Dear faithful blog friends,
I have abandoned you! I left you for the fresh air and sunshine. I was spending so much enjoyable time outdoors during the summer, gardening and the like, that I just plum forgot to post!
I'm rededicating myself to posting again. Not sure if it's the weather or the fact that I am indoors more so now, but here I am and I'm ready to go.
Here's a few updates:
1) Living out here in the country is wonderful, however, there are a few disadvantages. For example, our adorable kitty Anri was taken one night and we never saw her again. We are pretty sure that the Coyote's got her as the night that she disappeared, the coytes were making a pass right by our house and being fairly loud about it. So, no more baby kitty. I was (am) very broken up about it and it surprised me...we only had Anri for a few months, but this cat "forced" her way into our hearts. She found a way to be with me all day long. She would nap with me when I had a bad day and needed to be on the couch and then in the evening she would be outside hunting. She was a great kitty and she even got Dave to love her!
2) Dave and I just got back from a 20 day cruise to the Panama Canal! I'm going to blog about it next and will add pictures so all I will say for now is that we saw the cruise come up and it was a great price, so we booked it! We so needed the vacation! It was great to get out of town for a month...it's the longest vacation I've ever taken!
I think I've just about caught myself up here.
I'm glad to be back writing as my fingers have been itching to do some typing!
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Friday, June 8, 2012
Here Kitty, Kitty...
I'm relaxing on the couch after a day filled with vacuuming and milling and dishes and many other chores...and all the while my darling kitty (which we decided to name Anri, pronounced "onri." It's supposed to be a double meaning, we just happened to use the Japanese spelling. So, while I am at work literally doing two things at once and attempting to clear off our kitchen table, she is right under foot and then she's on top of the table playing with the wooden blinds. A little later I'm on the phone trying to get billing stuff figured out with the UWMC, and she is back playing with the blinds, but this time she's doing it in a place where she thinks I cannot see her...and she definitely knows the word "NO!", so I'm snapping my fingers and whispering to her and she is running away only to come right back. I realize that I am able to continue my conversation, relatively uninterrupted, until I see her on the table again, but this time iinside a Target bag, with her nose and part of her head sticking out of the handle.
Keeping my frustration level down today has been a bit of a chore in itself, I will admit, but it is hard to stay mad at my animals long because they look at me with such cute faces that I realize they are not doing it on purpose.
So...with that, I give you, sleepy kitty:
Keeping my frustration level down today has been a bit of a chore in itself, I will admit, but it is hard to stay mad at my animals long because they look at me with such cute faces that I realize they are not doing it on purpose.
So...with that, I give you, sleepy kitty:
Friday, May 4, 2012
Rain, Rain, Go Away...
I'm sitting here on my couch and watching the rain through the Windows. The rain, which has been relentlessly pouring down for the last six days. Now I realize that the earth requires water to fortify the ground and plants, however,, after six days of downpour I am started to feel depressed! I have finally started a couple of gardens around my house. I'm so excited to see the plants grow and receive the bounty from the vegetables. However, just when I really got started, the rains came! I am actually a little worried that some of my plants may be getting drowned with all the rain . Dave said he thought over just three days we got about 3 inches of rain.
Last Sunday, I had the opportunity of watching Dave take part in a half-marathon race! (13.1 miles) He got into running while we were getting healthy and realized that he was good at it and that he liked it. So I suggested that he run a race/marathon. We found one and he started training for it. A while back, his knee was injured and he wasn't sure whether or not he was going to be able to run, but he was able to work through it. I had a great seat, as there was a cute little coffee house that I found that I sat in and watched as people came around the final turn. It was a fun experience and Dave is already looking for more opportunities to run!
Friday, March 23, 2012
Best Birthday Ever!
I never took the opportunity to write about my wonderful birthday experience. For my 28th birthday, my wonderful husband surprised me with an overnight trip to Friday Harbor! (I had never been). Dave and I have not been on even a weekend get a way, just the two of us, since 2008 I think. So this time was much needed. We had a wonderful time sight seeing and mostly just resting and doing nothing. (Not much is open in Friday Harbor in January, believe it or not, he he).
