The one with the blessing board….

We recently had baby dedications at our church, and one of the great things about it was that we got a chance to publicly speak a blessing over Vivian.  I wanted to have something that can be hung in her room so that she could also see the blessings that we have been praying over her, so I made her a blessing board. 

In the week prior to the dedication, I had been hearing the word “fierce” for Vivian.  At first I wasn’t sure if I heard correctly, because the word has such a strong definition. In all of the research I have done, usually the somewhere in the definition it has the word barbaric in it!  But as I read more into it, there are the words passionate, unrestrained zeal, determined, or the best one: a heartfelt and powerful intensity. So I stewed on it for a bit.  Then to gather items to make the board, we headed over to Michael’s to check the clearance section.  And there hanging on a hook was a bracelet jewel set that said……..FIERCE!  Um. Okay! I get it!   So I snatched that little bedazzled gem up so I could add it to the board.  It just so happened that I could place the letters to fierce, on each letter of her name, which is perfect because we want her to have a fierce desire for the Lord in her heart.  Sweet!

The board was originally brown, and I spray painted it white.  I then cut out the pink ribbon and pinned it to the border with these cute jeweled pins I found. I glued down the letters onto thick ribbon so they would pop. I left the edges of the thick ribbon  frayed because, well, we all have frayed edges don’t we?  I finished up the board by placing scripture  and quotes onto scrapbook paper, and added a key and cross secured also with the jeweled pins.  (The N looks a little wonky….but it only looks like that in the picture. Strange.) 

 

            

Here’s our little peanut on her dedication day:

                          

Honesty note:  We still haven’t hung up her board yet…but it will eventually be hung on her door.

So….my husband was right.

 

 

Sheesh.  I hate to admit it, but on a couple of occasions, I should have just given in and listened to him right away without trying to make excuses.  Or trying to sway him to do things my way.  Or just shrugging off what he said.  Of course I don’t do that all the time. Mostly just on these occasions when he was right. So totally right.

 

About a year ago, Jeremy had mentioned that we should start to recycle.  Our HOA offers pick up for free, so he really wanted to.  Here was my reply- “Oh honey, we don’t really use much to have to recycle.”  And he politely listened without argument or discussion.  Fast forward to about 3 months ago.  We have a bin in the garage that he cleaned out, and he started to put recyclables into it.  Um.   Yeah.  We go through a lot of things that can be recycled!!

I stand totally corrected, and I’m in awe of our mass quantities of plastics and papers. 

This is 13 days worth of things that we were able to put into our bin-

We have almost this much every two weeks.

 

Here is my challenge to you.  For two weeks, get a box, or a trash bin, or even a rubber made bin, and put your recyclable items in it to see just how much you throw out.  I’m still shocked every time we put it all out at the curb.  

Reduce, re-use, recycle. 

Top 14 photos of 2014…

 

I love the idea of sharing favorite photos from the year!  I saw this on another blog, and I decided to totally copy them!  Yes there will be MORE baby pictures, so if you’re irritated at the over sharing of them by now, click out of this post immediately! Hehe!

 

#1: This is from when Seth and I went to The Goonies quote along in January.  We had such a great time there! (Even though one of us ate so much candy/food that they almost puked in the theater.)

 

#2:  We had to practice using a carrier before the baby came, so Jeremy was the tester.  And we used the stuffed dog. It was either use the stuffed animal, or shove one of our cats into it. We thought this way would produce less scratch marks.

 

 

#3: I love this picture of Marvin.  Keep this one in mind, because most of the other pictures I post of him are when he’s being a naughty boy. Here he was just calmly looking out the window.

#4: Sweet little Luna.  She’s really branched out and likes to be close to us now.  She’s come a long way since we adopted her from the Denver Dumb Friends League.

#5: On of our first Ultrasounds.  Her head is at the right, and her long legs on the left.  You can also see her hand there above her tummy waving hello to us!

#6: Jeremy was painting my toenails since it was really hard to bend over to do it myself. He was such a help during my pregnancy.  You could see my legs and feet were starting to become swollen.

#7:  One of our maternity photos.  I can’t wait until she can fit into these cute shoes!

#8: I love this photo! I was around 8 months pregnant here.

