7/4/13: Independence Day

Dave caught a cold Tuesday morning but was feeling better after spending yesterday home in bed. This morning we started out the day by driving Dave to the airport to meet up with his team going on a mission trip to Mexico City, Mexico to work construction for a week at a home for rescued girls.  After we got home, he called to say that security confiscated his peanut butter (lame!) and that Andy had spilled coffee on his shirt.  Later, I got a text saying his flight was delayed.  Then I received another text saying his flight was cancelled due to volcanic activity near Mexico City.  He finally called to say they were getting rebooked on a evening flight to SFO and then to Mexico City.  I called him back to ask if he wanted a new jar of peanut butter and he said yes.  Only problem: the kids and I needed to eat lunch, I needed gas in my car, and I didn't have another jar of PB.  :)  So the kids and I scarfed down our lunches while I made two PB&J sandwiches for Dave, in case he needed them for his late night/overnight flight or tomorrow if they didn't get to a grocery store before leaving for work.  Then I grabbed a shirt for Dave and clothes for Callen (he was still in pjs) and we took Dave's car to get PB because it had gas, and we headed out to the airport for a second time.  The kids were excited to see their dad again and I took the opportunity to get photos of them in their Fourth of July attire together.  Later Dave told me that on his second time through security, they confiscated his shaving cream.  And of course, they later found out that the Mexico City airport did not have any ash on the ground and was open the whole time.  The U.S. was the only country that had airlines cancel flights.  Lame-o.

Tonight the kids ate popcorn while watching the Capital Fourth show on tv.  After Elodie saw Neil Diamond sing, she exclaimed, "Now that guy can sing," and all I could do was laugh!  Then we watched the fireworks and I've never seen two kids SO excited to see anything.  They danced and danced to the music and squealed with joy watching the fireworks. :)  They are currently marching along with the Army Band.  Callen was so proud of himself b/c he was bowing with his hands behind his back

2/1/13: Roses!

My hubby is the sweetest!

 

4/7/12: Anniversary celebrated

Today Dale & Candy watched the kids so we could celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Originally we wanted to go up to the mountains for the day but then we realized that it was still ski season and we didn't want to have to sit in a ton of traffic going to and from so we opted for a low key local date. First we headed to T@rget (yes, I know, real romantic, but hey when you've got two kids and been married 10 years, it is a treat to go shopping by ourselves :)) and I tried on some clothes and got two new tops. Yay me. :)

okay, so maybe the hubby wasn't as excited as I was about shopping :)

Then it was lunchtime so we were going to eat at Zucca downtown but then we realized that they weren't open for lunch on weekends, right around the time we got there and saw tons of fire personnel. Apparently there had been a massive grease fire at The Empire so we sat ourselves down at The Rex with a view of all the action and enjoyed a great lunch (marinated chicken, prosciutto, and brie sandwich on sourdough for me...yum!)

After lunch, we headed to the mall so I could pick up something and Dave got a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory dessert. Then it was off to the theater to see October Baby. We wanted to support a Christian film that supports choosing life. Should have brought a box of kleenex! Then being the exciting people we are, we finished our date off with a trip to C*stco and T@rget.

After Dale & Candy left, while we raced around getting ready to leave, Callen managed to fall on his sippy cup and split his lip open in multiple places, getting blood all over himself and soaking up 5 paper towels. So after cleaning him up and a wardrobe change, we were off to a Passover Seder dinner.

12/30/11: Zoo Lights

Zoo Lights!

I forgot my camera so these are all cellphone photos. Not bad for a cellphone!!

photo by Elodie :)

my sleeping baby

4/7/11: L's first time skiing

Just a quick post on L's first time skiing. I had been planning on taking her skiing this season but, between all the colds and surgeries it just didn't happen until now. I was able to get free Eldora passes from work and L was super excited to go. When we got there (we got there later than I had hoped) it was almost noon. We rented equipment, her little ski's were so cute, and then I went to the retail store to get a toe clip (I was told that might help) and a harness since I forgot to get those things before we left. Once we got everything on I kind of pushed her down this little hill that was on the way to the ski lift. She moved forward and then fell over. She didn't cry or anything just got back up and moved some more... before she fell. I am not much of an instructor so I didn't know what to tell a toddler. We kind of moved with her between my legs for a little bit but after about 10 minutes or so L was ready to go home. Great, I said, we had only been "skiing" for 10 minutes and she already wanted to go home. I decided that it was ski school time. I signed her up for the afternoon class which was 2.5 hours long. She was really shy with the teacher for a couple of minutes but he got her interested in putting on one of her skis and she started "skating" around. He then took her to their training slope and I went off to do some runs. I didn't do many before I wanted to check on her... I did this often because I wanted to see how she was doing and she looked so cute out there with her little bitty skis on. At the end of the school time her teacher said she did a good job and learned a lot. One of the other instructors there said that she got a little tired about 1.5 hours in and started saying "no" a lot more when asked to do things. She said she had a great time and wanted to do this again so hopefully, next season, we can go a little more often.

