Yep, the picture is of me without any primping……..but I have been having more and more pain as the day has progressed, and I am at a loss to understand why.  I do not have a fever, but my head is in a LOT of pain, and all across my body under the bottom of my ribs is in pain as well.  I am attributing it all to the surgery and the position I had to sleep in last night, but it doesn’t take away the fact that I just want to shoot myself.  It would of course be at least a minor victory if my eye would start working like it should, but I will need to wait a few more days for the swelling to subside……so I am in pain and every bit as bad currently as I was before.

The hard part for me is that today was Steph’s last full day here.  I will have some time before she leaves tomorrow and I hope to enjoy it.  I fortunately will get to see her again for a few games and a banquet in a few weeks in Missouri.  I anticipate that I will be a lot better equipped to visit then!

So with that short report I will call it a day.  I am praying for a very smooth Holy Week, so my recovery is vital.  Please keep me in your prayers as it will be a lot easier if I enter it in better shape than I feel right now!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+ 

My post tonight is not going to be long, as I am supposed to be recuperating at home.  My surgery went well and am not too terribly uncomfortable.  I have to put on my BIPAP mask soon and sleep on my back, which is not going to be easy, but I really do not have any choice.

The picture is of Ben just a little after I got home.  I made sure I gave him my eye to keep, which he is posing with and he laughs when he pokes it and I say “ouch.”  Actually my WHOLE immediate family was convinced they were taking my out to do this, which was not the case at all.  But at least it was fun having them think so.

So keep me in your prayers.  I have a meeting tomorrow here at the house and am scheduled to celebrate at two places and to deliver the sermon at one this Sunday (Palm Sunday).  I intend to make it.   I do however want to share with you how much I appreciated your prayers for today.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Well it is just a little before 10 and I am DONE.  Nothing to eat or drink until after surgery tomorrow.  I am not quite sure what time my surgery is scheduled, but I am sure that by this time tomorrow night I will be on the road to recovery!  I have requested already that my family get me an eye patch.  1) I am not supposed to read or strain my eyes for a few days, so since that is almost impossible, I might as well strain the good one…..and 2) I have been practicing talking like a pirate for the last few days (okay, years, but who is counting?)

So the gist is that my eye tears, but no longer drains.  You have passages in and passages out.  My eye no longer drains and is a mess.  The doc believes that my ducts out closed up due to an infection I had a few years ago, and tomorrow he will attempt to open it up.  If he cannot, he will “re-plumb” it which is a bit more involved.   I had wondered why you have to be put out for all of this, but I guess it is so you will not be worried when they bring out the big drill.  I am a veteran of many orthopedic surgeries though, so the tools only encourage me.  We will see, but I am hoping they can reopen and use the old ducts.

I  am unsure however of tomorrow’s post.  My intention at this point is to do it.  I just ask for your prayers and will post if I can.  If I cannot, my apologies in advance.  It will not be for lack of desire…..just lack of ability, which I find at this point, doubtful.

So here’s to tomorrow!  Let’s pray for a good day!  I know I am, and I hope to give you and update in about 24 hours!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!


Tommy+

The picture is of the work that we did this afternoon, and no, it was not our first rodeo.  But my daughter Stephanie and I put up three walls and a door frame for our downstairs bathroom we are putting in, and had I had more energy (and better joints) we probably would have done more.

But although she just vaguely remembers our last project, she is great at helping out.  And today she helped, not just because she is home on break, but because she complains about having to run upstairs to use the bathroom.  College kids hate to suffer, and she knows that she is just a couple of months away summer break.  She and her friends by that time should have a stair-less summer.

But as for me, I am really suffering.  I am in a lot of pain from all the work and my “good knee” is very swollen.  And since I am having surgery on Thursday I cannot take a thing.  Oh joy oh joy.  But I cannot complain.  I have the bathroom well on its way and good help to boot.  I am willing to call it a pretty darn good day!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yep, just one contractor left, and it is me.  The floor guys left this evening and all that remains now is to frame in and finish the bathroom in the basement……a job I (with the help of Steph, Ben, and maybe Scott) will do myself.  Of course time is of the essence, as I have surgery scheduled on Thursday in the early afternoon.  But in all honesty, I think we can make the deadline.  I have just two more walls to frame, a door to put in, wiring and drywall…….no worries, no worries at all.

The cool part is that it is beginning to look and feel like our house again, and for that, I am thankful.  So many things have been piled on top of each other to make room for all the work.  But by next week, we should have use of all the areas again, and in all honesty I am ready.  It has been too long, and I am longing for the peace.  It will make Easter all the better I tell you.

So other than this, there is no big news.   Just two more days with an unfinished bathroom, and two more days with a non working eye.  Either way, it is a win!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

I saw this tonight and it cracked me up.  I had to find something as I was typing my blog here in my bed, and Amanda actually vetoed my picture for tonight.  Why she didn’t want a picture of her and Ben asleep with their mouths open in the car on the way home from the airport, I do not know.  Some people just are so very selfish……

But the picture is from a gift shop in Washington DC.  I would like to say that they are both okay now, but as you read posts about their little brother, you can see that the “moron gene” is strong.  Having them all around this week is a hoot too.  They are funny in all combinations, but it is the best to see them all interact together.