#9: This is me in the hospital right before my contractions started to get really heavy.  The last photo of me before I became a parent.

#10: Knowing that our new baby has a nurturing father is such an amazing feeling. Everything is going to be just fine.

#11: Our first family selfie. In the middle of the night.  After the first of many middle of the night feeding sessions. 

#12: This is one my favorite photos of Vivian.  It was taken by the Bella Baby photographer at the hospital. After they take the pictures, they come back after a while so you can see a slideshow of the bunch.  Well, they also set it to music, and this was the very first one to pop up, and I just started crying my eyes out when I saw it!  It just made everything so real!

#13: Not every photo session goes as it’s planned. This picture makes me laugh every time I see it!  She was not a happy girl this day.

#14: Although this is a tad blurry, It’s so cute!

 

Bonus #15:  Such a statement.

After going through all of my photos, it made me realize that there are certain photos I need to take more of. Like more of family members. I’m going to add that to my list of goals for 2015.  I’m starting to make that list as we enter the new year. Can’t believe the blessings 2014 has brought. I pray 2015 is even better.

So, this one time, I was bullied.

 

 

I think it’s a good thing for people to share about a time in their life when they were bullied.  Back in the 80’s there wasn’t really a word for it, but it happened.  Now of course I was teased a lot. Because of my weight.  I’ve been called lots of names because of my weight. Horrible names.  But to me that’s  name calling and not full on bullying. Yes the words sting still to this day, but I can get past the thought of those names.  This is the story (not really a story, it did happen) of a time in 7th grade when I was actually bullied.  And when I think about it, there is this sickening feeling in my stomach. Even 27ish years later.

I moved around a lot as a child.   I attended 6 different Elementary schools, and 2 Middle schools.  It was at Arvada Junior High in 1988/89 that this incident took place.  I don’t even remember what started it. What I did to make this girl and her cronies mad at me I have no idea.  I don’t know why they chose me as their victim.  One day a girl started to call me the “B” word as she walked past me in the hallway.  I didn’t even know her.  Soon after that her friends started to do the same. Lucky for me this happened towards the end of the school year. We had pad locks on our lockers, and on morning when I got to school I started to turn the knob to enter my combination, and I noticed something was on the pad lock.  Someone had sprayed something on it that smelled like urine. Awesome.  I went to the office to see if I could put my books in there since who knows what else would happen to my locker.  The office ladies looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out my ears. I don’t think they believed me. Jerks. (Great. Now I’M name calling! Hehe!) It got to the point where I hated going to school. Junior High sucks enough without this crap to deal with. 

The next couple of days were not very fun.  Rumor started that I was “Talking S&%t” about this girl (I don’t even want to justify her by writing her name here.). So her friends took every advantage to taunt me and tell me that “What’s her name is going to kick my ass”.  Lovely.  So the rest of the week I walked around wondering if I was going to get jumped.  Unfortunately I had gym class with this girl and her followers, so it was hard to avoid any of them.  This one day we had to do aerobics to a Jane Fonda video.  That was torture in its own way!  I had heard that the ass kicking was going to happen after gym class today.  I asked the gym teacher if I could leave class 5 minutes early because of this situation. She said “Yes” but didn’t even offer to stop the situation, or to offer help.  So I snuck out 5 minutes before everyone else, and I hid in the girls bathroom in the locker room.  It was a one seater, so no one could look under the stall or anything.  I hid there for about 15 minutes while the girls were banging on the door, saying terrible things.  I remember tracing the tiles on the floor with my eyes just praying that I could magically be home.   Imagine being afraid, hiding in a bathroom.  There is quiet. And then loud banging on the door.  My heart was already pounding, but add in the startling banging and it just sent me into overdrive!  Or almost heart failure! Finally the gym  teacher came and had the girls clear out. She suggested I go to the principal and talk to him about what was happening.  So I skipped my next class and went and talked to the principal.  He listened, and told me that She-who-must-not-be-named had to stay at least 50 feet away from me.  Yeah. That didn’t help the situation at all. I started to get sick at home because of the anxiety this all caused.  I remember one night I was vomiting and my Dad came into my room and just held my forehead as I wretched.  I SO did not want to go to school. Please. Just let me stay home!  At that point I only had one week of school left until summer. One. Long. Week. I was still being tormented in the halls, and in class. Rumors were still flying, and I was still going to get an ass-kicking at some point.  Fast forward to the last day of school.   My Mom was going to pick me up in front of the school so I didn’t have to walk home out of fear that the girls would follow me.  I walked out front, and who comes right up to me and started yelling in my face.  She accused me of  the good ole’ “talking s&%t” business.  At this point I had had enough.  I slammed my books down on the ground and yelled, like, adrenaline yelled back at her “Do you honestly think I would talk s&%t about you when I knew you wanted to kick my ass???!!!”  She was stunned, and not sure how to respond back.  All she said was “Crap, my bus is leaving!”  She grabbed her books, and ran to the bus.  Turns out her bark is bigger than her bite. Sucker!!!   Thank God for the last day of school.

