Monday, July 26, 2010

Prayers Please!

We received a call on Saturday afternoon that my dad was in ER for head trauma. He was stepping out of the car and fell and hit his head- pretty severly.

He is in ICU in Harborview Medical Center (thankfully, one of the best head trauma hospitals on the west coast) with bruising to both frontal lobes, swelling and bleeding in the brain. He is currently intubated to give his body a break while his brain tries to heal, but we are touch and go right now.

Brynna and I flew to Seattle yesterday and Batman will hopefully join us later this week.

It's been a very rough last few days and hours.

We spoke with the neurologist this morning and while his "life" prognosis is good (they don't think he will die fromt his injuries) they are uncertain about the long and short term effects. They assume he will have lost his sense of smell and taste (as this is typical with this type of injury) and that he will need extensive speech and physical therapy. But all of this is really just speculation until he is conscious.

Please keep him and our family in your prayers and thoughts.

I will update when I can.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Remembering

All Tuesday long I spent not remembering what the day was. I was so focused on the fact that Wednesday B would be 9 months, that I pushed out of my mind what I usually thinking about on that day.

And then after she went to bed and I was alone (since Batman's working nights), I poured myself a glass of wine, remembered and cried.

My son would have been 6 years old.

Brynna would have her older brother to show her the ropes of life.

It's hard, looking back, remembering, imagining what our life would be like if Gabriel had lived. If he hadn't had triploidy.

I miss my son. I miss the lost time, the getting to know him, the watching him grow. I miss that 6 years of my life have passed and the wound still hurts, especially on July 20th.

Until B was born, Mother's Day was an especially hard day. Not only because of IF, but because I got to be someone's mom for just a moment in time and then... I wasn't.

But I've put it all back in a box. All the emotion, all the hurt, all the heartache. All the remembering. It's silly that I only allow myself one day a year to be really and truly sad (It's better if I compartmentalize it), but that's what works for me.

It's interesting that the day was easier than most years. I think Brynna helped make it that way. I got to hug on my girl when she was asleep and just cry. Cry for what I've lost and for what I have and what I'm thankful for.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Summer

That's just got to be the excuse for why I'm not blogging much these days. Or emailing people back. I can't remember the last time I was on the computer for more than just a few minutes! EEK!

Anyway we've been having a splendid, laid-back summer so far. If you are my friend on FB you've seen the recent mobile uploads of us swimming and playing backyard games and BBQs and just all around fun.

Batman switched to working nights this last week which means Little Miss and I have had to make ourselves scarce in the mornings to keep the house quiet so he can sleep. We've been having breakfast at our local 'Bucks, playing in the park and going on long walks. It's been nice, but I'm not so keen on doing this long term... coffee can get expensive if you are going everyday! Plus there is only so much B can do at the park. And you can only walk the same trails so many times. Thankfully, Batman only does this schedule for 3 weeks.

Then he's out of a job. Period. His orders end August 3rd, then he has about a week's worth of paid leave to take, then he can make up the drill days he "missed" (He's been going to them since he's been on orders, just not getting paid for them, so they see that as "missed"). Then nothing. He's supposed to start student teaching at the end of August so we knew this was coming, and we've saved for it, but it's still a little frightening to think we will have NO income for the next few months until he finds a new job... or until his next orders in March- whichever comes first.

Hope everyone's summer is going well and you are staying out of the heat! ;-)

Saturday, July 10, 2010

New and Improved

I felt like I needed a new look to the blog...

What do you think? Anything you would change? Can you read everything alright?

Thoughts? Suggestions? Comments?

PS- I did it all with the new blogger template designs and some backgrounds from cutest-blog-on-the-block... SUPER easy as I am NOT savvy with computers and html stuff AT ALL. :)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

What we've been up to since then...

So mid June to the holiday seemed so busy, but now for the life of me I can't figure out why- Ha! Isn't that the way of it?

The weekend of June 25 my FIL turned the big 6-0. Crazy! The man doesn't look or act anywhere close to 60! It ended up being a whirlwind of activity. For his birthday, his main "want" was his family around him- meaning his 3 boys and their families. This is an easy enough request except that until recently Batman's youngest brother hasn't been talking to the family. At all. For 3 years. All over some stupid argument a few years ago over an inappropriate invitation to Family Day at the base. (Ya it was really stupid- they invited my SIL brother to come to the festivities before making sure that was an okay thing to do and then got pissed off when my MIL and FIL made a comment to them about "thinking or asking before just inviting"- it was all very childish as they threw a fit about being called out on it and then stopped talking to everyone. Then they moved to Seattle. Then Vancouver. Anyway... moving on) They recently had a baby boy and since then have realized that family is pretty important.
It turned out to be a really good weekend with them here though. It seemed like everyone has gotten past the incident and really enjoyed our time together. Friday the 25th we had the actual "party" with the whole fam- grandmas (Batman's) included. We played games and talked and loved on babies and kiddos. It was nice.

