Not just attitude...Priori2ude!

March 21, 2008

Handsome Nephew

My cousin Eddy sent me this picture of my nephew Ethan. He's 13 months old now and isn't he JUST ADORABLE!! I figured since I was putting up baby pictures, I'd include this one. So sweet...don'tcha just wanna eat 'im??

Posted by Amy at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

March 18, 2008

Erica is Born!

CONGRATULATIONS to the Suino family! Little Erica was born yesterday, March 17 at 10:24am via C-section. She is 19.5 inches and weighs 6 lbs 14 ounces. She's just the sweetest looking thing and has a great pair of lungs. I went to for a short visit to meet her and drop off a gift and as I approached the room, I could hear her hungry cries from all the way down the hall!

I got Mommy a pot of mini daffodils; I got baby a nice squishy stuffed ape (very cute and about as big as she is); and I got a few airplane sized bottles of MacCallan for the happy father.

Pammie's doing very well, though she says she feels "worked over." I'm sure that since it's major surgery (and abdominal surgery is one of the hardest places to recover from surgery--just ask my mom), it's no picnic. But she looks pretty good. She actually got out of the hospital sooner than I thought. She was only in there 2 days--she healed up fast. Guess it helps a lot that Pam's so healthy and such an active person.

For those of you able to stop by, I'm going to leave a "guest book" at JMAC for people to sign and leave their good wishes for the family. (All the cards in the store were too small for a lot of people to sign, so I figured a journal would work better).

Posted by Amy at 11:12 PM | Comments (1)

March 11, 2008

Kitty in a Drawer

I just had to show off this picture. It was too adorable not to. I was changing out of my work clothes the other day and opened my drawer. I walked away for a second and when I came back, this is what I saw. Princess had crawled into my dresser drawer and snuggled in. HOW CUTE IS THAT!!

Posted by Amy at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2008

Vacation in Paradise (Finally!)

Here it is...finally. All the adventures of Don and Amy in Maui. Please keep in mind that I wrote them mostly on my phone, so you may see some weird characters or typos that I might have missed.

Friday
Well, off to a fabulous start...sort of. We got to the airport in good time. Found a parking spot. They had a check-in counter @ the garage which made our check in incredibly easy and FAST! We saw Keith & Sandy there who told us about Danielle losing her engagement ring. Oh GOD! She had to have been freaking out like never before. Then security was a breeze...however, I put my little liquid bottles in a baggie like I was supposed to but forgot to show it to them. They didn't blink an eye. That kind of worries me a little. TSA agents have been known to be lax in major hubs like Detroit. And now I've experienced it first-hand.

But as I write this, we're still waiting to take off. They had a malfunction with one of the navigation system which they had to replace. We were supposed to take off @ 12:11 and it's now 1:15. We have a 2 1/2 hr layover in Vegas so hopefully we'll still make our connecting flight.

Though it makes me wonder...the pilots have to do a pre-flight check every time before they take off. So why didn't they notice the malfunction until we were on the tarmac?

GOD I hate Northworst!!

Ok, 1:30 and we're taxiing back to take off...we'll see how long we have to wait in line. That puts us am hour & a half behind schedule. Can we still make the connection?

6:45 Detroit time: We FINALLY landed but we had only about 45 minutes to catch the plane. You'd think this would be plenty of time, but you'd be wrong. In fact, as soon as we got off the plane (after treading so politely behind an old man & his family who were walking VEEERRRYY slowly) we ran to the counter outside the gate to ask the attendant where we needed to go. We couldn't get our barding passes ahead of time for some reason. We were told we had to go take the tram to the building across the street, then to terminal C and somehow there was a way to bypass security. Well, we got to the tram & the other building but we still had to go through security. And we still needed to check in at the ATA counter. When the guy there saw me running toward him and ducking under the queue ropes, he said, "Maui?" Sarcastically, I answered, "Gee, how'd you know?"
He had us ready in about 30 seconds or so!

But then we had to go through security. Luckily there were only 2 people in front of us. And fortunately, the TSA agent heard me telling the girl in front of me my flight was going to leave in 15 minutes. She told me to take the tram to gate C7. We found the gate and ran to the boarding door with literally 5 minutes to spare. But the the guy tells us we had tickets, but still needed boarding passes. Aw JEEZ! So we go to the agent at the counter who probably only took 2 minutes and we finally got on the plane. But as we walked through the boarding corridor, I said to Don, "This is EXACTLY what I didn't want to have to do!" We were both sweaty and out of breath when we found our seats. But we'd made our connection...just barely!! And even our luggage made the flight. We had to wait for the runners to get it into the cargo bay, but we only left about 20 minutes late. Not bad considering what a close shave that was! Our luggage will be the first out of the plane while we'll be the last (we're near the back of the plane). But at least we'll be there! Whew!

(I knew I shouldn't have opened my mouth about how easy it was in Detroit before we even got to Hawaii. D-OH!)

Well we made it to the resort after having ate at a Thai cafe which turned out to be smart. It was somewhat of a long drive from the airport and all we had on the plane was snack boxes. We met everyone in the lobby (none of them had eaten yet) and went to the hotel bar to have drinks. By the time we got to bed, it was about 12:30 Hawaii time, 5:30 Detroit time. I can't believe I wasn't more tired. But I slept really good and unbelievably, I think I'm adjusted already to the time difference.

Saturday
Today was a long day but I'm already having a great time here.

First Don and I went to breakfast. The waiter wasn't that great...he didn't seem too excited to have us as customers and I don't think he spoke English too well. Plus he told us he didn't have any Portuguese sausage which Don loves or bacon which I love. But when we left, I saw three plates coming out of the kitchen with bacon on them.

We went for a walk down the beach which was nice. But got to a point where there are rocks that I think you can dive off of into the ocean. But we couldn't walk around them so we had to turn back. We stopped in the south lobby of the resort to go to the general store and saw this lady selling jewelry. But it wasn't your typical tourist stand selling cheap crap. She was selling nice and expensive pearl jewelry. The way Don looked at me I could tell he wanted to buy me something...Valentine's day is coming up. I liked her stuff but I knew we were going to Whaler's Village to shop for Hawaiian shirts for Don and I kind of wanted to look around there.

So we got to Whaler's Village and Don bought 3 Hawaiian shirts from Tommy Bahama. But only after being really picky as usual. He didn't like any of the shirts that you could actually see the Hawaiian print...only the ones that were solid color with the print sort of embroidered in the same color. They were expensive, but they look really nice on him. Good for going out to dinner.

Then we went over to the Dolphin Gallery (a jewelry store). Don seemed to really like the pearls idea so I picked out a beautiful silver necklace with a smaller pearl on top of a larger pearl. Its got a small blue topaz stone on the small pearl--that's my birthstone. I also liked this cute gold sea turtle necklace with three small diamonds in the center and a two-diamond spinner ring. This store is famous for selling these diamond rings that have a circle of diamonds where usually one stone would go and the circle spins around the center stone like a spirograph. It's very unusual and cool-looking. But the turtle necklace and the spinner ring wuld have been too expensive to buy all at once along with the pearls. So the lady wrote down those items for Don who might buy them for my next birthday and Christmas gifts.

After that, we came back and sat by the pool with some of the people from the wedding party. Danielle & Chris who are the ones getting married, Sue & Greg, Chris's mom and some other friends. But there wasn't much sun so me and Sue, her sisters in law Afaf & "Super" Sonya, & Sandy all decided to go shopping. I managed to get my sunglasses fixed (lost the nut that connects the arm) and find a cheap but cute black cotton dress for the luau.

Came back from shopping and hung out with a few folks at the bar before going to dinner at Kimo's for Danielle's bachelorette party. The guys went to Roy's steakhouse. I made a toast to Danielle & Chris's happiness and to Sue's health for allowing her to be with us for the wedding. (Because of her cancer, I was afraid she might be too sick to make it to her only daughter's wedding.) I had a great time sitting with Afaf & Sonya. They were giggling together the whole time. I kept joking "Oh they're drunk! Cut 'em off!" when they only had a little bit to drink.

Later the guys found us and joined us at the restaurant. But Sue's son Jonathan wasn't feeling well. He had a fever and looked totally miserable. And since Sue can't drive at night since she can't see well in the dark and Greg was too drunk to drive, I took Greg's car and drove Jonathan back to the hotel so he could get some rest. He needs to be well enough to make it to his sister's wedding on Monday. Don came with us. But when we got back to the restaurant about 20 minutes later, everyone had left. Danielle, Chris & their friends went to Moose MacGillicuddy's across the street from Kimo's & everyone else went back to the hotel to go to bed. We stopped by MM to see if anyone needed a ride, but they were all taking taxis. So we just came home to the hotel. We saw Sue & Sonya who had my sweater that I'd left at the restaurant when I drove Jonathan home & I had to give Sue the car key. But we just decided to valet it instead. After that, we went to bed. I could tell Don had had quite a bit to drink and was tired. He & Greg started drinking while us ladies were out shopping.

Sunday
Today was the day of the big luau. We had to wait around a long time before the luau started and no one seemed to know where we were supposed to enter the dining area from. It's a large area that had several entrances. I suspected that we'd be the VIPs because Greg would have put us up front for Danielle and Chris to be the guests of honor (being that they were getting married in a day). I was right. We started off with a few Mai Tais which were good, but kind of weak. Then there was buffet dinner which was great. Roasted pork that they cook in the ground and bury, lots of other nice things like fried rice, Hawaiian fruits, and other yummies.

When dinner was over, there was a great show of Hawaiian hula dancing. They called Danielle and Chris up to the stage to learn hula. Being athletically coordinated and cheerleaders, they did pretty well. When the real dancers came on stage, strangely, the women were good dancers, but not that pretty. Some were kind of chubby and the only really good dancer who was skinny was, I must say, DOG ugly! She had the worst smile with big gums and teeth protruding out her mouth. Ugh! The guys were pretty muscular, though not very graceful and the one did a pretty good fire twirling routine. All in all, it was a good show.

Monday
Went to breakfast today. Had a better waitress today. They had bacon & Portuguese sausage this time.

Today was pretty much a lounging day. I sat out by the pool for a while as Don went for a morning run. When he came back, he suggested we go to the beach. A few of the others were there. The Stones, Paul & Martha, Greg & Jonathan. Greg's cousin Big Wally and Michelle came to join us. Don bought a bunch of hot dogs for people and turned out to be the hero...those dogs were mighty good. We also saw some whales from the shore. They were off in the distance and all you could really see was the water spouts and some tail splashing. But even though we couldn't see them up close, it was still really cool.

Speaking of whales, we've got it planned to go see them on Wednesday.

As much as I enjoyed sitting in the sun getting tan and watching whales from the shore, I had to leave at 2 to get ready for the wedding since I'm their videographer.

I got to the Westin hotel to Danielle's room as the girls were getting ready. Danielle looked gorgeous in her lace-up gown and Sue looked pretty in her fuschia dress. I took some footage and still pictures. Then I went to find the men. They were in the groom,s hospitality suite drinking beer and rocking out. Ha! Men! But Chris looked really handsome wearing a white shirt and tan suit.

I was trying to keep taking video and still pictures while dodging the official photographer. Kept bumping into him. Plus I had to be quick to snap the shutter before the photographer got into my shots.

As we all waited for Danielle to make her entrance, I saw Chris begin to cry tears of happiness. God, it was so sweet...he was so excited to marry her! It made me start to cry, though that's not hard. I'm such a sap. It was a short but beautiful ceremony with a Hawaiian flavor.

Afterwards, they took pictures by the waterfall backdrop then on the beach. They turned out to be really great because the lighting was just perfect...just at the beginning of sunset. And Chris made the save of the century! They were posing when the surf suddenly came up really high on the shore. I yelled, "Oh look out, here comes the water!" The instant before it would have hit Danielle's feet and dress, Chris swept her up and she bent her knees to raise her feet. It hit Chris instead but he had the most impeccable split-second timing! Unfortunately, I missed getting it on tape...as soon as I yelled, I let the camera down not thinking about filming it. I think Sandy might have got a still shot.

During the reception, they did the father-daughter dance with Greg & Danielle. She also danced with Jonathan...how cute is that! But then she surprised us all by dancing with her mom Sue to Leann Rimes "In my Daughter's Eyes." I tell you there was not a dry eye in the house! I could barely see to film it. It was so moving because everyone knows how close they are. They're best friends and with Sue surviving stage 4 breast cancer, OH! That was the most touching thing I'd ever seen at a wedding...hell maybe ever!

Unfortunately, although the video camera battery was fine (good thing I recharged between ceremony & reception), I ran out of disk space. And the battery on my still camera died too. But at least I got all the important stuff before that.

After the wedding, we spent a little time at the hotel bar but then it was time for the "kids" to party (jeez I'm getting old) and we grown ups to get to bed. I was hoping to borrow Duckie's camera charger so he gave it to Kelly Stone to give to me. I thought she was going to drop it off before bed, but she probably figured it was too late & we were in bed already. So I just dumped pictures off my memory cards to Don's laptop and went to sleep.

Tuesday
First thing I did when I got up was call Sandy so I could get Duckie's charger. I think I might have woken them up...Kelly was bleary-eyed as she handed it to me. But I had literally just woken up a couple minutes before too. Damn double! Darned thing was the right kind & had the contact prongs in the right place but was square...my battery is rectangular. Ugh! So close yet no cigar. That meant I had to buy another charger.

Before that, we met Greg & Sue, Rako, Wally & Michelle for breakfast. Then headed off to find a Radio Shack. We were headed down the road to Hana to see some waterfalls and I wasn't going to be without a camera for the rest of the trip, especially when we were going to see whales! Fortunately, they had one. We also bought an adapter to plug it into the car so we could charge it on the way there. Works!

Got to the first stop where you can walk on a trail to see waterfalls. There were a few small ones along the trail. They were nice but nothing spectacular. We were about to turn around and head down the road, but some people behind us said to keep going. Thank goodness too because we got to one that was cool. Probably 100 feet high. And you could swim in the pool at the base but Don & I didn't bring our suits & besides, I didn't feel like it. Mostly I just wanted to get some good pictures which I did. There was also a rope you could swing form into the water. We watched some people having fun with that. So that was pretty cool.

After that, we got some Mexican for a late lunch & headed back to the resort. We'd only gotten started since there were more falls to see but we figure we can see the rest on our last day before flying out.

Maybe for dinner we can go to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Greg always talks it up & we never go. I'm sitting in the sun as I write this catching up on my blogging. But now I should probably head in and start getting dressed.

Wednesday
We didn't end up going to Ruth's Chris for dinner. We just went to the Rusty Harpoon in Lahaina at Whaler's Village. It was pretty good. Sue was excited that we sat right where all the Ohio State memorabilia was hanging. Apparently the owner is a huge OSU fan. There were tons of OSU hats and shirts , some from championship years. She loved it.

