Well, not his semi but he can drive his car short distances, he's got the doc's ok to do it. I'm amazed - God is working miracles right in front of me. How cool is that?
Just a side note - sorry I've been so long winded the past couple of posts, seems to just come spewing out sometimes. I'll try to keep it shorter from now on. No one prob reads the long posts anyway. hehehe
Happy Memorial Day Everyone!!!!
This post has nothing at all to do with Memorial Day.
Ladies, you will more than likely identify with this one because at one time or another, most of us have screwed up our hair with dye.
Ok, here's the deal.... I have medium blonde hair. In the summer, if I'm outside a lot, it lightens up to almost a blonde-white. Fine, no problem. Except when winter rolls around & my hair starts to grow out and then I have dark roots and everyone then thinks I bleach my hair. So, I thought this time I'd darken the ends of my hair (it's long) so when I put it up I didn't have really light hair on one end and darker hair on the other. Before I'd always dye the roots to match the ends, this time I thought I'd color it my natural color (darken the ends to match the roots).
What a mess!!! I got the medium blonde hair dye and went to work. When I got out & dried my hair, I almost died!!! MY HAIR WAS BLACK. I cried, I yelled, , I cried some more & then went to church that evening with my new "Goth" look. I could've died.
Today rolls around and I can't stand it anymore so I go back to the store, get a lightener to get the black out of my hair. I left it on an extra 10 minutes and what do I get? Dark reddish brown hair. I still look creepy but at least it's a color that goes with my skin tone and I don't have that "Goth" thing going on anymore.
Of course it is, it is constantly changing, we're always moving toward a goal (hopefully). Last Thursday's conversation with our new director really floored me. For those that didn't read that post, I was informed that we (my co-teacher & I) don't really teach anything to our class of preschoolers.
I have been praying for several months for God to show me what direction he wants me to take as I feel I am at a crossroads (again). I have prayed for a sign. I think the directors' comment was the sign I've been waiting for.
If I can get it all in place, I will be heading back to college this Fall. I had the qualifications and the education to teach preschool & didn't need the BA. So, I didn't bother. It's now time to do it.
I know our new directors comment is false, I do teach, I do make a difference however, I won't be doing it for her anymore.
I walked into work last Thursday and it was quiet.... how nice you say. However there is one problem, silence is something you NEVER hear at a day care, even at nap time.
We had a power surge the night before & the day care was closed for the day. We had electricians checking everything, the fire marshall was there, we had to have all the duct work cleaned out because of the smoky smell that permeated the building and of course our licensing agency, Dept. of Children & Family services (DCFS) was there to oversee it all. What a zoo.
The cords on the surge protectors that plugged into the walls were melted to the electrical outlet covers. So, the staff spent the day cleaning up, scrubbing walls where there was smoke damage, and general cleaning.
It was during this cleaning spree that the new director stopped in to talk with my co-teacher and I. After 30 minutes of discussing the new curriculum that my co-teacher & I were working on for next school year, I was shocked to learn from woman with NO background in education, that we didn't really teach anything in our classroom. I said nothing. I was too angry. As the old saying goes, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.
I am seriously reconsidering my future at this preschool.
Somehow, the demon (AKA "Sparky the Hamster") has figured out how to get this latch between the cage and the wheel completely OFF the cage. She grabs the lip of it with her teeth and forces it up until it pops out of place and lands about 4 inches away on the table. Now she's working on pushing the wheel (attached in the same mannor as the cover) out of place which will give her a nice clean get-away.
This is the brand new, over-priced, escape-proof (HA!) cage I purchased exactly one month ago. I am soooooooo ticked-off.
Satan's domain - looks like a hamster cage doesn't it? Well friends, I'm here to tell you that what appears to be a cute little red hamster is really Satan himself. If it's not the devil in disguise, it must be one of his minions.
I have highlighted in red, the area that Satan uses as his escape route.
Mom, at Dad's urging, left on a medical missions trip with a group from our church May 14th. Mom is a registered nurse. Our church took a group of 30 people (mostly doctors, nurses, dentists & optometrists) to Honduras. Mom's return date was May 21st. Dad wasn't supposed to be released from the physical rehab unit until May 25th at the earliest. Mom figured she'd go since Dad was really pushing for it and he was clearly out of the woods health-wise. She'd be home before he was released.
My sister came up from St. Louis to help me with running up to help care for Dad the week Mom was gone. The doctors sent Dad home last Thursday! Mom called from Honduras to let my sister & I know that hurricane Adrian had missed them (thankfully) only to have Dad answer the phone! They both got a big surprise.
