Oh Boy! It has been a while. I will try to post all important and humerous information.
Friday: I worked all day on Friday. Job was easy, but the drama continues. Looks like I have less hours this month than last. Evidently, one nurse quit her other job to work full time hours for my patient and so she is getting quite a few hours since "She is so flexible". Even my 8 hours days have been cut back to 4-6 hours to give evening nurses 4 to 8 hours in the afternoon. I asked her about it and her response is that she just wanted to give them a few extra hours. After all the years I have worked there and helped out, she can only say "they will work the hours I need" or "I am trying to find you some more hours". Offered to pick up an open Tuesday, and she gave that to the other nurse hoping I could pick up Thursday. Sorry no. Talked to her about that too, and she didn't want me to work that day. That is fine, but I am not going to bend over backwards anymore. Help me be strong! Most seniority and least appreciated. After work, we had some dinner and then went to Mary's orchestra festival. They played the same 3 songs as they did for the Winterfest festival a few Saturdays ago. They did well and received straight 1's!
Saturday: Mary and I got up early to attend the Golden Eagle Day at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids. The people were very friendly and pretty organized. Jeff and Matt were scheduled to go, but stayed home to rest and get other things done. Well, this college had name tags on lanyards for everyone. Mine read, Grace Wilhelm, Mother of Mary Wilhelm. Matthew's was Matthew Wilhelm, brother of Mary Wilhelm, Jeff Wilhelm father of Mary Wilhelm. Almost sounded like we were living in Bible times. They served breakfast and then had the little welcome video and talk. Then was the campus tour in the cold windy outdoors. Get some Hot Chocolate before you leave, only the hot chocolate was all gone when I went to get some. The tour leader wasn't so good. Took us to a building and it was locked, "Guess we won't be seeing this one". Got to the Library. "Here is the library, I would take you in, but when I go into places that are quiet, I just want to scream and make noise, so I can't take inside." What?? Get tour guides that will show you the actual library. She mentioned an upstairs room for teacher planning. Mary would have loved that...sorrry can't go in. How dumb is that? I asked her why she chose Cornerstone, and she said "I have no idea how I ended up here, but it is a great place." Food was fair. No strings as part of the music program. However, the music teacher/director was knowledgeable about Michigan requirements and laws so we know more about how what Mary's options are. We left early. Needless to say, she won't be going to cornerstone.
Later that afternoon, we went in search for new phone batteries. My cell phone battery was lasting less than 24 hours and Jeff's phone screen was going upside down or just plain disappeared. We really wanted to avoid signing a new 2 year contract, but that is what was the cheapest. Jeff's phone needed repair, or could just buy a new phone. If we signed a new contract, then we got two of the same phones we have now for free. So I now have a new pretty pink phone and Jeff has a navy blue one. The purple was nice, but I really like the pink. Let's just say we spent numerous hours downloading info from our old phones to the computer and then from the computer to the phones. Course, I have to set things up how I like them too. In between the phone hours, I worked from 8 pm to 2:20 am. It was nice to be back to a routine of care. Since my return to work after surgery, my patient has slept most of the day hours. Not too much to do and play when she is sleeping. She was still awake when I left at 0230. I got to bed really late, blaming the new cell phone.
Sunday: Curch and Sunday School was well attended and the kids choir sang pretty well. I need to work with them on their presentation. They forget to smile or maybe they get nervous. But they watched me through the whole song and cut off their T's and S's perfectly. We got a quick lunch at wendy's and then I took Mary out to Brandon's house. They went to the Grand Rapids Junior Symphony concert. Their friend Nick, plays viola. Jeff left for Detroit to catch a plane to Florida. He is attending a hurricane conference there.
Matthew got his paintball gun/equipment and is very happy about it. He showed m everything with a big smile and enthusiasm. I can't say I am excited, but agreed with Jeff to allow his participation.
Bowling starts at 7 pm. I got there just as they were starting. My other team members were late getting back into town from the east side of the state from a bowling tournament. I bowled the first game alone and didn't really do so well-93. Luckily with Jeff's good prebowl scores, and my partners decent blind scores, we still won the game. My second 2 games were awesome. I bowled a
138 and a 143. The last game I had 3 strikes in a row in the 9 and 10th frame! Yay! I am a turkey. Our team took all 4 points and are tied with 3 other teams with 20 points. Norma had a great last game of 172! Matthew came to the bowling alley with me and I gave him a dollar for every game we won. He played some games and bought a Milky Way. We also enjoyed a chicken finger basket together for dinner. He was such a gentleman, he cleaned and packed up my ball and shoes and then carried it to the car for me. Mary came home after dinner, and had a nice time. She worked on some projects and then went to bed. Jeff texted me from Orlando to let me know he got there safe.
