Sunday 12-28-08

Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary to my parents. They were married 12-28-1958 in Garden City, KS on a warm Dec day, much like today here in Gypsum.

Went to Church at the Baptist Church with my family. Sermon was on Simeon, the circumcision of Jesus & Mary’s purification. A very timely message.

The anniversary celebration was from 2-4pm in the fellowship hall. We are estimating about 175 to 200 visitors. Those from Center who came: LaVerne & Rebecca Miller, Lowell & Judy Miller, Josh & Misty Nisly, Marvin & Rosa Nisly, Matthew Nisly, Jacob Nisly, Michael Jon Nisly, Jordan Nisly, Emily Nisly, Perry Lee & Judith Stutzman, Oliver & Emma Troyer, Rachel Yutzy & David Yutzy. Thank you all for coming. What a special surprise. Also Fannie Helmuth & Harvey Nisly were there.

Also special visitors: John & Ingrid Gray from Monroe Louisiana. Ingrid’s parents were Franz & Frances Peterson. My parents chose to go visit them on their honeymoon.

Thank you to sister Elizabeth who really got it all together & Darcee & Heidi who added their special touches.

We had a great day finished off with our immediate family dining out with Aunt Vivian who provided the meal & Carl & Darcee. We ate at Coyote Canyon, a local favorite.

It’s been a great week having Paul & Elizabeth here from Rush CO with their 4 children, Greg, Jenna, Rebecca & Eric. Paul’s mother, Pat Frank, & sister, Penny Frank, also came along.

Mama & Grandma pieced all 48 existing state flowers & all 48 existing state birds back in the early 50’s. We cleaned out our attic summer 2007 & Elizabeth made off with all 96 pieces. Pat made 2 quilts with these pieces this past year & had a mad dash to get them all done by today. Had to use duct tape on her bleeding thumbs in order to finish on time. Thank you Pat!!

Praise God for a great day!

mikey

Monday 12-1-08

Happy Birthday Jim!  Age 40 tomorrow. Got him a new dew rag from Harley Davidson. Think he will like it. The one he wears now is getting faded. Plan to take that up tonight when I take him home from work.

Tomorrow at 9:30AM I will be having an esophageal dilatation, hopefully to prevent my getting food stuck in my throat and all the unpleasantness of that. Will be privileged to enjoy demerol & versed again. Am expecting to be spitting up blood after the procedure for awhile.

Last Sunday we had our Redden & Stenfors Thanksgiving Dinner. Arrived right after Church & still got in on the food. Enjoyed playing Mexican Trail Dominoes with my cousins. They are all quite a bit younger than me, and they are quite patient with this slow learner, but I finally was catching on by the end of 2 games without being prompted. First time to see the newest member of the family, Ama, who is the dau of Arlen & Hayley.

Happy Birthday to Luke who turned age 24 on Tues. My parents went to be with Elizabeth & family and all the other extended family here had other plans, so for the first time in my life I went to Center Thankgsgiving services at 10AM. Several young families sang and shared personal tidbits of their bedtime activities with their young children and sang songs that they sing at bedtime. Very enjoyable.

I was privileged to be a Nisly for the day and had Thanksgiving Dinner at Harold’s place along with the local Menno N family & descendents. Edna was able to make it. Says she has had better days, but was bright and cheerful. Am sure I would not be such so soon after major surgery. Pleasantly surprised to see Luke & Virgil again. Nathan is getting to be quite a tall young man, good to see you again too along with the other cousins & siblings of Harold I don’t get to see as much. Sorry that Mark couldn’t make it. On call today at his job as I understood it. Had a very good meal & time there before I had to move myself along to my afternoon shift that day. A slow day & not much going on.

Saturday provided me some exciting ER’s starting at 9PM. A very sick young man came in & was admitted & needing lots done. Enjoy having young pts every once in a while who are alert and can totally cooperate as opposed to those with natural or hospital induced dementia. Never could understand how that works. On the minus side I had a very short night of sleep.

Yesterday Paul Beachy had the sermon & most of the Melvin M Yoder family here for a reunion. I think the rest arrived later in the day or today. This is an immediate family only reunion including spouses. That will be a special time for them.

Today I am 17758 days old & Josh is 8879 days old so he is exactly half my age today, just for a bit of trivia and assuming I correctly applied math and calendar skills.

As old as I am I still have not attained half the age of Grandma Laurina who turned age 98 this past Oct 17.

mikey

Saturday 11-22-08

Happy Birthday William!

Hope you are safe wherever you are in Iraq.

A quiet day at work yesterday. No ER’s, but I am starting to come down with a cold which has hit me full force today. Spent most of the day in bed. Something about my meds is really making me sleepy & I have been dragging myself all week.

Took Jim to MP tonight to eat at the German Buffet, but it was closed, so we ate at Hunan, the favorite Chinese place. Jim saw an acquaintance there. Did the rounds, but no one was home.