Appendi- what?

So, it turns out that I, David, had and interesting experience that I wanted to share with you all. For the past two months it seemed like every Friday someone got sick, or got sicker, so that our weekends would get ruined. On Friday, January 21st the pattern seemed to continue. I woke up at 2:00am with a sharp, needle like pain in my lower abdomen (below my belly button). It seemed like I ate a porcupine or something. It hurt bad enough that I couldn't go back to sleep. An hour or so later I had enough and was just going to go downstairs since I was tossing and turning and didn't want to wake up Elizabeth. When I sat up the pain got much better. So, yay, I just propped some pillows up and eventually fell asleep sometime around 4:00am. I woke up at 6:30 and the pain was still there but this time it was a dull pain all over my lower abdomen. It wasn't a horrible pain, maybe a 4 on a 1 to 10 scale, but it was constant and rather bothersome. I have IBS and just thought it was an intestinal issue since the pain wasn't concentrated in one spot but all over my lower abdomen. I stayed home from work, and worked a few hours from home, and made an appointment with my GI doctor. When I got there they poked and prodded and asked a bunch of questions and couldn't really settle on what was wrong but gave me some stuff to help relax my intestines. We discussed having a colonoscopy (oh joy) and I got all the information on that. The nurse practitioner said the pain should go away sometime next week so, I went home, took the pill, and eventually went to bed. Saturday and Sunday seemed a little better but not much. Making dinner was fun because I would do some things and then brace myself for the pain, mix in another ingredient and then brace for the pain, flip the chicken and... well, you get the idea. Sunday I took Elodie to a birthday party and actually did OK. The pain at the party seemed a little better which allowed me to walk her around and such. Any improvement in the pain I attributed to the pill since it was suppose to help. Come Monday though things were much much better. I woke up to barley noticeable pain and off to work I went. Yay, I thought, we are finally getting over this which made Elizabeth say "yay, now you can get your colonoscopy." I set up an appointment to get my colonoscopy in about a week and a half... oh yippy (sarcasm). Throughout the day the pain was slowly getting worse which made sense to me since I was moving and walking around, the pain seemed better if I just sat down. Eventually I made it home and made dinner as usual now; cook, brace for pain, repeat; and eventually went to bed. The next day, Tuesday... oh lovely Tuesday, I woke up to pain that seemed a little worse than Friday. I was bummed but got ready for work and off I went. It seemed that the pain was was getting a little worse every minute but got through one meeting at 9:00 and tried to go to another. That meeting was tough because I was finding it hard to concentrate over the pain that was trying to claw apart my insides. I eventually gave up trying and went to get lunch... yes, throughout all the pain I never once lost my appetite. I finished lunch about 11:30 and the pain was getting to be about a 7 now. I talked to my mom who said I should go home but I thought I would be fine. I called the GI people and they said that I could double up on the medicine and that should help... it didn't. I started realizing that this was obviously something different than what people thought and called my regular doctor to get an appointment. He had an opening at 6:30 so I set that up. In about 10 more minutes I realized I couldn't concentrate on anything work related so maybe I couldn't "handle" it. I thought I would wait for a co-worker to come back from lunch, since there were 2 important meetings coming up in the next two days that I was suppose to run, so I could tell her that I might not be in the next day. At about 12:10 I said "screw that" and headed home. On my way home I called Elizabeth and told her I was coming home; she was out running errands and said she would be home as soon as she could. I also called my doctor back to see about an earlier appointment and set one up with a different doc at 3:30. I finally made it home, driving with pain is not very fun, and got inside. When Elizabeth got home she immediately said that my mom told her that I should go to the ER and that she thinks so to. She told me to call the GI people again and talk to them. I did, and the triage nurse there said that since the pain is worse I should go to the ER. OK, so everyone was telling me to go to the ER and at this point I just wanted the pain to stop so off I went. I figured since I drove myself home I could drive my self a short distance to the hospital and that way Elizabeth didn't have to worry about what to do with the kids. I canceled my doctor appointment on the way, I know, I am so responsible, and hobbled myself into the ER at Avista. Now, I must say, that I like Avista hospital. Once I got there things moved quickly and I wasn't sitting around for 4 hours dieing in the waiting room. I showed up, told the reception people the problem, and proceeded to sign something that I didn't read... something about privacy or whatever, who cares about that... and joked with them because they were saying how stubborn guys were with coming into the ER. "5 days with pain" they said, "men always take forever to come in." "But its not my fault" I said, "I called the doctor on the first day." "Sure yah did." :) I ended up in the lobby for about 30 seconds before the nurse came out and brought me back. I told her my story as she was taking vitals and writing down notes. We went to a triage room and I got to put on one of those fashionable hospital gowns that opens in the back, but at least I got to keep my boxers on. The doctor showed up shortly after and started pushing on my belly and I had the same tenderness and pain (pain was just worse) that I had on Friday, but this guys first thought was "well the appendix is down there so that's always a concern." Hmmmm... anyway, he said