Here are some pictures taken from my surprise birthday overnight trip:
There was a large jacuzzi tub in the middle of the hotel room! I indulged...
Also, our room came with a complementary bottle of Champagne, we indulged...
We found a great place to eat within walking distance of our hotel and ended up eating their for lunch and then dinner.
When we were on the ferry going home, I couldn't help but take this last picture. We were just getting ready to head up to the top of the ferry to wait out the 45min. wait until home, when we noticed this rather large sheep dog sitting very calmly in the back of this rather small car. He was such a good boy the whole time and when arrived back to our car, he was starting to look a bit anxious and would attempt to get up and turn around in the vehicle whenever a "new" person would walk next to his car.
This was such a wonderful trip! Such a wonderful surprise! I will never forget it. My husband scored big time husband points on this one (if there is such a thing). My heart swelled with love when he came to me and told me that I would be gone for a day a night and a morning and he correctly told me what I should pack. I love Dave so much and I only want to make him happy as well. Women need little things like this in their lives to keep up the excitement, am I right?
Here are some pictures taken from my surprise birthday overnight trip:
There was a large jacuzzi tub in the middle of the hotel room! I indulged...
Also, our room came with a complementary bottle of Champagne, we indulged...
We found a great place to eat within walking distance of our hotel and ended up eating their for lunch and then dinner.
When we were on the ferry going home, I couldn't help but take this last picture. We were just getting ready to head up to the top of the ferry to wait out the 45min. wait until home, when we noticed this rather large sheep dog sitting very calmly in the back of this rather small car. He was such a good boy the whole time and when arrived back to our car, he was starting to look a bit anxious and would attempt to get up and turn around in the vehicle whenever a "new" person would walk next to his car.
This was such a wonderful trip! Such a wonderful surprise! I will never forget it. My husband scored big time husband points on this one (if there is such a thing). My heart swelled with love when he came to me and told me that I would be gone for a day a night and a morning and he correctly told me what I should pack. I love Dave so much and I only want to make him happy as well. Women need little things like this in their lives to keep up the excitement, am I right?
Gun Safety
Here are a few snap shots showing Dave, A.J. and me going over gun safety. Dave got a .45 for Christmas this year from his loving wife and so I promised him that I would try and get some "action" shots while he was shooting the gun. I thought it might be fun to try my hand at it as well. Although it might be surprising to some, this was not my first time shooting a gun...Ok, it was my second...lol
So this first picture shows the boys going over gun safety and the rules of handling any gun. The gun wasn't loaded, but Dave was showing A.J. how to do it all. This was A.J.'s first time with a gun.
Next, Dave and A.J. loaded the two cartridges for the gun and got it all put together.
Finally, they each got to take a turn at shooting at the target. They both each had direct hits! They were aiming at fruit cocktail cans and an empty glass bottle. Dave glanced off of the bottle and put a bullet through one of the cans. A.J. also hit one of the cans.
After all of the fun, I just couldn't resist myself and asked for Dave to get the gun ready for me so I could shoot a few. Not sure if any of you have ever done it before, but that first shot really takes it out of you! It's very different than they make it seem on T.V. and after doing something like that it sobers you up very quickly. I'm not a huge proponent of guns, however I make myself aware of gun safety and since I have guns in my house I make sure to make it the safest environment I can. We lock our guns in a gun safe and only take them out when they are being used for sport/hunting/cleaning. I don't even know the combo to the lock on the safe, and I prefer to keep it that way. I pray that we never ever have to use them for defense or anything else...I'm not even sure I could do it! Anyway, I'll leave you today with the last photo, the one of me attempting to shoot the gun! Enjoy!
So this first picture shows the boys going over gun safety and the rules of handling any gun. The gun wasn't loaded, but Dave was showing A.J. how to do it all. This was A.J.'s first time with a gun.
Next, Dave and A.J. loaded the two cartridges for the gun and got it all put together.
Finally, they each got to take a turn at shooting at the target. They both each had direct hits! They were aiming at fruit cocktail cans and an empty glass bottle. Dave glanced off of the bottle and put a bullet through one of the cans. A.J. also hit one of the cans.
