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Now you all know I tend to embelish things at times, well not embellish....maybe stretch the truth...to make a point of course.
Well, let me tell you...I am TELLING THE TRUTH when I say it is HOT out here in Portland, you may have seen or heard about us on the national news. It is 107 today and has been over 100 for the last 5 days.
I DO NOT like the heat, (just like my Sister Jean). If it gets over 85, that is a tad too hot for me, so over 100 is "over the top".
They say it will not let up yet for another few days, and then will only be in the 90's...still not much relief....
It is NOT supposed to be HOT ere, less than 5 % of those of us in Portland have air conditioning. Thankfully, Robert bought a window air conditioner 3 years ago for the Living room where I have been camped out 24/7 for the last 4 days. It does a good job in the LR, but the temp in the house still says 89 degrees. It has to be over 140 degrees up stairs in the bedroom, so I have been sleeping on the couch.....
I must say I love Face book....It keeps me current on all things everyone is doing back home, along with the blogs of course. So sorry about Jean and Scott's weekend with Dave and Lynne. Curve ball is right.....
I have loved Jenny's blog's with pictures of the girls. I can't wait to see them, I could eat them up they are so cute. Brenda always captures her life in many pictures and stories...so glad the "blow-out" on the car was not worse than it was. I had one once and it is a BAD feeling.
I still do ot have my airline ticket, prices are unreasonably high, but I want to fly in on Aug 15th and catch a ride home with J/S who will be in Chicago that weekend anyway for thier last art show.
I plan on staying about 6 weeks and truthfuly, I hope it is about 70-76 there. It will be a welcome relief.
Apparently it takes about 6 weeks for SSI to get the word from the outcome of the hearing "into thier system" and processed. It has been 3 weeks today, but at least I know it is done and over with and by the end of August I should actually see some money. Can't tell you what a relief that thought is.
I went to a fun Barnhouse sale a few weeks ago. Barnhouse does not really capture the essence of this great sale. They had all things shabby, French and Chic at the sale. I got some fun items I plan to craft with....come this fall when I get back to Portland. I also tired to get a different profile picture for Face book...I took a picture of a picture so it did not turn out too great, but I wanted one of Robert and I.
A few pictures of the things I got at the Barnhouse sale....Can't wait to see everyone in a few weeks.....Brenda/Jenny and whoever else is interested....a trip to Shipshawana needs to happen....
Off to soak my head in a pail of cool water.... :)
Short post....just to say I had a great time at the beach with Deanna. She did all the work, walked all 3 dogs, carried everything, cooked, the only mishap was Thursday night when I tried to help her pull out the hide-a-bed, I am certain I displaced my rib again as I cannot sit up or down, have to hold my stomach and back when I move or rise from a sitting position...
I called the doc and have an appt for day ofter tomorrow.
I still have not really processed the fact that my SSI went through and I am so happy I do not know how to act.
THANKS to everyone, all of you that have been praying and giving me support over the last 3 years....
I have a list of about 30 things to accomplish this week, I will take care of things one at a time, my first is to call the local SSI office to figure out what happens from here....when I might see some money, I am figuring it will take about 2 months....
I want to come to Michigan for the month of September. Or late August-the end of Sept. I am going to start looking to airline tickets, but plan on that time. I have too much to get taken care of and set in place here before I leave, so I need about 6 weeks to get my act together.
Doug and Val could very likely join me in Michigan for a week. Rachel had mentioned that she would figure out a way for them to stay at her house. That Rachel is a dream come true....she is the most amazing sister in law. I am so lucky.
I want D/V to be able to meet Dad, see the compound, see Jean and Scott...They are very simple people, but they have done so much for me, I want everyone to meet them.
so start planning now for a big party, or 10 big parties, or a party every day to celebrate my SSI situation. When I was at the beach, Val came and cleaned my house from top to bottom....so nice to come home to a toally CLEAN house.
Especially after a 3.5 hour stand still on 1-5 north...we stood still for all that time, I was about NUTS by the time we finally got home. The 3 dogs in the back were also 1/2 nuts. Sheba had a 11th birthday at the beach. Deanna cooked great food for all 3 dogs in celebration.....pictures are on facebook.
More later...
The last picture is of Bubba....the last night before she went to her new adopted home....He wanted to lay right by Sheba for the last night they were together....Good ole Bubba is doing GREAT in his new home and his owner loves him to pieces.
Well....after reading Jenny's post about visits to the ER being a common occurance for her family on holidays...It got me to thinking about the TOP NYKERK ACCIDENTS......sort of a "take-off" if you will about Dan's top post regarding the Top 10 Nykerk Traditions....Now I realize some of the 2nd generation, ( BRenda, Jenny, Rachel....you get the drift) will not remember some of the events that occured with thier respective parents....so you will probably have to leave those to us older folks....and certainly the 3rd generation...(Macey and Kelsey) will not have much recall about the 2nd generation....although I am quite certain Macey remembers a jump from the couch that resulted in a broken leg....
So to get things started I will leave a few memories of those historical accidents, and I ask all of you to add along in the comment section....lets see how many we can come up with.
- Bill racing up the driveway at 455 Lakewood on his tri-cycle, head down, concentrating on how FAST he was going, only to run into the back light of the gray 1948 Ford parked in the drive. The car was there when he started his race.....it is not like it materialized out of the blue.....resulting in stitches in his head
- Jim riding his 2 wheel bike up the street were the Buter's lived, riding fast and the handlebars cracking off resulting in the steel rod going though his mouth and coming out the other side of his face....resulting in lots of stitches on the right side of his mouth.
- Carol waiting patiently for her turn to ride on the bag swing that used to hang where the garage is now built. Please make note of the piece of wood that was situated under the bag swing. Carol waits in the middle of the area where the swing will cross over and over. She gets hit in the head with the piece of wood.....continues to stand in the SAME spot, for another crack to the head....still wanting to ride, she stands in the same place for yet a THIRD whack to the head before she moves out of the way.....resulting in several stitches to her head.
- Jean riding her new blue new bike some where near Glerum school...the rest of us were sitting on the picnic table in the back yard eating popscicles...Out of the blue, Jean comes walking her broken bike and says...."AHHHH, I kinda fell"...... blood gushing out of her knee, along with many rather large pieces of gravel and asphault stuck in her knee which Uncle Jerry who was visting in the States from Arabia, promptly pulled out his Doctor's bag and tended to her knee. I remember she had on a cute blue frilly skirt and a white blouse.
- Jimmy closing his finger on and in the back door of Grandma Nykerk's house, the house directly west of 455....resulting in Aunt Mary and Grandma Nykerk screaming for "Leona....come get Jimmy, he cut off his finger...." Now we all know he never really lost a finger, but the tip was gone....this required a trip to the ER.....
- Bill, along with all of his cronies filling up a scare-a-crow in all human clothing and stuffing it to look like a body. Rigging said body up in the air and dropping it onto passing cars so it landed on thier windshield...prompting unknown drivers the scare of thier lives, certain they had just killed someone. Bill and said friends were long gone by the time the unsuspecting driver had a heart attack at the wheel.....
- All the neighborhood kids playing "7 steps around the house". This is an old time game where you are supposed to be blindfolded, or at a minimum, keep your eyes closed. Carol....the only one following directions proceeded to bang her head into the corner of the brick house at 455...resulting in a ton of laughs by her siblings and a trip to the ER for stitches in her head....about the same place she had them when assulted by the bag swing event some years previous.
- Jean, having just gotten her driver's license, backing out of the driveway at 455, sliding about 25 feet into Grandma Nykerk's flower garden...and saying..."How am I doing? ". I might add there was about 35 feet of snow on the driveway. No one was hurt except for Jean's ego.
- How about the time that Jeff pounded a board with a HUGE nail right though his hand...comes up stairs with a board nailed to his hand and shows Rachel that he missed his mission of pounding the board to another board and got his hand instead.
- I swear one of us got a fish hook in the eye as a result of some errant cast from another family member.....who did this happen to?
- OK....please start adding all of the events I have missed.....
Well....long time no hear from Carol. It has been pretty hot here for the last week. In the 90's every day. I wish I had some beautiful photo's to show you, but in reality, the back yard is a jungle with weeds 8 feet high nad the front yard is filled with blooms of roses in every color, taking over the house, the yard, the neighbor's, the street.....I have a handy man coming on Tuesday who is going to pull all the weeds and trim all the bushes for a mere 25.00 ( a friend of Deanna's)
I had a nice day here yesterday, Doug and Val came over and me did chicken on the grill, brats, baked beans, corn on the cob, strawberries, pineapple, angel food cake with whip cream and a great tossed salad.
Sheba was in total glee while they were here. When they left about 11:00pm, all the noise really started.....she cried, she ran into walls, she covered her ears, she squealed.....I gave her a dose of valium but that did not help much. I think the better these greyhounds do at the track, the less tolerant they are of noise.....the bangs sound like a gun, and the start of a race.....having such a stellar racing career means she is also not tolerant of those fou-fou dogs and ankle biters....they resemble a rabbit. Anyhow, about 4 am she finally quieted down, but she was not a happy camper until today when it all totally all done.
I have my SSI hearing on this wednesday, the 8th....big day for me since I have waited over 3 years. Doug and Val are driving me there. The hearing will take one hour, then the Judge has up to 90 days to make a decision. Retro pay is not automatic. If approved, she can determine when benefits will start, and then there is another 5 month wait period....so sometime in 2020....I may know something. I will be glad just to get the hearing over, I feel confident the attorney I have obtained will do a good job, we are appearing before a female judge who is known to be "tough"....whatever that means.
Regardless of what happens, I am going to the beach house on Thursday-Sunday. GPA-NW is hosting 2 events in Lincoln City, I am not participating, but told the glas that are, that they could stay with me at the condo, so regardless, it will be nice to get to the beach for a few days.
I feel bad for Jason and his poisen ivy....I sure hope Macey and Kels do NOT catch it. Hope Brenda and Keith had a great time camping and that Jim and Rachel had a nice week off, although I hear the weather was crappy there this past week.
I am sure that Dave and Rachel hosted a 4th party on thier deck...I wonder if Bella attended. I hope Bandit, Dolly, Aly, and Bella did better with the 4th of July noise than thier cousin Sheba.
I am loving Facebook and reconnecting with friends and keeping up with the family that way.
I hope to get home sometime this summer, maybe August, or early sept. Doug and Val would actually like to visit for a week or so, Rachel has said they could stay at thier house. I know they would love coming to see the "compound", so I am hoping that works.
Robert has been doing a lot of fishing, he tried talking to Sheba on the phone last night to calm her down and even he failed...which is a first.....He will come this way when I make my plans about when I will be in Michigan.
Has any one heard that Michael Jackson died? Talk about OVER THE TOP......poor Farrah got relagated to the back pages....and now this homicide of the NFL player and his 21 yo girlfriend?.......mmmmmmmmmmmmm......more to unravel on that one.
Well, all is well over here, I hope to see some updated blogs soon, but I can't talk....this is the first update I have done in 2 months. I am so glad the rest of you are better at it than me......
Bubba is loving his new permanent home and the woman that adopted him is just plain nuts about him. I am so glad the ole fella got a good home to live out the rest of his life. No fostering for awhile.
