June 2017 books

Wow, its almost August and I'm just writing about June...hmmm...

1.  Written in my Own Heart's Blood (Diana Gabaldon)--yes, I've read it before.  I'm impatiently waiting for her new book, someday...it was still a good book.
2.  Borrower of the Night (Elizabeth Peters)--borrowed the audiobook from the library and listened in the car and while I walked.  Still good.
3.  What Could Possibly Go Wrong (Jodi Taylor)--Might be the most recent in the time travel books.  It was good--trashy like the rest, but entertaining.  A good summer read.
4.  Stitches in Time (Barbara Michaels)--audio book from library--enjoyed listening to one of my favorite spooky stories.
5.  Ships and Strings and Wedding Rings (Jodi Taylor)--I was wrong--this one came next--still entertaining.
6. The Circle (Dave Eggers).  It was good but not as suspenseful as I expected.  Maybe because it has been so popular I suspected a few times what would happen next.  Worth the read, don't know if I'll see the movie.
7.  Lies, Damned Lies, and History (Jodi Taylor)--Maybe I should read my whole list before starting to write.  Another time traveling story--still trashy, still entertaining.
8.  The Great St. Mary's Day Out (Jodi Taylor)--ditto
9.  My Name is Markham (Jodi Taylor)--ditto
10.  The Scottish Prisoner (Diana Gabaldon)--I thought I had read this, but it wasn't as familiar as I expected.  Even though the author calls this a short story, it has 560 pages, so, um, not short.  It was a good story and filled in some pieces of her other stories.
11.  Treasure Hunter's Number 4 (James Patterson)--Not even sure what it is really called. We listened to it in the car, it was meh.
12.  Back Over There (Richard Rubin)--Was at a library outside our library system and saw this--looks interesting (cover says something about nonfiction time travel and WWI).  Picked it up at the library and was fascinated.  It is non-fiction--the Author wrote another book about WWI soldiers and this is actually the follow-up.  I'm reading his first book now and frankly, "Back Over There" was better--it drew me in.  Lots of pictures, stories, WWI trivia.  Very interesting book.
13.  Seven Stones to Stand or Fall (Diana Gabaldon)-a collection of short stories--5 previously published (I'd read 4) and 2 new ones.  If you're an Outlander fan, read it

Waiting

About eleven years ago a woman I grew up with had a stroke.  When it happened, the prognosis was not good, but against the odds, she woke up and went home.  She had another baby.  She went back to work.  She saw her oldest graduate from high school.  She did all the things a mom of four does every day for eleven years.  All the big stuff, all the little, every day stuff.

Then, last week, she went in for a routine brain surgery to address an issue related to the stroke.  As my mom says, "We really shouldn't say any brain surgery is routine...".  The surgery went fine, but a waterfall of things happened afterwards, leaving her dependent on a ventilator.  

Her family is taking turns waiting at her side, while those of us who can't be there wait and pray far away.  I pray for a miracle.  I pray for comfort.  I pray she isn't suffering. I pray if she has to suffer it is so she will wake up. I pray for her kids and for all the "what ifs"  I pray for her parents, who wait so patiently, and for her siblings and extended family.

I've made an effort to make time to sit and pray, to think, to communicate with folks who are there and with folks who are far away, like me, and praying.  I spent time over the weekend going through the CD of family photos my mom gave me, looking for pictures of all of us as kids and smiling at all the happy memories.  There were lots of pictures, and lots of memories of things we didn't take pictures of.  Today, I spent some time playing from the hymnal our church used in high school for church and for choir--(My piano teacher would cringe...those flats and sharps are tricky to unpracticed hands). As I played, I  heard many voices in my memory. I could hear my friend take the high soprano, while I did my best to hit second and her sister sang alto. I could hear her laugh, and hear her tell me I could hit the higher soprano note, too. (And me laugh, "no").....I know that even if she leaves us now I will hear her voice again when we all reach heaven.

So for now we wait and pray and remember and hope.

Guest Post from The Boy

The week with Grandma started on friday when her flight here from Seattle arrived. Early on Friday morning, the girl, mom, and I got into the car and drove to the airport where Grandma was waiting. We found Grandma and her bag and drove home. When Inigo Montoya got home, we went for a run then had dinner. When we finished dinner we went for a walk and then came back and sat on the deck for a little while, then we went in to bed. Yesterday, we went to The Garden of the Gods and walked around a little. The girl and I climbed some rocks (The girl only climbed a few of the ones I did) and got some nice pictures.

Then, we went home and had dinner and went on another walk and I got some cool pictures of the walk(the cool thing is where we walked is very close to our house but you can't see any buildings in the pictures)