After all of the fun, I just couldn't resist myself and asked for Dave to get the gun ready for me so I could shoot a few. Not sure if any of you have ever done it before, but that first shot really takes it out of you! It's very different than they make it seem on T.V. and after doing something like that it sobers you up very quickly. I'm not a huge proponent of guns, however I make myself aware of gun safety and since I have guns in my house I make sure to make it the safest environment I can. We lock our guns in a gun safe and only take them out when they are being used for sport/hunting/cleaning. I don't even know the combo to the lock on the safe, and I prefer to keep it that way. I pray that we never ever have to use them for defense or anything else...I'm not even sure I could do it! Anyway, I'll leave you today with the last photo, the one of me attempting to shoot the gun! Enjoy!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Re-Birthday! 12 years
I'm going to go ahead and post this today, even though it's technically a few hours ahead...
Today (March 5, 2012) is my re-birthday! It's the day I get to celebrate, remember & thankfully look back twelve years ago to the early morning that I received the gift of life. I have something special that I want to share with my readers. The day that I received my heart, I was hospitalized at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. I had been getting depressed because I was waiting at home but I became too sick and needed to receive constant IV medication in order to keep me going. My doctors knew that I was feeling down, so they and the social workers allowed my friends to come to my room and spend the evenings and nights with me, like a sleep over just in the hospital. It's not something they normally did, but they accommodated my friends because they knew it helped my moral. The particular evening that I found out I was getting my heart, I had a special friend spend the night with me.
It is very difficult to describe how one feels when they find out there is a possibility of a heart match, and knowing that there would be hours of tissue type matching going on I was extremely blessed to have a friend around while I experience the emotions of amazement, excitement, worry, the what-ifs, nausea, a little sleep and oh yeah, memory loss-(Remember that one?)
What I would like to share with you is my journal entry from the night I found out that they had a match for me. I am going to rewrite the words exactly as I wrote them in my journal so hopefully you will understand what emotions I had:
March 5, 2000
Hello!!!
It is 3:44a.m. in the morning and GUESS WHAT!? Right now I am waiting to find out if there is a good heart for me!! What happened was, around 2:30 am, two nurses came in to my room and were talking real quiet. So, I woke up and was real confused. Finally, I thought that it was real morning and time for my real blood draw. Then I looked at my watch, and realized how early it was. So I immediately asked why they were taking blood. The nurse said, "That's a good question, well, they think they might have a heart for you." and I was like "REALLY?!" So, they took 75cc's of blood, and told me that if it was a go, I would probably hear from the doctors in a couple of hours. So......I'm waiting. And waiting. And waiting, and waiting! AHHHHHH! Its driving me insane! Oh, well. Dad was totally right though, I feel like I'm not ready. Cause I got this huge rush of adrenaline, then I got totally nauseated. And now, I'm just excited!I sure hope that this works out! It would suck to have it be a false alarm. But, I have prayed and asked God to be with me and to help keep me and my family and friends calm...especially me! Well, I'll go now, and update sometime!
~
I want to write a few lines from the next journal entry, because after my transplant I sat down and finished writing what happened the rest of the morning (after all of that waiting). I've left out the name of the friend that was in the room with me because I don't have friend's permission to put it in here.
March 11, 2000
20 minutes later two well dressed nurses with white coats came walking into my room. (Friend) and I were sitting on my bed listening to music and looking at magazines. They told me that they STILL didn't know for sure if it was a "go." They said that many more tests still needed to be done before they knew if the heart was a good match or not. (I changed the last sentence so you all could understand what I meant) They also said that they needed to talk with me and my parents needed to sign papers because I was a minor, before they would take me down to the OR. They asked how far away my parents were and when they found out mom and dad were 45 minutes away they got loud and upset sounding and told me to, "Pick up the phone and call them, now." After we had a nurse get us an outside, long distance line, I was so nervous that I couldn't remember my own phone number. Luckily, (Friend) helped and called mom and dad for the docs and docs spoke with them.
Things went fast from there. They took me down to the OR preparation room, where they began placing several IV lines and a couple of Artery lines. Mom and Dad still had not arrived yet but were getting close. They were much needed to say goodbye and to sign papers. Drugs were given to me just and mom and dad walked in so my goodbye to them was short and I only remember part of it. It's okay, though, because 11 1/2 hours, 19 1/2 units of blood, and 1 1/2 days later: I received the gift of life with a new heart!