Saturday found us (sans grandmas) at the Old Pen for some family pictures (coming as soon as my lovely SIL gets them edited- she's a pretty amazing photog and I can't wait to see how they turned out!) and then to a local park for a picnic, games and fun times. Later we ended up back at my IL house for some dinner and pool time.

Sunday we went back over there for breakfast and some last minute hugs and kisses before A and A went home. Batman was able to convince them to leave their kids with us for a couple days since A would be back in town Tuesday on business. It was really fun having them around and they were so helpful with B!

So, busy weekend, but fun. Batman's youngest brother and his family went home Monday and now due to some not-so-happy circumstances are coming back this way TODAY and plan to MOVE HERE! Hooray! :) I know we have had our differences, but I'm so excited to get to know my SIL and nephew better! I'm sad it's under these circumstances because no one needs to be threatened by family, but I'm glad they are getting away from her dad and coming back to Idaho. :)

And then the holiday weekend came. Batman decided it was the weekend he was going to finally get the rest of our deck built, so he did. His dad came over and between the two of them they got the step built, planter boxes in and plants hung. It looks marvelous (before and after pics to come in another post).

On the actual holiday we went out to breakfast at the BEST place in Boise . If, for whatever reason, you happen to be in our neck of the woods, you MUST go there... after calling me to meet up that is ;-) Then we did some shopping, finishing of the deck and relaxing. We had a friend over for dinner and bonfire and we watched all the neighbors light off their thousands of $$ worth of fireworks. It was nice.

And I think that about brings us up to current... right?

I still need to take new pics of B for her 8th month. I just don't like the last ones.
Oh and here's a sneak peek at the family photos- my SIL just sent them to me-

Saturday, July 3, 2010

More updates

So more of the update...

I think the last I posted, it was around Memorial Day?

So that weekend we intended to go to Twin to see Batman's bro and his family, but since I got sick the week before we decided to stay home (they were leaving for Disney.land the following week and didn't want to catch whatever I had). We ended up spending the weekend working around the house and time with Batman's parents. It turned out to be nice (although not so much weather wise) and relaxing.

That Monday my little sis, Ash, came into town for a visit and it was SO nice! I miss that girl and it was nice to have her around for a few days :) She's 20 and in college... ah those college days. I miss them too ;-) Batman had a couple days off so he was able to hang out with us too. I can't really remember anything we did other than play L.ittle B.ig Pl.anet and watch movies though.

That Thursday Ash and I said goodbye to Batman and drove to Sea-town. Oh how I miss it there! If only Batman didn't hate it so much and we could move "home!" (ya, that will probably never happen)
The drive was pretty uneventful, although I did find it takes HOURS longer with Little Miss. We only stopped a couple times, but they ended up taking 20-30 min each instead of the normal 2 min potty break or 5 min drive thru run. She did really well though. We left our hours at about 4:30 am and she slept for the first 3 or so hours. We were well into Oregon by that time and making good time. Then she slept on and off the rest of the trip. We only had one small meltdown and it only lasted about 10 min. I threw Ash in the back with her to entertain her and all was well again Haha!
Seattle was a whirlwind of activity (as it usually is). We rolled into town about 1 Thursday afternoon and it was nonstop pretty much from that point until Monday.
My little bro- Zac- graduated from HS June 5th, so it was even more crazy than normal. We had to get ready for his graduation, then my mom was the grad party planner, so we had to get ready for that after graduation, then Zac's open house was Sunday after church. Whew! After that first weekend I was ready to home just because I was EXHAUSTED!
But I was SO proud of Zac! He's such a good kid and we love him :) He's headed to Northwest University in the fall to pursue pastoral ministries. Ash already goes there (she's a secondary ed major with an emphasis in biology- smart girl!) and my older bro, J went there for a couple years too. (Apparently I am the odd one out going here instead. Ha!)
Anyway... after that weekend things calmed down considerably!
We spent the rest of that week just hanging out with whoever was at home and just enjoying our time. This is when B hit all those milestones! She had lots of interaction and playmates so I think that helped a bit ;-)
Friday Batman joined us (he flew in-smart man). Then Saturday we attended a wedding for a friend of his. Sunday we drove home.

I'm sure there are lots of details I am leaving out, but I hate to create another novel ;-)

More later on the rest of our goings on! Happy Saturday!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Lovely

I've sprained my ankle... Wonderful!

No one tells you that you can't do things like this once you are a mom! Sheesh!

Thankfully, my MIL has been around to help with Little Miss today, otherwise I don't know what I'd do...