October 2025

October 2 found us at the Orthopedic office for x-rays and a visit with the surgeon's PA.

Something about this x-ray looked like some bone fragment had moved a tiny bit, so after consulting with the doctor, I was told to cancel my PT appointments for a couple of weeks, wear the brace except for showers, and not to bend my wrist.  I also was sent to the hospital for a stat CT of my wrist. This was because I had lost the ability to extend my left thumb--the motion you need for a 'thumbs up'.

My next appointment was with the surgeon on the 7th, who confirmed that the tendon that powers my thumb had snapped.  I can have a surgery to move one of two tendons from my index finger to restore that thumb's proper movement, or I can wait and see how I get along without that function. There is no time pressure about when to do that surgery.

Rowen put up our winter lights on the porch.  We like to have them up all the dark months of the year.

Sunday, October 5 selfie in our coordinating teal outfits.

October 9, Rowen and Elizabeth put Sherry's quilt in the quilting frame and I got it quilted!

I tried a new random quilting pattern, which I thought reminded me of pumpkin shapes. The fabrics are all fall fabrics and several of them have pumpkins designs.

It turned out absolutely gorgeous!

I kept hoping Sherry could come and get it, but her schedule wasn't working out, and I wanted her to have it before fall ended, so I sent it to her via UPS and she got it on October 29.  She loved it!

Elizabeth and I went to the GBSC Homecoming service on October 10. It was 125 years after the founding of the school in 1900. Our friend, Dr. Lyle Witt was honored as the Employee of the Year, a well-deserved honor.

The choir singing

Anybody in the audience who had sung in the GBSC choirs in the past were invited to come up and join the choir on the last song.  It was beautiful.

Rowen and I went over on Saturday for the Homecoming activities and the benefit auction. We saw Jason a few minutes. He wasn't feeling his best, but we were glad to see him anyway.

A friend took this picture of us on campus.

We really enjoyed the auction and it was effective in being a benefit auction, but all we actually brought home were two mums.

Our Sunday morning selfie on our way out the door for church.

Our friends and shirttail relatives, Richard and Dawn Owens, sang a special at church that morning. Dawn was one of the 50 year alumni honored at Homecoming this year. Richard is my sister's husband's brother.  We've known them most of our lives.

We had Richard and Dawn for dinner, plus Michael Grate, who goes to church with my sister's family. He had also come for Homecoming.

On Tuesday, October 14, I quilted a double flannel quilt for our friends in Whitehouse, TX, Melissa and Chandler Witter, who are expecting a little boy. Their nursery theme is Winnie the Pooh, so that's the pictures on the blanket.

Salmon color is on the backside, which matches Pooh's shirt and balloon color.

I sent it to them by UPS and they got it safely.

Our cockscomb flowers in the pot went crazy this fall.  The color was so brilliant and we really enjoyed it even after the other plants were cut back for winter.

We ate outside several times and enjoyed the beautiful fall days.

Two years ago, we had planned to go on a riverboat dinner cruise for our 40th anniversary. That was when my femur broke and we had to cancel. We decided this was the year to do it for our 42nd anniversary. We were so glad we did it a week before our anniversary, on the 15th, because the weather was perfect and I felt well, (and I had some kind of a virus bug on the 22nd).

This was a photo op place in the waiting area.

Our new friends, Jeff and Beth Adams, pictured below, who we met while we waited for our lunch cruise boarding time, took this picture for us.

I wanted a picture of them to remember them by. They are sweet servants of God and we would have enjoyed eating with them, but we were assigned to tables away from each other on the boat.

At our table for the yummy lunch.

After eating, we went up on the top deck to enjoy the cruise.

This was right before the boat started moving up river.  It went up river for an hour, turned around, and came down almost to the Brent Spence bridge (71/75), turned around and back to the docking space.

There was plenty of seating, but most of the older people stayed on the next deck down to climb less steps. There was a tour guide on a loud speaker explaining everything we were passing or seeing along the way, giving the history of different buildings and the bridges.

The cruise was two hours long. It was relaxing and enjoyable and the day was perfect!

When everybody was exiting at the end, we sat in these rocking chairs to wait for the crowd to thin out at the stairways.

This is a picture Rowen took of me as we were going down to the dining deck.

This is the professional picture taken of us just a few steps away from where the last picture was taken.

This is a picture of the actual boat we were on called the Belle of Cincinnati.