Summer was awesome, and I moved one more time.  In the fall, I started Everett Middle School, and was about to meet Kiirsi, one of my best friends that I’m happily and luckily still friends with today. 

I understand that this case of bullying is small compared to some horrific cases.  But I’m just here to remind people that it does get better, you can get help (especially these days!), and you will meet people that will help you get through it!  Now I’m going to post a picture of me from that year at Arvada Jr. High. I think I marked on the picture, but this is me from the Arvada Jr. High year book in 1989.            Yikes.  7th grade is the pits!

Back when I had an obsession with the group Good Charlotte, I came across this song that has a great message!  I love it!

http://youtu.be/x27ANIY2QzU

Birth story part 2.

 

If you missed part 1, make sure you read it  here, so you know the whole story. 

Again. It's long and full of TMI!!! Read at your own risk of getting visuals. Haha!

Where did I leave off? Oh yes. The dreaded shift change.  We had just gotten our mobile monitoring straps on, and were headed out to the hall to do some more walking.  Gotta stay off the bed to get this going!  The mobile monitoring system is horrible!  One slight move, and you flat line. Or you flat line your baby, which is nerve wracking! I would rather have walked around in circles by the bed whilst being hooked up to the machine.  Anyways. Here comes the new nurse.  She had to adjust my straps like a million times, and at one point all I wanted to do was sit down, but couldn’t because she just got the heartbeats all lined up.*Cue sarcasm here: Next comes the best part. The nurse says to me “I bumped your Pitocin drip up to a 4”.  Um. What?  Excuse me? Speak into my good ear. You what? So much for low and slow. I want the other nurse back!!  My poor family stood there helpless as I asked her why she did that.  “We need to see some progression.”  After that I knew it was going to be an interesting night. I just wanted my baby to be safe and come into the world healthy.  

So the adventure continues when this new nurse tells me that she wants to put me on internal monitoring because it’s more accurate to tell the baby’s heart rate since she was still dropping down to 40, 50, 65,  with every contraction.   I’m sure the Pitocin had a lot to do with that. So in goes the internal baby heart rate monitor tube thingy. Let me tell you. This is SO painful.  I don’t even know what this woman was doing down there, but all I know is that I never want that to happen again.  There was a lot of blood, well, it sure looked like a lot, and a lot of pain.  Of course she couldn’t get it in correctly, so it took like 10 hours  5 minutes.  5 painful minutes.  Then for the internal contraction monitor thingy, one of my doctors came in to do that one. Thank the Lord she did!  It didn’t hurt at all, and she was in and out!  So now.  I sit there and wait. For contractions. For baby.  At that point, Vivan’s heart rate still wasn’t behaving through contractions, which were coming on really strong and fast at that point.  Apparently her heart rate dipped really low, and the nurse instructed me (through level 9 pain contractions) to lay on my right side to see if her heart rate would rise. Then I had to get onto my left side.  Then she had me get on all fours with my badonkedonk in the air, my head down on the bed, with tubes and wires coming out of me all over the place.   This one was hard, because I couldn’t move for the contractions that were coming. They had given me a shot of something to stop the pitocin for the time being so that Vivian can recover.  It was at this point that I heard a prompting from the Lord that I needed to get an epidural.  I just knew I was going to have a C-section, and if I didn’t get the epidural, I would be put under general anesthesia.  I wanted to be awake for the big moment.  So in a way I took back control, and asked for the epidural.  In less than 5 minutes the Anesthesiologist was there, and in less than 10 minutes I was numb.  My heart rate started dropping right away. Of course.  So I got an IV and some drug to help with that.  All I kept thinking was “This happened to Becky Ditchfield too!! This happened to Becky Ditchfield too!”  Haha.  Shortly after this, the Pitocin drip kicked back in, and the Doctor came in and gently told me I needed to have a C-section.  She was so very sweet about it the whole night knowing that I did not want one. I really appreciate her sensitivity about it.  Anyways. It was Vivian time!  I got rolled down the hall, and into the surgery room to be prepped.  One of the nurses got Jeremy surgical clothing to change into, and he joined me in the room after they got the drape set up.  A couple of minutes later, we heard loud suction, and crying. She’s here! Woohoo!  And what happens next? They bring her over to show me…..and I promptly have to throw up.  Nice, Lisa.  I see my baby girl whom I’ve waited years to have. And I loose my cookies.  Awesome.  Got it in my hair too.  Come to find out I was really dehydrated, and all of the drugs in me were making me a little sickish.

