The day we traveled to Hawaii!

I'm writing this so I can remember the good times. But I'm hoping while reading you can live vicariously through me, and enjoy traveling to Hawaii.

............

Well, we got up at 4 am. Really, I should say I got up at 11 pm the night before we left after taking a refreshing 6 minute nap and I never fell back asleep.

My hair dried nicely though, so I guess it works.

On our first flight we sat behind a 3 year old. His incessant talking got old after the first 2 hours. Worse, we sat in front of girls that could have starred in the movie Mean Girls.

"Im like going to be in such a zombie state today."

"I wish I could just wear anything like Sarah Jessica Parker can!"

"Man, if our flight leaves at 7 am we're going to have to go to the airport straight from the club. I hope I don't barf."

Quality humans.

We deplained the first flight and walked 3 steps to the waiting area for our 2nd flight. We only had to wait 20 minutes before they started the boarding process. We got to board first because we were flying First Class!!

[the quintessential photo]

[blankets]

They had blankets, pillows, and headphones waiting on us at our seat. They came around with the choice of OJ, water, or Champagne. 

I was at a crossroads. Really, what I wanted was to have a mimosa, but I picked the OJ. After all, local time it was only 8 am and I didn't want to look like a drunkard. Also, we were the youngest people in first class by at least 20 years. Actually, we were the probably some of the youngest people on the entire flight. 

Except for our 3 year old friend from the first flight. Thankfully, he was flying coach again. 

(Ryan got excited because the in flight movie was Xmen days of future past and being in first class we got the ear buds for free.) Guest written by, guess who? Ryan. Sorry I didn't actually give you time to guess.

As much as I want to see that movie, I decided that sleep won out. I could watch a movie any day, but I don't want to be grumpy and sleepy in Hawaii.

Then they came around offering is legit beverages. I got my mimosa in a fancy wine glass. They really know how to treat you right in First Class.

[cheers to 1st Class!]

After half my mimosa I could tell it was time to fall back asleep. My 6 minutes of sleep last night just wasn't cutting it.

But I didn't want to miss out on food. If there's anything I like more than beverages, it's food. All I had for breakfast was a Kind Plus protein bar. And as delicious as that was, we had been traveling for 6 hours and it just wasn't cutting it anymore. 

I decided that if I finished my mimosa before the food came I would just give in to sleep. Lest I let all the alcohol get into my bloodstream and make me act like a fool.

Oh, and the food won out.

[photo egg sufle and a biscuit and fresh fruit.]

Then our flight attendant refilled my mimosa. And I crashed. I slept through the movie, when suddenly, I was awoken my Ryan:

"Babe, you told me to wake you up if they were serving food."

He must have seen my angry "what the heck" eyes and gone on the defensive.

I looked to our flight attendants, and sure enough, they were serving food! I thanked Ryan instead of mauling him. They came by with two choices:

[choices]

Ben & Jerrry's Cookies and Cream ice cream or Fruit and Cheese. Ryan picked the former, I picked the latter. I took one bite of my Bree and cracker and I said "you know what would taste great with this?"

And, as if I had a rubbed a magic lamp, out of no where appeared the flight attendant and he offered me the wine I wanted.

[what fruit and cheese should stand next to]

Just then, I sneezed 6 times. Well, I sneezed 4 times and then a few seconds later sneezed the last two times. Ryan asked "are you allergic to cheese?" 

Death first.

After finishing my marvelous snack, I thought I should start writing some more blog. Gotta preserve the memories before the red wine erases them.....

....then it was almost time to land. We watched a short informational video about agriculture in Hawaii. I got a bit worried about my granola bars, but they didn't mention anything about nuts being illegal, so I can save them from deposit in the amnesty bin.

I wanted a cool picture of hawaii from the plane before we landed. But alas, we were on the wrong side of some clouds. I'm sure Google has a good one though. 

............

Now, I have to tell you the story of why we're flying first class. You see, we had just moved into a house 2 months prior, and then some truly horrible things had happened to us.

