Mayo Trip

Another good day at Mayo (Devin may not have thought so but we accomplished a lot). Most of the tests were Urology related. Checking to make sure that Devin's system is working to the point that it will NOT cause Kidney failure down the road. For those technological people, they did a urine test, VCU (Urinary X-rays), Urodynamic Study, Ultrasound of the Abdomen and a serious of x-rays of his feet.

We also saw Dr. Sherilyn Driscoll, a Physiatrist in the Pediatric Rehabilitation area. Although Devin was sleeping going into that appointment, by the end of it, he had given her a good idea of what he could do. She was considering twister straps to help with some of Devin's foot turning inward, but recommended we see a PT to confirm this. We extended our day at Mayo in order to see the PT. In the discussion with 2 of the PTs, we touched on all the concerns that have ever been raised by doctors and our own, Birth to 3, PT. I think that we are heading down the right path. Hopefully, having all of these concerns under one system will help to generate discussion as to what is necessary for Devin.

It really looks to me, like most of the discussion comes back to Devin having a lower leg surgery. This surgery will untwist the Tibia. The twisting of the Tibia is common in children before they begin to stand and walk, but it is unlikely that Devin's will self correct because of his muscle imbalance due to Spina Bifida. The concern is that if they perform this surgery too early, it will reoccur. Although Devin has made great stride in his standing and walking, the twisting of his feet does seem to be getting worse instead of better. I am affraid that if we do not correct this now, that he will begin to have problems with his knees as well.

Devin, standing and walking by himself.

Allie keeping the walker straight so that Devin can walk.

We hope to have more answers after the Spina Bifida clinic on July 13.

3 rocks, a fire pit and grass seed

Well, day #9... and we are pretty much done. You can see black soil and grass seed, a place to put the alpine current bushes, the fire pit, and the 3 rocks put into place. What's left? Mulch in the islands, some kind of pavers/rocks for the fire pit in the sand, and to plant the alpine bushes. Mom and I also bought some solar landscaping lights to place around the yard. So, we are almost ready for s'mores and bon fires!

2 rocks and rain

Right after lunch today, about 1 pm, we were in a Severe Thunderstorm Warning, the sirens were going off, and it was starting to rain pretty hard. All of a sudden there was a knock at the door, and it was Tony! Here he and Steve were delivering 2 out of the 3 rocks for the garden. You can see one got dropped into the flower garden and another one by the fire pit. It got dropped there because at that time it was down pouring and they could not get to the garden where it is going to be located (right in the corner where the diagonal sidewalk meets the straight one). Tony was going to work on the fire pit today, he is having a local welder make a fire pit ring for me, but because of the rain, he could not work today. The fire pit still needs the ring, to be filled with sand, and then to add some decorative bricks in the sand and cap bricks to finish it off. That will happen probably tomorrow. We are definitely on the home stretch... I am hoping it will be done by the end of the week. Stay tuned...

A lot of progress today...

The front yard has been landscaped... and Tony put rock on the side to prevent run off from the hill. The backyard is also coming together... the pavers got packed in today, so that looks done. Mom had the idea to keep the seedums and rose bush part of the flower garden to extend the island by the sidewalk making it bigger. The rest of the flower garden will become grass. The island got rose bushes, bayberry bushes, some pine bushes. Mulch and 3 big rocks will finish out the island. Between Ken's and our yard, we are planting alpine current bushes from the rocks to the cement slab - what we used to have back there way back when, the ones we cut down. Just to create a little bit of a barrier and so I do not have to mow there anymore. We are keeping the plum tree, for now, but maybe it will burn up and we will not have to worry about it.

Dan - sorry, Tony could not recreate an image of you that would do you justice, so we had to settle for a mini-tree there instead. We will name it "Dan" if that makes you feel better.

As you can see, they started the part I was waiting for... the fire pit. How ironic - building a fire pit on the hottest day of the year so far.

Also to be finished, grass, and cleaning up the lawn, filling the soil up to the paver height so it is easy to mow around. Mom and I are definitely ready to be done with this project.

Backyard Change of plans

After some serious thought, Mom and I have decided to put a statue of Dan in the center of the island... Who would want a boring bush when you can have Dan instead?

Cooper participates in Winona's first Kids Triathlon

Right before entering the pool!

Cooper gets on his bike near the building.

Exhaustion sets in after the run!

Allie, Ivy & Keely watch as we await Cooper's turn to begin the race.

(Thanks to my sister Tammy for the assist in getting picutures!)

Day #7 - Edges put in

The pictures may not look too much different, but they cut the paver edges and put in edging around all of the bricks to hold them in place. When I walk on the new pavers, I feel like I am wearing platform shoes I feel so high up. There is sand on the pavers, Tony ran out of time to set the pavers today - he only worked the afternoon here because they had to wait for the edging to be delivered. They also finished the stones on the side of the house minus one. My favorite part - the island by the air conditioner... the shape is called an irregular convex pentagon. What will go our island? Not sure yet. We still are planning another island on the other side of the existing island going from where the diagonal sidewalk meets the main sidewalk over to the first support beam of the deck. Tony talked about putting in a boulder there like in the front yard along with bushes. Again, then I won't have to mow the grass there, plus it will break up the look of all the pavers.

Another decision, on the other side of the sidewalk between Ken and our yard, we are going to plant all bushes there, to create kind of a barrier/separation, with landscaping rocks. Plus, then I will not have to mow the grass over there.

Another radical decision - to take out the flower garden and cut down the tree there. Reason: to open up the back yard, make room for the fire pit, and make the fire pit the focal point of the back yard. If we keep the garden, it will be in the way, and block part of the fire pit from view from the sidewalk. What will I do with the plants? not sure yet. Plus, the city ordinance wants a fire pit 25 feet away from buildings, and 5 feet away from anything combustible - well, the tree and garden would be within 5 feet. I would rather have the fire pit than the flower garden.