So I didn’t get to do skin to skin. Nor did I get to breastfeed right away. Totally bummed about that. But she’s healthy. That’s what really matters.

I got rolled into the recovery room with Miss Pitocin Drip, and the next thing I  remember is seeing her with a syringe to put something in my IV drip.  I had to ASK her what she was giving me.  And WHY she was giving it.  Demerol.  Really?  You’re not going to tell me you’re giving me DEMEROL???  I had the shakes really bad, and Demerol helps it apparently.  Oye.  I was glad at that point that Jeremy got to join me.  I just couldn't wait to see our baby again!

   I finally got wheeled over to the post natal side of the hospital. And boy was I glad about that!  New nurses!  And they were awesome.  The rest of our stay at the hospital was fantastic. 

And we got to take home this little bundle of cuteness.

 

                         

Birth Story. My crazy, eventful, glorious Birth Story. Part 1.

Be forewarned. This will have a lot of TMI in it. It is a birth story after all. Haha.
Oh. And this will be long. I’m going to make two posts of it.
So.  Wednesday, October 1st. I had my weekly appointment at the OB at 11:00 ish.  We got in the room, and the Doctor did a cervix check. (Those are not very pleasant! It’s like having a whole  hand shoved up your vajayjay. Although it’s nothing compared to what happens later…)  Apparently I was dilated to between  1-2 cm.  Sweet.  After she finishes, I notice that she has nails like a vampire. Long ass nails.  I thought to myself, “She should not have long nails like that especially if your putting them up inside a woman!  What the heck!!” After that, we go use the restroom and head to the elevators. And that’s when I felt it. Did I just pee myself?  What is that wet feeling? Umm. Jeremy?  Of course on this one day, there are literally 5 people waiting for the elevator. Never on a regular day. Just on the day that my water breaks!!!  So yes. We head back to the doctor’s office as I’m gushing fluid down my jeans.  So. Weird.  Then I start thinking.  I bet the doctor ruptured my water sac with her talons!  Cut the nails, lady!!!  We were instructed to go home and get our things, eat, and get back to the hospital. It’s go time!!  So our first stop? Jimmy John’s!!! I had to go 9 months without that lovely lunch meat of yumminess!   Italian Night Club. Oh Yes. It was SO good! I did realize that I may barf it up later (I didn’t) but I surely didn’t care at that moment!  We ran home, got our bags and last minute things that I thankfully had made a list for.  Then we headed back to the hospital. Yikes!  I started to feel contractions by the time we left the house.  Nothing consistent. One every 8 minutes.  4 minutes.  6 minutes. 3 minutes.  Totally sporadic.  When we get to the hospital, I get hooked up to the monitors to see how baby and I are doing in the heart rate department.  All is good so far.
                              
I get the IV tube put in. She blows up the first vein. Man that hurt!  Finally got it on the second shot. Thank God!
                                