I used to remember sitting with my grandparents at family functions and seeing the insanity, I would remind them that ultimately they were responsible for the entire mess.  Now that they are gone, I need to confess that I still blame them!   You see, the kids really are not morons, at least most of the time, but they are instead the descendants of some pretty amazing people.  And for me, that makes it all the better.

So an old picture it is.  If however you want to see the other picture, send me a note.  After all, I have never ever been in trouble before……….bwhahahaha…..!!!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yes, I know I am a priest.  And yes, I know that Easter is less than two weeks away (meaning also that Holy Week is coming as well….it is not my first rodeo).  BUT……..Ben is on break next week, Stephanie is as well and is home, and the weather is beautiful!  I know I am busy, but I intend to enjoy it, at least for a short while, while I can!

I even got my wife out into the yard for a time today and shared with her all of my “cool” ideas for the yard……none of which we it appears will be doing.  But the great part is that we will all be together for a week and can at least get SOME stuff done.   I am not under any delusions that times like these with all of us here will be few and far between in the future.  After I left for school, I cannot remember that many times when my whole family was together in one place for more than an hour or two.  Now of course many of them are working out of “the home office” as we say in the priest-business, so to get what I will get with them like I will have this week with all my kids, is going to require my departure for heaven at some point….with the Las Vegas odds boards still betting against me!

But at this point I am just thankful for the week ahead.  I didn’t even know that Steph was coming home till a few days ago.  Yeah, they act like I should have known.  And they play on me thinking that they told me but because of the stroke I forgot.  But in all honesty they just didn’t tell me.

Yep, I am the dad…..the last to know.  But who cares?  My week is going to be wonderful, and I can hardly wait!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Today I wrote a check to the plumbers for all the hard work they have done.  Had the excavating company done their job correctly, the plumbers would not have had to work nearly as hard, but they are a very reputable company, and did really about twice as much work as they should have had to do.  They will be out again to hook up and plumb the bathroom after it is done, and then again ANYTIME I need a plumber.  They have earned a customer for life.

But Steph will be coming home tomorrow for Spring Break, and when we talked tonight, she agreed to be my contractor for the bathroom.  We have two walls to build, electrical to install, drywall to hang and finish, a door, and paint…….all between Tuesday and Saturday.  It is not a new thing for us, and now that she is 20 she may be even better at it.  When we refinished our basement in our other house she was a big help, but half as old.  She is, I am certain, more expensive now.

But it will be a hoot for sure.  She and Ben are both on break, and I am sure he will be in the mix.  I am just thankful to have the opportunities with them and then the memories.  Yes, I will miss my new plumber friends, but I will gain a pretty familiar construction crew.  And in all honesty, it makes all the difference.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

I have to admit he is highly motivated, although I am sure you would not have guessed it by looking at his picture taken only moments ago. You see, his mom is landing at the airport tonight at around 10:40 pm and he was quite put off, angry in fact, that I told him he would not be going.  He would be staying home with his brother and going to bed.  Tomorrow, after all, is a school day.

But Ben is a thinker and a kid who would totally throw anyone under the bus to see his mom…..including me.  He HATES naps, but he offered to take one after dinner so he would be well-rested enough to not only head to the airport, but to be up and awake for school tomorrow as well.  It was not my first choice by any means, but he is a complainer about such things and relentless.  My belief (acquired from prior experience with him) is that he would stay here whining and crying about how unfair I was to his brother, making it impossible for Scott…..AND he would make sure he stayed up to see her anyway…..to TATTLE ON ME for how mean I am.  Not that I am mean, but my belief (acquired from prior experience with him) is that his mom would see him as a victim, and I would not only be overly tired and grouchy from dealing with him, but in trouble in some way (also acquired from prior experience with him).

So he will be getting up in a minute and I will be taking him for an hour drive to the airport during which he will talk non-stop (generally about Transformers).  He will then get his mom at the airport and the lovefest will begin.  We will get in the car and he will talk for yet another hour (generally repeating the very same Transformers stories we heard on the way TO the airport).

Of course I cannot complain.  I entered into this life of my own freewill!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

I feel like I am treading water but way too fast!  I am accomplishing tons, yet I am not getting anywhere!  I have so many calls to make tomorrow that I am not really sure if I can make them all.  I will however, try.  And the day will end after midnight as I will be picking Amanda up after 11.

What can a guy do?  Just keep at it is my plan.  I am still very tired and I have moved some things away from the day tomorrow, but I have my doubts.  I plan on starting early though, and should make a good dent (if there is such a thing) on all of it.

The best news is that the plumbers should be completed tomorrow!!!  Not that I will enjoy writing them a check, but it will be nice for them to move to other jobs and it will be nice for us to get back to our normal lives.  I will say however, if you EVER need a plumber, Paul Delmolino and his crew are really the best plumbers I have ever worked with.  I really do like them, although I hope to not need them again until the next remodeling thing.  But they were rated very high on Angie’s List and will be getting another high rating from me.  Honestly, they are all great guys and I will miss chatting with them.

So here on my last night of freedom I have decided to get all crazy and GO TO BED.  I know, don’t hurt yourself Tom.  But the days are running together right now and Easter is still right around the corner.  I need to make sure that I at least make it!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+