On the 15th, I saw the wrist doctor again, and he gave me permission to go without the brace when I wasn't in a risky situation. He thinks the bone has formed callus, which will turn into new bone to heal the breaks. He also gave me permission to restart therapy.

I decided to try knitting again. My bum thumb is a handicap for casting on stitches efficiently, but after that, it is no problem. I have made 3-4 dishcloths since then.

On October 18th, we ate lunch outside. It was a beautiful day for Family Fest that afternoon and evening at our church.

In this picture, I was sitting in the senior reading corner. I have my cane with me because I had been having some hip pain, probably from all the steps on the boat, and just wanted to have extra support.

There was a guessing booth in the middle and Betty was showing her church history books to anyone who wanted to see them.

The children had a very fun bounce house. Elizabeth spent most of her time there, making sure everyone was safe and having a good time.

There were lots of guests, bus families, besides our 'regulars' and there was something to do all the time.

We didn't get pictures of the Big Feet race, oversized baseball game, volleyball, 

cornhole tournaments, and scavenger hunt.

There was a coffee bar, tea and lemonade station, and at suppertime, plenty to eat.

We were so thankful that God moved the scheduled afternoon rain to the next day, 

so that everyone had a good time in perfect weather.

At my physical therapy on October 20, my arm was put in this machine for about 18 minutes at 115*. It is called Fluidotherapy or fluidized therapy. It is a dry heat treatment that uses a heated air stream to suspend tiny solid particles, creating a liquid-like mixture.

Inside there was ground up corn husks. I was supposed to grasp and squeeze handfuls of them continually.  It was exercise and relaxing at the same time. 

After that, Tina, my therapist gave me more exercises to do and measured my progress. She seemed to be pleased with it.

On October 21st, Jesus helped me to be able to give Rowen a haircut. He had gotten a "professional" one last month, but it didn't last as long as mine do.

On October 22, our 42nd anniversary, I had a low-grade fever and body aches. We don't know why.

While Rowen and I were having morning prayer time, Elizabeth snuck out the back door and returned with balloons and special dessert bars.

She had another balloon, the one in my right hand, but it escaped into the wild blue yonder when she took them to her car.  It was very sweet of her. The I Love You balloon is still very robust and beautiful.

A little later, the doorbell rang with a delivery of flowers from Randy's family.

We enjoyed them very much.

October 24, I had labs and we saw the oncologist. My labs were satisfactory to him. I asked for the scans to be done in November rather than waiting until December. I had had several episodes of pain throughout the time since I had seen him 5 weeks before, and he pretty much told me I have bone cancer, there will be pain, take pain pills as needed, and try to not be heroic about it. I am scheduled for CT on Nov. 7 and bone scan on Nov. 10.

We stopped by GBS and saw Jason and shared dessert bars with him.

Also on that day, we tried to get a fall picture with the Burning Bush. The sun was so brilliant and painful, that my grin turned into more of a grimace!  But the Burning Bush has been gorgeous!

On October 27 and 28, Rowen went on a road trip with Lonnie Witt to Fordland, Mo. to pick up a beef that was split four ways when they arrived back on Tuesday evening. He enjoyed seeing a part of Missouri he hadn't seen before.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth helped me put another double flannel into the quilting machine. This is for a young mother in our church expecting her 2nd son. I was thrilled to find the baby footprint and handprint flannel at Hobby Lobby, with baby blue for the backing.

It was so fast to quilt it, and I quilted the baby's name in it, but I couldn't see it with the white thread quilting, so I did something I've never done before and embroidered on top of the quilting, so it would show up better.

This shows the back baby blue all completed and bound with white.

On October 29, at 2:35 am, Rowen had a very low blood sugar and apparently a very low BP. He fainted and in that process broke his baby toe on his right foot. He spent a lot of time with his foot elevated and ice on it throughout that day, and it is gradually improving and allowing him to walk and drive again. We are very thankful he wasn't injured in any other way!

In 2022, I made a series of memory quilts for family members of Steve Stetler from his shirts. I still have some scraps and squares left. His son and daughter are adding a son and daughter to their families this fall. I decided to use those leftovers and make more baby quilts. I have the little boy's done, except for quilting it. I intend to use flannel on the other side for softness. The cross is the only fabric I added to this.

I have started on the little girl's, but it's not far enough along for a picture yet.

Maybe I'll have pictures of them completed in the next month's blogpost!