bell & Panda Express.  When I got back she was feeling pretty uncomfortable.  She said it felt like she had grass in her eyes.  She ate her supper without opening her eyes at all.

 

In Atlanta's Centennial Park We had a very hard time sleeping that night.  Ina Sue's eyes started to feel better by late that night but we felt that the beds were extremely sub-par.  Very hard and unforgiving.  We were both awake at 5:00 Saturday morning and absolutely could not get back to sleep.  We lazied around until about 6:00 then got ready and went down for the included breakfast bar.  The bar was not lavish but good (with the exception of very cold scrambled eggs)  We got back over to the LASIC place for her post-op checkup around 8:00.  They had her checked out by 8:30 and pronounced the surgery a success.  She now has 20:20 vision and her eyes are hardly bothering her.  She did need to wear special sunglasses to protect her eyes from the bright sun. 
Carolina likes Randy's new puppies We drove from there to Atlanta's Centenial Park (site of the 1996 Olympics)  We spent a little time there then went to the Atlanta Cyclorama for a show.  If any of you enjoy history I strongly recommend you see this.  It is a painting done around 1890 that is considered to be the world's largest oil painting.  It is 42' tall and measures 358' around.  It is mounted in a circular room and presents a 360 degree view of the Battle of Atlanta during the Civil War.  Adding to the experience is a diarama of 3D figures and landscape filling a 30'  area between the viewer and the painting  The diarama is done so well that it is extremely difficult to tell where the actual 3D figures end and the painting begins.  You observe the painting from tiered seating that revolves inside of the painting while narration points out the many historical events and characters detailed in the painting.  Extremely interesting and amazing! For more info click here
Nevin's beautiful new patio Finally we were ready to head home around 12:30.  We stopped in at Dad's to pick of Carolina Sue and visited there awhile with them, Laura, and their new house guest Jean Coblentz who will be teaching school with Laura.  Then on down to Nevins to look at their beautiful new patio.  He had a man from Louisville, GA to a special kins of stamping in the concrete to look like tile.  Very nice!  Nevin and I were able to get in a quick game or two of pool before we headed home.  Arrived at 5:00.  After a very short break, I worked on mowing yard while Ina Sue cleaned out the van.  Ina Sue also dropped by Carl's for some milk and made us some chicken/bacon pasta salad for dinner tomorrow.  We couldn't resist digging into it this evening.  It was scrumptious!  Finally to bed....

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