Hazel's Hodge Podge

WOW! Here over a month has gone by since I last posted. Life has been hectic here during that time and I really have a hodgepodge of items to catch up on.
I took some more flower pictures and intended to add them, but will try to get them up in the next few days.
Probably the most important thing that has happened is that on April 9, my 9 year old grandson, Justin had a procedure done on his heart. This took place at Texas Children's Hospital. We thank God that everything went smoothly, the procedure didn't take quite as long as expected, they were able to use a device that is more commonly used so the results are more predictable, and Justin was home the same evening. Here is a link that shows what they did: http://www.amplatzer.com/products/asd_devices/the_amplatzer_septal_occluder/tabid/188/default.aspx
Justin was born with a severe heart defect. A simplified description of the problem follows: The valve from his heart to his lungs was not open and that chamber(Right Ventricle?) was not developed properly. When he was a few days old they went in with a catheter and opened the valve. Then they used another catheter to make a hole between the sides of his heart for overflow and to help the chamber not get too large. This is very simplified but I think it is somewhat accurate. At the time we didn't know that this was really what you might call an experimental procedure. We really thank God for things going the way they did during this initial procedure. As it turned out, he is 9 years old and until now had never had anything else done on his heart. The doctors and technicians all seem to express surprise at this when he goes in for checkups and even during this latest procedure. If you did not know about his heart defect, you would think he was an ordinary growing boy. Well, there was a chance that the hole they made would close up on its own, but it didn't and seems like it actually grew as he did. That is the reason they had to go in and close it now. From what I can tell, it was like what we used to call a "blue baby" when a child was born with a similar hole in their heart. Anyway, he is doing well and seems to have a rosier complexion than before. His blood oxygen levels are 99 to 100% for the first time in his life. He has to take a baby aspirin each day as blood thinner for a few months. Otherwise I expect the biggest problem now will be to limit his activity during that time.

Justin's sister Michaela and I spent the day he was at the hospital at their house. We spent a good part of the day outside and both caught a bad runny nose. Michaela got over hers fairly quickly, but Granny came home and has spent the next 2 to 3 weeks nursing a cough and bronchitis. Pops got it also and has had laryngitis. Justin had to catch it also, but fortunately threw it off quickly for him. Seems everyone here in Silsbee has the "crud" ie, some form of sinus/cold/allergy/bronchitis/pneumonia.

Michaela and I also tried to make a rabbit cake for Easter that day. It was a two part cake that should have made a 3-D bunny. We had a bunny in a bowl. It was a good tasting cake, but when we tried to ice it, the head fell off and everything went from bad to worse. Fun trying anyway. We walked all over Super Walmart which is much bigger than the one in Silsbee looking for jelly beans. I must say the ones we finally found were very good, gourmet jelly beans.

The past 2 weeks I have put in over 30 hours a week scoring standardized tests for Pearson, a company out of Iowa. A number of years ago I worked on a couple of projects for them at their Houston scoring center. I was pleased to find that I could now work at home on the computer doing the same thing. It was just a bit much for this Granny to add 30 hours of work/ week to her usual schedule and nurse the "crud" at the same time. But I got the job done. And looking to do another round in May.

Also our congregation hosted a Gospel Meeting (Revival) April 12-16. The sermon topics were about "The Church". As it turned out several area preachers gave the lessons and all did a very good job. We were disappointed when the visiting evangelist from Tennesee was not able to come, but we had a very good meeting after all. There was a good turn out from the community and visitors from other area congregations and several responses. It was originally scheduled through the 15th, so an extra day was added along the way.

So that is what has been happening here the past few weeks.
I am going to working on our Auctiva Commerce stores this week and next. Hope to get the music store, http://www.mrbandmanmusic.com/ lined out and really functional now, so we can start adding more product to it.
I am also listing some of my wilton cake pans on ebay: Check out my ebay listings here: http://myworld.ebay.com/hazel409/