Happy Memorial Day!

I hope everyone is enjoying their extra time with family and friends today! I just wanted to take a second to recognize what Memorial Day is really all about.

Beyond all of the flags, parades and barbecues...Memorial Day originated as "Decoration Day" and was to be a somber remembrance of U.S. soldiers who died in military service. Today, this holiday has expanded to include honoring and thanking our current servicemen and women and all those who have served before.

To me, the military has always been a way of life. For the majority of my life I have been a military dependent, first as a daughter and now as a wife.  My amazing husband, father, father-in-law, grandfathers and friends have all served this country, and the spouses and children in their lives have all "kept the home fires burning."

At the heart of the day though {and even though there is a sort of cheese factor now associated with Billy Ray Cyrus now}, somehow, his song from my childhood "Some Gave All" always seems to pop into my head around this time every year. So, I thought I would share, for those of you not lucky enough to have had country music fans as parents circa 1992.

"I knew a man called him Sandy Kane

Few folks even knew his name

But a hero was he

Left a boy, came back a man

Still many just don't understand

About the reasons we are free

I can't forget the look in his eyes

Or the tears he cries

As he said these words to me

All gave some and some gave all

And some stood through for the red, white and blue 

And some had to fall

And if you ever think of me

Think of all your liberties and recall

Some gave all

Now Sandy Kane is no longer here

But his words are oh so clear

As they echo through out our land

For all his friends who gave us all

Who stood the ground and took the fall

To help their fellow man

Love your country and live with pride

And don't forget those who died 

America can't you see...

All gave some and some gave all

And some stood through for the red, white and blue

And some had to fall

And if you ever think of me

Think of all your liberties and recall

Some gave all

And if you ever think of me

Think of all your liberties and recall, yes recall

Some gave all"

Happy Memorial Day!

A note on Facebook Privacy Settings

from here

I am bad at negotiation

UPDATE!

I emailed on the sideboard. Yup, this one.

Strangely, the seller's name is also Courtney and she is willing to negotiate on the price.

Sadly, I am bad at negotiation.

Do I low ball it at $200 and hope for the best?

Cut it to $250?

Thoughts. Help. Please.

Life's tough

You see, I have been searching all over for a sideboard for our dining room that I am in LOVE with. Inspired by some others' recent finds I decided to hit up Craigslist and came upon this beauty for $500, right here in VA Beach.

It's crying out for a home in our bungalow! Le sigh.

It does call for it's own movers though, and my husband is well, incapacitated with the whole appendix issue thing. But I may call on it anyway.

While I waver and over think {as I always do}, my friend Lindsey in GA took a little look around the Atlanta Craigslist. Look what she found for $100 obo.

You have to be kidding me, right? 

Granted, the mirror is covered on that one so who knows what the condition is underneath. But still.

Life's not fair.

Addition to the Blogroll!

Our friends Leigh Anne and Wilson have started a blog!

You can check them out at Joy in the Morning.

People Watching

One of my favorite past times is people watching.

Once upon a time I was a TLC (Traveling Leadership Consultant) for my sorority. This job included traveling every couple of days via plane, traveling via planes puts you where? In airports.

As every moment of every day I was with collegiate members of the organization I reveled in my alone time at airports - get there three hours early? Fine by me. A four hour layover? Sign me up.

Do you know why I was ok with it? Because an airport is an AWESOME place to people watch.

This weekend I found a few more great places.

• A Brad Paisley concert (you can see photos at our friends' blog here)
• The Chesapeake Jubilee
• The Boot on comedy night

Cast of characters spotted include; booty dancing pregnant women, an angry mom complete with angry mom haircut, mom jeans and a patterned jacket, a man with an American flag polo shirt with the Declaration of Independence superimposed over the flag, kissing cousins, 13 year olds in bikini tops and cutoff jean shorts and Mullets, Mullets everywhere.

Ah, humanity.

Oh yeah! These are the people in front of us who were no way younger than 50. 