After about 20 minutes, I was cleared to go walking to progress the labor process.  Around 6, the doctor comes in and suggests Pitocin to get things started. Just one drip of it to help out.  I didn’t really want it, but I wasn’t progressing at all, so I agreed as long as it was low and slow. Which my nurse assured my multiple times that it would be.  I was put back on heart rate monitoring because of the Pitocin.  Good thing, because for almost every contraction I had, Vivian’s heart rate dropped for a couple of seconds. Quite concerning after a while.  The Doctor came in frequently to monitor the heart rate drops and assess the situation.  This went on for an hour and a half.



Then at 7:30….the dreaded nurse shift change happened…….



See part 2 tomorrow.

*Here is the link to Part 2: http://an-ordinary-princess.blogspot.com/2014/10/birth-story-part-2.html

Nursery reveal…..

 

 

Someone around here decided it would be a fabulous idea to put bead board in the nursery. Yep. That was me.  And the conversation in my head went something like this: “How hard could it be?”  “It will look so good!” “It can’t take too long could it?”. Um. Yes. It could take “that” long. Haha!

The room started out in a bright Mediterranean yellow color. It took 2 coats of primer, and 2 coats of Glidden paint in the color Reed to cover it. We didn’t paint all the way to the bottom since it will be covered with the bead board. Click photos to enlarge.(Remember, my forte is absolutely NOT photography!)

           

After we got the painting done, we started the bead board.  It takes a lot of measuring, cutting, measuring again, and trimming, and then cutting again. It was interesting cutting the holes for the outlets. I had seen a tutorial on a website that saved us!!!  We covered the bare outlet with painters tape, then colored it with chalk, then pressed the whole board against the wall. The outline of the outlet box then imprints onto the board thus making it easy to cut the hole with the proper dimensions.  Jeremy got the hang of it after the first one we  he did.

          

Finally we were finished!  We cold start to put together the dresser: (Blurry photo alert!!)

                                        

I got the lamp from Kirkland’s for $24.00, and added the little burlap lace and flower design. I then hot glued the little gem to the middle of it for extra bling.   (I always thought people meant Costco when they said Kirkland’s, because that’s their brand name for products they carry. But nope. It’s an amazing store in Lone Tree! Hit me up if you want to take a trip there.) 

Now we could start moving in the fun stuff!  I got a lot of the décor from my friend Kim who moved to California and downsized her belongings.  It SO helped to design this room with all of the things I got from her.  (Thanks, Kim! Miss you!)

It looks a little cramped in this shot, but It really isn’t.  I think it’s the way I’m holding the phone.  Also, the letters aren’t crooked like it looks here.  Good Lord I need a photographer!  I got the letters from JoAnne’s, and painted them a shiny brown, then hot glued pink ribbon to the back so I could then hang them.  That was the easiest project aside from the lamp burlap flower.  The pink ottoman used to be a bright, ugly pink color, but I bought some light pink softy material to cover it with. It looks much better this way, and it’s soft, soft, soft!

           

My Aunt made the crocheted coat, hat, and blanket hanging here. They were too cute to just hang in the closet, so I had to display them.

               

I got the baskets here from the dollar bins at Target. I tried to find all white ones, but after going to 3 Targets, and visiting each one several times to see if they would re-stock them, I gave in and got 3 pink ones.

I made the labels with Microsoft Excel, printed them, laminated them, and then hot glued them to the ribbon and the basket.

                                   

This is as you are walking in the door.  The picture used to be held up by a wire, but I removed that, and added pink ribbon instead.

                           

Thus concludes the nursery tour. I really wish I had better photographic abilities!  Here’s a  bonus shot of the stinker, Marvin, just for fun. And let’s not leave out Miss Luna.

       

A long time coming……

 

 

November? That’s the last time I did an update???  Slap my hand!! In my defense, though, life did get a little crazy after January rolled around. In a good way.  In an exciting way.  (Although I can’t believe I didn’t post ONE thing about Christmas?? What in the world?). 

So. What’s been going on?  Well, in January we found out we were pregnant!  So exciting and fun. But boy was I nervous. After having a miscarriage prior to this great news, every symptom and lack of symptom was heightened by nerves and fear.  Part of that is the reason that I haven’t posted much at all during this whole pregnancy. The what-ifs spoke, and still speak loud in my ears.  I have sat down a bunch of times with this page open to write a post, or to share a photo of an ultrasound, but honestly I was scared to. Because if something happened, I would have to announce to everyone again that things didn’t go as planned.  And that scared the crap out of me. A lot.  In some ways it still does. (Even though as I sit here typing, I can feel my baby kicking against the laptop as healthy as ever.)

