Auntie Jen's New Knee

These pictures are going to be going a bit out of order but that's the way I downloaded them and I don't feel like redoing all of them. Hope that's OK with everyone; if not, too bad.

This is Aunt Jen this morning (Thursday) - she actually has her eyes open and I told her to smile for you. She's been dozing off a lot since surgery; in fact it's very difficult to carry on a conversation with her. Usually I end up talking to myself.

This is a picture of her knee all wrapped up. Evelyn is holding a Coke can next to her knee so you can see how wrapped up it is. This was taken the day of surgery - Tuesday. They unwrapped the leg this morning so now there's just a little piece of gauze covering the incision.

Aunt Jen's leg is in a machine that slowly bends it and then brings it completely flat again. She started out at a 40% bend and was doing 65% when I left today. It goes very slowly but she says after a while, it starts to hurt and then they turn it down a bit.

She started her Physical Therapy yesterday (Wednesday) and did very well.

This little contraption is used to see "how windy" she is. She does a pretty good job at blowing the little white thing up.

Dr. Rodman signed her knee before surgery to make sure he did the correct one. We wanted to write him a little note but the nurse said they frowned upon that. I don't know why - a little humour never hurt anyone.

This is Jen pre-op -- doesn't she look happy? Actually she was.

The surgical knee.

This is the scene I saw when I pulled up in the driveway on Tuesday night. Two young men tusseling out on the lawn. Each one said they were the victor - looks to me like Grampa was probably the one on top.

but then again............................

That's it from Nurse Gramma. Tomorrow (Friday) Aunt Jen goes home. I'll let you know how well she behaves herself.

Love and have a great weekend!!!!

MOM and Gramma

Spring Has Arrived

You know Spring has arrived in Brandon when you see Dad outside with his pots, dirt and a watering can. Actually he has been out with the plants for several days now but yesterday we bought a couple of new plants and today Aunt Susan and I went to our favorite nursery and bought a few more things. Actually I bought a "few" things while Sue bought several large items. However, Uncle Glen told her to go ahead and spend as much as she wanted and to get whatever she wanted and she DID!!Here are some of this year's plantings. These are miniature petunias which are really cute and they trail down the pot. I really liked the purple and yellow together and they smell wonderful!!!

This is a geranium that we brought back from Arizona last spring - it's a very special one - Martha Washington and is very pretty. We're hoping to use some of these as decorating flowers for the wedding.

My creeping phlox is up and blooming. I planted this because Grandpa Haan used to have a huge section of this phlox and every spring it would be just gorgeous so it reminds me of him. I love it - it's actually a much prettier purple than shows up in this picture.

I've had these little boots in the bottom of my closet for several years - got them on a garage sale. Every year I'd see them and think, I have to plant some flowers in them. This year they had planters you could purchase for $19.99 that looked just like these and I remembered I had some in the closet. So dad drilled holes in the bottom for me and I planted these moss roses. Aren't they cute?

That's it from the Haan Household for this week. Wishing you all a great week ahead and "no rain" for Saturday.

MOM and GRAMMA

Wordless Thursday

The scene across the street - they told me there was a better breeze up there than on the ground!!??

Have a great day!!

MOM & Gramma

A Tiger In The Tree - for Sam

This blog is being written for my very favorite 7-year old in the whole wide world. Sam, this is my friend Mr. Tiger who came to live in our tree in the front yard. This picture is taken from my front window. One morning I looked out and there was Mr. Tiger sitting in my tree. At first, I was very frightened that he would want to pounce on me and eat me when I went to my car. However, when I did go outside, I found that Mr. Tiger picked my house out of all the houses in Brandon because he heard that a very nice Gramma lived in this house. He's very kind and sweet and he likes me a lot.

His name is just Mr. Tiger.

He says this is a very good tree for a tiger because he can sit in the crook of the tree and watch everything that's going on. He's anxious for the leaves to come on the tree so he won't have to jump down to eat the grass. He can then just lean over and eat the leaves.

So, Sam, do you believe me now? Do you like my Mr. Tiger? I sure hope he stays here long enough so that you will be able to meet him this summer. Chase said he was going to chase him away but I told him, NO!! Leave Mr. Tiger alone.

Well, that's it for this week. Hope you all have a great week ahead.

Love,

Gramma and MOM