We took it easy for the most part today. Just hung around the pool mostly. I worked on my tan but Don had to stay in the shade. He got burned pretty bad on the leg when we sat on the beach the other day. Apparently it's my fault that I wasn't around to help him with the sunscreen. Guess he can't handle it on his own. :-p Trying to find a spot where there was both shade and sun was a bit tricky. They have these straw umbrellas all over so finding shade wasn't hard but getting enough sun was. Eventually, I just had to sit across the pool from Don to get enough sun. Even then it was weakening because the cloud cover was getting thick.

We left @ 3:30 to catch the catamarans that took us out to see the whales. Boarding was tricky. The boat was pretty big but still they had to beach it a bit to load people from a ladder. It was tricky because the surf was getting rough and coming so high and hard. So timing was of the essence. When the guy told us to go, you had to run to the ladder up to the boat and sit on the netting on deck to make room for others. When he said stop, you had to stop where you were on the beach and run back up the sand or else get soaked. Well as soon as it was my turn, he said stop, so I ran back up the beach but the wave was so big it soaked my shorts completely. I HATE having wet underwear! Ah well...shit happens, right? We had to make sure Sue got n board safe. Since she's had chemo, she's been weak and short of breath. Don told the guy loading us about her condition so they let her go first on the second load (they had to back the boat off the shore and beach it a second time because of the waves). Some lady asked me if she had a "walking problem" and I had to explain about her having cancer and just getting of chemo treatments. Unfortunately, Sue got kind of wet, but at least her underwear wasn't soaked like mine.

We got out towards Lanai island to see Humpback whales and there were a ton of them. You could see their water spouts and some fins. Sometimes they'd show their backs. And when we got lucky, one would breach the surface and do a jump. But most times I was busy looking for the breaches to get it on film or get pictures but was always watching the wrong whale. So I misses some of it. GRR! And twice one whale jumped about 20 or 30 feet right off the stern!! I think he or she was toying with me cause I was on the bough. I think the whale was saying to his buddies, "Watch, I'll piss her off by making her expect me to jump here and I'll be way over there. Haha!" It happened virtually every single time and I'd be yelling "Dammit! I missed it again!" I did get a few good pictures of fins, some splash and even a couple decent ones of the whales as they breached. Those will have to be blown up and cropped.

Sonya was so funny...every time she got a good shot, she'd shriek and the whole boat could hear her. Though I should be the one to talk. I couldn't help shrieking myself when I got lucky enough to catch a whale breaching. But I tell you, there were a couple of whales totally showing off for the boats. Cause when they breach, they can hear all of us shrieking in excitement and the KNOW we love seeing them. In fact, one of them breached right in front of another boat, then breached in front of our boat, then breached in front of the other boat again. He was TOTALLY showing off for us!

As we jetted back, we got to watch the sunset which was beautiful going down behind Lanai. And Keith saw a couple of dolphins which, of course I missed. By the time I'd turned around, I could see in the water where they breached. Bu didn't see any dolphins. Dammit!

We got back to shore and had a great dinner at Leilani's in Whaler's Village. I had a great burger and shared Hula Pie with Sandy & Don. Yum. After that, we hung around the hot tub soaking our feet and talking (joking) about how to get Jonathan laid (this girl Val who's here with the other kids has a crush on him). After that it was bedtime. Funny how tired I am when I'm relaxing half the time.

Thursday
Vacation's almost over. I hate to think about having to leave and return to 20 degree weather when we've been enjoying the sun so much.

We had breakfast with Greg & Sue and the Stones. Then went to sit by the pool again. I went to sit on the beach with the rest of the group, but I think Don doesn't like getting sandy (I don't either) plus there isn't much shade for him to protect his burn from getting worse. But I'm here with Greg, Sandy & Kelly. Don went for a run on the beach. I just wanted to tan.

Afterwards, we just went back to the room to take a shower and go to dinner. We were going to the Lahaina Fish Company. By the time we got there, Jonathan had had a few drinks already and boy! He is a completely different person! But in a good way. Usually, he's so quiet and reserved, barely says two words. But you get a few drinks in him, and he starts chatting up a storm...and he's a FUNNY guy! It's great to see him laugh and talk. We were teasing him that he was only hanging around us because he was avoiding Val, the girl who had a crush on him. And that Kelly was with us because Duckie has a crush on her, so they were sticking together. HA! And Jonathan started talking trash about being good at tubing and not falling off no matter what, so Keith took it as a challenge and challenged him to a "duel" of sorts (Keith owns a cottage on a lake with a boat). It was hilarious to see them talk trash. I'll have video of it on YouTube soon.

The food was alright, though not as good as I'd hoped. I had crab legs, but the butter wasn't the sweet cream butter; it was just some bland, kind of tasteless butter. Don says his scallops weren't that great either. Guess we're kind of spoiled by all the great food we eat here.

After that, we just walked around town looking at the shops and stuff. We saw the big Banyan tree again--thing takes up a whole city block. Then we just took it easy and headed back to the hotel.

Friday
Today is our last day in paradise. SIGH! Physically, I'm kind of worn out so in that respect, I'm ready to go home, but mentally, I'm SO not prepared.

This morning we just packed up the car and checked out. Even though our flight doesn't leave till 8:45pm, we have to be out of the room. So Don and I just kind of mulled around Lahaina. I bought some gifts for the family. Got Mom & Dad some coffee and Macadamia nuts; got the kids some t-shirts and magnets. Then we headed to Cheeseburger in Paradise for lunch. Reminded us of the last time we were in Hawaii, we went to Cheeseburger in Paradise in Waikiki. Waah, I miss this place already.

Since we didn't have any plans, we just decided to drive around. We stopped on the side of the road and saw more whales from the shore--so cool you can see them that far away. Then we were thinking of going to see more waterfalls since the road to Hana goes past the airport. So on the way, we stopped in Pa'ia to have lunch at that Mexican place again.

After that, we headed back on the road to see waterfalls, but at the last second, we decided to go to the Maui Ocean Center Aquarium for kicks. It turned out to be better than I thought. It looked small from the outside, so I was expecting a tiny aquarium, but it wasn't really. They had lots and lots of exotic sea creatures of all kinds, including some frog fish that looked like red coral (I found out they can turn just about any color to camouflage themselves), moray eels, tiger sharks, black tip reef sharks, sting rays and other cool things. There was also a cool flat fish that when it lays on the sandy bottom, it looks like sand itself and it's INCREDIBLY difficult to see, even close up. You can hardly make out its shape and find its eyes which are on one side of its face, not on either side of its head like other fish. They also had really cool hammerhead sharks and sea turtles which were really cute. No sea lions, though, like the one in Oahu. Those were cute!

We tried to kill as much time as possible, so I spent a good while in the gift shop. Only bought a couple post cards to hang in my cube at work, but I also got a really pretty glass ornament to hang on my Christmas tree. It's blue glass that's painted to look like the ocean and all the Hawaiian islands are hand painted on it. It was perfect.

After that, we didn't know what else to do, so we just drove some more. We still had hours to kill before our flight, but Don wanted to make sure we got to the airport in good time to beat any traffic and make sure he could find the rental car place to return the rental car. Turns out it was all easy as pie, so it didn't take us long at all. Going through security and agricultural inspections were a breeze too. But we had to wait in line at the ticket counter since for some reason we couldn't check in ahead of time. Waiting in line took a while since they didn't open the counter for a while. We also tried checking in at the Northwest counter for our second flight, but they said they didn't have our records there (which sounds like a load of bull to me). So I was afraid it was going to be like Vegas again.

Fortunately it wasn't, but I'll get to that in a second. The first flight was delayed a bit because of, get this--navigational problems. Already I was having flashbacks of the first flight coming to Maui. But luckily, it was only delayed about 25 minutes. The flight itself was smooth, but there was a guy sitting behind me who was being really obnoxious and thing was, he was clueless about what an oaf he was being. First of all, he looked like a Sebastian Bach wannabe but not as good-looking or as well-dressed (no offense to Sebastian!). He'd fallen asleep and started snoring REALLY loud. I turned around and the poor lady next to him looked at me and I at her, and we just rolled our eyes together. I could tell she was extremely pissed--probably really tired and couldn't sleep with him sawing away. Then he woke up after a while and could NOT sit still! Every time he moved, he'd bump my chair with his knees and I could see out of the corner of my eye, he had his face pressed up against the window trying to look out, taking pictures of the land in the dark (what a moron!) and singing somewhat loudly to himself. Now, mind you, coming from Hawaii, by this time, it's about midnight and we're all anxious to get home and worn out. This guy was so restless, it was like having a 6-foot child who's giddy about Christmas waiting for his parents to wake up so he can open presents. Calm down! What's wrong wit'choo?? Anyway, as we finally land, the lady says out loud that this was the worst flight she'd ever had. And you know what? I don't blame her one bit because I know exactly why it was so bad. Poor lady!

Well, we got off the plane and once again, had to go through security a second time, just like in Vegas. Then we had to find the Northwest counter and check in. Fortunately, our baggage was checked all the way home, we just had to get our boarding passes. The line moved very quickly and we were on our way to the gate in good time. Didn't have to rush, but didn't have to wait too long either. The second flight went by really quickly. I started watching a movie, but got tired and slept for about 2 hours or so on and off. Don slept more than me.

We got home about 2pm or so. Had some tacos for lunch. When I got home, I could not help but crash. I meant to just lay down and cuddle with Hideous, but I fell asleep and once I was asleep, I couldn't really wake up for a few hours. Even then, I had to force myself. As it was, I was already mal-adjusted to the time change. Turns out I couldn't fall asleep that night till about 2am which made me sleep in too long on Sunday which meant I would be off for sleeping Sunday night before work. I spent Sunday unpacking, doing laundry and sorting through my pictures and video. Got up early for work for once, though...but slept for shit. Ah well. Perhaps I'll get back on track tonight. Here's hoping!

To see the rest of my pictures, please click here. To see videos of the whales, the aquarium, hula dancing and more, please click here.

Posted by Amy at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2008

Hawaii Trip

Well, I've been keeping detailed notes on my trip to Hawaii, but unfortunately, I'm not very good at using Linux on Don's computer so trying to convert my documents from my phone to his computer is proving beyond my capabilities. I would have loved to keep you all updated on my adventures to and in Hawaii, but unfortunately, you'll all just have to wait till I get home. I also tried doing it from my fancy pants new phone, but it didn't work very well that way either. I'd ask Don to help me, but he's taking a nap right now and I don't feel like bothering him. And otherwise, we're usually too busy anyway, so I'm just going to do it all when I get home. Sorry for the wait!

Posted by Amy at 11:02 PM | Comments (2)

January 28, 2008

Brown Belt

It's finally over...my brown belt test for Jujutsu. I did stumble a couple times, but overall, I think I did well. The only thing I regret is the fact that because I was injured a month ago falling on my tailbone, I wanted to avoid taking falls before and during the test so that I would be able to get through the whole thing uninjured. But it's way more fun to be able to take the falls. Fortunately, I think it's healed enough that I can probably start taking falls again this week.

Don got a double promotion. He went from a sankyu to an ikyu which just means that he's the highest ranking jujutsu student in the class. He also teaches the beginner class on Thursday nights. His next promotion and he'll be a first-degree black belt.

A couple other people got double promotions too (both named Dave). They totally deserved it too! I was so happy for them when Sensei announced that. Both Daves have been helping me immensely in class, helping me understand the techniques better. Big Dave is great because he studies judo as well, so I get a lot of help from him on the judo-style throws and the other Dave is experienced in aikido, so he helps me on the joint locks a lot. I DON'T know what I'd do without those guys! Of course, Don helps too, but because me, Dave and Dave are closer in rank (Big Dave and I are sankyus and the other Dave is a nikyu), we tend to work more with each other while Don works a lot with Sensei and more of the beginners.

I just miss Pammie being there. She and I are buddies in class because we work things out in our heads in a similar way. But since she's had such a troublesome pregnancy, I only get to see her occasionally when we go out to dinner. I'm hoping she'll be back in training soon after the baby's born.

You can watch me testing below or you can go to http://www.youtube.com/user/priori2ude to watch it (and my other videos). Ahh, the magic of the Internet! I love it!

Posted by Amy at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2008

Happy New Year

Well, it's been a long hard year, but 2007 is finally over. Some of the big highlights:

February - Gabriel had surgery to remove his thyroid; we bought a hot tub.

March - Don had surgery to remove his hernias.

April - I caught some superbug and was sicker than I'd ever been.

May - I left my job to look for greener pastures.

July - We took our usual summer weekend vacation to Meaford, Ontario; started reading the Harry Potter series (best books I've ever read).

August - Mom got really sick and had to be hospitalized for surgery.

September - Mom's still sick and fighting a bad infection after surgery; she spent her birthday under sedation as she had to have a trach tube put in to help her breathe; she starts getting better toward the end of the month. Plus I got hired as a contractor for Doner in Southfield.

October - Mom FINALLY gets better and comes home from the hospital! Took 9 weeks for her to finally get over her illness. This is THE BIGGEST thing I remember most about this year and the ONE thing I really wanted as a birthday/Christmas gift...and I got it!! YAY!!

November - I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for the family at Mom's house. We were all so excited to have her home and getting healthy.

December - A month of parties...there was the Doner holiday party at the DIA, the Doner Interactive team holiday party at Lucky's, Christmas Eve at the Bucks, Christmas Day at our house, Christmas dinner with friends at our house, NSG Christmas party, and New Year's Eve party. I partied out for a while now!

I'm really looking forward to a much better year - one where everyone's healthy and happy and things are peaceful and prosperous for all!

Posted by Amy at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2007

Company Christmas Party

Last night Don and I went to the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) for the Doner holiday party. This is the first company Christmas party (aside from Don's and my dad's) I've ever wanted to go to because this is the first group I really enjoy hanging out with. They're a really fun bunch!

We got all dressed up, as you can see, and got to the party around 7:30. Good thing we got there when we did. I was hungry and we sat down in the DIA cafe where they had strolling dinner stations and beat the crowd. There was a pasta station, a mashed potato martini station, sushi (ok, but not the best), and the roast beef!! OMG, that was, as Don puts it, fiendishly good! In fact, he had a few servings of it; though, granted, you didn't get huge slices, just a few thin, medallion-sized slices at once.

We saw a few people I knew and introduced them to Don. Wasn't till we finished dinner and went walking around did I see more people. First one I saw was Adina, but her boyfriend hadn't arrived yet since he'd just gotten off work. There were other Interactives there, but they were all scattered and we saw people one or two at a time as we wandered. Mostly, it was Adina and my bosses I wanted Don to meet, but I only saw my creative director, not the two assistant creative directors. There were so many people there! I even ran into a couple of people I worked with at Organic back in 1999 who now work for Doner. And I also ran into this woman, Michelle, who was the woman who recruited me at Quicken Loans. She recognized me instantly, though I didn't remember what she looked like since I'd only met her in person like once before.