we needed to do a CT scan to rule out a bunch of things including an appendicitis, diverticulitis (which I really didn't want), kidney stones, and gallstones. While he was going to get people to do that, the lovely nurse I had set up an IV on me and then left to get some pain meds. I didn't know how the pain meds would affect me so I called my co-worker at work to tell her that she would have to run the meetings and that I probably wouldn't be in the office for a few days. The nurse then came back with the meds and, I must say, that I have never had any pain meds, other than Advil or Tylenol, but I see why people like them. The med took about a minute to work; I cant remember which pain med they gave me, I think it started with a D; but it made my face tingly, and feel a little puffy, made me a little lightheaded, and when I looked at the light in the ceiling it looked as though it were expanding... oh, and it reduced my pain from a 7 to about a 4 too but who cares about that. I was telling the nurse what was going on and she was giggling at me and then had to go help the other nurse get stuff for my CT scan. I told her that it was fine because the pink elephants on the ceiling and I were having a conversation; that made her laugh. Anyway, it was a short time before I was whisked away to the CT scan room and moved to the table slides back and forth under the scanner. The nice lady there told me that they were going to put in some sort of die through my IV that will feel cold and may give the sensation that I was wetting the table but its just the die filling up the bladder. She said that if I feel any tightness in my chest or anything to let them know. She started up the CT scanner and pushed the die stuff in. It did make my shoulder feel cold and then when it hit my bladder it did feel all warm like I was peeing all over the place but of course I wasn't. She than started to move the scanner over me. While that was going on I notice that I had a weird taste in the back of my throat from the die. Shortly after noticing that, I realized that my breathing was getting shallow and that my chest was getting tight. I started to tell them that my chest was getting tight which quickly turned into me telling them that I was going to puke. The nausea showed up really fast and she was moving the table out when I rolled over to my side and let loose. Luckily, through my puking skills, I manged to just miss the actual scanner and get everything on the floor. The lady then quickly started up the scan again because she didn't want to have to give me the die again. In the next minute we got all the pictures we needed and I was pushed back to my triage room. When I got back I called Elizabeth to give her an update and she had a billion questions which I couldn't answer and then the doctor walked in my room. I swear it was only a few minutes from when we got back from the CT room but in he waltzed and said that they know exactly why I was in the spot I am in. Apparently your appendix is normally 6-7 mm in diameter, about the size of your pinky finger, and they actually consider ones that are 8 mm as abnormally large. My came in at a whopping 18 mm... yay baby, go big or go home, that's what I say. The doctor said it was huge and nasty looking. He said that he was going to get the surgeon and bring him in so that we could get it out. I called Elizabeth and told her that I had an appendicitis and that I would be in surgery soon. She, again, had about a billion questions which I couldn't answer because I hadn't talked to the surgeon. While I was on the phone with her the surgeon walked in so I said bye to the wife and talked to the surgeon. When he asked when the pain started and I said Friday his eyes got really big. "Friday?" he repeated, "normally people are in here within 12 to 24 hours complaining of pain." "After 2 days we go in assuming that the appendix has ruptured, but 5 DAYS, yeah, the appendix has ruptured." He told me that my options for surgery were either 7:00pm that night or in twenty minutes (~3:30 pm); he said he would go with the twenty minutes, so twenty minutes it was. I called wifey back and told her all that was going on and then said good bye. I gave her number to the surgeon so that he could call her when I was out. From that point things continued to move quickly and I was sent off to get ready for surgery. The last thing I remember was holding some paper work and talking to nurses, the next thing I remember was being awakened in the recovery room. They eventually moved me into my room where Elizabeth was waiting and I wiggled my way from the gurney into my bed. I was still in pain so they gave me morphine and that made it all better :) The next few days was just me recovering in the hospital and being a chatty cathy with the nurses. Out of everything that happened I would say the worse part was Wednesday afternoon. I was having some issues with emptying my bladder (I know TMI) which, apparently, isn't unusual for men after surgery on pain meds. This led them to putting in a catheter. Now, I am not sure how many men out there have had to have one put in not under any anesthesia, but let me tell you that its very unpleasant. First, my nurse was probably in her late sixties or early seventies. If anyone is going to be holding my privates it sure better be a good looking twenty year old. Anyway, the old lady put the kit on the table and took out the tube. The tube looked to be the size of a small school bus to be but they assured me that it wasn't that large. She then proceeded to shove the small school bus into my unmentionables. I am fairly certain that God did not design that part of the male anatomy to accommodate the shoving in of the empire state building. Either way, after some not so fun pain, the tube was in and my complaining for the next 12 hours commenced. I was discharged on Friday, Jan 28th and am actually feeling rather well... at least my stomach and surgery area are doing well; I still have some weird sharp pain in my shoulder (pinched nerve?), it burns when I pee, and the surgery irritated my IBS. Man, its fun being me :)