So how have the trimesters been treating me?  Well, I didn’t have any morning (or all day) sickness that a lot of women get. I was hungry All. The. Time. But nothing sounded good to eat because I did have food aversions.  That seemed to pass pretty quickly once I arrived at the second tri. I don’t really have strong send-my-husband-out-at-2 AM cravings, but McDonald’s Cheeseburgers are on my list of delicious wants, along with sweet things. Luckily fruit can pass as a sweet thing! I haven’t had any major symptoms during my third tri, but my thighs go numb if I stand too long when the bean is laying on my sciatic nerve.  It’s not pain, so I’m totally fine with that.  I also have carpal tunnel issues over night where my two middle fingers go numb, and then tingle with pain. It wakes me up frequently, so that’s annoying.  But it’s just a little nuisance.  I  haven’t had any back pain (thank God!) so I’ve been quite blessed.   Now I just have to get through labor and delivery. Yikes!

In a couple of weeks, I’ll post a tour of the nursery. We’re so close!  All we have to do is install one more shelf in the closet, and hang the drapery rods and wall décor.  Woohoo! Then we’ll be all set! 

Until then, here is a little reminder for us all:

The Thankful Post…..

 

Several of my friends have posted on Face Book the things they are thankful for.  I have always wanted to do this, but knew I would forget to post every day, so I thought I’d just do it all in one Blog Post. So here goes:

I am Thankful for:

1. A relationship with God.

2.A loving husband.

3.A close family. 

4.Friends who love me unconditionally.

5.For men and women who fought for my freedom. Without them I wouldn’t even be able to type up this list. It’s silly in comparison really.

6.The jobs that Jeremy and I both have.

7.My church. Jubilee has saved us several times. From ourselves, and from our electricity being shut off.

8.Our Pastors. Caring. Selfless. Willing to pray whenever.

9.My boss. Understanding. Caring. Gets it when “life” happens, and doesn’t balk when I have to call in sick or miss a day. Advocate for her staff. Awesome.

10.My co-workers. Even when Craziness ensues, we’ve got a great thing going on in our little preschool.

11.Life’s lessons. Although hard when going through them, I’m always stronger on the other side.

12.My Kitties. Even though Marvin is Mr. 5:00 A.M., he’s a sweet guy. And Luna the sensitive one. So sweet is she.

13.My car. I’ve got butt warmers in the seats. Nothing else need be said.

14.Negative test results.

15.My treadmill.

16.Hope. Without it, life would be boring.

17.My imagination. Although it may get me into trouble sometimes, I’m glad I have one for all of those crafty ideas.

18.Snowy days. I don’t like driving in snow, but there’s something about a cold snowy day at home that’s just so cozy and heart filling to me.

19.Food on the table.

20.Free television. Yes I miss ABC Family, Food Network, and HGTV, but choosing to not have them saves us 130 bucks a month.

21.Farmers Insurance. They’ve helped us on 3 occasions now.

22.New Friends.  Proof that I’m not such a weirdo. Haha.

23.Vacation days with Jeremy.

24.The ability to taste, smell, touch, see, feel, walk, talk, and move.

25.Christmas!! 

26.Apple TV. It allows us to have movie nights way cheaper than going to the theaters.

27.A roof over my head.

28.A week off from work. Wish it was a paid week off, but I’ll take it anyways!

29.A busy December. We made a pact that we wouldn’t hold back on doing fun Christmassy things this year.  So our calendar is full of fun things.

30.Hobby Lobby. It’s my happy place. I’m sure I’ll think of something much better to put at number 30 after I’ve gone live with this…but oh well. I love a good Hobby Lobby therapy!

Updates and a huge reality check.

 

 

I haven’t posted in quite some time. Life happens, and I just got busy with things. And one huge thing happened that I wasn’t ready to post about until now. (No. I’m not preggers.) I had surgery that you all know about in the end of July.  All is healed and well from that expensive episode.  Each bill that comes in seems to open a new wound, though. Haha. School started and I have two amazing classes with children I completely adore. Challenging at times, yes, but this year I am blessed with fantastic children, and amazing parents. (Some of whom are now friends and not just acquaintances.)  Everything was moving along smoothly……until the end of September. A week before our 6th Anniversary.