I wanted to get some things at WalMart, but just slept for an hour in the car. Went on home & downloaded and installed a Norton version update on my parents’s computer. Didn’t take too long & no problems.

Tomorrow is our Thanksgiving family gathering with the Stenfors family along with ours-descendents of Grandma Laurina & Aunt Edith Stenfors. Aunt Edith is no longer living & Grandma probably will not be there as she is just not well enough to leave Kenwood at this time. Her long & short term memory is rapidly declining. This will be at the Gypsum Baptist Church tomorow at 1:15PM.

mikey

Thursday 11-20-08

Just got back from Hutch awhile ago. Celebrated Jeff N’s BD tonight and this one was only about 3 weeks late Had a meal at Montana Mike’s. Same place his bro. Matthew chose about a week ago. Tried new entrees each time and was pleased with the food.

Good to catch up with this good friend of mine, SS class guy from my first young SS class of 2001/02 & VBS class. He is currently employed with the family business and everything seems to be working out quite well.

Last night was the Christian Service Report (formerly known as Annual Business Meeting). Ice cream & cake & other snacks were served later. I would have to say there was an excellent turn-out. Wonder if the change of name and food had anything to do with it?

Spent the day going through massive stacks and stacks of unfiled papers, documents, un-double checked tax returns, efile signature sheets not in the proper place yet. Oh what a mess. Also reconciled my bank statement. Happily no outstanding checks for once in a long time. And yes… it’s balanced to the penny. That goes without saying.

Ready for another decompression tomorrow. No time for exercises, but will most certainly do my quota tomorrow so I can used the water table and chair & leg massage machines. Such relaxing stress-relieving machines.

mikey

Tuesday 11-18-08

Had a dentist appt yest at 11AM. No cavities or other problems. Today I went for my 2nd lumbar (low back) decompression treatment at Salina Spine (formerly Eisenhower Chiro). This place has turned into a kind of gym PT place. Did a lot of exercises on mats with several others to view my mismoves, etc. Shawn was patient with me as I am doing beginner exercises. I can see why they use this system. I would never get any exercises done on my own at home. Perhaps a significant number of other pts would be as lazy as I am.

Saw my good friend, Norman K, from Canton the last time I was there and he is dealing with similar issues as I am. The machine time was fairly tight on my back, but tolerable. Getting OFF the machine was quite difficult and is the first time I had a dizzy spell and extreme tightness in my legs. Finally made my way to the car.

Ate at Santa Fe Phillies with Jim & enjoyed the 1903 Salina map on the wall. So many streets have been renamed since then and small independent subdivisions. Prob the reason so many streets are not in alignment with each other. This also lends itself to slower driving with so many zigzags to make on the same street. And all this before autos came on the scene.

Ran errands for Jim as yest was his payday. Then hurried to Hillsboro to pick up some mutual fund statements from a client. Account values continue to decline rapidly, esp the last 6 weeks which are not showing on these last quarterly statements. Older clients are pulling out of the stock market by the droves, prob against the advice of financial advisers and myself. I personally think this is a good time to invest for myself.

Did some monthly sales tax forms and later read up on esophageal dilation. I made an appt with Dr. Johnson to have another EGD on Dec 2nd with esophageal dilation. Hopefully this will help reduce or eliminate my esoph spasms. A week ago I had another episode & landed in the Salina ER & had an emergency EGD at 2AM. I became violently ill just before the procedure & the lodged food went down unknown to me as they were hurrying me to the GI area. Soon had demerol & versed on board and don’t remember much of the procedure. I still have a sore throat, so I must have fought like everything as they tried to put the tube down my throat. Thankfully the versed has worked perfectly each time and I don’t remember anything traumatic at all, just being annoyed that they made me get up from a perfectly wonderful drug-induced sleep.

Tomorrow is another decompression treatment, so must get to bed.

mikey

Saturday 10-18-08

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Age 98 as of Friday Oct, 17. Went to Hillsboro & did sales tax & 3rd qtr payroll reports & saw several people I haven’t seen in awhile.

Stopped at Kenwood to see Grandma about 7:30PM. She was already in bed asleep. My first thot was to leave, but later followed my own advice to visitors at  my place of employment-Wake them up, they sleep all the time.

Grandma recognized my voice even before waking. We had a good chat & discussed all the flowers & cards she had rec. Very thirsty and it was an honor to give my grandmother 2 large drinks of water, all while laying flat in bed and no choking. Says it’s hard to swallow like there’s something in her throat. This makes meal time unpleasant as she is compelled to eat all the food on her tray.

Her card shower is Sunday.

Went to the Gypsum Fall Festival today. Perfect weather. Missed out on a fish fry, but that was OK, they had plenty of scalloped potatoes-a favorite of mine. Saw lots of people I haven’t seen in a long time including one of my best friends in 5th grade-Brian S. So many fun memories of that year in school 1971-72.