It was pretty cool because you could walk around all the galleries and look at all the art. We didn't care for the abstract stuff and I didn't particularly care for the paintings--it's not my favorite form of artwork. I like photography and some sculpture. Though, I do like the Monet paintings. It was kind of neat because walking around brought back memories of being there with my mom. The room they had the dessert in was the room she and I had lunch in the day we went to see the Van Gogh exhibit years ago.

There was one room that they'd decorated with gold coin-like things hanging from the ceiling...it reminded me of the Great Hall of Hogwarts and the transparent ceiling through which you can see the stars or when it appears to be snowing in the room. They had a couple of screens where you could play Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero 80's version. I only played one song--Twisted Sister's I Wanna Rock, which was so easy, it was easier than anything on Guitar Hero II. Plus, they had the volume too low; it was hard to hear what you were doing.

There was supposed to be a speech by the CEO, but he talks so low and the crowd was so noisy, you couldn't hear anything he said. But I found out my creative director won an award. I didn't see his speech though. By then, it was about 10:00 and my feet were starting to hurt and I think Don had had enough of the crowd, so we decided to go home to sit in the hot tub, which felt SO good in the winter cold! I think he had an alright time, but it was probably more fun for me since I knew people. I'm waiting for next week when our team has its own holiday bowling party. That'll be a blast!

Posted by Amy at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)

December 03, 2007

Flooded Basement

Ahhh, the joys of homeownership...NOT! So yesterday, as you may know, rain was pouring all day long. Actually, DOWN-pouring is more like it. Luckily, when we moved in, Don was wise enough to get a backup system installed for our sump pump so that if the power ever goes out (which it did momentarily yesterday), the pump would still work.

So you'd think we'd NEVER get a flooded basement. Wrong! We got home about 9:30 or 10:00pm and didn't see the basement for at least a half hour that the basement was flooded. The sump pump was working just fine and so, I'm sure, was the backup system. But what broke was the hose clamp. We had water shooting all over the storage room floor and soaking well into the carpet of our family room. Luckily, we don't have too much stored right on the floor so nothing important was damaged. Even the stuff inside the boxes that got wet was undamaged, though the boxes are unusable, but so what. Thank god it didn't get to any of our expensive electronics, like our big screen TV or our computer (which was plugged into a surge protector laying on the carpet just where the water stopped).

The only bad part was that I had to spend two solid hours last night till past midnight sucking up the water with our carpet cleaner (another one of Don's INCREDIBLY wise purchases). The reservoir in that thing only holds about a gallon or a gallon and a half, so I had to empty out that thing about 20 times, the first several times having had to empty after only a couple of passes over the soaked area! You should have seen how fast that thing filled up. For those of you who know what our basement looks like, the water had reached all through the storage room and into the family room just before the loveseat and just to the edge of the bar. It also reached about a 1/3 of the way into the office. Don had to move his book cases since it seeped beneath the bottom of the dividing walls.

Don used the shop vac to vacuum the water from the storage room floor and went out at about 11:30pm to see if Meijer's had a dehumidifyer; unfortunately, they didn't. But we got most of the water out and put 2 fans and a heater in the basement, so I guess a dehumidifyer isn't an urgently immediate need, though we'll still probably get one today. I'm hoping it'll be mostly dry by tonight.

Ugh! What a pain in the ass!!

Posted by Amy at 09:55 AM | Comments (2)

November 26, 2007

Christmas Craze

I just had to put these pictures up. The first is my house:

I like to put up nice, white, tasteful lights. I also put tasteful red ribbons on each of the three posts of our porch and a traditional looking wreath on the door. I know, the picture's a bit too dark to see the wreath, but trust me, it's there. I also added a Dilbert doll and a little elf to the wreath this year.

The second picture is my neighbor about 3 houses down:

I think it's hilarious how overboard they go with their decorations. Giant blow up snowmen, Santas and reindeer, LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of flashing lights, and so on and so forth. I understand being really excited about the holidays, but it's completely hideous, completely FUGLY and completely laughable. We live in a pretty traditional suburban neighborhood where you'd expect to see something like this in Taylor-tucky or something. Sad thing is they actually think it's cool-looking.

Posted by Amy at 10:14 PM | Comments (2)

November 25, 2007

Turkey & Birthday Weekend

Wow, what a great weekend! Thanksgiving went really well. I picked up an extra turkey and cooked it the night before Thanksgiving--it actually cooked faster than I had anticipated which made me hopeful that the next day, I'd be done faster than planned as well. Sure enough, that's what happened.

Got up at 7am and got to Mom's house around 8:45. I was hoping to get the turkey in the oven by 9-ish, but there was some kitchen prep that needed to be done and since no one else was awake yet, it was all me. I didn't get the turkey into the oven till 9:30, a half hour later than I'd hoped, but thankfully (no pun intended), the turkey was done on time. I had to make the stuffing and potatoes--took part of my fingernail off peeling them. Not too bad considering how much work needed to be done. I had some help too. Don did the gravy, salad, and peas; Gracie and Rosie helped mash the potatoes and cook the corn. And Dad carved the birds. YUMMY! We all ate till we felt as stuffed as a turkey ourselves. And it was really fun seeing everyone, especially my cousins and all the kids. And Mom looked really great--she finally went to the beauty shop and had her cut and permed--first time since before going into the hospital months ago. Got some presents from the family for my birthday--the best was the card Ippie gave me. It had Wonder Woman on it. Plus she gave me some awesome personalized ornaments to put on our tree...some for Don and me and even some for each of our cats! Whee!

Then it was off to the Bucks for a second turkey dinner. Aunt Nancy's cooking always RULES!! The turkey was delectable. It's too bad not all the Bucks were there though. Kevin & Anne and Myke & Judy weren't there, so it was a Buck-lite Thanksgiving. But it was still great to see everyone. Andrew was there too and it was great to see him since we hadn't seen him since before last Christmas which he unfortunately missed. Derek was his exuberant self and Brian and Jessica had to keep reigning him in. And Tom, Uncle John, Jon Jon, Don and I all played some Texas Hold 'Em. Great fun!

Friday, we got a call from Tony & Juliet who were in town. We got together at Grizzly Peak Brewery to celebrate with them, Pam & Nick (her first time at a social gathering since becoming pregnant--yaayy!), and Big Dave & Kim. I was so excited to see Pammie Poo--I've only seen her once since she's been pregnant. And Juliet's ring is amazing! Looked like maybe a 1 1/4 carat (or bigger, not sure) with a smaller diamond on either side (maybe 3/4 carat each). It was blazingly bright.

Saturday was my birthday, but it was more like Christmas the way Don treats me. He gave me a HUUUUUUUGE box of Godiva chocolates. It'd probably take me 6 months to a year to get through them (without any help). Plus he gave me a new laptop! It works soooooo much better than my old one. It's faster, stronger and better...almost bionic! So I spent most of Saturday and some of Sunday transferring all my files and getting it set up the way I like. Saturday night, Don also took me out to dinner at Real Seafood (all Main Street Ventures restaurants give you a free birthday meal). I had the delicious king crab and Don had yummy clams with linguine. Then we met Greg at La Dolce Vita for dessert and drinks. Greg kept trying to tease me about my age, being close to 40 (eek), but the great thing about that is I just look at him and tell him, "You're closer to 50 than I am to 40!" That and, "You'll ALWAYS be older than me! HA!" He'd just look at me kind of sheepish and go, "Yeah, yeah! Whatever." haha!

Sunday, I tried not to sleep in so much so I could get started on putting up the Christmas decorations. I did the outside lights and put up our wreath, but before I could get to the tree, I wanted to go to Lowe's to get some more lights and maybe some ribbon to put on the tree instead of garland (that shit looks so cheap and 70's--I want a more updated Christmas look). So that's what Don and I did. Plus I got a cool area rug to go in front of the couch in the main living room--looks awesome! So I started putting the tree up at 3pm and finished around 5:00. Then putting the ornaments up took another couple hours. I was actually exhausted after that. It's mostly finished; I just have some other little ornaments I wanted to put up, but I was so tired I had to lay down for a bit cause my back was tired. It took forever to put the tree up cause you have to fluff each branch out before you attach it and it's a 9-foot tree. But it looks great.

So it was a great holiday weekend, but it's back to the grind. I think this month is going to go really fast!

Posted by Amy at 09:00 PM | Comments (1)

November 20, 2007

A Weekend Full of Turkey

So, I've been thinking all week trying to remember all the stuff I'll need for Thanksgiving on Thursday. I'll be making the turkey, real mashed potatoes, and stuffing; Don's making the gravy, peas, and salad; Ippie's going to bring dessert; and Oupie's got KP duty (ha!).

But I'm making the turkey at Mom's house, so I have to bring a lot of stuff. I went grocery shopping and got everything I need (I think), but I have to remember to bring stuff like my turkey roaster, carving knife (I don't like using Mom's knives), and stuff like that. I'll have to get to her house really early, like 8:15 in the morning which means I have to get up by at least 7am or earlier. I've got a 13.5 pound turkey that's going to take about 4 hours, plus there's prep time. I think what I'll do is put a beer can inside the turkey (we make Stove Top, so no need to stuff the bird) which will help make it really juicy and moist while I baste it at the same time. Plus, it'll have my secret spice to make it even more tasty. *SLURPS* Makes my mouth water just thinking about how good it's going to be. If I can do all that, we'll be ready to eat by about 1pm. It'll be a big table full of people with Mom, Dad, me, Don, Ippie & John, Oupie and the kids.

Then it's off to the Bucks' for another turkey dinner and a holiday celebration with Don's sisters, cousins, etc.

This whole weekend is going to be great! Two turkey dinners, then Friday, we're meeting Tony & Juliet for drinks to celebrate their new engagement. Then it's my birthday this Saturday which means I get to go to dinner wherever I want (maybe Real Seafood or Logan's). Yay!

Posted by Amy at 12:34 PM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2007

Dancing Disappointment

Seems like I always get the itch to do some swing dancing right around the end of the year. But doing any kind of swing dancing has become such a disappointment to me. I can't find any place in or around Ann Arbor that is decent. I went to a "dance" on Saturday that turned out to be really lame. It was held in a small little place that seemed like a crappy VFW-type of hall. There were only about 4 really good dancers there and the rest were goomers--either people that were just learning how to dance swing or guys in their late 40s to 50s, lonely, ugly and creepy.

Admittedly, there is the U-M Union building, but they only have swing dancing on Wednesday nights during my iaido classes which I'd rather not skip. And besides, all the really good dancers there tend to stick to their own. The few good dancers I've danced with, I get maybe one dance with them and sometimes, they refuse to adjust to different partners' ability levels, especially if that partner (namely me) is not as good as them.

Around the late 1990s, I used to go to an AWESOME place in Pontiac called The Velvet Lounge. It's where I learned how to swing dance in the first place. I remember some friends and I were just hanging around town and decided to see what kind of a place it was. When I saw they were dancing to 40s swing music, well, I lit up like a Christmas tree! The next time I came back, I couldn't wait to get dancing. They started playing "Sing, Sing, Sing (with a Swing)"--you know, the one they used for the old Chips Ahoy commercial, if you're old enough to remember that. When I heard that come on, I jumped up and just started doing my own thing. A guy saw me and asked if I'd like to dance. He didn't care that I'd never danced swing before, let alone with a partner. He just led me all over the floor and I was HOOKED!!

And you know, that's what I love about swing dancing. It's fun as HELL and people usually aren't out looking for a date--they're just friendly, fun people who love dancing. I loved it so much I was going 2-3 times a week and it didn't matter that I had no one to go with. I could go by myself and people would ask me to dance and it was SOOOOO much fun! (I'd go with Don now, but he refuses to dance.) And the people I danced with were REALLY good. Way better than most of the people in Ann Arbor. These guys were professional instructors and national competitors.

Unfortunately, The Velvet Lounge closed down after a couple of years and I was stuck with no where to dance. Any place there is to go now is either lame or too far. Part of my problem, too, is I never learned how to Lindy Hop. I learned East Coast Swing which is a bit simpler. Most of the really good dancers nowadays pretty much only do Lindy Hop. But I can't learn if I can't find a decent place to dance! And I can DO the aerials, but again, if there's no where good to go...

My dream is to go to a place where people not only swing dance well, but also know how to do the aerials (throwing the girl around in the air). I wanna dance like the folks in this video I've embedded. (By the way, that's what Lindy Hop looks like.)

I really miss The Velvet Lounge! It so breaks my heart that it's closed.

Posted by Amy at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2007

I HATE TAILGATERS!

If there's one thing that annoys me on the road more than anything, it's tailgaters. I had this guy in a green Honda Element tailing me on the way home from work today and he was a REAL JERK!! He was tailing me some as I was driving on I-275 toward M-14. I let it go. I saw him tailing other people as we both headed down M-14 West and I was annoyed for those people. But I let it go.

Then, somehow, through the traffic, I got ahead of him. And through his weaving and bobbing through cars, he got right behind me again and tailed me some more. I let it go for a while, but I started getting really tired of him being so close on my ass that I sometimes lost sight of his lights.

Now, the traffic was moving at a very good pace. I noticed people these days are driving 80 or more. Normally, I wouldn't go that fast, but in order not to feel like I'm gonna get slammed from behind, I figure it's a good idea to keep with the majority of the flow. So we're traveling about 80 at this point and the guy is STILL on my ass. And this while there's 4 other cars in front of me. There's really nowhere I can go--there's people in the right lane, and the people in front of me aren't going to go any faster (which was fine by me). So I didn't see ANY reason for this guy to be tailing me so much. Guess he was just so antsy, he couldn't stand it. But if he wanted to pass me, he should have, but he didn't. Besides, I don't see why I should have to move for a guy who's being such a jerk anyway.

So I tap my brakes a little. He doesn't stop. I tap them again, slightly more. He still doesn't stop. I let up on the accelerator so that I slow down at a gentle pace until I'm only going about 65. He gets even CLOSER. At that point, I figure I'll try to get away. I tried to get into the right lane hoping he'd just pass by in the left lane, but he gets into the right lane at the same time, staying right behind me. WTF?! I tap on my brakes again, this time a little harder. Still there.

Finally, at about 6pm, I get to the part where the highway splits going US-23 south and M-14 West. He stays on M-14, I get on US-23 to head toward the dojo. Thank God he was no longer behind me. GRR! And you know what? I reported that bastard to the cops just after it happened. I told the dispatcher that he wouldn't stop tailing me and she said she'd tell her officers. I sure hope they caught his ass!

Posted by Amy at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2007

Home at Last! Home at Last!

