Monday, April 9th

Chocolate Boost – $1.50 a bottle / 2 bottles a day
Fuel cost for weekend trip to Michigan – $60.00 a week
Wheelchair van to Henry Ford – $150 round trip/ approx. once a week
Pozaconosal – $200 a dose ( 2 doses a day)
Kerrie, Mom & Jenn getting silly in the kitchen, dying Easter eggs and singing along to “The Sound of Music” on TV – Priceless

We had a pretty good weekend.. especially Saturday when we were dying Easter Eggs. Dad and Joyce came to visit on Saturday afternoon, we watched a movie on TV and then Mom came home.. and it was time to dye Easter Eggs. The Sound of Music was on TV, Kerrie and I were making a mess on the kitchen table ( and our fingers.. Kerrie thought it was easier just to use her hand).. and Mom was doing her best to sound like Julie Andrews. O.K… maybe Julie Andrews, if she was getting run over by a bus while singing 🙂 Sorry Mom.

Although the Andree sisters have almost always had some musical talent, I do believe we inherited it from our father.. sorry again Mom 🙂 Kerrie did her best, though she even had to admit that Mom was better than her right now.. That comment just broke my heart and made me want to cry, but the singing was still fun.. especially since Kerrie was able to remember almost all of the words to a lot of the songs.. AND.. she put up with me constantly pointing to some scene in the movie and saying, “I’ve been there..”, “I stood outside that building..”, “I was at that Church..” “I ran through those streets, trying to find Mozart’s house so I could take a picture of it for you..” I was annoying, I admit.. but she put up with it. For dinner, we had a gourmet meal of steaks.. Kerrie tried the steak, but found it a little difficult to chew so she settled for mashed potatoes and peas. She’s starting to eat so much normal food that we’re not surprised at anything she tries anymore.

On Sunday, our Uncle Dan and Grandmother came over to see us and then Ron, Alisa, Robyn and TJ came for dinner. Kerrie was so exicted when Robyn and TJ walked in the door, she could barely sit still. She hasn’t seen them in months and couldn’t stop smiling. The kids, Ron and Alisa have all been sick.. on and off.. and haven’t been able to see her in a while. When TJ walked up to her and said “Hi I Aunt Kerrie” she almost looked like she was going to burst. I leaned over to her and whispered, “You’re pretty excited to see them aren’t you..” and she whispered back, “Yeeeessssss!” We had the kids hunt for their Easter baskets, found Kerrie’s hidden underneath her hospital bed and gave it to her… she reached right in that basket, pulled out a jellybean and popped it in her mouth. I stood there, dumfounded, as she just chewed away. When I asked her how it was she said, “Pretty good so far!” She hasn’t had real candy since before her bariatric surgery.. and it’s the hardest thing she’s tried to chew in months.. but she did it without a problem. Mom kept telling her to be careful, but Kerrie kept trying them. At one point Mom asked Kerrie if she was still eating her candy.. and the little brat lied, said, “no” and popped another one in her mouth 🙂 I asked her if I could have some of her jellybeans, since I had helped the Easter bunny with the baskets and knew I didn’t have one, and she was nice enough to share!

We watched “Happy Feet” and then ate dinner. Kerrie looked at her plate of augratin potatoes, looked at Mom and said, “I think I’ll have the ham.” Ham was ALWAYS her favorite… and she was bound and determined to eat it. After the ham and potatoes she even ate some of the fruit tart that Robyn made and the chocolate cream puffs that TJ made. I can’t believe how much she actually ate ( even though it was only about 4 ounces of food).. pretty amazing.

As it turned out, the Easter Bunny had hidden a basket for me when I wasn’t looking and as I was looking through my basket Kerrie said, “Ummm.. I do believe some of those are mine!? What? “Why, because you let me eat some of yours?” “YEP!!”… so I gave her a bunch of mine.

I have some great pics, and a video, to post.. but was in such a hurry to try to leave work at a decent time that I ran out of my office and left my camera there. I’ll try to put them on tomorrow.

All in all, a pretty good weekend.. but I think the best part was Saturday night. After the Easter egg dying, singing and sillyness Mom walked up to Kerrie, hugged her and said, ” A few months ago I didn’t think I would ever be able to be happy again… tonight I’m happy.”

Truly Priceless