Adventures Of My Life
Ashley and Shane left on October 1st for a week long Honeymoon in Hawaii. They landed on the island of Kauai and were planning on snorkling, kayaking and hiking.
Ashley and Shane with leis
Lei
View from the hotel room
Snorkle Face
Hawaii Overlook
Hiking in Hawaii
Monk Seal on the beach
Waterfall
Today we officially moved Jonny into his dorm room at Fletcher Hall on the Kent State University Campus. It’s about a 2 and a half hour drive to Kent State University from our house. Campus was very crowded with all the students moving in. Luckily there were plenty of student helpers to load up and we were able to get most of his things in one trip. Nikki and I helped him unpack and settle in. He was the first one in his room as his room mate was traveling from Poland and wasn’t expected to get there until the following day. We dropped the Taurus off at long term parking for students over by the football stadium almost 2 miles away. He needed a few more things so we make the short 10 minute to Stowe to Target to pick him up some more things and then over to Giant Eagle to get him some snacks, drinks and other grocery items. When we got back it was still extremely crowded, so I dropped him and Nikki off to run the other items up to his room before we headed out for a bite to eat. When they got back, Jonny had a pleasant surprise in that his room mate came in a day early and was moving in with the help of one of their coaches. Jonny’s room mate is also a freshmen runner for the Flashes. We then grabbed a bite to eat and said our goodbyes and look forward to seeing him the weekend of labor day.
Stephanie turned 21 yesterday. Nikki and I took Jonny and Alyssa down to Cincinnati to celebrate Stephanie’s birthday with Marcus and Braxton. They took us out to several parks and we had a wonderful time sightseeing overlooking the Ohio River. We capped off the evening with dinner from one of Stephanie’s favorite Mexican Restaurants before heading back to tbeir apartment to eat and play with Braxton. We ended up getting home very late, but I had planned ahead and took Friday off. It was a nice short visit and we enjoy seeing Stephanie, Marcus and Braxton. They always take us out somewhere different whenever we visit with spectacular views.
I am still recovering from knee replacement and surprisingly there is still swelling, mostly on the back side of my knee. There is still pain, but the pain is more mild but almost always there. There are times where the pain level is increased and I have to take 4 Ibuprofen to help relieve the pain.
Physical Therapy is helping me regain my strength and range of motion. There have been a couple of times where I hurt for a day or two afterward. I think mostly from the stretching to help the range of motion. Sometimes icing after helps and sometimes not so much. I am definitely getting stronger and am able to balance better on my left leg. There is still a long way to go though. I think once the swelling goes away, I will regain some range of motion and the pain will subside. I am looking forward to that.
They made it to Grand Island and camped a single night on the island. The weather was unusually cold, they got lots of rain overnight and a couple of the boys got soaked. But Jonny said the worse part was the mosquitoes. They have never experiences such big mosquitoes and and the relentless attack and volume of the biting bugs in all their lives. One of the boys said it was way worse than camping in the Everglades. They took the first ferry back to the mainland the next morning and tried to warm up and dry out. They camped on the main land for the next several days while battling some of the heaviest rainfall and thunderstorms the area has seen in years every night. They got wet a few more times and where able to find a laundry mat where they could dry out, but they continued camping and Jonny commented they had some very low miserable times as well as some of the greatest best times on this trip. It will definitely be a trip they will all remember and share and have many stories for rest of their lives to share with each other.
Jonny, Dustin Braden, Thomas Patton and Barry Bait are all taking a vacation to Grand Island located just off the shore in Lake Superior. They are tent camping and hiking in a location where cell service is non existent and we have no way of communicating with him to make sure everything is OK. He has been camping in the scouts before and does have some experience, so he knows how to primitive camp. We are looking forward to hearing from him after he makes it back to civilization.
So far the recovery from the total knee replacement is slow and gradual. The swelling has lasted for weeks and the bruising was nothing I have ever experienced before in my life. I am making progress though and the pain has been severe at times but never excruciating and the pain meds seem to take effect in 15-25 minutes so I haven’t had to be in total discomfort for a very long time. I have started home physical therapy and have tried to get up as often as a I can even if it’s just for a couple of minutes. I can feel myself getting stronger every day and recently progressed from using a walker to using a cane after my 2 week post op visit today where they told me I was slightly ahead of where they expected me to be. I am using the pain meds less often and hopefully wont require a refill. Nikki has been good at taking care of me while allowing me to do simple things on my own to help keep me a little active. I have noticed that all the sitting and laying down have made my rear end numb more times in the last couple of weeks that in the last year!
After our trip to San Francisco in February and me being unable to explore the city on footafter walking a short bit the first day, I decided it was time for me to get a total knee replacement in my left knee. I set up an appointment back in March to get the ball rolling. We are finally here after surgery was just completed on June 7, 2017. They have me on pretty good pain meds and they are taking pretty good care of me so far. This time through I didn’t wake up in the recovery room with immediate dry heaves like my back surgery last year, so that was a major improvement over my last surgery.
We held Jonny’s graduation party over at the Price’s house for both him and Natalie. We had the Pizza Cottage truck serving fresh pizza. The party was well attended and everyone enjoyed the live band, drinks, cake and conversation even though it rained on and off several times.
Jonny earned his way into the State Championship track meet today held at Jessie Owens Stadium on the Ohio State University campus. He was one of two athletes from Granville who made it to the State Championship meet. He didn’t even make it all the way to the line before the gone went off and the race was on. For the most part he positioned himself fairly well and at 400 meters he was in 5th place and with the pack. At about the 600 meter mark he had fallen to 6th place. It wasn’t until only 100 meters left that he really turned it on and he passed everyone but the leader he was catching as he just ran out of meters to run. He took second place with a time of 1:53.48 and two tenths of a second from first place.
He was asked to represent the State of Ohio in next weeks Midwest Meet of Champions against the best that Michigan and Indiana have to offer.
Here is the video I took: