Tuesday Report on Grandma A

OK. Went to the hospital this morning to see Grandma A.
Good News!- she had a good night!
Still pain, but it was managed. I didn't get to speak with her Dr or the Social Worker, hope to do that this afternoon.
I helped her to get cleaned up and dressed this morning. I also washed all of her clothes and packed some for the trip to Stoneybrook. Her Caregiver- Jaycee will be picking up the rest of the list of items from Grandma's apartment this morning. I will call to try to get a timeline for when they will transport her to Stoneybrook.

As Dad and I were talking last night, he reminded me to share the duties and not try to handle this on my own. (I think he is remembering some of the interactions he has experienced in the last few months).
AnyWho... here is a list of things to consider, please feel free to add and make suggestions, so that we can all be on the same page and be involved in the process.

• the plan is for 2 weeks at Stoneybrook- what about after? is Stoneybrook a good fit for her?
  what is our other option?
• Grandma had a question about medications- do they order? does she still order through Barry's?
• need to contact Dr. Meek - if she is to permanently transfer to a nursing facility, she will need a written order from him. when do we do this?- what are the steps to be taken?
• if this happens- what about her apartment? what about the contents?

I know there are other questions and concerns. Please add to list and if you are willing to research or call, please post and let everyone know. 

I will be adding Uncle Steve to our blog. Aunt Rena already receives the posts.

For those of you out of town, I will let you decide about whether or not to make a trip here. There will be a bit of footwork and wrangling in the next few weeks. Plan accordingly and be wise about time off and vacation.

That's it for now. More later! 

Grandma A to Stoneybrook

Dr does not want Mom to go home with w/o extra care. He would like for her to go to a nursing home for a couple of weeks. She needs more care than the Caregivers provide. We had already been discussing her need for more care.
I spoke in detail to Rena and Steve about Mom's health. We know she is at a point that she will need extra care, so we discussed this already with Mom.
Also she does not feel safe where she stays now. She does not sleep well, which does not help her body. 
We will see how it goes with Stoneybrook, then we will speak with her primary care physician. Dr. Meek will be retiring this year, so we need to get his input as much as possible before he leaves. She has been with him for over 30 years, no one else knows more about Mom's condition.
We will keep you in the loop. She is supposed to be moved tomorrow.

Update on Grandma A

Sorry, days of kind of been running together. Got a call on Wednesday from the nurse in the emergency room telling me that Grandma was going to be admitted to the hospital.

Her heart rate was really high, and her blood pressure was really low.  Some of the tests didn't look good. She ended up needing 4-5 bags of fluid before she was stable.

Thought she was doing better, but she started having chest heaviness, so right now she is still in the hospital. Hopefully she will get out tomorrow.

Delayed Update from JC Rivers!

Hello Everyone,

It is fun to hear from all of you!  We are sure a busy crew!   We will start with talking about The Amazing Landon Ramsey Rivers!!!  As you know he turned 9 months on the 14th, and at his check up appointment he weighed 19.15 oz and was 28 inches long. This means he is just about half the height of his mother! Haha!   He has now mastered pulling up on furniture, crawling, and has been walking behind a "push" walker for a few weeks now.  Most recently he has started to stand on his own for a few seconds, so we will for sure have a walking baby at his one year birthday....wow!!  Landon now has to be barricaded from different areas of the house and takes joy in racing away from us.  He fully knows the word "NO!" and grunts his protests against our efforts to keep him out of  "fun" areas but he does comply.....most of the time!

James has been working for the Postal Service since Feb. 23rd and is quickly working through his 90 day probation period by working 6 and 7 days a week.  He is technically assigned to the Manhattan Post Office, but has worked in Junction City for the past couple of weeks, as well as opened for Fort Riley.  The hours are from as early as 3am to process morning mail, with a 2 to 3 hour lunch break, and then he returns in the afternoon to send out the mail to Kansas City. The afternoon shift is called "Dispatch" or "Departures." and James is the requested man for the job!  The hours are strange, and not having much time off is hard at times, but he is home in the evenings. James enjoys the job and can see a lot of potential for moving up in the Postal system within the next year.

Like Harrison, Megan recently battled Shingles, but thankfully they are not nearly as bad. Sorry Harry!!!  Megan is enjoying her job, loves the kids she works with, and loving the School schedule even more!!  Spring Break was wonderful!!  Bring on Summer Vacation!!  She recently completed the 4,000, yes 4,000 hours of clinical experience/supervision and is in the process of scheduling a time to sit for her Clinical Licensing Exam, hopefully in May or June.  Megan has been blessed to have a student intern from Washburn come and work with her this semester.  The intern is actually someone she used to work with when she worked for the Army, so it was easy to get to know each other again.  The intern has taken a significant burden off her caseload and reduced a lot of stress.  Megan also had another person request to have her as a Field Instructor for the next school year, so she will have a different student intern working for her in the Fall!!