They snuck in a bottle of Southern Comfort...in the butt of one of the men's jeans. Niiiiice.

The death of an appendix. Part V

Whew. Here it is, the conclusion to this story. We were beginning to get Homeric here.

If you are keeping track:

Friday, into the hospital and diagnosed
Saturday, still in the hospital, being treated {awesome birthday party canceled} restricted diet, no food or water.

Sunday

Austin got cleared for a clear liquids diet! Yay! This was a step in the right direction. He had some more visitors,  and then I brought him Egg Drop Soup from Kin's Wok {the best you-can-only-pay-with-cash Chinese food in Norfolk}.

While I was waiting there, for his soup and my delicious Sesame Chicken, {I certainly wasn't on a restricted diet!} I started wondering why all of these people were willing to come to one of the only places left in Hampton roads where you cannot use your card. What makes this place so dang good?

On cue, one of the workers brought out this bowl to the front:

 

That, my friends, is a huge bowl of garlic cloves. 

And now we all understand.

Monday

Monday was a see-saw of emotions. This is how it went:

Austin: "I may get out today!"

Me: "Yay!"

Austin calls back: "Sooo, maybe not"

Me: "Boo, I will be there in 5"

And that pretty much went on all day while we sat on his bed and watched movies on the portable DVD player our friends brought for Austin to have {thanks friends!}.

Overall it was an ok day, we explored the hospital, Austin was allowed to eat, and I got to sit next to a smelly man {read: Austin} who hadn't showered since Friday {seriously gross} and watch movies.

At around 6, he was finally released from the hospital! By the time we got out of there it was about 8 and we were so ready to be home.

So, that's it! That's the story!

Austin was on a  two week course of a couple different kinds of antibiotics that just finished and will go in on Tuesday to schedule, hopefully, a simple surgery to remove the little flap of tissue that used to be his appendix.

Oh, yeah, and did I mention that he gets to have his first ever colonoscopy to go with it???? What a prize! They have to make sure that the infection didn't invade other surrounding areas, like his colon.

So here is the lesson folks:

When your wife and everyone else in your life including your boss, your mom {who is a nurse}, a good friend's wife {also a nurse}, tell you to go to the hospital - don't go!

You too could win a 4 day stay in the hospital with nothing to eat or drink, a two week round of antibiotics that you cannot drink alcohol with, a colonoscopy and a surgery to boot. 

What a prize package.

The death of an appendix. Part IV

Excuse our rather lengthy break in this saga, but your regularly scheduled programming was interrupted by a day of fun for Austin and I.

On to Part IV.

After the doctor had told us the diagnosis, we then got to meet with tons and tons of more doctors, up until finally getting put into a hospital room at 4 am in the general surgery ward.

The conversations about his history can about be summed up like this: Every question you are going to ask, the answer is no. The doctors seemed to enjoy that. Again, there's that humor at o'dark thirty for you.

The funniest moment for me was when Austin looks at the doctor and says,

"OK, so I should be getting out by tomorrow?" (Remember this is in the wee hours of Saturday morning.)

Doctor: "Try Monday at the earliest. Oh, and we can't let you eat or drink anything while you are here because we might have to pop you into surgery at any time."

In the meantime they started him on an antibiotic drip in his IV. The same stuff they give to people with Sepsis. Yikes.

Once we finally got up to the hospital room, we tried to get some sleep before the doctors made their rounds the next morning. As I cuddled up in the hospital chair in my clothes, covered by Austin's jacket, I thought to myself, "Man, I am going to look a wreck in the morning."

And a wreck I did look. To top it off, the head of surgery came in at 7:00 am to do rounds, looking tres cute (these are the things I was worrying about while my husband was ina hospital bed? I know, I am crazy).

Seriously though, picture me after three hours of sleep (in a chair no less) with mascara all smudged all over my face, hair coming out of a poorly done french braid (done at 3:00 am) and contacts stuck to my very eyeballs, trying to follow what this woman (and the 18 other doctors with her) were saying after being awoken by the switching on of lights and barging in of this large party. Wowza.