~
No words can or will ever be able to express my thanks to my heart donor, Soji Bush.
Soji, you and you and your family are forever in my heart and prayers. You gave me the ability to keep on living. I don't know how to express to your family how thankful that I am, except to not let this gift go to waste. To not soiling this gift with anger or resentment and filling this gift with the love of God. Thank you, truly, for a heart which has given me a chance to live.
Today (March 5, 2012) is my re-birthday! It's the day I get to celebrate, remember & thankfully look back twelve years ago to the early morning that I received the gift of life. I have something special that I want to share with my readers. The day that I received my heart, I was hospitalized at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. I had been getting depressed because I was waiting at home but I became too sick and needed to receive constant IV medication in order to keep me going. My doctors knew that I was feeling down, so they and the social workers allowed my friends to come to my room and spend the evenings and nights with me, like a sleep over just in the hospital. It's not something they normally did, but they accommodated my friends because they knew it helped my moral. The particular evening that I found out I was getting my heart, I had a special friend spend the night with me.
It is very difficult to describe how one feels when they find out there is a possibility of a heart match, and knowing that there would be hours of tissue type matching going on I was extremely blessed to have a friend around while I experience the emotions of amazement, excitement, worry, the what-ifs, nausea, a little sleep and oh yeah, memory loss-(Remember that one?)
What I would like to share with you is my journal entry from the night I found out that they had a match for me. I am going to rewrite the words exactly as I wrote them in my journal so hopefully you will understand what emotions I had:
March 5, 2000
Hello!!!
It is 3:44a.m. in the morning and GUESS WHAT!? Right now I am waiting to find out if there is a good heart for me!! What happened was, around 2:30 am, two nurses came in to my room and were talking real quiet. So, I woke up and was real confused. Finally, I thought that it was real morning and time for my real blood draw. Then I looked at my watch, and realized how early it was. So I immediately asked why they were taking blood. The nurse said, "That's a good question, well, they think they might have a heart for you." and I was like "REALLY?!" So, they took 75cc's of blood, and told me that if it was a go, I would probably hear from the doctors in a couple of hours. So......I'm waiting. And waiting. And waiting, and waiting! AHHHHHH! Its driving me insane! Oh, well. Dad was totally right though, I feel like I'm not ready. Cause I got this huge rush of adrenaline, then I got totally nauseated. And now, I'm just excited!I sure hope that this works out! It would suck to have it be a false alarm. But, I have prayed and asked God to be with me and to help keep me and my family and friends calm...especially me! Well, I'll go now, and update sometime!
~
I want to write a few lines from the next journal entry, because after my transplant I sat down and finished writing what happened the rest of the morning (after all of that waiting). I've left out the name of the friend that was in the room with me because I don't have friend's permission to put it in here.
March 11, 2000
20 minutes later two well dressed nurses with white coats came walking into my room. (Friend) and I were sitting on my bed listening to music and looking at magazines. They told me that they STILL didn't know for sure if it was a "go." They said that many more tests still needed to be done before they knew if the heart was a good match or not. (I changed the last sentence so you all could understand what I meant) They also said that they needed to talk with me and my parents needed to sign papers because I was a minor, before they would take me down to the OR. They asked how far away my parents were and when they found out mom and dad were 45 minutes away they got loud and upset sounding and told me to, "Pick up the phone and call them, now." After we had a nurse get us an outside, long distance line, I was so nervous that I couldn't remember my own phone number. Luckily, (Friend) helped and called mom and dad for the docs and docs spoke with them.
Things went fast from there. They took me down to the OR preparation room, where they began placing several IV lines and a couple of Artery lines. Mom and Dad still had not arrived yet but were getting close. They were much needed to say goodbye and to sign papers. Drugs were given to me just and mom and dad walked in so my goodbye to them was short and I only remember part of it. It's okay, though, because 11 1/2 hours, 19 1/2 units of blood, and 1 1/2 days later: I received the gift of life with a new heart!
~
No words can or will ever be able to express my thanks to my heart donor, Soji Bush.
