Scuba Diving: A Blessing... Who Knew?

Scuba Diving: A Blessing… Who Knew?

Last year when we decided we were taking Amanda over to school at BYU Hawaii, Bill signed us up for a Scuba diving course.  It felt a little extravagant to me, but we all enjoyed the basic course and soon signed up for the advanced diving course. 

When we went to Hawaii we took another open water advanced diving course, and though it was sort of the end of the season, and we were heading into bad weather conditions so we missed out on one of the dives we were supposed to get go on when we visited Kauaii after we dropped Amanda off.  We did have a wonderful time diving and I was a bit spoiled, and really didn’t want to come back to Alabama and go cold water Quary diving…

Shortly after our return home we linked up with someone Bill knew from work that goes diving as a volunteer at the Space and Rocket Center.  We started diving there on a semi regular basis, so that we would be like fish in an aquarium for various tour groups and for some of the groups of kids attending Space Camp.  It’s fun, and we get to keep fresh on our diving skills. 

We’ve been able to take Flat Stanley with us for a dive at the Space and Rocket Center, and for Halloween they had a day where he volunteer divers came dressed in costumes to dive.  That was really fun… 

Bill was able to take the scouts there one night for an intro to Scuba class, and then over Christmas Break we took the girls up there for an intro to diving class as well.

Well, today it became a blessing to the local members of the Church.  The Church bought some property southeast of Huntsville, AL a few years ago to be used as a Camp site for Young women’s summer Camp and for Church Scout troops.  The first few years there were lots of work days out at the Camp to get it ready , land cleared, cabins built etc. to have it ready for Young Women’s camp that first year.  We went out one time and stayed as a family the next year in the cabins to help clean it up and get it ready another year.  The Priesthood men and young men have taken lots of trips to work and clean the camp area. 

Bill has gone Camping there with the scouts on several occasions, and last fall Liam even got to go with him on an overnight special camp out with the scouts.  The girls have all gone to Young Women’s Camp up there over the years. 

I’m sure you are wondering how all of this relates to Scuba Diving…

I’m sure you are wondering how all of this relates to Scuba Diving…

Well, somehow over the course of the past year, the dock at the little lake at the camp had become dislodged and there was a need for someone to dive down underneath and figure out what the problem was and reattach it so that the dock would stay put.

Bill was asked if he could dive and do this task today.  So, off he went.  Well, not quite that easy, he had to get a dive buddy to go with him, and had to ask to borrow oxygen tanks from the SpRocket.  The water temp wasn’t too bad today, so that was good, but the visibility was horrible.  They were able to figure out what the problem was, and then figure out how to fix the problem.  I’m grateful that Bill was able to obtain the skills he needed to accomplish this task to help the Church out and make the camp better for all those who will be able to use it.

This is the first time he’s gone Scuba Diving since we moved into this new house.  He is happy that he has plenty of room in his closet to hang his wet suit, and keep his dive bag.  However when he came home today, he was saying he needed to build some sort of a drying rack to hang our scuba gear and his wet suit on to dry out after we go Scuba diving, but in the meantime… he’ll just use the back yard swing. J

(until the birds stopped by... Oh well)

Christmas with the Robertson's (part 1)

Christmas 2009

We decided to take a trip and get away for Christmas. We knew that if we stayed home, we’d have children and parents all in various rooms, watching different shows on different t.v’s or playing on different computers, etc... we’d be thinking about all the work that needed to be done around the house, and more than likely we’d just be grumpy with each other, and that wasn’t what we wanted. So we found a cabin/house up in the Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN that was still available the week before Christmas, and we made our reservations.

Rebekah came home from college on my birthday (Friday, Dec. 18th) – what a nice birthday present!