The general gist of the information was this (read on for way too much medical info):

• The CT scan was the worst the head surgeon had seen in "a good long while"
• Because Austin is young and healthy (aside from this whole appendix thing) his body was responding to wall off the infection with white blood cells
• Should his body succeed in walling it off, it could create an abscess that then would need to be drained before moving on to the course of medicine they would be beginning Austin on (since they didn't believe it had yet completely walled off)
• When your body does this, it uses the nearest organs as natural barriers and includes them in the wall, which weakens the organ walls
• Because of this, if they operated now, they may end up having to do a much larger operation than an appendectomy because they may have to take parts of his other organs
• Instead they would start him on antibiotics, clear up the infection in his abdominal cavity, put him on more antibiotics at home and then check back in to do a simple appendectomy once all the infection cleared up in a few weeks

Whew. Maybe I was able to pay attention after all. Long story short, no surgery until the infection clears up. This may take a while, so get comfy.

Get comfy we did as a stream of visitors came to see Austin, who was feeling better with every minute.

For your enjoyment:

Before you ask, no I did not kick him out of bed. 

He was tired of being in it and I was, just tired.

Up next, Part V or "The Conclusion to this Never-ending Ballad"

Day of Fun

For as many weekends as we can seem to remember right now, Austin and I have made a list for ourselves of something to do. Something with the house, or something with the yard, or some event that we have to get up and go to.

This weekend was no different originally. We planned on buying some beautiful hydrangeas for the backyard, planting and digging around, etc.

Friday night, however, we decided enough was enough. All of that could hold until next weekend. We were declaring a "Day of Fun".

We do this from time to time, and though I don't remember how we named them, or how they even started, they are just something that we do.

Here are the rules - on a Day of Fun:

• You sleep in as late as you want
• There is no agenda
• You do only things that you want to do, nothing that you have to do
• No Guilt

That's it. Those are the rules.

So, for our Day of Fun this time we did just that, whatever we wanted.

First, we slept in until 10:15. Ahhhh, that was nice. It was almost like college again. Then, we got up and showered and since it was nice, took Bings for a walk.

Austin suggested we go grab a burrito at Moe's and then see Iron Man 2. So we went and ate, and then we headed to MacArthur Center. After a quick glance at the movie times (every half hour all day - wowza) we decided to walk the mall first.

Since we were feeling all summery, we bought some summer shoes to match our mood.

These for him:

And these for me:

Then we headed to the movie, which was long, but entertaining, and headed home. We swung by the grocery store to pick up some ingredients for this to-die-for Barefoot Contessa Sandwich and vino.

Yum.

And then we spent the rest of the evening hanging out in the early 1800's with John and Abigail Adams.

All in all, a lovely, relaxing and refreshing day. Add to the mix that my phone was dead, and I intentionally did not charge it and you get an even more relaxing day.

We will back to housework as usually this next weekend, but this Day of Fun was a welcome break. 

Try it sometime.

The death of an appendix. Part III

Eventually Austin did come home.

After I left work early and harassed him for a couple of hours.
After he took a nap at work, and woke up "feeling better".
After my patience had worn to the very core.

When he came home, he was greeted very warmly by Corey, our dear friend staying with us while in town for our rocking party.

He was not, on the other hand, greeted warmly by his wife. I may feel kind of bad about it now, but it was a means to an end. Eventually that attitude got his stubborn butt to the hospital. Who knows how long he would have waited had I been all June Cleaver about it.

"As long as you think you are fine, dear, then I will not worry. 
Whatever you think is best."

{Gag.}

So, I was harsh. So harsh in fact that I essentially gave my husband the cold shoulder, and told him that he needed to go to the hospital and that he was going alone, because I had waited on him all day and was not sitting around in a 'waiting room' to do more of the same.

I'm not necessarily proud of that attitude, but like I said, though I may wear pearls everyday, June I am not.