Soji, you and you and your family are forever in my heart and prayers. You gave me the ability to keep on living. I don't know how to express to your family how thankful that I am, except to not let this gift go to waste. To not soiling this gift with anger or resentment and filling this gift with the love of God. Thank you, truly, for a heart which has given me a chance to live.
To Blog Or Not To Blog...
Blogging is very difficult when one is:
A) very busy attempting to get every scrap from their old house to their new house,
B) recovering from their first car accident and;
C) sick...ugg...
So, I guess I'll start from the beginning and say that I am sorry I haven't written more. The start-up of this post was an attempt at least to communicate with those that I do not get to speak to on a daily/weekly basis.
As Dave and I finished up moving from our old house to this one, we found that we didn't have much time for anything. After the snow went away, and Dave got over his cold he was able to get back into his running again. Dave is set to run his first half marathon here in the spring! He's excited about it and I'm excited to support him at the start and finish line. Seriously though, last Saturday he ran 10 miles with a friend and he said he could have gone longer. The half marathon is 13.5 miles and it sure seems like he is prepared.
On February 15th I was involved in a rear-end car accident. Traffic came to a stop as did I, and the man behind me didn't. I looked in my rear-view mirror to see his truck speeding towards me, knowing that he was going to hit me. He hit me pretty hard and at the time, I was thinking, "Oh no the car is not drivable!" (It took place on I-5, and I didn't get out to look because I was having neck and upper back pain). When the firemen said that all I had was a couple of dents out of my bumper, I didn't believe them! The other vehicle involved got it worse and with the front-end damage, I don't think he was able to drive it away...I had to leave the scene because the police didn't want me sitting on the side of I-5. So Dave met me off of the next exit and we took care of business with the insurance people and Dave drove the car more to make sure it was really drivable.
I did get looked at and the doctor said I had a T-strain...nothing serious, just sore for several days.
Going through an accident is a new experience...there is definitely certain processes that I thought I was aware of that I really didn't have down. I know that my adrenaline had some part to play in it, however, I really felt unprepared to handle the entire situation on my own. I am extremely thankful that the car was drivable, that I wasn't very injured and that we were both able to make it to the right side of the road. I would have been a lost cause if I would have had to call a tow truck on my own or if the police had not shown up.
The policeman that was at the scene took care of exchanging the information for us, which was nice, and instructed me on what to do...I think he could tell I was out of sorts.
The fun started after the accident. The man that hit me failed to notify his insurance company. I called his insurance company and filed a claim under his, starting the process to determine liability through his, (because it was clearly his fault). What I found out was that if the gentleman that hit me never made any attempt to call his insurance company back (or apparently they said they would even attempt to send someone to his house), then they would deny the claim and I would have to claim it on my car insurance and after the claim closes my insurance company would have to go after the gentleman in suit. How messed up is that?? All because of a loophole in the law. I was getting pretty frustrated over it, and the weeks were started to tick by and here I am with this person's contact information. I'm thinking, is it morally wrong to write him a letter asking him to please call his insurance company? Then I realized, that would REALLY make him not want to do it.
Well, after the three week mark, I found out some other interesting information. After telling this story to a friend, she related that the same thing happened to her and the insurance company did deny the claim for her. She said that she wrote a letter to the Washington State Insurance Commissioner or (WSIC) explaining what happened and they were forced by the WSIC to pay the claim.
I was all set to write my letter to the WSIC and provide my proof. In fact, I was gathering it, when I got the phone call saying that everything was taken care of! He had called and given his statement and liability had been determined (that it was his fault) so they were going to pay for everything.
What a huge relief off of our shoulders! Now we can get the car fixed knowing that we don't have to pay for it.
Driving is also very different for me. It's not that I am afraid, its more that in certain situations, I now have this weird reflex like when someone from the lane to the right of you quickly pulls a lane change into your lane in front of you. That had happened to me right before my accident and I barely missed hitting that person. Then not 15 seconds later, I braked and was struck from the back. Also, when traffic slows and the person I'm with doesn't slow down fast enough for me, I freak out internally, and sometimes it comes out externally (which isn't always a good thing because it makes the driver feel bad). I've never understood nervous passengers until now. When people say that they just like being the ones who control the car...now I completely get it. Wondering now as I'm typing this if anyone else feels this way or has this syndrome? Is it a syndrome? All I know is driving is a much different experience now than it was before the accident.
