Although today was not really one of my 'better' days I am going to try and not constantly write about the sadder things in my life, but instead shoot for those of a more pleasant nature. That doesn't mean that I am 'over it' or any other that other stuff, just that for right now, I feel the need to accentuate more of the positive in my life then to dwell on the pain.

As you know by now, Sunday night is now 'Family Night' at my house. The children all come home, dragging along their significant others as well as an occasional straggler or two. Our neighbor down the street, who lives with his grandpa and longs for a mother, also comes faithfully each gathering. We start the night with a meal then after clearing the dishes the board games come out.  Apples to Apples, ImagineIff, Taboo, Life, Uno. You get the idea. Last night Older Sis brought to the table a great game that isn't even a board game. One that she had learned the night previous at the kitchen table of all people, her and my CEO of the company. (Our daughters have been friends for years, and face it, that kind of stuff happens when you live in a small town.) One of the best parts about this game - you need only paper and drawing instruments.

The name of the game is Telegraph Pictionary. For those of you who have played it you get why it's so fun. For the rest of you I will try to help you understand. There are no winners or losers, only laughter.

To begin each player is given a stack of blank papers equal to the number of players. For instance if there are 6 people playing, each person would have 6 sheets of blank paper in front of them. We used small 3" x 5" scratch pads, or you can cut 8 1/2 x 11 paper down smaller. Each player then proceeds to write a descriptive sentence on the top sheet, without any one else seeing it. Once everyone has a sentence, the entire stack of paper is passed to the left. The receiving person reads the sentence to themselves, puts the sentence on the bottom of the paper pile, than attempts to draw a picture depicting the sentence on the next sheet of blank paper.  Once the picture is drawn the entire stack of papers are again passed to the left and the receiving person shuffles the picture to the bottom of the stack and writes a sentence about the drawing they received, again on the next sheet of blank paper. You continue in this manner; drawing, sentence, drawing, sentence, until everyone gets their original pile of paper back. Once everyone gets their piles back, one by one you reveal your original sentence, and then the sequence of pictures and sentences to the entire group. It is hilarious how off base they can get, or even how spot on the resulting sequencing can be.

For example:  One of the sentences last night: 'He was a world famous man of mystery.' The person who received this sentence then drew a very good replica of the dos equis man of the television commercial. He passed this picture along to the person on his left who interpretted it and then wrote the sentence, "General Ulysses S Grant likes to drink." That sentence was then passed along to the left. The receiving person read the sentence and drew their idea of General Grant drinking. This picture was once again passed along and the next person wrote the sentence: "Grant was a drunk." Once again that was passed along and the final picture showed Ulysses S Grant, in the midst of battle, surrounded by dead soldiers of the liquid variety.

Imagination helps immensely and I will admit that some of the loudest laughter resulted from the drawings of those with 'no talent'.  This is a game everyone can play. Honestly, talent is not necessary. Thank you honey for bringing it to family night. I have a feeling this one is going to be making appearances at the table for a long time.

Well that old enemy of ours just keeps on throwing them punches. This time instead of a direct blow he's going for the sucker punch. He's sneaking in from the back.

It was a bit over a week ago that my SIL and I spoke. I try to call back to Indiana at least once a day, maybe every other, alternating my calls between the two sisters in  law and my step daughter. About every forth day or so I will call my Mother in Law. I leave more time between those calls because it is difficult for her to talk with me. Hubby used to call her every day, now when she sees the area code on the phone it upsets her, so I limit my calls. Well last week I was told that my MIL, Joyce, was sick, they thought she had pneumonia. This wasn't much of a surprise to me, I knew she had really taken the news about her sons death hard, and I had concerns she wasn't taking care of herself as well as she could, so her being sick wasn't very shocking news.

I followed her progress through other family members, since breathing was a chore I didn't want to tax her by talking on the phone and finally last Monday one of my SIL's called to let me know Joyce had agreed to allow them to take her to the hospital. She was at the point where every breath was a major struggle and it seemed the medications weren't working. After a few days at the small town hospital her health was not improving as they hoped, so some tests were done.She had suffered a heart attack about 15 or so years ago and has had trouble with her heart since, so they did some tests in that area and found she had a very weakened heart.

Today they moved her to a hospital in Indianapolis that specializes in heart treatment. The new doctor determined that she did not have pneumonia, instead she was suffering from congestive heart failure. Fluid in the lungs along with a heart attack. After yet more tests, it was decided that the doctor will be doing open heart surgery at some point this week to remove the blockages she currently has as well as some other things I didn't catch. I'm pretty sure some stents will be placed as well. He wants to wait just a few days to allow her lungs some additional time to lose the fluid, as well as waiting on some other test results. 

As daunting as all this sounds, this is actually good news. Finally someone knows what is going on and has a plan to fix it. I was told this evening that for the first time in weeks Joyce has shown some hope. She even ate a bit. That is good news indeed.

It seems like lately all I seem to do on here any more is ask for prayer. I feel like I am becoming one of those 'needy' type people. But honestly friends, I'm really not. One day, in time, I will be on here telling you about my latest adventure, or something stupid I just did, but for now, I'm just another one of God's soldiers that seems to be in the midst of what my friend would call, 'some pretty serious crap!'. So again, I plead for your prayers and supplications, this time for my Mother in Law Joyce. And while you're on your knees the rest of the family could use some prayer too. This has been one heck of a holiday season for us all.

Love and Christmas peace to you all - Gal

Dear Santa,

 It's been a long time Santa since I sat down and wrote to you, asking for my hearts desire, my secret wishes, but here it is Santa. In black and white.

No I don't want a doll, or a hula hoop, or even some jammies. World peace would be nice, but it hasn't happened yet, so I'm kind of thinking that one is beyond you.

What I want Santa; All I want Santa; is to have my best friend back. I know you would if you could Santa. I know you would. Maybe you could just bring me a new heart? Mine's got a pretty big whole in it right now. Probably not, huh. I guess I'll just settle for a new hanky. The one I have never seems to dry out. You can just leave it on the coffee table. I can't seem to bring myself to put up a tree or hang stockings this year.

I love you Santa. I'll write again next year. Things will be better by then,   Gal.