So, in summary, they are making progress, and we are trying to figure out things as we go.

Wow - Amazing Progress!

Steve placed six wooden pallets of pavers in the back yard, and you can see a lot of progress was made!! The patio is done along with the sidewalk going down to the garage, except for the edges that need to put in and blocks that need to be cut. Look at how much gravel/sand Tony added to raise up the sidewalk by the garage... unreal, but necessary. There is sand on top of the pavers, Tony is going to vibrate them into place and the sand will fill the gaps. On the side hill, Tony used 12 by 12 pavers, and he only went three across on the bottom because if he went four like at the top, then the soil under the neighbor's wall would wash out, and that would not be good. Tony will fill it with crushed rock and bigger rocks for drainage. This side will be perfect for me to run the lawn mower up the side of the house to the front of the house - and Tony made a good point about it being handicapped accessible.... but they would need breaks on the wheel chair! My favorite part of the whole project is the island in front of the air conditioner. It is going to look awesome with rocks and a bush. Tony also talked about putting in another island on the other side of the diagonal sidewalk incorporating my flower garden..., like put in bushes and maybe another big boulder like the front yard. It is making progress, and mom and I are very happy with the results so far. We talked about going down to Ben at NUF to pick out some furniture for under the deck. The fire pit will be made when all the other parts are done. Stay tuned... lots of changes still to come!!

WOW!!

Update... Heritage Memorial finished Grandpa and Grandma's marker... and doesn't it look nice? Grandpa and Grandma are probably smiling right now.

Day #5 - More progress

This morning started out raining... so everyone started to show up around noon. Al came to replace the deck posts - 3 new ones...Wade came to hook the air conditioner back up... good thing because it got so hot and humid after the rain... and Tony and Steve came to put down more pavers... you can see the progress made. From where the air conditioner is, where the sidewalk starts, to the garage steps, where the sidewalk ends, it is a 3 foot drop. Therefore, Tony built up the retaining wall level one brick closest to the garage steps. This will raise up the sidewalk to prevent erosion from where the lilac bush is. If you look close, you can see how much dirt was dug out for the sidewalk. Because of the landscaping, to mow the lawn today, I had to take the lawn mower around the block to get to the front yard. I did not want to mess up any of the work that they had done.

They started the pavers.... but it started to rain.

Day #4... All of the sidewalks were cut out, sand was put into place, some pavers were laid, and one deck post was replaced... and then it started to rain that they had to quit around 2:30. The goal was to get the "sidewalk" done in front of the doors, and then proceed under the deck. Maybe tomorrow it will not rain. In the first picture, there is an "island"; the sidewalk is going to go straight down to the garage, and there will be a second sidewalk going diagonal from the laundry room door to the main sidewalk, which is the path I take every day to take out the garbage or go down to the garage. The "island" will eventually be filled in with rock and a small bush.

I couldn't look...so sad.

For only a half a day, a lot of progress was made.
At about 2:00, all chaos let loose. GSM was supposed to move the air conditioner this morning, but never showed up - plus Steve, the Puhlmann guy was supposed to show up and tell us the opinion on the deck support beams. I thought Tony was not going to show up today, so I wasn't real concerned.... until Tony showed up! Then I called Steve, and the decision was made to replace the beams since the rotting would get worse; so someone is coming out tomorrow to replace them. Then, GSM could not come out today, so we called Klassen to disconnect the air conditioner - and they were awesome - they were here within an hour. As you can see, all of the sidewalks have been torn out - mom said the sidewalks were as old as Diane - so 50 years? Wow. Amazing they lasted that long, but they needed to be replaced.

You may be wondering about today's title, and why it is. Well, we had this beautiful pine tree that was in the backyard, and when I planted in several years ago, I did not have the foresight how big it would get. Tony was going to curve the sidewalk around it - but in the near future the tree would have gotten taller, but the power lines are above it, and it would have gotten wider - just over hanging the sidewalk again. So, to be practical, it did not pay to design a sidewalk around a tree that would have to be cut down soon anyways. So, I made the hard decision to have them take it out - but I said, don't let me see you do it. I went into the house to get their brownies while they pulled it out, and you can see it laying there - sooooooo sad!! :-(( You may be wondering who the children are - they are 2 out of the 6 kids that Tony has, and they are so neat! The boy's name in Matthew, and the girl's name is Rachel. They helped Tony today - and it was fun to have them around. Matthew thought our yard was fun, we found pipes, cables, wires (of course they were dead), a knife, lots of bigger rocks.... I hope they come back another day. Pam - the landing we made... Tony can keep part of it, but the other part needs to do be redone to match the new sidewalk. Whew - what a day! It is quite the challenge trying to get to the garage! Cross your fingers that it does not rain that they can continue tomorrow morning - to put gravel/sand down, compact it, and then start laying the pavers! It is going to take a whole lot of pavers!! I will keep you posted!

More cousins

Sam Jacobs, Sue, Josh is in the center, Elvia and Barb in the front. Sam lives around here, and delivers us packages from Fed Ex once in a while. Josh will live here in New Ulm with his new bride, Molly.


Amanda and Brenda
Amanda lives in South Dakota, and has 2 little girls with her husband. Brenda lives in Atlanta, Georgia with a husband, her daughter Hannah, and some step children.

Jada, Judy, Rachel, Brenna
Jada lives in Boise Idaho and works for the state.
Judy lives in Colorado, Lance is no longer in the picture.
Rachel lives in Blaine, MN and works for an athletic club.