WARNING TO READERS OF THIS BLOG

Hi everyone,

Until further notice, please do not click on anything in the "comments" section below the posts unless you are sure it has come from friends or family. Three days ago there was a comment left that required a click to view it. I foolishly did so and something immediately started to download onto my computer. I stopped it before it finished downloading, although it attempted to stop me from ending the download. I deleted the comment, but yesterday there was a similar comment left again.

DO NOT CLICK ON ANYTHING IN THE COMMENTS SECTION UNLESS YOU ARE SURE.

I am working on a solution to this problem. In the future you will probably need to "sign in" to leave a comment for Sherry. Such is life on the internet.

Dean

Still working hard

Again, my apologies for the extreme delay in posting. Sherry continues to do well and work hard. She is back into speech therapy at the U of O with a new student therapist named James. She is very fond of him and thinks that he does a great job. He apparently works her hard and she wants that. We have had some difficulty getting her to her appointments in recent weeks. For some reason Senior and Disabled Services have messed up the taxi arrangements that get her to and from her sessions. She has missed her last two sessions for this reason. We hope we have it all sorted out now and that she will be back on track to attend her appointments this coming week. It is frustrating because she has just two sessions scheduled before going on an extended break (Spring Break) Sherry's care provider, Gayle, has offered to drive her to all of her appointments but the parking situation around the clinic is so horrible, we cannot really do that. It is a gamble every day whether or not they can find a parking space. So, the taxi works out very well, when it is scheduled properly.

Gayle continues to work out so well for us. She is so good for Sherry and she has taken a real interest in the girls. She is not afraid at all of any of the issues we face with the girls and often has great suggestions. She goes out of her way to help our entire family, often going above and beyond the call of duty. Recently our outside freezer broke down. It had been down a long time before I realized it. You can imagine what it was like when I opened the door. I got most of the food out of it and into the garbage can (almost hurling several times in the process) but then had to go to work. When I got home that night, Gayle had finished cleaning the entire freezer. When I tried to pay her a little extra money, she refused. On the 28th. of this month Gayle has agreed to spend the night at our house so that my sister and I can travel to Portland to see Bruce Springsteen. These are only a few examples of how she helps us out. I do not know how much she gets paid by the state, but I am certain it is not enough. I am so thankful that she is here. It is not easy being us, but Gayle really does make it a bit easier.

On Friday Gayle took Sherry for a visit to the courthouse to visit once again with her old co-workers. I doubt if all of those people realize what an impact these visits have on Sherry. They bring back bittersweet feelings to be sure. She is so, so happy to see them but can get sad that she is not still there working along side them. I want to thank Tana, who arranged the visit this time. Thank you for allowing us to come, it was all Sherry talked about the rest of the day.

Sherry is really getting interested in the upcoming election. She has decided that Barrack Obama is "my guy" She watches the news now to keep up on all of the primary elections and other goings on. She sat down and watched an hour long TV biography on Obama, so she is pretty well informed. Brittney is a big Obama supporter as well. I asked her one day why she didn't want Hillary. I said "don't you want to see the first female president in our history?" She looked up at me as serious as could be and said " Dad.....I want to be the first girl president." So, I guess one could say that she has her own agenda. I am still undecided. I like them both, but probably lean a bit more towards Hillary at the moment. During the last presidential election the girls and I actually did some volunteer work for John Kerry (met the singer Carole King in the process) Hopefully we can find a way to do some this time as well.

Anyway, enough for now

I love my wife.....tomorrow we move forward

Dean