Happy Birthday, Daniel!!

Today marks 10 years that my son, Daniel has been a part of this world. It is amazing how time can go by so quick. It just seems like last week that he was going off to Kindergarten and now he's in the 4th grade.

I look back to what I was doing 10 years ago from tonight.....My due date was November 19th and I had been to the Dr. for my check up just a few days before that and she said that it didn't look like he was coming anytime soon. I was miserable, I couldn't put on my shoes because I was so swollen and I had been put on partial bedrest because my blood pressure was elevated. I was ready to be done with that pregnancy. Meghan was only 22 months old at the time, so I was busy with her and that was a challenge having to be on bedrest and take care of a toddler. Michael was working 11 hour shifts for a local trailer hitch company, so Meghan and I spent alot of time with out Daddy.

So on November 19th, which was a Friday night, we went to bed and decided that we were gonna go Christmas shopping the next day, since obviously this baby wasn't gonna be coming anytime soon and Kohl's was having some really good sales the next day and I wanted to get the early bird specials!!

Well all those plans changed when I woke up at about 1am and had a horrible pain in my upper abdomen. It was almost like a very bad case of heartburn. I couldn't hardly stand it, so I called the Dr. and he said to get in the shower and see if the warm water would help it subside. Well, it was getting worse and I was at the point where I could hardly move because the pain was unbearable and I called the doctor back and he said to go ahead and come into the hospital to be checked out to make sure the baby was okay. So we got Meghan up and drove her to my mom's house and then we were off to the hospital. That drive had to be longest of my life! We were about 25 minutes from the hospital and it felt like eternity till we got there. Once we got there, they sent me right to the triage in the OB unit to be checked out. They put a monitor around my belly and had me pee in a cup. Sure enough, they found protein in my urine and my blood pressure was through the roof. It was official, I had what is called Preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia is something that is developed from having high blood pressure during a pregnancy. This means that my liver was sick and my body was literately attacking it's self and the only way to help it, is to eliminate the source which was the pregnancy. So that meant they needed to get the baby out of me or I and the baby could die.

So they started an IV and gave me something to start my labor but nothing was happening. Then they put something inside of me to help me to start softening and start dilating. Let me just tell ya, this was a very long and exhausting day. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was pretty much dying and I sure felt like I was. Finally the contractions got intense and that just made it all the more fun....NOT!!!

Then sometime after 9pm I was fully dilated and was able to start pushing, the only problem was that I was so exhausted and had no strength to push. I had been given an oxygen mask to wear because I had trouble breathing during the labor. I was told that I only pushed for about 10 minutes and Daniel was out, but I don't remember much about that day. I felt like I was kind of in a fog through the whole thing. So at 9:40pm on November 20th 1999 we had a 6lb 5oz baby boy! Everything was okay with him and he was health!!

As for mom, I wasn't so hot. I wasn't out of danger yet. My blood count was so low and I had lost so much blood during the labor, I had to be watched for almost a week. I was even the recipient of a platelet transfusion, due to a low platelet count. I was finally released the day before Thanksgiving and was given strict rules about my activities. I basically was told that I couldn't leave the house and had to stay in my pj's for about 3 weeks. Apparently women that have had this problem will go home and have a relapse and end up back in the hospital or even die.

So we went home that Wednesday afternoon and Michael went to work as usual and my wonderful sister was great, she came over to help with Meghan and she cooked dinner so I could rest.

I didn't realize how bad it really was until after it was all done, but I almost died. I guess the Lord wanted to keep me here for a reason and I am thankful He did, because I have been able to enjoy 10 birthdays with my little guy, and hopefully a whole lot more to come.

Happy Birthday, Daniel, I love you!!

Brittany Spears in the Grocery Store

Okay, so I finally went grocery shopping today, if anyone knows me, they know that I hate grocery shopping. My cart is always overflowing and food falls out of my cart all the time while I walk thru the store. I feel like I have to shop for an army most of the time, the downside is that my kids aren't teenagers yet and from what I hear it only gets worse. Do you ever feel like when you go grocery shopping you can have a full cart and then half full of a second cart and about $400 later you feel like you didn't buy much of anything. Plus, when I get home and start unloading my van of the food, the vultures come out of nowhere and start eating everything they see, like they haven't eaten in days, weeks, months or their whole lives!!!

Anywhos, as I was shopping at my local supermarket, I am enjoying the Musac that they provide overhead for your shopping enjoyment. I enjoy all the renditions of the Titanic theme song that is played and sometimes songs from the Bangles, but what really got me beboppin was when Brittany Spears song "Oops I did it again" was being played! Then the sad thing is that I realized I was singing along with the music!!
Well at least I was entertained while I had to do my grocery shopping!

Thanks Musac people for entertaining us while we pick out whether we want white or wheat bread of if we should buy ground round or ground chuck!