So she came home last night about 6:30. She had a long 2 1/2 hour trip home which she seemed to weather ok. I left work about 15 minutes early so I could go to the store. I wanted to cook dinner for them since she hasn't had any home-cooked food in 9 weeks. Dad's been mostly eating the hospital food, and tried to cook for him whenever I visited.

Plus, I wanted to buy a ton of flowers so they'd be waiting for her when she got home. I was hoping to get a couple dozen roses, but the Kroger's (which is normally a very good florist) didn't have any except single ones. So I bought some other flowers--purple lillies and some yellow flowers I can't remember the name of. I had to rush to get them in vases before she arrived and even then, she got there just as I was finishing my display (didn't have a chance to throw away the wrappers till after she saw them). She thought they were gorgeous. :-)

She's still very weak in terms of using her muscles. Surgery and nine weeks of laying in bed will atrophy your muscle tissue quite a bit. Especially when you can't eat much because your belly is so distended from fluid buildup like hers was. She had some trouble getting up the two steps to the door from the garage, but Dad and I helped her in. She also has trouble standing up, especially when she uses the toilets in her house because they're a bit lower than a regular toilet. And she still needs help getting out of bed.

But she looks fantastic! Her trach tube's been removed and all that's there now is a regular band-aid. Plus, she ate a good meal for dinner. I cooked boiled chicken with rice, Thai style. Dad was going to get noodles from the restaurant, but I thought it was better for me to cook. I really enjoy cooking for Mom and Dad. Mom promised me that she'd teach me more of her Thai recipes. I joked that if she does that, I can open up my own Thai restaurant (her recipes are SOOOOO good!).

Poor Dad was extremely tired. He hasn't been getting any sleep since staying with her at the hospital the last week because of all the interruptions during the night--having to help Mom to the toilet and nurses coming in and out of the room. They only used the patient sitter twice because Mom preferred to have Dad there. Plus, he wanted to make sure that she was ok sleeping without any oxygen support. So as soon as I left, he closed the garage door behind me and went straight to bed. I hope he slept ok. Mom too.

Don and I are going to visit tonight and cook dinner again for them. I'm also going to visit Saturday and Sunday during the day.

I know she has a long road of recovery ahead of her, but I can't tell you how RELIEVED I am that her hospital ordeal is over with! And thank you again to all my readers who have kept my mom in their hearts and prayers during this grueling time!

Posted by Amy at 02:45 PM | Comments (1)

October 18, 2007

MOM'S HOME!!!

Or at least, she will be by about 6:30 today. The doctor discharged her and I got a message from my sister saying they'd left Kalamazoo at about 4pm and that they should be back at their Bloomfield home by 6:30.

I'm going to meet them there after work and I'll have flowers waiting for her when she gets there.

HOOOORRAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Amy at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2007

Almost Home!

I got an email from my sister today saying the doctors took out her trach tube yesterday (Tues). That means she's been doing well not having to breathe with the assistance of the ventilator. They'll need to ween her off the oxygen for a few days. They'll see how she does breathing oxygen through a nasal tube for a couple days, then see how she does without it. If all goes well, she could be home by the end of this week, maybe Saturday.

Dad will take her home to my sister's house temporarily. She'll have lots of help there, but we'll have to make sure the kids don't make too much noise and that they keep their toys completely off the floor so she doesn't trip on anything (though she'll likely still have the walker).

Not sure if she'll have any other in-home help, such as a physical therapist. But we'll all help her as best we can. It'll be really good to see her this weekend at home, instead of in the hospital!! I may go there Friday evening after work.

ADDENDUM: Just talked to Dad on the phone. He says they've even taken her off the oxygen and she's breathing completely on her own now with no support. He plans (tentatively) to take her home in a couple days to their home in Bloomfield. He says Mom is really homesick. She could be home by FRIDAY maybe!! So they're just waiting for the doctor's ok to take her home (he has to get the ok from many people such as the respiratory therapist, physical therapist, nurse, etc.). She won't need an in-home physical therapist because he's just going to take her to Beaumont Hospital 3 times a week for outpatient PT.

OH I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HER AT HOME!!!!

Posted by Amy at 09:17 AM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2007

Close to Going Home

So I visited Mom this weekend at the rehabilitation facility. I guess it's still part of Bronson Hospital. Nothing seemed really different about the room--it was still a hospital room, just not in the ICU.

Mom's looking very good. A lot more like her normal self. She still has the trach tube, and that's it. They're talking about taking out the trach this week. All she really need to do is be weened off the oxygen. They took her off the ventilator (she was on it during the night) and they'll see how she does today. (She seemed fine yesterday.) Then, they'll take out the trach tube and give her oxygen through the nasal tube, then see how she does. If she does ok, they'll take her off the oxygen altogether and then go home.

Poor Dad, though. He's been staying with her every night for the last week. He has to get up to help her use the commode to make sure she doesn't fall. And she gets up every hour on the hour, so Dad (and Mom) aren't getting good sleep. But last night, they got a patient sitter to give Dad a break. I had offered the other night, and he was going to take me up on it, but there was confusion with her medication schedule which he wanted to make sure didn't get screwed up again. But I told him that since the hospital offers the patient sitter as one of their (free) services, he should take them up on it and he can get some rest at least till they get home.

She's been talking great, pretty much like normal. Her throat secretions have been decreasing steadily and there's no sign of infection. She's taken some walks as well. Though she has to remember to take it easy and slow. The other day, she did a whole round around the corridor and though asymptomatic, her heart rate increased to about 150. Took a few minutes to calm down, but she said she wasn't winded or dizzy, so that's good. Yesterday, we just went to the elevators and back--just one stretch of hallway, so as not to alarm the nurses.

She's also been getting up and back into bed pretty well. Though the fact that she's very anxious to go home sometimes means she'll take the risk of getting up when there's no help around which scares us because we don't want her to fall. She still needs her walker or something to stabilize her as she stands and that's not necessarily something she can reach right away when she gets out of bed. The "General" came out and had to scold her about that this weekend.

I'm not sure if, when she goes home, whether she'll be at my sister's house or at her home in Bloomfield. I think that depends on Dad's opinion. She may have an in-home physical therapist (not sure what the plan is for that). Though, if she goes to Ippie's house, she'd have a lot of help, but the kids can be noisy and often forget to put their toys away, so I'm afraid of her tripping over something. But if she goes to her own house, it's just Dad and occasionally me after work to help her out. That is, unless we hire someone like a personal care assistant until she gets strong enough not to have one. But that's a later discussion with Dad.

I'm really hoping that when I go to visit her this weekend, it won't be in the hospital, but either at Ippie's house or her house in Bloomfield.

Posted by Amy at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2007

GREAT NEWS!!

GREAT NEWS, EVERYONE!!! Mom's FINALLY out of the hospital! She's not home yet; she's now in a physical rehabilitation facility across the street from the hospital. I called Dad yesterday and they took her there about 3pm yesterday afternoon. This is a HUUUUUUGE positive step!

Dad said he'd stay the first night with her so she wouldn't be too lonely. I understand from Ippie that she still has the trach and will continue to ween off of it. I guess when she doesn't need it anymore, they take the tube out and it closes up naturally. And she'll continue to gain strength through physical therapy at this place. I'm going to see her this weekend and we can all start to relax our mind a bit.

I don't know how long it'll be before she's finally home. I suppose that's up to her and depends on how hard she works. In my experience with her, she can be a little stubborn to work (though out of depression). But if the physical therapists can get her to work hard, it probably won't be too long.

I AM SOOOOOOOOOO RELIEVED!!!! And I can't wait till this weekend to see how good I'm sure she looks. :)

YAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!

Posted by Amy at 09:25 AM | Comments (1)

October 08, 2007

Perked Up!

So two of Mom's friends came to visit her Sunday. They'd asked Dad a couple days ago if Mom was well enough to have visitors and at the time, she was. But she had problems expelling the carbon dioxide and her blood pressure fell the other night. So when they got here, she was very sleepy and had a hard time keeping her eyes open. I felt bad for her friends who couldn't see her in the fabulous condition she's been in lately.

However, after they left, the nurse came in and gave her some IV fluids. Her state of dehydration is what caused her blood pressure to drop, so once her fluids increased, she perked right up. We had her sitting in the chair and even took her for a walk. I was very pleased to see her in much better condition than that morning/early afternoon. She was much more alert and able to stay awake. And, in fact, she didn't need to be on the vent after that.

I'm kind of doubting she'll get out in a few days, but if she keeps doing well; if we can keep her blood pressure up and get her to eat more, I don't think it'll be much longer that she'll have to stay there. I know she's aching to get home and I'm aching to get her home. If it's not a few days, I don't think it'll be more than a week, but that's just my own non-medical guess.

Posted by Amy at 09:16 AM | Comments (1)

October 07, 2007

Oct. 7 Report

So we seem to have hit a bit of a snag. Last night, they had to put her back on the ventilator since she was building up too much carbon dioxide in her system. Apparently, because they decreased her liquid nutrition in hopes her appetite would be better today, her blood pressure dropped during the night. Dad thinks it did a little bit of damage to her kidneys and brain, so today, she's very lethargic and wants to sleep a lot. She's off the vent and back on the trach mask. This morning, her breathing was very shallow and we'd have to prod her to keep her awake so she'd breathe more deeply. We sat her up for a while and her blood pressure got better. We've also been trying to get her to drink more Ensure to increase the liquid volume in her body. That seems to have helped as her blood pressure is up more now. Her rate of breathing is decreased, but her breaths are deeper which is good.

We'd like her to go for a walk today and she's supposed to have a few friends visit, but we'll have to see how awake she can stay or we won't be able to walk her. Maybe now's a good time for a nap while she's sleeping.

Posted by Amy at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)

October 06, 2007

Half-Step Back

Well, I guess Mom's progress was so good, we had to have a half-step backward sometime. Today, she's still doing well, but she's had a bit of CO2 buildup in her brain. Dad noticed it because she wasn't expressing herself like she usually does. She seemed groggy and wasn't fussing much about anything. Plus, I noticed that when she gets like that and tries to write something, I can see confusion on her face and she can't spell out the words properly--she'll try to write a word and repeat letters over, then try to write the word over and still repeat letters. She was asking for her clothes in the closet and she wrote the word clothes as "clothe cllloththe s" or something like that.

But they've got her back on the ventilator again. I would have liked her not to be on it, but, of course, it's necessary again. She's been off it for 2 days now, which is probably why she needed it again. Her breathing isn't as deep sometimes as it should be. So she gets oxygen ok, she just can't always expel the carbon dioxide like she should. But the doctors are still talking about possibly sending her home next week. She's been up walking around which is much easier since there are no drain tubes, no IVs and they took the catheter and stool bag out. So she's been using the commode quite well.

They're reducing her nutrition intake through the feeding tube tonight in hopes that she'll have an increased appetite tomorrow, especially seeing as her activity has increased somewhat significantly in the last few days. Today, she took 5 walks, 4 of which were to the nurse's station down the hall. She's not shaky at all, but occasionally has to sit down to catch her breath. She ate some eggs, apple juice and some Ensure, though I'd like to see her eat more tomorrow. We'll see how her appetite is then and she should be more fresh and alert since she'll be spending the night on the ventilator.

Posted by Amy at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)

October 05, 2007

And Coming... And Coming!

Well, she's looking even better today. Doctors say she's doing extremely well. She took three walks today down the hallway to the next nurse's station and she's been off the vent for a while now. When I got here, the machine wasn't even in the room anymore! She's just on the trach mask and the feeding tube. No IVs anymore, just oral meds by pill. I can tell she's stronger too just by her handwriting. When she was weak, it was shaky and messy. Now, it looks nearly back to her old handwriting.

In fact, the doctor tells us that if she continues to do so well; if she can keep breathing on her own and eat on her own (right now, she's getting a little bit of soft/pureed food and feeding tube only at night), then she might be able to skip going to rehab. If this happens, she might be able to go home as early as next week. We'll order her an in-home physical therapist. But how soon she gets out is entirely up to her. She has to continue to do her physical therapy and get stronger. And I hear she sometimes gets stubborn and doesn't want to do it, but hopefully, General Amy can get her to do it. Today, she looks great and I am ABSOLUTELY THRILLED!!!

Posted by Amy at 10:46 PM | Comments (0)

October 04, 2007

The Good News Keeps on Coming!!

Just a quick update today... have to run to a meeting really soon.

Saw Mom last night for a few hours (and to relieve Dad from watch duty for a little bit). They've taken out all her IVs now (though she still has the PICC line in her arm, but nothing attached), they removed her last chest tube and the rest of the drainage tubes in her belly. So the only things she's hooked up to is the trach, feeding tube, catheter and stool bag.

She seemed even stronger today. She stood up for me a few times and I didn't have to help her as much, plus she wasn't as shaky as the last time. She did keep wanting to go to the bathroom on her own and even tried pushing me away. I kept having to remind her that she didn't have to use the toilet.

Her medication is being fed to her through her feeding tube--they crush the pills and put it in liquid and shoot it through the tube. They've also got her on 90 cc's of the "steak in a bag," but it's only at night so that during the day, she maybe has more room in her stomach and more incentive to eat on her own. I saw a cup of yogurt and a half-drunk bottle of Ensure on her table. So still just soft stuff, but she'll graduate to solids once she's off the tube.

Her alertness is very good. Something about her disposition is a bit more like the mom I know, rather than the dulled and listless patient we've seen the last several weeks. Plus she has more of a normal look and expression in her face rather than the sallow, peaked look I've seen.

She's doing just great... better and better every time I see her. Her mental state still needs a bit of work, but it's not as bad as I've seen. Keep sending those cards and letters. I know she appreciates them!

ADDENDUM: Some of you may have heard Mom will have to go to physical rehabilitation after she gets out of the ICU. It's true. She'll need a lot of help from physical therapists. The doctors say for every day she spends in the hospital, it equals up to a week to regain her strength. It'll be a very long time till she's back to normal strength.

ADDENDUM 2: I forgot to mention also that she's able to talk if she has a cap over her trach tube. She doesn't talk much (probably not used to it after being speechless for a couple weeks), but it's REALLY nice to hear her voice again!! Plus, according to my sister, she took a WALK in the hall today!! Albeit short, but that's a big step in her improvement and recovery!!!

Posted by Amy at 09:11 AM | Comments (2)

September 30, 2007

Slowly Cruisin'

Mom hasn't made too much progress since yesterday. They DID take out her other chest tube and are talking about taking out her last two small drain tubes in a day or two. So that's the best news of today.

However, we realized we have to ween her off the ventilator a bit slower than we've been because she'd been off it breathing on her own for many hours and the CO2 was building up too much. We tried to get her out of bed to take her down the hallway where she could look out the windows and see some sunshine. And she hadn't been making much of a fuss at all today, not like yesterday. But when they tried to put the sling on her (goes around her back and under her arms), she deliberately slipped her arms out of it so she would sit back down on the bed. She was resisting me and the nurses to the point of complete defiance until we finally decided to give it up and put her back in bed. When the CO2 builds up, she gets a bit confused and becomes very uncooperative to the point of being completely unyielding. And today, she was absolutely refusing to get out of bed.