Monday: Matthew woke up with a stomach ache. He went to school hoping he would feel better. When I got home from dropping them off, I realized that I locked myself out of the house! Luckily, our neighbor was home and I got a key within 30 minutes. I spent some time in the car until I was able to contact them. Jeff called and said he got to his parents late, after midnight. I am glad that he was able to spend the night there, especially after his dad had a fall while playing tennis and was hospitalized for an overnight. I guess things are going ok now. Just needs a lot of healing. Your prayers are appreciated. Jeff said his ride "home" was frustrating. PT Cruisers window controls are in the center panel under the radio and the dome light is on the end of the directional signal or some such stick. He took the SunPass, but the battery was out, so he had to pull over to put the battery in, in the dark because he was still trying to find the dome light. Long story short, He is safe and should be at the conference now. Our good friend Mark W. is an in charge person there, so he will get to meet up with him this week.
Matthew called before the end of first hour and said he was still sick and needed to come home. Since then, he has thrown up several times and feels horrible. Hope it doesn't last long. Mine was only 24 hours. Here's hoping! Luckily, baseball tryouts are next week, not this week!
Sarah left a message that the 'n' fell off her computer keyboard. So, she will be talking with Dell later today to have that replaced. She is doing well otherwise. I was asked to send more snacks. Time seems to be going by quickly now. Spring break starts next weekend. First she will be attending a Athletic Trainers conference and then I will pick her up on Saturday the 14th for a week or so. Our church is going to have a new pictorial directory and luckily, Sarah will be home to be part of our portrait! Yay! She can celebrate Dad's birthday too. WooHoo!
Looking Ahead: I have kids choir and chimes tonight. I will be baking for lenten service tomorrow, going grocery shopping and work on some laundry, of course. Wednesday I work, then Matt supposed to work crew at the high school I we have church. Thursday is quilting and a choir concert. No school on Friday, so we are going to visit Univeristy of Michigan. We were going to try and meet with the music department, but they have auditions that day. Jeff will be meeting us there, after flying back to Detroit on Thursday evening. Choir festivalis Saturday in rockford, about 20 minutes from here. Whew!
Better get cracking. Lots to do!
Grace
Rachel and family are going home tomorrow! Leave Tuesday, but arrive Germany on Wednesday. Her blood counts are so much better! Thanks for all of your prayers! It will be wonderful for the whole family to be back together, just in time for spring break.
Mary has her ticket to the prom now, so we can for sure make a decision on the dress. The more I think about it, the more I lean toward purchasing one she likes so there are no troubles the day of the event. I finally downloaded the pictures I took of the dress at the store on Friday. I think she looks gorgeous!
better. There were a few, I didn't like, but it is just a game right? Kids choir was great as usual. Those little girls really like singing. I thought that Chime Team might have met its demise, but my friend Annette agreed to jump in and finish up the year with us. That was a Godsend! We only have two more days to play. Then we are done until Fall. 
better. There were a few, I didn't like, but it is just a game right? Kids choir was great as usual. Those little girls really like singing. I thought that Chime Team might have met its demise, but my friend Annette agreed to jump in and finish up the year with us. That was a Godsend! We only have two more days to play. Then we are done until Fall. 
Jeff worked on a potential summer vacation. We are planning a trip to the plains. St. Louis, Norman OK and the University of Oklahoma, Dallas and Houston, then back home through Branson, MO. Nothing is set in stone, but we will probably make this journey in mid July. Jeff has military duty late July/early Aug and Mary will be going on a short one week mission trip to Bethesda Lutheran Home to help with camp. I think that would be a great week. I would go too, but they already had enough chaperones.
Family portraits were at 12:30, just 60 minutes from the time we got home from phone shopping. We made it there all looking fine and spent nearly 90 minutes taking and picking out pictures. They really did turn out nice. Sarah wasn't particularly happy with her personal pose, so I took a few pictures with her new dress on and her hair up. She had it down in the portraits. I think she is beautiful any way she wears it. Our order will arrive in about two weeks. I hope they look as good on Kodak paper, as they did on the computer screen.
Today was kind of like a yo-yo. We were glad that we didn't have to be anywhere early, so we got to sleep in. I made pancakes for breakfast and then we went swimming at the local community college. It was a lot of fun. I dove off the board a few times and forgot how much fun it is. The water was super chlorinated and Mary and my eyes have hurt the rest of the day.