First, we found out the pipes under our house were completely wasted, and we had to pay a bunch of money to replace ALL the pipes under our foundation. We had to live with some friends for two weeks. That's friendship right there.

Then, Ryan had been diagnosed with a herniated disc and before the move, after the move, and while we were living with friends we had been getting steroid injections in his back to try to improve the disc herniation. Instead of improving, he got steadily worse to the point where we passed up our favorite meal (Grimaldi's salad, pizza, and wine) because he couldn't bear to sit for more than 5-10 minutes at a time. The next step was surgery. We decided to take the leap and go for it, hoping it restored Ryan's quality of life.

That night, after signing up for surgery, we got a message that Ryan's dad was having trouble breathing. He needed to be sedated and given a breathing tube. Then he lost his heartbeat. Despite several efforts to bring him back, and several moments where he had a heartbeat again, he wasn't able to make it. He was so young, only 58. We were devastated.

This is all on top of 2 flat tires, and 8 tires needing air in the last 2 months. 

Life was rough.

Thankfully, our friends stepped in to help out. We got meals from friends, most of whom stayed around to listen to stories about life. Other friends offered to watch our pups while we were gone for the funeral. Others helped with flat tires and brought us wine. We felt deeply loved, and yet, so sad. We needed to catch a break.

Three days After Ryan's surgery we flew to Georgia for the funeral. His surgeon's PA gave him some special compression devices to wear on his legs during the flight. They were baby blue and super "awesome."

Traveling was rough on Ryan's back and he wasn't healing nearly as fast as we had hoped he would.

We had planned a trip to Hawaii with our friends back in March, about 5 months prior. We told them we might not be able to make it with Ryan's back. It hurt him to sit for so long. I mentioned we were going to look into getting Him a first class ticket so it would be easier on his back, but we might not be able to afford it with everything else that happened.

They asked us for our flight information and said they would look into upgrades with their mileage. 

The next morning they presented us with upgraded tickets for the longest flights BOTH ways for BOTH of us. 

Woah. We felt like crying. We were so thankful to go and get away from it all. I'm not sure we will ever be able to express how much that meant to us. But we will try.

............

Now, from a young age, my father had been passing his SLR cameras down to me. I got my first one at age 12, after proving him I read the camera care book he gave me that had tips about shutter speeds and appetures in it and stuff. 

My parents were in the Yellowstone National Park last week. We waved to them as we flew over It on our way to LA.

They waved back.

So my dad has been sending me these majestic photos of his trip, with a fair amount of "trash talk." He thinks he's going to have the most beautiful pictures.

Clearly, he hasn't been to Hawaii and he doesn't know who he's dealing with :)

...........

I called my Grandmother the night before we left for Hawaii.  I learned a lot about Hawaii from a Wikipedia page, and I learned a lot about my grandmother from our conversation.

She's been to Hawaii 4 times. She thought Honalulu looked too much like Miami. She traveled there in 1945 after her husband returned from the armed forces. 

I said, "wow, what was it like going to Hawaii before it was a state?" She said she thought it was a state back then. (According to Wiki, it became a state in Aug 1959, but it was a U.S. Territory before then, so I suppose it would be like going to Puerto Rico)

She said she traveled to most of the islands and her favorite was "the garden isle." 

We had a miscommunication where she asked me where we were going and I said Kauai. She said, "sorry I didn't understand you." So I said it again. She still didn't understand. So I spelled it for her. Finally, she said, "oh, Hawaii, the big island." That's not my favorite one, but you should like it."

I didn't have the heart to correct her. Good thing Kauai is the garden isle. She would love to see our photos, if she could still see.

Then she started saying that Ryan and I should visit....(she couldn't think of the state....so she came up with facts to help me guess it)....the 50th state.

Hmmm. I know Hawaii is the 50th state admitted to the U.S. (Alaska was admitted Jan 1959 and Hawaii Aug 1959) but we were just talking about Hawaii, so I guessed "Alaska?"