But that notwithstanding, she was able to talk a little bit. They have a cap that goes over her trach tube so that she can talk but still get oxygen from the trach mask. She doesn't seem used to talking anymore since she's only had to point to things since she got the trach a couple weeks ago. But she did say a few words (not sentences) which is good. Don called me today while I was there and I got her to say hello to him on the phone.

The doctor says that her white blood count is a bit down which, we suspect, is probably due to the antibiotics she's been given. But she has to come off that soon anyway, so hopefully, that'll correct itself.

I may go visit her again Wednesday night for a couple hours. Then I'll be back on Friday for the weekend.

Posted by Amy at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2007

Gaining Speed on the Road to Recovery

Mom's still doing well and gaining more ground every day it seems. Today, she was very alert and very lucid. The only thing that kind of bothers me is that she's having a lot of anxiety. She'd been taking medication for it, but was starting to need it too much, so the doctor cut her off. So now, when she wants something and can't have it she gets frustrated and gets very fussy.

But this is a mixed blessing because today, she kept wanting to go to the bathroom. But she's got tubes to take care of her waste, so she doesn't need to. The reason it's good is because she'll ask for one of us to help her up so she can walk to the bathroom. But obviously, she's not strong enough for that, she's hooked up to too much stuff and doesn't need to anyway, but we just help her stand up so that she exercises her muscles to gain back her strength.

When she's sitting and we don't help her, she gets frustrated, stomps her feet and pounds her fists. I hate to say it, but I find it amusing when she does this. Besides, it's really good that she's moving her arms and legs. I even let her--literally--kick me in the butt since I'm the "mean" one to her (making her to do the things she's supposed to do, etc.). She didn't do it very hard, but I would have been glad if she did.

The BEST part of the news, however, is that the doctor wanted her to get out of her room for a while. So the nurse, the respiratory therapist, the ICU doctor and another doctor, along with me, Dad and Ippie, all took her down to the atrium garden for a short while. She was in a wheelchair, so she didn't have to do any walking, but it was really good to get her out of the room--even for 10 minutes or so. If I were her, I'd be sick to death of looking at the same walls 24/7 for over 6 weeks now.

After we got back to the room, the nurse did a test to see if she could swallow anything more solid than just water with the trach tube. She got a spoonful of vanilla ice cream and did well. The better she does with this and the more she breathes well on her own, the sooner they'll take out the trach. Plus, the respiratory doctor saw her this morning and was talking about taking out the chest tube and her other 2 drainage tubes. He didn't say when, but he said probably soon. The more tubes they take out of her, the better! I can't wait to see how well she does by next week.

Posted by Amy at 06:22 PM | Comments (1)

September 26, 2007

On the Road to Recovery

OMIGOD!OMIGOD!OMIGOD!!! I'm so excited I can't contain myself! I think Mom's really on the road to recovery or at least off the side streets and starting down the highway. I left work to visit her for a couple hours. When I got to the hospital about an hour and a half ago I was amazed! They removed a bunch of tubes from her!

They've removed her left chest tube, two of her abdominal drain lines and all but ONE of her IV lines! They removed her central IV line, so the Heparin (blood thinner) is the only thing connected to her PICC line in her arm. She's still has her feeding tube (through her nose into her stomach), but it's still going at 55 ml's per hour (she's been at that dose for several days). The nurse told me respiratory wanted to take her off both chest tubes, but decided to go cautiously (and rightly so) so they left the right tube in.

She's also still on and off the ventilator, but when I got here, she had been sitting up for about an hour and a half, and was breathing completely on her own with a trach mask over the trach tube (it's a small mask that fits over the tube opening that supplies her with oxygen and humidity so that her throat secretions don't get too thick). Plus her swelling has gone down. I believe they're still giving her Lasix (diuretic) so that's been helping. But her hands, arms and legs aren't nearly as swollen as when I'd seen her last on Sunday. Her left hand is still a little puffy, but her shins and forearms and right hand look pretty normal and the nurse says she can now feel pulses in her feet.

I asked her how she felt and she grimaced and shook her head (to mean she wasn't feeling good), but I can't tell you all how happy I am to see her connected to much fewer lines! I just hope she continues to heal at this rate and that nothing negative happens. YAAAAYY!!!

Posted by Amy at 09:20 PM | Comments (2)

September 24, 2007

Sept. 23 Update

Mom seems to have hit something of a plateau with her recovery. I believe they're still taking her on and off the vent, but this weekend, she seemed a bit sleepier than I'd have liked. She was still lucid and communicative when awake, though. In fact, she asked to be put in a chair so she could sit upright for a while. She sat up on Saturday for, I think, a couple hours and twice on Sunday for an hour each. She told me that earlier in the week, she'd watched about 3 hours of the Planet Earth DVD I bought for her birthday, which she really enjoyed. She's still hooked up to a lot: the ventilator, several IV tubes (though one or two less than before), and her drainage tubes everywhere. But her spirits are still pretty good since Ajahn Amaro's visit. Though, I've tried to get her to listen to some Dharma recordings or the chanting tape I made while Ajahn Amaro was here, but she never seems in the mood for that. Perhaps when she's a little stronger.

I still have no idea how long it'll take her to go home, but I'm really hoping it won't be more than a few weeks to a month at most. Though her recovery is still headed positively, it has been quite slow, so it's virtually impossible for anyone to say how long it'll take.

Thank you all for your continued show of support for my mother and your continued prayers!

Posted by Amy at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2007

Sept. 22 Update

I got here last night and Mom still seems to be doing ok. She was quite alert when I got here. The nurse said she'd been off her ventilator breathing on her own all day and I believe she was off it all night. She didn't sit up at all, but the nurse told me she'd done some leg exercises in bed. When I do that with her, she feels strong, but I don't think she trusts herself because she's been in bed so long. She can squeeze my hands pretty tight, but I notice some weakness in her arms as she tries to raise them when she scratches her head. Her stats still are pretty good, although Dad said this morning, her CO2 levels were a bit high and she was quite groggy, so they put her back on the vent. She's been mostly sleepy all morning and into the afternoon today. And she tries to tug at her trach tube and feeding tube, and scratch the drain sites which I have to constantly remind her not to do. I think today will be mostly just a resting day.

Posted by Amy at 12:55 PM | Comments (1)

September 19, 2007

Sept. 19 Update

The surgeon came to see her this morning as well as the infectious disease doctor and said that she's still progressing in a positive direction--not as fast as we'd all like, but still going the right way. They took her down for another cat scan to see how her abdomen looks compared to the last one they took last week. There's probably another pocket of infected fluid they have to drain, but things seem to be improving. The radiologist said there's one cavity that's collapsed, meaning that one of the pockets of infected fluid has pretty much all drained out which is very good.

She's still very communicative--she frets about not having a voice and not being able to eat anything through her mouth (they gave her a feeding tube). She even went off the ventilator today for a couple hours, I think. She was breathing on her own and doing pretty well. There were a couple moments when her pulse/oxygen got a little low, but you just have to remind her to take some deep breaths and she does ok. That's a good start to getting her off the breathing machine.

And she must be better because she's actually watching a bit of TV today--she hasn't wanted to for a couple weeks now. All in all, her improved condition is making me feel more secure so that I can start my new job tomorrow and not have to worry too much about her. (She was SOOOOO excited and so happy when I told her about it! Even gave me a thumbs-up sign!) I'll be on call for her during the week while I work and visiting on weekends. As long as there is someone here all the time with her, she won't get too lonely. My brother's been very good about working remote so he can stay here; my dad's been here every day and my sister visits when she can (otherwise she's looking after the kids). Plus Mom's sister has been here for 2 weeks, though she has to go back this Sunday for a doctor's appointment. I'm sure she'll be back as soon as possible.

Posted by Amy at 01:59 PM | Comments (1)

September 18, 2007

Sept. 18 Update

Mom's still looking good today. She's completely alert and very communicative. She's been writing things on paper to ask for things (she's asked to bring her pictures of the family and such) or to tell us things. I know she's anxious to get out of here, but of course, it's a sloooooow process. She's been sitting up in the "cardiac" chair quite a bit now. It's a chair that starts out like a flat gurney. They lay her flat in bed, then slide her onto the gurney. Then you can lower the legs and raise the back into a chair position. That way, she can still be connected to all her IVs, drains, and ventilator but still sit pretty normally. I think all in all, she's in good spirits, thanks to Achan Amaro. His visit really meant a great deal to her and if he's reading this, on behalf of all us Surakomols, THANK YOU Achan!!

The surgeon just came to visit and says she's almost half-way to her goal. She's been on the ventilator since Thursday of last week (about 5 or 6 days now). The redness around the infected site is reducing in size and he's upped the amount of food she's getting through the feeding tube a little. She has pain on and off, but I don't think it's as much as last week or before. So she's doing pretty well, all things considered.

FYI to my readers: I just got hired for a new job that I start on Thursday, so I may not have as many updates. I'll be visiting her on the weekends and will be "on-call" during the week while I'm at work (in Southfield). But I'll update as much as possible.

Posted by Amy at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)

September 17, 2007

Sept. 17 Update

Today seems to be an even better day for Mom. She's more awake and alert. She's still on the ventilator and unable to talk, but she's able to communicate what she wants by either pointing to the word on a chart my sister made or by writing it down.

She seems in much better spirits since having Ajahn Amaro here. I think he's really lifted her mood quite a bit. He's been talking to her and chanting and I think it's really making her feel a lot better (mentally). I even had her laughing this morning when I got here. I recanted the story of how I asked my aunt (who's a known scatterbrain) to show me the shorter way here to the hospital. My aunt would point and say "Take the street, take the street." To which, I would reply, "WHICH street??" Or she would say, "Ok, when you get to the street, then turn." Again, to which I would reply, "Which street and turn which way??" Obviously, my aunt is very directionally challenged. I had told my aunt, "I know you can see the way in your head, but I can't read your mind. You have to be more specific than just saying 'take the street,' and 'turn.'" I looked at my mom and said, jokingly, "This is YOUR sister! Ha ha!" She found the story very amusing.

And seeing as she was doing so much better, I gave her the birthday present I bought for her and read the card to her. I think she really appreciated it since I wrote in the card how appreciative I am of her, how much I love her and that my taking care of her now is just one way for me to repay her for all her sacrifices. I also showed her the heart pillow that my 9-year-old niece sewed for her for her birthday and told her how much she missed her and wanted her to get well. She took the heart pillow, squeezed it hard, and held it to her heart.

She's still draining fluid from her chest and abdomen, which I think is good. She still aches and her chest tubes bother her, but the nurse said that's to be expected. She seems to be progressing little by little so far.

Posted by Amy at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)

September 16, 2007

More on Mom

They've taken Mom off the sedation, though she still has the tube in her throat. She's breathing by a ventilator, though occasionally, they take her off it and let her breathe on her own. She's more alert today, though still sleeps quite a bit. She can't talk, but she can communicate quite a bit by pointing to things or writing down what she wants. She's been a bit feverish, though they're giving her Tylenol. The surgeon came to look at her and says she seems to be fighting the infection, though it's a slow process. He doesn't want to take things too quickly or else we could "lose ground," as he put it. When she's a little stronger, maybe then I'll give her her birthday present since she was unconscious the entire day. Though we still have to take things a day at a time, today seems to be a good day, she's looking better and seemingly doing better.

Posted by Amy at 04:05 PM | Comments (0)

September 13, 2007

Update on Mom

I'm really sad to say that things are beginning to look bad. Mom's blood gases are really off and they're putting an endotracheal tube down her throat right now. Then tomorrow, they're planning to cut a hole in her throat from the outside and put in a tracheotomy tube. The tube should correct the blood gas problem, according to my sister (who's a doctor). But she and Dad are really really worried which is making me worry. They understand more about what's going on than I do, me not being in the medical field.

But as I say, we're taking it day by day since we can't predict anything from one day to the next. I'll keep posting updates as I'm able.

ADDENDUM:
Mom's being sedated for today and tomorrow to minimize her discomfort with the tracheal tube. Then Sunday, Achan Amaro (monk) will come to visit her and pray for her.

Posted by Amy at 10:24 AM | Comments (1)

September 11, 2007

Update on Mom

So Mom went in to have her belly drained again. She's been extremely bloated and the fluid turned out to be infected. On the right side where they operated, there was coagulated blood that became infected. So they injected something that would break up the clot and could then be drained through a small tube. That was working, but they decided to drain her left side as well. Turns out there was a cloudy fluid (a form of pus) and they inserted a small tube on that side to drain as well. They also drained by syringe about 340cc of infected fluid.

Things are not looking as good as we had hoped. John says that because she'd been living with a diseased colon for several weeks before surgery (a result of the radiation for her cancer therapy a few years ago), she started out on the bad side and now, because she went in so sick, things have gotten worse.

Tomorrow they'll do a scope to find out if she's got any more diseased colon and they'll continue to drain for a while to see if she makes any more improvement. If not, she may have to go back in for surgery to remove any infected parts. We're trying to avoid any invasive procedures as much as possible since this would obviously be hard on her already touchy condition.

Right now, we're all taking it literally day by day and hoping for the best. I just want to thank all of you out there for your well wishes. I know my mom appreciates it, as does the rest of my family. I'll keep you all posted.

Oh, and by the way, please take a moment to remember all the heroes we lost on this day 6 years ago on September 11th.

Posted by Amy at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2007

Georgian Bay and Mom

WOW! It's been incredibly busy for me...so much so that I haven't had any chance to do any job hunting in a while. I've been looking after Mom (and the rest of my family while they're in Kalamazoo), then took a break to go to Miami, Florida for a weekend to train in martial arts (photos are here), then back to Kalamazoo, then back to Ann Arbor for just a few days before taking a holiday weekend in Canada (City of Meaford, Georgian Bay, Ontario). And now I'm back in Kalamazoo again.

The trip to Canada was really cool. We left Thursday at about 5:15, got to the border at about 8pm and got through customs after only about 15 minutes (record time!). Then we got to the cottage at 11:40 and we only had to stop for dinner for about 20 minutes. The whole weekend was just PERFECT, gorgeous weather. Sunny and warm, light breezy, perfect for being out on the lake or the beach. I got lots of great sun and took some really good naps on the catamarand while Don helped the guys take in the boating equipment and prepare the cottages for the end of summer.