 

We had just finished our church service and went to Freddy’s with a bunch of people for dinner. On our way home, we stopped in the parking lot of a church to watch some very loud and awesome fireworks. After that was over, we continued on our way home. It was about 10:15 at night, and we had just turned down a pretty dark road in our neighborhood when all of a sudden there was a man walking in the middle of the road. We had no time to break or swerve….and we hit him. In the Jeep.  Let me tell you. In the movies when a person gets hit by a car, they get it right. Really right.  He flew up onto the hood of the Jeep, and then flew about 8 feet in front of us. I can’t even begin to tell you the feelings and thoughts going through my head at that moment.  Nerves, fear, anxiety,  are we going to jail, can I see a thestral now, is he dead, my life is changed forever, oh my God, oh my God. I always thought I’d be the person who would sit in the car and just rock myself in a situation like this. But we were out of the car in an instant. I was on the phone with 911, and thank God the man was alive. The police and paramedics got to the scene in like, 3 minutes. Amazing.  Come to find out that the guy was intoxicated. He was wearing dark clothes and had sunglasses on. Remember this is at 10 at night. Sunglasses. Awesome. There was blood. Not as much as I thought there would be. There were several people stopping to check out the scene right before the police came.  There was a lady who claimed to be a nurse, who ran over with her emergency care box. She got out some gauze to put on the man’s face. And she did not put on gloves! Not a nurse. Absolutely not a nurse. First rule of universal precautions. Glove up! After assessing the scene, the police kept telling us it’s not our fault and that we aren’t going to jail or anything. Obviously they saw that we were shocked and worried. Which we were.  The man got a ticket. We are in the clear.  The paramedics took the man away, and we filled out our accounts of what happened.  By that point, the adrenaline started to wear off, and I started to feel a little woozy.  How do you move on from something like this?  We had to go home and go to sleep so we could get up and go to church in the morning. Yeah right. I slept maybe an hour that night. Sporadically. I was glad we had to go to church though, because we had our support system around us, and were comforted by our friends.  The truth is, we have to move on. It wasn’t our fault. Even the insurance company ruled that it was not our fault.  Driving at night was really tough for a while after the accident.  And I drive on that road every day on the way to work.  The orange spray paint on the ground from measuring distances and speeds has finally worn off, and our hearts are healed.  The man’s injuries were non-life threatening, and he should heal up just fine.  We only hope and pray he finds healing in his life. So dear friends, drive carefully at night because you never know what will come your way. 

*Oh. And I wasn’t kidding about the fleeting thought going through my mind about seeing a thestral. It’s strange what your brain does in the seconds after a traumatic event. And apparently I watch too much Harry Potter. And if you readers get the point about seeing one, you also watch too much HP. Haha. 

Christmas Tree and Plans for the Moon….

 

 

I was recently going through a box of paperwork from when I was in Fourth grade, and found some weekly reader magazines!  It was so funny to read the articles and see what was “in” back in 1983/84.  I took a couple of screen shots of them:

                               

                                          

Obviously we’re still working on the drug problem! And wow are “Robot Toys”A.K.A. Transformers back  from the dead!  Little did the creators know that there would be movies made about them! And I guess we fell behind on the Moon Base.  I think that plan was a little ambitious!  It was so fun to read through these!

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Weigh In Thursday:

After the hospital ER and all of that jazz I thought I’d get really thrown off task. Especially since I had to stop walking for a bit.  I’ve been really watching what I’ve been eating, with treats every now and then, and it’s actually been working out well! My total loss as of this morning since my first post is –11 Pounds.  I’m curious as to what will happen after my surgery.  I’ll probably be on pain meds, and all of that crazy stuff that goes along with it, so I’ll have to give myself some grace.  If I do gain some, it will come right off after I start work because I’m constantly moving all day long.  This is one reason that I’m so happy that I lost this much! Usually over summer I gain weight!  Huzzah!