The night before my Birthday, Bill and I attended a Work Christmas dinner at the Space and Rocket Center. It was a nice dinner, and I’m glad Bill at a really good meal. It’s pretty much the last thing he ate for nearly a week. That night Bill started feeling ill – chills and fever! By morning he could barely get out of bed, he felt so bad! I get the kids off to school, dropped Liam off at his school and went to a hair apt. I had scheduled as my birthday treat. Afterward, I went home and tried to keep all the kids who were excited aobut the Christmas break, and home from school early after a half day, just a little bit quiet so dad could rest. Bill barely got out of bed for the next several days. Sunday when we came home from church, he asked for an I.V. so I hauled him out and he got an i.v. and some shots of antibiotics and pain killers and I brought him back home to bed. Monday morning he felt somewhat better, and got up and attempted to go in to work. On his way he stopped at the Dr’s again, and they gave him a breathing treatment as he couldn’t take a full breath, and told him he had pneumonia. Oh, and he had lost abt 10 lbs since he hadn’t eaten much of anything in days!
He went on to work with a couple of new prescriptions and tried to get a few things taken care of. Those who saw him at the office told him to go back home! He really didn’t look like he was well at all, (and that was the first day he looked almost like himself again)! We were a little concerned that he was not going to be well enough to enjoy our Christmas trip to the Smokey Mountains... We started making him smoothies full of protein powder to help him regain his energy. That, and the i.v. he’d had made a huge difference. Tuesday he stayed home in bed, and the rest of us gathered and packed things and got things ready to go. I was very behind! I REALLY wanted to go to a fun ornament x-change, but never finished my ornaments, and as it was I didn’t get to bed till after 3:30 a.m. after getting things organized as best as I could.
Wednesday we didn’t get going quite as quickly as we’d originally wanted, but we eventually got on the road. We had planned on driving us all up in the van, but with the possibility of snow up the mountain, we decided to drive two vehicles, so we could shuttle everyone up to the cabin/house in Bill’s truck since it has 4 wheel drive. We later were glad we’d made that choice!
Just as we were packing up Rebekah made the suggestion that the kids all ride in the van and she and Amanda would switch off driving, and Bill and I could ride up in the truck together, and have time to talk... What a nice present that was. We were able to talk and visit, on the 5 hour drive, or listen to the 80’s music channel, and the kids got to listen to all the silly songs and sing and be loud and crazy, and it didn’t drive us nuts! It was great!

Quick update...

Bill went up to bed with his 'machine' last night... I was up for a while before I went up. So I walked in and he was all hooked up and in the dark... it wasn't a big loud noise, it was more of a slight wooshing sound hearing the air flow as he breathed. I layed there for a little while, listening and just tried to breathe along with it... I had JUST fallen asleep, when Liam woke up crying his foot hurt, and I spent most of the next hour up rubbing his foot and finally convincing him to take tylenol. Then he was with me the rest of the night, and Bill who'd gotten up to help deal with the footpain issues as well... didn't bother to put it back on... so he slept the next 4 hours without it. I was so tired I didn't even notice... I guess tonight we'll give it another go.

Oh and Rebekah came home from school and thinks she might have a kidney stone... She actually doesn't WANT it to be a stone, but is having several of the symptoms. I'm trying to get her in with the Dr. now...

Never a DULL moment!

April Fools!!!!!!!!! 21 years ago today (I'm sorry, I just CAN'T seem to write a short blog post!!!)

My friend wrote a blog post, for April Fools day- http://frieddillpickles.blogspot.com/2009/04/my-april-fools-day-14-years-ago.html

And Bill and I were talking this morning about another friend... who's husband does some crazy things for April Fools.
When Bill got home this morning, he was reading blogs, and went looking for something from our friends, saying it's well past time in Germany that they could have posted something! He was just sure that D had tried to pull something over on the family. (not that they haven't been onto him for years!) He's done it enough the kids used to refuse to even eat breakfast in the morning, because he has been known to put some scary things in the cereal boxes, or to switch out salt in the sugar bowl, or add things to the milk carton, etc... http://thetravelingdeckers.blogspot.com/2009/04/april-fools-day.html

As for us... April Fools went by without much fanfare at all. Although the other day I thought, too bad it isn't April fools today! I would have gotten Amanda!

Sh really wanted to go drive her dad's truck (it is standard and she wanted to get some more practice on it). She was going to just go drive around the neighborhood! I told her NO! and asked if she was going to be paying for the gas to just drive in circles?!?! She said it never mattered before when I used to go driving with her (around in circles in the neighborhood), when she was learning to drive. I reminded her she knows how to drive and has her license now!!! She said, it would be like learning, as she needs practice on the stick shift.

A little while later, I needed something from the grocery store to make dinner, so I asked if she wanted to go. She jumped at the chance!

Dad was getting ready to take Hannah to soft ball practice, and he was waiting for her to get back with the truck. I said, he should drive the van over, and switch it out and take the truck and see how long it took her to call because the truck had been stolen! If it had been April first I might have pushed him a bit harder to do it! ;-} Of course if she had called the police first or something, I'm sure no one would have been happy wit us (me)!!!

I love you Amanda!

On to MY April fools message...

21 years ago today... Bill and I got engaged! April fools!!!!!

I had been dating/going with another guy 'R' for over 1 1/2 yrs. I met Bill just after I met the other guy. Bill and I became good friends. He was the one I called when I'd been in a car accident and I wanted to 'see' someone, but was too embarrassed with my black eye to have anyone else see me! 'R' was a bit of a long distance relationship, as he attended school that year a couple of hours south. If 'R' wasn't around and available for the weekend, I'd hang with Bill.

Bill was the GOOD Guy!!! Everyone's friend! He usually had anywhere from one to 5 or more girls hanging around with him. (Not a bad life some might say...), however, He was always the one we'd go to when we weren't dating jerks, or when they hurt us and broke our hearts, etc!!!

We called Bill to ask if he had plans for Labor Day weekend - We were going on a Young Adult activity and driving up to Niagara Falls and 'Doing some Church stuff". The Young Adults from Church were cadets and it was an 'official field trip' and they could only make the arrangements for the Cadets, and could only drive the cadets up in the military vehicle/van, etc... So we of course wanted to go, and we called and invited Bill to come with us! We drove, 5 girls and Bill 10 hours in a small Hyundai to get to Niagara. (Wow! We're about to come full circle with our oldest heading off to Niagara to go to school in the fall!)

We had a fun weekend, and several months later he told us (after he asked to attend institute class with us and he walked right up and talked to the Missionaries, and asked to be baptised!) that the Trip to Niagara, and to see some "church stuff" had changed his life! He had felt the spirit when he was in The Sacred Grove. Done his own research and study... and felt the truthfulness of the Gospel. He didn't tell any of us, because he wanted to make his own decision, not have it be because we had helped influence him at all!

In Feb. when he got baptised his parents had gotten mad, and his dad told him not to come home... (He got over it obviously!!!) But in March, when it was time for Spring Break, it seemed, he had no place to go (and you can't really stay in the barracks during Break, it is closed down). I asked my bosses (I was a Nanny and lived about 40 minutes drive away), if Bill could stay at their home. He had been around and my bosses liked him, (they weren't as fond of my boyfriend 'R') so they said yes.

Starting in Jan, things had gotten sort of rough between 'R' and I (he was dealing with a lot of personal family issues, and wasn't dealing well...). Not that Bill and I weren't close before that, but over spring break he finally called home... he asked if he was welcome, and his dad said of course! So we drove down to Virginia over a weekend.

Back in those days... we were all (our group of friends) very skilled at sarcasm! We used to keep imaginary score in the air, "that's One point for me!!!" "Burned you!" Things like that. It was all innocent fun... While we were home over that Spring Break weekend, Bill's dad commented several times how we (Bill and I), were like an old married couple!

When we were packed up and ready to go, they put me in the car, and then Bill and his dad said their goodbye's... When Bill got in the car, he was sort of laughing and I asked what his dad had said? Bill told me his dad had said, "Well, if I can't come to the wedding, can I at least come to the party afterward?" We laughed and laughed... because WE - Bill and I - WEREN'T a COUPLE!!! We did take it that his dad had accepted him joining the Church. So we were pretty happy about that.

After, all the time we'd spent together, we had gotten really close. As Bill was getting toward the end of his Junior ('Cow') year at West Point, the cadets were beginning to make some choices about their lives, and their futures. Such as what type of job in the Army they might like to do. Where they might like to be stationed at for their first assignment. What kind of car they will want to buy (cadets can not have a car for the first three years they are at West Point, so toward the end of Cow year, all the banks come and vie for them to take out a pre-approved amount loan, so they can buy a car for their Firsty (senior) year. with no payments until they graduate and are commissioned into the Army, and are getting a paycheck. ), etc...

Anyway, we had many, many long conversations, where we would be talking about Bill's future and we'd end up talking about 'us' and 'we' as we went through the conversations, and then we'd stop ourselves and laugh... We WEREN'T a COUPLE!!!!!

After a while of this (well I guess not too long, since this all started in March sometime), we started talking and thinking about 'us' and a 'we' and a 'life together'. It felt comfortable, and we could really see a future of us together... BUT... WE WERE NOT a COUPLE!!!! I was still sort of waiting around for the other guy 'R' to pull himself back together... and we were never romantically involved. So I had a long talk with 'R' and told him I didn't think we had a future together... (this part sort of happened earlier in March). We didn't officially END it, but it was sort of understood.

I had not planned on a relationship or a lifetime with Bill. I loved him - as a Friend, but I wasn't really IN LOVE with him at that point... so I sort of had to jump into love! Weird! we talked about it... and decided to be in love. again I say Weird! I certainly hadn't planned or thought about getting engaged at that point... I wasn't sure I 'could' do it!!! I told Bill, he could ask me to marry him officially on April first, so I could say yes, but not really HAVE to mean it. (Horrible!!!!)

So... I'm FINALLY getting to the point of this whole post...

21 years ago today, My sweetheart, asked me to MARRY him, I said, yes. We looked at each other and said, APRIL FOOLS!!!!!!

However, as you can see - that really was it! I wouldn't let him tell anyone till I had a ring (again, dumb I know!)... He called my daddy on the 5th of April, to 'ask for my hand in marriage'. The only ones we let in on the 'secret', were my bosses (where I lived and nannied). (I was on the phone for hours late one night - and my boss who always went to bed NO later than 9 pm and did not accept phone calls, had an important business phone call and they couldn't' get through. Remember the days before call waiting and cell phones? Bill and I would talk every night, from 9-10:58 p.m at night when TAP's would start to play... and he'd have to RUN back from the basement payphones, to his room upstairs in the barracks by 11:00 p.m.). SO When my boss got onto me the next evening after work, and said, she could understand if I was talking to my 'boyfriend' (R), but why did I need to talk for hours at night to Bill??? Once we told them we were getting engaged, and had been looking for rings at the Jewelry stores in the mall... my boss told me we couldn't do that, and they sent us off to NYC to see their Jeweler friends!!!

I came home with a lovely ring... and the next day we walked in to Church... I had a ring, it was shiny and new and sparkly!!! People were excited for me and congratulated me... however, there were a few people who weren't sure WHO the ring was from, as I had been dating the other guy for a year and a half... There were also those who gave us a hard time and said, they KNEW it for a long time, and were just waiting for us to wake up and realize we WERE a COUPLE!!!

A very happy ending to a very complicated story... If you managed to stick with me through it all, thank you. Hope you weren't too bored!

Snoring.......

Or should I say, sleep apnea, has been an issue in our lives since we got married.
Both of Bill's parents snore, loudly (shake the roof, you can hear them from the farthest corners of the house). And apparently, this is definitely inherited.

When Bill and I got married many years ago... Bill was (and still is a snorer). If I am happily and soundly asleep, then I don't hear it or notice it, and so... it doesn't bother me. BUT... if I am awake (wake up in the middle of the night, or he falls asleep before I do), then I HEAR him snoring and it drives me a bit crazy! I have somewhat sensitive hearing, and the littlest sound can drive me batty! It will be like what I hear goes inside my ear and gets into my head and I just cant' get the noise out of my head!!! I stay up and watch T.V. a lot, late at night, partly to help drown out the noise of snoring. Now I'm not complaining, just trying to explain the situation.

He doesn't snore all the time, and like I said, once I am asleep, I don't hear it, so it doesn't bother me a bit. If he is really tired or ill (I guess keeping him awake, therefor making him more tired), he snores much worse! He has been known to sleep on the couch, just to avoid keeping me up with the snoring that is sure to come on some of those nights. I have even been known to leave the bedroom occasionally (very seldom), if it gets really bad and I want to pull my hair out. ;-)

I had heard stories (we all have) of people hitting, kicking or shoving the other person in the middle of the night, to get them to roll over, and stop snoring (for the time being at least). Well, as a young newlywed, I thought all of that sounded quite cruel. I loved my sweetheart! In an effort to be 'kind' to my hubby but to help solve the issue, I found my own little way that would do the trick. We had probably been married for nearly 2 years when one day, my sweetheart looked at me and said, "Do you have any idea how frightening it is to wake up in the middle of the night, because you can't breathe?" Apparently, that is what happened when I would reach over and gently plug his nose... I only would hold it for a second, and he'd wake up enough to roll over.

Well, I felt pretty bad about the whole thing! Since that time I have resorted to pushing on him, and sometimes a bit harder than others I admit... to get him to roll to his left side. It isn't quite as bad then (he usually doesn't snore on his left side).

Well, finally as he is about to leave the military, he had to have a physical done. He told them honestly about all of his complaints (some of which he'd been telling them for years to no avail). Well, they have sent him to get the MRI that told him he had several ruptured disks in his back (no wonder it's hurts and he has almost constant back pain!). They have him doing all sorts of testing, and the sleep study is one of them.

Two weeks ago, he went for the initial sleep study. It was determined that he stops breathing 12-15 times an hour, and his oxygen saturation levels dropped as low as 74% at times. Now the really sad thing is, it was a good sleep night for him! He wasn't as tired as normal, and didn't snore nearly as much as usual for him. It makes you wonder how bad he is on a bad night!?!

So, tonight he is back at the sleep center again, this time they will be monitoring him, while he sleeps with the aid of a CPAP machine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_airway_pressure
Then tomorrow he will either have a home machine ordered for him or possibly even come home with one. I had heard they were noisy, Bill was even joking about him sounding like Darth Vader, but when i was there to drop him off, they started him on it to get used to it before they hooked him up to all the wires, and I could barely hear it, if at all. So, I guess it won't be so bad as I had anticipated! (I was worried about whether the noise would be more irritating and bothersome than the snoring).

Anyway, he had a broken nose from wrestling intramurals he had to participate in back at West Point many many years ago, and the Dr. noted in his records, he does have a deviated septum. So, whether the snoring is partially a family tendency, or not, that has made it all worse! His nose is actually quite crooked. We have joked about him getting surgery - he saw a friend of ours a few years back just shortly after her surgery. She looked pretty rough - two black eyes, bruised all on her nose and cheek bones... he didn't find any of that comforting at all, and said, NO way! But now, with the CPAP, he will most likely have to wear the full mask that covers both mouth and nose, rather than just a smaller type that goes over only the nose, since it would probably have a difficult time forcing air, through the deviated septum, and into his airway.

The things you learn from a small medical procedure or situation...

Please don't refer to me as Mrs. Vader when we see each other next... ;-)

Hopefully my sweetheart will be able to get some good sleep - FINALLY - and be much more well rested, and he won't fall asleep in the middle of the day, etc. (he actually considered getting tested for Narcolepsy at one time... that was before he was diagnosed with the Diabetes, and that was the biggest cause of his inability to stay awake, at that time, though I'm sure that the apnea wasn't helping!!!)

Retirement Ceremony

Today was Bill's Retirement Ceremony. He isn't officially finished with the Army until 30 June 2009, but he decided to join in with the post retirement ceremony.

It was very nice. There were 4 other people who were retiring at today's ceremony.

Bill received some nice awards, and then they brought the wives up and gave us all an award as well.


Bill gave a really nice speech, and made us all cry...
*** You can find his speech here: http://ibho.blogspot.com/

(Hannah almost cried, Liam didn't cry... he was actually really well behaved for the entire thing! We were so proud of him! He did better than he usually does at Church!)

At some point the older girls must have gotten a bit bored... as here is a picture of their shoes.

(The shoes on the Right... with the sparkles on it, are actually shoes I got for a formal dance at West point - I think it was the last dance before Bill graduated - 20 years ago.)

We went to dinner afterward, at a Chinese Buffet. We had a couple of his former coworkers join us. One was his First Platoon Sgt. from his very first assignment - job- in the Army...

Now all he has to do is out process for the next two weeks from the Army, then he starts his new job at ITT (CAS), here in Huntsville on 6 April.

On our way home there was a beautiful sunset - and I had to take a picture. I thought I should have some profound comment to go along with it, like 'Now as we look toward the sunset of our lives...' HA!!! I may be old, but I am NOT old enough to be looking at the sunset of our lives quite yet! The sunset was pretty anyway!

When we came home - Bill pulled out a plaque he had bought for me. It has a poem about being an Army Wife on it, with a background picture of a flag, and a sweet picture of a statue of a mother and baby.

A New Job...

My dear husband is retiring from the Military this summer. He will officially be a Civilian starting in July. He had quite a bit of leave that he saved up for the end of his military career, and on top of that you can take some leave to 'job hunt', an it all added up. He hasn't been to his office job all month. He has had some things he's had to do, but not the day to day job with the military.
I didn't realize how stressful this idea of retirement had been for him for a while. Last year some time we both attended a week long class on retiring, and all the steps you need to take to make things go the way you want them to, and things like writing resumes, and other things. He expressed at that time how nervous he was about him being able to get another job. I of course see his value, and know how hard he works, etc... and never felt like he'd have any problems getting a job. This year as things got closer and closer, I realized how nervous DH was. He was a little doubtful of his self worth, and he had this whole big family to support and how would we ever make it if he couldn't get a job...
Well, he posted his resume on line, and h got so many phone calls and email contacts from people interested in him that he had to remove his resume as he was overwhelmed by all the interest. That boosted his self esteem a bit. In the end he had abt. 6 offers from various Companies and groups... Who knew that instead of having no offers we'd have such choices? We were, and are very grateful for how things have gone. In these economically difficult times, we are so pleased and grateful to have had offers, let alone several to be able to choose between.
We talked about what each company and position would offer for him professionally, and for our family short term as well as long term. There was so much to think about!!! What type of insurance coverage did each company have, should we just stick with our retiree insurance and get supplemental insurance from the one company that offered that... Do they have vision insurance - as we do have 6 of 8 family members who wear either glasses, contacts or both... What about vacation time? We've had 1 month of vacation/leave time a year for the past 20 years! and Sick leave wasn't counted against your leave... That is hard to give up... of course Salary was something that we discussed, and it honestly did have something to do with a couple of offers that we turned down, but it was definitely not THE deciding factor.
Well, today was the day...
He accepted an offer and had to let the other people who had been so helpful and really wanted him to come work for them as well, know that he was grateful for their offers, but no, we've decided on another company at this time, for a variety of reasons...
We are thankful tonight to Heavenly Father for watching over our little (in the over all grand scheme of the world and all it's peoples) family, and helping to make the path that we have been on over the past 20 years, as difficult as parts of it were at times, (the path was definitely led by our Heavenly Father as some of it we certainly would NOT have chosen for ourselves), such that it would all come together for our good and help to put us (DH) in the position to have so much choice. Also giving DH a boost in self esteem to realize that he has much value to others and he was sought after.
So... after officially signing on with his new company(he will begin work on 6 April - that is when he will be eligible to begin working for someone else (as he will be done with the military, and will then just be using accrued official leave), we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate.
We have a big family with lots of young one's so where would we go that would make everyone (well mostly everyone) happy??? Chuck E. Cheese seemed to fit the bill so we took the kids (minus Rebekah - she had a paper to complete to turn n tomorrow, before spring break, and she has begun showing signs of lactose intolerance, and just didn't feel up to dealing with the agonizing -for her- smells of Pizza with all the cheese, and having to fight eating it so that it didn't' give her a very upset tummy all night and tomorrow...) to dinner and bought them all tokens to play and have fun!!! They all enjoyed themselves (Hannah wasn't in the best mood when we first got there, and we ended the night with someones whole cup of lemonade spilling all over the bench - and the other sister who was sitting on that bench... filling her shoes with sticky liquid...not very happy making) and I didn't have to cook! (always a happy day!).

Anyway, that is our news of the day... BIG NEWS in our lives... BIG changes ahead! Bill has always been in the military - his dad is retired military, and his grandfather was retired military as well, so he comes from two generations of military men... He graduated from high school nearly 24 years ago, and two weeks later he was at West Point Military Academy. Military life is all he has ever known. We have been living somewhat of a civilian life by living off post out here in the community, so that part won't be as big of a change for us, than if we had been living on post and had to pack up and move as well...

But it is official, DH has a new job! Now to enjoy the rest of his leave, as well as get some things accomplished around the house, and yard, before he goes off to work.

I'm so proud of you honey!!! You are such a hard worker and it shows in your work ethic, and others notice as well. All those years and jobs you've done have payed off, and now you are on your way to a new career - until you retire again, and decide if you still feel like teaching school...
I love the person you are, and am so glad that somehow I found you, and am privileged to spend my life and all of eternity with you. I love you sweetheart!

Happy Birthday Honey!

Yesterday was my sweetheart's birthday. He spent part of the day at work since he'd taken off the day before to go to a Football Bowl game in B'ham. They offered free tickets for Military and their Family members, So he took Rebekah and Amanda and Hannah with him. They had a fun day.

For his birthday, we made him a cake, and then He and I went out to dinner. We thought about going out to a movie, but we didn't manage to make the right time frame, so we went shopping and then came home.

Not a terribly exciting birthday for him, but... I hope it was a good birthday over all.

I love you, and am so happy to be married to you!

It has been quite a week...

We went to physical therapy to start things out on Monday. I also had to take Marissa to Karate (usually dad tries to take her). I have been Bill's chauffer all week long, since he has been on serious pain medication, and not allowed to drive. I have enjoyed spending time with him, even if it was just running him around to Dr. appointments, or hanging out at the house with him half drugged.
Tuesday I took him to the urologist, and the Dr. took more x-rays, and the Kidney stone hadn't really moved at all. So, they scheduled Bill for Surgery to remove the stone on Thursday. Bill was drinking tons of fluids; water, cranberry juice, and nettle tea (good for kidney health), and despite that the stone hadn't moved. After we got home that night I had a prenatal appointment with a couple in Harvest/Limestone.
I drove Bill to the Eye Dr. on Tuesday, for an appointment he had.
Bill continued to drink massive amounts of fluids through the week, and late Wed. night a friend J brought over some lemon juice - he called and found out Bill had the kidney stone and after having gone through hat himself, had the 'miracle' cure! Lemon juice (you know from the 'real lemon' juice in the little lemon shaped plastic bottle), and olive oil (2 -3 oz. of Real Lemon, and 2 oz of EVOO). 4 times a day. Bill did one dose, but then had to stop, as he wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight, in preparation for the surgery the next day... I wonder if we'd have it longer if it would have worked or not, but we just didnt' have time. Thanks J for trying to help us out.
We got up Thursday morning, and while I was in the shower getting ready for the day, I got a phone call from one of my mom's... she had thought she was in preterm labor (33 wks) during the night and had taken a trip to the hospital at midnight. They came home around 4 am, but were supposed to go in to their Dr's office around noon.
On the way to Crestwood hosp. for Bill's surgery, I got a phone call from another client. She had been checked in to Crestwood hosp (luckily it was not HH where the other mom had been in the night), for an induction. I told them I'd be there soon and would come up and see them. Luckily I had thrown my birth bag in the vehicle with us, (in case the other mom needed me). We got there and Bill signed in, I ran up to see mom. She was doing alright, they were about to begin the Pit. I went back down with Bill and then they called him (on the beeper/buzzer, like you get at restraunts) for pre-op. They told me I had to stay out in the front and wait, until they got him ready, then they'd call me back. I found this somewhat odd. When Rebekah had her surgery to remove her tonsils a few years ago, I went with her for all of the pre-op procedures. When they did call me back I asked Bill what was so 'secretive' about the Pre-op stuff. They had, had him change into a gown, they had put in the I.V. and that was pretty much it... I watch as women have lood drawn and get I.V.s all the time. Why this was a big deal and the family member couldn't go with, I have NO idea!
When the couple called and said they were being induced, Bill called a friend of ours (Mr. Scott), and asked if he could help us out that day. He was more than happy to help - he's a great friend. He brought me lunch at the hospital, and waited for Bill to be finished with surgery and was giong to drive Bill home, since I would still be at the hospital for the birth.
As we awaited for them to take him into surgery Bill began to get a little anxious about things. We had a time crunch... and now I was going to be at a birth on top of that. His surgery was supposed to start at 1 pm. The anesthesiologist came in at about 1:45 to talk to him. He asked im what he liked to be called, so he knew what to say to him as he went under and when he woke up out of the general anethesia. He said, "Bill", and that when he woke up to tell him to "wake up, he had a birthday party to go to". They all laughed, but it was the truth, and it actually helped. Bill said as he was coming out of the anesthesia, he heard them say somethign about a birthday and e was suddenly absolutely awake, and aware, and wanted to get going! ;-) They called me after the procedure and said he did well. I went on upstairs at that time, since I couldn't go see him until he did wake up.
While I'd been gone from mom this time, they'd broken her water and resigned her to be stuck in the bed for her labor, on Pitocin.
When Bill did wake up I went back down to see him. He said all that he had to do was to go to the bathroom, and then 15 minutes later... he'd be released. He wanted to leave, so he did what they wanted and they told him to get dressed and he was free to leave after they discharged him.
So... after 2 weeks of pain and hassle adn a not so fun surgical procedure, where the stone was pretty stuck, and ther Dr. had to tug at it to remove it...
We are the not so proud parents (well Bill anyway) of a not so bouncing Kidney Stone!
Meanwhile, Rebekah (and her friend R) drove all the kids to Chuck E. Cheese where Bill and Scott met them for Hannah's Birthday Party.
***Hannah will get her own post about her birth-day, but... it's been a crazy week, and at least wanted to post something.***

Appearantly Chuck E. Cheese was a hit! Hannah's friends all seemed to enjoy themselves, and Hannah had a GREAT time! She said it was the best birthday she'd ever had!!! The lucky part for us was that since we'd already scheduled it there adn for that day, other than the stress fo Bill being out of surgery in time, and me being at a birth instead of at her party (which she was o.k. with), It worked out really well, since They handled everything, and she had even said she wanted their birthday cake this year - not mine... (should that hurt?), but it made it nice. All Bill had to do was sit there. :-)

For information sake - Mom delivered a darling baby boy- 7 lbs 10 oz, 20 in, at 2:04 am on 5 December. So now Hannah has a birthday buddy. (I hope to write out her birth story on my birth stories blog).

Trip to the Dr.