He dropped his jaw in shock and then stuck out his lower lip like a 5 year old, "But I feel better!"

Cold shoulder. Ice cold.

He ate a little meal with our friends, who essentially all supported him going to the hospital (if for nothing else than to not end up on the couch for the night). And off he went.

He did not give up so lightly though. He insisted on texting our friends who I was with little statements like "I so do not need to be here" or "This is such a waste of time"

Within a short time, I gave up my show of strength and headed to the hospital. After all, he is my husband and truth be told I was worried sick about him throughout all of it. He may be as stubborn as a mule, but he is my mule, so off I went.

Within an few hours of being there, after the tests had been done, the nasty CT scan drink was drank and the final scan was done, we got our diagnosis.

The doctor came in, in record time, and said, "Well, you definitely have appendicitis. And based on the amount of infection so that we cannot even see your actual appendix on the CT scan, we are guessing that it has already perforated."

Cue another jaw drop for Austin: "You have got to be kidding."

Doctor: "Nope. I don't kid about appendicitis, not at 2 in the morning in an emergency room."

Austin, looking straight at me: "You have officially won the biggest 'I told you so' of all time."

Me: "Well I am glad you said it."

Photo documentation following the diagnosis. 

Look at that face, he was so mad that I, and well everyone else, "told him so"

Coming up next - Part IV, or "What do you mean I have to stay here?"

The death of an appendix. Part II

When we left off, we were heading to bed and Austin had no fever.

When we woke up Friday morning, that was not the case. Austin took his temperature at 5:30 am {his normal wake up time}. It was a balmy 100.5.

This is it, I thought, we are heading to the hospital. But, instead Austin made excuses. He actually said to me, "I just got out of all those blankets from the bed, and that was hot, blah blah blah."

{See differences in warm-blooded and cold-blooded creatures here}

In any case, he somehow convinced me, probably since it was o'dark thirty, that he could go to work and have his corpsman take his temperature. Then if he was still running a fever he would email me and let me know it was time to go.

So I rolled over and went back to sleep. Bad wife.

When I got up to go to work there was no message.

On my way to work, still no message.

Got to work, maybe he emailed my work address? Nope. Still no message.

So I emailed him with an overt threat subtle suggestion that I would call the ship if I didn't hear back from him ASAP regarding his temperature and us going to the hospital. I got an email back within approximately 5 minutes stating that he still had a fever and everyone, including his own boss was suggesting that he go to the hospital.

I put my boss on alert that I was "on call" and may have to leave early. I got an email saying "Ok, I give up, I am leaving soon" at 11:30 and left work when Corey and Daniel {who were coming into town for the ill fated extravaganza at our house} got there to {originally} take me to lunch.

It would be hours before I made it to the hospital.

Stay tuned for Part III or "The Story of a Sulking Husband"

The death of an appendix. Part I

{from here}

Oh, where to start with this post. You may have noticed I had gotten back on track with blogging and then for going on two weeks there was, well, nothing.

You also probably heard from fb, phone calls, etc. that Austin's appendix burst.

The two are connected.

And here is the story.

The Tuesday night before Austin's birthday (April 20th) we were heading to bed. As we were brushing teeth, etc. Austin began complaining of some stomach pain. Thinking nothing of it we both went to bed.

Wednesday morning, Austin got up and went to work at 5:30 like usual. Here are where things get a little blurry. You see, Austin was preparing for a huge inspection to take place on Monday the 26th while at work. Wednesday night he had watch. So, I didn't hear from him or see him from Wednesday morning at 5 am until Thursday (his birthday) at 7:30 pm when he got home from work. (Happy Birthday!)

Apparently during that time his pain had localized and several people suggested he get it checked out by a doctor. They even threw around the word appendix. Did he take heed? Clearly not, else we would not have a story.

The big indicator on Thursday was whether or not he had a fever, so we took his temperature. No fever. Not even a little one. We took it easy for the rest of the night and took his temp again before bed. 

Still no fever.

Stay tuned for Part II, or "The Fever Sets in"