A) very busy attempting to get every scrap from their old house to their new house,
B) recovering from their first car accident and;
C) sick...ugg...
So, I guess I'll start from the beginning and say that I am sorry I haven't written more. The start-up of this post was an attempt at least to communicate with those that I do not get to speak to on a daily/weekly basis.
As Dave and I finished up moving from our old house to this one, we found that we didn't have much time for anything. After the snow went away, and Dave got over his cold he was able to get back into his running again. Dave is set to run his first half marathon here in the spring! He's excited about it and I'm excited to support him at the start and finish line. Seriously though, last Saturday he ran 10 miles with a friend and he said he could have gone longer. The half marathon is 13.5 miles and it sure seems like he is prepared.
On February 15th I was involved in a rear-end car accident. Traffic came to a stop as did I, and the man behind me didn't. I looked in my rear-view mirror to see his truck speeding towards me, knowing that he was going to hit me. He hit me pretty hard and at the time, I was thinking, "Oh no the car is not drivable!" (It took place on I-5, and I didn't get out to look because I was having neck and upper back pain). When the firemen said that all I had was a couple of dents out of my bumper, I didn't believe them! The other vehicle involved got it worse and with the front-end damage, I don't think he was able to drive it away...I had to leave the scene because the police didn't want me sitting on the side of I-5. So Dave met me off of the next exit and we took care of business with the insurance people and Dave drove the car more to make sure it was really drivable.
I did get looked at and the doctor said I had a T-strain...nothing serious, just sore for several days.
Going through an accident is a new experience...there is definitely certain processes that I thought I was aware of that I really didn't have down. I know that my adrenaline had some part to play in it, however, I really felt unprepared to handle the entire situation on my own. I am extremely thankful that the car was drivable, that I wasn't very injured and that we were both able to make it to the right side of the road. I would have been a lost cause if I would have had to call a tow truck on my own or if the police had not shown up.
The policeman that was at the scene took care of exchanging the information for us, which was nice, and instructed me on what to do...I think he could tell I was out of sorts.
The fun started after the accident. The man that hit me failed to notify his insurance company. I called his insurance company and filed a claim under his, starting the process to determine liability through his, (because it was clearly his fault). What I found out was that if the gentleman that hit me never made any attempt to call his insurance company back (or apparently they said they would even attempt to send someone to his house), then they would deny the claim and I would have to claim it on my car insurance and after the claim closes my insurance company would have to go after the gentleman in suit. How messed up is that?? All because of a loophole in the law. I was getting pretty frustrated over it, and the weeks were started to tick by and here I am with this person's contact information. I'm thinking, is it morally wrong to write him a letter asking him to please call his insurance company? Then I realized, that would REALLY make him not want to do it.
Well, after the three week mark, I found out some other interesting information. After telling this story to a friend, she related that the same thing happened to her and the insurance company did deny the claim for her. She said that she wrote a letter to the Washington State Insurance Commissioner or (WSIC) explaining what happened and they were forced by the WSIC to pay the claim.
I was all set to write my letter to the WSIC and provide my proof. In fact, I was gathering it, when I got the phone call saying that everything was taken care of! He had called and given his statement and liability had been determined (that it was his fault) so they were going to pay for everything.
What a huge relief off of our shoulders! Now we can get the car fixed knowing that we don't have to pay for it.
Driving is also very different for me. It's not that I am afraid, its more that in certain situations, I now have this weird reflex like when someone from the lane to the right of you quickly pulls a lane change into your lane in front of you. That had happened to me right before my accident and I barely missed hitting that person. Then not 15 seconds later, I braked and was struck from the back. Also, when traffic slows and the person I'm with doesn't slow down fast enough for me, I freak out internally, and sometimes it comes out externally (which isn't always a good thing because it makes the driver feel bad). I've never understood nervous passengers until now. When people say that they just like being the ones who control the car...now I completely get it. Wondering now as I'm typing this if anyone else feels this way or has this syndrome? Is it a syndrome? All I know is driving is a much different experience now than it was before the accident.
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