As a couple, James and Megan have recently became the Property Managers of their apartment building, which has provided significant decrease in rent, for really not much work! Thank you, Lord! At church, there has been a recent change in staff, and we are now the temporary leaders of the Youth Group, instead of just sponsors.  We will stay until they find a replacement, but it has been decided that we will bow out as leaders/sponsors upon the Church hiring someone.  Megan is apart of the Finance Committee and an Oversight Committee for our Food Bank.  James is still on Trustees Committee and recently became the secretary.  Due to the recent dynamic changes in our life with James starting to work, and having to takeover Youth Group, we had to put a hold on facilitating another Financial Peace University course, but not for long.

Speaking of FPU!  Now, with the Blessing of a new job for James......Rivers 3.0 is gearing up to take on our debt with Gazelle intensity and it won't take us long when you consider the whole grand scheme of things!  So, needless to say, this is an exciting time in our lives!!  Things are coming together, and we couldn't be more Thankful for God's Blessings.  So, that is our update!  We are living like no one else, so we can live like no one else!!!  (Insert Cheesy Face)

Love you all, JC Rivers!

songs from last queen of canaan

love these videos... enjoy!
these were shot at the showcase for yandura & meloclik in nyc

Houston Update

Hello Family,

We've been busy traveling, as usual. Last month Lee traveled to NYC, DC, Texas, and other places for work. We had a blast in NYC, despite the chill. It was great seeing Harrison, Christopher, Davíd and all of his creative, talented friends that still reside in the Big Apple. We ate great food and attended a showing of the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Joyce. It was fabulous.

The month of March was a love month. We had a wedding every weekend this month. We traveled to Lake Jackson, TX, had one in Houston, and rounded the wedding festivities this past weekend in Savannah, GA. I think you all would adore Savannah. At this wedding we were able to spend time with good 'ole Kansas and Missouri folk. A few of the parents mistook Lee for Harrison and others asked about the Rivers frequently. Of course the bride's father (Mr Havlicek) had great things to say about Pops as he knows him from around the community!!

Lee's travel season has been in full swing for the last few months and he still has some trips planned well into the summer. He's headed to Iowa next week and then will be during a tour in the Northwest states in mid April. Then we are off to Hawaii for our anniversary week!!

Q is busy with salsa dancing, weight lifting, and training for a 10K. Things are in full swing with our church. Our Young Adult Ministry is hosting a talent show and she is on the planning committee. This week she is excited to meet Phil Heath, 4x Mr Olympia. They will be hosting him at their gym this week and doing some workshops. The Phil Health Classic show will be in Houston again this year and they will be the featured gym.

Work is busy for her. Last week was Spring Break so that meant fewer staff and more children/women to attend to, but everyone lived. We've had a couple of incidents with the FBI and local police on some major trafficking and domestic violence cases, so pray for justice to be served for those women. Her agency is looking to expand their upper management and create some new director positions, and she is the running (most likely) for one or two of them. In the mean time, she is always seeking positions that best suit her passions.

All is well with us. We look forward to hearing about every one's adventures and updates. We love you all.

Lots of Hugs,
Lee + Q

Update from Minnesota

Hi all,

Not much to report here.

I was diagnosed with Shingles nearly three weeks ago and it's really slowed me down both mentally and physically.

I guess, my case is pretty bad.
The rash wrapped from my chest to the middle of my back
And covered my entire underarm to my elbow.
I also had an infection so that didn't help.
The level of pain fluctuates
From burning, to needle pricks, to stabs, etc.
It's manageable, mostly.
Meaning, I've gotten used to it, for the most part.
It's the worst at night.

In spite of the Shingles (or despite)
It's been a productive few weeks.

1. Took a trip to Chicago with the Playwrights' Center to meet (re-meet) Artistic Directors and Literary Managers there. Several of the theaters we met with are institutions that I would LOVE to work with so... it was good to get the face time.

2. Finished a re-write of my play AND ALL THE DEAD, LIE DOWN just in time for the first rehearsal of the piece at Studio C Artists (a small theater) in Los Angeles, California. It will be presented next month.

3. TheatreLAB in Richmond, Virginia has begun rehearsals for their production of WHEN LAST WE FLEW. It will also be presented in April.

4. I am now officially the bookwriter for a brand new musical called MADIBA about the life of Nelson Mandela. The music and lyrics are by Greg and Shaun Borowsky. They are from South Africa and have the support of the Mandela estate.

(That makes FOUR musicals!)

5. Lastly, I found out that I'm a finalist for the O'Neill Playwrights' Conference (http://www.theoneill.org/summer-conferences/npc/). There were 1,300 entries this year. They identified 65 finalists.

Well
There's my update.