A leg fx in ER as we came on duty at Hillsboro & those are the kind of ER’s I like. A typical 20 something male & afraid of needles, and yet these same males can have tats all over their bodies and that’s no problem. Wonder why!

Haven’t been here for quite some time, much too busy with tax deadlines. Extended 2007 tax returns were due Oct 15. All were efiled on time, one within 5 minutes of midnight, but several need to be rechecked to make sure there are no errors.

Lots going on the past 2 months & might mention some items as they come to mind. Need to get to bed soon, Communion tomorrow at Center.

mikey

Saturday 8-23-08

Went to Salina about Noon to take Jim to work. Saw the yellow Rolls Royce with the big eagle in front and 2 American flags flying from both sides of the car-headed towards Gypsum. Wonder where he was going?Somehow this all reminds me of Caddyshack. I am acquainted with the white-haired driver of the RR and he is a real gentleman tho.

Ate at Flying J before dropping Jim off at Smoky Hill Rehab. Didn’t know they close from 1AM to 5AM. They had been a 24 hr place.

A discouraging day at work for me. I asked a dying pt whether his/her sins are forgiven by Jesus (must make every attempt to keep this as confidential as possible). The reply was: ” I don’t have any sins”, later-”just forget about my sins”. As the shift went on the pt seemed restless. I asked if he/she has peace, and the answer was “no”, “Don’t cover me up, I’m not dead yet”, then, “I’m dying…let me die”.

This is a well-respected individual & one I have known a long time. I have heard it said that it’s easy to be saved, difficult to show people they are lost so they CAN be saved.

mikey

Friday 8-22-08

Spent about 6 hours on backups and making decisions about Sec 179 or regular depreciation on my next tax return. EIC will be a major factor here as opposed to wasting exemptions. Think it would be best to go heavy on Sec 179 & maximize EIC. Went to bed at 6AM & up again at 11AM for my next chiro appt.

Went to the chiro & quite a bit more sore than usual. Went to Sunset Park instead of the usual Oakdale Park to do my laps. Supposed to get up to 90 degrees or higher. Prob close to that at Noon. Then took Jim to work & ran a couple errands. Dropped off another tax return copy at Sunflower Bank. Then a quick stop at Dillons. Did some more pondering on various tax questions. Started on the tedious job of going over Quickbooks transactions to make sure they are posted in the correct account & making a list of those in question. Took a nap & headed for Hutch.

Tonight was my night with my good friend John Miller. El Potrillo was quite packed so Montana Mike’s was the next choice. Not so busy there and had a very nice relaxed time with John. First time for him to be in this rustic eating establishment. Later he treated me to a cafe latte with hazelnut. He had decaf & I had regular. A very delicious treat. Thank you John.

Rec a call from Jacob just before my turnoff at Roxbury/Lindsborg exit into cell phone no man’s land. Had a good chat with Jacob who had just returned from another exciting Friday night softball game. Heard Yoder Days is tomorrow.

Rejuvinated and ready to tackle those multi hundred Quickbooks transactions now.

mikey

08-21-08

Happy Birthday Eric!!!

Finished another big tax return & got that delivered at 9PM. A big load off my shoulders here. Ready for the next task & strangely up for it. Drove Jim around town since this is his day off. Did laundry & stuff like that. Did some shopping around & saved about $30 on necessities. That pleased me a great deal.

Off from the hospital since I worked Monday. Don’t mind a bit. Forgot to mention, yesterday at Center was a prayer service for the Church. One person prayed for each of about 5 age groups and then for various groupings, such as for the ministers and other groups. Lasted about 40 minutes while we were on our feet, those of us able to do so. That was good for my back Then a short song service. Later talked at length with Julian about some things on my mind, issues and all. He is a good listener.

Pilgrim School started today. Those of the student body that I talked with seem eager to get started again. I for one am glad I don’t have to go back to school. Public school here has been in session for over a week now.

mikey

Wednesday 8-20-08

Been about 2 weeks since I was last here. Guess that means there is nothing to write about. Life going on as usual. On Monday the 11th our SS class had a night out at Carriage Crossing. A good time & good food. Glad everyone could make it. Oh how could another SS year be almost over again??

Wishing Benji God speed as he travels to IGO in SE Asia. Planning to be there about 4 months. Will be missed here tho.

Glad to have Jeff N in SS last Sunday. Come again!

Yesterday delivered a HUGE tax return that has been rather difficult and has literally taken weeks to complete. Now there are others to take its place. Worked at the hospital Monday so don’t need to go in tomorrow. Said goodbye to one pt, at least on this side of eternity. Been in my life a long time. Hadn’t left yet by the time I clocked out at 3AM. Put 100 admission charts together, AND had an exciting ER-a bicycle crash injury at a culvert per scanner. These are the kind I like when they leave in much better condition than they arrive.

Looking forward to hearing all about the recent Nisly cousin trip to NYC. Details, details, details…..OHHH, and addresses also

mikey