She said no, it's the 50th state" so I guessed Hawaii.

She said "no, it's that cold one attached to Canada" 

Alaska?

"Yep, that's the one. It's beautiful. I keep trying to get your father to go there."

Whew. That was enough understandings for the night. Regardless, I was even more excited to see Hawaii, making a mental note to try and see Alaska before I started getting senile.

.........

So we get to Hawaii and meet up with our friends, Jonathan and Amberlee. We rented a car. We tried our hardest to score a free upgrade, but the lady giving us the car wasn't cooperative.

We also tried to add me as a second driver, but that was almost as expensive as getting me my own rental car, so we opted out. 

So much for my wild and crazy driving around Hawaii.

We hopped in the car, determined to find food before we spontaneously combusted. It was 4pm Hawaii time, and 9 pm our time. We were famished.

We all threw on our seat belts and drove out of the lot. Except for Amberlee. Her seatbelt buckle was missing. I tried to help her, but it just wasn't there. I unbuckled my seatbelt and climbed over the top of the seat to look for it in the trunk. No luck. We made Jonathan pull over. He got out of the car, pulled everything out of the trunk, and still couldn't find the seatbelt buckle. We were about to take the car back (although I had already fallen in love with our Nissan Extera, it was super sporty and climbing over the back wheel to sit in my seat made me feel super rugged) when I suggested we look under the seat. 

Thank goodness we found the buckles in there! I was getting pretty attached to our rental car!

She snapped the seat back into place, trapping the top part of her seatbelt behind the seat.

"AMBERLEE, PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER! PEOPLE ARE STARVING HERE!!"

She pulled it together, thankfully.

...........

We ate dinner and checked into our condo. There was NO air conditioning. I felt a little like I was in Africa. It was getting late (6pm Hawaii time, 11 pm our time, and we had gotten up at 4 with minimal sleep in between) so we wanted to sleep. But it was so hot.  

Ryan wanted me to talk to him, and I tried to, but eventually I said, "sleep has overcome me!" And fell promptly asleep, ending our first day in Hawaii.

The day I put terrible quotes in my office.

I recently painted the world so that I could put it on my wall in my office.

I'll sprinkle pictures of how I painted it through the post, in case you want to re-create this masterpiece in your own office.

It was quite the process and it took forever.

And by forever, I mean 8 hours split over 2 days. And I'm not sure I'm finished with it. I think I want to label all the countries but I'm not sure if that will make it look cluttered.

Clearly, I need a coordinating picture for another wall, preferably with some sort of witty quote that would inspire me to be a great Primary care Provider.  I turned to Pinterest to find the perfect quote.

I find people sit for far too long in my office.  They have a lot of time to dwell on the things we have on our walls, so I needed to find something awesome.  

What I found, was a lot of TERRIBLE quotes for my office.  I worried that when people say long enough and thought about some of the quotes I found, that would make them seem worse than they are.  So I don't want to put the wrong ideas into their head. 

Now when you read these, grab a nice beverage of your choice.  Maybe put on a paper robe and sit yourself in an awkward room on a kinda uncomfortable bed and imagine you're waiting for your Doctor or your PA to come into the room with medical advice.  Some of these quotes are great, but not in that context....

And yes, these are ALL on pinterest. 

Here are just a few of those quotes:

[the beginning]

 

"I hope she'll be a fool-that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." F. Scott Fitzgerald (from The Great Gatsby)  

Because the girl that's coming into your room to care for you could be a fool.  And I want to brainwash you into thinking that's a beautiful thing. 

...........

"People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for." To Kill a Mockingbird  

So, I'm not actually going to listen to you or look at you.  Because that would be pointless.

..........

"Of corse it is happening inside your head, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" Albus Dubmledore 

I have enough crazies here, do you want to be another one?

..........

[I decided the easiest way to paint all the little countries was to cut them out with an exacto knife. I'm not sure why it never occurred to me to use scissors]

...........