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Back in December, we were determined to find a tree bag to store our Christmas tree in.  I happened to be walking around TJ Maxx and found one in the sale bin. (Score!)  So I happily brought it home with high hopes.  Here are some photos of Seth and Jeremy trying to shove the monstrosity into the bag.  Now our tree matched  every physical attribute that was listed on the bag as to what will fit inside it. I think they need  to re-assess these requirements.

                                

So this is what we wound up with:  A lawn/garden bag for the top part of the tree,  the rest of it  gaping out the zipper of the bag, and a bloody hand. Fail!!!!

                 

So now this ridiculousness sits in the basement.  I’m not even sure if we’re going to use this tree this year. I’m tired of the light debacle that I encounter every year.

I should add that Seth and Jeremy both agree that we should just buy a body bag because the tree is sure to fit inside it.  Gross. Not happening, guys!

A night in the ER…..

 

As you all know, I’ve started walking to up my fitness level and loose weight. It’s been going really well, and I’ve learned a lot about my body. For instance I can’t walk in heat.  It’s got to be below 72 degrees or I’ll feel yucky from walking in  the sun.  I also need to drink water and eat a proper meal before I go out and walk. Well, yesterday in ideal walking conditions right when I hit mile 1, I started to feel like a vertigo dizzy feeling.  I slowed my pace waaaay down for the rest until I got home. Then I felt crappy the rest of the day. I made an appointment for the doctor so I could go get it checked out. (I go to that appointment today at 1:00.)  Well right before Jeremy got home from work I started to get this pain on my breast bone. Not sharp, but almost like when you need to pop your ribs at the chiropractor.  I got a little concerned when it would come and go for a while.  We decided around 7:30 to go ahead to the Urgentcare/ER.  Better safe than sorry. 

We walked in and right when I told the desk clerk why we were there she called and got us in right away. No wait time. They hooked me up to the EKG($$$$) machine and everything was clear and normal. (Whew!)  After what seemed a million hours I had to go for an ultrasound ($$$) of my gall bladder. Apparently it can mimic the type of pain I was having.  This part was actually really hard for me, because I wanted an ultrasound, but not for this reason. I had imagined my first ultrasound seeing a baby…..not looking for gall stones. After that we went back to our room, which was a “sitting” room, meaning that I was in a chair that someone who would need something removed from an eye or ear would sit in. I later found out that it can recline, but I’ll get to that in a minute.  Now it was time to give some blood for more tests. ($$$$) I also had to drink a concoction of Maalox and a numbing solution that would numb my esophagus and chest.  Weirdest. Feeling. Ever!  About 5 minutes after I drank this solution, I started to feel really nauseous and light headed.  I started sweating and getting really hot. The whole room was spinning, and Jeremy said I turned pale white.  I threw up into the trash can, and then all I  heard was the air conditioner in my ears. All of a sudden about 5 people were in my room talking and planning. Two people came around the chair and laid down the back of the chair. Thank goodness they did, because I sure felt better!  That was so scary!  Apparently my heart rate went down to 20!!!  But right after I laid down all of my vitals shot right back up to where they needed to be. (Again, whew!)  One of the Doc’s said that I was sitting on the nerve that usually affects elderly people when you hear about them passing out on the toilet. Same thing here. They ran another EKG ($$$$) and again, all clear. And they hooked up an I.V. ($$$$) 2 bags to be exact!

                           

After everyone cleared out, Jeremy leaned over me and said, “Um. Honey….I think you wet yourself”.  Oh great!  I pissed myself in the ER. Just what I needed! So I had to put on these paper pants and thread underwear.

                    

Fun times. All of my other tests came back normal, so they are pretty sure the symptoms were from my gall bladder, which in turn did have stones in it.  While we were waiting to be released, Jeremy was sweet and read aloud to me from the book he was reading on his iPad called Wild At Heart. Finally around 12:30 A.M. we were released. Today I have to call the surgeon to schedule a consult. I’ve never had any sort of surgery or anything where I’ve had to be put under anesthesia so I’m nervous!   I’ll let you all know what the plan is. Until then, I’m taking it easy.

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On the way home, I told Jeremy the whole “almost passing out incident”  felt like this scene from A Knight’s Tale with all of the people standing above me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdhQWkTl1PQ