Sunday, August 05, 2012 Guess where we are, no, we are not heading home, we are
still waiting – we have been here 8 months today, but as we said before, who is
counting??!!! July was interesting…. it was a more difficult month for Charlie,
health wise. We are having a harder time keeping the one medicine regulated
which if it isn’t right for him (which can change daily) he suffers from the
hepatic encephalopathy – a big side effect of liver disease.On the plus side, we had several visitors during July.
First, Marlene and Jerry, good friends from home, were here and Charlie and I
both commented about how nice it was to have great laughs with good friends!
Marlene and I taught school together for about 14 years in Roseville and we
live about a mile apart. Jerry and Charlie, both retired Air Force guys, have
lots to talk about. Then Doug and our middle grandson, Everett, came a few days
later which was so nice. (We so miss our grandkids!!) Everett is my little
buddy who will start to kindergarten this fall! Our last visitor, Brad, is a
friend of Doug’s from his college days here. We got to meet his family which
was fun.
The really BIG news for us is that we are now in an
apartment, in the same building, on the 9th floor. (The hotel is on floors 4 to 6, apartments 7 to 9, and
then condos on 10 to 12.) The owner called us the first part of July and wanted
to know if we were interested – you bet we were!! Living for almost 8 months in
a hotel room, nice as it was, was getting to be way too much togetherness!
There was no way to escape from each other!! (I would go read magazines in the
library!) So now we have so much space – a real separate bedroom, 2 bathrooms,
full kitchen – an actual oven and full size refrigerator, storage room with a
washer/dryer, large living room area, and a huge balcony!!! It will actually
cost a little less than what we were paying before so we just feel so
fortunate! We just marvel at the space we have now!! Plus, we have underground
parking which will be so nice when the snow comes – did I really say that??
We are beginning to wonder what Christmas will be like here!
Actually, my favorite season in Iowa is fall and we will definitely get to
experience it now. (The first football game is August 24th!) We were
told by the doctor that from the day of transplant for Charlie we can figure
that we will be here almost 3 months from that day.
July was also extremely hot here – in the 90’s pretty much
every day and it doesn’t cool off that much so you can turn the A/C off.
Yesterday, we had a big thunderstorm and finally got some much needed rain. We
need a whole lot more though.
We will enclose some pictures of our apartment, friends, and family! We miss you all!
