Delta Tau Omega Alumni visit in Malibu

Today, Ashley and I traveled to Pepperdine for an Alumni luncheon and Songfest. We had a great day! One of my Delta sisters, Liz Leahy worked with Tara Lawrence in the Alumni office to include a group of fellow Delta's in the Alumni luncheon and Songfest. We had a beautiful meal in the Art Museum next to Smothers Theater. We then were given tickets to Songfest, a long standing student production. The first year was 1973 and Steve was the first Host with his friend Marti Hathaway-O'Rear. I had the priveledge of serving as Host in 1979. We had great seats and loved the entire 2 1/2 hour performance. The music and dancing were so great! One of the long standing traditions is to invite any and all alumni on stage at the end of the show to sing " Let there be peace on earth" It was so great to be back on campus and re knew old friendships.

Spring is almost here

We love springtime on the farm! The calendar says that March 20th(Pam's Birthday) is the first day of Spring, in fact when Pam was born, the woman in the room with her Mother said," If I had a baby girl born on the first day of Spring ,I would name her Spring Flowers", So glad Pamela Jo won out! The weather is cool in the morning and evening but so pretty during the day and everything is so green, and of course lots of babies re being born here. Right now we have 4 lambs , 6 goat kids and a couple of dozen baby chicks, It is so fun to have all of the babies...... Friday was our first field trip visit by a kindergarten class from St. John's Luthern School. Next week we will have 3 schools here and each week after we have groups coming to visit.
We plan on getting our kitchen garden planted and then we will transplant our roses and create a beautiful rose garden. The trees are beginning to blossom and flowers are blooming every day.
Spring is really about new beginnings.....

The week before surgery

Steve's surgery is scheduled for Monday, March 16th at 7:30 am. Dr. Cory Albertstone is the Neurosurgeon and the surgery will take place at St. Johns in Oxnard. He will spend the night in the hospital and will come home on St.Patricks Day. The hard part will be keeping him down for 6 weeks. He has really struggled with lots of pain for a month now, so it will be a relief to have him comfortable again and off of all the pain meds. We're asking for your prayers for the hands of the surgeon and for a speedy recovery.

Planting Apple Trees

This is the time of year that the Farmer plants bare root. Well, our apple orchard got 7 new Anna apple trees. These apples are from Israel and are green with a pink blush. Picking season is in June and July and our claim to fame is that we won a blue ribbon for these apples at the Ventura County Fair. Steve spent part of December and January pruning the entire orchard. The Anna's have blossoms and we're afraid that a cold snap with make them bare again. The next variety to be planted is Fuji. To finish the orchard, as well as fill in the naked spots where trees have been eaten by gophers, we'll need to plant 18 Fuji's. We love our Orchard and loved sharing it last picking season with hundreds of school children. We're praying for another successful harvest.

The MRI results are in

Well, We got the news we have been waiting for. The Dr. read the MRI notes and confirmed that Steve has a herniated disc in his lower back, He is requesting an immediate appointment with a Neurosurgeon. He said that the injury is so severe that surgery is the only option. We will probably be in the Doctor's office some time next and we will find out about surgery . Needless to say, Steve is disappointed and not looking forward to surgery and the recovery time.Pray for him as we go through this process and wait for the healing to begin.....

Update on Steve's injury

It's Thursday, and it's amazing what a few days of medication and rest can do. We returned from an appointment with the Doctor for a followup checkup. Steve's back is sore and He has numbness in his upper thigh, but feels so much better. The Doctor is ordering an MRI and an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon, The common thought with the ER Doctor and our family doctor is that this is a Herniated Disc injury. The Siatica Nerve is pinched and the Muscle Spasism is a result of the nerves being pinched. He is off of the Oxycodone and is taking 800mg Motrin in stead, He will continue taking the percocet and predisone. He is still not released to go back to work, but He has a long weekend anyway, so that will give his back more time to rest. He's really hoping that He doesn't have a serious injury and if He does, it can been healed with exercise and physical therapy. We'll know more after he has the MRI and meets with an orthopedic guy. Thanks for your prayers...

My weekend warrior is wounded

Well, Give Steve an extra day off and He will plug in as many projects as the daylight will allow.After completing the pruning on our Apple orchard, painting Ashley's bedroom, reinforcing the animal pens and doing his weekend yard work here and for his parents, We ended up at the doctor's office. He was in such pain this morning that He couldn't stand ,sit or lay down without feeling sharp pain in his back all down his leg. We got in to see the our doctor and Steve had to lay over the exam table,stomach down. The doctor came in and said this pain was caused by muscle spasims and gave him a shot of Torval, He prescribed Oxycotton and Percocet , No work for the next 3 days. Boy, this is one way to get him to relax. Pray that He will rest and let his body heal....