Saturday was eventful...Tom wanted to take his boat out of the water, so him and Don and I jumped in to take it to the marina so Tom and Karen could put it on their trailer. Don drove the boat 2/3 of the way there, but the waves kept growing bigger and when water started splashing over our heads, Tom decided to take the wheel. The waves still kept getting bigger and we got close to the harbor, just outside the entrance when we got caught between two 4-foot waves. The one behind was pushing us into the one in front and about 6 inches of water washed over the bough. It nearly washed Tom's shoes and sweater overboard and Don and I thought we'd be swimming back to shore. Luckily, Tom had shoved the boat into reverse as we hit the front wave, repelling the full force of the water. Thank goodness that only happened once--if it had happened again, I would have thought we'd be done for. Though since it was only once, I was confident Tom had things well under control and wasn't too worried.

Anyway, we managed alright to the boat launch and while Tom and Karen were busy getting the boat onto the trailer, I took a moment to wring out Tom's sweater when I felt a sharp sting on the inside of my thigh. I quickly realized a bee or wasp had flown up my shorts and stung me!! The NERVE of that thing stinging me there!! How DARE it?! And as I swatted it away, it stung me once more before flying off. MAN, DID THAT HURT!! It took everything I had not to curse my bloody head off, seeing as I WAS in a public place. Luckily, Karen had some burn ointment in her first-aid kit which she graciously lent to me. That helped a LOT with the initial pain (which I felt right down through the muscle of my leg). It's a good thing I'm not allergic to bee stings. It swelled up alright, but not terribly huge. Once we got back to the house, Karen continued to administer her wonderful Florence Nightingale skills to treat my sting. She gave me an "after-bite" ointment that has ammonia in it which is used for stings, then she made me up a baking soda and water paste to apply (I think that sucks the toxins out), and THEN she even gave me several ice packs after that. Oh, what would have happened without her! Mostly, it hurt the first day/night. I had to sleep with an ice pack on it all night long because the moment my leg returned to normal body temperature, it would ache incredibly. Once I woke up the next morning, it was much less painful and in fact, the skin was really just itchy and somewhat raw. Though I did have a cramp in the side of my butt because of the way I had to position my leg all night. And it progressively got better throughout the day so that I was even able to take a ride on the Sea Doo later on. I'll have a link to pictures once Don's uploaded them.

Anyway, I'm back now in Kzoo till Thursday when I switch shifts with my brother who's staying here till Monday. I'll come back when he leaves. Right now, Mom's back in the ICU having to use a BIPAP respirator (a mask that looks like a fighter pilot's mask and puts positive pressure in her lungs to help her breathe better). The doctors are going to do some needle tests tomorrow to test the fluid in her belly to see why she's still distended (her belly should have decreased in size by now). It's such a tricky thing balancing her recovery from surgery with her heart conditions and she seems to have been having one problem after another. Plus she's so tired that she never wants to do her breathing or walking exercises as she's supposed to. As a result, her bowels are not returning to normal use and she's had to be on a nutritive IV as well as all her other medications as well as a foley (a tube that helps you get rid of urine waste). It's stressing us all out because we're so worried about her and I think it's starting to get to my dad and my brother because they're snapping at me a bit. It's starting to get to me too, but I just usually feel like I want to cry, but don't in front of the others. Plus, being here takes me away from Don which adds to the stress. But there's nothing to do about it except to keep prodding my mom to do what she needs to get out of the hospital. Next week is her birthday and I'm hoping and praying she'll be out by then.

I'll keep you all updated. And thank you to all those who have sent me their well wishes for my mother's quick recovery!! It's much appreciated.

Posted by Amy at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2007

Update on Mom

I'm back at home now...boy I needed a break. I slept in till 11am this morning! I haven't done that in a LONG time. I called my dad yesterday who told me my mom was back in the ICU and has to use a respirator to help her breathe (looks a lot like those that fighter pilots use). Apparently, a very small part of her lung had collapsed. But I talked to my brother today who says she's back on a solid food diet and off the respirator during the day. He says she's looking more perky today.

Don and I were planning on go to Meaford, Canada this weekend. If my mom wasn't doing well, we'd cancel the trip, but from what my brother says, that shouldn't be necessary--which means mom is doing better. And that makes me feel very relieved.

Posted by Amy at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2007

Hospital Hopping

UGH! It's been about 2 weeks of hospital hopping for me. I spent a couple days last week visiting my mom who's in the hospital in Kalamazoo. Then I came back on Monday of this week and have been here ever since. (I MISS DON!!!) She's had a problem with her colon where one of the arteries supplying it with blood is not working properly. The problem started on the 4th of July and she spent about a week in the hospital in Detroit, but she left without a proper diagnosis or treatment. Plus, she wasn't happy at all with the level of care she received there. So she ended up at Borgess Methodist Hospital where John, my brother in law works.

She had to have surgery to remove about a quarter of her colon because they decided that rather than have the problem persist and get worse (which it has been), they should operate and eliminate the problem. It's been a bit of a slow recovery. But she looks better and better every day, though we have to really push her hard to get her to sit up in the chair, take walks up and down the hallway, and practice her breathing exercises so that she can step up from a liquid diet (including a nutritional IV) to a soft and eventually solid food diet. Sooner she gets to solid food, the sooner she gets out of the hospital.

Aside from being sick and having to cancel her trip to Egypt, she's really loving it there. She proclaims every day how uncomparable the level of care is there. The nursing staff, the doctors, everyone...even the guy who cleans her room every day. They really take good care of her there. I just wish she'd get better and get the heck outta there. I've been there every day helping her get in and out of bed, take walks, get washed up, untangling her IV lines, and whatever else she needs me to do.

And my friend Sue spent a week in the hospital last week for problems with fluid collecting in the lining of her lungs due to her cancer. They had to insert a tube and drain it slowly. But I think she got out Tuesday.

But MAN, for what Sue and my mom have been through in their lives--cancer, multiple surgeries, and procedures--I REALLY admire their strength!!! AMAZING women, those two!!!

And poor Pammie...she's sick too, though not like Mom and Sue. She's pregnant and going through SEVERE nausea: throwing up about 9 or 10 times a day (literally). She's got some medicine that is helping a bit, but she still gets sick a few times a day. I know she's ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE!!! And I'm sure most people don't really understand how bad it is for her. I'm sure I don't, but I've got SOOOOOOOOOO much sympathy for her. I just wish there was SOMETHING I could do for her. :( I'll tell you: Pam is ONE TOUGH FRIGGIN' CHICK and for something like this to kick her ass really says how bad it is.

When you think about it, all my "Moms" are sick! My real mom, and Pam and Sue who are my backup moms. What am I gonna do for a mommy???

Posted by Amy at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2007

Our Summer Vacation

First, apologies to all my readers that I haven't blogged about anything lately. Guess I've been too lazy.

Anyway, we spent a long weekend in Meaford, Ontario for our annual summer vacation. It's always the absolute highlight of my summer. As always, we spent the weekend relaxing, playing on the jet skis, kayaking, eating great food, enjoying the sun and hanging by the fire.

I think that's the best part of going to Meaford...not so much the fire, though I LOVE having fires. But it's sitting around the fire with the Buck family. There's the Bucks, the Mynsbergs, the Gillmans, and us, the Priors. Unfortunately, the Shorkeys couldn't join us this year. And the Nance (Hourigan) wasn't there either.

It seems like every time we had a fire, I had to assume fire-tending duties. I enjoy doing it cause I love watching the wood burn, but mostly, I'm just trying to generate as much light as possible so that we can all see each other in the dark. Some people like to make huge fires, I just like to have light.

Don and Tom went into the woods and collected a bunch of large trunks to burn...there was one that had a perfect space in the center and it looked like a burning volcano. REALLY COOL! I took video of it and put it on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSwo-yic1Lw Sorry it's sideways!

And here are the pictures I took over the weekend: http://mongoola.nsgroupllc.com/photos/main.php?g2_itemId=4449

ENJOY! :)

Posted by Amy at 12:36 PM | Comments (1)

June 01, 2007

Specialty Item: Fried Rice

Wow, this is really cool. We've started a sort of weekly tradition at JMAC dojo where every Thursday, we do our Iaido and Jujutsu workout. We get done about 9pm and by then, we're pretty hungry so we head to Cherry Blossom Japanese restaurant after class. It's barely a block away from the dojo, so it's really convenient.

It started a few weeks ago when Tony, Don and I went there for ramen noodles and beer. The boys like Sapporo beer and they serve the large cans. Don got a hankering for fried rice and talked Tony into asking the waitress for some. But they don't serve it there. Tony, being the cheeky guy he is, kept prodding her to see if she'd give in, but she told us they couldn't do it unless we had more people. So we decided to get a bunch more people to come back the next week.

We came back and managed to talk the owner into getting the chefs to cook fried rice for us. And it was GOOD! Each week we come back, the mound of fried rice keeps getting bigger and bigger. And they're always happy to see us. We usually order a couple appetizers like California rolls, some salmon sushi, edamame on top of our usual two big plates of fried rice and about 6 or 7 large Sapporos.

They love seeing us so much they even assigned a button on their cash register that says "specialty item: fried rice $12." Can you believe that?! That REWLZ!!!

Posted by Amy at 05:27 PM | Comments (1)

May 31, 2007

Unbelievable Luck

Wow, I can't believe how lucky I got. My friend Sue's daughter Danielle is getting married in Hawaii and Don and I are going to go. So I went shopping for a dress. I was going to call Sue and ask her to go to the Twelve Oaks Mall with me, but I thought I should just go to Briarwood just to see what I could find. I didn't expect to find anything good anyway.

I went looking around JC Penney, but there wasn't a dress in my size in sight at all. All the dresses on sale were basically size 8 or 14. I went from rack to rack to rack. Nothing. Finally, I found one dress that looked cute. I checked the size...it was the right size! Yippee! It's a beautiful ivory color with a tan-colored satin ribbon that ties in the back. The exact colors of MY wedding dress! It's got tank straps, rhinestones, and a v-neck and it's knee-length. Very pretty. When I checked the tag, it was on sale for $30!!! I thought, well, even if it didn't work, I'd buy it anyway! But before paying for it, I walked over to the shoe department.

It occurred to me that it would be hard to match the colors to a shoe. But then I saw them in the corner of the store...a pair of rhinestone flip flops with heels. They matched perfectly to the dress! I couldn't believe my luck in finding the outfit all at once. Plus I didn't need jewelry because I have rhinestone jewelry I wore for my wedding.

I'm really excited about going to a wedding in Hawaii on the beach. It's just a shame it's 8 1/2 months away. UGH!

Posted by Amy at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)

May 12, 2007

Vacation

Ahh, it's been so nice this week. I've been using the time mostly as vacation, which I really needed. I've been able to sleep in a few days this week--which felt REALLY good! And just relaxing is something I've wanted to do for a while now. Any day it's been sunny, I've been working on my tan, just to get some good color, not to get real dark. And I went to some extra martial arts classes on Friday. Though, I felt pretty worn out by the Tuesday/Thursday 3-hour deal since I have both iaido and jujutsu in the same night. And last Saturday was the first Saturday of the month which means an extra iaido class and an extra jujutsu class on top of my regular karate class. So there's another 3-hour day.

Monday, Don and I skipped martial arts in favor of going to see Spiderman 3 with Danielle and Ryan. We went to Red Robin for dinner, then to the movie which I thought was better than the first 2. After that, we went back to the office to get our cars and Don and Ryan could finish the server swap they were doing. I managed to get in some video game time on the arcade console they're building. It's going to look JUST like a real arcade game, but it'll have like 1000 games in it, including my favorite SAMURAI SHODOWN II!!! Yaaaaayyy!! I love that game!

Next week, I'll have to start buckling down and getting some more resumes out there and making some calls. Hopefully, it won't be too long that I'll be unemployed. But I was able to apply for unemployment, so hopefully, those checks will start rolling in soon.

Posted by Amy at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)

April 29, 2007

Beautiful Days

I can't believe how many beautiful, sunny, and warm days we've had over the past few weekends. Unfortunately, I'd been sick for a couple of them and trying to get over my illness, so I wasn't really able to enjoy them until this weekend. Saturday was near perfect. Sunny and around 70. Our advanced class was taught by Dr. Herbert Wong, my sensei's sensei. Then Don taught his regular Saturday noon class. It was the first time I'd been back at AMAS for a long while since Don's been out because of his hernia surgery and since I got sick. After class, we walked to the post office to get Don's office mail and just as I'd been hoping, the hot dog vendor was out! Yay! We got a yummy dog for lunch and sat on the steps of the post office under the sun. Saturdays don't get much better than that. After that, I just enjoyed the sunshine and warm weather by driving around, running errands.

Sunday was awesome too. It was clear, sunny and even warmer than Saturday. I'd been wanting to get a couple of projects out of the way for a while, but I had to wait till it got warm to do them. I spent the entire afternoon making a third sword rack for the dojo. I was able to cut the wood and stain it right on the driveway, listening to the radio from my car. While I was doing that, our friend Chris from JMAC drove by with his wife...they're looking for a new home and his wife likes the houses in our neighborhood. They stopped to say hello and I told them it would be really nice to have them in our hood.

After that, I worked on organizing the work bench and all my tools. It seems that of Don and me, I seem to always have the most useful tools handy. But we've been using my tools and got too lazy to put them away properly. Plus, the tool box I have is really getting too small. I'd bought a new larger one, but as I said, I wanted to wait till it got warmer to transfer all my tools to it. Sunday was finally the day. I was getting really sick of the mess on that bench! Now, they're all within easy reach, all organized--hopefully, they'll stay that way. I hate for my tools to get unorganized because I hate not being able to find them when I need them.

Anyway, after all that work, Don and I boiled up some King Crab legs that were on sale at Meijer's for $6 a pound (normally $14). We ate on the deck, drank some wine and enjoyed the hot tub for a while. It was a perfect day, by my standards!

And this week is my last week at Quicken Loans. I'm looking forward to having a bit of time off, but not too much! (OMG, it's May already??)

Posted by Amy at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2007

Never Been Sicker

Wow, I'm just now getting over one of the worst sick periods of my life. I caught some sort of superbug from someone at work on Wednesday. I started feeling it Thursday and by end of classes Thursday night, I was sure I had something. I had a fever and a sore throat and pretty much felt crummy all around.

I decided to take Friday off, but Friday night was poker night. Now, I love having people over as often as possible. But I sort of wish the sickness and poker night hadn't coincided because just spending time with guests took more out of me than I expected. And I started feeling worse.

By Saturday, it had hit me like a freight train going 200 miles an hour. I was exhausted and barely able to sit up without getting dizzy. My fever had spiked to 101.7 and my glands felt like they were ticking time bombs in my throat. By the afternoon, I turned into a wallowing mess--Don, the healthy, logical-thinking one of us, thought to call John, my brother-in-law, to see if he could prescribe some antibiotics for me. He said I had an upper respiratory infection and possibly the beginnings of walking pneumonia. My sister (another doctor) seems to think I have bronchitis. I have no idea which it is. Anyway, Don picked up my meds. I took the first dose that evening and literally slept the rest of the day away.