Ashley and Jonathan--yay on the house!
Q and Lee--yay on Savannah!
Megan and James--yay on the job and on having the cutest baby ever!
Mom and dad--yay for pressuring us to blog!
(And for being WONDERFUL)

Love love love,
H

We Need Updates

Morning Everyone!
So much has happened in the last few weeks. Please take the time to update all of us, so that we are on the same page.
This will be the second week of grief classes for me and D.A.D. We got a letter about the classes and dad thought it would be a good thing. Be sure to read Dad's blog entry.
I was able to attend a conference in Wichita last week. I stayed overnight with Brenda and had dinner with John and Ashley. The conference was good and I will share my info with our staff and our next meeting.  It is hard to find a reasonably priced conferences about assistive technology. I recently found one conference that will be in Houston, I hope to attend. More about that later!
So with that done, now it's your turn!

1st week of Hospice Class

Mourning: been going to a grief series at the hospice here in town, we meet twice a week with a small group of 10. I'm amazed how perfect strangers can open up about themselves (transparency) and Christian groups interact like stonewalls.

The things I picked up from the class, we grieve over different things other than death. Divorce, graduation, retirement, defects/illness, birth, marriage, college, moving, changes in health, aging parents, loss of pets, loss of ability, friendship/relationship, fire, robbery, leaving home and safety.

It seems our culture does not give the person the adequate time they need to grieve. So that they may function better in healthy ways. It seems our culture is afraid of death and is unwilling to comfort it in a healthy manner as people have done in the past, as a result, few of us know how to deal I respond to death on a personal level or understand our grief.

In Chapter 11 of the book of John, death was excepted as part of life, as well as the grieving process. It was acceptable to grieve and allow time for grieving and not to spend all your time grieving alone. It was customary for the Jews to bury their dead on the day of their death, since they did not embalm them. During funeral procession's men and women walk separately. Women would return from the burial site to begin the 30 day mourning. Many of their mourners would remain with the family. That explains why the Jews who came to console Mary and Martha were still with them four days after the burial.

John 11:17-19 : here's a thought about In the Tomb four days. 
The Jews believe that the soul hovered around the body for three days after death, hoping to reenter it. On the fourth day seeing that the body was beginning to decompose the soul departed "that makes Lazarus very dead of the very dead". With all this, Lazarus is not the primary focus of the story. The main emphasis is Jesus and the Father being glorified through the resurrection of Lazarus. And to strengthen the faith of his disciples.
"I called this the sorting out of the sheep from the goats, the weeds from the wheat". Because of the resurrection of Lazarus, some of the mourners will come to a saving faith, while some will just become indifferent and hostile.

D.A.D.

Housing Hunt Update from Wichita

Hello Family!

Ashley and I have had a very exciting week in our house hunting adventures. So here's a quick timeline to catch everyone up on where we are. Over the past year and a half we've attended several open houses while driving past and “window shopping” well over 50 properties and neighborhoods… Lots of gas money spent… 

On Tuesday, March 10^th – Met with some lenders to get pre-approved and learn more about the mortgage process.

Wednesday, March 11^th – We requested a showing of 3932 Edgemont St Wichita, KS 67208, a home that went on the market in late October and one we had had our eye on for just as long… And we loved it! The neighborhood, the size and the potential. But were hesitant and needed to see more.

Thursday, March 12^th – Visited four more houses and while educational, were less than impressed. However we did find out that we had been pre-approved by both of our lenders, hooray! 

Saturday, March 14^th – Met with our Buyer Agent to ask questions and learn more about the process going forward and what services they had to offer. 

Wednesday, March 18^th – Visited another four houses, accumulated more data and finally went back to Edgemont for another look. And we fully fell in love; our second time around was wonderful! However, our private showing was interrupted by another potential buyer… who we learned later that evening was going to make an offer…  

Thursday, March 19^th – So after a night's sleep, much prayer, financial calculations and thoughtful planning, we developed our own offer to submit to the seller.

Friday, March 20^th – And early this morning, we found out our full offer was accepted! 

So yeah, we are now in the process of setting inspection days for what could be our future home. 3932 Edgemont is a 4 bed 1.5 bath two story house, with an unfinished basement and located in the Sleepy Hollow/College Hill neighborhood. The link below should provide some additional info and pictures -

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3932-Edgemont-St-Wichita-KS-67208/77343930_zpid/ 

Plenty of steps before the finish line, but we are very excited and anxious. We would very much appreciate your prayers going forward!

Much Love,

Jonathan & Ashley  

March 7th

Micah 5:13
I will destroy your carved images and your secret stones from among you. You will no longer bow down to the work of your hands.

What's occupying your heart more than God. I know the normal concerns are there. But the things you have hewn out of your heart and made them sacred to you, that you bow down to them and make them the center of your world over God. God says basically they will be destroyed, they will come to nothing – what will you be left with after the work of creating your idol, is tested by fire?