So, Mom's mission trip was a great success, Dad is home and my little sister is back in St. Louis. However, by the time anyone reads this, baby sis will be on her way to see her hubby in Costa Rica. Hopefully by the end of July all the immigration papers will be cleared and he'll be able to come back to the States with her. That's been over a year process in itself & that whole mess could be enough to fill up 5 blogs for a year!
Work really stunk today but with everything else going so right, it's really easy to just blow it off and not care. The rest of the week at work isn't looking much better but, again, I couldn't really care less. I'm so excited that God has worked a miracle by healing Dad so quickly (even though he's still got a long road ahead of him) that the little stuff at work that usually makes me so nuts because it is sooooooooo infantile - it's just not getting to me today. Let's hope that lasts.
Anyway, happy Monday everyone.
Well, with Dad on the mend, I decided it's time to post something else for a change. This however, happened the in the wee hours of the morning the day after Dad's accident.
Sparky (the aliens' hamster) is an escape artist. I've suspected for some time that Holly (the cat) has been helping Sparky out, but I have yet to catch them "in the act". Sparky tries from sundown to sunrise to chew through the metal bars of her cage. It's one of those cute "Critter Trial" over-priced cages with all the brightly colored plastic tubes and stuff you can attach to it.
Well, dear Sparky has figured out that if she chews on the little latch-type cage door hard enough and long enough, it will vibrate the door open & she's free. I was just lucky enough to be walking past the cage & saw the little beast in action so I popped her back in her cage. Then I took a twisty tie from the bread and twisty-tied the hairy little monster's door shut. HA! Now try to escape. I went to bed feeling VERY superior.
3:30 am rolls around & I can't sleep worrying about Dad. I got up, played a bit on my computer and as I was getting toward the end of the game I was playing, I saw something out of the corner of my eye & it wasn't the cat. Holly was sleeping on the back of the chair using my head for a pillow.
I get up to investigate thinking that we had mice again. What do I see? Sparky sitting in the middle of the living room floor looking at me!!! I scooped her up in the only thing that had a lid - a water bottle that clips on the kids bike frame - screw on the lid & put it on top of the stove.
As the water bottle is jumping around on the stove, I check out the cage. The only possible way she could've gotten out is to squeeze that fat, sausage body of hers INBETWEEN the bars of the cage. This is NOT a small hamster. The next day I go to the pet store and found a hamster cage that uses all the plastic tubes & stuff that we have but the main base of the cage is solid plastic with little air holes in it. Escape proof.
So now I have a $6.95 hamster that eats $8.00 worth of food each year trying to chew her way out of $60 worth of plastic. Something here just doesn't add up..........
It's been a few days since I've posted anything on Dad. Saturday he was moved out of ICU and today (Tuesday) he was discharged to a rehab unit at the nursing home where Mom works. He'll be in there with physical rehabilitation for a couple of weeks but he's doing great. To put this in a little better perspective, Dad wasn't supposed to be moved out of ICU until yesterday - and he's now in rehab working his way toward getting home again.
I said it before & I'll say it again - it's the power of prayer!
Thanks to all those out there in blogger-land that have been praying for us.
AAhhh................. God is good.
It looks like Dad will be out of ICU and into a regular room by Monday. Again, prayers answered! He will be in the hospital for about another week total & then should be able to come home. We are soooooo excited!
Thank you all again for all your prayers and support. Dad has a lot of rehab to go through to get back to his old self but he's pulled through the hardest part & is on the road to recovery.
Between running to the hospital and having computer problems, it's been a few days since I've posted an update on Dad, however, I have good news to report.
Yesterday, Monday, they extibated (spelling??) him and removed the feeding tube as well so he's off the ventilator! He had a rough night last night (meds were making him queasy) but that's under control and he even sat up on the edge of the bed for a couple of minutes after dinner tonight. Since his throat is sore, he's still in the soup-and-liquids food category but it's better than that feeding tube.
Now the fun starts - tomorrow: Physical therapy! He is gonna be sooooooo sore and soooo crabby tomorrow night when I get up there. Oh, yeah - that's another thing, he can barely speak because of his sore throat but he did manage to chew me a new orifice in my backside about taking too much time off work. He's getting ornery - that's a good sign for sure!
Thank you to all who have prayed and are continuing to pray for Dad and our family - he is proof that prayer works. A man of his age, in his physical condition (heart trouble) that gets injured that badly usually gets intibated (on a ventilator) and that is the beginning of the end for them. No so for Dad and I believe it's all due to the power of prayer friends.