Sunday I think is when the throat pain pretty much cleared up, but I was still feeling really crappy. I still had to sleep a lot, but I couldn't seem to buck the fever. Pam suggested to Don that I take Aspirin for it, then jump in the hot tub, then into a warm shower. But the way my body is, I know heat's not the best thing for breaking my fever. So I just took the Aspirin, but it gave me a ringing in my ears and I had to stop taking it.

Monday, I tried doing some work at home. I slept in till about 11:30am, but then logged onto my computer. I probably worked about 4 hours, mostly catching up on email. But by the end of the day, I was wiped out again. So I called my boss and told him I'd need another couple of days off. I called my sister to ask her advice again--I was worried that I might have to go to the hospital if this thing didn't turn around. But she told me that all they could do was admit me, and give me antibiotics intravenously. So basically, the end result is the same as what I was already doing, just that I wouldn't be at home. Boy, I can't TELL you how comforting it can be to have at least one doctor in the family! I was really getting worried at that point.

Tuesday, I just took it easy. I wasn't able to sleep as much which I think was a good sign. When your body needs something, it tells you. Plus, I was coughing up more material from my chest which I think was also a good sign that things were loosening up finally. But even though I felt like my body had finally turned the corner on this illness, I still was debating on whether to go back to work.

Wednesday morning, I got up and took a shower, leaving myself plenty of time since I knew I was going to be slow-going. I was still very tired from being sick, but I managed to get myself dressed and ready for work. Besides, much as I love my new house, I was getting tired of staring at my bedroom walls and lying in bed. I needed to get back out into society. When I got to work, I was barely ok to work, so I took my lunch hour to relax in my car after eating. That seemed to do the trick enough to get me through the rest of the day.

And today (Thursday), I'm even stronger and feeling less tired. The only thing I'm fighting now is really a tight chest and an annoying, lingering cough. I took my last dose of antibiotics yesterday, but the effects will last about 2 weeks. I just hope all of you are taking VERY good care of yourselves out there! Take your vitamins, take your zinc, and stay away from us sickies!

Posted by Amy at 06:00 PM | Comments (2)

March 12, 2007

Aaaahhh!

What a weekend. I slept in pretty late on Saturday which felt really good. Don tried calling the tech guys for the hot tub to see if he could get some help "handshaking" all the controls on the hot tub. Basically, that means the hot tub and the stereo and stuff have to be connected and work together so we can use the remote control. The lady he spoke to was kind of a bitch and not very helpful even though all Don wanted to do was to speak to a tech guy. So we went to the hot tub store and talked to the salesman that sold it to us and he told us what we had to do to make all the devices handshake as well as how to put the chemicals in the water for the first time.

We got home and I went outside and stuck the hose through the filter to fill it up which took about an hour. Then I had to turn the hot tub on--had to flip one breaker on the power box, check the control board, then flip the other breaker and check the board again. Turns out we didn't have to do anything complicated to get stuff to handshake...everything just turned on nicely. But it took hours and hours for the thing to heat up.

Meanwhile, we went out to dinner with Nick, Pam, Greg and Sue to Carlyle's. Dinner was good, but I realized at the restaurant that I'd lost my diamond earring that Don had given me for Christmas! Yikes!! We looked all around the table, but couldn't find it, but I was pretty sure it was lost somewhere at home. But I feared since I'd been outside half the day that it was lost in the mud somewhere in the yard. Fortunately, I looked around as I got home and found it in the carpet. PHEW!! I was so excited at finding it! But I put them away in a box immediately since I didn't find the backing. Though I didn't care about the back, just the earring itself. I have to get a new pair of backs for them anyway.

So Sunday, we wake up around 9:30. Don took his pain meds and we both jumped into the hot tub...aaahhhh! It felt so good! We got in it about 3 times yesterday. I think we're really going to like it!

We also saw "300" in the theater. Don says it was just ok, but I thought it was well-written. I liked the story and some of the characters, but I didn't care for the artistry...too much like the graphic novel it was based on. And had a lot of the "Sin City" style since the same guy wrote both. Mom called 15 minutes into the movie saying she and Dad were on their way to our house for dinner. But I told her since we'd just gotten into the movie, it'd be a couple hours till we'd get out and since we didn't hear from them earlier that day, we thought they weren't coming. Oh well. Had to skip it this time, but we'll see them next week.

I can't wait to get home tonight and use the tub again. Aaaahh! :)

Posted by Amy at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2007

No More Hernia

Don had his hernia surgery today. I picked him up at 11:30 this morning to take him to the St. Joe's hospital. We thought he was possibly coming down with something and I was afraid it was something he had caught from me. He said he had a massive headache and that if it weren't for his surgery, he would have taken 3 Advils and went to bed. But he wasn't feverish, so I figured we'd take him to the hospital and see what they said. Because if he was sick, obviously, they wouldn't operate and we'd have to postpone it for another day. Poor guy was nauseous on the way there because of the headache. I'm sure my driving didn't help. Heh.

But we got there and they said he was good enough to operate on. They took him in and let me sit with him for a few minutes before he went in. When they took him away, I went to wait in the lobby. I found a nice little cafe they had in the hospital where I had a really nice, yummy deli sandwich for lunch. Guess hospital food is getting better! Then it wasn't long before the doctor came out to talk to me. I was surprised at how short the surgery was. But it took a while for them to let me come in to see him again because it took him a while to wake up in the recovery room. All in all, I managed to get through the latter 3/4 of Star Trek 4 on my video iPod. (I love that thing!)

When I got into the recovery room, I was expecting him to be really loopy--like he was when he had a scope of his esophagus. When he did that, he kept asking me the same questions over and over...it was so funny. But this time, he was much more lucid and coherent. He opted for the general anesthesia instead of the local because his headache was so bad. He seemed to be in a very good mood, though I think that was because he was happy to get his hernia fixed and the fact that the medicine they gave him got rid of his headache. Of course, they wouldn't let him leave until he could stand and walk around on his own without feeling dizzy or fall down.

We got back home at around 4:30. He's moving around alright, though slowly and carefully and he tries to keep it to a minimum. He mostly sat on the couch and in his lounge chair just tooling around on his laptop. He went to bed early around 9pm. I think the Vicodin made him sleepy. I told him he should probably work at home for the rest of the week and he's not allowed to do any martial arts or heavy lifting for the next month. Believe me, that's a good thing. He's had this stupid hernia for 2 years and I think he finally realized that if he didn't take care of it and take some time off from training for a while, he'd break himself pretty good sometime and then he wouldn't be able to train at all. I'm sure he'll be right as rain and feeling better than ever sometime very soon.

Posted by Amy at 09:25 PM | Comments (1)

March 02, 2007

Cough, cough!

Ugh, I tell you this sux! Last week, I get sick with the stomach flu and now, I'm coming down with what I think is half-way between a cold and the flu. Started coughing last night and today, I'm a bit achy. And my skin hurts...the way it does when I get feverish. Urgh. I've been toughing it out here at work, but it's hard when it makes you so tired. Took some Tylenol which helped, but I think I need to take more cause I want to go to Costco today before I go home.

Plus, today was one of those days cause, like a dunce, I took my work laptop home to work at home yesterday afternoon and forgot to bring it back. I ended up having to get a loaner from IT, but it took them forever because they had to do some set up with it and install some updates or whatever. Well, over 2 hours went by before I even got it back to my desk--it was nearly 11:30! I'd been on and off other people's computers to check email and do a couple of things, but I was basically sitting there twiddling my thumbs waiting for the damn thing cause the IT lady told me it wouldn't be that long! Argh. In the time it took her to get my loaner, I could have gone all the way home and back to grab my laptop and been working for over an hour. Oh well. Today wasn't so hectic that it was critical. Though it did suck having to wait so long.

I can't wait to go home!

Posted by Amy at 04:45 PM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2007

Sicker than a Dog

Ok, I know I've been slacking on updating my blog, even after I said I'd try to post more. But honestly, I don't have that much to talk about. My life really isn't that eventful. The only thing that's really happened lately is that Don bought a hot tub (ok, worth a little talking about) and I got sick.

So Don and I went into the hot tub store, I thought, to just look around and before I knew it, he was signing the papers! I couldn't believe how fast it happened! The landscaping guys are supposed to be building our deck soon and the hot tub will be delivered and when it does, it'll be PURE heaven!!!

Sunday, I got so sick I thought I was going to have to go to the hospital. I woke up Sunday night at 2am and, well, to keep this clean, I had stuff coming out both ends. It was the stomach flu. I had stomach pains like you wouldn't believe and I was laying on the bathroom floor writhing around. I was so close to waking up Don to ask him to take me to the hospital. But I guess I figured if I could ride it out just a little while, I'd get over the worst part--which lasted about 2 1/2 hours. I finally got back to bed when the pain subsided enough for me to get a little sleep, but I was back in the bathroom an hour and a half later. GOD I wanted to die!!

I think the part that sucked the most was having to throw up. It was so bad, I nearly threw my back out and I couldn't take any pain medicine for it because I wouldn't have been able to keep it down anyway. So I just had to wait till the nausea subsided. Thankfully it did a few hours later--at least enough for me to keep the Advils down. But whenever I get nauseous, I have to keep cool or else it makes me feel worse, so I was having to balance not being chilled with not being too hot under the covers--I hate being cold anyway, but if I got too hot, the stomach pains would get worse. Seemed like such a difficult balance to keep while feeling so awful. And even when the worst was over, I still had a 100.2 degree fever & chills, but nothing a little Tylenol couldn't break.

Needless to say, I had to call in sick but luckily, it only lasted about 24 hours. But even Tuesday, when I went back to work, it was hard to get through the day because I was so exhausted. Plus my apetite is still diminished--though that's probably a good thing. Seems I caught it from someone who came into the dojo a couple days after he had gotten over it. It's how I caught it the last time. They're all better, but I still catch it. UGH. But today, I feel like myself again. Rested and healthy. Thank goodness!

Posted by Amy at 08:00 PM | Comments (1)

February 06, 2007

Catching Up

Wow, I just realized I haven't posted since late January. My apologies for being a slacker. It's just that I've been so incredibly busy lately.

Last Saturday, we had our Iaido test. Don, Pam and I all got promoted 2 ranks instead of one. We went from rokokyu (6th kyu) up to yankyu (4th kyu). I think we all performed quite admirably. I also think Pam and I are extremely well-suited to Iaido since it's an art of elegance, so it probably comes easier to women (in general). So because of that test, I've been really concentrating on practicing hard. We all enjoyed a great Chinese dinner at Emerald City though. Mom and Dad came to the test, then joined us for dinner. I think they were impressed by what they saw since they'd never seen anything like that before. Plus my friends really enjoyed meeting Mom & Dad.

Yesterday was the first time I'd come back to class since the test and I learned a new kata. I think I impressed Sensei because I seemed to pick it up very fast; though it was very similar to a kata I'd learned previously. I skipped class on Monday. I had fully planned on going, but I had a really rough day at work and even came home early. I was kind of upset that day, feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, so I spent the entire evening relaxing in bed. I even debated whether I should go up until the time I would have had to leave. Ah well. The thing that really sucks about missing class is everytime I do that, I miss a new kata. I don't like falling behind at all.

Anyway, so work's been really demanding lately and it's been tough keeping up. But I'm doing as best I can. We'll see how it goes in the next week or two. Unfortunately, the stress has re-activated my ulcer. Ugh.

On top of that, Gabriel had to go in for surgery this week. Don and I suddenly noticed he'd been losing a lot of weight. Seems like just this past summer, he was a lard ball of 18 pounds (his normal weight is just over 11 pounds). I weighed him recently on our home scale and he was only about 10 pounds! I was hoping it was just that he'd been more active and didn't have to compete with Hideous (who's a pig). But we took him to the vet and it turns out he had an overactive thyroid. They gave us 3 options: medication (every day), surgery to remove the thyroid, or a radioactive injection. Well, Gabe would hate me if I forced a pill down his throat every day and the radioactive injection was $1300, so surgery was our best option. They took him in Monday and removed both thyroid glands. They had to keep him for a few days to monitor his calcium levels since the surgery can put the parathyroid glands at risk--those glands regulate calcium levels. If the calcium gets too high, that's bad. But he's been in the hospital for a few days and no abnormal levels of calcium so I can take him home today. Don and I have been visiting him and he's been VERY cranky, more so than normal. The woman I spoke to on the phone says he's very melodramatic and just all-around extremely unhappy. But when he sees us, he nearly faints with joy. When I saw him yesterday, he was purring even through his constant growling. Poor thing!!! He's got an incision about 3-4 inches long down his neck and they made him wear one of those funny-looking space collars while he was there. I can't wait to take him home! My baby!!!

Anyway, Don went out and bought us a hot tub! WOW!! We'd been spending a lot of time over at the Oasis Hot Tub Gardens and I think he finally had to have one himself. It'll be really nice cause we can share it with Nick & Pam, and Greg & Sue, especially after our nightly workouts. Plus, the tub is pretty top of the line, so we'll use little to no chlorine (I hate smelling like that) and we can set the temp to whatever we want. It's gonna be so nice! But we'll have to wait to get it cause Don wants to expand the deck out more before they deliver. I can't wait! Wish we could have it now, since the temps have only been in the single digits (even in the negatives) with windchills at about 15-20 below zero! UGH! TOO COLD!!!

So now, I have to get ready to test for Karate. Don's been bugging me to practice, which I've been as much as I can, but I was focusing on my iaido. Now that that's out of the way, I can work a little harder on Karate.

Also, Dad's finally off chemo. He's still bald, but he's so cute that way! I know he's really embarrassed and self-conscious about it; he keeps a hat on at all times. But I think he looks so good. I'm just glad he's done with it though. I think once he grows his hair back, he'll be back to his normal self. GO DAD!! And Mom's been great taking care of him. She seems to be so much better with her pacemaker than in past years! What a relief!

But now you see how busy I've been. It's been crazy and I don't foresee it letting up in the short-term. We'll just have to see. I'll try to keep you all posted. So until then...later!

Posted by Amy at 10:25 PM | Comments (1)

December 26, 2006

Xmas 2006

Christmas this year was as fun as ever. Once again, Don and I spent Christmas Eve with the Bucks. We did our usual white elephant gift exchange and the dart board I picked out was a huge hit! It was the most stolen gift of the night! The weirdest gift was a lobster trap that Uncle Vern got...obviously came from Uncle John and Aunt Nancy's garage. HA! Uncle John was looking very well as was everyone else. Derek is getting so big and is talking really well for a 2 1/2-year-old! Everything is "NO!" with him, however I know that phase will pass. And Karen threw a wonderful party as always. She's always so organized and it turned out great! Just too bad Andrew couldn't make it this time. But we all signed a lovely card to send him along with our group photo. Merry Christmas Andrew!

Then Christmas morning Don and I spent at our house with Nancy, Brian, Jessica and Derek. I cooked breakfast for them, as I usually do, however, I didn't have the hash browns--I saw the Ore Ida bags in the freezer, but one only had a little bit left and the other bag turned out to be french fries! Bummer. But at least I was able to serve coffee, though Nancy had to make it in the french press since we don't have a coffee maker. But it was good enough, I'm sure. There were many presents exchanged and everyone got a lot of good loot. Unfortunately, the fire truck I bought for Derek petered out just as soon as Brian pressed the buttons. I SWEAR it was working when I got it home! *sigh* Hopefully, all it'll need is a couple new batteries. Don made out with a bungload o' books (since that's all he put on his Amazon wish list) and I made out with a beautiful set of diamond earrings (thank you honey!) and a cool new deep fryer. Hot wings and fried chicken GALORE!! Too bad that we always have to split so soon since Brian and Jessica have to go to Flint to see Brian's parents and we have to go see my family. If Christmas was three days long, it'd be perfect!

Anyway, we got to my sister's house in Kalamazoo and I didn't get tackled by the 6-year-old this time, even though I was prepared for her! I did get a 3-child hug, though! The kids are getting so big and they're looking more wonderful each time. Sara looks more and more like a clone of her mom when she was that young. Tessie is as cute as ever and PJ (we call him pBay...like eBay) is getting so very handsome! And he's such a friendly, sweet and loving boy these days. (Before I left, I was playing with them in the hall and pBay put his head on my lap and said, "I want you to stay here!" Awww!!) Anyway, once again, lots of loot to be unwrapped. I think Oupie made out like a bandit since we gave him an iPod shuffle (finally, a gift that gives him the same excited expression I get when he gives ME gifts!) and he got 2 Star Wars Lego sets. The kids got tons of toys, but Oupie's such a great uncle...he set the rule that they could only play with one toy per day. Unfortunately, they successfully broke that rule, though the girls did a little better than pBay, who just couldn't resist playing with everything. I had to help them open up these robo-dogs which were SUCH a pain to get out of the packaging. And each one of them got one! UGH! Not only are they screwed onto a plastic platform in the box, they're twist-tied in and you have to pull out this tab to separate the platform from the base. And you can't do it with your bare hands. So there I was with a set of pliers to get the tab out, scissors to cut the rubber bands that were on the cords and a mini phillips-head screwdriver. ARGH! But they had a ball with them.

Ippie served a delicious turkey for dinner with all the trimmings...guess I didn't get enough for Thanksgiving. Love that turkey! And we decided that Thanksgiving next year would be at my house and Christmas would be at Mom's house...that'll mean much less driving for us. Yay! How was YOUR Christmas?

Posted by Amy at 10:38 AM | Comments (2)

November 26, 2006

Kitties, Lamb, & Hot Water

I love having birthdays, now that I'm grown up! Birthdays used to really suck as a kid because I could never have parties since everyone is always busy with their families for Thanksgiving. But now, I'm able to hang out with a few friends every year on various days surrounding my birthday which is great because it stretches it out.

This year, I didn't bother taking the day off, even though my birthday fell on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Since most everyone was gone from the office, I got a lot done without everyone interrupting me. I left early about 3pm and met Don at the office to find out what my surprise was. First, he gave me my present: a gift card to Vicki's Secret and a beautiful Coach watch. It has a leather band, which I'm not used to anymore, but I like it nonetheless.

Then he took my keys and we jumped in my car. I had no idea where we were going for my surprise, and the fact that he drove my car threw me off even more since whenever we go anywhere together, we take his car. When we slowed down in front of the Ann Arbor Cat Clinic, I immediately exclaimed, "KITTIES!!!" I knew then he was taking me to visit the kitties up for adoption. YAY! Don made a nice $100 donation to the clinic in exchange for letting me play with them. They were SOOOOOO cute! They had 4 little kittens, two of which looked a lot like Gabriel and it was hard not to take one of them home. Especially since the one I liked was already giving me kisses! God, she was adorable! We also visited the adult cats. Don saw a beige one (I think she was Siamese) that really liked him and he really liked, but I think that room was for patients who belonged to other people. There was another room with more adult cats for adoption. The black ones were really cute. The black boy cat was really bossy toward his sister. I wished I could have taken one of them home too, but we already have 3 and we don't need any more fur flying around the house.

Later, we went to the Chop House for dinner with Greg, Sue and Tony. Of course, I had my lamb chops which were really yummy. And for dessert, we went next door to La Dolce Vita and I had my creme brulee, which I hadn't had in ages. I was very happy! Poor Sue, though. She ordered a nice looking filet, but when it came, she had been coughing so much she lost her appetite. She's getting over the flu. Poor thing. But at least she boxed it up to take home.

After that, we ditched Tony and went to the Oasis Hot Tub Gardens and got a couple of private hot tub rooms. One for me and Don and one for Greg and Sue, who had never been there before. I knew Sue would LOVE that place since I know she's the type that loves to relax on the beach in Maui. This was right up her alley. The water was really nice and warm, but with all the food we ate for dinner and for Thanksgiving, I was still in food coma and the heat made me really sleepy. But it really relaxed me and I slept really well that night.

Then yesterday, Kate (who I hadn't seen in ages) took me to Shalimar Indian restaurant for the lunch buffet. She always treats me to lunch or dinner for my birthday, then I do the same for her in January. She gave me awesome pink flowers...I think giant daisies. Then we did a little Christmas shopping on Main Street. Found some great stuff! But I didn't want to spend the entire afternoon with her because I knew Don was waiting for me. In fact, he wanted to do more shopping when I got home. But it was great spending time with her since I hadn't been able to for a couple months now. We got all caught up and she told me about her new job at Motawi Tile Works, which she loves. Hopefully, she won't be away from the dojo any longer.

I have to say, I'm not used to the attention being focused on me. But I love it nonetheless! Birthdays rule!

Posted by Amy at 01:55 PM | Comments (3)

November 24, 2006

Happy Turkey Day!

Yesterday was kind of a long Thanksgiving day...Don and I got up at about 9am to drive to Kalamazoo for Thanksgiving at my sister's house. We got there and I was nearly tackled to the ground by Tessie, who's only half my height, but she caught me by surprise while I was taking off my shoes. WHOA! haha! My sister, John, all three kids, my brother Oupie, and Dad were all there. Mom was in California on a religious retreat and too bad my aunt Noi and uncle Ed weren't there. I miss them. Poor Dad, though...he's losing so much hair. In fact, he'd gone to the bathroom and came back--I think he had combed his hair--and there was a ton of hair on his shoulder. EEK! Poor Daddy! But he's only got 2 more chemo treatments to go and he's doing very well. He's still sore from the surgery, but his appetite is good and he's gained a few pounds, which is really good, since chemo kills your appetite.

Ippie made a great turkey with all the trimmings. Stuffing with gravy was the best! Yum! And I got gifts for my birthday. Dad and Mom gave me a beautiful blue Hilfiger sweater, got a nice check from John & Ip, Sara made me a cute cardboard ornament for the Christmas tree and Tessie drew me a stenciled picture. Oupie probably got me the most fun gift I've ever gotten...A SPEAK & SPELL!!! That was my absolute favorite thing to play with as a kid (that and the electronic Simon). But it wasn't mine. It belonged to my best friend Annie. She had all the cool toys. Speak & Spell, Simon, Atari console, etc. I loved going to her house to play. And honestly, I've always wanted a Speak & Spell of my own. Oupie says he found it on eBay and from the tone of his voice, sounded like it wasn't cheap! Probably cause it's retro. But it was really fun.

Then we drove all the way to Farmington to visit Don's aunt Nancy & Uncle John along with the most of the other Bucks. The turkey was good again, but it's hard to eat 2 big meals in a day. I ended up not being able to finish what was on my plate and had to give it to Don. (I couldn't believe he even snacked on some cold fried chicken when we got home!) It's always fun to see the Bucks and it was even more fun to watch little Derek run around playing. He's saying short, but complete sentences now. He even surprised his mom by saying, "Excuse me!" for the first time while trying to get by me! hahah! What a doll!! And I was lucky to get it on video. Yay!

I ended up playing Texas Hold 'Em with Tom, Jon, John, Don and Brian. I always love playing that with them! Great game! I thought I was going to lose half-way through, but I had a hand with a king, so I thought I should just go for it. It came down to me and Tom (the big better) who put me all in by betting as much as I had. And even though he had a pair of 5's with an Ace high, I also had a pair of 5's, but had a king. Just when I thought I'd lose, Brian (who was dealing) flips a king on the 4th card and I won! HOLY CRAP! I couldn't believe that happened. I won $10 bucks out of it, but gave it to Don. He put in the initial $5 for me to play.

Anyway, I'm leaving early from work today at about 3pm and Don and I are having dinner at the Chop House for my birthday and he supposedly has a big surprise for me...not sure what it could be! But I can't wait to find out!!!

Posted by Amy at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2006

Grace without Grace

Boy, life is really funny sometimes! When you take martial arts, you have to be coordinated and somewhat graceful in order to perform the techniques. Even before I started martial arts, I took dance lessons as a child for many years--tap, ballet, acrobatics and jazz tap. I was the best student in the class not only because I could remember all the steps for the recitals, but also because I was the most coordinated and could perform the moves the best. When I got into private school (starting in 5th grade), we were required to take 3 sports per year (2 in high school) in order to gain enough credits to move on to the next grade. I took basketball, volleyball, and lacrosse in middle school and volleyball and lacrosse in high school. Eight years, I did sports. Then I went on to college and continued to play volleyball for some years. I stopped for a few, then started up with martial arts 5 years ago. So you would think that by now, I'm a pretty darned coordinated person. Not true!

Today, I'm sitting at my desk at work. I've got 3-inch heels on (which are good for my arches) and I'm wearing a long sweater that hangs down to my thighs. Just a few minutes ago, I happened to be sitting on my foot (it's comfortable) while I was working. I went to stand up and my heel got caught on the back of my sweater and I couldn't get it uncaught. So half-way down, I just thought, "Fuck it! I'm going down!" and landed on my knees. Ouch! Everyone turned around when they heard the thud of me hitting the floor, but at least I could laugh at myself, embarrassed as I was. I tell you--even Don can attest to this--that at least once or twice a week while I'm walking down the street with him, my foot will collapse inward on me and I'll stumble, having walked over an uneven crack in the pavement or because I'm just stupidly clumsy. And all I can do is look at Don and say, "I CAN'T HELP IT!!!" Plus, I'm constantly walking into things, bruising my thighs or my shins. Oh well. At least I'm not bruised this time...must be all those kneeling forms we do in swords class. D-OH!!!

Posted by Amy at 03:35 PM | Comments (2)

November 13, 2006

Weekend Update

Boy, these weekends just aren't long enough. Friday night, Don and I went out to eat at Carlyle's and split a mean ribeye. Got home in time to watch our favorite show, Battlestar Galactica, though since we were on time, we couldn't skip through the commercials. :(

Saturday, went to karate class and practiced my weapons, and realized I have all my material for sankyu level...I just have to practice it all now so I can get promoted. Afterwards, Don and I spent an evening with Tony and Crystal, and Nick and Pam. Crystal cooked us a Chinese dinner which was pretty yummy. I was pretty full by the end--she had cooked 4 dishes (shrimp, chicken, eggplant, and scallops), plus there were 4 desserts (peach pie, fresh pineapple, roasted almonds and cake). YUM! We stayed a bit to watch the UFC fights until Crystal and I were about to fall asleep (can you say, "food coma?").

Sunday was a long day. Don and I managed to get tickets from my office to the Lions' game against the San Fran 49'ers in the suite! Took us an hour to get there and traffic wasn't bad, but the Lions were! Someone there put it aptly: They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Plus the officiating sucked--they made 2 really bad calls against the Lions. But the suite was sweet. Good food and it was indoors like the Palace; I think the suite was even a bit bigger than the one at the Palace. And the seats were like first-class airline seats, though not as wide. Comfy! I think the worst part is that it took us about 45 minutes or more just to get on the highway, but once we did, it was clear sailing all the way to Dad's house where we ate dinner. (Dad's doing very well...just had his first chemo session. Still sore and has less appetite, but he only has to have 3 more sessions.)

All the while, Don's been wearing his snore guard when he goes to bed, but then takes it out in the middle of the night cause it bugs him. Then he goes upstairs to sleep so he won't keep me up all night snoring. I think he needs to give it more time to get used to it. Hopefully, he will. He just has to give it more of a chance.

Posted by Amy at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)

October 13, 2006

Nearly Lost

Holy COW! I just had a close call. Maybe you've seen those Arby's commercials where the person is so hungry they're not thinking straight? Like the one where the flower delivery guy delivers funeral flowers to a gal in an office and the flowers meant for her go to an old guy's funeral--and the message on her flowers says, "You GO girl!" Well, I had a moment that would qualify like that.

It's been a terribly long and hectic week at work and I've been going to a couple extra classes at the dojo. I spent 3 hours in a row there on Tuesday when I didn't used to go to classes on Tuesdays at all. So I've been pretty tired all week, including (and maybe especially) today. I left work and got about 1/3 of the way home and thought, you know, I'm SO freaking hungry, I should really stop for a snack. I don't think I can wait to get home to eat anything. So I stopped at this little chicken hut--it was basically a mom & pop rip off of KFC and tasted the same. Pretty good actually, since things always taste really good when you're starving. So I ordered a couple legs and ate in my car in the parking lot.

I threw out the box and started back on my way home. I'd only driven for about a minute or two when I realize, OHMYGOD!! WHAT DID I DO WITH MY RETAINER??! I looked in my pockets, in the cup holder, on the floor, and even felt beneath my butt to see if I happened to be sitting on it. Nothing! OH GOD! I LOST IT!! Well, wtf did I do with it?? I remember taking it out when I went to Panera's for lunch, but I could swear I had it this afternoon. In fact, I thought I even remembered chomping at it just before I got the chicken--something I always do when I get hungry. So I turned the car around, hoping that I didn't leave it at Panera's. If I did, then I'd probably never see it again since that was hours ago. It occurred to me that I might have put it in the box the chicken came in that was now sitting in the trash.

I was panicking so much I was even shaking and I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks. I kept thinking how I didn't want to spend another 3-4 hundred bucks (or more) on having a new one made. I finally made it back to the chicken place and looked in the trash. The box was sitting right on top where I left it. I pulled it out along with some napkins and a milk carton that I'd put in it and there it was, sitting at the bottom of the box. OH GOD THANK YOU!! What a relief! It hadn't fallen out of the box or even touched any of the other trash.

Now, I know I can get grumpy when I haven't eaten and my blood sugar gets low, but JEEZ! I was so anxious to eat, I didn't even notice myself taking out my retainer or where I put it. The moral of the story? Always keep an eye on your retainer! HA!!

Posted by Amy at 05:56 PM | Comments (1)