"Our willingness to wait reveals the value we place on the object we're waiting for." Charles Stanley 

Actually talking about Isaiah 64:4 I think, but also not appropriate for any place a doctor is making people wait. 

..........

"Write hard and clear about what hurts" Ernest Hemingway  

Just don't talk long about what hurts, ok? And be sure to get the clear part down.

..........

"Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?" Clark Griswold, Christmas Vacation  

Maybe, if you're driving me crazy, I'll drive you crazy.  Or kill you.  Just think about it.

(Please note I'm being intentionally sarcastic here.)

.......... 

"The days are long and the years are short."  

Yes, your years could be short when you're my patient. 

..........

"Do not be afraid." 

Of the awful things we can do to you or the terrible diagnosis we could give you. Or of death. 

.............

"Learn to say "NO" without explaining yourself."  

Because that's what I do. No explanations for you. Just no. 

............

[Cutting out Antarctica was easy. I guess I thought the rest of the world would be too]

...........

"Do not regret growing older.  It is a privilege denied to many."  

Because you're only going to get older if you're lucky. 

..........

"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny."  CS Lewis.  

So get prepared for whatever hardship I'm about to offer you. 

.............

"Find joy in the ordinary."  

Because I'm not extraordinary.  I'm just plain average.  

..........

"We were together.  I forget the rest." Walt Whitman  

And now I know nothing. Perfect for you. 

..........

"Often in life we forget the things we should remember, and remember the things we should forget."  

And all that medical knowledge...that's one of the things I should remember...

..........

[a close-up of the creative process]

...........

"The best advice I ever received is, 'No one else knows what they're doing either.'" Ricky Gervais  

Yep, I don't know what I'm doing.  That's comforting, isn't it. 

..........

"Humans have a knack for choosing precisely the things that are worst for them."  JK Rawling  

Like the choice you made to see me!  You're already regretting that, aren't you?!

...........

[1/4 done. I was able to do some nice cutting with my little exacto knife]

...........

"The question is, what color will everything be at that moment when I come for you?  What will the sky be saying?" The Book Thief 

If you've read that, you know what moment we're talking about.  We're talking about the moment you die.  Now keep thinking about death as you wait to see the doctor/ PA.

..........

[1/2 way there, and that's about all I can handle for the night.]

..........

"Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick and pull yourself together." Elizabeth Taylor  

Because that's what I'm doing, right now! 

...........

"You live but once; you might as well be amusing." Coco Chanel  

Maybe I will be amusing. Maybe that's all I am. 

..........

"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light." Albus Dubmledore 

So don't sit in the dark. 

..........

"Anything is possible if you've got enough nerve." Ginny Weasley 

Like moving your limbs, if you don't have enough nerves in them, you can't move them.  You gotta love puns!

..........

[3/4 of the way to world domination!]

...........

"She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there, on leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together."  J.D. Salinger  

And that's what your provider is doing.  Nothing, just holding the universe together.

..........

"Life is but a walking shadow" William Shakespeare 

Your life is a shadow.  Be thankful you're walking.

..........

"I have nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion." Jack Kerouac 

Continue to sit there, while you doubt my medical abilities. 

..........

[almost done!]

..........

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go."  Dr. Seuss  

At least he's a Dr. You can do what you want!  You get to pick whatever medical care you want!

..........

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." Dr. Seuss  

Because someone like me doesn't care!  

But you all know I do care.

I'm sure there are more quotes, but these are my current favorites thus far.  Maybe I'll add to the list as I keep working.

Hope you had a good laugh!!

And now I must go. The Metamucil lady came by the other day and made me take a sample of her Metamucil Health bar packed with fiber. And today I got hungry enough to try it...

The day our house broke. Again.

I detailed the beginning of our house drama in my last post :

http://shanhelster.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-days-we-actually-moved-extended.html
read the full details here if you'd like to :)

Quick recap for you: Jesus fixed our AC, Jerry turned our water on,
Sears remodeled our kitchen, Seth fixed our water heater, and Gavin
fixed the plug in our main drain. All in the first 3 days after we
moved in.

Two days later, our main sewage drain stopped draining again.

We had been meticulous about putting no more than 4-5 squares of
toilet paper in a flush.  We had been extra vigilant that nothing big
would go down our drain.

Yet, it was plugged again.

After looking in our outside drain-out pipes (I knew what those were,
thanks to our first plumber, who kindly taught me about them), we
determined our main drain was plugged again. We called the plumbers
directly since our home warranty was crap and wouldn't pay for
anything "under the foundation."

Mike the plumber came out this time. He cleaned out the drain. Then, it got
plugged up again 2 days later.  He said the drain pipe was likely
broken and recommended a camera guy come out.

The soonest we could schedule a camera guy was 5 days later.

............................................................

So there I am sitting on our second toilet after work, when a bug runs
into the bathroom and straight at me.  I was no-where near done yet,
but I wiped really quickly and jumped off the toilet seat and out of
his way.

I ran to the kitchen to grab bug spray.  I had pulled up my pants, but
there was no time to zip them.  We didn't have bug spray there, so I
grabbed the next-best-thing: all-purpose cleaner.  I figured, why not?

I ran back to the bathroom, and luckly for me, the but was still
searching for a human or something because he was still there in the
bathroom.  I sprayed him a few times with the cleaner, but nothing
happened.

So I sprayed him a zillion more times with cleaner until he was
swimming in a pool of all-purpose cleaner.  He ran under my boots that
were sitting in the corner of the bathroom, but I didn't want bug guts
on the bottom of them, so I moved them out of the way.  He then ran
into the in-bathroom closet.  I sprayed the closet a few more times
before I ran outside to the shed to get the legitamite bugspray.  I
figured if I was going to go in the closed after him, I should have
reinforcements.

I unlocked the shed, grabbed the spray, and ran back into the
bathroom.  I opened the closet door, and by all luck, he was paralized
in a pool of all-purpose cleaner.  I sprayed him a few times with the
bug spray, just to be sure he was actually dead and not just
pretending.

Because if anyone tries to shoot me, I'll just pretend to be dead so
they'll walk away.  I wasn't going to let this guy away so easily.  A
quick ten shots straight to his heart should make sure he can't get up
and walk away!

I then left him there, deciding we needed to keep the bug spray in the
house, I then closed the shed door. because I wanted to let the pups
out to go potty.  I figured they had been holding it all day, and they
probably needed to go asap.  I walked back inside, looking a bit
defeated, when my husband walked in.

My pants were half on, I'm just shutting the door, I'm covered in
sweat, and yeah, my hair was a mess.

"What happened?"

"A huge bug tried to attack me and you would be so proud, I didn't
even scream!  I just jumpped off the toilet, grabed some spray and got
him!"

"And why were you outside?  Why are your pants half-off?"

So then I had to tell him that the all-purpose cleaner didn't help and
that I had to get something stronger and I ran out to the shed.  He
was stunned that the bug just stood there while I got better spray.  I
was a little surprised too, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

.............................................................


The camera-plumber came out and things were worse than we originally
suspected.  All the plumbing going towards the house is original
cast-iron plumbing grom the 1950s.  And it has more holes than swiss
cheese.

I could really go for a side of some swiss cheese and crackers next to
the wine I'm going to need.

All 29 feet of it underneath our slab foundation needs to be replaced.
And the line going to the city, which is all PVC, is broken in 2
places.  Not exactly ideal.

They're going to have to build a tunnel under the house to fix the
plumbing.  And we're going to have to come up with a wad of cash to
pay them to do that.

But hey, in 3 weeks we'll have the most brand-new pipes on the block!

..........................................

Yeah, I have not only 2 or 3 but 5 water bottles.  You can go ahead and
make fun of me, my husband already did.  (Make it known that he rarely
makes fun of me, I'm just a tad bit excentric.)

When you don't know when you'll see running water again, you want to
be prepared!

...............................................

A week after the plumber with the video camera came out, we still had
nothing.  No official estimate.  No video that we paid an extra 35
dollars for.  No new pipes.

At this point, we were only flushing fluids down the drain.  I was a
little tired of throwing my toilet paper in the trash can and
subsequently taking the trash out multiple times.  I was also tried of
making sure I went #2 in our upflush toilet so it would grind things
up.  Sometimes you sit down thinking it is going to be a #1 and then
you get surprised with some #2.  It just happens.

So we called another plumber.  One with legit, awesome reviews on
Angie's list.  If you haven't heard of Angie's List, its a service
like consumer reports where people rate services.

The new plumber came out, gave us a written estimate.  It sounded
good, but Ryan and I had to talk about it and see.  I mean, our old
plumbers were nice.  But then they gave us their estimate, which was
THREE TIMES as much.

They loose.

With the new plumber (and the estimate from our old plumber) we
realized that no one was going to make a 29 foot tunnel under our
house to fix the pipes.

They were going to dig a huge hole in my foundation.

And put dirt in my house.  And probably let in about a zillion bugs.
I mean, the plumber reassured me and said that the holes would only be
3x3 feet and they would be covered in plywood.

Yeah, plywood.  That's comforting.

I feel like we might as well leave our doormat on our front porch that
says: "creepy, icky crawling things: Welcome!"  But they most
certainly are not welcome.

The good news is he could start almost immediately.  Which we weren't
prepared for.  Where do we go?  Where can we stay with our puppies?
Do we have to move everything out of the house?  Or just the rooms
where the holes will be?

We set everything up to start on a Thursday, 1.5 days later.  Exactly
3 weeks after we've moved in.  Good thing we still have most of our
books in boxes.  Now we just have to move our bookcases and chairs out
of the library and into another room.

And find the puppies a new place to live during the day.  Can't have
their little ears bombarded with noises of jackhammers busting through
our concrete foundation and brand-new tile.

Do you know what it's like to be suddenly homeless with puppies?  We
have to call to get them boarded for a zillion dollars a day.  Or find
a friend nice enough to let us AND puppies live with them.  Woah.

It's almost enough to make you cry.

Which is why I'm writing all this.  So maybe I can laugh so I don't
cry. (Andy Davis anyone?)

...........................................................

That night we had problems in our kitchen drain.  Something got
plugged and it started draining very slowly.  Then our dishwasher
filled up with yucky drain fluid.

Oh, man! Ryan scooped water out of our dishwasher.  Then we washed our
plates and dishes outside with the hose.  If I had been smart, I would
have filled up a bucket with warm, soapy water and cleaned things
outside that way.  Instead, I made several trips in and out to scrub
dishes with soap and then to rinse them with hose water.

The new plumber stuck a camera down the kitchen drainpipe. Turns out,
it has no bottom.  So we tacked on that project, the plumbers dig a
4th hole, and extended the length of the project, and the cost,
significantly.

Life is great, I tell you.

I'm listening to a lot of Jason Mraz lately (his new CD YES! just came
out, and it is fantastic! He is also coming to town on Sept 2nd and
3rd...anyone want to go to the concert with us?!) because honestly,
when life is rough, you need something to make it better.  Anything.

I tell you, 3 times now I've gotten in my car, turned on the music,
and it happens to be at the exact point in the exact song "Out of my
Hands," Where it says:

"When it feels like life has gotten out of control,
When it feels like too much, too much to hold,
When it feels like too much to understand,
Know that its out of your hands, out of your hands, out of your hands."

And I just have to keep reminding myself that it's out of my hands.
And in God's hands.  And he loves me.  He hasn't promised me comfort
for my whole life, but he has promised to never leave me.

...........................................................

God provided for us in huge ways. Our friends let us stay with them.
Our other friends offered to cook twice as much food for dinner as
they needed.  Then they gave us dinner each night, for 5 nights!

Such a huge blessing.

It was really hard though.  Our friend's house was all the way up in
the suburbs, so it took us almost an hour to get to work each day.
And we had been told the plumbing project would likely be done early
the next week.

Well, turns out our foundation is sitting on a bunch of rock.  Which
is great for our foundation, but not so great if you're trying to dig
a tunnel down there.  It took the diggers a few days longer than
expected to dig the holes.

And then the holes weren't covered really well, so not only did I
worry about bugs, but also stray cats and stray humans crawling
through the holes into our house.

I'm not actually making any of this up.

Unfortunately.

...........................................................

We finally got new pipes in 1 week after we moved out of our house.
We had stopped by the house at lease 2-3 times to get more clothes,
check the mail, set the lights on a timer, and check on the progress.

The day we got the pipes in, I was the only one that stopped by the
house because Ryan had a flat tire AND he had a minor procedure on his
back where they had to put him under anesthesia, so he couldn't drive.

Talk about a billion things piling up at once!

So I wanted to make really sure that I got sufficient photos of the
new pipes before the holes started to get filled in.

To Ryan's utter surprise, I climbed down into the holes (they were
only about 3 feet deep) to get better photos of the pipes.  My iPhone
camera didn't have the best flash, so I got a flashlight to help make
the pictures better quality.  Something I picked up from one of my
favorite photographers.  (If you're in Houston and you need a
wedding/family/senior pic photographer, check her out!
http://www.photographybyniki.com/)

I had to really inspect the plumbing so I could sleep better at night.

And who doesn't love a good "before/after" photo?!

Things looked great!

........................................................


Once the pipes were finally in, they had to fill the holes. I don't
know much about the laws of physics, but I do know that matter can
neither be created or destroyed.

What I don't understand is how we had a HUGE pile of rocks and dirt in
our backyard when the holes were all filled.

I was just so happy to be home I didn't care!





...................................................

The plumbers removed our carpet but didn't put it back. We were
referred to a carpet guy by a friend.

He showed up bright and early at 9 am to lay back our carpet pad and carpet.

Then he realized he needed some type of glue, so he ran out to get some.

And didn't return for 2 hours.  Ryan and I took shifts at the house
with the carpet laying guys.  They talked so much I just wanted them
to hurry up and finish!  I had to get back to work!

They took 2 more hours to finish.  They did a great job, you would
never know there was a hole underneath.

With our initials carved in :)

..........................................................

And now our little home is livable again.  Complete with an extra pile
of dirt and white rocks in our backyard.

Lets pray it stays that way!

................................................

So much has happened since then, but it's sad stuff so I may not write about it.  We'll see.

The day we had neurosurgery!

I used the term "we" loosely in the title.  Clearly, I didn't actually have neurosurgery.  Ryan did. I just had to sit in the waiting room and hope he was okay.  And then make several trips to the store for things like pain meds, Ritz crackers, chicken soup, and ice cream.

Because I couldn't pull it together enough to predict we would need ice cream.

................................................

[Pre-Surgery Photo]

That morning we woke up and I drove to the surgical hospital.  Ryan was in a lot of pain in the car because sitting has been really painful for the last 2 months.  The anesthesiologist had told him it was ok to take his pain medication, and he did.  But he says that "just takes the edge off."

We checked in.  Then a nice guy walked us upstairs and got prepped for surgery.  Ryan changed into a gown.  I told him to "smile" for a picture.  The most he could do was lift his head and give me "thumbs up."  The nurse tried to have him sit up in bed, but he felt better laying down.  So she let him lay there.

[Thumbs up!]

They put Ryan in some TED Hose (compression stockings to help prevent a blood clot) and some anti-slip socks (hospitals have to prevent fall risks)

[He did a great job showing off his socks for a photo]

Then we waited an hour and a half.

