When we first moved into this house back in 1999, this tree barely reached the top of the fence. Now, although a very common tree around here, we are very proud to see it getting as big as it is. At this time of the year it is nice to have some color in the yard besides brown and green.

Thanks to everyone about the good wishes for my dad, but unfornately he has had a set back.

Last Monday night, my mom phoned to chat after my scrapbooking class. She mentioned that she was quite worried about my dad because he was unable to finish his sentances. He had just been diagnosed with a sinus infection and I thought it might be just the pressure and the pain that was causing him to be that way.

The next day on my way home from work, my mom called me on my cell phone to say that they had admitted dad back into the hospital. I guess at lunch time he was not able to say 2 or 3 words together to form a sentence. So my mom took him to St. Pauls to find out what the problem was. While there, they did a cat scan to find out that my dad had a bleed on his brain. They figured it was from the heavy duty heart medication he had to be taking that caused this.

So they took my dad by ambulance to University Hospital where they deal with these sorts of problems. When we went to see him that evening, he seemed fine to me and we thought that he would just be in for the night for observation.

The next day when my mom went to see him, he had gotten worse. I took Shorty and Boo to see him after supper (Kat had seen him the night before) and although he understood everything we said to him, he was unable to have a conversation with the kids. Unfortunatley I didn't realize how bad he was and if I had known, I would not have taken the kids with me. Shorty didn't seem too upset about it but Boo was in tears when we left.

From there he just seemed to go downhill. Although he was on a medications to clot the blood and to decrease the swelling, it didn't seem to be working. By Thursday night although he really wanted to communicate with us he was unable to do so. Evertime he tried to say something, he would get very frustrated and just end up going "shit". If it wasn't that, he would just go "whatever". The new plan was to do another CT scan to see where he was at.

On Friday they did the cat scan and by 4:00pm, they phoned my mom to get her consent to operate on him. He was on the list to have surgery that evening to drill two burr holes in his head to remove the excess blood that had pooled on his brain. We went to the hospital that night to see him but left before the surgery started as he was very tired and spent most the visit asleep.

Dad didn't end up having his surgery until Saturday night at around 11pm. We went and saw him yesterday afternoon and were quite worried because his surgery had to keep getting bumped due to other emergencies that kept coming in. But we were assured that he would get his surgery as soon as they were able to do it.

Last night we went to a friends birthday party who is turning 40. At first I really didn't want to go because I thought I would be too worried about my dad. But I am so glad that we did as it was very comforting sitting with friends and talking about it and also everything else. I had instructed my mom to call me on my cell as soon as she heard any news and around 10pm I called her to see if she had heard anything. An hour later she called me back to say that they had taken him into surgery. At 2am she phoned to let me know that he was out and awake and alert. He had some decreased ability in his right hand and that seemed to be impoving. He was able to talk but I don't know at this point if he is able to form sentances. We will be going up this morning to see him.

It has been a very long week for me. On Monday, Cor had left for a 5 day course in Edmonton and didn't come home until Friday afternoon. On Monday night, about 1/2 block from our house a man was stabbed. He didn't die but it is still scary to have that happen so close to home.

I am so glad that last week is over but I wish it was Friday again so that I could have a day or two of rest. This week coming up will be a very busy one as I have something going on every night until Friday. The good news is that next weekend is a long weekend and I will be able to relax for 3 whole days!!! Kat leaves this Wednesday for a band trip to Moose Jaw to play in the Kinsmen Band and Coral Festival. She is really looking forward to it and has been practicing her clarinet all weekend. They will be playing a Medley from "Shrek". The fact that this trip is costing me $255.00 wasn't all that fun, but hey, what can you do?

I want to wish you a "Happy Mother's Day" and hope that you have a great day!!!