God Bless you all.
Imagine the look on my face when walking by the newspaper rack, I get my first glimpse of the accident scene. Up to this point, I had avoided newspapers for that very reason but tonight I saw them & it hit me very hard.
Dad is still in serious condition in the neurological intensive care unit. He is however, stable. No big changes to report. The absence of bad news is, in fact, good news.
I'll keep you all posted.
Dad took a turn for the worse this morning. He went into respiratory distress. With the injuries to his chest & lungs, they were now swelling due to the trauma caused in the accident. His chest cavity and lungs were filling with fluid and putting pressure on his heart. So...... They put under with some heavy meds and then put him on a ventilator. For the next four days (minimum) a machine will be breathing for him. He will be unconscious due to the meds (this is to keep him comfortable) but not in a coma, just deeply sleeping.
It was really scary to see Dad lying there unconscious with all those tubes coming out of him. It shouldn't have bothered me so much - I saw him after his triple by-pass surgery 8 years ago and that was worse. I guess the memory of it fades after awhile. It's very disturbing to feel so helpless.
Thank you to all those who have left comments and to everyone for your prayers - I really do believe in the power of prayer and I know God is listening.
By the way Opie - his name is John, my kids call him "John-John" ( a story for another time as to why).
Better than good - great! Dad is doing much better than expected. They got the bleeding into his brain stopped, his lung will heal on it's own and is re-inflated, the 7 broken ribs, broken collarbone, the 4" laceration across the back of his head (requiring staples) and the bruising all over his body will just take time to heal. At this point, he is still in the neurological intensive care unit of the hospital. He is stable, aware of what is going on and even teasing some of the nurses! They are allowing him semi-solid food which he actually wants to eat (even if it is hospital food!) which is a big deal to him.
Bottom line: As long as there are no complications with his heart, he's out of the worst of it. Thank you all for your prayers - I know it made a difference. I could feel it, I know Dad did too. God Bless you all.
A little more accurate info on the accident itself:
As Dad was passing the farm tractor, it made a left turn into Dad's truck just behind the front wheels narrowly missing the fuel tank. This caused Dad to jack-knife and roll the truck. We're not sure if it went completely over or not but when it came to rest after sliding for over 200 feet, the cab and trailer were lying drivers side down. In the course of the accident, the trailer came close to coming through the cab but stopped short of it, the truck & trailer took out an electrical pole with a transformer on it and hit a natural gas main so that was leaking. We just thank the Lord that there wasn't any fuel leaking from the truck, only some oil. The EMT's had to go through the front windshield of the truck to cut Dad out as his leg was pinned under the steering wheel and then they removed him from the rear window of the truck. He was then taken by Lifeline helicopter to the hospital. And get this - the owner of the company whose employee was responsible for the accident - he called the hospital to check on Dad! How cool is that?
Thanks again for your prayers for Dad & my family. Who says the internet separates & isolates people? It's brought me a whole new family to add to what I already have.
Dad is in the neurological intensive care unit at the hospital. He has 7 broken ribs (not 3) and in addition, his collar bone is broken and there is an extensive laceration behind his left ear that required a considerable number of stitches. He is still bleeding from the chest tube (put in due to the punctured lung).
How did the accident happen? Dad was driving his semi on a local, rural, 2-lane highway. He was following a farm tractor and pulled out to pass it. Without making a signal of any kind, the tractor pulled off the highway into a field making a left turn in front of Dad's semi-truck. They hit in a "T" fashion - Dad's truck and trailer rolled. The farmer, we understand, is not hurt. Thank the Lord for a very large blessing there. This accident could've been instantly deadly for both men.
To anyone that may read this post - my family desperately needs your prayers tonight.
My father drives semi part-time and was doing a run this afternoon when he was involved in an accident about 30 miles from home. He has three broken ribs, a punctured lung and is bleeding into his brain. At present, he is stabilized and in the ICU of a very good local hospital. He also has serious heart problems and this makes medicating him quite difficult. They need to stop the bleeding into his brain - however, causing his blood to clot this quickly could cause a heart attack. His heart is only working at about 28% of capacity so even a mild heart attack could kill him.
Thank you all for your prayers - I know Dad will be able to pull through this with the power of prayer.
Dad circa 1937 - This is one of my favorite pictures Grandma B sent me! Daddy was sooooo cute! hehehe
Isn't this sooooo cute??? Easter 1968. My Grandma B made matching Easter outfits for my sisters and I. I'm the little blonde one with my oldest sister holding my baby sister.