I kinda slept in a chair.  I was super happy because the nurse brought us both warm blankets, fresh from the warmer.  I knew it was going to be cold so I wore jeans (rolled up into capris for outside)  and brought a sweatshirt.  I ended up rolling down the pants and putting on my sweatshirt. 

I was pretty hungry at that point.  Ryan wasn't allowed to eat breakfast.  (He was allowed to drink water up until 7 am, which the nurse kinda freaked out about...she gave the anesthesiologist a sticky note with the info; he just laughed and threw it away)  So I grabbed lunch to distract myself while they took him back for surgery.  

The chef was honest with me. He didn't recommend the fries. So I got "handmade potatoe chips" with my lunch.

Then I came back to the waiting room and started reading "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie.  I spent some time reading about the new Apple News because reading a book about people dying isn't the most comforting thing when your husband is in surgery. 

The surgeon, Dr Denning, came out and said all was well.  He said he cut off a huge chunk of Ryan's bulging disc, and his back should be much better!

Then his PA came out to review the importance of wearing the big socks, and moving around, and the special airplane compression devices.

[Don't these compression devices look fancy?  The box makes them look enviable!]

Then the guy who walked us up into surgery came to get me and bring me into the room to see Ryan.  

Only the guy didn't recognize me.  He said he was looking for someone in jean capris.  I guess I confused him when I rolled them down.

Ryan was tired, but doing well!  I was so happy.

The nurse gave him some juice, so I sneaked a photo.

[Juice happy]

He downed about 8 of those little apple juice cups because he was probably hungry and they told him he couldn't go home until he urinated.  

She made him get up and try to pee about an hour later.

I took the opportunity to snap a picture of the fake-tan they gave him (they cleaned him before surgery) and of his surgical scar.  Look away if you are squeemish.

[Fake Tan]

[Scar]

[He walked. Then peed.]

Then we went home.  We arrived home at 4, and Ryan said he was starving.  I guess the juice and crackers didn't fill him up.  I went to Walgreens to get his medications filled and pick up some crackers and soup.  I could have gone to Kroger, but it was farther away and I was so exhausted!

We rested after that.  

Then, a friend brought us dinner (yummy pizza!) and suggested I get Ryan some ice cream for his sore throat (they had to put a tube down it for him to breathe).

Being the sweet wife I am, I got him some. Don't worry, I also got me some wine.

[Ice Cream]

........................................................

The next day he was still doing great!  Which is wonderful, because I was still tired!

This month has been so emotionally exhausting! Good thing our God has given us sweet friends to bring us food and help us through it all! We couldn't do it without you!

The day we cried.

Whew, life has been rough.

I have a post ready-to-publish (I just have to add pics) about our plumbing disaster, but it hardly seems appropriate to publish it today, in light of all that has happened since yesterday.

We went to see Ryan's pain doctor yesterday for his back pain.  He had been in more pain this past week after his 3rd injection.  We needed pain relief.  

Long story short, we were not only able to see the pain doctor, but he pulled some strings for us and we were able to see a neurosurgeon the same day.  He talked to us about some options, and we decided to go through with surgery.  It's something called a "micro-disk" surgery where they just "shave off" a part of the herniated disk that's sticking out and compressing the nerve, making his leg numb/tingly.

It was a big step, but he's been in pain so long that we're ready to try anything for relief.  We have researched pros/cons and alternative therapies (chiropractors, "decompression therapy") and surgery is the best option for us.

That evening, we got a call that Ryan's dad was having trouble breathing.  Later that night he passed away after several attempts were made to save his life.

It was the middle of the night and we were devastated. 

Grief is nothing new, but when it happens to you, its so different.  So personal.  What do you say?  What do you do?  How can you help from across the country?  

We can use your prayers.  

Actually, we need your prayers.  Please, pray for us.  For our family.  We appreciate it more than we can ever express to you.

We're pretty sad right now.  But we know our God is mighty and full of love.  I don't understand His decisions, but I trust in Him.