Godly Food

Tonight we went over to the local mall so that Katy, my youngest daughter, could use her Build-a-Bear gift card that she didn't get to use on her birthday since she got that nasty Pig flu.

Anyways, that was fun to watch her pick out the bear and the clothes and to dress it and then give it a name and a birthday.
Then after that enjoyable process we went right across the way to one of my least favorite stores called Claire's. Now this is a store that is about the size of a shoe box with as about as much merchandise in it as Walmart!
Katy has been wanting her ears pierced and we told her she could get them pierced for her birthday, so that's why we went to the shoe box store so that she could have it done. Well, her excitement on her face soon turned to a look of horror once she was in the chair. I could see the tears welling up in her droopy brown eyes and how she kept fighting back the tears. She was being such a brave little girl. I tried to tell her that it would be okay if she didn't want to get it done, but she said no, she wanted to do it. Thankfully they pierced her ears at the same time, but it didn't matter, the tears flowed down her cheeks and she let out a good cry. Her big sister Meghan held her hand to comfort her and hugged her when it was all done and then she was happy and the smile came back to her face.


















So after that whole enjoyable time we spent at the mall, the kids kept complaining that they were hungry so we decided to leave the mall and venture out to see what restaurant would be the best choice for our family. We were in an area that had a bigger choice of eating facilities than we have around our house, so we wanted to eat somewhere different than just McDonalds and in the words of Matthew, "McDonalds makes me puke!" So we thought that wouldn't be the best place to take that kid.

We decided to eat at Chick-fil-A for dinner. As we are driving into the parking lot, Matthew sees that we are pulling into Chick-fil-A and says "I love this place, they are a Godly restaurant, with Godly food and Godly drinks, and Godly fries and Godly music, and they have Godly toys in their kid's meals, it is just so Godly."
If you know anything about Chick-fil-a, they are a Christian owned business and they play Christian music in their restaurant, and I guess to Matthew that makes them a Godly restaurant.

So I guess you can say that we ate Holy chicken and waffle fries for dinner!

Our Heroes

Today marks a day of remembrance, today we are paying tribute and honor to our Veterans. I am so thankful to the men and women that sacrifice their lives everyday for me to have freedom. I can't imagine wives being away from their husbands or vice versa or mother's being away from their sons or daughters.
I have to pay tribute today to a very special person. He believes that the Lord has called him to serve our country as a Marine. He left his family, his fiance and his church family in July to be trained as a Marine. I admire him for his courage and strength to do such an honorable act. He is so much younger than me, I almost think of him as my own son, but I look up to him and I am humbled.
Thank you, Mathew Trivett, you truly are a hero!

Working the sequel....

I am sure you are all wondering why I have titled my post as "working" since the last post was titled the same. Well, I am at work yet again blogging. So that's why it's titled "working the sequel".



I am sitting with a patient again tonight who is very confussed. She is a cute little old lady but is very confussed and doesn't seem to like me, but it's okay cause the feelings are a bit mutual. Thankfully she is sleeping, so that gives me some time to do what is really important here and that is to write a post for my blog.



Today was my first day back to work since Friday. I had the weekend off and spent it out of town with my hubs and it was the most enjoyable time that I have had with him in a very long time. It made me realize how much I am in love with him and how much richer my life is with him by my side.
So then Monday, I was suppose to be back to work but for some odd reason my body felt the need to empty itself of all of it's contents thru my mouth! Yes, I declared myself sick. I had become a victim of some kind of sickness. This was just uncalled for, I am invisible, I am a mother, a medical worker, I am not suppose to get sick! Well, I guess I was wrong for the first time in my life, I know what you are thinking, Kathy was actually wrong about something.
So I spent my Monday in bed and in the bathroom and on the couch. Thankfully that was short lived and I was able to gain control of my body fluids! What a relief!!

That brings me to today, I was able to get out of bed and get a shower this morning and then had to meet a friend to make a Pampered Chef delivery and then meet my mother-in-law to get fitted for a holiday scrub top she is making for me. So I go over to her place of employment and she says, "have you had lunch" and I reply "no, have you" and she says "no, but shouldn't we go get some", so we went up to the Chinese buffet, where they have all those wonderful foods, like crab rangoon and egg rolls and chop suey and sauteed mushrooms and those fun little donuts and almond cookies, oh can't you just taste it now!! I stuffed my face like I hadn't eaten in a month. Well, that probably wasn't the greatest idea for me since all I had eaten the day before was some scrambled eggs and a few pieces of toast. Needless to say, the drive back to Elkhart from Mishawaka was a pretty intense drive with two stops at gas stations to relieve the pain that was welling up within my guts!! Thankfully I made it to work in time with just a few minutes to spare!

Now I am sitting with a patient, which I think I had already told you about in the begin of this exciting story, who is sleeping.
I am really hoping that I will get a dinner break really soon since it's already after 8pm!