Today I took Bill to see the urologist. he did x-rays to see if things had improved (had the kidney stone moved). Nope, it's sitting, and blocking and causing intermittent pain. So... if it doesn't pass in the next day he will have it surgically removed on Thursday. Then we'll be heading off to Chuck E. Cheese's for Hannah's birthday party (with a groggy, drugged, dad). I also have a mom due on Sat. and next week is the Christmas festival, with set up at the beginning of the week. I need to figure out which days I need child care so I can seriously help out... (thanks K for being willing to help me out). I know I will be helping make yummy gingerbread cookies on Thursday.

Tonight, I'm thankful for drugs...

Prescription medicines that is.

We just got back from a trip to the Emergency Room. I took Bill in tonight (sunday night). He was in intense pain, enough to make a grown man cry in public, because of the pain. It was awful to see him hurting so bad. There was really nothing I could do to help him. I am used to working with laboring women. I have tricks and tools to help them to get through Labor. We work with it, and try to understand that it isn't a bad pain, a pain that means something is wrong, it is just your body working to do the amazing job of bringing forth a child, straight from Heaven! Not a walk in the park, it's hard work, but you know that it won't last forever (noone has ever been in labor for ever...) and, you get something wonderful at the end of it all. A beautiful baby.

Kidney stones however, aren't nearly as wonderful! I used to think, "Oh, Puuuuhlease...!" when I would hear talk of kidney stones being worse than labor (from men). I then had a dear friend who birthed a 10 + lb baby naturally, (this was before I was a labor doula and have now seen quite a few 10 + lb babies born naturally), then she had a kidney stone and told me it was way worse than labor! So, now I believe, and am a bit more sympathetic than I used to be. She described it to me this way; in labor, the contractions come and go, and you have breaks in between them. You KNOW you will have breaks in between them (even if you might not feel like it at the time, it is true). You KNOW that it won't last forever, and that you get a prize after it is over. Your baby...

With kidney stones, it can be constant pain, you don't necessarily know why (we happened to know this was probably kidney stones), in my friend's case she had no idea what her pain was all about! Until they knew, they wouldn't give her anything to mask the pain, and you have no idea how long you will be in pain. There is no bright light at the end of the tunnel. There is nothing happy to look forward to. It is just PAIN!!!!!!!!

Bill had some partial symptoms over a week ago, and that was why he was sent for the CT scan and ultrasound last tuesday. Being a holiday week, noone got back with him/us to let him know what the scans said, or what to do or expect when the kidney stone started to move. PAIN... and what to do about it...

Yesterday and today he had some slight symptoms, but... he hadn't had any pain yet, and we hadn't heard from anyone at the clinic about what the scans showed. (It was a holiday weekend and the clinic on post wasn't open since Wednesday, last week!)

Today Amanda wasn't feeling well, but she got ready and went to church. After the sacrament, Rebekah drove her home. After a nap she still felt really yucky, but asked if someone would come up and watch a movie with her. Rebekah was invited to dinner at her friend's house. So after we ate dinner, Sariah and I went and we were watching Notting Hill with Amanda. The little girls were watching Christmas movies downstairs, with Liam, and Bill went to lay down and watch something... that's when the pain hit. He tried taking a bath, but Liam came upstairs and kicked him out and took a bath himself. Bill came and got me from girls movie night, to tell me he was hurting and didn't know if he could deal with it. He tried sitting in the hot tub of water but it did little to offer any relief. Before long we were on our way to the hospital to the Emergency room.

After arriving, it took nearly an hour for us to get put into a room, and once the Dr. finally saw him, he was able to get DRUGS... then they took him off to get another CT scan and ultrasound done on his kidneys. The drugs worked really well, and he asked if we could just bring some home with us to keep on hand... ;-) The Dr. came back and confirmed that yes, it was a kidney stone. It is between 3-4 cm, in size. Most likely he will have to pass it... it was over 4 -5 mm, they'd have to go in and break it up (I think they do that with ultrasound waves or something like that), before it could pass. They sent us home with a prescription for serious drugs/meds, and a referal to call and get an appointment in the morning with a urologist.

So... until he passes the dumb stone, he will most likely be drugged, unable to drive (or operate heavy machinery...) and it could be a hard week for him. Oh, that's right, he'll be heavily drugged and won't feel (or possibly remember) a thing!

So, today, I was thankful for medicine, and Bill said he was thankful that he got through Thanksgiving weekend before he had to deal with this! Thankful, we didn't have to spend Thanksgiving Day in the Emergency Room at the hospital! Bill also said he is very thankful that the worst of the pain he suffered was at the hospital and not at home, so that the kids didn't have to see him in so much pain.